Saturday, June 02, 2012

Wizard vs Fighter: Results

ok, we played out a couple of battles between a single level 20 wizard and a level 20 fighter. While it wasn't quite the blowout I expected it to be we came to the conclusion that the Wizard is only going to lose if he makes a big tactical mistake or rolls very poorly.
The Fighter basically needs a backpack full  magic items that can counter the wizards myriad of magical tricks. Miss one and he's dead. The fighter did win one battle when he reflected a Flesh to Stone spells and the wizard failed his fort save. That combat aside, the wizard tended to dominate. The only thing that kept the fighter alive for any amount of time was the constant use of Dust of Disappearance. The wizards biggest trump card is Gate. That one spell just opens up so many possibilities.

Another night we'd like to run a 3 vs 3 battle and try the same fight with level 12 characters. Level 20 wizards are hard to play - there are just too many options.

3 comments:

Derobane-bane said...

If my fighter hadn't been grappled by that pit fiend, there is a good chance that the wizard would have met an untimely end...:)

A fighter fighting a 20th level wizard would be much, much easier than fighting a 20th level diviner that always wins initiative. In one round, my crossbow guy could do up to 600 damage. However, getting a full round of attacks against a clever player playing a caster is almost impossible. Even when my melee fighter(with all the cool step-up feats) was standing adjacent to the wizard, all the caster had to do was withdraw and then cast a quickened D-Door to go where ever they pleased.

Defeating the arcane spellcaster is actually really easy. Armed with a spell turning ring, a pinch of dust of disappearance, a gem of true seeing and a wickedly high perception pretty much nullifies the caster. Defeating the balor at the same time as dealing with the wizard is what is really tough to do. My crossbow fighter would have taken out the first pit fiend in 2-3 rounds if I hadn't forgotten to buy a ring of free movement.
On the second melee, Obiri's wizard put up a brilliant strategy of using hallucinatory terrain and a resilient sphere. If I had purchased a rod of cancellation, my fighter could have breached the sphere and fought the wizard on better terms.

what if, what if, what if...

Simply put, if a fighter is going to beat a 20th level diviner, he needs to be built to kill pitfiends, be armed with a rod or two of cancellation, wear a ring of spellturning (or carry a rod of absorption), wear a ring of evasion, a ring of freedom of movement, wear a hand of glory, read a few +5 books...

Ok, maybe it is not so easy.

There are just too many possibilities to contend with when battling casters with such impressive bags of tricks.

I will admit that my fighter was on the ropes for both battles and that the diviner ultimately defeated himself with his own flesh to stone spell. Chasing around a caster through wind walls, walls of force and resilient spheres is not an easy task. After last night's battles, I will concede that the diviner has a strong advantage in this one-on-one scenario.

I look forward to a 3 on 3 contest! Good times last night, Obiri!

Rognar said...

What spell did you use to summon a pit fiend?

Obiri said...

Gate