My NPC wizards and sorcerers keep getting grappled, then are unprepared for the eventuality. I'd like to start having them make wise choices in the event of being grappled. Any suggestions?
For one thing, what are some good spells for when you're grappled?
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Liberating Command, but that isn't a Sorcerer/Wizard spell.
Really, most of the good things to do are preventative measures: flight, slipperiness, venomous spines if you can get them, spells that hurt people who make contact with you, or other ways to prevent them from getting at you.
At the very least, if you have Craft (Alchemy), it's simple to whip up a few dollops of alchemical grease, and if that brutal pugilist declares that your wizard's choice of garb means you're asking for it, you can just pour the goop all over yourself to slip from his grasp. Then your companions can mace him, or sword him or whatever.
(In a pinch, Cat's Grace can help, since increasing your Dex will bump up your CMD as well)
Liberating Command, but that isn't a Sorcerer/Wizard spell.
Yes, Liberating Command is a Sorcerer/Wizard spell, and it's great! Since it's an immediate action, it doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity. Any caster who has full ranks in Escape Artist and casts Liberating Command should be able to slip out of a grapple quite easily and without even wasting a standard or move action.
Other good low-level options are: Mirror Image, Levitate, Fly, attacking from far away, attacking from behind difficult terrain, or staying behind your bodyguards or summoned creatures.
Best way is to avoid it in the first place.
Mirror Image/Displacement/Blur would all work, wouldn't they? Grapple's an attack roll, so miss chances should apply.
Freedom of Movement spell also keeps you from getting grappled too.
Edit: Don't know the level of the spell, I just know that it got my ranger out of the stomach of a gelatinous cube once, and BOY did he somehow manage to make a delightful recipe for a Gel Cube Tea with his craft (alchemy) check.
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While you can always gulp a potion of Gaseous Form...
0 Touch of Fatigue
1 Grease
1 Liberating Command
1 Bungle
1 Enlarge Person
1 Hydraulic Push
1 Protection from Alignment (the PC's)
1 True Strike
1 Touch of Gracelessness
2 Certain Grip
2 Hideous Laughter
3 Blink
3 Force Punch
3 Hydraulic Torrent
3 Hostile Levitation
3 Pugwampi's Grace
3 Ray of Exhaustion
3 Strangling Hair
3 Suggestion
4 Black Tentacles
4 Dimension Door
4 Enervation
4 Overwhelming Grief
4 Resilient Sphere
Higher level spells just continue the trend...
Most of playing a caster is preparation. Concentration checks are hard at lower levels so you need to be ready quickly. The rest is learning how the rules interact. True Strike gives you a +20 to your grapple check because a combat maneuver is an attack roll. Hold an action to interrupt the grappler's charge with Hydraulic Push or one of many other spells.
If the grappler you're working against has very good saves, focus on spells that are cheap and increase CMB, CMD, or Attack Bonus so that you can succeed on the passive grapple check to escape, or even reverse if you're feeling cocky.
It may seem expensive to keep a higher spell slot aside to deal with grapplers, or maybe like your targeting the PC. To that I point out, everyone who plays this game knows that casters struggle against grapple attacks. I think the casters all know it, too. Surely the NPC's will have figured out "Hey, If I'm getting wrestled to the ground it is really hard to cast magic. Maybe I should come up with a plan for that..."
After all, nobody wants to get hugged to death by a Halfling Monk.
Think you get a ring of freedom of movement.
Watch out for that ring. It costs a lot and if all your NPCs have it, all your PCs will too.
Watch out for that ring. It costs a lot and if all your NPCs have it, all your PCs will too.
Unless it's the Wizard's bonded item which only works for himself.
It only works as a bonded item for him, but it still works as a ring for everyone else, doesn't it?
A wizard can add additional magic abilities to his bonded object as if he has the required item creation feats and if he meets the level prerequisites of the feat. For example, a wizard with a bonded dagger must be at least 5th level to add magic abilities to the dagger (see the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat in Feats). If the bonded object is a wand, it loses its wand abilities when its last charge is consumed, but it is not destroyed and it retains all of its bonded object properties and can be used to craft a new wand. The magic properties of a bonded object, including any magic abilities added to the object, only function for the wizard who owns it. If a bonded object's owner dies, or the item is replaced, the object reverts to being an ordinary masterwork item of the appropriate type.
