Planar Ally, aka ARRRGH!

[Wraithdrit]

Okay, so what defines a task. I felt it was a reasonable task to ask a planar ally to assist in the destruction of an evil temple (good cleric caster). It will take hours, so the appropriate money changes hands and the party wades in.

11-12th level party, 6 players

EL 12-14 encounters.

Including an 11th level drow vampire cleric.

The party WADED through it like nothing.

The planar ally had SR 28, Minor Globe, At will Wall of Force and Fireball. It was insane. They wall of forced entire encounters in half, and just waltzed through most of the encounters.

Did I just pick the WRONG ally to give them? I thought the Leonal would be less pwerful than an Astral Deva. Is this just too much of a 'task'?

What is up with this spell?

 

[S'mon]

IMC when the PCs summoned a planar ally planatar (in 3.0) the evil clerics summoned a bigger, badder planar ally... when the evil high priest dispelled their planatar it got really messy...

Planar ally is like 'Gate', it basically has no effective controls on it. It's up to the DM to make the PCs wary of using it lightly.

 

[maddman75]

Yeah - you pull out the Planar Allies, and the PCs are going to kick ass and take names. Only thing you can do is have them come back later giving the PCs tasks to accomplish (aka free plot hook).

 

[Wraithdrit]

Well the enemies could not dispel it, since its SR of 28 pretty much kept it immune (I tried two different dismissals and a banishment!) Even if one would have worked, it would have required a Will save which would probably NOT have been failed considering the insane bonuses the outsider had.

I have been assured by the players that it was a case of rest or cast planar ally and they felt they needed to push on, keeping surprise on their side, but damn, NOTHING I did was very effective against the thing.

 

[the Jester]

Not too long ago the party in my campaign went into the big fight with a solar, a great big ol' elemental and a glimmerskin as (greater) planar allies... it was insane.

Of course, that solar died in that big fight, which (as Tallarn says) is one sign that you're in the big leagues.

 

[allenw]

Well the enemies could not dispel it, since its SR of 28 pretty much kept it immune (I tried two different dismissals and a banishment!) Even if one would have worked, it would have required a Will save which would probably NOT have been failed considering the insane bonuses the outsider had.

Just took a look at the Leonal stats. My goodness, that's a nasty critter (in a righteous sort of way, of course. ) And I can't even say "see, Planar Ally should work off of CR not HD," since it's CR and HD are both 12. Though I'm dubious about the CR 12; those spell-like and supernatural abilities seem excessive.
What did you use for the (unlisted) Caster Level of the Holy Roar? CL 12, based on it's Hit Dice, would have left the Drow Vampire Cleric-11 blind and deaf (unless you let the Drow's SR work against it), but CL 10 (like the Leonal's spell-like abilities) would have left the cleric immune.
Barring a Planar Ally of her (assumption, being a Drow Cleric) own, the Cleric's best option would be either temporary retreat, or as many Blasphemies as she could muster, followed up with Banishments and Dismissals, until the thing finally blew both Spell Resistance and its Will Save. That'd take too long, though, as you saw.

 

[Wraithdrit]

The drow had orders to stand and fight no matter the odds. They did everything they could to get rid of the Leonal. At one point it was the vampire and leonal locked in hand to hand. The leonal started looking worse for wear, so grappled the vampire, and carried her into the blade barrier. The Leonal had already made his SR check vs the blade barrier, and as was my luck that night, the vampire boffed the check. So she went mist shortly after that.

The really nasty part was the at will wall of force. I had a pincher encounter set up and they read it before hand, and used the wall of force to keep half the encounter out for 10 rounds.

It was not that bad a combat, in truth. The party was not well rested and had expended a lot of spell power getting there, and basically ended up relying on the Leonal and sheer willpower and muscle (the kind that only heros have) to keep in the fight. That no one died was pretty amazing. Though honestly the Leonal had me (and the NPCs I suppose) so rattled that my tactics sometimes got the better of me.

Anyways... yeah, there was a silver holy symbol showing banishment on the Leonal, and I missed the required Spell Penetration roll by 1! Grrr. Then later realized I forgot she had the Spell Penetration feat. Damn! Oh well. He probably would have made the save anyways...

The Leonal has returned to the Celestial heavens he came from and the party is moving on, so its time for me to get back to challenging them. The cleric has left the party, so there will be no more planar ally spells cast.

At least by the players. You know what they say, whats good for the goose...

Can you hear the drow chanting up that planar ally spell as we speak? I can. Heh.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

What is up with this spell?

This was 3.5? It costs XP too...

In any event, it's power is based on the HD of the creature, but the CR/HD ratio isn't "set" and in any event the creature could have innacurate CR. In other words, don't be surprised if it isn't balanced

It should use ECL rather than CR or HD - being able to use wall of force at will is much more powerful when it's around for more than 7 rounds.

Furthermore, the hemisphere option for wall of force is gone.

 

[sithramir]

Am I missing something?

I understand that having wall of force at will is cool. But once the creature wasted its round using a wall of force, it gave them a round to dispel it and move together or to cast another densive spell, attack one of the PC's, etc.

This is effectively no different than a sorceror with a wall of force spell anyways.

Also how come none of them have ways of traveling like dimension door, blink, teleport ? What about other ways to flee the monster effectively making the PC's waste their money and xp on planar ally?

Having one of two dispel checks on at will wall's of force would waste that creatures actions trying to wall of force each round and allow other allies to keep trying to blast it with something.

No people with enervate, melf's acid arrow, etc? These spells avoid SR and enervate LOWERS it to a reasonable level if it works.

Leonel grappling vampire? Hello free drain attacks and lowering his SR and giving the vampire lots of bonus hps.

Lets assume no teleport powers why not stone shapes and such to mold holes in walls to get around? Between a few clerics i'd expect some sort of useful spells like that.

 

[melkoriii]

Leonel grappling vampire? Hello free drain attacks and lowering his SR and giving the vampire lots of bonus hps.

I serously dout that the vamp could beat the Loenel's Grapple check of +20.