Test of Spite: Extra Match, Saph vs Imperialspectre

[imperialspectre]

I have Hide in Plain Sight.

Anyway, you see before you a tiny (literally) gnome wearing a black cape that is now thoroughly spattered with bright glowing particles. "Dammit, that'll take weeks to get off," he mutters. "Better end this quick, I guess." As he runs through a few basic spellcasting gestures, a cloud of sickening green gas gathers around you and begins to drain your vitality.

Out of character: It's a cloudkill. You automatically recognize it as an illusion, however it's still quasi-real. I have to roll a percentile to confirm it working correctly. 1-70 is successful function.

After that, my turn will continue, but I have to know whether the spell works or not.

Observers:

Spoiler

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Standard action: Cast a silent image, heightened to 5th level, duplicating cloudkill. Counts as 70% real due to Powerful Shadow Magic.
Free action: Activate belt of battle, gaining an extra full-round action.

[imperialspectre]

Naturally, I would forget to roll the percentile. (1d100)[2]

[imperialspectre]

In that case, the gnome continues casting, summoning a similarly-illusory forcecage around you.

Roll for functionality, 1-90 is successful: [1d100]

After that, the gnome casts swift etherealness.

Observers:

Spoiler

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Extra standard action: Heighten silent image to 7th level, burning two 6th-level spell slots to make that work. Duplicating forcecage.

Swift action: Cast swift etherealness.

[imperialspectre]

Okay, I really am brain-dead right now. (1d100)[91]

And...apparently you're not trapped in the cloud of poison. Still, Fort DC 23 for half of 1d4 CON damage. Go ahead and roll the damage yourself, since I didn't put it in one of my posts. Unless you're immune to poison.

[Saph]

Fort save: (1d20+13)[15]
Con damage, half if successful: (1d4)[4]

Were those separate spells, by the way? I'm not sure how you're getting off two spells and doing a swift action all in one turn, since quicken still takes a swift action.

[imperialspectre]

I'm sorry, I missed the swift to activate my belt of battle. So no etherealness.

[Saph]

OK. My turn? If it is, I walk forward and emerge from the cloudkill.

I'll post my description here, since I think this is the first time you've gotten a clear look at me.

Spoiler

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A smallish, skinny man with grey hair, bright blue eyes, and strange faintly glowing symbols that orbit his head. He wears light armour that gleams dully. His clothes are rather somber, and around his neck he wears a small red-and-silver symbol of a spoked wheel.

What do I see?

[imperialspectre]

The gnome stands with arms crossed, glaring at you. Your arcane sight reveals the same mass of illusion auras around him, although you are apparently able to ignore those.

[Adumbration]

OOC:

Spoiler

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As a sidenote, I agree with Saph on the magic item aura detection, becouse there is a specific spell that masks those: Magic Aura. Please continue.

[Saph]

"That was rather unfriendly," Zedd says mildly. "I see you're unfamiliar with my writings . . . I once wrote a dissertation on that particular spell combination . . . perhaps you've read it? No? Ah, well."

He casts a spell: feeblemind. Will save, DC 22, or your intellect drops to a level similar to that of the Winslow. -4 to your save if you can cast arcane spells, which I'm pretty sure you can.

Assuming nothing else happens, he then casts his own greater mirror image. (1d4+4)[8] copies of Zedd, plus the original, step out and now there's a crowd of Zedds looking at the crowd of Larions.

[imperialspectre]

(1d20+14)[15]

Assuming that passes:

Spoiler

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"Was it about the difficulties of successfully combining the two spells as a method of winning duels?" Larion shrugs. "As you can see, I found a way around that particular difficulty. At any rate, since we seem to be trading attacks..."

The gnome casts the same spell back at you, following it with swift etherealness. Will DC 22, -4 penalty to your save if you cast arcane spells.

If I don't make the save, you win, since Larion's only method of acting is via the spells.

Observers:

Spoiler

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Standard: Feeblemind.
Swift: Duh.
Move: To B10.

Edit: Well, that's too bad. Missed the forcecage by 1 on a d100, and now I roll a nat 1 on a Will-or-lose spell. Well played. :)

[Saph]

Well, that was a little anticlimactic. Pity, I was kind of looking forward to keeping the match going for longer. Want to say both sides get one free treat-a-failed-save-as-a-pass?

Oh, and are you sure you did that Will save right? You had +16 last time and +14 this time.

- Saph

[imperialspectre]

I might not have. I'm seriously sleep-deprived at the moment and have to work in the morning, so I should probably call it.

And while I'd normally be open to your offer, this duel was going to come down to save-or-lose pretty quickly (at least if my win button failed), so it's only fair that your spell choices pay off. The feeblemind was a smart move, and I only wish I'd done that first, instead of going for the cloudkill right off.

[Saph]

Fair enough. Guess you'd better get some sleep. :)

It would mostly have been save-or-loses, yes, but I did have a couple of nasty no-save tricks up my sleeve which I was looking forward to using. Ah, well.

Forcecage/Cloudkill is a weak combo, really. I actually wrote an essay on it once because I was so sick of people on the forum touting it as an insta-win. Here's the thread - short version, by the time you're high enough level to use the combo anything that's a serious threat to you is immune to it one way or another.

Oh, and here's The Winslow, if you're curious.

Anyway, good game.

- Saph

[Adumbration]

On Cloudkill... You forgot just one more thing that makes it ineffectual. It is completely negated by a 9 000 gps magic item: Necklace of Adaptation.

Nice match, by the way.

[imperialspectre]

If Larion had passed the save, you would've read the spoiler in which he referenced said "thesis" of a post and claimed to have found a way around it. I agree that it's not the best combo, but with the Versatile Spellcaster/Earth Spell/Shadowcraft Mage shenanigans, I was planning to get it out at a relatively early level where people wouldn't be as prepared for it.

Out of curiosity, what was your class build? I could tell that you went Illumian, but beyond that I'm not sure.

Okay, I really am out now. Good game, and I'll come up with something else to get into the dungeon.

[Saph]

On Cloudkill... You forgot just one more thing that makes it ineffectual. It is completely negated by a 9 000 gps magic item: Necklace of Adaptation.

Nice match, by the way.

I'm not going to spend 9,000 gp and a magic item slot just to stop Cloudkills. :P A scroll of Neutralise Poison (and a few other things) does the job fine.

I actually had a spell prepared that would make me immune to Cloudkill. I didn't bother casting it because Cloudkill doesn't kill you, and at this level anything that doesn't kill or cripple you in a single round is rated as "mostly harmless".

Out of curiosity, what was your class build? I could tell that you went Illumian, but beyond that I'm not sure.

Heh, I'm not surprised - I was using a class and a PrC generally considered to be less than top tier. If you'd like, we can trade sheets - I'll PM you the link to Zedd's char sheet and you can have a look for yourself.

- Saph

[Doc Roc]

I'd love to see the sheets. I think it'd be excellent to edit all the sheets into the first posts of battles, so that we can keep a nice solid record.