However, if calling Lesser Planar Allies, I believe it is the DM's choice of what you get, though for a good aligned cleric, the Hound Archon or Bralani Eladrin are probably the most common choices. The bralani does have a CR6, which is 2 higher than the Archon, so hopefully the DM would have mercy on you. (the MM bralani has an AC that is 1 higher, 12 more hit points and gets a 2nd attack) You can have at least a couple of them protecting the sorcerer and cleric, while the others "man" the front lines with the knight, fighter & ranger to take advantage of flanking. The hound archons can also teleport at will, so could suddenly appear behind the bad guys as a flanking force, which would be nice. The bralanis could also cast lightning bolts - if you can call 6 of them, that is half a dozen 6d6 bolts of lightning.
True, it says:
Quote:
By casting this spell, you request your deity to send you an elemental or outsider (of 6 HD or less) of the deity’s choice. If you serve no particular deity, the spell is a general plea answered by a creature sharing your philosophical alignment. If you know an individual creature’s name, you may request that individual by speaking the name during the spell (though you might get a different creature anyway).
You ask Diety to send you something. You can only get exactly what you want if you have no diety (Cleric of as Calling variant) or if you know the individual's name.
This is why it is better to not havr a diety
__________________ "If you can't believe in yourself, believe in me who believes in you."
and
"Go beyond the impossible, and kick reason to the curb" Kamina, from Gurren Lagann
You ask Diety to send you something. You can only get exactly what you want if you have no diety (Cleric of as Calling variant) or if you know the individual's name.
This is why it is better to not havr a diety
well, assuming the cleric is of good alignment, his or her deity would send a good aligned Planar Ally, I would think? As a DM, I would consult the Summon Monster charts first for an idea of LG/NG/CG and go from there. I wouldn't delve too deeply into it if the players had pulled a surprise, as consulting different manuals for different ideas would slow the game down too much. If I knew they were going to call a Planar Ally, I would prep something appropriate.
__________________ "Who's more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him?" - Obi Wan Kenobi
Too late to help you plan? Hard to say without seeing the sorcerer's spell list.
Wind wall will give the sorcerer immunity from arrows/bolts. Surely he can kill or scatter the troops from the air, behind the safety of the wind wall.
What's the sorcerer got at 4th level? Wall of fire?
Wind wall is 3rd level for the cleric. Shape it into a column. Ring that with a wall of fire so they can't get inside the column and start blasting.
Of course if it were my sorcerer, I'd have taken confusion at 4th level, which would do a nasty turn on a bunch of 6th level fighters who cluster up at the bottom of the wind tunnel to try to shoot up at you...
They "Burned the town to the ground"...and..."are building a new keep".
So the bad guys are in TENTS!!!???
You have bags of holding and access to the fly spell. Find a source of rocks and you win. Night attack dive bomb the fanciest tent, upending (and turning inside out for good measure) the bags at terminal velocity for several hundred d6 damage (DM might argue over area of effect vs random chance of hitting....point him to the "Volley" rules if you can find them), splash oil on the ruins, and then fireball. Retreat.
Also, are there any undead or golems in the cave that you could restrain and store instead of destroying?
After that, if the GM is a religious person of the Christian tradition, or has an education including biblical history, read the story of Gideon and employ variations of his tactics to drive off the now leaderless enemy on the following nights. It might work for you anyway, but it would be more effective with a GM of that background.
the 3rd level cleric spell prayer is absolutely insane. my PCs use it every battle they can and it really turns the tides, even though it is only a +1 luck bonus to attack, damage, save and skills. best of all, it also effects all enemies with a -1 to all of the above, which is totally sweet.
even better, it effects ALL allies within 60' of the cleric. if the slavers send in the slaves as fodder, get your most powerful diplomancers to tell them this is the time to revolt - role-play it up a tad "...as a humble servant of Pelor, I promise you freedom and justice! Join us brothers!" and the DM might bump your chances of having a mutiny. as soon as this happens, try to get near the slaves and then remind the DM that your prayer now effects them. while it's not a lot, even 1st level warriors will be benifitting from a +1 to damage/attack. this stacks with a bard's singing and, can get pretty silly, if used on a big enough group.
a bard using inspirational courage and a cleric using prayer can boost even mook-level slaves with a +3 to attack and damage. considering they'll be using clubs and a STR score of 11, they'll immediately become much more effective.
p.s. just read the whole "DM intends us to adventure and Slavers to retain all wealth". unless this is part of some grand, overarching plotline, it sounds like he's railroading you guys and being kinda of a jackoff. the reason i am so candid is because i used to do this myself about a decade ago; he could and probably could reward thoughtful playing and interesting developments.
ie: if he's worried about you guys getting too rich, simply let the surviving slaves consider one of the PCs their heroic retainer and they set about rebuilding the village with him as the mayor-protector. now, not only do the PCs get far more involved, but now there are a billion and one ways to rid them of one or two over-treasured situations, without being a railroading jerk about it.
