Need some tactics.

[LordVyreth]

My characters are in the 18th to 20th level range. They include a Bard/Sorceror/Dragon Disciple, a Ranger, a Wizard, an Astral Deva, a Monk, a Frenzied Berzerker, and some pascifist built from the Book of Exalted Deeds. There is always the chance that another player will join the group, however. Their next goal is taking down a 22nd Psionic Warrior, but doing so while she is alive. They have access to ways of tracking her, and will probably attack her by doing a teleport ambush, possibly with buffs prepared first. In addition to the warrior herself, they'll have to deal with her 17th level psion companion, a group of psychic stone giants, an advanced cerebrilith, and the 17 CR Rilmani from the Fiend Folio. She'll also have access to other high level servants if some of the above get killed. She'll probably be focussed on escaping, unless the party takes heavy casualties very quickly. Of course, if she escapes the first time, she'll be more careful in later attempts, and will likely be invisible, better guarded, protected by defensive buffs, and so on. Or, she could lead the party to her own ambush, or flee to another plane of existence.

My concern is that the party will be able to use the ambush to take her down and escape with her before her group can even respond. After all, they'll almost certainly have surprise the first time, and if they have good luck with initiatives, they could have as many as 14 actions between them before she could respond! Any advice on ways of protecting her that won't be seen as cheap or DM metagaming?

 

[Mytholder]

Some sort of teleport or scry block, like a mobile dimensional lock or mind blank?

 

[Piratecat]

First, does she have any idea she's being hunted - and does she have any cleric/psion/wizard friends who regularly do divinations?

 

[Jeph]

What powers and spells are available?

 

[LordVyreth]

She has no idea that she's being hunted, but can guess why she'd be attacked by the party as soon as they pop up, especially if they start with the subdual tactics. Basically, they need information that only she can easily provide, and that can't be revealed magically (so no domination, no charming, no killing her and then speaking with dead.) However, the party can physically locate her pretty much anywhere, using an artifact capable of penetrating even divine protections. While this device can locate her, it won't tell the party anything about the lay of the land around her, her companions, and so on, so a scry method would be needed to make an effective ambush.

Her resources are extremely extensive; she is one of the four main servants of a soon-to-be risen goddess. Once she escapes the first time, she can get more reinforcements, or try to get the players to reveal information that she needs from them (same conditions apply here; she can't force it using magic.) She's true neutral, and tends to frown on killing innocents or using torture to achive her goals. The same can't be said for some of her servants, but she's not about to use them to do her dirty work for her. In general, I have some clever ideas on what she'd do if she escapes the first time (though more suggestions are in order,) but am concerned with the party's tendency to rip through some of my fights when they're prepared.

 

[Tortoise]

First, does she have any idea she's being hunted - and does she have any cleric/psion/wizard friends who regularly do divinations?

Those same questions crossed my mind too.

Perhaps she's aware of being watched and plans to teleport strike first or maybe choose the ground so that the heroes jump into a counter ambush.

Heck, maybe someone on her side is a powerful illusionist and the heroes think they're scrying her while in actuality she and some of her crew are about to jump in and lay the smackdown on the heroes.

 

[LordVyreth]

Those same questions crossed my mind too.

Perhaps she's aware of being watched and plans to teleport strike first or maybe choose the ground so that the heroes jump into a counter ambush.

Heck, maybe someone on her side is a powerful illusionist and the heroes think they're scrying her while in actuality she and some of her crew are about to jump in and lay the smackdown on the heroes.

My post above yours covers all of that. Though I should warn you that the party has two people who can see invisibility or better continuously, so invisibility or illusions will at best slow the party down and prevent one coordinated attack.

 

[XCorvis]

What kind of tactics does the party use? Are they fond of certain spell combos?

If they're going to be scrying her, she'll have a decent chance of noticing it - she or one of her companions will probably notice it and be somewhat wary of a threat, even if they're not sure of when or where it will be, or what form it will take.

One silly little (but effective) tactic would be to open with fog cloud, or the psionic equivalent. Blocking line of sight would cause the pcs to waste time and mostly ruin their initial tactical plans. As long as they can't get off a dimentional anchor, the psion should be able to get away.

 

[LordVyreth]

What kind of tactics does the party use? Are they fond of certain spell combos?

If they're going to be scrying her, she'll have a decent chance of noticing it - she or one of her companions will probably notice it and be somewhat wary of a threat, even if they're not sure of when or where it will be, or what form it will take.

One silly little (but effective) tactic would be to open with fog cloud, or the psionic equivalent. Blocking line of sight would cause the pcs to waste time and mostly ruin their initial tactical plans. As long as they can't get off a dimentional anchor, the psion should be able to get away.

Well, the bard/sorc/dragon disciple is a wild card. He tends to use disintegrates and sonic orbs as his main offensive magic. However, he also often gets his AC 24 arse into melee combat for no good reason, with near-disasterous results. The wizard tends to use a lot of standard magic attack spells, like DBFs, meteor swarms (though the last two she tossed almost killed her,) and the like. She also tends to shapechange before moving into the fight, but that will just eat her first turn or two, so that would actually help me. The ranger is a standard arrow-chucker played by a relative beginner, so he's not into complcated tactics. He'll probably only hit once or twice if he does go after her instead of her servants, and he might no do so for fear of killing her. The deva is actually the party's best fighter; she's played by another DM who thus really knows how to power-game his characters. But while her AC is insane (43 or something like that,) she probably is low on hp, due to the LA of monsters. The monk's attack value is too low to take her down by himself, though he could get a lucky stunning fist, I suppose. He doesn't tend to use them very often, however. The frenzied berzerker and pacifist are still too new to the party for me to get a handle on their tactics. The pacifist hasn't been very helpful in fights so far, but he's bound to have some tricks up his sleeve for dealing with enemies in a non-lethal manner. And I don't have enough experience with the BoED to really know what to expect for him.

A spell like fog cloud, or really any spell to protect her, is a great tactic for the BBEG (well, BBNG technically,) or her servants to use, but again, it requires the guarantee of them lasting an all-out assault by the ambushing party long enough to respond. What I'm basically looking for are magic items or long-duration spells that the BBNG and company would have up when not expecting an ambush specifically, but that works as a generally good spell to have up on a daily basis or at least when leaving the safety of home.

 

[The Forsaken One]

There is this spell my characters don't go without after a certain level.... "Detect Scrying" and Above all (this one is such fun) REDIRECT TELEPORT. (Send them into some lava pit for them all to die submerged in 20d6 a round fire dmg, or into some weird pit or whatever )

With those two combined and the whole anti teleport chain from the Psionics Handbook (the NOMAD powers) you should be able to handle this easily. Or what if a psion manifests TIME REGRESSION after the Charge got killed, just wind the rounds back and teleport or planeshift out even before the party arrives.

This along with mindblank to protect you from alot of spells and nondetection to foil the see invisibility should easily foil any attempt by your party.

All these spells are spells my chars you buff up after waking up so I wouldn't expect anything different from any respectable NPC or PC with these resources available to go without on any moment of the day.

TFO out.