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I am playing an epic D&D 3.5e PC in a medium-optimization (for an epic 3.5e, as I understand it, at least) game:

  • Most regular spells are available to the party (modulo those labeled Evil), although Wish/Miracle are significantly nontrivial in cost
  • Magic item creation isn't something that can be relied on beyond scribing scrolls
  • Epic spells are seriously limited (I suspect most high-optimization epic casting is off-limits due to achievable spell DCs being limited to the sub-100 range after party spell slot contributions modify the DC, and even some basic epic spells like the SRD's Soul Scry are a no-go)
  • Seriously epic shenanigans (such as facing off against deities) are not a reasonable option
  • And, I'm expecting that we're limited to WotC published books here (third-party published or Dragon Mag material is likely a no-go)

My character (don't ask me how) and their party, consist of:

  • My char: arcane gish, basically (the precise build details aren't terribly important)
  • Party member A: another arcane gish (lower level than my char but not by too much)
  • Party member B: sneaky archer cleric (epic caster, but in the low epics)
  • Party member C: another cleric (capable of 9th circle casting, but not into epics yet)
  • Party member D: an epic FS (again, low epics AFAIK)
  • Party Member E: a rangerish / roguish sort

We are up against a problem in the form of a band of hostile NPC Lolthite priests that are going to need significant "softening up" done to them before we can carry out much else, operationally speaking, although we aren't looking at pure war-of-attrition tactics, either, for reasons that have to do with storyline intent. Considering that simply going in and being stabby isn't really an option (again, don't ask me how we know this), what approaches are there to preventing the NPC spellcasters from regaining spells over an extended period of time (a tenday or more in the in-character timeline)?

So far, using Daylight cast repeatedly through Eye of Power and direct castings of Symphonic Nightmare have come up from my research, but I would like to know if there are other options out there that I haven't seen, especially ones that'd be more optimal (harder for divine casters to enact countermeasures against and / or requiring less invested effort) for long-term targeting of divine casters.

Shalvenay
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  • @KorvinStarmast -- the latter is what I'm shooting for here, as I doubt the DM in question would OOCly embrace the plotline inversion, if you will, that a pure war-of-attrition approach would bring onto the table – Shalvenay Mar 19 '21 at 03:07
  • Are said divine casters also epic level? Past a certain point, casters can do whatever they want, so I'm starting to wonder if what you're asking for is impossible. – J. Mini Mar 19 '21 at 12:06
  • @J.Mini -- that's not wholly known -- I'm expecting only a few of the high ranking priests at most to be epic capable, but I don't have any inside line on what the DM did with their NPCs – Shalvenay Mar 19 '21 at 22:28
  • Is this too open-ended for the site...? – Shalvenay Mar 19 '21 at 23:20
  • @Shalvenay It doesn't look much more open-ended than any other optimization problem I've seen here, I'm surprised it's getting downvotes. I could think that maybe the structure is textbook XY Problem (where someone has a problem, thinks of a solution, and asks how to do that solution when they should be asking about the problem) except that you've given quite a lot of info for the problem itself, so I don't think that's the issue. – Stop Being Evil Mar 20 '21 at 05:51
  • RE: "Is this too open-ended for the site…?" As written, probably. Epic campaigns are extremely individualized. With almost everyone agreeing that the game starts bending at at level 7, making strategic suggestion for your level 21+ PCs is difficult—the campaign may see the PCs as interplanar ambassadors of their own undead kingdom-planes or as struggling nobles surrounding by equally powerful threats. I don't know if an answer should be like Bomb them with solars or Earthquake all day every day or if it should be like Guerilla actions against minions and Disguising yourselves as drow. – Hey I Can Chan Mar 21 '21 at 14:28
  • @HeyICanChan -- what would help narrow down the power level, if you will, of the game further? Because while I was trying to convey that I'm a lot closer to the struggling-nobles position than the interplanar-ambassadors position here, I'm not sure if I've done that effectively... – Shalvenay Mar 21 '21 at 14:52
  • I guess what I'm struggling with is that the foe is "a band of hostile NPC Lolthite priests" but the question doesn't say where the band is, how many make up the band, what the band is capable of, or even who's on drums. :-) Details about the resources available to the band and the PCs would certainly be a good first step. – Hey I Can Chan Mar 21 '21 at 15:17
  • @HeyICanChan -- that's going to be tough, unfortunately, as much of that isn't known at this point in time :/ – Shalvenay Mar 21 '21 at 15:18
  • That's cool. Consider posing How can this group of epic PCs gather intelligence on a band of high-level drow clerics? and including what you do know. That's a pretty good ask—kind of the inverse of this question. – Hey I Can Chan Mar 21 '21 at 15:24

1 Answers1

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Zerg Rush?

You're epic level. You can be assumed to have basically infinite money. Buy tens of thousands of allies - adventures, guild guys, militia, whatever - and have them attack the divine casters constantly. And I do mean constantly. Allow your enemies no sleep. You want a 24 hour total war. And don't forget about what you can summon! Spam elementals!

Threaten Their God?

You're epic level. You can probably do it. Forget the priests, threaten to genocide their followers until either they or their god gives in. With an epic level party, it'll only take a spare weekend to find and destroy everything they call holy.

Weather Control?

There's plenty of spells like Earthquake, Control Weather, or Storm of Vengeance that make life pretty miserable for anyone nearby. They may have short duration, but you have several epic casters. Prepare enough of them and you can make the start of every 30 minute period in the 24 hour day miserable. Rest will be impossible for your targets. And that's not even getting in to whatever your DM will allow with Epic spells.

J. Mini
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