Help! My DM is Trying to Kill Me...

[Athelian]

... and, all I have is 16,000 gold of new equipment to buy!

Yes, yes, I know, most dm's spend an inordinate amount of time trying to kill the players, but, seriously, he wants to wrap up the campaign and our options are basically, "Perform perfectly against a level 14 group when we are all level 9 and die horrifically, but get our objective done," or, "Perform non-perfectly and wipe, objective failed, quest line failed, world ends in fire and sadness."

Basically, I'm a level 9 Fencer - Homebrew, think dps and, in a pinch, evasion tank - and I have +2 bracers of armor, +2 gloves of dex, keen rapier, belt of healing, masterwork pistol (homebrew: 2d6, x3, 50 ft).

In other words, we're broke ass bitches. But, yeah - He's throwing another 16,000 gold at us. What can I get to help me survive a tussle with a group of level fourteens? Or, at least, help me survive long enough?

Also, group of level fourteens:

Some kind of fighter, monkey grips a ridiculous sword, throws boulders he pulls from a bag of holding. One shot our Wizard into unconsciousness with one of those rocks.

Some kind of child elf, survived a smite from our level fourteen npc aid and immediately regenerated the damage. Probably cinematic, but implies either resistance against divine or regeneration.

Blue armor female human, know as much about her as we do the elf. Uses a sword, killed a **** ton of dwarves, only found the bodies, didn't actually witness. Cinematic, basically.

Wizard. We've never seen him. He can summon 'meteors,' basically pounded a ward with meteors until it collapsed. We're not sure if this means if he has meteor swarm - If he does, I don't know how we can do this. We probably can't, unless our rogue get's him alone, while he's asleep. But, seriously. This guy is the neutralizer.

But, yeah - That's it. That's the opposing force.

I just need to know if there is ANYTHING that 16,000 gold can get me that I can maybe use to do this.

[Kumori]

What about the rest of your party? Are you the only one with spare gold? If not, you could pool your money together and get a Wish scroll. Wish those guys dead....

[Voyager_I]

Candle of Invocation.

Two of them, if you can scrounge up another 800 gold.

[AzazelSephiroth]

hmmm I am not sure you can survive this encounter... or storywise if you are supposed to... it sounds like your enemies are outmatching you. Still you can always go down fighting!

I cannot remember which book its in... Drow of the Underdark... maybe but their is an item that allows you to use an antimagic feild for a short time... that could work on the wiz and negate some of the warrior`s gear... but yours too. I cannot remember the name or price though... I think it was about 15000gp-ish.

Maybe get them while they sleep, destroy that wizard`s spell book, steal that big sword... poison the crap out of their food supply!:smallfrown:

I wish you the best of luck! I hope you win/live:smallsmile:

[crazyhedgewizrd]

just complete the objective, dont worry about dying.

[NOhara24]

Candle of Invocation.


Yep. This will solve all your problems.

[Athelian]

Just have our spellcaster use gate, summon up an 18 hit die creature and go to town? Any suggestion on creature?

[navar100]

If you mean this literally, call the police. :smallamused:

If you mean the DM is purposely out to kill your character, the easiest way to defend yourself is don't play. It's not the DM's job to kill player characters. Tell him to play fair or you're not playing at all.

[Athelian]

No, no - He's a fair dm. Over the past year, he's gained a ton of experience, but we've been playing in his homebrewed world that, simply, has gotten too big, too confusing and, most importantly, it's being explored by two groups. This has, in his opinion, ruined the story and, instead of playing for another 4 months, pushing to the end game, we're going to scrap it all and just start to new campaigns. It's been looking like an end fight with this group of level fourteens and, given time, we would have been ready for it, but, instead, we're just going to be hit early. It's a ****ty situation, but I understand and, ultimately, accept it. We're being given a chance to still complete, at least, one objective. And, we're taking that chance, instead of just ending the story and walking away, which was the other option.

We all knew what we were walking into.

In regards to that wish spell, I don't think we could pull it off - The idea is, where we are, it's unlikely we could find something that big. The candles, we've got a better shot.

[Aegis013]

In regards to that wish spell, I don't think we could pull it off - The idea is, where we are, it's unlikely we could find something that big. The candles, we've got a better shot.

Could Candle in an Efreeti if you can get some kind of planar binding spell. See if you can convince it to grant your first two wishes favorably if you promise to use the final wish for its benefit (or haggle for its freedom), given that it does no harm to you or your party. Use one of the wishes to get another candle for another Efreeti and wish cascade to victory. Pretty cheesy though.

