Anti-Mage Items?

[Tyrael]

Ahoy, folks. I'm designing a BBEG for our party to encounter. He's a flamboyant, stylish duelist8/scout8(Riposte variant) with Robilar's Gambit, a Wounding Rapier, and 45 AC. He's totally covered on the melee/combat side of things, but I'm worried about spellcasters. His Reflex is through the roof (around +30), but his Fort and Will are abysmal, around +8 or so each. This makes me worried.

One of the people in the party is a Warlock who enjoys blasting things, and as suave and nimble as this BBEG is, he can't do much against an inward-pointed Wall of Fire. My question is, what's a good thing to counter him? A DM friend of mine suggested sticking the Implacable property on his Rapier, but I don't want to load all of his eggs in that one easily-Sundered basket. He also suggested a Wand of Silence, which is a good idea.

What else is good?


P.S. The party is all level 13.

[AKA_Bait]

Give him a ring of AMF. :-)

[slexlollar89]

Aura of antimagiic: it is a cheap way to annul spellcastres. and the warlock can still use his stuff if he makes a will save.

This isn't an item, just a DM worming his way out of dodging magic :smallsmile:

[Kurald Galain]

There's a Duskblade spell that's something like Dispelling Strike (you hit someone with your weapon, he gets dispelled). Try and get a magical item that does that. PHB2, btw.

[Overlard]

Fire resistance?

One of those ioun stones that absorbs spells?

[Ramos]

Invisibility-or better yet, greater invisibility-and nondetection. Being an agile meeler, he should be moving around and confusing everyone else as to where exactly he is (spring attack). You see, a spellcaster can't target what he can't see. Being 5 levels above the PCs enables the personal Nondetection to thwart all divinations unless the 13th level caster rolls a 20. (the DC is 18+15 vs d20+13)

Make sure all his items are coated by lead (or made of lead) so they don't register in arcane sight at all.



PS: silence doesn't work on warlocks-spell like abilities don't have verbal components. Antimagic might work on the warlock but the item to cast 6th level spells is not cheap at all and the wizard's orbs of acid (or similar) would still work

[Ashtar]

If it's wall of fire that scares you, he can just jump through, it's not solid. And it does measly damage anyway (2d6+13 damage to jump through).

But just at level 13, isn't AC45 a bit high for the players to hit? (+13 bab, +6 str (22 str),+5 wpn, +2 wf-gwf = 26 "only")

If you want to give him lots of help against casters, give him a Rod of Absorption (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rods.htm#absorption). This is because usually fort and will saves spells are targeted spells.

[OverdrivePrime]

Give him a bag of holding full of tanglefoot bags. Alternatively, give him one of those Iron Bands balls and have him lob it casually at the warlock. And if you're worried about him making saves, hook your BBEG up with a cloak of resistance. They're cheap, and it isn't that costly to combine the effects of a cloak of charisma and a cloak of resistance.

[mostlyharmful]

Scroll of dominate as a get goer with the target of the magic users big stompy friend, let them try to burn spell slots against it, or else try to incapacitate their meat-shield. With an AC of 45 you can pretty much dance around the meleers all day, and if you get the drop on the casters you run the risk of flattening your players so be aware of the danger of a TPK

[Viscount Einstrauss]

You've gotta be careful here with defeating the wizard. They're tricky to CR because disengaging their power too much leads to them being useless and quickly killed, such as throwing up an AMF. Perhaps he could have some contingency for counterspelling on top of some decent SR? That way spells aren't totally impossible, but are harder to get off then normal.

[Citizen Joe]

Deck of illusions. Have the joker (illusion of user) card preplaced at some location. A portcullis blocks the way to the BBEG illusion. BBEG runs in and hides someplace in the darkness. Have a dummy set of levers in the room next to the illusion. Meanwhile, when the party enters, the real BBEG pulls the real lever trapping them inside with various annoying traps. The casters will blow all their spells trying to take out the illusion who nimbly dodges around and avoids all their magics, all the while triggering traps. Once the casters are depleted and everyone is worn down, cripple the warlock from behind.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Rod of Negation if you have a Batman who is going to try to Forcecage/cloudkill you.

Got any ranks in UMD? Mirror Image is good to keep from getting locked up and smote. Mind Blank will keep most will save stuff from affecting him. Does the party have any particular flavor of element they throw at you constantly? Ring of <that element> resistance works wonders, or simply put <element> resistance on his armor.

[Jasdoif]

Something along the lines of globe of invulernability (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/globeOfInvulnerability.htm) might be of some use. It'll block a (non-druid) wall of fire. And won't kill your own magic gear the way an AMF will.

