What can protect PCs from Blasphemy with incredibly high CL?

[Shin Okada]

Half-Fiend creatures can use nasty spell-like abilities. Blasphemy is the worst of them.
When a Half-Fiend has +10 or more HDs than PCs, that means instant death. Almost no PCs have that much high spell-resistance.
But there are so many base creatures which has much higher HDs than one's CR and they appear in official modules.

Well, what kind of countermeasures are possible for PCs with appropriate level (I mean, non-epic).
Blasphemy does not have [Death] descriptor and not a death effect. So Death Ward or similar spells are useless.
All I can think of are,

Silence
Greater Spell Immunity
Anti Magic Shell (and similar spells and effects)

Are there any other, practical ways for PCs to protect themselves?

In some cases, scrying beforehand is not an option (so many official modules disallow this in some way or ways.)
So, something PCs can reasonably cast or use in a round (and likely to prepare even if they were not expecting to meet a mega HD half-fiend) is ideal.

Thanks in advance.

 

[moritheil]

Half-Fiend creatures can use nasty spell-like abilities. Blasphemy is the worst of them.
When a Half-Fiend has +10 or more HDs than PCs, that means instant death. Almost no PCs have that much high spell-resistance.
But there are so many base creatures which has much higher HDs than one's CR and they appear in official modules.

Well, what kind of countermeasures are possible for PCs with appropriate level (I mean, non-epic).
Blasphemy does not have [Death] descriptor and not a death effect. So Death Ward or similar spells are useless.
All I can think of are,

Silence
Greater Spell Immunity
Anti Magic Shell (and similar spells and effects)

Are there any other, practical ways for PCs to protect themselves?

In some cases, scrying beforehand is not an option (so many official modules disallow this in some way or ways.)
So, something PCs can reasonably cast or use in a round (and likely to prepare even if they were not expecting to meet a mega HD half-fiend) is ideal.

Thanks in advance.

Silence doesn't work because you don't have to hear it to be affected.

I've always gone with GSI, or just an equally high caster level boosted Spell Resistance spell.

That, and kill it from range - you don't want to get close to a high HD fiend!

EDIT: Oh yes, if you are a Horizon Walker, you can choose to be immune to alignment-based effects of planes. Because "they take their immunities with them" i.e. immunities work wherever you are, you are now immune to all alignment-based effects.

That and dimension door every 1d4 rounds are the main benefits of the class.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Silence doesn't work because you don't have to hear it to be affected.

Deafness doesn't work because you don't have to hear it to be affected (like Dictum, but unlike Holy Word and Word of Chaos).

Silence works:
Blasphemy
Evocation [Evil, Sonic]

Silence: This spell provides a defense against sonic or language-based attacks.

EDIT: Oh yes, if you are a Horizon Walker, you can choose to be immune to alignment-based effects of planes. Because "they take their immunities with them" i.e. immunities work wherever you are, you are now immune to all alignment-based effects.

Question - the 'opposite aligment' of Evil... is it 'Good' or 'Non-Evil'?

-Hyp.

 

[frankthedm]

Half-Fiend creatures can use nasty spell-like abilities. Blasphemy is the worst of them.
When a Half-Fiend has +10 or more HDs than PCs, that means instant death. Almost no PCs have that much high spell-resistance.
But there are so many base creatures which has much higher HDs than one's CR and they appear in official modules.

Well, what kind of countermeasures are possible for PCs with appropriate level (I mean, non-epic).
Blasphemy does not have [Death] descriptor and not a death effect. So Death Ward or similar spells are useless.
All I can think of are,

Silence
Greater Spell Immunity
Anti Magic Shell (and similar spells and effects)

Are there any other, practical ways for PCs to protect themselves?

In some cases, scrying beforehand is not an option (so many official modules disallow this in some way or ways.)
So, something PCs can reasonably cast or use in a round (and likely to prepare even if they were not expecting to meet a mega HD half-fiend) is ideal.

Thanks in advance.

House rule Blasphemy back to the 3.0 version or Change that spell-like ability to a different spell that does not kill based on hit dice.

 

[Starbuck_II]

Half-Fiend creatures can use nasty spell-like abilities. Blasphemy is the worst of them.
When a Half-Fiend has +10 or more HDs than PCs, that means instant death. Almost no PCs have that much high spell-resistance.
But there are so many base creatures which has much higher HDs than one's CR and they appear in official modules.

Well, what kind of countermeasures are possible for PCs with appropriate level (I mean, non-epic).
Blasphemy does not have [Death] descriptor and not a death effect. So Death Ward or similar spells are useless.
All I can think of are,

Silence
Greater Spell Immunity
Anti Magic Shell (and similar spells and effects)

Are there any other, practical ways for PCs to protect themselves?

In some cases, scrying beforehand is not an option (so many official modules disallow this in some way or ways.)
So, something PCs can reasonably cast or use in a round (and likely to prepare even if they were not expecting to meet a mega HD half-fiend) is ideal.

Thanks in advance.

6 levels in horizon Waller make you immune to harmful effects due to alignment if take Alignment Planar ability. It doesn't matter what the effect is if harmful. So you wo'nt be stunned or killed due to unholy blight or blasphemy.
Granted that is more than a dip. But it helps.

 

[Kat']

When a Half-Fiend has +10 or more HDs than PCs

...then they'd be screwed even if he didn't have Blasphemy, 'cause it means the Half-Fiend's Challenge Rating is 7 higher than the PCs, so they possibly can't win. It's a bit like "Wow, the Tarrasque could kill my 4 lvl 13 PCs so easily! What do I do against that?"

 

[Nifft]

...then they'd be screwed even if he didn't have Blasphemy, 'cause it means the Half-Fiend's Challenge Rating is 7 higher than the PCs

Wait, what? When did he say anything about CR?

-- N

 

[Quartz]

Wait, what? When did he say anything about CR?

Third line of the OP.

 

[Nifft]

Third line of the OP.

C'mon. Look at the context.

When did he give a specific CR, from which Kat' could derive that he was throwing something +7 CR over the party's level?

-- N

 

[Corsair]

This is especially an issue when using advanced creatures. (The HD will advance much faster than the CR in most cases)