PDA

View Full Version : Level 20 Wizard Versus...



youlookfunny
2011-12-26, 11:03 AM
...Anything that has enormous numbers. Huge saves, insane spell resistances, etc.

How does a wizard20 deal with them (source spells only)? No infinite loops, by the way. Just clever ways to kill despite enormous saves and huge spell resistances.

edit

And arbitrarily high health, naturally.

rmg22893
2011-12-26, 11:15 AM
...Anything that has enormous numbers. Huge saves, insane spell resistances, etc.

How does a wizard20 deal with them (source spells only)? No infinite loops, by the way. Just clever ways to kill despite enormous saves and huge spell resistances.

edit

And arbitrarily high health, naturally.

Shapechange into some monstrosity and beat the **** out of it.

Lateral
2011-12-26, 11:25 AM
Easy. Cast an Ice Assassin of that creature, and then buff it to hell and back.

gkathellar
2011-12-26, 11:41 AM
I don't remember all the details, but I believe there's a method of "specimen preservation" whereby a wizard uses Forcecage, and one or two "burial" spells to permanently entrap an unmoving victim in ice, rock, packed earth, or all of the above.

Glimbur
2011-12-26, 11:54 AM
...Anything that has enormous numbers. Huge saves, insane spell resistances, etc.

How does a wizard20 deal with them (source spells only)? No infinite loops, by the way. Just clever ways to kill despite enormous saves and huge spell resistances.

edit

And arbitrarily high health, naturally.

1) Perfect Defenses (or good enough, at least)
2) Hail of Stones from Spell Compendium, Fell Drain, repeat/twin/etc.
3) Repeat step 2 until target is dead.

Granted, immunity to negative levels beats that approach, but there are many ways to kill people.

Flickerdart
2011-12-26, 11:58 AM
Orbs have no saves and no SR. There are many ways to jack up to-hit beyond reasonable levels. A wizard optimized for damage can put out thousands of irresistible damage per round without loops.

Randomguy
2011-12-26, 12:02 PM
Gate in something with 40HD and then sit back and watch the fun, or shapechange and join in on the fun.

There's also true strike + metamagicked orb of force, but a blaster sorcerer would be better at that and it would take a while. Doom scarab spam (with all sorts of metamagic) would also work, but would take a very long time. Basically, any SR:No with either no save or save half rather than save negates will work, but that wouldn't be very optimal.

Forcecage + save or dies such as dominate person (or dominate monster) or finger of death until it rolls a natural one.

Unless something has mettle and at least some immunities (at the very least it needs freedom of movement, immunity to mind affecting and immunity to death effects) and some kind of teleportation, then it's going down eventually, even without gate or shapechange.

Reluctance
2011-12-26, 12:09 PM
Are you asking about an actual in-game encounter? When it has stats of Arbitrarily High, you take a dive to avoid turning the game into an arms race.

If you're offering the fact that creatures with arbitrarily large numbers can be used to challenge a wizard, that's not balance. As a matter of fact, that you need something so far above the character's pay grade to be considered a challenge is a sign that things are grossly unbalanced.

Eldan
2011-12-26, 12:10 PM
The principle usually just involves imprisoning it in something it can't get out of.

donnerdrummel
2011-12-26, 08:02 PM
hey there,
transmute rock to lava (if that is a wiz spell)...
in general use the suroundings against it, summon some stuff (celestials are durable as they have healing skills most of the time, fire elementals too for damage ablilities).
on the other hand you can let it help you kill it self (or at least blow out some abilities) with clever uses of hallucinatory terrain and illusions in general.
in my opinion a wiz 20 can take on nearly anything IF he knows upfront and is prepared.

oh and at high lvls i always have a bottle or two of greenslime available.

Gavinfoxx
2011-12-26, 08:17 PM
Be a Dire Tortoise, Celerity abuse, Time Stop, Forcecage. And then some burial spells...

Even it the creature has arbitrarily high hit points / skills / saves / damage / initiative, etc., that will still work.

rmg22893
2011-12-26, 08:22 PM
hey there,
transmute rock to lava (if that is a wiz spell)...


The floor is now lava! AAAAAAAAAAAH!

