[3.5] I've got 10 levels to beat a Dread Wraith...

[Zovc]

I (the person posting this message) drew from a deck of many things. I took three cards. To my disappointment, I drew the Skull card first. Fortunately, I drew the Sun card and the Jester card after that, I've become much more powerful and have a Pearl of Power (5th-level). Do I stand a chance?

Level 1 Human Expert + 10 levels
Str: 11
Dex: 13
Con: 12
Int: 14
Wis: 13
Cha: 15

My first level feats are Able Learner and Iron Will.
My class skills from Expert are:
Bluff, Climb, Computer Use, Knowledge (Science), Perform (Guitar), Perform (Sing), Profession (Information Technology), Sense Motive, Swim, and Use Magic Device.
Skill points put into:
Balance 2 (4)
Bluff, 3
Climb, 3
Computer Use, 4
Diplomacy, 1 (2)
Knowledge (Science), 1
Listen, 1 (2)
Perform (Guitar), 2
Perform (Sing), 3
Profession (Information Technology), 2
Sense Motive, 4
Survival, 1 (2)
Swim, 4
36 points [(6 + 2)*4 (+4 as a human)]

All that I have on my person is:
Clothes (including shoes, belt, polo shirt, t-shirt, jeans)
In Jeans Pockets
-Cell Phone
-Multi-tool (Screwdriver [+ and -], Flashlight, Bottle Opener, Saw, Knife)
-Sugarfree Gum
-Wallet (State I.D., Debit Card, Magic: the Gathering player rewards card, $15, 2 Singapore Dollars, Fire Energy, Leaf Energy, 2 Business Cards)

I will also have a Pearl of Power (5th-level) after drawing my cards.

[Eldariel]

You need magic or magical equipment. Else you cannot touch a Dread Wraith. Need more guidelines, though most of them are like to make this impossible (Pearl without any spellcasting ability seems relatively useless).

[Optimystik]

1) Print out the Dread Wraith entry from the SRD
2) Crumple up the paper and burn it
3) Congratulations, award yourself some XP

[The Glyphstone]

So 9 or 10 levels of Wizard then - you can't turn the 16HD Dread Wraith even as a level 10 cleric without item assistance.

[Lapak]

So 9 or 10 levels of Wizard then - you can't turn the 16HD Dread Wraith even as a level 10 cleric without item assistance.

I'd say Sorcerer instead - I doubt the Dread Wraith is going to wait around while he prepares spells. Take 10 levels of Sorcerer, take Teleport as one of your 5th level spells, and get out of there. Figure out a new strategy while it relentlessly tracks you down.

[Assassin89]

So 9 or 10 levels of Wizard then - you can't turn the 16HD Dread Wraith even as a level 10 cleric without item assistance.

You can't turn the Dread Wraith drawn by a Deck of Many Things

Also, when you die, who gets your stuff, because your prospects for surviving do not look good.

[crazedloon]

ya looks like you are in a tight spot...

maybe you should get the two extra cards and hope for the fates

[Ranos]

Find a way to get a permanent aura of daylight around you. The dread wraith will be unable to approach you. Of course, then it will probably go on a quest to find a powerful mage that could negate your aura, gain a few class level itself, and become the BBEG.

[Radiun]

Plane Shift to the Positive Energy Plane?

[The Glyphstone]

Plane Shift to the Positive Energy Plane?

And if it manages to follow you, you're toast....Undead can't fail the Fort save to EXPLODE FROM AWESOME, you can, and the PEP doesn't even have a sun for it to flee from...

[Keshay]

Does the Dread Wraith count as a Summoned monster? If so, be a Cleric, cast Protection from Evil and start firing off Searing Lights. Its "Divine Power" so thats positive/negative energy, so it effects the creature, Wraiths are espically vulnerable to light, so you get d8/level so 9d8. Take Empower Spell and put it in your 5th level slot too (you'll want to boost Wis at both opportunities).

So first round, you'll survive even if you lose initiave and get hit. You cast Prot fr/ Evil and are good to go defense-wise. Second reound, Empowered Searing light does 9d8x1.5 (61damage on average); third round Searing Light, 40 avg damage, with luck the Wraith will be gone, but one more round of searing light finishes it off.

If the Dread Wraith is not a summoned creature, you'll have to hope it misses or rolls poorly on the Con Damage. You can still take it out in 2-3 rounds with Searing Light, but you'll need to get lucky.

[JeenLeen]

Levels of an arcane caster.

I see Dread Wraiths have +5 Fort save. Is there any Fort save-or-die/destroy that can affect incorporeal Undead?

I believe there's a spell in Spell Compendium that temporarily makes an incorporeal creature corporeal, but I forget the name and level. If you can use that, mix it and Disintegrate.


As said above, have Teleport so you can run if you need to.
Can you take the feat 'Leadership'? If you need cheese to win, that could help.

