How would you defend against this?

[Scion]

Cast a spell that makes a very thin sheet of metal that reacts to air by burning and releasing light. Anyone with a good amount of ranks in alchemy should know about at least a couple, pick one that will do it. Here is the spell Always have it memorized, it is just too good for too many things. Along with fabricate.

Wind walls, walls of fire, wall of iron all work very well also.


SRD:
Major Creation
Conjuration (Creation)
Level: Sor/Wiz 5
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Duration: See text
This spell functions like minor creation, except that you can also create an object of mineral nature: stone, crystal, metal, or the like. The duration of the created item varies with its relative hardness and rarity, as indicated on the following table.

Hardness and Rarity Examples Duration
Vegetable matter 2 hr./level
Stone, crystal, base metals 1 hr./level
Precious metals 20 min./level
Gems 10 min./level
Rare metal1 1 round/level
1 Includes adamantine, alchemical silver, and mithral. You can’t use major creation to create a cold iron item.

 

[swrushing]

Cast leos tiny hut (3rd level sphere opaque to outside looking in but not to inside looking out and a large radius.) Then begin using arrows with light or other such to start illuminating the areas until you find him.

 

[MCakaTLK]

Unless the archer is moving around, I'd think it wouldn't even require a skill check. If the arrow is sticking out of you with the fletchings pointing west, it means the archer is to the west.

Player 1: "Ouch! Guys, I just got hit with an arrrow! Someone's out there."

Player 2: "Where is he?"

Player 1: "I don't know. Out there shooting m OUCH!!!!!"

Player 2: "Well, did you move at all? Which way are the fletchings on the arrows pointing?"

Player 1: *trying to find some cover* "What? Of course I moved."

Player 2: "Look, we'll never find him in this darkness. Stand still so we can get a bead on him the next time he shoots you."

Player 1: *gets hit with an arrow, falls down, passes out from bloodloss*

Player 2: "Good. Stay like that. one more shot, and we'll have that sneaky archer..."

 

[clark411]

Our party encountered that kind of sitch.. my wizard lobbed a fireball down the hallway, and tried to overestimate it considerably. It backlit the enemy long enough for everyone to get a bead on where he was.

Another recommendation I can offer is the use of bullseye lanterns instead of torches. The only real function of torches is to a) prevent you from moving at "Dear god we can't see" movement, b) keep you from falling in blatent / naturally formed pits, and c) illuminate you for your enemies. Ditch them before you ditch your non-MW weapons.

 

[PaulGreystoke]

You should alway stay on the LEFT wall. Works much better.

No, no, no. Everyone knows that the "right hand rule" is superior. Except against drow of course - they're tricksy & will use it against you - in which case your advice is valid.

 

[CalrinAlshaw]

I'm sorry, but for an arrow to drive itself into someone, they are gonna be pushed the direction the arrow was going unless they were running RIGHT into the arrow. As soon as you are hit you are gonna be shoved by the arrow and know the general direction (whoever got hit). My party has several continual torches prepared for these kinds of situations, everyone just grabs one and chucks them outward to cover the area with light. The best part is that the flames can't be doused with water or by hitting the ground. Other options include casting daylight and trying to place it mid-way in the cavern to cover a huge 60' radius area, or just light spell. Trueseeing if you are high enough of a level and don't mind spending 250gp worth of ingredients for each casting.

Calrin Alshaw

 

[nameless]

And don't mind covering your eyeballs in vaseline. That's just about the only spell component nastier than the one for Spider climb.... *grin*

 

[Nellisir]

How would you defend against this?

OK, the attacker is invisible. Invisibility is essentially all or nothing -- he doesn't get bonuses for being invisible AND hidden in the darkness.

I'd use Listen checks first -- DC 15 to hear the pixie flying, +15 for distance, for a DC 30 to hear it. If the pixie is -trying- to be quite, it becomes an opposed roll -- Move Silently vs Listen, modified by distance.

Spot checks can be reactive; everyone who could plausibly see an arrow should get a Spot check to determine direction. Since the arrow is not invisible and presumably within the sphere of illumination when the PCs get their Spot checks, no distance penalty is assessed. Probably DC 15, since the arrow is moving pretty quickly.

To actually "see" the pixie a character would need at least a 35 -- minimum 20 to become aware of an invisible creature, +15 for distance. More likely 40.

At that point, they should get cover and work on 1) illumination and 2) area-effect spells.

And get an owl familiar.

Cheers
Nell.

 

[kwiqsilver]

I'm sorry, but for an arrow to drive itself into someone, they are gonna be pushed the direction the arrow was going unless they were running RIGHT into the arrow. As soon as you are hit you are gonna be shoved by the arrow and know the general direction (whoever got hit).

You've watched too many Hollywood movies. Being hit by a thrown, launched, or fired projectile does not push the target back. The kinetic energy the arrow has when it hits the target is equal to the energy it had leaving the bow minus the energy lost to air resistance. When the bow exerts a force on the arrow at launch, it exerts an equal and opposite force on the archer, so if it was capable of knocking the target back, it would knock the archer back as well. The same goes for shotguns and other firearms.
A weapon from a massive launcher, such as a ballista bolt or an arrow fired by a storm giant, could knock the target back without pushing back the launcher, since the launcher has several times the mass of the target.

What would most likely happen is the target would flinch from being hit. So if you could get out your surveying equipment and line up the projectile before he took cover, your guess at an incoming angle would be off by 5-10 degrees (at least). If the archer is back 100 feet, a 10 degree margin of error would mean you can narrow the direction of the attack to an arc 35 feet long.
So at best, you'll get a general direction of where the arrow came from, which you can probably get from a DC 20-30 spot check (depending on how nice the DM is) as the arrow comes in.

I've noticed players prefer to be the ones launching the ambush, not the ones being ambushed. And guys like this archer show why: a well prepared ambush is deadly. In the D&D world, where hit points and saving throws make instant death from a single arrow pretty much impossible, it's not quite as dangerous as it could be, but it's still pretty bad. If you put a group that's a decent challenge for the PCs in a position to ambush the PCs, then the PCs need to either roll much better or you need to cheat for them to survive.

 

[Mystendanian]

hack 'n slash mentality

The hack 'n slash mentality never ceases to amaze me...

Why stay in the cavern and get shot? You're in a bad situation, recognize it as such. Elder Basilisk has the right idea - put out your light. Since you've traveled into the cavern following the right wall, your next move is to retreat back into the passageway from which you entered - feel your way along the wall as you go so you can make your way. Fall back and regroup.

If your enemy follows you into the passageway you have a number of options. Perhaps launch area-effect spells into the passageway ahead and you've got him. If the passageway juts and turns, set up an ambush at one of the corners. If you fear your enemy is invisible, cast faerie fire on an object and leave it in the center of the passage. It all depends on what capabilities your party has, but you get the idea.

If your enemy stays put in the cavern, at least your party has time to discuss strategy.

Here is a clear-cut message to all of you hack 'n slashers: Sometimes brains outweigh brawn.

It took me a long while as a DM, but I finally got my party to where they would fight with strategy. When my group was in this situation, they wisely took cover, the wizard cast light on a quiver of crossbow bolts and the rogue did "pop-up shots" spreading the lighted bolts across the cavern until they could illuminate it enough to engage the enemy.

Myst