Disrupting Spellcasters

[Telas]

Spring Attack + reach weapon?

Readied action to move, poke, move again?

I know the Guisarme is a reach + trip weapon, but I'm partial to long spears.

Telas

 

[NexH]

Yes, you can include a 5' step in a readied action if you have not moved that round. So, if I make a normal move or 5' step to get in the casters face, I can't ready a 5' move as part of my attempt to attack/disrupt. And getting right up next to the caster is necessary.

Hence the problem.

Beyond grappling to pin and grab away the spell component bag, and bull rushing against a wall, I recomend you to always carry tanglefoot bags or nets, and use them when next to the caster if possible. Almost surely the caster will become entangled, which, among other things, reduces his speed to half. And a creature who is restricted to moving at half speed can't take a 5 feet step.

I think tanglefoot bags are not considered weaponlike object for the purposes of drawing them, while nets are. So you can move next to the caster while retrieving the net (if your BAB is +1 or better) and then throw it at him (probably without provoking any AoO).

 

[kjenks]

You could sunder his spell component pouch. He'll have a hard time casting most of his spells with his material components scattered all over the floor. And I'm willing to bet that he doesn't have a spare pouch in his equipment list.

 

[Shuffle]

Ahem,


A reach weapon equiped , A good melee weapon at your back, and the quick draw feat.

Problem solved.
I personally would also have Improved trip and combat reflexes, the weapons would be ones with bonuses to trip as well. Once he's on the floor, he's in trouble.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I personally would also have Improved trip and combat reflexes, the weapons would be ones with bonuses to trip as well. Once he's on the floor, he's in trouble.

Of course, most casters wouldn't have any qualms about disintegrating you whilst lying on their backs (and it doesn't apply any penalty to their defensive casting Concentration checks), so ...

 

[Diirk]

Actually problem not solved, as your reach weapon only threatens at the 10' range, not the 5' range... and if you don't threaten, you can't AoO, so you can't quickdraw that non-reach weapon. (technically you can't quickdraw it even if you do threaten, as free actions have to be taken during your turn.. the point is fairly moot tho, as if you do threaten you can just smack him with the reach weapon)

A reach weapon + Improved Unarmed Strike feat / Animated Spiked Shield / Armour Spikes would work tho, albeit a bit cheesily

Enlarge person for a 10' reach is a decent option, too.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Spiked Chain + Mageslayer feat. If your schtick is screwing with spellcasters, you really need to maximize your threat zone.

 

[Christian]

I prefer Disintegrate for disrupting spellcasters ...

Oh, disrupting spellcasting?! Uh, never mind, my bag's empty ...

 

[sullivan]

There is a MageSlayer feat that prevents them from Casting Defensively if you threaten them.

One snag with this Feat is the prerequisite, at least by my memory. If someone with the actual Complete Arcane handy could confirm: You must have already taken another metamagic feat, and it really messes with your caster levels because it subtracts 4 from your caster level (not sure what happens with a negative caster level). I have character that just took this (another player has the book) and took Practiced Caster to provide the prerequisite plus offset the penalty. Not sure how this will work out long run (the +1 Will save is nice), but at 2 Feats it certainly is costly.