Balance to the Wizard

[Lans]

If you don't have concealment or cover you can't make a hide check at all. Once again, it's a giant that ambushes people in the pass, it controls the weather, I'm just describing what it would do under the absolutely absurd claim that it's average 26 hour spell twice a day can't be cast beforehand. It would begin casting the spell from a location of safety, because that's what it does every day. If your character doesn't have beasts of burden, he might still kill you and eat you after, but since his primary targets are caravans with food for him, it's more important to set up the spell and then kill you if he still has time.

The important number isn't the average number its the fact that 99.89% of the time the two castings will last 24 hours.

http://anydice.com is definitely going to be useful for this discussion.

If a monster has an ability that's at will or that lasts for over 16 hours then it should have that ability up. You don't raise a monsters EL if it has its armor on do you?

[Lans]

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-sp.../instant-enemy
There are also spells like Fell the biggest Foe .
So it isn't actually too far from the truth considering how much I can abuse stealth and the fact that my Ini would be +12 at the least.
+4 ini dex
+4 ini feat
+4 ini primal spell that lasts 24 hours
+ other ways to get ini
Stealth spells like Camouflage that boosts stealth into 30-40+ and beyond. Cheap equipment to boost it to 40-60+
Very easy to do this too.
As for favored enemy.

This discussion has been about 3.5 I believe. I don't thing it is appropriate to add in pathfinder spells

Edit maybe we should branch off some of the tangents to separate threads?

[Psyren]

If a monster has an ability that's at will or that lasts for over 16 hours then it should have that ability up. You don't raise a monsters EL if it has its armor on do you?

For an at-will or long-lasting buff I'd agree with you. For something that depends on the terrain (ice walls) I wouldn't, unless the devil never leaves. And even if you are fighting it on its home turf that it routinely prepares for fights, that also raises the EL. So either way, you're raising the EL if the walls are there before the fight starts.

Casting Ice Wall during combat, I 100% agree, that won't have an effect on its CR (all else being equal.)

[Platymus Pus]

This discussion has been about 3.5 I believe. I don't thing it is appropriate to add in pathfinder spells

Considering it is an issue of balance in spells I brought it up. Though core is the antithesis of balance.
That said I recall there being 3.5 equivalents to a few of these spells.
Recall ranger being able to make his weapons stupidly powerfully bane towards his favored enemies which you can stack with damaging spells and able to ignore armor bonuses to AC completely with his spells as well in 3.5. Hunter theme and all.
It's really just the same thing far as prep is concerned.

[Lans]

For an at-will or long-lasting buff I'd agree with you. For something that depends on the terrain (ice walls) I wouldn't, unless the devil never leaves. And even if you are fighting it on its home turf that it routinely prepares for fights, that also raises the EL. So either way, you're raising the EL if the walls are there before the fight starts.

Casting Ice Wall during combat, I 100% agree, that won't have an effect on its CR (all else being equal.)

How does ice wall depend on terrain? What would leaving have to do with it? It casts the walls at the entrance its guarding. May be it gets hungry and teleports to its room and eats a snack while throwing up ice walls. Goes grabs a book from the library, throws up a few more. Goes outside to read in the sun, throws up a few more.

[Psyren]

How does ice wall depend on terrain? What would leaving have to do with it? It casts the walls at the entrance its guarding. May be it gets hungry and teleports to its room and eats a snack while throwing up ice walls. Goes grabs a book from the library, throws up a few more. Goes outside to read in the sun, throws up a few more.

It doesn't depend on terrain; it modifies the terrain. You're basically putting the devil in an environment that favors it from the very beginning. Which is totally fine, you can certainly have an encounter with an ice devil that does that, but "CR 13" was not assigned to it with that assumption. If you have it start with a bunch of walls already up, that is functionally identical to letting it cast that many walls as a free action while rolling initiative, ignoring their standard action casting time.

