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View Full Version : GitP Hunt Club, Target 2: Steena Delphinnia



Fax Celestis
2007-11-19, 05:09 PM
Not every target is a threat to the universe. Steena Delphinnia is one of those targets that is not. However, she possesses a preternatural command of foresight and potentially represents a greater threat than would seem possible due to her divinatory capabilities.

A note: capture of Steena would allow us to eventually turn her divinatory powers to our own ends. This would be highly beneficial to us.

Steena Delphinnia, Seer of the Future
Immortal Blind Oracle Half-Beholder Medusa Monk 3
Size/Type: Medium Outsider (Augmented Monstrous Humanoid, Law, Evil)
Hit Dice: 9d8+27 (67 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 40 ft. (6 squares), fly 20' (good)
Armor Class: 36 (+3 Dex, +5 Wis, +1 monk, +9 natural, +4 insight, +4 deflection), touch 27, flat-footed 33
Base Attack/Grapple: +10/+10
Attack: Fist +11 melee (1d10+1) or snakes +11 melee (1d4+1 plus poison) or bite +11 melee (1d6+1)
Full Attack: Fist +11 melee (1d10+1) and snakes +9 melee (1d4+1 plus poison) and bite +9 melee (1d6+1); or fist +9/+9 (1d10+1) and snakes +7 melee (1d4+1 plus poison) and bite +7 melee (1d6+1)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Petrifying gaze, poison, eye rays, antimagic cone, smite chaos (3/day), flurry of blows, unarmed strike
Special Qualities: Blindsight 90', powers of precognition, flight, commune, fast healing 3, immune (gaze attacks, visual effects, ability damage, ability drain, disease, energy drain, fatigue, paralysis, poison, sleep spells and effects, starvation, thirst), resist (acid, cold, electricity, fire) 10, timeless body, mixed blood, evasion, fast movement, still mind, 4 luck rerolls
Saves: Fort +13, Ref +11, Will +13 (+15 vs. enchantments)
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 17, Con 16, Int 16, Wis 21, Cha 22
Skills: Balance +15, Hide +15, Knowledge (Arcana) +15, Knowledge (History) +15, Knowledge (Geography) +15, Listen +25, Move Silently +15, Sense Motive +17, Spot +17, Tumble +15
Feats: Alertness B, Improved Unarmed Strike B, Stunning Fist B, Combat Reflexes B, Multiattack, Sly Fortune, Unbelievable Luck, Survivor's Luck
Equipment: monk's belt
Treasure: Double standard
Alignment: Lawful evil

Petrifying Gaze (Su): Turn to stone permanently, 30 feet, Fortitude DC 20 negates. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Poison (Ex): Injury, Fortitude DC 17, initial damage 1d6 Str, secondary damage 2d6 Str. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Eye Rays (Su): Each of Steena's eye rays resembles a spell cast by a 7th level caster. Each eye ray has a range or 150 feet, a save DC of 20, and acts like the spell it mimics except it is treated as a ray attack instead of its normal shape. The save DCs are Charisma-based. The ten eye rays are: bestow curse, charm monster, charm person, confusion, deep slumber, fear, inflict moderate wounds, lightning bolt, slow, and telekinesis. Steena can use each eye ray three times per day.

Antimagic Cone (Su): Steena's blinded eyes create a 75' cone of antimagic. This functions just like the antimagic field spell (CL 7th). All magical and supernatural powers and effects within the cone are suppressed—even her own eye rays and spell-like abilities. Once each round, during her turn, Steena decides whether the antimagic cone is active or not.

Smite Chaos (Su): Steena may attempt to smite chaos with a normal melee attack three times per day. When making a smite attack, Steena adds her Charisma bonus (+6) as a bonus on the attack roll and deals 9 extra points of damage. If Steena accidentally smites a creature that is not of the appropriate alignment, the smite has no effect, and the attempt is wasted for the day.

Blindsight (Ex): Steena has blindsight 90'. Beyond this range, she is totally blind.

Powers of Precognition (Sp): A mystical sense allows Steena to sense the hidden and to see things with the mind’s eye. Steena has the following spell-like abilities: At will—augury, sanctuary; 5/day—speak with animals, speak with plants, divination; 1/day—speak with dead, scrying, true seeing; 1/month—commune, commune with nature, find the path. Caster level 6.

Flight (Ex): Steena's body is naturally buoyant. This buoyancy allows her to fly at a speed of 10' and also grants her a permanent feather fall effect.

Commune (Sp): Once per week, Steena may cast commune, as the spell, to speak with her deity. Caster level 6.

Fast Healing (Su): Steena has fast healing 3.

Immunities (Ex): Steena is immune to all gaze attacks, as well as spells that rely on visual effects. She is also immune to ability damage and drain, disease, energy drain, fatigue, paralysis, poison, sleep spells and effects, starvation, and thirst. She does not need to eat, breathe, drink, or sleep, but she may do any of these things if she wishes.

Timeless Body (Ex): Steena’s body does not age, nor can she die from aging. Steena still gains ability score bonuses to mental ability scores for aging.

Mixed Blood (Ex): For all special abilities and effects, Steena is considered both a medusa and a beholder.

Flurry of Blows (Ex): When unarmored, Steena may strike with a flurry of blows at the expense of accuracy. When doing so, she may make one extra attack in a round at her highest base attack bonus, but this attack takes a -2 penalty, as does each other attack made that round. The resulting modified base attack bonuses are shown in the full attack action line. This penalty applies for 1 round, so it also affects attacks of opportunity Steena might make before her next action. Steena must use a full attack action to strike with a flurry of blows.

When using flurry of blows, Steena may attack only with unarmed strikes or with special monk weapons. She may attack with unarmed strikes and special monk weapons interchangeably as desired. Steena may also follow a flurry of blows with her natural attacks.

Unarmed Strike: Steena's unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons. Steena also deals more damage with her unarmed strikes than a normal person would.

Evasion (Ex): If Steena makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if Steena is wearing light armor or no armor. If Steena is helpless, she does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Fast Movement (Ex): Steena has a +10' enhancement bonus to her speed, as shown in the statistics block above. If Steena is in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load, she loses this extra speed.

Still Mind (Ex): Steena gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects from the school of enchantment.

Luck Feats (Ex): Steena has four luck rerolls per day available to her. She may expend one luck reroll as an immediate action to reroll a Hide check, Move Silently check, Tumble check, or saving throw. As long as she has at least one luck reroll left, she gains a +2 luck bonus on Fortitude saves (this is represented in the statistics block above).
[hr]
Here's the plan: you make one character using the Elite array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) who is capable of taking down Steena by themselves. There is no CR listed, as the "victor" of the hunt will be the one who takes down Steena at the lowest ECL.

Of course, this does preclude certain limitations. No Pun-Puns or builds I could find on the CharOp boards. No 1d2 Crusaders. No Epic Spellcasting (though Expanded Spell Slot Capacity is fine). No artifacts. No Planar Shepherds. No Mirrors of Opposition. No antimatter. No Diplomacy. No Leadership. No polymorph.

Beyond that, the sky's the limit*.

Who can take her down first?

A further note: a -3 ECL adjustment will be applied to the final ECL of any character that manages to capture Steena instead of killing her.

*well, okay. I may ban something I find broken later.
[hr]
Previous hunts:
Helcaerfax (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63584), Bringer of the Apocalypse
Successful Hunters:
Fishy - ECL 20
Manir - ECL 14
Cruiser1 - ECL 11
Citizen Jenkins - ECL 9
Winner: Cruiser1 - ECL 1 (Diplomacy)

cupkeyk
2007-11-19, 05:13 PM
Did you name her after Steena, the capoeira dancing sword wielding white element using seer from Chrono Cross?

Fax Celestis
2007-11-19, 05:14 PM
Did you name her after Steena, the capoeira dancing sword wielding white element using seer from Chrono Cross?

I most certainly did. :smallbiggrin:

Armads
2007-11-19, 09:26 PM
ECL 4 (counting the -3)

Whisper Gnome Ranger 1/Fighter 4/Barbarian 1/Justiciar 1
Str 16, Dex 16, Con 15, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 6
Skills: Survival 5 ranks, Search 5 ranks, Gather Information 5 ranks, Jump maxed, 5 ranks Tumble
Favoured Enemy Outsider (evil)

Flaws:
Non Combatant, Shaky

Feats:
Flaw: Power Attack
Flaw: Improved Bull Rush
1: Darkstalker
Ranger Bonus 1: Track
Fighter Bonus 1 (ECL 2): Martial Study (leading the attack)
3: Skill focus (gather information)
Fighter Bonus 2 (ECL 3): Martial Stance (leading the charge)
Fighter Bonus 4 (ECL 5): Leap Attack
6: Shock Trooper

Loot: belt of strength +2, +1 white raven lance, warhorse

Jump Modifier: 10 ranks +3 str mod + 2 synergy + 4 speed = +19

Tactics:
Prior to Combat: Activate Silence.
Indetectable to Seer via Darkstalker + Silence and the fact that she autofails Spot checks.
Charge with Bring 'em back alive, Leap Attack, Shock Trooper.
Attack Bonus: 7 BAB +2 charge + 3 str +1 size + 1 enhancement +3 discipline weapon +2 invisible -7 Power Attack + 7 Shock Trooper +1 height = +20

Her AC against the attack is 31 (no dex to AC, -2 to AC from blinded)
Damage per hit is 2x (1d6 (base) + 4 str + 2 favoured enemy +21 power attack), which is 61 per hit
There's a 45% chance to hit, so that's effectively 24.45 damage per round (counting fast healing). So the fighter guy takes the Seer down in 3 rounds, dealing nonlethal damage.

Icewalker
2007-11-19, 10:57 PM
I don't think that'd do it. That guy doesn't look like he could survive three rounds against her.

Armads
2007-11-19, 11:04 PM
He's undetectable.

Gralamin
2007-11-19, 11:10 PM
He's undetectable.

She has Blindsight 90ft. She can see you.

Edit: Unless Darkstalker stops Blindsight.

Armads
2007-11-19, 11:11 PM
Darkstalker. (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Darkstalker)

Gralamin
2007-11-19, 11:19 PM
Darkstalker. (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Darkstalker)

Ah, haven't seen that feat before. However I still Have doubts. You would have to be hiding for this to have any effect.

When you hide, creatures with blindsense, blindsight, scent, or tremorsense must make a Listen check or a Spot check (whichever DC is higher) to notice you, just as sighted creatures would make Spot checks to detect you. You cannot hide in plain sight unless you have that ability as a class feature. In addition, you can flank creatures that have the all-around vision special quality.

