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Let’s make it clear right off the bat, it’s not a ranting about how some spells are outright unbalanced or how this and that suck. It’s more about personal bad gaming experience that seems to repeat themselves.
Now let’s go more deeply into the subject and let me tell you about some spells that my players keep on using that seem to neutralise every encounter and tell me how you (more experienced and/creative DM) deal with these!
#1 Sleet storm
Obviously not all enemy or encounter can always be buried in ambush to fall on unsuspecting party. Most of time encounters start by some members of either side aware of the others. So when it’s player B turn it always goes boom! Sleet storm….
So even if the enemy have a fairly good acrobatic skill he will still have to crawl out of there if he can at all. The end result is always the same, the encounter initiative and momentum is lost and the players are just sitting there waiting and ready for someone to get out of the spell area to pick it out like a berry!
Let’s face it very few monsters/villain have permanent freedom of movement-like ability, spell or item so most of the time the spell is working to full effect!
#2 Rope trick
That one sounds silly but let’s look at it. The night comes up then caster Joe goes on with rope trick!
The result is no more chance for the “iconic” nightly random encounter to occur.
Everybody climb up that little rope and see ya tomorrow morning!
Of course the rope is still visible but let’s face it, a huge deal of the typical random monster won’t make the difference.
Unintelligent undead, ooze, plants, animal, elementals, most construct, most magical beast… name it, they will just pass by it never recognising the rope for what it is! Even if a mob notice it… he gonna pull it until he’s sick of it and just go away!
And be honest, unless in a very specific situation where the enemy know what’s going on, are determined and ready to wait most of the time the random “fun encounter” will just go is way after some time.
In the end that little unworthy like spell is most of the time a "great time" killer! What’s challenging and exciting when you know that no matter how many nasties are out there you give a *&##*() about it?
#3 “indoor” call lightning
Despite it sounds legit a still have a hard time dealing with someone casting lightning “down the sky” 300’ underground or in a 10’X10’ room with an 8’ high ceiling!
How you guys would or do deal with these spells?
It's not much, but I hope that this will help you a little:
1) Sleet Storm
The enemies can get out of the storm from the opposite side of the spell area, the side where the PCs aren't waiting in ambush, and regroup there.
2) The PC is using a spell slot (or more than one) to prevent nightly random encounters. Maybe that's because he's not has fond of nightly random encouters as you are. On the other hand, the PCs are getting less XP because they don't have those nightly random encouters. In the long term, that could turn against them.
3) Call Lightning
You can just change the "fluff" of the spell and say that, when cast indoor, the lightning bolt just spurts out from the druid's fingertips to hit its target.
for the Call Lightning
if I'm not mistaken, the lightning (in real life) comes up from the earth.
Thus you can just let it come from the ground to the floor.
But really, flavour it the way you want. If someone metamagics it to frost damage, you would also need more imagination.
For the rest, well, that's life. Try to focus the fun on encounters that aren't that easy, however don't punish your players for not playing 1 dimensionally. Sent a few scouts, so that they waste their sleet storm. Play tricky, they do.
p.s. spells that I don't like at all: fly
makes climb skill useless, renders a lot of challenges useless, I restrict those spells somehow normally.
3d6 damage every round on a single target is decent but not earth shaking? It does 3d10 damage outside. Everything considered their are several spells that do similar if not more damage with a move action indoors. I don't see the problem. Its magic maybe a thin wispy vapor rolls across the ceiling and bolts blast down from it.
I have seen the Rope trick issue many times before in other boards and their where several ideas tossed around in the threads their. One was that while the place can hold eight people it does not necessarily make for a comfortable resting place. A suggestion was that while people could rest their they would be treated as if they had slept in armor because of the other worldly environment others saying that you can't sleep in the dimensional hole period. A second thing to consider is if the characters have mounts they will have to be left behind. Making it possible for them to wake up and find they are walking or need to expend resources to get where they are going. They also need to be a decent level to pull this off due to duration limitations or they will be woken with falling damage. it is only 1 hour per level.
