Easiest Way to feed a large amount of people [3.5]

[Aemoh87]

I have a castle full of followers who all need to eat double food a day.

I need a cost effective and preferably magical way to keep them fed. Any way to nab nice bonuses with it would be sweet. I don't want to risk them farming since some of these followers were very difficult to find, and would be a hassle to find replacements.

Also if their food and water is magical and inside the castle they are much easier to protect.

[hivedragon]

stone to flesh

[Daftendirekt]

Duh, some fish and bread. Haven't you read the Bible?

[Kylarra]

Well, in theory a create food trap would work. That is abusing the rules to some extent though.

[Mastikator]

Create Food and Water (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/createFoodAndWater.htm)?

Edit- I don't mean as a trap, 1 level 5 cleric with 16 wisdom can prepare the spell twice per day and thus sustain 2 people + self.
If you have clerics, they might be able to feed some people.

[Valameer]

All-You-Can-Eat BBQ hydra heads (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0326.html).

[Dvandemon]

There was a thread awhile back that dealt with building a city. It involved magically trapping a hallway with Summon Food and Water so that whenever someone walked through (with a bowl of course) and set it off, they'd get a filling meal (with a 2 cp charge of course). It was a pretty good option, and even available at low-level

[Ravens_cry]

Make a use activated item of create food and water. An hour or two of continuously using it will give you 600-1200 servings. An item of prestidigitation can be passed around if your tired of the bland flavour. No magical bonuses, but you can last as long as you need in a siege. There is heroes feast (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/heroesFeast.htm), and that grants some nifty magical bonuses. However, unless your caster level is obscenely, cheesy, high, it will be extremely hard to cast enough for a whole castle.

[dsmiles]

Buy a bunch of Murlynd's Spoons?

Hire some farmers?

Hire some hunters?

Build some flesh golem farmers?

[Necro_EX]

Murlynd's spoon is great because one item can feed the whole place. They only get bland gruel, but they'll get their fill.

Aside from that, clerics (or bards?) casting create food and water.

I believe adepts can learn that spell, so all you'd have to do is turn like a third of your follower population into adepts and they could be self-sustaining.

[blazingshadow]

there was a cauldron artifact that could feed between something like 60 and 120 people but i forgot which book it was. alternatively you could find in an magic mart or hire an artificer to make field provision boxes from the magic item compendium

edit: each box feeds 15 ppl or 5 horses and costs 2000 gp to buy

[dsmiles]

Murlynd's spoon is great because one item can feed the whole place. They only get bland gruel, but they'll get their fill.Bland gruel my butt! Prestidigitation! :smalltongue:

[blazingshadow]

thought that the spoon could only feed 5 people at most

[Kylarra]

thought that the spoon could only feed 5 people at most4 people according to the SRD, which comes down to 2 with the double eating requirement. Link (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#sustainingSpoon).

[Chilingsworth]

How about the Goodberry spell? It's a 1st level spell that creates 2d4 berries that each heal 1 hp and count as a full meal when consumed. It's on the Druid list, the Healer (yeah a class known for its crappiness) list, or could concievably be learned by an Archivist. The berries remain potent for 1day/caster level, so you could have a caster prepare all his/her level 1+ spells as goodberrry every CL days to make hundreds of them. (you could also empower and/maximize the spell to ensure you get as many berries as possible out of it.) You do need to gain a supply of berries, though. This could be achieved with mundane means, or via major creation.

Alternatively, you could just use major creation to make large amounts of food. Even minor creation might work if you can convince your DM that once the food is eaten and digested, it can't disapear. Or, if you use minor creation to make berries that you then goodberry, argue that they only act as a vector for the spell and their "disapearence" is then irrelavent.

(The goodberry spell targets the berries, the berries are NOT a compnent nor a focus for the spell.)

[Ravens_cry]

Bland gruel my butt! Prestidigitation! :smalltongue:
You can make is taste like filet mignon, its still gruel. Texture is also important.

[Aemoh87]

Just wondering, what book contains such a spoon. P.S. they are thrallherds so gruel is good enough :)

[Chilingsworth]

I think the spoon is in the DMG. It would take alot of them to feed a cstle of people, though.

Just how many hungry creatures are we talking about here? And why do they need double food rations?

EDIT: And, IIRC Hero's Feast just says it feeds all those who consume it enough for the entire day. DOesn't say anything whatsoever about size of the participants nor how it interacts with their requirements of "normal" food. It's magical food, what they need in normal food doesn't nessicarily matter.

[Ravens_cry]

Just wondering, what book contains such a spoon. P.S. they are thrallherds so gruel is good enough :)
Good enough, but still a bastard thing to do. These people inexplicably, to them, love your with utmost adoration, I think a bit better then just gruel is deserving. If your DM allows custom magic items, a use activated item of create food and water that follows the spell more explicitly, though expensive, will provide much better food. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/createFoodAndWater.htm)

[Aemoh87]

Well it's going to cap out at ~400 people.