Morph Bark
2011-12-26, 08:37 PM
Unseelie Fey (Winter) Magic-Blooded Karsite (LA buyoff) Paladin of Tyranny 3/Hexblade 4/Blackguard 3/Battledancer 1/Deepwarden 5/Fist of the Forest 1/Survivor 3

Improved Uncanny Dodge, Slippery Mind, Mettle and Evasion. Cha to AC twice, Con to AC twice, Cha to saves twice versus spells and SR 10 + class level (so 30), which can be boosted with feats.

Get grafts that grant burrow, flight and swim speeds, eliminate the need for food, water and breathing.


Then what happens? Simple. Spells that allow neither saves nor SR and that do not require attack rolls. Most of these involves summoning stuff, essentially breaking the action economy. If you take such kinds of spells out of the equation, there's stuff like forcecage maybe, but then you only neutralize him for so long.

gkathellar
2011-12-26, 08:37 PM
The floor is now lava! AAAAAAAAAAAH!

Hilariously, any amount of fire resistance provides total immunity to lava damage.

Silva Stormrage
2011-12-26, 09:01 PM
Hilariously, any amount of fire resistance provides total immunity to lava damage.

Wait what? I fire resistance negates lava damage? How?

gkathellar
2011-12-26, 09:03 PM
Check the rules on lava.

Gavinfoxx
2011-12-26, 09:07 PM
"An immunity or resistance to fire serves as an immunity to lava or magma. However, a creature immune to fire might still drown if completely immersed in lava."

Oh man. I wonder if that was intended. Or if they just left out "or resistance"...

Silva Stormrage
2011-12-26, 10:53 PM
"An immunity or resistance to fire serves as an immunity to lava or magma. However, a creature immune to fire might still drown if completely immersed in lava."

Oh man. I wonder if that was intended. Or if they just left out "or resistance"...

100% sure that was NOT intended. How do you stop drowning again? :smallbiggrin:

Glimbur
2011-12-26, 11:11 PM
Unseelie Fey (Winter) Magic-Blooded Karsite (LA buyoff) Paladin of Tyranny 3/Hexblade 4/Blackguard 3/Battledancer 1/Deepwarden 5/Fist of the Forest 1/Survivor 3

Improved Uncanny Dodge, Slippery Mind, Mettle and Evasion. Cha to AC twice, Con to AC twice, Cha to saves twice versus spells and SR 10 + class level (so 30), which can be boosted with feats.

Get grafts that grant burrow, flight and swim speeds, eliminate the need for food, water and breathing.


Then what happens? Simple. Spells that allow neither saves nor SR and that do not require attack rolls. Most of these involves summoning stuff, essentially breaking the action economy. If you take such kinds of spells out of the equation, there's stuff like forcecage maybe, but then you only neutralize him for so long.

SR 30 isn't actually that great at level 20, if the caster knows to build to get around it. There are at least two spells that give a +10 to beat SR, and sometimes CL is boosted anyway (for Holy Word et al shenanigans, for example.) Those will be some pretty good saves, and the AC should be nontrivial. Fell Drain Hail of Stones will still work... slowly.

As a benefit, that build gets nearly full BAB and seems to have most of its feats left so it could be useful in a party, not just defensively.

Psyren
2011-12-26, 11:40 PM
The principle usually just involves imprisoning it in something it can't get out of.

This. I forget which thread I was reading where someone's playgroup ended up on a plane with a giant forcecage full of water, and the Tarrasque floating in it, continually drowning and reviving.

Hirax
2011-12-27, 12:14 AM
Chronotyryn is my prefered shapechange form for its double actions. Anyways, reposting this from another thread with some light editing:

Foresight+celerity means the wizard acts first. Third eye clarity negates daze.
Celerity action: Time stop.
Time stop 1: Cast undermaster, pull weirdstone from handy haversack (or any other method to stop teleportation, etherealness, etc.).
Time stop 2: cast forcecage, use undermaster's souped up move earth to dump up to 750' cubic feet of earth onto the forcecage.

