Like Slim Jim said: given that the other players refuse to cooperate, why should you try to cover for their failings? If their Cleric can't be bothered to help tank, and their sorcerer doesn't bother with Battlefield Control, why should you offer to take all the heat on the front line? Sounds like they are incompetent and uncooperative. Sounds like the GM is going easy on them and not playing monsters to their intellectual capacity. Were I their GM they'd already have wiped via TPK.
Try having a talk with the other players and find out what they want. Highlight the weaknesses of the team, suggest ways to improve it, and offer to play a tanky martial IF AND ONLY IF they are willing to play ball. If they refuse to cooperate then 'eff 'em. Play something that avoids trouble and watch them squirm and fail. Possibly find a new group, since they sound like uncooperative incompetents.
Our party recently defeated a powerful dungeon ooze with just slings. There was a long corridor down which we could retreat, and we were faster. We had no archer or real missile weapon artist, but everyone had slings. The scary nasty large ooze chased us, but we ran from it and kept up a steady barrage of sling bullets. It took a while, but we brought down the monster with no risk to ourselves.
I'm pretty sure you're stuck with a maximum-ever two domains. Any new domains must be your old domains. Not sure whether you'll be limited to one or two. Opinions?
Player characters very much do not want to use the optional Massive Damage Rule. Doing so automatically puts the game in Hard Mode. After a few levels foes frequently inflict this much damage, so the PC kill rate rises drastically. Be warned!
Massive Damage is a rarely-used optional rule. Unless that huge pile of non-lethal damage ALSO inflicted Massive Lethal Damage (it can happen!) it probably would not apply.
I ran another grind session tonight, wearing them down. One PC, the Bloodrager, went down and nearly died, and all took substantial damage. After slaying many foes, but not more than 1/4 what was on the field of battle, they decided to flee. They were wounded about 25% (after several heal spells), bloody, tired, exhausted, more than 50% depleted of resources, when they decided to teleport back to safety ... and into the horrible prepared ambush.
We left things at the start of the combat round on which they teleported in, after a description of the ambush scene. We'll gleefully take up the probable TPK in two weeks. I give them 40% chance of surviving as a team, an 80% chance at least one PC surviving, and a 20% chance they still manage to take down Karzoug.
Note that all the PCs have excellent layered defenses. In particular, the Wizard has gone to great effort to keep most of them protected with Mind Blank. So most mind-affecting things are right out.
Already using a lot of deception. Both players and PCs believe they know what's going on ... One minion will certainly look like the BBEG, whom they have seen. This minion may provide a great distraction, but is very unlikely to survive round 1 ...
Bouncing metamagic will be in use. Save-or-suck spells will still almost always fail, because save-on-a-2 combined with rerolls.
This is obviously not PFS, and I'm not worried about RAW. I do want to keep anything especially nasty and lethal in the realm of RAW, in case the PCs lose. A GM can always invent stuff that makes the PCs lose, but doing so in a mostly-RAW way will surely be more satisfying to the players.
I'll certainly use troops and swarm mechanics, to simplify book keeping.
I like the Shadow Queen, and will use her flavor for the Shadow Boss.
The arcane casters trying to kill the PCs can only natively cast 7th level spells. Anything higher level must be off a scroll. The scrolls are penned by a 20th level arcane caster. Divine spells are natively limited to 6th - 8th level, with a few higher levels divine spells on scrolls.
The Synthesist is an especially tough nut to crack. The above suggestion of using spells that allow a save is unlikely to work. Chance of success of 4 consecutive saves, failing only on a 1 , is about 82% not counting rerolls. Counting rerolls its more like 98% of success. Instead, I'm thinking an Anti Magic Shell shot into the back of a nearby zombie by an Arcane Archer NPC assassin. That instantly removes the eidolon, no save, for as long as it's inside the 10' radius.
The Shadow Swarm is a great concept, and I might do it. My only concern is that, when standing inside a shadow swarm one only takes d8 STR damage per round. They can survive that for 3-5 rounds, which lets them output 4,500 HP - 20,000 HP damage which will certainly exterminate everything nearby. They have access to Mass Heal and also to many Heal spells. I foresee the Wizard repeatedly filling the space with Selective Quickened Fireballs.
