Talk:Hound of Xoriat

I see Greater Heroism listed as a useful buff on the spawns. I was under the impression you didn't want to use that on them as it would increase their chances of saving vs the mind control. -Verdra 16:01, 5 April 2011 (EDT)


 * Currently the only way I've seen the puppies lose their char is timer runs out and beholder antimagics them.
 * Don't think they get a saving roll. Neouni 17:32, April 5, 2011 (EDT)

Greater Heroism provides +4 morale to-hit bonus which isn't stacking with proper bard song thus not contributing.

Moreover, I don't believe any to-hit, or saves, or AC buff (cat grace, barkskin) affects how Xyzzy beats them.

Augment Summoning rumored to break charm earlier then usual, can't confirm.

Stoneskin may worth a shot.

Blur / Displacement not helping, although Xyzzy doesn't have true seeing, she doesn't have ANY vision and completely blind

Rage doesn't work on them since they're not affected by "mind-changing" spells 89.223.25.233 17:56, July 3, 2011 (EDT)

What buffs work:
To-hit, saves and armor class certainly do apply to monsters. So the buffs that effect them do have an impact in this encounter. While it's true Xyzzy has rather low armor class, so the hounds have no trouble hitting her even on a 2 unbuffed.. She doesn't have too high of a to-hit bonus herself (~50) so buffing the baby hounds AC to beat that is possible, tho requires a lot of buffs, as their standard AC is 33. 33 + 5 barksin 5 pally aura 5 shield of faith 4 heroics 2 recitation 2 cats grace = 56, So fully buffed you can get her to miss a good 30% or so if you have every class around that can raise AC. If no high AC aura paladin is present, yea AC won't have any real impact. On hard and elite both values seem correctly scaled for the encoutner so this doesn't change much. (Xyzzy goes up about +5 to hit, and the hounds AC goes up about +5)

Saves: You can clearly see the hounds make saves versus xyzys spells, as the hexagons will show above their heads while xyzzy casts spells. While they are immune to her acid breaht anyways, they are not immune to bees and horrid wilting. Horrid wilting can do massive dmg on a failed save, and bees can severely reduce their abilty to hit (reflex save negates). Saves are balanced so without buffs they make them about 50% of the time.. Buff em up fully, and that goes up to nearly 95%.

Augment summoning is a great buff to give them too. It does not "break" the charm. It's not a charm anyways as you can see it's a blue hat. Blue hat = dominate, it's a fixed duration dominate with no recurring save. Nothing can break it, except dispel magic (from a beholder, or even a nasty party member)

Stoneskin certainly works, as you can see it get knocked off fairly quick as xyzzy attacks fast. Often good for bards to use wands of it to free up your wiz/sorc to work on CC/killing.

There are some useless/bad buffs, that you shouldn't give them: Freedom - If for some reason the dominate runs out and you want to CC to use them for later, making them immune to cc like web isn't smart, as a fully buffed hound is a dangerous foe. Deathward - If you have a few out of control, and only need 1 to finish the job.. Being able to insta kill the others is useful. Owls wisdom - Xyzzy doesn't use any will-based attacks. Acid resistance - Hounds are immune to acid anyways. Displacement - Xyzzzy like most purple named has true seeing, and that will make it tough for melees to pick up agro or kill them after if neccesary. That said, displacement on your melee IS a good idea, as the baby hounds and trash dont have TS. --Shade 23:03, July 3, 2011 (EDT)