Spell resistance ruining my Wizard.

[arishardin]

So, my DM suddenly decides to start throwing SR opponents at my group because I just hit 3rd level spells. This is hell for me at level 5. I am very worried about this continuing in the future and would like to know the best way to counteract this.

All the creatures in our second battle tonight had SR and were also immune to fire damage. I basically blew almost every spell I had trying to pass their spell resistance and then my fireballs did nothing since they were immune to fire... They also had some kind of fire aura about them so my webs did nothing to them. The only thing that had even slight usefulness was my Stinking Cloud.

What do I do if this is how my DM wants to crap on my abilities every encounter since I'm the only tier 1 class in the group?

So far this is where my Wizard is going:

Int: 18
Con: 16
Dex: 16

Specialization: Domain Wizard(Conjuration)

ACF: Immediate Magic(Conjuration): Abrupt Jaunt

Feat progression(Just a note: I like using free metamagic stuff but this is just what I saw with at least a little value. It seems that Wizards aren't as reliant on their feats for power/optimization as other classes such as a Cleric):
Human- Obtain Familiar(Got my raven back to transport those free damage touch spells for me!)
1st- Improved Initiative(I don't mind being first I guess...)
3rd- Spell Focus(Conjuration)(This is mainly for prerequisite purpose)
5th- Metamagic School Focus(Conjuration)
6th- Sculpt Spell
9th- Extend Spell
10th- Spell Focus(Transmutation)
12th- Metamagic School Focus(Transmutation)
15th- Craft Rod
15th- I don't really know from here.

Spells at 4th Level(These are the spells I have chosen to learn up until this point):

1st- Color Spray, Burning Hands, Shocking Grasp, Ray of Enfeeblement, Grease, Enlarge Person, Wall of Smoke, Shield, Ray of Clumsiness, Silent Image, Mage Armor(I didn't actually have to learn MA since my domain provides it.)

2nd- Flaming Sphere, Scorching Ray, Alter Self, Seeking Ray, Invisibility, Web(the same for Web; my domain provides it.)

3rd- Fireball(every wizard needs this... come on!), Protection from Energy, Stinking Cloud(domain)

With my Domain ACF I automatically have 2x Mage Armor, 2x Web, and 2x Stinking Cloud prepared outside of my normally prepared spell list of four 1st level, three 2nd level, and two 3rd level spells prepared.

Re-optimization of my class is also welcome although I want to keep it simple(this is my first Wizard).

[jedipotter]

At 5th level, there can't be that many foes with spell resistance. Unless there is a real focus on drow, some outsiders and a couple other creatures. Or your DM is just twisting things.

1. The first, and most obvious, is to use spells that don't allow for spell resistance. Most conjuration/summonings are of that type. Hail of Stone(SC) is just the earth version of Buring Hands, for example, and it does not allow for spell resistance.

2. The target matters. Buff spells and personal spells always work. And spells that target areas or objects often don't have to check vs. spell resistance.

3. There is always the sneaky trick of targeting the environment. You can stone shape a rock to fall on someone in a cave. And a falling rock is non magical.

Just a quick glance at your spells, and you have a lot of fire attack spells. That makes the character vulnerable to fire resistant/immune foes. Mix the spells up a little.

With Spell Focus(Conjuration) and Metamagic School Focus(Conjuration), you might want to pick more Conjuration/summoning spells.

You say you have the raven to deliver touch spells? Like Shocking Grasp, and the other touch spells you don't have?

I'm not the biggest Improved Initiative fan. Sure the kids now a days all ''like to go first'', but it hardly matters much in a group battle. It's more important to have an effective attack, then it is to go first. Say your character goes first in combat and does nothing during the round...well it does not matter they went first.

[Deophaun]

First, of my dozens of wizards, I don't think a single one ever took fireball. Even when it was handed to them in an enemy spellbook.

You did good with conjuration focus. You will actually get better as this advances and you get more powerful options that don't care about SR. Even AoE blasting can be handled through doom scarabs or blast of flame.

In the meantime, pick up assay spell resistance and true casting.

[Crake]

I'm pretty sure you can't take Domain Wizard and Immediate magic, since Domain wizard gets rid of your specialisation, and immediate magic requires you specialise. Taking the conjuration domain doesn't count as being a conjurer to qualify for abrupt jaunt. Also, why do you think that you get 2 copies of your domain spells prepared each day? Domain wizard only gets 1 extra spell slot per day per spell level that must be used to prepare a domain spell.

