How many ways to kill a lvl 3 commoner...?

[Cowboy_ninja]

in a quick dramatic moment my PC's will loose one of the few NPCs whom is really dear to them via quickened.... what?

i need ideas. im looking for a quick "poof-your-dead" spell. yea those are kinda over powered but i figure a lvl 10 spell caster could out right kill a lvl 1-2commoner/fighter in one round. it doesnt have to be quickened.

im creating my villian though im sure he will be a spell caster im not sure which one. im leaning to warlock or perhaps some eldritch/arcane mix from complete mage. anyway i hardly ever run spell casters as a player so i still dont know what kinda spells are out there.

thanks in advance to everyone for their help.

[Thinker]

If he's level 10 he should probably have pretty good casting stats so why not use this:

Phantasmal Killer

Illusion (Phantasm) [Fear, Mind-Affecting]
Level: Sor/Wiz 4 Components: V, S Casting Time: 1 standard action Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level) Target: One living creature Duration: Instantaneous Saving Throw: Will disbelief (if interacted with), then Fortitude partial; see text Spell Resistance: Yes

You create a phantasmal image of the most fearsome creature imaginable to the subject simply by forming the fears of the subject’s subconscious mind into something that its conscious mind can visualize: this most horrible beast. Only the spell’s subject can see the phantasmal killer. You see only a vague shape. The target first gets a Will save to recognize the image as unreal. If that save fails, the phantasm touches the subject, and the subject must succeed on a Fortitude save or die from fear. Even if the Fortitude save is successful, the subject takes 3d6 points of damage.

If the subject of a phantasmal killer attack succeeds in disbelieving and is wearing a helm of telepathy, the beast can be turned upon you. You must then disbelieve it or become subject to its deadly fear attack.

[martyboy74]

If the wizard hasn't banned evocation, you could hit them with a Scorching Ray. That's an effective (if you use both rays, it's minimum damage is 8, and the average is 28), low-level, flashy way to eliminate them. Also, it eliminates the risk of them making their save; it's a ranged touch attack, which is nigh impossible to screw up.

Also, how many hit points does this guy have?

[The Mormegil]

Yeah phantasmal killer is good. But...

-Telekinesis him in an acid cauldron/lava lake
-Acid Eyes Anathem (BovD) and dies for acid damage to be cruel
-Agony on him and make him suicide for the pain
-Psion's Death Instinct is... VILE.
-Evard's Black Tentacles to hang him.
-Summon a big thing to eat him.

You have maany possibilities!

[Kurald Galain]

A third level commoner has 4 + 2d4 + 3 * con bonus hit points. That's 13 hp if we're being generous, probably less than that, and 18 if we're really stretching it. Also, not much of an armor class or saving throw.

If the BBEG is a warlock, his Eldritch Blast deals 5d6 at this point, which has a good chance of roasting the commoner downright. A gish can do something similar, and a warmage has so many ways of frying the commoner that it's not even funny. A nasty cleric could use some Cause Foo Wounds variant for the same effect.

Beguilers don't usually kill stuff outright; nevertheless (as expected) a BBEG beguiler has a number of very stylish ways of offing the commoner, such as Incite Riot and Legion of Sentinels.

A druid is also fun, he could cast that 5th-level summon spell to conjure up something downright nasty, and have it tear the commoner limb from limb.

And a wizard can do all of the above. Simultaneously. And twice.

[Saph]

Cloudkill. Level 5 spell. Bang, you're dead, no save.

Fireball or Lightning Bolt would have the same effect, as long as he doesn't roll a 20 on his Reflex save (and he might die even then).

Heck, if you really want to be silly about it, just hit him with a Maximised Magic Missile. But Cloudkill, Fireball, and Lightning Bolt all allow hitting different targets, making them much more efficient from a spellcaster's point of view.

- Saph

[martyboy74]

Yeah phantasmal killer is good. But...

-Telekinesis him in an acid cauldron/lava lake
-Acid Eyes Anathem (BovD) and dies for acid damage to be cruel
-Agony on him and make him suicide for the pain
-Psion's Death Instinct is... VILE.
-Evard's Black Tentacles to hang him.
-Summon a big thing to eat him.

You have maany possibilities!

• Do you mean Recall Agony and Death Urge?
• Evard's Black Tentacles won't kill them on the first round, and might not kill them on the second round. If it's crucial to have them die, that's completely unacceptable. Summoning something to eat him has the same problem.
• Telekinesis depends on having him weigh no more than 250 pounds (inlcuding gear), and requires the target to be within 100' of the insta-death hazard.

