As I recall, he fed off the numerous executions in the kingdom.
Yeah, the bloodwart tea, which was made of blood and warts.
Dagnabit, I had just checked that page like 20 minutes earlier!
It was pure coincidence that I caught it on my first use of my computer today.
So what will be their plan for disabling the Symbol of Death? Have Roy run in and throw something over it?
If the Order is 15th level or so, probably easy for Haley to do, assuming she kept up ranks in Disable Device. However, she has to get there and might not make the save if it’s active. The best tactic would be for Durkula to activate it as soon as they enter the room as it will last hours and then it can’t be disarmed, only dispelled.
Forgot all about magically dispelling it. They could have Elan cast the GDM, and let V save his 6th level spell slots. V may not even have GDM prepared.
I wasn’t saying they should do that, so much as pointing out the best tactic is to activate it so that it can only be dispelled not disarmed.
The clerics could have Death Ward, well, Hilgya might have it as it does require 7th level, assuming they prayed for it. Otherwise, I don’t know how they will work around it without dispel.
I don’t play D&D, but it’s interesting what can be guessed based upon the clues in the text and a little research.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/symbol-of-death/
So a Circle of Death appears to have an activation radius of 60 feet. It can be countered with Dispel Magic which has a radius of 100 feet. So, in theory, it would be possible to dispel it outside the activation range.
That’s probably not going to work here for two reasons. 1) There’s probably not room prior to entering the banquet hall in which to cast Dispel Magic and once you enter it, it’s less than 60 feet away so it will activate. 2) From a dramatic point of view, there’s no reason to show Durkoff casting that if it could easily be dispelled.
So what’s the alternative? Activate it but time it so the Symbol of Death hits the bad guys instead. The vampires could be attuned to the symbol but probably aren’t. Attuning to 10 people increases casting time to an hour which Durkoff probably didn’t have. Even if he did have time, it’s said in the text that those particular vampires were in the fight with our heroes so they wouldn’t have been there an hour ago when the Symbol was being cast. It’s also stated that many of them don’t have protection from Fire, which takes one standard action per person. Protecting the group from fire? Barely any time at all…yet it hasn’t been done.
So we get a clear sense that Durkoff didn’t have the time for an hour long spell and these creatures will be vulnerable. These creatures will also be on the ceiling waiting to drop down.
So…find a way to activate the symbol while ensuring that the unprotected creatures dropping down on you are closer to the symbol, and you’ve got 150 points of damage going to people other than your party.
That’s how I think they’re going to do it.
The rules say that a rogue can attempt to disable a spell trap without triggering it, but it’s not entirely clear how this is done: It could mean that it’s possible to disable them from a distance, or it could mean that there’s some means for a rogue to approach close enough without triggering it. We don’t know what interpretation the Giant uses, though we have seen Haley disabling magical traps before (but we don’t know precisely what sort those were, so we don’t know if they had a range on them).
Do we actually know that Elan has Dispel Magic, Greater or otherwise? That’d require that he have 13 levels in bard, which I’m not sure he does, given that he has at least one Dashing Swordsman level (which probably doesn’t progress casting).
Just for the record, Enderw24, you linked to the Pathfinder version of the spell. This is the D&D version, though I’m not seeing any significant differences at a quick glance.
If not-Durkon hadn’t made the trigger specific at all, it could be used up on the vampires, but wouldn’t actually do anything to them: As undead, they’re immune to anything that requires a Fortitude save (except for things which can also effect objects, like Disintegrate), but that wouldn’t stop the spell from trying. Now, not-Durkon could have specifically attuned all of the rest of the vampires (at the cost of increased casting time), but that’s not his only option: He could also, for instance, have set it to only affect non-evil creatures (which wouldn’t affect Belkar, but that’s OK, since he’s probably too tough for it anyway). Or he could have set it to only trigger for people named Haley, Vaarsuvius, or Elan, or a variety of other selective triggers.
On the other hand, it looks like, from my reading of the spell, once the spell is triggered, it’ll affect (or attempt to) everyone in the vicinity, including people who wouldn’t have triggered it, unless those people are attuned to it. That’d seriously decrease the utility of the spell, and would completely rule out deliberately triggering it in advance and leaving it active for the Order to find.
