Common High-Level Tactics

[helium3]

Time stop -> acid fog -> force-cage -> dimension lock

Assuming your time stop last four rounds . . .

What about tactics that don't require time stop?

 

[lukelightning]

Druid: Wildshape into a big grabby animal, like a dire bear. Cast wall of thorns. Hang out in your wall of thorns, grabbing enemies and pulling them into your square...which is in the wall. You, of course, can move freely through the wall because of your nature's stride ability.

 

[helium3]

Here's another one, though it requires the use of Races of the Dragon

A sorceror takes imprisonment as one of his 9th level spells and the feat Versatile Spellcasting, which lets him convert two spells of one level to cast a spell of one level higher.

Imprisonment is NASTY, as it's high level, extremely difficult to deal with once it's cast and requires a will save but is not a mind-affecting spell.

 

[paradox42]

Several nice ones posted so far. I particularly like the Time Stop + Prismatic Sphere appropriately positioned + Reverse Gravity = inside-out enemies one.

I've seen plenty of combos in my own games, but the one that I'll mention first is a particular choice of Shapechange- my Epic party's Sorceress was particularly fond of Extended-Shapechanging into Beholder form and using her now-effectively-infinite Disintegrates to blast convenient holes in enemy fortresses, dungeons, etc.

The spellcasters have also used that portal-Gate trick, though in their case they did it just by using two Gates- Have spellcaster A open one to flee through, then (on the other side) spellcaster B opens another directly in front of the first one leading to some unpleasant place. The last time they used this was in the Abyss, being chased by demons, so they opened the second one onto the ocean of Holy Water at the base of Mount Celestia- the party went to the Outlands for various secondary reasons of their own. One time they even did this in Time Stop mode, since the party spellcasters all have Spell Stowaway (Time Stop).

Time Stop cascades are brutal.

One tactic the party tanks have discovered and abused (via magic items obviously) is Wraithstrike + full Power Attack + Dire Charge + Haste and when possible, various other activated weapon powers like Fierce or Corrosive Surge to get extra damage. With all attacks that round being touch attacks, the damage potential of a Full Attack becomes truly staggering/sick. This, as part of a Scry/Buff/Teleport routine, often ends fights before they begin.

Oddly enough, my Epic party doesn't have any Rogues in it, so I haven't had to deal with Sneak Attack abuse myself. Of course, the abuses I do deal with are plenty.

EDIT: Oh, and how could I forget the perennial favorite of the second group? Temporal Acceleration or Time Stop + Barred Forcecage + Dimension Lock = enemy cooked to order. This one was used liberally in JollyDoc's Age of Wyrms campaign too (as posted in the Story Hour forum).

 

[lukelightning]

Oddly enough, my Epic party doesn't have any Rogues in it, so I haven't had to deal with Sneak Attack abuse myself. Of course, the abuses I do deal with are plenty.

Sneak attack abuse? Sneak attack is so easily foiled it's ridiculous. Simply fighting in a shadowy alley will ruin a 30th level rogue's sneak attack unless he can counteract the darkness. A blur spell will also ruin sneak attack.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Here's another one, though it requires the use of Races of the Dragon

A sorceror takes imprisonment as one of his 9th level spells and the feat Versatile Spellcasting, which lets him convert two spells of one level to cast a spell of one level higher.

Imprisonment is NASTY, as it's high level, extremely difficult to deal with once it's cast and requires a will save but is not a mind-affecting spell.

Oooh. Neat trick.

But nobody has posted the required "Yeah, but" reply yet.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Blink has 20% miss chance on your own attacks. The ghost touch is (theoretically) to bypass this.

True; I was just pointing out that you'll still be able to SA. SA is negated only against "opponents with concealment"; the miss chance from blink applies because *you* are shifting to the Ethereal. (Incidentally, I don't consider this a "high-level" tactic because, as pointed out elsewhere, SA is hard to use at 15th+ level because so many opponents are immune to it. At mid-levels, though, it's a great way to get a full attack using thrown daggers, for instance.)

lukelightning: I would guess that any rogue at that level can easily obviate concealment with a true seeing effect of some sort. (This is what UMD is for.) The real issue is heavy fortification, which probably just shouldn't exist if you're playing into epic, since it's super-cheap at those levels.

[EDIT: Time stop. Never mind.]

 

[Drowbane]

As a DM I've always been a huge fan of...

Greater Dispel Magic vs PCs
Antimagic Field + Ubertank monsters / NPCbuilds
Force Cage the PC's ubertank
NPC Wizards who Scry (buff) and Fry
Evard's Black Tentacles + Solid Fog + Acid Fog + Cloudkill
the Epic Paragon template on pathetically weak looking monsters.

Sneak attack abuse? Sneak attack is so easily foiled it's ridiculous. Simply fighting in a shadowy alley will ruin a 30th level rogue's sneak attack unless he can counteract the darkness. A blur spell will also ruin sneak attack.

any rogue who can't deal with simple darkness or even the feared "blur" spell by 30th level needs to hang up his daggers and run a tavern.

At high any level, the only creature types that are still immune to Sneak Attack are... Oozes and Plants. (Gravestrike, Golemstrike...)

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

In one high-level game I ran, the cleric set up a blade barrier and the wizard conjured an air elemental to throw enemies into it. I believe the phrase "fine red mist" was used to describe the results. Even the players were wincing.

After that, the cleric swore never to use that spell again.

 

[jmucchiello]

Time stop --> solid fog --> cloudkill --> that spell that prevents teleporting in an area (dimension lock?) --> any number of spells that do damage over an area.

Cloudkill? Yawn, when did we eat the Heroes Feast? Yep, I'm immune to poison. Damage spells? Am I still wearing the ring of evasion?

Solid fog is at best an annoyance. I'd dispel the dimensional anchor first.

Actually the time stop stuff is forgetting the quickened extra fireball for good measure that you add after the time stop ends. And if you are epic, you took multispell right? Make it two quickened spells after the time stop.

Evard's Black Tentacles: I guess I've never used this because the monster's grapple checks are usually 15-20 points higher than caster level +8. At 30th level, most "monsters' are huge and/or have rediculous strength if they aren't spellcaster types. Maybe that's just how we play. I'll have to sprint EBT on the group next weekend....