Ways to Take Down a Wizard

[Kesnit]

I will start by saying that the party OOC is perfectly OK with what happened. We all agree it's a great plot twist.

The game is set in Skyrim. The party of 8th level characters met Sanguine (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Sanguine) the way you meet him in the game - at a tavern, challenging people to a drinking contest. Amazingly, the Dwarf Fighter made all the FORT saves to stay conscious, and Sanguine offered him the choice between the real reward -(Sanguine's Rose (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Sanguine_Rose)) - or a pitcher of Sanguine's wine that will never go empty. The dwarf took the pitcher of wine (which he proceeded to attach to the top of his helmet and run straws to his mouth).

The party's Elf Bard (who, unlike the Fighter, has not played Skyrim) struck up a conversation with Sanguine. Sanguine offered the Rose to her if she could sing a song that would inspire him. A really good Perform roll later, and she has a Daedric artifact.

After some discussion and study, the party decides that the artifact is too dangerous to keep and decide to sell it to the College of Winterhold (mages college in the game). However, the party was under contract to guard a caravan that was not going to Winterhold. The Artificer, on the other hand, had been called to the college, so we decided to send the Rose with him. (I was playing the Artificer, but was switching PCs. We wanted to keep the Artificer alive for crafting, and that was the way the DM decided to do it.) The party Wizard went with the Artificer in order to cast Phantom Steed, allowing the two of them to get to Winterhold faster. The Wizard would then meet the party at the caravan's next destination, while the Artificer stayed at the college. At least, that was the plan...

The Wizard and Artificer sold the Rose to the College. The next day, rather than leaving to meet the party, the Wizard's player declares he takes off with the money. The party finds out (IC) when, rather than appearing in the next city, he sends a magical box and message that both show images of a rather crude gesture.

The Wizard's player has turned his character sheet over to the DM for use as an NPC. He's specialized in Conjuration, with Necromancy and Enchantment barred. Human Factorum 1/Wizard 6/Paragnostic Apostle 1. I'm assuming the DM is going to advance the Wizard roughly with the party, though I am going to try to convince her to keep the Wizard 1-2 levels lower. *evil grin*


All ECL 8
Elf Bard
Azurin Totemist, using the Feral Template that the DM is allowing to progress with my HD, but at the cost of an extra LA (so LA+2)
Dwarf Fighter
Khajiit SORC 4/Rogue 4 (race is homebrew to be similar to Khajiit in the game). He mostly has SORC for Magic Missile. (The DM plans to have the Artificer make him a wand of MM at a higher CL and let him rebuild as a pure Rogue if he wants.)
Cleric of some sort, I'm not sure what. This is the new PC from the Wizard's player and he hasn't joined the game yet. He did say he is staying at range, rather than melee.

It occurred to me last night that, with an Artificer NPC, we can make pretty much anything we'd want that will assist in taking down the Wizard. We have a small backlog (about 22 more days) while the Artificer finishes things the party has asked for, but then the Artificer can start making anything except rods, staffs, and rings.

1) So, based on that, if you had almost unlimited gold (98044 left,* which comes out to a market value of 245,110), though not unlimited time, what would you put on your Wizard-killing list?

2) The Artificer's current crafting project is a Boccob’s Blessed Book for the now-traitor Wizard. He had done 6 days, and it will likely be another 1-2 days before he finds out IC what the Wizard did. Would you finish the book and sell it? (Finding a buyer will be easy since he is at the mage's college.) Or would you just quit that project (getting back all materials) and move on to the next item in the queue?


*That is the value of the Artificer's "imaginary gold" crafting reserve. The party cannot use that gold for shopping. There are no XP costs.

[Aegis013]

If you know the Wizard's favorite spells or spell types, in character, you could have the Artificer create Spellblade daggers (weapon enhancement from Player's Guide to Faerun) to shield the group from any particularly nasty spells.

Otherwise, just gear up as you normally would to take on other challenges, since those items are likely to be useful against the Wizard as well.

[Ivanhoe]

This is an interesting challenge. Probably you'll need items and look at what the group already can do for two necessary steps:

1) Finding the wizard
Here, the bard and rogue may have the necessary gather information skills possibly boosted by new items to start at Winterhold while the rest of the group goes shopping the necessary items.
Very likely the renegade ex-pc wizard will have used the ill-gotten gold :smallsmile: to also shop at the mage college - and then disappeared with the phantom steed. So, he'll have quite a head start on the group.
The new cleric could try a scroll of commune, or use divination spells to find out about the wizard, but his/her deity may think that this purpose for its spells and divine wisdom is too petty.:smallwink:
In case the sorcerer/rogue or bard has UMD, they could try a scroll of contact other plane (though that is quite risky, so better do not use that).
Better would be a scroll of discern location and try that out (it's an eight level spell!) - however, the wizard may have foreseen that and possibly got himself some mind blank item with the kind of money he took away. Possibly. If he has a mind blank item (1/day use is enough), it gets really difficult.
You could then scry the wizard only indirectly, for instance, by scrying people that you think he'll contact.

