Help us take down an epic-level psion!

[Cyrik Skylark]

My party has gotten itself into a bit of a dillemma. We're a high-level party, with levels ranging from 17-20. Our group is currently in the middle of a rather lengthy, plane-hopping quest; we've been progressing in it, off and on, over the past ten levels or so.

Anyhow, in the beginning of the quest, we stumbled across a book that a group of devils, for some reason, were quite intent on obtaining. In the process of "liberating" this book from the library on the Plane of Concordant Opposition (near the Spire), my psychic warrior (through use of the Autohypnosis skill) memorized the entire book as a back-up, in case the devils managed to get the book back from us.

Which brings us to our current dilemma. Near the end of our last session, a random guy showed up and asked to speak with us. Long and short of it, he was hired to retrieve the information my character had memorized - whether by taking it from my mind, or killing our party. He also mentioned that he had been hired for a sum of several million gp.

For the time being, we haven't quite made up our mind, but the three players who were there wanted to take our chances fighting him - we figure that if the devils are investing that much in trying to suppress this information, it must be pretty vital.

Our party make up and specializations are as follows:
Fighter 1/Psychic Warrior 15/Psychic Weapon Master 4 - spiked chain wielder, took Expanded Knowledge to get Metamorphosis. He's the main tank of the party, and is an AC specialist - completely buffed, his AC can reach about 74.
Wizard/Archmage (18th level, not sure about exact breakdown) - fairly standard "boom" mage, also knows Shapechange and Mordenkainen's Disjunction.
Cleric 14/Temple Raider of Olidammara 6 (modified to give caster levels instead of independent spellcasting abilities) - Took leadership, so we effectively have a copy of him running around at 17th level. Both he and his cohort cast as 17th level clerics. Cleric of Olidammara, lots of thievely abilities
Paladin 7/Kensai 10 (not completely sure about this breakdown, either) - Secondary tank, deals more damage than the PsiWar, but AC isn't as high. Paladin abilities are currently unusable due to transgressions.
Ranger/Wizard/Bladesinger (not sure about breakdown) - Fairly standard bladesinger build
Psion 18 - "Boom" psion, also an Egoist, makes liberal use of Greater Metamorphosis, Fission, and Temporal Acceleration
Psion 7/Shadow Mind 10 - Telepath with a secondary specialization in astral constructs. Can currently manifest 9th level constructs. Due to feats and powers, he could theoretically manifest as many as 20 constructs (from 6th to 9th level) in a single round (Temporal Acceleration, Schism, and a feat that grants bonus lower-level constructs)
Wizard/Incantrix - Wizard who specializes in non-evocation spells
Rogue 17 - New player, so she's still finding her niche.

In addition, we've got around 300,000 in cash between all of us, but we are rather underequipped for our levels - the best-equipped is my character, and he's down from where he should be by about 300-400,000.



After several communes, and speaking with the man himself, we were able to obtain the following information:
1) The devils, in fact, already have the knowledge from the book. This operation is strictly to keep the knowledge out of our hands. So backing out of the fight is still an option.
2) He considers our two psions of "moderate" power.
3) When our wizard looked at him (wizard has a permanent detect magic ability), he was nearly knocked out.
4) Our wizard might have a chance to dispel his powers.
5) Storming the Nine Hells to retrieve the book might be easier than defeating him.
6) Having two solars aid us wouldn't change the balance much
7) He's apparently immune to the effects of Time Stop/Temporal Acceleration.
8) Olidammara wouldn't bet on us to win the fight. And in this case, Olidammara would be betting safe.

Our battle plan, as it stands now, is like this:
1) Clerics Greater Planar Ally with their 8th level spells, bringing in two planetars each
2) Clerics Gate in a solar each - although if anyone has any good ideas for other creatures to gate in, I'd appreciate it - 34 HD is our limit.
3) Wizard leads off the fight with a Mord's Disjunction, hopefully taking down his buffs. Meanwhile, he's got Shapechange cast, and in a pinch will shift into a beholder and fix the antimagic ray on the psion.
4) Everyone else pulls out the big guns.

So, any advice?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Okay, this has no bearing on your actual question.

But I just had to say that I was very quickly skimming the main page of the forums, and came across the title to this thread and, well...

Due to a combination of quick-skimming and me being very tired, I swear that for a split second, I read the thread title as "Help us take down an epic lesbian!"

Boy, that would've been a whole different discussion, huh?

 

[Cyrik Skylark]

Well, we did run into a poor broken-down dike in the last session. =b The dike was all washed-up, so to speak.