The enemy is now trapped, and if they won initiative, they have a round to act. They can't teleport, be ethereal, etc, and destroying the forcecage dooms them. Escape artist could get them through the forcecage if they were given 10 rounds (the time required for the applicable escape artist check), but not through the mound of earth. Assuming they don't get out in that round, dismiss the forcecage so the enemy is buried in the ensuing cave in, and in the same round cast frostfell, encasing their now buried body in everfrost. No save, no SR, no attack roll. Use move earth again to extract them in a nice 20x20x20' cube and put the enemy on ice in a trophy case.

Will they die? Maybe not, but they're permanently disabled. If you do want to kill them for whatever reason then you have an indefinite amount of time to build the perfect mouse trap so that they will die. But a live trophy is more fun than a dead one anyway.

For reference, Frostburn lists the DC to break through 5' of ice as 60, and the DMG has the break DC for 5' of unworked stone as 65. Pick whichever of those you feel to be appropriate for everfrost, and bear in mind that those DCs are given with the assumption that you're not encased in them while trying to break them. They're given with the assumption that you can get leverage, momentum, etc. So, what's the strength check DC for breaking out of a 20x20x20' cube of everfrost while you have no meaningful ability to move? That's well into homebrew territory, but even a legendary dreadnought is going to have a tough time getting out, and it's pretty easy for the wizard to just encase you again, but in a bigger cube. For fun, the wizard can cast invisibility on their trophy cube and make it permanent, for better display purposes. The wizard can continue to cast move earth to reposition the person within, if they want.

Psyren
2011-12-27, 12:24 AM
Two problems with Weirdstone though:

- It's a Faerun-specific item, so it arguably only exists in that setting.
- It stops three specific forms of travel: ethereal, astral, and conjuration (teleportation.) This covers the majority of them, but there are still a few missing. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shadowWalk.htm)

Hirax
2011-12-27, 12:34 AM
Eh, it's only dimensional lock and nondetection put into a magic item, so it could be crafted outside of faerun theoretically. Otherwise you need to go to the trouble of making dimensional lock supernatural so that it isn't thwarted by arbitrarily high SR, which is doable, but annoying. Also, what non-casters get shadow walk-like abilities? I'm sure there are a couple, but I don't think there are many, typically such abilities are forms of dimension door. This is the case with shadowdancers, for instance.

Psyren
2011-12-27, 12:52 AM
Eh, it's only dimensional lock and nondetection put into a magic item, so it could be crafted outside of faerun theoretically.

Those spells may be used in its creation, but the actual process is more complicated than that. Neither spell has a 6-mile range for instance.


Otherwise you need to go to the trouble of making dimensional lock supernatural so that it isn't thwarted by arbitrarily high SR, which is doable, but annoying.

Even a supernatural DL is still an emanation; this means that once you enact the second part of your trap (burying them), you've broken line of effect and they're free to teleport to safety.


Also, what non-casters get shadow walk-like abilities?

The OP didn't specify non-casters as the opponent though; he specified non-wizards. You could be up against a Warlock or Beguiler for instance, or even just somebody that can UMD to escape.

Hirax
2011-12-27, 12:59 AM
Even a supernatural DL is still an emanation; this means that once you enact the second part of your trap (burying them), you've broken line of effect and they're free to teleport to safety.


Center the DL on the victim. The space they occupy is still open for the purposes of the effect in my mind. I don't believe creatures block LOE. I'll settle for not killing casters, that's an entirely different ballgame.

Psyren
2011-12-27, 01:19 AM
Center the DL on the victim. The space they occupy is still open for the purposes of the effect in my mind. I don't believe creatures block LOE. I'll settle for not killing casters, that's an entirely different ballgame.

They can still break LoE themselves, e.g. whipping out their tent (with a floor) and closing the flap before porting. A Contingency would probably be easier though.

Out of curiosity, how would a Wizard 20 make DL supernatural?

Hirax
2011-12-27, 02:19 AM
Supernatural transformation is used to make spells supernatural. Usually archmage is used to make the desired spell an SLA. I'm not sure how a wizard alone would do it, but against arbitrarily high SR an archmage level probably isn't too much to ask. In the back of my head there's a voice saying there's a way to do it with a wizard, but I'm not going to go dumpster diving for it. Or just use a weirdstone. Using an item from a faerun book that utilizies no setting specific mechanics (such as regions) is hardly sketchy given the whimsical premises presented in the OP.