Once the group somehow locates the wizard, it should have a teleport item and then just get to him.

An alternative (less elegant, but anyhow...) is buy a scroll or item of gate and then as a mighty creature to search and punish the wizard (that may get expensive quickly though, in case it takes longer than the usual service rounds/level, and is also dangerous for low-level characters to do since the gated creature is forced to do this service).

2) Fighting the wizard
This is much easier than finding him, but still quite tough.
However, the group likely has the action economy advantage. One of the group could bear an item of antimagic field, move next to the wizard and completely neutralise him. The cleric and/or bard could ready dispel magic to counterspell anything the wizard comes up with. True seeing items are a must have, so as to see through invisibility and not to target illusions/mirror images/simulacrums/what have you of the wizard. Items to provide flying ability are also useful. Possibly also items that protect from the attack spells that the group knows the wizard has used often (plus the most common bases to cover, just ask the mage's colleges for ideas...). Vs potential astral projection shenanigans of the wizard, ask the DM how he views/handles that particular 9th level spell and what endangers usually a wizard using it (ic you can get the information with spellcraft checks possibly boosted by items and/or by kindly asking for advice in the mage college). Then, get an item that will neutralise astral projection, too.
Note that the group does not have to kill the wizard, only defeat him and take the gold worth's of items he stole away from him, plus some money for all your efforts...the magic box with the crude gesture would be returned to the wizard, of course.:smallbiggrin:

PS: by all means, have the archivist finish the book and use the gold/its value to get more items at the mage college.

[defiantdan]

The antimage checklist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?363253-Anti-Mage-Checklist)

[Killer Angel]

This is an interesting challenge. Probably you'll need items and look at what the group already can do for two necessary steps:

1) Finding the wizard


The related question is: also the wizard knows the group... what kind of steps will he take, to avoid finding?

[skypse]

The related question is: also the wizard knows the group... what kind of steps will he take, to avoid finding?

Well since the wizard is a DM-played character you can't predict what he will do, especially if he gets countered really hard. My guess would be that he will try and cast "Clone" on himself in case something goes wrong, get a wand of quicken teleport and in the logical case scenario that he just wants to keep running and avoiding the group instead of confronting them he should be scrying every day for the face of the party (logically the bard) and the rogue in order to keep himself safe from any "sneaky" plan they might try to set. As long as the wizard stays 2-3 cities away from them, (or even inside his mansion spell) he is completely safe.

On the other hand, if the wizard tries to fight them for a reason, he most probably will scry on the bard and the rogue again in order to neutralize them and gain an advantage against the rest. He could use summons or even the "true name" discovery to accomplish that...

[Kesnit]

The related question is: also the wizard knows the group... what kind of steps will he take, to avoid finding?


Well since the wizard is a DM-played character you can't predict what he will do,

Just to clarify...

The DM plays very low-op. (The players are higher op than she is.) She also does not read the forums and does not know the tricks of how to play a wizard to the utmost.

Then there is the fact that, in all honesty, I'll probably be the one leveling the wizard and picking his spells. (The DM is my wife and she leaves building NPCs and monsters to me.) And while I know some of the tricks, I am far from an expert. I'm also not going to build the wizard in such a way that the party is at a continual disadvantage. (No scry-and-die or scry-and-avoid.) The wizard's player focused on summons and BFC, which is what I'll try to keep the focus on. (Yes, I know BFC is powerful on a wizard. Which is why I'm going to make an effort not to take all the save-or-die or save-or-suck spells.)

[skypse]

Just to clarify...

The DM plays very low-op. (The players are higher op than she is.) She also does not read the forums and does not know the tricks of how to play a wizard to the utmost.

Then there is the fact that, in all honesty, I'll probably be the one leveling the wizard and picking his spells. (The DM is my wife and she leaves building NPCs and monsters to me.) And while I know some of the tricks, I am far from an expert. I'm also not going to build the wizard in such a way that the party is at a continual disadvantage. (No scry-and-die or scry-and-avoid.) The wizard's player focused on summons and BFC, which is what I'll try to keep the focus on. (Yes, I know BFC is powerful on a wizard. Which is why I'm going to make an effort not to take all the save-or-die or save-or-suck spells.)

Well then... It's not that you have many options to chose from. YOU chose the way you want the wizard to play (avoid the pt or fight against them) so YOU are the one to chose what you want to do with the wizard. If you are not going to the safe way for the "scry-and-do" thing, then do whatever you like. After all you know exactly when/how the PCs will encounter the wizard so you can make the encounter as hard as you want. It's not like you need help to define what to do in an uknown situation. You are the one building the situation.