Need help with buffs for teleport blitz

[random user]

I'm introducing the players, in a way, to the high-level tactic of buffing and then teleporting in.

One problem I have, however, is that I don't know it that well myself. So I'm asking for help here from those that have played in a lot of high level campaigns.

What buffs do you put on your party before you teleport in? Asume you are teleporting into a group of humanoids. I'm thinking mostly of defensive spells rather than the (I think more obvious?) offensive spells.

These are the ones I've thought of: haste, cat's grace/bull strength/etc for those who need it, contingency?, mind blank (if you're high enough), spell turning?, spell resistance?, repulsion?, fly?, freedom of movement?

Am I missing anything? In practice is it practical to cast all those spells before teleporting in?

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[VirgilCaine]

The whole tactic is better if you have observed the group for a while and know if they have a routine, then take advantage of it.

All the illusion buff spells seem like good things to stack to me. With blink, blur, and displacement, thats three percentile rolls to see if they hit you.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Divine Power and Righteous Might

 

[shilsen]

Depends to a great extent on what kind of classes are teleporting in. What did you have in mind?

 

[Jeph]

Our 8th level group (3.0e with 3.5e Big H spells) performed our first teleport blitzkrieg last session, against some sort of Salt Demon. We used a Protection from Evil, some Resist Elements, and a Greater Magic Weapon, and a Haste, but not much else aside from that...

It went like this: on the surprise round, he shrugged off a Charm Monster, got zapped with a searing light, and our swordsman moved into the "I can hit you but you can't hit me" location of the Magic Circle. On the first round, we all went before him, so he ate some other clerical spell, resisted a second Charm, and then got hit for some 80 or so damage, thanks to the swordsman being so twinked out, getting the extra Haste attack, and rolling two criticals on two out of his three attacks.

I totally agree that you should observe your enemy before teleport ambushing them. Before you even think about usingh effective-ness buffing spells, you need to know what spells to have running that will counter the enemy's defenses. If they're immune to electricity damage, you can't 'port in and zap them with a quickened Lesser Electric Orb and an empowered Lightning Bolt. If they have Damage Reduction, you'll need the right weapons to counter it. If they commonly have a Contingency set up that aports them to safted in the case of assassination attempts, you'll need to work past that, too.

--Jeff

 

[Doug McCrae]

Our 8th level group (3.0e with 3.5e Big H spells) performed our first teleport blitzkrieg last session, against some sort of Salt Demon.

How do you teleport at 8th level? Was it Dimension Door?

 

[Jeph]

How do you teleport at 8th level? Was it Dimension Door?

We payed, which wasn't too much of a problem, as one character is a high ranking baron and another has a well-paying teaching position at a magical college. The purchased spell was one of those high-level varients that allowed the caster to not come along for the ride, and I think had increased capacity (100 lbs./level?), too. But now we're 9th level and can do it ourselves, should we need to perform another strike--or call an angel or bind a demon or whatever to do it in our service.

--Jeff

 

[random user]

Depends to a great extent on what kind of classes are teleporting in. What did you have in mind?

It's going to be 5 NPC's teleporting into a courtyard. One NPC is planning on casting a modified gate spell (which still only takes one round) to summon something nasty and then teleporting back out. If they think they have time they will possibly toss out a couple other destructive spells -- a basic hit and run, but their aim is to just cause as much destruction as possible, rather than eliminating any specific target.

That's the plan at least, but of course it's quite possible that that plan won't survive contact with the players. The players aren't going to be the direct target, but they may be close enough that they will have a chance to affect the outcome, either by inpeding the teleporters in some way, or by aiding the defense, etc. (They may also choose to do nothing, of course.)

I'm pretty ok with just about anything happening, but I do want it to seem plausible. I don't want the players to, for example, hold person the teleporter, when the teleporter would have had access to the spell freedom of movement and almost certainly would have thought to cast it beforehand. In other words, the enemy teleporter and friends should be reasonable smart about having defenses up.

However, I've never actually had a chance to do a teleport blitz in 3e; I've looked through the PHB as I could to try and think of intelligent buffs and precautions to have in place, but I was hoping that someone who had done it before could help out with advice.

 

[shilsen]

It's going to be 5 NPC's teleporting into a courtyard. One NPC is planning on casting a modified gate spell (which still only takes one round) to summon something nasty and then teleporting back out. If they think they have time they will possibly toss out a couple other destructive spells -- a basic hit and run, but their aim is to just cause as much destruction as possible, rather than eliminating any specific target.

What classes and caster levels? If they're casting a modified gate, I'm assuming pretty high level.

If the focus is on casting and getting out of there quickly, here are a few simple PHB spell suggestions by class for protection purposes:

Bard - Freedom of Movement, Heroism, Greater Heroism

Cleric - Antilife Shell, Death Ward, Divine Power, Freedom of Movement, Spell Resistance, Unholy Aura

Druid - Antilife Shell, Death Ward, Freedom of Movement

Sor/Wiz - Greater Invisibility, Mind Blank, Protection from Spells, Spell Turning

As for causing some serious damage, just drop an Earthquake and a Firestorm out there

 

[Vrecknidj]

It's iimpossible to advise specifically without knowing the levels of the characters and what access they have to spells. That said . . . .

If there are a bunch of fighters, they should all have Haste, Bear's Endurance, and whichever of Cat's Grace or Bull's Strength will be better for them. Blur and Heroism are also quite nice.

The arcane spellcasters should have Fly, and, if possible, Greater Invisibility. You want your fire support to be mobile and hard to target.

Dave