(3.5) Newly Meatshieldless, What Do?

[Coidzor]

So, after going pirate hunting due to the Warforged Crusader's desire to go beat up some pirates, our group has now lost both the Warforged Crusader and the animal companion-less Druid, the one to being put on a bus because the player was tired of that character and the DM had been over compensating for his DR and delayed damage pool at low level and the other completely out of left field because the player had gotten tired of playing a Druid but hadn't really let on about this to anyone but the DM.

Combined with the revelation at the player of the Paladin has ability scores more suited to being a Sorcerer(18 in Cha, 12s or 10s in everything but their 8 Int) than being a Paladin and the replacement for the Druid hasn't arrived yet while the replacement for the warforged crusader is a kobold artificer that's purposefully not going to be great at combat because the warforged crusader had been a bit too much for the DM, and, well, things are not looking particularly good in terms of having something there to use melee weapons to hit other things so that those things are not hitting us, although I can start to do a bit more to keep things that want to eat our faces from getting into face-eating range now.

Right now we're pursuing a Girl in (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GirlInTheTower) The Tower (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69M2iiI__XQ) plot to introduce the Druid's former player's new character into the game and usher the Rogue NPC we'd had around offstage.

So, Level 4 or 5 Elf Rogue, archery focused.
Low level Kobold something or other.
Level 3 Human Ranger, taking the archery combat style
Level 3 Desert Kobold Artificer, possibly Dragonwrought
Level 3 Conjuration Specialist Human Wizard (have not yet selected my spells for leveling up, probably going to grab glitterdust as one of them, though)
Level 2 Paladin/Level 1 ??? Human (looking at Battle Sorcerer last I heard, if the DM okays it)
Level 3 ??? (Intimated to be both skillful and face-beaty, but not yet acquired)

So, being the primary spellcaster of the party, I find myself a bit at a loss as how to keep enemies away without hampering peppering them with ranged attacks.

I mean, I'm definitely grabbing Glitterdust, because blinding those suckers is always nice, and I've finally got the duration where my summons can be around for most of a fight and I can actually use my caltrops cantrips to block off two squares at once and thereby be more likely to mess up charging opponents, but...

[Alabenson]

Given that you're a specialist conjurer, I'd try focusing on summoning. If you have a particularly good Wisdom modifier, you might want to consider taking Spontaneous Summoner from Complete Divine, which would give you limited access to the Summon Nature's Ally line (and qualify you for either Ashbound or Greenbound Summoning if you're feeling particularly evil).

[Surpriser]

Some other Conjuration Spells that can be very helpful in keeping your party save from harm:
Wall of Smoke - provides Concealment and nauseates if they run through
Blockade - for when you need a square blocked NOW as a swift action
Benign/Baleful Transposition - switch positions of two creatures
Grease - obviously, stronger than caltrops
Some of the Cloud spells are also available at this level.

[avr]

Mundane caltrops and an unseen servant to distribute them can be kinder on the action economy than a caltrops cantrip.

[Karl Aegis]

Buy a scroll of Stone Shape and a wand of Shrink item(Caster level 5). Use the scroll to shape some rocks into a stone wall that is 10 cubic feet (approximately large sized). Use the wand of Shrink Item to turn the stone wall into something you can carry around. Whenever you need a stonewall archetype character and don't have one, throw down your shrunken stone wall to create a stonewall archetype character without using one of your character slots! Bonus points: it can defend against attacks from all directions at once. When not in use, use wand to shrink it down into something you can carry around.

[Coidzor]

Wall of Smoke - provides Concealment and nauseates if they run through

Yeah, that was going to be my next acquisition for a scroll to add to my spellbook, Wall of Smoke, but using it's gonna interfere with my archers more than I'd like, unless I can position it to screen part of the battlefield, allowing for some focus firing of our ranged attacks on a smaller number of them. I guess maybe I'm just not certain about how best to tactically use it? :smallconfused:


Blockade - for when you need a square blocked NOW as a swift action

Honestly never quite figured out Blockade, and I think it'd be better for me as a wand than as a prepared spell. As an immediate action it could be very useful, or Abrupt Jaunt level broken, or if there was one creature that was going to charge that I wanted to delay from charging for one round, but... as it is I don't really see how it's worth one of my paltry 1st level spell slots.