At any rate, I'm hazy on what you're proposing with the tent, mechanically. How would that work in terms of action economy? Plus, you're not even going to be aware that you're under the effects of a dimensional lock; it's a dc 23 spellcraft check to figure that out, and that's if you see it being cast. It's 28 if you're trying to figure it out based on the emanation. That's a tall order for a non-caster, and there are no magic items that boost spellcraft checks significantly (one of the few niceties casters don't get). And you need to win initiative to even get a round to act before you're encased, so that also needs to be throttled up to even have a chance at acting.

Psyren
2011-12-27, 02:41 AM
For the second time - the OP never said "Wizard 20 vs. Muggle." He said "Wizard 20 vs. non-Wizard." Plenty of other classes get Spellcraft. Or even if they don't, "enormous numbers" can mean skills as well, including both Spellcraft and UMD, and the wealth to make the latter worthwhile.

Secondly, Su Transformation working on anything that comes from class levels is DM fiat territory at best, and doesn't apply in this case anyway since Wizard 19/AM 1 is not a wizard 20 and therefore fails the challenge prima facie.

Third and final, the OP also said "spells only" for the wizard, so even if you can somehow finagle a Faerun-specific item into a setting-generic challenge, it wouldn't be allowed.

The underlying point being that your copypaste tactic, while formidable, is not insurmountable.

Hirax
2011-12-27, 05:23 AM
And again, I don't intend for it to work against casters. The reason I'm assuming the creature isn't a full caster is because if it's another wizard, or a cleric, psion, druid, sorcerer, dread necro, beguiler, warmage, or other full caster, then they simply become something akin to super Cindy or lesser pun-pun, until boundaries are given to "enormous numbers...etc." Or maybe he meant a trapperkeeper of psionic fusioned creatures from infinitytuple nines thread. :smallbiggrin: Either way, boundaries on what's available and what numbers are enormous need to be put in place, otherwise this would be an impossible challenge. With no boundaries on the OP, all it would take is their pun-pun initiative to get the jump, their pun-pun spot check to find anyone, and their pun-pun caster level to make maw of chaos, blasphemy, or anything similar a 1 hit kill button (spell depends on class). Or perhaps their pun-pun casting modifier to make any save or doom spell have an impossible DC. Their pun-pun spot checks and caster levels also allow them to do this at range that makes it impossible for you to target them with anything.

That's probably not what the OP meant, so I put arbitrary boundaries down, and you and everyone else are doing the same, because it's necessary. Nobody has any basis to tell anybody else that the boundaries they're giving the incredibly vague creature in the OP are wrong. Your assumption that it could be a caster with high skill checks is just as valid as my assumption that it isn't a caster. And therefore if and when you post methods to kill the creature, I won't read your post using my vision of the creature, I'll use yours if you've specified what it is.

Taking a step back and examining realistic amounts of SR, the only way for a non-caster to get enough SR to be safe from a dimensional lock would be to become a forsaker, but that's a losing proposition. If they're somehow getting more than 40 SR through means other than being a forsaker, it's probably safe to assume that whatever arbitrarily large numbers being used can also just twitch their muscles and break the everfrost anyway. We don't know, since we're talking about something even scarier than Schrodinger's wizard, we're talking about Schrodinger's anything. :smallbiggrin: Then your still mostly undefined tent method, which I am legitimately curious about, because it sounds useful for several other things.

And not to get side tracked, but I don't see a problem with supernatural transformation unless you can point me to somewhere that has innate spell-like ability defined as a game term in a way that excludes an archmage's SLA. The ability becomes inherent to you, is with you no matter where you go or what you do, and the ability to use it can't be dispelled or swapped, as opposed to SLAs from magic items like an angelhelm, or temporary effects such as undermaster. That's about as innate as you get, so in the absence of clear game language, it passes the language test as far as I'm concerned. But if the archmage level matters I guess it's moot, I'll hope someone else wanders in that knows or recalls how to get an SLA as just a wizard.

