DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

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RandomCasualty
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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by RandomCasualty »

I don't see the point either. All I'm hearing is "wizards are powerful and have lots of money, lets try to kill them."

You can just as easily replace 'wizards' with dragons, giants, demiliches, clerics, fighters with MW swords or pit fiends.
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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by User3 »

Read the first post, and the thread title.

I just think that wizards act like superhereos: secret identities, Batcaves, misdirection, etc, unlike fighters who can just sit and farm until someone runs up and says "Hey, the dragon is going to eat <insert something here>!"

The game system implies that wizards are born with a target on their forehead.
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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by Username17 »

The game system implies that wizards are born with a target on their forehead.


Everything is. That you think the Wizard has more of a target on its forehead than does a Dryad is laughable, and the reason that your point has been met universally with puzzlement and jeers.

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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by User3 »

Dryads are superheroes. They don't even pretend to be people and sleep in inns and go to markets and plays and attend the Rotary Club meetings and share a quiet beer at the ale house.

They hide in the deep forests, and talk to the occasional druid. And they don't have obvious, built-in swag. A pennyless dryad is just the same as one with swag. A swagless wizard is not a wizard.

Fighters can do it, and rogues, and other nonspellcasters. Nothing that they do says "My level is at least this big."

Spellcasters can't. That's why clerics have temples. Not to extoll the virtues of a god, but so they gain strength in numbers and have a place to secure their swag.

And how many plot lines involve looting a temple?
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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by Username17 »

A swagless wizard is not a wizard.


Right, he could just as easily be a Sorcerer, or a Cleric, or a Warmage, or Battle Sorcerer, or a Bard, or any other spellcaster.

He could also just as easily be an Ethergaunt, or a Planetar, or some other creature which is simply naturally able to cast spells.

What's your point? People in D&D often have swag if they are really powerful. They are also often immune to standard attack methods, and almost universally able to kill low-level people with a gesture, word, or evil thought.

What's your point?

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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by User3 »

Its like this: robbing banks is dangerous. The chance of success is slim, cops with guns and assault rifles try and stop you, and sometime you end up with chump change and not the big score.

But, people sucessfully rob banks all the time. And get away with it.

Unless you are a Planetar with like sixty built in immunities, several rather common methods exist to kill you.

When you cast big magic, people realize that you are a bank.

And then they try and kill you.

And so, as a roleplaying issue, I think that Wizards play superhero. They have secret identities. They don't cast in public.

The local hedge wizard who grew up in town is probably not an Ethergaunt. But, if people see him cast a spell, local toughs might talk to someone with a rank of 1 in Spellcraft and say "you know, even one spell from his spellbook is worth at least 25 gold on the open market."

Then our local toughs nail him, and steal his spellbook, and his other swag.

It doesn't matter if he was a Sorcerer, or Bard, or whatever. He's got a swag sign on his forehead. It might not be the right one, but the locals don't know that.

And so, I think that people hide magical skill.

As a roleplaying consideration.
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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by Sma »

I really don´t get you

K in the useless peasants other thread wrote:(“We have finally tracked you down, K of the Black Robe. Coris the Butcher and Jander the Baker have tired of your villainy!”)


K over here wrote:Wizards are far easier to find, kill, and otherwise deal with. They are just humans, despite their access to a few interesting effects.


Sorry to be snide

Sma
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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by rapanui »

As usual, I'm with Frank. This is completely pathetic.

1. Finding out minimum level is no guarantee of actually knowing exact level.

2. Wizys can be confused with Sorcs.

3. Killing an unaware 7th level Wizard (or Sorcerer) is not exactly simple. Granted, they do tend to be rather clueless most of the time, but if they suspect something, even briefly... you're toast. And after a certain level, wizards tend to be chock full of things to cover for their weaknesses.

4. In the example you use, the people interested in obtaining the swag:
a. Are Immoral (which cuts the percentage of people willing to do this)
b. Have access to poison

This puts them roughly on par with those bank robbers (as you mentioned). Bank robbers attack targets they know a lot about... they have escape routes... and are often foiled. Attacking a wizard is not analogous to robbing a bank. Robbing a noble's house is analogous. Robbing a wizard is like attacking an unaware guy with a flame thrower ready to toast your ass when he snaps out of his daydream.

So, what we have here is that occasionally, someone immoral with half a brain will see a wizard casting a spell in public and think "Oh! Lots of swag!" Then he tries something, will fail most of the time and become a cautionary tale for other rogues. This slim possibility is hardly justification for a wizard to hide his identity. In fact, advertising the fact that you are a powerful wizard is the easiest way to have people get out of your way.

