After your first attack - what if the pit fiend walls himself off with a wall of iron or a wall of force, placed between you and himself via Wish?
Will you be able to hack through it (or somehow breach it) before he can escape?
The summon universal monster ability works like the summon spell and takes a full round.
I'm unsure why you posted his stats, though. I hate when GMs metagame their encounters.
Anyway... pit fiend versus invisible guy. Either he saw the magus go invis and spellcrafted what happened or made a perception check and know he's there. Quickened fireball w/ meteor swarm. That's 34d6 damage for 96 avg damage. Though, you could use wish to give yourself true seeing and you could quicken fireball/melee him to death pretty quickly.
|
The summon universal monster ability works like the summon spell and takes a full round.
I'm unsure why you posted his stats, though. I hate when GMs metagame their encounters.
Anyway... pit fiend versus invisible guy. Either he saw the magus go invis and spellcrafted what happened or made a perception check and know he's there. Quickened fireball w/ meteor swarm. That's 34d6 damage for 102 avg damage. Though, you could use wish to give yourself true seeing and you could quicken fireball/melee him to death pretty quickly.
Yeah... as has been explained the Pit Fiend would be shooting blind. The Magus has high enough stealth to avoid being pinpointed to a square, and the magus moved... So the Pit Fiend can fire blind, but he'd probably miss. If he didn't, then the Magus would (odds are) save against both the fireball and meteor swarm, taking half of 22d6 (where did you get 34? Meteor Swarm has to be aimed at a character to gain the extra 2d6 per ball, but the magus is invisible...), which goes down to 11d6. 30 fire resistence reduces this to an average of 8.5 damage.
As for true seeing, a targeted dispel magic would leave the pit fiend blind again, and the magus free to do whatever since the Pit Fiend has no more wish.
With the summoning, it takes one round to summon anything, so I can easily get in his face and disrupt the summon. If he used wish to get off a quickened summon, the incoming summon would be weak (It'd be on par with a summon monster 4), and I could take it down in one round. So, I always figured the summoning route wasn't the best for the pit fiend in a one on one fight.
A Wish used to summon is a standard action. Wish and Limited Wish don't increase casting time based on the spell emulated.
Also, meteor swarm does 6d6 per missile, +2d6 and no save if they hit.
You need to establish a firm setting so you can't move goal posts. A 40 foot radius is pretty large for fighting blind for the vast majority of rooms. Is this outside? It sounds like even the combat space isn't defined. That's vital to any simulation.
Four balls each do 6d6 damage base and each are saved for separately including the fireball for an extra 10d6. Did you account for a CL 11 scroll for your resist 30? It's not a magus spell and isn't subject to permanency. With a cha of 10 I bet you have zero UMD investment. Also, the magus dispelling the true seeing is a 50/50, well 45/55. Don't talk like it's a guarantee.
The pit fiend could ready an action when physicsly attacked to wish for an anti magic field. Then the magus basically dies. But this is probably too simplistic.
|
|
@Buri
The stage has been set as a 60x60x60 room with no non-magical ways to get out, you can read about it in one of the spoilers on the last page (towards the bottom).
Thanks for showing me where I went wrong with Meteor, for some odd reason I thought it was only 2 balls. UMD is at 23 (20 ranks + 3 trained), but the resistance comes from my armor. But also it's on my spell list via Mythic Past Lives, a racial ability.
Dispelling the True Seeing is essentially guaranteed. Pit Lord casts it at CL 18, making it a DC 29. Magus' CL at 20 + 6 from Kimono (which adds to ALL caster level checks), meaning he succeeds on a 3. If he specifically targets true seeing, he'd be making a caster level check against True Seeing's DC, a measily 24, meaning the Magus auto succeeds.
@Majuba
He could use wish to cast a quickened summon monster... but that'd limit him to the power of Summon Monster 4. Any monster there with true seeing, or the ability to deal with invisibility, can be taken down with one round.
@Mathius
Yes, can't use the first weapon, but I quickdraw a second one out right away. Freedom of Movement would work (I think...), and he could even quicken it and be able to move half his speed that round. But that only delays the coming onslaught, as I simply use bladed dash (the spell) to reach him again and he still has dimensional anchor on him.
|
|
@Captain Wacky
Summon without wish takes 1 whole round, the magus would deal a full round attack on the Pit Fiend, dealing enough damage to automatically cancel out the spell (The Pit Fiend has to make a really high concentration check, in other words).
@Mojorat
Yeah, thats what killed the original situation, but now the Magus is expending more resources to try and rush the Pit Fiend rather than buff himself. The question now is what the Pit Fiend does when it's frightened, stuck with a dimensional anchor, and a anchoring weapon, staggered, along with several other debuffs.
@Captain Wacky
Summon without wish takes 1 whole round, the magus would deal a full round attack on the Pit Fiend, dealing enough damage to automatically cancel out the spell (The Pit Fiend has to make a really high concentration check, in other words).
@Mojorat
Yeah, thats what killed the original situation, but now the Magus is expending more resources to try and rush the Pit Fiend rather than buff himself. The question now is what the Pit Fiend does when it's frightened, stuck with a dimensional anchor, and a anchoring weapon, staggered, along with several other debuffs.
Uhh all of those effects disappear, or never happend as soon as the antimagic field comes in.
Try this
Pit Fiend, Readies if attacked in physical combat to cast an anti magic field.
Magus casts force hook charge, does 1 damage to the pit fiend, goes to roll to his attack.
Readied action goes, off Pit fiends initiative is moved in front of the Magi's 5 foot steps back and does wish for anti magic field.
