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Scarey Nerd
2011-10-27, 04:16 PM
Me again. I normally frequent the 3.5 section, but this isn't specific, so.

Level 10. The big one for my party, because since level 5 I've had a ritual book with a spell that allows me to raise a floating island 100 meters in diameter from the earth and control its flight. My question is: What do we put on it?

I calculated that you could fit a good 80 houses or so on such an island, or one pretty decent sized fort, or whatever. We're a VERY evil party, if that helps, so barracks for armies of evil out to do evil things evilly could be appropriate. My compatriot (good word that) suggested that we make a small floating village, though I couldn't think of a reason WHY we would do that, how it would benefit us. Aside from trade income, I suppose. What does the mighty Playground think?

PS. If you think my calculation of 80 houses seems off, it might well be, I just calculated the general area of my house in metres, divided the area of the island by that and then subtracted a load to allow for room for the island's edge, streets, etc etc.

Lord Il Palazzo
2011-10-27, 04:23 PM
What kind of duration are you looking at? It must be pretty long or permanent if you're looking at making a village on such an island. Is there anything to keep you from making multiple islands? I'd be a tempted to create a fleet of the things with a fort on each to act as flying battleships. (Granted, even one would likely do the job depending on the world you're in.) With even one, you could fly around the country side looting any towns and villages you came across.

Karoht
2011-10-27, 04:23 PM
Monty Python's Flying Circus? Complete with Flying Circus?

Scarey Nerd
2011-10-27, 04:24 PM
What kind of duration are you looking at? It must be pretty long or permanent if you're looking at making a village on such an island. Is there anything to keep you from making multiple islands? I'd be a tempted to create a fleet of the things with a fort on each to act as flying battleships. (Granted, even one would likely do the job depending on the world you're in.) With even one, you could fly around the country side looting any towns and villages you came across.

It lasts forever, though I can only cast the ritual once.


Monty Python's Flying Circus? Complete with Flying Circus?

You just won at... life.

Kol Korran
2011-10-27, 04:28 PM
questions:
- how high can you float it? do you control the height?

- is it from any sort of ground? farmer's soil? rocky ground? and so on?

- quite importantly: can this magic be dispelled?

- how thick is this island? huge slabs of earth below? or just a few meters? siege weapons can be problematic... as do strong enough spells.

- any way you can also make it (and those on it) invisible? sort of sphere of invisibility, just greater and permanent? (you'll need a way for the people to see each other though)

i'd advise against a village- what good will farmers do? beside- they will need a water source (which can be problematic) and sheep and cattle will be hard to keep.

barracks and fortress might do, if: your fort is on strong enough ground (however, i don't know much fortresses so small...), the island can't be easily dispelled, and it can withstand siege weapons.

we might advise better if we know the goals of your party. :smallconfused:

Scarey Nerd
2011-10-27, 04:36 PM
questions:
- how high can you float it? do you control the height?

- is it from any sort of ground? farmer's soil? rocky ground? and so on?

- quite importantly: can this magic be dispelled?

- how thick is this island? huge slabs of earth below? or just a few meters? siege weapons can be problematic... as do strong enough spells.

- any way you can also make it (and those on it) invisible? sort of sphere of invisibility, just greater and permanent? (you'll need a way for the people to see each other though)

i'd advise against a village- what good will farmers do? beside- they will need a water source (which can be problematic) and sheep and cattle will be hard to keep.

barracks and fortress might do, if: your fort is on strong enough ground (however, i don't know much fortresses so small...), the island can't be easily dispelled, and it can withstand siege weapons.

we might advise better if we know the goals of your party. :smallconfused:

OK, here goes:

A) I can control its height at will, as far as I know. I don't think it has much of a limit, though I imagine it gets harder to escape gravity the further up you go.

B) I think it has to be primarily earth as opposed to stone or sand, but I'm unsure. It's an archaic ritual, I only know the bare bones of it really.

C) I don't think it can be dispelled, it seems to be immensely powerful.

D) It's very thick. It's not like a disc, it's like it's been ripped out of the earth, so it has a tapered shape if you can imagine. About 50 meters thick at the centre, I would guess.

E) I don't personally have a way of making it invisible, but I'm sure I could find one.

F) I agree with your point about farmers, but if it was a trade village only, it would be fine. As for what we could trade, the words finders keepers spring to mind. Swoop over a village or town, let loose our spells and men, take the valuables and leave. Not at all inconspicuous.

G) As to our goals... It seems idiotic, but we both want to rule the world (Though we don't want to share... :smalltongue:). When we've worked together long enough to destroy all threats, we will inevitably end up attempting to destroy each other. My advantage is that this island will be keyed to my commands, so my compatriot (excellent word, compatriot) will not be able to use it. For our short term goals, though... Money, destruction, slavery and power.

Karoht
2011-10-27, 04:40 PM
You just won at... life.I might just have to sig that.


Seriously, what's not to love about a floating city with a circus. Circus pulls into town, town gets entertainment for a few days, town gets robbed blind, circus leaves. Any issues, town gets subjugated.

OR treat the floating city like a luxury cruise liner. It pulls into town, the rich folk come to to relax for a few days, the city floats away a little bit heavier after robbing some rich folk. Or killing them. Or kidnapping/ransoming them. Etc.

Mr.Moron
2011-10-27, 04:46 PM
Fortress of Doom, obviously.

Mastikator
2011-10-27, 04:46 PM
If you can control its altitude and move it around then basically you got yourself a giant indestructible flying ship.
Put a fort on it and make it your head quarters. I would advice against making it a trade city since it will be hard to get on it and off it given that it's up in the air.

You can rent it out to warlords for money, offer their armies transportation for gold. With a large fort that covers the entire island and has lets say 8 levels you got yourself circa 40 000 square meters (40x40xpix8), if you put 1 soldier per 4 square meter you can transport 10 000 soldiers. With avian advantage that can let you facilitate some very exciting conquests, considering that you suddenly can penetrate any fortifications as long as you fly high enough.

