Weapons/Items against Spellcasters

[The Inquisitor]

What are some useful weapons or items to use against Spell-casters?

Our party has a Lawful Evil spell-caster, who is starting to see advantages in killing us all off and taking our equipment, and we are trying to figure out what would be good to use against him. He's way-over powering us, about three levels ahead, and we need something to combat him before he turns on us. Our GM is an influential guy, if we hint at something we want, we'll probably get it (which is why we don't usually hint at anything, to make the game actually enjoyable).

This spell-caster has the Mask of the Skull, which flies out and hits an enemy. If it hits, the enemy (or one of us) has to roll a D20 fortitude save! And if they fail, they die instantly! We either have to get this away from him or find something that can counter the spell...

Anyway, ideas?

Thanks,

Sire Inquisitor of the Offices of the Holy Inquisition

 

[JoeGKushner]

Is the spell caster another player?

What level is your group and what classes?

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Dust of Sneezing and Choking

This fine dust appears to be dust of appearance. If cast into the air, it causes those within a 20- foot spread to fall into fits of sneezing and coughing. Those failing a DC 15 Fortitude save take 2d6 points of Constitution damage immediately. In addition, those failing a second DC 15 Fortitude save 1 minute later are dealt 1d6 points of Constitution damage. Those who succeed on either saving throw are nonetheless disabled by choking (treat as stunned) for 5d4 rounds.

Faint conjuration; CL 7th; Create Wondrous Item, poison; Price 2,400 gp.

A stunned creature drops everything held, can’t take actions, takes a -2 penalty to AC, and loses his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any).

Emphasis mine Have a rogue or some ranged PCs stand outside the 20 feet. Some fight-y type should toss the powder, then melee after recovering. Give him a magebane weapon if possible, from Complete Arcane. Counts as bane againt all 'casters.

 

[WayneLigon]

He's a spellcaster. Doesn't matter if he's three levels or ten levels above you, he still has 1d4+con HP, which makes him a farmer in robes to the rest of you.

Cook dinner one night and dose him the most powerful poison you can find. Preferably one that drops his Int - if it goes low enough -- no spells for you, buddy - or his Con.

When he gets up in the early morning to use the bushes, jump him and garotte him. No voice, no spells. Proceed to stab as usual.

The next time he uses the mask, turn and bash him in the face with a spiked mace the second it leaves him or grab the thing and prevent it's return. Or sunder it.

Silence 15' Radius. 'Nuff said. Drygulch him then when he can't cast (or use the command word for the item if it has one). Hold Person is another good one.

He still has to sleep at night. Insta-coup-de-gras with an icepick in the ear, rattlesnake in his sleeping blanket, brain eating grubs in his pillow. Whatever.

Cliffs.

A horse-riding 'accident'. Not many people can cast spells well when they have a half-ton of dying horse thrashing about on them.

Mage-bane blades.

Catch him with a mouthfull of peanut butter or something. I'm serious! Try to twist the workings of the universe when you have a mouth full of something to eat and see what happens. All you need is one round and you all, working together, can probably do enough damage to kill him.

Pool together a bunch of gold and tithe it to your Local Church What Likes To Kill Mages and give them his current whereabouts.

Poisoned sea urchin in his bathtub.

Get a rogue to forge the mage's handwriting and signature. Send a message along the lines of 'Old fool! I, the Mage of the Mask of Death, have decided that your arcane library shall soon be mine. I fear not your obviously overblown reputation. Power belongs to those who can weild it best and that is I. Compose your will. And clean up the place, I want it to be nice when I step over your enfeebled corpse and move in.' Send this the the A-Number-One badass wizard you know. Do not stick around in the same location as your buddy.

Whip your GM with a bicycle chain for giving anyone an insta-kill magic item.

Basically, the idea is to get him into a position where his spellcasting, the only thing about him that is a threat to you, is useless.

 

[LostSoul]

I hear that silenced air elementals are not so good for the low- to mid-level spellcaster.

 

[Victim]

First of all, just consider killing him in his sleep. Chances are, the evil character isn't stupid; if you wait for him to turn on you, circumstances will vastly him when he makes his move. Be proactive.

Grappling is usually good against casters. If you can, use Deathward to block of the effect of the death mask.

 

[frankthedm]

Humanbane spiked armour if you want to make him a real mess.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Silence effects in any form are death to most arcane spellcasters.

I prefer either armor or weapons with silence on them, usually weapons, but occasionally both.

While silence on a short sword or the like is most common, I have also had much fun with silenced arrows, especially those with barbed heads. You silence the spellcaster from a great distance, and he can't do jack until he gets that arrowhead out of his flesh...

 

[Sejs]

Wayne outlined it for the most part.

So he can overpower you all in a straight fight. That just means you don't fight fair. Have the rest of the party all gang up and just gank him in his sleep, asap. If you know the boot's about to drop, don't wait until it's in the air before you take action. If you really want to hedge your bets, just have your sneaky types swipe his magic trinkets (component pouch, spellbook, etc) before you strike. If he sleeps with that darn mask on all the time, then you have a second man on standby when you go to slit his throat. The second guy has a sack in hand - Guy A goes for the CdG, Guy B stuffs mask boy's head in a bag at the same time. Ideally you could just use a Bag of Devouring for the head bag, but well, sometime you just have to make due with what you've got.

If so inclined, you could always use a bag of holding or whatnot if you'd prefer. Prevents any mask-ripping-out-of-the-bag issues. If you've got access to Silence, may as well cast it on a rock and toss the rock into the bag of holding as well.

And if all else fails and he doesn't die from the CdG, he's silenced, his head's in a bag (possibly of holding), just grapple him and kill him the old-fashioned way.

 

[blargney the second]

WayneLigon's peanut butter line gave me an idea: Tanglemouth Sandwich! *grin*