Icy Prison Broken as implemented?

[Drunk Zombie]

Beat captor/captive but had mass icy prison cast on the party before they died. It does 31 damage per round for 20+ minutes! DC 36 means it is impossible for anyone to make the str check and there doesn't appear to be a way for others to attack the ice to free others like you can on tabletop. So how the hell does this not always results in a tpk? I have one protection from energy I can use but that only last 10 minutes. Why is there no way to end the spell effects early or am I missing something?

[Mork]

Resist energy could help more then protection.. as for the captor, its a mage, stun him before he can cast anything with fortitude CC spells or icy prison him too?

[dwarner]

Yeah, you pretty much need to beat him to the punch. OP isn’t wrong about IP being out of line with comparable spells.

[Drunk Zombie]

Resist energy is what I meant I had. I only have one currently prepared. I am a little curious how he empowered a 9th level spell. Where did he get a 11th level spell slot?

[Notabot187]

Originally posted by Drunk Zombie:

Resist energy is what I meant I had. I only have one currently prepared. I am a little curious how he empowered a 9th level spell. Where did he get a 11th level spell slot?

Universalist wizard? Metamagic mastery? Should not work however since it brings the spell level too high.

[Notabot187]

Rod would work, if there was a greater one

[Mork]

Originally posted by Drunk Zombie:

Resist energy is what I meant I had. I only have one currently prepared. I am a little curious how he empowered a 9th level spell. Where did he get a 11th level spell slot?

We can do similar stuff with the Grandmaster rod but that kind of spell with no randomness can't be empower/maximize(normally).

From the 36dc his caster level is 21 but do 31 ice damages.. i guess he have really good equipment that boost cold damage?

[Mork]

Nevermind, mass icy prison can be empower from rod, not sure if it should..
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1889631508

[Sephiroth]

1st- There are items that will prevent you from being held or paralyzed.
2nd- Your fortitude saves can prevent it so increase this. (many items and spells).
3rd. There are spells to free you from this and also prevent it from happening.
Dispel magic, freedom of movement, etc.

Finally this last one is big assumption but..
The enemy should have a limited number of this spell and not infinite because well we do so I would assume they should as well.

[dwarner]

Originally posted by Lichdom:

1st- There are items that will prevent you from being held or paralyzed.
2nd- Your fortitude saves can prevent it so increase this. (many items and spells).
3rd. There are spells to free you from this and also prevent it from happening.
Dispel magic, freedom of movement, etc.

Finally this last one is big assumption but..
The enemy should have a limited number of this spell and not infinite because well we do so I would assume they should as well.

The problem as OP noted is the massive DC. If you had to you could probably find a workaround but this whole area of the game is an unpolished mess.

We should do a kickstarter to hire whoever did Old Sycamore/Troll Fortress to redesign lower Depths and Boggart Cave.

Obvious solution is to prevent Captor from casting but that doesn’t address DC disparity + the way Icy Prison works.

[Drunk Zombie]

Freedom of movement doesn't prevent the damage though, it just allows them to move. They still have the "Icy Prison" status effect and still take 31 cold damage per turn.

It doesn't matter if you make the save or not. Making the save makes them entangled while missing it makes them held. Either way you take 31 cold damage every round for 20 minutes until you make a dc 36 strength check. There is supposed to be an option for others to break the ice, but that is missing in the game.

Dispel magic seems to be the only option, but I am unfortunately out of them, Plus it would be hard to dispel that high level of spell anyway. If dispel magic is truely the only way to stop it that seems pretty broken to me. What other spell can do that kind of damage no matter if the target makes the save or not with no way to end it but an impossible stat check or hoping your dispel magic works. Who has a +16 str bonus?

[Drunk Zombie]

Icy Prison
You trap the target in solid ice 1 inch thick per caster level. If the creature fails its save, it is helpless, but can still breathe (the ice blocks line of effect to the target). If the target makes its save, it gains the entangled condition but can otherwise act normally. Whether or not the target saves, it takes 1 point of cold damage per caster level each round it is helpless or entangled in the ice. The ice has hardness 0 and 3 hit points per inch of thickness; if broken, the creature is freed. A creature can break the ice as a full-round action with a successful Strength check (DC 15 + your caster level).

[dwarner]

Originally posted by Drunk Zombie:

Freedom of movement doesn't prevent the damage though, it just allows them to move. They still have the "Icy Prison" status effect and still take 31 cold damage per turn.

It doesn't matter if you make the save or not. Making the save makes them entangled while missing it makes them held. Either way you take 31 cold damage every round for 20 minutes until you make a dc 36 strength check. There is supposed to be an option for others to break the ice, but that is missing in the game.

Dispel magic seems to be the only option, but I am unfortunately out of them, Plus it would be hard to dispel that high level of spell anyway. If dispel magic is truely the only way to stop it that seems pretty broken to me. What other spell can do that kind of damage no matter if the target makes the save or not with no way to end it but an impossible stat check or hoping your dispel magic works. Who has a +16 str bonus?

Haplo usually has a higher one than that, but no one else does or should need to.

[Blood Flowers]

Originally posted by Drunk Zombie:

It does 31 damage per round for 20+ minutes! DC 36 means it is impossible for anyone to make the str check

Just cast resist energy? Pretty sure that negates like 30 points of dmg. Take 1 DMG per round for 20 minutes will still probably kill you, so cast resist energy and protection from energy once per ten minutes and problem solved.

[Drunk Zombie]

I just reloaded the save right before the fight. Icy Prison is the go to first spell he cast, so I summoned a bunch of dogs, sent them in first to let them soak the spell. Then cast web and Cloud kill, which trapped the captor in the room. I was able to kite the captive out of the room and out of los of the captor. Party ganged up on him and killed the captive in a few turns. (Entire party had Grave Ward on top of normal buffs) Then cast true sight on my ranger archer specialist, and quickly turned the captive into a pincushion. Won the fight with barely a scratch on anyone and no negative effects.

Strangely True Sight works on the captor's concealment but not the captives.

[Drunk Zombie]

oh, I also put grease and obsidian flow on the web area as well just to help keep the captor from leaving the cloud kill while I was working on the captive.