Optimize or Die, Playgrounders! [E6 Balor Challenge Thread]

[AmberVael]

True Seeing doesn't allow him to see through mundane darkness,

Yes it does.

The subject sees through normal and magical darkness

[Doctor Acula]

This interests me, I am tempted to attempt to bulild a party, I have one question: Is dragon magazine allowed?

[kjones]

Swordguy, I think your plan is awesome, and I would allow it in actual play while giving everyone else here the boot.

However, it's worth noting that for a certain group of people, coming up with ridiculous builds like these is just as satisfying, if not more so, than coming up with clever plans.

[Swordguy]

Swordguy, I think your plan is awesome, and I would allow it in actual play while giving everyone else here the boot.

However, it's worth noting that for a certain group of people, coming up with ridiculous builds like these is just as satisfying, if not more so, than coming up with clever plans.

Fair enough. Different strokes, and all that.

[true_shinken]

We're just using that thinking against it. Monsters are supposed to be roleplayed too, y'know.

A balor has Int and Wis 24. He is really, REALLY smart. Smart people in D&D need to be careful (else they are not that smart).
If you mention the roleplay aspect, a balor wouldn't ever bother going against anyone if it was outside of his comfort zone (his very own infernal haven, most likely) - he would just send his mooks after them. He even has built-in mooks via his summon ability.

[Swordguy]

A balor has Int and Wis 24. He is really, REALLY smart. Smart people in D&D need to be careful (else they are not that smart).
If you mention the roleplay aspect, a balor wouldn't ever bother going against anyone if it was outside of his comfort zone (his very own infernal haven, most likely) - he would just send his mooks after them. He even has built-in mooks via his summon ability.

In a regular D&D environment, I'll grant you that. He'll send mooks in, or even pull scry-and-die tactics against a party of heavily-armed and experienced high-level adventurers. But this isn't a regular D&D environment. It's E6. The Balor is as far beyond the mere 6th-level mortals in its ability to attack and defend as the mortals themselves are beyond a basic, non-templated bullfrog.

The builds we're seeing here aren't representative of the E6 sytem. Compared to a regular 6th Level adventurer (ie, not one optimized for this specific contest), the Balor is practically invincible. That's kind of the point; if the loophole builds posted earlier in the thread were what was standard in the E6 system, the question of whether an E6 adventuring party could take a Balor would have never come up.

No - the Balor is a demon. A demon. It's prime delight in what passes for its life is to terrify, main, and destroy what's weaker than it is. So, taking into account the known capabilities of mortals in an E6 system, why on earth should it be worried? It's effectively invincible. Hell - adventurers kick in the door, terrify, and slaughter in a variety of amusing ways goblins and kobolds that are just a few CRs below them. This Balor is FOURTEEN CRs above any mere mortal in an E6 world. If adventurers behave like that, certainly one can concede that a Balor, confident in its own superiority, would be taking the course of action most likely to be entertaining to it. As far as it knows, it literally has nothing - absolutely nothing - to fear from any given E6 mortal.

And that's why this works. In a setting where the DM cares whatsoever about the verisimilitude of his game universe and doesn't just play a tactical wargame against his players where the bad guys always take the tactically optimal solution, this plan fails. I do not believe that setting is what is intended. I believe the DM running the Balor would take its cruelty, its malice, and its will to inflict suffering into account when running the monster. What better way to inflict fear on an adventurer than to treat them the same way they've treated legions of weaker foes before? He'll do it kick in the door-style. And it's that very psychological predilection of the creature that, in my submission, I exploit.

[Tyndmyr]

All characters have improved toughness, improved init, Magic Device Attunement and all three save boosters. Party is all neutral evil(ce for barb). They all also have the luck feat that allows rerolling 1s on saves.All party members have UMD maxed.

Edit: If I say "orb of fire" anywhere in here, I mean lesser orb of fire. All math is correct for this, but I have a bad habit of using the wrong names for things.

