Blasphemy/Holy Word/Etc [Archive] - Wizards Community

Blasphemy/Holy Word/Etc [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
allenchan
02-04-07, 12:51 AM What are all the various ways one can protect themselves against these spells? Anybody?
runestar
02-04-07, 12:57 AM Silence
Greater magic immunity
Spell resistance(less reliable)
Witch
02-04-07, 08:39 AM Greater magic immunity
You mean Greater Spell Immunity, right? :)
That said, that is indeed the best defence.
runestar
02-04-07, 08:50 AM Which is what disturbs me a little - that there are so few, specialized counters against so potent a spell. Silence works mainly on non-spellcasters, since it screws around with spellcasters as much as it protects them. And spell resistance is just not reliable enough.

This means that it is recommended that you actually give PCs a day to prepare before having them faceoff against powerful fiends, else, its pretty much a TPK as the balor summons a 2nd balor and the 2 alternate blasphemies with attack spells and vorpal longsword swipes...:( If one just pops up...
Witch
02-04-07, 09:01 AM A few comments:

- Blasphemy has very limited range. This limits the creatures affected.
- Balors/Pit Fiends are dangerous. If you don't expect to meet them, expect to be in trouble when you do meet them. Do note their CL isn't extremely high.
- At Epic Levels, it might be a good thing to simply have the equivalent spells that can harm you always up with Spell Immunity.
- Maximizing the power of these spells is very difficult. It takes a lot of specific items to make you effectively 5 caster levels higher - therefore, it'll be most potent when you meet a higher level entity, which is generally justified in killing you easily.
SillyRobot
02-04-07, 09:57 AM The biggest problem is from a templated creature. Note that the Half-fiend template grants Blasphemy 1/day as one of the spell-like abilities with a caster-level equal to the creatures Hit Dice. Note that the Challenge Rating adjustment is a mere +3.

Many creature types have Hit Dice well above their Challenge Rating. An adult Half-Fiend White Dragon is CR 13 with 18 HD. Its Blasphemy effect will kill appropriately-levelled adventurers.
jaelis
02-04-07, 10:23 AM Another example, the hezrou gets blasphemy 3/day. It's a CR 11 with 10 HD... I can say from experience that sending one of them against an unprepared level 9 party is a mess.
Someone
02-04-07, 02:16 PM You could always be evil. And it would be metagaming on the part of the DM to have a creature not use blasphemy without it first realizing it doesn't work on you.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
allenchan 02-04-07, 12:51 AM	What are all the various ways one can protect themselves against these spells? Anybody?
runestar 02-04-07, 12:57 AM	Silence Greater magic immunity Spell resistance(less reliable)
Witch 02-04-07, 08:39 AM	Greater magic immunity You mean Greater Spell Immunity, right? :) That said, that is indeed the best defence.
runestar 02-04-07, 08:50 AM	Which is what disturbs me a little - that there are so few, specialized counters against so potent a spell. Silence works mainly on non-spellcasters, since it screws around with spellcasters as much as it protects them. And spell resistance is just not reliable enough. This means that it is recommended that you actually give PCs a day to prepare before having them faceoff against powerful fiends, else, its pretty much a TPK as the balor summons a 2nd balor and the 2 alternate blasphemies with attack spells and vorpal longsword swipes...:( If one just pops up...
Witch 02-04-07, 09:01 AM	A few comments: - Blasphemy has very limited range. This limits the creatures affected. - Balors/Pit Fiends are dangerous. If you don't expect to meet them, expect to be in trouble when you do meet them. Do note their CL isn't extremely high. - At Epic Levels, it might be a good thing to simply have the equivalent spells that can harm you always up with Spell Immunity. - Maximizing the power of these spells is very difficult. It takes a lot of specific items to make you effectively 5 caster levels higher - therefore, it'll be most potent when you meet a higher level entity, which is generally justified in killing you easily.
SillyRobot 02-04-07, 09:57 AM	The biggest problem is from a templated creature. Note that the Half-fiend template grants Blasphemy 1/day as one of the spell-like abilities with a caster-level equal to the creatures Hit Dice. Note that the Challenge Rating adjustment is a mere +3. Many creature types have Hit Dice well above their Challenge Rating. An adult Half-Fiend White Dragon is CR 13 with 18 HD. Its Blasphemy effect will kill appropriately-levelled adventurers.
jaelis 02-04-07, 10:23 AM	Another example, the hezrou gets blasphemy 3/day. It's a CR 11 with 10 HD... I can say from experience that sending one of them against an unprepared level 9 party is a mess.
Someone 02-04-07, 02:16 PM	You could always be evil. And it would be metagaming on the part of the DM to have a creature not use blasphemy without it first realizing it doesn't work on you.