[Beheld]

It doesn't depend on terrain; it modifies the terrain. You're basically putting the devil in an environment that favors it from the very beginning. Which is totally fine, you can certainly have an encounter with an ice devil that does that, but "CR 13" was not assigned to it with that assumption. If you have it start with a bunch of walls already up, that is functionally identical to letting it cast that many walls as a free action while rolling initiative, ignoring their standard action casting time.

No it is functionally identical to allowing Storm Giants to cast Control Weather. Anything they would have done before they knew about your existence is something that they could have done before knowing about your existence.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-sp.../instant-enemy
There are also spells like Fell the biggest Foe .
So it isn't actually too far from the truth considering how much I can abuse stealth and the fact that my Ini would be +12 at the least.
+4 ini dex
+4 ini feat
+4 ini primal spell that lasts 24 hours
+ other ways to get ini
Stealth spells like Camouflage that boosts stealth into 30-40+ and beyond. Cheap equipment to boost it to 40-60+
Very easy to do this too.
As for favored enemy.

So what you are saying is that you also can't make a 3.5 Ranger that can do this to these encounters? Look, you've now gravitated from refusing to make a build and refusing to test the run, to refusing to only have the number of spells you actually have, and refusing to prepare spells before you know what you are going to be fighting to now, finally, refusing to even play the game that is being talked about... Ugh. Why are you even here? Is this some sort of Shia LeBouf level meta commentary on the state of discussion where you will refuse to speak the same language as other posters and then refuse to speak a real language, and then refuse to exist on the same dimension as the participants of this thread? Because so far you have to taken a running leap to get as far away from having the same conversation as everyone else in this thread as you possibly can, and I just don't know how much farther you can get.

[Cosi]

Try what again? I still have no idea what you're talking about I even gave you the page reference. DMG 50:

You mean the section referring to "location and situation"? Interesting, neither of those things are monster abilities.

Exactly, I don't get what is so complicated about this for them. If you make a fight harder it becomes harder. Shock! Awe!

Probably because the quotes don't say what you think. Seriously, just eat your crow or leave.

I'm sorry you don't understand spellcasters change their spells per day to suit the situation. Really, you're going to complain about spellcasters when you don't understand them?

First, your quotes are borked. Fix that.

Second, the SGT is a one day test. You get whatever spells you prepare that day, not some random shuffle.

Third, which version of omen of peril do you have? The one in the SpC has a result of:

Peril: You will face challenges typical of any adventure

How exactly is a CR 13 encounter for a 13th level adventurer anything other than that?

[dascarletm]

How exactly is a CR 13 encounter for a 13th level adventurer anything other than that?

If you are not a party consisting of 4 characters, instead you are just a solo adventurer, it may well push it into great peril. DM's call of course.

EDIT: added color to denote nitpicking.

[Lans]

It doesn't depend on terrain; it modifies the terrain. You're basically putting the devil in an environment that favors it from the very beginning. Which is totally fine, you can certainly have an encounter with an ice devil that does that, but "CR 13" was not assigned to it with that assumption.

You are basically saying that every environment possible favors it

If you have it start with a bunch of walls already up, that is functionally identical to letting it cast that many walls as a free action while rolling initiative, ignoring their standard action casting time.

Again, I don't see any difference between this and the other buffs. Is having a few ice walls up better than having a suit of full plate or mirror images on?

[Flickerdart]

If you are not a party consisting of 4 characters, instead you are just a solo adventurer, it may well push it into great peril. DM's call of course.

From what I recall of the CR guidelines, CR = effective party level+4 is a 50/50 chance of death, which I would say qualifies as great peril.

[Beheld]

If you are not a party consisting of 4 characters, instead you are just a solo adventurer, it may well push it into great peril. DM's call of course.

It may or may not be that Omen of Peril will trigger Great Peril. I just question how the Ranger's never ever wastes the spell when it won't tell him, always spends it at the right time, then acts differently to Great Perils depending on information he totally doesn't have (apparently he continues up the mountain to sneak up on the giant that he knows is there by magic, but he goes home and brings back 50 followers to deal with the Great Peril of some mindflayers).

