I need a little tactical advice, as a DM

[Greenfield]

As some of you may know, our D&D 3.5 game runs on a round-robin style of play, which means that we take turns being DM.

My turn is coming up, and I've got my story ready.

The problem is that the current DM just buried us in loot. Specifically, a couple of dozen wands. We got Magic Missile wands from 1st level to 9th, a couple of Wall of Fire, a couple of Lightning Bolt, a Searing Light or two, the list doesn't seem to end. There are some healing and other utility, but the vast majority are blaster type stuff.

In short, the party spell casters just became kind of serious artillery.

I know that they'll burn through them eventually, but ...

How do I handle them now? Any advice? Offensively, by sheer volume of spells, their effective CR just jumped by two or three levels.

 

[Dandu]

Golems

 

[anest1s]

Design a really cool castle/keep/whatever
That costs exactly the price the wands would sell for

 

[Empath Negative]

Develop a spell "Wando-Destructo" that targets magic wands and causes them to release all of their magic instantly, destreoying the wand and causing it to deal d6 damage per five charges esploded.

Make it (the trigger that detonates the wand) an AoE. Target group, detonate each and every last one of their wands on a failed saved.

Watch the collective fury of your gaming group cause the fabric of your gaming room to boil. Point to the asshat that played Monte Haul and say "it was his idea!".

 

[Jacob Marley]

Does it really matter? Do the party casters have a way to break the action economy with the additional wands*? If not, then wouldn't worry about it and would just run the adventure/encounters I had ready.

* Even then they are just wands that go Boom, Boom!

 

[Greenfield]

I'm not going to arbitrarily destroy their gear/treasure. That's industrial-strength uncool.

And yes, they're just wands that go Boom Boom. But next round they go Boom Boom again. And again. And again. Round after round.

My current plan for the adventure is to recreate the Battle of Thermopylae as one possible outcome. This time the Persians already know about the secondary path, a narrow way that they can slide a small force through. The PCs job would be to stop that force.

Right now, they can throw Wall of Fire pretty much all day, because of the wands they just got.

I'll have to figure something out.

 

[Sekhmet]

Beholders and, as Dandu suggested, Golems.
I like the "300" idea. Forces them to use up a large number of blaster charges to keep up with the hordes.

 

[Jackinthegreen]

Well, I can definitely say you shouldn't use trolls...

Golems do sound like one way to go depending on the party's level. All of the spells you listed have SR: Yes, so a golem can ignore them. Depending on the wands' caster levels SR would probably work too.

You could also go with a large number of attackers to drain the wands and make them think about whether they should use the wands or go for different tactics.

Fireball and lightning bolt have reflex saves, so Evasion would work. Going for Spell Reflection would also seem doable for stuff like Searing Light.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Moonrats.

With levels of Rogue.

They don't manage to steal all the wands, but quite a few they manage to run off with.

I love Moonrats.

 

[Jacob Marley]

And yes, they're just wands that go Boom Boom. But next round they go Boom Boom again. And again. And again. Round after round.

See, from my point-of-view, playing a caster, I have almost always found casting off my spellbook/list to be more effective than using a wand of fireball/lightning bolt/magic missle/etc.

My current plan for the adventure is to recreate the Battle of Thermopylae as one possible outcome. This time the Persians already know about the secondary path, a narrow way that they can slide a small force through. The PCs job would be to stop that force.

Considering Thermopylae means "Hot Gates" it seems rather fitting for the party to use Wall of Fire against the Persians.

I think in this case I'd make a play on the rumored gate to Hades that is said to exist there. Perhaps you can make use of some Persian diabolists attempting to open the gate to Hades. Devils are, afterall, immune to Fire. The adventure could be about trying to stop the Persian army (presumably with the party using Wall of Fire) while simultaneously trying to stop the diabolists from unleashing Hell (literally!).