Café de Nuit

A very late update.

I found the following spell in the Book of Erotic Fantasy by Valar Publishing. Those of you familiar with Azal'Lan's former life back in Knurl will know why it's relevant here.

Block the seed: 1st level arcane, prevents target from becoming pregnant or making anybody else pregnant. Lasts 1 day/CL, presumably is compatible with permanency spell.

Azalin's spell tactics

Instead of starting a new thread, I thought I would bump an old one.

This is now dedicated to looking at Azalin's tactics using the spells he currently has by canon. (This is assuming his spells cannot change from the listed spells in GazII... although GazII encourages players to give him spells that "make sense" for him to have.)

1. Spectral Hand. Azalin really got shafted in this spell. He has it as one of his spells, but he lacks most of the offensive combat spells that can be delivered by a touch attack. The list of Open Gaming License PHB spells that can be cast through Spectral Hand are:

PHB:
L0: Touch of Fatigue, Resistance.
L1: Endure Elements, Jump, Mage Armor, Protection from Chaos, Protection from Evil,, Protection from Good, Protection from Law.
L2: Bear's Endurance, Blur, Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace, Darkvision, Eagle's Splendor, Fox's Cunning, Ghoul Touch, Protection from Arrows, Resist Energy, Spider Climb, Touch of Idiocy.
L3: Displacement, Fly, Gaseous Form, Heroism, Magic Circle against Chaos, Magic Circle against Evil, Magic Circle against Good, Magic Circle against Law, Nondetection, Protection from Energy, Tongues, Vampiric Touch.
L4: Bestow Curse, Contagion, Polymorph, Remove Curse, Stoneskin.

Of these, Azalin only has a few.

He has the L0 spells, because he's listed as having them "all". These could be useful in combat because they're so easy to scribe to scrolls. Azalin could keep at a distance from his enemies and cast Spectral Hand (probably from a scroll) and then bring out scroll after scroll of L0 touch spells to cast through the hand. He could cast Resistance (if it was really needed) on his allies in combat, most likely undead, but the main use for this would be to buff their pitiful Fort saves.

He could cast Touch of Fatigue on enemies, which would serve the tactical measure of making them unable to charge and also give them a -1 to melee attacks (because of lowered Strength) and a -1 to Reflex saves (because of lowered Dex). The elimination of a charge is important as it prevents enemies from closing with Azalin in close combat, which could prove decisive.

Azalin somehow has none of the L1 spells that could be delivered by touch! This is all the more surprising given that Mage Armor is one of these, and somehow Azalin failed to learn that spell. If he did have this spell, then Spectral Hand could help buff his meleeing allies, without requiring him to get close.

For the L2 spells, Azalin has none of the spells necessary for a touch delivery. The only spell that's even relevant to this discussion is Spectral Hand itself.

For L3, Azalin has four spells that can be delivered by touch and therefore through Spectral Hand, but whether he'd find it useful is another matter. The four spells he has are Gaseous Form, Magic Circle Against Good, Magic Circle Against Evil, and Nondetection. Of these, the most useful is arguably Magic Circle Against Good, which allows him to protect his allies (most likely undead, fighting against enemies who are most likely good-aligned) with a modest bonus to AC and saves against attacks by good-aligned creatures.

Gaseous Form and Nondetection are both specialized spells that are not particularly useful in the midst of combat. The former may be useful in an infiltration scenario, with Azalin perhaps smuggling several skeletons or zombies into an enemy camp through a hole in their wall so they can attack or open the gates from within when he dispel the spell. The latter is very useful in a general sense to keep active so the enemy can't scry on you. But generally if you're already in the middle of combat, you wouldn't be using them. And if you're not already in the middle of combat, why waste Spectral Hand to deliver them? Deliver it by touch yourself.

Azalin's sole redeeming feature (as far as Spectral Hand goes, anyway) is in his spellbook selection of L4 spells. He has all the listed spells except one - Remove Curse - and that's a spell he's unlikely to need to cast on his allies in any case in the middle of combat.

The Bestow Curse spell is very useful, especially if Azalin can cast it from scrolls (and therefore free up a memorized spell slot to go for something else). In combat, this spell may be best used to reduce an enemy's saving throw by -4, to soften him up for an area effect or other spell that will knock him out instantly. (In a future post, I will list several instant-elimination spells Azalin might use in combat, several of which will require a failed save to work. Bestow Curse helps.) Although this spell itself allows a saving throw, Azalin could conceivably cast this from many different scrolls through the Spectral Hand until the enemy finally fails a save.

The Contagion spell has a series of effects, which can cripple an enemy without killing him. (And this has been stated as one of Azalin's favorite tactics - to capture enemies instead of kill them.) However, each of the effects relies heavily on the victim failing a Fortitude save first, and then a secondary save (based on the effect). This might be best done following a Bestow Curse spell. Blinding sickness can take a person right out of the combat if they fail a save and lose more than 1 point of Str (they could end up blinded, perfect for Azalin's torture chambers). The other sicknesses can be chosen basically on whether Azalin wants hamper the poor victim's Fort, Will, or Reflex saves. Reducing a victim's Strength would be useful only if Azalin were trying to immobilize them through the weight of their own equipment. Otherwise, Strength largely affects only melee combat, and we've already established that if Azalin ever gets into melee himself, something's gone wrong.

The Stoneskin spell can be used to buff allies in the middle of combat. If Azalin has enough scrolls of this, even lowly skeletons and zombies can become extremely dangerous. If the skeletons and zombies are already engaging enemies, it makes sense for Azalin to cast this, because making them invincible to 150 hp of non-adamantine damage just means it's even more difficult for enemies to get past them to him.