In order to strengthen your argument you need to do 3 things:
1. Demonstrate exactly how a small group of low level rogues could slay a 7th level wizard reliably (reliably being the operational word here).
2. Explain why the clueless (but powerful) wizard is a better mark than the equally clueless (and powerless) noble.
3. Explain why the above would make a wizard travelling in company of powerful allies be concerned with hiding his identity.

Until you do this, I award you the Implausible Argument of the Month Award.
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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by User3 »

<Sma fails his Decipher Humor check>
Both points are not mutually exclusive. The mage in the example in the peasant thread is a superhero. He hides out and has his summoned monsters get his food and stuff.

I was totally joking. Bakers don’t hire high-level divinations and adventurers over a few loaves of bread a week.

Sheesh.

----------------------

Ten ways to kill a 7th level mage:

1. Poison: Oil of Taggit is only 90 GP per dose. Invite him to dinner, or sneak into his tavern’s kitchen and put a dose in his beer, his potatoes, his chicken, and his slice of pie. Coup de Grace to flavor.

2. Ambush: The average 7th level mage has 18 HP. Five 1st level rogues archers with sneak attacks can do an average of 10d6, or 35 point of damage. Assuming one or two miss, you still have enough dmage to kill him. Add in Drow sleep poison at 90gp a pop, for good measure. If he has a high Con, you may need a second volley, so don’t bunch up or anything.

3. Grapple: Five guys with good strengths can successfully grapple most mages, as they are not know for their good BABs or Strengths. The number of verbal only spells are small.

4. Trap: Many traps are of relatively low CR and cost and can totally PK a mage. Deadfalls of rocks, nets to immobilize, pit traps, etc are all cheap and easy. A pit that he can’t climb out of is perfect, unless he happens to have Fly, Spider Climb, Levitate, etc memorized or a Ring of Sustenance.

5. Brown Mold, locked room: A variation on the trap idea, except that if you can find a brown mold, you don’t need the 1000s of GP for a good trap trap. This tactic fails if the mage is a cold mage. Or capable of teleporting, blowing holes in the stone/woods walls, or some other way of escaping a locked room.

6. Bull rush/cliff: Send a note from a supposed lover for a midnight tryst near a cliff face, or a note of “I must tell you this and this in secret…” from a friend. When he reaches the cliff, push. This fails if the mage happens to know and memorize Feather Fall.

7. Ho: Send a prostitute in, and Coup De Grace while he sleeps.

8. Drive by: “Oh no, the wagon is out of control!” Run him over. May require a Bluff check. Good thing mages don’t Sense Motive.

9. Dark room: Most spells require you to see your target. Unless he’s willing to drop a fireball on himself(and kill himself, as most mages drop Fireballs powerful enough to do that.). Works well with Method 3. Doesn’t work if he’s a dwarf or orc(darkvision), or gets a free round to cast a Light spell.

10. Garrot: You can’t cast verbal spells while being garroted(I think. I don’t have the Rogue book on me).

Here are the ten tactics I came up with off the top of my head. It doesn’t even include the crazy ones like lassoing the mage with a rope attached to a rock, and then dropping the rock into the river. With a little research on the mage, and a little more time to plan a particular job, I could tailor my approach. Sending in a five year old kid to say “hey mister, can you fly/change shape/freeze things/etc?” might be just one of many ways to get info on my target.

--------------------------
Assuming that immoral people don’t live in the world is pretty optimistic, especially in a DnD world where peasants starve at the behest of landlords, and a mage or two can keep an entire region in fear.

--------------------------
In the DnD game, you always fight things that are level appropriate. If it were a real world, you’d never know that. But, even knowing a minimum level would tell you about potential swag. You’d less risks attacking a lone mage as you would attacking a nobles castle. For all you know, that noble might have demons guarding his bedroom or a mage in residence, traps, masses of guards, etc. Attacking a fortified position is always a poor proposition.

And if he’s a sorcerer, then you end up taking his other swag (worth thousands of GP). Even if you keep it, and don’t sell it, you know have magic items. Your next mage killing should go better, and you just gained XP.

-------------------------
On a related note, how common do people thing monsters are? I’ve often thought that mages outnumbered the spellcasting monsters like 10 to 1. Only adventurers, who tend to travel a lot and meet the same kind of people see them at all. Kind of like the intelligence community.
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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by MrWaeseL »

Guest (Unregistered) at [unixtime wrote:1085677199[/unixtime]]8. Drive by: “Oh no, the wagon is out of control!” Run him over. May require a Bluff check. Good thing mages don’t Sense Motive.