My strategy, ignoring pesky things like memorized/known spells:
Roy walks in and triggers the trap. Simultaneously, the casters throw out a few instances of insect plague and/or summon swarm.
The trap murders lots and lots of hitpoints worth of creepy crawlies and is not left with enough juice to murder any of the heroes - even if the vampires are all attuned. The baby and familiar will still need to stay away until it wears off.
http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Dashing_Swordsman_(3.5e_Prestige_Class)
It does not. Full BAB progression, no spellcasting increases.
He certainly does (panel 7). And he’s at least 14th level bard, possibly 15th.
Thanks. What I figured is that the Symbol is set to trigger only for the heroes (or a subset of them), so it’s not going to go off prematurely. But once it’s active, anyone caught in the zone gets blasted until it’s done 150 points of damage. What I didn’t consider (or know about) is the fortitude immunity for undead.
I’m assuming that would invalidate my guess because once the symbol goes off, it’s going to hit for 150 points. If the undead are in front and are immune, it’s going to move to the next closest person until it finds that 150 points.
In that case, I like Johnny Bravo’s insect theory.
Yeah, I’d forgotten about that.
And Chimera, that’s not the stats for the Dashing Swordsman prestige class. That’s some random nobody’s bad homebrew of what they guess the Dashing Swordsman is. Nobody knows the actual stats for Dashing Swordsman besides Rich Burlew, and even he’s probably making it up as he goes along. And as a general rule, nothing at all on the dandwiki site is reliable.
Ah, you appear to be correct. My apologies, thanks for the correction.
Yeah, this is what I’m not clear on. The spell is going to affect creatures of up to 150 hit points, that is, force them to save, right? That is, if someone with 150 HP makes their save, the spell ends? Or does it keep trying until 150 HP worth of creatures fail their saves? And “immunity” here is essentially the “unbeatable spell resistance” of the “Spell Immunity” spell, right, where you still get targeted?
I’m leaning toward thinking the spell just ignores creatures immune to its effects, since that’s what attuning does: “Any creature attuned to a symbol of death cannot trigger it and is immune to its effects.” That is, the vampires won’t count against its HP limit, even if they’re not attuned. However, I also think that once it targets you, your HP count against the total whether or not you make your save. But I’m not at all confident in this ruling.
That said, a Summon Monster VII could summon 1d3 Fiendish Rhinoceroi (76 hp each) or a Celestial Elephant (104 HP), and a Summon Monster VIII, same level as Symbol of Death, could bring on a Celestial Triceratops (HP 196), popping the spell instantly. The Triceratops has a fort save of +19 and spell resistance 21, making it pretty likely to pass (assuming Durkula is 17th level with Wisdom of, say, 26, we’re talking about an 85% chance of passing SR and a 30% chance of overcoming the fort save, so a roughly 25% of killing the dinosaur). If V can cast Summon Monster VIII and can get the critter through the doorway and into the room, OOTS would have a ~100% chance of protection from that nasty spell, and a ~75% chance of having a fun dinosaur to help them smoosh vampires.
Because I’m having fun, here are some of the things that a celestial triceratops can do:
-TRAMPLE: Full round action to mosey up to 60’; any critter in its 15’ square takes ~28 points of damage, or 14 on a DC28 reflex save, or an attack of opportunity at -4. Note that the AoOs may take it down quickly, but depriving the vampires of AoOs for a turn could also be real nice.
-CHARGE: ~38 damage.
-SMITE: ~40 points of damage to an evil foe.
-IMPRESS: Opening your battle against the vampire hordes with a charging triceratops is super frickin sweet.
Where’s Bloodfeast? Still in the bag?
Unfortunately, Vaarsuvius can’t cast Summon Monster Anything, since Conjuration is one of es prohibited schools (a suboptimal decision on V’s part; the story reason is because the Giant didn’t want the Order to have easy access to teleportation).
Elan might have a summoning spell or two, and Minrah certainly does if she’s prepared them, but neither of their summons would be nearly as powerful as a full caster’s would be.