[Gobidobo]

befriend a level 1 kobold paladin named pun pun (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Pun-Pun_%283.5e_Optimized_Character_Build%29). :smallbiggrin:

but I'd go with the candle of invocation... if you are qualified, you could always call upon pazuzu (say his name 3 x, like beetle juice) & he'll give you one if you ask for it (like in the case of pun pun), in exchange for you going closer to the side of evil. sacrifice your soul to save the world. :)

buy a huge bag of holding & trap the monsters in it.. bury it somewhere where no one will ever find it...

apply "wall of force" from 4 different directions & squish them like the bugs that they are.

use the candle to gate them to a plane no one ever goes to & that they can't survive in.. and if they do, they won't enjoy it. :)

pray to your gods for divine intervention, while spending your money on wine, women (or men?) and making your own funeral arrangements. :smallamused: lol

[SowZ]

Also, if there is only one more fight left, don't buy any items with constant effects/decent number of uses. A handful of oils and one time use items, (even, like, explosives,) wouldn't be a bad idea. You really only need one candle of invocation assuming the DM allows the trick to work.

[Athelian]

Okay, our group is picking up two candles, though I think our dm may **** us on that account.

One half of the group just went and they basically tpk'd - The Ranger managed to escape. They took out a couple of the fifteens (Apparently they are higher level,) but got wrecked by a level 18.

I know, now, that we'll be fighting level 15's, one at a time, until we hit the 18. One of the fifteens is the wizard. With 16,000 gold, what can I buy, non cheese, to neutralize a spellcaster, in combat?

[Dimers]

Lessee ... a Crafted Contingent antimagic costs 6600 ... or if you think the wizard will be somewhere you could get close to, ten Crafted Contingent transdimensional fire burst spells would set you back a mere 15000 to deal 30d8 fire simultaneously without any miss chance for blink or the like. The ten spells would be a mere 6 grand if not transdimensional. If you could find a sorc/wiz with Craft Contingent Spell, fire burst, Transdimensional Spell and Energy Substitution, you can mix up energy types freely in case the bigbad has fire resistance running. Yeah, I'm definitely thinking "sudden damage" as the solution.

Good luck to ya! :smallsmile:

[Krazzman]

Hmmm I would say Thunderstones could be your friend.

If I recollect correctly a deafened caster can't cast that good anymore. Although don't hit him because of the possible protection from arrows.

[aldeayeah]

This badly calls for divide and conquer tactics.

Scry the hell out of them and try to get them to split the party by any means. The ideal would be to put several kilometers between each of them, but even if you get to fight just two of them at once, that'd be huge.

The magic users must die first. Mundane physical barriers + AMF are your friends. Use mundane poison, drown them, beat them with sticks, kill them with fire, stick them with the pointy end - whatever it takes.

As for the mundane characters, get them with magic. I assume you have access to 5th-level spells. Figure out their weak(est) point(s) and build plans around the available spells. Hold them, enchant them, entangle them, blind them, dispel them, bury them, poion them, slow them... you get the idea.

Watch some old A-Team episodes beforehand to get into the mood.

[Tancred]

How about hirelings? 16000gp could buy a small army for a week...

[Killer Angel]

Also, group of level fourteens:

Some kind of fighter, monkey grips a ridiculous sword, throws boulders he pulls from a bag of holding. One shot our Wizard into unconsciousness with one of those rocks.

Some kind of child elf, (snip). Probably cinematic.

Blue armor female human, (snip) Cinematic, basically.

Wizard. We've never seen him. He can summon 'meteors,' basically pounded a ward with meteors until it collapsed.

What I see now is many mysterious and cinematic abilities. I suspect you all (or almost all) will die, while accomplishing the result, 'cause it makes a good ending for the story. :smallamused:

That said, if you wanna really fight...

Okay, our group is picking up two candles, though I think our dm may **** us on that account.

don't worry too much about candles. Use dust of sneezing (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Dust_of_Sneezing_and_Choking) and wipe the floor. :smallwink:

[Malachei]

Your DM is trying to kill you?

Well, call the police. A DM trying to kill you is no different from another criminal doing the same thing. Though I doubt he's actually trying to kill you. If he's your DM, he's probably a friend of yours. Maybe he's just throwing books at you? DMs often do that kind of things, for various reasons...

