Vrock cheese

[RigaMortus2]

How far could they get in three rounds?

Hundreds of miles away via teleport?

 

[Grog]

Bless is the easiest counter to the spores but there's an even better tactic: Spread out. The spores only affect PCs adjacent to the Vrock, so if the PCs don't stand back to back and wait till the Vrock pops in between them, the Vrock will at most affect two PCs at once for ca 30 points of damage (e.g. one or two good Cure spells)... for getting hammered a full round by spells and charges.

It's not getting hammered, though, because of the mirror image. It always has plenty of time to renew its mirror image before teleporting back in.

And if the PCs are going to ready charges against it, then the vrock can just wait until after they've all charged (and are thus adjacent to it) and release its spores then. The spores are a free action, so it can release them whenever it wants to, including right before it teleports out again. So everyone in the party, except for the wizard/sorceror, would be hit by the spores in that event.

 

[Grog]

Hundreds of miles away via teleport?

Sure, if a) the party has a wizard, b) said wizard has Teleport prepared, and c) the party doesn't have a limited amount of time to reach some goal that's past the Vrock.

But even if all those things are true, you're simply saying that the only way to deal with this tactic is to run away. That makes it problematic in my book.

 

[Sejs]

PCs don't always know what they're going to run up against on any given adventure, and how many 9th level casters prepare Dimensional Anchor as a matter of course? Not many IME.

It's one of those spells that you don't memorize every day, but when you need it, you really need it. Prime scroll material.

Plus, even if a PC has the spell prepared, it requires a ranged touch attack (and thus can be easily thwarted by the Vrock's mirror image) and it also has to beat the Vrock's SR. It's not guaranteed to work by any stretch of the imagination.

Granted, but the same goes for pretty much any spell.

How far could they get in three rounds?

Really depends on the terrain and the party. The long and short of it boils down to the fact that the Vrock is teleporting back in blind. He has no way of knowing what's taken place in the rounds he's been absent and its very unlikely that the party is just going to be standing around in the same place waiting.

 

[Land Outcast]

Bless is the easiest counter to the spores but there's an even better tactic: Spread out.

Ditto + Readied dispel magic vs teleport

 

[Nail]

The long and short of it boils down to the fact that the Vrock is teleporting back in blind. He has no way of knowing what's taken place in the rounds he's been absent and its very unlikely that the party is just going to be standing around in the same place waiting.

An aside: How many of us actually do this properly? That is: when you have bad guys teleport in and out (or Dimension Door, etc.), do you rely on your current view of the battle mat, or do you remember that the creature teleporting probably can't see what you can?

 

[frankthedm]

Ditto + Readied dispel magic vs teleport

Spell like abilities can't be countered. If you wait for the SLA to be in effect, the vrocks gone.

Spell-like abilities cannot be used to counterspell, nor can they be counterspelled. In all other ways, a spell-like ability functions just like a spell:

 

[Grog]

Granted, but the same goes for pretty much any spell.

There are lots of spells that don't require ranged touch attacks.

Really depends on the terrain and the party. The long and short of it boils down to the fact that the Vrock is teleporting back in blind. He has no way of knowing what's taken place in the rounds he's been absent and its very unlikely that the party is just going to be standing around in the same place waiting.

Well, they can't get far in three rounds, especially if they're trying to heal up from spore damage. Even if the party isn't just standing around waiting, the Vrock could probably track them down pretty easily. And if they're going to be moving around, there's always the chance that they'll walk into another encounter with the Vrock still stalking them - which pretty much means a TPK.

 

[Grog]

Oh, and there's another counter to the "spread out" tactic. The Vrock teleports in right next to the party wizard (if he can't appear next to the wizard right off the bat, he can just teleport again or even just move in close once he sees him). If the rest of the party charges, the Vrock releases spores (catching the entire party) and teleports away. If the party doesn't charge, the Vrock kills the wizard with physical attacks.

Sure, the wizard might be able to Dimension Door away, but that's a 4th level spell and thus a very limited resource to a 9th level wizard. He could probably only manage it a couple of times at most.

 

[frankthedm]

Sure, the wizard might be able to Dimension Door away, but that's a 4th level spell and thus a very limited resource to a 9th level wizard. He could probably only manage it a couple of times at most.

There is a SC spell that DD's the party to the mage. I dislike the spell, but it is in the wotc material.