Building stuff with a wizard

[JohnDaBarr]

Ok ppl need some ideas and help

Let say you are a wizard 11-15 lvl and you need a bridge over a river (200 feet wide) in the middle of nowhere (yeah, yeah I know a wizard can cross the damn river with 10 different ways but lets stick to the story), how would you do it??

I'm thinking servant horde X + fabricate and hooping that chopping wood isn't a skill check with a DC over 10 (yeah you have a forest close by)

Is there a spell similar to the unseen servant but that allows you to use craft and other stuff?

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Clever use of Wall of Stone should be able to get you there.

[gbprime]

How long do you need it to last? Permanent, or just the encounter? If you just need a temporary bridge, there's a spell for that. Dark Way, 2nd level. Spell Compendium.

[balistafreak]

How long do you need it to last? Permanent, or just the encounter? If you just need a temporary bridge, There's a Spell An App For That (tm). Dark Way, 2nd level. Spell Compendium.

Fixed for you. :smallbiggrin:

[calar]

Wall of stone works, also Move Earth would make a nice bridge

[NNescio]

Wall of Stone only covers 5-ft per 2 caster levels though.



Effect: Stone wall whose area is up to one 5-ft. square/level (S)

...It can be used to bridge a chasm, for instance, or as a ramp. For this use, if the span is more than 20 feet, the wall must be arched and buttressed. This requirement reduces the spell’s area by half.

Move Earth isn't sturdy enough.

... Move earth moves dirt (clay, loam, sand), possibly collapsing embankments, moving hillocks, shifting dunes, and so forth.

However, in no event can rock formations be collapsed or moved. ...

It can fill in the river instead, creating a ford if it's not too deep in the first place.

[John Campbell]

Wall of stone. Move earth. Transmute rock to mud and mud to rock (or, for the less squeamish, stone to flesh and flesh to stone). Stone shape. Fabricate. Telekinesis. Disintegrate. And liberal application of Craft and Knowledge (engineering) checks and construct labor.

Of course, my last mid-to-high level Wizard had those in spades. Not all Wizards are going to be dwarven runesmiths. But note that Craft and Knowledge skills are Int-based, and class skills for Wizards. It's worth dropping a point into the major ones just to be able to apply that Wizard Int to them as trained skills.

Alternately, just use fabricate and Craft Wondrous Item to make a lyre of building and hand it off to the bard for a little while.

[Tvtyrant]

Wall of Stone only covers 5-ft per 2 caster levels though.

Ah but you can combine wall of stone with shape stone to make a series of individual wall of stone pylons and then just make a bridge to each pylon. It would look a little funky but it should work.

Also you could just turn the cliffs over the river into mud with stone to mud and then turn them back into stone with mud to stone.

[gbprime]

Yeah, Lyre of Building and a decent perform skill is really the answer here. Enough rubble, scree, or felled trees, and you can put up a bridge in under 8 hours.

[Gamer Girl]

To start at the top and work down:

Polymorph any Object-can make a bridge, to say the least.
Summon Monster-you can get a group of monsters that can build a bridge for you, or at least get you started and help out. A greater earth elemental could easily knock down a couple trees and drag them over to the river. A diinni can even make the bridge for you by making a permanent item out of vegetable matter.
limited Wish-of course
Move Earth-to dam the river or build supports..lots of uses.
Disintegrate-to clear an area
Control Water-to control the river
Wall of Iron-gets you a good chunk of building material
Transmute rock to mud/mud to rock-a building spell
Telekinesis-to move anything around
Fabricate-make the bridge components
Animal Growth-on say a beaver or elephant
Wall of Stone-makes good supports
Major Creation-creates things that might be needed temporally
Stone Shape-shape the stone that is there or you create
Polymorph-into a form useful to building
Animate Dead-tireless workers
Levitate-to move things
Animate Rope-A rope that moves for you
Mount-use of a mount all day.

Plus Teleport(all) to move things and Charm(all) to get workers to make it for you.

[NNescio]

Ah but you can combine wall of stone with shape stone to make a series of individual wall of stone pylons and then just make a bridge to each pylon. It would look a little funky but it should work.