Warforged Crusader 5/Barbarian 1.
1 feat for the warforged heavy armor. 10 feats for more DR. This ensures relatively minor damage from all non crits. One feat to be immune to crits. Together with the delayed damage pool and the usual crusader fun, we've ensured the crusader won't die.

Power Attack, EWP:Spiked Chain, Stand Still, WF(Spiked Chain), shock trooper, combat reflexes.

Equipment: Cold Iron Spiked Chain, wand socketed with Wings of Cover wand inside, Boots of Battle

Buffs:

Still working on getting this save pumped, and this attack more reliable, but you see the basic philosophy. Lock the balor in place with the guy he can't hurt.

Necropolitan Human Factotum 6. Font of Inspiration x9. Heavily optimized for int, because, well, he's a factotum. Massive bonuses to saves will enuse, so his survival is more or less ensured simply due to being well built for his class. His mission is to shore up whatever weak points the other party members have, dual wielding wand drums, one carrying 3x Cure Serious Wounds wands, the other packing 2x highly metamagiced orb of fire wands, and a single wand of dispel magic, all made by the party wizard.

Necropolitan (race) Cleric 6. Similar build to the barbarian. He's a beatstick/buffer. Weapon is cold iron, and has a wand socket for Wings of Cover

Necropolitan Whisper Gnome Wizard 2, Master Specialist 3, Wild Mage 1. Specialized Conjurer with Abrupt Jaunt.

Feats: Invisible Spell, Searing Spell, Energy Substitution(Cold), Energy Substitution(Fire), Energy Substitution(Acid), Energy Substitution(Electricity), Energy Substitution(Sonic), Snowcasting, Flash Frost, Fell Drain, Maximize, Empower, Quicken, Extra Spell Slot x3, Arcane Thesis(Orb of Fire), Arcane Thesis(Fireball), Practiced Spellcaster, Craft Wonderous Item, Craft Wands(accessible via CWI thanks to E6), Weapon Focus(Touch Attacks), Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot.

Equipment: Boots of Battle, Wand of Wings of Cover.

Role: This guy drops any summoned in monsters in a single round with a heavily metamagiced fireball. If the balor doesn't summon monsters, he focuses on kill shots. With 10 + d6 CL, his lesser orbs of fire range between 5 and 8 damage dice, for about eighty damage per orb, plus the negative level from fell drain. The balor has no resistances to sonic, and the orb ignores SR, so he'll be quite dead in four hits. Range is not a concern. To hit: 1(WF), 9 dex(18 initially, 1 on level up, 2 racial, 4 enhance, 3 from an efreet), 3 BaB. ie, +13 touch against touch AC 16. Hits on a 3+.

Still in progress, but at this point, I could probably dump the rest of the feats into toughness for everyone. Any four orbs will kill it. Three, if I get lucky on the damage rolls. The factotum and the wizard can put out a combined 9 orbs on the initial round. Everything else is pretty much irrelevant at this point. In fact, this is cheap enough that I could just hand around wands to the rest of the party. The DCs only 20. They're immune to essentially anything he can do to them at range. Up close, too. Wings of Cover is a helluva spell. Full attacks are just never going to happen, and any charge is going to deal no damage. The only challenge is going to come in ensuring that most of the party is going to be outside the 100 ft range when he dies. This is mostly doable via run actions, so, at most, we'll lose a single character if they are positioned unfortunately AND fail their reflex save.

But practically speaking, we're gonna see it, thanks to skillmonkey factotum, in the distance, and it's gonna take a gazillion orbs in round one. Then comes the celebrating and dancing on the body.

[awa]

it seems your confusing verisimilitude for rules you don't like not functioning (the reflex save) and thoughts i don't like (just teleporting) and having access to a minor artifact.

Another other problem and this is a big one the balor is only coming if he thinks you know his true name correct? Well then he has a huge reason to be super cautious of you and investigate the situation before hand. He thinks your packing his true name while in reality all you have is an orb of annihilation.