I'll be posting my plan very soon.

brian c
2007-11-19, 11:21 PM
I think the most important factor here has to be range. She can't see anything at all past 90'. Can she target someone with an eye ray even if they're more than 90' away?

It depends on the environment also; I'm thinking Ranged Pin could be a very good technique, basically just pepper her with arrows while she can't see you. Alternatively, cast some spell that can still deny her mobility when she has anti-magic up. AC 36 is pretty good, but a spellcaster could use True Strike (or Rogue UMD a wand) repeatedly to have better chances of hitting. Is there any way to get ranged sneak attack from greater than a 30' distance?

I don't feel like actually making a character for this, but feel free to use my ideas (if they work)

Skjaldbakka
2007-11-19, 11:42 PM
If you are going to keep this up, you need to start listing CR. Someone might want to try using a Truenamer in one of these challenges (the poor soul).

Fishy
2007-11-19, 11:49 PM
That would be Sniper's Shot from Complete Adventurer. An assassin with a crossbow or longbow could snipe at her from 100 feet away, until he ran out of 1st level spells- unless she was ready for him.

What kind of divinations does Steena do, given that she can Auger at will?

Skjaldbakka
2007-11-19, 11:56 PM
Winner: Cruiser1 - ECL 1 (Diplomacy)

*cough* You allowed diplomacy to count? I take it that is why this hunt doesn't allow diplomacy?

Gralamin
2007-11-20, 12:00 AM
Plan To Capture, ECL 10 Before Reduction
Human Paragon 1/Wizard 9

Important notes
Before levels:
Strength 8
Dexterity 12
Constitution 10
Intelligence 15
Wisdom 14
Charisma 13

After levels:
Strength 8
Dexterity 12
Constitution 10
Intelligence 15
Wisdom 14
Charisma 15

Use Adaptive Learning to gain Use Magic Device, gain max ranks (13)
5 ranks in Decipher script, 5 in Spellcraft (+4 to UMD for Scrolls)
Grab a masterwork tool of UMD for 50 gp (+2 to UMD, 21 so far)
Grab ranks in ride.
1 Rank in Sleight of Hand.
Get Enlarge Spell
Weapon Focus (Ray)
Prepare in all 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level spell slots Enlarged Ray of Enfeeblement (avg 8.5 points of strength penalty), you should be able to shoot from 95 feet away (just out of sight!). Prepare one (and only one) 3rd level slot with Phantom steed. In your 5th level slot, prepare Teleport.
Buy a scroll (or 2) of Divine Power, CL 10 (Cost: 2000 gp or so, DC30 to activate with UMD)
Carry around a Chain shirt. Do not wear it.

Battle Plan
Use the Scroll of Divine Power, with a +21 Modifier there is a good chance one of the two scrolls will work.
Summon Phantom Steed, and ride into battle. Hit her with Ray of Enfeeblements from 95 ft away. You should have a +12 modifier to hit, meaning you need a 15 or higher (30% chance to hit), with a total of 10, You should be able to hit twice, which should drop her Strength to 1. Ride to her, and place the Chain Shirt (Using Sleight of Hand). Since detecting you doing so does not stop the action, she now has the Chain Shirt on her, and is now over 2x her maximum load. She should be stuck on the ground. Next Move around from her anti-magic cone, grap her (Her strength should be low enough for you to be able to. Place her on your horse facing upwards and away from yourself (IE: Face her at a 45 degree angle from the horses tails)

Problems
Avoiding that anti-magic cone will be difficult, but do-able, as long as you strength around her using the Phantom steed. Some of my interpretations are dubious, and may not work.
I also have many holes in my plan, and escaping with the eye rays could be a problem. I'm also not sure if I dropped enough weight on her.
Flight can be taken care of by dropping a ray of enfeeblement for Fly.
Use a True strike to make sure the first one hits.

deadseashoals
2007-11-20, 12:17 AM
ECL 6, or 3 counting the reduction. Stat block is below - here's the battle plan:


Get a few first-level warriors to come along with you for a day.
Cast skill enhancement and eagle's splendor. Your UMD check is now +19, which makes it impossible for Cheesus to fail a DC 20 check to activate a wand.
Cast metamagic item on the wand of magic missile, placing Maximize Spell in the wand.
Get 120 feet away from Steena.
Surprise her, using the wand of magic missile on her with metamagic spell trigger, burning 5 charges to hit her with a maximized twinned magic missile for 50 damage, followed by a quickened maximized magic missile for another 25 damage, using another 5 charges. She's now at -8 hit points.
Run 120 feet towards Steena with your warrior crew. She is now at -5 hit points.
Have your warrior crew deal a couple thousand nonlethal damage to her.
Bring her back to your prison.
???
Profit


Cheesus
Human artificer 6
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +1; Senses Listen +0, Spot +0
_________________________________________________

AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 10
hp 29 (6 HD)
Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +5
_________________________________________________

Spd 30 ft. (6 squares)
Base Atk +4; Grp +3
Special Actions metamagic spell trigger
Combat Gear wand of magic missile (CL 9th)
Artificer Infusions (CL 6th):
3rd (2/day)
2nd (4/day)
1st (4/day)
_________________________________________________

Abilities Str 8, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 16
SQ artificer knowledge +8, artisan bonus, craft homunculus,
disable trap, item creation, retain essence
Feats Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell, Twin Spell, two other feats
Skills Use Magic Device +12, 54 more skill points
Possessions combat gear plus 6,250 gp

Citizen Jenkins
2007-11-20, 12:46 AM
I'm sure someone else can use this same trick with a lower level build but I'm sticking with Bob because I like the idea of using the same hunter throughout this challenge.

Bob has the same build as last time. Today he's decided to prepare 1 Teleport Spell, a couple Scry Spells, 2 Flight Spells, 1 Nondetection spell, 2 Dimensional Door spells, and 5 Magic Missile Spells. He's also decided to bring along his Sling, ammo, a Spyglass, a scroll of Cure Minor Wounds, and some Terran Brandy.

Bob scries Steena's location (DC 28) and examines the area for any irregularities and to makes sure there's nothing that can interfere with his plan. He then chugs his brandy, throws up nondetection, teleports 300 ft from Steena's current location, and casts fly. He flies to a height of 200 ft and then proceeds to chase Steena. Steena's blindsight specifically states that she's blind beyond 90ft but even if she can use gaze attacks, they're limited to 150ft and her fly speed is 10ft (compared to Bob flying at 60ft) so even if she double moves, Bob has a 30ft cushion of space and can easily outrun her. If she runs (a fairly smart course of action) Bob simply dimension doors within range. If she hides, Bob uses his spyglass or some other Spot boosting item to search for her (If it's really tough, he can just scry her again).

Once he's within attacking distance, Bob unloads his 220ft range magic missiles (averaging 13.5 damage, so 67.5 in total) but if she ever gets close to dying, Bob just whips out his Sling and begins pelting her with rocks. If he gets bored, a True Strike would speed it up but Bob is in no hurry because he has a spare flight spell if things take too long. Once Steena's in the negatives, Bob flies down, stabilizes her by UMDing the scroll of Cure Minor Wounds, and beats her with a stick until she's gonna be out for a month. He then drags her home and has a beer.

ECL 9, effectively 6.

Edit: Hmm, apparently while I was trying to be tricky and do this with some kind of Charm-style spell, brian c had roughly the same idea that I did (about the sight limitations). Props to him.

Having said that, it seems to me that people are kind of ignoring Steena's divination abilities. The two biggest problems with Steena are her ability to potentially set traps and the difficulty in knocking her out without killing her (at least for me). Unless you've got someway of carefully scoping the place out before hand, plus ways of keeping up with her if she runs and nullifying her flight, I think a kill is fairly unlikely. Deadseashoals, I gotta say your plan of walking up on her with your buddies and getting the drop on her strikes me as overly optimistic.

Come to think of it, I doubt a seer like Steena's first reaction to danger would be battle but rather flight.

deadseashoals
2007-11-20, 02:04 AM
Having said that, it seems to me that people are kind of ignoring Steena's divination abilities. The two biggest problems with Steena are her ability to potentially set traps and the difficulty in knocking her out without killing her (at least for me). Unless you've got someway of carefully scoping the place out before hand, plus ways of keeping up with her if she runs and nullifying her flight, I think a kill is fairly unlikely. Deadseashoals, I gotta say your plan of walking up on her with your buddies and getting the drop on her strikes me as overly optimistic.

I'm not going to assume that she has a bunch of stuff unless it says she has a bunch of stuff. She also happens to be blind, which makes it a lot easier to get the drop on her. And if you'll notice, I knock her out with one standard action and one swift action, so it's not like she's going to be able to run away.

That said, Cheesus is an artificer with a bunch of spare gold. I'm sure he can get within 120 feet of her. He's got 6250 spare gold, how about spending 5275 of it in a scroll of discern location and a scroll of greater teleport?

Your plan also has one minor problem - you need to be able to actually keep her down. The artificer I made was far too feeble to actually punch through the fast healing 3, as Steena's helpless AC is still 18, and performing a coup de grace would, well, kill her (eventually). I suspect your wizard is in the same boat. That's why I hired the warriors.

Ganurath
2007-11-20, 02:23 AM
Question: What's our timetable? Do we have an arbitrarily infinite ammount of time to work with limited only by our lifespans?

Pronounceable
2007-11-20, 04:44 AM
Wouldn't a character like that keep spamming divinations to protect herself from any kind of ambush?

And more importantly, what in the nine hells does she look like?

Armads
2007-11-20, 04:58 AM
How about being ECL 2, hiring an Epic Level hireling with all your gold for a day, and then whacking her with it for nonlethal damage?

Ganurath
2007-11-20, 07:43 AM
Wouldn't a character like that keep spamming divinations to protect herself from any kind of ambush?

And more importantly, what in the nine hells does she look like?Question 1: THat's most likely why the organization wants to make her work for them.

Question 2: I'm invisioning an cyclopian medusa with eye stalks mixed in with the snakes, floating a few inches off the ground with her arms spread out to reveal closed eyes in her palms. Her only atire is the traditional medusa loincloth held up by her magic rope belt, exposing a great deal of smooth yet toughened skin akin to a seemless form of the common medusa's scales. That's just how I imagine her looking, though.

Still waiting on the timetable question, as I have two possibilities based on the answer.

