Al said:
Call me a wizard-o-phile, but the wizard should wipe the floor with the fighter.
Scenario 1: The fighter wins initiative. The fighter charges. At this point, both the wizard's Contingency and Chain Contingency (T&B) are triggered. The wizard is now covered by Ghostform, Stoneskin, Repulsion and Mislead. Now, if the fighter has a +5 weapon, can see invisibility, can hit ethereal creatures and make a Will save, he's probably ok. Otherwise, he's in big trouble. Let us assume (we're being VERY nice) he runs up and pummels the wizard. The wizard doesn't die, of course...what with that handy Hide Life (T&B). The wizard's action: restricted to a mere two partial actions (he does cast Persistent Haste on himself every day, doesn't he?), he kicks off with a Mordenkainen's Disjunction (to remove silliness such as defensive spells). He then goes for a Maximised Time Stop (using Rod of GM). Otto's Irresistable Dance, two Maximised Meteor Storms and two Maximised Cones of Cold continues the barrage nicely. Assuming the fighter fails his saves (which he needs 20s for), he's taken 468hps damage. Well, since he has a 5% chance against the MCOCs, you can reduce the average damage by 4.5pts- so 463.5hps. So assuming he rolls maximum hit points on ALL his hit dice, he only needs a Constitution of 34 or more to survive...except he's dancing for at least anothe two rounds, so another four Maximised Fireballs later, he's taken another 234 hps damage (reduced for rolling 20s on save). So total damage=702. Needs a Con of 62 to survive (modifier of +26). I suppose we could be nice, and give him a Ring of Elemental Resistance [Fire] and one of [Cold]- assuming neither is disjoined, the mage will need a Chained targeted Dispel Magic (best), meaning he has to knock off a Maximised Fireball at the end. Damage now is 642- a mere Con of 56 required.
Now, how many fighters have Con 56?
Of course, that's assuming that a) the wizard goes for straight barrage and b) the fighter wins initiative. A better alternative is simply Mordenkainen's Disjunction, Maximised Time Stop. Quickened True Strike, Maximised Energy Drain x2; Quickened True Strike, Maximised Enervation. Twenty negative levels and *poof* goes the fighter.
It's really not much of a contest...these are only two ways. The only real decision the wizard has to make is *how* best to eradicate his pathetic adversary.
How about the fighter wins initiative, activates a quickened haste as a free action, moves up to the wizard, grapples him, and then activates an item that casts Antimagic Field. Perhaps he has Antimagic Field cast into a vibrant purple ioun stone with the aid of the quickening metamagic rod. No Contigency, no chain contingency, no hide life, no ghostform, no chance. If the mage wins initiative, the fighter's contigency (cast from a spell storing item) triggers his antimagic field. Considering that a high level fighter will be one of the toughest dudes around, even without magic, and that many of the enemies he faces will rely on magic, an AMF will be a pretty safe bet, especially if he invests in items like adamantine, so he'll still operate effectively without his magic bonuses.
Just a quick question: has any of you ever seen in the campaign you've played a wizard like the one you describe here, or a fighter like the one needed to fight against the wizard you describe here?
The wizard in our group loved to be flying, hasted, shielded, improved invis, and ghostformed. However, he usually had to comprimise since casting his full array of buff spells would take too long. Generally, Fly was already up, Haste would be his first combat action, and then the attacks would begin. If he had extra time, or if he figured that the front line people and his flight were inadequate defense, he complete his defenses. Then the firebrands or magic missiles (lots of magic missiles from Rary's Enhancer). We weren't even that high level.
On the other hand, a fighter like the one I mentioned would be much rarer. Most of the time, a fighter can count on the rest of his group to provide the means of dealing with flyers, or invisible guys. However, any solo character has to be a group unto himself. A wizard alone loses endurance. Every point damage will have to come from his finite spells, so he'll have to rest more often and use more charged items like wands. A fighter loses the magical solutions his teammates provide. He can compensate with items, but at the cost of his immediate power - he has to sacrifice topflight weapons to buy his magical solutions. This kind of fighter isn't really a team player, and so probably shouldn't be a typical character.
However, I do some elements of the wizard killing guy in more normal fighters. Some characters are going to have extraordinary movement, via feathered or celestial armor, or teleportation effects. If a fighter relies on melee, then he needs to rapidly close so he can make effective attacks. An archer, on the other hand, probably wants to keep his distance so he can deal damage without getting hurt, or without having his bow sundered. Either way, movement effects increase their effectiveness. Also, if a normal battle suddenly changes into an aerial one, being able to adjust without help allows the group to respond more rapidly. If more characters have to stand around waiting for fly spells from the sorcerer, then the group isn't working very efficiently. Similarly, some characters might have a ghost touch weapon to deal with undead that will help against ghost formed wizards. See invisibility is probably one of the rarer tricks, but that have more to do with the fact that many players don't see an improved invisible attack force as a realistic threat. They'd rather whine about the cheesiness and unfairness of Imp Invis enemies than devise good ways of dealing with them.
, which means I haven't had the chance to play a high-level wizard yet), but I've never had a player play his wizard to that point. Look at the wizard like Al described it: that's really the kind of wizard you see in the Sultans of Smack thread rather than in real play...