[Svata]

Once you hit level 7, Orb of Fire(4th level spell, is conjuration)+ Energy Substitution (feat or rod, acid and/or electricity are your best bets) is your friend. Ranged touch, SR:No, and a nasty rider effect (Fort save or stun for 1 round). So are Assay Spell Resistance (spell, 4th level), Searing Spell (feat, half fire damage to immune foes, also cuts fire resistance in half), and several other things I can't think of ATM.

For now, Web will do work as BfC, Grease will make enemies drop weapons or set them up for sneak attacks, and I cannot recommend getting a scroll of Glitterdust to scribe into your spellbook strongly enough. SR:No, makes your whole party see invisible foes, and, in a 10' radius, roughly 12-16 squares on the map (depending how you measure) all have to make DC 17 (10+4(Int)+2(spell level)+1(SF:Conjuration)) Will saves or be blinded for 5 rounds.

[PseudoPanda]

The best answer is the obvious one in this case: cast spells that don't allow spell resistance. This includes such goodies as grease, glitterdust, Web (which you have) and stinking cloud (again, you have it) which also benefit from your spell focus. You can also focus on buffing your meatshields party members with enlarge person, haste, and the like.

Your DM is giving you the domain wizard ACF (with two extra spells for some reason) while also considering you a specialist so your work is kind of cut out for you. Even though the stereotypical wizard casts fieballs and magic missle into the darkness the best route is a BFCing conjurer or badass transmutation buffer.

[mvpmack]

Summon monsters (fiendish ape/wolf have fire resistance). Buff your teammates (Enlarge person, haste, etc). Use grease to flat-foot your enemies. Don't let some puny DM push you around! You're a wizard, the king of the world, and no DM can stand before your might!

In all seriousness, SR isn't that big of a deal in most cases. It changes a bit of how you have to approach things, but as a GOD wizard you should be adapting. Enemies with fire auras? Use resist energy (or the mass version in spell compendium) to aid your allies and shut down your enemies. Stop worrying about dealing damage; that's what your peasant allies are for. A rogue or fighter can pump out a lot more damage than you can, and hasting 3 or 4 allies will give you effective damage numbers comparable to a fireball without the risk of friendly fire.

It does sound like your DM is a jerk though. The abilities he's throwing down seem tailor-made to mess with you, and I'm not sure if they're CR-appropriate. SR is fairly rare at level 5, even among stronger foes in the CR6-7 range. It's something you were going to have to deal with eventually, so be a wizard and deal with it.

You should strongly consider rolling Knowledge checks against your enemies in order to identify their statistics. I'd look at the Collector of Stories skill trick (costs 2 points) to make rolling those checks easier.

The moment you hit third level spells is a cause for celebration, but it's not due to fireball.

Above all else though, you should really not have overplayed your hand. Big and flashy spell effects that ruin fights make DMs hate you. At around 5th level, I hard CCed two tough CR6 opponents with a few unfortunate Will saves and my DM flipped his ****, ended the combat, and went into a tirade about how overpowered save-or-die was (he's normally a pretty chill guy but it really upset him that I'd made his encounter trivial). From then on, I dialed myself back and focused on gimping the enemy, let my fighters do the work, and while the enemy still got to make attack rolls, we still steamrolled through encounters.

I did also talk with my DM though, and that did help him. I did tell him that single powerful creatures are beaten by single spells at a weak save, and the next big boss (a CR8 white dragon) ended up having SR and good saves. Like a wizard should, I just dealt with it and used what I could.

[HighWater]

So, my DM suddenly decides to start throwing SR opponents at my group because I just hit 3rd level spells. This is hell for me at level 5. I am very worried about this continuing in the future and would like to know the best way to counteract this.

All the creatures in our second battle tonight had SR and were also immune to fire damage. I basically blew almost every spell I had trying to pass their spell resistance and then my fireballs did nothing since they were immune to fire... They also had some kind of fire aura about them so my webs did nothing to them. The only thing that had even slight usefulness was my Stinking Cloud.

What do I do if this is how my DM wants to crap on my abilities every encounter since I'm the only tier 1 class in the group?


