Help wanted: Spellcaster Tactics (my players -- out!)

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Since I don't have an Int of 23, I'm looking to the collective wisdom of EN World to help develop tactics for a soon-to-be party nemesis, a high level necromancer. What general tactics, and what round-by-round tactics in combat might you suggest?

Knowing that the wizard will know his enemy, the party consists of (all level 13-14):

halfling ranger/rogue (dragonslayer) known for two-weapon fighting
gnome sorcerer, with signature enchantment & electrical spells
half-elf druid, bear wildshaper
human cleric (Morninglord of Lathander) -- fire spells and lots of undead turning
halfling bard/arcane archer
dwarf ranger/rogue
human fighter/rogue (with shock battleaxe)
dwarf fighter/monk/Justicar

The necromancer himself (stats/spells can be tweaked as required):

Male Dwarf Nec16: HD 16d4+32(Wizard) ; hp 71; Init +7; Spd 20; AC 20(Flatfooted:17, Touch:18); Atk +8/3 base melee, +11/6 base ranged; +9/4 (1d6+1, +1 Quarterstaff); SQ: Darkvision (Ex), Dwarven traits (Ex); RF: Stonecunning, +2 Fort save against poison, +2 Ref save against spells, +1 attack bonus against orcs & goblinoids, +4 dodge bonus against giants; AL NE; SV Fort +7, Ref +10, Will +11; STR 10, DEX 16, CON 15, INT 23, WIS 12, CHA 6.

Skills: Alchemy +23, Appraise +8, Concentration +21, Craft (Blacksmithing) +6, Craft (Metalworking) +6, Craft (Stonecarving) +8, Craft (Stonemasonry) +6, Craft (Weaponsmithing) +6, Knowledge (Arcana) +25, Knowledge (War) +25, Profession (Miner) +3, Scry +7, Spellcraft +25.

Feats: Brew Potion, Combat Casting, Craft Wondrous Item, Heighten Spell, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell, Scribe Scroll , Toughness.

Spells Known (Wiz 4/6/6/5/5/5/4/3/2): 0 -- Arcane Mark, Dancing Lights, Daze, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Disrupt Undead, Flare, Ghost Sound, Light, Mage Hand, Mending, Open/Close, Prestidigitation, Ray of Frost, Read Magic, Resistance; 1st -- Animate Rope, Burning Hands, Cause Fear, Charm Person, Chill Touch, Comprehend Languages, Feather Fall, Hold Portal, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Summon Monster I; 2nd -- Cat's Grace, Flaming Sphere, Ghoul Touch, Spectral Hand; 3rd -- Fireball, Fly, Haste, Vampiric Touch; 4th -- Contagion, Enervation, Fear, Polymorph Self, Stoneskin; 5th -- Animate Dead, Magic Jar, Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound, Teleport, Wall of Force; 6th -- Circle of Death, Globe of Invulnerability, Legend Lore; 7th -- Control Undead, Finger of Death, Forcecage, Limited Wish; 8th -- Clone, Horrid Wilting, Incendiary Cloud, Prismatic Wall.

Spells Prepared (Wiz 4/6/6/5/5/5/4/3/2): 0 - Dancing Lights, Daze, Detect Magic, Disrupt Undead (s), Light; 1st - Burning Hands, Cause Fear (s), Charm Person, Feather Fall, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Summon Monster I; 2nd - Cat's Grace, Cause Fear, Disrupt Undead, Flaming Sphere x2, Ghoul Touch (s), Ghoul Touch; 3rd - Fireball x2, Fly, Haste, Vampiric Touch (s), Vampiric Touch; 4th - Contagion (s), Enervation x2, Fear, Polymorph Self, Stoneskin; 5th - Animate Dead (s), Animate Dead, Magic Jar, Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound, Teleport, Wall of Force; 6th -- Circle of Death (s), Circle of Death, Globe of Invulnerability, Legend Lore; 7th - Finger of Death (s), Finger of Death, Forcecage, Limited Wish; 8th - Horrid Wilting (s), Horrid Wilting, Prismatic Wall.

