Disrupting Weapon

[marune]

In a near future, my players (level range 10-11) will fight a large group of Wraith (with a few more HD) lead by a Dread one. They are not very good at handling undead (two rogues and a monk) but I just found the Disrupting Weapon spell on the cleric list..

With a few scrolls of this spell, the party's cleric could give them the firepower needed to end the fight very quickly... I want to know if some find this spell too much powerfull?

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Incorporeal undead are a pain in the butt. Any advantage they can dredge up is a good one. Also it lasts a mere 1 round/level and is a 5th level spell. Hardly a small cost for a 10th-11th level party. Remember, undead aren't necessarily dumb. If they figure out that the weapon is undead-whammy, maybe they'll flee and regroup later to attack once the spell has worn off.

But even so, spending that many resources for one fight, you'd better win it.

 

[marune]

Yeah, I forgot to say that they know in advance that a group of undead is coming.. with enough time to prepare.. I like the idea of temporary retreat

 

[FEADIN]

Don't forget that there is a will save, a good table for undead, and a hd limit, the creature must be lower or equal to the caster to be affected (no turn resistance here).
Last week we fought some undead and it helped vs one, a kind of skeleton warrior who dealt 40hp on our ranger with twohanded sword but on the first stike rolled a 1 on his save....zap.
The 13rd level vampire cleric of Orcus saved each time during the 9 combat rounds (he got +19 on will save), on top of that he was difficut to hit, when he went gaseous (0 hp left) he was unlucky, he rolled a 1 )
It's not an overpowered spell I think.

 

[frankthedm]

Overpowered.

But in the same vein as the sun domain.

 

[TheGogmagog]

It's not that overpowered. Our group rarely uses it because of it's limited effectiveness, it rates far below death ward when facing wraith. Anything that isn't killed by one hit will make the pathetic save DC, especially from a scroll.

It would be a good foreshadowing of things to come though. If you are thinking the encounter might be too much for them, you may also want to include scrolls of death ward and restoration. A Scarab of Protection would also be generous.

 

[Percivellian]

I just ran a short adventure that involved a cabal of wraith-sorcerers led by a dread wraith. One of my PCs decked himself out feat-wise enough (15th level party) so he could weild two greatswords (it was a short campaign for fun), one of which was disrupting, amongst other things. Between that and the party paladin's ridiculous turn checks, wraiths were fleeing and being destroyed left and right. This was good, because they were just giddy about it.

They really had no trouble with any amount of the lesser wraiths, but one dread wraith proved a serious challenge for them. Why? Incorporeal undead with Spring Attack, in a small room with a 60ft. fly speed.

I said that each of the three characters could only ready actions against the section of wall that was in their field of view at a given moment. I would decide where the wraith was going to fly out of next, then I would ask them where they were focusing their attention, and what actions they had readied. With three characters and 6 surfaces in the room (4 walls, ceiling, floor) it became a somewhat comical battle of attrition as the wraith popped out, attacked, drained some constitution if someone failed a save, then flew back into the walls. Occasionally the PCs would get their readied attack off, but with incorporeality (50% miss chance for magic weapons), a +14 Will save and 16HD, the wraith wasn't overly intimidated by disruption weapons or turning. Finally the wizard readied an action to box themselves and the wraith inside a wall of force the next time he flew out. He tried to retreat back into the wall, and ran right into it, to which the wizard responded with cackling. They finished it off fairly easily then, but it was fun to challenge such a well equipped 15th level party with a CR11 creature.

So, in short, against incorporeal undead, I don't think disruption is too overpowered. It's just really fun for whoever's using it when it does work. Something about 'save or die' must really be appealing

Now, the final encounter in this little scenario, they knew, was going to be against another more powerful type of undead. The character with the disruption weapon begged me to have it be corporeal this time. I had already picked it out (a Nightwalker) so I told with a smile to not worry. He was pleased when he saw that it was corporeal, and opened up a whole load of damage on his first full attack (something like 80hp). Of course, the Nightwalker can't have this damage machine hitting him with this disruption business (lest he roll a 1) again, so he uses his Crush Item ability to utterly destroy both the character's greatswords The jaw-dropped expression on his face was priceless.

Undead. Such good times.

 

[Krafen]

For future reference, Disruption only works on bludgeoning weapons.

Disruption: A weapon of disruption is the bane of all undead. Any undead creature struck in combat must succeed on a DC 14 Will save or be destroyed. A weapon of disruption must be a bludgeoning weapon. (If you roll this property randomly for a piercing or slashing weapon, reroll.)

Strong conjuration; CL 14th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, heal; Price +2 bonus.

The wall of force spell says "The caster can form the wall into a flat, vertical plane". It sounds like the wizard you describe formed it into a sphere.

 

[marune]

For future reference, Disruption only works on bludgeoning weapons.

The spell description says nothing about the weapon type :

Disrupting Weapon
Transmutation
Level: Clr 5
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Targets: One melee weapon
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless, object); see text
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless, object)
This spell makes a melee weapon deadly to undead. Any undead creature with HD equal to or less than your caster level must succeed on a Will save or be destroyed utterly if struck in combat with this weapon. Spell resistance does not apply against the destruction effect.

 

[Nim]

Yep, the weapon type limitation only applies to the item ability, not to the Disrupting Weapon spell.

The Wall of Force point seems valid, though.