A few months back I was a step-in DM for a few weeks. The adventure went something like this.
My character, a gnome wizard has been preparing a clone. While the party have been out adventuring, Manshoon (the setting is Waterdeep and we have played through Dragon Heist) finds the clone, awakens him and uses him as a puppet to kidnap my PC and take his place. Things get a bit confusing with a clone and a simulacrum but eventually the party figure things out but the evil clone escapes.
In our next session the party will be meeting the clone once more, just now he is level 20 and has both a staff and robe of the arch magi. Most of the characters are either level 16 or 17 and there are 5 PCs.
I have tried to think of a few different things I could do, like using force cage on some of the PCs... but I feel like that might make the whole fight boring for some of them since it effectively takes them out of the fight. I was also thinking of throwing up a prismatic wall, but then the PCs could just wait it out and my evil wizard is out of a 9th level spell slot. I almost have too many options for what I could do... so please. If you have any good ideas then please share them! :D
Evil Clone <-- I tried to link to the evil clone, not sure if it worked?
The party they are facing are as follows:
- Life sorcerer, paladin, warlock - uses a lot of subtle counter spell - which could be a pain - monk, cleric - will probably try to use silence as well as stunning strike. From what I understand it is not possible to counter the monks silence since it is not exactly a spell - arcane trickster with a magical sword that has true seeing - makes illusions kinda pointless as well as invisibility - Druid, cleric - Ranger, Rogue - who tends to stealth everywhere so that they can attack with advantage on every turn.
The easiest solution would be to have lots of minions to fight, maybe necromancy or conjuration? Have your wizard throw out buff and damage spells. I would avoid doing anything that takes characters out of the fight for more than a round or otherwise makes them feel super weak. That feels awful as a player. However, one really cool thing that happened to me back in 3e was my barbarian got mind controlled during a huge fight. I was still in control of the character but he had to fight against his group. My barbarian actually became a big part of the big bad guy fight. The group wanted to deal with him without killing him and it made it super memorable for me and the whole group had a ton of fun with the encounter. Maybe something like that?
Divination is tough because nothing about that necessarily screams crazy fight to me. Maybe put them through some convoluted series of events where your wizard is always two steps ahead.
You could also have multiple phases where the party chases your wizard through various planes of existance through uses of the Gate spell. Each plane has a new and interesting challenge. Not necessarily Divination specific but it's pretty wizardy.
Thanks for some good tips! I like dominate person... so that could be a great thing to do.
Another thing I thought of was maybe using force cage on myself and just cast magic out of it. In that way I would be safe from any physical attacks and would just have to deal with saves from magic. But that again seems a bit boring.
As long as every player has important feeling stuff to do I'd say go for it. Your non-magic characters are going to feel crazy bored if they can't do anything because of a force cage. Maybe there is some way to break it that only a rogue or two can tackle?
Dominate person isn't quite as good as a homebrewed option. Maybe you're in your force cage, and some thing outside it randomly selects one character to mind control until the object's next turn. This way everyone would get to know the fun of attacking their friends. Having it be an object has the added bonus of it can't be counterspelled. Once the object is destroyed, the mind controlling stops. The casters could be casting away at your evil wizard while your rogues could figure out how to get to the object to destroy it. I think most people would love to Roll Play this. Hopefully no one disintegrates their friends. I think this would be a fun phase to the fight. I do like the idea of having multiple different phases for something like this. A level 20 divination wizard would be very well prepared.
Also, use your portents but I'd fudge the numbers. No one needs to know what the numbers are. Just pick them when something comes up. You could use them like a legendary resistance to succeed in a saving throw that would otherwise suck. Or the opposite, you could use them to force a failed saving throw for a player (just don't do it on something that wastes turns for your players).
You’re playing a divination wizard with an intelligence of 20. Obviously he’s had months to prepare, meaning he’ll know the party’s strengths and weaknesses inside and out. What does each PC struggle with? He will have something up his sleeve that targets each PC’s weakness. He’ll obviously cast Foresight an hour or two before the fight starts.
Prepare Ice Knife just in case he’s caught in the Monk’s area of silence. And cast Contingency with Scatter as the prepared spell in case he’s trapped in the area of silence so he can get out and also move some of the PCs into locations that he wants them in instead of where they want to be.
He has time to prepare and he’s evil. Of course he has allies who are either Demons or Devils who he can Gate in once combat starts and since the Gate stays open for a full minute who knows how many other bloodthirsty Demons or Devils will come through intent on causing as much mayhem and bloodshed as possible. Even if he doesn’t have allies, he knows enough to be able to open a Gate in front of a large group of them and they’ll come through and cause all sorts of chaos.