Regarding your character... I have to say I also doubt your DM is trying to kill your character. The problem starts with your use of the word "tries". You know, when a DM seriously "tries" to kill a character, he's already seen it done. Favorite examples are:

"Rocks fall, you are all dead."
or
"Suddenly, 77 solars appear, and you are all dead."
or...
... well, actually, the first part of the sentence is not important, just the second.

Seriously, you have it all. Perhaps you need a test fight. Send a few summoned minions against them to test their weaknesses. I am sure your DM will not let you murder his favorite cinematic NPCs in their sleep, so you'll almost certainly have to face them in combat.

Fly. Really, stack up on potions/items of Overland Flight, Fly, Mass Fly, Levitate, whatever you can get.

Get some missile protection against ranged attacks in general and the hill giant-like fighter throwing rocks in particular. Protection from Arrows might be enough, the returning version (SC) even better.

Could the child elf be a vampire? If not, probably a were-creature, shade or somebody in a different form. Anyway, try acid and fire, adamantine, cold iron, silver, etc.
But actually, I'd use most of the money to hire a few assassins. Not to take them out by themselves, but to hide in plain sight near your position and then enter the fight. As long as your enemies never know the assassins are with you, they'll have a hard time preparing. Of course, that means you meet them only for a short time and then have them stay in range, but far enough to avoid being detected when they scry on you. By the way, let them scry on you. You don't even need false vision, etc., just be yourselves, with a little more laid-back atmosphere, and the enemy will feel confident you're an easy target.

[killem2]

I personally like the idea of the army of hirelings lol.

[Jigokuro]

As long as you can get up to the wizard (easier said than done if he trying to stop you, but not impossible) and then make a DC 31 UMD check*, a scroll of AMF is only 1650gp

*geting a +2 masterwork help ___ skill item and stacking aid others are super cheap bosts, but you'll need more than that.

[Raimun]

Well, that's seriously a downer ending. Somehow, fighting endless hordes of inferior enemies till the bitter end (300-style) looks like a more glorious defeat.

Anyway, is anyone a Cleric? Complete Champion includes a Cleric spell Surge of Fortune. Usually it just gives you +2 to "like everything" for its duration but you can end the spell (immediate action) to make the next roll be an automatic natural 20.

Perfect for a "do or die"-situation... or "do and die", in this case. :smallamused:

Edit: Man, Leonidas should have had Surge of Fortune.

[mregecko]

That said, if you wanna really fight...

don't worry too much about candles. Use dust of sneezing (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Dust_of_Sneezing_and_Choking) and wipe the floor. :smallwink:

Came here to say this, can't emphasize it enough.

5d4 rounds of inaction should be enough to kill pretty much anyone in their party. You can buy 7 of the dusts for 16k. Throw them, magehand them, invisible servant, whatever the heck you wanna do.... But everyone in a fireball formation is totally screwed.

-- G

[Johel]

How about hirelings? 16000gp could buy a small army for a week...

Sacrificing minions :
Is there any problem it CAN'T solve ? (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0192.html):smallamused:

[nedz]

If you go for a straight fight - it will be tricky so don't.

Do your recon.
Using a combination of scrying and scouting work out how to attack them when they are not expecting it, ideally in their sleep.

You can even use Scry 'n' Die on them.
Do you have access to teleport ? If not buy a scroll. Scry them - not the mage ideally (your senser might be spotted), Buff up, 'port in and attack.

[Athelian]

Thanks for the help guys - I ended up hitting them with the poison.

It didn't work due to them being a form of homebrewed constructs.

So, no big, as we tried to use the gates.

Which didn't work, because the BBEG had been strengthening the borders between the planes -the entire game-

So, basically, we were screwed from the get go, but, it wasn't a total loss. I ended up getting decapitated by their fighter, but after getting a critical that softened him up enough to finished getting wiped by our cleric and wizard. By the end of it, we took out him, a wizard, and a build of Jiriku's homebrew cunning fighter, by the luck of our Wizard having fly and she not having a ranged weapon. So, we won. Kind of. Near tpk. But, regardless, thanks for the back up, guys.

[Wavelab]

Your DM is trying to kill you?

Well, call the police. A DM trying to kill you is no different from another criminal doing the same thing. Though I doubt he's actually trying to kill you. If he's your DM, he's probably a friend of yours. Maybe he's just throwing books at you? DMs often do that kind of things, for various reasons...


Since everyone seems to have a quote in their signature I'm getting this one. :smallbiggrin:

[Mystral]

DM fiat, the game. Brilliant.

[Metahuman1]

Um, dude, just make sure the DM knows not to pull something like that again.