Testing Tiamat

[Eldariel]

All it takes is failing a single roll of COP to lose the rest of the day, if you do go insane then you either lose the day or the Cleric loses a 5th level slot to fix it. Since you have to declare portents before the roll, handing portents to that reduces portents availble to forcing failed bindings.

Luck definitely helps, but the Int check is 15 and the Wizard has a +4 to the check, so they're more likely to fail than they are succeed to begin with.

+4 is actually 50/50 at DC15, but it's a save so Wizard gets proficiency making it +9. As a save, it can further be enhanced by Bless (if it were an ability check, one would of course use Enhance Ability instead). Each COP only takes 11 minutes to cast so this is actually doable in the time Planar Binding is done by the others (5 questions each meaning 44 minutes to ask 20 questions). At double speed with the Simulacrum and the Wizard.

Like I said, I posted the saves in the roll thread. 15 on the first one (with reroll and Bless available depending on DM ruling on Bless) and 22 on the other two so all 3 pass without using Lucky, even.

Other than that it seems like a stretch time wise, you need a day basically for Simulacrums (which needs to happen before the rest for your reliance on portents), I assume that Familiars are going to be desired because, why not there's Wizards so that fills out day 1 pretty much. The Cleric can do Commune during this time of course, but given the stipulation of Commune that'll probably be spread out through out the day anyway). Then you need two hours of nothing but binding (assuming both are successful first time) and whatever time needed for the actual summoning, you're looking at a least a couple of days.

The RAW of Simulacrum is clear and I agree, but we also know what the RAI is and the general consensus of how ridiclous it is as a spell. I won't make the hard call on Simulacrum Portents because it's RAW and I don't want to seem like stacking the deck in Tiamat's favour, so I'll leave the decision to you.

I can think of some of the obvious buffs you'll be using, but I'm interested in the final array of them.

I posted the buffs. Most of those prep spells have been cast long ago I'd assume: there's no reason not to have a familiar if you're a Wizard. All it takes is 1 hour 10 mins and 10 gold. Same with most of the other stuff: really, stuff that's specifically cast for this fight is only COPs/Communes and then Heroes' Feast.

My total buff loadout is:
- Inspiring Leader speech from the Druid
- Longstrider/Darkvision/Mage Armor on basically everyone who would benefit (turns out to be surprisingly many in this party)
- Aid, Heroes' Feast on everyone
- Death Ward on Simulacrums & the Bard
- Freedom of Movement on the Bards
- Fire Shield on Wizard and Simulacrum
- Contingency on the 4 who can use it (Bard & Simulacrum, Wizard & Simulacrum, slots marked off for it for the Simulacrums since they need to recast it after creation)
- Phantom Steed on all the 6 casters (the Wizard & Simulacrum both maintain 3: this takes half their uptime)
- Rary's Telepathic Bond on all the 6 casters & Couatl and Giant Ape (Familiars don't qualify due to too low an Int but they're naturally telepathic with their masters anyways - alternating casting between the Wizard and their Simulacrum to keep constantly active)
- Programmed Illusion on the Bards' Longbows to create a cloud of darkness on a command word (basically used to gain Unseen Attacker bonuses at range)


Phew, I think that's everything. Oh and due to foreknowledge of an extremely powerful entity, Bard has cast Elemental Weapon VII on Thunder (as always). There may be some errors in the statblock as editing a bunch of them so fast is a pain but I tried to be consistent and precise.

EDIT: While it doesn't matter in this case, to be conscientious and play like I'd normally play with a party like this, I'll say the Simulacrum uses a 3 on Tiamat's Initiative making Tiamat's Initiative roll a 3 instead.

EDIT#2: Oh yeah, and the Wizard actually has the Bard Simulacrum while the Bard has the Wizard Simulacrum. So the Bardluracrum acts on the Wizard's turn and the Wizardluracrum acts on the Bard's turn.

EDIT#3: And the Simulacrum has a bat, not an Owl familiar.

EDIT#4: Should we make another thread for the fight? This could be the OOC thread in case other people wanna try different parties out too. Though I think an enclosed space like the Great Apse would make for a better fighting arena (because it would keep kiting viable but no longer an autowin and OTOH Timmy would be restricted in terms of mobility too - a featureless plains is almost never a realistic environment, though of course a simple one).