Basically, if the PCs are still standing on round 3 then the ambush has failed and the PCs will win. This is the most likely outcome, regardless of how nasty the GM makes it. I don't think it's possible to TPK this party by inflicting HP damage.
Oh, one of the Round 1 or Round 2 spells will be Disjunction. Like I said, no holds barred. If the PCs win they will get so much loot that anything they lost to Disjunction will be small in comparison.
I'd like help from the collective smarts of all readers. Help minions of this super-intelligent BBEG with nearly infinite resources and access to all Arcane and Divine spells set a really nasty ambush for outrageously powerful high level PCs.
Spoiler:
Ambush point is a 'safe refuge' the PCs left and will likely return to very suddenly by teleport. There's a horrendously huge and nasty ambush in place that has a good chance to be a TPK. The ambushers will probably have 2 round advance warning before the PCs arrive. It's a very powerful party & the players have asked for danger and challenge, so please help increase the chance of TPK.
One layer of the hoped-for PC-massacre is a layer of flying incorporeal undead. Shadows seem to be most effective, not the more powerful spectres, because every touch attack automatically does 1d6 STR damage, no save. These PCs pretty much only fail a save on consecutive natural ones.
The nasty villains setting up the ambush bring in a crowd of 500+ ordinary small slaves. The area is Desecrated, as the spell. The slaves are rendered helpless & locked in a room, then a Greater Shadow (under the control of an NPC cleric) kills all 500 slaves, causing them to ALL become shadows. This pack of 500 shadows swarms the area, with most hanging out with the Greater Shadow inside 40' of rock. The Greater Shadow will release them on the PCs in groups of 50-100 after the initial 200 swarms them. Best (worst!) case each PC can be attacked by 26 shadows, each a touch attack that drains STR. That's 9 from above, 8 around, and 9 from below. Even hitting only on a 20 that's about 1d6 STR drain per round. The PCs will need to pump out a weak (probably Quickened) point-blank fireball every round just to keep the shadows off.
Just for fun they also animated hundreds of the corpses as a variety of lesser undead. Mostly Burning Skeletons.
The NPC assassins are mostly protected against their own undead, although accidents happen.
So, given immense resources (no wishes, etc without a darn good reason) and access to all spells, what layered magic nastiness can be set up? Ideally stuff that will weaken the PCs. Best options are things that inflict a penalty even on a successful save, and that stack.
Please help me come up with more. Access to pretty much EVERYTHING. Here's my starter list:
Pre-buffs in place
Desecrate - profane bonus
Symbol of Vulnerability (on floor, triggered by PC arrival), foes in 60' have already used Password. 9th level version of Symbol of Death.
Symbol of Insanity.
Symbol of Stunning.
Symbol of Pain
Symbol of Weakness
help me add to this list, pull out all the stops
First round spell attacks:
Dimensional Lock (8th Divine)
Polar Midnight (9th level divine) off a scroll
Help me find 4 more utterly nasty spells, 2 Divine and 2 Arcane, to make life brief for 6 super-duper PCs. 2nd round spell attacks are also welcome. There's a good chance that some of the NPC casters will survive until Round 2, which is unusual when facing these PCs. When considering how nasty to get, consider that the PCs output 1500 - 2000 HP of damage per round.
Specifically looking for help with:
1. Ways to prevent PCs from teleporting away! (not all can teleport, but most can) besides Dimensional Anchor.
2. Ways to multiply effect of the shadow swarm. Most PCs have outrageous touch AC and will only be hit on a 20, so every buff helps.
3. Targeted way to attack a Synthesist Summoner
The enemy will know 2-3 rounds in advance that the PCs are coming, so allow for 2 rounds of casting by each of 6 high level casters right before the PCs arrive. Spells longer than 1 minute/level will already be in place. The actual casters are clerics & wizards, each 12th-14th level, but they can have plenty of scrolls of any spells besides Wish et al. So that's up to 12 spells pre-buffed, 8 Divine and 4 Arcane.
Even a Lawful Good wizard whose spell book was stolen by a rogue would likely want to punish the offender and recover the stolen property. The goal would be to cause the offending thief such misery that their fate would serve as a warning to others who might consider the same (mis) deed. This would be worth spending substantial resources on, and could easily become a life goal.
