Occult Slayer Tips

[Talbot]

I'm building an NPC party to harass my players... as one of the players is a pretty well optimized (quickened twinned maximized empowered orbs are the order of the day) Artificer, I figured building a solid mage-slayer might be more interesting than just playing rocket tag with him and another spellcaster.

Any tips?

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Do they have ways of countering illusions?

If they use true sight: invisible spell (cityscape) obscuring mist will blind them with little downside.  Use stacked miss chances to avoid orbs for long enough to get close (consider being incorporeal for extra miss chance.

Other than that, you'll need energy resistance out the wazoo, but it should be enough to get close in and start wailing on them without being pewpewed to death.

What level is the party?

[Talbot]

10 now, but probably higher by the time they face this guy. I dunno precisely when they'll meet him, so I'm looking for a build that's effective anywhere from level 10 to 20.

The Artificer has permancied Arcane Sight.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Well, nystal's magic aura will conceal enemies from that, at least.  Stick some auras on a bag of rice, have an unseen servant carry them around under cover of illusions/fog.  Get the players to be jumpy and waste shots before they even meet the enemies.

For the NPC party, you'll probably want
Someone to do Battlefield control/cut off lines of escape.  Dim anchor or forbiddance or something.
Somebody to actually attack and look intimidating
A wildcard to confuse the hell out of the players
And someone to buff/defend the others

[Talbot]

I've got the rest of the party more or less figured out (well, actually, I have six characters designed and depending on a few factors (one of them, not sure which yet, is destined to be my next PC) will use four of them + this guy, but still).

They are:

Pouncing TWF Skirmish Crit-Fisher (Barb/Swift Hunter/Warblade/Bloodclaw Master)
Teleport Full Attacking Shadow Monster (Swordsage/Teflammar Shadowlord)
Cannonball Chucking Pirate (Scout/Master Thrower/Bloodstorm Blade)
Canny Melee Specialist (Swashbuckler/Warblade)
Undead Hunting Sniper Assassin (Soulknife/Illumine Soul/Soulbow)
Courage Inspiring Violinist (Bardsader)

The final party will be four of those + the Occult Slayer type.

[carnivore]

Pixies make Great Occult slayers ..... Greater Invisibility means they cant Target you with Spells ..... SR means they wont be very effective even if they could see you .... great Dex + Small Size means High Touch AC to Avoid No SR/No Save Spells

CR 10

Pixie 4/ Warblade 3/ Fighter 2/ Pious Templar 1


 

[qwvb]

PixiesSR means they wont be very effective even if they could see you .... great Dex + Small Size means High Touch AC to Avoid No SR/No Save Spells

Sadly SR won't help against Orb spells.

Cast Silence on a Tanglefoot Bag. Throw it on the caster. If you hit, he's glued to it, thus becoming silenced, gets a -2 penalty on attack rolls and a -4 penalty to Dexterity and must make a DC 15 Reflex save or be glued to the floor, unable to move. He should be useless until he deals 15 points of damage to the goo with a slashing weapon or gets a DC 17 Strenght check or 2d4 rounds.

Using Silence on another Object and then making sure it won't be taken out easily can work. Fleshgrinding weapons (MIC p.35) is a fine exemple.

Shackles of Silence (MIC p.184 can be fun too, if you can get to put them on the PC at the begining of the fight.

[carnivore]

PixiesSR means they wont be very effective even if they could see you .... great Dex + Small Size means High Touch AC to Avoid No SR/No Save Spells

Sadly SR won't help against Orb spells.

hence the High Touch AC... look at the last part you quoted

 

[carnivore]

another fun Occult Slayer ....

ECL 10

Pixie Warlock 6

3d6 EB

Summon Swarm is lots of fun .... especially if you cant find out who is summoning it
Baleful Utterance is great also
Flee the Scene + Flight + Greater Invisibility = Awesome Hit and Run Tactics

 

[carnivore]

another fun Occult Slayer build ....
ECL 10

Changeling

Warlock 5/ Chameleon 5

3d6 EB

4th lvl Divine or Arcane Spells @10th lvl Caster
great Disguise and Infiltration abilities .... and Unlimited resources... can fill any role well ...works with any group to fill out weak areas

 

[Glutton]

Use a rogue with high touch ac and the spell reflection ACF from CM to give him a suprise.

[Bloody Initiate]

Spell-Turning against blastificers doesn't just "give them a challenge". It ends up working like an assassination. If they don't see it coming they'll likely toast themselves in one go. I played a Blastificer in a world where enemies routinely had Spell-Turning. I can't remember how I survived the discovery, but I remember how I survived after I discovered it. Area Spells + Crushing Spell Turning with just enough more spell levels than it was designed to handle.

It's kind of badass when you can pour out enough arcane might to literally crush an enemy's protection spells. They could handle up to 9 or 10 spell levels so I routinely handed them 15 or more.

[strider24seven]

Pixies make Great Occult slayers ..... Greater Invisibility means they cant Target you with Spells ..... SR means they wont be very effective even if they could see you .... great Dex + Small Size means High Touch AC to Avoid No SR/No Save Spells

CR 10

Pixie 4/ Warblade 3/ Fighter 2/ Pious Templar 1


 

And Carnivore comes up with another wonderful Pixie build. 

Although if you want to fuck with people, nothing helps more than a spiked chain-wielding Crusader.  With Occult Slayer.  With a Silence and Dimensional Lock/Anchor effect on him (think items), he will shut down every player's actions. 

As an alternative to Silence and DA/DS, use AMF.