Magi, is now visible, has no magic, and cant actually reach the Pit Fiend. However, he is committed to the action he already took.
Turn rolls around, the Pit Fiend is now in front of the Magi and kills or maims him horribly.
I dont think is possible for any non full bab class to not basically just die horribly in an AMF with a pit fiend.
In every scenario where the Magi seeks to kill the pit fiend using physical attacks my above scenario works.
The pit fiend could change his readied action to "if attacked" which might cover spells being cast also.
But basically, the rules for readied actions put the pit fiends actions in front of the Magus and it basically solves any "stalemate" situation in which the magus uses phsical attacks.
UMD DC 31. Can't take 10 on UMD. :D
Plus, what other spells are on your MPL list? I really, really hate moving goal posts.
|
|
Buri, there's no moving goal posts... it's already been listed in the few spoilers on the last page. But for convenience, I'll post them here.
Samsaran
STR: 4 DEX: 10 CON: 6 INT: 22 WIS: 12 CHA: 10
At level 20 (with Greater Age Resistance casted):
STR: 10 DEX: 20 CON: 12 INT: 38 WIS: 19 CHA: 10
Spells gained from racial ability
Resist Energy (Wizard 2)
Echolocation (Alchemist 4)
Greater Age Resistance (Alchemist 5)
Dance of a Thousand Cuts (Bard 6)
Greater Dispel Magic (Bard 5)
Freedom of Movement (Bard 4)
Dimensional Anchor (Summ 3)
Traits:
Magical Lineage: Frostbite? SG?
Bruising Intellect
Feats:
1. *Weapon Focus
1. Weapon Finesse
3. Enforcer
5. Rime Spell
5. Quickdraw
7. Greater Weapon Focus
9. Critical Focus
11. Elemental Spell
11. Bleeding Critical
13. Dazzling Display
15. Shatter Defenses
17. Staggering Critical
17. Critical Mastery
19. Extra Arcana: Reflection
Arcana:
3 Arcane Accuracy
6 Empowered Magic
12 Accurate Strike
15 Quicken Arcana
18 Bane
20 Reflection
Items:
+1 Agile, Cruel, Merciful, Keen Wakishazi
+1 Greater Dispelling Wakishazi
+1 Impervious Spell Storing Anchoring Adamentium Wakizhasi
=113705 with Dimensional Anchor
Armor:
Greater Energy Resistence Fire,
Determination, Silken Ceremonial Robe
= 121,000
+6 int/wis 90,000
+6 dex/con belt 90,000
Otherworldly Kimono 67,000
Sandals of Quick Reaction 4,000
Crown of Conquests 24,600
Amulet Natural armor +5 50,000
Ring of Protection +5 50,000
Ring of Arcane Mastery 20,000
polymorphic pouch 5,000
Gloves of Storing 5,000
Eyes of the Eagle 2,500
2 Cracked Pale Green Prisms 8000
Lavender and Green Ellipsoid 40,000
8 Traveling Spellbooks 80
Artic Call Spellbook 5,985---
Magus Kit
Bag of Holding 2,500
Bottle of Air 7,250
6 Pearls of Power
=366100
wands rods, and scrolls
Shield 750
Mage Armor 750
2x Wand of Infernal Heal
Extend Metmagic 3,000
= 6000
Used Items:
Tome +5 of Intelligence 137,500
Manual +4 Dexterity 110,000
=247,500
Total = 875, 940
Out of 880,000
Buffs Available:
Dance of 1000 cuts 1rd/lvl
Displacement 1rd/lvl
Mirror Image 1min/lvl
Elemental Body 1min/lvl
*Resist Energy: 10 min/lvl
*Freedom of Movement 10 min/lvl
*Echolocation 10 min/lvl
*Stoneskin 1hour/lvl
*Greater Age Resistence 24 hours
The buffs marked with an * are already casted on the Kensai.
HP: 203
AC: 48 (6 armor, 8 dex, 14 int, 5 NA, 5 deflection)
Saves: Fort 21, Reflex 19, Will 21 (all these go up by 2 for this fight, I'll have a sheep wandering around inside my Kimono for the extra omph)
CMB: 15 CMD: 47
Fire resist 30
Buffs active at the start of the fight:
Greater Age Resistence (+6 str, con, dex)
Extended Stoneskin
Echolocation (blindsight 40ft)
Freedom of movement
Resist Energy (Cold, Corrosive and Acid)
Greater Invisability
Overland Flight
Fight Rules : no one flees for good - the pride of monkdom and the Bestiary are at stake. Single d20s always result in 10, multiple d20s (like full attacks) go 10-11-9, 10-9-11, and repeat. Threats kick in when the percentages from hits (not misses) build up to 60% within or over rounds (eg. 12 basic /20x2 hits would offer one threat and confirmation). Strictly mathematically speaking, multiple 20x2 threats don’t produce exact 5% threat chances, apparently, but for a game guide I reckon a flat 5% per pip will do. If there’s a decisive close call I’ll flag it. Rough but simple...
Anyway, bummer. He could turn ethereal or (possibly) shadow walk his way out of here, but instead he waits for his next Beastmass beast, meditating on his ioun torches . Suddenly a gate opens, its hinges weeping blood, and the indomitable force that is the pit fiend steps into the darkness. The combatants are 50’ apart, One has darkvision, but the devil wins initiative for real.
Round One: the fiend may be the smartest beast in the Bestiary, so we’ll give it advanced knowledge.
