Rules questions on binding a succubus

[Vorput]

I initially posted this question in the general RPG forum, but since several rules questions have sprung up, I'm going to repost it here- Admins- feel free to close and/or move the other thread- thx.

"Alright, the long and short of it is the queen of the land who we were wokring for turned out to be a prophet* of the evil gods- who ended up betraying us, killed our prophet*, gave the invading orcish army a secret way into the city, slaughtered our ranger, and ing ate my familiar Nivee- an albino hawk of the noblest origins.

Grrr... So anyway, the queen's handmaidens turned out to be succubi in disguise, who revealed themselves during the betrayal.

The party members that escaped consist of:
Myself, an Air Genesai Diviner 5 (going for alienist).
A Dwarven fighter 6.
A Human mercenary (fighter/rogue mix) 6.
A grey elf bard 6.

The queen is still hunting for us, so our plan is to escape to the elemental plane of air (my character's father is a Holy liberator Djinni who owns a small estate there). We're going to bring with us a Conjurer 9 who'll hopefully help us out. Once there, we want to use lesser planar binding to bind one of the queen's succubi and force information out of her- in exchange for her life**. Our plan is to kill her either way, but we hope that with a few potions of glibness (or just by relying on the bard and merc's good bluff skills)- she won't know that.

My question is, how do we gurantee that once the circle is broken when we attack the succubi- that she won't be able to teleport to safety. Obviously getting the jump on her will be beneficial (succubi aren't big on HP)- but how can we insure that she won't just teleport to safety? The diagram itself will be protected with the spellcraft sigils, and hit with a scroll of dimensional anchor to insure she doesn't escape while in it. The only fear I have regarding the circle itself is that opposed charisma check... but assuming we win that- what other precautions/strategies should we take/make?

Vorp


*- In this campaign, spontaneous spellcasters are extraordinarily rare, and are gifted with such gifts by the Gods during times of upheavel in the land.

**- We're also considering REALLY bluffing, and having a large gem on hand- and trying to convince her we're capable of casting 'Trap the soul'... possibily an even more terrifying concept than just death."


Questions:
1) Can SLA abilities be disrupted by damage, i.e. can I take a readied action to blast the succubus when she tries to teleport?

2) Can the succubus teleport if she doesn't know she's on the elemental plane of air? For example, if I summon her into a closed room, would she know what plane she's on? If she doesn't, would the teleport simply fail because you need to have a general idea of where you're trying to go, and since it doesn't work across planes?

Answers to these questions, and any other ideas on making sure this works would be appreciated- thanks.

Vorp

 

[PallidPatience]

1) Yes, spell-like abilities can be disrupted, dispelled, and otherwise interfered with. They're just like spells, but they're not, if that makes any sense.

2) If you cast Planar Binding on her, she'll know she's not on the plane she was on, but not necessarily what plane she is now on. On the other hand, she won't have teleport (unless your DM has fudged her stat block), but greater teleport, so if she figures out she's on the plane of air and she even vaguely knows anywhere on the plane of air, she can teleport there (unless you keep disrupting it). Also, don't forget the things that succubi are known for: namely, the ability to alter your attitude toward her. I wouldn't be as worried about her combat capabilities as I would about buffing Will saves.

 

[Vorput]

1) Yes, spell-like abilities can be disrupted, dispelled, and otherwise interfered with. They're just like spells, but they're not, if that makes any sense.

Alright, assuming my supremely intelligent mage can make a spellcraft check (+19 baby!) to determine when they're doing this, how will the rest of the party know when to take their readied actions? SLA don't have verbal, somatic, or material components- they're purely mental... albeit mental-ness requiring a standard action.

Vorp

 

[Infiniti2000]

Alright, assuming my supremely intelligent mage can make a spellcraft check (+19 baby!) to determine when they're doing this, how will the rest of the party know when to take their readied actions? SLA don't have verbal, somatic, or material components- they're purely mental... albeit mental-ness requiring a standard action.

It's quite frankly up to the DM as there are no rules on it. Note that even spellcraft can't technically tell that a spell-like ability or a supernatural ability is being attempted. Personally, I would not even allow your mage to tell what she is concentrating on, but I would allow him to tell that she was concentrating on a SLA with a Spellcraft DC 20.

 

[Vorput]

It's quite frankly up to the DM as there are no rules on it. Note that even spellcraft can't technically tell that a spell-like ability or a supernatural ability is being attempted. Personally, I would not even allow your mage to tell what she is concentrating on, but I would allow him to tell that she was concentrating on a SLA with a Spellcraft DC 20.

I knew there was a reason I maxed that skill out, and put time and money into it...

So, could I take a readied action to attack her with a spell when she starts concentrating, and also yell "Now!!" as a free action?

 

[Jack Simth]

There's lots of things you can do.

If you never actually propose a deal, there's no charisma check, and no possiblity of rolling a 1 on it.

If you get your hands on an extra scroll of Dimensional Anchor (sadly, it's 4th, and out of reach of your native spellcasting ability) you can ready an action to zap her with an independant Dimensional Anchor when breaking the circle so she can't flee.

You can chat with her, bound up inside the circle (you are making a calling diagram, right? If successful, nothing she can do can cross it... so no Charm Person on your allies. Do take 20 making the thing) and use a Scroll of Dimensional Anchor to zap her when you choose to break the circle.

You can chat with your DM to see if there are any spells that will affect the critter inside the circle without damaging the circle - breaking the diagram is easy, but the example is laying a straw across it - that is to say, actually touching the diagram. A Ray you cast would be several feet above it, as the diagram is on the floor. Charm Monster doesn't really have an effect to interrupt anything; it's a target spell. And so on. It is, however, pure DM ruling if that can be done.

You can have someone take 20 on a Diplomacy check, as she can't exactly do much but talk, and there's not exactly much she can do about running away while still inside the circle.

 

[Infiniti2000]

I knew there was a reason I maxed that skill out, and put time and money into it...

Well, for entrance into Archmage of course, or preparation for epic levels.

So, could I take a readied action to attack her with a spell when she starts concentrating, and also yell "Now!!" as a free action?

Absolutely. And, your allies can ready on you saying "Now!"

Of course, this leads to the question of whether you are "in combat" or not, because you can only ready in combat.

 

[PallidPatience]

SLAs provoke AoOs, so there has to be some obvious clue as to what the creature is doing. Also, don't forget that they cannot be counterspelled. That's something I forgot to mention.

I'd think that there'd be some obvious form of concentrating going on, and that you could just ready to attack it if it seemed to be concentrating hard, as with the use of a SLA.