I started playing with a group in late 09 during the birth of PFRPG and for the last 3 years we have been playing two campaigns. From Jan through Sept we play in Greyhawk, starting at first level we just recently reached 13th. And from Oct-Dec we play in Ravenloft, those characters are now 7th level.
The group is fantastic, however our GM is very second edition (never played 3.0 or 3.5) and many of his BBEG follow the same direction. Almost always a single caster (sometimes a pair, once a group of four). Caster employes some sort of divination to track our whereabouts up to the point of battle. Mooks are released to distract us long enough to allow the caster to buff up. Always, and I mean always see invisibility goes up. And if close quarters generally always a silence spell. (For some reason, I have yet to take silent spell... yea I know, my bad)
This is fine as well, but I feel it is about time to turn the tables. We are getting ready to run our last Greyhawk module before laying the characters down. I want to wreck the caster's day by making his own preparedness backfire. Thus the title of the thread.
My Character is Sorc 8 / Force Missile Mage 5 (for purposes of pathfinder upgrades we ignored the dead casting level of FMM as printed in dragon). My plan is to carry a tower shield to which I have tied an immovable rod. When we begin combat it is a standard action to convert the shield to cover, and a move action to activate the rod. I should be able to do both of those in a silenced environment. Now that I have cover (as a wall in the PRD) provided by the tower shield, I should have a barrier from the silence because silence is an emanation. (THIS IS DEFINITELY PART A OF WHY I POSTED IN THIS THREAD ++ WILL A TOWER SHIELD BLOCK EMANATION SPELLS LIKE SILENCE?)
If that is true, still in the first round quicken invisibility on the tower shield. This is really my devious part of the plan. If I understand correctly, the enemy's magically corrected vision will only allow them to see the same old opaque tower shield while I am free to see through it, with the benefit of cover chucking my empowered toppling magic missiles and quickened toppling missiles at it all day long. (PART TWO, DOES SEE INVISIBILITY MAKE INVISIBLE OBJECTS APPEAR AS NORMAL OR WOULD THE CASTER JUST BE AWARE OF THE ILLUSION AND STILL CHOOSE TO SEE THROUGH IT?) My feeling is that in order to get the benefit of both worlds it would require an analyze dweomer or something similar.
Thanks all for your input and sorry for the lengthy post before I got around to point.
A few things. 1) Tower shields only provide total cover for attacks that target you. It does not provide any cover for targeted spells.
2) From the magic section: "Line of Effect: A line of effect is a straight, unblocked path that indicates what a spell can affect. A line of effect is canceled by a solid barrier. It's like line of sight for ranged weapons, except that it's not blocked by fog, darkness, and other factors that limit normal sight.
You must have a clear line of effect to any target that you cast a spell on or to any space in which you wish to create an effect. You must have a clear line of effect to the point of origin of any spell you cast."
So even if you had say, a door, that you closed, and cast invisibility on, you would not have line of effect through it to target anyone with your spells.
As a comment, any BBEG caster in Ravenloft that didn't cast see invisibility as part of their standard pre-battle buff sequence . . . well, let's just say they wouldn't have made it to BBEG status with that level of genre blindness. : D
What is he casting silence on? Himself, an object, a pc, one of his henchmen, a point in space? Also, is the BBEG a cleric or bard? If not, then he is most likely using a magic item to cast silence, and thus it should be very easy to dispel.
This is my interpretation. Silence wouldn't be blocked by the tower shield, just like the tower shield doesn't block a Fireball. They both fill an area with their spells, the difference being that Silence constantly fills the area. If you had a small mobile shack, it would work, but then you wouldn't be able to attack the caster.
As for attacking through the shield, see Tarantula's post. However, you are wanting to use Magic Missile which ignores anything less than total cover, and total concealment. Since you can see through the shield, you can target him with Magic Missile and the missiles will veer around the shield and hit your caster.
The caster sees through the invisibility spell. So he would see the shield and not be able to see you.
Magic missile still requires line of effect to target. You can't target it through total cover, even if said cover is invisible.
Tarantula, thanks for the reply, I am trying to make sure this concept gets picked at from every possible angle.
From PRD
The shield does not, however, provide cover against targeted spells; a spellcaster can cast a spell on you by targeting the shield you are holding.
This is the purpose of the immovable rod. That way the shield can be in place to provide cover, can soak targeted spells (because I am not touching it) and also frees up my hands to avoid a rather nasty Arcane Failure Chance while holding the thing.
And given the nature of the Magic Missile spell it should circumvent any obstacles I am aware of so long as the target doesn't have full cover.
Mabven of the OP healer, generally a point in space near the center of the room , ideally to affect as many PC's as possible. We are a pretty good mix of Marshall and Casters, however nearly everyone has some spells (ie ranger, inquisitor). Just for the Record - Party is Sorcerer8/FMM5(CL13th), Fighter11/Stalwart Defender2, Cleric8/loremaster5, Ranger13, and Rouge4/Inquisitor10(wish spell bumped him a level).
Tels, Glad to have a second that his see invisibility would prevent him from seeing me. Interesting take on the emanation compared to fireball. Because it is an instantaneous eruption of fire I see your point. I was thinking of it more along the lines of a detect magic emanation where it would be blocked by walls.
I would think as an ongoing effect rather than a rapidly expanding force it would be more likely to function as I described in the OP, however this is a point I hadn't considered and should be added to the discussion on the table.
Pobbes, thanks for the reply.
Many of your excellent suggestions we have also considered. Employing Summons and Earthquake are at the top of the list.
As for some of the others, I actually intended this character to be a counterspeller at conception however when you are faced with foes CL+5 or more it makes the opposed checks pretty dang tough.
This particular foe will be utilizing SLA's so silence is kind of his bag, and if encounters with his underlings are to be any indication the dude will be completely immune to all illusions.
But, despite all of that, what I am really looking for is that smirk to go away when the DM realizes that part of the BBEG's own buff routine actually effectively de-buffed himself. Mmmmn, yes, that is the beautiful moment for which I wait. :)
Tarantula, as I went back and checked the PRD on this I didn't see what I had remembered, however I have always treated MM to not require a *straight* line of effect so long as the entire path lies within the range of the spell.
Tower shields aren't 5'x5' large. At best it might provide you partial cover if you aren't wielding it anymore. You'd be better off actually carrying a 5'x5' wall piece, and then trying this trick on it.
Tels point of not blocking is incorrect. Fireball is a spread effect, which is able to pass around blocking walls/corners. Silence is an emanation, and thus is unable to. Direct line of effect from the origin of the silence spell is required.