In an upcoming session of a game we know already that there is an arena combat tournament that myself and the other players will be taking part in that (if we win) will require us to take part in 24 separate combats over the course of a singe day.
Presumably the time between combats will be long enough that all round per level, minutes per level, and even 10 minutes per level buffs/spells will have worn off in between, leaving only hours per level buffs as lasting through multiple combats.
My character for this game is currently 8th level, Wizard 5/Mgaambyan Arcanist 3 focused on Conjuration (with Summon Good Monster good summons last for level+2 [conj. school ability]+ 3 [lasting goodness]+ 1 [halcyon magic]= 14 rounds).
We know this will be happening in 2-3 sessions from now when we will have had a change to gain maybe 1 or 2 levels and a few thousand GP worth of equipment.
With that in mind what spells and equipment should I seek out to maximize my effectiveness over the course of this combat?
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Honestly if i where you, i'd bring my psp to the session, because you are going to be doing nothing for 80% of the rounds.
For 24 combat to be actually beatable most of them probably are such a pushover that there is no actual point in casting anything, Your biggest challenge will be assessing the few actual threats and having a few haste and 4th level summons to deal with them.
As equipment goes, if you are willing to committ for the win, the best way is aking your group to pool resurces for some big pack of scrolls. Scrolls are the most powerfull and cost effective consumables, and are ideal for this situations.
Honestly if i where you, i'd bring my psp to the session, because you are going to be doing nothing for 80% of the rounds.
For 24 combat to be actually beatable most of them probably are such a pushover that there is no actual point in casting anything, Your biggest challenge will be assessing the few actual threats and having a few haste and 4th level summons to deal with them.As equipment goes, if you are willing to committ for the win, the best way is aking your group to pool resurces for some big pack of scrolls. Scrolls are the most powerfull and cost effective consumables, and are ideal for this situations.
Lets assume that these will start at APL -2 and work their way up to being by the end APL+4 for the last three or four-- my group plays for keeps, its highly unlikely that many if any of these will be "pushovers". . .
A single APL+4 encounter should be enough to blow through the majority of your resources. Two and you are really pushing it. 24 is a nightmare.
How do you feel about abusing lesser planar binding and animate dead? We are at the stage where degenerate play might be all that will see you through. I guess charm/dominate could work too, if the tournament people let you keep thralls from round to round (not likely, but I have no idea how your game works).
As a wizard you only have about 25 spells per day, not including cantrips. 24 rounds means that you are only casting on your first round. And half of the time your 1 spell per fight will be snowball or glitterdust. In CR10ish fights.
Pick up some consumables if you can. Wands of sleet storm, grease, anything that does BFC and works as a wand. Buffs that you want too. A Bard Heroism Wand (SL2,CL4) is 6k. A wand of haste or sleet storm is 11.25k. These will all get half used if you spend 1 use each round. That way you can save your spells for the tough fights and break out the nuclear options when wands aren't cutting it. If you want to have some long duration buffs up get them off a scroll early in the day. Don't prepare overland flight. You will need that spell slot later. Scroll it. Bring along a few utility scrolls as well. That way you won't have to waste slots on things like flight or invisibility detection (you don't care about the DC on Glitterdust if you just want to turn off invisibility).
Hope this helps.
I'm not sure but since the Magaambyan Arcanist is all about good, my guess is that Animate Dead is off the table.
As for Lesser Planar Binding its probably a good idea-- but what elemental or outsider of 6 HD or less is going to be the most useful?
Again, evil ones are probably off the table leaving me elementals, neutral outsiders, and good outsiders. . .
I'll have 27 total spells at 10th level, plus the bonded object spell. My mainline offense spell so far has been summon monster III and IV to summon Foo Dogs and Hound Archons respectively.
Not sure if Binding a single Hound Archon to have the whole time is worth that much or if there's something better at 6 HD or less.
Right now for combat equipment I only have Ring Protection +1, CLoak of Resistance +1, and a Wand of Cure Light Wounds (added to wizard list with Halcyon Magic ability).
As for Lesser Planar Binding its probably a good idea-- but what elemental or outsider of 6 HD or less is going to be the most useful?
If the enemies are evil, use planar binding to call in some good outsider, maybe you don't even need to use a magic circle and/or dimensional anchor.
With constant detect evil he will see the bad guys armed and ready to kill you, so your DM will have an hard time justifying the hound archon just teleporting away instead of helping you.
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In an upcoming session of a game we know already that there is an arena combat tournament that myself and the other players will be taking part in that (if we win) will require us to take part in 24 separate combats over the course of a singe day.
Presumably the time between combats will be long enough that all round per level, minutes per level, and even 10 minutes per level buffs/spells will have worn off in between, leaving only hours per level buffs as lasting through multiple combats.
This is actually impossible.
There are 24 hours in a day, so, assuming equal spacing between combats, there can be, at most, 1 hour between fights. 10 min/level buffs last 80 minutes at 8th level, so, those buffs will last at least two fights.
Anyway, I don't know, this either sounds like these fights will just be a boring attempt at attrition via lucky 20s until you get to the serious stuff at the end, or you are totally doomed.
The only ways I could conceive of these working at all are:
1) If there's free healing in between fights and maybe an 8 hour sleep break halfway through the day for spells and stuff (meaning the fights are really only a half hour or so apart).
2) If the GM builds a legitimate tournament and (hopefully behind the scenes before the session starts) runs through the NPC fights as well, so you're not the only ones starting fights with fewer resources. Of course, that would require more than 16.5 million NPCs involved (to get a 24 round tournament), so, probably not that.
Is there cover in the Arena? Can you just summon ALL THE LANTERN ARCHONS, one spell each fight after the first few, and let them handle it?
Don't know if there will be cover int he arena or not. I'm sure that the NPCs will all be at full strength, what would be the fun in fighting weakened opponents? Either way, we have to assume they are at full strength. . .
Yes, 10 minutes/level buffs will last through 2 fights.
Lantern Archons might be good, except I still have only a handful of them through the whole tournament.
For reference, the rest of the characters are a Life Oracle, a Bard, a Gunslinger, an APG Summoner, and a Steelblood Bloodrager (34 AC)
update-- after tonight's session it clarified that we will only be 9th level. . .
looks like my total gold available is 73000 ish, if i part with my robes of components.
looking at ring of wizardry- type 4 is 40k--anyone have thoughts on these?