[Kajorma]

The answers are all inside the books it seems to me.
We can go through them systematically.
I'd love to help you on your killing spree,
There must be 50 ways to kill a Comm'ner.

Summon a succubus, Gus.
Use a Scorching Ray, Jay.
Or a Lightning Bolt, Holt.
Vampiric Touch much?

Just blast him, baby!

(I'll stop now. I've exceeded my daily allotment of horrible)

[Nakun]

I'd go with the maximized magic missile just because there's no save and it's five missiles, so he's dead. If you want to go for something big, I really like lightning bolt, it's flashy.

[Forrestfire]

How about Crisis of Life.

Or you could Plane shift him to the negative energy plane...

Another way could be: Finger of death, then a quickened reach Animate Dead

Comet Fall is a very flashy way to kill someone

[Cowboy_ninja]

Yeah phantasmal killer is good. But...

-Telekinesis him in an acid cauldron/lava lake
-Acid Eyes Anathem (BovD) and dies for acid damage to be cruel
-Agony on him and make him suicide for the pain
-Psion's Death Instinct is... VILE.
-Evard's Black Tentacles to hang him.
-Summon a big thing to eat him.

You have maany possibilities!

ooo summoning! i like that...

what can i summon that has the ability "swallow whole?"

[Indon]

As was suggested earlier, Maximized Magic Missiles. No save, no attack, 25 damage.

[Cowboy_ninja]

How about Crisis of Life.

Or you could Plane shift him to the negative energy plane...

Another way could be: Finger of death, then a quickened reach Animate Dead

Comet Fall is a very flashy way to kill someone

commet fall and plane shift. liek the sound of those which book are they in. Also could you please spell it out all the way please? im not use to the Bow, or BoA stuff.

[Kaelik]

At level 10 I would say that a Warlock/Sorc/Eldritch Theurge would have a fun way to kill him.

Something like this:
Sorcerer 1 (Precocious Apprentice to get 2nd level spells)/Warlock 4/Eldritch Theurge 5. This gives him spells as a lvl 6 sorc and invocations (including Eldritch Blast) as a lvl 9 Lock.

What you want to do is use the Shape just gained to, as a full round action, Eldritch Blast the Commoner (ideally in the middle of the PCs) and have a Fireball go off centered on one corner of his square.

With this build at lvl 10 we are looking at min 22 Cha. So that's 5d6 Eldritch Blast followed by Reflex for 6d6. Min damage 8 (As Scorching Ray) Maximum 66, Average 38.5.

The reason this is so awesome (besides that an Eldritch Theurge baddy is awesome) is that you can hit the Party with a Fireball at the start of combat but still make it absolutely clear you are aiming primarily to kill Mister Commoner.

Of course, that means as DM what you need to do next is Prevent Resurrection. Can't help much with that without knowing more specifics.

[Deth Muncher]

Power. Word. Kill. With Silent Spell. And.....Still Spell.


EDIT: Didn't read the caster level....

[Cowboy_ninja]

At level 10 I would say that a Warlock/Sorc/Eldritch Theurge would have a fun way to kill him.

Something like this:
Sorcerer 1 (Precocious Apprentice to get 2nd level spells)/Warlock 4/Eldritch Theurge 5. This gives him spells as a lvl 6 sorc and invocations (including Eldritch Blast) as a lvl 9 Lock...

...Of course, that means as DM what you need to do next is Prevent Resurrection. Can't help much with that without knowing more specifics.

you hit it right on the dot. i'm makeing an eldritch thurge Rakasha. im looseing the "start off with 7th lvl sorc" spells and just giving him that build. though i am curious where that feat "precocious apprentice" is.

im not going to eliminate resurection but im going to make it really rare and im thinking about a rule that goes something like:

- if you get reduced to -25 hitpoints in one shot there is nothing left of you. NOTHING.

you think that is a fair rule?

[goat]

Drop a cow on him.

[Cowboy_ninja]

Drop a cow on him.

i want this to be a big showing of my villan's power.
nothing comical.
my villan has a reputaion to maintain

[martyboy74]

you hit it right on the dot. i'm makeing an eldritch thurge Rakasha. im looseing the "start off with 7th lvl sorc" spells and just giving him that build. though i am curious where that feat "precocious apprentice" is.

im not going to eliminate resurection but im going to make it really rare and im thinking about a rule that goes something like:

- if you get reduced to -25 hitpoints in one shot there is nothing left of you. NOTHING.

you think that is a fair rule?