In a realistic world the balor can just put out his hands and feet against the wall to stop his movement. So either we follow the rules and it is highly unlikely to work because it requires him failing multiple easy checks in a row or we follow logic and it doesn't work because he can easily stop his fall by putting his hands out.

Now i don't dislike this because its thinking out side the box my skeleton suicide bombers are out side the box, but the difference is mine work (sorta) and your doesn't.

edit can't the balor just teleport out of a trippers effect, stay at ranged with implosions (also you need to increase your reach it has a reach of 20 all by itself)

[Another_Poet]

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Perhaps to avoid confusion (as with the LA+E6 discussion) we should agree on and link to a specific set of E6 rules for this challenge? I've found more than one.

The rules are as normal E6 (link in first post) plus the contest rules found in the first post. If something in the contest rules conflicts with normal E6, follow the contest rules. Specific trumps general, and this specific contest';s rules trump the general E6 rules in any case where the two differ.

Last technical question: minor artifacts have no listed price...20x0=0, yes? Or are we going by the effective caster level for said artifacts?

It is probably against the spirit of E6 to count on having an artefact, but I'll allow it.

The closest parallel with a price is a continuous-use wondrous item with CL20. Looking at wondrous items that meet that description, the cheapest are about 76,000 gp. Multiply by 20 and you get a 1.52 million gp pricetag. So, if two of your four characters spend all of their WBL on the minor artefact, they could have it.

I don't think this challenge is really fair. The challenge is "Kill a Balor in E6" but then the rules get modified so LA isn't used (even though it seems well within the intent to use LA),

I tell you what Miski, if it's that big of a deal then go ahead and use up to +4 LA/RHD as per normal E6 rules. However you must dedicate 6 of the 35 bonus feats. You'll be using those on Ability Training for 3 statts and Ability Advancement for 3 stats to offset your lower point buy.

Also if your build wins you can expect some of the 200 words of praise to mock you for whining about the rules of a contest instead of trying to come up with a a clever entry that succeeds within the rules of the contest. But some of the 200 words will still be praise. Maybe even 100 or more!

anything that wouldn't be played in a "real game" can't be used

Whoa, don't confuse Malakar's words with mine. Malakar has a lot of opinions but for better or worse they are irrelevant to the judging of this contest. This is the second time someone has confused something he posted with an official contest ruling by me. Ha, I say! Malakar has offered to run an actual fight with the winner of this contest (and then retracted that offer for some contestants) and that sounds like a great sequel, but he is not the arbiter of this contest.

This interests me, I am tempted to attempt to bulild a party, I have one question: Is dragon magazine allowed?

No. All 3.5e D&D WotC-published books are allowed, nothing else.

UPDATED SUBMISSION LIST

Swordguy's Fight Smarter Not Harder (four chumps with a sphere of Gygax)
Status: Pending; tell me how the Sphere's controller will survive the death throes.

Aethernox's Four Go In, Three Come Out
Status: Pending Looks like a complete plan

Awa's Revised Chumps with Skellies and Dust of Sneezing
Status: Pending; Looks like a complete plan

Cespenar's Contract Killers (four Rog5/Assassin1's)
Status: Pending; You're assuming you can get your Hide and Move Silently to +58. Show me the feats & gear. You also assume you can boost your Fort save DC high enough that he will reliably (i..e more than half the time) fail with his +22 modifier. Show me the feats & gear.

jseah's Abramelin and Three Chumps
DEAD. You cannot get a scroll of a 4th level or higher spell, as per the original post. Feel free to tweak and resubmit.

Biffoniacus_Furious' "That's Not Tinkerbell!" plus three chumps
Status: Pending; Looks like a complete plan

Tyndmyr's One Part Robot, 3 Parts Zombies, Garnish with LimeStatus: Pending; Awaiting additional information promised in post.

[Boci]

jseah's Abramelin and Three Chumps
DEAD. You cannot get a scroll of a 4th level or higher spell, as per the original post.

What if one of the party members is an artificer?

