Raphael/Combat

Overview

Combat

This page focuses on Raphael's behaviour during his combat encounter. Raphael is able to be fought at the House of Hope, where he is joined by Korrilla, Yurgir and six Vengeful Cambions. His arena also has four Soul Pilllars, which Raphael uses to regain health and cast powerful spells.

Attacks and abilities

Extra initiative

While his tooltip shows +9 initiative, most of it is added through the Soul Pillar dexterity bonuses, which are applied only after combat begins and initiative is rolled. Works only for the fight straight after dialogue and only in regular fiend form. If disengaging and trying to fight again, he'll have full +9 initiative again.

Regular Fiend Form

 Consume Souls ()

Healing: 3~18

3d6Healing

Absorb a soul from each Soul Pillar still standing to spend on powerful spells.

Regain 3~18 hit points and restore your Punish Divinity every time you absorb souls in this way.

 Range: 30 m / 100 ft

Recharge: per turn

 Diabolic Chains ()

Damage: 18~108

6d6Fire

+ 6d6Fire

+ 6d6Fire

Spend 2 souls you have consumed to lash out with 3 magmatic chains of Hellfire and possibly push the targets back 5 m / 17 ft.

DEX Save

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Igniting Spark ()

Damage: 6~36

6d6Fire

Launch a mote of infernal flame to set a target alight and  Burn it.

DEX Save

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Incinerate ()

Damage: 8~64

8d8Fire

Spend 8~64Fire damage soul to wreath a target in malevolent flame.

DEX Save

AoE: 3 m / 10 ft (Radius)

Ascended Fiend Form

 Claws ()

Damage: 8~23

3d6 + 5Slashing

Lash out with deadly claws.

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5  ft

 Fiendish Ascension

Harness the energy of a recently shattered Soul Pillar to take on a more powerful infernal form, and consume a new soul for every broken pillar. Each time Raphael transforms he may stay in this heightened aspect for longer.

Recharge: per battle

 Multiattack ()

Damage: 21~87

2d12 + 5Slashing

+ 2d12 + 5Slashing

+ 2d12 + 5Slashing

Aim multiple attacks at a target.

(Tactician) Once per turn, thanks to his cacodemonic power, Multiattack grants Rapharel  Action Surge, allowing him to Multiattack again.

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5  ft

 Ravaging Inferno ()

Damage: 20~120

20d6Fire

Spend 2 souls to hurl an exploding ball of  Hellfire that damages all nearby creatures and objects.

Hellfire burns with more fervour than any mortal flame, ignoring Resistance and Immunity to Fire damage.

DEX Save

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

AoE: 4 m / 13 ft (Radius)

Recharge: per turn

Punish Divinity

 Punish Divinity ()

After taking Radiant damage, Stun the attacker, allowing you to  Drain its hit points.

DEX Save

 Range: 30 m / 100 ft

 Soul Drain

Damage: 12~72

12d6Necrotic

Drain the life force of an  Infernal Stunned creature, restoring your hit points by half the damage dealt.

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

Honour mode

While in Honour mode, Raphael has access to legendary actions, which let him use two additional abilities. He can use legendary actions as many times per round as there are remaining Soul Pillars at the start of the round.

 Beguiling Rebuke

Try to  Beguile your attacker and its nearby allies.

Creatures charmed in this way cannot attack Raphael.

WIS Save

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Soul Ascension

Damage: 6~60

6d10Necrotic

Create a column of writhing souls that transforms allied Cambions into  Hellfire Cambions and deals 6d10Necrotic to any non-fiend caught inside.

Cambions ascended by this cascade deal Hellfire damage, which ignores Resistance and Immunity to Fire damage.

DEX Save

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

Conditions and passives

Soul Pillar Proximity

 Soul Pillar Proximity

• Raphael is surrounded by Soul Pillars, granting Raphael's attacks an additional 1~12Fire (per pillar) damage and a +3 (per pillar) bonus to his Dexterity score.

• This condition stacks for each Soul Pillar still active. At the maximum of four stacks, Raphael will have an additional 4~48Fire damage and a +12 bonus to Dexterity score.
• In total, at the beginning of combat, Raphael will have 28 Dexterity and an AC of 27.

Soul Charges

 Soul Charges

• Raphael has soul(s) to spend on powerful spells.

• This condition will recharge when Raphael uses his  Consume Souls ability. He gains a charge for each remaining pillar.
• This condition will also recharge when Raphael uses his  Fiendish Ascension ability. He gains a charge for each destroyed pillar.
• Raphael uses these charges as spell slots.

Ascended Fiend

 Ascended Fiend

• Raphael has gorged on souls and enhanced his fiendish powers, granting him an even deadlier array of spells and abilities. In this form,  Soul Overcharge will not prevent him from using Souls to cast spells.

Soul Reaper

 Soul Reaper

• When Raphael reduces an enemy's hit points to 0, he Severs the soul from their body.

 Severed Soul

• With no soul to motivate it, the affected entity has Disadvantage on Attack rolls and all Ability checks until  Restore Soul is cast on a Soul Pillar or Raphael.