Like the balor, the pit fiend is a SMACC. Its combat chassis is less offensive but better defensively, and its spellcasting is superior - it has wish . It can also summon a CR16 horned devil, but it has no silver bullets that’ll shoot down zen archers. For starters, the fiend is (surprisingly) only Caster Level 18, and so needs a 12 to overcome One’s Spell Resistance. It’ll fail that check under fight rules, but then One will make all his saves on 2s anyway. The horned devil won’t hit and will go down in a round (Perfect Strike gives seven hits, with one crit, for 408 nonlethal). The fiend has some touch spells ( scorching ray and the initial portion of meteor swarm ) but the ranged touch attacks fail against both SR and AC; and like the balor, the fiend needs natural 20s to hit One with melee attacks or maneuvers. Its poison, disease and constrict are useless. So what can it do?
Plan A: targetted dispels. It’s heard its demonic opposite tried this and failed, though. Damn those slightly cheesy rings! It could cast invisibility and a persistant image of itself to gain time, but the monk’s range mean the illusion will only buy off one bowshot, and the invisibility will fail as soon as the devil targets One’s attended items with a dispel.
Plan B: wish for the worst.
The fiend likes the second option. It wishes .
Our zen archer plays by the book (rings aside), so ditto the beasts (initiative aside): the devil can do anything on the normal wish list. Destruction will do 35 damage on a save, the humble true strike more next round if the fiend survives that long, since it could then Vital bite for 57 (after One’s DR is applied) - but a chunk of damage is no good if the devil can’t follow up. Summon monster viii is nothing but a round of unhelpful flanking. Waves of exhaustion? The monk’s SR will nerf it, and anyway, the fiend happens to know One has restoration ; besides, he’d still be able to use his bow at a flat -2 penalty. Wind wall? The monk will just run into it, or fly into it, or shoot up the apertures at the top or bottom of the cylinder...
(Point of law for zen archers to remember and mention in a non-confrontational manner if and when necessary: a wind wall has to be vertical. Not horizonal, not diagonal. The fiend could make it a cylinder or square, but not a cube or a cone. This means it can’t close off the top or bottom with arrow-negating wind. In the cave the bottom might be closed by rock, but there is likely a 10’ wide aperture at the top: were One up there, he’d be looking down a 90’ wind tunnel at the devil. For a 3rd level spell this is still a formidable obstacle to archers...but it’s not the 100% arrow-negator it’s sometimes presented as being.)
...But wait! The diabolical genius has a better plan - deeper darkness . As a devil it has See in Darkness. The monk may have darkvision, but he can only overcome supernatural darkness if he has daylight or the like - which he lacks - and despite appearances the pit fiend is horribly quiet (Stealth+28) and its spell-likes are silent. In deeper darkness it can throw quickened fireballs and get dispels off unseen while flying around. It can nerf One’s belt and for two rounds and he’ll be at -6 on all physical stats, which means -60 hp, -3 AC, saves and CMD, -2 bow attack and -3 damage; then it can take out his headband, for another -3 bow attack, Will, Perception and AC, and then ...
Muahaha. The ioun torches wink out: the entire cavern goes utterly black. The devil flies up 30’, using Stealth, and ends its surprise round with a quickened fireball for the hell of it, but One evades (on a 2). One gets a reactive Perception check as the devil moves, or perhaps as the fireball pellet whirrs towards him; either way, his result (51) beats the fiend’s Stealth result (46 with distance): he has pinpointed its squares.
Still Round One: One’s first turn. The fiend is 50’ away laterally and 30’ up. One can’t see it, but he knows the squares it occupies.
He flurries. He spends 2 ki to ignore the total concealment miss chance for one round (swift action) and hits five times (because of Perfect Strike), critting once, for 254 nonlethal damage - a reduced figure, because he lacks the swift action to gain unarmed arrow damage and is also beyond Point Blank Shot range. (Note that there’s no rule to stop him using ki twice a round - what he lacks here are two swift actions).
The fiend is down to 96 virtual hp, but it’s irrelevant, because One has Stunning Fist on the first arrow and the pit fiend needs a 16 to save. (It would need a 14 to beat Quivering Palm, were it available, though it wouldn’t die because its regeneration is still functioning this round). It’s stunned, with or without One’s Ability Focus or Mantis Style. He flurries again next round without hasting , rendering the fiend unconscious, then kills it with some hasteless, ki-less flurries, because his +5 bow overcomes Good DR. If you rule that he needs an actual Good weapon or spell to stop the regeneration, then he repeatedly coup-de-graces the unconscious form to a mulch of minus-whatever-you-like with his hundreds of arrows, eventually realises the regenerating gobbets need something more, pours holy water on the sizzling goujons, then flurries again. He’s used the boots of speed 4 out of 10 times, has used 5 of 20 Perfect Strikes, 5 of 21 Stunning Fists, and has expended 11 of 33 ki points.
Using spell combat, he uses force hook charge to get to the Pit Fiend, casts a quickened Rimed Frostbite, and hits the Pit Fiend with 3/4 attacks, the first of which is with his Anchoring Spellstoring Weapon. The attacks deal: 1d6+5 (Anchoring weapon) + 4d6+27 (critical, plus 2d6 bleed) + 2d6+23 (normal hit against a now flat footed opponet). Frostbite adds an addition 4d6+80 non-lethal damage, and force hook charge deals another 20. After resistances and damage reduction, the Pit Fiend takes an average of 140.5 damage.
