Need help with a themed spell list

[Zurai]

I'm starting work on the BBEG for one of the campaigns I'm running, and I decided to solicit a little help with his (extensive) spell list. I want his spell list to reflect the character's two themes as much as possible while still being a viable epic-level encounter (ie, can still TPK a high-level gestalt party).

The character's two themes are greed/avarice and transformation/battlefield transformation. I do want to shy away from polymorph type spells, though, and he's already well aware that the entire party has Evasion, so Reflex Half spells are low-priority.

Any wizard spell or divine spell is a valid choice; he's a gestalt wizard-archivist, and I have access to every WotC 3.0 or 3.5 book.

Here's his current spells prepared, with the spells I'd most like to get alternatives to in italics, though feel free to suggest any spell:

Wizard Spells Prepared: enchantment, illusion forbidden; DC 21 + spell level + 4 (Transmutation) + 2 (Necromancy, Conjuration, or Evocation)
1st - Expeditious Retreat (already cast), Ray of Enfeeblement x2, Shield (already cast), Nerveskitter (already cast), Spirit Worm, Magic Missile, Lesser Orb of Sound
2nd - Body of the Sun (already cast), Scorching Ray x3, Glitterdust, Wither Limbs x2, Arcane Turmoil
3rd - Haste, Drown, Shivering Touch, Dragonskin (already cast), Chain Missiles, Sound Lance, Alter Fortune, Scattering Trap (already cast)
4th - Sandform, Evard's Black Tentacles, Solid Fog, Celerity x2, Ice Web, Vortex of Teeth, Wall of Water
5th - Greater Blink, Baleful Polymorph x2, Cloudkill, Wall of Force x2, Channeled Lifetheft
6th - Disintegrate, Quickened Scorching Ray, Heartfreeze, Entomb, Extract Water Elemental, Steal Summoning, Karmic Retribution
7th - Reverse Gravity, Limited Wish, Mass Flesh to Salt x2, Quickened Sound Lance, Quickened Drown, Necrotic Curse
8th - Temporal Stasis, Mind Blank (already cast), Maze, Bestow Greater Curse, Avascular Mass, Prismatic Wall, Horrid Wilting
9th - Time Stop x3, Wail of the Banshee, Frostfell, Transmute Rock to Lava, Reality Maelstrom

Archivist Spells Prepared: DC 21 + spell level + 4 (Transmutation) + 2 (Necromancy, Conjuration, or Evocation)
1st - Shield of Faith, Protection from Good (already cast), Ice Slick, Cure Light Wounds x3
2nd - Barkskin (already cast), Black Karma Curse x2, Drifts of the Shalm, Briar Web, Living Undeath (already cast)
3rd - Meld Into Stone, Stone Shape x2, Column of Ice, Black Sand, Favorable Sacrifice (already cast)
4th - Death Ward (already cast), Call of Stone x2, Stop Heart, Slipsand, Sudden Stalagmite
5th - Transmute Stone to Sand, Blizzard
6th - Heal x2, Antilife Shell, Animate Snow
7th - Blasphemy, Wrack Earth, Blood to Water, Fortunate Fate (already cast), Heal
8th - Chain Dispel, Glacier, Summon Giants, Heat Drain
9th - Gate, Summon Golem, Cast in Stone, Tsunami

 

[Nifft]

My suggestion for low-level slots: prep a duplicate of every buff he cares about, possibly two duplicates. Dispels fly around like mad at high level, and he has enough time stops prepped to re-buff repeatedly, but only if he has his buffs prepped. I'd keep at least one copy of mind blank, for example, because it is so amazingly important.

He should prep more chain dispels, and maybe even a Quickened greater dispelling.

Poly any object is a nicely flexible 8th level Transmutation spell. He can use it offensively, and he should do so. He should have another solid fog, and possibly acid fog too. They are among the better area control spells which mesh well with time stop.

He needs more Quickened spells and escape spells. One of his 9th level Arcane slots should be Quickened teleport; one of his 9th level Divine slots should be Quickened plane shift (which the Arcane side cannot do). Maybe an 8th level slot for Quickened dimension door, too.

