This turned out to be REALLY long because it's one of my favorite fights in all my years of DnD – more of a story hour, really! It takes place at reasonably high-level 3rd edition and so contains a little 3E jargon that's relevant to the combat.
The Setup: At the climax of a long campaign, our party had just fought its way to the top of the tower inhabited by a wizard lich who was the main bad guy of the story. He had been plaguing us for years and doing pretty evil stuff, and it was time for our final showdown. I was playing a halfling wizard at the time named Ethan who ended up being taxed very sorely in a pretty cool wizard vs. wizard duel.
We kicked in the door and stepped into a small library. Visible through a doorway on the opposite end of the room was the lich - however, the doorway positively glowed with abjuration magic (a Dispelling Screen). To the lich's right was a table upon which was bound Ethan's unconscious cohort and bodyguard, June Li. To his right, chained to the wall, crouched a snarling greater barghest.
“Ah, you're just in time,” the lich rasped, his glowing eye sockets swiveling to face the party. “I was just about to kill this unfortunate girl and feed her soul to my pet here, as a delicious treat. How sad that any soul consumed by a beast such as this is firmly unreachable by resurrection magic... I'm not even sure she'll make it to the afterlife.” The lich traced a skeletal finger down the unconscious June Li's cheek. “A pity, really, to waste such beauty.”
“You bastard!” snarled Ethan, starting forward. “Don't touch her or I'll-”
“Or you'll what?” the skeletal figure hissed. “You cannot fire magical effects through my dispelling screen, and when you step through yourself you will be instantly stripped of any magical protections you've prepared. (This was relatively high-level 3rd edition, so naturally we were all buffed to the gills.) Should you desire her release Ethan, you have but to lay down your weapons and armor and surrender yourself to me. A trade, of sorts – your life for hers.” The permanently-grinning skull seemed to smirk all the more.
Ethan responded by darting forward through the dispelling screen – stripping him of something like 6 ongoing protection spells - and, before the lich could respond, cast a spell to attempt to trap his cohort's soul in a magical gem before it could be eaten by the greater barghest. Everyone at the table held their breath as the DM rolled June Li's save for Trap the Soul ... and failed on a natural 1. Howling in rage, the lich cast a spell of his own and brought forth a Wall of Force across the doorway, sequestering the other 3 party members in the forechamber. All of a sudden, my defenseless halfling wizard was all alone against a fully prepared and magicked-up lich.
The Fight:
Being a dextrous fellow and quite spry on his feet, Ethan got to go first and aimed a Glass Strike spell at the lich to turn him into a nice crystal sculpture... which was promptly Spell-Turned back at him. Yelping, he dove for cover and (thankfully passing his save) narrowly missed changing himself into a halfling-sized and very fragile statue of glass. A quickened Disintegrate followed, hammering into the lich and doing a good bit of damage.
“Come, little halfling,” the undead wizard sneered. “I shall show you once and for all the might of a true arcanist!” He shot a Disintegrate back at Ethan, who narrowly scrambled out of the way (he missed my touch AC by 1) and then encased himself in a quickened hemisphere of ice to regenerate from the damage he took from Ethan's initial salvo.
The rest of the party was having mixed success with the Wall of Force situation. The elven monk immediately Abundant Stepped (monk 1/day teleport) through it to the other side of the room, ready to throw down in melee with the lich... right as the lich surrounded himself with the Wall of Ice. Sighing, he started pounding into the wall of ice to break through in order to get at the tasty lich treats inside.
Meanwhile, the other 2 party members eyed the Wall of Force pensively.
Ranger: “Don't clerics have a spell that can turn the stone around the Wall of Force into mud or something, so we can go around it?”
Cleric: “Yes, some clerics do. I, however, am not one of those clerics. Don't you have an adamantite dagger?”
And so, they began in earnest chipping away at the stone floor in an effort to circumvent the wall of force.
