ok, so me and my brother made a bet, it was which one of us would have the stronger level thirty character, at first i thought he was going barbarian which i had no problem beating, but know hes make a dragon riding paladin..... and the character i had cant stand up to a dragon so can anyone suggest a character build to beat him? all core 3.5 and forgotten realms books are allowed (along with infiltrator from kingdoms of kalamar)
thanks.
30th level? Make a 30th-level spellcaster and turn the paladin
and his silly dragon into little flecks of dust drifting on the wind. I assume you're using the Epic-Level Handbook?
I don't think the core books provide a way for a sorceror to get Quicken Spell, so you're probably best off with a wizard. A necromancer, perhaps? Put a base 18 into Int, be a grey elf, get a
+5 tome of clear thought and
+12 headband of epic intellect (you should have more than enough wealth by level for this), and dump all your stat increases into Int for a total of Int 44.
For your seven epic-level feats, put one into Improved Heighten Spell, one into Improved Metamagic, and five into Epic Spell Capacity. Your normal feats should include Quicken Spell, Maximize Spell, Empower Spell, Heighten Spell, Spell Focus (Necromancy), and Greater Spell Focus (Necromancy). I'm sure you see where this is going.
The dragon is presumably no bigger than Adult gold. (Remember, you can't have a cohort at your level or above, no matter what your Leadership score is; and Young or older golds have
at least a +6 level adjustment. Add to the dragon's 23 Hit Dice and you get 29, the maximum.) This is important for a couple reasons. First, such a dragon is not powerful enough to cast
anti-magic shell, which could really mess up your day. Second, it has spell resistance 23, which is strictly nothing as far as you're concerned, and a +18 Fortitude save.
So, Quickened
Mordenkainen's disjunction (12th-level slot) strips away all buffs and wards from the paladin and dragon. Careful not to catch yourself in the area of effect! Follow that up in the same round with
wail of the banshee, Heightened to level 14*. The save DC on this is:
10 (base) +14 (spell level) +17 (Intelligence) +2 (Greater Spell Focus) = 43.
Even if it's using the elite array and put the 15 in Con, the dragon needs a natural 20 to survive. Good luck with that. If he's got a good Charisma and Constitution, the paladin has a fair chance to make it, but a fair number of his items and
all his buffing spells are gone. Next round you can throw a Quickened
forcecage around him and start playing "catch the Maximized Empowered
energy drain."
Ah, but wait, you say. What if the paladin and his dragon win initiative? Not a problem. That's what
contingency is for. As soon as the paladin and/or his dragon are within line of sight (you do wear a
gem of true seeing in front of your face at all times when outside your fortress, right?),
contingency teleports you away to an undisclosed location. Once there,
time stop,
greater teleport back, and assess the situation. Cast a few delayed-action spells for extra fun, delay your initiative as necessary to ensure you have the lead when
time stop wears off, and unload.
(For that matter, why are you even outside your fortress to begin with? You should be hanging out in your
Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion and cavorting with summoned succubi, except when you set out to scry'n'die some poor sod. Like, say, a dragon-riding paladin.)
And that's just for starters. I'm being very conservative with the rules--no dubious interpretations or stretching of RAW, just using the spells exactly as intended--and I'm not nearly as experienced as some of the folks around here at abusing the Epic-Level Handbook. I hear you can do some really horrific stuff with epic spells...
[size=-2]*Arguably, Improved Metamagic should let you heighten it to 15, but like I said, I'm being conservative here.[/size]