[Dust]

So give us all the information here. You need to feed 400 people, who require double rations - first of all, why is this?
Secondly, what level are you, what resources do you have available, and how much money are you willing to chuck into this venture?

Also, nothing says that the thrallherd ability is mind-affecting, or that you must attract humanoids. Would it be possible to get fey or other such creatures with spell-like abilities showing up?

And yes, as it stands currently, I suspect Raven's suggestion of the activated item of create food and water is your best bet.

[Ravens_cry]

Well it's going to cap out at ~400 people.
Which is why I say don't use the spoons. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#sustainingSpoon) 5,400 for 2 people (with the double feeding requirment), verses, by guidelines, 30,000 gp for as many people as you want, with better food to boot.

[Necro_EX]

Ah, I forgot the spoon had a limit to its usefulness. I thought dsmiles was considering the time it would take to feed all those hungry mouths.

Also, I thought king's feast had a limit of something like 60 people.

[Aemoh87]

My DM is playing anything like leadership that I need to go out and get my followeers, but with Thrallherd they are willing to take abuse from me. I will be enacting this castle around lvl 9 but I have a huge stockpile of cash so expect that I a decent amount of money.

I might want to use the create food trap though.

OH and they need double food because they have those abyssal tape worms in them.

I might be able to get FEY or the like as well.

[Necro_EX]

I believe the stronghold builder's guide actually has some rules for feeding tenants...If you don't have it I could look in there for ya.

[vampire2948]

OH and they need double food because they have those abyssal tape worms in them.


Wait, what? Where's that from?

Also - If you're going for Create Food traps, why stop there? Pretidigiation Traps replace the need for showers. :smallsmile:

[Aemoh87]

Idc if they shower as long as they do grunt labor. Also the tapeworms are in the Fiend Folio.

How does the create food trap work?

[Necro_EX]

Ah, well you could always use some Dwarf Fortress logic on this.

1. Find a creature with regeneration/fast healing, preferably find a couple of them. (Go troll hunting)

2. Subdue the creature(s) in some way that eliminates their ability to be a threat. (bind their arms in some fashion with something their unlikely to be able to break)

3. Bring it back to your stronghold.

4. Dinner. Forever.

Of course, this only works well if you're evil, or a very, very grey neutral.

[Asheram]

Everful Larder: Whenever opened, this magical larder produces simple, nourishing food for five people.
15.000gp.

Stronghold builders guidebook. p76

I doubt you'll find anything more cost effective than this.

[Aemoh87]

Thanks, that will work!

[Yahzi]

I have a castle full of followers who all need to eat double food a day.

I need a cost effective and preferably magical way to keep them fed. Any way to nab nice bonuses with it would be sweet. I don't want to risk them farming since some of these followers were very difficult to find, and would be a hassle to find replacements.

Also if their food and water is magical and inside the castle they are much easier to protect.
Um. First, that's what peasants are for. The peasants will gladly farm the surrounding land and give you 1/4 of what they grow, in exchange for you guaranteeing that nobody else will kill/molest/enslave the peasants. They'll even give you half of what they grow, but not quite so gladly.

Second, your castle sounds more like a prison than anything else. Followers are not "treasure" that you accumulate in dank, stone-lined vaults.

[Jergmo]

Hire a soldier for 6 silver pieces, and then murder him. He'll have a good 75, 100 pounds of meat on him. That'll feed about 30 hirelings for a day. Bonus: you get your 6 silver back.

[ClockShock]

Second, your castle sounds more like a prison than anything else. Followers are not "treasure" that you accumulate in dank, stone-lined vaults.

You say tomato I say tomato.
...
Granted that saying really doesn't work too well when typed but you get the point.

There seems to be plenty of options for food, so might i suggest building your castle near/on top of a river to get easy access to water.
Or do you not need water? I forget

[Aemoh87]

They are when your a fiend of possession/thrallherd who is B.A.

[Dvandemon]

Wait, what? Where's that from?

Also - If you're going for Create Food traps, why stop there? Pretidigiation Traps replace the need for showers. :smallsmile:

The full traps was a hallway of Create Food and Water, Prestidigitation for flavor, and Endure Elements for comfort

[Jack_Simth]

The full traps was a hallway of Create Food and Water, Prestidigitation for flavor, and Endure Elements for comfort
Also Cure Light Wounds, Remove Disease, Neutralize Poison, and a few other low-level Cleric fix-up spells. Can't have your minions catching the plague, after all.

If you're doing this for a military installation, you'll want to add a few things; True Seeing, Mage Armor, Owl's Wisdom, and the like, along the wall patrol path.

[elonin]

An everfull flask will provide all the water you'll ever need. I'm also a fan of casting wall of stone then stone to flesh. Predistigion for flavor.

[DLoFunk]

You could always give one of the the "Chicken Infested" flaw. :smallbiggrin:

[JaronK]

Exactly... a single Commoner 1 with Infested With Chickens gives you an endless supply of chicken... just make sure the livers get eaten so your people don't get scurvy.

Though a Decanter of Endless Water and Everfull Larder would really help.

JaronK