Wizards Defenses

[Sangerine]

So long story short, I'm currently running a homebrew campaign in which one of the parties hasRecently/isCurrently joined/joining a cabal of mage hunters.

To wit, I have several magi of various builds and levels of paranoia ready to be assaulted by the lovely murderhobos, but my creativity only goes so far. (I find myself utilizing Goz Masks far too frequently as combat or escape mechanisms).

So what defenses would the magi of the denizens of this forum erect?
How would you stave off a hit squad of hunters?
The party is mostly sneaky martials with a pair of maguses (magi? I hate the overlapping terms) tossed on for good measure.

Any tips, tricks, characters traits, concepts, etcetera, etcetera, would be appreciated.

Edit: I realized this could be misconstrued as asking solely for advice.
I'm looking for more of a creative bent with mechanical icing on this, not necessarily an "As per RAW" spiel. I'm quite content with the mechanical challenge I can present to the players, it's the mindset that I'm having some trouble with.
Attempting to put myself in the slippers of so many magi is rather difficult for me.

To note, I can still understand how this would fit under the advice sub-forum, I felt general discussion was more fitting for the tone of response I hope to see.

[Chess Pwn]

what level are we working with?

[Sangerine]

Currently levels 4-6 on the party.
The magi I currently have ready extend from levels 3 to 9.

I simply make up for any power differential I see with varying levels of paranoia, hubris and preparation on the part of the mage in question.

[Chess Pwn]

Biggest thing about wizards is controlling where the enemy is. Putting walls and pits force them certain ways. Summons do the work for you. the rough terrain slows their progress, fly keeps you out of reach. Scrying makes sure you know when and where they are coming from.

physical fighting - polymorph spells.
surviving isn't with AC it's with other forms of miss chance like -
blur and displacement - both stop sneak attack I think
mirror image is another good defensive spell

lv5 spells
Stoneskin, Communal - dr is always nice
Cloudkill - do some con damage to them
Hungry Pit - block off their movement and potentially hurt them
Summon Monster V - extra bodies to clog their way
Wall of Stone - again, forcing them to go a certain way
Dominate Person - make them kill eachother
Feeblemind - destroy enemy casters
Animal Growth - improve a summoned creature to be a real beast

lv4 spells
Enervation - make them worse while killing them
Invisibility, Greater - hard to kill what you can't see
Volcanic Storm - slows there assault and hurts them
Ice Storm - slows there assault and hurts them
Summon Monster IV - it's summons
Forgetful Slumber - put someone to sleep and out of the fight
Confusion - potentially have them kill themselves
Black Tentacles - grapple means they can't move
Acid Pit - same as hungry pit

lv3 spells
Raging Rubble - swarms are hard to deal with
Fly - hard to attack something in the air.
Fireball - hurts them, this is a great spell to maximize/empower for extra damage, dazing to hurt and daze them.
Hold Person - puts them out of the fight
Rain of Frogs - swarms are hard to deal with
Mad Monkeys - swarms are hard to deal with

[zza ni]

yea. idgo with throwing in swarms of swarms and going gas form to watch the fun.(maybe add a flame spheare or other diracted damage spells)

[boring7]

Okay, the ultimate paranoia for any mage is the scry-and-fry. Enemy figures out where they live, 'ports in with magic, fries 'em with prepared spells. This isn't an issue, because even if your party had wizards, they aren't 9th level.

Against more mundane assassins, there really are too many options to count. As a result their defenses are more based on personality. You've already built the dudes so you probably know their personalities but you haven't shared them, so I'll just have to make things up.

Let's walk around the schools of magic.

