Group is facing a DEXed out Dervish? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Group is facing a DEXed out Dervish? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
johniemi
03-03-05, 09:29 AM Here's the situation, we are all at levels 27-29. One Rakshasa sorcerer, one Ogre warhulk and one Drow dervish. We are faring very well at combat situations due to all of us being very good in combat skills (especially the warhulk with his +40 STR bonus and all...)

We are soon facing our archenemy (later referred to as "Archenemy" :) ) who's been haunting us from level 3 upwards and we plan to get closure on this matter. Information we know about Archenemy is this:

Human
Has some levels of Rogue, and lots of levels as a Dervish (maybe even up to 20 levels of Dervish)
He is most likely at level 30-35
Will have a few allies when we combat him, most likely cleric(s), sorcerer(s) and fighter(s)
Has epic magic items, most likely the best bracers of AC, two best scimitars, etc etc. that money can buy.
Has boatloads of DEX, but might not have too much STR

When we last saw him, we players were at level 16 and our Archenemy was at level 20, he had two sorcerers and a fighter as allies but we still mopped the floor with him. Unfortunately he had a helm of teleportation so he got away.

So to make it short; please give ideas on how to defeat a DEX-loaded Dervish who will be utilising dexterity and will use his thousand cuts ability.Basically Thousand cuts is;
He moves 5ft, attacks, moves 5ft, attacks and so on and so on. (can attack up to 16 or so times in one round!! jeez...)
Can take 10 on tumble checks to avoid AoO.
If movement can be disturbed, I think his turn ends so that's something we could try.

I presume he will have very good saves due to him being epic and our DM being in love with this guy, I am 100% sure that our DM wants Archenemy to either kill us or survive the battle and fight the next day but we want to nail this sucker once and for all.

Opinions about a good strategy, please? If you have questions I will be happy to answer. By the way, almost everything can be bought, all epic items etc. so almost everything can be dome. (blame the DM, not us... I really don't like the idea that we can just waltz in a random magic shop and buying rings of universal energy immunity to our whole party...)

Ideas have been flying around, one of the latest is that the sorcerer shapechanges into a Tarrasque but we need something to hinder the Archenemy's movement, preferrably something that is hard to dispel as his party probably has two sorcerers and we have one so they are able to dispel everything with just a bit of luck on the dice rolls.

-John
Darastin
03-03-05, 10:10 AM How about...

Hit him with a maximized, empowered Ray of Enfeeblement. Use True Strike to improve your chance to hit (dervish AC bonus applies to touch attacks). Chances are that you drop his STR down to single digits, and now he carries a medium load. Encumberance = no more dervish dance :devil: Even if the RoE gets dispelled, the dance should be over.

Fly, stay out of his movement range, and use ranged attacks.

Use Enervation, Waves of Exhaustion and other no-save debuffs.

With the Warhulks superior strength and size, you should be able to trip him.

Get a Ring of Spell Storing. Put Antimagic Field in it. Give it to the Warhulk. Have your own Dervish draw his AoOs (fight defensively, use combat expertise and mobility), then the Warhulk activates the ring and grapples him.

But if your DM really wants this guy to survive, he will. OTOH, if your DM really wants to kill you, why doesn't he drop the moon on your party?

Just my two €-cents;
Darastin
Helmed Horror
03-03-05, 10:14 AM Hmm, have an item or prepare demensional anchor. Then finish the job one and for all... hmm, you seem fine on your own...I second the draining strength... and if possible, some dispel magic or mages dysjunction may work.
CzarGarrett
03-03-05, 10:50 AM The no save anti-buffs can definately help.

Also, if possible, have your sorcerer summon some air elementals. This guy is quick- so try to beat him at his own game. Air elementals, etheral-going creatures, other things that are really quick, get some on your side.

Plus illusions- lots of them. If he's got 16 attacks a round, and you have 11 illusions, that's more targets for him to waste attacks on.
ShadowDragon8685
03-03-05, 10:57 AM Pool your cash, hire an Epic hit-wizard to cast Momento Mori on this sucker, then Trap the Soul. Then use some more Epic teleportomumbojumbo to send that soul gem deeeeeeeeeeep into the Voidstone Field. Preferably chuck it directly into a void.

