Raphael/Combat

Pillar of Souls
Pillar of Souls
Stats
Hit points	99
Resistances
Immune	Necrotic, Fire, Psychic, Poison
Resistant	Piercing
Vulnerable	Bludgeoning, Force

Raphael
Raphael
Medium Fiend
Level 12 Fiend
Stats
Armour Class	21
Hit points	666
Weight	80 kg (160 lb)
Initiative	+3
Ability scores
STR
STR	STR
Proficiency bonus	+4
Saving throws	Str +8; Dex +3; Con +7; Int +6; Wis +3; Cha +8;
Resistances
Immune	Fire
Resistant	Cold, Poison, Lightning
Non-Magical Resistances
Resistant	Piercing, Bludgeoning, Slashing
Conditions
Soul Pillar Proximity;	For every remaining Soul Pillar, Raphael gains additional fire damage and bonus to Dexterity.
Features
Darkvision;	Can attack creatures in the dark without disadvantage, up to a range of 12 m (40 ft).
Devil's Sight;	Can see normally in magical and natural darkness.
Fiendish Blessing;	Grants +2 to armour class.
Inevitable Resolve;	Cannot be controlled or incapacitated.
Infernal Retribution;	Burns an opponent who tries to make a saving throw against Raphael.
Magic Resistance;	Gives advantage on saving throws against magical effects.
Opportunity Attack;	React by attacking a creature moving out of range.
Soul Pillar Proximity;	Gives Raphael bonuses for remaining pillars.
Soul Reaper;	Sever the soul of a creature who is downed by Raphael.
Legendary Action: Beguiling Rebuke; Honour	Use a legendary action to Beguile an attacker.
Actions
Igniting Spark;	Ranged attack: +8 to hit, 18 m range, 1 target; Hit: 4d6 Fire damage; Target: Creates Hellfire surface, 1 turn; Cost: 1 Action or 1 Bonus Action & 1 Soul Charge;
Incinerate;	Spell: AoE; Hit: 8d8 Fire damage; Save: Dexterity (DC 15) halves damage; Cost: 1 Action & 2 Soul Charges;
Diabolic Chains;	Ranged spell attack: range 18 m, 3 rays; Hit: 6d6 Fire damage per ray; Target: creates Hellfire surface, 1 turn; Cost: 1 Action & 2 Soul Charges;
Consume Souls;	Action: range 30 m; Effect: 3d6hit points 3d6 hp per soul pillar; Effect: restore Punish Divinity; Cost: Bonus Action ;
Roiling Hellfire;	Hellfire surface: AoE 1m; Effect: 6d6 Fire damage per turn;
Beguiling Rebuke;	Action: range 18 m, AoE attacker; Effect: inflict Beguiled, 2 turns; Beguile: target cannot target Raphael; Save: Wisdom to avoid; Cost: Legendary Action;
Initiative
Level 12
Ascended differences
Stats
Initiative	+7
Ability scores
STR
STR	STR
Proficiency bonus	+4
Saving throws	Str +9; Dex +3; Con +7; Int +6; Wis +3; Cha +8;
Conditions
Ascended Fiend;	Raphael has ascended, granting him an even deadlier array of spells and abilities.
Features
Multiattack: Last Resort;	Raphael can multiattack while in his ascended form and with no remaining pillars.
Legendary Action: Soul Ascension; Honour	Use a legendary action to use Soul Ascension after Raphael or an ally is attacked. Replaces Beguiling Rebuke.

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

Ascended Fiend Form

Punish Divinity

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.

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 checks and saving throws.
As this affects his Dexterity score, at the beginning of combat he will have 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

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):

Allies

Yurgir (conditional)
Korrilla
6x Vengeful Cambion

Encounter

Raphael can be fought in the House of Hope's foyer. 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 player may be joined by Hope if they completed Save Hope before confronting Raphael. Yurgir will also join the party if they previously sided with him during the quest Kill Raphael's Old Enemy and completed Break Yurgir's Contract in Act Two; otherwise, he will need to be convinced to switch sides with a DC 30 Persuasion check.

Phase one

This room has four soul pillars which Raphael will use 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 will let 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 will give him another Soul Charge.

Raphael also has the ability to sever souls. If a party member is downed by Raphael during the battle, they will 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 will also be removed if Raphael is defeated.

Phase two

When all soul pillars have been destroyed Raphael will permanently transform into his Ascended Fiend form. When transforming into his fiend form for this final time, the four broken soul pillars will 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 will also now be able to use his Multiattack. This attack does 2d16 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 will only be 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 you 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.

During

It is worthwhile destroying the surrounding Soul Pillars before focusing on Raphael, as he will not only use them for spell casting, but can regain hit points from them each round with Consume Souls. Raphael will also be harder to hit the more pillars are active, as each pillar increases his AC through his DEX score.
- 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.
Take care when using Radiant damage against Raphael's cambions, as 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 the party rescued Hope, she will also have available Divine Intervention and her unique Revoke Guest Status which can be used to permanently eject cambions.
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 and all damage he takes until he breaks out of it become Critial Hits.

Footnotes

↑ While his tooltip shows +9 initiative, most of it comes from Soul Pillar dexterity bonuses, which is applied only after combat begins and initiative is rolled. Works only for the fight straight after dialogue, if you disengage and try to fight again, he'll have full +9 initiative.

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[RaphaelInit-1] While his tooltip shows +9 initiative, most of it comes from Soul Pillar dexterity bonuses, which is applied only after combat begins and initiative is rolled. Works only for the fight straight after dialogue, if you disengage and try to fight again, he'll have full +9 initiative.

[note 1]

Raphael/Combat

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