Help with beating a drowned?

[Neowulf]

currently playing a mid-level campaign with a bunch of other guys & the DM recently threw something incredibly powerful at us. This thing called a drowned from MM3
what makes it so powerful is that it gives off an aura that makes your body simulate drowning & half the party almost died if the other half didn't make our constitution rolls to not be affected, then drag their bodies back

I've been mulling over how to beat this thing in my spare time, & I came up with a few ideas. the first being to get a wizard to cast water-breathing on us. as a level 3 spell, it'll only cost 150 gp each & it should protect us from the effects of the Drowned's aura, if I read "All breathing creatures within 30 feet of the drowned are treated as if beneath water in terms of being able to breath" correctly. it should also last at least 10 hours, so we should be set (hell, we'll be able to explore the underground lake this thing crawled out of for treasure too)

2nd thing I thought about was to possibly try to dispel the aura, but the only spellcasters we have are me (a bard) & our multiclassed cleric/warlock, so I don't like our chances of dispelling this, considering I don't know how you calculate an Auras level, outside the hit dice. even still, I only make the check on a nat-20, but it's always good to have an emergency option just in case

if anyone has any other options, outside just trying to shoot this thing from a distance or something similar, I'd be appreciative

[Fizban]

As always, need more info: supply as much of each party member's sheet, general campaign circumstances (such as the availablity of hiring a wizard to cast on you), and the circumstances of this particular encounter, unless all you want is a Water Breathing ruling.

Water Breathing is indeed the most appropriate hard counter to the aura, and the only reason it shouldn't work is because your DM has decided to go anti-player. If your DM is hardballing that, then you'll probably have trouble with any more creative solutions that aren't exactly what the DM wanted, assuming they wanted to you to succeed at all. Supernatural effects cannot be dispelled unless they specifically say they can (such as an Angel's Magic Circle, but not an Archon's). Bottom line, if Water Breathing doesn't work then you've got a problem.

At CR8, the standard party's Cleric should have long since been able to cast Water Breathing. In addition to having multiclassed Cleric, I'm guessing this is also being dropped as "boss" which is above your level, and of course this is compounded further by it being an MM3 monster (the book of optimized and powered up monsters).

[Khedrac]

the first being to get a wizard to cast water-breathing on us. as a level 3 spell, it'll only cost 150 gp each & it should protect us from the effects of the Drowned's aura, if I read "All breathing creatures within 30 feet of the drowned are treated as if beneath water in terms of being able to breath" correctly.
You probably don't need this cast multiple times:

Water Breathing
Duration: 2 hours/level; see text
The transmuted creatures can breathe water freely. Divide the duration evenly among all the creatures you touch.
A 5th level caster can give 5 people 2 hours each from one casting of the spell.
Unless the wizard you are hiring lives a long way from the monster 2+ hours should be enough.

Water Breathing is one of those situational spells well worth carrying as a scroll - it's flexible enough that one scroll can benefit the entire party.

[Neowulf]

You probably don't need this cast multiple times:

A 5th level caster can give 5 people 2 hours each from one casting of the spell.
Unless the wizard you are hiring lives a long way from the monster 2+ hours should be enough.

Water Breathing is one of those situational spells well worth carrying as a scroll - it's flexible enough that one scroll can benefit the entire party.

ahh, misread the spell when I originally read it
2 hours should be plenty of time. it's in a cave inside the same town, so we should be able to just run down to the area. hell, with the dividing it part in there, might just get our cleric to cast it on us

[Eldariel]

Waterbreathing is the hard counter indeed. Without it, they're tough for their CR. However, remember a couple of things:
- They are Undead. Thus they're subject to Command Undead (request that it should bugger off), etc.
- They aren't very fast and the aura is pretty small. If you're fighting them on the land rather than underwater, you can keep your distance and attack them at range, optionally coupled with spells like Web, Grease and Glitterdust to keep it at bay. Underwater same principles apply but your own mobility is cut to shreds unless you have Freedom of Movement, swim speed (Polymorph & al.) or the like.

It's very durable and immune to most save-or-be-destroyed effects of this level so destroying it without a heavy duty physical damage dealer takes a while though.

[Neowulf]

Waterbreathing is the hard counter indeed. Without it, they're tough for their CR. However, remember a couple of things:
- They are Undead. Thus they're subject to Command Undead (request that it should bugger off), etc.
- They aren't very fast and the aura is pretty small. If you're fighting them on the land rather than underwater, you can keep your distance and attack them at range, optionally coupled with spells like Web, Grease and Glitterdust to keep it at bay. Underwater same principles apply but your own mobility is cut to shreds unless you have Freedom of Movement, swim speed (Polymorph & al.) or the like.

It's very durable and immune to most save-or-be-destroyed effects of this level so destroying it without a heavy duty physical damage dealer takes a while though.

problem with the first plan is that we have no one able to cast that. only options for that are either we buy a wand or scroll of it or our cleric tries to use his rebuke attempts

as for the 2nd, that was mostly my plan. I've been packing some tricks for my character, the one we use most being dragonfire inspiration along with two front liners who regularly pounce-charge our enemies, but I've got some other things just in case. I figured that we'd mostly surround it, buff ourselves & de-buff the thing as much as possible, then we just keep pounding on it til it dies. we've already got a few DPS fighters, both melee & ranged, so we should be set to kill this thing withing 10 rounds

[sleepyphoenixx]

Use BFC and shoot it from more than 30ft away?
Drowned have only a +9 to reflex saves and no ranks in balance, so even the humble Grease will give them some trouble, assuming you don't have a better no-save/save-and-still-be-screwed BFC.
Depending on what spells you have access to you could just lock it down, dump a Haboob/Vortex of Teeth/whatever on top and wait till it dies.

Turning/rebuking is out unless your cleric has significantly boosted that - Drowned have 20HD - but he could just nuke it with Mark of the Enlightened Soul (DrM) for free empower and Hammer of Righteousness (BoED) - which he can cast spontaneously since it's a sanctified spell.

Alternatively you could just summon something aquatic like SM5's Fiendish Monstrous Crab or SNA4's Giant Crocodile to keep it in place for you.

Even without that, you have DFI. An entire party full attacking with ranged weapons should kill a single Drowned pretty easily with that.

[Fizban]

If its guarding something underwater it probably can't be Grease'd easily. For hilarity, cast a bunch of Water to Acid on its watery domain.

But for efficiency, have someone cast Celestial Brilliance (BoED, 4th) on a rock for you, or a chunk of magically hardened adamantine if the DM gets uppity. Deals 1d6 per round to undead within the lighted radius for a week, and is the real reason there's no need to fear the undeadocalypse.

[Eldariel]

problem with the first plan is that we have no one able to cast that. only options for that are either we buy a wand or scroll of it or our cleric tries to use his rebuke attempts

as for the 2nd, that was mostly my plan. I've been packing some tricks for my character, the one we use most being dragonfire inspiration along with two front liners who regularly pounce-charge our enemies, but I've got some other things just in case. I figured that we'd mostly surround it, buff ourselves & de-buff the thing as much as possible, then we just keep pounding on it til it dies. we've already got a few DPS fighters, both melee & ranged, so we should be set to kill this thing withing 10 rounds

If you have Dragonfire Inspiration, just give your warrior-types all bows. Even without feats they'll do just fine. And you have Glitterdust and Grease so you can make sure it's not moving anywhere any time soon. Blindness cuts its speed by half and Grease might just lock it in place for good.