Fax Celestis
2007-11-20, 11:40 AM
ECL 4 (counting the -3)

Whisper Gnome Ranger 1/Fighter 4/Barbarian 1/Justiciar 1
Str 16, Dex 16, Con 15, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 6
Skills: Survival 5 ranks, Search 5 ranks, Gather Information 5 ranks, Jump maxed, 5 ranks Tumble
Favoured Enemy Outsider (evil)

Flaws:
Non Combatant, Shaky

Feats:
Flaw: Power Attack
Flaw: Improved Bull Rush
1: Darkstalker
Ranger Bonus 1: Track
Fighter Bonus 1 (ECL 2): Martial Study (leading the attack)
3: Skill focus (gather information)
Fighter Bonus 2 (ECL 3): Martial Stance (leading the charge)
Fighter Bonus 4 (ECL 5): Leap Attack
6: Shock Trooper

Loot: belt of strength +2, +1 white raven lance, warhorse

Jump Modifier: 10 ranks +3 str mod + 2 synergy + 4 speed = +19

Tactics:
Prior to Combat: Activate Silence.
Indetectable to Seer via Darkstalker + Silence and the fact that she autofails Spot checks.
Charge with Bring 'em back alive, Leap Attack, Shock Trooper.
Attack Bonus: 7 BAB +2 charge + 3 str +1 size + 1 enhancement +3 discipline weapon +2 invisible -7 Power Attack + 7 Shock Trooper +1 height = +20

Her AC against the attack is 31 (no dex to AC, -2 to AC from blinded)
Damage per hit is 2x (1d6 (base) + 4 str + 2 favoured enemy +21 power attack), which is 61 per hit
There's a 45% chance to hit, so that's effectively 24.45 damage per round (counting fast healing). So the fighter guy takes the Seer down in 3 rounds, dealing nonlethal damage.
Steena's first action in any combat is to run, but your mount can easily keep up with her. ECL 3.


*cough* You allowed diplomacy to count? I take it that is why this hunt doesn't allow diplomacy?I didn't think it would come into play versus a gigantic, mindless crab. But it did.


Plan To Capture, ECL 10 Before Reduction
Human Paragon 1/Wizard 9

Important notes
Before levels:
Strength 8
Dexterity 12
Constitution 10
Intelligence 15
Wisdom 14
Charisma 13

After levels:
Strength 8
Dexterity 12
Constitution 10
Intelligence 15
Wisdom 14
Charisma 15

Use Adaptive Learning to gain Use Magic Device, gain max ranks (13)
5 ranks in Decipher script, 5 in Spellcraft (+4 to UMD for Scrolls)
Grab a masterwork tool of UMD for 50 gp (+2 to UMD, 21 so far)
Grab ranks in ride.
1 Rank in Sleight of Hand.
Get Enlarge Spell
Weapon Focus (Ray)
Prepare in all 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level spell slots Enlarged Ray of Enfeeblement (avg 8.5 points of strength penalty), you should be able to shoot from 95 feet away (just out of sight!). Prepare one (and only one) 3rd level slot with Phantom steed. In your 5th level slot, prepare Teleport.
Buy a scroll (or 2) of Divine Power, CL 10 (Cost: 2000 gp or so, DC30 to activate with UMD)
Carry around a Chain shirt. Do not wear it.

Battle Plan
Use the Scroll of Divine Power, with a +21 Modifier there is a good chance one of the two scrolls will work.
Summon Phantom Steed, and ride into battle. Hit her with Ray of Enfeeblements from 95 ft away. You should have a +12 modifier to hit, meaning you need a 15 or higher (30% chance to hit), with a total of 10, You should be able to hit twice, which should drop her Strength to 1. Ride to her, and place the Chain Shirt (Using Sleight of Hand). Since detecting you doing so does not stop the action, she now has the Chain Shirt on her, and is now over 2x her maximum load. She should be stuck on the ground. Next Move around from her anti-magic cone, grap her (Her strength should be low enough for you to be able to. Place her on your horse facing upwards and away from yourself (IE: Face her at a 45 degree angle from the horses tails)

Problems
Avoiding that anti-magic cone will be difficult, but do-able, as long as you strength around her using the Phantom steed. Some of my interpretations are dubious, and may not work.
I also have many holes in my plan, and escaping with the eye rays could be a problem. I'm also not sure if I dropped enough weight on her.
Flight can be taken care of by dropping a ray of enfeeblement for Fly.
Use a True strike to make sure the first one hits.The problem there is that she can still use her eye rays even if she is immobilized, as they do not have a somatic component.


ECL 6, or 3 counting the reduction. Stat block is below - here's the battle plan:

* Get a few first-level warriors to come along with you for a day.
* Cast skill enhancement and eagle's splendor. Your UMD check is now +19, which makes it impossible for Cheesus to fail a DC 20 check to activate a wand.
* Cast metamagic item on the wand of magic missile, placing Maximize Spell in the wand.
* Get 120 feet away from Steena.
* Surprise her, using the wand of magic missile on her with metamagic spell trigger, burning 5 charges to hit her with a maximized twinned magic missile for 50 damage, followed by a quickened maximized magic missile for another 25 damage, using another 5 charges. She's now at -8 hit points.
* Run 120 feet towards Steena with your warrior crew. She is now at -5 hit points.
* Have your warrior crew deal a couple thousand nonlethal damage to her.
* Bring her back to your prison.
* ???
* Profit


Cheesus
Human artificer 6
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +1; Senses Listen +0, Spot +0
_________________________________________________

AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 10
hp 29 (6 HD)
Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +5
_________________________________________________

Spd 30 ft. (6 squares)
Base Atk +4; Grp +3
Special Actions metamagic spell trigger
Combat Gear wand of magic missile (CL 9th)
Artificer Infusions (CL 6th):
3rd (2/day)
2nd (4/day)
1st (4/day)
_________________________________________________

Abilities Str 8, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 16
SQ artificer knowledge +8, artisan bonus, craft homunculus,
disable trap, item creation, retain essence
Feats Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell, Twin Spell, two other feats
Skills Use Magic Device +12, 54 more skill points
Possessions combat gear plus 6,250 gpGood, but once she falls into negatives you need to stop her from dying. Either you or one of your warriors needs to stabilize her.


'm sure someone else can use this same trick with a lower level build but I'm sticking with Bob because I like the idea of using the same hunter throughout this challenge.

Bob has the same build as last time. Today he's decided to prepare 1 Teleport Spell, a couple Scry Spells, 2 Flight Spells, 1 Nondetection spell, 2 Dimensional Door spells, and 5 Magic Missile Spells. He's also decided to bring along his Sling, ammo, a Spyglass, a scroll of Cure Minor Wounds, and some Terran Brandy.

Bob scries Steena's location (DC 28) and examines the area for any irregularities and to makes sure there's nothing that can interfere with his plan. He then chugs his brandy, throws up nondetection, teleports 300 ft from Steena's current location, and casts fly. He flies to a height of 200 ft and then proceeds to chase Steena. Steena's blindsight specifically states that she's blind beyond 90ft but even if she can use gaze attacks, they're limited to 150ft and her fly speed is 10ft (compared to Bob flying at 60ft) so even if she double moves, Bob has a 30ft cushion of space and can easily outrun her. If she runs (a fairly smart course of action) Bob simply dimension doors within range. If she hides, Bob uses his spyglass or some other Spot boosting item to search for her (If it's really tough, he can just scry her again).

Once he's within attacking distance, Bob unloads his 220ft range magic missiles (averaging 13.5 damage, so 67.5 in total) but if she ever gets close to dying, Bob just whips out his Sling and begins pelting her with rocks. If he gets bored, a True Strike would speed it up but Bob is in no hurry because he has a spare flight spell if things take too long. Once Steena's in the negatives, Bob flies down, stabilizes her by UMDing the scroll of Cure Minor Wounds, and beats her with a stick until she's gonna be out for a month. He then drags her home and has a beer.

ECL 9, effectively 6.Nice. ECL 9-3, and you've even compensated for her propensity to run from combat.


Question: What's our timetable? Do we have an arbitrarily infinite ammount of time to work with limited only by our lifespans?I'm going to say you have a week.


I'm invisioning an cyclopian medusa with eye stalks mixed in with the snakes, floating a few inches off the ground with her arms spread out to reveal closed eyes in her palms. Her only atire is the traditional medusa loincloth held up by her magic rope belt, exposing a great deal of smooth yet toughened skin akin to a seemless form of the common medusa's scales. That's just how I imagine her looking, though.That's pretty accurate, actually. She also glows slightly.

Ganurath
2007-11-20, 11:47 AM
ECL 3 is the number to beat, eh? And only a finite ammount of time... What's worse, the trick I planned with the warlock wouldn't work at the level I thought. I can still make it work with a cleric, though. Just need to get the build made- *checks time* ...After work. I promise I shall have her captured with an EL 5 character, thus securing the lead with EL 2!

Callos_DeTerran
2007-11-20, 12:19 PM
Hm..Steena amuses me thus I must defend Steena.

1. Multiple Rays of Enfeeblement don't stack. Penanlty, not damage, and from the same source nonetheless was how it was explained to me.

2. The ECL 3 whispergnome can't hide for squat from her, not with no ranks in Hide or Move Silently, both of which can be used to penetrate Darkstalker since you need to be actively hiding for it to help. And if Steena is out in the open (For whatever obscure reason), he can't hide anyway cause unless whispergnomes have 'hide in plain sight' she automatically sees him and procedes with running away/attacking (Unlikely). Theres also the fact she probably constantly has a sanctuary, since...you know it's at will...and why not if you can? Which, if she's using Charisma as the DC setting stat, would come out to about a DC 17 Will save which is not a fighter types specialty methinks.

3. Artificier falls under the same problem as the Will Save above, though this is not in fact a major problem for the artificier himself, but his thugs are probably useless have the time. Assuming Steena knows your coming, very distinct possibility, she could very well not be out in the open where one can chose the range they stay away. More importantly, if her animal and plant buddies (She can talk with those, remember) can give her a good idea which direction your coming from, she can turn and open up that anti-magic eye and end the threat of your magic missiles

4: Bob, see above about the will save and communing with animal and plant friends, but with the added dangers of falling from the mount if she gets close enough. Just because she's blind after 90 ft. doesn't mean the medusa with a +25 Listen modifier won't hear you coming or saying the trigger words for various items (And then act accordingly)


That said, I'm done. >.>...Wha? It's hard to make a character when you don't know the kind of terrain that they'll be in. And with Steena, it's fairly important considering her weaknesses are very much dampened if she's in enclosed spaces where people can't just stay out of range of her sight....preferably with lots of animals and plants in case such an opponent DOES manage to stay out of sight and still attack without her hearing them.