When you're rich enough to buy your own army, start conquering.

Scarey Nerd
2011-10-27, 04:48 PM
If you can control its altitude and move it around then basically you got yourself a giant indestructible flying ship.
Put a fort on it and make it your head quarters. I would advice against making it a trade city since it will be hard to get on it and off it given that it's up in the air.

You can rent it out to warlords for money, offer their armies transportation for gold. With a large fort that covers the entire island and has lets say 8 levels you got yourself circa 40 000 square meters (40x40xpix8), if you put 1 soldier per 4 square meter you can transport 10 000 soldiers. With avian advantage that can let you facilitate some very exciting conquests, considering that you suddenly can penetrate any fortifications as long as you fly high enough.

When you're rich enough to buy your own army, start conquering.

I can see it now... "Tyrants Taxi: Your army to the battle on time or your money back!"

nedz
2011-10-27, 04:59 PM
Wrap it in a sphere of metal armour, except for a concave dish which focusses three energy beams capable of destroying entire planets villages. Don't forget that you will need a ventillation shaft.

Scarey Nerd
2011-10-27, 05:02 PM
Wrap it in a sphere of metal armour, except for a concave dish which focusses three energy beams capable of destroying entire planets villages. Don't forget that you will need a ventillation shaft.

Hmm... How would one build a tractor beam in D&D? :smallbiggrin:

The Reverend
2011-10-27, 05:06 PM
the type of earth you do this on will be very important. If Stone is not an option I would go with a dense stony clay. you can park the thing over a small volcano and bake the clay rock hard...make sure carve attachment points in the bottom of the clay before you harden it.

if these aren't options put ironwood sapling or some other suitable magiclyhard living plant on the bottom of the fortress to act as natural armor

also you will need some sort of magical source of water on this thing.

put portals to elemental planes, preferably the demi plane of molten metal or molten rock or molten glass or acid at the edge, park above armies instant siege weapon. elemental plane of lightning and have a system of trailing wires to drag and as a defensive system. pass stream of water in front of portal of utter cold and get an rain of ice daggers. giant size quiver of endless arrows, turn upside down rain them down forever.


oh and hang people in cages from the bottom.
just a few evil ideas.

Lord Il Palazzo
2011-10-27, 05:09 PM
The forum ate my post so I had to retype. Sorry if I'm a bit behind the discussion:


questions:
- how high can you float it? do you control the height?

- is it from any sort of ground? farmer's soil? rocky ground? and so on?

- quite importantly: can this magic be dispelled?

- how thick is this island? huge slabs of earth below? or just a few meters? siege weapons can be problematic... as do strong enough spells.If you can get a decent thickness, you could try building down rather than up. You could own the world's first flying underground base.


- any way you can also make it (and those on it) invisible? sort of sphere of invisibility, just greater and permanent? (you'll need a way for the people to see each other though)And the edges. Don't forget a way to see the edges.


i'd advise against a village- what good will farmers do? beside- they will need a water source (which can be problematic) and sheep and cattle will be hard to keep.Agriculture takes up a lot of space for what it produces. Skip the village.


barracks and fortress might do, if: your fort is on strong enough ground (however, i don't know much fortresses so small...), the island can't be easily dispelled, and it can withstand siege weapons.Assuming the island's round, you have about 7800 square meters (or almost 85000 square feet, if you prefer). You could certainly fit some pretty decent fortifications with that kind of space. Even if you put up a 10 foot thick wall all the way around it, you'd still have over 5000 square meters (54000 square feet) in which to build. For reference, the central keep of the Tower of London (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Tower_(Tower_of_London))has a 1152 sq. m. footprint (36 m. by 32 m.). You've got space for a building roughly four times that size.


we might advise better if we know the goals of your party. :smallconfused:EDIT: Got it. Amassing power and doing general evil, for now.

All of the above being said, you might want to establish a base somewhere on solid ground and use the island to transport your party and appropriate backup troops wherever you need them. Living on the island full time would probably get a bit claustrophobic.

nedz
2011-10-27, 05:25 PM
Wrap it in a leathery sphere with a large circular opening on one edge covered in a permanent illusion of an eye. Have ten leathery covered movable platforms covered with permanent illusions of smaller eyes. Place a suitable sorceror/wizard in each of the eyes.

deuxhero
2011-10-27, 05:26 PM
Steampunk!

http://images.wikia.com/batenkaitos/images/c/c1/Alfardempire-BK-EWatLO.png

Scarey Nerd
2011-10-27, 05:28 PM
Steampunk!

http://images.wikia.com/batenkaitos/images/c/c1/Alfardempire-BK-EWatLO.png

Gods... That picture is beautiful... And not just because I am in love with Steampunk anyway.

legomaster00156
2011-10-27, 05:38 PM
When we've worked together long enough to destroy all threats, we will inevitably end up attempting to destroy each other. My advantage is that this island will be keyed to my commands, so my compatriot (excellent word, compatriot) will not be able to use it. For our short term goals, though... Money, destruction, slavery and power.

Direct the block of land above your battle. Use a free action to tell it to drop, and an appropriate standard action to teleport away before it squashes you both. :smallwink: No, that doesn't have anything to do with the current issue, but just a tip for later down the road. By the time you two duke it out, you won't be needing it anymore.

Scarey Nerd
2011-10-27, 05:50 PM
Direct the block of land above your battle. Use a free action to tell it to drop, and an appropriate standard action to teleport away before it squashes you both. :smallwink: No, that doesn't have anything to do with the current issue, but just a tip for later down the road. By the time you two duke it out, you won't be needing it anymore.

When we duke it out... That's gonna be an interesting day... I'm doing my best to think of strategies to kill him but it comes down to the simple fact that he does more damage than I do, and the difference in our health totals is pretty small. I'm sure I'll think of something, but...

deuxhero
2011-10-27, 06:10 PM
Gods... That picture is beautiful... And not just because I am in love with Steampunk anyway.

It's from Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (and yes, it is an amazing looking game, which you should play).

