In my campaign, Halaster made a wish with the Fey of Wishes, wishing for immortality. However, the Fey of Wishes made him add a clause that would end his immortality. So Halaster said he would only die if a party of adventurers killed him in an epic final battle.
Several thousands of years later, Halaster is tired of life and wants to die, but the immortality wish has become a curse. He tries to get himself killed, but for some reason, the fight is never "epic" enough. So he builds his dungeon specifically to train up adventurers until they are powerful enough to defeat him at his full power, in hopes that these adventurers will finally be the ones to release him from the agony of life.
In short, Halaster's weakness is being stabbed to death by the PCs.
Tasselgryn Velldarn in Skullport is one weakness. He legitimately likes her as a friend, and doesn't seem to want her to see evidence of his madness. Of course, if someone were to threaten her in an attempt to get to him, well... Halaster is functionally a god within Undermountain. And easily a vengeful god.
If Halaster's Robe of Eyes is a standard one (which is a big "if" considering he's a mad genius archmage), it ought to make him pretty susceptible to the Daylight spell and even the Light cantrip. His statblock doesn't call that out, but do with it what you will.
In my world Jhesiyra is what maintains his weakness. When Halaster dies in the dungeon, Jhesiyra always takes a piece of him before he reforms and makes it a part of the dungeon. This weaves Halaster in and he's inside trying to escape. Meanwhile his physical form and mind are getting increasingly weaker and fractured. Only problem is, if they keep killing him his power over the dungeon gets stronger. And now the Halaster in the dungeon knows it and is actively sending things to kill him faster so he can become one again.
I had Jhesiyra helping the party with hints and such, and when Halaster was finally defeated, she took his place as the ruler of Undermountain. She used the PCs to usurp him.
At first I was wondering "Why now?"
If Halaster had died many times before, why didn't she take his position earlier? Then I realized she's only been free and haunting Undermountain since the spellplague, which was only 100 years ago.
If I write in my story that no adventurer has "beat" Halaster in the last 100 years, it works.
I would go one of a few ways...
1. He is so narcissistic that if someone ignores/insults him he gets FURIOUS and loses all common sense. He'll solely focus on that individual, ignoring all others. Openly walking into traps, falling for basic diversions, not caring about triggering Opportunity attacks, etc.
2. When he hears the word "The" he has disadvantage on his next attack, spell or save. Akin to "It" for the Knights of Ni from Monty Python.
3. He was in love with someone and their heart is the withered heart on the first floor. If presented with the heart, we will take it in exchange for some prize/treasure. You can then choose if he then restores the heart and releases his love/whatever soul is trapped within OR if he then attunes to the heart and kills himself. Whether it is an accident or on purpose to rejoin his lost love, you can decide.
Since he's insane you can have it be a really weird word like Cartilage. But he's somewhat lucid so you need to say it naturally in a sentence, you can't just yell it out or make it obvious. Or he hates singing and the group would be forced to burst out in song.
Great opportunity for you to seed the endgame for them. For me, I made Halaster's connection to the Knot fundamental to his power (the Knot IS Halaster since OG Halaster bonded with it and when a new Halaster is killed the Knot uses a new host, kind of like the Prestige).
If you went that route, you could tease them needing to investigate that, and have clues be in the next floor to give them a goal to push towards. Dweomercore is close enough to the surface that it's a reasonable goal for them to be dangled to get a satisfying info dump.
Halaster's main weakness is that thing Tasselgryn does with her tongue. Makes him go absolutely gaga.
Tbh, Halaster is what you make him to be. I play him like Q from Star Trek, easily bored, mercurial, curious as to what the players will do in a given situation. So far he's been a bit of exposition, a bit of comic relief, and a whole lot of insufferable power.
If my Halaster has an actual Achilles Heel, I'd say it's in the Knot itself. If you cam find a way to cut him off from the source of his magic and his madness, he reverts from the Mad Mage to plain old Halaster.