Bam. One dervish, insta-slain.
Callista
03-03-05, 11:47 AM A dervish is like a Fireball... it can do a lot of damage if you're bunched up.

Try a large, open area--you can spread out, stay apart enough so he can't use that ability too much.

I hope the more mobile people have Spring Attack by now... Epics should... so hit him and then jump back to somewhere where he can hit only one person at a time.
Darastin
03-03-05, 11:56 AM Problem: The Dervish has a built-in superior version of Spring Attack and increased speed. He will win this game of mobility.

Just my two €-Cents;
Darastin
Wizard
03-03-05, 12:19 PM In addition to ray of enfeeblement, I highly recommend ray of exhaustion. You might even be able to win the game of mobility that way...:)
Darastin
03-03-05, 01:20 PM Waves of Exhaustion is better; it doesn't require an attack roll and it can hit his minons, too.

Just my two €-Cents;
Darastin
Tolby
03-03-05, 01:32 PM If his str is low hit him with a tanglefoot bag. No magical so can't be dispelled. Limits his movement even if he makes his save (I think that is true).

Stay 10' away from each other. Ready action for his approach so that you get one attack on him.

Have the warhulk charge his spellcasting buddies and mop the floor with them. Then begin dividing up the battlefield with Wall of Force.
Meisterbrau
03-03-05, 01:37 PM Waves of Exhaustion dont allow a save and limit him to one action per round (+1 att if he is hasted). Drop will save spells on him (it should be his weakest save). Try avasculate and avascular mass (from LM) to keep him stunlocked and cost him 1/2 his hp per cast.
ShadowDragon8685
03-03-05, 01:52 PM One word.

"Caltrops."
Kessalin Talira
03-03-05, 05:52 PM Give the War Hulk a Mace of Ruin, sized for him. Have him ready an action to sunder as soon as the dervish gets within striking range. Unless the Dervish's weapons are +8 to hit and damage, before adding other abilities, one hit from that mace WILL shatter one like glass. Then do it again as soon as possible. THEN grapple him. Because scimitars are light weapons to a dervish, he can use them in a grapple, so deny him of them first.

By the way, A Thousand Cuts is not the ability you described. That's the Dervish Dance, which they can do several times a day. A Thousand Cuts is the 10th level ability of Dervish, and is only once a day. That one allows you to double your number of attacks for a round.

Dervish Dance also says that you have to move at least five feet between attacks, so staying ten feet apart doesn't help. That just means he dances around one person rather than moving through the whole party.

If you've got a caster that can cast the spell, have him ready an action to cast. As soon as the Dervish gets within 10' of him, the caster DEFENSIVELY casts Prismatic Sphere. His next available action would then be to run out of it, since the caster can move through the sphere all they want. If someone else can do it, have them be ready to counterspell the MDJ that will follow, since dispels and AMF don't touch Prismatic Wall or Sphere. Mow down the lackeys and then drop the sphere and take him on by himself.
darksamuari
03-03-05, 08:44 PM What about casting a spell to affect the ground, ice the floor. Like anothe poster said, caltrops around you. Maybe you can even tr to get to a higher elevation and then use height as an advantage.
ShadowDragon8685
03-03-05, 09:07 PM "Transmute Rock to Mud" or something like that. You can't do those dexterity things like tumbling in bogged down terrain.

Then just load your warhulk up with something that will shoot his AC and/or DR through the roof. Have him walk over, and just rip the scimitars out of the guy's hand, and toss 'em far, faar away. He'll get AOOs, but they probably won't work right.

And remember; since the Scimitars ARE Light weapons for the Dervish, he takes a -4 penalty, on top of the inevitable +4 for the Warhulk being large, and probably another +4 for wielding a twohanded weapon. :)
likuidice
03-04-05, 05:10 AM with regard to tripping, epic tumble allows you to stand as a free action, so he wont be down for long, try forcecage, scrolls of spike growth and spike stones (if you have umd) , casting slow, grapple him, caltrops, anything that doesnt allow saves.
johniemi
03-04-05, 05:59 AM Thanks for the comments, keep them coming if you still have ideas. Just wanted to say that he will most likely have fly cast on him so manipulating the ground won't do I'm afraid...