Instead of steampunk, you could use lots and lots of illicit drugs.

http://images.wikia.com/batenkaitos/images/8/8b/Mira-High_Qiality.jpg

The Reverend
2011-10-27, 06:10 PM
1.create a permanent portal on a large movable piece of adamantium
2.throw permanent adamantium portal into volcano
3.find a way to cast quickened portal on your enemy
4. he portals under a half mile of molten lava.

taaaa daaaaaah

replace adamantium and volcano with suitable magical substance and elemental plane of negative energy.

KillianHawkeye
2011-10-27, 06:59 PM
Stables for wyverns. Barracks for wyvern riders.

Edog
2011-10-27, 09:16 PM
I like the idea of dropping the island with your "friend" still on it. If it were me, though, I'd turn it upside down first, though.

Scarey Nerd
2011-10-28, 04:47 AM
I like the idea of dropping the island with your "friend" still on it. If it were me, though, I'd turn it upside down first, though.

I don't know if I can affect its pitch. Ascent and yaw, certainly, and I think I can change it between moving and still, but that's about it. It doesn't have speed settings or an ability to pitch it, so I think upside down might be an unreachable goal, unfortunately.

SlyGuyMcFly
2011-10-28, 05:05 AM
Stick a fort on top of it and hollow it out to a reasonable degree. Add docking bays for the wyverns/eagles/drakes/airships (cross out as applicable to your setting), get an interior decorator to spruce the place up and proceed to enjoy your new shiny base of operations.

Other suggested facilites include barracks for the Legions of Evil™, training grounds, drake hatchery, slave and/or servant quarters, teleportation beacon, throne room, audience chambers, torture room, dungeons, treasure room, laboratories, library and last but not least a chapel for marrying kidnapped princesses.

Asheram
2011-10-28, 05:09 AM
1. Find some very dense material deposit.

2. Make it fly.

3. Make cities pay for protection lest you'll land then island on them.

4. Profit.

Eldan
2011-10-28, 05:48 AM
How much weight can the island carry?

Because I'd immediately start building my infinitely high tower on top of it.

Coidzor
2011-10-28, 06:05 AM
What kind of Z axis does this island have? Because if it's basically most of a sphere with the top flattened out, then you can just make it into a space ship.

And by that I mean you can make it into an asteroid dropping weapon and extort money from surface worlders who don't want their cities destroyed.

...Not really sure how you'd best go about extorting money from anything that lives below the surface though. Maybe get them into a bidding war against some of their surface world enemies about whether you'll take out a given capital or not.


Stick a fort on top of it and hollow it out to a reasonable degree. Add docking bays for the wyverns/eagles/drakes/airships (cross out as applicable to your setting), get an interior decorator to spruce the place up and proceed to enjoy your new shiny base of operations.

Alternatively, make a whole network of scaffolding off of the central island and make a floating pirate airship haven. :smallbiggrin:

Mastikator
2011-10-28, 06:12 AM
How much weight can the island carry?

Because I'd immediately start building my infinitely high tower on top of it.

Someone has been playing the adequate amount of Minecraft, I see.

Eldan
2011-10-28, 06:12 AM
Get a long adamantine cable and build a "space" elevator?

Knight9910
2011-10-28, 06:26 AM
I like the idea of a flying castle for your evil forces. High enough up that you don't need to worry about your victims raising armies and assaulting it, because even though flight is easily achieved in DnD, it's hard to get an entire army in the air. Since you said it can move it's also convenient! You can move your army where it's needed without a long march to wear them down.

Eldan
2011-10-28, 06:30 AM
Then get enough rings of feather fall and play "Orbital drop" with them :smallbiggrin:

Knight9910
2011-10-28, 06:41 AM
Mwahahaha! It's perfect!

legomaster00156
2011-10-28, 07:48 AM
Then get enough rings of feather fall and play "Orbital drop" with them :smallbiggrin:

For a small army of 5,000 soldiers, that will cost 11,000,000 gold.

Show
2011-10-28, 07:55 AM
How does this sound for a suitably villainous proposition:
Kidnap the next village you raid. Fly away with it, and proceed to build your Evil Tower of Evil(tm), thereby giving any hero within eight hundred miles a magnificent reason to hunt you down. Besides fighting epic duels with unlikely heroes (all orphans, of course), you could otherwise spend your time brooding in your dead village and otherwise acting like the emotionally unstable mad genious you are.

Alternatively, I will ask a question: Are you the overlord type of evil fellow or do you tend to act with only a small group? While actually having a fortress is nice, I just love the idea of an isolated, dark island in the clouds, either sparsely covered with ruins or an unrealistically large and disquieting mansion. If you really need something done, take a look at necromancy and populate your village with Skeletons. The living can be so much trouble.

Eldan
2011-10-28, 08:53 AM
For a small army of 5,000 soldiers, that will cost 11,000,000 gold.

Good point. Buy a wand of Wall of Iron first. :smalltongue:

Scarey Nerd
2011-10-28, 09:11 AM
How does this sound for a suitably villainous proposition:
Kidnap the next village you raid. Fly away with it, and proceed to build your Evil Tower of Evil(tm), thereby giving any hero within eight hundred miles a magnificent reason to hunt you down. Besides fighting epic duels with unlikely heroes (all orphans, of course), you could otherwise spend your time brooding in your dead village and otherwise acting like the emotionally unstable mad genious you are.

Alternatively, I will ask a question: Are you the overlord type of evil fellow or do you tend to act with only a small group? While actually having a fortress is nice, I just love the idea of an isolated, dark island in the clouds, either sparsely covered with ruins or an unrealistically large and disquieting mansion. If you really need something done, take a look at necromancy and populate your village with Skeletons. The living can be so much trouble.

Am I the overlord type? I act in a small group or alone at the moment, because I need money and respect. We adventure to create a reputation. But soon... Soon I will become master of all things. King of nations, king of kings, Marek the Firebrand, overlord of the world, the Demon Warlock, wielder of the Hellfire of Mephistopheles, the Flame Ascendant. And the world will burn at my will.