So far that's an indepth look at Azalin's tactics with Spectral Hand. The spell gets short shrift quite often because people tend to think of touch-effect spells as purely offensive in nature. As Azalin's somewhat-quirky spell selection shows, however, it's quite versatile and you can use it with plenty of buff spells to help your allies in the middle of combat.

There will be more spell analysis in a later post, including combinations as they appear to me. (Bestow Curse and Contagion both are suggesting major ways of bringing PC enemies to their knees.)

In a related vane, I believe that I just saw that Ebb, the socercer shadow dragon, has not a list of known spells but rather a spell book . . .

It has already been noted that Azalin vastly prefers immobilizing and disabling his foes rather than killing them outright.

He has several situations where he might want to keep a foe alive. Normally, killing somebody deprives you of the chance to interrogate them or to use their talents in other ways. This is especially true of high-level characters. Azalin may want to preserve these either as ghosts, vampires, or even vassaliches. Killing them outright usually precludes these, so immobilizing and capturing them is the order of the day.

For low level creatures, killing them is fine because they likely don't hold any knowledge of interest to Azalin anyway. The faster he kills them, the sooner they can be animated as skeletons or zombies and sent to fight against their former allies.

As noted above, all wizards have to contend with their enemies making saves. For Azalin, this is already fairly positive - the base save chance against any of Azalin's spells is DC 17 + spell level (+1 if it's a Necromancy spell, thanks to his School Focus). However, for a character with a strong ability score of 18 (for example), that bumps down to DC 13(14)+SL. And a character with additional levels can bump that down even lower, not to mention the presence of special equipment.

If Azalin's interested in capturing an enemy, the easiest tactic by far is simply to sit back and let his undead allies swarm them into immobility. If he does this, good buff spells are Invisibility for himself, then Spectral Hand, then a repeating pattern of touch based buffs for his undead minions such as Stoneskin and Magic Circle Against Good. All of these do not affect foes, so Azalin's Invisibility would stay active (though the Spectral Hand may give away his direction, if not his position... it stays "between the caster and the target" at all times, allowing smart PCs to triangulate his bearing).

However, undead allies are not always effective. Indeed, if Azalin could swarm the PCs with undead, one wonders why he needs to be present at all. If Azalin is going to be casting spells against the PCs, he needs to increase the DC of his own spells, or to decrease the save bonuses that enemy has against them. Or he can use spells that have no save at all.

There are several ways of decreasing save bonuses. We've already looked briefly at Bestow Curse, which gives a flat -4 to all saves if it successfully takes hold. Contagion also gives a wide variety of specified effects that also mess up saves by targeting ability scores.

(If you choose to allow Azalin to know it, Crushing Despair (L4 - bestows -2 penalty to all saves and attack rolls) is a good area effect spell to use against PCs. If he's using mindless undead in melee, the spell won't even affect them.)

Or, if Azalin has enough undead (which is rarely a problem) and enough scrolls scribed (likewise, rarely a problem) he could conceivably just use a numerical superiority method, where he keeps the PCs at bay with undead and just blasts at them with disabling magicks from scrolls until they give up or fail a save.

Spells that reduce Will saves:

Mind Fog (-10 to Will saves for a whole area of effect - this is good because it likely doesn't affect mindless undead)
Bestow Curse (-4 to the save, OR -3 by reducing Wis by 6)
Contagion (select an effect that reduces the enemy's Wis)
Feeblemind (initially has -4 to save if target is arcane spellcaster)
Energy Drain (by giving them 2d4 negative levels, which also results in 2d4 penalty to all saves)
Enervation (this is a lesser form of Energy Drain and does not appear to stack with it)
Eyebite (this will sicken the enemy at the very least, causing a -2 to all saves - this might not stack with the Contagion spell above, depending on your DM, as both seem to be a sickening effect. Also, fans of the 2nd ed. should remember in VRGttLich that even looking at a lich's eye allows it to force a Fear save in their enemy... if Azalin delivers an Eyebite at the same time as forcing a Fear save, the enemy gets a double whammy)

…and the Will-based spells to follow up with (against an individual):

Bestow Curse, if he hasn't already cast it at this person (yes, this is a Will save initially - if cast after a Mind Fog, the subject now has a whopping -14 to their Will save)
Dominate Person (leave the fight, or possibly just stand around providing cover for Azalin's allies)
Feeblemind (drops Int and Cha to 1, effectively nullifying group tactics and spellcasting. However, Azalin would likely use this in a pinch only because he must then cast Limited Wish to undo this effect if he wants to interrogate the spellcaster afterwards)
Suggestion (persuade him not to fight because it's hopeless)
Hideous Laughter (although for a cosmetic change you may want to make this a "Fiendish Cackling" instead - neutralizes one enemy combatant)
Death Sight (GazII spell that he has by canon - forces a Fear and then Horror save if they fail the first Will save. Useful for neutralizing the party's meat shield or cleric)
Charm Person (persuade him not to fight because his allies want to hurt Azalin)
Charm Monster (likewise)
Hold Person (one individual is held - but this was nerfed in 3.5 to allow saves each turn, so Azalin would likely rely on a non-nerfed spell that does something similar, like Hideous Laughter, but which doesn't allow saves each turn)
Magic Jar (takes one individual out of the battle and gives Azalin access to that individual's body and equipment. Note that liches can likely use this spell with impunity because even if they "die" through being too far away from the gem or their corpse, they happily return to their phylactery anyway)
Telekinesis (can be used in a way that allows Azalin to focus on one creature and move it around either as combat maneuvers or as "drag and lift". In theory this could be used on a character's armor or equipment, perhaps to suspend the character in mid-air, thus effectively taking him out of combat. If there is dangerous terrain, e.g. a pit or precipice, Azalin could easily carry the person over that and drop them into it)



...and here are the Will-based saves to follow up with against a group of PCs or enemies:

Confusion (individuals in a 15' radius are ineffective for combat for 18 rounds)
Telekinesis (can also be used in one single round to pick up a load of objects or creatures, and throw them at another group of objects or creatures - this could be useful if the PCs are getting physically too close to Azalin for his comfort, by putting some space for his undead to take advantage of)
Project Image (making it even harder for PCs to locate and fight him)
Shadow Conjuration (gets around Azalin's inability to learn new spells by allowing him to mimick conjuration spells of L3 or lower - note that in Ravenloft, this spell can create Shadow undead monsters at the termination if Azalin fails a Will save... and Azalin may voluntarily choose to fail the Will save so he can immediately seize control of the Shadow)
Shadow Evocation (as Shadow Conjuration above, except it applies to evocation spells. These tend to take instantaneous effect, so it's less likely to create Shadow undead monsters. But the range is better - Azalin can mimick any L4 evocation spell or lower)
Silent Image (create an illusion of himself at a distance to distract the PCs, or any other effect that would cause them to split their resources in battle)

Will-save spells are wonderful for a lich because it can fire away area-effect spells as it desires, without endangering its undead allies, most of which will be immune to mind effecting spells anyway. More importantly for Azalin, these effects tend to immobilize and disable enemies rather than injure or kill them, which is ideal for his personality and his aims of extracting information.

Not all spells allow saves.

The lowly Ray of Enfeeblement can be entertainingly effective against the party's armored fighter, as Azalin immediately drains 6 Str points and up to 11 depending on roll. This makes the fighter practically useless for combat rolls... assuming he can even continue standing, given his sudden reduction in carrying capacity. Azalin needs to succeed on a ranged touch attack with this. Targeting a heavily armored fighter or cleric can make them sink to the ground under the weight of their own equipment.

Black Tentacles (or, in my house alteration, "Grasping Bone-claws") does not allow a save at all, and can be cast to immobilize enemies in a 20' radius. Coupled with Ray of Enfeeblement above, these two spells alone could conclude a battle as soon as it begins.

Forceful Hand and Crushing Hand are both no-save spells that drastically reduce an individual enemy's ability to fight effectively. Coupled with Ray of Enfeeblement, the enemy is in trouble.

Darkness and/or Fog Cloudcast on the PCs, will confuse and disable them, while Azalin follows up with area-effect spells, confident that nothing they can do can target him effectively until they dispel the darkness/fog first.

Energy Drain reduces an enemy's combat effectiveness and hit points, but almost as importantly it also reduces all saves - same as the number of negative levels bestowed, from 2 to 8, with about 5 being the average. Azalin needs to succeed on a ranged touch attack but otherwise there is no save against gaining the negative levels. This stacks with any reduction given from Contagion and Bestow Curse. Better still, it works at range, so no Spectral Hand is necessary. If Azalin really wanted to pummel an enemy with a high save, he could cast this, then Bestow Curse and/or Contagion, then Mind Fog. They would end up with a massive penalty to Will saves, laying them open for Charm Person or something similarly conservative so he can strip them of equipment and immobilize them.

Forcecage is useful for splitting up a party by holding elements of them behind bars. Wall of Stone, Wall of Ice, and Wind Wall are all weaker versions of this, controlling the battlefield by putting down an obstacle that make things inconvenient or impossible for PCs to coordinate effectively. Azalin would likely want to isolate the enemy spellcasters first, so he can concentrate on eliminating their fighter escorts. By the time the enemy spellcasters are free, they have a large number of undead ready to grapple and pin them so Azalin can paralyze them at will. Also note that Azalin's incorporeal undead allies can float straight through the walls to attack and harass enemies within, and Kargat vampires can fly over them.

Strangely, Azalin's official spell list lacks Wall of Force, which he did have back in 2nd ed. He even uses it in the final showdown of From the Shadows where there's no vassalich or quasimancer to help him cast spells he doesn't know. At DM's discretion, Azalin may well know this spell too, which allows him even greater control over the battlefield.

Ice Storm is a somewhat more forgiving spell for Azalin's undead allies, as they are definitely immune to the cold damage and possibly immune to the bludgeoning damage (DM's call). This spell has no save.

Acid Fog does less damage than Incendiary Cloud, but fewer things are immune to acid than they are to fire. If Azalin has some undead with a large number of hp to grapple, he might have no worries about casting this spell to get the PCs to surrender. Also important, this spell has no save.

Maze automatically makes an individual disappear for at least a turn, making it good to use on magic users and clerics. However, those types also have the best chance of escaping early from the spell because they tend to have high Int scores. If a particular character is armed to the teeth with undead-killing objects and equipment, that makes a sensible choice of target, especially if it's a fighter or other class not known for having high Int scores. Once Azalin has finished dusting off their friends, he can prepare various spells to immobilize the returning character and strip him of his powerful equipment at leisure.

Gate is best thought of as a summoning device, but bear in mind it can also serve as an unavoidable barrier, at DM's discretion. If Azalin is in a corridor and faces PCs charging him, casting Gate will put a portal to wherever he wants (e.g. The Abyss) which could provide complete cover. This is the normal effect of a non-Ravenloft Gate spell. In Ravenloft, the Gate cannot allow passage to another plane, but it could at DM's discretion stop things cold as they try to pass through its "front" facing. This may include arrows and other missile effects, as well as charging PCs or even spell effects. The spell is not clear about this. In Ravenloft fiction, Azalin's attempts to cast Gate and then move through it out of Ravenloft created a backlash. This suggests at the very least that matter passing into the front of the Gate would be stopped cold, if not actively projected back into Ravenloft forcibly.

And then of course Azalin could summon nasty things to come through the Gate and attack the PCs, though his previous experience with Fiends suggests that he might think twice before doing this. (Balors have a tendency to get sulky if they find they can't leave the Demiplane of Dread.)