[lord_khaine]

Cespenar's Contract Killers (four Rog5/Assassin1's)
Status: Pending; You're assuming you can get your Hide and Move Silently to +58. Show me the feats & gear. You also assume you can boost your Fort save DC high enough that he will reliably (i..e more than half the time) fail with his +22 modifier. Show me the feats & gear.

Seems a dc 27 on the fort save will be enough, to make sure its more than 50% likely he does not make all his saves.

Also, if they can make an ambush, would it not be enough for them to boost hide to the required level?

[Swordguy]

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

UPDATED SUBMISSION LIST

Swordguy's Fight Smarter Not Harder (four chumps with a sphere of Gygax)
Status: Pending; tell me how the Sphere's controller will survive the death throes.

Heh. Nice title.

OK...I'm not actually sure are are death throes in this case. The target of the Sphere isn't "killed" (as in, achieves the "Dead" condition) - they cease to exist.

Citations from the SRD

Dead Condition: The character’s hit points are reduced to -10, his Constitution drops to 0, or he is killed outright by a spell or effect. The character’s soul leaves his body. Dead characters cannot benefit from normal or magical healing, but they can be restored to life via magic.

The bolded part at the end is the important part. The Sphere of Annihilation explicitly bypasses that, like so:

Sphere of Annihilation: Any matter that comes in contact with a sphere is instantly sucked into the void, gone, and utterly destroyed. Only the direct intervention of a deity can restore an annihilated character.

If a Dead character can be restored to life via magic, and the Sphere does not allow the target to be restored to life via magic, it's a "technical" argument that the Balor never enters the "Dead" condition, but as the effect says, simply ceases to exist. Thus, it doesn't get the Death Throes. (

...

With that said, if you rule it the other way and the Balor does explode, my initial response is fairly simple. As you pointed out upthread, only one character has to survive for this to count as a "win", and my scenario has everyone but the Sphere's controller surviving. He's the only person who even has to be in the building, much less within 100'.

I'm fine if you rule it this way, by the way. The "he's not all Dead" example above is entirely too rules-lawyer/loophole-ish for my taste. Yes - it meshes with everything we've ever had described about the Sphere, but I don't like having to justify things that way.

...

My final solution would be to simply have the controller of the orb in a covered pit or behind a stone wall, watching the landing via a periscope or pinhole. The controller does NOT have to have LoS to control the orb - merely be within 100 feet (40 feet+10feet/level). I'm not sure offhand what the bonus to a Reflex save from total cover (where there's literally no way for the explosion to reach you except through a pinhole or periscope) would be, but at least it's trying. If I were the DM, I'd ignore the Reflex save, apply the damage to the cover he's hiding behind, and apply the remainder to him as the explosion blows through the cover. Six inches of stone seems reasonable for a "stone wall or floor", so that's 90hp soaked by the wall. Controller takes the remaining 10hp from the throes, and perhaps an extra 1d6 of d6's worth of flying debris on top (6-36 hp). Potentially survivable (Con score depending), but painful as heck to a 6th-level wizard. That's totally houseruling a complex situation though. So it'd be your call.

[Another_Poet]

What if one of the party members is an artificer?

The problem is that 4th+ level spells take 20 wizards and 3 days to cast so you can't activate them as a scroll.

Okay everyone.... Some good points were made about how some (by no means all) of the builds are so heavy on "theoretical optimization" that they are almost imaginary. In the original post I hinted that pun-pun levels of cheese won't be accepted as winners, and I think I need to clarify exactly what that means.

How Much Cheese is Too Much Cheese?

Much of optimization consists of cherry picking feats, abilities, spells and items from separate sources which may never have been foreseen by their authors to work together. This is acceptable and within the spirit of the contest. Choosing the best spell from A and the best metamagic feat from B and combining them for predictably strong results is just good optimization.