-John
WunderGoat
03-04-05, 02:31 PM Bestow curse: 50% action loss. Keep him from doig what he wants to do. Remember that its a 50% chance of loseing the move action, which is pretty much all his movement for the round. Each attack is counted separatly, as an attack is an attack action. On top of that, you have a pretty good chance of getting him to stay still for an enitre round of hulk-bashing.

Bestow greater curse from BoVD: Can make an ability score 1 (str, dex, and con are all good. No more dervish abilities if you kill the dex, due to losing two-weapon fighting). Can make the subject have a 75% chance to lose his/her turn. Downside is you have to name something they have to do to remove the curse (something they can resonably do in a year).
ShadowDragon8685
03-04-05, 05:04 PM Something he can reasonably do in a year's time?

"Die."

:)
mcnoo
03-04-05, 09:28 PM Forcecage and dimensional anchor, you gota love it.
"You're now stuck in a box, no save, and you can't escape"
Line up your casters, hit him with all the debuffs you can, then just fire everything you've got into him.
Forcecage and gate in whatever the highest CR thing you can think of that can't escape a forcecage would be a plan, they're safely in the cage so you don't need to worry about not controling them.
ShadowDragon8685
03-04-05, 10:16 PM Use the Solid Box forcecage. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out.

And it lasts for two hours. Let's calculate the volume of a 10x10 cube, shall we?

10 cubic feet... That wasen't hard, was it? :)

Now, let's find the displacement of your average person...

From the Ask a Scientist webpage...

1a.) A very good first approximation to your question is to simply find the
average human mass (easy enough to weigh) and divide by 0.001 kg/cm^3.
1b.) Lets take me for example, I am about 2.80 ft^3.

Let's just assume your average labrat scientist is a good size for our shadowdancer, shall we?

Okay now, this guy has 7.20 cubic feet of air to work with. Let's look up human respiration, shall we? Can anyone else see where I'm going with this?

It turns out that the average good breath works out to five litres, which works out to, and let's round it out, 0.18 cubic feet.

And after some more research, that comes out to, under combat conditions, easily a breath per second.

6 * 0.18 = 1.08

So our friend here is going through one of his 7.20 cubic feet of air per round By some quick division, I discover that means that he will be out of air in seven rounds. Six and a third, but let's call it seven.

At the eighth round, the character has run out of air. He may now hold his breath for two rounds per point of constitution. Past which, he must make a DC 10 Fortitude save or fall unconcious and start dieing. He's gotta roll a 1 eventually, and you people should be outside, hooting and hollaring and generally distracting him.

When he does fall unconcious, give him an hour or two in which to be absoloutly certain he's not faking, then walk in, slicey-slice goes the knife, choppy-chop goes the sword, Soul Bind goes the Wizard, followed by Nailing his body to the Sky.

And, as an aside, by the simple algebra presented here, it's readily apparent that the DMG rules on slow suffocation are pure and total bunk. Then again, you have 2 hours per character level, so if you have to wait the six hours for him to start taking damage, wait it.
mcnoo
03-05-05, 05:47 AM Nice try, but you missed a couple of important points.
You've calcualted as though one breath strips the air of 100% of it's oxygen, which is utter poo, now I haven't done biology for a fair few years, but I seem to recall that you covert about 5% or so of the oxygen you breathe in to CO2 with each breath.
Your second mistake is that it's not a 10x10 cube, it's a 10x10x10 cube, so 100 cubic feet, not 10.
Your third mistake was that you called it algebra, but I don't see any letters, but thats irrelevent.
Your fourth was you've calculated to say he starts to asphyxiate when the oxygen level in the air reaches 0%, but really you fall unconcious shortly before it hits 10% of the air composition instead of it's normal 21%

A little research, and i pulled up this http://science.howstuffworks.com/question98.htm , basically saying in 24 hours we need 388 cubic feet of air, he's got 100 for 10 hours, meaning he needs *grabs calculator* 194 litres. He'd be screwed.
BUT, if as soon as the box springs up he relaxes, mediatates and concentrates on slowing his breathing, *does a quick bit of extra googling* http://members.shaw.ca/tfrisen/how_much_oxygen_for_a_person.htm , at the bottom of this page a room not an awful lot bigger than our one here is calcualted to have enough for a person at rest for 2.6 days before it starts to reach danger levels.