Chronos
2007-11-20, 02:33 PM
She doesn't move all that fast, and all of her abilities max out at 150' range. Is there anything stopping me from just getting 50' move speed and a Merciful bow and peppering her with arrows from over 150' away?

Fax Celestis
2007-11-20, 03:14 PM
She doesn't move all that fast, and all of her abilities max out at 150' range. Is there anything stopping me from just getting 50' move speed and a Merciful bow and peppering her with arrows from over 150' away?

Fast healing + high AC, mostly. Oh, and a propensity for her to run rather than stand and fight. She'll run away from you if you start shooting her.

Nermy
2007-11-20, 03:39 PM
Level 1 Half-Orc Wizard

Str 16
Dex 12
Con 13
Int 13
Wis 10
Cha 6

Items:

Scroll of Fly
Scroll of Bull's Strength
A custom made, 261 lb iron cage, wide enough to deny Steena any reflex saves to dodge it.

Feats:

Arcane Mastery
Scribe Scroll

- Cast Fly and Bull's Strength from the scrolls, taking ten on caster level checks

- Lift the cage above Steena, staying out of range of her blindsense

- Drop it on Steena


I'm not really sure how Wealth by level works, so just increase the ECL as appropriate.

deadseashoals
2007-11-20, 06:36 PM
Good, but once she falls into negatives you need to stop her from dying. Either you or one of your warriors needs to stabilize her.

She has fast healing, she automatically stabilizes on her turn. If not, cast skill enhancement (heal) and take 10 to stabilize.


Artificier falls under the same problem as the Will Save above, though this is not in fact a major problem for the artificier himself, but his thugs are probably useless have the time. Assuming Steena knows your coming, very distinct possibility, she could very well not be out in the open where one can chose the range they stay away. More importantly, if her animal and plant buddies (She can talk with those, remember) can give her a good idea which direction your coming from, she can turn and open up that anti-magic eye and end the threat of your magic missiles

Didn't see the sanctuary. Well no matter, I only need them to do one thing, and I don't need them to do it very well. I'll bring along however many I need to statistically keep her in the negs until the sanctuary runs out. The thugs really do nothing, they're just window dressing because my artificer has 8 strength and would rather not spend money on a bunch of scrolls of nonlethal fireball.

As for the antimagic eye, it only goes 75 feet, and antimagic does not block line of effect, so it wouldn't block the magic missiles.

Citizen Jenkins
2007-11-20, 07:16 PM
Ok, just cleaning my plan up a bit since I forgot about the fast healing. Same everything except instead of Magic Missile, Bob just drops a Wall of Stone to trap her (DC 15 base+12 Corruption+ 2 Feats+ 2 Mystic Surge=DC31) with a 95% chance of success. Once she's trapped, with two inches of stone on all sides and a few little holes for line of effect, Bob does his favorite Magic Jar (DC33) with a 95% chance of success. Sure she can reroll 4 of those saves but if she ever makes one, Bob can just use his Fickle Finger of Fate to force her to reroll that. Once he's taken over, he flies up, retrieves his body, and walks home. Maybe throw a Levitate in there in case his unconscious flying body starts to fall.

Against that Sanctuary effect, Bob put his 14 in Wisdom, +1 for level and lets say an Owl's Wisdom (Since she'll never have the chance to dispel it) for a +4 Wis Bonus, +5 From Wizard levels, +3 from Fatespinner, and +2 from Tainted Scholar for +14 overall. Against the presumed DC17, that's pretty good.

F.L.
2007-11-20, 08:02 PM
Hmm. Looks like the only disabling conditions to hit her with are the following 3:

Stun. Be an ECL4 flying creature, such as a raptoran, and drop from above with an open bag of dust of sneezing and choking. You'll probably die, but your goon squad can beat her into insensibility as seen above in the rounds she is stunned.

Stone to FleshFlesh to stone. Too high level, but if the DC's high enough (33), you have a transportable statue.

Fear. Couldn't find a nice type of long-lasting fear to spam at her, but if any of you have ideas, just get her from shaken to panicked, and corner her (provided you have 50' move speed, naturally). Then beatdown as above.

raspberrybadger
2007-11-21, 06:48 AM
Why is everyone assuming that the target is in the open? I don't see many people really taking into account the fact that the target can cast augury at will, and divination 5/day. Now, for someone who is devastatingly effective within 75' or so, and vulnerable outside that range, wouldn't you think such a creature would at least know of a cave or some such to retreat to, if not as a normal base of operations?

Moreover, every time the target goes on a journey in the great outdoors or undertakes any task whatsoever, it can take 6 seconds to use the augury spell (or divination if the thing in question is more than a half hour long). That only works 76% of the time, but with a 3/4 chance, the target has a chance of knowing that something bad is going to happen and using a few other divinations (so as to find out what the problem is, and thus be prepared to turn the tables on the attacker) and or retreating to some sort of cave or other somewhat confined space just to be safe.

lord_khaine
2007-11-21, 08:13 AM
yeah, there really should be some information about what kind of terrain she prefers to hide in.

Tormsskull
2007-11-21, 08:43 AM
Well, I don't have the appropriate splat books, but surely in one of them is the Feat "Immortal Blind Oracle Half-Beholder Medusa" Hunter? And it allows you to ignore some of her defenses or special attacks?

Icewalker
2007-11-21, 05:57 PM
Well Fax, these are pretty impressive...and awesome.

I have an offer to help/suggestion for a change:

In dnd there is always some aspect of chance. Many of the builds rely on them succeeding in certain attempts...

I suggest adding another aspect to the judging, instead of just ECL. % chance of success. I would be able and willing to do it for most successful hunters, although I don't think I'd be able to do it for ones who rely on various tactic changes depending on success over multiple rounds.

Also, a formula for score which I think would balance perfectly is ECL/% chance, so that a ECL 5 character with only a 50% chance of success would have a score of 10, while a ECL 3 character with only a 33% chance of success would have a score of 9. etc.

What do you think about adding that in as a factor?

WrstDmEvr
2007-11-21, 07:23 PM
Level 7 Wizard
Takes Sudden Maximize
Buys Antimagic Field Scroll and Teleport Scroll and Wand of Magic Missile
Prepares Dispel Magic + Fireball + Fly and Evards Black Tentacles.
Stats: Increases Intelligence to 16 at level 4

After finding Steena, casts Fly. Then, casts Sudden Maximized Evards Black Tentacles centered on her for 11 tentacles. If she tries to fly up to escape, gets hit with Magic Missile from wand. You can follow her since she has a lesser speed than you do. Keep on going until she falls into negatives. Dispel Magic on the Tentacles is they are still there, then cast Antimagic field and walk closer, suppressing the Fast Healing. Pick her up and teleport via the scroll to the headquarters.



Probably doesn't work but oh well.

Cruiser1
2007-11-21, 08:18 PM
Casts Sudden Maximized Evards Black Tentacles centered on her for 11 tentacles. If she tries to fly up to escape, gets hit with Magic Missile from wand. Keep on going until she falls into negatives. Cast Antimagic field and walk closer, suppressing the Fast Healing. Pick her up and teleport via the scroll to the headquarters.
I think this would work, but requires a few modifications.

Black Tentacles isn't of instantaneous duration, therefore the tentacles are held together with magic, and subject to suppression (i.e. they disappear) from her antimagic cone if she looks down.

Attempts to capture her should minimize the chance they accidentally kill her. For example, if you're relying on Magic Missile to knock her into negatives, your wand should be level 1 (shooting just 1 missile at a time). If you shoot say 2 missiles at a time, you might knock her from 0 hp directly to -10 hp (killing her) if you roll 4's on both missiles at the wrong time. Of course, if you're shooting just 1 missile, you're only doing 3.5 damage on average, which will take a more than one wand's worth to overcome regeneration 3.

An antimagic field will indeed suppress the Fast Healing, however as long as it's up, it will prevent you from using your scroll to teleport back to headquarters or using any other magical effect.

WrstDmEvr
2007-11-21, 08:33 PM
Hm. But wouldn't the antimagic field only work on the cone she was looking at? the others would still be able to grapple and therefore deal damage?

As for the antimagic suppressing my scroll, I can just keep on firing magic missiles at her, cast teleport, and then if needed the antimagic.

Cruiser1
2007-11-21, 10:49 PM
ECL 5-3 = 2
Summary: Drop heavy objects from above! :smallwink:

Wizard 5 (Transmutation specialist)
Feats: Craft Magic Arms And Armor (to get a Merciful Sling for half price), Arcane Disciple (so Cure Light Wounds is on spell list so can craft Merciful Sling)

Gear:
4150: +1 Merciful Sling (crafted)
1700: Scroll of Wall of Iron
1125: Scroll of Fabricate
750: Scroll of Shrink Item x2
750: Wand of True Strike
375: Potion of Fly
8850: Total, which is less than the 9000 WBL for a level 5 character

Cast Wall of Iron (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/wallOfIron.htm) (take 10 on caster level check so can read scroll) to create a wall of 11 5ft squares x 2 in thick = 45.83 cubic feet. Iron weighs 490.9 lb/ft^3, or 22498 lb in 45.83 ft^3. Cast Fabricate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/fabricate.htm) to convert the iron into 23 spheres, each weighing 978 pounds. A 400 lb object deals the maximum 20d6 falling damage (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#fallingObjects) after falling 100 feet (average 70, which is enough to knock her into negatives after one hit). We'll be dropping heaver objects from higher up.

You have a week to win, so on each of the 7 days ahead of time, use your three 3rd level spell slots to cast Shrink Item (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shrinkItem.htm) to shrink one of the spheres into a small bullet. That gives you 21 castings. Use the 2 scrolls of Shrink Item for the remaining 2 spheres.

