Tactics for dealing with Blasphemy/Word of Chaos

[Mordion]

Two gaming sessions in a row now, my party has run into monsters who cast Blasphemy or Word of Chaos multiple times, and in both cases only narrowly made it through the combat thanks to DM restraint/good luck. Does anyone here have any suggestions for particular spells or tactics to avoid being dazed for a round at the beginning of every round?

Thanks very much for any assistance.

 

[jasin]

Two gaming sessions in a row now, my party has run into monsters who cast Blasphemy or Word of Chaos multiple times, and in both cases only narrowly made it through the combat thanks to DM restraint/good luck. Does anyone here have any suggestions for particular spells or tactics to avoid being dazed for a round at the beginning of every round?

Thanks very much for any assistance.

I can't think of anything other than Spell resistance and greater spell immunity that's both effective and commonly available.

 

[Physiker]

I'm not sure if I understand the rules correctly, but I let:
Undetectable Alignment, Misdirection and Nondetection count.

Edit:
Ok, after reading the spell descriptions once again, I'm pretty sure they won't help after the RAW.
But it's a nice houserule in my opinion.

 

[Mordion]

I'm not sure if I understand the rules correctly, but I let:
Undetectable Alignment, Misdirection and Nondetection count.

Hm, interesting thought, but I bet my DM wouldn't go for it.

Would being deaf help? From the way Blasphemy is written it doesn't sound any more likely to work than Nondetection et cetera.

Thanks everyone for responding.

Edit:
Perhaps I should mention that I have a LA, if there are any feats out there that let you use your ECL as HD for purposes of spells affecting you, or anything of that sort, it could be helpful.

 

[Physiker]

Beeing deaf would help, because:

Blasphemy
Evocation [Evil, Sonic]

has the Sonic Descriptor.

Edit: Unless you qualify for this:

Furthermore, if you are on your home plane when you cast this spell, nonevil extraplanar creatures within the area are instantly banished back to their home planes. Creatures so banished cannot return for at least 24 hours. This effect takes place regardless of whether the creatures hear the blasphemy. The banishment effect allows a Will save (at a –4 penalty) to negate.

 

[Shin Okada]

Use either Contingency or Craft Contingent Spell and cast contingent Panacea. Make it so that the spell takes effect if the PC is either dazed or stunned. It will at least negate the dazed or stunned condition once.

Casting Silence (on something a PC has) is another popular defense against those spells. But it may cause a lot of troubles on PCs (can't use Verbal component, can't hear and talk, etc.).

 

[Mordion]

Nope, I've been sticking to my own plane.

Blindness/Deafness seems like a promising tactic, providing the cleric is out of the AoE or has the HD to still act.

 

[Mordion]

Use either Contingency or Craft Contingent Spell and cast contingent Panacea. Make it so that the spell takes effect if the PC is either dazed or stunned. It will at least negate the dazed or stunned condition once.

Casting Silence (on something a PC has) is another popular defense against those spells. But it may cause a lot of troubles on PCs (can't use Verbal component, can't hear and talk, etc.).

I'm just the dumb meat-shield, so I wouldn't mind so much personally, but I wouldn't want to be carrying the 20' radius of silence around the casters. Among other things, I might need some healing at some point.

 

[Runestar]

Another possible tactic is to have a PC ready an action to attack the fiend in question whenever it tries to use blasphemy. Assuming the hit connects, it will force the foe to make a (hopefully) high concentration check or lose the spell (and you are praying that the check is so high that it is auto-fail).

Bearing in mind that fiends tend to have sr and resistances, you may want to have the wizard prepare spells that ignore sr and either ignore resistances or can still do decent damage after factoring it in, such as those orb spells.

An archer with manyshot could work as well (if you are going to ready a standard action, might as well make the most out of it).

Silence is probably the most useful for the fighter, and less so for spellcasters (since it interferes with their spellcasting). Establish a mnemonic link with him so you don't have any issues communicating with him.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Two gaming sessions in a row now, my party has run into monsters who cast Blasphemy or Word of Chaos multiple times, and in both cases only narrowly made it through the combat thanks to DM restraint/good luck. Does anyone here have any suggestions for particular spells or tactics to avoid being dazed for a round at the beginning of every round?

Thanks very much for any assistance.

Blasphemy is No save, but does allow spell resistance - start there.

The spell Sheltered Vitality (Cleric 3/Druid 4) will render you immune to fatigue, exhaustion, ability damage and drain. Libris Mortis, page 71. That would take care of the Strength drain/weakening.

There are probably similar spells to render one immune to Dazing as well.