[Keshay]

And if it manages to follow you, you're toast....Undead can't fail the Fort save to EXPLODE FROM AWESOME, you can, and the PEP doesn't even have a sun for it to flee from...

Pretty sure he meant to Plane Shift the Wraith to the PEP, which is also problematic because 1) he'd have to succed on a touch attack and 2) it gets a Will save. His DC for the Place shift would be 17, so the Wraith can only fail on a 3 or less. Not a good idea to try this.

Getting a Daylight effect around you would have no effect since only Natural sunlight repels Wraiths, it specifically states the Daylight spell has no effect.

[crazedloon]

well for starters go favored soul (go any prestige class of your choice that has full casting) 1 of your 5th level spells must be life's grace from spell compendium. Now you are immune to the con damage and therefore just having to worry about 2d6 damage a round (which really is not that much) now to be able to hit the stupid thing

Ice axe (with eschew materiel components) gets you a weapon and Undead bane weapon (2nd level spell) should help as it increases your damage and likelihood of hitting quite a bit. This combo allows you to do 2d12+2d6+2 damage per hit

[LibraryOgre]

I'd go with levels of Sorcerer. I would then teleport to Florida and the James Randi Educational Foundation and win 1 million dollars (I can do that with cantrips... ray of frost should do it, and is hard to duplicate). That would give me time to plan. Another good option is to teleport always to a place where it is just now dawn, giving you time to rest and replenish your spells over the course of the day. Resist Energy: Cold and a trip to Antarctica would be another good option to buy some time.

[ZeroNumerous]

Sorcerer 10. Lucent Lance. Eschew Material Components. Lucent Lance: 10d6 untyped damage plus light-sensitive creatures are exposed to full daylight for 1 round. Dread Wraith is powerless and flees from daylight. Next round: Repeat. You'd deal on average 35*3=105 damage. You have just defeated a Dread Wraith. If need be, use your pearl of power to shoot it again for an average of 140 damage.

EDIT: Or get the quick metamagic variant. Quickened Magic Missile + Force Missile. 5d4+5+6d6 = Average of 38 damage. Just gotta pop it four times before it offs you.

[FinalJustice]

There's a theoretical trick that might do the job, but please, please, do not actually use it. There will be DM forbiddance followed by several ocurrences of book flinging in your general direction if you try it. It's the old Sanctum Spell + Arcane Fusion Infinite Magic Missile Barrage.

You have ten levels, which will be ten Sorcerer Levels. You will need the Sanctum Spell metamagic feat and the Arcane Fusion spell, as well as Magic Missiles. Arcane Fusion is a 5th level spell allows you to cast a 4th level spell and a 1st level spell using its 5th level slot. Sanctum Spell is a +0 metamagic feat that makes a spell count as one level higher when cast in your Sanctum and one level lower when cast outside your sanctum. You see where this is going. Cast Arcane Fusion, with Magic Missile as the first level spell and Sanctum Arcane Fusion as 4th level spell. Then you repeat it. Until you stop being amused.

Even without theoretical abuse, I think we are being overly pessimistic here. There's still a chance. As a 10th level Sorcerer, you have access to some Force based spells that might give you a fighting chance. Wings of Cover will cover (no pun intended) your defense for as long as you have 2nd spell slots and keep on moving to prevend full attack. A couple of Empowered Orbs of Force (Arcane Thesis it, if you may, or use Easy Metamagic on Empower Spell) has a good chance of finishing it off, and you can always finish the deal with Magic Missile. Your charisma is good, but not good enough to employ SoS/SoD tactics without some serious magic item going on, so go blaster on the Wraith face.

Edit: Brilliantly ninja'd by ZeroNumerous. Go with his spell =D

[Lysander]

Here's what you do. Be a cleric. Cast Wind Walk and flee east while the Wraith flies after you. At dawn the Wraith loses it's powers and runs for cover, then you turn around and start pelting it with spells.

[ZeroNumerous]

Heck, we can build on the blaster damage. Arcane Thesis'd Split Ray Empowered Lesser Orb of Force is only a 5th level spell. 10d8+(10d8/50%) or an average of 45+22=67 in a round. Combined with the rapid metamagic variant sorcerer and a simple Quickened Magic Missile and you've got 74 damage in one round. Certainly someone can do better.

[Kalirren]

What time of day is it?

Dread wraiths are powerless in daylight and flee from it. The only way it can kill you is in the night.

Honestly, if you took 10 levels of Sorcerer from a Sun card, drawing as first-level Expert, in a situation where you also drew the Death card, as a DM I'd totally allow you to have Death Ward as a 4th level sorcerer spell. It would be entirely appropriate. (It's the Deck of Many Things, for Christ's sake!)

Then you could just blast the thing to oblivion with Magic Missile/Mordenkainen's Force Missiles, since it only does 2d6 damage per round. If you're casting Magic Missile, 5d4 + 5 damage per round is about 17, empowered for about 23. That's 5 castings. It would win initiative. So you're taking 1d8 con drain + probably 7 rounds damage of 14d6...hmm, you may not win...