Sleet storm provides some battle field control but it isn't that bad. Any creature that has alternate movement types will ignore the ice effect such as teleportation, flying and tunneling. Enemy casters can dispel the magical sleet as easily as the character put it up. The spell blocks all sight that means your players can't see in so its not like they know where the enemy is or what they are doing use that lack of knowledge. The enemy could just as easily back off and force the players to negate the spell or push through and suffer the affects themselves or even wait in the sleet until it ends. The party could possibly waste resources blindly blasting inside the area but the first time they do that and they have nothing to show from it ah la teleport I am sure it will be a tactic they will think twice about before using. Another thing to consider is that It has a large area but multiple opponents on either side of the party will still force the caster to split his attention unless he wishes to lay the spell on the party as well.
Having said all this remember that a character made his levels so he should be able to use his abilities let them work from time to time just make sure that they know that they aren't infallible. Everything has its counter.
1)
- the opposite end exit seems a pretty straightforward option
- while not many creatures have freedom of movement quite a few will have flight or the ability to dispel or being able to use the concealment to hide, possibly the creature can become invisible or teleport, other times the pcs can not really afford to wait and pick creatures off while reinforcements are coming or are otherwise pressured.
- spread out the creatures in an encounter so they cant all be neutralized
- add some fodder in your encounters, low lvl creatures with little true threat they will use area spells on
- maybe you just need more encounters per day, I dont see the player having that many sleetstorms prepared regardless, sometimes it will work other times it will work just partially or not at all
2) not a big fan of rope trick, fair enough you will often find yourself be disappointed with the D&D concept of fantasy, rope trick and hiding away for the night is a bit anti-cinematic, magic is very near to mundane and frequent utilitarian use if you GM and want to enforce a different feel, you might consider removing some spells from the spell list, at some point the pcs are moving on to more heroic stuff and any encounter eats away at time resources, so maybe it isnt so bad to let the random nightly encounter just die and look towards other challenges.
3) call lightning doesnt bother me so much, I can imagine it just fine indoors, I usually imagine a magic user with bright glowing eyes sparkling with lectricity focusing his vision at a specific point and lightning erupts.
I have never enjoyed random nightly encounters. In fact, if you polled the vast majority of the RPG community, "fun" would not be the word most ascribed to them. Call Lightning is fluffable. Sleet Storm is nasty, but workable.
Rope Trick : Remember, it's a spell. It can be dispelled (note, you can't cast into the extradimensional space, but you can cast dispel on the portion of the spell that creates it).
If the group has recurring encounters with people and use this to be safe from them, it turns into a death trap. The bad guys follow, wait until they make camp for the night, surround the rope in the dark of night, then attack when the spell ends (if they don't dispel it at 2AM to catch everyone unawares).
If the group has recurring encounters with people and use this to be safe from them, it turns into a death trap. The bad guys follow, wait until they make camp for the night, surround the rope in the dark of night, then attack when the spell ends (if they don't dispel it at 2AM to catch everyone unawares).
Or sets a lots of traps (or spells that act as magic traps) just below the place where they hid.
1) Sleet Storm
The enemies can get out of the storm from the opposite side of the spell area, the side where the PCs aren't waiting in ambush, and regroup there.
It's non-trivial to know which side the PCs will be waiting on since the enemies are effectively blind within the spell area.
If the group has recurring encounters with people and use this to be safe from them, it turns into a death trap. The bad guys follow, wait until they make camp for the night, surround the rope in the dark of night, then attack when the spell ends (if they don't dispel it at 2AM to catch everyone unawares).
Or sets a lots of traps (or spells that act as magic traps) just below the place where they hid.