Alright, now that some people have taken the liberty of offering suggestions and rule-checking your build, perhaps a little meta-analysis carries merit:

Your DM is bringing out SR, Fire Immune enemies that are not affected by Web? Well, that's interesting!

Are you, per chance, dominating encounters? Are you, per chance, making tough fights into embarrassing cakewalks due to debilitated "elite" enemies? Are your blasts and area-of-effect debuffs wiping out mobs the whole party was supposed to fight? If so, your DM might think you need to feel what it's like to be useless, while the other partymembers get to shine every once in a while...

I would advice against getting into an arms race: if you start "but I need to be able to single-handedly humiliate everything we encounter"-playing now, chances are your DM and you will only escalate the problems (and there's no Immunity to Rocks Fall).

You have two options I would strongly encourage:
- Check whether that last encounter was a coincidence (the last encounter just happened to be a giant NO to every decent tactic in your toolbox). You can do this either by continuing to play and taking careful notes (be sure to note the encounters where you did get to be super effective to eliminate selection bias), or just straight up ask the DM (be inquisitive and cooperative, not confrontational).
- Get some team-buffs. As others have stated, they always work and rather than turning encounters embarassingly easy, they turn your teammates awesomely awesome! This is more fun for everyone involved.

Remember D&D is a group game, you don't have to be able to single-handedly fix every encounter. The end goal is cooperation (oh, and fun), so make sure you help your group succeed.

Edit: fixed an incomplete sentence.

[Ermanti]

While you should have prestiged out at 3rd level with master specialist, your next level should be a prestige class of some sort. If you really want to be an awesome wizard, search google for logic ninja's guide to being batman, or treantmonk's guide to playing god. Between the two you will find all the spells worth casting, and why you should be casting them.

You are wasting spell slots and spells known on flaming sphere and fireball. Large amounts of creatures have either resistance or immunity to fire. If you bother to cast damaging spells at all, they should be acid, sonic, or force spells. Most acid spells are sr: no. Summon monster would still probably be better. Summon monster 3, in particular, nets you a monster that can not only cast stinking cloud, but also has 3 natural attacks, and also scare 1/day.

[ILM]

What do I do if this is how my DM wants to crap on my abilities every encounter since I'm the only tier 1 class in the group?
That's a pretty cookie-cutter spell list for a first-time wizard. What tier are the other PCs (and how well are they playing them) and how experienced is your DM? How have you fared in previous combats? Because honestly it looks like an OOC problem to me, which may or may not have been brought about by your insta-gibbing one or more encounters. The arms race other people are suggesting really doesn't seem smart to me.

edit: looks like HighWater and I are in complete agreement.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

1) Knowledge checks. You're a wizard and making them is a free action. Thus demand that you know what enemies you're fighting and call shenanigans if he's hosing you intentionally. (there's no creature with fire aura before 7th level wizards, all others get it later)


2) Lesser Orb of X. 1st lvl spells, 1d6/CL damage, ranged touch, no save, no SR.

[Eldariel]

Thus demand that you know what enemies you're fighting and call shenanigans if he's hosing you intentionally. (there's no creature with fire aura before 7th level wizards, all others get it later)

No DM is bound to use only printed creatures though. After all, it is purely up to DM to decide what exists and doesn't exist in the world. Nor is the DM bound by CR or any such; there's nothing really stopping you from encountering Red Wyrm on level 5 if you happen to venture in the wrong mountain range. So I'd avoid brewing undue hostility towards the DM based on incomplete information - it certainly wouldn't make things any easier to call him out on something where he's done nothing wrong as such. Of course, directly asking him if you're being problematic or out of bounds is a good, neutral way to initiate discourse over possible problems in the game and how to address them.

That said, maxing the relevant Knowledges is great advice and indeed a great way to figure out how to approach your opponent; after all, with a Wizard it's only really a matter of choosing, which spell works here. Anyways, the relevant suggestions appear already: buff teammates (Haste is absolutely brutal), use non-SR spells, etc. Trying to overcome SR is a bit too much effort for too little gain on this level; True Casting exists but it costs two actions and two spell slots per a resolved effect. I'd rather just stick to the effects you can use without dealing with SR. My spell list suggestions would be something like (defensive things in parentheses):
1) Grease, Enlarge Person, Reduce Person, Ray of Enfeeblement, Silent Image, [Mage Armor]
2) Glitterdust, Web, Pyrotechnics (nice with e.g. Bullseye Lantern), Invisibility, [Alter Self], [Resist Energy]
3) Slow, Haste, Stinking Cloud, Fly, Major Image

Back up your normal selection with few low level scrolls of things that don't have saves (Silent Image, Ray of Enfeeblement, Web, etc.)

