gnomebarbarian
First Post
ROE is not overpowered
There are more then just the 2 ways you mentioned for bad guys to overcome the bad effects of the spell. You said not every bad guy can have Spell resistance or globes of invulnerability. this is true... but mix things up a little to try different ways to combat your PC's favorite tactics. Also, its been said, but only 1 ROE can effect someone at a time because it doesn't stack.
The main thing is if your group always uses the same tactics (like it sounds your PC's are doing) it should be easy to take a huge advantage of it and even turn it against them.
In this instance there are several ways you could mess up there "plan A" approach to everything, other then just the 2 things you mentioned. First you could give your npc's things like invisibility potions.. cant cast a spell at it if you cant see it right? (well actualy you can cast rays still even if you cant see something but being able to hit it is another matter) Darkness works for this too as do several other low level spells... blink, blur, obsuring mists, blindness (on the PC's) mirror image, silence, illusions and others.
what about counterspelling? give em a bull's str potion to counter the effect. cats grace helps em avoid the ray from hitting. throw in a low level mage or cleric against them in the encounters who hold an action to counterspell.
have someone throw a few thunderstones at the start of combat (20% spell faliure chance to cast Verbal spells like ROE) or drop a few smokesticks (again cant hit someone very well with a ray if you cant see em), entangle them with tanglefoot bags (again chance of spell faliure to cast while entangled) low cost alchemy items can be useful with thought and planing, and even a goblin can use them.
use spell turning on em to zap them right back. throw some undead templates on creatures or other things that are immune to ability damage/drain etc. they still have to make the ranged touch attack as well... dont forget to have them make those rolls (I know touch attacks are easy to make but you can miss.)
Do they have weapons or items that they rely on all the time to the point they dont have good backups? SUNDER that toy!... its fun and not that hard to do. don't forget grappling.. it makes spell casting a pain... pepper em with missile fire from concelmeant.
use reach weapons and take advantage of attacks of oppurtinity against the casters. keep baddies out of range, using cannon fodder (i.e. minions) to block them from getting in close. ROE has a very short range. What about having minions just standing in front of your big bad guys to give concealment or cover... you cant cast a ray right through someone.
if you notice PC's use certain trends try to think up as many ways as possible to counter it and have a few ready for encounters so that your not always just using the same thing... players start feeling cheated if every time you counter them with the same thing (like you said not everything can have spell resistance or globes of invul.)
Also think about how player knowledge will come into effect in your game. And not matter how much you try to separate player knowledge and character knowledge it will still come into play. For instance, everyone that plays DnD knows that Red Dragons take extra damage from cold and are immune to fire right?
Well have that dragon cast disguise self ahead of time to just turn its scales white so it looks like a white dragon. Hold off using its breath weapon for a few rounds so they waste time and effort casting fire spells and such attacks on it instead of cold. Have that red dragon have some protection from cold. (a dragon has so much better chances of knowing the characters are there first 4 times the vision of humans, blindsense, sent, excellent hearing etc. that they should always have a little time to prepare first)
Edit: added breaks for ya sorry hehe.
There are more then just the 2 ways you mentioned for bad guys to overcome the bad effects of the spell. You said not every bad guy can have Spell resistance or globes of invulnerability. this is true... but mix things up a little to try different ways to combat your PC's favorite tactics. Also, its been said, but only 1 ROE can effect someone at a time because it doesn't stack.
The main thing is if your group always uses the same tactics (like it sounds your PC's are doing) it should be easy to take a huge advantage of it and even turn it against them.
In this instance there are several ways you could mess up there "plan A" approach to everything, other then just the 2 things you mentioned. First you could give your npc's things like invisibility potions.. cant cast a spell at it if you cant see it right? (well actualy you can cast rays still even if you cant see something but being able to hit it is another matter) Darkness works for this too as do several other low level spells... blink, blur, obsuring mists, blindness (on the PC's) mirror image, silence, illusions and others.
what about counterspelling? give em a bull's str potion to counter the effect. cats grace helps em avoid the ray from hitting. throw in a low level mage or cleric against them in the encounters who hold an action to counterspell.
have someone throw a few thunderstones at the start of combat (20% spell faliure chance to cast Verbal spells like ROE) or drop a few smokesticks (again cant hit someone very well with a ray if you cant see em), entangle them with tanglefoot bags (again chance of spell faliure to cast while entangled) low cost alchemy items can be useful with thought and planing, and even a goblin can use them.
use spell turning on em to zap them right back. throw some undead templates on creatures or other things that are immune to ability damage/drain etc. they still have to make the ranged touch attack as well... dont forget to have them make those rolls (I know touch attacks are easy to make but you can miss.)
Do they have weapons or items that they rely on all the time to the point they dont have good backups? SUNDER that toy!... its fun and not that hard to do. don't forget grappling.. it makes spell casting a pain... pepper em with missile fire from concelmeant.
use reach weapons and take advantage of attacks of oppurtinity against the casters. keep baddies out of range, using cannon fodder (i.e. minions) to block them from getting in close. ROE has a very short range. What about having minions just standing in front of your big bad guys to give concealment or cover... you cant cast a ray right through someone.
if you notice PC's use certain trends try to think up as many ways as possible to counter it and have a few ready for encounters so that your not always just using the same thing... players start feeling cheated if every time you counter them with the same thing (like you said not everything can have spell resistance or globes of invul.)
Also think about how player knowledge will come into effect in your game. And not matter how much you try to separate player knowledge and character knowledge it will still come into play. For instance, everyone that plays DnD knows that Red Dragons take extra damage from cold and are immune to fire right?
Well have that dragon cast disguise self ahead of time to just turn its scales white so it looks like a white dragon. Hold off using its breath weapon for a few rounds so they waste time and effort casting fire spells and such attacks on it instead of cold. Have that red dragon have some protection from cold. (a dragon has so much better chances of knowing the characters are there first 4 times the vision of humans, blindsense, sent, excellent hearing etc. that they should always have a little time to prepare first)
Edit: added breaks for ya sorry hehe.
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