Obscuring Mist is useful as a distraction tactic. Upon first casting, the PCs will know Azalin is somewhere in there but their missiles and spells may miss because of concealment. In the following rounds, Azalin can use a variety of teleportation or illusionary spells to relocate. The obscuring mist does not follow him as he does this, which could lead to enemies expending resources to dispel or otherwise attack the mists in a vain effort to hit him.

Most offensive damaging spells allow a Reflex save to halve or avoid the effects. Azalin can reduce the save by much the same methods as he can reduce Will saves. Enervation and Energy Drain drop saves with a ranged touch attack. Bestow Curse, preferably delivered through a Spectral Hand, drops all saves. Eyebite knocks a save down by -2, but it might not stack with Contagion (DM's call).

Mind Fog only targets Will saves, so it doesn't affect Reflex saves.

Tactically, sometimes the most important boost to an area-effect spell is to force the enemies to stay in the area. This can be done with the various Wall spells, Black Tentacles, Web, or even Prismatic Wall (though whether Azalin could then cast any spell like effects past it is debatable). Forcecage can be cast to allow spell effects to penetrate, which basically means that people inside are in big trouble unless they can counterspell the area effects or get rid of the Forcecage.

I can't find anything in the rules that suggests that being stuck, trapped, grappled, or held reduces your Reflex save bonus (even though such an effect would make plenty of sense). A house rule might say that an enemy in such a situation either fails Reflex saves outright or gets a hefty penalty to them. (It would make sense that they lose any Dex bonus, since that's what the effect on their AC is.)

Azalin also has plenty of Reflex-based area-effect spells, though these are more likely to harm his own allies (and possibly himself) in the midst of combat than most Will-based spells.

Web plus any fire-based effect is an effective combination. The Web burns for 2d4 damage (no save) and also holds the victims in place for Azalin to target them. This can be as lowly as Flaming Sphere or as intense as Fireball, or Incendiary Cloud.

A note on Incendiary Cloud. This has been held to be inferior to Fireball, and in many respects it deals less damage (4d6 instead of CLd6), but it has notable advantages. First, it lasts for an extended period of time, allowing it to do a protracted amount of damage per round (and possibly ruining enemy spellcasting in multiple rounds). Second, it can move, although the rule book is not too clear on exactly how it moves. It can move up to 10' per round away from the caster, but the caster can concentrate and move it up to 60' per round... but it's not clear whether this is away from him, or whether it's in any direction he chooses. If it's the latter, then this spell becomes quite powerful, because a victim has to move 80' to be outside its effects (the spell has a 20' area). All tallied up, the spell cast by Azalin could conceivably do 4d6 damage for 18 rounds.

Also, the spell generates a fair bit of smoke, making it hard for enemies to coordinate themselves (not to mention the pain and distraction of taking constant damage per round). Confused enemies are likely to scatter in all directions, making it easier for Azalin's allies to surround them. The Incendiary Cloud itself usually can follow at least one or two victims and continue dealing damage to them.

Confusion can cause enemies in an area to react poorly to area effect spells, and the two Hand spells that Azalin knows (Crushing and Forceful) can hold a person in an area of effect (though the hand itself may take damage too).

Ice Storm works against groups as well as it works against individuals and has no save. Undead may be immune to portions of this spell.

Acid Fog also has no save, and very few things are immune to acid. Perhaps an incorporeal undead ally might be able to wade in with impunity?

Telekinetic Sphere allows Azalin to trap any creatures within 18' of each other, which could be as much as five or six medium sized creatures (assuming they were all bunched together). This can keep an enemy from fighting, or protect a neutral creature or object that he doesn't want harmed. It's not certain whether this would negate turning attempts from inside the sphere, but if it did, then in theory Azalin could entrap the party's cleric or paladin in this and protect his undead from being turned. It's also not clear whether the sphere can be dispelled at will by the caster, with the contents suspended a large distance above the ground.

Lightning Bolt used to be a wonderful spell for a lich to cast, because in 2nd. ed. it bounced, and liches are immune to electricity damage. In v3.5 they no longer bounce, but they're still useful when the party is in a corridor with nowhere to dodge to.

What? No love for power word kill?

Very nice thoughts, HMB. So, what spell list would you choose for Azalin on a day he's slated to repel/capture/kill the latest band of adventurers?

Then you have the Fortitude targeting spells, which include most of the Necromantic death magic that liches like to use. Azalin, as mentioned before, is even less likely to like to use these in combat unless things really turn for the worst, because he prefers to capture, not kill.

The same list of spells that reduce saves for Reflex also reduce them for Fort:

Enervation or Energy Drain (but not both), Contagion or Eyebite (probably not both), Bestow Curse cast through Spectral Hand.

Some mages have Spell Turning or other effects that rebound spells against their casters. If Azalin knows about this, he may open up with many Fort-based spells to begin with, because undead are immune to most of these spells anyway. (Unless they work on objects, e.g. Disintegrate.)

Contagion falls into this category, and Azalin is immune to it if turned against him.

Flesh to Stone is a very useful spell that Azalin would likely use with impunity. He has the reverse spell, Stone to Flesh, available, so after battle he could bring the statute back to his lair and set up various containments before casting Stone to Flesh. The only problem here is whether it would affect him if it was cast back against him. The spell description says it affects "creatures", suggesting that it doesn't affect undead (because it doesn't affect objects) but then later in the spell description it says it affects "creatures made of flesh". Undead are arguably fleshy creatures. Either way, it's a DM's call. (Also what happens to a lich if you petrify its fleshy body? Does it get to flee to its phylactery, or is it trapped inside the statue?)