I wonder how a Guild of Wizards would respond to the theft of a spellbook from a member. I'm pretty sure they'd not just forget about it. I currently GM for a PC who is an 'enforcer' for a Wizards' Guild. This enforcer has the job of fixing such problems.
It's a pretty foolish rogue who would deliberately seek such punishment from such an utterly formidable group or individual. No rogue wants that sort of trouble. There's lots of magic suitable for finding the missing book, and lots more magic suitable for identifying and locating those who assisted in its theft.
What is the point of the action, as stated. It makes no sense, unless the Archmage in question wishes to also make a melee attack. If the intent is just to double move to the target and cast a spell then why not do that? What's the purpose of making it a charge?
It's perfectly reasonable to just double move up to the target then use a Swift Action to cast Color Spray. That has nothing to do with a Charge action. Huh?
P.s. Personally, if faced with an archmage prone to taking that sort of action, I'd really hope the archmage is an enemy, not an ally. If it's an ally then it's a rather incompetent ally who is unlikely to very helpful. If it's an enemy archmage that's great because, you know, easy XP ...
Are not alignment shifts typically only one at a time per action? E.g. If a Lawful Good person starts committing Chaotic Evil acts, their alignment might change LG->LN->LE->NE-CE. So a Paladin is only ever 4 chaotic evil acts away from becoming chaotic evil. Of course this is entirely a GM discretion thing, and it does sound like a chaotic and evil act.
Our party has 2 clerics and 1 druid in our party of 6. Of those, one cleric (our healer, no less) has a level of barbarian and didn't prepare any anti-poison spells. The other cleric ...
... Basically, we didn't go in with enough poison immunity for the entire day.
Uhm, did none of these multiple prepared divine spellcasters leave open spell slots? That's precisely what open spell slots are for ...
Has someone developed something a mathematical theory similar to Maxwell's Equations of Electricity and Magnetism in your world? That sort of theory has to be in place before it's theoretically possible to build, say, an electric motor. By all means, you could have some weird brilliant gnome mathematician who figured this stuff out centuries ago. Just be sure and think through the ramifications.
Non-magical protections will probably carry you a lot further than magic. For example, step #1 is to have everything in a lead-lined space. Leading sheeting is relatively cheap, and quite thoroughly blocks all sorts of divination.
Second, what you mostly want is WARNING and DELAY if someone tries to break in and steal your McGuffins. You won't be able to adequately ward your home base versus CR-appropriate foes. You might be able to set up something that WARNS you if someone tries, and enough traps and tricks to DELAY the invaders until your party can arrive.
Third, misdirection can work wonders. For example, make several non-magical duplicates of each item, and cast Misdirection and Nondetection on each. Thieves will have NO WAY to know whether or not the got the real McGuffin. If you make them struggle to find a well-protected seeming-McGuffin they will probably stop looking once they find it.
Finally, no matter how clever you are, if your GM wants bad guys to steal your toys then they will. There's nothing you can do about this, besides keep said items on your person 24x7, and even that's not foolproof.
You can apply dex to damage with dervish dance. You'll need a new scimitar every couple levels, though, as you get bigger air elemental forms and will probably wind up carrying more than one for different sized environments.
The best Wild Shape combat forms can't use swords.
The bards I'm around routinely use both instruments and the perform skill. They just don't use them in combat. In combat they sing or dance, thus keeping both hands free for holding a weapon.
Kinda sad to hear someone self-describe their party role as 'healbot'. Although, in this case, the OP clearly knows what's what, and intends to blast and buff, too. That doesn't really sound like a healbot, as other things are planned.
The most important characteristic for survival, as a 1st level Wizard, is positioning. Where you stand, especially before combat begins, strongly influences how many attacks you take. You want to always position yourself so that surprise foes are not on you. Anticipate where the probable threats are, and avoid them. Always keep your allies between you and possible threats. The middle of the group is the place for you. Encourage someone tougher to take the dangerous rear guard position.
Of course...in the middle you're Fireball Bait, or any other AoE.
In the long run just do your best to walk softly and carry a big summons.