Another fun one is to summon a cockroach swarm and direct it to climb up the rope and have fun. :)
#1 Sleet storm
Well, for one, don't come out all by yourself on the end of the storm with people who want to kill you. Fall back, regroup, what have you. Also, some creatures that resist cold won't be affected so much (for instance, Boreal sorcerers, but there are other examples) and can stay in this happy thing you created that blocks your line of sight but not his.
#2 Rope Trick
Here, the rope is 100% visible to things below -- so if you set up camp, cook your food and then go up the rope trick, the fire and smells that might have attracted someone still happened, and then there's a rope just hanging there, not doing anything.
Sure, for a purely random encounter of forest animals, well, they won't react to it (though, depending, some might stay and scavenge the food remains, etc). However, random intelligent opponents, well, that's a whole different thing -- especially ones with ranks in Spellcraft or Knowledge Arcana. [Also, remember that while they're hidden from divination, the encounter might be someone that is following their trail from earlier and so is expecting them (enemy rangers on their home terrain are excellent at this -- "Hmm.. trail ends here at the rope.."] Plus, in many cases, random encounters aren't just happening to wander through the right area of the forest - they might have crossed the party's path earlier and are now meaning to be nasty.
Anyhow, intelligent folk can:
(a) Hide in the bushes and shoot arrows at the people climbing out
(b) Dispel the spell in the middle of the night, letting them all fall and be prone when you and your pals beat on them
(c) Fill the surrounding area with: caltrops, glyphs of warding, symbols, etc.
Also, oozes (and for that matter, intelligent folk) can destroy the rope pretty easily -- so it's always nice to ask how far up they're putting the rope.
#3 Call Lightning
It takes the druid a standard action to make another 3d6 lightning bolt (reflex half, evasion for none). Average damage on that is 10.5 before the save, and 5.25 afterward. Not a big deal. An archer with a composite bow built for 16 str is hitting for d8+3 per shot, and by level 6 is usually got iterative attacks not to mention rapidshot/manyshot/etc.
Well, lets see.
Rope Trick: This spell doesn't bother me a bit. I stopped using random monster attacks on my players while they're camping a long time ago. I have a list of nightly encounters that might occur if they aren't Rope Tricked, Magnificent Mansioned, Tiny Hutted, Secure Sheltered, Plane Shifted, Ethereal, Teleported back to there homes for the night, etc.. but they're all flavor or have something to do with the adventure directly.
If you really want to continue using random monster attacks on your players and they keep using some means to escape into an extradimensional space every night, then just occasionally use something nasty like Phase Spiders breaching directly into the space or have an ambush waiting for them when they exit the space.
Call Lightning: Again, another spell that is just a damage dealer. It doesn't matter that it can be cast underground to me, IMO, it gives druids another spell slot to fill with something that isn't more conjured/summoned animals.
Sleet Storm: Personally, I've never had much of an issue with sleet storm, and I have a wizard player with a wand full of them. It's just too situational once the Players are level 5. There are so many ways around it. When my wizard player is actually able to cast it and it changes the course of the encounter, he is ecstatic, but generally it enables him to offer some control over a current combat, such as annoying enemy archers, harrassing rushing humanoids/beasts or covering a hasty escape. Fliers and burrowers are immune to it, enemy casters can dispel it, (or worse, dispel it and cast it back at the PCs!) most elementals, outsiders, oozes and undead aren't phased by it in the slightest. Granted, it can be a huge pain to deal with against certain encounters, especially if the caster can get the entire enemy force within its AoE at the start/surprise round. But these are moments that make the players really proud of themselves, and as the DM, this is the whole point. Happy, satisfied players = A DM that is doing his job well!
There are a ton of spells out there that I consider to be FAR worse than these 3, but I can see where they can be irritating to deal with if you DM a certain way. (well except for Call Lightning)
Wait until the wizard/druid players discover just how awesome hordes of summoned monsters/nature's allies can be and start toting around wands of summons for the III/IV versions. (Especially if they are between levels 5-9) Nothing like 1-3 leopards or 2-5 wolves per caster/wand user arriving every round to help the players.
