Combatting Force Effects (Cube/Wall of Force and Forcecage)

[Eye Tyrant]

Oh, Glorious EN boards, how can I best combat these Force effects??

Cube of Force
Wall of Force
Forcecage

An arrogant PC thinks that he is invinicible with these at his disposal, and is proving difficult. He likes to Forcecage big baddies while another PC casts Dimensional Anchor, then he will use 6 charges from his Cube of Force and block everything. After that he just sits there and casts those spells that he can through the Cube...

 

[ThirdWizard]

The most obvious solution I can think of is multiple encounters per day. This sounds like a lot of resources!

 

[noeuphoria]

How 'bout a couple beholders? They laugh at force cage and wall of force. They get 10 eye rays a round, and one of those rays can simply disentigrate a forcecage or wall of force, while leaving 9 left over for misc mayhem. A sorceror with the disentigrate spell can do about the same, basically negating the other character. Also, consider equipping fighters with items that allow dimension door or teleport, there are several in the dmg. Give him a taste of his own medicine. A mage with and a low-level flunky can put him inside a forcecage with silence cast on the floor, which means basically doing nothing. Lastly, consider sending them up against the argent savant from complete arcane. That character can dispel force effects 1/round, and makes them explode when they do.

 

[Pielorinho]

Different tactics for different folks:
1) Spell Resistance to resist Dimensional Anchor, followed up by a teleport next to the wizard.
2) The ability to cast disintegrate on the force wall, or dispel magic on the dimensional anchor.
3) The ability to cast one's own wall of force, to block line of effect.
4) The ability to shapeshift into a form that can squeeze between the bars.
5) Swarms.
6) Incorporeality. (I think that this will get past a forcecage, but I'm not sure).
7) Multiple bad guys.
8) Illusory bad guys.
9) The ability to become unseen (via smoke bombs, Hide in Plain Sight, Fog Clouds, invisibility, or other means).

Daniel

 

[Infiniti2000]

After that he just sits there and casts those spells that he can through the Cube...

Did you rule that the screen is one-way? Nothing says it's one-way. I see it as preventing those specified attack forms, either in or out. Thus, your PC would not be able to attack out of the Cube of Force what he disallows in.

Pielorinho otherwise has some good suggestions. Better than SR, though, would be spell immunity (dimensional anchor) and greater spell immunity (dimensional lock).

 

[Goolpsy]

i mean forcecage blocks ethereal entry/exit .. but.. allowing them to jump to the shadow plane... i dunno if dimentional anchor blocks that too? cause, basicly you are there, but you aren't. Ethereal = you are there, jsut in a half invisible ghost form..

 

[Eye Tyrant]

Did you rule that the screen is one-way? Nothing says it's one-way. I see it as preventing those specified attack forms, either in or out. Thus, your PC would not be able to attack out of the Cube of Force what he disallows in.

Pielorinho otherwise has some good suggestions. Better than SR, though, would be spell immunity (dimensional anchor) and greater spell immunity (dimensional lock).

I have implemented SR with some success...

As far as the screen, it seems that that I ruled one-way... I blame that on my players constant efforts to dupe me. :/

I have looked at the Savant and may use that route (Kobold/Half Dragon Sor13/ArSav5??)

I could throw in Beholders... that actually may be the easiest thing to do too...

 

[jgsugden]

This is the character's focus. He should be effective when using it. I should work in a majority of circumstances. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that you need to bypas his specialty in every encounter.

However, there should be some encounters where his methods are less effective. Here are a few examples to get past some of these effects:

#1: Counterspells.
#2: Gaseous Form.
#3: Illusions to get the PC to put his force effects int he wrong place.
#4: Disintegration.
#5: Cancellation.
#6: Magic Dead Zones.
#7: Spell Immunity (versus dimensional anchor) and teleportation.
#8: Spellcasters that do not require line of effect.
#9: Trick the PC into casting his spells in places where the spell can't work (ie; if there is already a wall of force in place, casing another in the same location won't work).
#10: Gaze attacks.
#11: Defenses so that the enemy can wait out the force spells.
#12: New mechanics, such as temporal spells that jump targets forward through time (so that they can reappear after the force barrier is gone).
#13: Most of these spells have gemstone dust as a material component ... something that thieves might covet ...

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

If someone used that tactic against a spellcaster of mine my first response would be to put up a wall or fog. Any such spell will dissuade or prevent a lot of attacks that would penetrate the Forcecage. Even a lowly Obscuring Mist would have some value.

That is a lot of resources burned. It should be effective against the average foe.

 

[irdeggman]

A Cube of Force can be defeated (eventually) by dealing sufficient damage and specific spells (disintegrate, wall of fire, etc.) For every 10 points above 30 1 charge is used. And only one person can be protected by this cube.

Equip the bad guys with rods of cancellation. Stories of PCs using the same tactics will eventualy spread to the point where the bad guys are equipped to handle those tactics.

Bad guys - use mutiple vice 1 really powerful creature. Minions have a way of causing a lot of disruption to the PCs. An invisible high level rogue can really cause problems to a group of PCs (especially with a greater invisisiblity spell cast on him - or dust of dissappearance).

If his fellows are defeated the wizard protected by the cube will feel real intimiditated (especially since his movement is rather limited by the cube so he can't get away too quickly).

Gosh, digging a hole beneath the protected character and filling it with something like water seems to be a good idea to me also. Spells aren't targeted at the protected creature nor do they have a direct effect on him, but once the cube's protection fades. . . .

Dimensional Anchor nor Force Cage (unless a solid wall vice cage and then the PCs can't cast spells at their foe) won't stop Gasous Form. Invisibility followed by GF should get someone out of that trap fairly easily without detection (unless the PCs are "prepared" for detecting).

As far as casting spells through a Force Cube, the text seems to imply that only the spells listed can't be cast through the Cube so it seems like a reasonable ruling to me.