Morph Bark
2011-12-27, 07:40 AM
SR 30 isn't actually that great at level 20, if the caster knows to build to get around it. There are at least two spells that give a +10 to beat SR, and sometimes CL is boosted anyway (for Holy Word et al shenanigans, for example.) Those will be some pretty good saves, and the AC should be nontrivial. Fell Drain Hail of Stones will still work... slowly.

As a benefit, that build gets nearly full BAB and seems to have most of its feats left so it could be useful in a party, not just defensively.

Not to mention that if it stands next to the wizard, he gets -6 on all saves. Get some items like one for teleportation, a belt of battle and a something that gets him nauseated or frightened or worse, or even stunned or dazed. You'll need to be careful with your WBL to make sure he doesn't see you coming and so you are immune to some spells like dispel and disjunction.

I just noticed he cannot get into Deepwarden due to race restrictions, but you could replace Karsite with a templated Dwarf that gets SR. Or just screw SR and go with an awakened golem with class levels.

Tyndmyr
2011-12-27, 11:06 AM
Time Stop.
Maw of Chaos(repeat).

Make sure you have CL boosting.
Kills almost anything.

youlookfunny
2011-12-27, 07:45 PM
Wow, that's a lot of, uh, responses. I underestimated how active these forums were.

Well, forgive me if I can't reply to each individual post. I've read through all of them though. I'll just clarify my original question.

I was asking how a wizard could defeat an enemy who takes no damage from conventional (unoptimized?) wizard tactics. Hence its enormous saves, spell resistance, energy resistance, damage reduction, touch AC, etc.

A while back I saw the suggestion on Brilliant Gameologists to shadow conjuration (major conjuration (Black Lotus poison)). Even if successfully saved, it would do something like 300d6 STR, CON, or CHA damage. I forget which off the top of my head.

So, in other words, no matter how much HP the enemy has, the above trick is guaranteed to destroy pretty much any normal monster.

But what if the monster's STR, CON, or CHA was near-infinite? Things like this. Is there something a wizard20 can to do force an enemy to lose:
No save.
No SR.
Regardless of HP.
Regardless of attribute scores.
Regardless of DR.
Etc.

You get the picture.

Also, if a wizard20 was afraid of running out of spells during the day, how would he remedy this? (I know the fast time plane genesis trick, but are there other ways?)

Randomguy
2011-12-27, 08:10 PM
Foresight+celerity means the wizard acts first. Third eye clarity negates daze.
Celerity action: Time stop.
Time stop 1: Cast undermaster, pull weirdstone from handy haversack (or any other method to stop teleportation, etherealness, etc.).
Time stop 2: cast forcecage, use undermaster's souped up move earth to dump up to 750' cubic feet of earth onto the forcecage.


Basically, survive until no longer flat footed, celerity, timestop, forcecage and then bury them.

If wizard 20 was alone and afraid of running out of spells for the day he'd greater teleport somewhere safe and then stay in his rope trick for 8 hours, or else plane shift to his own demiplane and stay there for 8 hours. Normally, time isn't really a factor.

dextercorvia
2011-12-27, 08:17 PM
How do you kill Mary Sue?

This thing has plot armor. With your etc., you have essentially said we can't attack any stat of the creature. If I bring up Allips, you will add in NI Wisdom, etc.

Currently this thing still falls to Negative Levels.

Fell Draining Hail of Stone... Or even better, the UPS man can do it.

Fell Draining, Fell Frightening, Searing, Blistering Raging Flame (With Arcane Thesis) deals at least one point of fire damage even against immunity. This automatically (No Save or SR) inflicts the Shaken condition and 1 negative level.

Twin and Quicken (with perhaps some more mitigation) mean that you can do 4 per round. Now, we shapechange into a Chronotryn or Choker for an extra standard action, which brings it up to 6.

Swap familiar for Animal Companion, and take Wild Cohort, each of which take White Raven Tactics, which they will use to give you an extra turn this round. That brings it up to 18 negative levels. Leadership can be added to enhance this further.

You haven't yet given Mary Sue immunity to fear, so by now they have stacked to Panicked or Cowering.

If I were relying on this for a build, I would make sure to have Dread Witch levels, to get around fear immunity.

gkathellar
2011-12-27, 08:32 PM
How do you kill Mary Sue?