Now, if your Knowledge-check reveals that the target has spell resistance, I'd go through the following sequence:
- Can my warriors handle it safely and with little damage? If yes, I'd just pluck at it with my crossbow. If no:
- Can my warriors be buffed up to the point where they can handle it effortlessly? If yes, pick the most useful spell of Haste, Invisibility, Enlarge Person and cast it. If no:
- Is the enemy mindless or of low intellect? If yes, it'll probably be trivial to create an illusion of a cage or darkness or whatever to fool it*. If no:
- Pick the most likely spell to work of Grease, Web and Stinking Cloud. Remember the various uses of Grease in particular: Grease their weapon or implement to make 'em drop it, Grease the ground underneath them to make 'em slip up, Grease teammates vs. grapplers. If I don't expect any of those spells to do meaningful work, I'd play up the concealment options offered by Web, Stinking Cloud and Pyrotechnics, as well as Silent/Major Image (illusions are infinitely versatile, they're just bounded by your creativity).

If more is needed, I'd risk a spell resistance roll with Ray of Enfeeblement or Ray of Clumsiness vs. single, tough opponents and with Glitterdust, Blind Pyrotechnics or Slow vs. a number of tough opponents in that order. Either way, rolling vs. Spell Resistance is the last thing I usually do until I have access to Assay Resistance. With Assay Resistance, you can freely ignore Spell Resistance vs. most things but you'll have to be around level 9-11 for it to be worth preparing.

* Most mindless or very dumb things with primarily visual perception probably will be unable to tell it from the real and thus won't even get a Will-save to figure out that they aren't actually trapped. And even if they do, the save can be fairly high and something like one-sided wall or darkness is quite convenient with enemy being concealed while your teammates should have no trouble, knowing it's an illusion.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

No DM is bound to use only printed creatures though.
That's true - but Knowledge checks are not limited to printed creatures.


After all, it is purely up to DM to decide what exists and doesn't exist in the world.
If a creature exists in the world then a character from that world with high enough knowledge will know about it.


Nor is the DM bound by CR or any such;
Yes, he is. The encounter tables give specific CRs for challenges and only one out of 13 is CR+5 or higher.



The rules exist to facilitate players having an enjoyable game and in most cases before 10th level, they do so. When the DM disregards the rules mid-session, it's like a dealer in a Poker game arbitrarily changing the value of cards. Now if the DM (or said dealer) wishes to introduce houserules, they should do so at the beginning of the session so that a) players can veto them if they dislike them or b) not play a game they will dislike.

[Crake]

2) Lesser Orb of X. 1st lvl spells, 1d6/CL damage, ranged touch, no save, no SR.

Actually its 1d8+1d8/2CL above 1st with a cap at 5d8 (d6 for sonic). 1d6/CL is the regular orb spells at level 4 that also have a rider effect

[Eldariel]

Yes, he is. The encounter tables give specific CRs for challenges and only one out of 13 is CR+5 or higher.

And rule 0 states he doesn't need to care; DMG is generally full of guidelines and it's perfectly possible to run enjoyable games while ignoring most of them or only following them incidentally. The spread of encounters, for instance, works but nothing intrinsically makes such a game the only right way. And hell, that whole table becomes irrelevant once you ignore CR; in my experience you can provide a better game experience if you ignore the number entirely and go by actual encounter difficulty rather than WotC's horrible attempt at a general guessing game. Sure, it takes more DMing experience and system mastery but it also enables you to provide engaging encounters across the board and accounting for party's actual strength (which diverges wildly inside the same ECL).


The rules exist to facilitate players having an enjoyable game and in most cases before 10th level, they do so. When the DM disregards the rules mid-session, it's like a dealer in a Poker game arbitrarily changing the value of cards. Now if the DM (or said dealer) wishes to introduce houserules, they should do so at the beginning of the session so that a) players can veto them if they dislike them or b) not play a game they will dislike.