Define 'one shot'. Technically, hitting someone at -24 for 1 point of damage knocks them to -25 in one shot.

[TheOOB]

You could always create the equivalent of a force choke spell (a la Darth Vader). It's a very slow and dramatic way to finish someone off.

[TSGames]

i want this to be a big showing of my villan's power.
nothing comical.
my villan has a reputaion to maintain

I think it was a reference to a certain show that is not for children. "We have to make it look natural!"

[tannish2]

thinaun weapon (complete warrior) maybe planting one on the commoner, then frying later with any method previously suggested, perhaps disintegrate?+eldrich blast w/ spell thingy?

[Jack_Simth]

in a quick dramatic moment my PC's will loose one of the few NPCs whom is really dear to them via quickened.... what?

i need ideas. im looking for a quick "poof-your-dead" spell. yea those are kinda over powered but i figure a lvl 10 spell caster could out right kill a lvl 1-2commoner/fighter in one round. it doesnt have to be quickened.

im creating my villian though im sure he will be a spell caster im not sure which one. im leaning to warlock or perhaps some eldritch/arcane mix from complete mage. anyway i hardly ever run spell casters as a player so i still dont know what kinda spells are out there.

thanks in advance to everyone for their help.

Well, at 10th, a Quickened spell is limited to basically 1st level spells.... of course, as a standard, human commoner-3 has 2.5*3 hp (NPC's don't benefit from the full hp at 1st rule); if he's an Elf, that's 1.5*3 hp. So we're looking at about 4-8 hp, and another 10 on top of that to ensure dead (at -10). Can we get 18 damage with a 1st level spell at 10th?

Magic Missile, at 10th, does 5d4+5 damage; that's 9, at a minimum, and 25 at a maximum; average of 17.5 damage. Shocking Grasp at that caster level averages the same.

You're the DM; fudge the die roll. A 10th level caster NPC is perfectly fine for slaughtering a 3rd level commoner NPC without actually rolling.

[Fax Celestis]

Disintegrate, maybe? You'd have to UMD it, but I don't foresee that being an issue. At minimum level, a wand of it would deal 11d6 damage, with a Fort save for 5d6 instead. Either way, the commoner's 13 hp will certainly be taken care of even if he makes the save. 11d6 averages to 38, 5d6 averages to 17, the commoner's HP averages to 13.

And once he gets past 0, he's dust and cannot be resurrected. Seems like exactly what you want.

[Ellisthion]

Enervation. Bestows 1d4 negative levels.
Why:
Power: It's a reasonably powerful spell, being level 4. Much better than a mere magic missile.
Dramatic: It has a "black ray of crackling negative energy"!
Instant death: Just say you rolled a 3 or 4 (you're DM, you can fudge it), and the guy dies.
Hard to raise: Negative levels tend to turn people into Wights, which means they can't be raised by Raise Dead. This means that your friendly PCs can't bring back the NPC unless they get a Resurrection, which is a lot harder.

[Forrestfire]

commet fall and plane shift. liek the sound of those which book are they in. Also could you please spell it out all the way please? im not use to the Bow, or BoA stuff.

Plane shift is in the player's handbook, and comet fall in in complete divine.


PS: what are Bow and BoA?

Edit: i did not see that your villain is 10th level. these spells are higher than that. you could use scrolls though.

[Cowboy_ninja]

Disintegrate, maybe? You'd have to UMD it, but I don't foresee that being an issue. At minimum level, a wand of it would deal 11d6 damage, with a Fort save for 5d6 instead. Either way, the commoner's 13 hp will certainly be taken care of even if he makes the save. 11d6 averages to 38, 5d6 averages to 17, the commoner's HP averages to 13.

And once he gets past 0, he's dust and cannot be resurrected. Seems like exactly what you want.

UMD? what does that mean?

[TSGames]

UMD? what does that mean?

Use Magic Device, as per the player handbook skill.

[ImperiousLeader]

It's a pity, there's a 9th level spell called Detonate. Cast on commoner ... commoner explodes, dealing fire damage to all around him. If that strikes your fancy, but you want a lower level, there is a martial maneuver from Tome of Battle called Death Mark, deal extra fire damage with a melee strike, and damage all around with a blast of fire.

If you want something more chilling, check the necromancy school. Perhaps an empowered Chilling Touch delivered via a Spectral Hand?

[Rex Blunder]

Another chilling option, although commoner death wouldn't result for another few rounds. Baleful Polymorph him into a fish?