Protecting Troops from Fireball

[werk]

If possible, you could try to have a caster on hand ready to counterspell.

^readied dispel or counterspell or maybe the flag bearers or whatever have a ring or some other item of counterspells with a fireball in there. The item isn't as good as a caster, obviously.

Put them all under water and hope he tanks his spellcraft roll...

Put them all in a magic dead area, or some other controlled area.

Kill their wizards before the battle begins.

 

[andargor]

Put them all under water and hope he tanks his spellcraft roll...

Actually...

The surface of a body of water blocks line of effect for any fire spell.

So water breathing becomes a valid tactic.

Andargor

 

[Shin Okada]

How about Invisibility Sphere (about 1 caster/12 soldiers) or Mass Invisibility? A wizard will not cast fireball if he does not know your soldiers are there.

Or, use some inflammable siege tower.

And killing the wizard (say, by shooting) could be the fastest way, of course.

 

[domino]

Kill the caster first?

 

[lukelightning]

Just keep sending the troops till the enemy is out of fireballs. It works on Killbots too.

 

[Atridis]

3. Get the troops to engage with the enemy (i.e., wizard's allies). That way if the wizard fries them then he will also do the same to his allies.

I was going to suggest, "use light infantry in a terrain-dense environment, like a forest", but irdeggman basically beat me to it. Move fast, use anything that provides concealment (darkness, smoke, terrain, whatever).

Any sort of harrassing or distracting actions are useful, if you can time them with an advance by the infantry. If you have any Rogues or Invisibility Mages in your force, use them as Infiltrators. If you have any warriors with good missile fire capabilities, use them for harassing fire. Airborne units, if you have them, are handy in any number of ways depending upon their numbers and capabilities. Any sort of Illusionary spells can create distractions and misdirection as well; even 1st-lvl Wizards, Bards, and Sorcerers can raise Heck with Dancing Lights, Ghost Sound and Mage Hand (all 0-lvl Cantrips).

"Kill the Wizard" is good, too.

 

[mvincent]

use some inflammable siege tower.

"... that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." - Inigo Montoya

 

[Nim]

Send them a 1st level bard with a Wand of Dispel Magic. Inspire Courage can easily give a +1/+1 to all hundred troops (useful when they start firing arrows back at the wizard), and while he's singing he can ready an action to counter incoming spells with the wand. If he ever actually TAKES that readied action, he'll have to stop singing, but he can keep it up until then.

If the wand is too expensive, you could try it with scrolls. Even at CL 10, he'd have a 50/50 chance of activating it successfully.

 

[dcollins]

What kind of magic support do they have?

Good question, I'm again thinking "whatever's cheapest", i.e., as few and low-level as possible. One wizard or cleric of mid-level is certainly fair game. (And the enemy spell attack might be anything from 5d6 to 10d6 damage, possibly assume 8d6 on average.)

Andargor, thanks for spell suggestions: I assume MH is the Miniatures Handbook?

I'd really like for the Counterspell option to be a valid tactic, but I see several fatal disadvantages:
(1) Your caster is tied up for the duration with a Ready action (no counterattack, and consider the case if the attack is by surprise -- no Ready allowed)
(2) Your caster must target a single individual enemy caster (consider if multiple enemy casters, or they're out-of-range, or they're hidden or disguised, etc.)
(3) Your caster must have fireball prepared themselves (or suffer about 50% failure by using dispel magic, bad prospect for an ongoing magical fight).

The "kill the enemy caster" is of course an excellent strategy, but for the purposes of this thread I'm assuming an enemy caster does in fact manage to cast a fireball at your friendly troops in close formation.

 

[Nim]

Good question, I'm again thinking "whatever's cheapest", i.e., as few and low-level as possible. One wizard or cleric of mid-level is certainly fair game. (And the enemy spell attack might be anything from 5d6 to 10d6 damage, possibly assume 8d6 on average.)

What counts as mid-level?

For instance, while it'd still tie up your caster, rather than counterspelling (which requires picking a specific caster) your wizard COULD ready an action to cast a spell that would break the line of effect if an enemy cast an area-of-effect spell. For example: ready an action to cast a Wall spell of your choice in the path of the fireball.

Alternately, you could summon a flying creature with the Fire subtype, and have it ready an action every turn to intercept the fireball en route before it reaches the infantry - cause an early detonation.