First, I call bull**** on those rules working in most cases under ECL 10; a well-played ECL 9 Wizard is well on his way to godhood while a poorly played and built ECL 9 Monk will have trouble with CR 4-5 brawler enemies. Same applies to most PC classes; casters with level 5 spells are well on their way to ridiculous power while warrior types are increasingly having trouble with anything they can't easily just hit in the face. It's trivially easy to make a number of differently challenging encounters of the same CR if you use advancement rules, NPC rules and of course, we wouldn't have those "Toughest creature for each CR"-threads if there wasn't huge variance inside listed creatures (Dragons are the easiest example; other enemies of the same CR tend to simply be numerically weaker across the board). Hell, I'm quite certain there's no need for me to actually tell you any of this: far as I've seen, you're well aware of just how wide the spectrum of different challenges inside each CR and on the other hand, character power levels inside each ECL is.

Second, the rules that campaign and campaign world design (things like WBL, encounter design, etc.) are not the same as the rules that govern character/creature design, abilities or such. They're not transparent and the characters have no access to them; using them as criteria for your character actions is the very definition of metagaming since they're not in-game constructs. They're there to help DM facilitate a good game; nothing says a good game requires DM to abide by them. Sure, in the beginning of the game the DM should tell if he'll be, say, encounter density guidelines, random encounters, or such but ultimately, I don't think the players need be aware of the behind-the-scenes workings of the game for it to be enjoyable.

[Auron3991]

I call shenanigans. Lightning bolt is just as fun as fireball.

On a more serious note though, talk with your DM. He may be trying to subtly drop hints about your spell list or play style before more dangerous enemies come around. I can tell you that personally, as a person who has experience playing sorcerer, your spell list is missing spells I would grab before many of the spells on your list. Summon Monster is your friend, Floating Disk has some hilarious uses if you're willing to hold your actions, Blur provides concealment, Blind allows you to effectively lock down enemies, and dispel magic will save your rear someday. I know wizards have a bit more leeway on spell selection, but I would assume they would want to use the sorcerer selection as a starting point and add on top of it.

[arishardin]

I'm pretty sure you can't take Domain Wizard and Immediate magic, since Domain wizard gets rid of your specialisation, and immediate magic requires you specialise. Taking the conjuration domain doesn't count as being a conjurer to qualify for abrupt jaunt. Also, why do you think that you get 2 copies of your domain spells prepared each day? Domain wizard only gets 1 extra spell slot per day per spell level that must be used to prepare a domain spell.

I must have misread the domain. I'll fix that the next time we play. For the ACF Immediate Magic, on the other hand, I got permission to bend the rule and consider my Domain my "specialization". Which is very nice of my DM. Abrupt Jaunt is just... Godly.

[arishardin]

Thanks everyone for your input.

Well first off, I noticed Blindness/Deftness is recommended up there and I do actually have that spell, I forgot to add that one.

Next, my plan for making this character was to be a little versatile. I know that Flaming Sphere was a complete waste of a spell, but I needed something at the time to go with Web so I'd have some use for damage in battle. It didn't serve me much and I regret it now. Fireball, I took because I want to be able to do some damage in the case that it's useful. I mean, one AOE to start a battle off isn't bad if it hits a few enemies and they instantly become either dead or almost dead. I understand why it may be more powerful to just go ahead and make the battle's end result inevitable by casting something that makes the enemy weaker or makes my party stronger, but like I said, I wanted to make this guy able to pull from all the tricks. I think I may have gone a little overboard with some of the Evocation spells and the rays, but I thought that I had room for them; maybe I was wrong. I'm going to go after as many spells as I can to make up for this. My Wizard is constantly reading every scroll he finds while we travel.

I'm not sure if my DM specifically designed this encounter to put me out, but it REALLY angered me when I started finding out what these guys were because that's instantly what I thought was going on. My DM is the kind that hates when you have something that's powerful and wipes the floor, so I wouldn't put it past him. As far as the CR, I don't know... I don't know if he found these creatures in a book or if he found them online or if he dreamed them up himself. He is still a beginner DM but he is a full-time DM. If anything he does make an effort to make a well developed game so it's not out of the ordinary that he could make something like this to spite me.

Also, I haven't been doing all that well at all in battle since the beginning of this campaign. So, if he is trying to put me out, I don't know why he would. I'm very inexperienced with the Wizard and honestly don't know what the hell I'm doing. I am pretty good with the Cleric and he has had to put up with my shenanigans before, so maybe he thinks that what's coming with the newest tier 1 class I decide to play. I told him from the start though that I may pick some powerful features, but that I'd be FAR from optimizing this character. I'm just not willing to go through the headache for a spell caster.