Almost like it's just some guy describing how some quantum ranger would totally beat all the encounters he was given a list of beforehand, instead of an actual character in actual circumstances who only knows the information his character would actually have.

[Apricot]

I'm a little bit confused at what's going on in this thread. Are people really trying to argue that Fighters can handle high-level encounters with the same kind of power and versatility that Wizards can? Are they trying to argue that the Fighter's inability to handle a multitude of SLAs means that the CR of the encounter is higher for them than Wizards (and thus that the Fighter's CR is lower than a Wizard's CR)? What's the endgame of all of this? If the endgame is that mundanes are as strong and versatile as casters, that's obviously wrong. If it's that encounters should be weakened for mundanes, that's an interesting argument for giving Fighters extra levels over Wizards (which has its limitations, because it messes things up at early levels). But I don't see how any of this really goes against what the OP is saying. If concessions have to be given to Fighters at every opportunity against opponents who, by number, are their CR equals, and Fighters are expected to have Wizards accompanying them but there's no real requirement the other way around, it does seem like there's something wrong with the Fighter more than there's something wrong with the Wizard. Being metaphorically and sometimes literally flat-footed against a large variety of encounters is a sign that the class doesn't have enough tools for itself, and deserves more.

I'd say that Wizards do have too much flexibility (though Clerics and Druids are just absurd), to the point where it's seriously detrimental to fluff, and that Sorcerer is a much better balance point on account of spell choices meaning something for fluff as well as for crunch, but I think it's fairly clear just by virtue of the argument here that mundanes just don't have enough nice things.

And we haven't even touched on non-combat encounters.

[Psyren]

You mean the section referring to "location and situation"? Interesting, neither of those things are monster abilities.

No, they are situations that can arise because of abilities. "Guaranteed surprise" is a situation a monster can use its abilities to achieve.

Seriously, just eat your crow or leave.

You know you don't actually own threads here, right? You can't command people to stop posting even if you disagree with them.

You are basically saying that every environment possible favors it

If it gets to prep the battlefield ahead of time, obviously that favors it. Sun Tzu and all that.

Again, I don't see any difference between this and the other buffs. Is having a few ice walls up better than having a suit of full plate or mirror images on?

That's easy - the statblock tells you whether the buff was included in the CR already. For example, a Frost Giant's armor is explicitly included in their statblock, and thus their CR. If you put chainmail barding on a dire bear though, that would make it tougher and increase its CR. For a more salient example, a drider can cast mage armor, but the statblock doesn't include it in his AC because he's assumed to not have cast it yet. If you have him cast it ahead of time, you're using a different version of him than is in the statblock and that would be more difficult.

Note also that not all increases in difficulty mandate an increase in EL. A Gelugon in a room with a single ice wall already cast may or may not warrant a CR increase. Approaching one who has created an entire lattice maze of ice ahead of time that lets him subject you to several rounds of cold damage before reaching him is another matter. The DM is expected to use some judgment here.

[Cosi]

If you are not a party consisting of 4 characters, instead you are just a solo adventurer, it may well push it into great peril. DM's call of course.

From what I recall of the CR guidelines, CR = effective party level+4 is a 50/50 chance of death, which I would say qualifies as great peril.

In the spirit of nitpicking (and bizarre parsings of RAW), it obviously doesn't ping as "Great Danger", because "Peril" is defined as "challenging but not overwhelming monsters" and "overwhelming" is defined in the DMG as EL => Level + 5.

Being metaphorically and sometimes literally flat-footed against a large variety of encounters is a sign that the class doesn't have enough tools for itself, and deserves more.

An apt summary. I think Psyren doesn't realize that the argument he needs to make isn't "the Fighter can't deal with X", but "classes in general can't deal with X". After all, if the Fighter is incapable of dealing with the encounter, that doesn't prove it's overpowered, it proves he's underpowered.

