Raphael/Combat

Overview

Combat

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

“

Oh, damn it! To end a devil in the hells is to end him for true. Boo was hoping to make a hobby of killing Raphael over and over again.

„

— Minsc, mourning Raphael's death

Attacks and actions

Extra initiative

While his tooltip shows +9 initiative, most of it is added through the Dexterity bonuses from Soul Pillars, which are applied only after combat begins and initiative is rolled. This is only true for the fight straight after dialogue and in regular form. If the party disengages and tries to fight him again, he has the full +9 initiative.

Regular form

 Consume Souls ()

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

Your  Punish Divinity is restored 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)

 Flames of Avernus ()

Damage: 6~36

6d6⁠Fire

Loose a searing wave of infernal fire from your palms.

 DEX Save

 Range: Self

 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

This spell costs two Soul Charges.

 Infernal Salve ()

Healing: 3~18

3d6⁠Healing

Spend 1 soul to heal a Fiend.

 Range: 18 m (60 ft)

 Invocation of Eternal Debt ()

Spend 1 soul to summon an Eternal Debtor to your side.

 Range: 18 m (60 ft)

 Recharge: Per turn

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: Four times per battle

 Multiattack ()

Damage: 6~72

2d12⁠Slashing

+ 2d12⁠Slashing

+ 2d12⁠Slashing

Aim multiple attacks at a target.

 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)

 Recharge: Per turn

 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: 6~72

6d12⁠Necrotic

Healing

6d12 / 2⁠Healing

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

 Range: 18 m (60 ft)

 Recharge: Per turn

Tactician and above

 Consume Souls ()

Healing: 3~18

3d6⁠Healing

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

Regain 3d6⁠⁠hit points and restore your  Punish Divinity every time you absorb souls in this way.

 Range: 30 m (100 ft)

 Recharge: Per turn

 Multiattack ()

Damage: 6~72

2d12⁠Slashing

+ 2d12⁠Slashing

+ 2d12⁠Slashing

Aim multiple attacks at a target.

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

 Melee: 1.5 m (5 ft)

Honour mode

While in Honour mode, Raphael has access to two legendary actions, one in his regular form and one in Ascended Fiend form. Whichever form he is in, he can use the associated legendary action 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)

Can only be used in regular form.

 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)

Can only be used in Ascended Fiend form.

Conditions and passives

Soul Pillar Proximity

 Soul Pillar Proximity

• Raphael is surrounded by Soul Pillars, granting Raphael's attacks an additional 1d12⁠⁠Fire damage (per pillar) and a +3 bonus to his Dexterity score (per pillar).

• This condition stacks for each Soul Pillar still active. At the maximum of four stacks, Raphael has an additional 4d12⁠⁠Fire damage and a +12 bonus to Dexterity.
• In total, at the beginning of combat, Raphael has 28 Dexterity and an AC of 27.

Soul Charges

 Soul Charges

• Raphael has souls to spend on powerful spells.

• This condition recharges when Raphael uses the  Consume Souls action. He gains a charge for each remaining pillar.
• This condition also recharges when Raphael uses his  Fiendish Ascension. 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.

• All of Raphael's spells ignore Fire resistance and immunity while he is in Ascended Fiend form.

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 actions (see #Honour mode):

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

Immunities

•  Banished
•  Burning
•  Melting
•  Poisoned conditions, such as  Poisoned and  Nauseous
•  Polymorphed
•  Roiling Hellfire

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 have completed ⁠Save Hope before confronting Raphael. Yurgir can also join the party if they sided with him during ⁠Kill Raphael's Old Enemy and completed ⁠Break Yurgir's Contract in Act Two; otherwise, he must 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 1d12⁠⁠Fire damage and a +3 bonus to Dexterity checks and saving throws (see #Soul Pillar Proximity)
• One Soul Charge, which Raphael uses as spell slots. These are refreshed when he uses the  Consume Souls action, or when he ascends. (See #Soul Charges)
• 3d6⁠⁠Hit Points when he uses the  Consume Souls action.

