How to get past wards?

[Hotrod]

In the Baalgor Wastelands, there's a tower that is so heavily warded that no-one has been able to get to the top (where the treasure is, supposedly) since the previous occupant kicked the bucket. Many other treasure troves across the Palladium World are rigged up with all kinds of nasty effects that throw one last frustration in the path of the players, some of them with enough wards to kill everything short of an ancient dragon.

What methods do you like to use to bypass wards?

[eliakon]

In the Baalgor Wastelands, there's a tower that is so heavily warded that no-one has been able to get to the top (where the treasure is, supposedly) since the previous occupant kicked the bucket. Many other treasure troves across the Palladium World are rigged up with all kinds of nasty effects that throw one last frustration in the path of the players, some of them with enough wards to kill everything short of an ancient dragon.

What methods do you like to use to bypass wards?

Area effect magic dispels (circles, wards, and spells all can do this) is always good. Other great solutions include: Astral Travel to recon, Teleportation (usually after said astral recon), setting off wards with something like a skeleton/animated object.

[kiralon]

Do what people from time immemorial
http://fantasy.mrugala.net/Larry%20Elmo ... 201992.jpg

Let the barbarian do it.

[The Beast]

In the Baalgor Wastelands, there's a tower that is so heavily warded that no-one has been able to get to the top (where the treasure is, supposedly) since the previous occupant kicked the bucket. Many other treasure troves across the Palladium World are rigged up with all kinds of nasty effects that throw one last frustration in the path of the players, some of them with enough wards to kill everything short of an ancient dragon.

What methods do you like to use to bypass wards?

Rabbits. Lots and lots of rabbits.

[eliakon]

We had a conjurer that just kept on creating animals and sending them in. Took a while but he got through

[Cinos]

Wards have some of the most hysterically easy / hard ways to get by them. Full plate and a shield? Dead meat. bucket of rats? Good to go! Depending of the GM, throwing a rock at it may also work. A dispel can get the job done. Not as classy as a bucket of rats though.

[The Immortal ME]

Siege weaponry and flight? Knock holes in the walls in various places, peak through the holes to find anything that looks interesting. Once you find the good stuff you just have to defeat the wards in the immediate vicinity. Bypass the tedious series of rooms that have been warded and/or trapped.

[Library Ogre]

Of course, if he's set Permanency on the wards, all a bucket of rats will buy you is a bunch of dead rats.

As others have said, you want to reduce their effectiveness. You might try daisy-chaining Mystic Energy Drain wards.

[Hotrod]

Does a permanent ward mean that, upon activation, the effect is permanent, or does it mean that it will reactivate indefinitely? I had always interpreted it as the former.

Of course, there's always Anti-Magic Cloud, which should allow you to bypass all magical traps.

[Library Ogre]

I tend to interpret it as the latter... because, even if it's the former, that means your typical blaster ward is now invulnerable and shooting out fire at all targets for the next 20,000 years.

[Nightmask]

Does a permanent ward mean that, upon activation, the effect is permanent, or does it mean that it will reactivate indefinitely? I had always interpreted it as the former.

Of course, there's always Anti-Magic Cloud, which should allow you to bypass all magical traps.

Defacing the surface the ward is on eliminates it, which would be a good idea to combine with the anti-magic cloud, or figure out how to deface them from a distance if you lack that spell.

[eliakon]

Does a permanent ward mean that, upon activation, the effect is permanent, or does it mean that it will reactivate indefinitely? I had always interpreted it as the former.

Of course, there's always Anti-Magic Cloud, which should allow you to bypass all magical traps.

Defacing the surface the ward is on eliminates it, which would be a good idea to combine with the anti-magic cloud, or figure out how to deface them from a distance if you lack that spell.

Permanent wards are...hard to destroy. theoretically they are indestructible.

[Nightmask]

Does a permanent ward mean that, upon activation, the effect is permanent, or does it mean that it will reactivate indefinitely? I had always interpreted it as the former.

Of course, there's always Anti-Magic Cloud, which should allow you to bypass all magical traps.

Defacing the surface the ward is on eliminates it, which would be a good idea to combine with the anti-magic cloud, or figure out how to deface them from a distance if you lack that spell.

Permanent wards are...hard to destroy. theoretically they are indestructible.

If you can destroy otherwise indestructible rune weapons (and you can) you can destroy a permanent ward. It's just not easy to do.

Of course a place with dozens or hundreds of such wards is highly implausible given that the Permanency ward has extremely expensive requirements to cast, such that it's REALLY unlikely that any Diabolist could produce so many.

