Unmake Spellcasters

[MunsterJujus]

Watching Legend of Korra and I'm trying to figure out how to make a Amon/Separatist style character. Basically a character that can interrupt and stop spellcasting for a short period of time. Maybe even completely shut off spellcasting at later levels. Korra spoilers, kinda:In terms from the show I want to make a Chi Blocker that eventually can do energy bending.

So 3 ideas so far:
1) So far my idea is to do PF Monk of the Lotus(9)/Free Surge Wilder(1)/ Psychic Fist(10). This give, Touch of Serenity and Apopsi, plus crazy psychic mumbojumbo.

2)Just stuff the character full of CHA and INT damaging spells/abilities. And refluff as neccessary.

3) Weaponize Anti-Magic Field and Disjunction.


Any ideas guys?

[Starbuck_II]

Touch of Idiocy 2nd level (weakens it) and Feeblemind 5th level (blocks all spell casting)

Maybe research a Lesser Feeblemind spell (blocks spellcasting) for a duration instead of instant like Feeblemind.
Say 10 min/lv.

I'd say that should lower to 4th level if not 3rd.

[Flickerdart]

Chi-blockers work in Korra because the entire cast is poorly built blaster sorcerers. Your best bet would be to go Monk 2/Ardent 8/Slayer 10 - you'll have kung fu skills and +17 BAB, but also the repertoire of powers required to stand a chance against a competent spellcaster.

[Morph Bark]

The Witch Slayer from Tome of Magic at level 5 can disable certain magical abilities for a decent amount of time.

[Demonic_Spoon]

I seem to remember some sort antimagic ray type attack spell in SC. Ah yes, antimagic ray page 14. However this seems to simply be a weaksauce version of antimagic field so I suggest not using it.

Mages disjunction will be your best friend, use it liberally to remove buffs, especially the annoying persisted incite magic and persisted antimagic field combo. I'd suggest taking 2 levels of arcane archer to improve your range, and to use antimagic field at a distance instead of centering it on you. A composite dragonbone longbow with the distance enchantment and some flight arrow I think they're called should allow you to easily attack from much farther than a 1000 feet away. Some sort of long distance see invisibility would be advised

[Flickerdart]

See Invisibility is unlimited in range so that's not a problem, but an AMF is utterly pointless if they can just walk 10 feet to the left and exit its range.

[Zaq]

The Witch Hunter's Momentary Disjunction ability is probably what you want, but I feel like a dedicated counterspeller might also do the trick. Noctumancers seem like they're built for just such a thing, though I think you'd probably have the best time with someone who can access Divine Defiance (ideally with spontaneous Dispel Magics on tap) and the Inquisition domain. In other words, some clericky kinda guy. Of course, all the staples like Battlemage's Perception and what have you are important.

Not familiar with the source material, though, so I don't know if the typical "takes a caster to catch a caster" advice really works here.

[Demonic_Spoon]

Ranged Pin?

Otherwise I'd suggest a melee grapplemancer with antimagic up.

[Fable Wright]

The problems with melee characters fighting spellcasters are the following:
1. Battlefield Control. Grease, Solid Fog, Black Tentacles... whatever it is, spellcasters can use it. To get around this, you need the ability to use Freedom of Movement.
2. Bypassing defenses. Using Abrupt Jaunt, Displacement, Greater Blink, or whatever, spellcasters can protect themselves from melee combat if they choose to. Generally, they need a few rounds of downtime to do this, though by having Contingency up, they can just have their defenses spring up when needed or teleport them out of the scenario. To get around this, you need to be able to hit them with an Antimagic Field or Disjunction. Or they could just be an invisible Dire Turtle with Celerity that interacts with the world through Major Images of themselves- they always go in the surprise round and are never flatfooted, so they can always cast at the start of combat. Then they can either lay down some battlefield control, get out of there, or timestop and layer on the buffs. To prevent this, you need to have an aura around you of sufficient range that creates a Dimensional Anchor, and the disjunction/antimagic field.
3. Actually getting to the spellcasters. This is the hardest part. Astral Projection, Ice Assassin, Simulacrums, and so on- it is almost impossible to find a sufficiently prepared wizard. The only way to do it would likely be getting a Silver Sword and severing the Astral Cord, killing the assassin/simulacrum and then Wishing yourself to the location of the person the simulacrum was made after, using the Transport Travelers clause. You can't use a normal teleport or planeshift because the wizard has Delay Teleport up- lasts 24 hours, and any teleportation spell (which Wish isn't) is blocked and/or delayed several rounds. Alternatively, find someone to use Metafaculty to find the wizard, and Wish to the located location.

