Making a good fight out of bad spells

[Savage Wombat]

I read the "flesh to stone" discussion below, and it got me to wonder:

Couldn't you make a really fun encounter for your players out of a high-level wizard (or spellcasting creature) with a poor spell selection? He's much higher level than the party, but his effective CR is lowered to the party's reach by his inefficient build. Especially if you picked spells that were fun to interact with for the players, and not just ways to reduce them to 0 hp as quickly as possible.

 

[toucanbuzz]

Sucks to be that wizard. While he's gallivanting around picking spells that harass, the players are efficiently reducing him to 0 hp as quickly as possible.

But, to the question, sure. Brainstorming:

* A mad illusionist in his "fun house" who wants the party to encounter his traps and nasty beasts, using a maze of secretive passages and spells to influence their progress. He may have no direct damage spells at all and should have exhausted most by the time the party finds him.

* A super-cautious foe who stocks up on things like Mislead and Contingency, Misty Step & Mirror Image, prefers the slow kill and isn't afraid to flee the scene. Becomes a pain to kill but poses minimal direct threat. If they can isolate, spells like Modify Memory.

* Anyone who uses Otto's Irresistible Dance. Because they like to see you dance. For maybe a round. With a 6th level slot.

* Let the party defeat itself spells. Confusion, Glyphs, illusions hiding traps. Might fit with insane "fun house" caster.

* The buffer/debuffer. He needs some allies & spends his time casting Haste, dispelling and counterspelling your stuff, Slow, Stinking Cloud, etc.

 

[trentonjoe]

A couple permanent major illusions would be fun.... acid dripping onto the floor that wizard can step through but the party is afraid of.

 

[Caliban]

Could be a Simulacrum of a high level wizard - created specifically to fight and probably lose in order see what tactics the PC's use. Giving the Simulacrum an unusual set of spells could also serve to give disinformation to the PC's in the event of an encounter with the real wizard.