How to fight a wiz

If you had a Psion on the bad guy's side, and he was a level 14 Shaper, Mass Cocoon would end the whole debate REALLY quickly. No save, no SR, and he's completely helpless.

The Wizard's Weaknesses:
Area effect damage. Breath weapons. Anti-Magic fields. Traps. Silence. Darkness. Ability Drain. Level Drain. Monks. Ethereal creatures. Harm. Plane Shift (used offensively). Fear auras. Spell Turning. Poison. Lots of arrows. Charm/Confusion. Babies tied to the bad guys' chests.

Pick any four and throw them at him all at once. Sure, he can throw a lot of damage, but what happens when his teammate gets charmed and comes after him? Or a shadow drains his STR? An invisible, Silenced undead monk whose sole job is to grapple and interrupt the elf can be VERY effective.
 

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Great idea. Couple of clerics hear about the ass whupping and cast create undead (or create greater undead) and send a cadre of shadows through the walls with instructions to wait for the party to bed down, then come through the floor and drain away the elf's strength in his sleep.

Incoroporeal and silent they slip through the stone of the caverns, following the explosions, then catch sight of the party and fade away into the stone to wait. When the elf slips into his trance, three of them swipe at him from the stone he sits upon and he collapses on the floor. A few seconds later, he becomes a shadow and floats off with them back to their masters.

Or if all else fails, summon up some hobgoblins, march down the hall, when the wizard blasts them to ashes, have three clerics cast flamestrike on the wizard at the same time.

If they resurrect his ashes, do it again the next time he shows up but use blade barriers this time.
 

Re: stats

Azazu said:
His stats are as follows

S 6 D 20 C 12 (14 with bracers of Health) I 22 (24 with headband) W 16 C 13

His spell dc's for evocations are 21 + spell level

He has greater spell focus.

I have a hard time beating them.

6 Strenght?!! Does he carry a lot? Use Ray of Enfeeblement against him. 1 strength equals the strength of a toad. That might be enough for him to succumb to his own weight. If it works it have a bonus of being humiliating. :D

If you are evil have somebody in an ambush throw a combo of a blanket and a net on him. In that order. Getting trapped in that he can't use somatic or material (Depends on location of course) components and teleporting won't help much.
 


One thing no one has mentioned yet is to use any sort of golem against this killer wizard. Most golems are immune to practically every spell there is. One or two specific spells might slow a golem down, but thats about it. Send in two iron golems, and your evoker sun elf will be screaming for help in no time.
 
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The best "counter" to mages is multiple encounters in a short time. Spells per day and spells prepared are the weaknesses of the mage.

Especially if he is hammering the opposition before his pals get a chance to play, run a few skirmishes at him, draw out his spells, and then hit in force when he has gotten tired. If the main thrust comes when he is low on spells, he will see his wands andf scrolls do not have 24 int backing them up and so on.

After he is taught the wisdom in holding back, then he will start letting his party members get up there and do something. if he has to hang on to his spells for "the next fight" then it becomes a more fun game, and a more challenging game, all around.
 

Alzrius said:
One thing no one has mentioned yet is to use any sort of golem against this killer wizard. Most golems are immune to practically every spell there is. One or two specific spells might slow a golem down, but thats about it. Send in two iron golems, and your evoker sun elf will be screaming for help in no time.

I have to second the recommendation by Alzrius. Use golems. Although iron golems might be too high-powered for the group (I don't know the exact level, but 2 iron golems is like CR 15).

I would use stone golems or flesh golems. I might "tweak" them a little to change their spell vulnerabilities around, just in case this guy has the MM memorized. And then have at it.

This has two benefits: 1) it takes the wizzy down a peg or two, and 2) it gives the rest of his party something to do. Who knows, they might even save his life. :rolleyes:
 

Others have given a lot of good suggestions. Here's a few more.

Wizards have limited spells/day, even at 11th level. If he's triggerhappy, let him see a Major Image of a band of gnolls or whatever troops the temples are tossing at the group regularly coming around a corner just distant enough that the fighters can't get there in one round. Let him toast them with a fireball. One spell down, no bad guys hurt. . . .