Does that answer your question? :smallwink:

Eldan
2011-10-28, 09:14 AM
Then let's be a bit more specific to your needs.

Fire:
First of all, find a fire-proof method of instantaneous transportation. Ask the Dm if you can wrap a ring gate in Riverrine.
Take one Ring Gate, fasten it below your flying island. Put a Riverrine plate over it.
Sink the other ring gate into a volcano.

-> Magma cannon.

Tyndmyr
2011-10-28, 10:13 AM
i'd advise against a village- what good will farmers do? beside- they will need a water source (which can be problematic) and sheep and cattle will be hard to keep.

Decanter of endless water to form a river, and a waterfall from the sky. Feel free to add a water wheel to harvest energy from this to turn a giant steampunk propeller to sail your flying island around.

Solaris
2011-10-28, 12:38 PM
For a small army of 5,000 soldiers, that will cost 11,000,000 gold.

You'd be amazed at what just a few dozen can do.

Knight9910
2011-10-28, 01:15 PM
For a small army of 5,000 soldiers, that will cost 11,000,000 gold.

Spoilsport. :smalltongue:




{blah blah blah}

-> Magma cannon.

I vote that this idea wins.

DoctorGlock
2011-10-28, 01:23 PM
Then let's be a bit more specific to your needs.

Fire:
First of all, find a fire-proof method of instantaneous transportation. Ask the Dm if you can wrap a ring gate in Riverrine.
Take one Ring Gate, fasten it below your flying island. Put a Riverrine plate over it.
Sink the other ring gate into a volcano.

-> Magma cannon.

Eldan wins at everything. He thinks with portals.

Coidzor
2011-10-28, 02:00 PM
Eldan wins at everything. He thinks with portals.

Aye. I was just trying to think of a way to use them to drop giant rocks from space.

...Now I'm imagining dropping lava. From space. ...I'm so confused right now.:smallconfused:

Eldan
2011-10-28, 04:16 PM
The problem?

Ring gates are limited to 100 pounds per day.

The interesting thing?

By the DMG, Magma deals 2d6 damage no matter how much of it is used.

The Solution?

Shoot tiny droplets of magma.

LibraryOgre
2011-10-28, 07:57 PM
Have none of you read Dragonlance Chronicles?

Anyway, the Dragonlords used such a device. In addition to putting their human soldiers in it, they'd also put draconians on it. Draconians (the stolen, corrupted eggs of metallic dragons) weren't that great at flight, but they could glide. Airborne troops destroy morale, much less troops.

Just as much as flight changes the skirmish field, it does so immeasurably more for the battlefield. All those nice choke points where they can hole up an army for months? Useless. Siege engines designed to throw a rock a long way seldom do so UP, while a hovering fortress can just drop things on people... no need for engineering, just gravity. Supply lines become supply points, far easier to defend, but no less capable of projecting power. A single flying castle makes the world a much more dangerous place for the enemies of whoever owns it.

My suggestion would be to start with building the castle. Build it strong, on stone. Then rip the stone from the ground and set if flying.

Morghen
2011-10-28, 10:22 PM
Your castle needs retainers: Humongous library with librarian.
Apothecary with potion-making monkey.
Item-shop with item-making monkey.

Your castle/island needs defended with ballistae around the edge. Instead of standard ballista bolts, each has a rope (or cable if that's feasible) attached to a heavy weight. The bolt may not kill the target, but a 100 lb stone is going to make flying a lot more difficult.

Also, weighted nets.

deuxhero
2011-10-29, 12:30 AM
The problem?

Ring gates are limited to 100 pounds per day.

The interesting thing?

By the DMG, Magma deals 2d6 damage no matter how much of it is used.

The Solution?

Shoot tiny droplets of magma.

Wouldn't that just become a pebble in midair?

Siosilvar
2011-10-29, 04:22 PM
Wouldn't that just become a pebble in midair?

That depends on how much magma you use, the distance from the target, and how many catgirls you're willing to kill.

DoctorGlock
2011-10-29, 04:54 PM
That depends on how much magma you use, the distance from the target, and how many catgirls you're willing to kill.

The kind of man to build a lava cannon and actually use it probably cares little for the welfare of the catgirls. Or anyone else.

Doorhandle
2011-10-29, 05:10 PM
The kind of man to build a lava cannon and actually use it probably cares little for the welfare of the catgirls. Or anyone else.


Alternatively, he is a dwarf.

INDYSTAR188
2011-10-29, 05:13 PM
What if you were to take a section of a massive graveyard or some mausoleum and then animate the inhabitants? Instant floating undead army, no wasting room for stupid villagers or farms!

Rixx
2011-10-29, 05:14 PM
I, too, like the "ring gates with lava" idea.

Make sure to put a lot of weapons on this thing.

nedz
2011-10-29, 05:58 PM
Your castle/island needs defended with ballistae around the edge. Instead of standard ballista bolts, each has a rope (or cable if that's feasible) attached to a heavy weight. The bolt may not kill the target, but a 100 lb stone is going to make flying a lot more difficult.

If we modify this idea slightly and have the ballistae fire large magnets then we have a tractor beam - well for fighters anyway.
Add a dolop of sovereign glue on the end and you can real in anything.

Siosilvar
2011-10-29, 10:06 PM
The kind of man to build a lava cannon and actually use it probably cares little for the welfare of the catgirls. Or anyone else.

The amount of catgirls killed is inversely proportional to the effectiveness of the weapon.

0 catgirls: Weapon deals 2d6 damage per drop of lava.
11 catgirls: Weapon deals 2d6 damage per 5' square affected.
30 catgirls: Weapon deals 1d6 damage per drop of lava, because there's no way a drop of lava can do as much damage as dipping your foot into a vat of lava.
165 catgirls: Lava cools in midair, does 1d6 residual heat damage.
210 catgirls: Weapon does 1 damage per drop, for the same reasons as the 30-catgirl version above.
312 catgirls: Weapon does 1 damage per 5' square.
457 catgirls: Lava cools in midair, does no damage.
806 catgirls: Lava cools in midair, does no damage, and here's the math to prove it.