Benign/Baleful Transposition - switch positions of two creatures

I have benign transposition, but only the one Paladin to use it on, really. Baleful Transposition I'll eventually get, though.


Grease - obviously, stronger than caltrops

Indeed, I have grease and have used it to some effect, mostly for allowing the rogue to get off sneak attack, though the last batch of enemies all had ranks in balance and good reflex saves, so it was less useful than I'd have liked. Now that the duration isn't terrible though, it'll hopefully start being more useful even if the area is still always so small that I feel like I'm wasting a spell until they've bunched up together to try to engage with us or there's some kind of terrain that forms a bottleneck.


Some of the Cloud spells are also available at this level.

Oh? I thought the lowest level for the ones that weren't a variant on Obscuring Mist was 3rd level. :smallconfused: edit:Oh, right, Cloud of Bewilderment and Fog Cloud.

[NecessaryWeevil]

I have benign transposition, but only the one Paladin to use it on, really. Baleful Transposition I'll eventually get, though.



Three Words: Summon Monster 1. :)

[Troacctid]

Three Words: Summon Monster 1. :)

That's not very action-efficient. I'd just use my familiar.

[Coidzor]

That's not very action-efficient. I'd just use my familiar.

Yeah, I'd love to do some summoning but the 1 round casting time is a major deterrent. Although I have been having a lot of combats where throwing out the entirety of the round in place summoning wouldn't have worked out as poorly for me as I'd become accustomed to think.

Familiar, well... I think I can finally acquire one now, so I should go ahead and do that.

[Darrin]

Yeah, I'd love to do some summoning but the 1 round casting time is a major deterrent.

Can you get ahold of some golden desert honey? 300 GP per dose, Complete Mage p. 136. Chronocharm of the Uncaring Archmage can also speed up one summon per day.

Skull Talismans (Frostburn) and Glyph Seals (1000 GP, MIC) can also be used to reduce the casting time.

[Coidzor]

Buy a scroll of Stone Shape and a wand of Shrink item(Caster level 5). Use the scroll to shape some rocks into a stone wall that is 10 cubic feet (approximately large sized). Use the wand of Shrink Item to turn the stone wall into something you can carry around. Whenever you need a stonewall archetype character and don't have one, throw down your shrunken stone wall to create a stonewall archetype character without using one of your character slots! Bonus points: it can defend against attacks from all directions at once. When not in use, use wand to shrink it down into something you can carry around.

Hmm. Now that's an interesting idea. Thank you.

Seems like it might be cheaper to just buy a 10x5 segment of stone wall, though? :smallconfused:


Mundane caltrops and an unseen servant to distribute them can be kinder on the action economy than a caltrops cantrip.

True. Is it worth one of my first level spell slots to have an unseen servant for 3 hours able to do that, though, is my other question. Once I have something like a collar of perpetual attendance or something, then that's different, of course.

It doesn't really seem like I have anything better to do with my cantrip slots if I do get down to using them in combat, though, since I've got either Caltrops or Acid Splash in my Conjuration Specialist Cantrip slot and I'm not going to be able to do anything cheesy with launch bolt and large-size+ bolts. And so far I've used... Detect Magic twice outside of combat during an adventuring day where there was combat.


Can you get ahold of some golden desert honey? 300 GP per dose, Complete Mage p. 136. Chronocharm of the Uncaring Archmage can also speed up one summon per day.

Skull Talismans (Frostburn) and Glyph Seals (1000 GP, MIC) can also be used to reduce the casting time.

Definitely getting that chronocharm. Will investigate the honey, but I'm not hopeful on that front.

Refresh my memory, does a Glyph Seal eat up that spell slot until I activate it or does it allow me to store a spell one day and then make use of that spell slot when I next prepare spells?

Not sure I wanna invest in being able to craft skull talismans though, since don't require their own feat investment? I have scribe scroll and I mean to scribe a few scrolls for utility/stretch out my spells per day. I have a two day boat ride to handle scribing for still, so I guess I'll scribe two scrolls of grease? Or maybe one of grease and one of silent image or benign transposition?

No, wait. I have 4 days if I can scribe a scroll in the same day that I copy a spell into my spellbook. Can I scribe a scroll and copy a spell into my spellbook in the same day, provided I have the 16 hours to spare?