This is a good point. Why is the hypothetical adversary allowed NI values in all its attributes, but wizards are limited to level 20 values and can't use infinite loops?

If the point of the question is to establish that if you keep adding numbers on, non-casters can eventually survive combat with optimized casters, that's definitely true. But the game breaks down completely before you get to those levels of power.

erikun
2011-12-27, 09:59 PM
A while back I saw the suggestion on Brilliant Gameologists to shadow conjuration (major conjuration (Black Lotus poison)). Even if successfully saved, it would do something like 300d6 STR, CON, or CHA damage. I forget which off the top of my head.

So, in other words, no matter how much HP the enemy has, the above trick is guaranteed to destroy pretty much any normal monster.
Undead, constructs, elementals, and anything incorporeal (unless you are too) would be immune to this.

As others have mentioned, the easiest way to beat this would be to ensure you go first, then hit it with a no-save, no-SR, you-lose spell. Solid Fog and Forcecage come to mind as two options. Initiate of Mystra + Anti-Magic Field + any method of incorporeality will make the wizard pretty much immune to anything, and probably moreso than the challange itself.

gkathellar
2011-12-27, 10:13 PM
Initiate of Mystra + Anti-Magic Field + any method of incorporeality will make the wizard pretty much immune to anything, and probably moreso than the challange itself.

Mixing AMF and Incorporeality makes you cease to exist, and IoM has no effect on this state of affairs.

deuxhero
2011-12-27, 10:28 PM
Level 20 wizard wins like the basket weaver warforged: Go to/create a plain who you outlive the arbitarily high opponent and wait for him to die. Possibly send out a Astral Projection for lulz.

Morph Bark
2011-12-28, 05:30 AM
Level 20 wizard wins like the basket weaver warforged: Go to/create a plain who you outlive the arbitarily high opponent and wait for him to die. Possibly send out a Astral Projection for lulz.

Good luck against an Elan.

Shadowleaf
2011-12-28, 05:40 AM
Shapechange to Dire Tortoise before battle.
Celerity
Time Stop
Force Cage
Dimensional Anchor
Move Earth (?)
And the freeze earth spell from Frostburn (?)

Throw in Cheater of Mystra and an Anti-Magic Zone if you're feeling cautious.

Move the frozen earth to a below-freezing area of your private plane, and check on it every few hundred years.


It's literally unsaveable, irresistable and un-counterable unless you can counter the Celerity or Time Stop.

Morph Bark
2011-12-28, 06:13 AM
Shapechange to Dire Tortoise before battle.
Celerity
Time Stop
Force Cage
Dimensional Anchor
Move Earth (?)
And the freeze earth spell from Frostburn (?)

Throw in Cheater of Mystra and an Anti-Magic Zone if you're feeling cautious.

Move the frozen earth to a below-freezing area of your private plane, and check on it every few hundred years.


It's literally unsaveable, irresistable and un-counterable unless you can counter the Celerity or Time Stop.

What if the target can turn into an incorporeal gas cloud, like a vampire ninja?

Mixt
2011-12-28, 06:43 AM
I have heard of a case of Batman Wizard 20 backed up by a full party VS one Divine Rank 0 Gestalt Batman Sorceror//Cleric 83 and his two Pet Great Wyrm dragons.

That got real ugly real quick.

But i get the feeling that's not what you are looking for.


Then there's the incident with the spellcasting freak Tarrasque and it's "Owner".
That was not overly pleasant.

But that's probably not what you are looking for either.

Shadowleaf
2011-12-28, 07:02 AM
What if the target can turn into an incorporeal gas cloud, like a vampire ninja?
An Antimagic field takes care of those pesky vampire ninjas.

I think the full combo is something like:
Shapechange to Dire Tortoise before battle.
Celerity
Time Stop
Force Cage
Dimensional Anchor
Undermaster
Flash Freeze
Frostfell

PersonMan
2011-12-28, 07:52 AM
An Antimagic field takes care of those pesky vampire ninjas.

Can I sig this?

Tyndmyr
2011-12-28, 08:01 AM
Wow, that's a lot of, uh, responses. I underestimated how active these forums were.