It's non-trivial to know which side the PCs will be waiting on since the enemies are effectively blind within the spell area.1) Sleet Storm
The enemies can get out of the storm from the opposite side of the spell area, the side where the PCs aren't waiting in ambush, and regroup there.
What I was trying to say is that the enemies should just ''fall back'' from the encounter, forcing the PCs to circumvent the sleet storm to meet them in battle. Unless the caster is invisible/hidden and using Silent Spell, those caught in the sleet storm will probably know from which direction the attack originally came.
2) As Ragnor pointed out, The mounts can't get up there. Any random orcs or wolves or prowling lions, will STILL get a feast if they want it.
As such, when our group uses the rope trick, we STILL take watches, and have a guard dog down with the horses/camp to warn us if there's a fight coming.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Rope trick is a spell I dislike, but there's a very simple solution. *ANY* creature that climbs the rope climbs into the extradimensional space. There is no door, nor lock on it, and no way to prevent additional creatures from climbing up, other than filling the RT with 8 creatures. Most parties aren't that large, which means any enterprising bad guy can climb the rope and go in and start hacking.
Rope trick is a spell I dislike, but there's a very simple solution. *ANY* creature that climbs the rope climbs into the extradimensional space. There is no door, nor lock on it, and no way to prevent additional creatures from climbing up, other than filling the RT with 8 creatures. Most parties aren't that large, which means any enterprising bad guy can climb the rope and go in and start hacking.
This is why all my rope tricks are hung from the tops of large trees. Even if something manages to see it they probably wont climb all the way up for some tattered old rope.
wanna know how i broke weekly william's encounters last session?
a full attack from a power attacking, greatsword wielding, human fighter
appearently, he doesn't realize the damage these guys can do at 9th level.
an Attack bonus of +19/14, a damage bonus of 2d6+26, and a crit range of 17-20x2 when power attacking.
anybody know how much DPR that is?
and only 2 of his feats are from 3.5 splatbooks.
he is also in a campaign where everyone is 25 point buy and just recieved major wealth boons.
and only 2 of his feats are from 3.5 splatbooks.
That kind of invalidates the point though.
and only 2 of his feats are from 3.5 splatbooks.That kind of invalidates the point though.
it's only melee weapon mastery (slashing) and steadfast determination (con mod to will saves instead of wis) and both feats themselves aren't really that bad. pages 81 and 83 of player's handbook 2 for 3.5 edition. one of the more commonly allowed splats in my area. all the rest of his feats come from pathfinder and he is otherwise a relatively basic human fighter with a 25 point buy and the big 6.
it's only melee weapon mastery (slashing) and steadfast determination (con mod to will saves instead of wis) and both feats themselves aren't really that bad.
Not having the book - does melee weapon mastery give +2 attack and +2 damage (thats what google told me)? Because that is 3 feats worth in Pathfinder.
I don't doubt that a Human Fighter could put out comparable damage (as could any myriad of other builds in Pathfinder) to what you stated. I am just exercising my anal rententive personality traits.
it's only melee weapon mastery (slashing) and steadfast determination (con mod to will saves instead of wis) and both feats themselves aren't really that bad.Not having the book - does melee weapon mastery give +2 attack and +2 damage (thats what google told me)? Because that is 3 feats worth in Pathfinder.