In some cases however, combinations of abilities from different sources are used in a loop to gain maxed or arbitrarily high abilities. Rather than adding feat X to spell Y and using the augmented effect, the build adds (for example) feat X to pump spell Y, plus ability Z to do the whole thing twice, and a third time, and a fourth time, over and over until artificially high results are obtained.

The classic example of this is Pun-Pun who uses a slurry of abilities to create a rules exploit which is then looped over and over as long as the player desires to acquire arbitrarily high ability scores. However, the same essential process is seen when using lucubration in a loop to gain 9th level spells at a low level, or by gaining taint over and over to power a character who is immune to the problems of taint.

In general, if your build simply uses a rules exploit, I consider it acceptable. If however it uses the same rules exploit over and over in a loop to gain much higher results than a simple use of the exploit could provide, You Have Climbed Pun-Pun's Staircase and your level of cheese is too much for this contest. Practical optimization lasts all the way up to and upon the landing of Pun-Pun's staircase. But once foot is placed on step and railing is grasped in hand, You Have Climbed Pun-Pun's Staircase.

[Boci]

The problem is that 4th+ level spells take 20 wizards and 3 days to cast so you can't activate them as a scroll.

Surely the artificer can do it more quickly.

[Hurlbut]

Seems like a fun challenge

I would point out that E6 already accounted for the possibility of higher CR creatures going up against an E6 party.

E6 characters aren't intended to go up against high-level D&D threats under the same circumstances as high-level D&D characters; those creatures, if they are defeatable at all, require the kind of resources and planning far beyond the typical D&D encounter.

I believe if a party can defeat a Balor without having each of its member be one trick pony, they would be the best of the contestants.

[Yora]

It really requires working with the dm. Something like allowing 20 6th level wizards to link their power to create a magical field that can crush a Balor, consuming the creatures weight in diamonds.

[Another_Poet]

Surely the artificer can do it more quickly.

Unless there is an E6 artificier variant I'm unaware of (in which case show me!) I see no reason why.

I believe if a party can defeat a Balor without having each of its member be one trick pony, they would be the best of the contestants.

I agree. I would love to see more submissions using tactics rather than power builds. But ah well, playgrounders have found the efficient route and it is within the contest limits in most cases.

It really requires working with the dm. Something like allowing 20 6th level wizards to link their power to create a magical field that can crush a Balor, consuming the creatures weight in diamonds.

If you can afford it using the provided wealth and the standard rules for hiring casters, then it is allowed.

edit@swordguy: Point taken. Your tactic renders the death throes moot. I'll edit the main submission listing on the front page.

[Boci]

Unless there is an E6 artificier variant I'm unaware of (in which case show me!) I see no reason why.

Because the artificer is the UMD class, and not making it an exception would really nerf it.

[Another_Poet]

Because the artificer is the UMD class, and not making it an exception would really nerf it.

It gets all its normal UMD powers on CL 6 (or lower) 3rd level spell (or lower) scrolls.

You could make the same argument for the wizard. "But the wizard is the casting class, and not making an exception would really nerf it." Yep, E6 really nerfs D&D characters compared to normal 20 level play. That's the name of the game - and the challenge of this contest.

ap

[Human Paragon 3]

Party:

The Stone-Cold Stunners

1) Warrior: Human Monk 6.

Feats and items are all geared toward stunning fist and making the character Wisdom SAD (intuitive attack, ability focus stunning fist, Exalted feat that gives a bonus to stunning fist, Ki Straps, Sun School, the monastic array, Decisive Strike class feature, etc. etc. I can get a stunning DC of 35, which the Balor will likely fail, especially given the below.)

2) Skill Monkey: Goliath Factotum 5

Font of Inspiration taken the maximum amount of times. Gear and feats optimized for extra attacks and luck re-rolls. (see strategy section for why)

3) Arcane Caster: Human Hexblade 6

Utilizing the Dark Companion alternate class feature, the Hexblade can reduce the Balor's saves by 2. Hexblade's Curse will probably fail, but it's a free action to use, so no big loss.

