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Playing a paranoid mid-level wizard. What tips do you guys have for how to pre-plan combat and how to build lairs or bases that are very hard to enter by anyone but the wizard? If he enters combat alone, how do you avoid taking damage while still being able to cast, and would summoning creatures be worth the risk of being a sitting duck for an entire turn?
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I've seen scenarios where even a low-level wizard was tough to beat. Just because he was tough to pin down. And this was WAY before 3.0 and Quicken spells. :)
A dimension step/phase door can allow a wizard to move to a hidey hole, (And if it's in the paranoid wizard's base, he should have several) where he can see and cast spells through a tiny chink in the wall, but the arrows and swords of the enemy cannot reach him! (Most spells only require line of sight, not direct access.)
Even a Blink spell is an effective (if unreliable) short range teleport/walk through walls spell.
By the time the enemy figures out where mr. paranoia is casting from, it should be too late. And if they do survive, by the time they figure out how to reach you, you have already left out of the BACK door to your hidey hole, and are flying away, (via Fly or magic carpet or broomstick), invisible, leaving a summoned swarm of nasties to say goodbye for you.
Just Because you paranoid doesn't mean you aren't thoughtful that way. :)
Edit- A wizard entering combat alone is asking to die.
A wizard entering a combat PREPARED, and with an escape plan, is another story. :)
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Yeah, I'm running a mid-level wizard that specializes in summoning / binding creatures. He'll never fight without at least two devils in front of him, but he's moving to a new place and doesn't have a lair built, so I'm looking for some nice ways to build it. The hidey-hole tip is a good idea, thanks! I also have a quick question about that mage's mansion spell (7th level, can't remember the exact name). If I put something in the mansion and the spell wears out, what happens to the object? It might be a good place to put a phylactery or clones later on, if I decide against demiplanes.
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Lair?
- Doesnt have an entrance. Doors are for mundane plebs. A wizard of power teleports in. (If you are still getting started at making realitiy your b**ch, use Blink to cross through the entrance wall) Dont forget some very well hidden airholes. A Bottle of Air even removes the need for these.
Food?
- Use a Ring of Sustenance, so you have 22 hours a day to study. And you dont need a cook who can mess up your careful experiments. And if you dont eat & drink, you cant be poisoned this way.
Also, should you be inclined this way, it wont be suspicious if you stop eating, drinking & sleeping at all, while becoming very, very protective of a certain item in the medium dual-digit levels... *wink, wink*
Combat?
Start not with a bang, but with a twinkle. Mirror Image, Blink and Greater invisibility are your first moves. Always have Mage Armor up (easy its 1h/level) and buff yourself with Heroism (sweet +2 to saves) if a fight seems likely (like when dungeon running, or you notice a suspicious thing).
Summoning Monsters?
Start with Invisibility (normal is okay, since summoning monsters doesnt break it.), then start summoning, and make a 5dft step each round. Pinpointing your square is a move-action with a non-trivial DC. And then you mess up their full-attack, and still have a 50% miss-chance.
Fly can substitute that if the opposition has no dedicated archer. Often the normal melees even forget to bring any ranged weapon AT ALL. Punish the mundane stupidheads for their idioty regarding coming to a ranged duel only with a Greataxe!
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Lair?
- Doesnt have an entrance. Doors are for mundane plebs. A wizard of power teleports in. (If you are still getting started at making realitiy your b**ch, use Blink to cross through the entrance wall) Dont forget some very well hidden airholes. A Bottle of Air even removes the need for these.Food?
- Use a Ring of Sustenance, so you have 22 hours a day to study. And you dont need a cook who can mess up your careful experiments. And if you dont eat & drink, you cant be poisoned this way.
Also, should you be inclined this way, it wont be suspicious if you stop eating, drinking & sleeping at all, while becoming very, very protective of a certain item in the medium dual-digit levels... *wink, wink*Combat?
Start not with a bang, but with a twinkle. Mirror Image, Blink and Greater invisibility are your first moves. Always have Mage Armor up (easy its 1h/level) and buff yourself with Heroism (sweet +2 to saves) if a fight seems likely (like when dungeon running, or you notice a suspicious thing).Summoning Monsters?
Start with Invisibility (normal is okay, since summoning monsters doesnt break it.), then start summoning, and make a 5dft step each round. Pinpointing your square is a move-action with a non-trivial DC. And then you mess up their full-attack, and still have a 50% miss-chance.
Fly can substitute that if the opposition has no dedicated archer. Often the normal melees even forget to bring any ranged weapon AT ALL. Punish the mundane stupidheads for their idioty regarding coming to a ranged duel only with a Greataxe!