He’s also way too smart to get caught in melee, or anywhere close to it. He’s staying as far away from the PCs as possible and using minions and long range spells to attack them. Illusions may not work, but Fog Cloud provides all of the cover that he needs!
For some real paradox causing shenninigans, have the Wizard appear at various intervals and Dominate each party member before vanishing/tleporting away, the dominates fade and the party continue then for the final encounter.... The party arrive just as the Wizard completes a Wish spell and teleports in a Dominated version of the party from the previous encounters to fight themselves, its the party vs the anti-party.
Or have the final fight take place in a corrupted Androshpinx lair with the wizard in charge of all regional effects and lair actions (maybe have the Sphinx as a domianted beast/Mount).
Have the Wizard hold loved ones or people hostage to use as meat shields, a "Come any closer and my minions will kill them" kind of deal.
Use some Glyphs of Warding with Bestow Curse and homebrew an alignment change effect, Lawful becomes Chaotic, Good Becomes Evil.
If they are adept at spotting magical traps then have Nystuls Magical Auras cast on them so they cannot be detected.
Have the wizard secretly working with Mindflayers so once the party arrive they get assaulted by Mindflayers, Interllect Devourers and a Elder Brain.
The Party find the Wizard but its actually a random person altered via an "Alter Other" spell (functions as per Alter Self but you cast it on soemone else) or have a room full of changelings or Doppleganger spell casters that all look like the wizard...and then have them all cast Mirror Image.
Leomunds Tiny Hut makes a great level 3 Wall of Force to hide in and recuperate or teleport out in safelty.
As a Gnome you could have created one or more Golems, Shield Guardians would be useful.
Bring in some Rakshasa allies to help negate some spell casting.
But above all, regardless of everythign else...Have your Wizard always under the effect of a Nondetection spell to make him immune to divination magic so the party cannot spy on him and see what is instore...or use certain spells...like Hunters Mark.....
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1) Antipathy - Any humanoid within 60ft has to make a Wisdom Save or be Frightened. Can be cast days in advance.
2) Demiplane set up in advance - door is at the top facing downwards and is filled up with 10ft of Acid at the bottom. If you’re not flying when you enter you fall into the Acid.
3) Pre-casted Mind Blank
4) Mirage Arcana - difficult terrain everywhere unless they have Truesight. Even those with Truesight can’t stop others from the difficult terrain.
5) Sequester - a large beast that automatically comes out of suspended animation if the wizard takes damage.
6) Symbols placed around the room
7) Guards and Wards in his main Chamber. Use doors with Arcane Lock to separate the party.
8) Shield for Spell Mastery - +5 AC every round
9) Contingency - Dispel Magic self if stunned or paralyzed
10) Dream to disrupt sleep for the entire party every night. If the wizard has some locks of their hair, roll with disadvantage and ensure that they take more damage every time they try to rest.
11) 9th level Geas any number of times for mercenaries.
12) Glyphs of Warding for any number of surfaces as well. Make the whole place dangerous.
You’ll need most of that just to make up for the Action economy of 1 vs Many. Then just focus on level 2 Misty Step (also with Spell Mastery) to get away from the melee and make them walk on all of your traps.
Theyll counter you constantly but that’s alright, always use Misty Step first thing each round to get beyond 60ft to cast - or just let them suck all their spell slots trying to Counterspell every turn. Hopefully with Dream they’re low on spell slots already.
With some minions, LOTS of traps, and some quick thinking, I think you’ll do fine. And don’t worry about their feelings - Maze or Dominate Person the most susceptible targets. Globe of Invuln 9th level is always a piss-off too.
Add terrain features that force ranged attacks (chasms, higher ground, etc)
Time stop. Turn 1 delayed blast fireball; turn 2 forcecage; turn 3 crown of stars. Then wait for the delayed blast fireball and prepare to counterspell their dispel magic.
get out of the way. invulnerability. finger of death on monk to silence the silence, circle of death with 6th level spell slots then start hitting with everything else you have. get out of storm based spells areas as this could attack your concentration on invulnerability - while this lasts you are invincible and pretty much safe from everyone. This assumes you have full spell slots. pre-summoned minions could help too
Also to Brewksy - any decent minion for a 20th level character shouldn't be put off by the 5d10 damage for geas which applies once a day - you're better off with planar binding cast at a high level consistently for weeks beforehand - that way high level minions who won't die at the first mass spell attack
A few months back I was a step-in DM for a few weeks. The adventure went something like this.
My character, a gnome wizard has been preparing a clone. While the party have been out adventuring, Manshoon (the setting is Waterdeep and we have played through Dragon Heist) finds the clone, awakens him and uses him as a puppet to kidnap my PC and take his place. Things get a bit confusing with a clone and a simulacrum but eventually the party figure things out but the evil clone escapes.