If DM rules that this spell cannot affect a lich, then Azalin would almost certainly stock up on plenty of scrolls with this. A single failed save puts an enemy out of action without killing him, and unless the statue's allies intentionally damage it spitefully, Azalin will stand to gain the character's gear and knowledge at a later interrogation.

One quirky spell to cast in mid-combat is Steal Vitality. If it's sustained for long enough, Azalin can effectively age an enemy up to 18 years in just under two minutes. This ageing is irreversible. If Azalin chooses himself to receive the "youthful" effect, the effect is essentially wasted, since a lich has nothing to gain from being physiologically younger. Azalin can cast this spell as long as he has spell slots, as he has it in his Spell Mastery list. Useful if he's playing cat and mouse with an enemy, or if an enemy deserves to be tortured thoroughly before being captured.

Horrid Wilting is a favorite of undead spellcasters, inflicting up to 18d6 damage to any living creatures in a 60' diameter. Azalin can march his undead in to attack the PCs as he does this, confident it will not harm his allies.

Finger of Death and Disintegrate are spells Azalin probably uses rarely. Both stand to utterly destroy an enemy, which he is personally averse to doing, and the latter can be quite deadly against himself if the enemy reflects it on him. (Like most undead, Azalin's Fort save is not particularly strong, but he does have a saving grace in that he can be disintegrated and still come back later.)

For the same reason as Finger of Death, Azalin will likely not cast Phantasmal Killer often in combat, even though it has no effect against himself and therefore he is safe from it.

General points:

If Azalin is not relying on stealth (i.e. he can allow the PCs to see him) then his combat castings will likely make use of old standbys. Mirror Image, Obscuring Mist, Haste, Magic Circle Against Good, Invisibility, and Project Image all give him the ability to evade enemy attacks for a while. Stoneskin gives very good defense against attacks (now Azalin's enemies need adamantine magical bludgeoning weapons to bypass his DR), and Minor Globe of Invulernability protects him against any L1-L3 spells before his SR gets to them.

He can animate any given number of undead to use as bone shields, and may bring incorporeal or other high ranking undead to help specially (but note that he cannot animate bodies as anything apart from skeletons or zombies, unless he uses specific magical spells to do so).

To take individual enemies out of the battle, Azalin may use repeated Magic Missile castings and then a Power Word, Stun. Various spells mentioned above also have similar uses on the battlefield.

Project Image has an additional ability that Azalin can cast spells from the projected image instead of from where he himself is. Although there is no such bonus as "flanking" for spellcasting, it is an effective way of surrounding the enemy and forcing them to defend against magical assaults from multiple fronts. This is also especially useful for getting optimal coverage with area-effect spells.

Sometimes undead don't quite cut it. Azalin has Summon Monster spells available, and also he has been known to call in the services of Ebb from time to time (for truly pesky threats that won't stay down). Azalin is no one-trick pony - although his main specialty is undead, he does also have a large number of construct guardians in Castle Avernus (golems and dread guards among them), and he is able to cast Reanimate to bring back a fallen foe as a construct if it's better tactics than bringing them back as an undead.

If he's really pressed, he can use Shatter, Disintegrate, or even Disjunction if he really has to to knock out an enemy magical items tank or spellcaster. These might be best used against enemy turning attempts, all of which require the cleric to forcefully present the holy symbol. Azalin prefers to collect magical items, however, and will not use this unless things become dire.

Azalin can use Polymorph Other to render individual enemies harmless. (Perhaps even turning them into a shard of bone that he then animates as part of a skeleton... nobody would be able to find that PC unless they had plenty of time or fulfilled what Azalin wanted them to do. Depending on how you want to read the rules of the spell, a bone shard would still be close enough to a human to qualify for permanent polymorphing!)

Also, every Ravenloft sourcebook since the 1990 Black Box has said how Azalin loves to let his enemies pick up cursed items that he provides. This has proven difficult, as PCs are pretty canny about what they Identify. However, one insidious use of this personality trait is in the spell Trap the Soul. Azalin could enchant a powerful magical item and leave it lying around for PCs to find. Unknown to them, the item is the trigger for a Trap the Soul spell. Once the targeted PC touches the item, he's sucked into a gem in Azalin's lair, and the PCs are down one character in their party until they can get him back.

Combat castings of Trap the Soul are riskier because they allow a Will save, but Azalin can use the real name of the PC and impose a -2 to this... on top of all the hefty Will penalties he can pile on top with other spell effects. (Mind Fog -10, Eyebite -2, Contagion up to -3, Bestow Curse -4, Energy Drain up to -8, etc. etc.).

Azalin used to know the spell Symbol but in the change from 3.0 to 3.5, that spell no longer exists. Instead, it has been split up into several Symbol spells. None of these is particular useful for combat, but Azalin could well incorporate this into the "cursed items" trick to soften up the PCs before they reach him.

Azalin's Spell Mastery feat highlights some interesting spells. He can burn spell slots to Telekinese enemies (perhaps concentrating on their clothes or armor to drag them into the air and out of the fight). He can Steal Vitality (of limited use in combat), and he can Dimension Door almost at will if he needs to. The fact that he has Scrying and Sending readied means that even if he's away from all his magical items and his lair, he can still spy on his enemies constantly, and can coordinate effectively with his allies (of course, he can do so anyway at will with undead allies, so this would mostly apply to living ones).

Finally, in a battle that truly matters, Azalin is very apt to cast Time Stop and then put all sorts of spells into effect, as noted above. The benefit is he can do a whole lot during this time, buffing his allies or protecting himself or even teleporting out entirely. The Spectral Hand and its derivative spells are one possible tree to follow. Another tree is the "hold and pound" variety of wall spells, Black Tentacles, and other area-restrain spells to soften them up for area-attack spells. These do not take effect until the Time Stop ends, but he can still put them in place so they take effect instantly.