Benign transposition is a great spell for the studied summoner. It's even better Quickened.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Zurai]

Oh, I forgot to mention:

He has 2 Quickened Teleports as SLAs (Archmage) and a Rod of Greater Quicken Metamagic. He cannot leave his current plane, however, because of the circumstances of the fight (he's trapped in a certain location until X happens, but the PCs get to him before X happens unless they decide to go take a vacation or something). So, no Plane Shift or Etherealness.

Point well taken about the duplicate spells, though. I'll see what I can do about more Quickened spells in general as well.

 

[Nifft]

Ah, I see. No plane shift is annoying. Well, I guess he could use it offensively, but that's not a brilliant use of a 9th level slot. :\

Basic advice is: plan out 10 rounds of ZOMG I KILL U NOW (pairs of quickened de-buffs and insta-kill spells), plan out 10 rounds of summoning / summon buffing / "intermission" (in a time stop, when he's bought himself a spare round, or when the party is hiding from him trying to buff / summon / heal / whatever), and plan five ways to hide or escape. Use direct damage only when there's some synergy -- e.g. Iron Golems + meteor swarm.

He should have discern location if there are places to hide on his demi-plane. However, that could be on a scroll.

Can he Empower?

Cheers, -- N

 

[roguerouge]

The character's two themes are greed/avarice and transformation/battlefield transformation. I do want to shy away from polymorph type spells, though, and he's already well aware that the entire party has Evasion, so Reflex Half spells are low-priority.

enchantment, illusion forbidden

Well, that does limit things on the wizard side of things: evocation's low priority, enchantment and illusion are out, and the boom stick of transmutation is out. Ouch.

 

[roguerouge]

Let me put in a vote for divide and conquer tactics. Presumably, with high level divinations and epic intelligence, he should know the party's coming, so he shouldn't spend the precious first round buffing.

Remember: this is his life we're dealing with here and it's a last stand.

He should start with having made deals with a number of extra-planar beings. Have him have used Gate and Greater Planar Ally liberally. Have him start the combat with a small horde of Air and Earth elementals to whirlwind and serve as melee grunts to support said extra-planar creatures. They're there to grapple and get in the way.

Then cast time stop. Then separate the party with as many walls of force and stone and prismatics as you can set up, preferably shaping the battlefield so that the casters are isolated from each other but not from the elementals and outsiders.

And have some areas of the room with teleportation circles that send them elsewhere on the plane, preferably somewhere nasty. "The circle itself is subtle and nearly impossible to notice. If you intend to keep creatures from activating it accidentally, you need to mark the circle in some way." Obviously, he knows where all of these are.

Maze a few people.

Your goals are to cut down on the PC's numerical advantage, prevent those that are there from working together, and move them around on the battlefield.

 

[roguerouge]

Solid fog and Evard's Tentacles are excellent possibilities for being quickened as a backup.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

For Arcane spells, you might want to try:

at 0 level: Caltrops (spell compendium)
at 1st level: Benign Transposition (spell compendium), Wall of Smoke (spell compendium), and Ray of Clumsiness (spell compendium)
at 4th level: Orb of Fire (spell compendium)
at 5th level: Dimensional Shuffle (spell compendium), Transmute Rock to Mud (player's handbook), Reciprocal Gyre (spell compendium), Xorn Movement (spell compendium)
at 7th level: Stun Ray (spell compendium)
at 9th level: Replicate Casting (spell compendium), Mordenkainen's Disjunction (player's handbook)


For Divine spells...

at 3rd level: Wall of Light (spell compendium)
at 6th level: Greater Dispel Magic (player's handbook)
st 9th level: Miracle (player's handbook)

Wall of Smoke and Wall of Light are useful for cutting off Line Of Sight without breaking Line of Effect. As an added bonus, both of them work as a debuff for those who pass through them and Wall of Light does not break Line of Sight for the caster.

Caltrops is... let's face it... not likely to do much of anything. But it is a 0-Level spell, so if you've got the time to cast it, there's no reason not to do so.

Ray of Clumsiness is a helpful little analogue to Ray of Enfeeblement. Its Transmutation (which your guy is strong in) and it targets Dex (which makes it easier to hit your foes later).