Good points, thanks! Didn't even think about the no door thing. I don't have the heroism spell or greater invisibility, but I do have invisibility memorized, plus a cloak of resistance and a permanent resistance on myself. What traps should be set up, and what do I do if my lair wall is broken down? Should I invest in some spells like symbol of death/scrying?
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Those are excellent Guru,
Having spells/scrolls of wall spells (ice and stone make great barriers, force at higher levels) to give the trespassers something else to go around, or through. Or repair the walls they have destroyed. Make them destroy it again. All while your conjuring up more creatures for them to play with.
Actually, Wall of stone is a great quick/easy way to BUILD a fortress if the wizard is in a hurry. Once created it is a normal, mundane wall of stone. Not dispellable.
And stone shape allows you to fashion your new lair exactly how you want it. And don't forget the hidey-holes/peek holes.
Once you've made them break down several walls, and your out of spells/scrolls, then you use Illusions. No reason to disbelieve this wall isn't real if they've already had to deal with three before it.
(Same with conjured creatures. Conjure up a swarm of spiders, followed by illusions, or better yet Shadow-magic versions, How do they know which is which? Have to fight them all to be safe!)
Symbols and similar are perfect for the paranoid caster. Ensures that no uninvited guests go down hallways,... uninvited. :)
Stone to mud and then reverse it, and your very floor becomes a trap. That they cannot detect until you cast it. :) (Stone to mud on a wall instead, and the roof becomes a falling block trap)
Use a extend Feat on your invis (or a rod of extend spell) and your invis never falls, as it is only broken when you actually attack someone. And you have other worldly beings to do your fighting for you.
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Those are excellent Guru,
Having spells/scrolls of wall spells (ice and stone make great barriers, force at higher levels) to give the trespassers something else to go around, or through. Or repair the walls they have destroyed. Make them destroy it again. All while your conjuring up more creatures for them to play with.
Actually, Wall of stone is a great quick/easy way to BUILD a fortress if the wizard is in a hurry. Once created it is a normal, mundane wall of stone. Not dispellable.
And stone shape allows you to fashion your new lair exactly how you want it. And don't forget the hidey-holes/peek holes.
Once you've made them break down several walls, and your out of spells/scrolls, then you use Illusions. No reason to disbelieve this wall isn't real if they've already had to deal with three before it.
(Same with conjured creatures. Conjure up a swarm of spiders, followed by illusions, or better yet Shadow-magic versions, How do they know which is which? Have to fight them all to be safe!)
Symbols and similar are perfect for the paranoid caster. Ensures that no uninvited guests go down hallways,... uninvited. :)
Stone to mud and then reverse it, and your very floor becomes a trap. That they cannot detect until you cast it. :) (Stone to mud on a wall instead, and the roof becomes a falling block trap)
Use a extend Feat on your invis (or a rod of extend spell) and your invis never falls, as it is only broken when you actually attack someone. And you have other worldly beings to do your fighting for you.
Ah yes. I also had the idea to make a pit of lava or acid and then transform it to stone. Someone puts up a pesky antimagic field, they fall in. I don't currently have either of the stone spells you mentioned, but with a blessed book and some favors, I'm sure I could afford some scrolls to copy over. Thanks again!
Wands are handy,
Maze spells and force hands for those persistent fighter types who try to invade your personal space..
Slapping hands and similar interrupting spells for those pesky casters who dare to try and invade your home.
A paranoid caster won't be making friends with the local magical folk to help him. But as a caster you can literally MAKE your own friends. (Golems, animated suits of armor, etc)
If your being invaded by persons who think they know you, they will know you are a conjurer of creatures. Take creation feats and make yourself a back-up cadre of un-dismissable animated furniture, golems, etc to protect you while you conjure more help.
I like the animated furniture myself. Very Beauty and the Beast meets House of Horror. :)
Annnnd, that's all I have for now. :/
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Wands are handy,
Maze spells and force hands for those persistent fighter types who try to invade your personal space..
Slapping hands and similar interrupting spells for those pesky casters who dare to try and invade your home.
A paranoid caster won't be making friends with the local magical folk to help him. But as a caster you can literally MAKE your own friends. (Golems, animated suits of armor, etc)
If your being invaded by persons who think they know you, they will know you are a conjurer of creatures. Take creation feats and make yourself a back-up cadre of un-dismissable animated furniture, golems, etc to protect you while you conjure more help.
I like the animated furniture myself. Very Beauty and the Beast meets House of Horror. :)
Annnnd, that's all I have for now. :/
If you fail to animate a Gazebo, I'm taking away your Wizard card.
