PDA

View Full Version : A bit of help requested (3.5)



smart thog
2011-02-20, 04:21 PM
I was wondering if anybody could give me advice on how to cause the most property damage/kill the most mooks in the shortest amount of time as a cleric. I am level 12, CG (in case you recommend evil or lawful spells) and the only caster in the part who can prepare spells (the other is a warmage)

Relevance

Long story short, my group wound up in possession of a giant boat. The first thing we did was figure out a way to make money. We convinced a mayor to hire us as privateers to protect his towns shipping interests for 120k per month. Then we went out on a pirate killing expedition. We only sunk one ship, and unfortunately it was our own. There are 9 other ships filled with hundreds of pirates we need to kill. So now we have decided to use hit and run tactics using the Windwalk and Word of Recall spells to get us to and from the boats quickly. My question is, what spells should I prepare that either let me sink ships or kill vast amounts of pirates?

Quirp
2011-02-20, 04:34 PM
If you have the air domain there is always control winds.

Other spells that might help are Flame Strike (fire and a ship is always bad for the ship), a well placed Blade Barrier in the path of the ship or Cometfall from Complete Divine (come on that has to do it).

CyMage
2011-02-20, 04:37 PM
Just going off the SRD we have:
Shatter (http://dndsrd.net/spellsS.html#shatter)
Control Water (http://dndsrd.net/spellsC.html#control-water)
Planar Ally, Lesser (http://dndsrd.net/spellsPtoR.html#lesser-planar-ally)
Wall of Stone (http://dndsrd.net/spellsTtoZ.html#wall-of-stone)
Animate Object (http://dndsrd.net/spellsAtoB.html#animate-objects)
Blade Barrier (http://dndsrd.net/spellsAtoB.html#blade-barrier)
Planar Ally (http://dndsrd.net/spellsPtoR.html#planar-ally)

Some of these need a bit of creativity to pull off to best effect. Also your domains might have some useful spells as well.

smart thog
2011-02-20, 04:39 PM
I've got the Strength and Luck domains, so control winds is not an option

CyMage
2011-02-20, 04:44 PM
Well, doesn't look like your domains are going to help for now. Once you can cast 9th level spells, Miracle does wonders.

OracleofWuffing
2011-02-20, 05:24 PM
Okay, building off your hit and run tactics...

Prepare Wall of Sand from Spell Compendium, which is Cleric 4. Wall of Good or Wall of Chaos might work as well, but the big thing I'm aiming for with Sand is movement hindrance. Basically, you want to section off a part of the ship with Wall of Sand, set the ship on fire, and word of recall out or jump to the next ship to burn. The premise is that you want to hinder anyone trying to put out the fire until a good chunk of the boat is already missing, then let nature take its course.

Otherwise, ah, use your funds plus the 120k you got in advance (I hope you got a month in advance), get a continuous item of Haste, and get yourself to somewhere where nobody knows your name and lay low for a while.

smart thog
2011-02-20, 05:37 PM
Okay, building off your hit and run tactics...

Prepare Wall of Sand from Spell Compendium, which is Cleric 4. Wall of Good or Wall of Chaos might work as well, but the big thing I'm aiming for with Sand is movement hindrance. Basically, you want to section off a part of the ship with Wall of Sand, set the ship on fire, and word of recall out or jump to the next ship to burn. The premise is that you want to hinder anyone trying to put out the fire until a good chunk of the boat is already missing, then let nature take its course.

Otherwise, ah, use your funds plus the 120k you got in advance (I hope you got a month in advance), get a continuous item of Haste, and get yourself to somewhere where nobody knows your name and lay low for a while.

I like your plan

We have about 100k right now, partially from treasure, partially from the advance, but our contract guarantees us at least one months pay.

I was thinking about summoning a chaos beast, then Greater Commanding the pirates into its range so they all get infected, spreading it around the ship, but I'm worried that could come back to bite me.

HunterOfJello
2011-02-20, 06:08 PM
Cold Snap (SP) could freeze the ocean surface causing lots of trouble for the boats. The spell would decrease the temperature within a 1 mile radius by 50 degrees Fahrenheit, which might not be enough to freeze the water though.