#1 is a necromancer. He's also the lowest level so he has to bend some rules and use a lot of convenient items. For starters most of his undead are uncontrolled and just "Corralled" into places where they can cause problems for interlopers. He lives underground with the "oooh I'm so evil" near a gigantic barrow-mound from an ancient war. He is attempting (and failing) to draw power from the site of such death, he has 2 undead badgers which burrow out new tunnels for him. He is the second most paranoid, so he doesn't work with any living except 3 put-upon kobold trapsmiths he has magically enslaved with Marks of Justice (he used scrolls) and a somewhat broken Magical Construct Valet which he unearthed a while back and conned into cleaning and keeping an eye on his health, because necromancers are notoriously bad at hygiene or diet. Jeeves thinks that the necromancer is its old master.

#2 is a transmuter. As a student of change he lives on the road, or more accurately on a boat. Using fairly simple transmutation magics he constantly changes the shape and style of his ship as it plies the rivers and coast waters. His ever-changing face lets him keep trading with people he has robbed and his ever-moving base lets him avoid hunters. Less paranoid and well-established he has a crew of loyal cutthroats who take to his piracy and plotting with great joy. As a level 4 he is actually quite weak, but he knows how to fight underwater with air bubbles and sneak attacks.

#3 is an abjurer, and the most powerful, and the most paranoid. He layers his very straightforward pyramid with all the protection magic he has. Endless magical traps, magical fields, even some dead magic zones with big mechanical traps and weapons in them. The room that drops you into a dead magic zone patrolled by gelatinous cubes is nasty. Worse still he is by far the most paranoid. He trusts NOTHING and keeps no intelligent beings in his employ. He doesn't even use things with animal intelligence out of fear of someone's familiar sneaking in and trying to assassinate him. He doesn't even fight directly, he has 3 simulacrums which do most of the fighting for him.

#4 is a conjurer, and fairly laid-back. He sold his soul for power a long time ago and his sense of inevitable and eternal damnation has left him with a hedonistic bent. This is more of a challenge than you might expect, however. Demons actually LIKE him since he often summons them up and lets them just party down. He uses extortion to get what he wants, used earth elementals and modrons to build a giant phallic tower, and likes to buy/steal/whatever pleasure slaves. As a result he has a tower that's somewhat well-defended by demonic interests simply because they don't want their link to the prime to die too soon. His tower is basically unclimbable on the outside, the floors are chaotically planned, and there are numerous hostage situations. He doesn't have traps per se, but there are a lot of places where if you break something there is a good chance it will summon up a monster.

#5 the diviner doesn't have particularly spectacular traps. He just knows what is coming. If someone comes at him he comes at them. As a sociopath he will calmly kidnap a character's mother, or deliver a letter explaining that he just hired an assassination team to go to (insert address) and kill everyone there. He almost always knows what is coming and will often simply not be there when the enemy shows up.

#6 the enchanter has an entire town working for him. His manor house itself is fairly well-defended with troops, magic, and traps but the real trick is the fact that the entire town is spying for him. The moment a party enters the town they have people watching them, plotting, and preparing to kill them. Hooray for mind-slaves and charm victims!

#7 is the evoker. He doesn't understand paranoia, he just burns things. "Oh please, if I had to sit and think about every individual who wants to kill me...I would never have time to do anything at all! Easier to assume everyone is trying to kill me and come up with a way i'll kill them instead!" Sometimes he just sets HIMSELF on fire (with protections) along with everyone else.

And the illusionist? As an artist he lives in big house on a scenic vista approachable only by a narrow pathway. As a lying misdirecting manipulator he is actually the chief servant and the "master of the house" is a disposable and ensorcelled minion. Everything is misdirections and confusions, and the number of invisible traps, illusory floors, and shadowy enemies is mind-boggling. His personal favorite is the room trap where after the door slams shut the entire room appears to burst into inferno. All obvious escapes lead to some sort of horrible doom.

[Charon's Little Helper]

If there's a level 7+ wizard - I'd have him cast Illusionary Wall out the wazoo. It generally gets a bad rap as a spell - because on a combat day it sucks. However - with a permanent duration and made so that the caster can automatically see through - a maze-like lair which is a mix of illusionary and real seems to be just the thing.

