[D&D 3.5e] That New Pit Fiend

[hong]

Yes, it was stupid. One battle, multiple dead PCs, and fifteen rounds of Quickened Blasphemy later, I realize that. Had the party prepared exhaustively for the fight by giving everyone in the group Protection from Fire, Spell Immunity: Fireball and Wall of Fire, Haste, Spell Resistance, and Magic Circle Against Evil, it would have been a bloodbath. As it was, SR27 versus the 3.0E Pit Fiend's 17th-level caster ability meant that on a 10 or higher on the SR roll, a given PC lost his next turn to Dazedness.

The problem here is not with Quicken Spell-Like Ability, it's with blasphemy being usable at will. Our group ran into the same situation a couple of sessions ago, where we fought a bunch of demons including a hezrou. By the book, the hezrou could have just kept throwing blasphemy at us each round, while its allies carved us up. The DM's solution was to limit blasphemy to be usable once every 1d4 rounds, which at least gave us a chance to fight back.

 

[Savage Wombat]

I was noticing how powerful Quicken Spell-Like Ability looked myself. So I made special care to look for it in Savage Species - and it's been severely altered. Limitations on how powerful an ability it can be used on, and how often - that's why the Pit Fiend tactics only have it used once.

I hope you'll find the new version more balanced.

 

[Piratecat]

Any guesses as to the DC and effect of its fear ability? Not that... ahem... I'm going to use it next game. Or anything.

 

[Victim]

I looked up Blasphemy.

The dazing line of effects only works against creatures native to your plane. So a Devil will have a hard time using it on most adventuring parties, since it's from Baator/9 Hells, and most adventurers are from the prime.

 

[hong]

I looked up Blasphemy.

The dazing line of effects only works against creatures native to your plane. So a Devil will have a hard time using it on most adventuring parties, since it's from Baator/9 Hells, and most adventurers are from the prime.

D'oh!

Well, screw that, then.

Although this is still only half the problem solved, since that session involved us travelling to the Demonweb Pits (part of the Abyss). The first blasphemy thrown at us would probably have seen half the party sent home to the Prime.

 

[Piratecat]

Yup. Not often you use dimensional anchor as a defensive spell, eh?

 

[Victim]

But Holy Word works the same way when evil outsiders are on the Prime. Turnabout is fair play, right? The only difference is that characters probably don't have SR.

 

[Celebrim]

Well, as a sonic effect the best solution to Blasphemy is to not hear it. The second best solution is to emply staggered ranks, so that the spell casters and other support characters are outside the 30' radius of effect. However, I do admit that it is an awfully strong spell to be usable at will.

 

[shilsen]

I looked up Blasphemy.

The dazing line of effects only works against creatures native to your plane. So a Devil will have a hard time using it on most adventuring parties, since it's from Baator/9 Hells, and most adventurers are from the prime.

Actually one of the latest FAQ updates stated that the dazing and other effects do affect non-native creatures too. here's the question and answer. Frankly, I prefer the FAQ approach.

Q: The descriptions of the spells blasphemy, holy word, word
of law, and word of chaos say that if you are on your home
plane, casting one of these spells banishes those not of your
plane back to their home planes, and creatures native to
your plane (with an alignment opposed to the spell) suffer
various ill effects. Several evil outsiders have this spell-like
ability. How does this spell-like ability work for an outsider
on the Prime Material Plane, which is not its home plane.
Conversely, when these outsiders are on their home planes,
how are these spells useful? For example, what use is word
of law to a devil on Baator, where just about everything is
lawful evil?

A: If the subjects of any of these spells are not extraplanar
elementals or outsiders, they suffer effects according to their
alignments and Hit Dice. In spite of what the beginning of the
third paragraph in each spell’s description says, you don’t have
to be native to the caster’s home plane to be affected.
If the spell’s subjects are extraplanar elementals or outsiders,
and the caster is on his or her home plane, the spell blasts the
subjects back to their home planes. These creatures also suffer
effects according to their alignments and Hit Dice. Being
returned to their home plane is an additional effect, not an
alternate effect, as the spells’ descriptions imply.