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View Full Version : If I Could Change the World (3.5 Technobabble)



Jansviper
2009-06-26, 12:10 AM
Alright, here's the quick and dirty run-down. In our F2F session today the DM was asked what tech level we were looking at in the wider world. His reply indicated we were just, just entering the Steampunk age. My immediate follow-ups were "Can we make advancements on our own, will you give us a workshop to do it from, can I take Leadership this level?"

xD And he said yes.

I'm playing a 7th level character with a CHA bonus of 3, so that's a 5th level cohort and 8 followers (the DM said the Workshop is large enough to qualify for the follower bonus). I have 145000 gold (Two of us are pooling already, that number might go up) and a major city to get supplies from. I'm thinking a 5th level Artificer as a cohort, three 1st Artificers (As per DM) and 5 1st Experts. The DM is okay with pretty much anything, because we're more running a series of one-shots than a campaign.

I want to change the world.

What would you do first?

Here are some handy Artificer spells the DM is allowing. Yes we're both aware that infusions work differently then regular spells but he's actually behind this effort. If the time and funding is being put in, he's all for it.

Custom
Lazarous Torch: A concentration duration ranged touch at level 0 that does (essentially) 1 fire damage at 0-10 feet. It is literally a magical arc-welder.
Analyze Mundane Material: 1st level. Similar to Analyze Dweomer, but for mundane materials (Stone, bronze, iron, steel, etc). Exactly what it says on the tin.
Lazarous Forge: A concentration duration fire created in a square next to you. The temperature is variable and can be raised at a rate of 250 degrees F per round. Crap for offense, good for burning holes in things, amazing at (guess what!) melting metal.
Analyze Magical Material: As Mundane, 3rd level, requires a 500 gp lens as a focus.

Adjusted:
Repair/Damage: Works on all objects, not just constructs.
Lesser Creation: 3rd
Stone Shape: 3rd
Major Creation: 4th
Fabricate: 4th
Move Earth: 5th
Analyze Dweomer: 5th

Craft skills are pretty much a no brainer here, as is profession blacksmith. Any suggestions on skills? Feats are pretty obviously the artisan stuff at first, but what about later on?

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-06-26, 12:20 AM
Run a Google search of this forum for 'Tippyverse'. The core idea is, use magical traps of Create Food and Water, Cure Disease, Prestidigitation, and similar to free up most of the population from hard labor. Use this to boost cash flow, so you can afford traps of Fabricate, Wall of Stone, Wall of Iron, and similar spells. You eventually end up with a population of essentially aristocrats, who have no need to do any real labor(other than adventuring, fighting, and leading), with the only real representation of wealth being control of magic items and ownership of art objects.

I'm probably mangling the idea horribly, but he took the capabilities of a high-level wizard and figured out what they could cause to happen. It's essentially the concept behind Eberron, with a Faerunian level distribution.

Jansviper
2009-06-26, 12:29 AM
That's actually a pretty good idea, but I'm more looking at technology than solving the world's ills.

Eberron is described as a world full of ancient magic and powerful technology that has been lost to the ages, its just sitting out there for the PCs to find. Our DM's world is just entering their first age of technology, the ancient and powerful magic already exists. I want in on the ground floor of anything new that comes out of a stagnant plane, even if I have to push it myself.

This is in no way an altruistic endeavor, I plan to have mecha and death rays in under five years.

chiasaur11
2009-06-26, 12:38 AM
CHA 3? Seems really low.

Now, what I'd do first is invent something simple, utilitarian, and cheap. Paperclips, Sonkies, the pet flap, whatever. Something to make your name and get you starting capital beyond adventuring. If it's good enough then you should have enough money and reputation that a larger backer would be willing to help you work on a larger venture. That, once done, should get you enough freedom to build a prototype "Mechanical Man" for "Emergency purposes". Sell those to a shady military. Work with them to refine it, then build a prototype of ultimate destruction, wipe out said group, and be shocked at the misuse of your inventions. Use that to crack down on infringements and oh-so-reluctantly sell to large countries. Watch as the world spirals into mech combat, and harvest the best of it for yourself.

????

Profit!

Jansviper
2009-06-26, 01:02 AM
Whoops! Cha Bonus of 3 that is. xD A 16.

Now that's the spirit! Come on people, we're war profiteers here. CN, NE, maybe even a smattering of CG and NG doing what they have to to end the threat of violence across the world. We want to kill it bigger, faster, and with less suicidal explosions. Lets put the mage's fire in the hands of the common man and see how long it takes them to make us an empty planet. =3

Zain
2009-06-26, 01:05 AM
invent steam power, and make large trains to globalize the world, but put a shut-off that only you can use. then get everybody hocked on a produt that only you import, then, make a huge profit:smallbiggrin:

Jansviper
2009-06-26, 01:28 AM
For funds our cleric is always fond of the Glowing Orb spell from Spell Compendium. We make our own glass, shape our glass into orbs, sell at a ridiculously high profit margin. Making and selling Masterwork items would also be ridiculously easy with this process.