I'd say that Wizards do have too much flexibility (though Clerics and Druids are just absurd), to the point where it's seriously detrimental to fluff, and that Sorcerer is a much better balance point on account of spell choices meaning something for fluff as well as for crunch, but I think it's fairly clear just by virtue of the argument here that mundanes just don't have enough nice things.

I think Sorcerer versus Wizard as a balance point is an interesting debate to have. Sorcerers have some things going for them (easier to play, more predictable, potentially tighter theme), but also some things going against them (easier to build [well, more forgiving of mistakes], more options, easier to get non-combat powers). That's a debate that I think could actually be quite productive.

And we haven't even touched on non-combat encounters.

Actually, can we see that? How does the Ranger deal with the quest "go to the Elemental Plane of Air and do anything at all there" in a way that is distinct from a Commoner or 1st level character?

No, they are situations that can arise because of abilities. "Guaranteed surprise" is a situation a monster can use its abilities to achieve.

Again:

Ice Devil teleport ambushes 13th level Fighter. CR?

Ice Devil teleport ambushes 13th level Wizard, who has anticipate teleport active. CR?

Ice Devil teleport ambushes 13th level Wizard, who could have learned and cast anticipate teleport, but opted not to. CR?

Now, explain which of those count as PC choices and why.

[Platymus Pus]

SGT is a one day test

Then your test is pointless by its own admission.
You get rest for the type of encounters you're doing each time.

to only have the number of spells you actually have

That isn't have Divine spell classes work or spell classes in general work. The spell list divine spellcasters get access to ranges into the 1000s.
I can use my GP to have access to any spell I can realistically afford.

I just don't know how much farther you can get.

I hope to keep you in anticipation.

Great Perils depending on information he totally doesn't have

I plan where I'm going ahead of time, Skill checks gather information, omen of peril.
I use teleport to get there quicker so it is within the hour, I sense great danger, I teleport back or scout then teleport back. I prep spells accordingly resting.
I go back and murder.
For example there would obviously be information there is a storm giant in that pass since he's attacking people.
Just as obviously there would be information about that green dragon.
Most of your so called encounters are solved scouting one way or another and make no sense in the context of the game mechanics.
How are mind flayers going to ambush me to begin with when I have 60 stealth? They smell my brains from outside the cave?
This is normal play, not your little trail run.

Almost like it's just some guy describing how some quantum ranger would totally beat all the encounters he was given a list of beforehand

ITT:wizards

[dascarletm]

I think Sorcerer versus Wizard as a balance point is an interesting debate to have. Sorcerers have some things going for them (easier to play, more predictable, potentially tighter theme), but also some things going against them (easier to build [well, more forgiving of mistakes], more options, easier to get non-combat powers). That's a debate that I think could actually be quite productive.

I think specialized casters are a point of discussion I'd like to throw in. Warmage, Beguiler, Dread Necro...

Actually, can we see that? How does the Ranger deal with the quest "go to the Elemental Plane of Air and do anything at all there" in a way that is distinct from a Commoner or 1st level character?

Ranger goes and finds a person able to cast the spell. Does a quest relying on his abilities as a Ranger for said person. Said person grants them acces

Ranger tracks down a dragon (his favored enemy) rumored to have an item capable of taking him to other planes of existence.

Ice Devil teleport ambushes 13th level Fighter. CR?

Ice Devil teleport ambushes 13th level Wizard, who has anticipate teleport active. CR?

Ice Devil teleport ambushes 13th level Wizard, who could have learned and cast anticipate teleport, but opted not to. CR?

Now, explain which of those count as PC choices and why.

1. Creature's CR: 13. EL of encounter: Varies, +/-2 due to DM discretion per DMG
2. Creature's CR: 13. EL of encounter: Varies +/-2 due to DM discretion per DMG
3. Creature's CR: 13. EL of encounter: Varies +/-2 due to DM discretion per DMG

[Psyren]

Ice Devil teleport ambushes 13th level Fighter. CR?

