Ok, here's the basic scenario.
I'm playing a Wizard2/Rogue2 with the Charlatan Archetype from UC. He is totally skill based with a 20 Charisma, 16 Bluff, 14 Diplomacy, 10 Disgues,and 7 or higher in all the base knowledge skills. As a teen, he and his father scammed a bunch of low level nobles out of their daughter's dowries. They ultimately were caught and both were sentenced to death.
While in prison he met a young wizard student from the Arcanamirium who was framed for murder by the Dean of Student Affairs who is secretly summoning devils to do his bidding. Not sure what level he is but I know he is also head of the school of divination and most likely between 9th and 14th level. The boy was sentenced to life in prison.
While awaiting his execution, my character became good friends with the boy and through an unfortunate case of mistaken identity the two boys were switched and the young wizard was executed in my character's place leaving him to finish out the boy's life sentence. Wracked with guilt, my character vowed to clear his friend's name and get revenge on the wizard. 10 years later he managed to escape and is now poised to take revenge.
If you'd care to read his entire backstory go to
http://errantknightgames.com/Boya_Background.htm
So, I want my revenge plan to be pretty elaborate like something out of heist movie. For starters I plan to make the guy's life miserable by using the Rumormonger ability. I also want to write a song or poem about the boy and try to get bards throughout the city to start spreading it around.
In the meantime I have become a student at the Arcanamirium and hope to get really close to the Wizard, maybe even become his assistant so I can learn as much as possible about him, so I can figure out his weaknesses. I am also working on setting up a wide range of alternate identities throughout the city to help keep me hidden.
The biggest problem I have is that he is a Diviner so keeping the source of all of my shenanigans secret will be difficult. There's also the added problem that spells that protect you from detection like misdirect and invisibility are illegal in Absalom. Granted, my character is no "law abiding citizen" by any means, but he doesn't want to take chances with the law just yet.
I have the rest of the party at my disposal (Master Summoner4, Magus4 and Druid4).
Any ideas on how to nail this guy without him killing me or putting me back in jail?
Lets see...
First up, Thick stone or lead blocks most divination spells. Create a couple of safe rooms scattered around town.
Second, mundane disguises. A lot of divinations cannot see through mundane disguises.
Get a ring of counterspells. Keep scry in it that way if you ever get scried on, it will get counteredspelled automatically.
It is expensive, but get a high level wizard to cast non-detection and magic aura both with permancy. That will give you spell resistance against a lot of divinations.
Iron Will, Improved Iron Will. The divinations that allow a save work against will saves.
Finally, misdirection. Specifically disguise yourself as other people. That way your opponent will spend a lot of time scrying on people who have nothing do to with the plot against him.
Lets see...
First up, Thick stone or lead blocks most divination spells. Create a couple of safe rooms scattered around town.
Creating safe rooms throughout town is on my list of things to do. Buying sheets of lead may be a bit suspicious though.
Second, mundane disguises. A lot of divinations cannot see through mundane disguises.
I plan to do all of my covert stuff and rumor mongering in disguise with fake identities. I'm hoping that the wizard will waste a lot of time scrying for people that don't exist. I'm not sure if scrying locates a target based on appearance or if it'll still find me when I shed the disguise.
Get a ring of counterspells. Keep scry in it that way if you ever get scried on, it will get counterspelled automatically.
That's a good idea. My GM will be more than happy to set up a quest to find the ring, and scry is a completely legal spell to cast, so no issues there. Finding a caster of high enough level to cast scry might be difficult, but I can get by with Locate Creature or Clairaudience/Clairvoyance until then. Getting a scroll with scry on it and trying to cast it myself might be easier than finding a caster though.
It is expensive, but get a high level wizard to cast non-detection and magic aura both with permancy. That will give you spell resistance against a lot of divinations.
That'll be even more difficult than the ring, because spells that protect from scrying and detection are illegal in Absalom, so there are bound to be unpleasant strings attached to such a bargain.
