*GAME PLAN* What's the strategy for team Stick

[Coach]

All right team, what's the strategy for Team Stick? With what we know about the good guys' stats & abilities and what we know about Xykon's stats/abilities how would you ambush the big bad? Obviously for narrative reasons it probably won't go the way you predict, but if this were a D&D game you were playing and you had the same cards Roy had how would you play them?

[brian 333]

Okay, with all our combined might, Xykon is hard to beat.

(Serini) If you had a doodad of lich-smacking you might beat him.

We don't have a doodad.

(Serini) I know where one is.

(Elan) Side quest time! Sunny, want to come with?

(Sunny) Mom?

[Precure]

Operation: Divide and conquer!

Roy, Vaarsuvius, Serini and Sunny VS Xykon
Durkon, Haley and Elan VS Redcloak
O-Chul and Lien VS MitD (mind controlled)
Belkar and Minrah VS Oona
Mr. Scruffy and Blackwing VS Greyview

[Mike Havran]

1. Let Vaarsuvius fly into Xykon's range of sight, but outside the range of superb dispel. This will enrage Xykon.
2. V hightails it immediately and lures X away from the rest of his team.
3. Attack with buffed up Roy and Belkar flanking. Durkon as a backup.
4. Hope for the best.

[PontificatusRex]

Okay, with all our combined might, Xykon is hard to beat.

(Serini) If you had a doodad of lich-smacking you might beat him.

We don't have a doodad.



Actually, the Order DOES have such a doodad, it's a starmetal sword that does extra damage to undead. And it's wielded by a guy who has a feat that will disrupt a spellcaster's abilities when he smacks them for enough damage.

[Mic_128]

Actually, the Order DOES have such a doodad, it's a starmetal sword that does extra damage to undead. And it's wielded by a guy who has a feat that will disrupt a spellcaster's abilities when he smacks them for enough damage.

I wonder if they can come up with a way to get Roy in close and have Sunny keep his eye on just Xykon?

[Ciffo]

I wonder if they can come up with a way to get Roy in close and have Sunny keep his eye on just Xykon?

The perfect scenario is sunny keeps his eye on Xykon AND Redcloack. That would remove all casting ability from team evil, then Roy, Haley, Belkar, Durkon, Minrah and Serini can focus on destroy Xykon and force Redcloack to surrender. The others protect Sunny and block any possible interferences from Oona. O'chul is assigned on MITD duty.

Between Blackwing intelligence and Serini knowledge of the zone I think that could work

[BaronOfHell]

Between Blackwing intelligence and Serini knowledge of the zone I think that could work

It sounds like a perfectly reasonable plan to me.

So obviously it would never work in stick world. :p

[JonahFalcon]

Drink coffee in front of Xykon and talk about how bad it tastes.

[Ionathus]

Drink coffee in front of Xykon and talk about how bad it tastes.

Whoa whoa whoa, these are the good guys we're talking about! Torture is off the table.

[littlebum2002]

The perfect scenario is sunny keeps his eye on Xykon AND Redcloack. That would remove all casting ability from team evil, then Roy, Haley, Belkar, Durkon, Minrah and Serini can focus on destroy Xykon and force Redcloack to surrender. The others protect Sunny and block any possible interferences from Oona. O'chul is assigned on MITD duty.

Between Blackwing intelligence and Serini knowledge of the zone I think that could work

It seems to me that if Sunny is in play, the fight against Xykon and Redcloak would be trivial. Sure, Xykon could kill V with his bare phalanges, but not Roy. Once you take the rest of the order (minus V) into account, they wouldn't stand a chance. So I personally think something is going to have to happen to Sunny to take him out of play for the final battle.

[ZhonLord]

Another important factor that needs to happen is that Redcloak needs to be knocked out rather than killed. And for that, we just need Serini to get a good sneak attack in. Keep in mind, her poisons knocked out Roy and O-Chul very easily, and those two are among the highest Constitution scores in the cast. If Redcloak gets knocked out, none of the rest of Team Badguy have a remove poison spell available to them. They can knock out the healer, antimagic xykon while they take care of Oona and Greyview, then force Xykon back to his phylactery and take an incapacitated Redcloak captive.

And ideally the Beast in Shadows will be brought over to the good side in the process, but that's a coin toss at this point whether he'll think for himself enough to actually do that.

[Xihirli]

Then they could erase his memory of Durkon’s talk with him and try it again!

[Theshipening]

It seems to me that if Sunny is in play, the fight against Xykon and Redcloak would be trivial. Sure, Xykon could kill V with his bare phalanges, but not Roy. Once you take the rest of the order (minus V) into account, they wouldn't stand a chance. So I personally think something is going to have to happen to Sunny to take him out of play for the final battle.

Note that Epic Spells aren’t auto-suppressed by anti-magic field (and so are bound to the will of dice and narrative), meaning Xykon will still have a few powerful shots, probably enough to neutralise Sunny (he’s savvy enough for that) or at least escape his gaze.
On top of that, Artifacts are unaffected entirely, so Redcloak would keep the Cloak’s powers.