Possessions:
Weapons: +1 Quarterstaff.
Magic: Amulet of natural armor (+2); Ring: Protection +2; Gloves of Dexterity (+2); Bracers of armor (+3); Pearl of power (3rd); Scroll: Wail of the Banshee (17); Wand: Enervation (7) (Charges: 10); Potion: Cure Serious Wounds (5); Wondrous: Headband of intellect (+4); Wand: Stoneskin (8) (Charges: 8)

 

[Rev. Jesse]

(incomplete post)

 

[Tiberius]

I'm presuming this is the standard "PCs walk into the foe's lair" type encounter. Well, as with any wizard against a group close to his level, if they meet face-to-face, he's dead. Thus, he'll probably want to employ some manner of hit-and-run tactics, of nasty sort. For example, as he has access to teleportation-type magics, he might want to have a few scrolls of it handy for the following trick:

Have the gem focus of the Magic Jar in a main corridor somewhere, behind an Illusory Wall (cast through Limited Wish some time prior; I note that Illusion seems to be one of his banned schools). Have a completely walled-off room within 100' + 10'/level of the gem. Once his assorted minions/wards/what-have-you have alerted him to the presence of the PCs, teleport to the otherwise-inaccessable room and cast Magic Jar. Since you do not need line of effect to enter the gem in the first place, no problem there. Once you sense the life forces of the PCs coming by, jump into one of them. With luck, they'll fail their save. With extreme luck, you'll jump into the cleric. Now, lower your spell resistance (if applicable), cast Finger of Death on yourself (or use Limited Wish to cast Slay Living, if you want to avoid the Arcane Spell Failure chance when you jump into an armored person) and voluntarily fail the save. The body dies, and you get shunted back to the gem. Repeat as desired. If, by chance, they should discover the illusory wall and destroy the gem, there doesn't seem to be a consequence other than you get tossed back into your original body, and you're out 100g.

I also note that none of his spells, as prepared, make use of his metamagic feats. Why have them, if not to use them?

If I were he, I'd swap out Forcecage in his spellbook for something else, like Waves of Exhaustion or Bigby's (7th-level) Hand, but that's just because I don't particularly care for spells which require expensive material components. The Hand spell of that level would synergize well with Prismatic Wall, bull rushing people into it. Or, I might consider ditching M's Faithful Watchdog in favor of Cloudkill. A maximized Cloudkill in place of a Horrid Wilting while some of the party is immobilized in the porous version of Forcecage = great pain. 4 Con damage a round, or 2 if they make their saves. This works better if they happen to be in a pit or at the bottom of two inclined passageways. Cloudkill moves, but doesn't move uphill.

If he knows they're coming for him in the immediate future, his spell loadout seems a little strange. Things like Legend Lore and Animate Dead aren't all that useful for a combat encounter. Even Circle of Death seems wierd, as it can't affect creatures with more than 10 HD.

What self-respecting necromancer doesn't have Create Undead as one of his 6th level spells?

I'll contribute more as I think of 'em.

 

[Tiberius]

He might also want to invest in a Ring of Counterspells with Dimensional Anchor stored in it. Little is more irksome than being unable to teleport to safety, once you've gotten used to so doing.

 

[Rev. Jesse]

Two things come up immeditely here for spell listings: He doesn't have too many disable spells (hold person, etc) and not to many area distrubtion spells (like web, wall of fire) to break up the party.

Does he know they are coming? If so...

Ditch animate dead and legend lore as prepared spells. Replace Legend Lore w/ Guards and Wards or a quickened Spectral Hand. Replace Animate Dead w/ a quickened Magic Missle or Wall of Force. Ditch Summon Monster I for Magic Missle. Ditch Stoneskin for another Fear and Faithful Hound for another Wall of Force. Give him a maximized Melf's Acid Arrow. Ditch a 3rd level Vampric Touch for 2nd Fly spells (in case the players Dispel it) (or give him extra potions of Fly). Consider dropping the Limited Wish for a Quickened Fireball (Wishes can be really hard to adjucate for NPCs). Swap a prep'd Horrid Wilting for Incindary Cloud. Consider a maximized Enervation.

