The Battle of Father and Son

[Anastasia]

I'd rule the sphere of light to be targeting Magul and thus be invalid in time stop. It's the sort of thing that I'd absolutely rule would allow a save, and thus I feel it's targeted enough to qualify for time stop's protections.

[Corwin]

Is there a difference from Forcecage? I'd use that, if the difference exists.

[Anastasia]

Forcecage was houseruled after you and Alyssa used it like that to allow a Ref save, incidentally. It's worth refreshing on since it's relevant.

This feels like a case where the intent of time stop 'can't harm or directly target a creature not in the time stop' falls afoul of 'well technically you're not directly targeting them even though it's something that should allow a save or otherwise it's a no save no SR sort of you lose spell'. I'm going to rule in favor of the intent rather than the technical here, go ahead and change that action into something else.

I appreciate that this is a creative attempt to work with the problem you have, but I also feel it's a situation where using a technicality of the rules shouldn't overturn the intent of the rules around time stop. This would also apply to using forcecage here for the same logic - allowing you and Iddy to get away with that ended up being a bad ruling on my part, adding a Reflex save to forcecage was the first step towards mitigating that. It's bad rules for time stop to deprive someone of a saving throw because something was established and cast within time stop.

Go ahead and present me the list in your last IC post, only with a substitution for the sphere.

[Corwin]

Seira will summon 1d3 Large Water elementals!

19:49 <CC> roll 1d3
19:49 <Penuche> CC invokes Penuche's magic: < 3 > [d3=3]

I would like to see this resolve before proceeding.

[Anastasia]

The summon works as you'd expect, elementals appearing.

[Corwin]

With her hypothesis confirmed, Seira uses Gate to call upon Lady Honeydip! That most reliable of pixie generals appears at Seira's side in a flash, frozen, and Seira gets ready to the last part of her plan!

The final spells prepared and Elle told to step into the safety of her Prismatic Sphere, Seira emerges from Time Stop ready to cast! There is only one spell which would be fitting for this desperate situation, and it is that spell that she casts right now!

First, the Magul sphere is replaced with a Wall of Stone that is vertical and breaks line of sight/line of effect from my current position and his. He is free to move and regain that.

Round 3: Run action to fly straight up (perfect flight of 230ft, thus 920ft up this round) for combined height 1,150ft. If the dimensional lock indeed seems to no longer be there, Seira will summon 1d3 Large Water elementals! She will also summon Lady Honeydip via Gate.
Round 4: Spell Repeat True Casting, Spell Repeat Spell Enhancer, Widened Maximized Delayed Blast Fireball with a delay of one round and a radius of 2 miles (cast at Long range to have its center appear well within Magul's field of vision as dispel bait). Free action Soothsayer's Spite prediction that next round I will be using Widened Maximized Empowered Simmer's Contagious Fireburst on everyone.

[Corwin]

They have coordinated this, so as soon as Honeydip unfreezes and realizes she is on Fire next to Seira, she only has time to follow their plan and help boost Seira's coming spell before forming a Resilient Sphere around herself!

On Seira's part, just as a fireball goes off below to hopefully distracting effect, she herself explodes into Goldenfire! It consumes everything in its path, eating through all the gathered soldiers until none are left and even as it trails past its original range to seek out more enemies amidst Imix's gathered forces, the fires also gather to vent their fury on Imix and his trusted lieutenants!

It feels like the situation calls for a pithy one-liner, but to Seira putting down this monster would bring all the fulfillment she could wish for!

As time resumes, Seira casts Widened Maximized Empowered Simmer's Contagious Fireburst!
19:32 <CC> roll 1d20+38+2+1+10+10+10 SR
19:33 <Penuche> CC invokes Penuche's magic: < 79 > [d20=8]
320 Goldenfire damage with a 2 miles radius, Ref DC 55 half. Everyone killed by it explodes with the same damage/save/radius.
I forgot to account for my DvR in rolling against SR.
CL to beat SR is 81+Honeydip's Determined Caster aura bonus for Imix, and 71+Honeydip's Determined Caster aura bonus for everyone else.

Widened Maximized Delayed Blast Fireball:
19:37 <CC> roll 1d20+38+2+1+10+10 SR
19:37 <Penuche> CC invokes Penuche's magic: < 81 > [d20=20]
I forgot to account for my DvR in rolling against SR. CL to beat SR is 83 for everyone but Imix, and 93 for Imix.
Damage of 60 goldenfire for 2 miles, centered on a spot close to Magul. Ref DC 48 half.

Plan for Lady Honeydip is to speak (and thus activate her aura), before using Miracle to get a Resilient Sphere around her and save her from my spells.

[Anastasia]

Do me a favor of putting everything going on in the time stop + the rest of your turn in one post, so I can sort it out together rather than trying to do this between multiple posts? Everything's split by about a page of posts by now, I don't want things getting lost because of that.

[Corwin]

My actions and desired actions of allied NPCs:

Round 1: Create Magic Tattoo (+1 CL), Create Magic Tattoo (+2 competence to attack), alter reality for astral links (failed), move to get next to Imix and his throne.

22:57 <CC> roll 1d20+2
22:57 <Penuche> CC invokes Penuche's magic: < 22 > [d20=20]

Round 2: Assay Spell Resistance (Imix), Miracle for a Wall of Stone that is vertical and breaks line of sight/line of effect from my current position and Magul's (he is free to move and regain that), Miracle to emulate Chain Spell Resilient Sphere on Donald and Ranbar (with the modification being that the distance between the two is 170ft and not 30ft), move 230ft up
Round 3: Run action to fly straight up (perfect flight of 230ft, thus 920ft up this round) for combined height 1,150ft. If the dimensional lock indeed seems to no longer be there, Seira will summon 1d3 Large Water elementals!