Plus - if the caster of the spell is on the other side of an illusionary wall (or 3-4 between them for that matter) nothing prevents them from targeting the party straight through all of those walls. Now - if they target a party member through said walls with Charm Person and then talk to them via Message... let the hyjinks begin!

"You should totally get your group to walk down that suspcious hallway. It's totally not trapped or anything!"

[Spook205]

Core ethos of mages on this boils down to how they view themselves versus others.

This means they have four main problems: Mages, dumb brutes (ogres, farmhands wanting to prove something, competent monsters (fiends, dragons etc) and more rarely mage hunters.

This means you'd want to set up a layered defense.

At the front of things, you can get away from the dumb brutes and occasionally the mage hunters by making your facility remote (too far to go to prove yourself, and mage hunters aren't likely to hear about a mage who's just off on his own in the mountains not bugging anybody). This has obvious drawbacks if you want to lord over a populace, or like fresh milk.

Stout doors to keep people out. Arcane lock's good for this. Not a lot of folks can get past a DC 30 lock (or higher with better locks). As a 9th level mage is too weak for an antipathy spell.

The second 'tier' of defense is probably the trap, spell or follower who's job is gate keeper. A scary illusion. A big scary monster. Something that makes the dumb brute types bugger off.

Now, things are harder when dealing with other mages and competent monsters. The fiends can power past your illusions. They're probably the big tough things you're using as guardians in the first place. In fat, thats the best solution. Use some binding spells (9th level wizards just graduated to being able to use lesser planar binding). Let the 6 HD outsider be your concierge.

Dealing with other wizards is accomplished through making thick walls, lining them with lead or gorgon blood or whatever and making sure your facility is almost maze-like with winding corridors and secret doors. It takes longer for you to use the lou, but its less likely another wizard will pop in on your in the bath if he's afraid of deviating like 5 feet and ending up in solid rock.

Mage hunters are difficult because they don't get scared away, they don't have the same concerns a wizard would, and they aren't there for loot, treasure, spellbooks, or the like. They're there for the wizard.

Thats why you need followers. Dumb followers and a few competent followers.

That way you can assess the threat closing in on you. Can they get through the orcs with ease? Hrm. Can they get through your summoned fiends with ease? Might be time to use a secret escape route (you should have two of these, the most obvious of which should have traps).

Its less about spells and more about real estate.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

dot

[archmagi1]

A good mage who knows he is being hunted is not a solo fight, either. He has his bodyguards, thralls, and allies at hand. Take one of your party's magus, for instance. If he were to suddenly find himself at the business end of a hunter contract, he has the other members of the party who (unless he did something abhorrent to them) would have his back in the skirmish.

Think of terms of challenging encounters. APL+/- 2 to 4. The APL-2 cinch fight is the lone mage, lower level than the party. Cake fight. The at APL encounter should be something pretty tough for your guys. Don't follow the CR to APL chart for this, you know better than the book what is considered at at level challenge. A mage with a trio of bodyguards, or a pet demon or something. Then there's the APL+2 encounters. The mage's contingent of allies in a party vs party showdown. Nova type encounter that should leave one side dead and the other bloodied.

Finally, there is the meat and potatoes of what mage hunters do, go after the prepared mage. This is not an encounter, but an adventure in an of itself. The mage knows you're coming, has allies present, and the hunters have to spend multiple encounters nipping away his protections and confidence. Take out his allies, poison his water supply, sabotage his keep, etc. Careful planning and execution should go into these targets, because if the party went head on like they did for the easy, tough and hard fights, then it would be a guaranteed TPK every time.

[Thanael]

+1 on the illusionary walls. What other permanent spells or convenient items can be expected for a sedentary wizard?

What mighty permanent magics might endure a wizards own life and add to a layered warding of say a mage's college ?

Also possibly colleagues, allies, a familiar, apprentices.