Ice Devil teleport ambushes 13th level Wizard, who has anticipate teleport active. CR?

Ice Devil teleport ambushes 13th level Wizard, who could have learned and cast anticipate teleport, but opted not to. CR?

DMG pg. 50 covers this:

Easy If Handled Properly: There's a trick to this kind of encounter - a trick the PCs must discover to have a good chance of victory. Find and eliminate the evil cleric with greater invisibility first so she stops bolstering the undead, and everything else about the encounter becomes much easier. If not handled properly, this kind of encounter becomes Challenging or even Very Difficult.

Like see invisibility in the DMG example, an active anticipate teleport is the encounter solution the PCs would need to make this fight easy. Without it, it becomes either Challenging (EL = base CR) or Very Difficult (EL > base CR.)

Now, explain which of those count as PC choices and why.

The Fighter has no choice at all; there's simply nothing he can do to react to a teleport. It is thus almost always Very Difficult for him despite his level = the monster's CR, though with the right defenses it may drop to Challenging (e.g. he has a high fort save and can tank a hit.) Wizard #2 has done the necessary prep for this fight and it is thus Easy, and the encounter's EL may even go down. Wizard #3 does not have that specific countermeasure up, so the difficulty would depend on the presence of any others like Contingency or Ironguard.

EDIT: dascarletm beat me to it

[Beheld]

It literally hurts my brain to watch people claim that a CR 13 monster that lets you full attack it for free is an EL 17 encounter.

[Beheld]

Then your test is pointless by its own admission.
You get rest for the type of encounters you're doing each time.

You don't get to know what you are fighting in advance. You have some thing to do or some place to go, and you either can or can't do that, but you don't get to just magically know that you are facing a Storm Giant when you wake up in the morning.

That isn't have Divine spell classes work or spell classes in general work. The spell list divine spellcasters get access to ranges into the 1000s.

Do you understand what spell slots are? Seriously dude, you've already explained how you cast Omen of Peril 12+ times a day because you always know when you are going to be engaged in combat.

For example there would obviously be information there is a storm giant in that pass since he's attacking people.
Just as obviously there would be information about that green dragon.

You are presupposing that someone encountered them, lived, knew exactly what they were, and then happens to be in the area you are asking for questions, as well as presupposing that neither one of them recently arrived, or that neither one deceived anyone who did see them.

How many times are you told that a caravan didn't come when it should in a D&D game, versus being told "A caravan didn't come when it should, recon it's specifically a Storm Giant, be sure to take your anti-Storm Giant spells today and use the anti-Storm Giant tactics that work against storm giants but not Dragons."

How are mind flayers going to ambush me to begin with when I have 60 stealth? They smell my brains from outside the cave?

I can't possibly know because you refuse to make an actual character. Anything I possibly say will instantly be changed by a new spell choice, or a new race choice, or a new item choice right after I say it.

[Cosi]

I think specialized casters are a point of discussion I'd like to throw in. Warmage, Beguiler, Dread Necro...

Those are also fair. I see them as mostly like Sorcerers, but tooled up to have a powerful enough shtick (i.e. Undead, Illusions, not really Blasting for the Warmage) to compensate for less options. Another potential area of debate.

Ranger goes and finds a person able to cast the spell. Does a quest relying on his abilities as a Ranger for said person. Said person grants them acces

Ranger tracks down a dragon (his favored enemy) rumored to have an item capable of taking him to other planes of existence.

"Have someone else do it" and "find an item which does it" are both available at any level. Convincing a guy to spot you a plane shift is a 1st level quest even if you use 13th level abilities to complete it.

1. Creature's CR: 13. EL of encounter: Varies, +/-2 due to DM discretion per DMG
2. Creature's CR: 13. EL of encounter: Varies +/-2 due to DM discretion per DMG
3. Creature's CR: 13. EL of encounter: Varies +/-2 due to DM discretion per DMG

Reading this (and some of Psyren's comments), I think y'all are missing the point of the SGT. The intention is that there are some encounters you aren't equipped to deal with and some you are. So the fact that the Fighter can or can't deal with a bunch of walls of ice or persistent images is a data point, but it's not a decisive one. You check the Fighter against all the encounters, and it can cope with some but not others. You need to either look at other encounters (to see if the Fighter under-preforms overall) or other characters (to see if the Ice Devil over-preforms overall).

