Pseudonatural dire weasels

[Bauglir]

This came up in my game last night - one of our resident sorcerers just moved into the Alienist prestige class. He's taken to standing back out of sight for the first few rounds of combat to summon several p-n dire weasels. The weasels then charge at the victim, and use their one-a-day True Strike ability to practically guarantee a hit, at which point the victim takes 2d4 temporary con damage per weasel, which persists as long as the weasel remains attached and draining blood. As far as I can tell this is legal.

This quickly annihilates even powerful foes.

I can't see any reasonable way to counter this tactic - the party could encounter lots of constructs, undead or flying enemies, but that would seem more than a little forced.

Any ideas?

 

[isoChron]

Use the power of Protection from Evil.
No summoned creature can touch the Protected Enemy.
Don't use Protection from Good, it only protects against good summoned creatures. A misspelled PoE if you ask me, but RAW it works.

Or is there an update to PfE ?

 

[shilsen]

Good suggestion from isoChron, though evil enemies will not usually cast the spell, and many enemies won't have access to it.

Don't forget that the weasels have to stay attached for a full round before the blood drain takes effect.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Any ideas?

Don't let wizards stand out of a combat for several rounds, or else they're going to kill their target.

Really. It's not isolated to this particular combat tactic. If a wizard has spells left, and has time to cast them, chances are the enemy is in big trouble.

 

[Bauglir]

It's very difficult to prevent - the summons can be cast out of sight of the battle (in particular the current adventure is set in a town setting, so he runs off down an alley and starts casting. The character is also quite stealthy (he used the Versatile feat to make Hide a class skill) which means he will usually get away with this)

I didn't realise it took a full-round for the blood drain to kick in. That helps quite a bit (they're largely fighting devils at the moment, and a timely Teleport Without Error will foil that plan)

My biggest problem is that this tactic will continue to wipe out powerful opponents until very high levels, and only requires quite low level spells (Summon Monster III, perhaps IV for 1d3 dire weasels)

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Undead are immune to blood drain, right? Send some of those after him.

 

[Tetsubo]

Undead are immune to blood drain, right? Send some of those after him.

This is the best way I think. Or use constructs...

 

[Bauglir]

This is the best way I think. Or use constructs...

Oh I agree absolutely. It's just that not every encounter can be with undead, or constructs. (Given the current direction of the adventure, the party will largely be encountering various fiends for some time to come) and this tactic would tend to make other encounters rather one-dimensional.

 

[dcollins]

Don't use Protection from Good, it only protects against good summoned creatures. A misspelled PoE if you ask me, but RAW it works.

Look at the SRD, it spelled out fully there.

 

[Sejs]

They're summoned monsters - dispel them. Or counterspell them.



Dire Weasels are nasty customers in general. That con drain... yech. Like cutting the bottom off a paper cup.