Repeated Magic Missile would be a 4th-level slot and do twice as much damage, so that would be ~35 damage per 2 rounds, layerable...that would probably result in a win in 5 rounds for you, so 1d8 con drain + 10d6 damage is still not looking too good.

I think the bottom line here is that you really have to either kill the thing in two rounds without death ward, or have death ward and kill it within five, because two rounds of wraith attack that will almost certainly hit will bring you down an average of 8 Con without deathward, which is plenty to kill you with your d4 hit die and not-so-spectacular Con.

So:

Take Repeat Spell.

Take Nerveskitter, celerity, deathward, and magic missile for spells known. You may or may not win initative.

If you win initative, cast deathward.

If you lose initiative, cast celerity and then cast deathward.

Your following actions are repeated magic missiles, cast as full actions.

Things are not looking good, but you stand a chance.

Edit; Ninja'ed by a lot of good suggestions. I was just working off of what I knew off the top of my head. Arcane Fusion is definitely cheese...

Edit 2; Zeronumerous, his ranged touch attack modifier is +6. Ranged touch spells have a 10% chance of hitting the wraith's touch AC 25. We can't rely on ranged touch spells. Only magic missile and other auto-hit force spells will work.

[Gothmog]

I'm surely missing something, but doesn't the Jester give 10 000 XP ?
How do you get 10 levels from that ? Shoudn't you be level 5 ?

[The Glyphstone]

He pulled the Sun instead I think.

[Keshay]

Sun card gives 50000 xp. Both together, you get 60k

[Gothmog]

My bad.
The Sun also gives him XP...

[ZeroNumerous]

Arcane Thesis'd Maximized Manyjaws. Arcane Fusion'd with Empowered Magic Missile. The first deals only 30 damage due to a successful save that the Wraith will undoubtably make. The second deals 23 damage on average. 53 damage in a round.

Celerity->Arcane Fusion(Maximized Manyjaws + Empowered Magic Missile) on your first round. You lose 1d8 CON. Next round: Arcane Fusion again. You've dealt an average of 106 damage and it's gone.

Edit 2; Zeronumerous, his ranged touch attack modifier is +6. Ranged touch spells have a 10% chance of hitting the wraith's touch AC 25. We can't rely on ranged touch spells. Only magic missile and other auto-hit force spells will work.

I just thought of that. Hence this suggestion.

[Douglas]

There's a theoretical trick that might do the job, but please, please, do not actually use it. There will be DM forbiddance followed by several ocurrences of book flinging in your general direction if you try it. It's the old Sanctum Spell + Arcane Fusion Infinite Magic Missile Barrage.

You have ten levels, which will be ten Sorcerer Levels. You will need the Sanctum Spell metamagic feat and the Arcane Fusion spell, as well as Magic Missiles. Arcane Fusion is a 5th level spell allows you to cast a 4th level spell and a 1st level spell using its 5th level slot. Sanctum Spell is a +0 metamagic feat that makes a spell count as one level higher when cast in your Sanctum and one level lower when cast outside your sanctum. You see where this is going. Cast Arcane Fusion, with Magic Missile as the first level spell and Sanctum Arcane Fusion as 4th level spell. Then you repeat it. Until you stop being amused.

This trick, and most other Arcane Fusion + metamagic exploits, have been hit by errata:

Page 96 – Arcane Fusion
[Addition]
Include clause, “If applying a
metamagic feat to a spell, use the
adjusted spell level and casting time
for purposes of determining eligibility
for Arcane Fusion.”

You use the level of the spell slot that casting the spell would take, not the actual level of the spell itself, to determine whether it can be selected for Arcane Fusion. Sanctum Arcane Fusion takes a 5th level slot and is not eligible for the 4th level spell gained from Arcane Fusion.

[jiriku]

Yah as a sorcerer with force-based attack spells, wings of cover, and teleport, you can pretty much get a lock. Normally such an encounter would be quite difficult, but the combination of being able to tailor your entire build for this one fight and the wraith's daylight powerlessness puts the advantage in your court.

[Kalirren]

Just curious, which book is Manyjaws in? Sounds like a good spell. I did a quickie search on Google and the only one I found was the one in Seven Sisters which does (casterlevel)d4 damage over time, save vs. spell for half. That can't be the one you're suggesting to use.

[ZeroNumerous]

Just curious, which book is Manyjaws in? Sounds like a good spell. I did a quickie search on Google and the only one I found was the one in Seven Sisters which does (casterlevel)d4 damage over time, save vs. spell for half. That can't be the one you're suggesting to use.

Spell Compendium. 1 set of teeth per caster level deals a d6 per round with Ref for half. 10 sets, 10d6/round, ref for half.

[Lysander]

For the record, the sun gives you a "useful" magic item. If a Pearl of Power isn't useful for you (which it won't be unless you become a spellcaster) you get to reroll until you get something beneficial.