I don't doubt that a Human Fighter could put out comparable damage (as could any myriad of other builds in Pathfinder) to what you stated. I am just exercising my anal rententive personality traits.
it is a +2 to attack and damage. but it requires weapon specialization as a prerequisite and a base attack bonus of +8.
here is where i got the +26 to damage (at 9th level)
+9 (power attack bonus x1.5)
+9 (22 strength x1.5)
+2 (enhancement bonus)
+2 (weapon training 2)
+2 (weapon specialization)
+2 (melee weapon Mastery)
Now for his +19 to hit
-3 (power attack)
+6 (22 strength)
+9 (base attack bonus)
+2 (weapon training 2)
+1 (weapon focus)
+2 (enhancement bonus)
+2 (melee weapon mastery)
His 17-20 crit range comes from Improved critical (greatsword)
the fact he had a 25 point buy is also a factor
Atributes
Strength 22 (16 Base +2 racial +2 enhancement +2 level)
Dexterity 16 (14 base +2 enhancement)
Constitution 18 (16 base +2 enhancement)
Intellegence 12
wisdom 10
charisma 8
and he is from a game where the DM felt sorry for shortchanging the party in gear months before and went overboard trying to compensate for it. we went from being level 6 with no magic items to becoming level 9 with slightly above level appropriate wealth.
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Rope trick is a spell I dislike, but there's a very simple solution. *ANY* creature that climbs the rope climbs into the extradimensional space. There is no door, nor lock on it, and no way to prevent additional creatures from climbing up
Well, you could always pull the end of the rope up after the last person is inside.
Can you set the rope on fire?
Rope trick is a spell I dislike, but there's a very simple solution. *ANY* creature that climbs the rope climbs into the extradimensional space. There is no door, nor lock on it, and no way to prevent additional creatures from climbing up, other than filling the RT with 8 creatures. Most parties aren't that large, which means any enterprising bad guy can climb the rope and go in and start hacking.
That just made an idea that would probably make a gm want smack me come to mind. Carry a cage of rats. The spell specifically states creatures of any size... four adventurers and four rats is a full rope trick.
You may commence groaning and rolling your eyes now ;)
wanna know how i broke weekly william's encounters last session?
a full attack from a power attacking, greatsword wielding, human fighter
appearently, he doesn't realize the damage these guys can do at 9th level.
an Attack bonus of +19/14, a damage bonus of 2d6+26, and a crit range of 17-20x2 when power attacking.
anybody know how much DPR that is?
and only 2 of his feats are from 3.5 splatbooks.
he is also in a campaign where everyone is 25 point buy and just recieved major wealth boons.
25 point buy is already ver powerful, weapon mastery is stupidly powerful, its Greater weapon focus and weapon specialisation, and stacks with those. Its not flavorful, its just random power creep, its why 3.5 splat should be banned on occasion. That said against a typical CR 9 creature with 23 AC his DPR is 61 with weapon mastery and 50 without. Powerful, but harldy ourlandish for a 9th level fighter, I mean the DPR olympics are set at level 10 and they can get over a 100. Not that thats a good metric for everygame play, but it is a good measure for what ridiculous damage is. 50-60 is not ridiculous.
it's only melee weapon mastery (slashing) and steadfast determination (con mod to will saves instead of wis) and both feats themselves aren't really that bad. pages 81 and 83 of player's handbook 2 for 3.5 edition. one of the more commonly allowed splats in my area. all the rest of his feats come from pathfinder and he is otherwise a relatively basic human fighter with a 25 point buy and the big 6.and only 2 of his feats are from 3.5 splatbooks.That kind of invalidates the point though.
In a Pathfinder context the Weapon Mastery shouldn't really be allowed, on the grounds that the feat originally was created to make fighters more competitive in a 3.5 environment. Pathfinder changes that by granting weapon training (as well as all the other goodies supplied in Pathfinder). This makes Weapon Mastery a "win more" feat that messes with the balance.
Rope trick requires you to be level 7 OR be level 4 and have a metamagic rod of extend. It's not exactly a cheap way to avoid attacks during the night and it's either a costly investment or it only comes into affect at the second half of the game. I've also seen modules where you could attack people with ranged attacks from outside a rope trick. So I would therefore rule it's not the be all and end all of protection from midnight ambushes.
Also how are you getting your mounts into the rope trick? While it's big enough, you're going to have to cast spells on those horses to get them up there OR the random encounter attacks the horse.