The Pit Fiend is now: Fatigued, Flatfooted, Frightened, Sickened, Entangled, Anchored to Weapon, Unable to Teleport, and staggered. He has a couple options left for himself. He can try to run, but that'd take two rounds to move 15 (With a 30 str check), provoking AoO along the way. He can sunder the weapon, but that's hopeless (The weapon has 80 hardness). His best bet is to dispel dimensional anchor and then teleport out, which would take two rounds to do. He could also dispel this via Anti-Magic field, but that'd prevent him from teleporting out of a room with no other exit, and because he's frightened and intelligent, he wouldn't do that. So, he casts Greater Dispel Magic on himself for his turn.
The Kensai then gets to go. He knows he needs to take down the Pit Fiend now, so whenever he gets a critical hit, he spends 2 arcane pool points to increase the multiplier from a x3 to a x4. He spends 2 arcane pool points to enchant his weapon with bane Devil, speed, and shock. He then proceeds to use spell combat to cast Frostbite, and full attacks. He lands 4 out of 5 attacks, with two critical hits, dealing: 2(3d6+23) + 2(6d6+2d10+92) + 6d6+120. After resistances and damage reduction, the Pit Fiend takes an average of 356 non-lethal damage, totaling for 496.5 nonlethal damage.
The Pit Fiend falls unconscious, and the Kensai finishes the fight by using coup de grace, and using holy water to disable his regeneration.
END SPOILERS
Now, there was one mistake made, and that was I can't use Mythic Past Lives to take alchemists spells (even more research was done, Alchemists are not spell casters, my bad). Doesn't change much other than I have to use a 5th level spell slot for echolocation, and I have to change his stats slightly to account for the loss of Greater Age Resistance. But for the sake of this, just assume it works, the changes will be minuscule.
EDIT: As for UMD, the Kensai simply has the skill, he never uses it for anything other than the wands of Mage Armor, Shield, and Infernal Healing, which he auto succeeds on. But he doesn't use any of those for this fight.
|
Looking this over I see a few things that don't quite make this a real fight.
First you are expecting to have an undetermined number of rounds to prepare for the fight before the pit fiend shows up. So your expectation is that you'll be given a free surprise round? Anyone can beat anything if given enough time to prepare AND a free suprise round.
Try it again and put it on an equal footing, you either both show up at the same time or you both know what's going to happen and are given time to prepare.
Second you seem to have forgotten a basic rule of the game for your first example of the True Seeing being cast. It would go like this: Fiend casts true seeing so you force hook charge it, the fiend sees you coming and as you pass through it's threatened area it does a Disarm combat move (at a die roll of 44-ish per the Beastmass rules) and takes your weapon from you (since it has reach you can't counter-attack) and you are now weaponless in melee range of the pit fiend and your turn is done. Winner = Pit Fiend
Your other idea has a major flaw too, remember the Pit Fiend has invisibility at will as well. He simply goes invisible and moves somewhere in the room and waits. His invis will last longer then yours and since I'm not seeing Fly anywhere on your prepped buffs he'll be out of your range as soon as he takes to the air. THIS is when he summons a true seeing creature to take you out since you have nothing to stop him from doing it.
NOW with that said this is how I think the fight will go:
Pit Fiend enters the room and immediately goes invisible and flies to one the corners of the ceiling to look around. Tries to find the opponent but can't make the DC to spot it so then casts true seeing while it's invisible (It's Stealth + invis is higher then the Kensai's so it won't be spotted either) and instantly sees the Kensai now. It starts by throwing a quickened fireball at the Kensai and a standard invisibility + move to maintain it's distance and keep the Kensai from being able to target it.
Once it realizes that it's fireball can't hurt you then it switches to it's summon ability to bring in a Shadow Angel to even the odds.
Not knowing your Kensai's saves you may or may not make the save vs the angels Horrific Appearance (if you fail it you're dead) but it's main action is to drop a deeper darkness in the area which removes the Kensai's AC and gives the Kensai a 50% miss chance on both devils while the pit fiend hits your Greater Invis, Overland Flight, Greater Age resistance and Stoneskin with a Dispel magic and moves to flank so they both now are free to attack you with no problem.
NOW that the devils have the Environment advantage, the Targeting advantage, the Reach advantage AND the defense advantage THEN the both move into melee range and unload.
Since the Magi's AC is now under 20 per the rules of the Beastmass challenge the Pit fiend and the Angel will hit on every attack and assuming they both roll a 1 on each attack dice will do 100 pts of damage a round.
If they roll average damage on each attack dice for 148 damage then the Kensai dies in 1 round of full attacks.
There is no reason to use the Wish for this, the Kensai isn't a threat as it's built. If the Devils are even remotely concerned about this challenge they will use some of their treasure (the Pit Fiend has twice it's HD's value of treasure it can use and for a real challenge it WOULD use that) to arrange for a few more advantages on it's side. Most likely a Scroll of Silence and a Metamagic Rod of Elemental Spell to switch it's fire damage to acid damage.
Boom, dead Kensai in 1 round, 2 at the most.
edit: Now that you have another build posted I see you still have echolocation active which you don't have. As you stated you can't get it from the Alchemist and it's not on the Magi spell list so where are you getting it from?
Full round actions don't take up the entire round, although they sound as if they should. They happen in the actor's normal point in the initiative order. They DO preclude taking a move action in addition, other than a 5' step, but that's almost the only difference between them and standard actions.
I know how summons work, but thank you. My point is that you are choosing to read the SLA of a Pit Fiend’s summon as if it were identical in mechanic to Summon Monster. It is not a summon spell. It is a SLA that causes an effect similar to the spell you are quoting. What I read, and I’ll grant you that opinions vary, is the quote you and I appear to agree on with SLA’s.