[jade von delioch]

You would think that there would be a skill or a set of rules for bypassing wards, even if permanent. Kind of like using the knowledge skill for ward like you would if it was say you were trying to deactivate a bomb using knowledge of how a bomb is constructed.

[eliakon]

Does a permanent ward mean that, upon activation, the effect is permanent, or does it mean that it will reactivate indefinitely? I had always interpreted it as the former.

Of course, there's always Anti-Magic Cloud, which should allow you to bypass all magical traps.

Defacing the surface the ward is on eliminates it, which would be a good idea to combine with the anti-magic cloud, or figure out how to deface them from a distance if you lack that spell.

Permanent wards are...hard to destroy. theoretically they are indestructible.

If you can destroy otherwise indestructible rune weapons (and you can) you can destroy a permanent ward. It's just not easy to do.

Of course a place with dozens or hundreds of such wards is highly implausible given that the Permanency ward has extremely expensive requirements to cast, such that it's REALLY unlikely that any Diabolist could produce so many.

well sure you can destroy them....but since its really hard to put a tower in a Scathach cauldron on a nexus, and Odin doesn't loan out Gungnir much its kinda hard

[The Immortal ME]

Does a permanent ward mean that, upon activation, the effect is permanent, or does it mean that it will reactivate indefinitely? I had always interpreted it as the former.

Of course, there's always Anti-Magic Cloud, which should allow you to bypass all magical traps.

Defacing the surface the ward is on eliminates it, which would be a good idea to combine with the anti-magic cloud, or figure out how to deface them from a distance if you lack that spell.

Permanent wards are...hard to destroy. theoretically they are indestructible.

If you can destroy otherwise indestructible rune weapons (and you can) you can destroy a permanent ward. It's just not easy to do.

Of course a place with dozens or hundreds of such wards is highly implausible given that the Permanency ward has extremely expensive requirements to cast, such that it's REALLY unlikely that any Diabolist could produce so many.

well sure you can destroy them....but since its really hard to put a tower in a Scathach cauldron on a nexus, and Odin doesn't loan out Gungnir much its kinda hard

Built the cauldron around the tower. Duh.

[Library Ogre]

You would think that there would be a skill or a set of rules for bypassing wards, even if permanent. Kind of like using the knowledge skill for ward like you would if it was say you were trying to deactivate a bomb using knowledge of how a bomb is constructed.

IIRC, the rules have it that only a Mystic Energy Drain ward can really do much to a Permanent ward (AMC is only partially effective). Make an AoE MED ward and start weakening the Permanent. If you can make a couple AoE MED wards (I think you can manage three around a single ward, without them affecting each other), you can cut it significantly.

[zyanitevp]

You would think that there would be a skill or a set of rules for bypassing wards, even if permanent. Kind of like using the knowledge skill for ward like you would if it was say you were trying to deactivate a bomb using knowledge of how a bomb is constructed.

IIRC, the rules have it that only a Mystic Energy Drain ward can really do much to a Permanent ward (AMC is only partially effective). Make an AoE MED ward and start weakening the Permanent. If you can make a couple AoE MED wards (I think you can manage three around a single ward, without them affecting each other), you can cut it significantly.

This is what I use

[pblackcrow]

We use rocks, marbles, sometimes a zombie if a teammate died...We get a lot of use out of a their shell plus we don't have to carry it around. And we can also triple the time limit on resurrecting him or her. He or she might have some memories of being a zombie, 50% chance. May develop a fear of wards. Also, we've used an animated teddy bear or doll.

[Hotrod]

I wonder how feasable it would be to collect a bunch of 'save versus magic' artifacts. I'm thinking that, theoretically, one could make themself impervious to a ward's effect by simply saving... no? And of course, if the character attempting this already has a decent resistance to magic, that would mean having to lug around less stuff. (There's only so many save versus amulets and rings you can wear after all.)

Eidt: Also, aquiring items which makes one resistant or impervious to the elements might be prudent.

Magic items that provide immunity to certain effects could be helpful. Building your resistance to magic to the point of immunity is not impossible, but it would require a concerted effort. Some might take a position against total immunity to something like a saving throw through an accumulation of bonuses, since most of the system's mechanics allow for a chance of failure or success (natural 20 beats everything else regardless of bonuses, max skill is never higher than 98%, et cetera), except when explicitly stated.

In terms of the rules as written, though, there is no mechanic for automatically failing a saving throw, so a strict interpretation would allow you to effectively develop immunities through steady accumulations of bonuses.