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I'm hoping people with more experience with high-level casters can help me work out how to best roleplay the tactics of an Int 26 caster.
The party of PCs have entered the Ravenous Crypts and confronted Azaven in area F10. We had to end our last session just after the fight started: the melee PCs had entered the room, and Azaven had summoned a devourer but not yet had chance to erect his wall of force. The last action was for the party cleric to complete casting silence on the floor behind Azaven.
I was a bit stumped as to how to have Azaven react to this, as it knocks out many of his spells. Sadly I don't have Int 26, but I do have more time to think about what to do next (and hopefully some help) - any ideas?
Way back in the older versions of our favorite game there was a second level spell for magic users called...
Dispel Silence! only had a somatic component (naturally) and a material component of 50 gold pieces of diamond dust.
Just say your uber genius thought it up ...oh, years ago.
Isn't Silence a touch spell? I don't have access to my books at the moment and can't call up the PRD sites (work blocks them, because "gaming").
Isn't Silence a touch spell? I don't have access to my books at the moment and can't call up the PRD sites (work blocks them, because "gaming").
While you can cast it on objects and then throw them, the spell itself has a range of Long.
If you don't mind changing either his feats or his gear, Azaven could have the means to cast Dimension Door with Silent metamagic (feat or a rod). Or have it prepared in a ring of spell storing.
Actually, I'm a bit surprised to hear that he could be shut down that easily as written.
Problem with every caster, Silence is surprisingly good at that. And thanks for the rules clarification.
And having a Silent metamagic rod also seems like the best solution to me. Have him retreat to another room, turn invisible and ready an action to unleash a Prismatic Spray on the party when they come down the hall. That spell wrecked our group somewhat fierce with many of the casters in Runeforge. Several characters died.
Using the Staff of Hungry Shadows doesn't require sound. It started with 10 charges. He used 3 to summon 1 Devourer. He should summon 2 more. He can then use his own touch attack or perhaps use the last charge in the staff to activate vampiric touch. When things get sticky, he can order one of the devourers to grapple him, thereby triggering his contingency and allowing him to dimension door out. He can even take the devourer with him. He could retreat to F6 or F5, dropping a stinking cloud in the area and using his wall of force to trap the pc's in the area with any surviving devourers. In the end, eh should retreat to F4 so he can stand negative material portal and heal 10d6 per round (assuming the players haven't already destroyed it.)
He can fight them there, perhaps engaging them in banter/questions while he tries to kill them and perhaps forcing them to destroy the portal to get at him (thereby summoning the Nightwing.) If forced, he could destroy the portal himself.
Too late for the OP, but his tactics, as written, are stupid. He should not simply sit in F10 waiting for the pc's to come kill him. He has telepathic bonds with minions throughout the area - he should move out to join them in fighting the pc's so he can reinforce them (some of his magic can even heal the undead) and use them as proper minions/cannon fodder. They keep him from being attacked, he uses his spells to pound the pc's.
Thank you, Azaven! It's always cool when the character in question turns up and offers advice on how to run him. :)
(And that's going to look like a really wierd comment when/if you change your avatar, Latrecis.)
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Thanks everyone for your help. I ended up using the staff of hungry shadows to bring in reinforcements, then a couple of non-verbal spells (mislead followed by gaseous form) to make an escape. The caster at the back of the party realised what was going on, but because of the group's own silence effect, couldn't effectively warn the melee fighter, who was still attacking the illusory Azaven.
Eventually the game was up when see invisibility and wind wall were used, but it turned an anticlimax into a fun encounter.
but it turned an anticlimax into a fun encounter.
Awesome - that's really the goal of any encounter - especially the bigger baddies :)
I just nerf silence so that is allows a will save regardless of how it is used. Otherwise it's stupid that a level 2 spell is so strong.