Ashram
2011-10-29, 10:29 PM
Clearly, you need to have a shrine in the center of your island with a giant, glowing emerald in it.

http://www.randomsonicnet.org/srz/s3limages/sisland.gif

Doorhandle
2011-10-30, 01:02 AM
The amount of catgirls killed is inversely proportional to the effectiveness of the weapon.

0 catgirls: Weapon deals 2d6 damage per drop of lava.
11 catgirls: Weapon deals 2d6 damage per 5' square affected.
30 catgirls: Weapon deals 1d6 damage per drop of lava, because there's no way a drop of lava can do as much damage as dipping your foot into a vat of lava.
165 catgirls: Lava cools in midair, does 1d6 residual heat damage.
210 catgirls: Weapon does 1 damage per drop, for the same reasons as the 30-catgirl version above.
312 catgirls: Weapon does 1 damage per 5' square.
457 catgirls: Lava cools in midair, does no damage.
806 catgirls: Lava cools in midair, does no damage, and here's the math to prove it.

B.T.W, if it cools in midair instead of being melted the victims are crushed under hundreds of tonnes of volcanic rock. Win-win.

DoctorGlock
2011-10-30, 04:48 AM
B.T.W, if it cools in midair instead of being melted the victims are crushed under hundreds of tonnes of volcanic rock. Win-win.

Ring gate only transports 100 lbs of matter (about 48kg). So more like a fair amount of localized golfball sized hail

Scarey Nerd
2011-10-30, 05:09 AM
How much money do you think it would cost to build a fortress in gold pieces? I'm just wondering how many innocent towns I'm going to need to pillage for the money (though it'll probably be less than I want to :smallamused:)

DoctorGlock
2011-10-30, 06:53 AM
How much money do you think it would cost to build a fortress in gold pieces? I'm just wondering how many innocent towns I'm going to need to pillage for the money (though it'll probably be less than I want to :smallamused:)

Depends what you add to the fortress, check stronghold builder's guide for fun stuff like prismatic shielding and fortress teleportation. You will need crafting cost reducers, an artificer cohort, landlord feat and alot of other wealth hacks but can have a flying, teleporting, unbreachable laser spewing fortress of doom complete with barracks, office suites, pipe organs and a spa

white rider
2011-10-30, 11:56 AM
Huge castle: 1,000,000gp
100 ballistas: 500,000gp
100 wyverns: 5,000,000gp
raining fire and death on your enemies from above: priceless

Randomguy
2011-10-30, 01:31 PM
With a floating island, you could own the sky! Start with a flat fee for unlimited use. Then introduce a new plan to charge for every individual application. A fee for shade, a fee each for rain, sleet, snow and hail, a thunder & lightning combo package. Then, when everyone hates the new plan, return to the flat fee, which will be four times higher than it was before, and people will thank you for it.

5 internets to whoever gets the reference.


But seriously, just mount it with a create food trap, a create water trap and a cure minor wounds trap, all self-resetting and unlimited use, possibly merging all three into one trap to reduce price, some sleeping area and then as much long ranged weaponry as you can handle.

Remember that ring gates don't count items that are put halfway through as part of their limit, so you can give a sneaky character with a ring of invisibility, one of the gates and a cloak of flying and have a large amount of casters look through the other ring waiting for a suitable target to present itself. The sneaky guy will never need to reactivate his invisibility, since he's just holding the ring gate for the casters to cast through, not actually attacking.

deuxhero
2011-10-30, 01:51 PM
That depends on how much magma you use, the distance from the target, and how many catgirls you're willing to kill.

Shifter or Catfolk?


We're Evil so it doesn't matter how many die.

Scarey Nerd
2011-10-30, 01:53 PM
Shifter or Catfolk?


We're Evil so it doesn't matter how many die.

Correction, we're Evil so it definitely matters how many people die. Below 1,000 is unacceptable.

Sith_Happens
2011-10-31, 08:36 PM
When we duke it out... That's gonna be an interesting day... I'm doing my best to think of strategies to kill him but it comes down to the simple fact that he does more damage than I do, and the difference in our health totals is pretty small. I'm sure I'll think of something, but...

You're the one who posted that thread about Vorcaious Dispelling, right? In which case your compatriot is a Sorcerer with mostly lightning spells? Is so, then picking electricity as one of your Energy Resistance types is obviously where to start. I'll let others figure out the rest.

As for the floating island, I just have one piece of advice: Make it out of a black onyx mine.:xykon:

Siosilvar
2011-10-31, 09:38 PM
Correction, we're Evil so it definitely matters how many people die. Below 1,000 is unacceptable.

At that rate, you're not going to have a whole lot to rule over...

Sith_Happens
2011-10-31, 10:23 PM
At that rate, you're not going to have a whole lot to rule over...

Hence why I suggested the black onyx mine.:smallwink:

Morghen
2011-11-01, 10:59 AM
What do we put on it?You missed it. The top of your island is 100m across.

The top of your island is 100m across.

Nothing says you can't make a pact with some nasty big flying critter to keep its treasure intact in exchange for occasionally defending your island. Most of the time, you won't even need it to come out of it's caves. But now and then, when your enemies brings some serious artillery, having the option to whistle up a dragon is going to be HUGE. Also, that's a lot of flair.

The Reverend
2011-11-01, 12:16 PM
I like the undead option. Undead Pegasi with bowman, or javelin droppers. Blink dog cavalry, always like that option.

As for dealing with your rival, a tricki saw used VERY effectively is to poison him with water from the river Styx, I think that's the right river. He fails the poison check and boom no memory. Abuse this him your leisure.


Oh and dont destroy towns, tax them. Labor and/or resources are just as valuable and make sure to publicly kill the Sh!t out of something threatening your fiefdom at least once or twice a year.

Scarey Nerd
2011-11-01, 12:34 PM
You missed it. The top of your island is 100m across.

The top of your island is 100m across.

