A New Use of Gate: Dropping Enemies on Prismatic Walls?

[inertia709]

So here's the deal: recently myself and two of my friends decided to have a Pathfinder optimization contest, and naturally I chose to play a wizard (a diviner specifically for that ridiculous initiative bonus). Part of my strategy involved using gate to drop my opponent on a prismatic wall. Quoting the spell description:


The gate itself is a circular hoop or disk from 5 to 20 feet in diameter (caster's choice) oriented in the direction you desire

so it seems to me that it's legitiment RAW, but I still feel a little sketchy about it since there is no mention of such a use and thus no associated saves (i.e. reflex to avoid falling into the gate). So, playground: would you say that this works RAW? How about RAI?

[Hiro Protagonest]

Of course it works by RAW. This is the game where there's a loophole that gets you infinite power at level 1. This isn't even cheesy by wizard standards. RAI, however, intended all wizards to be blasters and buffers that spent all their spell slots on un-metamagicked blasting spells, and Haste and Fly.

[Randomguy]

The prismatic wall would need to be in another plane, though.

[tyckspoon]

The prismatic wall would need to be in another plane, though.

Forum error ate the post I was going to make about this. But yeah, Gate specifically doesn't let you link 2 points on the same plane, so you'd have to set up a deathtrap on some other plane beforehand. There's probably better uses of your resources, but I have to admit it's a really stylish way to go about it.

[pwykersotz]

If you're going to maximize that style, set up a whole slew of layered prismatic walls that they fall through, forcing numerous saves. After all, if they have to make 50 saves, at least one is bound to critically fail.

[nedz]

If you're going to maximize that style, set up a whole slew of layered prismatic walls that they fall through, forcing numerous saves. After all, if they have to make 50 saves, at least one is bound to critically fail.

Actually: If you create these walls at a slight angle you could make a Prismatic Prism :smallbiggrin:

[WhamBamSam]

If you're going to maximize that style, set up a whole slew of layered prismatic walls that they fall through, forcing numerous saves. After all, if they have to make 50 saves, at least one is bound to critically fail.50 still gives them about a 7.69% chance to make every save if they only fail on a 1. After around 45000 walls the odds of survival are so close to 0 that my calculator can't tell the difference. Alternately, set up a wish loop with Eefreeti's or something so that every time they fall through a prismatic wall, you get you a new prismatic wall directly under them and three more wishes. There's a net +1 Wish, so even if you need to Wish for the next Eefreeti to obey you you're still fine.

[Wyntonian]

50 still gives them about a 7.69% chance to make every save if they only fail on a 1. After around 45000 walls the odds of survival are so close to 0 that my calculator can't tell the difference.

Your math is correct, but I must say, if your DC's are so low that you rely on a saving throw of 1, you're doing it wrong.



Alternately, set up a wish loop with Eefreeti's or something so that every time they fall through a prismatic wall, you get you a new prismatic wall directly under them and three more wishes. There's a net +1 Wish, so even if you need to Wish for the next Eefreeti to obey you you're still fine.


.... That's a new way of doing it. I hadn't really thought of that. Can you Wish for contingent (It's an adjective without a game-mechanics meaning in this case) events?

[Psyren]

Just bull rush (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/f/forceful-hand) them into it and save your 9ths imo.

Or if you're going to put a Gate under somebody, don't even waste time setting up prismatic wall-traps - drop them into Dolurrh or Gehenna or the Dreamheart or some other lethal place. Hell, the violet wall might even undo your handiwork, and you've blown a Gate on nothing.



.... That's a new way of doing it. I hadn't really thought of that. Can you Wish for contingent (It's an adjective without a game-mechanics meaning in this case) events?

You can Wish for anything you want. The trouble comes when you get it.

[WhamBamSam]

Your math is correct, but I must say, if your DC's are so low that you rely on a saving throw of 1, you're doing it wrong.Fair enough. Still, this is basically supposed to be a way of killing something with no save, and killing something with arbitrarily high saves is roughly equivalent.


.... That's a new way of doing it. I hadn't really thought of that. Can you Wish for contingent (It's an adjective without a game-mechanics meaning in this case) events?I'm not the best person to ask, but I remember someone in a different thread about TO in Pathfinder saying that Wishing for obedience should work not too long ago.

[Slipperychicken]

Permanancied Ring Gates (one directly over the other) at the Destination Plane for a Portal-style vertical falling loop, with the Spheres/Walls sandwiched between the gates. Now your foe is falling infinitely through the same Wall. Might want to take out the Violet layer, because the "moved to another plane" thing kinda sucks for this combo.

[Corlindale]

Just Bull Rush them into it with a spell - much simpler, and there are a ton of spells that can do it (earliest being the 1st level spell Hydraulic Push, which incidentally is easy to quicken).

Since you are already a Diviner go for the Foresight subschool, the Prescience power can help you a lot with suceeding on CMB rolls. Also note that True Strike *will* work on spells that make CMB rolls to bull rush people, such as Hydraulic Push.

[Calanon]

RAI, however, intended all wizards to be blasters and buffers that spent all their spell slots on un-metamagicked blasting spells, and Haste and Fly.

Is it weird that it makes me depressed at how true this is?

OT: Quite right from RAW this is completely legal... Idk how it would be effective seeing as how Prismatic wall doesn't ALWAYS kill the guy... on a side note it does have my favorite text :smallamused:


The violet effect makes the special effects of the other six colors redundant.

[Psyren]

Permanancied Ring Gates (one directly over the other) at the Destination Plane for a Portal-style vertical falling loop, with the Spheres/Walls sandwiched between the gates. Now your foe is falling infinitely through the same Wall. Might want to take out the Violet layer, because the "moved to another plane" thing kinda sucks for this combo.

Violet is the last layer - taking it out means dismantling the entire wall.


The wall can be destroyed, color by color, in consecutive order, by various magical effects.

[Ashtagon]

Don't forget the reverse gravity trap at the bottom of that pile of prismatic walls.

Edit: Just noticed the prismatic wall has to be vertical, which kind of nixes this little set up completely.