Well, forgive me if I can't reply to each individual post. I've read through all of them though. I'll just clarify my original question.

I was asking how a wizard could defeat an enemy who takes no damage from conventional (unoptimized?) wizard tactics. Hence its enormous saves, spell resistance, energy resistance, damage reduction, touch AC, etc.

A while back I saw the suggestion on Brilliant Gameologists to shadow conjuration (major conjuration (Black Lotus poison)). Even if successfully saved, it would do something like 300d6 STR, CON, or CHA damage. I forget which off the top of my head.

So, in other words, no matter how much HP the enemy has, the above trick is guaranteed to destroy pretty much any normal monster.

But what if the monster's STR, CON, or CHA was near-infinite? Things like this. Is there something a wizard20 can to do force an enemy to lose:
No save.
No SR.
Regardless of HP.
Regardless of attribute scores.
Regardless of DR.
Etc.

You get the picture.

Also, if a wizard20 was afraid of running out of spells during the day, how would he remedy this? (I know the fast time plane genesis trick, but are there other ways?)

The way to overwhelm near infinite defenses is with either larger near infinite attacks, or completely infinite attacks. This is how math works.

I can target basically any defense as a wizard...and yes, some of them, like a force cage and any long-lived damaging spell(say, a permanencied searing spell wall of fire), while technically targetting hp, will do so for forever. I just have to refresh the force cage every couple of days. So, unless you also have certain active defenses....you still lose.

But if you take NI amounts to sufficiently ridiculous levels, he never actually dies. I don't think that's really a win though. A life of imprisonment and constant burning? Quite literally hell on earth, inflict-able in half a time stop.

Other options exist like conjuring an Invisible massive cube of magically strengthened ice around you, resulting in ludicrously high break DCs. NI strength will eventually defeat that...but no monster in any published book has a hope in hell of overcoming it via strength no matter how long they try. The invisible part isn't actually important, save that it makes you a lovely display piece for the Wizard's tower, and interior decoration is important.

Morph Bark
2011-12-28, 09:24 AM
But if you take NI amounts to sufficiently ridiculous levels, he never actually dies. I don't think that's really a win though. A life of imprisonment and constant burning? Quite literally hell on earth, inflict-able in half a time stop.

So does that mean the only means of killing somone with NI stats is to roll two 20s in a row when attacking them with a vorpal weapon?

Tyndmyr
2011-12-28, 09:28 AM
So does that mean the only means of killing somone with NI stats is to roll two 20s in a row when attacking them with a vorpal weapon?

Nah. There's always natural 1s on saving throws and the like. Pure spammage of SoDs is another method.

There are defenses against these, but likewise, there are defenses against vorpal weapons. Most of these defenses are spell based, though.

I mean, I'd happily run a level 20 wizard build against a level 500 Fighter or something.

The Glyphstone
2011-12-28, 09:29 AM
Mixing AMF and Incorporeality makes you cease to exist, and IoM has no effect on this state of affairs.

Not true, actually. Antimagic Field doesn't make any incorporeals cease to exist, only specifically incorporeal undead. Uncarnates and Unbodied can pair their (Ex) Incorporeality with Null Psi Field for lulz, anyone else needs Initiate of Mystra to do the same thing with magic.

Though vampires, being undead, would disappear even if they were vampire wizards casting Ghostform or something.:smalltongue:

gkathellar
2011-12-28, 09:34 AM
Not true, actually. Antimagic Field doesn't make any incorporeals cease to exist, only specifically incorporeal undead. Uncarnates and Unbodied can pair their (Ex) Incorporeality with Null Psi Field for lulz, anyone else needs Initiate of Mystra to do the same thing with magic.

Though vampires, being undead, would disappear even if they were vampire wizards casting Ghostform or something.:smalltongue:

Nope. Rules Compendium expands it to all incorporeals, and IoM only affects the spell that makes you incorporeal, not the interaction between incorporeality and the AMF.

The Glyphstone
2011-12-28, 09:36 AM
Nope. Rules Compendium expands it to all incorporeals.

It did? Interesting, didn't know that. Fixes a hilarious loophole as noted, for better or worse at least.