If they found you you were not sufficiently paranoid.
My view?
Run.
Mind you that depends on your goal. Do you want to live, do you want to provide a level appropriate challenge for the party or do you want to cackle with glee as the other players cry over the record sheets of their now dead characters?
Different answers depending on the question but the basic idea is not to play the game your pursuers are playing. If nothing else they expect you to abide by established rules and tropes. Don't.
The conjuration (teleport) school lets you make lots of short distance teleports. Using this allows you to trap the floors easily. Unless they know where to step they'll get hit with it. Symbol spells are very useful to have around your home to help deal with intruders. You probably won't get all of the party, but you'll get some of them.
Permanency is great for protecting your home, assuming the wizard is rich. Ragadolf already mentioned animated objects. Let the party assume that the furniture is flavor text. Later on you have items with magic aura and the party wastes dispels on harmless pieces of furniture.
Permanent alarms and invisibility alarms tell you where the PC's are. That way you can teleport around to engage them on your terms. Teleport behind them and summon your creatures out of sight.
Speaking of invisibility you can make objects invisible permanently. If you have an invisible wall with a small slit in it you can cast with impunity and still have cover. Let them wonder why the arrows are stopping, or laugh at the barbarian who charges into the wall. Have a chasm and you know where the invisible bridge is. If they have see invisibility then they can see the objects with symbol spells on them.
Permanent ghost sounds can make phantom footsteps to lead them into traps.
Permanent gust of wind makes physical ranged attacks harder.
Mage's private sanctum makes for a great place to cast out of.
Permanent image can make false walls appear. Behind which you have all sorts of nasty surprises. Plus, when you're in range you can have the image do anything.
You could potentially have teleport, feather fall, levitate, fly, spider climb and summoned monsters with climb speed. This means you don't need stairs. Smooth shafts are much better. You can then have grease ready. Or an animated object with oil flasks.
The pit spells are awesome at slowing down party members. If you have an apprentice or contingency or a quicken rod, my favorite trick is to create some pit or another and then summon a bison on top of the people in the pit. It takes people out of the fight for a few rounds.
Or you follow up the pit spell with a wall sealing the pit off. They can't climb out without destroying the wall and if the pit ends before the wall comes down - ouch!
I'm digging the tricks with invisible walls, illusory walls, real walls, and teleporting, but this hypothetical wizard is sounding a little too sane for my taste. Come on! Death knell your own minions, hold hostages over pits of lava, shoot fireballs at your shadow, worship your pet parrot, you know the works. And don't forget your senses. Magic items/spells to let you see in smoke, darkness, fog, see auras, around corners, whatever you can think of. Contingency planar binding traps that serve no purpose except to drop a succubus into the middle of the party (in a permanent magic circle)can be one of the most hilarious things ever. In general be a dick, and do crazy stuff.
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Planar binding some devils to spy/eliminate people thst are dangerous to you. You should have an imp familiar to help you keep watch at all times. Buy a necklace of adaptation and goz mask. If adventurers bother you, cast cloudkill on them, while sending your legions of devils to ensure they don't get out of the cloudkill zone. Laugh evily. If those pesky adventurers use gust of wind, throw deeper darkness onto the area, and have your imp direct those devils.
Btw, devils are immune to poison. The cloudkill ain't hurting them, or your imp, any.
And the number one rule for the paranoid wizard to remember,...
Just because your paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you!
So, Do unto others,... FIRST! :)
I'm going to contest the no door thing. That makes you look paranoid and people will approach you accordingly. You don't want that.
Instead, what you do is have a very prominent front door that looks very welcoming and is never locked. This door leads to a dungeon that exists for no reason other than to entertain unwanted guests. None of this is actually connected to your real lair.
This is great material - bookmarked. :)
If a paranoid wizard has to use minions, I guess they will be picked by loyalty - adventurers will encounter golems and undead, not paid hirelings. And even these nonliving minions will have at least one hidden way to disable them - so they can't be used against the wizard.
If he has an apprentice for some reason, he will permanently monitor him. I think there are some items and spells for that...
If someone drives him out of his lair, he might just blow it up. Since everything found there could be used against him. The explosion should have a countdown or be not totally deadly, for fairness' sake, though.
Since he can't rely on this hideout completely, he will have others out there. Probably less equipped but still well-hidden. In the next one he will be better prepared for those who challenged him in the main hideout - if he doesn't manage to get them killed by assassins. These assassins get as little information as possible, of course.
Aren''t the words paranoid and wizard in the same sentence rather redundant?
