Renduaz
2021-04-01, 03:26 PM
Cowardly Quill
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/63/34/41/6334414b808e0b22a8a744777933a4ad.jpg
Race: Deep Gnome/Variant Human/Goblin
Class: Scribes Wizard 18/Trickery Cleric 2
Feats: Metamagic Adept, Spell Sniper
Levelling: Cleric 1 --> Wizard 1 --> Cleric 2 --> Wizard 18
Notable Spells: Word of Radiance, Mold Earth, Inflict Wounds, Alarm, Catapult, Expeditious Retreat, Find Familiar, Longstrider, Tenser's Floating Disk, Witch Bolt, Arcane Lock, Disguise Self, Enlarge/Reduce, Silent Image, Magic Mouth, Dragon's Breath, Misty Step, Knock, Darkness, Invisibility, Haste, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Nondetection, Thunder Step, Glyph of Warding, Major Image, Tiny Servant, Dimension Door, Greater Invisibility, Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound, Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum, Stone Shape, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Summon Greater Demon, Creation, Passwall, Planar Binding, Transmute Rock, Wall of Force, Wall of Stone, Arcane Gate, Contingency, Create Homunculus, Globe of Invulnerability, Magic Jar, Otiluke's Freezing Sphere, Forcecage, Project Image, Sequester, Simulacrum, Symbol, Anti-Magic Field, Teleport, Clone, Demiplane, Mighty Fortress, Wish, Invulnerability, Imprisonment, Shapechange, True Polymorph
Concept
Quill has always been a coward. From the day he was born, he was too afraid to leave the womb. But he doesn't shy away from this trait, for deep down Quill knows - It is better to be a coward than a fool. He wants to help his fellow adventurer, he truly does, but jumping into the fray just wasn't meant for him. Why even take any risks at all if you don't have to? So he'll be there, in his own way - if not in body.... then in mind at least.
Races
Deep Gnome - Perfect ASI, Small size for hiding prowess, Stone Camouflage and Superior Darkvision.
Variant Human - Suboptimal, but you get an extra ASI or Feat.
Goblin - Good if you are using TCE Custom Race for INT, with the main advantage over Deep Gnome being Nimble Escape. If you can't or won't find perfect shelter or cover, you can cast and Hide on the same turn, which goes very well with Invoke Duplicity at lower levels.
Class
You'll want to grab Cleric first for the proficiencies, not having to increase your useless WIS later on, and the more widespread Cha save rather than INT. If you really can't wait for your Wizard spell slots, you could continue as a Wizard from this point until you decide to grab Invoke Duplicity, but its only a 1 level difference. Personally I prefer to max Cleric right away since our main Wizard feature is only available at level 6 and we're kind of twiddling our thumbs until then, while Invoke Duplicity can be used much earlier than that.
Feats
We should leave at least 2 ASI's open to max out INT, but I like using up 3 and maxing out Dex too. Either way, this build revolves around staying out of danger as much as possible - if you're getting hit too much, something is going wrong, so I wouldn't focus on HP or defense too greatly.
If you want another feat other than the 2 listed, mobility/hiding/spell expansion themes are recommended. You could always grab the Eldritch Blast and Eldritch Spear combo if you wanted, but I think its too redundant and not worth the investment, nor is it the point of the build.
Spells
Our main goal as cowards of the highest order is to avoid danger at all costs, which means prioritizing never being noticed or targeted in the first place, followed by not getting hit if we are, followed by reducing the former or evading it as quickly as possible. To that end, you have a bunch of full-fledged Wizard spells like Mage Armor or Shield or False Life and so on that I won't elaborate too much on either at lower or higher level.
Likewise, we won't be discussing every spell which can be cast to affect your enemies or affect creatures and the environment out of combat in different ways. This build is such that you can cast almost anything you want with it, but do so out of harm's way, and we'll mostly discuss spells that enhance that aspect or spells which can be utilized in unique delivery methods by virtue of it.
Low-Level Routines
Run or Hide - If you are in an environment where it is possible, try finding total cover, like a corner turn, from which you can cast spells and retreat behind cover. If you can't, try to put as much distance as possible between yourself and the fight, which Expeditious Retreat and Longstrider helps greatly with. If your race is Goblin, you can even cast spells with your action, then Hide and move.
Make your own cover - Mold Earth can quickly dig out a Trench for you while Tenser's Floating Disk can be used to bring along, particularly if you are of a Small race, a mobile Iron/Adamantine barricade or even small bunker for you to hide in. Witch Bolt works great from hiding.
Familiar Delegation - Othan than scouting, this trusty Wizards's companion can assist in keeping you out of the fray by delivering Touch spells or bolstering it with spells like Dragon's Breath which can be both cast on itself remotely through its senses, because its a Bonus Action with a range of Touch, and proceed to deal substantial AOE damage from above using its action, all while you are waiting behind total cover.
Invoke Duplicity - The Coward's Nova. Drawbacks are requiring concentration and our own senses, and only being avilable once. Advantage is being able to cast as much as we want through it for the duration - all of which just happen to be the inverse of Manifest Mind later on, so we can pick the right feature for the situation.
Your range for every spell is functionally increased by 120 feet. You can now cast behind total cover at all times as long as you can see through it, and your duplicity can't be destroyed or impeded. Since casting Touch spell is no longer a risk, some noteworthy examples at this level are Word of Radiance and Inflict Wounds. Catapult has a high range and hits multiple enemies in a line.
Utility - Alarm and Arcane Lock for hideout safety, or for locking others in from afar. Enlarge/Reduce allows you to become Tiny and hide in countless of spaces that would've been impossible otherwise. Knock allows your Manifest Mind later on to breach doors, and Disguise Self might be handy if you intend to use your duplicate for subterfuge.
Mid-level Routines
As you power grows, so does your cowardice. You are now presumed to have access to Manifest Mind, which scales with your proficiency, to your 3rd level spells and above, and to at least one 1 feat. In addition, Awakened Spellbook means you can replace many of your damaging spells type with Force or another superior type, and being able to save a spell slot on a ritual by casting it at its normal time is a fantastic boon.
Metamagic - What the Spell Sniper feat and this feat's Distant Spell does for your a ility to maintain a distance, both from your space or any of your manifestation's spaces, is pretty self-evident, but you get two sorcery points to spend on specific options whose value cannot be understated under the right circumstances: Subtle Spell, which allows you to cast something without alerting anyone if you are hidden nearby, and Extended Spell which is extremely powerful with Manifest Mind and your Wizard spells in general.
