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Last game my PCs managed to kill easily Mak'ar in the Spire of Long Shadows.
The wizard casted on her pseudodragon familiar 'Piticli' an antimagic field. This trick made the spellweaver lich to worry more about avoiding the familiar than in using his attack spells. Only a Wall of Force stopped it till the wizard casted disintegrate over the Wall.
I'm thinking on how to counter this tactic. Any idea? It seems a good trick for evil wizard only encounter.
If that wizard tries that trick too often, others will catch wind of it and especially target the wizard and his familiar. Such a notorious and devious technique will put that PC wizard on a number of hit lists. Imagine assassins and rival spellcasters dogging the PC's moves, constantly setting up ambushes and traps... I'd definitely set that up for my PC wizard, not to necessarily kill him, but to give him the impression that he's hated and people want him dead.
Ouch.
Of course this sort of thing can be done at low levels, too, with a silenced bird screwing up a caster.
Wow...that's inspired. I'm going to have to use that sometime.
If I recall correctly, Mak'ar had a limited wish - he could have used this to dispel the antimagic field. Or, you could have given him Mordenkainen's Disjunction, or you could have several kyuss worm swarms in the area, under his mental control. This is effectively like giving him a 'summon monster' spell, but it gets around the limitation that summoned monsters can't enter an antimagic field. Since the familar can fly, you'd have to have the swarm come out of cracks in the ceiling, dripping down as he moves below them.
Another idea: psionics! Give him psionic abilities that mimic any spell you want to cast, then use the "psionics aren't magic" rules (i.e., antimagic field does nothing versus psionics, etc.) Of course, the players will hate you.. but Mak'ar shouldn't be a push-over. You want to PCs to win, but they should have to work for it, no?
Last game my PCs managed to kill easily Mak'ar in the Spire of Long Shadows.
The wizard casted on her pseudodragon familiar 'Piticli' an antimagic field. This trick made the spellweaver lich to worry more about avoiding the familiar than in using his attack spells. Only a Wall of Force stopped it till the wizard casted disintegrate over the Wall.
I'm thinking on how to counter this tactic. Any idea? It seems a good trick for evil wizard only encounter.
I think you're overlooking the obvious. Kill the familiar. Yeah M'akar is a spellcaster, but it doesn't mean he can't pummel the thing with his natural attacks. Once the familiar's dead, pick the thing up and throw it at the PC spellcaster. Not only is it wickedly cruel, but now the familiar's owner is in the area of her/his own antimagic field. :)
So, the spell with Area: 10-ft.-radius emanation, centered on you, don't count for sharing spell.
It's a possible solution to the problem.
I would argue that "centered on you" counts as "a spell with a target of 'you'" - would a wizard or druid not be able to share other such spells, such as anti-life shell or fire shield ? Druids are able to share spells with their companions in the same way.
Also, a simple enough solution for the wizard is to have the familiar packing a one-use wondrous item - say, a collar - about its neck that activates by command word (in this case, of the familiar) and it is sent off to initiate the same tactic. This solves any arguement about sharing the spell - but it does put the familiar at some risk - mostly the ability to deliver touch spells (but also the empathic link and scry on familiar abilities).
Depending upon the spellweaver's familiar as to just how dangerous it is to the party on its own right. Perhaps a quasit or imp, as they have the best ability to approach the characters with stealth.
An especially malevolent tactic if your spellweaver has access to the Spell Compendium and can cast Greater Invisibility upon the familiar is to forgo the anti-magic field and instead have the familiar deliver any of the brutally nasty high-level arcane touch spells - such as Irresistable Dance, Imprisonment, Bestow Greater Curse , Flesh to Stone, Trap the Soul and so on.
An especially nasty tactic, albiet a risky one, is to Veil the party as though they were all alkilith minions of the spellweaver - something that the bad guy is familiar with and that the characters have seen in the location before - with the effect seemingly being that, to each other, the mage has mass polymorphed their allies into monstrosities...
Mak'ar is a lich, just have him do a touch attack against the little bastard and presto: permanent paralysis. And best of all, the PC's can't use remove paralysis until the antimagic field wears off...
That would be beautiful if the lich's paralysis wasn't supernatural. If the victim is so paralyzed, then encapsulated within the anti-magic field, the paralysis is suppressed. And of course the lich can't share the ability through the familiar - were it spell-like I would certainly argue that it could be.
