Einmaliger's page

One of my players plays an Oracle and recently discovered the power of the combination Awesome Display + Color Spray.

A monster that was supposed to be a big challenge was dead within one round. I don't like "Save or Die" powers anyway and this is no better. Reading through the next modules of the Adventure Path we're currently playing (Carrion Crown), I see that this could be a big issue.

I have no problem with powerful characters, but it seems that this particular power may take away a lot of fun from the game as many of the fights will likely be decided with a single die roll in the first round.

What would you do to deal with this? (Note: I don't want to change every encounter to have only monsters that are immune to illusions or something like that. I also don't want to completely destroy the power of the character.)

In the last session my group had serious problems with the Piper encounter. With two of them in the negative hit point range they finally retreated. Then they discussed a combat strategy and decided that the main problem was his music, so for the next attack they want to put wax or something in their ears, so they cannot hear anything. Of course, then they cannot communicate verbally during the fight (and get -4 initiative, etc.) making this an interesting encounter.

However, I am not really sure how I will rule this. My intuition is that the effects are like mind-affecting spells and the music is just flavour. The description says that all living creatures in the area are to make the rolls, so hearing is not relevant; but if you fail, how can then you be "entranced by the music" if you cannot hear any? Or do you hear it in your mind even if you are deaf? And would that also be true for music played by a character using the Piper's tarnished silver flute?

How would you handle this?