Cometfall (SP) should be powerful enough to destroy any ship if you hit it in the right spot.

A Sound Lance (SP) shot at the hull of a ship should be able to sink it too.
~

Really though, a handful of Quall's Feather Anchor Tokens, a Warmage and some teleports should be more than enough to take out a few ships.


And if your cleric can get onto the ship, an Antilife Shell while hiding behind a tower shield or Wind Wall should be able to stop the pirates from getting near their rudder.

~

I would focus more on permanently disabling/destroying the ships than attacking the people on the ships.

gallagher
2011-02-20, 07:12 PM
frostbite (i think its called) from frostburn does 6d6 cold damage plus 2d6 dex damage, fort save for half, and can target multiple creatures

gallagher
2011-02-20, 07:17 PM
also, see about setting the sails on fire, and see if you can figure a way to get under the ships (be stealthy, have a means of underwater breathing and get rid of all check penalties possible)

you could drill holes into the bottoms of the boats, or you could blast into them with your warmage, or you could figure a way to make timed explosions underneeth them and just surprise them. there are many imaginative things you can do when the enemy cant see you

OracleofWuffing
2011-02-20, 07:26 PM
also, see about setting the sails on fire, and see if you can figure a way to get under the ships (be stealthy, have a means of underwater breathing and get rid of all check penalties possible)
Water Breathing is Cleric 3, Freedom of Movement is Cleric 4, so barring unforseen water creatures and the like, everything needed to get there should be easily accessible. Just a matter of making a hole that's big enough not to get patched up too quickly.

gallagher
2011-02-20, 07:29 PM
Water Breathing is Cleric 3, Freedom of Movement is Cleric 4, so barring unforseen water creatures and the like, everything needed to get there should be easily accessible. Just a matter of making a hole that's big enough not to get patched up too quickly.

or several well-places smaller holes that will go unnoticed until it becomes a bigger problem. they would have to dock to get re-provisioned because the seawater left their food inedible, or at least would make them sick.

also, you have to see where you are summoning a creature, right? does anybody else find the idea of drilling holes into the bottom of their boat, then summoning a terrifying creature that they have no idea how to attack or defend against, then just swimming away a terribly fun idea?

OracleofWuffing
2011-02-20, 07:40 PM
The weakness in lots of small holes is that mending's a cantrip/orison for five classes, so provided they can get 10 feet close to a hole, they can fix it, and bilge out the water (disclaimer: all I know about boats comes from Puzzle Pirates). So, if there's even one sorceror on board, you need to drill at least seven holes.

That said, if you want to speed up the process, you could sovereign glue Decanters of Endless Waters to the holes you drill, and use the geyser functionality to increase the floodflow.

Then set the ship on fire. Fire makes all plans better.

gallagher
2011-02-20, 07:45 PM
The weakness in lots of small holes is that mending's a cantrip/orison for five classes, so provided they can get 10 feet close to a hole, they can fix it, and bilge out the water (disclaimer: all I know about boats comes from Puzzle Pirates). So, if there's even one sorceror on board, you need to drill at least seven holes.

That said, if you want to speed up the process, you could sovereign glue Decanters of Endless Waters to the holes you drill, and use the geyser functionality to increase the floodflow.

Then set the ship on fire. Fire makes all plans better.
we need more elements in this. cause electricity to flow through the water, pour acid on important ropes to dissolve them so they cant adjust sails, magic missile the hat off of the pirate captain to annoy him with force damage. then throw an ice ball and a rock and i think you have everything under control

also, isnt there a magical enhancement that allows you to rust metal as if a rust monster attacked it? if you can find a way to do that you can destroy their rudder.

ThirdEmperor
2011-02-20, 08:06 PM
Well, from what I see, your goal is to sink all nine pirate ships with minimum resource expenditure, and preferably without having to fight everyone on board. So, first off, swim under the ship, punch a hole in the bottom with your spell of choice, and spam as many create water spells as you can. Then summon the bigger water elementals possible, both inside the boat and outside, and have them use their whirlpool ability. Finally, wind wall on the sails, and have the warmage toss a few fireballs their way as a parting gift before teleporting away. Repeat until there are no more ships.