In other words, sorry, you're wrong, and I'm sumg.

Never put maths in front of a pedantic chemistry student (Read: don't tempt the geek who's looking for anything to do but study)

[edit] appologies for any mistakes\spelling mistakes\eccentricity, but i havent slept for a couple of days and i'm buzzed off my face on caffine
Nuke
03-05-05, 08:04 AM Jeez people, the volume of a cube is the length of a side cubed. So, in this case 10 ft^3 = 1000 cubic feet.

Sorry, but seriously, how hard is it to multiply 10x10x10?
ShadowDragon8685
03-05-05, 03:27 PM In my defense, I was angry and on a caffine high.

Anyway, that's one idea. Seal him in a 10x10x10 chamber and wait for him to suffocate. Cast Permanancy on it. :)
mcnoo
03-05-05, 07:35 PM Jeez people, the volume of a cube is the length of a side cubed. So, in this case 10 ft^3 = 1000 cubic feet.

Sorry, but seriously, how hard is it to multiply 10x10x10?

Whoops, i meant that, typo the first time, and error carried forwards the second time. (thats only losing the one mark by most exam boards)
sooperspook
03-06-05, 12:24 AM Targeted Hightened Greater Dispel Magic. get rid of his buffs and magic stuff. Detect Magic to tell when hes debuffed.

Or just Mords Disjunction him.

Then nerf his stats.
Hightened Slow.
Hightened, Empowered Ray of Enfeeblement.
Hightened Waves of Exhaustion.
Mindfog then any Will save or Die spells.
Stone to Mud to stop him 'Dancing'
or Make him dance. Ottos Irresistable that is.
Solid Fog can also help reduce his mobilty. Then use damage spells.

Note: If you're high enough level you can use Intensified instead of Empowered.
johniemi
03-06-05, 09:01 AM By the way, can one do a dervish dance when flying? So is flying magically in DD considered to be the same as fighting on a solid ground?

-John
Skyblade
03-06-05, 11:52 AM Yes, I believe you could use Dervish Dance while flying - but you can't use Spring Attack.

To get a full attack in Dervish Dance while flying, you'd need Flyby Attack.. and I fail to see just WHY a dervish would wanna take such a feat (unless the DM's evil enough to make him take the feat just so he could pull this encounter off).

Oh, and the movement enhancements the Dervish has are for the ground only (though, considering the speed you get from the Fly spell, the loss is small). If he flies, have somebody cast Control Wind... then watch him get blown away.

And yeah, I agree with the suggestions of no-save spells (usually rays). You should be safe with those as long as he doesn't have spell turning...
Meisterbrau
03-06-05, 12:23 PM Reciprocal Gire and Rending Dispel are good ones too. Both abjur spells first does 1d6/lvl of enchantment he has active on himself with a max of 25d6 will for half and then hit him with the Rending Dispel, it does a greater dispel on him and each enhanment it successfully dispells you can take and have it affect you instead. Best part of both spells is NO SR need apply :D
deusxmachina
03-07-05, 03:03 AM By the way, A Thousand Cuts is not the ability you described. That's the Dervish Dance, which they can do several times a day. A Thousand Cuts is the 10th level ability of Dervish, and is only once a day. That one allows you to double your number of attacks for a round.

