I've just had a revelation in my ongoing epic group: I'm in WAY over my head. We play VERY rarely, and it's bloody impossible to even remember what my characters can do, let alone devise useful tactics. I've also made some really questionable build and/or equipment choices, which makes things harder.
So I want this thread as a resource of what to do when you're fighting Demiliches with DR 100/?, and Iron Colossi with Extraordinary AMFs. AND just BE epic at all, which I feel I'm clearly not.
The setup:We have a resource of exactly 57 books which were available at the start of the game, when we made the cut-off. The only new books that have been allowed so far are Monsters of Faerun and the ToB. We have a lot of 3.0 books allowed as long as their content wasn't republished as 3.5 material. Notable exclusions, because I don't have a positive list at this moment:
No:
Sandstorm
Races of the Wild/Dragon
Dragon Compendium
Rules Compendium
Serpent Kindoms
Complete Champion
Oriental Adventures
Planar Handbook
Dragon Mag except TWO issues at this point, and I don't remember which they were
As a firm rule, we have banned ALL Erratas.
The GroupThe DMPC: Human DMM Cleric 40 with a few levels of something else. Generally runs around with a ton of Buffs as a Great Wyrm Collossal+ Force Dragon
The BSF: Goliath Barb/FB/Fighter, 40 total, comparatively crappy Barbarian build. We sucked when we started this, and this guy sucks the most. He has to make up with items...
The Gish: Tiefling Wizard/Ur-Priest/Mystic Theurge/AbCha/whatever, also 40 total. This guy is a newcomer and probably has the best-rounded character. Of course he's no cheater of Mystra, which means AMFs royally fuck him. AND he isn't even done, so he lacks equipment. The good point: He has a (small) demi-plane, which is probably the only safe place in this campaign right now, and a ton of Simulacra for ritual epic spellcasting, although this was nerfed a wee bit.
The other gish (but he can hardly ever manage to play right now): Sorc/Wilder/Cerebromancer/Yuirwood/something else; Has ginormous saves, usually runs around as a Nymph, Shane, or Chronotyrin. Uses Crystal shards to fire into AMFs. Has some epic spells, which I am sorely missing now.
The Necromancer (Me): Human Lich DN20/Marshall1/Bard1/Sub.Chord3/Corpsecrafter(homebrew)12 (37 total, YES, I had to take that LA, and I just finished buying it back). He's posing as an old elf sorceror, who is an agent of Wee Jas in the Realms.
My Cohort: DMM Cleric 36, dubbed the Emmissary of the church of Wee Jas.
My meatball: 97HD of intelligent Undead Flesh, granted by the Corpsecrafter prestige class I could make myself. Arguably this thing is a wee bit overpowered, or would be if I had made intelligent equipment choices. (Like Transmuting weapons. As it is, I have Shattermantle, but I can't overcome DR at all.)
The settingIt's the FR. Or rather, the EX-FR, because we just fricken CAUSED a trans-planar apocalypse. (No, we're not actually evil, but we did pull the switch on the Doomsday machine. It's a longer story, it sort of seemed like a good idea at the time. Oh, we didn't KNOW it was the doomsday machine.)
Right now we're fighting what seems to be Lolth in league with Halastar, who is a Demi-lich of approximately level 60 or so. We've stopped the last session in the middle of the Fight against Halastar and two Iron Colossi. Our barb is being chewed up by the Colossi, luckily the rest of us is out of range of their AMFs, and we're trying to pummel Halastar to death. Oh yeah, he had that DR100 or more, and touch AC100. This would not be a problem if I had been smart enough to know about Transmuting weapons. Halastar is hitting at least two of us with 500-900 Force damage every round. My necro himself can't do anything except pump Greater Harms into my other guys to keep them alive.
The REQUESTI would like some help on the following topics:
Keeping my shit safeI used to have a keep which I thought was a reasonably safe place for my stuff, including my phylactery and the bodies of my guys when they Astral Projected. The keep was not like a necromancer keep, rather it was a pretty little thing above Pleasantville(tm)
. Of course there were dungeons, but... whatever. Now that keep is a pile of rubble because the frickin earth opened beneath it and meteor showers pummelled it from above. So I'm carrying everything around with me in a 50ftx50ft portable hole, stored within my 97HD meatball. Oh, is it safe there? NO!
Obviously I want to have a safe place again.
Being epicMy abilities at pulling strings are seriously lacking. We don't generally roll diplomacy, or else I would do it, but it gets annoying having to even talk to underlings. How do I convince my DM to let me get straight to the top, and bypass the underlings? Somehow he didn't get all that Legendary Figure stuff.
ReconI have about 50 greater shadows doing recon, an army of Griffon riders, spell effects like Greater Prying eyes and Scrying, but it still seems like I'm largely blind. I need a quick and convincing way to tell my DM that I SHOULD be in the know about events going on at the other end of the world.
Getting InformationRight now Hindsight is basically our No.1 source of information. But there's got to be more. How do I make my DM give up his plot notes to me? Oh yeah, talking to Gods apparently isn't enough. The last time I used Commune the line was cut. Go figure.
Please advise.