Nothing says you can't make a pact with some nasty big flying critter to keep its treasure intact in exchange for occasionally defending your island. Most of the time, you won't even need it to come out of it's caves. But now and then, when your enemies brings some serious artillery, having the option to whistle up a dragon is going to be HUGE. Also, that's a lot of flair.

I REALLY like that idea! I'm definitely going to do that, the idea of a friendly Green Dragon is good :smallbiggrin: (I'd prefer a Red Dragon but I don't really want a Chaotic Evil Dragon under my floor...)

Beleriphon
2011-11-01, 07:28 PM
I REALLY like that idea! I'm definitely going to do that, the idea of a friendly Green Dragon is good :smallbiggrin: (I'd prefer a Red Dragon but I don't really want a Chaotic Evil Dragon under my floor...)

Especially when he decides you'd make a better snack than partner?

As for flying partners, manticores and chimeras are the way to go. As I recall they're generally bright enough to follow orders, but dumb enough to not form their own plans for over throwing you. Also harpies.

Dr.Epic
2011-11-01, 07:42 PM
Floating island? Did they happen to find this book on a pile of unobtanium?:smallwink:

Morghen
2011-11-01, 10:10 PM
I REALLY like that idea! I'm definitely going to do that, the idea of a friendly Green Dragon is good :smallbiggrin: (I'd prefer a Red Dragon but I don't really want a Chaotic Evil Dragon under my floor...)
Especially when he decides you'd make a better snack than partner?You must be thinking about one of the dumb dragons. Or maybe a huge flying orc. Because a smart dragon is going to recognize that trading security for a single meal is exceedingly stupid.

Cerlis
2011-11-02, 01:22 AM
Might be a good time to start building the lab and farming the babies for a future, Soul, Mind, minion, zombie and alternate body factory. Which i might add, you can all do at the same time.

I say start cus you'd still need high lvl evil spells later.

Scarey Nerd
2011-11-02, 02:47 AM
Floating island? Did they happen to find this book on a pile of unobtanium?:smallwink:

The Mage's Guild of Baldur's Gate SOMEHOW got destroyed, can't imagine how, wasn't us. Nope. Certainly not. Anyhoo, we found this ritual book in the ruins, and rejoicing sang throughout the heavens. Hells. Whatever.

Dr.Epic
2011-11-02, 04:48 AM
The Mage's Guild of Baldur's Gate SOMEHOW got destroyed, can't imagine how, wasn't us. Nope. Certainly not. Anyhoo, we found this ritual book in the ruins, and rejoicing sang throughout the heavens. Hells. Whatever.

Was it destroyed by a hostile, outside, alien military force that blew it up to get to an extremely rare element lying beneath the Guild? And the Guild happens to be a tree.:smallwink:

The Reverend
2011-11-02, 12:24 PM
I think I will add a flying island to my Rifts campaign I'm thumbnailing.

Scarey Nerd
2011-11-02, 02:35 PM
Was it destroyed by a hostile, outside, alien military force that blew it up to get to an extremely rare element lying beneath the Guild? And the Guild happens to be a tree.:smallwink:

Gods that was a terrible film... As a budding scientist I wanted to scream the whole way through...

Not so much a hostile alien force... A Lich grew out of his phylactery in the guild and ripped his way out, then tore the place apart with a fiery tornado. Naturally we contributed to its destruction as we fought the Lich, destroying the building even further :smallbiggrin:

The Reverend
2011-11-02, 03:33 PM
Nice I like the idea of the liche coming back inside the guild.

Yes that movie had so much potential. My dad, as an army Colonel, said it made no sense. They can lift things into orbit why not just use use an orbital strike, you obviously dont care if they live.
Otherwise why not just use tunneling machinery so they dont notice. If its worth sooooo much just do that. I also couldn't believe that metal wasn't floating around that system somewhere, they didn't even put a lampshade on that spotlight.

Scarey Nerd
2011-11-02, 03:51 PM
If anyone's interested, the story of that Lich is thus (Warning, LONG. He was part of about 3 sessions, and our games are pretty fast paced.)

We entered Athkatla and our compass of "detect plot" started freaking out because it was detecting something incredibly magical. We went inside an inn that the needle was veering to most and there was noone inside apart from the barkeeper, who looked sort of dead. Not actually dead, but pretty... lifeless. He said that the Pyromancer had left something in the inn. The sorcerer detected magic and we found a seal on the wall. We asked the barkeep for a candle and touched it to the seal, and the fire activated it, revealing a secret passage. We went down and found a sarcophagus surrounded by 8 chests acting as canopic jars, sort of. We opened the coffin and were greeted by a scream from the thing inside. It said "YOU ARE NOT THE PYROMANCER!" and prepared to destroy us.

We told him to wait, and asked if the pyromancer was Xzar, and the Lich said yes. We told him we had seen him with an object of considerable magical power headed towards Baldur's Gate, and the Lich told us that he had commanded Xzar to find and return his phylactery, which is the magical object. He went MENTAL, and stopped time, freezing us. He was pacing and muttering oaths in an ancient language, then beckoned towards me and I was freed from the time stop and floated towards him. Before he could speak, I pledged myself to his service and said that we would find the phylactery for him, which he accepted as a deal.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I had made the matron mother of the Drow think that the leader of the shadow thieves of Athkatla was becoming the "sword-bearer" (Our campaign was about a sword of the Githyanki broken into 9 parts and scattered throughout Faerun), and she marched to war with the city. Her army destroyed the place, releasing the prison that the Lich was in. We met him again as we were looking for a shard in the east, and we found a town with a strange miasma over it. We entered the town hall where there was a magical reading, and he was in a throne of bones being attended to by minions. After a few scans, we determined that the shard was in his skull. I tried to get the sorcerer to leave, we could come back for this one when we were stronger, but he of course ignored me and shocking grasped the Lich. We dueled him and almost died, but we eventually slew him and took the shard and his equipment.

