Dealing with mages without a mage
Kneller
Member Posts: 438
My current run is in the underdark and mages are starting to get annoying with their stoneskins/spell turning/traps/etc. and being drow with MR on top of it all. I spend a lot of time cross referencing the protection spells they've cast with the descriptions for the anti-protection spells I have. It's not fun. I actually usually quit a run at this point, it's so tedious.
Then, I realize, lots of people play non-mage solos or just without mages and have to deal with enemy mages. I'm trying to figure out a work around and could use some tips.
One partial solution I've come up with is to throw summons at mages while the rest of the party is outside the fog. It buys a few rounds or so for the mages to burn some spells and let some shorter protections lapse, but this doesn't fully address the issue.
Anyone have other tips? Thanks.
Then, I realize, lots of people play non-mage solos or just without mages and have to deal with enemy mages. I'm trying to figure out a work around and could use some tips.
One partial solution I've come up with is to throw summons at mages while the rest of the party is outside the fog. It buys a few rounds or so for the mages to burn some spells and let some shorter protections lapse, but this doesn't fully address the issue.
Anyone have other tips? Thanks.
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Comments
Also remember that when enemies are casting "Protection from Magical Weapons" they still can be harmed by non-enchanted weapons.
There is a magic sword that will often dispel magic on a hit, and Kheldorn or a Charname Inquisitor's Dispel Magic is very powerful and nearly certain to work: again, however, only if the mage does not have SI:Abjuration. Also, spells that do not target the mage directly, such as AoE spells will also sometimes have an effect, depending upon what specific spell defenses the mage has. For example, Insect Plague, the 5th-level Druid spell, if you target a nearby enemy, will often spread even to mages with some spell defenses. If you target the mage directly, however, it will be absorbed by the Spell Trap. Against Drow this method is much less reliable, however, because they have such high magic resistance. Their magic resistance will not affect Dispel Magic, however: either from a caster, the weapon, or an Inquisitor.
You have discovered why Inquisitors are considered to be very good fighter-type characters.
pfmw is so short lasting that if your thief can scout and spot the drow party is not a problem to have them waste it while your party is in a safe position. the underdark battles against drows are a perfect playground for the thief, he can pop out from the fog of war, fire an arrow or 2 and then hide as the drow casters try to cast spells at him, he has to be hasted so he can run away if the spell cast is an aoe, in each case the spell is wasted. if some drow is so idiot to try to follow him he can backstab the pour guy, multiple times if needed. a corner, a rock or anything that hides him from the enemy sight for a split second is all he needs to disappear, and the enemy will reach the point where he hide and stay still there. traps can help. and shield of reflection is mandatory (EDIT: if the thief can equip it, a fmt or ft can) so the drows that use ranged weapons hit themselves.
one other way is to make your mage not touchable and have the drows waste all their spells on him.
i usually run small parties and efficient leveling strategies ( like soloing with charname until he gets enough xp that the npcs are at the highest level possible, maybe leaving the quest xp to be gathered so they can also benefit, so my mages can use dispel magic. to start with npcs at 1.25M and be only 3 or 4 toons mean that in the underdark they are at much higher level than the opponents, as they have more than the double xp than 6 people party that is not using efficient leveling strategies.
but as i often give myself some limitations, like fighting the battles without using arcane magic or magic at all, i find that in most situations a thief can be a perfect mage neutralizer.
summons work, skeletal warriors suck spells and hit well, mordy swords are perfect against the warriors. is crucial to have the summons draw the attention of the right enemies, SW for casters, MS for warriors. and if needed some low level summon to waste the death spells that destroy summons. but i am not a big fan of the summons, i use them very seldom. ranged capability is the key while you use the summons as meat shield, a ranged party can kill enemies fast if all the focus is on only one.
??
a mage protected only by stoneskin can be owned by a single fighter using a weapon with elemental damage as is constantly disrupted. is also easy to remove it with breach or a single arrow of dispelling.
a mage with MMM active can own 2 enemy ones protected by stoneskin.
there are ways to get rid of SI, RRoR is in the game for that purpose.
PFMW is short lasting and breach get rid of it. also it can not be active while also protection from normal weapons is there.
a game without PFMW and SI leave mages naked, unless the change is a change of the whole spell system.
a mage protected only by PFMW and SI abjuration can be killed in seconds by a thief (backstab with staff of striking).
i think that the mages are too easy to own even with SI and PFMW, the only mage i can think about that is hard to own is the undead solaufein from the wes weimer's mod, if we are talking of the vanilla spell system.
we are lucky that the enemies don't have the robe of vecna and don't use their offensive potential, my mages can kill both draconis forms before the lizard has the time to react, they don't even need protections cause everything happens so fast.
EDIT: i am not even talking of aoe spells or the druid insect ones that ignore PFMW, most of the ways i am talking about can be performed by not mages, and even the MMM is used by a mage but is a weapon, conjured by a spell, not a spell.
It doesn't even matter if the mage has Death Spell, because they can only cast Death Spell a limited number of times (usually once). Just throw a kobold at them, they use their Death Spell, and then you throw all your other summons at the mage.
a toon webbed not only can not move, but gets hit every time bypassing the to hit roll and can not cast or use ranged weapons. spiders are immune to web and the ones you can make spawn at some levels have a poisoning effect that is really good against casters.
2 webs can be stored in a minor sequencer so with 2 mages 4 webs can be active in no time, if sequencer is used 6 webs can be active, but this is more spell consuming.
about having jaheira shapeshifting i prefer to give her a couple of mundane clubs, if she has pips in dw, she can also use the sling that brings STR damage in while using not enchanted bullets, and the shield of reflection make her immune to the ranged attacks the drows use, the drow speed Xbow and the secial bullets can be annoying.
An Inquisitor is a mage's worst nightmare with his/her dispel magic ability.