The best build I have for this is a Wizard with 9 levels of Swiftblade. Basic method of killing a spellcaster: Timestop, Wish over to the spellcaster's location, Haste, Ready an action to smite down the spellcaster where he stands and cast Antimagic field in the same round, readied action goes off, then full attack the everloving hell out of the wizard. If you want a mundane character to do the job? Good luck. Magic must defeat magic.

[Answerer]

You cannot ready a full-round action, only a standard action. So you should probably be packing something better than a single attack.

[Averis Vol]

yea sad to say i agree with DMofDarkness, only way to beat a mage is with a mage. that being said its really the guy with the sticks job to protect the mage so he can take out the other mage. its kind of like setting kids up on a playdate-battle-royale while the parents go out back and ruthlessly beat each other while the kids in the garage do the same.

but on to a less rambly point, suel arcanamach gets dispelling strike a few times a day, and they're pretty martial as it is so, theres that.

[Fable Wright]

You cannot ready a full-round action, only a standard action. So you should probably be packing something better than a single attack.

Ah. Misunderstanding error. To break down the round in the timestop:
Round 1:
Swift action: Cast Haste. You now have two Standard actions and one Move action in a round from Perpetual Options.
Standard action 1: Use Wish to get adjacent to the Wizard.
Standard action 2: Cast some form of buff to prevent you from dying after killing the wizard.

Round 2:
Standard action 1: Ready an action to attack/grapple the wizard when the timestop ends. Or Imperious Command, if you went that route.
Standard action 2: Cast Antimagic Field.

Timestop ends. The readied action goes off, you attack/grapple the wizard that is now bereft of his buffs, or Cower him so that he loses his round. Roll initiative. You have (most likely) a higher dexterity score, Improved Initiative, and your casting stat to Initiative. Most probably, you win. Proceed to full attack wizard. If necessary, attack him again/Imperious Command again. Squishy wizard is also now dead wizard.

[Answerer]

I rather like the idea of teleporting in during a Time Stop. That's quite clever, and a touch I hadn't seen before.

[Silva Stormrage]

I rather like the idea of teleporting in during a Time Stop. That's quite clever, and a touch I hadn't seen before.

Yes it is a useful tactic. It also somewhat stops celerity because you still get to take your actions in the timestop.

What would go first? A readied action or celerity? Assuming the character readied an action to go once the timestop ends and the celerity was activated once the time stop ends.

[Fable Wright]

Yes it is a useful tactic. It also somewhat stops celerity because you still get to take your actions in the timestop.

What would go first? A readied action or celerity? Assuming the character readied an action to go once the timestop ends and the celerity was activated once the time stop ends.

In an antimagic field? Certainly the readied action. :smallwink: Otherwise, probably still the readied action; the wizard is flatfooted by the person that just teleported behind them, so they can't use immediate actions. If they had Foresight up, then Celerity would go first, but Antimagic Field prevents that, as well.

[Flickerdart]

Timestop ends. The readied action goes off...
...the wizard is now surrounded by a cone of lead, as you have suppressed the Shrink Item spell on his hat. His Contingency activates and he teleports away forever. :smallwink:

[Fable Wright]

...the wizard is now surrounded by a cone of lead, as you have suppressed the Shrink Item spell on his hat. His Contingency activates and he teleports away forever. :smallwink:

Given that it's a cone of lead, it's possible to prevent this from happening. First off, if the wizard is flying, as their kind is wont to do, you can just fly directly underneath them before activating Antimagic Field.Their hat activated... but they're still suppressed. Otherwise, if you suspect this trick likely, you could move into the wizard's square. Hat goes down, you're either in the hat, or they're off balance and the AMF still affects them. Or the hat just expands onto you and falls off the wizard's head. Or, if they're on the ground, you take a 10ft pole that you had on you, set it up onto the wizard, so that when the hat expands, it does to improperly, keeping them in the AMF. The trick has its merits, but it is by no means infallible.

[MunsterJujus]

I guess my wording was poor in my original post. Essentially concepts from the show I'm trying to get/copy is:

1) Chi-Blocking = Pressure Points that stop Bender's from Bending their respective elements. Essentially I wanted to find abilities/spells that could suppress magic for a short time (10 minutes). Specifically the target cannot spellcast for a round or two of combat. (Thus the Touch of Serenity, and maybe AMF if it could be altered to a single target spell.)

