If people are going to argue that Malack should have been prepared to the fullest extent possible because he's paranoid, then logically, you should be arguing that he'd never leave the castle. Why leave your army behind? What if you're caught alone?

At some point the preperations have to stop. It's not a "cop out". It's not bad storytelling. It's a character who never expected that situation to occur. If he'd spent every spell slot on protecting himself alone, he would be a completely useless cleric. And then we'd all be asking why he ever agreed to go out into the desert anyways, when he normally spends time in a castle full of loyal guards.


Also, he did not research "exotic grappling techniques". He's a snake. That's what snakes do. Trying to call that paranoia is just ignoring the character completely.

And I don't consider it paranoia to build a back door into a spell designed solely to negate your abilities. That's just common sense.