The mages aren't safe in town any more because all the peasants are trying TO RUN THEM OVER?!
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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by rapanui »

I don't have my books with me, so excuse me if I make any silly errors. Now then...

Fun time!

K wrote:1. Poison: Oil of Taggit is only 90 GP per dose. Invite him to dinner, or sneak into his tavern’s kitchen and put a dose in his beer, his potatoes, his chicken, and his slice of pie. Coup de Grace to flavor.


Is it too hard to believe that the wizy might give his familiar a taste of the ol' food before he gulps it up himself? Specially when someone he hardly knows invites him to dinner. I smell a dead rogue.

K wrote:2. Ambush: The average 7th level mage has 18 HP. Five 1st level rogues archers with sneak attacks can do an average of 10d6, or 35 point of damage. Assuming one or two miss, you still have enough dmage to kill him. Add in Drow sleep poison at 90gp a pop, for good measure. If he has a high Con, you may need a second volley, so don’t bunch up or anything.


Here you're working on the assumption the mage is travelling alone. I suppose that in THAT case it holds that the mage might want to keep a low profile. However, mages seldom travel without company. A lot of familiar can fly and scout roads from above. Familiars have good spot checks themselves and make nice scouts. Remember: the more people trying to hide, the more likely that one of them will really screw up his Hide check. Even one person spotted makes the mage weary.

K wrote:3. Grapple: Five guys with good strengths can successfully grapple most mages, as they are not know for their good BABs or Strengths. The number of verbal only spells are small.


Same assumption as above.

K wrote:4. Trap: Many traps are of relatively low CR and cost and can totally PK a mage. Deadfalls of rocks, nets to immobilize, pit traps, etc are all cheap and easy. A pit that he can’t climb out of is perfect, unless he happens to have Fly, Spider Climb, Levitate, etc memorized or a Ring of Sustenance.


Those are all very commonly memorized or owned things.

K wrote:5. Brown Mold, locked room: A variation on the trap idea, except that if you can find a brown mold, you don’t need the 1000s of GP for a good trap trap. This tactic fails if the mage is a cold mage. Or capable of teleporting, blowing holes in the stone/woods walls, or some other way of escaping a locked room.


I don't have my book with me so I don't know exactly what brown mold does. However, once again, it probably goes on the assumption the mage is alone.

K wrote:6. Bull rush/cliff: Send a note from a supposed lover for a midnight tryst near a cliff face, or a note of “I must tell you this and this in secret…” from a friend. When he reaches the cliff, push. This fails if the mage happens to know and memorize Feather Fall.


Ok, here you have a tactic to separate the mage from the party, so I'll grant that he is alone and it is valid. However, screw feather fall... after 5th level all mages have Fly. Period. Or the mage might arrive invisible to surprise his "lover".

K wrote:7. Ho: Send a prostitute in, and Coup De Grace while he sleeps.


If the mage is not good with women, and happens to think hos are a moral way to spend the evening, I will grant that this tactic might work. Personally every character I know gets VERY cautious around loose women.

K wrote:8. Drive by: “Oh no, the wagon is out of control!” Run him over. May require a Bluff check. Good thing mages don’t Sense Motive.


Ehhh... maybe, but you'll still piss off his friends. Also, a wagon costs plenty and the horses might be reluctant to trample someone unless they are expensive warhorses.

K wrote:9. Dark room: Most spells require you to see your target. Unless he’s willing to drop a fireball on himself(and kill himself, as most mages drop Fireballs powerful enough to do that.). Works well with Method 3. Doesn’t work if he’s a dwarf or orc(darkvision), or gets a free round to cast a Light spell.


Once again: mage is alone. However, lets assume you manage to trick him into this. A 7th level mage will have Polymorph Self (a VERY typical spell choice, you'll agree)... depending on which version and who's interpretation your using that might allow him to change to something that can find his target in the dark.

K wrote:10. Garrot: You can’t cast verbal spells while being garroted(I think. I don’t have the Rogue book on me).


The usual assumption of being alone, plus need to get surprise, etc... etc...

So:

1. Mages don't travel alone until they get past 10th level or so where they can pretty much own the house.

2. Mages are smart. While they are not good at sensing motive, there might be a historical precedent of important people getting assasinated by hos.