4) Divine Caster: Gnome Artificer 6

Before the fight, he uses a scroll of Planar Ally, Lesser to summon a Nightmare, which he compels to cast Etherealnes on the party, allowing them to approach. He will be calling on the Nightmare's Etherealness ability again a bit later. Also before the battle he'll be buffing the party with useful effects like flight, haste, and anything that gives luck rerolls.


Key Items:

Custom items of Wraith Strike or wand of wraitstrike. If needed this can be UMD'd.

Ring of Spell Battle

Strategy:

Spoiler

Show

Prior to the fight, the Artificer buffs the party with extended flight and other helpful effects and infusions. He also summons a Nightmare has the Nightmare cast Etherealness on the party, which will allow them to approach and engage the balor, totally immune to its SLAs (Note: Greater Dispel Magic still works vs. the party, but if the Balor is dispelling, he's not not killing the party. As long as they can still approach and stun the balor, this strategy should work. By virtue of Dispel Magic going after the highest level spell, it will automatically hit the Etherealness. If successful, just go to round 1. Charge and attack. Alternatively, use Ring of Spell Battle to change the target of the dispel magic to the Balor himself). The party readies the following actions, keyed off Etherealness ending:

Monk: Attack the balor with stunning fist
Hexblade: Move dark companion next to Balor
Archivist: use wand of wraitstrike on the Monk if necessary (see above).


1st Round: The Jaunt ends. The Monk uses stunning fist on the balor. He hits thanks to wraithstrike. Thanks to Dark Companion, the Balor must roll a 15 or better to not be stunned. He is probably stunned. He DROPS HIS WHIP AND VORPAL SWORD. The factotum with a readied action to PICK UP THE VORPAL SWORD, which he can wield thanks to Powerful Build.

2nd Round:
Due to Wraith Strike and the stunned balor, the party now just had to hit AC 10 to inflict damage. The Monk will full attack with rapid stunning, decisive strike, and snap kick, haste etc. to get as many chances to stun the balor as possible. This will almost certainly ensure a second stun. Sun School triggers: the balor is now also confused for 1d4 rounds in the event he isn't repeatedly stunned every single round.

The Factotum full attacks with the vorpal sword, using his luck rerolls, extra attacks, etc to get as many chances to roll a 20 as possible. Thanks to the complete scoundrel luck feats, a roll of a 1 is treated as a 20, doubling his chances. The critical will be confirmed since he just needs to hit a 10, and can spend inspiration to ensure this happens.

The balor is dead.

If necessary this can be repeated for multiple rounds until it works. The chances of the balor pulling out of the stun lock is low.

To avoid death throes:

The nightmare readies an action to cast Etherealness if the Balor is killed, saving the party from the damage.

I'll think more on this and update later, but this should work.

[Boci]

Yep, E6 really nerfs D&D characters compared to normal 20 level play.

No, it caps normal play at 6th level. A 6th level artificer can activate 4th level scrolls it made. This is pretty much a class feature for the artificer.

[PId6]

Focused Enchanter 6

Race:

Air Goblin (+4 Dex)

Abilities: (before racial)

18 Dex
14+ Int

Trait:

Spellgifted (Enchantment)

ACF:

Spontaneous Divination

Feats:

Magical Aptitude
Arcane Thesis (Ray of Stupidity)
Fey Heritage
Fey Power
Fiendish Heritage
Fiendish Power
Snowcasting
Winter's Blast
Earth Spell
Metamagic Spell Focus (Enchantment)
Practical Metamagic (a bunch of times)
Spell Penetration
Greater Spell Penetration
Dragontouched
Ability Training + Advancement (Dexterity)
Weapon Focus (Ray)
Arcane Mastery

Metamagic Feats: (adjustment after Arcane Thesis)

Corrupt Spell +0
Sanctum Spell -1
Invisible Spell -1
Cooperative Spell -1
Enlarge Spell +0
Silent Spell +0
Empower Spell +0 (Practical)
Maximize Spell +0 (Practical, School Focus)
Twin Spell +1 (Practical, School Focus)
Repeat Spell +0 (Practical, School Focus)
Heighten Spell +3