It won't be sufficient by itself against a level 13 party, but it won't hurt if they're really into wall of fire.


EDIT: ...then again, I just remembered that the globe doesn't follow you around. Unless you put together a mobile version of the spell, it's not going to be a whole lot of use after all. Nevermind....

[Nerd-o-rama]

Some kind of Invisibility is almost necessary for this character. Consider a Wand of Greater Invis and a maxed UMD.

Something like Dimension Door is good, and there's a wide variety of ways to get that off of items or even feats (Travel Devotion is godly for rogues, or anyone else who depends on getting full attacks). Also good for getting out of that Wall of Fire and into the enemy's face.

You're up against a Warlock, rather than a Wizard. That means he's got a limited bag of tricks. Think of how to counter his individual invocations: for example, magical teleportation makes Chilling Tentacles/Whatever the Wall of Fire invoc is called less useful. This guy's presumably high touch AC makes him less vulnerablle to eldritch sniping than others already. If your Warlock is flying, for god's sake, get a flying magic item or potions. Or a Bow with the Greater Dispelling (MIC) property, to turn off flight and the plenitude of buffs he's used to running around with. Or just, you know, a Dispel Magic wand (UMD!)

Just throwing thoughts out there.

[tannish2]

have him be encountered in a 5x5 hallway with corners ect all over it(limiting the players mobility and making them hesitant to use excessive AOE or hitting their party members if they do, most of them are REF based, but not all!) dont let them get info on the circumstances of this combat in advance, that will minimize the effectiveness of the wizard/cleric/druid, and make the walls out of something valuable and/or cover them in valuable gems, so they will be hesitant to disentigrate their way past to flank and trap him. also give him some dimension door and/or passwall wand/scroll so he can get escape in msot situations, and of course healing items, then attack as soon as their spells wear off.

[Funkyodor]

Ring of Spell Turning for a nice anti-wizard surprise (shivering touch comes to mind) but Expensive!
Rod of Absorption, sucks that you have to hold it in your hands though.
Ring of Counterspelling if you know the spell (shivering touch comes to mind) you definately don't want to fail your save on and Cheap! (But the one time use (re-chargable) doesn't really help too much.)
Ring of Freedom of Movement because grapple spells (bigbys & tentacles) really suck for the character type you described, and I don't think they would be absorbed, reflected, or counterspelled by any of the above.
Rod of Cancellation as mentioned due to forcecage issues, or if you really want to piss the wizard off and cancel his metamagic rod.
Necklace of Adaptation cuts out all the gas / breathe spells (cloud kill, stinking cloud, etc...)
Dust of Appearance is always a nice way of foiling invis and those pesky hide in plain sight people.
Dust of Disappearance is a better greater invis that can't be seen / purged through standard means.
Handy Haversack is critical so that retrieving any of the above does not provoke AoO.
Rope of Enganglement is always fun, entangle the wizard so you can deal with other problems. Or set it up as a trap, etc...
Scarab of Protection to absorb death attacks and negative levels.
Stone of Luck is a neat bonus to almost everything.

It really depends on how much money you are willing to give this guy and what threats you are expecting him to face and how intelligent you want to make him to have counters to all threats he can afford.

[Tyrael]

This guy's highly intelligent and cunning, a real mastermind. He was born from a city quest a couple months back. The party has a magical staff that will lead them to a mystical mountain where they can revive the Dragons of the world. However, the Big Bad Evil Emperor doesn't want that, and so he sent out a party of Evil Counterparts to track them down and recover the staff.



The Good party and Evil party met up in a city.
Good party:
Boshi, Male Lizardfolk Sorcerer/Fighter/Dragon Disciple; Tank
Aiyanna Starchaser, Female Elf Wizard; Caster
Jack Bartleby, Male Human Bard/Swashbuckler; Skillmonkey
Shikai Kaemon, Male Human Ninja; Skillmonkey

Evil party:
Kebril "V" Di'makiir, Male Elf Swashbuckler
Kessa, Female Drow Elf Wizard
Kyrian, Male Drow Elf Scout/Rogue
Peter, Male Half-Orc Blackguard
Tik-tak, Male Thri-Keen Ninja

First Encounter: V Dimension Doors into the tavern the PCs are in, an Invisible Tessa Mage Hands the magical staff from Aiyanna, V grabs the staff, spouts a grandiose speech, and uses his Ninja Pellet (smoke-creating marbles that cast Dimension Door upon impact) to a safe house along with Tessa. A small scrap of paper flutters to the ground, with a building in the city circled, with a flowing caption: "Let us dance."