Raphael's  Fiendish Ascension lets him take on a more powerful form (see #Ascended Fiend form). He may use this to transform whenever a pillar is broken, and each destroyed pillar gives him another Soul Charge.

Raphael can also 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 ability checks. This debuff can be removed by the affected party member by casting  Restore Soul on either Raphael or a Soul Pillar – affected party members automatically gain this action while they have the Severed Soul condition. The debuff is also 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 ascended 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 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 long-duration buffs, such as  Heroes' Feast,  Death Ward, and  Freedom of Movement or summoning spells like  Planar Ally and  Conjure Elemental. Using the faucets is not considered a proper long rest, so conditions normally removed on a long rest remain. Removing summoning spells from the caster's prepared spell list does not dismiss the summons granted by those spells, but removing a buff spell may remove the buff (see individual spell pages for details).
• 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. Two smokepowder barrels per pillar have a $99.9999\mathrm{\%}$ chance of destroying all four pillars. The action cost can be further reduced by linking the barrel stacks with lines of  Alchemist's Fire bottles or a continuous flammable surface (i.e.  Grease or  Alcohol).
• Having  The Blood of Lathander equipped and standing near the middle of the room can blind Raphael upon entering combat, via the passive feature  Lathander's Light.

During combat

• To keep  Korrilla alive, it is recommended to knock her out quickly and steer combat away from her. If the party ally with  Yurgir, due to his +8 to initiative, he always goes before her and may end up killing her in one or two hits; if he fights against the party, she may still be killed by collateral damage from one of his area of effect attacks.
• It is situationally worthwhile to destroy the surrounding Soul Pillars before focusing on Raphael. He uses them for spell casting, can regain hit points from them each round with  Consume Souls, and he has a higher AC through the increased Dexterity score. On the other hand, 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 a creature every time it walks into the cloud. Enemies do not take advantage of this; they do not intentionally walk into the cloud, but it may happen through their regular pathfinding.
• If ⁠Radiant damage is used against Raphael's cambions, their  Fleeting Protection allows Raphael to reflect twice the amount of ⁠Radiant damage done back as ⁠Fire damage.
•  Planar Binding is helpful in this fight for controlling the cambions.
• If  Hope is rescued, she has  Divine Intervention available and her unique feature,  Revoke Guest Status, which can be used to permanently eject cambions from the fight. However, using  Divine Intervention: Sunder the Heretical when multiple enemies are affected by  Fleeting Protection likely kills Hope through reflected damage.
•  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 3 m (10 ft) directed at him become critical hits, making for an opportune time to use  Action Surge.
• Skills that inflict the  Fearful condition (i.e.  Fear and  Eyebite) are not subject to  Inevitable Resolve and can prevent Raphael from taking any actions for multiple turns.
•  Silence, combined with any method of immobilisation, can reduce the effectiveness of Raphael's soul absorption. While he can still Consume Souls, he cannot cast any of the enhanced spells provided by his Soul Charges (except for  Soul Ascension in his Ascended Fiend form, which makes it particularly dangerous to destroy Soul Pillars first). A strong martial character with a high enough (26+) attack roll bonus (see List of features and items that affect attack rolls) and the  Sentinel feat can effortlessly pin down Raphael. If that character also has 31+ AC (see List of features and items that affect AC) and critical hit immunity, that makes Raphael in his regular form completely helpless, as he cannot use his spells, nor can his claw attacks hit such a character.
  •  Phantasmal Killer spell from a caster with a high enough save DC also has a high chance of keeping him locked within the field of silence.
• Using an  Arrow of Ilmater or the  Bone Chill spell each round can prevent Raphael from healing.
•  Punish Divinity can be completely negated by having Raphael use his reaction on an  Opportunity Attack or inflicting a condition that inhibits  Reactions.