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Message: <blockquote data-quote="chriton227" data-source="post: 3333331" data-attributes="member: 33263">One thing to remember about Rope Trick is that you don't want to take anything like a Bag of Holding or Heward's Handy Haversack into it.  Putting an extra-dimensional space in an extra-dimensional space is a "bad thing"(tm).  This tends to really limit the use of Rope Trick in my games, since one of the first things that my players tend to buy is a Heward's to make digging out a scroll, potion, or other item simpler and to save weight.A single targetted dispel magic can ruin a lot of buffs too, since it would have a chance of dispelling every individual spell on his character.  Reaving Dispel from PHB2 would be even nastier, since he would also take damage for every spell dispelled.Remember that rounds he spends buffing are rounds that are burning from the duration of the first buffs he casts.  Some of the best buffs available to a 8th level cleric are rounds per level, and with only 8 rounds, you can't afford to waste much time.  Also make sure he is abiding by the "one swift action per round" limit.  If he is not in the Rope Trick, there is also the possibility that the enemies will hear him casting and bring the fight to him before he is ready.  There are a surprising number of creatures in the MM with good listen checks, and a door only muffles the sound so much.  They don't even need to attack to make things more difficult; locking/barring the door and spreading caltrops can cause him to burn more time off his buffs, or the opponents can spend time buffing themselves.It sounds like much of the problem is that he knows too much about the situation before hand, so he is having an opportunity to prepare the perfect spells and is getting to control the engagement.  Throw him some curveballs - bring the fight to him, plant fake information, impose tight timelines (news comes at dinner of the evil cult preparing their dread midnight ritual), blow away his preconceptions (all it takes is a Disguise Self spell for that red dragon to look like a white, or some well placed illusion spells to make the hostage look like the captor and vice versa).  He will soon have to make a decision between being awesome in a very narrow set of circumstances, or being good in a much broader set of circumstances.  You control what circumstances he encounters, so you can influence his decision.Some other more specific counters: if he is in heavy armor, odds are his balace skill is in the crapper.  One Grease spell would ruin his day.  The Reflex save may prevent the initial fall, but to move he still has to Balance, and while balancing he is flat-footed (and in Full Plate and Shield he will be eating a hefty armor check penalty).  Touch of Idiocy doesn't allow a save and could put a serious damper on his casting ability.  Ray of Enfeeblement can do the same to his strength, potentially causing himto be pinned to the ground with his own armor, and an empowered Ray of Enfeeblement is only a 3rd level spell (would give a -7 to -15 penalty to his strength from an 8th level caster).  A Tanglefoot Bag is a touch attack that will give an automatic -4 to dex and -2 to attack rolls, plus slowing or stopping his movement and interfering with spell casting.  Even a Flask of Alchemist's Fire can cause problems since the ongoing damage will interfere with casting, and can set up for Pyrotechnics centered on his character.  Clerics tend to be lacking in AoE damage, so swarms would be good opponents too, ones that would let some of the other characters have time in the spotlight.</blockquote>

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