Iron Will, Improved Iron Will. The divinations that allow a save work against will saves.
Boosting my Will save is high on my list at this point. I'll be taking another level in Charlatan, but after that I might take a level in Bard which will, among other useful things, give me another +2 to my will saves.
Finally, misdirection. Specifically disguise yourself as other people. That way your opponent will spend a lot of time scrying on people who have nothing do to with the plot against him.
I don't think misdirection works on scrying spells, just AURA detection spells like detect evil. It does help against Discern Lies though, so it's not completely useless to me. Also illegal by the way. Hmm.
There are a variety of spells that cause a variation in the powdered silver the magic circle the Dean is using for his planar binding of devils, such as gust of wind, create water and summon swarm. Once that circle is altered, the devil should handle the rest - they love the taste of wizards.
Lets see...
First up, Thick stone or lead blocks most divination spells. Create a couple of safe rooms scattered around town.
Creating safe rooms throughout town is on my list of things to do. Buying sheets of lead may be a bit suspicious though.
Then use thick stone. Basements and similar places. Then you only need a little bit of lead for the door.
Second, mundane disguises. A lot of divinations cannot see through mundane disguises.I plan to do all of my covert stuff and rumor mongering in disguise with fake identities. I'm hoping that the wizard will waste a lot of time scrying for people that don't exist. I'm not sure if scrying locates a target based on appearance or if it'll still find me when I shed the disguise.
Get a ring of counterspells. Keep scry in it that way if you ever get scried on, it will get counterspelled automatically.That's a good idea. My GM will be more than happy to set up a quest to find the ring, and scry is a completely legal spell to cast, so no issues there. Finding a caster of high enough level to cast scry might be difficult, but I can get by with Locate Creature or Clairaudience/Clairvoyance until then. Getting a scroll with scry on it and trying to cast it myself might be easier than finding a caster though.
It is expensive, but get a high level wizard to cast non-detection and magic aura both with permancy. That will give you spell resistance against a lot of divinations.That'll be even more difficult than the ring, because spells that protect from scrying and detection are illegal in Absalom, so there are bound to be unpleasant strings attached to such a bargain.
You can always make a trip out of the country for this. The magic aura spell is to hide the arua of the non-detection spell, but it is not strictly necessary since the non-detection alone will protect against detect magic.
Another alternative is the amulet of non-detection. The problem with that is that the caster level(and thus the DC to overcome) is kinda low, but if you can get one with a higher caster level then you would be in good shape.
Iron Will, Improved Iron Will. The divinations that allow a save work against will saves.Boosting my Will save is high on my list at this point. I'll be taking another level in Charlatan, but after that I might take a level in Bard which will, among other useful things, give me another +2 to my will saves.
High will save is good, but being able to reroll a failed save each day is great for long term protection. You can have a +20 will save, but you still fail on a 1.
I don't think misdirection works on scrying spells, just AURA detection spells like detect evil. It does help against Discern Lies though, so it's not completely useless to me. Also illegal by the way. Hmm.Finally, misdirection. Specifically disguise yourself as other people. That way your opponent will spend a lot of time scrying on people who have nothing do to with the plot against him.
I am not talking about the misdirection spell. I am talking about intentionally misleading your target into wasting time and effort tracking down the wrong person. Disguise yourself as a specific person, then do something very conspicious that he will notice(Like badmouthing him in a very public way). It is even better if you imitate people with some protection and influence because that will slow him down. He will waste a lot of time and effort tracking down the other person. All that time he wastes is time he is not tracking you down. Even better, he will probably try to exact some kind of revenge on the innocent bystander, and thus create enemies.
Something else, look for other victims. there is a chance that he has done something similar to other people. These people are potential allies, but remember, the best conspiracy is a conspiracy of one. Find other allies, use them, but don't let them know your true identity and plans. That way they cannot betray you if they are caught.