A spell-like ability usually has a limit on how often it can be used. A constant spell-like ability or one that can be used at will has no use limit; unless otherwise stated, a creature can only use a constant spell-like ability on itself. Reactivating a constant spell-like ability is a swift action. Using all other spell-like abilities is a standard action unless noted otherwise, and doing so provokes attacks of opportunity.
What I read there is that unless it’s otherwise noted in the Pit Fiend’s block, it functions as a standard action. There are no such notes in the Pit Fiend’s block to my recollection.
As I said, we obviously have a difference of opinion. I’m curious as to how it would be ruled at your table. But rather than fence over semantics, I’ll leave it at that.
|
|
@Mathias
1. Frighten via Enforcer feat, which allows an intimidate check when dealing non-lethal damage. On a crit, instead of making the opponet shaken, they become frightened.
2. I don't, but that's how the fight with the Zen Archer went. If I wasn't in the room first, combat would have started sooner.
3. Because the Kensai is readying the action. If it makes this any easier, lets just say he precast invisibility as he waiting around. But haven't an action prepared for the gate is completely legit.
4. Kensai will auto win initiative, he always rolls a 42 (int + dex + 20)
5. I win Init
6. Once again, I win initiative, he's frightened before he acts.
7. Answered with the others.
|
|
@Mathwei
1. The undetermined amount of rounds is before I teleport in. However, I don't know how long I could be in the room, so I only use spells with durations longer than 2 hours. I guess there was a free surprise round there, but I don't have any targets... So, it's not a surprise round, merely a single prepared action. If the Pit Fiend hadn't shown up, I would have teleported out and tried the next day. As for how prepared, I am simply going off of what was in Beastmass, I am not the one setting up the encounter.
2. If he casts True Seeing, I don't force hook charge in, I dispel from a distance. If he did disarm me, I'd pull out another weapon as a free action.
3. His invisability doesn't matter, I have echolocation (instead form the alchemist spell list, I am getting it from the wizards spell list).
4. I have overland flight on, I apologize for not having that there.
5. Your change of tactics is invalid: Magus acts first, see pit fiend, and charges in. No chance for pit fiend to act. Heck, screw the readied action invisability, magus just goes right on in and the pit fiend is now frightened.
6. From wizard spell list.
|
|
I know how summons work, but thank you. My point is that you are choosing to read the SLA of a Pit Fiend’s summon as if it were identical in mechanic to Summon Monster. It is not a summon spell. It is a SLA that causes an effect similar to the spell you are quoting. What I read, and I’ll grant you that opinions vary, is the quote you and I appear to agree on with SLA’s.
A spell-like ability usually has a limit on how often it can be used. A constant spell-like ability or one that can be used at will has no use limit; unless otherwise stated, a creature can only use a constant spell-like ability on itself. Reactivating a constant spell-like ability is a swift action. Using all other spell-like abilities is a standard action unless noted otherwise, and doing so provokes attacks of opportunity.What I read there is that unless it’s otherwise noted in the Pit Fiend’s block, it functions as a standard action. There are no such notes in the Pit Fiend’s block to my recollection.
As I said, we obviously have a difference of opinion. I’m curious as to how it would be ruled at your table. But rather than fence over semantics, I’ll leave it at that.
Where are you getting that quote from? I'm getting mine from the Core Rule Book, the quote is as follows:
Special Abilities
A number of classes and creatures gain the use of special abilities, many of which function like spells.Spell-Like Abilities: Usually, a spell-like ability works just like the spell of that name. A spell-like ability has no verbal, somatic, or material component, nor does it require a focus. The user activates it mentally. Armor never affects a spell-like ability's use, even if the ability resembles an arcane spell with a somatic component.
A spell-like ability has a casting time of 1 standard action unless noted otherwise in the ability or spell description. In all other ways, a spell-like ability functions just like a spell.
Spell-like abilities are subject to spell resistance and dispel magic. They do not function in areas where magic is suppressed or negated. Spell-like abilities cannot be used to counterspell, nor can they be counterspelled.
If a character class grants a spell-like ability that is not based on an actual spell, the ability's effective spell level is equal to the highest-level class spell the character can cast, and is cast at the class level the ability is granted.
|
|
@Mathias
1. Frighten via Enforcer feat, which allows an intimidate check when dealing non-lethal damage. On a crit, instead of making the opponet shaken, they become frightened.
2. I don't, but that's how the fight with the Zen Archer went. If I wasn't in the room first, combat would have started sooner.
3. Because the Kensai is readying the action. If it makes this any easier, lets just say he precast invisibility as he waiting around. But haven't an action prepared for the gate is completely legit.
4. Kensai will auto win initiative, he always rolls a 42 (int + dex + 20)
5. I win Init
6. Once again, I win initiative, he's frightened before he acts.
7. Answered with the others.
1. Kinda, it lets you make the check but you are physically incapable if frightening the pit find. You need to roll a 40 to successfully intimidate the pit fiend and per your math you can't do it (Target DC is 10 +HD + wis modifier = 40). Your intimidate bonus is only +23, with the beastmass rules you can hit 34 which is insufficient to scare the Pit fiend.
3. Readying an action is tricky, what conditions did you set for the action to go off? Unless you know how the fight is going to go before you get there then it's a pretty unfair advantage on your side.5. Fine you win init, he goes invisible as soon as he enters the room and takes a 5 foot step, remmeber he was gated in so he didn't use his action to get there. Your init means nothing to him.