To clarify, a Dervish Dance requires movement. A Thousand Cuts does not. Anyone who gets caught in a 1000 Cuts action is probably done. An Enlarged Dervish doing a 1000 cuts would be interesting to see.
Shaitan0.2beta
03-07-05, 11:52 AM Turn someone into a Tarrasque, and have him roll around on the ground untill he turns the Dervish into paste.
ShadowDragon8685
03-07-05, 12:02 PM Turn someone into a Tarrasque, and have him roll around on the ground untill he turns the Dervish into paste.
:heehee

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
johniemi 03-03-05, 09:29 AM	Here's the situation, we are all at levels 27-29. One Rakshasa sorcerer, one Ogre warhulk and one Drow dervish. We are faring very well at combat situations due to all of us being very good in combat skills (especially the warhulk with his +40 STR bonus and all...) We are soon facing our archenemy (later referred to as "Archenemy" :) ) who's been haunting us from level 3 upwards and we plan to get closure on this matter. Information we know about Archenemy is this: Human Has some levels of Rogue, and lots of levels as a Dervish (maybe even up to 20 levels of Dervish) He is most likely at level 30-35 Will have a few allies when we combat him, most likely cleric(s), sorcerer(s) and fighter(s) Has epic magic items, most likely the best bracers of AC, two best scimitars, etc etc. that money can buy. Has boatloads of DEX, but might not have too much STR When we last saw him, we players were at level 16 and our Archenemy was at level 20, he had two sorcerers and a fighter as allies but we still mopped the floor with him. Unfortunately he had a helm of teleportation so he got away. So to make it short; please give ideas on how to defeat a DEX-loaded Dervish who will be utilising dexterity and will use his thousand cuts ability.Basically Thousand cuts is; He moves 5ft, attacks, moves 5ft, attacks and so on and so on. (can attack up to 16 or so times in one round!! jeez...) Can take 10 on tumble checks to avoid AoO. If movement can be disturbed, I think his turn ends so that's something we could try. I presume he will have very good saves due to him being epic and our DM being in love with this guy, I am 100% sure that our DM wants Archenemy to either kill us or survive the battle and fight the next day but we want to nail this sucker once and for all. Opinions about a good strategy, please? If you have questions I will be happy to answer. By the way, almost everything can be bought, all epic items etc. so almost everything can be dome. (blame the DM, not us... I really don't like the idea that we can just waltz in a random magic shop and buying rings of universal energy immunity to our whole party...) Ideas have been flying around, one of the latest is that the sorcerer shapechanges into a Tarrasque but we need something to hinder the Archenemy's movement, preferrably something that is hard to dispel as his party probably has two sorcerers and we have one so they are able to dispel everything with just a bit of luck on the dice rolls. -John
Darastin 03-03-05, 10:10 AM	How about... Hit him with a maximized, empowered Ray of Enfeeblement. Use True Strike to improve your chance to hit (dervish AC bonus applies to touch attacks). Chances are that you drop his STR down to single digits, and now he carries a medium load. Encumberance = no more dervish dance :devil: Even if the RoE gets dispelled, the dance should be over. Fly, stay out of his movement range, and use ranged attacks. Use Enervation, Waves of Exhaustion and other no-save debuffs. With the Warhulks superior strength and size, you should be able to trip him. Get a Ring of Spell Storing. Put Antimagic Field in it. Give it to the Warhulk. Have your own Dervish draw his AoOs (fight defensively, use combat expertise and mobility), then the Warhulk activates the ring and grapples him. But if your DM really wants this guy to survive, he will. OTOH, if your DM really wants to kill you, why doesn't he drop the moon on your party? Just my two €-cents; Darastin
Helmed Horror 03-03-05, 10:14 AM	Hmm, have an item or prepare demensional anchor. Then finish the job one and for all... hmm, you seem fine on your own...I second the draining strength... and if possible, some dispel magic or mages dysjunction may work.
