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I am playing an epic D&D 3.5e PC in a medium-optimization (for an epic 3.5e, as I understand it, at least) game:

  • Most regular spells are available to the party (modulo those labeled Evil), although Wish/Miracle are significantly nontrivial in cost
  • Magic item creation isn't something that can be relied on beyond scribing scrolls
  • Epic spells are seriously limited (I suspect most high-optimization epic casting is off-limits due to achievable spell DCs being limited to the sub-100 range after party spell slot contributions modify the DC, and even some basic epic spells like the SRD's Soul Scry are a no-go)
  • Seriously epic shenanigans (such as facing off against deities) are not a reasonable option
  • And, I'm expecting that we're limited to WotC published books here (third-party published or Dragon Mag material is likely a no-go)

My character (don't ask me how) and their party, consist of:

  • My char: arcane gish, basically (the precise build details aren't terribly important)
  • Party member A: another arcane gish (lower level than my char but not by too much)
  • Party member B: sneaky archer cleric (epic caster, but in the low epics)
  • Party member C: another cleric (capable of 9th circle casting, but not into epics yet)
  • Party member D: an epic FS (again, low epics AFAIK)
  • Party Member E: a rangerish / roguish sort

We are up against a problem in the form of a band of hostile NPC Lolthite priests that are going to need significant "softening up" done to them before we can carry out much else, operationally speaking, although we aren't looking at pure war-of-attrition tactics, either, for reasons that have to do with storyline intent. Considering that simply going in and being stabby isn't really an option (again, don't ask me how we know this), what approaches are there to preventing the NPC spellcasters from regaining spells over an extended period of time (a tenday or more in the in-character timeline)?

So far, using Daylight cast repeatedly through Eye of Power and direct castings of Symphonic Nightmare have come up from my research, but I would like to know if there are other options out there that I haven't seen, especially ones that'd be more optimal (harder for divine casters to enact countermeasures against and / or requiring less invested effort) for long-term targeting of divine casters.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ @KorvinStarmast -- the latter is what I'm shooting for here, as I doubt the DM in question would OOCly embrace the plotline inversion, if you will, that a pure war-of-attrition approach would bring onto the table \$\endgroup\$
    – Shalvenay
    Commented Mar 19, 2021 at 3:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ Are said divine casters also epic level? Past a certain point, casters can do whatever they want, so I'm starting to wonder if what you're asking for is impossible. \$\endgroup\$
    – J. Mini
    Commented Mar 19, 2021 at 12:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ @J.Mini -- that's not wholly known -- I'm expecting only a few of the high ranking priests at most to be epic capable, but I don't have any inside line on what the DM did with their NPCs \$\endgroup\$
    – Shalvenay
    Commented Mar 19, 2021 at 22:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ Is this too open-ended for the site...? \$\endgroup\$
    – Shalvenay
    Commented Mar 19, 2021 at 23:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Shalvenay It doesn't look much more open-ended than any other optimization problem I've seen here, I'm surprised it's getting downvotes. I could think that maybe the structure is textbook XY Problem (where someone has a problem, thinks of a solution, and asks how to do that solution when they should be asking about the problem) except that you've given quite a lot of info for the problem itself, so I don't think that's the issue. \$\endgroup\$
    – Stop Being Evil
    Commented Mar 20, 2021 at 5:51

1 Answer 1

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Zerg Rush?

You're epic level. You can be assumed to have basically infinite money. Buy tens of thousands of allies - adventures, guild guys, militia, whatever - and have them attack the divine casters constantly. And I do mean constantly. Allow your enemies no sleep. You want a 24 hour total war. And don't forget about what you can summon! Spam elementals!

Threaten Their God?

You're epic level. You can probably do it. Forget the priests, threaten to genocide their followers until either they or their god gives in. With an epic level party, it'll only take a spare weekend to find and destroy everything they call holy.

Weather Control?

There's plenty of spells like Earthquake, Control Weather, or Storm of Vengeance that make life pretty miserable for anyone nearby. They may have short duration, but you have several epic casters. Prepare enough of them and you can make the start of every 30 minute period in the 24 hour day miserable. Rest will be impossible for your targets. And that's not even getting in to whatever your DM will allow with Epic spells.

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