Fast forward a while again, we get to Baldur's Gate, go to the mage's guild and find Xzar with the phylactery. He's trying desperately to destroy it, but he was not powerful enough, we hypothesised that the only thing that we have to hand to destroy it would be the sword, which needed one last shard, which we knew Montaron had (Xzar's halfling companion). Trouble was, the Lich was crawling out slowly... We went and found Montaron in an inn and killed him, and took the last shard. Cue massive dramatic scene of power flowing into the sorcerer's veins as it assembled. We returned to the guild in time to see a massive hole in the wall as Xzar was thrown about 500 yards by the reborn Lich. We dueled him again, and slew him, with Azrael destroying the phylactery for good. Fin.

On an on topic note: What would we need to offer to a dragon to get it to stay to us, other than a home? They're incredibly powerful so security probably isn't its main focus I'm guessing.

wiimanclassic
2011-11-02, 05:00 PM
If anyone's interested, the story of that Lich is thus (Warning, LONG. He was part of about 3 sessions, and our games are pretty fast paced.)

We entered Athkatla and our compass of "detect plot" started freaking out because it was detecting something incredibly magical. We went inside an inn that the needle was veering to most and there was noone inside apart from the barkeeper, who looked sort of dead. Not actually dead, but pretty... lifeless. He said that the Pyromancer had left something in the inn. The sorcerer detected magic and we found a seal on the wall. We asked the barkeep for a candle and touched it to the seal, and the fire activated it, revealing a secret passage. We went down and found a sarcophagus surrounded by 8 chests acting as canopic jars, sort of. We opened the coffin and were greeted by a scream from the thing inside. It said "YOU ARE NOT THE PYROMANCER!" and prepared to destroy us.

We told him to wait, and asked if the pyromancer was Xzar, and the Lich said yes. We told him we had seen him with an object of considerable magical power headed towards Baldur's Gate, and the Lich told us that he had commanded Xzar to find and return his phylactery, which is the magical object. He went MENTAL, and stopped time, freezing us. He was pacing and muttering oaths in an ancient language, then beckoned towards me and I was freed from the time stop and floated towards him. Before he could speak, I pledged myself to his service and said that we would find the phylactery for him, which he accepted as a deal.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I had made the matron mother of the Drow think that the leader of the shadow thieves of Athkatla was becoming the "sword-bearer" (Our campaign was about a sword of the Githyanki broken into 9 parts and scattered throughout Faerun), and she marched to war with the city. Her army destroyed the place, releasing the prison that the Lich was in. We met him again as we were looking for a shard in the east, and we found a town with a strange miasma over it. We entered the town hall where there was a magical reading, and he was in a throne of bones being attended to by minions. After a few scans, we determined that the shard was in his skull. I tried to get the sorcerer to leave, we could come back for this one when we were stronger, but he of course ignored me and shocking grasped the Lich. We dueled him and almost died, but we eventually slew him and took the shard and his equipment.

Fast forward a while again, we get to Baldur's Gate, go to the mage's guild and find Xzar with the phylactery. He's trying desperately to destroy it, but he was not powerful enough, we hypothesised that the only thing that we have to hand to destroy it would be the sword, which needed one last shard, which we knew Montaron had (Xzar's halfling companion). Trouble was, the Lich was crawling out slowly... We went and found Montaron in an inn and killed him, and took the last shard. Cue massive dramatic scene of power flowing into the sorcerer's veins as it assembled. We returned to the guild in time to see a massive hole in the wall as Xzar was thrown about 500 yards by the reborn Lich. We dueled him again, and slew him, with Azrael destroying the phylactery for good. Fin.

On an on topic note: What would we need to offer to a dragon to get it to stay to us, other than a home? They're incredibly powerful so security probably isn't its main focus I'm guessing.

A home, a cut of any profit you make, like say 40ish%, even if he doesn't help, some live stock to eat, maybe a baby or 3, and maybe some favors.

Morghen
2011-11-02, 09:34 PM
On an on topic note: What would we need to offer to a dragon to get it to stay to us, other than a home? What I'd start by offering a dragon: A big-ass chunk of money. Giving him a cut would be silly, because before long you're going to be pulling in phat lootz as a high-level caster. Offer it a one-time pile of magical gear and maybe a per-defense rate of payment.


They're incredibly powerful so security probably isn't its main focus I'm guessing.Security is exactly it's main focus.

If I'm 600 years old and of a race that is known to hoard treasure, I'm probably aware that people who are actively looking for treasure are going to be looking for me. If I can put my hoard in a hard-to-reach place, I immediately remove any chance of low-level chumps stumbling across it while I'm gone. If I can put it in an extremely-hard-to-reach place (like a floating island), that's even better.

If I can put it in an extremely-hard-to-reach place that is owned by a couple of 10th-level (and rising) casters bent on accumulating as much power as they can, and who are willing to spend a bunch of money/resources to protect their own base of operations, I'm going to do it.

Now, I'll make it perfectly clear that I'm not their pet, their mascot, or their buddy. In fact, they don't even have a dragon living in their island. (http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/200/6/3/First_Rule_of_Fight_Club_by_MariuxV.jpg) What? That would be ridiculous. I may never talk to them, may never even acknowledge their existence.

But. By god, when the **** hits the fan and somebody presents a serious threat to my hoard and home, I'm putting those sons of bitches down. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0ndsXVaPwc)

TheDarkDM
2011-11-02, 11:14 PM
Well, since you're going to be flying about in your Stately Pleasure Fortress of Doom, you obviously want to make an impression. So why ride around with drippy dirt or clay when you can have adamantine plating? Just occupy the nearest source of the metal (steel will do if your geographic are happens to lack an adamantine mine), and have your new slaves devoted servants armor the underside of your island. Then etch the entire thing in arcane sigils and roll into Silverymoon in style:


http://shavingpoints.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/independence-day-movie.jpeg

Now, for your main weapon, ring gates are good, but a voice activated two way portal is better. Price should be no object in your ambitions for the Stately Pleasure Fortress of Doom, so craft one of the portals into the very heart of your island (pointing down, preferably near your Throne of Supreme Dominance) and craft the other out of Adamantine before throwing it into a fire lake on the elemental plane of Fire. Now you have a central weapons system without that pesky 100 pound limit. Sure, you'll have to rediscover the ancient magics of portal construction, but that should be on your list anyway.