On the last day, when you get near her, drink the Potion of Fly and go 180 feet directly above her (far enough to avoid eye rays). The strategy will be to drop the small spheres upon her one by one, while saying the command word to dismiss Shrink Item, so a big 1000 lb sphere bonks her from above. There are no rules for how often a dropped object hits (i.e. is there a Reflex save, and if so what is its DC). Hence let's launch each small sphere at her with a sling, so it's a standard attack. The sling is Merciful (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#merciful) so ammo sent from it deals non-lethal damage, and again dismiss the Shrink Item once launched so the 1000 lb object deals maximum falling damage when it hits. Use the Wand of True Strike to improve chances of hitting her high AC. Attack rolls:

+2: BAB of Wizard 5
+2: DEX modifier from DEX 14
+20: True Strike bonus
+1: Bonus from +1 Sling
-1: Shrunken Fabricated spheres should count as valid sling bullets (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/weapons.htm#sling), but let's consider them rocks
+2: Delphinia is blind so has -2 to AC
+1..20: Dice roll
Total: Between 27 and 46

That hits AC 36 a little over half the time. With 23 shots that's more than enough to hit her a dozen times or so (and again each shot does 70 damage on average which is enough to one-shot her) so once she's way into the negatives, pick her up and take her back to the lab for study. :smallsmile:

TheLogman
2007-11-21, 10:53 PM
Cruiser, you are dealing Merciful Weapon damage, but you cannot deal Merciful Falling damage, it makes no sense.

Cruiser1
2007-11-22, 12:15 AM
Cruiser, you are dealing Merciful Weapon damage, but you cannot deal Merciful Falling damage
The falling damage numbers are just to determine the minimum damage from a 1000 lb object coming from 180 feet up. Even if that object is just let go and dropped from a stationary position, it does full falling damage. Now if you propel that heavy object straight down with a sling, it's moving faster than a dropped object, so the launched object should do at least as much damage as an object that was just dropped. Magic ranged weapons impart their qualities to their ammunition, so it's definitely a +1 Merciful object hitting.

The only limitations of this strategy is if an object changing sizes makes it slow down or be less likely to hit, or cancels existing magic properties like Merciful (although I would think it would be more likely to hit since it's larger). Although now we're in catgirl killing territory. :smallwink: Also this relies on being able to shoot (standard action) and say the word to turn off Shrink Item in the same round. The Shrink Item (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shrinkItem.htm) spell isn't Dismissable in the standard way (usually a standard action). It doesn't say whether saying the word to turn it off is a standard action, free action like standard speaking, or whatever.

Icewalker
2007-11-22, 12:22 AM
Of course, if it is a standard action and you can't fit them both into the same round...celerity. Problem solved. :smallbiggrin:

Chronos
2007-11-22, 02:02 AM
Cruiser1, your super-bullets are either launched from a sling, in which case they do damage as sling bullets (including the Merciful), or they're dropped, in which case they do damage as dropped objects. You can't have both. And bizarre though it may seem, if you throw them with your bare hands, they do damage according to their size at impact, but if you launch them from a missile weapon, they only do damage according to their size when launched. No, this doesn't make any sense according to anything resembling the physics or logic of our world, but that's the rules of the game, and in situations this absurd, we really need to go strictly by the rules.

If you're willing to settle for a kill, you can still just drop your spheres on her, without the sling.

deadseashoals
2007-11-22, 02:05 AM
Hm. But wouldn't the antimagic field only work on the cone she was looking at? the others would still be able to grapple and therefore deal damage?

As for the antimagic suppressing my scroll, I can just keep on firing magic missiles at her, cast teleport, and then if needed the antimagic.

Black tentacles doesn't work that way. It sounds sort of like you're using the 3.0 version of black tentacles, but I'm not familiar enough with that version to comment on it.

Cruiser1
2007-11-22, 03:31 AM
ECL 5-3 = 2
Summary: Instead of cool and creative object dropping, just use a boring bow :smalltongue:

Human Cleric 5
Travel domain so can cast Fly; Time domain so can cast True Strike i.e. use Wand of True Strike
Feats: Craft Magic Arms And Armor (to get a Merciful Longbow for half price), Point Blank Shot, Far Shot (to avoid range penalty)

Gear:
4400: +1 Merciful Composite Longbow (+4 STR Bonus) [crafted]
3000: Oil of Greater Magic Weapon +5
750: Wand of True Strike
750: Potion of Heroism
8900: Total, which is less than the 9000 WBL for a level 5 character

Strategy: When you get near her, cast Fly, Cat's Grace, and Bull's Strength. (STR = 13 natural +1 level up +4 potion = 18 to take advantage of composite bow.) Apply Oil of Greater Magic Weapon to bow. Use Wand of True Strike before shooting each arrow. Attack rolls:

+3: BAB of Cleric 5
+4: DEX modifier from DEX 18 (14 natural +4 from Cat's Grace)
+2: Heroism bonus
+5: Bonus from +5 weapon (Oil of Greater Magic Weapon)
+20: True Strike bonus
+2: Delphinia is blind so has -2 to AC
Total: 36, which always hits AC 36 except on a natural 1

Damage from each arrow is 1d8 base + 4 composite STR bonus + 5 enchantment = 12.5 average per arrow. That's 6.5 greater than the 6 hp Delphinia regenerates in the two rounds it takes to fire. That sends her into the negatives after 11 arrows on average. Keep on pincushioning her while dragging her back to the lab for study. :smallsmile:

Armads
2007-11-22, 05:09 AM
ECL 5-3 = 2
Summary: Instead of cool and creative object dropping, just use a boring bow :smalltongue:

Human Cleric 5
Travel domain so can cast Fly; Time domain so can cast True Strike i.e. use Wand of True Strike
Feats: Craft Magic Arms And Armor (to get a Merciful Longbow for half price), Point Blank Shot, Far Shot (to avoid range penalty)

Gear:
4400: +1 Merciful Composite Longbow (+4 STR Bonus) [crafted]
3000: Oil of Greater Magic Weapon +5
750: Wand of True Strike
750: Potion of Heroism
8900: Total, which is less than the 9000 WBL for a level 5 character

Strategy: When you get near her, cast Fly, Cat's Grace, and Bull's Strength. (STR = 13 natural +1 level up +4 potion = 18 to take advantage of composite bow.) Apply Oil of Greater Magic Weapon to bow. Use Wand of True Strike before shooting each arrow. Attack rolls:

+3: BAB of Cleric 5
+4: DEX modifier from DEX 18 (14 natural +4 from Cat's Grace)
+2: Heroism bonus
+5: Bonus from +5 weapon (Oil of Greater Magic Weapon)
+20: True Strike bonus
+2: Delphinia is blind so has -2 to AC
Total: 36, which always hits AC 36 except on a natural 1

Damage from each arrow is 1d8 base + 4 composite STR bonus + 5 enchantment = 12.5 average per arrow. That's 6.5 greater than the 6 hp Delphinia regenerates in the two rounds it takes to fire. That sends her into the negatives after 11 arrows on average. Keep on pincushioning her while dragging her back to the lab for study. :smallsmile:

Doesn't work. Craft Magic Arms and Armor requires CL 5, and you can't take it at level 5.

Armads
2007-11-22, 05:54 AM
ECL 4-3 = 1

This is based off Cruiser1's archer, but done with a fighter/cleric (and lower level).

Archerdude
Orc Cleric 1/Fighter 3

Str 18, Dex 16 (+1 from levels), Con 10, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 6
Feats: Weapon focus (composite longbow), Improved Initiative, Practiced Spellcaster (cleric), Brew Potion

Domains: Time, Pride

Loot:
Wand of True Strike: 750
Composite bow (+4 str) = 500
Oil of Greater Magic Weapon (crafted): 1500
1000 arrows = 50
Potion of fly = 750
Club

Total: 3550 (WBL for ECL 4 is 5400)

Attack bonus:
3 BAB
1 focus
5 enhancement
3 dex
20 truestrike = +32

AC of medusa thing is 34 (counting blindness). So archerdude easily hits.

Drink potion, use wand, shoot. Do so over and over again.

Damage per shot:
1d8 + 5 enhancement + 4 strength = 13.5

Medusa-thing heals 6 hp over 2 rounds. So he slowly whacks her for 9 rounds. He can catch up with 60ft fly speed, 40ft land speed. After she's down to very little hp, shoot her once more. When she falls unconscious (at round 9), activate wand of true strike. When she wakes up from fast healing, shoot her with the bow for minimum damage on the d8 (so it deals 10 damage). She's at -9, so she heals back to -6 from fast healing, and then slowly whack her every now and then to keep her from dying.

Cruiser1
2007-11-22, 07:51 AM
Doesn't work. Craft Magic Arms and Armor requires CL 5, and you can't take it at level 5.
Good catch, where characters indeed don't get feats at level 5. Let's change my Cleric to an Artificer then, where the Artificer class (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20060328a) gets the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat as a class feature at level 5.


Damage per shot: 1d8 + 5 enhancement + 4 strength = 13.5
After she's down to very little hp, shoot her once more. When she wakes up from fast healing, shoot her with the bow for minimum damage on the d8 (so it deals 10 damage).
If you're doing 13.5 average damage (17 maximum if you roll 8 on the d8) you'll sometimes kill her if she's low on hp, e.g. going from 5 hp to -12 in one shot. You need an accurate Heal check or something to determine her exact hp total. Does the Pride domain allow you to minimize shot damage like that, by intentionally choosing to make a d8 roll a 1?

Sengir
2007-11-22, 07:59 AM
There's another problem with your build Cruiser1: Artificers (and Clerics) are only proficient with simple weapons, while a bow is a martial one (and the Cleric has Time and Travel as his domains, so he can't take the war domain).

Cruiser1
2007-11-22, 08:17 AM
There's another problem with your build Cruiser1: Artificers (and Clerics) are only proficient with simple weapons, while a bow is a martial one (and the Cleric has Time and Travel as his domains, so he can't take the war domain).You can use a weapon even if you're not proficient with it. You just take a -4 penalty to attack rolls. To avoid that, it's better to switch from a Human to an Elf, so you gain Martial Weapon Proficiency: Longbow as a bonus feat. Since Craft Magic Arms and Armor comes from being an Artificer, you still have the generic level 1 and level 3 feats to cover Precise Shot and Far Shot to avoid range penalty.

Sengir
2007-11-22, 08:22 AM
You can use a weapon even if you're not proficient with it. You just take a -4 penalty to attack rolls. To avoid that, it's better to switch from a Human to an Elf, so you gain Martial Weapon Proficiency: Longbow as a bonus feat. Since Craft Magic Arms and Armor comes from being an Artificer, you still have the generic level 1 and level 3 feats to cover Precise Shot and Far Shot to avoid range penalty.

You are correct. But as your strategy included failing only on a natural 1 and you hadn't calculated the -4 penalty, I thought it was worth pointing it out for correctness sake, so that you could alter your build accordingly. Which you have done efficient, if I might say so.