Manifest Mind - The center feature of the build, with the opposite characteristics of Invoke Duplicity: You can manifest it as many times as you have spell slots, and cast as many times as your proficiency bonus per rest, using its senses. It has a greater range of 300 feet and can only be destroyed by Dispel Magic or killing you or destroying your spellbook. Furthermore, it does not require concentration.
All of that establishes its primary use, moreso than Invoke Duplicity, as a remote-controlled version of ourselves thanks to its longer range and being able to cast from its space using its senses. Basically we want to be behind total cover and nowhere near the spectral mind when the action happens if we can help it - by sending it ahead into the next area of the dungeon or if thrusted into combat, by manifesting it and fleeing combat as soon as possible to a safe space far away.
Before we go further into the lengthty strategies it affords us, let's examine the properties of the Spectral Mind: It is intangible to creatures but not to other objects since it cannot pass through them, and it is unclear whether it is itself a Tiny object or a magical effect manifesting as such like Mage Hand. Since the word manifest is defined by outward appearance or display, the fluff leads me to believe its the latter, even though some online seemed to think its an object, which would open up room for quite a few exploits.
For example, if the mind were an object, you would be able to cast Magic Mouth or True Polymorph on it, and even though it cannot be touched, to deliver touch spells onto it by Distant Spell as well. But since I don't believe its the correct definition of 'Manifesting as', especially given what it is and other similar effects, I won't get too much into all the tricks you could pull off with it, but you could probably infer them from the segment below in which the mind's physicality will be explored further.
Lastly, remember that you are casting spells using the mind's senses as if you were in its space. But the caster is still you, the mind is just a sensor that increases your range, shifts your position for the casting, and bypasses total cover. So if you cast any spell with a range of 'Self' but no radius like Mage Armor, the target is still you and not the mind which isn't even a creature. You simply targeted yourself from 300 feet away.
If you can see a room through the mind's senses, and you cast Misty Step on it, you instantly teleport up to 330 feet into that room, even though Misty Step says 30. Why? For the casting, you are in the mind's space instead of your own, which means you are 30 feet away from that room as far as the spell is concerned, even though the measurement in reality is different.
Camouflaged Mind - One major issue with the spectral mind, should we ever want it to infiltrate somewhere stealthily rather than to terrorize or act openly, is the fact that it sheds a dim light to a radius of 10 feet. However, much like any other light source, especially one that is physically barred by othed objects, covering it with something opaque can block out the light, much as is the case with the Light spell.
You could try wrapping in a fabric or putting it in a capsule, but other than blocking its senses and thus yours as well, it should be remarked that while we know the hovering manifestation can't pass through objects, its unclear if it is at all capable of carrying objects placed upon it or push them. Considering it has no statistics other than size and that does not seem to be the intent, I could assume the mind just becomes stuck whenever something is above, below, behind or in front of it unless external force is applied.
Either way, be it by the mind hovering along in synchronity or something pulling it along, what you can do is devise some capsule or Hooded lantern themed housing for it, except with more opaque cover, and some hole or hinged opening that could enable line of sight while spilling as little light as possible. Then give it to your familiar or Tiny Servant or ideally Homunculus with mind inside and stealthily bring it to its destination.
There are more costly variations too - You could expend concentration on Silent Image via the Mind and do the old '3D holographic mimic' trick by creating a 10 feet radius bubble surrounding the mind which plays a 16k HD animation of how the background behind it would look from a 360 pov and moves naturally by changing it constantly as it travels, and it can even have infinite layers for poking your head inside and looking up or down, though admittedly it can get a bit disorienting. Or use Major Image.
Alternatively, cast Darkness on the capsule and confuse your foes. You can't see either, but plenty of AOE spells don't require sight. Any spell that creates bright or dim light in an area, like Dawn or more cheaply just your familiar casting Light on a bunch of objects or bringing them along will also help your Tiny mind stand out much less as it sneaks in.
Lastly, if you do think the mind is an object, at higher levels you could always just cast Sequester on it - time won't cease to pass for it because it is not a creature, and the light should become invisible too - after all, the only reason anything can be seen is because it refracts light albeit to a lesser intensity, and Invisibility masks that. You will have to spend a hefty amount of gold every time you do, obviously. Or you could True Polymorph it, whatever that will do.
Concentrated Mind - Alright, onwards to the best part: crushing enemies from afar. There are all the standard methods by which you could do it, you know, powerful spell attacks, AOE spells, the works, but many of them aren't very cost effective when you've only got a couple of spells to hurl in a given day. But you know what is? Concentration spells or spells which allow you to keep dealing damage to targets or carry on magical effects. Be it ongoing AOE, Summoning, Domination, Arcane weapons, etc.
Its less grandiose if your party is already fighting, but if you found a safe spot and sent only your spectral mind ahead? It'll be an absolute massacre. They're fighting against a force whose concentration they can't break and which they can't harm. Theu'll probably flee or rush to search for you long before the duration is finished, and with Extended spells, even a 1-minue duration can in fact last 20 rounds.
But you can also attempt to box them in: plenty of concentration spells which can do that and are listed in the statistics block of the build, but it won't be until getting a Simulacrum that you can use them and other concentration effects at the same time. However, fhere are also some which don't - Stone Shape, Transmute Rock, Arcane Lock, Forcecage and even Creation, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound or Mighty Fortress if you can spare the time for them, not to mention Wish.
Happy Hunting.
Baiting out the Dispel - If you intend to dispatch enemies that you suspect might possess Dispel Magic, you might want to go fast and furious with non-concentration AOE's or spell attacks, but at the same time keep in mind that they first much reach your hovering position to do it. Then you could always Counterspell them, though I'd advise against it. You have plenty of Spectral Minds, but few spell uses.
Try doing nothing at first and letting them waste a dispel on the mind. You can manifest a new one instantly. If they won't do it again, give them a reason to by dumping a nasty spell on them. Next time they probably will. Naturally, if they can discover where the mind is coming from, they'll try tracing it to its source, so maintain a sneaky approach, and if they do follow while wasting Dispels on the way ( Assuming theu don't have them at will ), theu'll be arriving to your party's fortified position, and you have some tools to male them regret doing so as you level up. You can also keep moving back faster than they can.