3. Mages have familiars which can scout, spot, hide, fly, etc.

K wrote:For all you know, that noble might have demons guarding his bedroom or a mage in residence, traps, masses of guards, etc. Attacking a fortified position is always a poor proposition.


Wow... you defend the noble saying that he has... A WIZARD! I have no comment.

To conclude:

I am willing to concede that a low level mage, travelling alone, through unknown lands, with angry peasants might have reason to hide his profession. I am NOT willing to grant that a mid-level mage, with a group, and half a brain is going to hide his profession.
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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by Username17 »

Good thing that none of those tactics is going to work.

I mean, otherwise the peasantry might actually be tempted to try some of that crap. And it's a damn good thing for you that you aren't a master criminal, or you'd be dead.

1> Oil of Taggit is unlikely to do more than make a 7th level character sick. And they might detect it before hand, and it costs more to invest in this stuff than you have. As a peasant, scraping together this kind of cash is unlikely, and your chances of killing yourself with the poison are better than your chances of success.

2> This one might work, except you forgot a couple of things: Even getting le jump, you still only have an attack bonus of about +2 with those things, and his flat footed AC is probably 14. He also averages 19 hit points before a Con Modifier, which he of course, also has. And of course, when he gets a round he's going to kill all of you wih a Firewall. And you can't afford Drow sleep poison even if you could buy it, which you can't, because you aren't a Drow.

3> Verbal only spells include Dimension Door. Also a 7th level mage has a BAB of +3, and it might go higher. As a first level Rogue, you probably aren't going to win this.

4> So unless he has mobility spells, he's going to have to make a climb check? Are you high? These traps don't do much more than annoy the Wizard, even if for some reason he isn't just passing through.

5> Burning Hands won't kill a Brown Mold, but it will go through the door. Then he'll kill your whole village.

6> Even if this works, which is frankly unlikely (flatfooted touch AC of 10, followed by an opposed strength check, you are likely to win either check, but you have to make both), you don't get any of his swag, and it's entirely probable that he'll survive the fall. A 50 foot drop does only 5d6, good luck on this one.

7> Requires that he isn't already tapping extraplanar booty. What are the odds of that? Really.

8> That's hillarious. A 7th level wizard can destroy a wagon about to hit him, and wouldn't be killed by being run over by one either, just annoyed. This is the dumbest plan here.

9> The number of your plans which are stopped cold by Burning Frickin Hands is astounding.

10> So now you have exotic weapon proficiency Garrot, and plan to win a grapple check? Right. :rolleyes:

Give it up, you got nothing. This is a worse plan than trying to kill somebody wearing mithril, because you are less sure he has anything valuable and you have less of an idea what he's capable of.

Remember that any wizard might be a Lich or Worm that Walks in disguise, in which case screwing with him in any way is just going to make him kill your family.

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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by Boulie_98 »

MrWaeseL at [unixtime wrote:1085679145[/unixtime]]
Guest (Unregistered) at [unixtime wrote:1085677199[/unixtime]]8. Drive by: “Oh no, the wagon is out of control!” Run him over. May require a Bluff check. Good thing mages don’t Sense Motive.


The mages aren't safe in town any more because all the peasants are trying TO RUN THEM OVER?!


This totally makes my day.
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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by User3 »

OK quick rebuttals. Gotta go get a haircut....

The challenge was low level rogues vs a 7th level Wiz. Any noise about "but his companions would kill you" or "they can't afford that" or "but its really a 27th level Godthing/Lich/Worm that Walks" will be ignored.

1. Oil of Taggit causes unconciousness in one minute. Yes, if you have a food taster and wait the time, you will not be fooled. Oterhwise, there isn't a Taste check. Put it in his food at the inn, and does him several times. He will fall.

2. In 3.5, anyone can buy Drow sleep poison. There is no list rule saying otherwise.

Concealment does make it way easier to Hide, but yes a familiar could warn the wiz. Maybe even in time. I'd have cover as well in case you need a second volley.

3. D-door is an escape. Hope you have it. And three or four guys with high Str. can make seperate checks, and one will win. Once grappling, the others can join automatically.

4. A 20 foot pit with no handholds is a DC 25. DC 30 if you make if slippery. Good luck with that Climb check. How many ranks do Wizards put in that?

5. Burning hands does 5d4 damage for an average of 12-13. A strong door has harness 5, and fire does half damage to objects. Good luck, a strong door has 20 HP. After 20 BHs, you will be free. Unless the door is really flammable, then it'll take 3. So a min of 9d6 cold damage. Eat that.

