Need help with buffs for teleport blitz

[Adlon]

Bulls Strength on the fighters.......

Bless, Mage Armor, Shield, there truly are ALOT of potential buff spells. There are also additional spells many times, depending on your campaign setting.

With melee types: Think buffing their fighting skills. Strength, haste, giving extra hit points, possibly some misdirection, like blurr, or similar spells. Weapon enhancing magic. Dex buff's for AC boosts while in melee.

Ranged types: think about enhanced DEX, boosting their hit probability. Weapon ehancements. They too benefit from haste like effects.

Rogues: Think enhancing their stealth. Haste, dex boosts, enhancing their hiding ability. At those levels, a rogue starts to get nasty. They'd surely want him to sneak around back, and cause all kinds of problems.

Clerics: Think wisdom boosts. Haste affects spellcasters to a lesser degree, but, everyone can be hasted with one spell, so no worries. Alot of his spells will go farther with a higher wisdom.........Extra hit points, we dont want the cleric going down, do we? He should also have some prots up: elements, other forms of magical attack buffs.... Enhancing his healing spells......The 'WARD' spells as seen fit..........

Arcanes: Mage Armor. Already hasted. Fly. Invisibility. The 'WARD' spells as seen fit. Dimension door.

Just shooting from the hip here. But, the whole party, as a whole, or individually, will benefit from all of the spells listed in this thread. CS specific spells populate the list even more.

 

[The Amazing Dingo]

If this is going to be nothing more then a hit and run with emphasis on the running part (so only spending the surprise round and perhaps the first round in combat), then you want emphasis on the running part.

The PC's rounds are going to be spent during the surprise just getting beat on and then, since they think the attackers will likely stay to try to kill them, trying to heal themselves and buffing to prepare for the long haul. At least that will be the spellcasters. It'll take the melee combatants a round to get into position or wait to get buffed. The ranged attackers might have a solid round of attacks, but that will likely be about it.

To that extant, you want to make sure that but round 2, you can get away. Freedom of Movement will be key, along with spells like Mind Blank if possible. Then just keeping the attackers out of sight is great too, hence up your Invisibility spells, as has been mentioned. Fly is also great for mobility and keeping out of range of attacks (especially when stacked with an Invisibility). You want to make sure you can get away come round two and leave whatever problem you are gating in there for the heroes. Chances are that your NPCs will be able to survive at least one round, especially when buffed with a lot of the other spells mentioned, so they might stay until round three. However, if they just want to leave, they will make sure that they can get away.

Another option might be to Gate the creature in before teleporting and then Teleport the creature there with them (or by itself if using a Circle of Teleportation. That will free up one surprise attack for the mage or allow the baddies to leave that much quicker if they just want to leave the beast (which is nice if you take time to further buff the creature before teleporting).

If they just want to hit fast and run while leaving their surprise along, I'd focus on attacks to make them immune to mind-effects and Dimensional Anchor.

Of course, all this depends on what the characters attacks and general preferences in tactics. Nobody employing Scry-Buff-Teleport will not Scry their target before hand or try to otherwise gather info (perhaps Commune, Gather Information checks in the proper places where the PCs have fought, or Summoning old extraplanar enemies and extracting info about the PCs methods of battle) to know their targets' strengths/weaknesses. In this form of combat, the preparation is key. Spell Immunity and Resistance spells can easily change the flow of combat. You just have to know what to prepare against.

Something else to consider for the post-attack scenario are spells to prevent Divination. The PCs will start looking for who attacked them and the ability to hide from them will be key because those PCs will keep looking for them after a while too if they know what is good for them (they don't want the group to do the same again, so best to get them back first).

Good luck with it.

Edit: Let those NPC spellcaster prep scrolls or buy scrolls/potions to give them even more options for that day and more spells to cast. The more buffs, the merrier.

 

[random user]

Thank you all for the replies. This will help a lot for my prep.

I didn't mean to be intentionally dodgy on the classes for the NPCs; I just hadn't decided for myself who they are going to be yet. As to level they are all going to be level 14-18.

The gate is a modified gate spell - it gates in a demon (most likely, or something else similarly evil) which is defined as "uncontrolled" but is also tied to 1000 feet of the gate spot for 5 minutes, after which (if it is still alive) it can leave the plane. So it can't be teleported from it's gate point.

Backstory (long, feel free to ignore or skip if you get bored, but I thought I would provide some context):

This all started from two conversations with my players.

The first one was "How can it be in 40,000 years of human existance that people haven't come up with more innovation?" I already had an answer to this, but I had no real way to convey the answer to the player (and I didn't want to give him meta-game knowledge).

The second one was from a player who was interested in building a castle. He looked at his spell list and said, "This is ridiculous. Castles just don't work when magic is involved. Castle wall? Disintigrate. Teleport. Transmute rock to mud. There are so many things magic can do that traditional castles can't defend against."