Being redundant does not make them less true! :)
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But yeah, I may have the door lead into a nice lobby with an ornate door guarded by two clockwork soldiers. They won't attack unless the group does, but won't allow entry into the next room. If they kill off the guards, two symbols of scrying go off and I can see them inside. Opening the door leads to a room filled with various simulacrum. They kill them all off, and another door open to reveal an adamantine golem, and behind him, me. They still manage to kill the golem, and realize that I'm sitting nice and safe behind an invisible wall. They break it down and attack me, only to realize I am a permanent image, and several invisible symbols of death go off. I am inside a demiplane or inside my real base at this point, just sorta watching. Flaws?
You need to hit them with something to knock off their scrying protection first.
You may also want to add a few specimen collecting points to it. Specimens of course get scanned to verify death/destruction failure to die results in automatic disintegration of specimen as it is to dangerous for use.
But yeah, I may have the door lead into a nice lobby with an ornate door guarded by two clockwork soldiers. They won't attack unless the group does, but won't allow entry into the next room. If they kill off the guards, two symbols of scrying go off and I can see them inside. Opening the door leads to a room filled with various simulacrum. They kill them all off, and another door open to reveal an adamantine golem, and behind him, me. They still manage to kill the golem, and realize that I'm sitting nice and safe behind an invisible wall. They break it down and attack me, only to realize I am a permanent image, and several invisible symbols of death go off. I am inside a demiplane or inside my real base at this point, just sorta watching. Flaws?
NOW you've got it! :)
I think your plan is sound.
And each time 'they' track you to your 'real' base, it just turns out to be another, deadlier, version of the same scenario.
(And if they track you down more than once, then you aren't paranoid! Your right!) ;)
I think simple charms in each room allows you to scry it. Basically anything that you create, either make by hand or enchant with a simple Magic Aura cantrip, counts as 'very familiar with' for scrying purposes. simply place a small charm on the wall of each room, (hidden in the decorations so they can't spot it) and you can scry any room, at any time. Even wearing a necklace of non-detection only prevents you trying to scry on the person directly, not the room they are in. :)
For defenses, if 'they' are really this determined and well-prepared, then you should set up obstacles (as mentioned previously) to eat up their time and resources.
Also,. Perhaps some simple anti magic fields of your own, to interrupt any spells they might use to track you, or bypass your defenses. (I believe there are already spells that prevent teleporting, although those may not be mid-level, If not, research is a wonderful thing!)
:)
Some symbols/sigils of dispel and major dispel to remove those pesky protections. :)
You have a basic plan. Everything else is simply details. I would like to know how it turns out. Please keep us posted here so we can follow the adventures of the paranoid mage!
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But yeah, I may have the door lead into a nice lobby with an ornate door guarded by two clockwork soldiers. They won't attack unless the group does, but won't allow entry into the next room. If they kill off the guards, two symbols of scrying go off and I can see them inside. Opening the door leads to a room filled with various simulacrum. They kill them all off, and another door open to reveal an adamantine golem, and behind him, me. They still manage to kill the golem, and realize that I'm sitting nice and safe behind an invisible wall. They break it down and attack me, only to realize I am a permanent image, and several invisible symbols of death go off. I am inside a demiplane or inside my real base at this point, just sorta watching. Flaws?NOW you've got it! :)
I think your plan is sound.
And each time 'they' track you to your 'real' base, it just turns out to be another, deadlier, version of the same scenario.
(And if they track you down more than once, then you aren't paranoid! Your right!) ;)
I think simple charms in each room allows you to scry it. Basically anything that you create, either make by hand or enchant with a simple Magic Aura cantrip, counts as 'very familiar with' for scrying purposes. simply place a small charm on the wall of each room, (hidden in the decorations so they can't spot it) and you can scry any room, at any time. Even wearing a necklace of non-detection only prevents you trying to scry on the person directly, not the room they are in. :)
For defenses, if 'they' are really this determined and well-prepared, then you should set up obstacles (as mentioned previously) to eat up their time and resources.
Also,. Perhaps some simple anti magic fields of your own, to interrupt any spells they might use to track you, or bypass your defenses. (I believe there are already spells that prevent teleporting, although those may not be mid-level, If not, research is a wonderful thing!)
:)Some symbols/sigils of dispel and major...
That's true, didn't think about the charms and stuff. Thanks! I might use this for GMing as well, having the wizard be the BBEG and start at a high level. For now, my wizard is going to a new city to build a base and start raising an army. These ideas will be extremely useful in the building of the fortress. Thanks, everyone!