I'm designing an upcoming encounter. The villain of the adventure knows the party well, and intends to create countermeasures against them. They believe the party will consist of two Arcane spellcasters, and two Divine spellcasters. Being an Occult spellcaster, he would naturally be interested in spells or hazards, or even summoned creatures, that would be able to nullify or weaken spells from either of those traditions but not his own. Do any such effects exist within published Pathfinder material? Material from Pathfinder 2e would be preferred, but anything from 1e that I could convert would be appreciated.
Are there any effects that specifically prevent one tradition’s spellcasting
metamagicmonsterspathfinder-2espellstraps
Related Solutions
Put him in armor he's not proficient in.
In 5e you cannot cast spells while wearing armor you're not proficient in. So unless the sorcerer has dipped Fighter and is therefore proficient in all armor (one of the quirks of 5e), wearing armor he's not proficient in renders him unable to cast spells. Plus, the armor makes it more difficult for him to escape without the time to remove it. Make sure to keep him tied up at all times though. So when adventuring it pays to bring along some extra armor, just in case you encounter evil enemy spellcasters (or evil Druids in earlier editions, where Druids became unable to cast spells or Wild Shape when wearing metal armor).
Note that this will work only once, and a savvy DM will have his villains minor in Fighter while attening Evil Spellcaster School to get a workaround for this.
Magic Circle and Protection from Good and Evil
If the Hag always finds the party about the same time of night, they could cast either in preparation for the hag to keep the Hag out. Protection would be better, as the Hag might forget to detect magic and waste the casting on an attempt to touch someone who is already protected.
Protection from Evil and Good is only an action to cast, so it can be cast easily even when the attack has started.
[W]hat does Magic Circle even do if you cast it on an area that already contains an excluded creature?
Traps the creature inside. The spell says:
When you cast this spell, you can elect to cause its magic to operate in the reverse direction, preventing a creature of the specified type from leaving the cylinder and protecting targets outside it.
So could trap the Hag -- but the problem here is that the casting Magic Circle takes 1 minute. Unless the DM allows you to hold completion of a spell similar to a ready action -- But that isn't RAW.
Oil of Etherealness
Applying the oil takes 10 minutes, and it lasts 1 hour. It will allow you to be on the ethereal plane. If you fight and break the touch the Hag, the Haunt attack is used for the day. If you secure the Heartstone, she can't get back to the ethereal plane, and if you kill the Hag, she'll be banished back to Hell.
Turn the Hag
Paladins of the Oath of Devotion's Turn the Unholy works when the Hags enters the material plane to attack.
Paladins of the Oath of Ancient's Turn the Faithless doesn't require Sight, if the Fey or Fiend hears the chanting they have to flee.
Paladins for the Oath of Vengeance can frighten a fey or fiend they see using Abjure Enemy.
Force Damage Won't Work, but Things of Force Do
A traveler on the Ethereal Plane is invisible and utterly silent to someone on the overlapped plane, and solid objects on the overlapped plane don't hamper the movement of a creature in the Border Ethereal The exceptions are certain magical effects (including anything made of magical force) and living beings.
However closer reading is that things made out of magical force hamper movement -- force damage doesn't pass through realms. This is made clear by a tweet from Jeremy Crawford:
https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/745062527118123009
No general rule causes force damage to pass from one plane of existence to another. #DnD
So while Magic Missle or Eldritch Blast won't help, the following will: - Leomond's Tiny Hut - Wall of Force - Force Cage
Wake the Sleeper Will Not Work
Originally I thought that waking the sleeper would work. I said:
Simple answer are typically missed.
Always keep one party member on watch. If someone always keeps watch (changing shifts so everyone gets full rest) they can look for party members having nightmares. Having a nightmare of terrifying images isn't a quiet thing -- ask any parent. Try putting the people with highest perception on watch at the times you're most vulnerable, like the middle of the night.
Once awake, the nightmare ends. If caught before an hour, the negative effects don't take hold. The ability only works on sleeping people on the material plane. The hags "Nightmare Haunting" is used up for for that 24 hours.
However, RAI based on this tweet from Mike Mearls, that isn't the way it works. The victim only has to be asleep to start the nightmare haunt, but waking doesn't end it.
Alarm Won't Tell You She's coming
I thought Alarm might give you some warning, but its effect appears to be limited to the material plane. (Unless you cast it while in the Ethereal?)
Best Answer
Yes, see the Abandoned Zealot, a level 6 ghost of someone tormented by religious crisis. It has a constant melee ability that specifically interferes with divine spellcasters.
If that's not enough, it has a reaction to interrupt divine spells from being cast nearby.
The ghost can also cast a heightened Crisis of Faith, which is a divine spell that deals extra damage if the target is a divine spellcaster:
Other creatures, like the level 5 Shrine Skelm, have a Reaction that functions similarly to Counterspell and can counteract divine spells.
If magical blasters are expected, then a high level Occult caster might get the 5th level Shadow Siphon spell. This doesn't prevent spellcasting, but it would reduce the effectiveness of an otherwise well-placed Fireball.
More generally, any effect that gives the Stupefied condition will reduce the effectiveness of spellcasters. The Stupefied value penalizes their spell attack rolls and spell DCs, and is added to a DC 5 flat check that the caster must succeed whenever they attempt to cast a spell.