The Shelter - As a mid-level coward, hiding wherever you can find is likely beneath you, and you'll likely want to make a personal shelter for yourself or your party. Of co7rse extradimensional spaces like Rope Trick or Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion exist but they are less than ideal as your connection to either the Duplicity or Manifested Mind is broken unless you remain outside them.
Your best friends, especially since you can cast one of fhem at its normal time as a ritual once for free, are Leomund's Tiny Hut and Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum if you can prepare it in advance and imagine you'll be attracting teleporting or Ethereal creatures. If your spectral mind draws them towars the party, and they don't have dispellingor anti-magic capabilities, they simply walked straight into a trap. At such a close distance, you could probably invoke your duplicity and start blasting them with spells freely.
At a higher level for less time, you could cast Passwall with Small dimensions that your party can squeeze through, or even tiny dimensions if you spend concentration reducing yourself, which your mind can still go through, and seal up the entry with Stone Shape or an object or the party's means of doing so.
Personal Safety - If you want to get right in the middle of the action, or have no chooce but to, yet still want to feel like you're removed from your surroundings, you have Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, or Globe of Invulnerability if there's need for it at these levels. You can Manifest
Mind from one either before or after the casting, as you can cast within the sphere, it is not a spell, and energy or magical effects are only unable to pass through but can still be created outside.
A clear path to the target is a caveat under Spellcasting rules and applies to spell targets. A spectral mind can be manifested 30 feet away even behind total cover.
Bound Demon - Get yourself a Dybbuk and you can Dimension Door at will or send it alongside your Manifest Mind to open doors and unlock obstacles for it. It also makes the perfect impersonator of humanoids. Get a Babau and you have access to Darkness at will on your mind container or other object without requiring your concentration and to Dispel Magic at will.
Utility - We're mostly left with a selection of spells to help you hide better, spells to telepprt you out of danger, spells that increase your mobility and some magical servants, nothing too exciting. You can also use spells like Passwall and Arcane Gate to let your Mind into blocked areas or create a linked fortified position with Arcane Gate, not necessarily involving a mind if its too far away, but you can prop up a tiny hut in front of it. Tiny Servant has Blindsight and can be sent alongside a spectral mind with orders to keep watch for invisible creatures.
Combining Manifest Mind with Invoke Duplicity - You won't be able to move both on the same turn, and you'll need to use your own senses for the duplicate, but its possible. You might find a special scenario where you want to be able to cast spells from two or three different positions, such as when preventing a foe from fleeing combat.
High-level Routines
You are a God of invulnerability and Hiding, and almost nothing can breach your comfort. On the rare occassion that you find yourself on the verge of disaster, One With the Word can give you a grace period to rekindle your skittish senses.
Utility - Contingency does typical stuff in enabling you to teleport out of dodge or shield yourself before danger even starts, Clone and Demiplane ensure you'll survive dying, and Create Homunculus gives you a pet with almost infinite range, action economy free sensual and verbal telepathy to keep track of minds and servants personally. Project Image lets you avoid meeting in person and Magic Jar works wonders for you since you have a variety of ways to keep yourself and your items very safe and circumvent death besides - find a Meazel or Nilbog to add their cowardly talents to your own.
Lastly, you have Simulacrum. You can double virtually all of your capabilities, delegate a concentration spell, or send out your Simulacrum with a telepathic spell/Homunculus to pull off all of your remote abilities in your stead while you remain at any distance away. The Simulacrum is protected by all the spells and abilities you are. As for everything you can do by using Shapechange, Wish, True Lolymorph, or with Glyphs of Warding - several of those combined to build upon your natural abilities, the scope is honestly too vast to be included.
Offensive Upgrades - Spells such as Otiluke's Freezing Sphere can be e trusted to a familiar or Homunculus to make Spectral Mind AOE attacks even more deadly in conjunction. The Symbol spell, with a casting time of 1 minute, no longer requires your physical presence and can be planted by a familiar or spectral mind even with a 30 feet range using Distant Spell.
Metamagic Master - Keep in mind that thanks to your feat, you have the ability to cheese out any powerful Wizard spells with a metamagic boost, with a particular emphasis on Extended spells - that means double length Planar Binding, summons, Magnificient Mansions, illusions and so forth.
Infinite Concentration - As a high level Eizard, you can stack Glyphs of Warding inside a Demiplane for getting concentration spells without the concentration either during battle or before by opening your Demiplane and going inside. For example, you could chain a Globe of Invulnerability and Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, then step outside and Invoke Duplicity. Likewise, you can insta-kill any creature that can be pushed into your Demiplane, which a Wall of Force does automatically if the door is within5 feet of it.
Anti-Magical Casting - You can unleash spells from within an Anti-Magic Field, a feat that other than your class is reserved only for artifacts and deities. You can do so both with Invoke Duplicity and Manifest Mind so long as you manifest them beforehand. Sounds preposterous, doesn't it? Am I making a mistake? Open the RAW breakdown spoiler to find out.
Channel Divinity: "At 2nd level, you gain the ability to channel divine energy directly from your deity, using that energy to fuel magical effects" - We don't care about the deity part and its pitfalls, rather that the action of channeling divinity is using "divine energy" ( Energy, by the way, is mentioned in Otiluke's Resilient Sphere description ) to fuel the magical effect that results from it.
Invoke Duplicity: "As an action, you create a perfect illusion of yourself that lasts for 1 minute, or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell). The illusion appears in an unoccupied space that you can see within 30 feet of you" - This is the magical effect apparated 30 feet away, and pay attention to the need to concentrate on maintaining it, as though it were a spell, bht obviously it is not.
"For the duration, you can cast spells as though you were in the illusion's space"
Antimagic Field: "A 10-foot-radius invisible sphere of antimagic surrounds you. This area is divorced from the magical energy that suffuses the multiverse. Within the sphere, spells can't be cast, summoned creatures disappear, and even magic items become mundane. Until the spell ends, the sphere moves with you, centered on you.
Spells and other magical effects, except those created by an artifact or a deity, are suppressed in the sphere and can't protrude into it. A slot expended to cast a suppressed spell is consumed. While an effect is suppressed, it doesn't function, but the time it spends suppressed counts against its duration."