To prevent enemies from closing, the Hand spells are decent, coupled with Haste to his undead allies so they can engage the enemies further away.

Suggested spells:

Azalin's spells have long been a grey area in Ravenloft's design. Even in offical adventures, he was given the ability to cast spells that technically he did not possess and his curse would not allow him to learn. Fortunately, in 3rd ed., the makers allowed a quasi-official workaround for Azalin's curse.

It is not controverted that he had access to Wall of Force - the spell appears twice in From the Shadows and Roots of Evil at least.

Azalin was able to cast Clone in From the Shadows.

He was also able to cast Magic Aura, partially so he could fool PCs into picking up cursed weapons. (In Roots of Evil.)

In King of the Dead, Azalin had a spell that allowed him to read surface thoughts and delve into memories of victims. This could be reflected by Detect Thoughts or even in the Spell Compendium's Probe Thoughts spell.

In I, Strahd: The War Against Azalin, Azalin was able to seamlessly make all pages in Strahd's "Monster Manual" about liches disappear. (These would be pp. 166-168, assuming Strahd had the 3.5 version of the MM.) This suggests he might do well with the Erase and Secret Page spells.

Slow and Crushing Despair both offer further penalties to enemy saves.

Enervation is a spell he doesn't have, though he does have Energy Drain.

If Azalin is going to use his Spectral Hand, he may as well get various touch attack spells too, like Ghoul Touch, Vampiric Touch, and Touch of Idiocy (the lattermost of which also can reduce Will saves because of Wis damage). Likewise, he may as well get some decent buffs as well, including all the ability score buffs (e.g. Bear's Endurance) and Mage Armor.

For somebody who went through as many magical combats as he did in Knurl (according to KotD) it is surprising that he never learned Shield or Mage Armor.


The Great Teleportation Debate:

Azalin has always had the spell Teleport Without Error in his spellbook. He has it in the novels King of the Dead, and Lord of the Necropolis. He has it in the adventure From the Shadows (where he must use it to get into and out of his laboratory, which has no other known entrances except a secret osquip tunnel). His spell list in GazII, SotDR, Red Box, and Black Box all have him listed with TWE in his list.

Even the "Azalin the lich" in the old adventure "House on Gryphon Hill" shows him with the spell memorized twice.

Balancing against this considerable body of evidence is one single novel written by P. N. Elrod and told from a fallible narrator's viewpoint, which claims that Azalin never had any teleportation magic. This has caused some confusion among players who believe there is no justification for Azalin having access to any teleportation magic whatsoever.

It is possible that the author may have searched to see whether Azalin had the spell Teleport (which he does not). Had she then searched to see whether he had the more powerful spell Teleport Without Error, she would have quickly understood that Azalin does indeed have no difficulty casting teleportation magic to get around.

In keeping with the GazII exhortation to give Azalin spells that he would reasonably have access to, as well as the GazII listing of TWE as one of his official spells, it's not an unreasonable flight of fancy to say that Azalin does indeed have Teleportation magic available, and that Strahd was either always in the wrong place so he could never observe Azalin using it, OR Azalin was careful to hide it from him during the events of I, Strahd: TWAA.

Hopefully this will put this particular debate to rest, either with the ever-handy "DM's prerogative" argument, or preferably with the "Actually, the rules are very clear about this... and Elrod is wrong" argument.

Nathan of the FoS wrote:What? No love for power word kill?

Oh, I love Power Word: Kill! I love it a lot! The only problem is it's not in the list of spells that Azalin officially knows, so I wanted to keep it off the analysis - at least to begin with. (Azalin's official selection of spells is not exactly optimal, but I wanted to challenge myself to come up with tactics for using them.)

Very nice thoughts, HMB. So, what spell list would you choose for Azalin on a day he's slated to repel/capture/kill the latest band of adventurers?

The actual spells themselves would depend largely on what the PCs had prepared. I know, it's a cliche, and every single source says "Liches prepare spells according to need" and leave it at that.

But here's the main point:

Azalin doesn't need spells!

Yes! It's true! Azalin has a whole castle full of magical items, and as many scrolls as he needs. Cost is hardly an issue to him, and he can easily gain back any XP he needs (though he can't go above 170,000).

Even a high level wizard only has 6 or 7 or so 1st level spells. Selecting them ahead of time is a major hassle, and wizards are seriously curtailed in their power by this limitation.

Hence, the need for scrolls. A wizard with XP and gold and time to spare can craft a buttload of scrolls for use at any time, and then carry the lot with him into battle.

Personally, I envision Azalin staying way out of battle, commanding a large number of mixed servitors (undead, constructs, and maybe even a few living allies with class levels, e.g. doppelgangers) and casting a load of spells to aid them.

Most dramatically, I like the idea of Azalin having a ring with Mage Hand permanently enchanted in it. We know his fingers are no longer dexterous or flexible, so maybe he'll find it easier to cast spells with a ring to ease his joints. Also, there's something pretty cool about a lich making a single gesture with a beringed forefinger, and having a scroll leap out of the case and unfurl itself in midair for the lich to read!

As far as magical items go, one thing I think Azalin would definitely have would be some sort of Bag of Holding or Quiver of Ehlonna type effect scroll case, so he can retrieve all the spells he needs from it without too much hassle.

So we've asserted that most of the spellcasting per se will be done by scroll work. Azalin's memorized spells are strictly fallback use only.

The actual spells Azalin memorizes by himself should be geared as much as possible for the emergency "Oh, holy crap!" situations where his scrolls can't help him. Perhaps a PC is lucky with a Scorching Ray and hits Azalin's scroll case. Or perhaps a PC with a melee weapon gets through and starts hacking at him.