Yucca
2011-02-20, 11:41 PM
Stormwrack has good info about what different spells do to boats. I looks like control water can make a ship founder and potentially capsize. Heat metal can potentially start fires during rounds 3-5 of its effect, which gives the spell a 93ish percent chance of starting a fire during its duration. Not bad for a level 2 spell.

Cerlis
2011-02-20, 11:58 PM
yes, stormwracked but not enough details.

basically what you want to do is destroy the ships. Some spells seamed to be troublesome, some seemed to one shot ships. i forget.

Is Passwall (or whatever its called) a cleric spell? basically anything you do to put a giant hole in the bottom of their ship will help (lower side, rather than bottom. Air pressure will keep water from going in quickly if its on the bottom i think. Lets see, wall of force is probably a wizard spell, but anything dublicating a big wall. ship runs into it. it explodes basically.

Water elementals can create whirlpools or vortexes. Cloud kill will kill any mooks but thats up to if you think the DM made the problem high level pirates, or decked out ships that are a threat (thus with low level crew).

If you can find actual stormwracked source, there is like 2 pages of talking about spells that screw over ships.

Doc Roc
2011-02-21, 12:02 AM
Has anyone suggested ice ship? Frostburn, instant boat. Ram away!

Land Outcast
2011-02-21, 12:31 AM
Freedom of movement + water breathing + flame strike... that should do it...

And its got medium range, you can even do it form 200 feet afar.
I mean, a cylinder 20 feet in diameter and 40 in height...

Vulaas
2011-02-21, 03:25 AM
Explosive runes all over the hull, then deliberately fail to area dispel them? Repeat for each ship.

DueceEsMachine
2011-02-21, 03:39 AM
Well, there's always blast discs for the hulls as well. set them off under the ship, and watch the fun from afar!

Heck. they even have a timed option, if I remember correctly, so several can be set if so desired.

Wall of Fire in front of a moving ship would work wonders as well - if your warmage can get that. I don't remember. cast it, concentrate, and watch everyone on the ship (and the ship) pass through the flames.

TurtleKing
2011-02-21, 03:53 AM
Yelling Kraken as loud as you can cause the crew to panic. If using the wall spells wait to put it up right before they get to the point so the ship doesnt sell around it. If you can use acid over other energy types since it bypasses hardness. Sonic and Adamantine also can bypass the hardness. A dwarven rogue can sneak attack inanimate objects by taking the racial substitution so have him use the ballista to sneak attack enenmy boats.

weenie
2011-02-21, 05:17 AM
If your DM lets adamantine cut through things as if they were butter, you could cut a 10ft hole in each ship's bottom and let it sink in seconds.

Quirp
2011-02-21, 09:15 AM
Another idea would be to buy some universally useful items and use those to sink the ships: - a necklace of adaptation to be able to dive for a long time
- an instant fortress
- some necklaces of fireballs
The plan would be to throw/put the fortress on (or better in) a ship and speak the command word. Since it extends 10 ft into the ground it should make pretty big holes and kill a good chunk of pirates with the 10d10 damage. Afterwards you can just dive to the sunken ship and get your fortress back. The fireballs are just there to kill tough survivors or as a second plan if the first doesn´t work.

smart thog
2011-02-21, 01:32 PM
These ideas are all great. I was wondering how you figure out the morale of a ship, to see how close the crew is to mutiny.

They have wizards all boats, meaning that we would have to switch up tactics every time or risk our spells getting dispelled.

My thoughts were, if we sink enough boats, the crew on the other boats will mutiny, and surrender without fighting us

Land Outcast
2011-02-21, 01:54 PM
These ideas are all great. I was wondering how you figure out the morale of a ship, to see how close the crew is to mutiny.

They have wizards all boats, meaning that we would have to switch up tactics every time or risk our spells getting dispelled.

My thoughts were, if we sink enough boats, the crew on the other boats will mutiny, and surrender without fighting us

Well, as I said, if you're casting from 200 feet away, under the water, they'll have trouble dispelling.
And I belive that you have enough ideas here to make multiple strikes :smallsmile:

The morale thing, I belive, would be mostly in the DM's hands... but if you have sunk more than half their fleet I guess you could start offering them to surrender (after having conveniently placed a detonator by the hull).