Okay, so, my GM may be an ass. So here's the setup...
Epic-8 campaign (For those unfamiliar, level-capped at 8, continuing XP grants one extra feat per "eLevel")
Final boss of the campaign? The NORN. See previous statement about the GM being an ass.
There is a silver lining here. We have huge amounts of resources (we have a kingdom behind us), 9 months to plan, and full knowledge of her abilities. We may also have a bit of plot assistance negating an ability or two (like that +10 insight bonus if we can blind her view of fate), but the big issue here is how to keep her from killing us all, since Death Ward got nerfed into oblivion in Pathfinder.
Any recommendations on horribly cheap/broken/etc things we might be able to get our hands on? Immunity to death effects would be the priority here, but I can't find ANYTHING in Pathfinder that grants this, even temporarily.
Edit: Party would be Summoner, Ninja, Inquisitor, Cavalier, Cleric; with access to support from Sorcerer, Witch, Paladin, and Gunslinger.
We may also be able to cheat the level cap up to 10 if that would make a significant difference...
Go for Death Ward anyway, at least it nullifies the Energy Drain right out.
Power Word: Kill is going to kill you anyway, probably, since I don't think most (or any) of your HPs are going to be higher than 100 at level 8. There's nothing that can make you immune as far as I know, and it doesn't grant a save. So bend over and take it, there's nothing you can do about it.
Phantasmal Killer isn't a death effect anyway, so there's nothing that protects you there even if it did.
And even if you did find a spell, it has Greater Dispel at will so it probably wouldn't last long.
Send in the NPCs first, and when they're dead roll in and have somewhat of a chance, maybe. =)
In short, you're probably f*$%ed. Sorry.
I think your GM may A.) Have some kind of artifact for you to use later or summat or B.) Just wants you guys to go out in a blaze of glory because he's bored.
Alright. Got lots of resources? Good. Hire thousands of archers. Give them all cold iron arrows. The best way to defeat a single foe is to rain arrows. Lots and lots of arrows.
Let's assume they all use a longbow, hit only on a 20, can only attack once a round, and fail to confirm the critical, but hit anyway. They bypass her DR and suppress her regeneration. 1d8 damage, average is 4.
On average,she has 270 HP and dies at -30. Let's assume your DM gives her max HP partly because of Murphy's Law and partly because he's an ass. She now has 50 more HP, so you need to deal 320 damage. 320/4 is 80 auto-hits. Those happen 1/20th of the time, so get 1,600 archers, at the very least.
If this creature with INT 21 and WIS 24, not to mention tons of divination abilities, allows itself to be engaged in battle with a bunch of PCs AND 1,600 archers, then this GM is definitely NOT a jerk. More like a fool.
Once per day it ought to windwalk into one of the PCs homes and Power-word Kill that PC, or better yet, snip his golden thread. In fact, it can do the thread thing 3/day. If PCs can do the "scrye and fry" tactic, then so can the monsters and this one is built perfectly for it. And with its brilliant mental stats and excellent divination abilities, it and and should wipe out any threatening opposition.
Of course, level 8 characters are not a threat to this creature, so maybe it's too overconfident and doesn't feel the need to waste a day or two wiping out that limited threat. Fine.
But it's still not stupid enough to face 1,600 archers on a battlefield.
Frankly, if the GM plays this monster with even a remote sense of its intelligence and abilities, these 8th level PCs have ZERO chance of surviving this.
It doesn't have to allow anything. The point of having enough archers to kill her with 1 standard action each was so that she would die in the surprise round. Camouflage them, lure her into the killzone with the PCs as bait or play on her overconfidence, arrogance, or whatever other weaknesses she may have to get her to chase them.
The idea is to do it swiftly enough that she doesn't have time to suspect anything. If it constantly uses its at-will divination to know everything, then yes, the PCs are doomed, but that's the case for every omniscient enemy, and there's no point in telling them to quit already based on one worst-case scenario.
That said, if the norn does prove impossible: There is one DM. There are multiple players. Physical violence may be appropriate depending on whether or not he actually makes what was supposed to be an epic ending of a campaign into ego masturbation and how blatantly he does it.
Okay, I think we can work our way around to crafting those scarabs, with a bit of research, and bumping our cleric to level 9. We also have a character with a "make one will-save free" card, so fitting him with a Ring of Fear Reflection sounds like it might be fun, assuming we can debuff her saves a bit. If nothing else, it might turn Weird into a pyrrhic victory, instead of a TPK.
Isn't there a feat that lets Paladin spread their fear immunity? I remember seeing that at some point, but can't find it now.
If it was me, I'd go for disarming or stealing her shears. That negates a significant portion of her melee effectiveness and removes that nasty cut thread power.
If you can get your hands on a scroll of antimagic field, you'd have a nice chance taking her down in melee. Spend those 9 month finding a wizard to scribe them, and grant him half you kingdom to make you a handful, and you are throughly ready for some norn-slaying action.
Get a wand of dispel (or dozens of scrolls) and constantly counter spell her the entire battle.
Aim to disarm/sunder her shears as the other priority.
With those two forces out of action it should be possible to beat her.
Get a wand of dispel (or dozens of scrolls) and constantly counter spell her the entire battle.
Aim to disarm/sunder her shears as the other priority.
With those two forces out of action it should be possible to beat her.
Can you counterspell spell-like abilities?