Last, my group as of now is made up of my Wizard, a VERY inexperienced player playing a Rogue who has no concept of battle strategy or building knowledge(he literally just does whatever comes to mind first), an NPC Healer, and one Ranger/Scout. The Ranger I took the liberty of doing my best to build into enormous amounts of skirmish damage in the future using Travel Devotion and Rapid Shot and Many Shot and a Splitting bow and blah blah blah blah blah. So I did go behind my friend's Ranger selection and optimized it to the best of my ability. We have no tank. I suppose an NPC tank is on the way though.

[Eldariel]

Last, my group as of now is made up of my Wizard, a VERY inexperienced player playing a Rogue who has no concept of battle strategy or building knowledge(he literally just does whatever comes to mind first), an NPC Healer, and one Ranger/Scout. The Ranger I took the liberty of doing my best to build into enormous amounts of skirmish damage in the future using Travel Devotion and Rapid Shot and Many Shot and a Splitting bow and blah blah blah blah blah. So I did go behind my friend's Ranger selection and optimized it to the best of my ability. We have no tank. I suppose an NPC tank is on the way though.

If not having a frontline tank is a problem, remember that you're a conjurer: Don't ignore the obvious solution of using Summons and various longer term minions. Would the group object to Undead? If not, you can use Animate Dead/Animate Dread Warrior. Down the line, on level 9 you'll be able to begin Planar Binding things and further on level 13, you'll have access to Simulacrums. Indeed, it's not too late to enter Malconvoker at this point if you wish to focus on combat Summons though it does cost you a painful caster level.

Either way, "tank" is not really an obligatory role in the game, and your battlefield control magic should cover that; frontline as such can be circumvented and you can get by with just walking backwards and casting stuff - disabled enemies don't hit back. You still have two martial types and the Healer so between the Rogue and the Ranger, you should have some base physical damage to Haste up and buff; Enlarge Person isn't that useful in that context though. But yeah, the principal issue with Fireball-type effects is that the damage is just really low. If you do want an extra permanent frontliner, I can recommend for you to have someone take Wild Cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) - the Rogue would be an obvious solution as he probably wants a flanking buddy anyways. That gets you a nice'n'sturdy tank (while it'd make thematic sense for him, your Swift Hunter is probably pressed for feats).

But with regards to Fireball, remember that on this level, even on a failed save enemies are only taking 5d6 or average 17.5 damage. Then there's the ~30-40% of a successful save, fire resistance and spell resistance (both of which are fairly common especially among tougher opponents; much depends on the campaign location too, Underdark enemies and Outsiders are more likely to resist everything than Orcs or Giants for instance). Fireball is fine against hordes of weak mooks as it can knock out the whole bunch - that is quite situational tho. Usually, you really want a high caster level if you wish for Fireball to be a sufficient solution to a wide variety of scenarios. It takes you out of commission really fast (in the "out-of-spells" way): you only have so many spell slots and if you cast them for a couple of Fireballs, you might well be out of spells by the time you really need a big spell.

[Psyren]

If a creature exists in the world then a character from that world with high enough knowledge will know about it.

"High enough" is the problem. The general Knowledge DC rule is "10+HD," sure, but for a custom monster it's really anything goes. It can even make sense in-universe - if an existing monster was modified by magical radiation, mad wizard, capricious fey, vengeful god, rapid evolution/mutation etc., then it truly could be much more obscure than its fellows even with equal HD.



The rules exist to facilitate players having an enjoyable game and in most cases before 10th level, they do so. When the DM disregards the rules mid-session, it's like a dealer in a Poker game arbitrarily changing the value of cards. Now if the DM (or said dealer) wishes to introduce houserules, they should do so at the beginning of the session so that a) players can veto them if they dislike them or b) not play a game they will dislike.

The DM can introduce such a houserule pretty generally and apply it to the whole campaign. "Hey guys, many of my monsters are the result of magical pollution, experimentation and corruption being applied to existing entries. While you will still have a chance of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of these creatures, the DC to do so - particularly if it is your first time fighting that specific variant - will be higher than the rulebooks indicate. Just FYI." Done.

[arishardin]

So my DM wants to basically start over remaining at level 5 so that everyone can revamp their characters. Looking at my build, what would any of you say needs to change? Feats? Spells? Anything...

