Defensive Spells

[Ranting Fool]

Oh dear Gods not another thread on Wizards! :smallbiggrin: Sad to say it is. My players were having a discussion on how to deal with a powerful wizard and what sort of magic they may be buffed with if convinced to meet up with the party for peace talks. Matters less about the level of wizard and more about which spells per level are worth taking / they need to think about overcoming.

So for simplicity we'll go with:

What spells would your average human wizard meeting with people they don't know / don't trust cast on themselves before said meet on natural ground. Said wizard would want to be able to survive any treachery and also escape easily. Ignoring anything gained Via Feats / prestige class levels / ACF's / Overly expensive magic items that NPC budgets just don't cover.

An example:

Energy Aegis: Level 3 (PHB2) gives energy protection Vs one attack for those pesky fireballs which come out of no where.

Ray Deflection: Level 4 (Spell Compendium) Lasts 1min/level so enough for a quick chat without any of those darn disintegration rays ruining your hair or Dimensional Anchor forcing you to stay and chat when you'd really rather be off.

Note: yes I know Celerity is around but the players and I have an unspoken agreement not to use it :smallbiggrin:
Also I'm not 100% on divination so any Must Have spells that would logically be cast right before a meet.

[Silva Stormrage]

False Life:2nd Level Spell: Decent way of spending your 2nd level spells if you are high enough level. Can give some temporary hit points.

Heart of Earth: 4th Level Spell Gives Temporary Hit Points and can be expended to gain stone skin for no material components. Lasts for hours per level.

Greater Mirror Image: 4th Leve Spell: Like Mirror Image except castable as an immediate action and the images regenerate.

Alter Self/Polymorph: Rigged spells which can be used in pretty much any situation.

Teleport/Gem Jump/Teleport Greater: Varies: Why would the wizard fight? If he can get an action he may very well teleport away then come back with the appropriate spells if he feels he didn't prepare the best spell list for this situation.

There are a couple that I enjoy and use often for npc's.

[Emperor Tippy]

Persistent Ghostform, Persistent Lesser Ironguard, Persistent Selective (you) Antimagic Field (throw on Easy Meta: Persist, Invisible, and Arcane Thesis and you can get a 9th level scroll of it), Mindblank, Selective (You) Barred Forcecage on yourself during the meeting, and a Selective Otilukes Suppressing Field set to Conjuration. Oh yes and a Persistent Globe of Invulnerability along with a Craft Contingent Energy Immunity for each energy type and set to trigger when you are attacked with said energy type.

An Ice Assassin or Simulacrum of a Solar sitting back at your base inside a permanent prismatic sphere with a permanent mages private sanctum inside of it and the Solar linked to you with a permanent Telepathic Bond that constantly readies an action to use it's Wish ability to bring you to the Solar's location if/when your order it over the telepathic bond.

That should ensure that you are safe for your meeting.

Of course, if you are smart the "you" that shows up at the meeting is an Ice Assassin of yourself with a permanent telepathic bond to you so that you can control it during the meeting.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Tippy redefines paranoia. And forgot we are looking strictly at spells themselves, so no Craft Contingency, no Persistent anything.

Anywho, Nerveskitter be good, making sure you get the top of initiative if something goes down. Foresight to know when its coming. Energy Immunity to every Type.

[Krobar]

If I'm meeting someone I don't know I'm casting Glibness for sure. Not really what you're looking for, but that one is mandatory.

[avr]

If you don't have Tippy's resources, Project Image to enter the meeting place before you enter the meeting place. The duration isn't long enough to hold the entire meeting via image, sadly.

Contingency to get yourself out if things turn bad, I can't believe I'm the first to mention that.

If they know a cleric, ask the cleric to cast Divination to find out if you will be ambushed during the meeting and don't show up if the answer's Yes.

Heart of Water to avoid being trapped.

True Seeing so they know who they're dealing with, or at least See Invisibility.

Detect Scrying so they might know if someone's doing the scry-buff-teleport ambush.

[Story]

Here are some low level hour/level buffs I can think of off the top of my head. Note that False Life is redundant due to Heart of Earth.

Mage Armor, Misdirection, Create Magic Tatoo, Heart of Water, Anticipate Teleportation, Disobedience, Heart of Earth, Overland Flight, Heart of Fire, Heart of Air

Buffs that can be permanacied
Reduce Person, See Invisible, Arcane Sight, Tongues

[Ranting Fool]

I came across one I really quite like, but it's a cleric spell. Still any powerful NPC might know a cleric or two :smallbiggrin:

Fortunate Fate, Spell Compendium P99.
Buff spell that basically casts a free Heal on you if your HP drops enough to kill you (Granted doesn't stop a lot of other things from killing you) only lasts 10min/level but a good buff to use before a risky meeting.

[Psyren]

Don't forget Astral Projection!


Ice Assassin of yourself may not be the best idea, as now you have the unstoppable force/immovable object problem with the DM deciding which one wins. Specifically, the thing is under your "absolute command" - but it also has an "all-consuming need to slay the original." For something with all of your skills, abilities and memories, you can imagine how dangerous this can get.

[Emperor Tippy]

Don't forget Astral Projection!