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That would be beautiful if the lich's paralysis wasn't supernatural. If the victim is so paralyzed, then encapsulated within the anti-magic field, the paralysis is suppressed. And of course the lich can't share the ability through the familiar - were it spell-like I would certainly argue that it could be.
Where exactly does it say it is a supernatural weapon? From what I can tell the touch attack is powered by the same negative energy that animates the lich itself. If the touch attack would be blocked by antimagic, then so should the lich itself.
Where exactly does it say it is a supernatural weapon? From what I can tell the touch attack is powered by the same negative energy that animates the lich itself. If the touch attack would be blocked by antimagic, then so should the lich itself.
That would be beautiful if the lich's paralysis wasn't supernatural. If the victim is so paralyzed, then encapsulated within the anti-magic field, the paralysis is suppressed. And of course the lich can't share the ability through the familiar - were it spell-like I would certainly argue that it could be.
Says it's supernatural in the lich statblock in the MM I'm afraid.
And yes, by all technicalities, a lich ceases to function (as would any animated dead and most undead) within an anti-magic field, especially if the phylactery is also cloaked by the field...
And yes, by all technicalities, a lich ceases to function (as would any animated dead and most undead) within an anti-magic field, especially if the phylactery is also cloaked by the field...
Not quite. I recall seeing in one of the 'Ask the Sage' articles that undead and constructs are not affected by antimagic fields, at least for the purposes of de-animation. Apparently once they have been imbued with the animating force, they are forever considered creatures. By that rationale, an antimagic field wouldn't be able to suppress the negative energy sustaining an undead, anymore than say the positive energy sustaining a human.
Not quite. I recall seeing in one of the 'Ask the Sage' articles that undead and constructs are not affected by antimagic fields, at least for the purposes of de-animation.
Lipto is correct. However, we don't need to turn to an "Ask The Sage" article for that one. It's right in the spell description.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/antimagicField.htm
Lipto and DoveArrow : agreed on the non-summoned/non-incorporeal critters as pertaining to the anti-magic field.
I was just pointing out that a lich can't paralyze some one and then 'keep them frozen' with an anti-magic field.
The lich *can* apply, say, contact poison in large doses to reduce the victim's STR or DEX (or any of the mental ability scores for that matter) to 0 and then do anti-magical or other naughtiness to them though ... ^_^
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Any encounters with beholders should give plenty of ideas for ways to deal with antimagic spheres/cones.
You can use magic to create real effects that ignore anti-magic, such as telekinesing boulders at your target (once released, their momentum carries them forward). Or disintegrating a chunk out of the ceiling to fall on them.
Or trick them into entering a Passwall tunnel...heh heh.
Disintegrate the familiar. Or physically hack it to pieces.
Once the wizard has lost a few familiars that way, he'll think twice.
Not quite. I recall seeing in one of the 'Ask the Sage' articles that undead and constructs are not affected by antimagic fields, at least for the purposes of de-animation. Apparently once they have been imbued with the animating force, they are forever considered creatures. By that rationale, an antimagic field wouldn't be able to suppress the negative energy sustaining an undead, anymore than say the positive energy sustaining a human.
And yes, by all technicalities, a lich ceases to function (as would any animated dead and most undead) within an anti-magic field, especially if the phylactery is also cloaked by the field...
To echo Lipto, animate dead is an instantaneous effect. Once animated, the corpse used for the purpose becomes a creature. Presumably this principle works for more powerful undead like liches that achieve their state through magical rituals. The spell description for antimagic field specifically states that constructs, undead, and other creatures animated by magic are not deactivated by the spell unless they are summoned.
MDJ might deanimate a lich, but the spell description doesn't explicitly say so, and I don't think I'd let even that all powerful dispelling tool be quite that powerful, since liches (and constructs) are by definition creatures, not spells or magic items.
I think the tactic posted by the OP is not valid. The spell has no target, so it cannot be shared. It merely creates a 10 foot radius emanation, which is automatically centered on you. This is different from a spell with a range of personal and a target of "you"--such as longstrider--which you can share with a familiar or animal companion.
In any event, if it were valid, this tactic would work once. Then DM countermeasures would be put into effect, probably to include frequent familiar deaths.