6. No he isn't you can't intimidate him.
|
|
My intimidate is not Cha Based, but intelligence based via Bruising Intellect. My intimidate skill is at 41 (int + ranks + trained + crown of conquests).
My readied action is along the lines of "anything significant happening". Since this is pretty broad, if I got hit in the face with a fireball, it got really cold, or anything really, it would go off. A portal appeared in front of my face, that's pretty significant. The several GM's I've played that I've done this with have been pretty cool about it (not this specific encounter, but with others). But, seeing people's reaction to it, I'll just leave it out. No invisibility.
The Pit Fiend doesn't know I'm in the room until initiative starts. So, I do get the jump on him, and I do hit him as normally (he hasn't acted, so he's flat footed). I deal even more damage in the first slavo too, and still hit the same amount of times. No readied action, much simpler.
|
|
Here are my skills:
acro=25
disable device=25
disguise=20
fly=28
intimidate=41
knowledge:
arcana 41
dungeoneering 37
engineering 19
geography 19
history 19
local 19
nature 34
planes 37
religion 34
perception 29
sense motive 24
spellcraft 37
stealth 25 (might bump this up and switch some money around for greater shadow)
UMD 23
Total ranks spent: 15*20 + 4*5 = 320
Total ranks I should have: 11 * 20(base int), + 2 * 20(base skills) + 3(headband) * 20 = 320
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
My intimidate is not Cha Based, but intelligence based via Bruising Intellect. My intimidate skill is at 41 (int + ranks + trained + crown of conquests).
My readied action is along the lines of "anything significant happening". Since this is pretty broad, if I got hit in the face with a fireball, it got really cold, or anything really, it would go off. A portal appeared in front of my face, that's pretty significant. The several GM's I've played that I've done this with have been pretty cool about it (not this specific encounter, but with others). But, seeing people's reaction to it, I'll just leave it out. No invisibility.
The Pit Fiend doesn't know I'm in the room until initiative starts. So, I do get the jump on him, and I do hit him as normally (he hasn't acted, so he's flat footed). I deal even more damage in the first slavo too, and still hit the same amount of times. No readied action, much simpler.
So, officially what your saying is if I go into a fight with all my buffs up against a target who doesn't know he's going into a fight and doesn't have any of his buffs up AND I get to pick where the opponent appears AND I get to know what powers/defenses it has AND get to set up all my powers to counter those AND I get to go first I can beat a Pit Fiend.
With those kind of rules sure, anyone can beat a Pit Fiend.|
|
My intimidate is not Cha Based, but intelligence based via Bruising Intellect. My intimidate skill is at 41 (int + ranks + trained + crown of conquests).
My readied action is along the lines of "anything significant happening". Since this is pretty broad, if I got hit in the face with a fireball, it got really cold, or anything really, it would go off. A portal appeared in front of my face, that's pretty significant. The several GM's I've played that I've done this with have been pretty cool about it (not this specific encounter, but with others). But, seeing people's reaction to it, I'll just leave it out. No invisibility.
The Pit Fiend doesn't know I'm in the room until initiative starts. So, I do get the jump on him, and I do hit him as normally (he hasn't acted, so he's flat footed). I deal even more damage in the first slavo too, and still hit the same amount of times. No readied action, much simpler.
So, officially what your saying is if I go into a fight with all my buffs up against a target who doesn't know he's going into a fight and doesn't have any of his buffs up AND I get to pick where the opponent appears AND I get to know what powers/defenses it has AND get to set up all my powers to counter those AND I get to go first I can beat a Pit Fiend.
With those kind of rules sure, anyone can beat a Pit Fiend.
True. If it makes you feel any better, I didn't make the rules, I'm just trying to say that this character completed Beastmass. So, yeah, I think I got this encounter completely covered now. Thanks everyone!
Careful with those headband ranks. They're not numerical values you can spend. They apply to 3 skills ONLY.
|
|
Oh, and just for fun, your Kensai doesn't have access to his canny defense AND his movement speed is dropped down to 30'.
Just with your bag of holding you are considered Medium Encumbered which deactivates your Canny Defense and drops your max dex bonus down to +3.
I'm also guessing that you are looking for a Wish that would be most devastating to the Magus. Ok here's one that is probably most devastating for the Kensai.
Pit Fiend wishes that the location that they were in had the erratic time trait Where each round that passes is the equivalent of 1 day passing. Boom, all the Kensai's spells wear off and at best lasts 1 round then plays keep away for 5 minutes.
|
|
You can not ready an action before init is rolled.
One was waiting but did not do any prebuffs that would not last the day and he did not have readied action or surprise round.
You could frighten him and avoid the aoo from reach by winning init.
This means he must flee but he should flee in the way most likely to get him away to safety.
After his attack I assume you are next to him.
In this case he will not use a spell like ability because he knows that it will be disrupted. I would have him disarm or sunder your weapon if that is like to work. If not he will full attack you.
If you are not adjacent to him he will cast AMZ and fly up. If he knows you can nor fly he will drop AMZ and teleport other wise he will just wait until he is not afraid and then come get you.
If he can cast a spell like ability defensively he can just squeak by on the check to cast wish even while threatened. How effective would you attacks be in his AMZ. You would get and AoO as he flies to the roof.