CzarGarrett 03-03-05, 10:50 AM	The no save anti-buffs can definately help. Also, if possible, have your sorcerer summon some air elementals. This guy is quick- so try to beat him at his own game. Air elementals, etheral-going creatures, other things that are really quick, get some on your side. Plus illusions- lots of them. If he's got 16 attacks a round, and you have 11 illusions, that's more targets for him to waste attacks on.
ShadowDragon8685 03-03-05, 10:57 AM	Pool your cash, hire an Epic hit-wizard to cast Momento Mori on this sucker, then Trap the Soul. Then use some more Epic teleportomumbojumbo to send that soul gem deeeeeeeeeeep into the Voidstone Field. Preferably chuck it directly into a void. Bam. One dervish, insta-slain.
Callista 03-03-05, 11:47 AM	A dervish is like a Fireball... it can do a lot of damage if you're bunched up. Try a large, open area--you can spread out, stay apart enough so he can't use that ability too much. I hope the more mobile people have Spring Attack by now... Epics should... so hit him and then jump back to somewhere where he can hit only one person at a time.
Darastin 03-03-05, 11:56 AM	Problem: The Dervish has a built-in superior version of Spring Attack and increased speed. He will win this game of mobility. Just my two €-Cents; Darastin
Wizard 03-03-05, 12:19 PM	In addition to ray of enfeeblement, I highly recommend ray of exhaustion. You might even be able to win the game of mobility that way...:)
Darastin 03-03-05, 01:20 PM	Waves of Exhaustion is better; it doesn't require an attack roll and it can hit his minons, too. Just my two €-Cents; Darastin
Tolby 03-03-05, 01:32 PM	If his str is low hit him with a tanglefoot bag. No magical so can't be dispelled. Limits his movement even if he makes his save (I think that is true). Stay 10' away from each other. Ready action for his approach so that you get one attack on him. Have the warhulk charge his spellcasting buddies and mop the floor with them. Then begin dividing up the battlefield with Wall of Force.
Meisterbrau 03-03-05, 01:37 PM	Waves of Exhaustion dont allow a save and limit him to one action per round (+1 att if he is hasted). Drop will save spells on him (it should be his weakest save). Try avasculate and avascular mass (from LM) to keep him stunlocked and cost him 1/2 his hp per cast.
ShadowDragon8685 03-03-05, 01:52 PM	One word. "Caltrops."
Kessalin Talira 03-03-05, 05:52 PM	Give the War Hulk a Mace of Ruin, sized for him. Have him ready an action to sunder as soon as the dervish gets within striking range. Unless the Dervish's weapons are +8 to hit and damage, before adding other abilities, one hit from that mace WILL shatter one like glass. Then do it again as soon as possible. THEN grapple him. Because scimitars are light weapons to a dervish, he can use them in a grapple, so deny him of them first. By the way, A Thousand Cuts is not the ability you described. That's the Dervish Dance, which they can do several times a day. A Thousand Cuts is the 10th level ability of Dervish, and is only once a day. That one allows you to double your number of attacks for a round. Dervish Dance also says that you have to move at least five feet between attacks, so staying ten feet apart doesn't help. That just means he dances around one person rather than moving through the whole party. If you've got a caster that can cast the spell, have him ready an action to cast. As soon as the Dervish gets within 10' of him, the caster DEFENSIVELY casts Prismatic Sphere. His next available action would then be to run out of it, since the caster can move through the sphere all they want. If someone else can do it, have them be ready to counterspell the MDJ that will follow, since dispels and AMF don't touch Prismatic Wall or Sphere. Mow down the lackeys and then drop the sphere and take him on by himself.
darksamuari 03-03-05, 08:44 PM	What about casting a spell to affect the ground, ice the floor. Like anothe poster said, caltrops around you. Maybe you can even tr to get to a higher elevation and then use height as an advantage.
ShadowDragon8685 03-03-05, 09:07 PM	"Transmute Rock to Mud" or something like that. You can't do those dexterity things like tumbling in bogged down terrain. Then just load your warhulk up with something that will shoot his AC and/or DR through the roof. Have him walk over, and just rip the scimitars out of the guy's hand, and toss 'em far, faar away. He'll get AOOs, but they probably won't work right. And remember; since the Scimitars ARE Light weapons for the Dervish, he takes a -4 penalty, on top of the inevitable +4 for the Warhulk being large, and probably another +4 for wielding a twohanded weapon. :)
