Defending against high level casters

[Yakhgee]

Alright, this is somehting I have been thinking about a bit lately:

You are the ruler of a city and you know that there is a great risk of an attack by a small group of high level casters, what can you do to defend yourself?

At your disposal you have:


Time to prepare (let's say 20yrs or so)
A vast number of low level subjects (1st or 2nd level commoner, fighter and rogues mostly, let's say 2500 or so)
A decent sized army (500ish fighters and rangers, levelled 1-5)
Some veteran and/or specialist troops (50ish fighters, rangers, knights, rogues, assassins or similar at level 5 to 7th)
A small clergy (50ish clerics, paladins, etc lvl 1-5)


The enemy are all 10th level or higher (mostly about 15th). They are mostly arcane casters (no warlocks), but they have at least one cleric. There are at most 5 of them.

My gut tells me it will just be a steamroll by the casters, but then again I am far from familiar with all the tricks in the book(s).

What do you recon?

[supervillan]

If facing 4 x arcane caster lvl 10-15, plus 1 x divine caster of similar level, your city as specified is probably doomed. The city doesn't have enough higher level magic available (although you don't say what kind of ruler the city has and that could make a difference).

I ran a city assault game once. It was a 1e game but the principles are the same. The target was of a similar size to the city you've described, maybe a little bigger. It was assaulted by several hundred orcs and dark elves, plus 1 cleric of about level 14 and his personal retinue of constructs (similar to spellstitched creatures, but my own homebrew). The PCs were of levels 5-6 and were on the side of the invading army. The invaders attacked at night, their assault was started with the Cleric leader casting Earthquake which breached the city wall, and it was a massacre from then on. The city couldn't muster enough defenses in time, and when the higher level occupants came out they were dealt with by the PCs and the army leader and his retinue.

It is however possible to construct or design a city that can better withstand a magical assault. Don't set yourself up like a classic medieval european settlement. Your castle walls are useless. You need flying and subterranean defense, not walls. If the city has sufficient wealth and time to raise them, domesticated flying creatures such as pegasi, griffons or hippogriffs are potential mounts for an aerial cavalry allowing rapid response and aerial scouting. You only need low level casters for detect invisible and other useful divinations (although these can all be negated by prepared casters). Build towers with ballistae atop them and the means of detected incoming flyers at long range - rogue or ranger spotters with eyes of the eagle or similar skill enhancing items. Build your dungeon deep: have sections designed as safe havens for the citizens to escape to, and fill outer and upper levels with traps and guardians less vulnerable to magic. Constructs and oozes are good. Your clerics can cast glyphs of warding. Your invading casters won't be good at trap detection (even using the Find Traps spell), although you can expect them to have all day flight to evade pressure plate triggers, and to summon monster to set off traps ahead of them. Rangers and rogues are good at guerilla tactics, so you can make good use of "Tuckers Kobolds" setups.

[BowStreetRunner]

For a start, the Mage Slayer feat from Complete Arcane gives you some options. However, it is something you would not have until 3rd level and the feats that use it as a prerequisite (Pierce Magical Concealment & Pierce Magical Protection) would then not come until 6th level.

So you have some of each of the following in your army:

3rd level melee types with Mage Slayer and reach weapons
6th level archers with Mage Slayer and Pierce Magical Concealment
6th level melee types with Mage Slayer and Pierce Magical Protection

You then teach them all how to ready a standard action to make an attack and disrupt casting.

Also, your anti-mage squad will already include some members with Blind-Fight (it's a prerequisite to Pierce Magical Concealment) so you might as well take advantage of the Teamwork Benefit called Invisibility Sweep on page 118 of Heroes of Battle.

Some of these should be Rangers with the Arcane Hunter ACF and Favored Enemy: Arcanist. Some of your Monk, Ranger, Rogue or Scout characters who are high enough level to gain Evasion should consider the Spell Reflection ACF instead. Barbarians and Rogues should consider replacing Trap Sense with the Spell Sense ACF. You should have Bards with the Spellbreaker Song ACF as well.

[VariSami]

Set up a trap. Evacuate the city before their foreseen assault (you had 20 years to prepare - the citizens should know the drill). Of course they will attempt do divine and scry and so on - but those should be relatively bad methods of finding you unless hey have foreknowledge. Will they enter the city or will they remain outside? If the city is filled with traps lethal enough to weaken the casters even a little, forcing them their resources to dwindle, they will probably leave the city be after some time. If they persist - well, at some point Vancian casters will inevitably run out of resources. Once they have suffered enough, they should be possible to be defeated.

Then again... What he hell would 5 level 10 to 15 casters do with a city? If they are just set on razing and pillaging it, fine. Again, evacuate the citizens, preferably have the scatter. A city can be rebuilt - citizens will be harder to renew if they die. If they are conquerors, let them have it. Either they leave and you can continue your usual lives or they assume direct control but outside of slaving the entire population, they will be forced to spare a majority. Also, they could never really let their guard down: every supper must be detected for poison, preferably for magic as well, every night must be spent in an extradimensional space, and so on. This will deplete their resources greatly unless they can work out permanent solutions (which are always less reliable than their own power). No caster should really find a small settlement like that worth the effort.

[Seffbasilisk]

Hire adventurers/assassins.

Most casters can be worn down, so continual hit-and-run with expendable troops will have them relatively vulnerable towards the end of the day. If they rope trick, set nasty things for when they come down, or just fill the space with stone.


You can't really prepare against everything, but then again, neither can they.

[Ernir]

How much money does the city have at its disposal?

What is the attackers' goal? Razing the city and slaying all of its inhabitants? Killing its mayor? Robbing the treasury?