Benign Transposition and Dimensional Shuffle are very useful if you've got minions that you can use to your advantage. Not so much if you're by yourself. Dimensional Shuffle is absolutely awesome in that it allows you to rearrange everyone's position on the battlefield, though non-willing creatures get a save.

Orb of Fire and Stun Ray can stun your enemies. And, if your enemies don't get to do anything... They are hosed. Stun Ray stuns your victim for one round even if they make their save.

Reciprocal Gyre is good for making someone sorry that they pre-buffed. 1d12 points of damage per active spell level on the target is about the best you're going to get for direct damage. I'd suggest hitting someone with a Quickened Reciprocal Gyre and then a Dispel (or Disjunction) directly afterwards.

I put Disjunction on the list. I know that some folks prefer to avoid it because its such a pain in the butt. You might want to replace that with a Superior Dispel Magic, or something. Dispelling is pretty important for high level battles.

Also, I'd recommend that you replace all iterations of Wall of Force with Wall of Stone, because it breaks Line of Sight as well as Line of Effect. Making it so that your foes cannot see each other (or you) can be an effective tactic. Xorn Movement will help you to take advantage of this by allowing you to move through the stone walls at your leisure.

Replicate Casting is a fabulous Transmutation spell that fits very nicely with your greed theme. If your player's cast a cool spell, your bad guy can cast it, too, with this.

Later
silver

 

[Zurai]

Thanks for the suggestions and advice, everyone. Here's v2 of his spell list:

Wizard Spells Prepared: enchantment, illusion forbidden; DC 21 + spell level + 4 (Transmutation) + 2 (Necromancy, Conjuration, or Evocation)
1st - Nerveskitter (already cast), Benign Transposition x5, Shield (already cast) x2
2nd - Body of the Sun (already cast), Scorching Ray x3, Glitterdust, Arcane Turmoil x3
3rd - Haste, Drown, Shivering Touch, Dragonskin (already cast) x2, Sound Lance, Alter Fortune, Scattering Trap (already cast)
4th - Celerity x2, Black Tentacles, Solid Fog x2, Ice Web, Vortex of Teeth, Wall of Water
5th - Greater Blink, Reciprocal Gyre, Quickened Benign Transposition, Wall of Force x3, Dimensional Shuffle
6th - Extract Water Elemental, Quickened Scorching Ray x2, Heartfreeze, Entomb, Steal Summoning, Sign of Wrath
7th - Reverse Gravity, Forcecage, Mass Flesh to Salt x2, Stun Ray, Quickened Drown, Quickened Icelance
8th - Temporal Stasis, Mind Blank (already cast) x2, Maze, Prismatic Wall x2, Quickened Solid Fog
9th - Time Stop x3, Replicate Casting, Frostfell, Transmute Rock to Lava, Reality Maelstrom

Archivist Spells Prepared: DC 21 + spell level + 4 (Transmutation) + 2 (Necromancy, Conjuration, or Evocation)
1st - Protection from Good (already cast) x2, Ice Slick, Wall of Smoke x3
2nd - Barkskin (already cast) x2, Awaken Sin x2, Living Undeath (already cast) x2
3rd - Meld Into Stone, Wall of Light x2, Column of Ice, Black Sand, Favorable Sacrifice (already cast)
4th - Death Ward (already cast) x2, Call of Stone x2, Stop Heart, Slipsand
5th - Transmute Stone to Sand, Blizzard
6th - Heal x2, Quickened Awaken Sin, Animate Snow
7th - Storm Tower, Blood to Water, Fortunate Fate (already cast), Quickened Cure Serious Wounds x2
8th - Chain Dispel, Glacier, Summon Giants, Summon Nature's Ally VIII
9th - Gate, Shapechange, Cast in Stone, Disjunction


Notes: Quickened Teleport 2/day SLA; Rod of Greater Quicken Metamagic; Contingency to Greater Dispel himself if he loses control of his actions; Rune of Contingency casts Featherfall and Water Breathing 1/day as necessary plus Gaseous Form for 5 rounds if reduced to less than 0 HP but not killed; Cannot leave his current demiplane during the fight with the PCs; Has foreknowledge of PC abilities and knows when they will enter his demi-plane with enough forewarning to buff himself fully.