3rd level clerics can't cast Wind Wall (it's a 3rd level spell), and the wizard has no backup plan(at most 2 2nd level spells/day, so Levitate and Protection from Arrows, no invisibility). if he has both Obscuring Mist and Vanish prepared he's left with at most 4 castings of magic missile (2 base from level, 2 from 20 INT, 1 from specialization, 1 from bonded item, -2 from other prep'ed spells) so he can do about 28 damage to the party over the course of 4 rounds, while exhausting all of his combat ability.
2 fighters with tower shields, 1 blaster sorcerer, 1 positive energy cleric with selective channeling. lightning bolts and magic missiles can't get through the tower shields' cover, nor can the crossbow. channel negative deals at max 12 damage, even the 4th level sorcerer can survive that hit on a failed save. party delays so that sorcerer goes first, steps out, blasts with a scorching ray (within the level 4 cap), then the 2 fighters move back in front, cleric follows and patches up anyone hurt by readied actions/channel negative. 14 average damage from the scorching ray vs a 3rd level wizard or cleric, should take no more than 2 rounds with minimal losses to the party.
I mean...sleep works right? Maybe not against the cleric but whats a third level wizard legitimately rocking at level 3? +5 maybe? Color spray?
Magic weapon on the archers bow?
Have a magic bow? +1 weapon isn't THAT unreasonable by level 3
Very easy in both cases, you should be able to use these encounters, no problem.
Valeros, Harsk, Kyra and Seoni are walking along, minding their own business, thinking about sweet, sweet loot, WHEN SUDDENLY!! THEIR GM ASKS THEM TO ROLL PERCEPTION CHECKS!!
Valeros:
Harsk:
Kyra:
Seoni:
Their GM informs them that with Harsk coming in at 18, he's the first to spot their enemy. Someone is up ahead, 180 feet away, and he doesn't look friendly. Provided their enemy has seen them too, combat begins. We assume the terrain does not permit run-actions.
Round 1:
The Evangelist acts, casting levitate and ascending 20 feet.
Harsk acts, double-moving 40 ft closer, drawing his heavy crossbow.
Valeros acts, single-moving 20 ft closer, drawing his shortbow and taking an ambitious shot with a -4 penalty to hit, for distance. Despite the target's low AC, Valeros misses.
Kyra acts, casting shield of faith on herself and single-moving 30 ft forward.
Seoni acts, casting mage armor on herself and single-moving 30 ft forward.
Round 1 is at an end. Evangelist and party are 140ft apart.
Round 2:
The Evangelist acts, casting wind wall between himself and party. The wall is 30 ft long and 15 ft high. Seoni reacts to his spellcasting by rolling a spellcraft check, successfully identifying the spell as a wind wall. She talks out of turn, informing the party that a wall of wind is preventing their shots from passing through.
Harsk acts, he uses a move-action to reload his heavy crossbow and then single-moves 20 ft forward
Valeros acts, double-moving 40 ft forward.
Kyra acts, single-moving forward 25 ft, not wanting to overtake Valeros or Harsk. She spends a standard action aiding Valeros' AC.
Seoni acts, single-moving forward 25 ft, not wanting to overtake Valeros or Harsk. She spends a standard action aiding Harsk's AC.
Round 2 is at an end. Evangelist and party are 120 ft apart.
Round 3:
The Evangelist knows that his lightning arc only has a range of 30 ft, so he's waiting for one of his enemies to come close enough. Meanwhile, he fires his repeating crossbow at the target who looks to be least armored, which is Seoni (based on her artwork). Her AC is 19 because Valeros gives her soft cover, so his shot flies wild.
Harsk acts, he uses a double-move to move 40 ft forward.
Valeros acts, he uses a double-move to move 40 ft forward.
Kyra acts, she uses a double-move to move 40 ft forward, still staying behind the front-line.
Seoni acts, she uses a single-move to move 30 ft forward, still staying behind the front-line. As a standard action she casts magic missile, targeting the Evangelist, automatically hitting him for 1d4+1 dmg, coming out to 3.
Round 3 is at an end. Evangelist and party are 80 ft apart. The Evangelist has taken 3 dmg.
Round 4:
The Evangelist sticks to the strategy presented by the OP, and fires his crossbow, impatiently awaiting the moment his targets enters the distance of his lightning arc. This time he rolls really high, and hits Seoni for 5 dmg.
Harsk acts, he uses a double-move to move 40 ft forward.
Valeros acts, he uses a double-move to move 40 ft forward.
Kyra acts, she uses channel energy, healing Seoni of 3 points of dmg. She then moves in front of Seoni, providing soft cover.
Seoni casts magic missile, hitting the Evangelist for 3 dmg.
Round 4 is at an end. The wind wall ends and the Evangelist and party are 40 ft apart. The Evangelist has taken 6 dmg.
Round 5:
The Evangelist, predicting one of his targets will enter his range this rounds, readies an action to hit Harsk with his lightning arc ability.
Harsk acts, not knowing the wind-wall is down, he uses a double-move to move 40 ft forward...
The Evangelist interrupts, striking at Harsk with his lightning arc. The ranged touch attack hits, dealing 4 points of dmg.