Ok, fair enough, here's the encounter without readying an action:
The Pit Fiend is now: Fatigued, Flatfooted, Frightened, Sickened, Entangled, Anchored to Weapon, Unable to Teleport, and staggered. He has a couple options left for himself. He can try to run, but that'd take two rounds to move 15 (With a 30 str check), provoking AoO along the way. He can sunder the weapon, but that's hopeless (The weapon has 80 hardness). His best bet is to dispel dimensional anchor and then teleport out, which would take two rounds to do. He could also dispel this via Anti-Magic field, but that'd prevent him from teleporting out of a room with no other exit, and because he's frightened and intelligent, he wouldn't do that. So, he casts Greater Dispel Magic on himself for his turn.
The Kensai then gets to go. He knows he needs to take down the Pit Fiend now, so whenever he gets a critical hit, he spends 2 arcane pool points to increase the multiplier from a x3 to a x4. He spends 2 arcane pool points to enchant his weapon with bane Devil, speed, and shock. He then proceeds to use spell combat to cast Frostbite, and full attacks. He lands 4 out of 5 attacks, with two critical hits, dealing: 2(3d6+23) + 2(6d6+2d10+92) + 6d6+120. After resistances and damage reduction, the Pit Fiend takes an average of 356 non-lethal damage, totaling for 496.5 nonlethal damage.
The Pit Fiend falls unconscious, and the Kensai finishes the fight by using coup de grace, and using holy water to disable his regeneration.
The buffs I have up last 6 hours and 40 minutes each, due to rod of extend (cheap buggers). I figure thats long enough. Though I should have two of those rods, bit of a mistake there.
|
|
Oh, and just for fun, your Kensai doesn't have access to his canny defense AND his movement speed is dropped down to 30'.
Just with your bag of holding you are considered Medium Encumbered which deactivates your Canny Defense and drops your max dex bonus down to +3.I'm also guessing that you are looking for a Wish that would be most devastating to the Magus. Ok here's one that is probably most devastating for the Kensai.
Pit Fiend wishes that the location that they were in had the erratic time trait Where each round that passes is the equivalent of 1 day passing. Boom, all the Kensai's spells wear off and at best lasts 1 round then plays keep away for 5 minutes.
While your input is appreciated, I think your missing a bunch of stuff.
First, my strength is at 10, I'm still in the light encumberance.
Second, we aren't going with GM fiat effects here, since there's no way to benchmark characters with that.
Given that the kensai is magic'ed up the wazoo, I'm not convinced that the pit fiend wouldn't AMZ after that first round.
For the sake of argument (and interest), how do you see the fight going if he AMZ'ed on his only turn (and 5-ft stepped away if either he beats the Str check or the entangle effect doesn't persist in the AMZ), and then begins flying away from you in the subsequent round? I think this gives him a much better chance of surviving, and I would think that he's smart enough to understand that he needs to disable your magic-y bits to survive.
Also, of those debuffs, how many go away in the AMZ?
|
The pit fiend could ready an action when physicsly attacked to wish for an anti magic field. Then the magus basically dies. But this is probably too simplistic.
That was my suggestion, before the website went offline mid post.
Inside an anti-magic field, the posted kensai won't do much except fold under the weight of his own gear once greater age resistance goes away.
Even if he could swing, he would be basing damage off of his 4 strength.
|
|
That's a SLIGHTLY more fair setup but still has a few mechanical issues.
A. How are you critting? Per the Beastmass rolls all your attack rolls are either a 9,10 or 11 so you don't ever threaten a crit that way, and you've never keened the weapons so the threat range stays at 18,19 or 20 which is really no real chance of a crit per the other beastmass crit rules.
B. Since the wakizashi is incapable of penetrating the Pit Fiends DR it can't actually anchor it in place. (Per the rulings for rider effects on weapon attacks against DR, it has to do at least a point of damage before the rider effect can work). This means the only way you can actually anchor him is to crit which goes back to question A.
C. Bleeding Critical only does damage to the target on it's turn and is stopped by any kind of magical healing. The Pit fiend has Regen which ticks first so it never takes the bleeding damage from that crit and heals 5 points of regular damage and 5 points of non lethal damage each round.
D. You are still assuming that you get to buff before coming in the room and the pit fiend can't.
It seems that everything in your build is hinged on a successful critical hit other wise you don't actually do anything serious to the fiend.
Also Why would he want to teleport out of the room/fight? If he drops the AMF right here (and with his concentration score he can do it safely) your Kensai immediately stops being a threat. Your AC drops to nothing, your damage per attack gets a negative damage bonus, you're encumberance shoots to a heavy load so you can't move and you can no longer grab a new weapon. You literally become a little old man in melee range with a peeved off monster who wants you dead. Plus because you staggered him and stuck him in place (if you crit) he can't run away so he gets to ignore the effects of the frightened condition making him even nastier, he HAS to drop the AMF now just because it's his only legitimate action.
Now, without your magical ability you can not ever do more damage then the Pit fiend can heal each round while he can absolutely murder you with his non-magical melee attacks. Congratulation, you've just murdered yourself with this tactic.
edit: Yes you have a strength 10 with everything running but that still puts you 1 pound over the light load for that encumbrance level. My math puts you at 35lbs carried with a weight limit of 34lbs.
Edit2: Oh yeah, your anchoring weapon misses on every attack as well. It's not an agile weapon so it's still using your strength to hit not your Dex so per the rules your rolling a 24 (15Bab +1 enchant -2 spellcombat +10 beastmass die roll =23/18/13) vs the Pit Fiends 29 flat footed AC. You miss every attack.
|
|
Well, if he uses AMZ (Which he wouldn't, because then he -cannot- flee, and goes against the rules of what a creature would do. Even a fighter who knows his only hope of survival is to fight would flee. Tis how the game works), his turn is ended, and the magus still gets to attack.