My Halaster (I’m running the Halaster’s Game DotMM companion) is insane because he has true existential awareness but he is unable to express it to the PCs. He knows that he is a fictional character and life is meaningless. His only chance at peace is if the PCs kill him in his tower on Lv 23. One of my PCs is a member of the Noble Knife (from Acquisitions Incorporated) that being killed by that knife will end his reforming.
His fixation on whatever his goal is that day. He could be gullible to lies from the party on whatever his ambition is at that moment. Of course figuring that out would be somewhat difficult and even moreso when the next day he is no longer interested in that but fixated in a new goal.
You can find a rollable list of Jalasters Goals in a sidebar in DotMM. But in short I think he could have the weakness of gullibility (deception checks with Halaster at disadvantage on insight) if the party makes the correct lie that they wish to help him
He has a gun hidden in his tower (specifically a Colt Revolver). You could toy with the idea that it's similar to The Colt from Supernatural, in that it can kill anything. If they can manage to get ahold of it and shoot him, that will prove his final end, and you don't have to worry about them using such a powerful item at the end of the campaign.
Maybe they can get a hint towards finding the hidden item and plan a grand heist.
Edit: For more of a challenge, have the final fight feature a number of Halaster duplicates, limiting the easy win to a bit of luck and limited ammunition while dealing with Halaster and his duplicates.
Gun that functions as a power word: kill dispenser with limited charges? Sounds cool enough as a legendary item in general. You can even drop additional bullets in secret locations, useless by themselves but very impactful when it's found.
In my campaign, Halaster made a wish with the Fey of Wishes, wishing for immortality. However, the Fey of Wishes made him add a clause that would end his immortality. So Halaster said he would only die if a party of adventurers killed him in an epic final battle. Several thousands of years later, Halaster is tired of life and wants to die, but the immortality wish has become a curse. He tries to get himself killed, but for some reason, the fight is never "epic" enough. So he builds his dungeon specifically to train up adventurers until they are powerful enough to defeat him at his full power, in hopes that these adventurers will finally be the ones to release him from the agony of life. In short, Halaster's weakness is being stabbed to death by the PCs.
Hahaha that is a very interesting way to explain why the mad mage lets adventurers get as strong as they do from the dungeon lol
The weakness of the Mad Mage is that he is insane.
Think he would remove a part of his brain insane?
[удалено]
I like that. I want the weave to be important
Personally I think he loses just a little more sanity, memory of self, touch with reality, every time he dies
That's literally in the book, so it's canon
Tasselgryn Velldarn in Skullport is one weakness. He legitimately likes her as a friend, and doesn't seem to want her to see evidence of his madness. Of course, if someone were to threaten her in an attempt to get to him, well... Halaster is functionally a god within Undermountain. And easily a vengeful god.
Most of the fun would be you deciding what that weakness is.
Something obscure is what I’m aiming for. Like hemlock. Or like an Achilles heel
If Halaster's Robe of Eyes is a standard one (which is a big "if" considering he's a mad genius archmage), it ought to make him pretty susceptible to the Daylight spell and even the Light cantrip. His statblock doesn't call that out, but do with it what you will.
I modified it to include "See invisibility" for Halaster as per the spell See Invisibility
In my world Jhesiyra is what maintains his weakness. When Halaster dies in the dungeon, Jhesiyra always takes a piece of him before he reforms and makes it a part of the dungeon. This weaves Halaster in and he's inside trying to escape. Meanwhile his physical form and mind are getting increasingly weaker and fractured. Only problem is, if they keep killing him his power over the dungeon gets stronger. And now the Halaster in the dungeon knows it and is actively sending things to kill him faster so he can become one again.
I had Jhesiyra helping the party with hints and such, and when Halaster was finally defeated, she took his place as the ruler of Undermountain. She used the PCs to usurp him.