On the party's apporach: Cast Guards and Wards to dely them (this of course assumes they are fighting on his turf). This might dely them long enough to have their early buffs wear out.

Prior to combat: Have him cast his buffs. Fly is critcal here for his mobility. Be sure he is at least a double move away from the fastest character. Cast Spectral Hand. Give his toughest minions Stoneskin via wand.
1st Round: Use Wall of Force or Forcecage to break up the party. Ideally, if you have the front line guys in a row, have him perform a Wall of Force diagonally to divide the party. If they are fighting in a room, you might be able to structure the Wall of Force in such a manner that some of the party can apporach him but the rest need to confront his minions on the other side. To wit:

|_0_0___ \0__0____0_|
|_________\____0____|
|___0__0___\________|
|___________\____0__|
|____________\__0___|
|_____________\_____|
|______________\___|
|________W_____\_|

0 = PCs. W = Wizard Bad Guy | = walls of room and \ = Wall of Force

Situate the minions on the left side so they have most of the PCs. Keep in mind that Wall of Force blocks line of effect for all spells. If a Fireball hits it, the 'ball goes off.

2nd Rnd: Start with the heavy damage Horrid Wiltings or a Finger of Death against a wizard or rogue type on the right side.

3rd Round: Continue to use heavy damage hitters (Horrid Wilting, Fireballs, Fingers of Death) on the right side party. If there is a primary caster on that side, hit her w. the maximized Melf's Acid Arrow. Keep in mind that this will force Concentration checks from the player every time she tries to cast a spell.

4th Round: Expect the PCs to come up w/ some way of bypassing the Wall of Force. Use the cage version (the one w/holes) of the Forcecage spell to trap as many fighters as possible.

5th round. Target the Incindery Cloud in the Forcecage. bear in mind that the Cloud will significantly limit their sight and force concentration checks.

6th Rnd: Break up the party w/ another Wall of Force. Same Idea.

7th Rnd and Forward: Continue to use his heavy damage spells against casters. Have him be constantly on the move and use cover against ranged attackers. Fly above melee range. Focus primarly on casters as thick headed fighters will be beneath his contempt. Enervations will go a long way to disrupting the spells of the casters (as they lose the top level spell in each case). In fact, he probably won't do all that well against fighters because of so few disabling spells. A few Hold Persons would go along way here.

Have his escape w/ a Teleport, Fly away or use Polymorph to escape if things get bad.

If he has a little wizard helper, give that guy the wand of enervation and a cat's grace and use him to zap the casters with it.

Is this helpful?

 

[Odysseus]

You should add more potions and scrolls to his possesions. Why have brew potion if you don' t use it. As mentioned above you need some metamagic prepared spells. Quickened fly ,polymorph , fireball , magic missile and spectral hand are all good. Plus use maximased and heighted for scroll spells.
Plus the party has three multiclass rogues. If your necromancer knows that, he's going to try and avoid being surprised. Plus he's going to want to avoid any chance of being caught in melee, so flys a must have. Also depending on how good the arcane archer is, some sort of missile defence might be needed.
So assuming the necromancer gets some sort of warning the party are about to attack. Buff with potion and scrolls. Fly haste, cats grace, stoneskin, blink, displacement
1st round prismatic wall.
2nd. wall of force to split them up.
3rd+. fireballs from scrolls heightened/maximised.
If the necromancer can take out the cleric first, you could then attack with undead minions.
Also if possible find somesort of construct for the necromancer, Golem perhaps to keep half the party busy while he attacks the rest.

 

[Iku Rex]

DEX 16, CON 15,

Less Dex, more Con. And buy the poor guy a +Con item too.

Is this a "Core only" NPC?

