Immune Character


Advice


I have a player who has created a Dwarven Fighter/Cleric/Holy Vindicator he is now 13th level. Between his class,feats,etc. His AC is 37 that can get up to 41 with his stigmata. His saves are also in the high teens. During game play there really is nothing that effects him. If I amp up the encounter to challenge him I would destroy the other characters. Curious how others would handle a character build like this.

The Exchange

Send a tetori after him, or an annoying lorewarden/maneuver master who is out to make his life miserable with combat maneuvers (dirty trick, disarm, trip).Or a bunch of invisible arcane tricksters with scorching ray. Black tentacles. If you feel mean, upgrade some rust monsters. Don't forget to pay him a visit with a bunch of greater shadows.


Talk to him, OOC, explain that if you "amp up the encounter to challenge him I would destroy the other characters".

Ask his advice.

ps, I'll also bet if you post his build here, some sharp-eyed posters will find errors.

pps. 12 mooks with level 5, 3 charge wands of MM.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

There's always swarms. They deal damage automatically, so his AC is a non-factor. There is even a CR 13 swarm on the PFSRD that looks pretty nasty. However, I consider swarms to be broken because either you have a blaster mage (or a player with a swarmbane clasp) who reduces them to a fine paste or your entire party gets eaten to death with no way to fight back.

If you are feeling a little less evil, you can use touch attacks. A ninja with invisibility trick and minor magic can disappear, shoot an acid splash against flat-footed touch for sneak attack damage, and disappear again up to 3 times per day. With Major Magic thrown in, he can do it two more times with Snowball, and by level 13, he should have enough UMD and cash to afford a wand of Fiery Shuriken or Admonishing Ray if you need even more uses of the ability. Give him the Invisible Blade master trick and the Powerful and Deadly Sneak talents, and he will run around dealing tons of damage to your AC tank. Plan an escape for him when he inevitably gets glitterdusted or invisibility purged and he could make a great recurring villain.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Being as invulnerable and immovable as the rock of Gibraltar is swell, but if things can't affect him, they'll likely deal with softer targets first. Especially if he starts to build up a reputation.

"Look, there's Jerry the unflappable and his sidekicks."
"No sense bothering with him, get the other ones!"


Throw him off of high ledges or something. Or do constricting damage, anything that uses cmb as a main attack. But don't overdo it though, give him the satisfaction of being untouchable with regular attacks from enemies too.

Also I really like Scythia's suggestion.


Well, I'd guess he's not got a great reflex save, and definitely no evasion. Stick in a few AoE reflex targeting damage spells and this character will be forced into self-healing survival mode.

Hell, you could even use something that uses touch attacks. This will hit the much more vulnerable touch AC. A Lich with Enervation? Or is that unkind?


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Let him enjoy his invulnerable character?


Things don't affect him, but does he put out an appreciable amount of damage? If not, after a round or two of whiffing at him without getting creamed in return, most enemies should just ignore him.

Silver Crusade

A cleric 4/fighter 2/HV 7 (I'm assuming levels) would have a reflex base of +3. And probably not a great DEX modifier. Where's the rest (OP said "high teens") coming from?


Make an encounter where there is one thing that repeatedly attacks with high attack+damage and/or forces saves on one character in addition to mooks.

Such as - there is a keystone that one character needs to attune himself to in order to open an important gate in a dungeon. But the keystone is guarded by a repeating trap that does both mechanical and magical damage + death effects AND attuning yourself to the stone takes five consecutive rounds. Also, there are endless minions / other monsters / summons that attack the party when anyone touches the keystone.

In other words, allow his invulnerable build shine. That's what I would attempt.

But if I'm feeling too lazy to do that (which is quite often), I might just ask him to tone down his character so I can just make a default CR-appropriate encounter for everything to work without getting a headache.