Y'all are just using language to describe the problem that is incredibly bizarre.

It literally hurts my brain to watch people claim that a CR 13 monster that lets you full attack it for free is an EL 17 encounter.

I think he's confused by my use of the word "ambush".

[Platymus Pus]

It literally hurts my brain to watch people claim that a CR 13 monster that lets you full attack it for free is an EL 17 encounter.

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dkb1/dnd/tarrasque.txt

[Psyren]

Reading this (and some of Psyren's comments), I think y'all are missing the point of the SGT. The intention is that there are some encounters you aren't equipped to deal with and some you are. So the fact that the Fighter can or can't deal with a bunch of walls of ice or persistent images is a data point, but it's not a decisive one. You check the Fighter against all the encounters, and it can cope with some but not others. You need to either look at other encounters (to see if the Fighter under-preforms overall) or other characters (to see if the Ice Devil over-preforms overall).

Y'all are just using language to describe the problem that is incredibly bizarre.

The mistake you're making is that you're confusing the base CR listed in the monster's entry with the Encounter Level (EL), which dictates what the effective CR of the monster works out to be once all the circumstances have been factored in. You seem to think that CR = EL no matter how the monster behaves, what the PCs can do, where the fight takes place, who has prepared for who and so on. That is certainly an approach you could take to DMing, but it's clearly not the intended one, and likely to result in ELs that are either trivial or crushing with little middle ground.

[ryu]

The mistake you're making is that you're confusing the base CR listed in the monster's entry with the Encounter Level (EL), which dictates what the effective CR of the monster works out to be once all the circumstances have been factored in. You seem to think that CR = EL no matter how the monster behaves, what the PCs can do, where the fight takes place, who has prepared for who and so on. That is certainly an approach you could take to DMing, but it's clearly not the intended one, and likely to result in ELs that are either trivial or crushing with little middle ground.

Have you not been paying attention to the thread at all? He openly stated wizards not limited to blasting as his intended balance point. He won't be accepting a changed CR for anything a wizard or other caster of the same level could confidently deal with normally. That's why it's same game test. The fighter doesn't get free XP or an excuse not to face the same challenges just for being underpowered.

[Hal0Badger]

Correct me if I am wrong, but don't you get XP award depending on the "Monster's CR", rather than "Encounter Level" ?

An Ice Devil encounter might be EL 15-16 to party/person, but don't they get the still the same XP?

[Psyren]

Have you not been paying attention to the thread at all? He openly stated wizards not limited to blasting as his intended balance point. He won't be accepting a changed CR for anything a wizard or other caster of the same level could confidently deal with normally. That's why it's same game test. The fighter doesn't get free XP or an excuse not to face the same challenges just for being underpowered.

Whether he "accepts" a changed CR is irrelevant - that is what the game instructs the DM to do, or if they are okay making it one of the 5% of "Overwhelming" encounters the party occasionally faces, doing that. I'm commenting on the game as it currently stands, not on his proposed houserules.

Correct me if I am wrong, but don't you get XP award depending on the "Monster's CR", rather than "Encounter Level" ?

An Ice Devil encounter might be EL 15-16 to party/person, but don't they get the still the same XP?

You're supposed to combine the party's abilities to end up at EL; the game isn't designed for solo play. Fewer than 4 party members = higher EL.

[ryu]

Whether he "accepts" a changed CR is irrelevant - that is what the game instructs the DM to do, or if they are okay making it one of the 5% of "Overwhelming" encounters the party occasionally faces, doing that. I'm commenting on the game as it currently stands, not on his proposed houserules.