[SangoProduction]

So, basically, you're trying to play the only T1 class in the campaign...that's kinda a bad move, especially if you try and actually win the encounters above and beyond the capacities of your team. The DM has to balance the fights so that everyone is threatened. If you are extremely more powerful than the rest of your team, either a) the monster is far too good for your party to help you with, or b) it's specialized to defend against you.
DMs don't often like to do this, unless it feels like it's really necessary. And btw, there is immunity to fall rocks, it's called Regeneration. If it feels like you are getting through by great wit, luck, or just plain clever thinking (dropping the roof does sound interesting...the first time), then it's unlikely they will do anything to counter you, until you are really just being obnoxious and not letting your team participate.
That said, there is never a such thing as "Over Powered" as anything can change on the fly...and this is probably what he is doing to make sure the rest of the party is having fun. Anything that supposedly has no spell resistance can be turned into something that has spell resistance applied suddenly. If you are dealing 2000 to 4000 points of damage per turn (admittedly, I accidentally misread some metamagics...and got metamagics banned from the entire group lol. Don't blame me, the group never used them before, I didn't know how to.), then the monsters can suddenly have 2000 to 4000 points of health more than they did a moment ago.

Overall, I'd say talk it out with the DM. Find out the why, and how to fix it, and boom. If you can't fix it, just leave the game.

[endur]

Yes, he is. The encounter tables give specific CRs for challenges and only one out of 13 is CR+5 or higher.


The table you are referring to is just an example. If the PCs stray into the "high level area", they should not be surprised if all of the encounters are CR+5 or higher.

FYI, the RPGA Living Greyhawk Campaign (3.x) routinely had encounters that were CR +3/+4 (that said, they only included CR+5 encounters if you were supposed to avoid/hide/run from them).

[Eldariel]

So my DM wants to basically start over remaining at level 5 so that everyone can revamp their characters. Looking at my build, what would any of you say needs to change? Feats? Spells? Anything...

The question is what you want to do. The obvious switch would be going from Wizard 5 to Wizard 3/Master Specialist 2. The utility of this however depends on where you want to go from there: something like the Malconvoker benefits a lot more than say Fatespinner. Of course, it's still a decent trade either way. But yeah, the big question is what you wish to focus on. And obviously, the spell selection, unless it's absolutely crucial that you have a lot of fire damage spells, I'd switch those around. It's okay to have something but since you're a Conjurer, the "Orb of Fire" (level 4 spell) and "Lesser Orb of Fire" would probably serve you better (they don't allow Spell Resistance, incidentally). Still, you mostly have everything; it's more a matter of making sure everyone can contribute, which comes down to play more than builds here.

[Mystral]

Fireballs do nothing without SR und Resistance to fire too, so where is the problem?

[ericgrau]

Haste, sleet storm, web.

[mvpmack]

The real thing you should do is rebuild your teammates.

Get your rogue to put points in UMD, and adjust so that his CHA will be acceptable. It won't quite be good at level 5, but a +5 skill item + 8 ranks + 2 charisma is approaching the power level where he can use wands with some authority.

Second, and this is big: ban evocation. I dunno what schools you forbid, but get rid of evocation (and probably enchantment). Necromancy is pretty good (ray of exhaustion, for instance) and there are very few evocation spells that are worth it. All of them can be copied with shadow evocation anyway once you get some levels.

Ranger is a pretty hard sell in 3.5. You might want to tell him to work for something else; a travel devotion skirmish ranger doesn't really come online until a lot later in the game.

[eggynack]

Second, and this is big: ban evocation. I dunno what schools you forbid, but get rid of evocation (and probably enchantment). Necromancy is pretty good (ray of exhaustion, for instance) and there are very few evocation spells that are worth it. All of them can be copied with shadow evocation anyway once you get some levels.

He's not banning anything, cause he's a domain wizard. Evocation isn't the worst either, though the OP's not using it in a particularly good way. Reasonable amount of good utility in the school, with stuff like resilient sphere, wind wall, contingency, and so on. In any case, I second the general advice of this thread. Just use things that don't interact with these defenses, and on a larger level, try to use things that don't interact with any defenses. Wall of stone doesn't care all that much what your opponent is doing. It just keeps on being a wall of stone. Buffs and BFC effects are your friends here.