By the time your group's Fireball Formation is taking fireballs you are flying 50' above the party.
Seriously, for low level wizards good positioning is the most important survival characteristic. That's speaking as a GM.
The most important characteristic for survival, as a 1st level Wizard, is positioning. Where you stand, especially before combat begins, strongly influences how many attacks you take. You want to always position yourself so that surprise foes are not on you. Anticipate where the probable threats are, and avoid them. Always keep your allies between you and possible threats. The middle of the group is the place for you. Encourage someone tougher to take the dangerous rear guard position.
It's impossible to calculate DPR resulting from AoOs, because the count of available AoOs varies drastically with the situation. This causes builds that fish for AoOs to be under-counted for DPR. Yet it's clearly the case that my polearm fighters pick up a large fraction of their damage from AoOs. Just saying.
Thread Hijacked from Wooden Weapons to Zombie Apocalypse:
Kobold Cleaver wrote:
Bicycles provide absolutely no protection. Sure, if you just want to avoid copying the movies, a bike's nice, but very few of those problems you listed are really going to be that big of one. Roads get blocked? Turn around. As long as you keep moving and drive responsibly, you'll be fine.
That list is written from a cinematic POV, and movies have to use whatever works to get characters killed. As such, they're a poor guide for realism.
By the logic presented in the list, going by foot is best. Or on horseback, even. That list is flawed.
Not buying it. That list is written from an anti-cinematic perspective, by thinking through what would actually work, rather than what the movies always show. Read the book.
The problem is all the roads will often be blocked. In bad conditions even turning around will be difficult for a bus. It was called The Great Panic. Imagine all the panicked people who drove until the road was blocked or they ran out of gas, then abandoned their cars ...
The book makes very clear how you do get complete protection from the walking dead: you get a ladder or a rope, enter a 2+ story house, clear it out, and then destroy the stairs. A hammock in a tree also works great, or a tree house. Any place that requires intelligent tool use to reach works well. A roof will do in a pinch, especially if you have a tent. A bus, not so much.
A single person with a high perch, a scoped .22 carbine (aka a 'tack driver') with basic tools and cleaning supplies, and many 500 round bricks of .22 LR ammo can safely drop zombies all day long. But that's not cinematic ...
The reasons for this are many:
1. Fuel is not an issue
2. Engines are noisy and will draw all nearby zombies
3. Bikes are silent
4. Roads always get blocked in an emergency
5. A bicycle is the only vehicle you can carry over rough terrain
6. Maintenance is simple. Spare parts are easy to find.
7. Bikes can go through narrow spaces and over rough terrain
8. You can go a lot farther and faster on a bike than you can either walk or drive (under emergency conditions).
Zombie movies and TV shows made in the USA always have the protagonists driving cars, not riding bicycles. This is a viewer-appeal marketing decision aimed at car-drunk Americans, and has nothing to do with common sense.
Also, a long spear would be an excellent anti-zombie weapon. This is because it can score kills directly to the brain. Also, it's long enough that you don't need to get within arms reach, which makes you safer. See Rule #4, Blades don't need reloading.
Finally, since I'm on a Zombie rant, I must rant about the choice of firearms you always see in Zombie movies and TV shows. The heroes usually pack either large-caliber long arms (e.g. shotguns) or handguns. These are the worst possible firearm choices for the situation. The heroes are never seen carrying and using small caliber (.22 LR) carbines, despite those being obviously the most effective choice by a large margin. Again, this is a viewer appeal issue, because .22 carbines don't look like a manly, macho firearm.
Have we completely lost the 'wooden weapons' discussion thread, or is it pretty much resolved?
We need a few more alternates for Wrath of the Accursed, a high level PFS adventure for levels 7-11. I'll be running it today, in about three hours. Sign up on Warhorn here:
It's likely we will play UP to Tier 10-11, so bring a high level PFS character. Game starts at 6:30 PM Eastern Time, which is 3:30 PM Pacific Time. Please arrive at the table at least 15 minutes early.
Also note that the 9-to-5ers online PFS GMs, lead by Venture Lieutenant Erica Warren, will soon by posting signups for many more game sessions in September, October, and November, so you may as well get an account. We will be running many higher level adventures.