 

[Gestalt]

Have the gem focus of the Magic Jar in a main corridor somewhere, behind an Illusory Wall (cast through Limited Wish some time prior; I note that Illusion seems to be one of his banned schools). Have a completely walled-off room within 100' + 10'/level of the gem. Once his assorted minions/wards/what-have-you have alerted him to the presence of the PCs, teleport to the otherwise-inaccessable room and cast Magic Jar. Since you do not need line of effect to enter the gem in the first place, no problem there. Once you sense the life forces of the PCs coming by, jump into one of them. With luck, they'll fail their save. With extreme luck, you'll jump into the cleric. Now, lower your spell resistance (if applicable), cast Finger of Death on yourself (or use Limited Wish to cast Slay Living, if you want to avoid the Arcane Spell Failure chance when you jump into an armored person) and voluntarily fail the save. The body dies, and you get shunted back to the gem. Repeat as desired. If, by chance, they should discover the illusory wall and destroy the gem, there doesn't seem to be a consequence other than you get tossed back into your original body, and you're out 100g.

As less magical alternative would be using a coup de grace on the stolen body. This approach relies on treating possession as one of those situations mentioned under coup de grace where your foe is "otherwise at your mercy." It's not like the victim can struggle, after all.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

A few things:

1. The wizard doesn't know contingency. Why not? It's one of the best things that an NPC wizard can do to protect himself. A contingent fire shield (or greater blink if you allow your wizard non-core spells) will do a lot for when the PCs get up close and personal with him (and they inevitably will).

2. The wizard has prismatic wall but no way to push someone through it. He should have Bigby's grasping hand or Bigby's forceful hand.

3. Wail of the banshee is a lousy scroll to have. If he's going to have a 9th level scroll, it should be for a spell where the minimum DC doesn't matter. Time stop is a good one in this regard. (In the time stop, he could cast the prismatic wall and a couple of Hands (or big elementals) and set them up to bull rush his enemies through the wall when the time stop ends).

4. He's got the Quicken spell feat which is ideal for a high level caster, but he doesn't have any Quickened spells prepared. He should spend 1/5 to 1/2 of his high level slots on quickened spells so that he can unload more quickly on the party. Without quicken spell, the party has a 8 to 1 action advantage on him. If he uses Quicken Spell heavily, he can cut that down to 4 to 1 before adding minions.

4.5 He also has circle of death prepared which will generally not do anything to PCs because most of the time their HD are too high to be affected.

At level 5, lose the second Animate Dead in favor of a quickened magic missile. It's good free damage and he can use it to check for Spell Turning before he uses finger of death on a PC.
At level 6, lose both circles of death. Put a quickened blindness/deafness or a maximized vampiric touch in the necromancy slot and a chain lightning, maximized fireball (not an ideal choice since a chain lightning will do nearly as much damage on average with a much higher DC but if you've got the feat you have to do something with it), quickened blindness/deafness, or Bigby's forceful hand in the other.
At level 7, I'd drop the second finger of death for a quickened haste (in 3.0) or a quickened fireball, haste (if he has minions), or quickened ray of exhaustion in 3.5
At level 8, I'd consider a quickened fear (unless the party always uses hero's feast), a quickened enervation, or a quickened Otiluke's resilient sphere (use on an obvious low-dex target) in place of one of the horrid wilting spells. A quickened solid fog would also be a good choice.

In the initial rounds of combat, he should aim to take control of the pace of combat by splitting the party up, or putting them on the defensive. If he can, he should mix some offense in as well. If he were to put the prismatic wall between him and five party members on round 1 as well as incapacitate one of the party members on his side of the wall (Otiluke's or fear) that would be a good start. If he could damage the entire party (horrid wilting+quickened fireball, for instance) enough that they could only think about healing themselves and splitting up to present a less attractive target, he stands a much better chance.

 

[Mark CMG]

Ditch a 3rd level Vampric Touch for 2nd Fly spells (in case the players Dispel it) (or give him extra potions of Fly).

( . . . )

Fly is critcal here for his mobility.

Plus he's going to want to avoid any chance of being caught in melee, so flys a must have.

Should have fly at will in an item, IMO.