I'm a Wizard in a campaign that casts Rope Trick daily. As others have said, PCs that rely on it too much can get screwed over quite well. We definitely rely on it too much ;)
The thing with rope trick is that it's a solution to a problem, from the point-of-view of the players.
Casters really don't want to be bothered in the night. They want their core abilities back so they can spend each and every day working toward whatever goal the party has. Any night with interruptions cuts into the adventuring day or travel time. Night encounters are a thing to avoid at all costs, not because you're not prepared, but because they cost you another hour of sleep. They may leave a cleric sleeping through his prayer.
Night encounters are inconvenient and this spell minimizes but doesn't eliminate them. Go figure players use it. Remember: night encounters annoying, rope trick not annoying. Circumvent it all you will but you're annoying your players by doing so.
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Trying not to get too far off track, note that night encounters are usually little more than random--no special treasure, no plot hooks. Furthermore, they disrupt healing, spell retention, cause fatigue, and all sorts of headaches. As a result, it makes all the sense in the world to prevent night encounters as much as possible, and Rope Trick goes a far way in doing that.
That said, there are ways to defeat a Rope Trick, as discussed above.
Wands of Summon are one thing I hate... but if you start seeing that tactic being used, just spam the mosters right back with the bad guys wielding a number of Wands with few charges left (so they run out by the end of the combat).
"Everyone's Invisible and Flying." That's been the basis for lots upon lots of parties since 1e. "I'm always invisible and flying." Even when they're in town, even when they sleep... Now that's just silly-annoying.
Wall of Iron, Wall of Stone: These spells can literally change the landscape, so it's good to beware there. Nothing like just entombing an area and walking away for an anticlimax.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Trying not to get too far off track, note that night encounters are usually little more than random--no special treasure, no plot hooks. Furthermore, they disrupt healing, spell retention, cause fatigue, and all sorts of headaches. As a result, it makes all the sense in the world to prevent night encounters as much as possible, and Rope Trick goes a far way in doing that.
That said, there are ways to defeat a Rope Trick, as discussed above.
Wands of Summon are one thing I hate... but if you start seeing that tactic being used, just spam the mosters right back with the bad guys wielding a number of Wands with few charges left (so they run out by the end of the combat).
"Everyone's Invisible and Flying." That's been the basis for lots upon lots of parties since 1e. "I'm always invisible and flying." Even when they're in town, even when they sleep... Now that's just silly-annoying.
Wall of Iron, Wall of Stone: These spells can literally change the landscape, so it's good to beware there. Nothing like just entombing an area and walking away for an anticlimax.
Fortunately, the Wall spells are now not all that hard to break through if the creature you've entombed has any kind of Strength at all (even ordinary orcs can often hack their way through in a minute or two). Low-STR creatures are still boned, tho.
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.... Remember: night encounters annoying, rope trick not annoying. Circumvent it all you will but you're annoying your players by doing so.
Awsome!
Then i'll just wait to see what my players wish for. Then after 30 minutes the whole campaing will be over with all of them level 1 but each the supreme god of his own inter-planar multi-layered reality kingdom!nice
Sarcasm aside no i don't always do what my players wants and that's probably why the real victory they acheive feel so sweet!
Agh, my players are using spells to their full and useful effects within the limits and reason of the game! How do I stop this?!
.... Remember: night encounters annoying, rope trick not annoying. Circumvent it all you will but you're annoying your players by doing so.Awsome!
Then i'll just wait to see what my players wish for. Then after 30 minutes the whole campaing will be over with all of them level 1 but each the supreme god of his own inter-planar multi-layered reality kingdom!
niceSarcasm aside no i don't always do what my players wants and that's probably why the real victory they acheive feel so sweet!
What is the average level of your PCs, by the way? Random encounters are more a low-level thing anyway.
You could use a permanently invisible rope. . .