Amusing as long term planning is, does anyone have ideas for short-term boosts? Prototypes and the like, mercurial swords and auto-crossbows are already on the list, but does anyone have stats for amazing things like of this (http://www.goblinscomic.com/d/20050910.html)?

Randel
2009-06-26, 03:09 AM
Well if you're just entering the steampunk age then first off get an infinite supply of steam and energy.

A permanent Wall of Fire or Heat Metal effect applied to a boiler system should give you plenty of energy to work with. Might want to have the magically heated parts as separate components from the cheaper mundane parts so that you can upgrade and replace mundane parts easily.

Create a big power grid that runs through your steampunk city/castle with pipes and such instead of power lines. Once you have the inferstructure set up then various steam-powered gizmos can be plugged into the system.

Steam-powered pumps could pump water through the city (or just have spots where waste steam can be collected for water, maybe in the pressure valves and stuff that keep things from overloading.)

Steam-powered manufacturing equipment could be used to make stuff

Steam cannons could be used for offensive capabilities. There was a mythbusters episode about steam-cannons. The main thing is to have a decent boiler set up, a pressure tank thats insulated enough to keep the steam from cooling before the pressure builds up, and a pressure valve that can be switched off really quickly.

I'm not sure if there is a way to use steam in refrigeration... I remember in the movie Mosquito Coast there was a guy who made a refrigeration unit that was powered by lighting a fire in it and it could create ice. Though you might need a special kind of special refrigerant gas thing to pull it off. But regardless, if you can make a civilization with magically generated hot and cold running water than you're halfway there. Steam-Jet Cooling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_jet_cooling) might be something that lets steam make things cold.

The Clacks from Discworld, a series of semaphore towers set up around your kingdom. Messages are relayed by having operators send messages down a line of semaphore towers in code. Having everburning torches and telescopes set up would allow messages to work at night and to increase the necessary distance between towers.


Infinite energy devices:

Similar to the above idea with the boilers, you could make cheap magic items who's sole purpose is to create usable energy to power mundane devices.

Hot Stone - a metal block with a permanent heat metal effect on it, use it to make steam in a boiler, heat up water, heat air for hot-air balloons, or easy heat for colder climate areas. As long as they can be mass-produced then you can pretty much get infinite free energy forever and make all sorts of hot air balloon castles or arctic steam-tanks without having to worry about burning coal all over the place.

Cold Stone - metal block with a permanent chill metal effect on it, somewhat less useful than a Hot Stone but still handy when you need ice or some cold water or air to make life livable with all the hot steam everywhere.

Perpetual Motion Gearbox - Some sort of mage hand/unseen servant effect on a gearbox that makes it constantly turn its gears. Like the Hot Stone it lets clockwork mechanisms run forever without needing to be wound up.

Everbright Crystal - a transparent marble with an Eternal Flame cast on it, either via the eternal flame spell or summoning a Lantern Archon to cast the spell on stuff repeatedly. Much like a lightbulb that never goes out. Could potentially be used to grow plants underground thanks to photosynthesis of light.

Wind Tubes - a tube with a permanent gust of wind spell in it, provides perpetual amount of wind to either blow over windmills (kind of redundant with the other stuff) or to create vacuums or some kind of jet engine or air pumping system.


Other stuff to think of by exploiting magical animals:

Brown mold refrigeration

Electric lizards for a cheap source of electricity and therefore hydrogen gas to make lighter-than air balloons.

Various oozes and slimes could be used to destroy unwanted organic filth or dead bodies. Maybe develop a pumping mechanism so that you can make a green slime spraying machine to cover your enemies in a flesh-eating ooze.

Set
2009-06-26, 08:30 AM
I have this image of airships held up by permanant Tenser's Floating Discs (and whose sails are 'manned' by permanant Unseen Servants). The 'ship' would be a platform, probably of darkwood, and underneath it would be dozens of glowing white circles, each a seperate Floating Disc.

A Decanter of Endless Water can be used to provide endless mechanical energy (to turn millstones, etc). Variations such as a Decanter of Endless Wind could do the same, or power sailing ships.

Heat Metal / Create Water items make for the unlimited steam power angle. Chill Metal would be used for refrigeration or at the opposite side of the 'steam engine' to re-condense the vapor back into water, where pipes would circulate it back to the holding tanks, before it gets boiled away again by the Heat Metal.