Sovereign Court

How fast is he? If the point of the combat isn't "enemies running at you" but "you need to catch all the enemies before they [kill the hostages/trigger the collapsing-dungeon-trap/complete the ritual/escape], then his AC really isn't that important, it's his ability to cover distance towards targets that aren't necessarily nearby that matters.


Scythia wrote:

Being as invulnerable and immovable as the rock of Gibraltar is swell, but if things can't affect him, they'll likely deal with softer targets first. Especially if he starts to build up a reputation.

"Look, there's Jerry the unflappable and his sidekicks."
"No sense bothering with him, get the other ones!"

By 13th level, you're a valid target for Legend Lore, which can tell people who might oppose the character about them, their deeds, and even their gear. I consider the "they've heard of you and know you're tough, and that your buddies aren't" tactic to be a perfectly valid one in this case.

It's harder if you're very low level, but at 11th or higher? Yeah, people are going to hear about you, barring unusual circumstances.


AC 41 should not make you untouchable at 13. Clever bad guys Will flank and use what ever buffs they need even if we assume they Will hit his stronger sides. Bus a few times, pehaps one encounter i 5 let some one target his reflex ( that i assume is not in the High teens) i hear that dazing fireball is fun but i banned it in my game. There is lots of spells and things with touch attacks that most likely Can hit him. Maneuveres May also be a place to touch him.
But all that aside he is hard to hurt and you should let him be that Way. Unless he is also very Mobile he should be a minor concern unless you want to bring Down the Party.
Remember it dosent really matter if he never takes another hit point in damage if it is still hard and interesting to Do all the heroic stuff you have planned for the group. And if it all depends on them taking HP damage then let the Bad guys use true strike when that is the case.


Amp up the encounter to challenge him. Destroy the other player characters.

Then tell the player that he 'wins', by being the last one standing.

Play a new game next session.


Burning Skeletsons, lots and lots of burning skeletons.
Enemies investing in Spell Storing Armor.
Spells that don't offer saves.
Black Tentacles.
Illusions.
However, considering Holy Vindicators are supposed to be tanky characters I think he is sort of doing what he should be doing. If he isn't doing the DPR to threaten enemies then the enemies should be attacking the other PCs.

Build encounters based around multiple enemies instead of just one or two big ones. Try to threaten all the PCs equally. Use enemies that use touch attacks.

Witchfires are amazing.


... Why exactly, do you have to challenge him? Has he told you he is feeling unchallenged? Have the other players complained?

Why not let him..... enjoy his character? Crazy idea I know.

The great thing about 'invulnerable' characters is that they can feel like they are unstoppable without invalidating the rest of the party, because everyone still manages to put out comparable damage.


demontroll wrote:

Amp up the encounter to challenge him. Destroy the other player characters.

Then tell the player that he 'wins', by being the last one standing.

Play a new game next session.

I was going to reply seriously to this, but then I noticed your name is 'demon troll', so I probably shouldn't take EVERYTHING you say at face value ;-)


Pathfinder Maps Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I agree that you should let the player enjoy his feeling of invulnerability... but also find occasions when he is less invulnerable than he thought:
- monsters using "aid another" and flanking (and any other bonuses you can dredge up) to give their best hitter a better shot.
- anything relying on touch attacks.
- anything not relying on "to hit" rolls at all, whether it be spells requiring a saving throw, yawning pits or whatever.
- monster tactics that separate the group (wall of stone?) so that you can pair up the nigh-invulnerable PC with a foe in his weight class.

Often I think we DMs can too easily get complacent, using stock combat-oriented monsters and relying simply on their frontal combat abilities instead of exploring other ways they can use their abilities to threaten the PCs, or how other critters we might not have thought of using can threaten them in ways besides frontal combat.

Thinking about it... I need to take my own advice. <g>


I've got two options for you.

One: Non-corporeal creatures. They tend to not care about things like armor. If you're attacking touch AC then everyone is pretty much on the same page. That is, it hurts the heavily armored guy a lot but the less heavily armored people not as much.

Two: Rust.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice / Immune Character All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.