So ask yourself what happens when you channel divine energy to create an illusory duplicate 30 feet away and then cast the sphere. It doesn't stop channeling of divine energy. Within it, spells can't be cast, summoned creatures disappear, but none of that is being done within. Magical effects are suppressed within, but the magical effect in question is not within, its without - fuelled by divine energy.
You are concentrating on it, but not only does the sphere have no impact on Concentration per se, in this case concentrating on something that isn't even a spell, but it does not affect concentration whatsoever (https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/735530299807780864?lang=en), and rightfully so as it isn't written anywhere. None of the specific clauses in the spell are relevant because your magical effect illusion is completely outside of it.
The only question which then remains is whether you can cast via the duplicate, and the answer is yes, because you cast as though you were in its space. Suspend your disbelief, embrace the RAW and repeat to yourself - "I am not inside the space of an Anti-Magic Field. I am casting a spell from outside of it". The restrictions only apply to spells cast from within or into the sphere's space.
There are some specific limitations, starting with the blatant - You can only concentrate on Duplicity and Anti-Magic at the same time by casting the latter from a Glyph of Warding, negating concentration for it, and then cast non-concentration spells via your duplicate. Although you can store concentration spells in glyphs that produce effects outside your Self ( 10 feet ) radius, trigger them first, and then trigger Anti-Magic Field Glyph
Some mechanics also don't work as they used to, such as teleportation and planar travel. If you cast Misty Step via duplicate, the spell won't be suppressed, it will just be spent, but nothing will happen, because your body itself cannot be teleported.
Manifest Mind works under the same principles, which doesn't require any concentration or channeling to keep it up, and with it, you can in fact cast concentration spells. If you needed the clarification, it even stresses that when you cast spells through it, you do so from its space instead of your own. No spells are being cast in your own space.
Personal Safety - At this point, your defensive prowess is second to none, immune to all but the greatest of magical effects. This build grants you access to one of my oldest original stunts, casting Forcecage ( box ) on yourself ( Can be done in the air too ) and activating, before or after, Invoke Duplicity - Or with the new Scribes class, Manifest Mind, or both. The cage can't be dispelled by Dispel Magic and as long as you design its dimensions ( 'Up to 10 feet' ) to fully occupy its space, nor can anything teleport in, and ethereal creatures are warded.
You can also grab the Invulnerability spell and chain it with a 9th level Globe of Invulnerability spell glyph stored inside a Demiplane ( Plant Glyph, Rest, cast Invulnerability at any point, cast Demiplane and enter in and back out ), rendering you immune to anything but Dispel Magic, Antimagic Fields and 9th level spells, though at this point you have plenty of Counterspells and likely enormous range and mobility with your feats and Infinite gylph storage.
You can cast Imprisonment ( Minimus Containment ) on yourself with the release condition being some thought/gesture/phrase performed by you or a party member or any similar condition, and let it be carried by your magical minions or a party member who would care to, or any of the following should they need to pick up the gem.
You can see through the gem, it is not a different plane or extradimensional space, and can cast or take actions or do anything as normal inside, so you can certainly use it according to the same rules governing your other tricks with Manifest Minds and Invoke Duplicity outside the gem. In this state, you are mobile and permanently immune to everything but a 9th level dispel magic or antimagic fields.
Temple of the Hidden God - This is the creme of the crop of your archetype. It is, as far as I'm aware, the only method in the game to confer nearly total invulnerability upon yourself.
At level 19, you can instantly cast Temple of the Gods with Wish, which you could dedicate either to your Trickery deity or to yourself - let's be honest, max-level Wizards are way past the point of humility. It will last for 24 hours until dispelled, or permanently if you cast it at the same spot every day for a year, nothing can physically pass ( But can teleport in and out ) through the temple's exterior, not even from the Ethereal plane, and it cannot be dispelled or affected by an anti-magic field. Only a disintegrate spell can destroy it. These are some spectacular wards as it is, but what, you think we're going to abide by them? You must not understand what we're all about.
You can make the temple for your entire party wherever there is space for it, and with your Simulacrum casting Wish for instant Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum, nothing can now teleport in or out either, leaving disintegrate as the only means of harming its occupants. Naturally, since you can either see through your ( closed ) windows or make the walls out of crystal or diamond, you can affect the outside world via Invoke duplicity as normal, or with Manifest Mind even without your own senses.
When using the Temple for yourself only, you can do even better. First of all, if a creature can't both teleport into an occupied space ( Its ability must not disallow it, which is very rare ) and occupy other creature's spaces at the same time, then you can make a temple ( up to 120 feet ) that fits your own dimensions and prevents teleportation by itself in this way.
But here comes the cherry on top - particularly as a Small race without squeezing or discomfort, you can create a Temple which is 5, or 6, or 7 or 8 feet tall and wide with Wish, making sure to design your door or an opening in your wall as a microscopic, less than 1 inch gap to let a future imaginary line extend through it from a point of origin. Note that the spell doesn't have to be cast on unoccupied ground, so you could probably just jump or hover for a second to cast it around yourself. If not, just Misty Step inside soon after or let your Simulacrum cast it.
Once inside, cast Antimagic Field with your 8th level slot, which will surround the entire temple in a 10 foot radius without suppressing it. Now not even a Disintegrate spell can be used against it, and your only concern is non-magical gas or liquid/temperature changes and so forth. This is good for mobile ventures especially because, while the temple remains for the duration, nothing says it remains in place/on the ground like other spells and can't be moved or picked up, or cast on a ship or platform which can itself be lifted.
Either way, you are also still vulnerable to gravity - dropping you from a great height will mean you suffer the impact from the interior, and you can be taken out of order if your temple is hirled through a Gate into Elemental Chaos or something.
Another stationary alternative is creating your Temple inside a 10-foot box Forcecage, with or without Private Sanctum ( Can be thrown in instantly by a Simulacrum ). The forcecage can't be dispelled or disintegrated, and if an anti-magic field suppresses it, then Disintegrate can't be cast through the suppression on the temple exterior. Sadly, it is vulnerable to someone suppressing the cage's bottom, then digging out the ground below or just letting your Temple fall if it was in the air, then cancelling the field and casting Disintegrate on it.