In our next session the party will be meeting the clone once more, just now he is level 20 and has both a staff and robe of the arch magi. Most of the characters are either level 16 or 17 and there are 5 PCs.
I have tried to think of a few different things I could do, like using force cage on some of the PCs... but I feel like that might make the whole fight boring for some of them since it effectively takes them out of the fight. I was also thinking of throwing up a prismatic wall, but then the PCs could just wait it out and my evil wizard is out of a 9th level spell slot. I almost have too many options for what I could do... so please. If you have any good ideas then please share them! :D
Evil Clone <-- I tried to link to the evil clone, not sure if it worked?
The party they are facing are as follows:
- Life sorcerer, paladin, warlock - uses a lot of subtle counter spell - which could be a pain
- monk, cleric - will probably try to use silence as well as stunning strike. From what I understand it is not possible to counter the monks silence since it is not exactly a spell
- arcane trickster with a magical sword that has true seeing - makes illusions kinda pointless as well as invisibility
- Druid, cleric
- Ranger, Rogue - who tends to stealth everywhere so that they can attack with advantage on every turn.
What tradition is the evil wizard?
Divination, sorry that I forgot that.
The easiest solution would be to have lots of minions to fight, maybe necromancy or conjuration? Have your wizard throw out buff and damage spells. I would avoid doing anything that takes characters out of the fight for more than a round or otherwise makes them feel super weak. That feels awful as a player. However, one really cool thing that happened to me back in 3e was my barbarian got mind controlled during a huge fight. I was still in control of the character but he had to fight against his group. My barbarian actually became a big part of the big bad guy fight. The group wanted to deal with him without killing him and it made it super memorable for me and the whole group had a ton of fun with the encounter. Maybe something like that?
Divination is tough because nothing about that necessarily screams crazy fight to me. Maybe put them through some convoluted series of events where your wizard is always two steps ahead.
You could also have multiple phases where the party chases your wizard through various planes of existance through uses of the Gate spell. Each plane has a new and interesting challenge. Not necessarily Divination specific but it's pretty wizardy.
Thanks for some good tips! I like dominate person... so that could be a great thing to do.
Another thing I thought of was maybe using force cage on myself and just cast magic out of it. In that way I would be safe from any physical attacks and would just have to deal with saves from magic. But that again seems a bit boring.
As long as every player has important feeling stuff to do I'd say go for it. Your non-magic characters are going to feel crazy bored if they can't do anything because of a force cage. Maybe there is some way to break it that only a rogue or two can tackle?
Dominate person isn't quite as good as a homebrewed option. Maybe you're in your force cage, and some thing outside it randomly selects one character to mind control until the object's next turn. This way everyone would get to know the fun of attacking their friends. Having it be an object has the added bonus of it can't be counterspelled. Once the object is destroyed, the mind controlling stops. The casters could be casting away at your evil wizard while your rogues could figure out how to get to the object to destroy it. I think most people would love to Roll Play this. Hopefully no one disintegrates their friends. I think this would be a fun phase to the fight. I do like the idea of having multiple different phases for something like this. A level 20 divination wizard would be very well prepared.
Also, use your portents but I'd fudge the numbers. No one needs to know what the numbers are. Just pick them when something comes up. You could use them like a legendary resistance to succeed in a saving throw that would otherwise suck. Or the opposite, you could use them to force a failed saving throw for a player (just don't do it on something that wastes turns for your players).
You’re playing a divination wizard with an intelligence of 20. Obviously he’s had months to prepare, meaning he’ll know the party’s strengths and weaknesses inside and out. What does each PC struggle with? He will have something up his sleeve that targets each PC’s weakness. He’ll obviously cast Foresight an hour or two before the fight starts.
Prepare Ice Knife just in case he’s caught in the Monk’s area of silence. And cast Contingency with Scatter as the prepared spell in case he’s trapped in the area of silence so he can get out and also move some of the PCs into locations that he wants them in instead of where they want to be.
He has time to prepare and he’s evil. Of course he has allies who are either Demons or Devils who he can Gate in once combat starts and since the Gate stays open for a full minute who knows how many other bloodthirsty Demons or Devils will come through intent on causing as much mayhem and bloodshed as possible. Even if he doesn’t have allies, he knows enough to be able to open a Gate in front of a large group of them and they’ll come through and cause all sorts of chaos.
He’s also way too smart to get caught in melee, or anywhere close to it. He’s staying as far away from the PCs as possible and using minions and long range spells to attack them. Illusions may not work, but Fog Cloud provides all of the cover that he needs!