Last edited by krupintupple; 6th June 2009 at 11:38 PM..
Well, I don't think he's being mean. He's a really good guy, we'll be friends long after the game ends. The railroading is probably because it's the 3rd module that we've abandoned. We walked out of the RHoD module and left the towns to be destroyed by the horde. We walked out of the Freeport Trilogy and left the city to be mind-controlled. We ditched the new tomb-raiding module, and he tried everything possible to prevent it.
I suspect that if I spent hours & hours prepping to run a campaign module and then the players walked off into unprepared territory, I'd probably get tired of doing the leg work, too. I suspect he was trying to salvage his many hours of investment. So now the new question is, how can I get the party to have some success AND have the DM feel like his prep work gets used?
We have some unexplored caves near where we are. I think that's a possible goal -- he prepped those caves probably a year ago and we never explored them. That ought to be easy for us to finish and easy for him to DM. I think right now I'm going to head to our private game forum and try to start a discussion about plans for the team, so that we can give our DM lots of advanced warning.
even better, it effects ALL allies within 60' of the cleric. if the slavers send in the slaves as fodder, get your most powerful diplomancers to tell them this is the time to revolt - role-play it up a tad "...as a humble servant of Pelor, I promise you freedom and justice! Join us brothers!" and the DM might bump your chances of having a mutiny. as soon as this happens, try to get near the slaves and then remind the DM that your prayer now effects them.
This isn't quite true. Prayer affects all allies in a burst at the time of casting ... which makes it distinct from an emanation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SRD
Burst, Emanation, or Spread
[...]
A burst spell affects whatever it catches in its area, even including creatures that you can’t see. [...] A burst’s area defines how far from the point of origin the spell’s effect extends.
An emanation spell functions like a burst spell, except that the effect continues to radiate from the point of origin for the duration of the spell. Most emanations are cones or spheres.
Emphasis mine.
Get the slaves as allies and get them in range before casting the spell, and you're all good.
__________________ Jeff Wilder, San Francisco Bay Area If your sig is longer than your posts, your sig is too
long. Nobody reads it, they just get annoyed by it. And if you bore me, you lose your soul to me. - Belly
Well, I don't think he's being mean. He's a really good guy, we'll be friends long after the game ends. The railroading is probably because it's the 3rd module that we've abandoned. We walked out of the RHoD module and left the towns to be destroyed by the horde. We walked out of the Freeport Trilogy and left the city to be mind-controlled. We ditched the new tomb-raiding module, and he tried everything possible to prevent it.
I suspect that if I spent hours & hours prepping to run a campaign module and then the players walked off into unprepared territory, I'd probably get tired of doing the leg work, too. I suspect he was trying to salvage his many hours of investment. So now the new question is, how can I get the party to have some success AND have the DM feel like his prep work gets used?
We have some unexplored caves near where we are. I think that's a possible goal -- he prepped those caves probably a year ago and we never explored them. That ought to be easy for us to finish and easy for him to DM. I think right now I'm going to head to our private game forum and try to start a discussion about plans for the team, so that we can give our DM lots of advanced warning.
Some good points - if the PCs continually "ruin" his best laid plans, he might be a bit frustrated. However, it's kind of naive of him to think PCs won't try to stop/attack the slavers - it's almost a given if you're playing truly good aligned PCs/heroes. It's like an unwritten rule.
However, if he preps an adventure and you guys bug out, he's not doing enough to create incentives for you to stay... maybe a relative/friend of the PCs is among the slaves? Or, maybe one of the slaves tells them they have important info concerning a friend/relative, if the PCs do him/her a favor first? Granted, he can't completely twist your arms ("OK, there is a huge magical barrier at the edge of town that blocks even teleportation...") - but, he can give you better reasons to stay.
