Dealing with a sorceror with insane AC (3.0e)

[rounser]

Player uses spells to good effect, DM kneejerks to make tactic useless. News at 11.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Let's try to be a bit more constructive, eh?

My take on mage armor and shield in 3.0 is to use the original reading. Shield gives a +7 cover bonus to half the battlefield. The way to get around it is to have it be a visible effect that opponents can move around. From the other half of the battlefield, no shield.

 

[Mystery Man]

Two words:

Dispel Magic

and to expand on the short but sweet:

antimagic

dead magic

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

Amusingly enough, this recently came up in our Scarred Lands game, where my halfling wizard Milo (AC15 without any help) has discovered that with Mage Armor (armor bonus) + Cat's Grace (dex bonus) + Shield (deflection bonus) + Iceshards (enhancement bonus, from Relics & Rituals 2), he can push his AC up to 36 for something like eight rounds. It'll top out at AC38 when he reaches 10th level. If he polymorphed himself into a Green Hag (only +1 dex, but +11 natural armor), that'd be AC46 at his absolute best.

It's a fun thought experiment, but in practice, it's not something he's ever likely to do. It's easier and gives him more options to just cast a mobility-enhancing spell (like Fly or Expeditious Retreat) and stay out of range, I think. Otherwise, while Milo is spending time casting spells protecting himself, everyone in the front line will probably get cut to ribbons.


Though I did try it once, upon being cornered by two ogres while the rest of the party was struggling to not be killed by even nastier things. First round, the ogres took out the last of his mirror images, so he put up a Shield over his Iceshards spell, peered up (way, way up) at the nearest ogre, and asked him "Now what are you going to do, loser?"

...and the next round, that same ogre rolled a natural 20 and pounded the little wizard almost to death. So, you see, it was a good idea in theory, but it ignores the fact that in practice, the universe abhors smart-ass little wizards.

--
after that round, though, he was able to hold off the ogres pretty well
ryan

 

[scholar]

run a monk against them...
run up, grapple the sorceror, take him to the ground
J

 

[Wycen]

I'm going to double check his numbers in tonights gaming session. He's a competent gamer, so i didn't think to question him, and isn't the type prone to lying.

However, I cannot find anything in the Mage Armor description that says it doesn't stack with real armor. The description says it's just a force around the body. It doesn't explicitly state it can't be used over exisiting armor. What am i missing here?

Open up the 3.0 DMG and flip to the magic item section, just before they start describing any. There is a chart which lists what kinds of bonuses exist and examples of such bonuses. This chart will show that Mage armor and plate/chain/leather-normal armor do not stack.

It is page 177.