Ethan, recognizing that the lich was attempting to buy time to regenerate, was having none of it and Dimension Door'd into the hemisphere of ice next to the bad guy with the intention of continuing the fight in close quarters. Blinking away the dazed aftereffects of teleportation, he prepared himself for a new magical onslaught from the lich – and promptly got clocked in the jaw by a skeletal fist, taking a good bit of damage and losing 2 negative levels (and 2 high level spells) in the process. Swearing, Ethan made a mental note not to engage in fisticuffs with level-draining liches and teleported out of the hemisphere of ice to retreat ...
... just as the elven monk, who had been hammering into the sphere from the outside, broke through and into the hemisphere with a triumphant, “I'll save you, Ethan!” Much to his chagrin, he found no ailing comrade in need of melee aid, only a wounded and angry skeletal wizard ... with a Maze spell. The monk was then taken out of the fight (after his player verifying 3 times in 2 different PHBs that Maze allows no saving throw) and into an extradimensional rat race. The other 2 members of the party were still only about halfway through the floor and frantically chipping away.
However, thanks to the monk's efforts Ethan could now see into the sphere and intended to take advantage of it. Aiming carefully, he fired a maximized Delayed Blast Fireball at the lich, discovering too late that the lich was magically protected from all fire damage. He followed with a quickened Greater Dispelling, stripping the lich of several arcane wards; however, the quickened spells, teleports, and level drain had combined to leave him completely exhausted of high-level magicks.
The lich was far from done, however, and fired back with terrible necromantic energy, a nebulous cloud of black magic that sucked every drop of water from Ethan's body (Horrid Wilting spell for a horrendous amount of damage) leaving him alive, but only just. Emerging from a collapsing sphere of magical ice, the lich walked across the room to stand over Ethan's hunched form, cackling. “At last it becomes obvious who is superior,” he hissed. “Perhaps my greater barghest will have two meals today instead of one!” He raised his emaciated hands and began to chant, readying for a killing stroke...
... just as the monk passed his intelligence check to break free of his Maze spell! He immediately charged the lich with a flying kick, rolled a 20 to hit and a 20 to confirm, and did enough damage to finish off the lich's remaining hit points seconds before my character was murdered.
After which, he of course turned to the rest of the party and said, “Why do I have to do ALL the work around here?!”
The Setup: At the climax of a long campaign, our party had just fought its way to the top of the tower inhabited by a wizard lich who was the main bad guy of the story. He had been plaguing us for years and doing pretty evil stuff, and it was time for our final showdown. I was playing a halfling wizard at the time named Ethan who ended up being taxed very sorely in a pretty cool wizard vs. wizard duel.
We kicked in the door and stepped into a small library. Visible through a doorway on the opposite end of the room was the lich - however, the doorway positively glowed with abjuration magic (a Dispelling Screen). To the lich's right was a table upon which was bound Ethan's unconscious cohort and bodyguard, June Li. To his right, chained to the wall, crouched a snarling greater barghest.
“Ah, you're just in time,” the lich rasped, his glowing eye sockets swiveling to face the party. “I was just about to kill this unfortunate girl and feed her soul to my pet here, as a delicious treat. How sad that any soul consumed by a beast such as this is firmly unreachable by resurrection magic... I'm not even sure she'll make it to the afterlife.” The lich traced a skeletal finger down the unconscious June Li's cheek. “A pity, really, to waste such beauty.”
“You bastard!” snarled Ethan, starting forward. “Don't touch her or I'll-”
“Or you'll what?” the skeletal figure hissed. “You cannot fire magical effects through my dispelling screen, and when you step through yourself you will be instantly stripped of any magical protections you've prepared. (This was relatively high-level 3rd edition, so naturally we were all buffed to the gills.) Should you desire her release Ethan, you have but to lay down your weapons and armor and surrender yourself to me. A trade, of sorts – your life for hers.” The permanently-grinning skull seemed to smirk all the more.
Ethan responded by darting forward through the dispelling screen – stripping him of something like 6 ongoing protection spells - and, before the lich could respond, cast a spell to attempt to trap his cohort's soul in a magical gem before it could be eaten by the greater barghest. Everyone at the table held their breath as the DM rolled June Li's save for Trap the Soul ... and failed on a natural 1. Howling in rage, the lich cast a spell of his own and brought forth a Wall of Force across the doorway, sequestering the other 3 party members in the forechamber. All of a sudden, my defenseless halfling wizard was all alone against a fully prepared and magicked-up lich.