likuidice 03-04-05, 05:10 AM	with regard to tripping, epic tumble allows you to stand as a free action, so he wont be down for long, try forcecage, scrolls of spike growth and spike stones (if you have umd) , casting slow, grapple him, caltrops, anything that doesnt allow saves.
johniemi 03-04-05, 05:59 AM	Thanks for the comments, keep them coming if you still have ideas. Just wanted to say that he will most likely have fly cast on him so manipulating the ground won't do I'm afraid... -John
WunderGoat 03-04-05, 02:31 PM	Bestow curse: 50% action loss. Keep him from doig what he wants to do. Remember that its a 50% chance of loseing the move action, which is pretty much all his movement for the round. Each attack is counted separatly, as an attack is an attack action. On top of that, you have a pretty good chance of getting him to stay still for an enitre round of hulk-bashing. Bestow greater curse from BoVD: Can make an ability score 1 (str, dex, and con are all good. No more dervish abilities if you kill the dex, due to losing two-weapon fighting). Can make the subject have a 75% chance to lose his/her turn. Downside is you have to name something they have to do to remove the curse (something they can resonably do in a year).
ShadowDragon8685 03-04-05, 05:04 PM	Something he can reasonably do in a year's time? "Die." :)
mcnoo 03-04-05, 09:28 PM	Forcecage and dimensional anchor, you gota love it. "You're now stuck in a box, no save, and you can't escape" Line up your casters, hit him with all the debuffs you can, then just fire everything you've got into him. Forcecage and gate in whatever the highest CR thing you can think of that can't escape a forcecage would be a plan, they're safely in the cage so you don't need to worry about not controling them.
ShadowDragon8685 03-04-05, 10:16 PM	Use the Solid Box forcecage. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out. And it lasts for two hours. Let's calculate the volume of a 10x10 cube, shall we? 10 cubic feet... That wasen't hard, was it? :) Now, let's find the displacement of your average person... From the Ask a Scientist webpage... 1a.) A very good first approximation to your question is to simply find the average human mass (easy enough to weigh) and divide by 0.001 kg/cm^3. 1b.) Lets take me for example, I am about 2.80 ft^3. Let's just assume your average labrat scientist is a good size for our shadowdancer, shall we? Okay now, this guy has 7.20 cubic feet of air to work with. Let's look up human respiration, shall we? Can anyone else see where I'm going with this? It turns out that the average good breath works out to five litres, which works out to, and let's round it out, 0.18 cubic feet. And after some more research, that comes out to, under combat conditions, easily a breath per second. 6 * 0.18 = 1.08 So our friend here is going through one of his 7.20 cubic feet of air per round By some quick division, I discover that means that he will be out of air in seven rounds. Six and a third, but let's call it seven. At the eighth round, the character has run out of air. He may now hold his breath for two rounds per point of constitution. Past which, he must make a DC 10 Fortitude save or fall unconcious and start dieing. He's gotta roll a 1 eventually, and you people should be outside, hooting and hollaring and generally distracting him. When he does fall unconcious, give him an hour or two in which to be absoloutly certain he's not faking, then walk in, slicey-slice goes the knife, choppy-chop goes the sword, Soul Bind goes the Wizard, followed by Nailing his body to the Sky. And, as an aside, by the simple algebra presented here, it's readily apparent that the DMG rules on slow suffocation are pure and total bunk. Then again, you have 2 hours per character level, so if you have to wait the six hours for him to start taking damage, wait it.