Items:

Lesser Metamagic Rod of Quicken
Ring of Arcane Might
Orange Ioun Stone
Gloves of Dexterity +6

Spells:

Heroism
Reduce Person
Invisibility
Corrupt Sanctum Invisible Cooperative Enlarged Silent Empowered Maximized Twinned Repeated Heightened (+3) Ray of Stupidity
Quickened (Rod) Corrupt Sanctum Invisible Cooperative Enlarged Silent Empowered Maximized Twinned Repeated Heightened (+3) Ray of Stupidity

Attack Bonus:

+3 (BAB) + 10 (Dex) + 2 (Heroism) + 2 (Size) + 1 Weapon Focus = +18 (fails touch on 1 only even with Unholy Aura)

Caster Level:

6 (Base) + 1 (Spellgifted) + 2 (Arcane Thesis) + 1 (Fey Power) + 1 (Corrupt Spell + Fiendish Power) + 1 (Snowcasting + Winter's Blast) + 3 (Heighten Spell + Earth Spell) + 1 (Ring of Arcane Might) + 1 (Orange Ioun Stone) = 17 (Enlarged Ray of Stupidity has a range of 130 ft)

Spell Penetration:

17 (Caster Level) + 4 (Greater Spell Penetration) + take 10 (Arcane Mastery) = 31 (automatic success vs SR)

"Damage":

(5 + (1d4+1)/2)x2 = 12 minimum each spell, plus 12 again next round, Quickened means 2 per round

Tactics:

1. Buff up, cast Invisibility, then get into position 130 ft away from it (outside range of True Seeing).
2. Cast Ray of Stupidity + Quickened Ray of Stupidity in one round. These fail only on attack rolls of natural 1, and cannot fail the SR check. Together, it's enough to knock it to 0 Int in one round; even if one fails, the repeats next round will kill it.
3. Coup de grace at leisure.

[Glimbur]

Scroll of Ethereal Jaunt. This will make the party totally immune to all of the balors attacks until the spell is ended. This item is worth ANY cost.

Not true. Abjurations, like the Greater Dispel Magic the Balor has at will, reach Ethereal people just fine. Continuous True Seeing means that it can see ethereal people just fine.

[Another_Poet]

No, it caps normal play at 6th level. A 6th level artificer can activate 4th level scrolls it made. This is pretty much a class feature for the artificer.

My apologies. In that case then yes, an artificer can make whatever scrolls it can make at 6th level, up to and including 4th level scrolls.

For rules consistency 4th or higher level scrolls still aren't available for purchase, so a party artificer is needed to have them, and it must be something the artificer can make a scroll of at 6th level (so it's either on their "spell" list or they have gotten access to it some other way).

Guard Juris, you might want to take this post into consideration too as your team relies on a 7th level scroll which is not allowed.

[Tyndmyr]

I finished mine.

Honestly, it was mostly irrelevant save for lesser orbs of fire(turned into sonic), and wands of wings of cover. The rest just ensured that if he won init, and started a balor summoning chain, we could kill them all.

[Boci]

My apologies. In that case then yes, an artificer can make whatever scrolls it can make at 6th level, up to and including 4th level scrolls.

For rules consistency 4th or higher level scrolls still aren't available for purchase, so a party artificer is needed to have them, and it must be something the artificer can make a scroll of at 6th level (so it's either on their "spell" list or they have gotten access to it some other way).

Guard Juris, you might want to take this post onto consideration too as your team relies on a 7th level scroll which is not allowed.

Basically, artificers can craft scrolls as if they were 2 levels higher, so a 6th level artificer can craft 4th level scrolls, but they will still need to succeed on a UMD check to activate it.

[PId6]

Changed mine to trade Greater Invisibility for Invisibility.