Still, these are all extreme expenditures of high-level spells and abilities just to get to you, and your spectral mind or Duplicity are present outside to Counterspell or thwart such attempts as they happen.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/63/34/41/6334414b808e0b22a8a744777933a4ad.jpg
Race: Deep Gnome/Variant Human/Goblin
Class: Scribes Wizard 18/Trickery Cleric 2
Feats: Metamagic Adept, Spell Sniper
Levelling: Cleric 1 --> Wizard 1 --> Cleric 2 --> Wizard 18
Notable Spells: Word of Radiance, Mold Earth, Inflict Wounds, Alarm, Catapult, Expeditious Retreat, Find Familiar, Longstrider, Tenser's Floating Disk, Witch Bolt, Arcane Lock, Disguise Self, Enlarge/Reduce, Silent Image, Magic Mouth, Dragon's Breath, Misty Step, Knock, Darkness, Invisibility, Haste, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Nondetection, Thunder Step, Glyph of Warding, Major Image, Tiny Servant, Dimension Door, Greater Invisibility, Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound, Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum, Stone Shape, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Summon Greater Demon, Creation, Passwall, Planar Binding, Transmute Rock, Wall of Force, Wall of Stone, Arcane Gate, Contingency, Create Homunculus, Globe of Invulnerability, Magic Jar, Otiluke's Freezing Sphere, Forcecage, Project Image, Sequester, Simulacrum, Symbol, Anti-Magic Field, Teleport, Clone, Demiplane, Mighty Fortress, Wish, Invulnerability, Imprisonment, Shapechange, True Polymorph
Concept
Quill has always been a coward. From the day he was born, he was too afraid to leave the womb. But he doesn't shy away from this trait, for deep down Quill knows - It is better to be a coward than a fool. He wants to help his fellow adventurer, he truly does, but jumping into the fray just wasn't meant for him. Why even take any risks at all if you don't have to? So he'll be there, in his own way - if not in body.... then in mind at least.
Races
Deep Gnome - Perfect ASI, Small size for hiding prowess, Stone Camouflage and Superior Darkvision.
Variant Human - Suboptimal, but you get an extra ASI or Feat.
Goblin - Good if you are using TCE Custom Race for INT, with the main advantage over Deep Gnome being Nimble Escape. If you can't or won't find perfect shelter or cover, you can cast and Hide on the same turn, which goes very well with Invoke Duplicity at lower levels.
Class
You'll want to grab Cleric first for the proficiencies, not having to increase your useless WIS later on, and the more widespread Cha save rather than INT. If you really can't wait for your Wizard spell slots, you could continue as a Wizard from this point until you decide to grab Invoke Duplicity, but its only a 1 level difference. Personally I prefer to max Cleric right away since our main Wizard feature is only available at level 6 and we're kind of twiddling our thumbs until then, while Invoke Duplicity can be used much earlier than that.
Feats
We should leave at least 2 ASI's open to max out INT, but I like using up 3 and maxing out Dex too. Either way, this build revolves around staying out of danger as much as possible - if you're getting hit too much, something is going wrong, so I wouldn't focus on HP or defense too greatly.
If you want another feat other than the 2 listed, mobility/hiding/spell expansion themes are recommended. You could always grab the Eldritch Blast and Eldritch Spear combo if you wanted, but I think its too redundant and not worth the investment, nor is it the point of the build.
Spells
Our main goal as cowards of the highest order is to avoid danger at all costs, which means prioritizing never being noticed or targeted in the first place, followed by not getting hit if we are, followed by reducing the former or evading it as quickly as possible. To that end, you have a bunch of full-fledged Wizard spells like Mage Armor or Shield or False Life and so on that I won't elaborate too much on either at lower or higher level.
Likewise, we won't be discussing every spell which can be cast to affect your enemies or affect creatures and the environment out of combat in different ways. This build is such that you can cast almost anything you want with it, but do so out of harm's way, and we'll mostly discuss spells that enhance that aspect or spells which can be utilized in unique delivery methods by virtue of it.
Low-Level Routines
Run or Hide - If you are in an environment where it is possible, try finding total cover, like a corner turn, from which you can cast spells and retreat behind cover. If you can't, try to put as much distance as possible between yourself and the fight, which Expeditious Retreat and Longstrider helps greatly with. If your race is Goblin, you can even cast spells with your action, then Hide and move.
Make your own cover - Mold Earth can quickly dig out a Trench for you while Tenser's Floating Disk can be used to bring along, particularly if you are of a Small race, a mobile Iron/Adamantine barricade or even small bunker for you to hide in. Witch Bolt works great from hiding.
Familiar Delegation - Othan than scouting, this trusty Wizards's companion can assist in keeping you out of the fray by delivering Touch spells or bolstering it with spells like Dragon's Breath which can be both cast on itself remotely through its senses, because its a Bonus Action with a range of Touch, and proceed to deal substantial AOE damage from above using its action, all while you are waiting behind total cover.
Invoke Duplicity - The Coward's Nova. Drawbacks are requiring concentration and our own senses, and only being avilable once. Advantage is being able to cast as much as we want through it for the duration - all of which just happen to be the inverse of Manifest Mind later on, so we can pick the right feature for the situation.
Your range for every spell is functionally increased by 120 feet. You can now cast behind total cover at all times as long as you can see through it, and your duplicity can't be destroyed or impeded. Since casting Touch spell is no longer a risk, some noteworthy examples at this level are Word of Radiance and Inflict Wounds. Catapult has a high range and hits multiple enemies in a line.
Utility - Alarm and Arcane Lock for hideout safety, or for locking others in from afar. Enlarge/Reduce allows you to become Tiny and hide in countless of spaces that would've been impossible otherwise. Knock allows your Manifest Mind later on to breach doors, and Disguise Self might be handy if you intend to use your duplicate for subterfuge.
Mid-level Routines
As you power grows, so does your cowardice. You are now presumed to have access to Manifest Mind, which scales with your proficiency, to your 3rd level spells and above, and to at least one 1 feat. In addition, Awakened Spellbook means you can replace many of your damaging spells type with Force or another superior type, and being able to save a spell slot on a ritual by casting it at its normal time is a fantastic boon.
Metamagic - What the Spell Sniper feat and this feat's Distant Spell does for your a ility to maintain a distance, both from your space or any of your manifestation's spaces, is pretty self-evident, but you get two sorcery points to spend on specific options whose value cannot be understated under the right circumstances: Subtle Spell, which allows you to cast something without alerting anyone if you are hidden nearby, and Extended Spell which is extremely powerful with Manifest Mind and your Wizard spells in general.
