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Galahad the Pure 07-10-06, 03:50 PM

During a recent gaming session, the Red Wizards of Thay incinerated three warships full of soldiers, and it got me thinking, "Why are there traditional battle tactics in D&D?" And the only answer is because it has a gritty feel and basically is cool. So to make something that's cool actually work, I have some concept ideas (very hazy) to make the epic armies you see in the movies work in your games. Basically, the easiest way to deal with enemy spell casters is to make sure their spells don't happen. Main concerns are long range spells. While lightning bolt might be devastating, it requires wizards to get too close to combat for it to be effective. No, I don't plan on these being panaceas for dealing with battlefield magic, but at least its effective for countering some mid-level tactics. Standards It's basically a banner that you stick to a flagpole or a hafted weapon. You have to keep it hoisted in order to have its effects work. See Heroes of Battle or Complete Warrior for more info on standards. Obviously, nondetection is key here, because if the enemy wizards catch it with arcane sight, they'll hit it with a targeted dispel and ruin your day. Standard of Counterspelling Basically the same as a ring of counterspelling, only with 12 slots. (Or however many.) Protects all within 60 ft. Cast fireball, cone of cold, cloudkill, etc into it to prevent losing entire brigades at once. Price: 16,000 gp [price = ring of counterspells x4--too cheap?] Standard of Energy Resistance Your typical artillery mage is not going to be much higher than 5th or 6th level, so you can expect around 20 points of fireball/lightning bolt damage per attack. This standard gives the effects of Energy Resistance to all within 60ft. (Minor=10, Major = 20, greater = 30.) Fire resistance is the big one here, because fireball is the best long range effect until we start thinking about chained lightning. Of course, every mage and his brother takes Acid Substitution, so this one is hard to justify considering the price. Nonetheless... Price: 24k (minor), 56k (major), 88k (greater) (priced with Mass Resist Energy in mind) Standard of Invisibility Purge This needs to go out at least 120 ft so you can see anyone thinking about casting lightning bolt. It can be limited to 60ft if all you're concerned about is cone of cold. The feat Widen Spell helps to keep this cheap. Of course it's still prohibitively expensive so I'm going to just throw an ad hoc price out there. Price: 25k (60ft range), 50k (120 ft range) Spyglass of Mage Detection This ruby lensed spyglass highlights the position of any arcane spellcaster with evocations or conjurations of level 3 or higher prepared. If the spellcaster does not prepare spells, it will highlight him if he knows how to cast evocations or conjurations of level 3 or higher. It can detect as far as the horizon, but it detects nothing within 300 ft. The spyglass penetrates all illusions. Lead is the only thing that blocks this effect. Creatures on the ethereal plane are not affected by the spyglass. Price: 40k (consider the pricing of a continuous effect analyze dweomer. Now forget that number and make one up at random. That's what I did here.) Standard of Missile Defense As per the spell shield, this blocks magic missiles in 60 ft. radius Price: 4000gp Standard of Spell Immunity This standard blocks out two spells of your choice that are 4th level or lower within 60ft. Fireball and Lightning bolt would be common choices. It's probably more cost effective than the standard of energy resistance. Price: 128,000gp (You could probably halve the price to just get protection from one spell, but then it would be a 4th level spell at caster level 4.) Anyway, if NPCs are pulling out delayed blast fireball, storm of vengeance, meteor swarm, and whatnot, then there's really nothing you can do to counter it. I'm just interested in making sure mid-level spellcasters don't decimate an army. Any thoughts on what I have so far?