Mixing the Spell Compendium spell Launch Bolt with a spell that creates a temporary non-magical piece of ammunition (such as Monte Cook's 'Devlin's Barb,' from the Book of Eldritch Might) would allow someone to create a self-loading 'crossbow wand.' The user would have a strange rod, which she would flick downwards (like 'reloading' a gun at an arcade shooter game) and a crossbow bolt would appear on the end of the rod. She would then point it at her foe and the crossbow bolt would launch at the foe. With some enhancement, Devlin's Barb could be made a move action, or even a free action and the Launch Bolt could be bumped from a Standard Action to an attack action (allowing a higher level person, or someone with Rapid Shot, to make multiple shots in a round). For extra fun, the rod itself could function as a light mace, making it both a melee weapon and a magical 'crossbow in a stick.'

Higher level variations could use Turn Pebble into Boulder to cause tiny pebbles fired by Launch Item to turn into massive seige boulders, or could create poisonous or energy 'bolts' or even missiles that explode like Explosive Runes (possibly by simply casting Explosive Runes or something on the missiles). Shrink Item would be a great way to transfer energy and matter around, and even create perpetual motion machines, as 1/16th size (and thus 1/64th weight) items are changed back and forth, to make great engines turn).

Shrinking and expanding items would make great pistons, for a colossal piston engine (no steam or fire or fuel required). An item permanantly able to shrink or expand on command would be able to produce endless mechanical energy, and apply it much differently than the Decanter of Endless Water trick.

The question becomes, what to *do* with this endless mechanical energy. Powering a giant walking robot, that uses gears and pistons instead of raw arcane force, to mover it's limbs, is one option. Powering a giant automated ballista that fabricates it's own missiles, is another.

Creating 'gun' or crossbow or sling or *ballista* ammunition that is 16x standard size (and does commensurately more damage), but is shrunk before firing, could be interesting. It would be most effective, IMO, on items that 'stick' to a foe or can land on top of them, like nets or catapult stones or burning oil, because the transformation of a .5 lb sling stone into a 32 lb boulder in mid-flight would most likely simply cause the stone to drop out of the air and land harmlessly with a thud (the amount of energy that went into propelling the sling stone wouldn't increase with it's mass, so the 32 lb stone would go no further than a slinger's arm could propel said boulder, which is maybe a couple dozen feet...). Still, carrying hundreds of pebbles in your airship, and dropping them on your enemy as giant boulders, could be fun, and if you craft giant fragile spikey caltrop looking things, and then shrink and drop them, they should burst apart and send spear-sized metal fragments everywhere on impact. Shrapnel bombs (and portable, for easy storage and transport, weighing only ounces individually, when Shrunk).

You can also use Shrink Item to *literally* carpet bomb someone. Pour oil into a good sized area, start an enormous sheet of flame and then shrink the entire thing to 1/16ths size, turn it to a cloth-like consistency and roll it up and stow it on the airship. Unfurl it and drop it unto the enemy, causing it to return to a 'carpet' of flame over an area.

Cyrion
2009-06-26, 09:33 AM
Remember that magic can do anything technology can.

Except in an anti-magic field.


Invest in large scale anti-magic field generators. (Dream big: think city size) THEN your railroads, steam cannons, telegraph, refrigerators, steam-powered mecha etc. become boss.

Sliver
2009-06-26, 09:56 AM
You can also use Shrink Item to *literally* carpet bomb someone. Pour oil into a good sized area, start an enormous sheet of flame and then shrink the entire thing to 1/16ths size, turn it to a cloth-like consistency and roll it up and stow it on the airship. Unfurl it and drop it unto the enemy, causing it to return to a 'carpet' of flame over an area.

Can't you just do the oil pouring first, then shrink it and set it to flame when it is already thrown and then returning it to normal size?

But yeah, the steam stuff can just be created with create water trap and some permanent heating.. you don't have to cool down the water, just dump it somewhere, the trap will create more water.


Remember that magic can do anything technology can.

Except in an anti-magic field.


Invest in large scale anti-magic field generators. (Dream big: think city size) THEN your railroads, steam cannons, telegraph, refrigerators, steam-powered mecha etc. become boss.

Sounds like a player railroading the WORLD!

Storm Bringer
2009-06-26, 10:05 AM
a quick way to make a seriously world changing tech? invent the Minié ball. it's what made rifled muzzle-loaders possible, which translates as a massive increase in firepower due to superior range and accuracy.

and, best of all, it's so mechanically simple theirs no reason why it can't be invented long before it's historical invention in the 1840s. rifling itself is a very old tech (archers knew about the effect, and Fletchers made arrows so that the fletching worked to spin-stabilize the arrow. historical accounts of rilfed sport guns go back to the 15th century. though the precision to mass produce rifles is still learly 1800s tech)

this assumes that you have guns. of course.