Manifest Mind - The center feature of the build, with the opposite characteristics of Invoke Duplicity: You can manifest it as many times as you have spell slots, and cast as many times as your proficiency bonus per rest, using its senses. It has a greater range of 300 feet and can only be destroyed by Dispel Magic or killing you or destroying your spellbook. Furthermore, it does not require concentration.
All of that establishes its primary use, moreso than Invoke Duplicity, as a remote-controlled version of ourselves thanks to its longer range and being able to cast from its space using its senses. Basically we want to be behind total cover and nowhere near the spectral mind when the action happens if we can help it - by sending it ahead into the next area of the dungeon or if thrusted into combat, by manifesting it and fleeing combat as soon as possible to a safe space far away.
Before we go further into the lengthty strategies it affords us, let's examine the properties of the Spectral Mind: It is intangible to creatures but not to other objects since it cannot pass through them, and it is unclear whether it is itself a Tiny object or a magical effect manifesting as such like Mage Hand. Since the word manifest is defined by outward appearance or display, the fluff leads me to believe its the latter, even though some online seemed to think its an object, which would open up room for quite a few exploits.
For example, if the mind were an object, you would be able to cast Magic Mouth or True Polymorph on it, and even though it cannot be touched, to deliver touch spells onto it by Distant Spell as well. But since I don't believe its the correct definition of 'Manifesting as', especially given what it is and other similar effects, I won't get too much into all the tricks you could pull off with it, but you could probably infer them from the segment below in which the mind's physicality will be explored further.
Lastly, remember that you are casting spells using the mind's senses as if you were in its space. But the caster is still you, the mind is just a sensor that increases your range, shifts your position for the casting, and bypasses total cover. So if you cast any spell with a range of 'Self' but no radius like Mage Armor, the target is still you and not the mind which isn't even a creature. You simply targeted yourself from 300 feet away.
If you can see a room through the mind's senses, and you cast Misty Step on it, you instantly teleport up to 330 feet into that room, even though Misty Step says 30. Why? For the casting, you are in the mind's space instead of your own, which means you are 30 feet away from that room as far as the spell is concerned, even though the measurement in reality is different.
Camouflaged Mind - One major issue with the spectral mind, should we ever want it to infiltrate somewhere stealthily rather than to terrorize or act openly, is the fact that it sheds a dim light to a radius of 10 feet. However, much like any other light source, especially one that is physically barred by othed objects, covering it with something opaque can block out the light, much as is the case with the Light spell.
You could try wrapping in a fabric or putting it in a capsule, but other than blocking its senses and thus yours as well, it should be remarked that while we know the hovering manifestation can't pass through objects, its unclear if it is at all capable of carrying objects placed upon it or push them. Considering it has no statistics other than size and that does not seem to be the intent, I could assume the mind just becomes stuck whenever something is above, below, behind or in front of it unless external force is applied.
Either way, be it by the mind hovering along in synchronity or something pulling it along, what you can do is devise some capsule or Hooded lantern themed housing for it, except with more opaque cover, and some hole or hinged opening that could enable line of sight while spilling as little light as possible. Then give it to your familiar or Tiny Servant or ideally Homunculus with mind inside and stealthily bring it to its destination.
There are more costly variations too - You could expend concentration on Silent Image via the Mind and do the old '3D holographic mimic' trick by creating a 10 feet radius bubble surrounding the mind which plays a 16k HD animation of how the background behind it would look from a 360 pov and moves naturally by changing it constantly as it travels, and it can even have infinite layers for poking your head inside and looking up or down, though admittedly it can get a bit disorienting. Or use Major Image.
Alternatively, cast Darkness on the capsule and confuse your foes. You can't see either, but plenty of AOE spells don't require sight. Any spell that creates bright or dim light in an area, like Dawn or more cheaply just your familiar casting Light on a bunch of objects or bringing them along will also help your Tiny mind stand out much less as it sneaks in.
Lastly, if you do think the mind is an object, at higher levels you could always just cast Sequester on it - time won't cease to pass for it because it is not a creature, and the light should become invisible too - after all, the only reason anything can be seen is because it refracts light albeit to a lesser intensity, and Invisibility masks that. You will have to spend a hefty amount of gold every time you do, obviously. Or you could True Polymorph it, whatever that will do.
Concentrated Mind - Alright, onwards to the best part: crushing enemies from afar. There are all the standard methods by which you could do it, you know, powerful spell attacks, AOE spells, the works, but many of them aren't very cost effective when you've only got a couple of spells to hurl in a given day. But you know what is? Concentration spells or spells which allow you to keep dealing damage to targets or carry on magical effects. Be it ongoing AOE, Summoning, Domination, Arcane weapons, etc.
Its less grandiose if your party is already fighting, but if you found a safe spot and sent only your spectral mind ahead? It'll be an absolute massacre. They're fighting against a force whose concentration they can't break and which they can't harm. Theu'll probably flee or rush to search for you long before the duration is finished, and with Extended spells, even a 1-minue duration can in fact last 20 rounds.
But you can also attempt to box them in: plenty of concentration spells which can do that and are listed in the statistics block of the build, but it won't be until getting a Simulacrum that you can use them and other concentration effects at the same time. However, fhere are also some which don't - Stone Shape, Transmute Rock, Arcane Lock, Forcecage and even Creation, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound or Mighty Fortress if you can spare the time for them, not to mention Wish.
Happy Hunting.
Baiting out the Dispel - If you intend to dispatch enemies that you suspect might possess Dispel Magic, you might want to go fast and furious with non-concentration AOE's or spell attacks, but at the same time keep in mind that they first much reach your hovering position to do it. Then you could always Counterspell them, though I'd advise against it. You have plenty of Spectral Minds, but few spell uses.
Try doing nothing at first and letting them waste a dispel on the mind. You can manifest a new one instantly. If they won't do it again, give them a reason to by dumping a nasty spell on them. Next time they probably will. Naturally, if they can discover where the mind is coming from, they'll try tracing it to its source, so maintain a sneaky approach, and if they do follow while wasting Dispels on the way ( Assuming theu don't have them at will ), theu'll be arriving to your party's fortified position, and you have some tools to male them regret doing so as you level up. You can also keep moving back faster than they can.