Azalin should memorize Time Stop (I assume that's what the designers meant when they said he has "Temporal Stasis" in his ninth level spell list... the real Temporal Stasis is an eighth level spell) - so he can either buff his allies or put evasive magicks on himself, or even just get out of the whole combat if it goes poorly. He may even want to prepare this more than once, it's so darn useful - and that's in addition to the several copies he should have by scroll.

Time Stop "Crowd Azalin's Foes" tactics:
Cast Time Stop, position a Crushing Hand in front of the enemy wizard, cleric, or charging fighter. Position Walls of Ice or Stone among or around enemies to slow them from collaborating effectively. As late as he dares, Azalin should put down Black Tentacles in the middle of foes just before the Time Stop runs out, to activate when the Time Stop ends. Put down a Prismatic Wall right behind or between the enemies so they either can't escape or can't link up effectively against Azalin's allies.

For true maliciousness, position one wall around the PCs, trapping them, and position the Black Tentacles inside the circular enclosure.

Time Stop "Help Azalin's Friends" tactics:
Cast Time Stop, cast Spectral Hand, send it to cast touch buffs on allies, especially the weakest ones. (If Azalin can buff a lowly skeleton with Mage Armor, the amount of time it takes the enemy to kill that skeleton is increased somewhat. If Azalin has enough scrolls of Stoneskin to cast on his skeletal servitors, the time it takes the enemy to kill that skeleton is increased very drastically.) The Spell Compendium has several spells that also strongly increase the AC of undead, e.g. Stone Bones or Iron Bones. Magic Circle Against Good is useful. Near the end of Time Stop, cast Haste on Azalin's melee allies so they can get to your enemies before the enemies close with Azalin.

Time Stop "Where's Azalin?" tactics:
Azalin casts Project Image on himself and sends it behind the PCs, ready to cast spells at them from a different angle. He casts Permanent Image to create an illusion of himself exactly where he currently is, and commands that image to stand there and imitate casting buffs on his allies. He casts Silent Image of himself and puts it quite far in the distance so the silence won't give it away. He casts Minor Image of himself at a tangent so it appears they're all casting spells at the PCs. Then he casts Mirror Image on himself (and Dimension Door if he wants to really confuse them).

This particular trick works especially well if Azalin has several quasimancers or vassaliches hanging around dressed like himself, all ready to cast (non illusory and highly painful) spells at the PCs. PCs may be able to collapse the illusory Azalins by hitting them, but they have no such easy way out in differentiating between the real Azalin, or his Projected Image, or a lowly quasimancer hitting them with Magic Missiles. (Note: The PCs will probably completely fail to appreciate the humor of the situation, though.)

Most wizards need some summoning to help keep the enemies at bay, but Azalin doesn't need much of that. He can raise weak undead constantly as a free action. It can be useful if the PCs are blowing through his undead with many turning or other anti-undead spells and items. Azalin likely would not waste time memorizing summoning spells, though - the effects are so brief that they're best committed to scrolls.

If Azalin can scry on enemy spellcasters to find out what spells they've memorized, he can prepare his own spells to counterspell theirs, or bring along magical items that neutralize the effects. In general, Azalin's spells (as I've noted above) are very good at knocking down Will save modifiers by reducing abilities and levels.

A Mind Fog and Confusion two-step would be quite dangerous for the PCs. Energy Drain is rightly feared by any player, but here its effect is to tenderize and further lower the save. Power Word, Stun can take an advancing Barbarian or Monk out of the equation long enough for Azalin to use other sequestration magicks.

For troublesome characters he wants alive, scrolled TK Sphere, Forcecage, Maze, and Power Word, Stun are useful.

Bear in mind that most wizards have a sticky problem with these spells, in that they eventually run out and the victim comes back angry. Azalin can get around this by Dimension Door (he can do this by burning a suitable spell slot) next to the stunned enemy and applying his paralyzing touch until the enemy fails his save. The paralysis from a lich's touch is permanent until dispelled.

Basically, the only time Azalin would have to actually memorize spells with a tactical bent is if he is for some reason without his scrolls and magical items, AND he does not want to go back to get them.

This is rare in the extreme, although the end confrontation in "From the Shadows" qualified as such an extreme case.

In that case, if he's genuinely wanting to kill all opposition without relying on any scroll or magic item backup (like he was at the end of From the Shadows) I would have him memorize:

9th (2): Crushing Hand x2 (no save, ideal for controlling the field or putting two enemies out of commission - preferably spellcasters with wimpy Strength)
8th (3): Prismatic Wall (Azalin doesn't want them escaping, so he'll smack this down right behind them), Maze x2 (no save, ideal for trapping fighter types with lower Intelligence).
7th (4): Forcecage x2 (no save! Against melee enemies, in the "barred cage" format so Azalin can cast area effect spells inside to keep them company; against missile enemies, in the "solid box" format so they can't do anything to Azalin), Spell Turning (only if it looks likely that the PCs are itching to cast Disintegrate against him early), Power Word Stun (stun them with no save, and Dimension Door close by and use touch attack till they stop kicking). If Spell Turning doesn't seem useful, switch to Limited Wish so he can wish for an enemy to take a -7 on a save, preferably against a Flesh to Stone spell.
6th (5): True Seeing, Forceful Hand (no save, good vs. spellcasters), Flesh to Stone x2 (if mixed with a Limited Wish to apply a -7 penalty to the save, the DC for this is effectively 30), Project Image (good for giving Azalin himself some defenses and also for allowing him to cast spells at the PCs from more than one direction). If the enemies are not likely to use illusory magic, Azalin swaps out the True Seeing for another Flesh to Stone or and Acid Fog.
5th (5): Mind Fog x2 (to allow low level Will based spells to work against them, preferably when they're in the barred cage Forcecage), Wall of Stone (quick battlefield control with no effect to save against - and if used with Project Image or Fly, this imposes on the PCs a mobility disadvantage that Azalin can bypass), Feeblemind (for use against arcane spellcasters, who take a further -4 to their Will save - if coupled with Mind Fog, the effective DC for this is 36), Dominate Person (for use against non-spellcasters - if coupled with Mind Fog, the effective DC for this is 32).
If Azalin needs to, he can substitute out any 5th level spell for Telekinesis which he would probably use on a Mind Fog victim to move them around the battlefield as a sustained force (including dropping them from a great height or into dangerous terrain), or which he could use with concentration to disarm enemies of important magical weapons (no save, use Azalin's Int modifier in lieu of BAB).
4th (5): Black Tentacles x2 (gives a grapple check modifier of +26 - ideal if used against Forcecaged enemies), Confusion x2 (best if used against Forcecaged enemies, especially if they have Mind Fog, giving effective DC of 31), Ice Storm (against tentacled or Forcecaged enemy).
Azalin can swap out any 4th level spell for Dimension Door, which he would use either to deliver his paralyzing lich touch, or use to escape.
3rd (6, 10 with ring of Wizardry III): Wind Wall x2 (guarantees safety against missile weapons), Dispel Magic x2 (in case the enemy gets a lucky spell through), Suggestion x3 (used in conjunction with Mind Fog, this has effective DC of 30), Fireball x2 (used against those in the Forcecages, Tentacles, or Web), Fly.
2nd (6): Darkness x4 (to addle enemies in the Forcecages and at the spot where the Maze spells took effect), Web x2 (for the same purpose).
1st (6, 10 with ring of Wizardry I): Charm Person x4 (use against anybody hit by Mind Fog for total DC 28), Magic Missile x2 (generally to inflict between 10-25 hp guaranteed damage), Ray of Enfeeblement x4 (no save, ray essentially paralyzes heavily armored foes - follow up with lich touch to make the paralysis permanent).

And there you have it! Azalin's spells for a "blast and bash" style confrontation! Some warnings apply: Azalin apparently keeps a Contingency active, although exactly what it is isn't clear. In 2nd ed., the contingency was that if he was successfully hit with a backstab, the perpetrator is hit with Flesh to Stone. I would suggest changing this to be that anybody causing him injury within 280 feet is hit by Flesh to Stone. Also, most sources agree he has Stoneskin active at all times, although how you'd interpret this is open.


A few notes and quirks:

Azalin's touch attack deals negative damage. In theory this means he should be able to use a standard action per turn to inflict negative damage to himself and heal himself. This could be 1d8+5 hp damage, or if you like, it could be the standardized "5 hp per exposure to negative energy" rule found in Libris Mortis.

Azalin's touch attack is not technically a spell, but if the DM wishes, he might be able to extend its range through a Spectral Hand spell. This goes even more if the DM allows the old 2nd ed. L6 Wiz spell "Lich Touch" in his campaign. If so, this makes Azalin's Spectral Hand very important for finishing off disadvantaged foes by applying his permanent paralysis to them.

If you extend Azalin's spellbook to include the Spell Matrix (2nd ed: spell sequencer) series of spells, this opens up dramatic triggers. Many of the tactics I described above of using complementary spells now becomes very quick and correspondingly deadlier.

HuManBing wrote:Azalin should memorize Time Stop (I assume that's what the designers meant when they said he has "Temporal Stasis" in his ninth level spell list... the real Temporal Stasis is an eighth level spell)

I think it's more likely to be an edition mistake--Temporal Stasis was 9th level in 1e (not sure about 2e, but they didn't change much in the way of spells levels between the two).

Remember that Azalin as HMB said doesn't have to fight. He could change the memories of those pesky PCs and make them think they are each others worse enemies and they should bring the others to their "benefactor" Azalin Rex.

Yes, that's true. The purpose of this thread however is to look at what might happen if he did. This was the case at the end of From the Shadows.

I am also DMing a campaign where the PCs will (eventually) take part in an assassination attempt on Azalin Rex in Castle Avernus. This will by necessity fail horribly, but that attempt will lead directly into the adventure From the Shadows. Because this happens before Azalin gained his Modify Memory power, Azalin cannot rely on it to sweep the battle his way. He'll have to use magical tactics to disarm and disable the PCs.


Finally, I started this second discussion in this thread because From the Shadows had a weaselly little blurb near the end, saying that Azalin has purposefully set up a combat where the entire goal is for him to seemingly lose to the PCs. Thus, he uses none of the brilliant tactics of which he is capable.

To me, this seemed like a slippery way for the designers to say "we don't actually know of any brilliant magical tactics so we'll artificially engineer a situation where it doesn't matter". And I wanted to come up with a few brilliant magical tactics of my own (or at least, some nifty workable ones) for our favorite genius lich to use in combat.

Very impressive analysis.

So what do you recommend for the end of From the Shadows? (which I am in the middle of running.) What tactics would he refrain from since he wants to lose, and which ones would he use to put up a good fight and have some fun bashing PCs?

This is interesting! Tell me a little about your group, Gonzoron. What have their tactics been in Avernus? Have they caught/killed Skeever? How did they deal with the wraiths in the stairwell?

Azalin would reasonably have checked up on them from time to time magically, although it's possible he's unable to watch them continuously. He should have a good idea of what tactics they usually use, and also what spells their main spellcasters use.

Also, how do you want Azalin played in this encounter? Is he genuinely trying to kill as many PCs as possible? Or does he just want to "scare them a little" before going down in a blaze of glory?

Azalin can be either a hardcore death dealing magic engine, or he could be degrees of core somewhat softer to let weakened PCs still succeed against him.

Let me know and I'll try to rustle up a couple of optional spell lists for Azalin in your campaign, along with a few suggested non-canon additions to make him either more or less difficult.