The best anti-caster tactic


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As a spellcaster, emp+max Enervation or an energy drain followed by a Disintergration.
The level loss strips out the highest level spells (very important!) and drops the Fort save down considerably, then the disintergrate tends to tear them a new one easily.
Acid Fog and a quickend Dimensional anchor tends to ruin their day, note that it tends to eat away a lot of soft things like headbands, wood so its not the most popular for looting the corpse after ;)
 

Li Shenron said:
Both. Also single effective spells can be pointed out, such as Touch of Idiocy, Feeblemind, if you think they are just the best way to go...

Yep. I do vote for Spectral Hand (or Reach Spell, DotF) + Touch of Idiocy, followed by some Will-based nasties, Feeblemind, or Mind Fog to make the pleasure last. :D

Andargor
 
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Get a monk with Great Throw. If there are multiple casters, the monk can move to each one and keep throwing them down as long as he his near them. Keep in mind that in 3.5 standing from prone provokes an AoO... with combat reflexes (prereq for great throw) you will be able to toss them to the floor for damage again, and again, and again...with just AoOs. Keep your regular attacks for those AoOs you miss and any new opponents.

So a monk with Great Throw could toss around a good number of casters plus their protection while the rest of the party mops up the baddies and can make it over to help.
 

MarauderX said:
Get a monk with Great Throw. If there are multiple casters, the monk can move to each one and keep throwing them down as long as he his near them. Keep in mind that in 3.5 standing from prone provokes an AoO... with combat reflexes (prereq for great throw) you will be able to toss them to the floor for damage again, and again, and again...with just AoOs. Keep your regular attacks for those AoOs you miss and any new opponents.

So a monk with Great Throw could toss around a good number of casters plus their protection while the rest of the party mops up the baddies and can make it over to help.
But why would the casters keep standing up and provoking the AoO? Do the rules say anything about casting from the prone position? Seems like the casters could just fire off spells while prone.
 

It depends strongly if you are facing a single powerful caster or if you want to bring down the backline caster of an opposing group. In the latter case the first main problem is to come close to the enemy caster, which pure fighters could have trouble with. Monks and Shadowdancers can get fast to the enemy caster and casue trouble. Mostly interesting could be Eldritch Knights using Dimension Doors and Touch Spells with quickened True Strikes.

If, OTOH, the party faces a single caster, the strategy is easy: Every group member tries to deal as much damage as possible, before the mostly powerful spells of the enemy caster will kill them.
 


Grapple is the easiest, and grappling after you have had silence cast on you is probably the most effective for the resources.
 

I like the Eldritch Knight/Frenzied Berserker with Quickened True Strike, Power Critical, Power Attack and a two handed weapon with a x4 crit :D .

Core rules only though...another caster. At high level, nearly anything you throw at a top level caster is going to be circumvented. Freedom of Movement negates the formerly useful Stunning Fist, and Dimension Door or Teleport will escape a grapple. Readying to attack could work, but the mage can have a Contingency or a Quickened spell (you disrupt the Quickened spell and then he unleashes the *real* nasty).

Antimagic Shell is the only true and reliable way to go against arcanists. Once that's in place, you can use the 'old' fashioned methods. A cleric or multiclass arcane caster can put up AMS and then grapple. The only problems is if the caster has allies, who can take you out whilst *your* magical buffs and defenses are down, hence releasing his ally.

Clerics are a pain because they still have some combat ability even in antimagic. If you outnumber him, you could AMS and then have an ally grapple. A regular grapple could work since clerics are less likely to memorise Refuge than a wizard is to memorise DD/Teleport. The easiest way might just be the old-fashioned way of hitting them repeatedly until they're dead.
 

Manyshot is the nastiest way.

Grapple is good, but every mid to high level caster knows that and therefore should be prepared.

Disarm(material components) is an alternative way, but only needs one feat to circumvent.

But my favored way is using spells. Specialist spellcasters exel at taking out other spellcasters from first level. Counterspells, readied magic missiles, grease on holy symbol and ray of enfeeblement are just the beginning.
 
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