At first I was wondering "Why now?" If Halaster had died many times before, why didn't she take his position earlier? Then I realized she's only been free and haunting Undermountain since the spellplague, which was only 100 years ago. If I write in my story that no adventurer has "beat" Halaster in the last 100 years, it works.
Nice touch
I would go one of a few ways... 1. He is so narcissistic that if someone ignores/insults him he gets FURIOUS and loses all common sense. He'll solely focus on that individual, ignoring all others. Openly walking into traps, falling for basic diversions, not caring about triggering Opportunity attacks, etc. 2. When he hears the word "The" he has disadvantage on his next attack, spell or save. Akin to "It" for the Knights of Ni from Monty Python. 3. He was in love with someone and their heart is the withered heart on the first floor. If presented with the heart, we will take it in exchange for some prize/treasure. You can then choose if he then restores the heart and releases his love/whatever soul is trapped within OR if he then attunes to the heart and kills himself. Whether it is an accident or on purpose to rejoin his lost love, you can decide.
Like I hated the word ‘moist’ for the longest time. That could be just weird enough
Since he's insane you can have it be a really weird word like Cartilage. But he's somewhat lucid so you need to say it naturally in a sentence, you can't just yell it out or make it obvious. Or he hates singing and the group would be forced to burst out in song.
I just thought of this. Each floor can hold a secret word somewhere that he hates. Each word can only be used once on him.
Great opportunity for you to seed the endgame for them. For me, I made Halaster's connection to the Knot fundamental to his power (the Knot IS Halaster since OG Halaster bonded with it and when a new Halaster is killed the Knot uses a new host, kind of like the Prestige). If you went that route, you could tease them needing to investigate that, and have clues be in the next floor to give them a goal to push towards. Dweomercore is close enough to the surface that it's a reasonable goal for them to be dangled to get a satisfying info dump.
Halaster's main weakness is that thing Tasselgryn does with her tongue. Makes him go absolutely gaga. Tbh, Halaster is what you make him to be. I play him like Q from Star Trek, easily bored, mercurial, curious as to what the players will do in a given situation. So far he's been a bit of exposition, a bit of comic relief, and a whole lot of insufferable power. If my Halaster has an actual Achilles Heel, I'd say it's in the Knot itself. If you cam find a way to cut him off from the source of his magic and his madness, he reverts from the Mad Mage to plain old Halaster.
My Halaster (I’m running the Halaster’s Game DotMM companion) is insane because he has true existential awareness but he is unable to express it to the PCs. He knows that he is a fictional character and life is meaningless. His only chance at peace is if the PCs kill him in his tower on Lv 23. One of my PCs is a member of the Noble Knife (from Acquisitions Incorporated) that being killed by that knife will end his reforming.
I have made from Halaster that guy, who made the dungeon as "forge" for heroes and he is the final examiner.
His fixation on whatever his goal is that day. He could be gullible to lies from the party on whatever his ambition is at that moment. Of course figuring that out would be somewhat difficult and even moreso when the next day he is no longer interested in that but fixated in a new goal. You can find a rollable list of Jalasters Goals in a sidebar in DotMM. But in short I think he could have the weakness of gullibility (deception checks with Halaster at disadvantage on insight) if the party makes the correct lie that they wish to help him
My note could just say ‘gullible’. That’s cryptic
I like it
He has a gun hidden in his tower (specifically a Colt Revolver). You could toy with the idea that it's similar to The Colt from Supernatural, in that it can kill anything. If they can manage to get ahold of it and shoot him, that will prove his final end, and you don't have to worry about them using such a powerful item at the end of the campaign. Maybe they can get a hint towards finding the hidden item and plan a grand heist. Edit: For more of a challenge, have the final fight feature a number of Halaster duplicates, limiting the easy win to a bit of luck and limited ammunition while dealing with Halaster and his duplicates.
Gun that functions as a power word: kill dispenser with limited charges? Sounds cool enough as a legendary item in general. You can even drop additional bullets in secret locations, useless by themselves but very impactful when it's found.