Remember Spell Immunity. Give some of those clerics Spell Immunity: Fireball, Magic Missile, Cone of Cold and then have them prepare with Protection from elements Electricity. This will work especially well if he's got a reputation for using a couple of elements. Alternately, give a few clerics brooch's of shielding for magic missile and let them use spell immunity for all his attack spells.

High level clerics could even Commune before attacking the party to find out what elemental types he's got prepared that day. If he's only got one or two prepared, the clerics could cast Mass Resist Elements (Tome and Blood clr 3) on their hordes.

I imagine the temples have a wizard somewhere or other. Have him start out invisible and hasted and ambush the party by throwing up a wall of fire (circular around the party) and then follow up with a wall of stone (around the wall of fire). Well, maybe that wouldn't be so fun for the players. . . .

It's the temple of elemental EVIL right? So have the bad guys send their grunts into the slaughterhouse in small groups for him to fry. Meanwhile, an invisible assassin is studying the party's main artillery (the wizard). Three rounds later. . . "That's 32 points of damage from the assassin's sneak attack. Make a fort save or Die! Oh, by the way, the blade had purple worm venom on it. Make a fort save (DC 24) or lose 1d6 strength. . . . Now the assassin makes his second attack. . . . using his extra partial action [from his boots of speed] the assassin pulls out a wand [of invisibility] and vanishes."

Barbazu can teleport without error at will. They are also within the hit dice range for lesser planar ally (actually, they could have fighter levels as well and still fit under the hit die cap). A hasted Barbazu could teleport in next to the wizard and attack. On its next turn, it attacks and uses its extra partial to teleport out. Give the Barbazu above average strength, dexterity, and constitution and the combat reflexes feat and see what happens. . . .

Spell Resistance is a 5th level cleric spell.

Since the party is apparently 10th or 11th level, this would theoretically be a reasonable encounter:
Troll Monk 6: Str 24, Dex 16, Con 22. . .
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Large and In Charge, Lightning Reflexes, Iron Will.

Of course, he's only CR 11. To challenge an 11th level party, you should add an 11th level cleric to the mix.

Before the pair attacks the party, the cleric casts Energy Immunity: Fire and Protection from Elements: Acid on the troll. Protection from elements: Cold and Fire on the cleric. Bull's Strength, Endurance, Owl's Wisdom, and shield of faith, and magic vestments on both of them. Both villains down potions of dexterity. Death Ward on the troll. He casts Spell Resistance on himself.

And the cleric starts the attack off by using a Summon Monster VI to summon a fiendish dire bear to attack the party. (Assuming that you allow template swapping for summons).
 

Re

It sounds to me like you are being a little soft on the group. Hedrack should have killed this wizard unless they are preparing extremely well.

Hedrack should have been watching the characters for sometime determining how they fight. He should be receiving information back from his minions in the Temple, even if he has to Speak with Dead to get the information, though there are more than a few minions that should easily be able to evade the party.

If the wizard is as powerful as you say, one nicely placed destruct or a few empowered lightning bolts should do him in. We are a fairly tough group, and my sorcerer can launch more spells than this wizard and also has a 24 Charisma for determining DC's, yet we were repelled from the Temple 2 times and the third time, when we actually beat Hedrack, he killed half our party.

There is no way this wizard should have been able to defeat Hedrack or his other minions so easily. If Hedrack is already dead, just make sure to run the Inner Phane priests as intelligent, organized enemies who don't wait in their rooms to be attacked. Start having the temple bring forces en masse to deal with the very serious threat the PC's pose to their plans. That should be enough to deal with any of them.
 
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Im not an expert in killing wizards, but I must say that 6 in STR is really low. I believe you should do two things.

First: add his equipment, I bet his flying around at 90, when he should be flying around at 60 for carrying too much weight (that will limit him a bit, if that is the situation).

Second: 6 in STR !! With 0 in STR you are helpless, but one little shadow hidden and jump him in surprise, and his gone. I say instead of sucking his INT down (which is very high and will take alot of time lowering it) make him pay for wanting to min-max and having a 6 in STR.
I say SHADOWS all the way and make him pay for being so weak. Shadows are even nicer because they kill when you get to 0 STR
:D :D :D :D :D :D

Hope it helps.
cloaker
 

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