The Shelter - As a mid-level coward, hiding wherever you can find is likely beneath you, and you'll likely want to make a personal shelter for yourself or your party. Of co7rse extradimensional spaces like Rope Trick or Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion exist but they are less than ideal as your connection to either the Duplicity or Manifested Mind is broken unless you remain outside them.
Your best friends, especially since you can cast one of fhem at its normal time as a ritual once for free, are Leomund's Tiny Hut and Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum if you can prepare it in advance and imagine you'll be attracting teleporting or Ethereal creatures. If your spectral mind draws them towars the party, and they don't have dispellingor anti-magic capabilities, they simply walked straight into a trap. At such a close distance, you could probably invoke your duplicity and start blasting them with spells freely.
At a higher level for less time, you could cast Passwall with Small dimensions that your party can squeeze through, or even tiny dimensions if you spend concentration reducing yourself, which your mind can still go through, and seal up the entry with Stone Shape or an object or the party's means of doing so.
Personal Safety - If you want to get right in the middle of the action, or have no chooce but to, yet still want to feel like you're removed from your surroundings, you have Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, or Globe of Invulnerability if there's need for it at these levels. You can Manifest
Mind from one either before or after the casting, as you can cast within the sphere, it is not a spell, and energy or magical effects are only unable to pass through but can still be created outside.
A clear path to the target is a caveat under Spellcasting rules and applies to spell targets. A spectral mind can be manifested 30 feet away even behind total cover.
Bound Demon - Get yourself a Dybbuk and you can Dimension Door at will or send it alongside your Manifest Mind to open doors and unlock obstacles for it. It also makes the perfect impersonator of humanoids. Get a Babau and you have access to Darkness at will on your mind container or other object without requiring your concentration and to Dispel Magic at will.
Utility - We're mostly left with a selection of spells to help you hide better, spells to telepprt you out of danger, spells that increase your mobility and some magical servants, nothing too exciting. You can also use spells like Passwall and Arcane Gate to let your Mind into blocked areas or create a linked fortified position with Arcane Gate, not necessarily involving a mind if its too far away, but you can prop up a tiny hut in front of it. Tiny Servant has Blindsight and can be sent alongside a spectral mind with orders to keep watch for invisible creatures.
Combining Manifest Mind with Invoke Duplicity - You won't be able to move both on the same turn, and you'll need to use your own senses for the duplicate, but its possible. You might find a special scenario where you want to be able to cast spells from two or three different positions, such as when preventing a foe from fleeing combat.
High-level Routines
You are a God of invulnerability and Hiding, and almost nothing can breach your comfort. On the rare occassion that you find yourself on the verge of disaster, One With the Word can give you a grace period to rekindle your skittish senses.
Utility - Contingency does typical stuff in enabling you to teleport out of dodge or shield yourself before danger even starts, Clone and Demiplane ensure you'll survive dying, and Create Homunculus gives you a pet with almost infinite range, action economy free sensual and verbal telepathy to keep track of minds and servants personally. Project Image lets you avoid meeting in person and Magic Jar works wonders for you since you have a variety of ways to keep yourself and your items very safe and circumvent death besides - find a Meazel or Nilbog to add their cowardly talents to your own.
Lastly, you have Simulacrum. You can double virtually all of your capabilities, delegate a concentration spell, or send out your Simulacrum with a telepathic spell/Homunculus to pull off all of your remote abilities in your stead while you remain at any distance away. The Simulacrum is protected by all the spells and abilities you are. As for everything you can do by using Shapechange, Wish, True Lolymorph, or with Glyphs of Warding - several of those combined to build upon your natural abilities, the scope is honestly too vast to be included.
Offensive Upgrades - Spells such as Otiluke's Freezing Sphere can be e trusted to a familiar or Homunculus to make Spectral Mind AOE attacks even more deadly in conjunction. The Symbol spell, with a casting time of 1 minute, no longer requires your physical presence and can be planted by a familiar or spectral mind even with a 30 feet range using Distant Spell.
Metamagic Master - Keep in mind that thanks to your feat, you have the ability to cheese out any powerful Wizard spells with a metamagic boost, with a particular emphasis on Extended spells - that means double length Planar Binding, summons, Magnificient Mansions, illusions and so forth.
Infinite Concentration - As a high level Eizard, you can stack Glyphs of Warding inside a Demiplane for getting concentration spells without the concentration either during battle or before by opening your Demiplane and going inside. For example, you could chain a Globe of Invulnerability and Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, then step outside and Invoke Duplicity. Likewise, you can insta-kill any creature that can be pushed into your Demiplane, which a Wall of Force does automatically if the door is within5 feet of it.
Anti-Magical Casting - You can unleash spells from within an Anti-Magic Field, a feat that other than your class is reserved only for artifacts and deities. You can do so both with Invoke Duplicity and Manifest Mind so long as you manifest them beforehand. Sounds preposterous, doesn't it? Am I making a mistake? Open the RAW breakdown spoiler to find out.
Channel Divinity: "At 2nd level, you gain the ability to channel divine energy directly from your deity, using that energy to fuel magical effects" - We don't care about the deity part and its pitfalls, rather that the action of channeling divinity is using "divine energy" ( Energy, by the way, is mentioned in Otiluke's Resilient Sphere description ) to fuel the magical effect that results from it.
Invoke Duplicity: "As an action, you create a perfect illusion of yourself that lasts for 1 minute, or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell). The illusion appears in an unoccupied space that you can see within 30 feet of you" - This is the magical effect apparated 30 feet away, and pay attention to the need to concentrate on maintaining it, as though it were a spell, bht obviously it is not.
"For the duration, you can cast spells as though you were in the illusion's space"
Antimagic Field: "A 10-foot-radius invisible sphere of antimagic surrounds you. This area is divorced from the magical energy that suffuses the multiverse. Within the sphere, spells can't be cast, summoned creatures disappear, and even magic items become mundane. Until the spell ends, the sphere moves with you, centered on you.
Spells and other magical effects, except those created by an artifact or a deity, are suppressed in the sphere and can't protrude into it. A slot expended to cast a suppressed spell is consumed. While an effect is suppressed, it doesn't function, but the time it spends suppressed counts against its duration."
