The best anti-caster tactic

[Thanee]

Well, Fort saves usually have at least a -4 "penalty" (when starting at the Will save - for a sorcerer/wizard) as well! And they tend to totally hose them even moreso.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Particle_Man]

The Assassin

 

[Xavim]

A high level wizard that is prepared is nearly impossible to defeat. Through their towering caster levels, not to mention the plethora of constructs and simulectrums at their disposal you will almost never fight a wizard alone. Persistant Greater Analyse Dweomers would make that wizard aware of your little anit-magic and would be able to bamf to a safe mid-air distance and use Mordenkainen's Disjunction on your whole party. Or cause a cave-in, create a tonne of Iron ABOVE the anti-magic area to crush you or simply through thousands of arrows at you via telekinesis. (over 1500 to be exact)

Otherwise the good old prismatic wall/sphere makes a wizard impervious to almost anything. Leaving the wizard free to vocally direct his minions (since telepathic contact would fail). My high level Wizards always spend the time to create dozens of Simulectrums. And since these are 60% as strong as the Wizard, and last until destroyed, that bods well for having numerous allies to soften up the adversaries.

Having one or two thought-only spells handy through Silent and Still Spell feats make escaping from a choking grapple easy. The only way you can beat a high level spellcaster (especially Wizard) without using another high level spellcaster is by catching them off guard. Which, I might add, is neigh impossible if the Wizard, is any kind of Wizard at all.

 

[Li Shenron]

PC spellcasters still alive... please provide more deadly info!

 

[MarauderX]

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.

I thought they had to stand to cast unless the caster has the feat to cast without gesturing (forgot the name of it... no books here at work with me). And if the caster(s) roll away from the monk, the monk can just walk over and Great Throw her(them) around again, whether as a readied action or standard. Grappling is great for 1-vs-1, but beyond that you need either more opponents or a gimmick like Great Throw that can keep them from casting until help arrives.

Caster vs. caster usually sucks because of the better Will saves they have and getting feeblemind to stick is near impossible against a higher level mage. You really need to take them out with shear melee violence and not let them escape via fly, dimension door, teleport, whatever, and you need to keep them from casting to do that. A fighter running up and wacking a high level mage to mess up her spell will probably not work as she probably has dumped a considerable amount of skill points into Concentration, not to mention any magic devices that could be brought to bear on the attacker.

 

[Nail]

I thought they had to stand to cast ....

Nope. Nice try, though.

 

[ruleslawyer]

A monk with nice high Wis and Dex scores and a flying item. Charge the wizard, either running, jumping, or flying, and Stunning Attack him. Next round, full attack him with more Stunning Attacks.

 

[Anabstercorian]

The clerical spell Blindness, as it has a fort save and prevents a wizard from using any targeted spells with any accuracy, is a pretty good castrator when it comes to wizards. So carry goggles of sight.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Other anti-caster tactic--equally good against wizards and clerics: Polymorph into a Remorhaz or Tendriculos and Swallow them Whole.

 

[nameless]

For higher level evil wizards, I'm a fan of using a steady stream of minions (summoned or otherwise) to soften up enemy wizards and to make them use spells, and then Nightmare spells at night to prevent them from recovering. They say a prepared spellcaster is unbeatable, so the trick is making sure he is unable to prepare.