And I had to agree with him. Some of the magical offense can be countered with magic items or other spells, but the cost of outfitting such a castle would be tremendous.


Out of these two conversations, I came up with my idea.

"With great power comes great responsibility." Thank you spider man. Wizards and clerics using their spells to their utmost and irresponsibly would result in the destruction of mankind through mutally assured destruction.

Therefore, upon attaining the 5th circle of spells, each spellcaster had to pledge to the body of high level spellcasters that they would not allow themselves to be hired out to perform offensive acts. Personal vengeance or avenging a friend was permitted, but a lord would not be able to hire 5 wizards capable of casting 8th circle spells to war upon his neighbor. He would, however, be allowed to hire 5 wizards to defend his castle, as a deterrent to anyone attacking him (sort of like nuclear missiles).

Anyone not agreeing was permitted to eschew the use of 5th circle spells and above forever and remain a mercenary. The body of high level spell casters would eliminate anyone who did perform an offensive high level spell for profit.

OK, well that was good and all and would explain why kingdoms can live in relative peace... but that is totally unreasonable and unrealistic. There is no way that this covenent could have become established; no way for people to enforce it originally, or for that matter, for anyone who originally thought it was a good idea to get enough buy-in to make it happen.

Given that this pact could not have been created, and given that humans were human, I saw only one recourse. There originally was no pact, and humans eventually almost totally destroyed themselves.

My characters have already had a chance to experience historical events, though they aren't sure exactly how or why.

So I decided that about 25,000 years ago, humans almost destroyed themselves. Humans had risen to a very powerful level. They had innovated, come up with magical answers to many problems. Eventually people lived a long time (since magic cured their ailments) and didn't need to work to a large extent (since magic created food / water and did other innovations).

Given this idleness and manifestation of magic, people grew restless and wanted territory. Leaders would hire legions of wizards, and they could destroy scores of troops with each spell. Leaders starting needing to capture more territory to attract powerful clerics and wizards. The peasents were throw-away. They didn't need to work the fields or do any of the labor that magic had solved, so they were all conscripted and sent off to fight. And they died. In the tens of thousands. They were no match for the powerful magic of the spell casters.

Eventually they ran out of everyone low level they could find. Some humans escaped into remote locations, but most had either been conscripted and sent off to die, or killed by wizards who would teleport next to a town and destroy it entirely in a few minutes.

Powerful people congregated into powerful castles which had sufficient magical defenses to prevent the scry-buff-teleport method from assassinations, and also had enough magical defenses to prevent most other methods of infiltration.

By this time there were perhaps 5000 or so humans left (remember magic took care of all their infrastructure needs), all high level -- survival of the fittest. The leaders decided they needed more power. They began to experiment in creating undead (there were many dead humans -- if they could be re-raised, that would be a huge army) and gating in demons.

Eventually they were able to succeed with both.

The party will pop into a time where humans have just discovered how to gate in demons. Human life is at a premium. It has largely come down to a war of attrition, and every side hopes that the demons will kill off enough of the enemy that eventually they won't be able to perform upkeep of the magical defenses of the castles, after which they will be ripe for overrunning in a traditional magical way.

What the humans of their time don't realize of course, or perhaps just don't want to think about, is that as they summon in more and more powerful demons, eventually some are going to break free.

In the end, the demons turned on the humans and destroyed almost all of them. Luckily for them, there had been another reclusive and isolationist race of powerful creatures (called belar). Once they saw the demons grow in power (the demons were able to gate in their brethren so they quickly multiplied), they stepped in and started fighting them. It took several thousand years to fully excise them, but eventually they belar were able to succeed.

During this time, humans had been reduced to little more than animals. The only humans to survive were the ones who hid in caves or other remote places. The belar intially dismissed the humans, believing that they would probably die out. But humans were tenacious and began to reappear and rebuild.

It was then that the belar realized that history would repeat itself if they didn't interfere. So they helped nurture the humans back to civilization, but also guided them and instilled in them their own potential for self-destruction.

Taking a mentor role, they discouraged certain magical innovations to occur, and also encouraged the formation of the self-protection pact (the pact mentioned at the beginning of the backstory) to help prevent another armegeddon.

So this scenario helped answer two of my players' questions. And now the PCs are stuck in history right before the start of the demon wars. Will they be able to do anything about it? Why are they there? Who knows... I guess we'll all find out!

 

[s/LaSH]

This trick could work if your evac is reliable (thus, having a wand dedicated to either Dispel Magic counterspells or Dimensional Anchor counterspells would be handy):

Get a necklace of fire beads, or whatever it's called - the volatile magic item.

Round one: Teleport in. Cast delayed blast fireball and drop the bead surreptitiously. Drop the neclace.

Round two: Teleport well away.

Round three and up: Cataclysmic chain reaction.

