Spellblades: what spells to take?

[AnonymousPepper]

So I'm going to be playing a quick, two or three shot Level 20 3.PF game where all of the players are limited to T4 classes, but the DM is a known rudisplorker (I would know, I've done some joint rudisplorking with him for other games) who will not pull any punches, and he doesn't expect us to either because we're all a bunch of horrible rudisplorkers. He's going to throw literally everything in the book at us and made no secret of it.

So I proceeded to make a Drow Noble Gunslinger with literally everything I could think of in the way of defensive measures - by pretending I was an artificer and taking a bunch of crafting feats, of course.

My defenses right now include continuous Blur, 4/day CL20 Greater Blink, a Ring of Entropic Deflection (plus included Boots of Springing and Striding for dat juicy 50% ranged miss), a Smoking weapon, Elminster's Effulgent Epuration 4/day, Choose Destiny 4/day, Mirror Image 3/day, continuous Ray Deflection, SR31, a Starmantle Cloak and Ring of Evasion, Energy Resist 30 to all types, 1/day Spell Turning, immunity to mind-affecting, immunity to harmful transmutation, immunity to critical hits, immunity to non-lethal, pain attacks, daze, exhaustion, fatigue, nausea, sickened, staggered, stunned, I have 56 AC, 37 Touch AC, +5 AC vs ranged plus Arrow Deflection, +10 AC vs incorporeal touch, +21 initative, Uncanny Dodge, +20Fort, +25 Reflex, +21 Will, and as a final backup I have no fewer than 98 immediate action rerolls queued up (Doomwarding weapons wooooo). And I've got contingent Disjunctions and Greater Dispels to counterspell any incoming ones, and a contingent Revivify in case I get murked somehow, which I probably won't because I have 4/day Celerity and 2/day Greater Teleport and Greater Plane Shift.

I have one last line of defense yet, though, that I haven't figured out, and that's Spellblades. I've got a total of 14 of them (between my rifle, my bayonet, my armor spikes, my spiked gauntlets, and my surprise weapons). Spellblades grant one-shot immunity to any non-area spell targeted on me; they just eat the spell.

What gap in my defenses might I still have? What spells do I still need to throw into my Spellblades to keep me safe? What's my best course of action?

[Kazyan]

If someone hits you with a CL-boosted Wings of Flurry, you still die. That spell is often thought of as AoE, but it actually targets whoever you want in the range, so a Spellblade still works on it.

I also recommend a Ring of Spell-Battle. Immediate action to retarget a spell 1/day. Can cause some magi to one-shot themselves if played at the right time.

[AnonymousPepper]

If someone hits you with a CL-boosted Wings of Flurry, you still die. That spell is often thought of as AoE, but it actually targets whoever you want in the range, so a Spellblade still works on it.

I also recommend a Ring of Spell-Battle. Immediate action to retarget a spell 1/day. Can cause some magi to one-shot themselves if played at the right time.

Good thinking on that, although I've got SR31 and a good reflex save with potentially 3 rerolls against it plus Evasion. I might just want to grab Wings of Cover, though.

Any other suggestions?

[Korivan]

Quick question regarding spell blade. Will it stop dispel/greater dispel if targeted you?

[Necroticplague]

You've got a lot of magic items, so if he wants to get at you, he's going to go for those. Also, remember, there are ways to add more wielded weapons between armor spikes, armor razors, braid blades, and poisoned rings. Now, for some spells I'd grab spellblades of would be at least as follows:

Dispel Magic (in case of targeted version)
Greater Dispel Magic
Antimagic Ray
Every targeted SoD that you can think of
Skinsend (it is possible to use this on someone else using Touch Injection, its as lethal as it sounds).

[bekeleven]

I usually wield 2 spellblades on high level characters. Generally I key them to Greater Dispel and Chain dispel, although sometimes if I know the GM likes e.g. reaving dispel, I'll use that instead (or get a third wielded weapon).

[sleepyphoenixx]

Disintigrate, Avasculate, Antimagic Ray, Dimensional Anchor, the various -stat rays (Clumsiness, Enfeeblement), Mummify. At least those are the ones i can think of without consulting the books.

[bekeleven]

Not anything with a save. Because if you're playing this high-op, you're making your saves.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Not anything with a save. Because if you're playing this high-op, you're making your saves.

He has his saves listed (+20 fort, +25 ref, +21 will). An optimized spellcaster can get higher DCs than that and Doomwarding only works 1/round. Getting some protection from "you are dead/screwed now" spells that aren't covered by his immunities isn't a bad idea, especially not if you're carrying 14 Spellblades. Ray Deflection is nice but since it's from an item it is very vulnerable to dispelling.

I'm also not sure i can find 14 spells that are worth the money to get a Spellblade for. A lot of spells you really want protection from are area effects.

OP: You might want to get some defense against ability damage/drain, if you don't have it already. Some way to act while surprised/flat footed since all your defenses won't mean much if you can't use them. You also seem to be missing Freedom of Movement.

An item of Shadow Stride/Blink/Jaunt to get out of AMF can also be useful. The same for a one-use item or contingency of Master Earth to circumvent teleportation blockers.

[Fouredged Sword]

Open up complete scoundrel and look at all the weapons you can wield without using hands. Boot blades, elbow blades, wrist blades... Spell blade all of them. I think someone got 10 or so spell blades without using hands before.

[AnonymousPepper]

I managed to kick my saves higher - darn Myth-Weavers sheets didn't update my saves when I updated my ability scores - to +23Fort +28Reflex +24Will, and tacked on a 5/day Selective AMF and an actual butt ton of Contingent Disjunctions set to counterspell any Disjunction that gets thrown at me while my AMF is down, and I've got 5/day Celerity to recast them quickly. So that should render me mostly immune to Disjunction, which leads me to the idea of dropping the Spellblades perhaps and just loading up on cheap Contingent Greater Dispels - if I make a 1/day item of CL5 (Trapsmith list woooo) Greater Dispel, the contingencies only cost me like 240 gold to make, since caster level doesn't matter for direct counterspelling - in case somebody nukes my AMF and then follows up with a Greater Dispel?

I've also grabbed a few Contingent Invoke Magic -> Contingent Dismissal chains (those be slightly pricey, since Invoke Magic has an expensive material component that can't be cost-reduced) in case of getting Wished onto a Dead Magic Plane (or a DMZ on a different plane), since that is to my knowledge the only way out.

The problem I'm seeing with Spellblades is that as written they appear to be one-shot items. Unless I'm mistaken?

[Necroticplague]

The problem I'm seeing with Spellblades is that as written they appear to be one-shot items. Unless I'm mistaken?

Yeah, you would appear to be mistaken. If its the "where does it go" aspect, the last line says


The wielder of a spellblade weapon is immune to a single spell chosen at the time the weapon is created. The selected spell must be one that is targeted against the wielder, not one that affects an area or creates an effect. When the wielder is next subjected to the chosen spell, the weapon absorbs it. On his next turn, he can opt to either let the spell drain harmlessly away or direct it at a new target as a free action.

The only real way I can see it interpreted as a one-off is a purposefully obtuse reading of "a single spell". Not that I haven't proposed intentionally obtuse readings as the rules before, but that that doesn't change that its still an obtuse reading where a more straightforward one is more likely. .