Cruiser1
2007-11-22, 04:46 PM
One more idea! ECL 3-3 = 0 :smallbiggrin:
Wizard 3
Strategy: Instead of seeking non-lethal damage, do lethal in known quantities (which is guaranteed not to accidentally overflow and kill her)

You only need one piece of gear: A Wand of Maximized Magic Missile (caster level 1) [45 charges left], which costs 2700, which is the exact WBL for a level 3 character. The cost of buying a wand (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm#creatingWands) is 750 x spell level (= 4 for level 1 spell Magic Missile with Maximize Spell applied to it) x caster level (= 1, so only 1 missile comes out), so this wand costs 3000 new with 50 charges, or 2700 when proportioned to 45 charges left.

Strategy: Cast Alter Self to turn into something with wings, then fly after her. Shoot her with a Maximized level 1 Magic Missile each round, which always hits with 5 points of damage. She regenerates 3 each round, so you do 2 net damage each round. Use the wand exactly 38 times, and she'll be at exactly -9 hp. Commence the standard pick up and carry her back to lab for study while doing non-lethal damage with weapons as needed to maintain unconsciousness. :smallsmile:

Risk: The range of Magic Missile is out of range of her blindsight, but within range of her eye rays. If she decides to fight and shoots rays at random squares, she could hit you. However since it's been said that her first action in a fight is to run away, and that she runs away from you if you start shooting her, and that her eye rays take up (Su (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#supernaturalAbilities)) standard actions which prevents one from effectively fleeing, you should be pretty safe.

Armads
2007-11-23, 01:54 AM
The wand requires at least CL 7th. You need CL 7 to cast 4th level spells.

Cruiser1
2007-11-23, 02:29 PM
The wand requires at least CL 7th. You need CL 7 to cast 4th level spells.
The above doesn't affect this build any. :smallsmile: A wand (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wands.htm) is a spell trigger (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicItemBasics.htm#spellTrigger) magic item, meaning that "anyone with a spell on his or her spell list knows how to use a spell trigger item that stores that spell", hence a level 3 (or level 1 for that matter) Wizard can always active any wand of Magic Missile (even one with tons of metamagic in it) without any caster level or Use Magic Device checks needed. Note a Maximized Magic Missile isn't a 4th level spell, but rather a 1st level spell (that usually but not necessarily gets prepared in a 4th level spell slot). It's still a 1st level spell with respect to save DC's and all. This is similar to how a Wizard with the Sudden Maximize feat could cast a Maximized Magic missile at level 1.

Icewalker
2007-11-23, 04:40 PM
One possible issue: the 'only 1/2 your money spent on one item' rule for WBL.

Chronos
2007-11-23, 05:25 PM
But the wand itself must still be at least CL 7, which means that it's more expensive, and it launches more missiles. The extra three missiles aren't a problem (if four missiles would be too many, you can redirect some to other targets), but the price might be.

Cruiser1
2007-11-24, 11:58 AM
One possible issue: the 'only 1/2 your money spent on one item' rule for WBL.
If that's a problem, then instead of one wand with 45 charges left, we'll buy two wands with 22 charges left each.

But the wand itself must still be at least CL 7, which means that it's more expensive, and it launches more missiles.
I don't see any limitation with wands (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm#creatingWands) or other magic items that ties spell level to caster level. The price of a wand is 750 * (default spell slot level * character caster level). The rules say "a creator can create an item at a lower caster level than her own, but never lower than the minimum level needed to cast the needed spell". For example, you can brew a potion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/potionsAndOils.htm) of Barkskin that gives +2 AC (2nd level slot, with caster level 3) or a potion of Barkskin that gives +5 AC (2nd level slot, with caster level 12). Metamagic feats, which don't change caster level, but do change the spell slot level, can also be applied when items are made.

Chronos
2007-11-24, 01:40 PM
Yes, but in order to cast Maximized Magic Missile (which takes up a 4th-level slot) you need to be at least 7th level; therefore, you cannot make a wand of Maximized Magic Missile at CL less than 7 (since that's the minimum CL needed to cast it).

Actually, though, this isn't even a problem, since the higher-level wand will give you more bang for your buck. It'll cost 7 times as much per charge, but it'll do 17 damage per charge, compared to the 2 per charge that you get from a CL1 wand (since the Fast Healing only applies once per round). So you won't need as many charges on the wand, and can still afford it.

Do note too that you won't be able to get her to -9 HP at the end of a round. It's like the old brain teaser about the snail crawling out of a well: You do damage to her before she heals it, and if she ever gets to -10, she's dead. So the best you can do is to damage her to -9, at which point she immediately heals to -6.

Cruiser1
2007-11-24, 05:43 PM
Actually, though, this isn't even a problem, since the higher-level wand will give you more bang for your buck. It'll cost 7 times as much per charge, but it'll do 17 damage per charge, compared to the 2 per charge that you get from a CL1 wand (since the Fast Healing only applies once per round). So you won't need as many charges on the wand, and can still afford it.
Indeed, a CL 7 wand will works just as well and also faster, and avoids the CL issue. :smallsmile: A Wand of Maximized Magic Missile (CL 7) costs 750 * (spell slot 4) * (caster level 7) = 21000 new with 50 charges (like any other level 4 wand). With 6 charges left it costs 2520, which is less then 2700 WBL (get two such wands with 3 charges each). Four Maximized missiles will do 20 damage, or 17 after regeneration. 4 zaps will bring her to negatives: 67 -> 50 -> 33 -> 16 -> -1. I originally chose a CL 1 wand to avoid doing over 10 damage at any time and accidentally killing her, but since these are known fixed damage amounts that won't happen. For example, if after the first zap I wait 3 rounds and allow her to regenerate 9 hp, then a 5th zap will do an additional 8 damage, which brings her to exactly -9 again.

Do note too that you won't be able to get her to -9 HP at the end of a round. It's like the old brain teaser about the snail crawling out of a well: You do damage to her before she heals it, and if she ever gets to -10, she's dead. So the best you can do is to damage her to -9, at which point she immediately heals to -6.
The point of getting her to -9 (it doesn't have to be that number in particular, where any reasonably negative number will do) was just to give me a couple rounds to fly next to her afterward without her waking up. Assuming fast healing regeneration is applied during their turn as opposed to at the end of the round after everyone's turn, then if I withhold initiaitive so I go after her, then I do my damage after her regeneration, so she can have -9 hp at the end of a round before her regeneration kicks in again.

deadseashoals
2007-11-24, 06:12 PM
Cruiser1:

What's your plan for keeping her in the negs? Your quarterstaff isn't going to cut it. Also, what are you going to do if she's indoors?

WrstDmEvr
2007-11-24, 07:25 PM
Okay, here's another try

Level 5 Warlock
Eldritch Spear, Frightful Blast, Sickening Blast, Hellrime Blast
Magical Aptitude, Maximize Spell-Like Ability.
15 Cha, 14 Dex.
Wand of True Strike
(2)Potions of Fly
Quarterstaff.
7 ranks UMD

Warlock stays exactly 150' away from Steena once found, drinks the potion and casts True Strike from wand. He takes a 10 on his UMD check, + 7 for ranks, + 2 for Magical Aptitude, and + 2 for Charisma modifier, for a total of 21, enough to activate. He then uses a Sickening/Frightful Eldritch Spear against a touch AC of 27. + 20 from true strike, + 2 for Dexterity modifier, + 3 for BAB, meaning he has to get a 2 or higher to hit. Assuming he does average damage, thats 10 damage per hit(4 after regeneration.) Thats 34 rounds before -1. Then she regains to 2,and another blast down to -8, then -5, then -2, and by now the warlock has come up to her. He starts carrying her away, blasting her whenever she regains consciousness to have her go into negatives again. Uses Maximize Spell-Like Ability when his damage output is getting low.

Something I know won't work, but -

Materials-As above, only instead of Maximize Spell-Like Ability, Nonlethal Substitution(Cold).

Plan - Same as above, only using nonlethal Hellrime Blasts instead. Once Fly runs out, go to the ground and continue blasting at close range. After a while, when she is at an incredibly low level, bring her back to HQ.

Cruiser1
2007-11-24, 08:27 PM
What's your plan for keeping her in the negs? Your quarterstaff isn't going to cut it. Also, what are you going to do if she's indoors?

I still have 180 gold left. A trained hireling (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#hirelingTrained) costs only 3 sp per day. I could hire 600 people to come along and beat on her with clubs (telling them to take the -4 attack roll penalty to deal non-lethal damage). Actually, even the quarterstaff would work for a while. Cast True Strike from spell slots or another wand, so every other round do:

Delphinia's AC when unconscious is: 36 - 8 (DEX bonus now 0) - 2 (blindness penalty) -4 (helpless penalty (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/combatModifiers.htm#regularAttack) to melee attacks) = 22. My attack roll is 1 (BAB bonus of Wizard 3) + 20 (True Strike bonus) = 21, which hits AC 22 every time (excluding automiss on natural 1). Given STR 12, that does 1d6+1 damage (average 4.5) every other round, which keeps up with fast healing 3 until you run out of True Strikes.

Most of the builds in this thread have assumed she's outdoors for simplicity, because if she's indoors, there are so many options that it's hard to say anything without a DM playing her. In general, it's better for her to be outdoors, because she can take advantage of her flight and eye rays to keep one at a distance. If she's indoors, that generally makes things easier (and allows many other build options), since you can sneak up on her without risk of being exposed to her various nasty abilities.

WrstDmEvr
2007-11-24, 09:07 PM
At that rate, why not simply -


1. Hire 2,800 trained hirelings for the day. Tell 2,700 of them to wait directly to the east, north, and south of Steena(900 each side)
2. You and the other 100 hirelings sneak over to the west.
3. Using a ranged weapon, snipe away at Steena from the west. Have the hirelings you took with you rush her.
4. If she runs, have your other hirelings mob her with nonlethal damage. There will be 45 natural 20's overall, resulting in hits.

Thats a level 2 character.

Cruiser1
2007-11-24, 10:23 PM
1. Hire 2,800 trained hirelings for the day.Steena flies. She's likely hovering high enough that no ground units can reach her. Unless you have enough wealth to give them all Potions of Fly, or quality range weapons (although even range weapons have range limits if she's high enough in the air) the hirelings can't help. They can certainly do simple things for you once she's unconscious and on the ground, like beat her with clubs and help carry her back to the lab for you.

