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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 2785475" data-attributes="member: 3146">OK, so looking at the list here, you seem to have the party almost entirely composed of light infantry and arcane types. I suppose it's possible that the dryad may have a good strength and hit hard, and the barbarian/cleric almost certainly hits hard, but it doesn't look like you have much in the way of a tank. What you do have is a lot of arcane power.In a lot of ways, that's good because most of the tactical responses you are going to need are sor/wiz only. Assuming that a massive Thayan response probably means they'll have 7th level spells at their disposal, and that frontal assault will not be a practical option, you're going to want to have defenses against both scrying and teleportation.Now, nondetection and mislead are both useful in that regard, but they aren't particularly reliable (especially since nondetection works on a caster level check mechanic and the red wizards will probably be higher level than you and misdirection grants a will save). A more reliable scrying defense might be detect scrying and false vision. Both have long durations and both let you know when to worry. Another defense that will be key is anticipate teleportation. Even if they don't scry you, there are a number of ways that they could mount an instant counterattack using teleportation tactics. (For instance, they could telepathic bond their foreman, etc with the wizards and teleport capable outsiders so that, one round after you start any attack on a group of loggers, their entire elite reaction force shows up and starts hammering you). Anticipate teleportation would give you a good chance of finding out that they're coming and having at least one round (three if using greater anticipate teleportation) to clear the area using whatever means are available to you (possbily leaving an evard's black tentacles and an acid for or something for the bad guys to enjoy grappling with when they arrive).In order for all of those to work, you will need to have quick exit strategies available to at least half the members of your party and some way of making sure you meet back up after making your hasty retreat.The dryad with her tree stride (I assume she kept it) is set.The sorcerers and wizards will need to learn dimension door or teleport. Getting one or two others a similar power or a cape of the montebank would be good. (In a forest, just going 760 feet from your current location will generally be enough to get you out of sight and allow you to either disengage or engage the response force on more favorable terms). The barbarian cleric could use word of recall in this fashion, but I'd recommend against relying on it. Tying it to a particular sanctuary is a big weakness because sanctuaries are fairly easy to locate.Another big capability for you will be to prevent information gathering. Dispels may take care of telepathic bonds, and are a good precaution, but you will also want to ensure that they can't get anything from speak with dead spells on your victims. Do your best to leave no survivors to be interrogated and to destroy the corpses of your victims. If you take prisoners, try to keep them in an extradimensional prison to keep minimize the possibility of scrying or sendings reaching them. Dimensional anchor will also fall into this capability. The enemy will have a number of very high value, very mobile targets who are smart enough that they will often be able to retreat before being killed. In order to succeed, you are going to need to kill or defeat them all piecemeal before they get enough information about you to make a coordinated assault. Dimensional anchor will probably be the best way for you to prevent escape since dimensional lock is a realtively small area and comes with much higher opportunity cost. Another possibility if they employ groups of called outsiders as their heavies is banishment. As a 6th level cleric spell, you may well have access to it when you face them and as a multitarget spell with a pumpable spell resistance roll and DC (by items--silver holy symbols of good gods tend to be good against devils--as should fey paladins' holy swords), it is miles better than dismissal.However, probably the best thing you can do would be to discover why they are there. Unless they are really after the lumber or are on some kind of punitive expedition against the fey and druids of the forest, beating the Red Wizards to whatever they're looking for or rendering it inaccessible to them may well convince them to leave.Another possibility that you might employ with a possibility of success would be stirring up enough trouble for the individual wizards' interests in Thay that they had to leave the forest operation in order to maintain their interests vis a vis the other red wizards in Thay. Your Thayvian character might prove helpful in this regard and you should not overlook rival red wizards as potential allies in your fight against these wizards. Given that your only wilderness skill looks to be in dryad racial HD, you're probably better suited for political intrigue in Thay than for guerilla warfare in the forest anyway.</blockquote>

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