Raphael/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 ===
=== 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====
* This condition stacks for each Soul Pillar still active. At the maximum of four stacks, Raphael will have an additional 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====
* This condition will recharge when Raphael uses his ability. He gains a charge for each remaining pillar.
* This condition will also recharge when Raphael uses his ability. He gains a charge for each destroyed pillar.
* Raphael uses these charges as spell slots. 
====Ascended Fiend====
====Soul Reaper====
 
* When Raphael reduces an enemy's hit points to 0, he Severs the soul from their body.
=== Honour mode===
While in Honour mode, Raphael has some additional passives, which let him use their associated abilities (see #Honour mode):
* 
*
== Allies ==
* 
* - 6x
* (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 if they completed before confronting Raphael. Yurgir also joins the party if siding with him during the quest and completing in Act Two; otherwise, he needs to be convinced to switch sides with a .
=== Phase one ===
This room has four soul pillars which Raphael uses during combat. soul pillar gives Raphael:
* An additional 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 ability, or when he ascends. (See #Soul Charges)
* when he uses his ability.
Raphael's 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 , having disadvantage on attack rolls and all ability checks. This debuff can be removed by the party member, by casting 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, , costing 2 soul charges and dealing 20d6 Hellfire damage in a . 
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 or . They are not considered a true long rest, so conditions that are removed upon a long rest will remain.
* Placing or around each pillar before beginning the fight can help to easily remove Soul Pillars and deal damage during combat.
* Having 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 alive, it is recommended to switch to non-lethal combat and not convince 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 , 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 and damage. 
** The , which is picked up at the House of Hope, may be useful for destroying the pillars.
* 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 allows Raphael to reflect twice the amount of radiant damage done as Fire damage.
* is useful here for controlling the cambions.
* If is rescued, she also has available and her unique which can be used to permanently eject cambions. If casting when multiple enemies are affected by , then the reflected damage likely kills Hope. 
* is very effective against Raphael since, while the condition ends following his next turn due to his 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.
*, 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 from a caster with a high enough save DC has a high chance of keeping him locked within the field of silence.
* can be completely negated by having Raphael use his reaction on a 
== Footnotes ==