.... Remember: night encounters annoying, rope trick not annoying. Circumvent it all you will but you're annoying your players by doing so.Awsome!
Then i'll just wait to see what my players wish for. Then after 30 minutes the whole campaing will be over with all of them level 1 but each the supreme god of his own inter-planar multi-layered reality kingdom!
niceSarcasm aside no i don't always do what my players wants and that's probably why the real victory they acheive feel so sweet!
You are complaining about a spell that's specific purpose is to counter why you are complaining about it. Sure, nerf Rope Trick. Go ahead. Then some one learns Tiny Hut and you have to nerf it. Then Magnificent Mansion..
Next perhaps you can nerf the spell Jump due to its use in overcoming jumping obstacles. Or Knock. Or Mount. Or Spiderclimb.
Or [insert utility spell name here]
I don't get the impression you want to be playing a game that actually has magic.
Rope trick is a spell I dislike, but there's a very simple solution. *ANY* creature that climbs the rope climbs into the extradimensional space. There is no door, nor lock on it, and no way to prevent additional creatures from climbing up, other than filling the RT with 8 creatures. Most parties aren't that large, which means any enterprising bad guy can climb the rope and go in and start hacking.
I've found that in practice, in many situations the party does have 8 creatures with them. In any situation with overland travel, in fact, usually everyone but the monk or barbarian is mounted, and that quickly adds up. The Wizard or Witch's Familiar (or the any-guy-with-13-Cha's Familiar now that Eldritch Heritage is out), the Druid or Ranger or Animal Cleric or Nature Oracle's AC, the Paladin or Cavalier's Mount, and the Summoner's Eidolon etc will also add to this. And if you have anyone with Leadership, the cohort too. The amusing thing for me is when the party goes over 8--
In the future, the party has been using a pair of rope tricks, although that now makes them vulnerable to the invasion tactic ^_^
#1 Sleet storm
Obviously not all enemy or encounter can always be buried in ambush to fall on unsuspecting party. Most of time encounters start by some members of either side aware of the others. So when it’s player B turn it always goes boom! Sleet storm….
Sounds like an easy counter. . . have the enemies surprise the party by appearing *among* the party members. Or don't have large distances between the ambushed party and ambushers. Another tactic is to have a single, non-important monster "lure" the sleet storm in the wrong place. Then the true ambush happens outside of the sleet storm area. This will at least force the PCs to cast sleet storm multiple times. Sure sleet storm is good, but PCs are going to exploit being given the same kind of encounter over and over. Don't blame them for being smart!
That one sounds silly but let’s look at it. The night comes up then caster Joe goes on with rope trick!
Again, this encounter type is pretty tiresome if repeated over and over. If the PCs are the right level and actually worry this much about ambushes, most of the time it should work. The exception of course is dispel magic, which is a brutal counter (and a strong counter to sleet storm). Rope trick targets a rope -- you cast dispel magic on the rope. So if the spell is dispelled, everything falls out of the extra dimensional space and puts the PCs in a bad position (possible falling damage, weapons not drawn, prone).
Why are casters walking around dispelling ropes?
Why are casters walking around dispelling ropes?
Well, a knowledge arcana check (DC 22) identifies the rope trick spell as cast on a rope. By the time PCs are using rope trick, that's a pretty easy check. . .
None of that answers the question of why casters are going around the countryside dispelling ropes. How do they know the rope isn't just hanging from the ceiling? Or a tree? Did they detect magic first? Why are they wandering around searching for ropes to dispel in the first place?
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None of that answers the question of why casters are going around the countryside dispelling ropes. How do they know the rope isn't just hanging from the ceiling? Or a tree? Did they detect magic first? Why are they wandering around searching for ropes to dispel in the first place?
They don't need to search for ropes to find ropes.
If the rope is in wherever they live or call home, they're going to be curious. Even if it's a rope dangling in the park near your home that wasn't there yesterday.