Of course, if you're all playing evil aligned PCs, then the incentive will have to be different than rescuing slaves, widows and orphans.
__________________ "Who's more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him?" - Obi Wan Kenobi
Hey gang. I want to revisit this thread because of this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Wilder
Is there any way you can adventure in the tomb to -- ding! -- get to 9th level?
Yep, we made it to 9th. We got out of the slavelord's valley (currently in the Underdark) and we're about to use my first 5th level spell to teleport back within range of the jerk. Many things have changed, and I'm looking for tips.
We have a ranger/fighter (TWF), sorcerer, knight, and cleric. All are at 9th level. We also have a hawk (ranger animal companion), a pseudodragon (ranger cohort), and a rogue3/cleric4 halfling (cleric cohort). About the sorcerer:
Quote:
Originally Posted by aboyd
The sorcerer doesn't have Evard's Tentacles. Only Fireburst, Fireball, Fly, Web, Seeking Ray, Grease, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, and a few others I forget.
OK? Now, here is what we are up against. Thanks to some reconnaissance, we know it's much worse than we thought. There are 30 lvl1-2 warriors, 28 level 2-3 warriors, 9 sergeants/fighters level 3-4, 3 lieutenants/fighters level 4-5, 3 captains/fighters level 5-6, 1 ranger of 5-6 level, 3-4 Acolytes/healers (non-fighting men but they do brew a lot of potions and write scrolls), 1 cleric level 5 or 6, cleric lvl 6-7, Dere Conag (slavelord's right-hand man, supposedly about equivalent to our knight), and Lord Ranas Jorgos (slavelord, maybe a sorcerer).
In addition, we had a confrontation with the slavelord that went badly. Two things happened. First, he surprised us by surrounding us with Verags. Maybe a dozen or more. We try to avoid metagaming, so none of us have looked up the monster to know how strong it is. We only know that back at 5th level we encountered two and we couldn't kill them because of their spring attack feats. Second, with the exception of my armor and weapon, the slavelord took all of my cleric's money & items, so I have nothing to use to hire any outsiders from a Lesser Planar Ally spell.
Since he took the loot, we have managed to scrounge up about 2500 gold, and we have found a merchant in the Underdark who will sell anything valued at 2000 gold or less. So here is where I need advice.
Advice?
The sorcerer has a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level spell slot open. What should he learn? I mean, what would be useful for an ambush or guerrilla warfare? We allow the Complete series, the core books, the PHB 2, and the Spell Compendium.
Also, what 5th level spells are good for my cleric? I have Righteous Wrath of the Faithful so far, very good buffing. I can take a few days and cast in succession if needed. I only have 1 5th-level spell per day, plus a Teleport from my travel domain.
Finally, what magic item(s) for 2000 or less is good? Right now I'm thinking of buying a Scroll of Call Zelekhut, plus a handful of Tanglepatch bombs (from the MIC). Can I do better?
If only there was a sorcerer guide that gave advice on such matters...
Good core spells for hit and run:
2:
Rope Trick (hiding)
Glitterdust (blind them)
3:
Explosive Runes (make lots of bombs)
Major Image (Illusions can mislead people away from you)
Dimension Step (allows your entire party to teleport short distances)
Lesser Planar Allies could also get you some Bralani Eladrins, which are pretty handy in a fight against melee types - they have DR10/cold iron or evil; they move at 40 and can fly at 100; resistance to cold & fire; and minor spell resistance... heck, they can create mirror image at will, so that makes them a good opponent for a level 6 fighter. They can also try a few Charm Persons to get some more allies on your side - or at least put them out of the fight for a bit?
Also Bralani will gladly help you to free some slaves, being paragons of CG and all.
If the warriors are all camped near one another and wear medium or heavy armor, a night attack starting with a couple of fireballs would really work wonders. Any of the low levels surviving the first couple of runds would then have the unenviable task of putting on their armor (taking up valuable time) or being mince (AC, what, 12 for your archer, ranger, and knight?)
As for abandoning thinngs your DM has prepared- I guess in my games my players tell me before we game what they are leaning towards. "Yeah, I don't think we're going to THAT right now because we think we need to go THERE first". It's always worked for us.
Trailblazer is now available.
Only Fireburst, Fireball, Fly, Web, Seeking Ray, Grease, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, and a few others I forget.
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