Help us defeat the evil druid, before he becomes yet another recurring villain!

[Elvensilver]

In the last few sessions, our team (a cleric8/paladin1, bard 8/oracle1) fought a druid three times and each time we (he as well as us) barely survived. While he didn't have many hitpoints, and was quite smitten after being shot at by our paladin, we just couldn't reach him most of the time.

Obviously, he had a crazy high wisdom, since he used a lot of spells, and succeded every willsave (DC 17+). But what made him so dangerous, was his clever use of the terrain. He used a wall of fire to obscure our sight, summoned earth-elementals to produce earthen thorns(12D6 damage), and used gust of wind to push us/our summoned creatures into said thorns or down a cliff. Also, he often used entangle to hinder our movement. Whenever we got a hit in against his amourclass of 27, he retreated, or shapeshifted to heal himself up again, making the fights tedious and frustrating. While we killed his animal companion, a giant crab, he still owns a magic flail that can permanently dispel magic on items (e.g. armor or weapons) on succesful critical attacks. And naturally, it has a great crit-range.
Alas, as he is a druid, and we both don't have any points in suvival, we can't possible track him down and attack him while he is exhausted.

Last session, we fought in a town freshly destroyed by dragons, and after we heard that he hunted down survivors, we challegend him again. This ended in a mixed defeat, where in the end the bard was cursed, bleeding and pinned to a wall, while contemplating to turn in an avenging ghost, while the cleric chased him away. But before that, he had enough time to loot the abandoned magic item store.

Our team:

• Alina, cleric/paladin, domains: Nobility(her cohort is an archon that heals us sometimes) and Glory, high AC, high strengh, good will& fortitudesave, big weapons, a cube of force. SLA: Divine Power/1*day, holy smite/1*day. Can scripe scrolls.
• Gardin, bard&oracle: High charisma, a lot of spells (11 1lvl ones), high AC, almost never rolls anything above a 5, is -theoretically -proficent with bow and rapier, but never hits. He is more of a social kind of person. Owns a ring of flying, a ring of charm person, and two bags of holding. High reflex, medium will, abysimal fortitude saving throws.
• Snowfall, a third level (horse) horse which is quite possible half-divine and made more damage with a single kick than the bard over the entire fight.

So playground, how can we possibly defeat this druid, when we can't get any new magic items (he now owns an entire shop worth of them) , and most of the time he will surprise us? How can we protect ourself against being swept around by gusts of wind, and how can we escape the entagle, at best for several rounds?

[Particle_Man]

How is this druid proficient with a flail? Did they blow a feat on it?

Anyhow, yeah it sucks to go against a druid on their own turf. My sympathies. I don't have any obvious answers except "get them out of natural environments" and "use illusions to make them blow actions and spells on things that are not you" and maybe "war of attrition of spell slots" if possible.

[ericgrau]

Sounds like DM fiat. I mean if you do defeat him, is the DM really going to give you a million magic items. What's his plot relevance? Does it seem like it's time to defeat him yet, or is there another more immediate challenge you must overcome? If it is fiat your best bet is to hurt the druid fast so that he's forced to run away quickly before he can accomplish much. I wouldn't try to trap him quite yet, plus hurting him is a good first step for when you do trap him in the future. And who knows, you may kill him before he gets away.

Ranged touch or reflex save spells are good, though you don't seem to have those. And you're a bit too high level for alchemist fire/acid. Melee touch works via inflict critical wounds, even though it is save half. Plus note a miss doesn't consume the spell. It can be held for next round if you miss. Freedom of movement and flight will overcome a lot of movement impediments. Have the bard loan the ring of flying to the cleric or use air walk. Imbue with spell ability + shield other to the bard and he can soak some of the hits against the cleric, if needed. Or imbue with spell ability + close wounds if both are taking damage. In general the bard may have to run support, perhaps buffing + imbued shield other. If you can maybe get some arcane remove X condition scrolls that he can cast directly or UMD. Soon you'll get flame strike which is reflex half and not fully resistible with a giant pile of DM magic items and/or buffs. Snowfall sounds like he might be a DMPC so getting him within melee range via flight ring, freedom of movement, shield other and/or air walk is also a thought. Perhaps the cleric could airwalk him and ride him. Per the air walk spell it takes 1 week of training to teach a horse how. Though since he is intelligent this may not be necessary.

[Eldonauran]

You want an honest answer? Guerrlia tactics over the course of a single day. You will need some way of tracking him, but it amounts to encouraging him to use his higher level spell slots in what he perceives to be a single day encounter, and then you retreat, only to come back just a bit later. If the chase lasts for longer than a day, you will need to find ways of interrupting his rest so that he can't recharge and reprepare his spells.

Your other choice is to simply give up and let him win. Go adventure elsewhere.

[King of Nowhere]

I find it strange that he can defeat a group alone by pushing them around. it's bad action economy as far as i tried.

Possible counters include trying to split up so you won't all be caught in the same aoe, and especially making sure that you can follow him when he regains the distance to heal. If he can join or leave the fight at will, then he cannot possibly lose. Get a potion on fly, or something like that; make sure he cannot run away from a fight, not easily at least. If he does and heal, at least make sure to also heal yourselves.

Finally, stop targeting his will save. fort is also a bad bet, though you can always hope for a bad roll on a death effect. I'd try to use direct damage (possibly dispels if he has protections). If he has to heal, he's wasting spell slots and actions to do it. and you have more actions than he has.