Harks continues his double-move, he is now beneath the Evangelist and on the other side of the non-existing wind wall. He cannot see the wall, but he's guessing that if the wall was between them before, it is not between them now.
Valeros acts, he uses a double-move to move 40 ft forward.
Kyra acts, seeing the Evangelist's tactic, she now rushes forward to assist the party, double-moving 60 ft. She is now with her party.
Seoni acts, deciding she'd rather not come within striking-distance of the lightning, and instead fires her last magic missile, dealing 3 dmg.
Round 5 is at an end. The Evangelist and the party are now only parted by his levitation. The Evangelist has taken 9 points of damage.
From round 6 and forward, the party lays into the Evangelist with ranged attacks. If another wind wall is cast to prevent attacks from below, they move again to strike from a different angle. This battle either ends with the Evangelist horribly shredded by ranged attacks and dead, or using obscuring mist to try to escape.
Against the wizard, this encounter is trivially easy and I won't even bother writing it out. The wizard has 1 advantage - he can reliably hit any target within 130 ft. He is beset on all sides with disadvantages though. The party outranges him, meaning they can whittle away at his 30 points of arrow-protection from a safe distance, while he cannot attack them. Valeros can suffer a -4 penalty to his attack rolls, while Harsk shoot unimpeded. The wizard is the one who has to go on the offensive. If he doesn't win before his protective spell is out, he has to retreat. This means he has to levitate in place and get shot at until his protection breaks, or he has to be on the ground, in which case the party moves towards him, shooting him while they approach, and making sushi of him once Valeros enters melee.
If you want either of these encounters to present a viable threat, you have to force the group to fight in an area(and at a distance) that favors the enemy. But that's not really a strength of the enemy, since any encounter can be made difficult if the terrain is used against the players.
Hope it helps :)
-Nearyn
What to kill:
3rd level Wizard
Evocation specialized school
Casts Levitate, has Protection from Arrows up and running, then shoots magic missiles from the sky. Uses a crossbow if out of missiles. Casts Obscuring Mist and Invisibility or Vanish if things go south.
Party wizard casts Shield, readies action to cast his own Magic Missile spell while being immune to the opponent's. After Magic Missile is exhausted, he switches to Ray of Frost or Melf's Acid Arrow.
With readied actions, enemy spellcasting can be disrupted. Martial characters with bows can take down the Protection from Arrows and kill the caster while the party wizard is disrupting his spellcasting.
If a party caster has the spell Magic Weapon, just have a martial with a bow ready an action to attack whenever the caster starts a spell.
What to kill:
3rd level Evangelist Cleric of Uaransaph
Void (primary) and Air domains
Casts Levitate, then Wind Wall, then shoots lightning bolts and channels negative from the sky. Uses a repeating crossbow if Wind Wall is down. Casts Obscuring Mist and crawls away on the ceiling if things go south.OR
3rd level Wizard
Evocation specialized school
Casts Levitate, has Protection from Arrows up and running, then shoots magic missiles from the sky. Uses a crossbow if out of missiles. Casts Obscuring Mist and Invisibility or Vanish if things go south.As a 1st through 4th level party with no natural fliers, how do you kill this sort of enemy quickly?
Well levitate is the poor man's fly.
After many rounds go by, one would have to keep stabilizing.
Levitate: "A levitating creature that attacks with a melee or ranged weapon finds itself increasingly unstable; the first attack has a –1 penalty on attack rolls, the second –2, and so on, to a maximum penalty of –5. A full round spent stabilizing allows the creature to begin again at –1."
So keep that in mind.
and A smart wizard that is hell bent on taking the party down, would just have a Wand of magic missles, to ensure the barrage never ends.
So on one end, its a waiting game.
Also note mentioning , obscurring mist gets wrecked by fire attacks.
Just fire attack towards the direction of the mist, and you are bound to hit the wizard.
Do remember crawling away on the ceiling moves a character at half speed.
Whoops, not Evangelist, Ecclesiastheurge. Sorry, my bad.
Is there a way to do this without casters?
Tag them with alchemist fire and let them make concentration checks for every spell.
Not like they can roll on the ground while levitating and reflex is not a good save for either cleric or wizard.
Whoops, not Evangelist, Ecclesiastheurge. Sorry, my bad.
Is there a way to do this without casters?
Tag them with alchemist fire and let them make concentration checks for every spell.
Not like they can roll on the ground while levitating and reflex is not a good save for either cleric or wizard.
Alchemists fire is a check of 12-15 for a second level spell. A level 3 caster will probably have about +7 to their concentration check. The caster has something like a 70-75% chance of making each concentration check. Not exactly something to rely on.
What to kill:
3rd level Evangelist Cleric of Uaransaph
Void (primary) and Air domains
Casts Levitate, then Wind Wall, then shoots lightning bolts and channels negative from the sky. Uses a repeating crossbow if Wind Wall is down. Casts Obscuring Mist and crawls away on the ceiling if things go south.
Check the range on channel energy. In this case, "the sky" is only 30 feet in altitude. Levitate means he's fixed in place. Unless you're fighting in a white cube, the party seeks hard cover and waits his spells out.
The beauty about a knife to the throat is that it works for ALL caster types.