Psiborg
2007-11-25, 10:39 AM
Steena Delphinnia, Seer of the Future
Immortal Blind Oracle Half-Beholder Medusa Monk 3
Size/Type: Medium Outsider (Augmented Monstrous Humanoid, Law, Evil)
Hit Dice: 9d8+27 (67 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 40 ft. (6 squares), fly 20' (good)
Armor Class: 36 (+3 Dex, +5 Wis, +1 monk, +9 natural, +4 insight, +4 deflection), touch 27, flat-footed 33
Base Attack/Grapple: +10/+10
Attack: Fist +11 melee (1d10+1) or snakes +11 melee (1d4+1 plus poison) or bite +11 melee (1d6+1)
Full Attack: Fist +11 melee (1d10+1) and snakes +9 melee (1d4+1 plus poison) and bite +9 melee (1d6+1); or fist +9/+9 (1d10+1) and snakes +7 melee (1d4+1 plus poison) and bite +7 melee (1d6+1)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Petrifying gaze, poison, eye rays, antimagic cone, smite chaos (3/day), flurry of blows, unarmed strike
Special Qualities: Blindsight 90', powers of precognition, flight, commune, fast healing 3, immune (gaze attacks, visual effects, ability damage, ability drain, disease, energy drain, fatigue, paralysis, poison, sleep spells and effects, starvation, thirst), resist (acid, cold, electricity, fire) 10, timeless body, mixed blood, evasion, fast movement, still mind, 4 luck rerolls
Saves: Fort +13, Ref +11, Will +13 (+15 vs. enchantments)
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 17, Con 16, Int 16, Wis 21, Cha 22
Skills: Balance +15, Hide +15, Knowledge (Arcana) +15, Knowledge (History) +15, Knowledge (Geography) +15, Listen +25, Move Silently +15, Sense Motive +17, Spot +17, Tumble +15
Feats: Alertness B, Improved Unarmed Strike B, Stunning Fist B, Combat Reflexes B, Multiattack, Sly Fortune, Unbelievable Luck, Survivor's Luck
Equipment: monk's belt
Treasure: Double standard
Alignment: Lawful evil

Petrifying Gaze (Su): Turn to stone permanently, 30 feet, Fortitude DC 20 negates. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Poison (Ex): Injury, Fortitude DC 17, initial damage 1d6 Str, secondary damage 2d6 Str. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Eye Rays (Su): Each of Steena's eye rays resembles a spell cast by a 7th level caster. Each eye ray has a range or 150 feet, a save DC of 20, and acts like the spell it mimics except it is treated as a ray attack instead of its normal shape. The save DCs are Charisma-based. The ten eye rays are: bestow curse, charm monster, charm person, confusion, deep slumber, fear, inflict moderate wounds, lightning bolt, slow, and telekinesis. Steena can use each eye ray three times per day.

Antimagic Cone (Su): Steena's blinded eyes create a 75' cone of antimagic. This functions just like the antimagic field spell (CL 7th). All magical and supernatural powers and effects within the cone are suppressed—even her own eye rays and spell-like abilities. Once each round, during her turn, Steena decides whether the antimagic cone is active or not.

Smite Chaos (Su): Steena may attempt to smite chaos with a normal melee attack three times per day. When making a smite attack, Steena adds her Charisma bonus (+6) as a bonus on the attack roll and deals 9 extra points of damage. If Steena accidentally smites a creature that is not of the appropriate alignment, the smite has no effect, and the attempt is wasted for the day.

Blindsight (Ex): Steena has blindsight 90'. Beyond this range, she is totally blind.

Powers of Precognition (Sp): A mystical sense allows Steena to sense the hidden and to see things with the mind’s eye. Steena has the following spell-like abilities: At will—augury, sanctuary; 5/day—speak with animals, speak with plants, divination; 1/day—speak with dead, scrying, true seeing; 1/month—commune, commune with nature, find the path. Caster level 6.

Flight (Ex): Steena's body is naturally buoyant. This buoyancy allows her to fly at a speed of 10' and also grants her a permanent feather fall effect.

Commune (Sp): Once per week, Steena may cast commune, as the spell, to speak with her deity. Caster level 6.

Fast Healing (Su): Steena has fast healing 3.

Immunities (Ex): Steena is immune to all gaze attacks, as well as spells that rely on visual effects. She is also immune to ability damage and drain, disease, energy drain, fatigue, paralysis, poison, sleep spells and effects, starvation, and thirst. She does not need to eat, breathe, drink, or sleep, but she may do any of these things if she wishes.

Timeless Body (Ex): Steena’s body does not age, nor can she die from aging. Steena still gains ability score bonuses to mental ability scores for aging.

Mixed Blood (Ex): For all special abilities and effects, Steena is considered both a medusa and a beholder.

Flurry of Blows (Ex): When unarmored, Steena may strike with a flurry of blows at the expense of accuracy. When doing so, she may make one extra attack in a round at her highest base attack bonus, but this attack takes a -2 penalty, as does each other attack made that round. The resulting modified base attack bonuses are shown in the full attack action line. This penalty applies for 1 round, so it also affects attacks of opportunity Steena might make before her next action. Steena must use a full attack action to strike with a flurry of blows.

When using flurry of blows, Steena may attack only with unarmed strikes or with special monk weapons. She may attack with unarmed strikes and special monk weapons interchangeably as desired. Steena may also follow a flurry of blows with her natural attacks.

Unarmed Strike: Steena's unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons. Steena also deals more damage with her unarmed strikes than a normal person would.

Evasion (Ex): If Steena makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if Steena is wearing light armor or no armor. If Steena is helpless, she does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Fast Movement (Ex): Steena has a +10' enhancement bonus to her speed, as shown in the statistics block above. If Steena is in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load, she loses this extra speed.

Still Mind (Ex): Steena gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects from the school of enchantment.

Luck Feats (Ex): Steena has four luck rerolls per day available to her. She may expend one luck reroll as an immediate action to reroll a Hide check, Move Silently check, Tumble check, or saving throw. As long as she has at least one luck reroll left, she gains a +2 luck bonus on Fortitude saves (this is represented in the statistics block above).
<hr>

Alright, I'm working with a Human Wizard 5/Paragon 3, which is probably capable of taking her down alive. No promises made though, and I'm still working on the plan.

As a statement of intent:

Zombies. They can be perfectly co-ordinated, are not subject to most of her defenses (including, unless I'm mistaken, her petrifying gaze), and if you make a zombie out of a flying creature it can still fly. 28HD of undead should make for enough flying zombies so that escape will be impossible, due to the simple fact that there will be enough of them to dogpile her until she is subdued.

The thing is that she is going to know that you are coming. It would be silly to expect to catch her completely unaware, but perhaps copious use of Nondetection (DC 18, versus her 1d20+6) will keep her mostly in the dark. The odds are against you keeping completely undetected (40% chance of her beating the DC), but at 200gp per day you can force her to make an effort of it and hope for a little luck (unfortunately, she also has luck on her side, literally >_>).

I give it about 50/50 as to her being inside or outside, but that's ok because zombies are equal opportunity eaters. If she is inside, then you use a scroll of Arcane Eye to locate her. You then send your familiar (an Owl; just because I said so) with a Bead of Force with one group of zombies, and yourself with the other group. Use superior numbers to ensure she is grappled and pinned, not to mention beaten to within an inch of her life. Then use Shape Stone to incase her in a good 12" of stone, leaving on breathing holes. The undead army then proceeds to drag her back for the bounty.

I'll work some more on this to fine-tune what should happen. Anything I'm blatently missing here?

Psiborg
2007-11-25, 12:26 PM
BTW, how does she have a BAB of +10 with only 9HD?

Still working on the best way to get the undead army to do it's thing.

Right now I'm thinking 2 Zombie Giant Owls and 12 Skeletal somthing-or-others; a buch of 1HD wonders. Stack on enough buffs and they should be able to get hands on her. She has very few HP, so all that's needed is the opportunity for one good Lightning Bolt to take the fight out of her. Hell, have the skeletons dogpile her and then toast the whole thing with a Fireball. Wrap up whatever's left with Shape Stone and deliver it. Maybe hold the stone over an open flame to get some personal questions answered as a bonus. >_>

I guess the trick is knowing what kind of vision it is she uses. Will a silence spell render opponents invisible to her? What about if it's layered on top of a simple invisibility spell? Does scent come into play? Unless otherwise specified, I'm saying toss on whatever stealth boosters are available and hope that they give one round with her flat-footed.

There's no good way to protect the hunter from her, since any magic items to boost defense are going to be worthless as soon as you're looked at.

Next post from me will have what I consider my best plans, both from an enclosed attack and for open spaces.

Belial_the_Leveler
2007-11-25, 01:25 PM
Nonlethal substituted empowered magic missiles (arcane thesis) from a specialised lvl 5 human evoker with the PHB2 class feature for extra specialisation slots with the mount and fly (on the mount) spells active.

None of her defences are relevant:

1) The speed of the mount equals her own and the mount can take double move actions while flying independently of the wizard to move 120 ft/round while the wizard is casting spells so she can't outrun them.

2) Her AC and saves are irrelevant.

3) Her immunities are irrelevant and she doesn't have SR.

4) The range of the missiles is 150 ft while the range of her attacks is much shorter.

5) She can't see where the missiles are coming from in order to strike back.

6) Her antimagic cone does not block line of effect-as long as the wizard casts from further away than 75 ft, he can hit through it. Even if the DM rules otherwise, the cone is only 75 ft wide and the wizard can move-thanks to the mount-120 ft per round AND cast magic missile to attack from an angle the cone does not cover.

7) The missiles do 15 damage per round on average. Minus her fast healing, that's 13 damage/round. The wizard has enough spell slots to down her at least twice, maybe thrice.

8) Once downed, the wizard's 8 HD zombie ogre can grapple and keep squeezing to deal unarmed nonlethal damage automatically to keep her down.


Unless I am mistaken, that's ECL 5-3 = 2.

Darion
2007-11-25, 01:26 PM
Dark Whisper Gnome Wizard 1, ECL2, Converted ECL -1
(Dark- Tome of Magic, Whisper Gnome- Races of Stone)

Stats that matter: Dex 17, Int 16

Feats: Darkstalker (Lords of Madness), if you’re being cautious, take a flaw and Stealthy

Purchases: Wand of Subdual Substitution Magic Missiles at caster level 5 (3,750), or 2 at half charges, if people are being sticklers about the half-WBL-in-one-item rule.

The win:
Stand at around 150’ and shoot from hiding.

With a Hide modifier of +21 and a Move Silently of +15, then taking into account range penalties and her blindness, combined with Darkstalker and the Dark template’s Hide in Plain Sight (Ex, ^%$%^% you antimagic cone!), and a 40’ move (Whisper Gnome base 30 + 10 for Dark), we should be able to stay out of her sensing range and still within range of the wand.