... now, that's probably going to kill anything within its detonation radius. Which probably makes it unfair. But if you're aware of the tactic, through whatever means, you'll simply run for cover the moment the red beads start falling, and know that your enemies mean business.



Other than that, the teleport blitz is fundamentally linked to scrying, to the point where scry-and-teleport is the more common phrase. Recon is your friend. (PS: Don't forget divination of other types, too. Use true sight through the scry, get in contact with as many deities as possible. But don't assume divination will reveal everything about your target.)

 

[Fieari]

Don't forget a thin layer of lead will prevent any divination attempts. Castles lined with lead work quite well. I mean, not against disintegrate, but against buff-scry-teleport.

 

[sfedi]

I see a problem here.

You don't know what spells should those NPC's have cast on themselves, since they don't know what dangers await them.

Why is this happening?

Why are they teleporting blindly to some location?

Shouldn't they investigate a bit about the site they are attacking?

That should give them a good idea of what to have cast on them, and any contingency plan for escape in case things go wrong.

 

[random user]

I see a problem here.

You don't know what spells should those NPC's have cast on themselves, since they don't know what dangers await them.

Why is this happening?

Why are they teleporting blindly to some location?

Shouldn't they investigate a bit about the site they are attacking?

That should give them a good idea of what to have cast on them, and any contingency plan for escape in case things go wrong.

I have the time that they pop in set already, but who exactly is going to be there is going to depend in some part as to what the PCs do. They will (greater) scry just prior to teleporting in to minimize the amount of preparation the enemy can do (since the enemy will have detect scry sensors up).

But since I don't yet know what the NPCs will see, I can't tell you what they will see. I know what they will see if the PCs don't change things around. But PCs are squirrely that way sometimes. I'm trying to do the next best thing, which is to note all the possible spells they could reasonably have memorized or available with a scroll, so that I have a buff list when they do actually do the teleport.

If things look really bad, they won't even teleport in. It really all depends on what the PCs do. I don't have a concrete plan on what will happen. I just know the NPCs motivations, goals, and (hope to know) their capabilities, and will adjust them on the fly as they acquire information, much in the same way the PCs do.

Don't forget a thin layer of lead will prevent any divination attempts. Castles lined with lead work quite well. I mean, not against disintegrate, but against buff-scry-teleport.

Do you have a book and page number for this? I've heard that before, but could never find the exact quote. Regardless, I've made it clear that something would be done to prevent scrying in certain areas. Since my PC isn't ready to build a castle yet, I've managed to table the exact method. It would be nice to direct him to the reference.

To help against dimensional anchor, the main teleporter will have spell immunity to it, and at least one caster will have a quickened dispel magic ready. On that note, if you ready an action to attack a caster when he casts a spell, and he casts a quickened spell, do you still get to attack? I guess I should ask about that in the rules forum.

I do need to decide whether or not any spellcaster is going to be powerful enough to cast a quickened teleport. If not, they will have at least a quickened dimension door ready.

Thanks again all for your help!

 

[The Amazing Dingo]

Do you have a book and page number for this? I've heard that before, but could never find the exact quote. Regardless, I've made it clear that something would be done to prevent scrying in certain areas. Since my PC isn't ready to build a castle yet, I've managed to table the exact method. It would be nice to direct him to the reference.

I don't have a page number, but it is in the Magic Overview section of the SRD under the Divination section. I've quoted it below.

Scrying: A scrying spell creates an invisible magical sensor that sends you information. Unless noted otherwise, the sensor has the same powers of sensory acuity that you possess. This level of acuity includes any spells or effects that target you, but not spells or effects that emanate from you. However, the sensor is treated as a separate, independent sensory organ of yours, and thus it functions normally even if you have been blinded, deafened, or otherwise suffered sensory impairment.

Any creature with an Intelligence score of 12 or higher can notice the sensor by making a DC 20 Intelligence check. The sensor can be dispelled as if it were an active spell.

Lead sheeting or magical protection blocks a scrying spell, and you sense that the spell is so blocked.

 

[shilsen]

I don't have a page number, but it is in the Magic Overview section of the SRD under the Divination section. I've quoted it below.

Scrying: A scrying spell creates an invisible magical sensor that sends you information. Unless noted otherwise, the sensor has the same powers of sensory acuity that you possess. This level of acuity includes any spells or effects that target you, but not spells or effects that emanate from you. However, the sensor is treated as a separate, independent sensory organ of yours, and thus it functions normally even if you have been blinded, deafened, or otherwise suffered sensory impairment.

Any creature with an Intelligence score of 12 or higher can notice the sensor by making a DC 20 Intelligence check. The sensor can be dispelled as if it were an active spell.

Lead sheeting or magical protection blocks a scrying spell, and you sense that the spell is so blocked.

You'll find the quoted section on Pg. 173 in the PHB, random user.