[Adumbration]

The Judge (Human Cleric 6)

Spoiler

Show

Feats:
Extend spell
Reach spell
Quicken spell
Persist spell
Maximize
Empower
DMM: Empower
DMM: Maximize
DMM: Persist
DMM: Extend
DMM: Reach
DMM: Quicken
Extra turning
Extra turning
Extra turning
Extra turning
Extra turning
Extra turning
Spell penetration
Greater spell penetration
Necropolis born
Arcane mastery
Claws of the beast
Cloak of the Obyrith
Chaotic Spell recall
Demonic skin
Eyes of the abyss
Heart of the Nabassu
Keeper of Forbidden lore
Otherworldly countenance
Poison talons
Precognitive visions
Primordial Scion
Vestigial wings
Willing deformity
WD: Madness

Equipment:
Spellblade dagger (implosion)

Tactics:
Use DMM reached, maximized and empowered Shivering Touch, taking 10 on caster level checks with Arcane Mastery (qualified for with Necropolis Born) and after using Assay Spell resistance, automatically overcoming the SR and dealing 18+(3d6/2) dexterity damage. Touch attack is not an autohit, but in combination with the wizard attack, either or both should succeed.

Defences:
DR 13/lawful, immunity to mind-affecting, +7 natural AC, ability absorb 13 negative levels as well as CE alignment to negate Blasphemy.

The Jury (Sorcerer 6)

Spoiler

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Feats:
Arcane mastery
Claws of the beast
Cloak of the Obyrith
Chaotic Spell recall
Demonic skin
Eyes of the abyss
Heart of the Nabassu
Keeper of Forbidden lore
Otherworldly countenance
Poison talons
Precognitive visions
Primordial Scion
Vestigial wings
Willing deformity
WD: Madness
Spell penetration
Greater spell penetration
Sudden extend
Sudden empower
Sudden maximize
Sudden still
Sudden widen
Quicken spell
Sudden quicken
Reach spell
Practical metamagic: reach spell
Arcane thesis: shivering touch

Equipment:
Spellblade dagger (implosion)

Tactics:
Reached sudden maximized, empowered shivering touch - the same deal as with the cleric. This is for redundancy in case he misses. Sudden quicken is for True strike to ensure the hit.

The Executioner (Dragonborn Water Orc Orc Warblade 6)

Spoiler

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Feats:
Claws of the beast
Cloak of the Obyrith
Chaotic Spell recall
Demonic skin
Eyes of the abyss
Heart of the Nabassu
Keeper of Forbidden lore
Otherworldly countenance
Poison talons
Precognitive visions
Primordial Scion
Vestigial wings
Willing deformity
WD: Madness
Skill focus (profession (executioner))

Equipment:
Headsman's axe
Spellblade dagger (implosion)

Tactics:
Stay alive until the mages of the group paralyze the Balor, and then use the Headsman's axe to execute the demon. All that's required is a DC 18 Profession (executioner) check and the demon is automatically dead. On a failure, coup de grace and try again next round.

The Bystander (Factotum 6)

Spoiler

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This is essentially the dude that will stand around within earsight but not in range of any hostile ability. If the Executioner bites the dust, he's called to perform the duty. Otherwise, he just hangs back.

All of them can withstand a full-attack by the balor, are immune to mind-affecting and blasphemy. The Spellblade dagger protects them against the Implosion, and on the next round the Balor faces 2 counts of Empowered, Maximized and Reached Shivering touches.

After that it's a simple Profession (executioner) check.

[Cybren]

Also if your build wins you can expect some of the 200 words of praise to mock you for whining about the rules of a contest instead of trying to come up with a a clever entry that succeeds within the rules of the contest. But some of the 200 words will still be praise. Maybe even 100 or more!

he's not the one whining

[Human Paragon 3]

Not true. Abjurations, like the Greater Dispel Magic the Balor has at will, reach Ethereal people just fine. Continuous True Seeing means that it can see ethereal people just fine.

Doesn't particularly matter, as if he is using is standard action to dispel, he isn't killing us. Stunning fist should work regardless. non?