The Fight:
Being a dextrous fellow and quite spry on his feet, Ethan got to go first and aimed a Glass Strike spell at the lich to turn him into a nice crystal sculpture... which was promptly Spell-Turned back at him. Yelping, he dove for cover and (thankfully passing his save) narrowly missed changing himself into a halfling-sized and very fragile statue of glass. A quickened Disintegrate followed, hammering into the lich and doing a good bit of damage.
“Come, little halfling,” the undead wizard sneered. “I shall show you once and for all the might of a true arcanist!” He shot a Disintegrate back at Ethan, who narrowly scrambled out of the way (he missed my touch AC by 1) and then encased himself in a quickened hemisphere of ice to regenerate from the damage he took from Ethan's initial salvo.
The rest of the party was having mixed success with the Wall of Force situation. The elven monk immediately Abundant Stepped (monk 1/day teleport) through it to the other side of the room, ready to throw down in melee with the lich... right as the lich surrounded himself with the Wall of Ice. Sighing, he started pounding into the wall of ice to break through in order to get at the tasty lich treats inside.
Meanwhile, the other 2 party members eyed the Wall of Force pensively.
Ranger: “Don't clerics have a spell that can turn the stone around the Wall of Force into mud or something, so we can go around it?”
Cleric: “Yes, some clerics do. I, however, am not one of those clerics. Don't you have an adamantite dagger?”
And so, they began in earnest chipping away at the stone floor in an effort to circumvent the wall of force.
Ethan, recognizing that the lich was attempting to buy time to regenerate, was having none of it and Dimension Door'd into the hemisphere of ice next to the bad guy with the intention of continuing the fight in close quarters. Blinking away the dazed aftereffects of teleportation, he prepared himself for a new magical onslaught from the lich – and promptly got clocked in the jaw by a skeletal fist, taking a good bit of damage and losing 2 negative levels (and 2 high level spells) in the process. Swearing, Ethan made a mental note not to engage in fisticuffs with level-draining liches and teleported out of the hemisphere of ice to retreat ...
... just as the elven monk, who had been hammering into the sphere from the outside, broke through and into the hemisphere with a triumphant, “I'll save you, Ethan!” Much to his chagrin, he found no ailing comrade in need of melee aid, only a wounded and angry skeletal wizard ... with a Maze spell. The monk was then taken out of the fight (after his player verifying 3 times in 2 different PHBs that Maze allows no saving throw) and into an extradimensional rat race. The other 2 members of the party were still only about halfway through the floor and frantically chipping away.
However, thanks to the monk's efforts Ethan could now see into the sphere and intended to take advantage of it. Aiming carefully, he fired a maximized Delayed Blast Fireball at the lich, discovering too late that the lich was magically protected from all fire damage. He followed with a quickened Greater Dispelling, stripping the lich of several arcane wards; however, the quickened spells, teleports, and level drain had combined to leave him completely exhausted of high-level magicks.
The lich was far from done, however, and fired back with terrible necromantic energy, a nebulous cloud of black magic that sucked every drop of water from Ethan's body (Horrid Wilting spell for a horrendous amount of damage) leaving him alive, but only just. Emerging from a collapsing sphere of magical ice, the lich walked across the room to stand over Ethan's hunched form, cackling. “At last it becomes obvious who is superior,” he hissed. “Perhaps my greater barghest will have two meals today instead of one!” He raised his emaciated hands and began to chant, readying for a killing stroke...
... just as the monk passed his intelligence check to break free of his Maze spell! He immediately charged the lich with a flying kick, rolled a 20 to hit and a 20 to confirm, and did enough damage to finish off the lich's remaining hit points seconds before my character was murdered.
After which, he of course turned to the rest of the party and said, “Why do I have to do ALL the work around here?!”
