Issue with Wind Walk

[daemonslye]

Can move 600ft per round insubstantially
(although accompanied by a "Magical wind");
Lasts one hour per level and each person affected
can act independently;

So - Assuming you have a "snatch and grab" dungeon or
a "kill the main bad guy" dungeon, how do you counter?
Seems like it is much easier to protect against the "scry/teleport"
combo than a group of misty wind walkers blowing through
your palace at 60 mph.

Is there anything I am missing? I am loath to single out
one spell for deletion but I dont see many other choices;

Most other spells have relatively reasonable counters (scry=will save/counterspells,
planar ally costs treasure, gasform=slow move; arcane eye=slow,
ethereal jaunt=personal only, etc.);

Yes - it is a high level (12th) campaign - but this spell renders
a maze, castle or palace open to a quick mapping and allows the
characters to bypass many of the more mundane wards/encounters;
The only thing I can come up with as a counter is a "greater dispel-glyph"
and even then - it feels like crafting a special counter for one
spell (which can potentially be recast after passing the glyph assuming
a scroll or two).

Thanks for any and all suggestions,

~D

Wind Walk
Transmutation [Air]
Level: Clr 6, Drd 7
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Targets: You and one touched creature
per three levels
Duration: 1 hour/level (D); see text
Saving Throw: No and Will negates
(harmless)
Spell Resistance: No and Yes (harmless)
You alter the substance of your body to a
cloudlike vapor (as the gaseous form spell)
and move through the air, possibly at great
speed. You can take other creatures with
you, each of which acts independently.
Normally, a wind walker flies at a speed
of 10 feet with perfect maneuverability. If
desired by the subject, a magical wind
wafts a wind walker along at up to 600 feet
per round (60 mph) with poor maneuverability.
Wind walkers are not invisible
but rather appear misty and translucent. If
fully clothed in white, they are 80% likely
to be mistaken for clouds, fog, vapors, or
the like.
A wind walker can regain its physical
form as desired and later resume the cloud
form. Each change to and from vaporous
form takes 5 rounds, which counts toward
the duration of the spell (as does any time
spent in physical form). As noted above,
you can dismiss the spell, and you can even
dismiss it for individual wind walkers and
not others.
For the last minute of the spell’s duration,
a wind walker in cloud form automatically
descends 60 feet per round (for a
total of 600 feet), though it may descend
faster if it wishes. This descent serves as a
warning that the spell is about to end.

 

[Camarath]

Why not have the creatures in the area attack and cast spells at the characters? Gaseous Form only gives DR 10/magic and the characters can not attack or cast spells.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Part of the problem is the 5-round resubstantiation clause. That's five rounds of attacks, if the enemy knows your coming. It's not the best choice for a stealthy arrival.

 

[daemonslye]

Here is what I believe would happen:

1. Guards on tower hear a wind and might see a mist (80% likely otherwise
they see misty forms) decend toward the castle but cant be sure.
2. The wind blows through the front entrance of the castle
and the guards look up only to a strange mist barrel past them
travelling 600ft per round - "What was that?"
3. The golem at the staircase animates at the approach
of the mist but it goes overhead and continues past before the
golem takes its first step
4. The mist heads downstairs traversing through many corridors
before finding the dungeon where the princess is kept - guarded
by a troop of trolls;
5. The trolls notice a wind and a mist - that quickly disappears
back through the entrance;
6. The trolls begin to argue about what the mist signified and what
to do about it. They prepare themselves for battle;
7. The party comes out of mist form in an empty hallway or room
(yes- roll for encounters but things are happening too fast to have
every corridor filled)
8. Party buffs and dim doors into dungeon;
9. Party attacks trolls with prepared fire and acid onhand then
grabs the princess and teleports home (or wind walks her as well
out of there using a scroll);
10. The guards start to raise the alarm and go to check on the
princess.

***
11. (party, at home, is attacked by the doppleganger princess, heh)

Maybe a bit improbable, however, the group has the means to
basically bypass most guards/obstacles, find secret entrances,
map the place, note exceptional foes and attack selected foes
at strength;

Also, the doppleganger trick won't work (often) at these levels.

I really dont see the party spending five rounds in the midst of
enemies changing form. They would choose an unoccupied area
to do this.

Maybe there is something to do with manueverability that would
cause the group to be forced to move 10' around corners - But
with a 600' move anytime they have a straight line, it still leaves
the guards in the dust (mist?) sooner rather than later.

