Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="see" data-source="post: 8353339" data-attributes="member: 10531">There's a not-remotely-subtle difference between a DM who creates a world that has at least one known-friendly town somewhere on the same plane with both a 9th-level NPC cleric and a teleportation circle, and a DM who makes sure there's always a friendly 9th-level cleric or druid within a day's safe travel of any and every adventure site. And if you're actually playing Tier 3 as "Masters of the Realm" rather than "Tier 2, Part II: Same Adventures, Bigger Numbers", that difference is relevant.And frankly, if in a party that has four living 13th-level wizards and one dead one, the living don't have (out of their collective 68-or-so prepared spells) anyone with a prepared bug-out spell, it's only because they've been spoon-fed their victories all along. (Similarly, four living 13th-level bards/clerics/sorcerers should have a raise dead or a resurrection or a teleportation circle or something among them, and four living 13th-level druids should have at least one reincarnate or a transport via plants. It's just sense.)Seriously? "Divide et impera" is old enough it's in Latin, "evil wizard with minions" is a cliche, battlefield control spells have been in the game since the 1970s, and for the people who didn't get the message any sooner, Treantmonk's Guide to Wizards laid out the tactics a decade and a half ago (back in the 3.5 version).You don't have to build an encounter to specifically try to gut an all-fighter party (which, I agree, would be a "gotcha" approach); just take a "battlefield controller wizard intelligently uses his spells and directs his minions" encounter designed to be a decent challenge to a 13th-level party, and then run the fighters into the resulting meat grinder."Intelligently" here includes things like "don't blatantly advertise that you're the only wizard in the group, because in a fight you want to live long enough to actually cast your spells", "have counterspell prepared to deal with opponent spellcasters, including someone trying to counterspell your wall of force", "use wall of force instead of wall of stone because otherwise the enemy casters will drop it with dispel magic", and "keep your minions between you and the people you're attacking so nobody can just run up and start beating you to death with multiattack."(You know, basic things that any evil wizard who actually has goals he wants to accomplish and a life he wants to live and a brain of a quality reflective of his Intelligence score would have in mind. I grant this might feel like you're dealing with a "gotcha DM" if you're used to opponents being brainless MOBs who exist only to give XP and drop loot after a vigorous round of rolling dice, and accordingly expect DPR to be sufficient to deal with any combat encounter.)If you're running this encounter against a balanced party, the evil wizard can either put suspected casters inside the dome-of-force (where they'll be able to safely cast spells that just need visual targeting instead of physical effects that actually originate from the caster's position) or leave them out (where they can be hit, but also can cast spells that would be blocked by the dome-of-force). It's still useful, but not nearly as easy or effective as the "the guys with bows, make sure they're the ones inside the dome-of-force, not outside" decision-making when dealing with an all-fighter party.Says the guy who considers a 9th-level wizard an unacceptable part of an enemy encounter group because its stablock isn't specifically in the Monster Manual. Despite, you know, pp.282-283 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.When you've got five members of a class making up the party, and know you have to cover the array with members of that class, it's not a matter of "Schrodinger's caster", it's a matter of the group making build choices to cover the obvious gaps. Having an Arcana cleric for teleportation circle, or a Divine Soul sorcerer for cleric-list spells, or whatever.</blockquote>

Verification