Honour mode

While in Honour mode, Raphael has some additional passives, which let him use their associated abilities (see #Honour mode):

•  Legendary Action: Soul Ascension
•  Legendary Action: Beguiling Rebuke

Allies

• Korrilla
• Vengeful Cambion - 6x
• Yurgir (conditional)

Encounter details

Raphael can be fought in the foyer of the House of Hope. The cutscene and ensuing fight only begin once the "Portal to the Devil's Fee" is selected, allowing time for the party to position themselves around the room.

The party can be joined by Hope if they completed  Save Hope before confronting Raphael. Yurgir also joins the party if siding with him during the quest  Kill Raphael's Old Enemy and completing  Break Yurgir's Contract in Act Two; otherwise, he needs to be convinced to switch sides with a DC 30 Persuasion check.

Phase one

This room has four soul pillars which Raphael uses during combat. Each soul pillar gives Raphael:

• An additional 1~12Fire damage and a +3 bonus to DEX checks and saving throws (see #Soul Pillar Proximity)
• One soul charge, which Raphael uses as spell slots. These are refreshed when he uses his  Consume Souls ability, or when he ascends. (See #Soul Charges)
• 3d6hit points when he uses his  Consume Souls ability.

Raphael's  Fiendish Ascension ability lets him take on a more powerful form (see the Ascended tab in the info box at the top of this page). He may use this to transform whenever a pillar is broken, and each destroyed pillar gives him another Soul Charge.

Raphael also has the ability to sever souls. If a party member is downed by Raphael during the battle, they receive the condition  Severed Soul, having disadvantage on attack rolls and all ability checks. This debuff can be removed by the party member, by casting  Restore Soul on either Raphael or a Soul Pillar -- affected party members automatically gain this ability while they have the Severed Soul condition. The debuff also is removed if Raphael is defeated.

Phase two

When all soul pillars have been destroyed Raphael permanently transforms into his Ascended Fiend form. When transforming into his fiend form for this final time, the four broken soul pillars give him four final soul charges.

At this stage, he may use his most powerful attack,  Ravaging Inferno, costing 2 soul charges and dealing 20d6 Hellfire damage in a AoE: 4 m / 13 ft (Radius).

He is also now able to use his Multiattack. This attack does 2d12 slashing, plus his attack modifier, which is +5 while he is in his ascended form. It also grants him Action Surge, so he may use his multiattack again, possibly attacking four times in one round. Once all his soul charges are depleted, Raphael is only able to use his multiattack.

Tactics

Pre-combat

• Before fighting Raphael, the restoration faucets in the boudoir can be used to take a pseudo long rest. They can be used to restore spell slots after casting passive buffs, such as  Heroes' Feast or  Freedom of Movement. They are not considered a true long rest, so conditions that are removed upon a long rest will remain.
• Placing Smokepowder Barrels or Runepowder Barrels around each pillar before beginning the fight can help to easily remove Soul Pillars and deal damage during combat.
• Having The Blood of Lathander equipped and standing near the middle of the room can blind him upon entering combat, via the Lathander's Light passive feature.
• If wanting to keep Korrilla alive, it is recommended to switch to non-lethal combat and not convince Yurgir to side with the party, when given the option. He most likely ends up killing her in one or two hits. On the other hand, succeeding the rather difficult Persuasion check to convince him makes this fight significantly easier since he is quite a powerful combatant.

During combat

• It is situationally worthwhile destroying the surrounding Soul Pillars before focusing on Raphael. He gains benefits from them: he uses them for spell casting, can regain hit points from them each round with  Consume Souls, and he has higher AC through the gained DEX score. On the other side, avoiding destroying the pillars has the advantage of saving time and also avoiding Raphael’s dangerous ascended form.
  • The pillars are weak to Bludgeoning and Force damage.
  • The Orphic Hammer, which is picked up at the House of Hope, may be useful for destroying the pillars.
•  Hastened party members have a much easier time destroying the Soul Pillars before Raphael can do much damage. The most efficient way to do this is to use a Haste Spore Grenade which hastens the party every time they walk into the cloud. The enemies do not take advantage of this, and do not intentionally walk into the cloud, though they might happen to walk through it during their regular pathfinding.
• If using Radiant damage against Raphael's cambions, their  Fleeting Protection allows Raphael to reflect twice the amount of radiant damage done as Fire damage.
•  Planar Binding is useful here for controlling the cambions.
• If Hope is rescued, she also has available  Divine Intervention and her unique  Revoke Guest Status which can be used to permanently eject cambions. If casting  Divine Intervention when multiple enemies are affected by  Fleeting Protection, then the reflected damage likely kills Hope.
•  Hold Monster is very effective against Raphael since, while the condition ends following his next turn due to his  Inevitable Resolve feature, it effectively skips his turn. Meanwhile, all attacks within 10 feet / 3 meters directed at him become Critical Hits; an opportune time to use action surge.
•  Silence, combined with any method of immobilization, can reduce the effectiveness of Raphael's soul absorbtion. While he can still consume souls, he cannot cast any of the enhanced spells provided by his soul charges. It can be hard to keep him still, but a  Phantasmal Killer from a caster with a high enough save DC has a high chance of keeping him locked within the field of silence.
•  Punish Divinity can be completely negated by having Raphael use his reaction on a  Opportunity Attack