6. Plu-leese! I'm throwing him off at least a 100ft cliff(10d6). More likely a 150 ft cliff(15d6).

7. Only evil people enslave others for sex. So yes, I am assuming he's good, neutral, or bored of extraplanar booty.

8. I'm assuming that the wagon driver will pretend to be going along the road, then turn at the last minute. Surprise round anyone?

9. Yes, BH is good. So is Lighning bolt. On reflection, afew dwarves firing arrows from arrow slits into the darkened room might be better.

10. Why wouldn't a high STR rogue use a garrot?


Isn't this fun?
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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by Desdan_Mervolam »

In almost four years of playing 3.x D&D, I've never seen a high strength rogue. If you have an extra 16-18 stat to play with, most rogues I've seen put it into charisma so they can Face for the party, or into Intelligence so they can be the king of skills. If you're putting that 16-18 into Strength, it probably means you're making a combat character, starting in Rogue for the skill points, and will be doing lots of multiclassing.

And that doesn't even address the fact that grappling is a pretty subpar combat schtick, and you'd be better off using different tactics.

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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by Sma »

That stung, wasn´t sure though with all the other stuff your spouting. :razz:

I still do not see any merchants assuming alternate identities on any sort of regular basis, though.

K wrote:In the DnD game, you always fight things that are level appropriate. If it were a real world, you’d never know that. But, even knowing a minimum level would tell you about potential swag.


This is what I´ve been saying all along, by observing soemone casting a spell you tend to know jack shit about his other powers. Going in unprepared seems like a stupid idea.

And if you´re going to prepare for some quick moneymaking, you might as well go and ask around for an easy target, which seeing as there tend to be some bards around is not as difficult as it may seem at first. You get a list of targets and one of them might even be the lone travelling mage, but there will be other s too so I completely fail to see how this makes mages any different. Given the right circumstances you could take out anyone. And seeing how you all examples involved a decent amount of preparation, singling out Wizards makes little sense. If they happen to have memorized the wrong spell most of those tactics fail. But then everyone knew Polymorph is barooooken. But then having a bunch of first level thieves run around with drow poison (going with your numbers the poison alone is worth 450 gp)

So please explain how mages are any different form merchants, or all those other travelling rich folk especially in regards to spending actual skillpoints in the disguise skill, instead of just seeking some company.

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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by rapanui »

Aside from Sma's valid objection:

We need to clarify the scenario more. Let's think about typical spells a Wizard might have memorized at 7th level.

1st: Largely Irrelevant
2nd: Invisibility is highly usual. Protection from Arrows is highly usual. Other spells irrelevant.
3rd: Fly is highly usual. Other spells irrelevant.
4th: Two spells per day. We'll give you TBOTD and say he cast a Wall of Fire the same day, leaving him with only a single spell. Since I said one would be crazy not to have Polymorph let's give him that instead of the Dimension Door which would foil basically every single instance you have presented.

Now then, back to your examples.


K wrote:1. Oil of Taggit causes unconciousness in one minute. Yes, if you have a food taster and wait the time, you will not be fooled. Oterhwise, there isn't a Taste check. Put it in his food at the inn, and does him several times. He will fall.


He doesn't have to wait very long. Suppose he waits 30 seconds to see how his familiar reacts. After 30 seconds his familiar falls unconscious, and he knows what's about to happen to him and gets the hell out of dodge. (or use 5 combat rounds to incinerate the place). I will grant you that when I played a wizard I didn't have my familiar taste test my food, but then I wasn't travelling alone. There is also a chance the poison simply won't work (roughly 50%). Wizards usually don't leave CON for last.


K wrote:2. In 3.5, anyone can buy Drow sleep poison. There is no list rule saying otherwise.


Okay, so a few 1st level rogues spend the bulk of their cash on a single dose of poison on the hopes it will work. There's a definate chance it won't (roughly 60% but must make save twice). Also, better hope that the Protection from Arrows isn't up. Oh wait... 7 hour duration on this sucker. It probably IS. :p

K wrote:3. D-door is an escape. Hope you have it. And three or four guys with high Str. can make seperate checks, and one will win. Once grappling, the others can join automatically.


You already conceded that a scouting familiar would spot possible ambushes.

K wrote:4. A 20 foot pit with no handholds is a DC 25. DC 30 if you make if slippery. Good luck with that Climb check. How many ranks do Wizards put in that?


Ahem. Fly. Also, if you want to play strictly by the rules, pits are expensive.