His attack would look like... 1d6+16 on a 18-20x3 critical, with 3 hits a round. Not too terrible, and the Kensai can still land blows on him with ease via Accurate Strike if needed (an EX ability). It'd take a lot longer though, thats for sure. All the Magus would need to do is ensure a critical hit once every round.
The Pit Fiend, however, would find that flying up would be the best way to go. He would either teleport or fly stright up. For the sake of arguement, he flys up, and next round he can act normally.
The Kensai is outside the AMF, but there's not much he can do to be honest. Next round the devil will be attacking him. Perhaps now is the time to go invisible?
But alas, this won't happen:
A frightened creature flees from the source of its fear as best it can. If unable to flee, it may fight. A frightened creature takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. A frightened creature can use special abilities, including spells, to flee; indeed, the creature must use such means if they are the only way to escape.
Frightened is like shaken, except that the creature must flee if possible. Panicked is a more extreme state of fear.
At this point, the -only- means of escape is to use dispel magic and then teleport. Using AMF blocks his only escape route.
Hmm, I disagree that frightened means he's forced to use his abilities in a suboptimal or permanent way. Maybe I'm in the minority here (or not cleaving to RAW - this is always a possibility), but I would consider preparation for a flight-escape, plus a 5-ft step "fleeing" in as much as dispelling+teleporting is.
Unless you've got wings (or an obvious bow), flying around in an AMZ well above your head would (or should) count as escape for the purposes of being frightened.
|
|
That's a SLIGHTLY more fair setup but still has a few mechanical issues.
A. How are you critting? Per the Beastmass rolls all your attack rolls are either a 9,10 or 11 so you don't ever threaten a crit that way, and you've never keened the weapons so the threat range stays at 18,19 or 20 which is really no real chance of a crit per the other beastmass crit rules.
B. Since the wakizashi is incapable of penetrating the Pit Fiends DR it can't actually anchor it in place. (Per the rulings for rider effects on weapon attacks against DR, it has to do at least a point of damage before the rider effect can work). This means the only way you can actually anchor him is to crit which goes back to question A.
C. Bleeding Critical only does damage to the target on it's turn and is stopped by any kind of magical healing. The Pit fiend has Regen which ticks first so it never takes the bleeding damage from that crit and heals 5 points of regular damage and 5 points of non lethal damage each round.
D. You are still assuming that you get to buff before coming in the room and the pit fiend can't.It seems that everything in your build is hinged on a successful critical hit other wise you don't actually do anything serious to the fiend.
Also Why would he want to teleport out of the room/fight? If he drops the AMF right here (and with his concentration score he can do it safely) your Kensai immediately stops being a threat. Your AC drops to nothing, your damage per attack gets a negative damage bonus, you're encumberance shoots to a heavy load so you can't move and you can no longer grab a new weapon. You literally become a little old man in melee range with a peeved off monster who wants you dead. Plus because you staggered him and stuck him in place (if you crit) he can't run away so he gets to ignore the effects of the frightened condition making him even nastier, he HAS to drop the AMF now just because it's his only legitimate action.Now, without your magical ability you can not ever do more damage then the Pit...
1. per the rules of beastmass, crits happen when threat percentages get up to 60%, so a magus with Keen thats every 2 hits. Keen is on his primary weapon.
2. If that were true, then flaming would never hurt creatures. But I could be wrong, do you have a rules quote for that?3. Ah, fair enough, it still passes out form round 2 though.
Why would he want to teleport out? Because he's frightened, it's how the effect works. He must choose to escape if possible.
Finally, with the weight, The Kensai keeps whatever he's not using in his bag of holding. This include rods, and one wakizhasi (he never uses more than 2 weapons a fight).
|
|
Well, if he uses AMZ (Which he wouldn't, because then he -cannot- flee, and goes against the rules of what a creature would do. Even a fighter who knows his only hope of survival is to fight would flee. Tis how the game works), his turn is ended, and the magus still gets to attack.
His attack would look like... 1d6+16 on a 18-20x3 critical, with 3 hits a round. Not too terrible, and the Kensai can still land blows on him with ease via Accurate Strike if needed (an EX ability). It'd take a lot longer though, thats for sure. All the Magus would need to do is ensure a critical hit once every round.
The Pit Fiend, however, would find that flying up would be the best way to go. He would either teleport or fly stright up. For the sake of arguement, he flys up, and next round he can act normally.
The Kensai is outside the AMF, but there's not much he can do to be honest. Next round the devil will be attacking him. Perhaps now is the time to go invisible?
But alas, this won't happen:
At this point, the -only- means of escape is to use dispel magic and then teleport. Using AMF blocks his only escape route.A frightened creature flees from the source of its fear as best it can. If unable to flee, it may fight. A frightened creature takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. A frightened creature can use special abilities, including spells, to flee; indeed, the creature must use such means if they are the only way to escape.
Frightened is like shaken, except that the creature must flee if possible. Panicked is a more extreme state of fear.
Whoa, that's a stretch of logic there. The target has to flee but can choose which of it's abilities it uses to flee. If the choice is to use dispel magic and eat a full round attack from your buffed out Kensai the next round or use an AMF and eat a full round attack from your non buffed attacks next round the smart thing to do is to use the AMF, and the pit fiend is a genius.
B. Yes Accurate strike is an EX ability but it relies on your Arcane Pool to function and that is a SU ability so it doesn't work.
C. You staggered him to so he physically CAN'T flee and per the frightened rules:
A frightened creature flees from the source of its fear as best it can. If unable to flee, it may fight.