By the math, we’re doing 10.5 subdual damage a round, she’s healing 3. 7.5 a round remains, requiring about 9-10 rounds of shooting to incapacitate. Which means we need to get her back to “base” in 40ish rounds, probably strapped to a floating disc, but such technicalities seem beyond the scope of the challenge.

(Edit- Highly amused that in the minute I was proofreading, someone else did the Sub-Sub MM thing too)

Belial_the_Leveler
2007-11-25, 01:34 PM
The win:
Stand at around 150’ and shoot from hiding.
She starts double-moving or running in one direction when she gets some damage. She gets out of range because you can't double move AND shoot and she heals up. You need to memorise a few mount spells. :smallsmile:


(Edit- Highly amused that in the minute I was proofreading, someone else did the Sub-Sub MM thing too)
LOL, great minds think alike.

Cruiser1
2007-11-25, 07:37 PM
Dark Whisper Gnome Wizard 1, ECL2, Converted ECL -1
Purchases: Wand of Subdual Substitution Magic Missiles at caster level 5 (3,750)
Stand at around 150’ and shoot from hiding.
Unfortunately, the WBL for a level 2 character is only 900 gold, meaning you can't afford that wand as listed, not even a reduced charge version based on how many zaps you need. Note the cost of such a wand should be 750 * (spell slot 2) * (caster level 5) = 7500, unless you craft it yourself, which a low level character can't do. Also most builds include a form of flying, since she may start out 200 feet in the air.

WrstDmEvr
2007-11-25, 07:46 PM
LOL, great minds think alike.

And fools seldom differ.:smalltongue:

Sorry, just couldn't let that pass by.

Cruiser1
2007-11-25, 08:02 PM
Wizard 2 (ECL 2-3 = -1)
Summary: Even a level 2 build is possible, if lethal damage is done properly.
Feats: Precocious Apprentice (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20041114a) (for level 2 spell Alter Self)

450: Wand of Magic Missile (CL 3) [10 charges left]
405: Wand of Magic Missile (CL 3) [9 charges left]
45: Hire 150 trained hirelings (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#hirelingTrained) for the day
900: Total, which is the exact WBL for a level 2 character

Strategy: Cast Alter Self to turn into something with wings, then fly after her. A CL 3 Magic Missile shoots 2 missiles, which do 2+2d4 damage (average 7, or 4 after regeneration). That takes 17 zaps on average to reduce her from 67 hp to negatives. Note there's zero risk of accidentally killing her. The maximum damage 2 missiles can do is 10, however since she regenerates 3 hp each round, if she's conscious when it's your turn, she has at least 3 hp, so 10 damage at that time won't kill her. When she falls to the ground unconscious, have your hirelings beat on her with clubs (telling them to take the -4 attack roll penalty to deal non-lethal damage, while dragging her back to the lab for study. :smallsmile:

Cruiser1
2007-11-25, 08:32 PM
Wizard 1 (ECL 1-3 = -2)
Summary: Even a level 1 build is possible, if you take advantage of all your resources. :smallbiggrin:
Feats: Collegiate Wizard (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20041114a) (for larger starting spellbook), Precocious Apprentice (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20041114a) (for level 2 spell Alter Self)

Collegiate Wizard lets you start out with 6 + INT bonus level 1 spells (8 with INT 15). Based on the Wizard starting rule that "A wizard begins play with a spellbook containing all 0-level wizard spells", you also have all 19 level 0 spells from the PHB in your spellbook. That takes up 8+19/2 = 17.5 pages. Based on the rule that "spellbooks can be sold for a gp amount equal to one-half the cost of purchasing and inscribing the spells within (that is, one-half of 100 gp per page of spells)", you can sell your starting spellbook for 875 gold. A level 1 Wizard also begins play with 3d6 gold (average 21), so your total funds are 896.

Proceed with the build in the previous post, except you only have 41 gold left to buy trained hirelings, so you can only afford 136 instead of 150 of them. :smallwink:

Chronos
2007-11-25, 11:45 PM
The level 1 build is risky: You have to make a level check to use your Precocious Apprentice spell, and you've got a 30% chance of failing it. In which case, you've used up the slot, and you can't just try again tomorrow, since you don't have your spellbook any more to prepare it again.

Also, if she starts off high in the air, it'll take her a while to reach the ground once she goes unconscious (thanks to her permanent Feather Fall due to buoyancy), which might give her enough time to heal up before your budget hirelings can reach her.

Further, I just noticed that one of Fax's ground rules is "No polymorph". It's not clear to me whether that's meant to exclude just the Polymorph spell, or the entire Polymorph subschool (which would include Alter Self).

Belial_the_Leveler
2007-11-26, 03:40 AM
Strategy: Cast Alter Self to turn into something with wings, then fly after her. A CL 3 Magic Missile shoots 2 missiles, which do 2+2d4 damage (average 7, or 4 after regeneration). That takes 17 zaps on average to reduce her from 67 hp to negatives. Note there's zero risk of accidentally killing her. The maximum damage 2 missiles can do is 10, however since she regenerates 3 hp each round, if she's conscious when it's your turn, she has at least 3 hp, so 10 damage at that time won't kill her. When she falls to the ground unconscious, have your hirelings beat on her with clubs (telling them to take the -4 attack roll penalty to deal non-lethal damage, while dragging her back to the lab for study.
Alter Self allows changes into things of the same type. I don't know of any non-templated humanoids with wings except for the Avariel and they are campaign-specific. In addition, she can run faster than you can fly so she escapes unless you use a mount-in which case you'll probably fail your ride checks most of the time as you're too low a level.
In addition, only up to 8 hirelings at once can hit her and because they need a 20 to hit, she'll recover with fast healing faster than they can damage her.

Cruiser1
2007-11-26, 06:24 AM
You have to make a level check to use your Precocious Apprentice spell, and you've got a 30% chance of failing it. In which case, you've used up the slot, and you can't just try again tomorrow, since you don't have your spellbook any more to prepare it again.
Can you take 10 on the caster level check, since you're not threatened when casting a buff out of combat? If not then take the Spell Mastery (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#spellMasterySpecial) Feat, and select Alter Self as one of the spells you can prepare without a spellbook. Take a flaw or two to ensure enough feats for the build.

Also, if she starts off high in the air, it'll take her a while to reach the ground once she goes unconscious (thanks to her permanent Feather Fall due to buoyancy), which might give her enough time to heal up before your budget hirelings can reach her.
Use your level 1 spell slots to prepare True Strike. If necessary, use the remaining charges on your wand or use a weapon to help prevent her from waking up before hitting the ground.

I don't know of any non-templated humanoids with wings except for the Avariel and they are campaign-specific. In addition, she can run faster than you can fly
Elves can Alter Self into Avariel, which are indeed from the Faerun setting. However since Fax said "beyond that, the sky's the limit", they should be ok. Note common classes like Artificer are also campaign specific (from Eberron in their case). Avariel have a fly speed of 45 feet, while Steena's ground speed is only 40 feet. If she stays on the ground, that opens up additional options, e.g. hirelings could potentially contribute in the actual combat instead of just keeping her unconscious afterward.

In addition, only up to 8 hirelings at once can hit her and because they need a 20 to hit, she'll recover with fast healing faster than they can damage her.
16 additional hirelings can hit her with reach weapons. Hirelings can also contribute by throwing rocks, although that would count as lethal damage. However, since initiative works with each person attacking in sequence, those trained hirelings can be instructed to stop after one person hits, to ensure they don't accidentally kill her with too much damage if too many hit.

raspberrybadger
2007-11-26, 09:55 AM
As long as we're posting builds where the target is found in ideal circumstances and doesn't use what it is capable of, assume the target is sleeping in a field somewhere (despite not needing sleep). A level 1 half orc commoner with max str can get a kill with a scythe and a coup de grace.

For a more realistic capture, I was thinking of using a wizard 7 with a nightmare skeleton (at a low low cost of 150 gp for the material component to raise the skeleton. Nightmares are one of the few legitimate flying skeleton possibilities) and a pair of 11 headed hydra skeletons. Scrying and other divinations could find the target and give a clear idea of its surroundings. If the thing flies or is otherwise in the open, capture is trivial, as the wizard can have wands and or spellslots of magic missile and the like, and perhaps a subdual substitution spell to finish. The nightmare skeleton can easily keep it in negatives with nonlethal damage while bringing it back, as well as serving as a flying mount for the chase.

If the thing is in an enclosed area, the idea is to use the hydra skeletons on it. They only hit on a 20, but they have an awful lot of attacks. Buff the hydras up with things like mage armor, resist energy (lightning), haste, bulls strength, and have them flank the target and try to deal nonlethal damage - they were only going to hit on a 20 anyway, so the penalty doesn't matter. 22 1d10+6 (or more with buffs) attacks is enough to stay well ahead of its fast healing. They should survive well enough, as the thing can only use its Su abilities on them when it isn't lowering their buffs with the antimagic cone, and at least one of them will be keeping its buffs up for offense at any given time. 15 nonlethal damage a round is reasonable to expect, double that if the thing moves and eats a massive attack of opportunity.

Keep up mirror image and blink or displacement on one's self and stay well out of the way, and carry some stone to flesh scrolls for when it petrifies a hydra. The mirror image will wink out if it uses its antimagic cone at you, but if it does that, it can't petrify you. Riding the nightmare skeleton ought to give you the 3D mobility to get out of the cone for long enough to toss offensive spells at it. Energy substitution fireball/lightning bolt or empowered magic missiles or something. That is another 15 or 20 damage a round, unless the geometry of the cave lets it pretty much keep you covered with the antimagic cone. Of course, that means it can't use eye beams on you, and the skeletons will just have to do the work.

Does anyone see flaws where it could use its abilities to get out of that?

Chronos
2007-11-26, 01:24 PM
...and carry some stone to flesh scrolls for when it petrifies a hydra.Unnecessary. Petrification requires a Fort save and doesn't work on objects; therefore, undead (lacking a Con score) are immune.

Another thought: Any build which relies on Magic Missiles needs them at CL 6 or more. Anything less cuts their range too short: If a CL 5 missile can hit her, she can hit you. And while her usual tactic is to run, I'm sure that her divinatory capabilities would tell her that a better tactic in this particular case is to zap the pesky low-level wizard with a few of her eye rays.

Belial_the_Leveler
2007-11-26, 01:37 PM
If a CL 5 missile can hit her, she can hit you
Nope. CL 5 means a range of 150 ft-well beyond her blindsight. She can't hit us because she doesn't know which square the MMs are originating from.