This also makes it impossible to enchant a bonded ring, switch to a bonded amulet and enchant that for reduced cost, too. If you do that, the ring will lose its magic abilities.
An oil of grease is only 50gp, doesn't need concentration, and gives a +10 versus grapples. And if you have more than one caster in the encounter, they can liberating command each other.
I didn't think you could get oils of area-effect spells. But there is alchemical grease.
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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An oil of grease is only 50gp, doesn't need concentration, and gives a +10 versus grapples.I didn't think you could get oils of area-effect spells.
Ah, but that's not the rule. The rule is that you *can* get oils of spells that target one or more creatures or objects.
Functionally the same... until you find a spell that falls into both categories.
Grease says "Target: one object or 10-ft. square". If the rule were "any spell except those which affect an area", it would be illegal. But since the rule is "any spell which targets an object/creature", it's legal.
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Liberating Command, but that isn't a Sorcerer/Wizard spell.Yes, Liberating Command is a Sorcerer/Wizard spell, and it's great! Since it's an immediate action, it doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity. Any caster who has full ranks in Escape Artist and casts Liberating Command should be able to slip out of a grapple quite easily and without even wasting a standard or move action.
Other good low-level options are: Mirror Image, Levitate, Fly, attacking from far away, attacking from behind difficult terrain, or staying behind your bodyguards or summoned creatures.
You're right. Actually, only witches, alchemists and summoners can't get it, among the spellcasters.
Another tactic would be if you have any sort of AC item on you(thinking bracers here), it may be a good idea to have a grinding enchantment placed on it. Guaranteed damage every round doesn't guarantee you get loose, but it doesn't make it pleasant for the grappler either. this tends to be highly effective against creatures that have tentacles with independent hit point, such as Ropers.
Yeah that's a shame that you're a wizard. Freedom of Movement sounds precisely like what you want. Otherwise...contingency spells can work once but that gets pricey and is kind of high level. Magic items like Boots of Teleportation would work, you could even craft a cheaper one that casts Dimension Door instead. There's also the option of getting Freedom of Movement as a continuous / use activated slotless item that would cost ... 56,000? I think? You could bring it down if you slapped an alignment restriction on the effect, and / or a minimum spellcraft check to operate.
If it's happening a lot it could be a worthwhile investment to have a cleric friend make you one.
I would get a Ring of Freedom of Movement as soon as I could afford it regarless of what class I was. That thing is amazing.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, Contributor
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I end up grabbing Boots of Escape on many of my casters. Lot cheaper than the ring.
Thanks for all the advice, folks! As I said in the original post, I'm a GM thinking about my NPCS, not a player thinking about my character. For that reason, I usually want to avoid using permanent items to accomplish the task because those items will then become the property of the PC's (although the bonded item idea is a neat one).
Oils and spells all sound good.
PS: Flying hasn't helped. One of the PC's likes to use Dimensional Hop to teleport to the flying mage's position and grapple. We're playing Shattered Star, so we're indoors most of the time, enforcing a low flight ceiling.
Fog Cloud + Create Pit
Since a freedom of movement ring prevents being grappled, and grappled state is reciprocal, does it prevent grappling (offensively as well)?
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PS: Flying hasn't helped. One of the PC's likes to use Dimensional Hop to teleport to the flying mage's position and grapple. We're playing Shattered Star, so we're indoors most of the time, enforcing a low flight ceiling.
Keep in mind that you can only teleport to a spot that can support you. Unless you can fly/levitate, no dimension door intercept of flying wizards.
Keep in mind for any of these spells you would be casting, you will have to make a concentration check or lose the spell.
A grappled character who attempts to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability must make a concentration check (DC 10 + grappler's CMB + spell level), or lose the spell
Toirin - not if it's still/silent and you've eschewed materials....
Maybe it's a House Rule? If a spell only has a somatic component, and you cast it as a still spell.....then there's nothing for the grapple-er to interfere with the graple-ee to stop him/her from casting....right?
I think it's a House Ruling at least.
Why do you have to make a concentration check to cast on the deck of a storm-tossed ship while your hands are completely free?
This. It isn't the hands that are the problem; it's the fact that it's hard to concentrate while Ted the Tetori is twisting you up like a pretzel.
I do not approve of this thread.
CUDDLES NOT LIKE IT EITHER! BUT STILL GOOD TO KNOW TRICKIES. MAYBE PLAN AGAINST TRICKIES!
So I guess it is a house rule *shrug*.
