Protecting my PC from Ability Score drains

[kreynolds]

I haven't seen these mentioned yet...Absorbing, from DotF; Buffering, from A&EG.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Cloak of resistance. Helps against all saving throws. As high a plus-value as you can afford.

 

[kreynolds]

Cloak of resistance. Helps against all saving throws.

I'm not sure how that helps with (most forms of) ability drain or a shadow's strength damage, but ok... Definately good for that damn Blasphemy spell though (I'm a little too familiar with it).

 

[MerakSpielman]

Well, I'm most familiar with effects that require a saving throw to prevent the ability drain. The shadow just deals str damage as its regular attack, though. Anybody mentioned Ghost Touch Armor yet? Protects against incorporeal attacks as though they were physical attacks.

 

[Ferox4]

I'm not sure how that helps with (most forms of) ability drain or a shadow's strength damage, but ok... Definately good for that damn Blasphemy spell though (I'm a little too familiar with it).

Blasphemy does not allow a save. However, Spell Resistance can be beneficial for Blasphemy.

 

[kreynolds]

Blasphemy does not allow a save.

Oh yeah. Look at that. Makes me wonder what frickin' spell my fellow DM was using on me.

You know, the more I think about all this, the more I say ditch the save bonuses and SR and just go with carrying around an antimagic stone.

 

[Ferox4]

You know, the more I think about all this, the more I say ditch the save bonuses and SR and just go with carrying around an antimagic stone.

That's just it. There are so many ways of losing ability points (negative energy effects, poison, critical hits (house rule) and others I'm forgetting) that it's very difficult to cover all the potential threats.

Death Ward is a great detterent, but it doesn' work against poisons.
Spell Resistance is good sometimes, but certainly not w/o its risks (useles against supernatural attacks).
Cloaks, rings, amulets and what have you of Resistance are beneficial, but not all ability draining attacks allow a saving throw (i.e., Blasphemy).

I'm not familiar with Buffering or Absorbing so I can't comment on those.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Unfortunately it would be 7X4X2000X2=112000 since you forgot to add in the factor based on duration of the spell.

Still worth it but not quite as acquirable at 13th lvl.

Oops!

 

[Ferox4]

hijack

........ spell immunity to silence (and dispel magic of course)......

NO, no, no, no, no.............

from the SRD:

Naturally, that immunity [Spell Immunity] doesn’t protect a creature from spells for which spell resistance doesn’t apply.

Spell Resistance DOES NOT apply to Dispel Magic.

edited for clarity

 

[Steverooo]

Another tactic, far more mechanically cheesy, although descriptively cool, is just to scream. Yup, scream at the top of your lungs when you identify with spellcraft the casting of that spell and hope to Pelor that you don't hear the words. Spellcasting is normally projected at a speaking voice volume (I forget the actual language used in the books).

The Verbal Components section of the PHB says spells are cast in a "strong voice" (assuming they have Verbal Components). Since normal conversation is DC:0, a "strong voice" is probably DC; -5 or less to hear. The PHB doesn't set a score on it, but it's certainly no harder to hear than DC:0.