19:49 <CC> roll 1d3
19:49 <Penuche> CC invokes Penuche's magic: < 3 > [d3=3]

Seira will also summon Lady Honeydip via Gate.

Round 4: Spell Repeat True Casting, Spell Repeat Spell Enhancer, Widened Maximized Delayed Blast Fireball with a delay of one round and a radius of 2 miles (cast at Long range to have its center appear well within Magul's field of vision as dispel bait). Free action Soothsayer's Spite prediction that next round I will be using Widened Maximized Empowered Simmer's Contagious Fireburst on everyone.

As time resumes, Seira casts Widened Maximized Empowered Simmer's Contagious Fireburst!
19:32 <CC> roll 1d20+38+2+1+10+10+10 SR
19:33 <Penuche> CC invokes Penuche's magic: < 79 > [d20=8]
320 Goldenfire damage with a 2 miles radius, Ref DC 55 half. Everyone killed by it explodes with the same damage/save/radius.
I forgot to account for my DvR in rolling against SR.
CL to beat SR is 81+Honeydip's Determined Caster aura bonus for Imix, and 71+Honeydip's Determined Caster aura bonus for everyone else.

Widened Maximized Delayed Blast Fireball:
19:37 <CC> roll 1d20+38+2+1+10+10 SR
19:37 <Penuche> CC invokes Penuche's magic: < 81 > [d20=20]
I forgot to account for my DvR in rolling against SR. CL to beat SR is 83 for everyone but Imix, and 93 for Imix.
Damage of 60 goldenfire for 2 miles, centered on a spot close to Magul. Ref DC 48 half.

As time resumes, the plan is for Lady Honeydip to speak (and thus activate her Determined Caster aura), before using Miracle to get a Resilient Sphere around her and save her from my spells. Alternately, she can use Miracle to Greater Plane Shift herself back to the battle on Astral.

Elle spells in Time Stop round 1: Prismatic Sphere
Elle spells in Time Stop round 2: Shield (sorc side)
Elle spells in Time Stop round 3: Assay Spell Resistance (Magul)
No preference for round 4, but she needs to be within the Prismatic Sphere as Time Stop ends

[Anastasia]

Okay, give me a caster level check on the delayed blast fireball. This is notably not an SR check, so bonuses to that alone do not apply.

[spoiler]

Include strength/mind of the dragon princess.

Recitation and Celestial Valor, obviously. Channeled spell is Chain Dispel again (move action).

HP: 704+68/792 (fast healing 8)
Negative Conditions:
Aura:
Bonuses: Attack+13, Damage+10, Touch AC+4, Regular AC+9, Fort/Will Saves+10, Ref Saves+12, Skills+4, Ability Checks+2
Resources: Quick Cast 6/6 Protection Devotion 1/1 +5 One Attack On FA 1/1 (rnd) Take 10 On One Attack (rnd) 1/1 Armor Haste 13/15 Breath Weapon Boost 3/3 Weapon Damage Dice Boost 3/3
Spells Used: 1 1st, 2 8th level duskblade
SLAs Used:
Spells Active:
Notes: Two quickened spells/round when under armor's haste, unkillable allows Con saves to not be reduced below 1 HP. Slashing flurry enables extra attacks for penalties.

Elle
HP: 776+68/776 (fast healing 8)
Negative Conditions:
Aura:
Bonuses: Attack+13, Damage+10, Touch AC+4, Regular AC+9, Fort/Will Saves+10, Ref Saves+12, Skills+4, Ability Checks+2
Resources: Dragon Breath (DD) 1/1 Touch of Vitality 126/126 Mythical Cast Maximize 3/3
Spells Used: Time Stop, Prismatic Sphere, Maximized Queen's Displeasure, Antimagic Zone, Quickened Empowered Maximized Twinned Moonbow
SLAs Used:
Spells Active: Epic Mage Armor (CL31)
Notes:

Ranbar
HP: 560+68/560 (fast healing 8)
Negative Conditions:
Aura:
Bonuses: Attack+13, Damage+10, Touch AC+4, Regular AC+9, Fort/Will Saves+10, Ref Saves+12, Skills+4, Ability Checks+2
Resources: Channel Energy 12/12 Inspiration 15/24 (enc) Cunning Save 4/4
Spells Used: Cleric: Barraged Heal Factotum: Barraged Strength of the Dragon Princess, Barraged Mind of the Dragon Princess.
SLAs Used:
Spells Active: Endurance of the Dragon Princess (CL34)
Notes: Baseline cunning insight is +4 from feats, exalted adds +6, total of +10 if used in tandem with that.

[Corwin]

20:38 <CC> roll 1d20+38+2+1+2 CL
20:38 <Penuche> CC invokes Penuche's magic: < 57 > [d20=14]

[Anastasia]

There's a flash of light from within Imix as the delayed blast fireball goes off. For a moment you almost can see something within him, but it passes as the flames are too much. Instead, suddenly Magul intones a powerful spell and abruptly - !!!

Superb dispelling as a counterspell, if you're curious.

> roll 1d20+37
<Penuche> Space_Cat invokes Penuche's magic: < 55 > [d20=18]

Does that counter the delayed blast fireball?

To be clear, whatever Imix has going on didn't stop the spell, so Magul's trying to counter this.

[Corwin]

It's CL is 41, so yes.

[Anastasia]

The spell crumble as Seira...

Chance to change action or go on with the chosen action, since you have a second to see this happen.

[Corwin]

I am murdering every enemy here and putting Imix on so much nonlethal ice his avatars will feel it. If they have the range to counterspell me from 1,150ft away, I will counter with my own Superb Dispelling via the Instant Counterspell SDA.