 

[the Jester]

How many players are there at a typical session? How many are likely to be there when it goes down next game (presumably?)

Sounds like your group may be a lot like mine- lots of players, but usually about half or so at any given session?

 

[kolikeos]

my bet, you're kicking this guys ass no prob! that is, if he's really alone in this fight...

what do you mean by: immune to the effects of time stop? (i saw something like that in bg:tob, this is wrong and it sucks) time stop effects only the caster, it doesn't really stop time, it only makes you so fast that it looks to you as though time stops for everyone but you.

this battle plan looks like instant death to me...

oh, and do tell me if you killed the loozer will you...?

 

[Thanee]

How in nine hells do you get anything done with a party of nine (!?) - altho there seems to be one cleric missing in the list - near epic-level characters!?

Whenever you prepare or fight that must take hours of real time with all those powers available...

Just tell the guy that there is much more gold to get from the devils and you want to team up with him to do so. Split 2/3 for him 1/3 for your party. Hey, it's easier to storm the nine hells, so with him it should be a walk in the park!

Do it in true Shadowrun style... write the information down and copy the book quickly (there should be spells able to do this at your level) and give it to all major temples and guilds all across the country. With the information everywhere there is no need to contain it anymore.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Piratecat]

We have a party of nine, also; it's no real problem once you get used to it.

You'll want to make sure that you have a mind blank up all the time. It might slow the psion down from plucking the information out of your mind. I like Thanee's advice of widely distributing the information, though. The best thing to do might be to do this and tell the psion that you've done it, and that the info will be made public unless the psion leaves you alone. He'll know you aren't bluffing. This way you get the best of both worlds.

 

[Cyrik Skylark]

How many players are there at a typical session? How many are likely to be there when it goes down next game (presumably?)

Sounds like your group may be a lot like mine- lots of players, but usually about half or so at any given session?

Well, this is one of our big problems - we have a huge party, but quite a few are inactive at any given time. Reliably, we'll have the psychic warrior, both clerics, the archmage, and the rogue. One psion we'll definitely have (the egoist), the second is only a possibility (player is currently in Canada, but we might be able to convince someone else to play his character). The kensai will probably be there, and the ranger might. The other wizard, I'm not sure about - he's only been to one session, but he sounded like he wanted to come back, depending on his work schedule.

what do you mean by: immune to the effects of time stop?

I mean what I say - one of our clerics (who has access to the spell through the Trickery domain) cast the spell while the psion was making first contact with us. As the cleric was approaching the psychic warrior and the psion under time stop, the psion turned to him and told him to butt out of the conversation. Perhaps it wasn't an immunity to time stop - maybe it was a contingency to manifest Time Stop should someone else cast the spell.

You'll want to make sure that you have a mind blank up all the time. It might slow the psion down from plucking the information out of your mind. I like Thanee's advice of widely distributing the information, though. The best thing to do might be to do this and tell the psion that you've done it, and that the info will be made public unless the psion leaves you alone. He'll know you aren't bluffing. This way you get the best of both worlds.

Mind blank was something we hadn't thought of for all the characters - most of the characters have it up all the time, but enough don't to make it an issue. There's also the issue of Shatter Mind Blank, which I'm fairly certain he has - granted, there's a save, but it's still quite possible to lose our protection.

However, with regards to the second item, that's not a possibility. When the psion approached us, it was after we'd already spent most of our spells for the day, and while only three of the players were there (though five of the characters - the cleric and his cohort are always in action, since we'd be pretty much dead without them). Thus, we were in no position to bargain with him - it was only by giving collaterral, in the form of the part of the information itself, that we were able to buy any time whatsoever to prepare for the fight. Believe me, that was the first thing I tried to do - hopefully play up the psion, get some time, and move the information to several other places so that we could do exactly what you and Thanee suggest. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

Just tell the guy that there is much more gold to get from the devils and you want to team up with him to do so. Split 2/3 for him 1/3 for your party. Hey, it's easier to storm the nine hells, so with him it should be a walk in the park!

Well, that is a possibility, but due to the psion's personality, not one I think he'll take up. He's one of thus absurdly lawful types, gives his word and sticks to it. I don't think he's the type to break a contract. However, it's certainly worth a try.

Also, any advice on critters to Gate in? I only have access to the MM, so any good suggestions from, say, the ELH would be great.

 

[rbingham2000]

Slightly off-topic, but I couldn't resist...

All I could think of upon reading "epic level psion" was, "Helloooooo Akira!"

 

[kolikeos]

All I could think of upon reading "epic level psion" was, "Helloooooo Akira!"

wtf?