mcnoo 03-05-05, 05:47 AM	Nice try, but you missed a couple of important points. You've calcualted as though one breath strips the air of 100% of it's oxygen, which is utter poo, now I haven't done biology for a fair few years, but I seem to recall that you covert about 5% or so of the oxygen you breathe in to CO2 with each breath. Your second mistake is that it's not a 10x10 cube, it's a 10x10x10 cube, so 100 cubic feet, not 10. Your third mistake was that you called it algebra, but I don't see any letters, but thats irrelevent. Your fourth was you've calculated to say he starts to asphyxiate when the oxygen level in the air reaches 0%, but really you fall unconcious shortly before it hits 10% of the air composition instead of it's normal 21% A little research, and i pulled up this http://science.howstuffworks.com/question98.htm , basically saying in 24 hours we need 388 cubic feet of air, he's got 100 for 10 hours, meaning he needs grabs calculator 194 litres. He'd be screwed. BUT, if as soon as the box springs up he relaxes, mediatates and concentrates on slowing his breathing, does a quick bit of extra googling http://members.shaw.ca/tfrisen/how_much_oxygen_for_a_person.htm , at the bottom of this page a room not an awful lot bigger than our one here is calcualted to have enough for a person at rest for 2.6 days before it starts to reach danger levels. In other words, sorry, you're wrong, and I'm sumg. Never put maths in front of a pedantic chemistry student (Read: don't tempt the geek who's looking for anything to do but study) [edit] appologies for any mistakes\spelling mistakes\eccentricity, but i havent slept for a couple of days and i'm buzzed off my face on caffine
Nuke 03-05-05, 08:04 AM	Jeez people, the volume of a cube is the length of a side cubed. So, in this case 10 ft^3 = 1000 cubic feet. Sorry, but seriously, how hard is it to multiply 10x10x10?
ShadowDragon8685 03-05-05, 03:27 PM	In my defense, I was angry and on a caffine high. Anyway, that's one idea. Seal him in a 10x10x10 chamber and wait for him to suffocate. Cast Permanancy on it. :)
mcnoo 03-05-05, 07:35 PM	Jeez people, the volume of a cube is the length of a side cubed. So, in this case 10 ft^3 = 1000 cubic feet. Sorry, but seriously, how hard is it to multiply 10x10x10? Whoops, i meant that, typo the first time, and error carried forwards the second time. (thats only losing the one mark by most exam boards)
sooperspook 03-06-05, 12:24 AM	Targeted Hightened Greater Dispel Magic. get rid of his buffs and magic stuff. Detect Magic to tell when hes debuffed. Or just Mords Disjunction him. Then nerf his stats. Hightened Slow. Hightened, Empowered Ray of Enfeeblement. Hightened Waves of Exhaustion. Mindfog then any Will save or Die spells. Stone to Mud to stop him 'Dancing' or Make him dance. Ottos Irresistable that is. Solid Fog can also help reduce his mobilty. Then use damage spells. Note: If you're high enough level you can use Intensified instead of Empowered.
johniemi 03-06-05, 09:01 AM	By the way, can one do a dervish dance when flying? So is flying magically in DD considered to be the same as fighting on a solid ground? -John
Skyblade 03-06-05, 11:52 AM	Yes, I believe you could use Dervish Dance while flying - but you can't use Spring Attack. To get a full attack in Dervish Dance while flying, you'd need Flyby Attack.. and I fail to see just WHY a dervish would wanna take such a feat (unless the DM's evil enough to make him take the feat just so he could pull this encounter off). Oh, and the movement enhancements the Dervish has are for the ground only (though, considering the speed you get from the Fly spell, the loss is small). If he flies, have somebody cast Control Wind... then watch him get blown away. And yeah, I agree with the suggestions of no-save spells (usually rays). You should be safe with those as long as he doesn't have spell turning...
Meisterbrau 03-06-05, 12:23 PM	Reciprocal Gire and Rending Dispel are good ones too. Both abjur spells first does 1d6/lvl of enchantment he has active on himself with a max of 25d6 will for half and then hit him with the Rending Dispel, it does a greater dispel on him and each enhanment it successfully dispells you can take and have it affect you instead. Best part of both spells is NO SR need apply :D
deusxmachina 03-07-05, 03:03 AM	By the way, A Thousand Cuts is not the ability you described. That's the Dervish Dance, which they can do several times a day. A Thousand Cuts is the 10th level ability of Dervish, and is only once a day. That one allows you to double your number of attacks for a round. To clarify, a Dervish Dance requires movement. A Thousand Cuts does not. Anyone who gets caught in a 1000 Cuts action is probably done. An Enlarged Dervish doing a 1000 cuts would be interesting to see.
Shaitan0.2beta 03-07-05, 11:52 AM	Turn someone into a Tarrasque, and have him roll around on the ground untill he turns the Dervish into paste.
ShadowDragon8685 03-07-05, 12:02 PM	Turn someone into a Tarrasque, and have him roll around on the ground untill he turns the Dervish into paste. :heehee