Second Encounter:
Party goes to the building, which is a gambling hall as a facade for the city's Theives Guild. Jack gambles a bit and asks to see the owner. He is then led into a back room, where he confronts a shadowy figure and makes a Bluff to convince him that he is a famous poet, and should be allowed into the high-stakes games. The figure then extends his white-gloved hands into the light and claps sarcastically (V wears a black trenchcoat, wide black hat, white gloves, and a white featureless mask). V replies that he has met the poet, and Jack is not him.

V then snaps his fingers, a pre-arranged signal, while it simultaneously activates his Glove of Storing, and he is suddenly holding a Rapier at Jack's throat. Meanwhile, Peter, Kessa, and Tik-Tak are rushing in from behind.

The rest of the party is running in from the main casino area, and the groups meet up in a medium-sized room. A short battle ensues, and the Evil party uses their Ninja Pellets to escape. The party leaves, but not before Jack leaves behind a scrap of paper with a warehouse circled, saying "This time, I lead."





Third Encounter:

Shikai goes to the warehouse to case the joint and trap it beforehand before the Evil Party gets there. He goes in, explores the attic, and is suddenly bombarded by a Tanglefoot Bag, an Oil Flask, and an Alchemist's Fire from the hidden Tik-Tak. Shikai fails to Spot Tik-Tak, and decides to run after putting the fire out. Tik-Tak uses his high move speed and absurd Jump to beat Shikai to the door, and hops in front of him. Shikai whips out his Ninja-To, but Tik-Tak simply Jumps onto the wall with his Slippers of Spider Climbing, and then crawls away.



Fourth Encounter:

That night, the party is nervous and stays up, taking watch in their Inn room. About 3:00 AM, Tik-Tak crawls up and opens their window. The moment he appears in the window-frame, Aiyanna fires off a Phantasmal Killer. Tik-Tak fails both saves and is fried. :( I was sad.

Final Encounter:

The party infiltrates the Theives' Guild and has a good old dungeon crawl. Then they come upon a big, big room where there are 4 Thieves, a Stoneskinned, Spell Turning'd, Mage Armored, Levitating Kessa, and V on a chandelier, all waiting for the Good party. A colossal fight ensues, with Jack dueling V atop the swinging chandelier, Aiyanna being Baleful Polymorphed into a frog, Boshi flattening the Thieves, and general mayhem and chaos. Boshi takes out a wrecking ball (a custom weapon) and one-shots Kessa, splatting her into a Web Aiyanna cast earlier. Shikai hits V in the back of the leg with a poisoned shuriken, and V goes down.

However, since Jack is such a nice guy, they simply strip V's stuff, tie him up and keep going through the dungeon. About halfway down the next corridor, they realize they should have taken him into town. They run back, but Kyrian has already slipped in, freed V, and left.






Now, we have V, Kyrian, and Peter running around the world, all having seen the party's combat prowess firsthand. They went back to the Evil Emperor, reported their failure, re-trained, re-equiped, and headed out again.


To the best of V's knowledge, the party still consists of a Ninja, a Wizard, a Fighter of some sort, and a Swashbuckler. However, in the time since then, the Good party has picked up a Monk and a Warlock, while the Wizard's player retired her in exchange for a Swashbuckler/Dread Pirate, while the Bard/Swashbuckler's player went on a trip to Mexico.

So, now the Good Party has:
Boshi, Male Dragonborn Lizardfolk Warblade/Dragon Devotee; Tank
Shikai, Male Human Ninja; Skillmonkey
Magnus, Male Human Warlock; Blaster
"Bloody Red", Female human Swashbuckler/Dread Pirate; Skillmonkey
Brother Thomas, Male Human Monk; No Real Party Role
Chaviva, Female Human Bard/Cleric; Diplomancer

While the Evil Party has:
V, Male Elf Scout/Duelist
Kyrian, Male Drow Elf Scout/Rogue
Peter, Male Half-Orc Blackguard

That's a lot of campaign details, sorry for the long, long read. Anyway, the Warlock is rather flashy and pretty much Evil. He's chosen Dimension Door as one of his powers, and so enjoys teleporting virtually everywhere just to Look Cool. He fireballs people, raises undead skeletons, makes Walls of Fire, and generally blows things to smithereens.

Now, ICly, V is more worried about Boshi and Jack than he is about Aiyanna, but he doesn't know that Aiyanna's left. However, OOCly, I'm more worried about the Warlock than I am about any of the melee people. However, the utter lack of any ranged attacks in the Good party (save for Magnus and Boshi's wings) could offer some opportunities for a cunning mastermind like V.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

in FR guide to the under dark, theres a magic item Antimagic Torc, which as a standerd action activate an antimagic field as a sorcere of your lvl.