Am I interpreting this incorrectly?

~D

 

[Hypersmurf]

Part of the problem is the 5-round resubstantiation clause. That's five rounds of attacks, if the enemy knows your coming. It's not the best choice for a stealthy arrival.

If you really, really need to be material now, just dismiss the spell.

You can always figure out how to get out again once you've won the fight

-Hyp.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Here is what I believe would happen:

...lotsa stuff...

Am I interpreting this incorrectly?

Yes, that seems like quite a viable strategy for a party of this level. Of course, I'd fully expect the opponents they face at this level to be using strategies like this against the PCs on a somewhat regular basis.

One cannot be too careful in ones choice of enemies. And if they can scry-windwalk-teleport as well, I imagine the PCs will try to keep from attracting too much attention in their direction.

There's always a certain element of "gosh, now the PCs can do anything" when they start concocting plans like these, but this is only true in a world were the opponents and NPCs are totally REactive, and not PROactive. If a villian is stuck doing nothing but responding to the PCs strategies, of course he will always be at a severe disadvantage. However, if he is actively attempting to defeat the PCs, even outside of neat, established "adventures," he gains the advantage. The PCs should be very careful not to attract that kind of malicious attention.

 

[Geoff Watson]

A closed door.

They'll have to rematerialise to open it, and any guards will have five rounds to attack them while they're solidifying.

Geoff.

 

[Mephistopheles]

A closed door.

They'll have to rematerialise to open it, and any guards will have five rounds to attack them while they're solidifying.

Gaseous creatures can squeeze through gaps and so I'd say a closed door would be unlikely to be a barrier to progress. It would slow them down, but not keep them out.

One issue to consider when moving at high speed with wind walk is that manoeuvrability is poor. While this is not normally an issue as wind walk is clearly intended for overland travel in open spaces, it could be an issue when trying to move through confined interiors. For one thing, ninety-degree turns are not possible unless they slow down to the slow speed of wind walk. Slowing down is probably also not likely to be an issue most of the time. When you are in the midst of a dungeon filled with enemies, however, it could become relevant pretty quickly.

Although it was probably never a consideration that gaseous creatures would be subjected to falling damage there doesn't seem to be any indication that a gaseous creature is immune to this type of damage. It would be possible that creatures using wind walk and moving at high speed in confined spaces might impact with solid surfaces and sustain impact damage not unlike falling damage.

If we take the maximum falling damage of 20d6 as the damage sustained at terminal falling velocity, and then take the terminal velocity of a falling human as 55m/s or 183/1/3ft/s or 1100ft/round, then a creature moving at 600ft/round is moving at a little over half of terminal velocity and so is subject to about 10d6 damage. So a creature using wind walk moving at high speed and attempting to zoom through confined corridors or tunnels could quickly end up being buffeted around off walls as it tries to navigate sharp turns, probably taking 9d6 lethal and 1d6 non-lethal per impact (as if hitting a yielding surface to take into account the gaseous nature of the creature).

Another issue is that gaseous creatures are easily affected by strong wind conditions. A permanent gust of wind, or perhaps even a permanent wind wall if you consider that a valid application and researching the application is viable for the NPC, can become an effective barrier against gaseous intruders if placed in a suitable chokepoint. Against mid-high level characters, however, it would quite likely be dispelled so the best placement would probably be somewhere that intruders would be seen and be able to be attacked if they became solid to get rid of the wind tunnel or wall, making it more of an obstacle than a reliable barrier.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Guards and Wards is an equivalent level protective spell and it would make Windwalk smash & grabs far less effective (pretty much impossible in fact).

The 1st level "alarm" spell will detect their arrival and allow paranoid enemies to take action.

Summoned air elementals might be effective in grabbing windwalkers in their whirlwind

They cannot pass through liquid, so you can have adventures which involved sahauagin capturing the princess... they'll not be wind-walking to rescue her! Others could become paranoid once word of the technique gets around and include water barriers around their sanctum if they were really desperate (although even the classic "secret door behind the waterfall" should work if it is a heavy enough waterfall)

Cheers

 

[frankthedm]

If that type of spell goes against the type of play you want for your game, then get rid of it. Just make sure you clip the other spells that achieve similar effects. Grab a few older edtion books and check the changes that were made. Wotc's ruleset is quite smooth mechanics wise, but one must be thorough when amputating certain aspects.