[RatElemental]

I'm pretty sure that the final fight with team evil is going to be interrupted by the IFCC and possibly also the gate being smashed and the subsequent amount of hell breaking loose from that. We've been teased far too much about the planet in the rifts for it not to play into things somehow, though I expect it'll just be something along the lines of reality starting to crack open enough for the Order to see it, then V or Durkon or Thor or someone will have a bright idea to stop things from collapsing and in the mean time Belkar and maybe Xykon will get eaten fighting the snarl while everyone else tries to fix the world, possibly with Redcloak's help.

[BaronOfHell]

The plan is to win the battle against team evil.
The strategy is to defeat Xykon and make the red cloak help seal in the snarl.

This planning stuff is actually really easy.

[KorvinStarmast]

Actually, the Order DOES have such a doodad, it's a starmetal sword that does extra damage to undead. And it's wielded by a guy who has a feat that will disrupt a spellcaster's abilities when he smacks them for enough damage. It's all a matter of getting those two next to each other ... as Clausewitz (On War) once said "Everything is simple in war, but the simplest thing is difficult."
Or to put it a different way, (as our Chief of Staff once explained) planning is very important, but the plan itself is often disposable once contact is made.

[Dame_Mechanus]

The plan is to win the battle against team evil.

That's not a plan, that's a goal!

[Smoutwortel]

Note that Epic Spells aren’t auto-suppressed by anti-magic field (and so are bound to the will of dice and narrative), meaning Xykon will still have a few powerful shots, probably enough to neutralise Sunny (he’s savvy enough for that) or at least escape his gaze.
On top of that, Artifacts are unaffected entirely, so Redcloak would keep the Cloak’s powers.

The artifact exception doesn't exist in 3.5e, but good catch on the epic exception.
Also if we're going anti-magic Sunny's one of the few who will benefit from all the buffs, so killing him might prove challenging.
Doesn't mean he can't squeeze out a few good shots though
It only suppresses, so distance shots aimed outside the area should still work. Mage's disjunction might turn it of until Sonny's turn.

[Smoutwortel]

It's all a matter of getting those two next to each other ... as Clausewitz (On War) once said "Everything is simple in war, but the simplest thing is difficult."
Or to put it a different way, (as our Chief of Staff once explained) planning is very important, but the plan itself is often disposable once contact is made.

My suggestion for that particular problem is hiding behind after team evil enters a cave.

[Theshipening]

The artifact exception doesn't exist in 3.5e, but good catch on the epic exception.

Last line of the antepenultimate paragraph of this https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/antimagicField.htm says artifacts aren’t affected

[Smoutwortel]

Last line of the antepenultimate paragraph of this https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/antimagicField.htm says artifacts aren’t affected

Sorry I was wrong.
In that case the only functioning defense for the crimson mantle I have is that it doesn't have to be an artifact, but can also be "just" a high level item.
Which now I read its wiki is a pretty weak defense.

[Smoutwortel]

Another important factor that needs to happen is that Redcloak needs to be knocked out rather than killed. And for that, we just need Serini to get a good sneak attack in. Keep in mind, her poisons knocked out Roy and O-Chul very easily, and those two are among the highest Constitution scores in the cast. If Redcloak gets knocked out, none of the rest of Team Badguy have a remove poison spell available to them. They can knock out the healer, antimagic xykon while they take care of Oona and Greyview, then force Xykon back to his phylactery and take an incapacitated Redcloak captive.

And ideally the Beast in Shadows will be brought over to the good side in the process, but that's a coin toss at this point whether he'll think for himself enough to actually do that.

That would indeed be ideal, but we don't know for certain if his magical items or spells won't protect him, since the crimson mantle has already defeated a comparable attack once(anti-magic virus) and just like his spells has a significant chance to survive an anti-magic field.
I would suggest keeping Sonny's petrify eye ready to petrify him.
I would also like to add that, due to being middle level adventurers Oona and Greyview can be dealt with in various ways including paralys and sleep rays from Sonny and a poison dart trap, which both have the advantage of requiring as little attention from the party as possible.
As a fix to the MiTD issue we could try to bring the fight into the air, since he hasn't shown any flight ability, but has shown to be really sturdy, hungry and hard to move thus probably heavy.

[littlebum2002]

Sorry I was wrong.
In that case the only functioning defense for the crimson mantle I have is that it doesn't have to be an artifact, but can also be "just" a high level item.
Which now I read its wiki is a pretty weak defense.

It doesn't matter. The Crimson Mantle just protects Redcloak from disease, aging, and lets him cast the ritual. It doesn't give him the power to cast divine spells, his Cleric levels do; and therefore the anti-magic field would suppress them as usual.

[Laurentio III]

Drink coffee in front of Xykon and talk about how bad it tastes.
Whoa whoa whoa, these are the good guys we're talking about! Torture is off the table.
"Let us resurrect you. You keep sorcery, lose vulnerability to our leader sword. We have coffee. Really bad coffee. And harlots. Then we can fight."
25 words.

[Peelee]

"Let us resurrect you. You keep sorcery, lose vulnerability to our leader sword. We have coffee. Really bad coffee. And harlots. Then we can fight."
25 words.

Can't be resurrected without being destroyed first, and he's not the kind of guy who'd take that risk. Not to mention he'd only get a few more years out of the deal before dealing with the big fire down below anyway.

[Laurentio III]

Can't be resurrected without being destroyed first, and he's not the kind of guy who'd take that risk. Not to mention he'd only get a few more years out of the deal before dealing with the big fire down below anyway.
Yes, but coffee!
And harlots.
But coffee, first.