So ask yourself what happens when you channel divine energy to create an illusory duplicate 30 feet away and then cast the sphere. It doesn't stop channeling of divine energy. Within it, spells can't be cast, summoned creatures disappear, but none of that is being done within. Magical effects are suppressed within, but the magical effect in question is not within, its without - fuelled by divine energy.
You are concentrating on it, but not only does the sphere have no impact on Concentration per se, in this case concentrating on something that isn't even a spell, but it does not affect concentration whatsoever (https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/735530299807780864?lang=en), and rightfully so as it isn't written anywhere. None of the specific clauses in the spell are relevant because your magical effect illusion is completely outside of it.
The only question which then remains is whether you can cast via the duplicate, and the answer is yes, because you cast as though you were in its space. Suspend your disbelief, embrace the RAW and repeat to yourself - "I am not inside the space of an Anti-Magic Field. I am casting a spell from outside of it". The restrictions only apply to spells cast from within or into the sphere's space.
There are some specific limitations, starting with the blatant - You can only concentrate on Duplicity and Anti-Magic at the same time by casting the latter from a Glyph of Warding, negating concentration for it, and then cast non-concentration spells via your duplicate. Although you can store concentration spells in glyphs that produce effects outside your Self ( 10 feet ) radius, trigger them first, and then trigger Anti-Magic Field Glyph
Some mechanics also don't work as they used to, such as teleportation and planar travel. If you cast Misty Step via duplicate, the spell won't be suppressed, it will just be spent, but nothing will happen, because your body itself cannot be teleported.
Manifest Mind works under the same principles, which doesn't require any concentration or channeling to keep it up, and with it, you can in fact cast concentration spells. If you needed the clarification, it even stresses that when you cast spells through it, you do so from its space instead of your own. No spells are being cast in your own space.
Personal Safety - At this point, your defensive prowess is second to none, immune to all but the greatest of magical effects. This build grants you access to one of my oldest original stunts, casting Forcecage ( box ) on yourself ( Can be done in the air too ) and activating, before or after, Invoke Duplicity - Or with the new Scribes class, Manifest Mind, or both. The cage can't be dispelled by Dispel Magic and as long as you design its dimensions ( 'Up to 10 feet' ) to fully occupy its space, nor can anything teleport in, and ethereal creatures are warded.
You can also grab the Invulnerability spell and chain it with a 9th level Globe of Invulnerability spell glyph stored inside a Demiplane ( Plant Glyph, Rest, cast Invulnerability at any point, cast Demiplane and enter in and back out ), rendering you immune to anything but Dispel Magic, Antimagic Fields and 9th level spells, though at this point you have plenty of Counterspells and likely enormous range and mobility with your feats and Infinite gylph storage.
You can cast Imprisonment ( Minimus Containment ) on yourself with the release condition being some thought/gesture/phrase performed by you or a party member or any similar condition, and let it be carried by your magical minions or a party member who would care to, or any of the following should they need to pick up the gem.
You can see through the gem, it is not a different plane or extradimensional space, and can cast or take actions or do anything as normal inside, so you can certainly use it according to the same rules governing your other tricks with Manifest Minds and Invoke Duplicity outside the gem. In this state, you are mobile and permanently immune to everything but a 9th level dispel magic or antimagic fields.
Temple of the Hidden God - This is the creme of the crop of your archetype. It is, as far as I'm aware, the only method in the game to confer nearly total invulnerability upon yourself.
At level 19, you can instantly cast Temple of the Gods with Wish, which you could dedicate either to your Trickery deity or to yourself - let's be honest, max-level Wizards are way past the point of humility. It will last for 24 hours until dispelled, or permanently if you cast it at the same spot every day for a year, nothing can physically pass ( But can teleport in and out ) through the temple's exterior, not even from the Ethereal plane, and it cannot be dispelled or affected by an anti-magic field. Only a disintegrate spell can destroy it. These are some spectacular wards as it is, but what, you think we're going to abide by them? You must not understand what we're all about.
You can make the temple for your entire party wherever there is space for it, and with your Simulacrum casting Wish for instant Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum, nothing can now teleport in or out either, leaving disintegrate as the only means of harming its occupants. Naturally, since you can either see through your ( closed ) windows or make the walls out of crystal or diamond, you can affect the outside world via Invoke duplicity as normal, or with Manifest Mind even without your own senses.
When using the Temple for yourself only, you can do even better. First of all, if a creature can't both teleport into an occupied space ( Its ability must not disallow it, which is very rare ) and occupy other creature's spaces at the same time, then you can make a temple ( up to 120 feet ) that fits your own dimensions and prevents teleportation by itself in this way.
But here comes the cherry on top - particularly as a Small race without squeezing or discomfort, you can create a Temple which is 5, or 6, or 7 or 8 feet tall and wide with Wish, making sure to design your door or an opening in your wall as a microscopic, less than 1 inch gap to let a future imaginary line extend through it from a point of origin. Note that the spell doesn't have to be cast on unoccupied ground, so you could probably just jump or hover for a second to cast it around yourself. If not, just Misty Step inside soon after or let your Simulacrum cast it.
Once inside, cast Antimagic Field with your 8th level slot, which will surround the entire temple in a 10 foot radius without suppressing it. Now not even a Disintegrate spell can be used against it, and your only concern is non-magical gas or liquid/temperature changes and so forth. This is good for mobile ventures especially because, while the temple remains for the duration, nothing says it remains in place/on the ground like other spells and can't be moved or picked up, or cast on a ship or platform which can itself be lifted.
Either way, you are also still vulnerable to gravity - dropping you from a great height will mean you suffer the impact from the interior, and you can be taken out of order if your temple is hirled through a Gate into Elemental Chaos or something.
Another stationary alternative is creating your Temple inside a 10-foot box Forcecage, with or without Private Sanctum ( Can be thrown in instantly by a Simulacrum ). The forcecage can't be dispelled or disintegrated, and if an anti-magic field suppresses it, then Disintegrate can't be cast through the suppression on the temple exterior. Sadly, it is vulnerable to someone suppressing the cage's bottom, then digging out the ground below or just letting your Temple fall if it was in the air, then cancelling the field and casting Disintegrate on it.
Still, these are all extreme expenditures of high-level spells and abilities just to get to you, and your spectral mind or Duplicity are present outside to Counterspell or thwart such attempts as they happen.