Help me mess with the party Spellcaster

[BOZ]

Continued from this thread and this thread...

There is a second "problem" party member (the rest are basically "normal" for the most part, powerful only because of the levels they possess so I cannot complain). Of course, he might just pass away in the next session or two anyway, due to the creature growing inside him and eating him from the inside out (he has no idea what it is yet, think Alien).

Regardless, he is here now and a real and present threat. this player has a tendency to scour through every book he can find for every spell and magic item and PrC to get whatever weird advantages and bonuses he can get his hands on, *plus* he's a rules lawyer. I inherited his latest character from another DM along with most of the other party members. This guy uses a bunch of stuff from Complete Arcane.

This guy is a Wiz 5/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 6. this gives him all sort of weird powers that no one else understands. plus, it is a full caster class.

He has Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus for Abjuration spells, and is generally well protected due to his wacky class abilities.

he also carries a wand of orb of force which he loves the hell out of since there is no save, no SR. every day, he casts protection from arrows, greater mage armor, arcane sight, and overland flight when he expects trouble.

So, for as long as he's still alive (and may figure out how to survive his personal dilemma) any advice you may have would be cool. unlike the party's tempest, everything this guy has is 3.5.


As an aside, I have planned three tough battles to be done in the near future. Two with a couple of groups of hill giants with badass leaders and allies, and the third with a hill giant vampire druid. see the other threads for more details.

 

[Shade]

I've got one word for you: golems.

Unless he's got truckloads of conjuration spells, he's construct food. The archmage in my campaign turns several shades of red whenever I spring a badass golem on the party.

 

[IcyCool]

I've got one word for you: golems.

Unless he's got truckloads of conjuration spells, he's construct food. The archmage in my campaign turns several shades of red whenever I spring a badass golem on the party.

You mean he didn't take Arcane Fire as one of his abilities?

 

[Shade]

You mean he didn't take Arcane Fire as one of his abilities?

Nope. He's made great use of arcane reach, mastery of elements, and mastery of shaping so far, though.

 

[Brain]

This guy is a Wiz 5/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 6. this gives him all sort of weird powers that no one else understands. plus, it is a full caster class.

Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil requires 12 ranks in a skill, so it looks like he's got some issues with his class breakdown. At level 11, he could be Wiz 9 / Initiate 2.

I played an Initiate in a one-shot recently and it is quite a powerful class. Especially the reactive warding ability. One thing we noticed is that some creatures are just plain immune to the wardings and can ignore them. If you put in a mix of creature types it might help. Some undead with some spellcasters with some other stuff and the choice of which warding to use becomes difficult.

 

[reveal]

Give the Mage Slayer feat from Complete Arcane to an NPC. +1 on NPCs Will saves and spellcasters cannot cast defensively if the NPC threatens him, although the spellcaster knows this so they won't get caught unaware of that fact.

Then go for Pierce Magical Concealment, which ignores spell-based concealment of creatures you attack, and Pierce Magical Protection, which ignores spell-based bonuses to Armor Class and, if the NPC does damage, the spells that grant AC bonuses are instantly and automatically dispeled.

 

[BOZ]

Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil requires 12 ranks in a skill, so it looks like he's got some issues with his class breakdown. At level 11, he could be Wiz 9 / Initiate 2.

aha! it's a bit late for me to say "hey, you built this character wrong, time to modify it" (although i could declare him illegal). that's something that i should have noticed before play, though it's not necessarily obvious.

given that, i have to assume he made the character by assigning skill ranks to all levels all at once, instead of building it properly the way a PrC should be. to rectify this, i'll explain the situation to him and state that he cannot take more IotSV levels until he gets to level 9 wizard.

I played an Initiate in a one-shot recently and it is quite a powerful class. Especially the reactive warding ability. One thing we noticed is that some creatures are just plain immune to the wardings and can ignore them. If you put in a mix of creature types it might help. Some undead with some spellcasters with some other stuff and the choice of which warding to use becomes difficult.

insight into these powers is helpful.

 

[BOZ]

I've got one word for you: golems.

i've been thinking about it. a stone or iron golem would even be a very appropriate challenge given the party level. and they are about to head towards the chief's chambers unless i miss my guess...

ooh, some nice chaos should ensue there!

 

[Crothian]

aha! it's a bit late for me to say "hey, you built this character wrong, time to modify it" (although i could declare him illegal). that's something that i should have noticed before play, though it's not necessarily obvious.

given that, i have to assume he made the character by assigning skill ranks to all levels all at once, instead of building it properly the way a PrC should be. to rectify this, i'll explain the situation to him and state that he cannot take more IotSV levels until he gets to level 9 wizard.

You are a very nice DM. He has an illegal character and amistake or done on purpose, you should have him rebuild it to be legal.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

given that, i have to assume he made the character by assigning skill ranks to all levels all at once, instead of building it properly the way a PrC should be.

Nah - what's more likely is that he saw the PrC requirement of Spellcraft* +12, and said at 5th-level, before taking his 6th: "Hey, I've got 8 ranks in Spellcraft and +4 from Intelligence - that's +12!"

EDIT:

* - I'm assuming that the requirement is 12 ranks of Spellcraft. I don't know for sure.