Stone shape:

Target: Stone or stone object touched, up to 10 cu. ft. + 1 cu. ft./level
(Note, a 10-ft cube is actually 1000 cubic ft in volume.)

Still possible, but a lot of spells are required.



Also you could just turn the cliffs over the river into mud with stone to mud and then turn them back into stone with mud to stone.
Mud gets washed off by the river. Unless you could somehow get somebody else to fling the mud accurately at the places where pylons are needed, and then readying Transmute Mud to Rock to be cast at the mud in mid-air.

...

Actually, that would be badass.

[OracleofWuffing]

Symbol of Death in the City Square, toss the dead bodies in the general area where you need the bridge. They'll pile up eventually.

Yeah, I know, it's not at all efficient, but all the good stuff has been said already. :smallannoyed:

[Flickerdart]

Craft infinity quarterstaves, fill the entire plane, walk across.

[NNescio]

Symbol of Death in the City Square, toss the dead bodies in the general area where you need the bridge. They'll pile up eventually.

Yeah, I know, it's not at all efficient, but all the good stuff has been said already. :smallannoyed:

http://ompldr.org/vODN0cQ/040518.png

[Tvtyrant]

Stone shape:

(Note, a 10-ft cube is actually 1000 cubic ft in volume.)

Still possible, but a lot of spells are required.


Mud gets washed off by the river. Unless you could somehow get somebody else to fling the mud accurately at the places where pylons are needed, and then readying Transmute Mud to Rock to be cast at the mud in mid-air.

...

Actually, that would be badass.

You could also just dam the river with wall of stone or iron first :P Or use Move Earth to make a massive earth dam and then build stone walls on top of each other until the reach the height of the dam except for a hole in the stone for the river to go through and destroy the earth part of the dam. Now there is a massive stone bridge that is much stronger than normal. It would take a lot of castings, but it would be rather permanent.

[Doc Roc]

Lyre of building is my preference. Make sure your bard is a warforged, and he can just build forever, rendering fragile structures briefly indestructible.

[JohnDaBarr]

thx ppl there are some really helpful ideas :smallsmile:

now to get to my second question, is there any spell similar to the unseen servant but it's capable in using craft and similar skills?

[gbprime]

I prefer Planar Ally and Planar Binding for stuff like that. Find an outsider or elemental with skills, pay it to be your foreman. :smallamused:

[Tyndmyr]

Raw materials + Fabricate.

Wall of Stone/Iron gets you any stone or metal you might need. The completes have a 1st level spell that permanently create a 5ft cube of wood. That should get you any wood you need.

Boost your crafting skill of choice with appropriate spells once you've assembled enough materials, then fabricate a bridge.

[NNescio]

Raw materials + Fabricate.

Wall of Stone/Iron gets you any stone or metal you might need. The completes have a 1st level spell that permanently create a 5ft cube of wood. That should get you any wood you need.

Boost your crafting skill of choice with appropriate spells once you've assembled enough materials, then fabricate a bridge.

Blockade (Complete Scoundrel) only lasts 3 rounds.

[ericgrau]

Wall of ice x 2. Done. Unless you need something more permanent for future armies to cross.

What people forget about spells like fabricate is that it takes 200 spells to get the job done. Or wall of stone requires existing stone to anchor to, when you probably have dirt. Etc. No, given the low number of permanent wizard spells and severe limitations on the few that there are, you need to conjure or hire something to actually build it with hammer and nails. I'd fly a couple ropes across to get started on a rope bridge.

[Zaq]

Stone shape:

(Note, a 10-ft cube is actually 1000 cubic ft in volume.)

Still possible, but a lot of spells are required.


Mud gets washed off by the river. Unless you could somehow get somebody else to fling the mud accurately at the places where pylons are needed, and then readying Transmute Mud to Rock to be cast at the mud in mid-air.

...

Actually, that would be badass.

There is a greater version of Stone Shape. It's quite worth the effort if you want to have this kind of scale.

My personal favorite "hey, let's undergo a major construction project!" spell is (Greater) Fantastic Machine, but it's nontrivial to get your hands on it (the normal version is only found on two domain lists, and the greater version is only found on one). I mean, come on. It has a trundle speed. How many things have a trundle speed?