[Skrobo]

You have 20 years at your disposal. Send all those hirelings to adventure and level up as wizards. Even if only 1% of the lot survives, you would still get ~30 high level casters to work with.

[Samalpetey]

Get a Weirdstone if possible to stop teleportation into the town. The casters are too low a level for wishaporting in so they'll have to walk into the town. This actually gives you half a chance

[Yakhgee]

How much money does the city have at its disposal?

Ah, let's say a meager net income? Most is spent on various upkeeps. A decent treasury as well. (Unfortunately I am terrible at estimating what would be reasonable sums of money when talking about things at this level)


What is the attackers' goal? Razing the city and slaying all of its inhabitants? Killing its mayor? Robbing the treasury?

The objective is conquest of the city and revenge (so your head on a plate in this case).

[Yakhgee]

You have 20 years at your disposal. Send all those hirelings to adventure and level up as wizards. Even if only 1% of the lot survives, you would still get ~30 high level casters to work with.

Can't send all of them though, if you have too few guards left people might start getting some funny ideas.

[Psyren]

If they rope trick, set nasty things for when they come down, or just fill the space with stone.

Note that Transdimensional Spells can hit them inside as well.

[Segev]

This is a group of high-level casters you know at least somewhat personally, because you not only know they're comic, but that revenge is at least on motive. You have 20ish years to prepare. The suggestion of sending all your people out to adventure is flawed for reasons already given, but the core idea is a good one.

Do two things along that front: First, openly sponsor one or two adventuring groups. Not "all your people," but take any four to eight who are interested, possibly allowing even foreign would-be adventurers to round it a given party. At heir low levels, your financial sponsorship will be an enormous godsend, particularly in cheap support spellcasting "at home" and good prices on sold loot.

Take the time and effort to make sure they have ties in the city: homes families good friends, even business interests. But keep them adventuring and set aside funds to back their needs; past a certain point, providing them the diamonds needed for the occasional raise dead or resurrection. Not only is this a good protection for your investment, but if they're getting high enough to provide the spell that is beyond your own casters, the gems are a small price to pay for the loyalty it will buy.

In 20 years, you should have 4-8 adventurers, including at least 1-4 casters, of your own. Reveal to them at a time of your choosing (when depends on how much they like you and what you did to earn the ire of the casters you're afraid of) that you have this impending threat, and, I you've done your job of sponsoring and earning their loyalty, you now have high-level adventurers to counterbalance your foes.

The second thing to do is harder and riskier. These high-level caster foes of yours are likely adventurers, themselves. Find the most loyal people you have that are not well-known servants of you; send them out to "coincidentally" join one or more of the enemy casters' party or parties.

This is so dangerous because the spy could be detected or could die to the vagaries of adventuring. Worse, traveling wih the casters, their loyalties may become conflicted. Still, do what you can to maintain your spies' loyalty and cover. It will let you keep tabs on the casters and their plans, and set your own plans tailored to thwart the enemies' standard tactics, and plan for what of their plans your spies pass to you.

In the best case, you might retain your spies' loyalty to the point that they might undermine the plan from within, or might even serve as assassins of one or more of the casters.

That's the long-term preparation; anyway. how you protect he city directly will partially depend on the success of these strategies.

[DMVerdandi]

20 YEARS?
You know it only takes about 2 in game months to get from level 1-20 right?
The trouble is in staying alive, and consistently progressing to where you are challenged.

Thing is, for the most part, you can simulate challenges by using summoned monsters, danger room style:smallcool:.

In 20 years, I would have transformed my kingdom into a magocracy. Like I am going to sit there, and wait for casters to kill me by training with a wooden sword. FORGET THAT.

Wizards come to my kingdom in 20 years?
I would have re-tooled society to the point where everyone is a full caster, and would relegate classes based on individual temperment. Everyone would go to public school where they can learn the path of the Archivist, Spellcaster Erudite or Artificer.

This would begin at childhood, with the children using scholar's touch to learn very quickly, Ability tomes being manufactured for free by the royal education bureau, quickly developing the stats of every citizen available. In the academy, each citizen would be instructed and indoctrinated through usage of spellcasting/manifesting to gain direct pleasure from service within the kingdom and growing more powerful FOR the kingdom. They would blaze through the education systems quickly because of consistant training, education, and enhancement by magic items.

As the kingdom would give each and every citizen free access to direct power through arcane or, divine, or psionic means, It would be GOOD, and through usage of spells like geas on the youth, rambunctiousness and criminality would decrease.


By the time 20 years has passed, the Erudites would have reached their 3rd phase. Everyone would eventually be re-trained into convert spell-to-power Erudites(With a well rewarded minority as Psionic artificers.), and with the spellcasters providing arcane versions of druid and cleric spells, they would all have access to them. Everyone would share all of their powers, and the measly wizards would have stepped into the wrong neighborhood.

Each citizen in the regular forces would be ordered into 6 man fire-teams, with each man having an assigned position (Scout,Healer,Commander,Blaster,brawler,Abjurer) Use of a permanent telepathic bond would allow insane coheesion, and in the 3rd phase Erudite society, that means picking the right power at the right time, every time. Furthermore, as the ruler, I would have a telepathic bond with ALL of the members of the city. Through that bond, I would be able to communicate with all citizens, becoming a relay for all information.

Outside of the main fire teams, different groups from the special forces would be specialized in certain roles. A Teleportation squad, A summoning squad, a scrying/divination squad, A research and development squad, and the intelligence and logistics squad. Intelligence would constantly be using metacognition to solve problems, feeding me back the info, and through my greater command, I would relay information as necessary to the regular and special forces.


As soon as the divination and Intel squads get the warning that the wizards are coming, the main forces would teleport out to their location, ready to initiate combat.

:belkar: