How do you DM's deal with "Dogpile on the evil wizard" tactics?

[Inconsequenti-AL]

On the deception line - I think an 'apprentice wizard' can be funny at high levels.

Wizard 1:Fighting Type X - where X is the biggest number you can get away with.

Couple of wands - Hey, it looks like real magic!

Glammered, spiked full plate that looks like a robe.

Either make the guy an *real* expert with a staff. Or possibly give them a greatsword in a glove of storing... It's sure to be funny either way.

This is what I've used for my campaign BBEG: A guy who always wanted to be a great wizard - hampered by the fact that he's not got much talent for it... He's masquarading as a Wizard, but is in fact a Death Knight. He's also playing around with magic that he really doesn't understand! Should be funny.

Of course, it'd work equally well as a retired fighter 'retraining' as a wizard/spellsword/etc.

 

[Crass]

Novice players think that the way to deal with evil wizards is to close in and take swings at them with melee weapons, and pray for the wiz to blow a Concentration check when he casts defensively. Now, the players in my group have learned the way to do it right. They've got their act pretty down pat when it comes to big bad mages: one guy hangs back with a ranged attack (preferably touch-based like a spell or a vial of acid) and gets ready to disrupt the wiz's spellcasting, while others charge forward to grapple him. A grappled wizard is a dead wizard, and wizards aren't great at avoiding touch attacks or winning grapple checks.

I use flight at times to eliminate the grappling problem, but that doesn't eliminate the ranged disruption problem, especially if it's a touch attack that's targeting them.

Quickened spells, AFAIK, do not attract attacks of opportunity. Have one or two handy for the times your mage has to 'duke it out', mage to man. The Still Spell feat also helps if you are grappled, plus Silent Spell if possible. Improved initiative and Evard's Black Tentacles always helps, particularly if you can set the time and place of the confrontation.

 

[Whisper72]

How about invisibility + mirror image + displacement:

You can't see the guy. Once you can, there's several of them, once you try to grapple the real deal, he's not where you thought he'd be.... by that time several spells will have ruined the fun for the PC's.

Also, do not let the enemy mage be totally dependent upon spells. If the wiz. has a ring prot. fr. fire / spells prot fr fire pre-prepared and a wand of fireballs, he can just point blank the PC's and not receive the full blast him/herself.

 

[Crass]

Freedom of Movement isn't on the Sorcerer/Wizards spell list.

Purchase an item, eg a ring, of Freedom of Movement.

 

[shilsen]

Make your wizard a vampire. For some reason that worries the PCs enough that they refuse to grapple the guy and keep pounding away at him normally, allowing him to near-TPK the party. Or maybe that's just my group

 

[Shallown]

Yeah an item that could activate a freedom of movement or a cleric minion to do the same. I can't stress the usefulness of Mirror image enough. Also greater invis, displacement etc are all good ideas. Flyis also useful to avoid being ground bound. Wands and potions can get you some of these things.

Summoning can be useful to drop a wall of things the players can't always run around or through.

Wall spells work as well or physical barriers like a 3 foot wall. Enough for cover but not blocking line of sight or line of effect. Stops those who charge and slows down movement as well. Hopping a wall takes some effort and that 5 foot area of grease (magical or not) makes those balance checks landing on the other side hard.

Also pit traps between caster and characters may shut them down as well. Knowing the terrain can be a hug advantage. Even making sure the floor is tiled in different colors allows the bad guys to move without fear as they know the blue tiles are traps. And once the PC's figure it out they start moving around those so you control their movement. Always an important tactic.

As far as disrupting spell casting that's more difficult but invisibility, the mirror images and displacement make all that more unlikely they'll stop the spell casting which will then be directed at the most threatening guy. the one disrupting the spells at range.

later

 

[Scotley]

Mundane use of terrain can also really help in these situations. Put the Wizard up on a balcony, behind a wall with arrow slits, behind catrops or pit traps, or try a couple of ranks of minons with reach weapons or defending a smaller opening. All these things can slow down the players enough to give the wizard a chance to really do some damage. You can do several things to make the players think twice about grappling. A large Wizard really has an advantage--so try an ogre magi or giant of some type, better yet dragons make great wizards. Give the Wizard Combat reflexes, two weapon fighting and a couple of daggers coated with a poison that does str. damage. A few points of str. damage can really take the edge off one's ability to grapple. If you use some of the other tactics as well and the wizard gets off a couple of str. damage rays first the party can be down right helpless by the time they get a chance to grab the wizard.

Scotley

 

[Hjorimir]

Purchase an item, eg a ring, of Freedom of Movement.

Yeah, but then your players get that ring when they kill the mage and next thing you know all the PCs have one. :\

 

[cdsaint]

A 30' wide throne room, walls lined with guards wielding longspears. They should have combat reflexes and hold the line, and a +3 or higher dex modifier. bear in mind that with combat reflexes, they may make attacks of opportunity while flat footed, and may attack an opponent every time they draw an Aoo, not just one per opponent as in 3.0. The first time a PC takes 8 or 10 attacks of opportunity trying to reach the enemy wizard the second guy will think twice. A cleric henchman to cast wind wall will help keep those pesky arrows away. If you really want to intimidate them, a couple of Ogre guards at the end of the line with longspears will make them worry ... even if the ogres don't have combat reflexes, give them awesome blow and they have a good opportunity to stop anyone who makes it that far through the gauntlet from moving any farther.

In short, my players never got near the wizard and the cleric, although the party bard used a silence spell to awesome effect and neutralized the enemy spellcasters. Potions of invisibility and spider climb allowed them to escape unscathed, and next time they'll be ready for the silence. Unfortunately only 2 of the well trained guards survived... Oh well.

Chris

 

[ForceUser]

Yeah, but then your players get that ring when they kill the mage and next thing you know all the PCs have one. :\

Yep. I never put anything on a villain that I don't want the PCs to have. MerricB has the right of it --- a combination of henchmen, terrain, and/or awareness of the PCs will give the BBEG a fighting chance. I can think of three examples from our campaigns where this has proven true (Hjorimir's Greyhawk game - the lich fight, my Vietnamese OA game - the Monkey Woman fight, Vymair's Land of the Covenant game - the goblin wizard fight).