Wizard Tagteam, mixing spells ideas

[tim01300]

So I'm looking for some fun or interesting combos that I can use against my players, not looking to wipe them but to make things a little more interesting than just fireballs and save or dies. I haven't had lots of experience dming at higher levels so I'm hoping you guys have some fun ideas. The players are a barb, rogue, loremaster, druid, cleric and sorc. We are playing 3.5 core mostly.

They will be fighting two level 13 wizards and I'm looking for interesting ways to have the mages work together.
Ideas like one casting force cage while the other puts a wall of fire around the cage.
Reverse gravity combined with gust of wind (would blowing players into a wall deserve falling damage?).

[Extra Anchovies]

Throwing someone into a wall can often deal damage as if they'd fallen; depends on the effect.

[LurKing]

Assuming the wizard duo will be encountered in a stronghold or something, it would be a really good excuse to start using some exotic traps. I remember one really cool one from Dungeonscape, I think... the idea was that the caster polymorphed an earth elemental or something into a stone bridge inside a cave. The floor was covered in lava, and when someone reached the halfway point (flight or on the bridge) the whole room would get covered in antimagic. The idea was that the party would end up falling into the lava without any of their magical flight or fire resistance spells or whatever with an angry earth elemental. Polymorph any object is an 8th level spell though so unless your level 13 wizards found someone to make them a scroll it's out of reach for them, but it's still a neat idea.

As far as useful ideas go, one of the wizards might try out an extraordinary spell aim-ed or selective antimagic field. Maybe one of the wizards has a bunch of contingency spells, or is an abrupt jaunting conjurer. Maybe one of them prepares for combat by using both invisibility and invisible invisibility (eat that, true seeing!) Maybe one of them just can't get enough solid fog, or likes to use mordenkainen's transformation since his buddy can dispel it if it no longer seems helpful. Heck, it's possible that one of your wizards has uncanny forethought and can hit somebody with an unavoidable ghoul glyph spell.

I guess just don't be afraid to push things a little bit; they're wizards after all-- they're allowed to intelligently try to divide an conquer the party or abuse their weaknesses. You could even skip all these ridiculous ideas and instead just have them scry on the party (assuming they have reason to do so) to learn their general combat strategies, and then just do their best to muck with them.

[icefractal]

One is the Conjurer, the other is an Illusionist. So you've got these huge, ridiculous numbers of foes and hazards appearing on the battlefield, most of which are illusory. But not all of them! So if you assume any given one is an illusion, it might bite you in the ass.

Ok, but once you figure out which mage is which, you're good, right? That's where we kick things up a notch:
* Have them disguised to look exactly alike, and move in and out of fog/darkness clouds to switch places. And also to switch places with illusory copies, simulacra, and/or minions disguised as them.
* While they both have their specialties, neither has actually banned the other's school, so the Conjurer can throw an occasional illusion and vice-versa.
* Just for the icing on the cake, the Illusionist can be a Shadowcraft Mage and sometimes throw out high-reality Shadow Illusions. So now you have illusory, shadow-but-still-hurts, and real things all out there at once.

And of course, Invisible Spell for both. Taken to an extreme, it will be completely ****ing impossible to figure out what's going on inside the room or who they're even fighting. You might want to stop a little shy of that, so that the annoyance doesn't overwhelm the coolness.

[Zytil]

Taken to an extreme, it will be completely ****ing impossible to figure out what's going on inside the room or who they're even fighting. You might want to stop a little shy of that, so that the annoyance doesn't overwhelm the coolness.

The real question is, how can we pull this off without any wizards in the first place?

[Owl Prowler]

Not as useful for NPC as much as it is for PCs, but a pair of wizards can use Lesser Telepathic Bond to forge a communications line between themselves, then stand next to each other and cast Arcane Eye and Contact Other Plane separately. The wizard with the highest spot/search check will have the Arcane Eye scout out an area, and can telepathically consult with the other wizard whenever they're unsure about something. The other wizard can then use Contact to determine the answer to the first wizards inquiry, such as "is this hallway trapped," "are there monsters on the other side of this solid door" or "how many feet away is the nearest entity that can perceive the Arcane Eye."

Of course, you as a DM already know all of this information, but this casting combo at least gives your NPCs an excuse for knowing it.

[Fax Celestis]

There's a feat in MM-V (of all places) that works pretty well for groups of casters called Battle Magic Tactics:


Benefit
Each time you cast a spell that requires a target to make a saving throw, that target gains a battle magic tactics token after the spell resolves. A creature gains a token whether the creature succeeds or fails, but a creature that avoids a spell through spell esistance does not gain a token. Each battle magic token imposes a cumulative -1 Penalty on saving throws against the spells of spellcasters who have this feat. At the end of the round all battle magic tactics tokens disappear.

Also there's a ritual in DMG-II that gives similar tactical benefits for casters. Probably good to slap both on there.

[jiriku]

The best way for the two wizards to combine their effort is to use spell combos that are more effective when used back-to-back than they would be if used on separate rounds when the players have the opportunity to disrupt the combo. A few things come to mind:

Wiz1 casts a summoning spell. Wiz2 immediately buffs the summoned creatures, say with haste, heroism or good hope.
Wiz1 casts a spell that buffs attack capability, such as true strike or polymorph, then moves adjacent to a PC. Wiz2 immediately casts snake's swiftness or mass snake's swiftnessto give wiz1 an immediate attack.
Wiz1 casts energy vulnerability. Wiz2 follows up with a blasting spell of the same energy type.
Wiz1 casts mind fog. Wiz2 follows up with a spell that targets Will saves.
Wiz1 uses greater arcane sight to determine that the PCs are protected with a spell like death ward or freedom of movement. Wiz1 removes the spell with greater dispel magic or chained dispel magic. Wiz2 immediately casts a spell while the PCs are vulnerable, like solid fog or enervation, hitting them before they can recast the buff.

These combos can also be combined defensively. Each should maintain a teleport and a dispel magic, to be used for the purpose of getting their ally out of trouble if the ally is silenced, grappled, etc. Or one of them can be casting a defensive or battlefield control spell every round to keep the PCs busy while the other concentrates on offensive actions like summoning, debuffing and laying down damage-over-time effects.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Give them both Invisible Spell and Fell Frighten, both use Invisible Wall of Incarnum, Summon Undead V (Allips), Mind Fog, and Invisible Fell Frighten Kelgore's Grave Mist and Black Tentacles. One throws around Confusion, Feeblemind, Dominate Person, Evil Glare, etc., the other uses spells that deal hp damage and/or counterspells. Make it something like this encounter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?353631-Sorcerer-BBEG-fight-help-for-my-game-tonight#3), but with two casters instead of one, and a lot of enchantment and will save effects. They should put another Invisible Wall of Incarnum in the party's way whenever they're starting to get close. Bonus points if it's in a long, narrow room and the two wizards are constantly moving away from the party, luring them into more and more invisible spell effects. Consider including reserve feats and Dominate Person on what looks like the strongest warrior-types for dealing hp damage to the party.