2) Energy Bending = Makes a Bender not be able to Bend anything. In game play terms make it so a mage can no longer use spells known. Stripping him/her of their ability to use magic. (The Apopsi psion power or a form of Perminent Feeblemind as Starbuck_II pointed out.)

I am not opposed to rolling a mage if this is necessary. Good RP and re-fluffing will make him appear how ever I need him to appear. I just want to know if there was crunch out there to backup my vision. Maybe even a build if you have one handy.

But really thanks for all the help so far.

[Fable Wright]

I guess my wording was poor in my original post. Essentially concepts from the show I'm trying to get/copy is:

1) Chi-Blocking = Pressure Points that stop Bender's from Bending their respective elements. Essentially I wanted to find abilities/spells that could suppress magic for a short time (10 minutes). Specifically the target cannot spellcast for a round or two of combat. (Thus the Touch of Serenity, and maybe AMF if it could be altered to a single target spell.)

2) Energy Bending = Makes a Bender not be able to Bend anything. In game play terms make it so a mage can no longer use spells known. Stripping him/her of their ability to use magic. (The Apopsi psion power or a form of Perminent Feeblemind as Starbuck_II pointed out.)

I am not opposed to rolling a mage if this is necessary. Good RP and re-fluffing will make him appear how ever I need him to appear. I just want to know if there was crunch out there to backup my vision. Maybe even a build if you have one handy.

But really thanks for all the help so far.

For Chi Blocking, you could use Stunning Blow. Mess up a caster's day by not letting him do anything. You could make a Tashalatora Psion/Slayer/Anarchaic Adept (Hopefully houseruled/allowed feats to allow Tashalatora to apply to Slayer), which gives good combat skills and eventually the ability to actually use Apopsi. Combined with Paralyzing Blow, and you could Paralyze a caster and continue to use Apopsi to drain their spells. Would take multiple applications of Paralyzing touch and several minutes, but it could be done. It would be a lot more flavorful if you could make the Slayer favored enemy Arcanists, as per the ranger ACF in Complete Mage.

[Flickerdart]

I'd find something that dazes instead - it's a lot tougher to resist, and a lot better representative of chi blocking, where the victim can still dodge attacks aimed at them. Or perhaps nauseated - nauseated creatures explicitly can't cast spells.

The Three Mountains feat would be a good fit - it requires a series of hits (just like chi blocking) even though it only lasts for 1 round. Pain Touch will actually combine stunning and nausea, as does the 5th level Fleshshiver spell. Energy Gestalt could be a neat way for a bender to do this - if you whack someone with acid and then fire, they have to save VS nausea.

For dazing, Shield Slam and Boomerang Daze are good picks. Killoren Destroyer is a little more specific, but affects creature types that Shield Slam doesn't. Devote Inquisitor lets you daze on a Smite Evil Sneak Attack if you're into Paladinhood.

So Three Mountains + Shield Slam + Pounce is a good way of spoiling someone's day. At range, Killoren Destroyer + Boomerang Daze works.

[MOLOKH]

There is a Monk prestige class in Dragon Compendium called Arcanopath Monk that was designed with the idea of being a mage-killer. It gets a bunch of stunning fist-like abilities that can disable casters - rendering them deaf or mute for instance. The capstone ability is an attack that forces the caster to lose 1d4 of his highest level spell slots temporarily and later he has to make a save or lose them permanently. The class also offers cool stuff like reflecting ray spells and permanent see invisiblity.

[Suddo]

Mage Slayer stops them from doing things I'd also suggest Spellthief levels with Master Spellthief. Basically if you threaten them they can't cast and if you get a sneak attack you can steal some spells. That combined with Touch of Idocy can make for some fun. Does a Duskblade get Touch of Idocy/ can get access to easily because if so I'd do something like:
Spellthief 1 / Duskblade X / Swiftblade 9, maybe a level of Monk or Unarmed Swordsage thrown in for measure. This would allow you to channel a touch attack through your fists (Duskblade) give huge minuses. That should at least be fun to play.

[Spuddles]

See Invisibility is unlimited in range so that's not a problem, but an AMF is utterly pointless if they can just walk 10 feet to the left and exit its range.

Not when they've got an AMF arrow sticking out of them (Aptitude Harpoon or something?).