K wrote:5. Burning hands does 5d4 damage for an average of 12-13. A strong door has harness 5, and fire does half damage to objects. Good luck, a strong door has 20 HP. After 20 BHs, you will be free. Unless the door is really flammable, then it'll take 3. So a min of 9d6 cold damage. Eat that.


I still have no freaking clue what brown mold does, or how a rogue might go about obtaining it.

K wrote:6. Plu-leese! I'm throwing him off at least a 100ft cliff(10d6). More likely a 150 ft cliff(15d6).


Ahem. Fly.

K wrote:7. Only evil people enslave others for sex. So yes, I am assuming he's good, neutral, or bored of extraplanar booty.


Like I said: smart guys don't trust prepaid whores, or even normal whores.

K wrote:8. I'm assuming that the wagon driver will pretend to be going along the road, then turn at the last minute. Surprise round anyone?


Silly, but I granted you that this one might work. But you also didn't answer my objection about the warhorses.

K wrote:9. Yes, BH is good. So is Lighning bolt. On reflection, afew dwarves firing arrows from arrow slits into the darkened room might be better.


That gets kind of specific doesn't it? How many dwarf rogues are there? And dark rooms with arrow slits? I'm assuming I'm also failing a sense humor check here because that is just too idiotic.

K wrote:10. Why wouldn't a high STR rogue use a garrot?


See Desdan's objection.


I'll grant you that you've shown a threat to mid level wizards travelling alone under specific circumstances (hardly a newsworthy event). That doesn't make them need to disguise their profession.
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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by RandomCasualty »

I just dont see how the guy being a wizard makes any difference...

You can do this to anything. You see a high level fighter walking around with gauntlets of giant strength and what not, and you decide to try to slit his throat at night while he sleeps at the inn. You hear about a dragon with a big treasure hoard and so you build a party to try to slay it. A wizard could see a rich nobleman and decide to scry & die him and rob his treasury. This is the kind fo stuff D&D is about.

Are people going to try to kill wizards for money? Sure... some people might try to do this, but that doesn't mean fighters, clerics or bards are any more immune than wizards are. In fact you're less likely to try this one a wizard, because he might scry you, at least getting away from the fighter if your plan doesn't work means you don't have to spend the rest of your paranoid of being scried.
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Re: DnD Society: Wizards are superheroes.

Post by User3 »

Brown mold does 3d6 cold damge if you get within 5 feet of it. It is killed by cold damage and doubled by any fire damage brought within 5 feet. Immune to other forms of damage. On par with Green Slime(organic, mobile, but not a creature in the DnD sense.
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So yes, if a wizard gets a chance to react and cast a bunch of spells, or he has a bunch of spells already cast on him that last all day or he preps a bunch of spells before going to the market, then he might be able to avoid some of these traps. Fortunately, they all depend on surprise, and some allow for an option of held actions to negate spellcasting(via damage or grapple).

And yes, you must seperate the caster from the party. It can be done, and done quite easily.

And no, I'm not attacking PCs. PCs are paranoid, ready for combat at a moment's notice, and draw blades the instant a DM says "the forest is very quiet." or "A man approaches on the road." Wizards in written adventures have good intelligences(not 18+s usually), and little else in common. They don't all have good Cons, or Polymorph, or keep Overland Flight spells constantly on themselves. Like people, they vary quite a bit. PCs are the only ones who attempt to prepare for every situation and know the exactly how big each bonus is and how by taking just the right combo of classes and spells you become uber-powerful.

And yes, you could just attack a merchant or a noble. Except, merchants keep the loot at home, hidden, with traps. A scry and die caster will have to scry for quite a long time before he finds out the location of the loot.

But wizards and spellcasters carry swag on their person. Push them off a cliff, then rappel down said cliff, then collect swag. Rinse and repeat.

We know that wizards and other spellcasters have swag based on their spells. Big spells equals big swag. Fighters may be warriors(no swag), and rogues may be experts(no swag).

And so, I think that spellcasters play superhero, and hide their identities to discourage peasants from running them over with a team of horses and a wagon (a event that happened quite often in the medieval world, no warhorses required).
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Ps. And I never conceded that a scouting familiar would spot ambushes. Only a few have great Spot checks. sMost familars only have like a +3 Spot, so unless you have an Owl in shadowy conditions(+14), you probably aren't going to make that roll.

Even if a familiar saw it coming, they would be unable to warn the mage in time to do anything(warnings from unsurprised characters don't negate the surprise round).
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