You're supposed to combine the party's abilities to end up at EL; the game isn't designed for solo play. Fewer than 4 party members = higher EL.

That's a laugh considering you brought up pathfinder in a 3.5 discussion and the only thing you'd call houseruling was in heavy contention before you even began. This is not a personal dig on you incidentally. Just pointing out that your statement rings non-genuine.

[Psyren]

That's a laugh considering you brought up pathfinder in a 3.5 discussion and the only thing you'd call houseruling was in heavy contention before you even began. This is not a personal dig on you incidentally. Just pointing out that your statement rings non-genuine.

All my rules citations thus far have been from the 3.5 DMG, including the one you missed about "guaranteed surprise" modifying difficulty from DMG 50.

[Platymus Pus]

You don't get to know what you are fighting in advance. You have some thing to do or some place to go, and you either can or can't do that, but you don't get to just magically know that you are facing a Storm Giant when you wake up in the morning.

I damn well can know I'm facing a storm giant magically in the morning if I want.
I can also know I'm facing a storm giant by sending a fake caravan while sneaking and observing.
I suggest you look into the art of war.

Do you understand what spell slots are? Seriously dude, you've already explained how you cast Omen of Peril 12+ times a day because you always know when you are going to be engaged in combat.

I can get 18 wis easy enough by level 13. I can also get 24 wis very easily, an extra 2 spell slots for everything besides level 4 spells.
That is a bonus spell slot for each level, I can also get extra 1st,2nd,3rd spell slots ahead of time with cheap items. I can have 8 level 1 spell slots if I wish at this point or more easily.
And of course that's factoring I get rest per encounter seeing as there is a "50/50" chance of dying.

You are presupposing that someone encountered them, lived, knew exactly what they were, and then happens to be in the area you are asking for questions, as well as presupposing that neither one of them recently arrived, or that neither one deceived anyone who did see them.

The fact that what you say is actually contrary to information given is rather amazing.

Once again, it's a giant that ambushes people in the pass, it controls the weather, I'm just describing what it would do under the absolutely absurd claim that it's average 26 hour spell twice a day can't be cast beforehand. It would begin casting the spell from a location of safety, because that's what it does every day. If your character doesn't have beasts of burden, he might still kill you and eat you after, but since his primary targets are caravans with food for him, it's more important to set up the spell and then kill you if he still has time.

And of course the only logical conclusion is made regarding that.

So it controls the weather to make it a nice sunny day so it can see clearly? How does that help it kill you? Or it controls the weather to set up a thunderstorm or a blizzard, making it impossible to spot you because of the penalties those conditions apply to perception? It can't change the weather after it spots you because if it does, it takes 10 minutes for the weather to change, and by then you've spotted it too and combat has already begun and ended.

I'm not worried about storm giants, I'm more worried about a killer DM's averse logic of thinking a gauntlet of a storm giant,an adult dragon, and an ice devil is normal.

How many times are you told that a caravan didn't come when it should in a D&D game, versus being told "A caravan didn't come when it should, recon it's specifically a Storm Giant, be sure to take your anti-Storm Giant spells today and use the anti-Storm Giant tactics that work against storm giants but not Dragons."

I'd be told it's a giant normally if the DM wasn't garbage, that would be enough.

I can't possibly know because you refuse to make an actual character. Anything I possibly say will instantly be changed by a new spell choice, or a new race choice, or a new item choice right after I say it.

Congrats, you've figured out how to play a strong and prepared character. I'll always have an answer, that's the goal wizard or not. My budget is 140,000 gp, of course I'll have answers. You can kill a tarrasque with that budget.

[Lans]

All my rules citations thus far have been from the 3.5 DMG, including the one you missed about "guaranteed surprise" modifying difficulty from DMG 50.

It says that the encounter is more difficult, not that you should change the EL.

Kind of like the previous section where it says

Encounters involving animals or plants are much more difficult
without a druid or a ranger in the party.

, so if a fighter fights a bear solo its a higher EL than if it was a ranger by that logic