Ice Assassin of yourself may not be the best idea, as now you have the unstoppable force/immovable object problem with the DM deciding which one wins. Specifically, the thing is under your "absolute command" - but it also has an "all-consuming need to slay the original." For something with all of your skills, abilities and memories, you can imagine how dangerous this can get.

"Don't take any action that will cause me harm."
"Don't help any other entity take any action that will cause me harm."
"Inform me immediately of any threats to myself that you become aware of."

The Ice Assassin might have an all consuming need to kill you but it still has to obey all of your commands absolutely and nothing says that said need overrides your commands. You have the Int that you should be capable of shackling the Ice Assassin sufficiently to prevent it from acting against your interests in any way.

[Zonugal]

Friendly Fire?

[Psyren]

The Ice Assassin might have an all consuming need to kill you but it still has to obey all of your commands absolutely and nothing says that said need overrides your commands.

Something does actually - "all-consuming." Taken literally (and what RAW argument wouldn't?) it could mean that there is no room left in its proto-mind to do anything other than try to kill you. After all, if it's doing anything else, then it can't actually be "all-consuming."

[Threadnaught]

"Don't take any action that will cause me harm."
"Don't help any other entity take any action that will cause me harm."
"Inform me immediately of any threats to myself that you become aware of."

Doesn't look absolute enough, could be overridden by future orders. If your DM is Pickford/Pickford's hypothetical DM, you're going to have to work a little harder. You wouldn't want it killing you in your sleep because you (in your paranoia) dreamed about it killing you, would you Emperor Win?

Yeah I know, that sort of logic does not belong in a discussion of RAW. Still useful to have for anyone unfortunate enough to run into that kind of DM during actual play though.


Something does actually - "all-consuming." Taken literally (and what RAW argument wouldn't?) it could mean that there is no room left in its proto-mind to do anything other than try to kill you. After all, if it's doing anything else, then it can't actually be "all-consuming."

It has "an all-consuming need to slay the original" due to it's personality being twisted. This makes it more like a very strong desire.
However, "it is under your absolute command" it must follow your orders, it doesn't have to follow it's dreams.

[Ranting Fool]

"Don't take any action that will cause me harm."
"Don't help any other entity take any action that will cause me harm."
"Inform me immediately of any threats to myself that you become aware of."
.

As the evil DM that I am I could have a LOT of fun with this, driving a player mad with endless warnings of doom!

"DON'T DRINK THAT WINE IT'S POISON! It will destroy your liver eventually" :smallbiggrin:

[Der_DWSage]

We've gotten this far without a mention of Mindblank? For shame. (For low levels, an extended Protection From Alignment works almost as well.)

Otherwise, without going outside of core and into Tippy's typical Ice Assassin shenanigans...

Buying the services of a friendly Cleric's Divination with a question of 'Will going to this meeting cause me physical harm?' is a legitimate preparation.

Legend Lore of the people in question before they get there, so you know about their defenses and typical tactics, and can plan accordingly.

Detect Poison is a lovely cantrip for such meetings, so you can know whether or not your glass has been poisoned.

Detect Thoughts can allow you to overhear the thoughts of those you're meeting with, so you can know ahead of time whether or not they're planning to kill you.

Nondetection makes it more difficult (But not impossible) for them to scry on you in the meantime, so they don't know every preparation you're taking.

A few pieces of parchment with a Sepia Snake Sigil could be handy, in case you detect a murder plot and want to detain them for the city guard to deal with. (Or to put it in other words-never read anything a Wizard hands you.)

Teleport and Dimension Door, of course, for a quick getaway.

Project Image or Astral Projection are core-only ways of being at the meeting without actually being there.

I think that's about it for defensive and/or sneaky things a Wizard could pull out of core's spells, or at least those other people haven't already mentioned.

[ahenobarbi]

Astral Projection (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/planarBindingLesser.htm), level 5 Conjuration edition.

[KillianHawkeye]

A lot of the good ones have been mentioned already, but if you are a lower level character facing enemies who might not yet have access to magic weapons, Protection from Arrows is a good low-level spell to keep yourself safe from a surprise sniper.

[Psyren]

It has "an all-consuming need to slay the original" due to it's personality being twisted. This makes it more like a very strong desire.
However, "it is under your absolute command" it must follow your orders, it doesn't have to follow it's dreams.

A "need" is not a "dream." Do you merely dream of breathing, or drinking water?

[TuggyNE]

A "need" is not a "dream." Do you merely dream of breathing, or drinking water?

Those are actually rather good examples, since it's possible to voluntarily stop breathing for a while, avoid water, and not eat anything. Add strong magic to that, and it wouldn't even require willpower.

[Threadnaught]

A "need" is not a "dream." Do you merely dream of breathing, or drinking water?

A "need" in your personality, is something you really, really want, or a dream/desire. Mental compulsions like this can be overcome by a little thing called discipline.
Is your personality completely dictated by your need to breathe? Your need to drink water? I doubt it.

Also, if you have the willpower, it is possible to stop breathing for around two minutes and it is entirely possible to kill yourself by dying of thirst or starvation. So an absolute order against ever harming the original should work.

Edit: I meant to end with, thank you TuggyNE for that support.