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Lol. Honestly. Look at the level 20 wizard vs Warlock. And you’ll get some ideas. Level 20 wizards are no easy task.
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So many options...
For some real paradox causing shenninigans, have the Wizard appear at various intervals and Dominate each party member before vanishing/tleporting away, the dominates fade and the party continue then for the final encounter.... The party arrive just as the Wizard completes a Wish spell and teleports in a Dominated version of the party from the previous encounters to fight themselves, its the party vs the anti-party.
Or have the final fight take place in a corrupted Androshpinx lair with the wizard in charge of all regional effects and lair actions (maybe have the Sphinx as a domianted beast/Mount).
Have the Wizard hold loved ones or people hostage to use as meat shields, a "Come any closer and my minions will kill them" kind of deal.
Use some Glyphs of Warding with Bestow Curse and homebrew an alignment change effect, Lawful becomes Chaotic, Good Becomes Evil.
If they are adept at spotting magical traps then have Nystuls Magical Auras cast on them so they cannot be detected.
Have the wizard secretly working with Mindflayers so once the party arrive they get assaulted by Mindflayers, Interllect Devourers and a Elder Brain.
The Party find the Wizard but its actually a random person altered via an "Alter Other" spell (functions as per Alter Self but you cast it on soemone else) or have a room full of changelings or Doppleganger spell casters that all look like the wizard...and then have them all cast Mirror Image.
Leomunds Tiny Hut makes a great level 3 Wall of Force to hide in and recuperate or teleport out in safelty.
As a Gnome you could have created one or more Golems, Shield Guardians would be useful.
Bring in some Rakshasa allies to help negate some spell casting.
But above all, regardless of everythign else...Have your Wizard always under the effect of a Nondetection spell to make him immune to divination magic so the party cannot spy on him and see what is instore...or use certain spells...like Hunters Mark.....
Prep Strategies:
1) Antipathy - Any humanoid within 60ft has to make a Wisdom Save or be Frightened. Can be cast days in advance.
2) Demiplane set up in advance - door is at the top facing downwards and is filled up with 10ft of Acid at the bottom. If you’re not flying when you enter you fall into the Acid.
3) Pre-casted Mind Blank
4) Mirage Arcana - difficult terrain everywhere unless they have Truesight. Even those with Truesight can’t stop others from the difficult terrain.
5) Sequester - a large beast that automatically comes out of suspended animation if the wizard takes damage.
6) Symbols placed around the room
7) Guards and Wards in his main Chamber. Use doors with Arcane Lock to separate the party.
8) Shield for Spell Mastery - +5 AC every round
9) Contingency - Dispel Magic self if stunned or paralyzed
10) Dream to disrupt sleep for the entire party every night. If the wizard has some locks of their hair, roll with disadvantage and ensure that they take more damage every time they try to rest.
11) 9th level Geas any number of times for mercenaries.
12) Glyphs of Warding for any number of surfaces as well. Make the whole place dangerous.
You’ll need most of that just to make up for the Action economy of 1 vs Many. Then just focus on level 2 Misty Step (also with Spell Mastery) to get away from the melee and make them walk on all of your traps.
Theyll counter you constantly but that’s alright, always use Misty Step first thing each round to get beyond 60ft to cast - or just let them suck all their spell slots trying to Counterspell every turn. Hopefully with Dream they’re low on spell slots already.
With some minions, LOTS of traps, and some quick thinking, I think you’ll do fine. And don’t worry about their feelings - Maze or Dominate Person the most susceptible targets. Globe of Invuln 9th level is always a piss-off too.
Add terrain features that force ranged attacks (chasms, higher ground, etc)
Time stop. Turn 1 delayed blast fireball; turn 2 forcecage; turn 3 crown of stars. Then wait for the delayed blast fireball and prepare to counterspell their dispel magic.
get out of the way. invulnerability. finger of death on monk to silence the silence, circle of death with 6th level spell slots then start hitting with everything else you have. get out of storm based spells areas as this could attack your concentration on invulnerability - while this lasts you are invincible and pretty much safe from everyone. This assumes you have full spell slots. pre-summoned minions could help too
Beardy druid.
Very beardy druid. With a cap.
Also to Brewksy - any decent minion for a 20th level character shouldn't be put off by the 5d10 damage for geas which applies once a day - you're better off with planar binding cast at a high level consistently for weeks beforehand - that way high level minions who won't die at the first mass spell attack
Beardy druid.
Very beardy druid. With a cap.
Thank you all for lots of good tips! :D
My DM and I ended up changing things a bit but I was still able to use a lot of what you all suggested. :D