Moving on to the fortress itself, most of the important areas should be built underground and dimension locked. Invite your preferred guardian creature to lair on the "surface," and use the remaining space to construct your lavish estate. For extra fun, conceal the opening to your wyvern stables behind sliding doors on the island's side so that you can deploy them in a surprise attack. For static defenses beside the Cannon of Elemental Fury, invest in Wands of Lightning Bolt and position one every ten meters around the perimeter of your island. Key those sixty wands to a central control point within the fortress section of the island. Now you have an above ground paradise (be sure to cultivate an idyllic stream with Decanters of Endless Water) concealing a nigh unstoppable doom fortress (using the runoff from your stream to power your technological terrors). For added fun, dominate your dragon friend when you get sufficiently high level and claim their horde as your own!

DoctorGlock
2011-11-03, 04:26 AM
What I'd start by offering a dragon: A big-ass chunk of money. Giving him a cut would be silly, because before long you're going to be pulling in phat lootz as a high-level caster. Offer it a one-time pile of magical gear and maybe a per-defense rate of payment.

Better than a per defense rate is a per major enemy destroyed, then it will find enemies on it's own before you even have to worry!

Vixsor Lumin
2011-11-04, 01:24 AM
Random idea for your sky fortress of impending doom: what are you doing with the bottom of it? Besides your über cannon underneath your throne, what are you doing? Try stalactites with maximized enlarged (your favorite combat spell here) traps on the tips with the trigger being sudden impact. Then at the top where they connect to you island have a trap of stone to mud with the trigger being you saying "drop payload (and each stalactite has its own number)" and another trap of mud to dust with the trigger "drop payload (#), fire" now you have fiery death hurtling toward the pitiful army beneath you. :smallcool: the stalactite caps out at 20d6 and whatever your spell damage will be.

Mnemnosyne
2011-11-04, 01:49 AM
While this may make some of your own travel more difficult, get a Weirdstone (124 Player's Guide to Faerun). It prevents all astral and ethereal travel, divination (scrying) spells, conjuration (teleportation) spells, and any spell-like, supernatural, or extraordinary abilities like them within a radius of six miles. Do note that it doesn't prevent you from teleporting out, nor does it prevent you from scrying out. Only teleporting or scrying in are prohibited, so you can sit in your throne room scrying, and nobody can scry you back.

While the inconvenience of not being able to teleport directly to your home base might be noticeable, the benefits of being unscryable and having no enemies be able to teleport in on you, and having an entire 12-mile diameter sphere around your home base also unscryable and non-teleporty, are well worth both the inconvenience and the 250,000 GP cost. Any attack at that point would have to come via enemy flyers, so if you have a solid sentry system you can be well prepared. Furthermore, anytime you move your island into position to conduct an assault, you also prevent the enemy from suddenly reinforcing the position with powerful casters by teleporting them in, due to the huge 6 mile radius.

Vixsor Lumin
2011-11-04, 02:26 AM
Also since the fight between you and your power hungry partner is going to happen sometime down the line, try to start giving yourself a homefield advantage. What those would be I have no idea because I don't know your characters. But might I suggest poisons beforehand and trapping him in an adamantine cage with an anti magic field? :xykon:

Scarey Nerd
2011-11-05, 07:18 AM
Also since the fight between you and your power hungry partner is going to happen sometime down the line, try to start giving yourself a homefield advantage. What those would be I have no idea because I don't know your characters. But might I suggest poisons beforehand and trapping him in an adamantine cage with an anti magic field? :xykon:

:amused: I like your thinking... I know Azrael, he'll just take off one day, probably leaving a sarcastic note in his stead saying that he'll be back for me one day. He'll form a small group of powerful magi, I'll have a proper army, there'll be a very, very bloody war. There'll be a final battle because both of our characters have a sense of the dramatic (though neither has levels in Bard), and I'll lure him to the island. Perhaps I can fly through a room, being pursued by him, and lock him in with an AMF...

Vixsor Lumin
2011-11-05, 02:46 PM
:amused: I like your thinking... I know Azrael, he'll just take off one day, probably leaving a sarcastic note in his stead saying that he'll be back for me one day. He'll form a small group of powerful magi, I'll have a proper army, there'll be a very, very bloody war. There'll be a final battle because both of our characters have a sense of the dramatic (though neither has levels in Bard), and I'll lure him to the island. Perhaps I can fly through a room, being pursued by him, and lock him in with an AMF...

Well since were going for the dramtic...... after he leaves bury your island. Set it on the ground and have your massive army bury the edges and use magic to make it look natural. Then change whatever buildings you have on it. Make into a true fortress that looks different from how it was before. Try and make the npc battle happen at the base of the hill your fortress is on. Then have your men retreat up ont your disguised island. Eventually Azreal will slaughter his way to your throne room where you will be waiting. Mandatory bad guy monolouging (sp?) Then BAM drop him down a pit trap with the highest DC you can make into an AMF at the bottom. You can now gloat and practice your evil laugh before activating the ring gates that are halfway down the pit. The other ends of the gates are in various volcanoes across the world. Even if its only one gate 100 lbs of magma should handle him especially when it hardens to stone. And the AMF won't prtect him since the rings are out of its range and the magma pouring down has no magical properties so its unnaffected as well. Instant win. :smallbiggrin:

Calanon
2011-11-05, 08:16 PM
Level 10. The big one for my party, because since level 5 I've had a ritual book with a spell that allows me to raise a floating island 100 meters in diameter from the earth and control its flight. My question is: What do we put on it?

You are aware your DM TECHNICALLY gave you a magical item that can replicate (albeit UBER-nerfed) Proctiv's Move Mountain?

If your a caster than I would probably just use it as an R&D facility for your spells :smalltongue: you could also produce magical items that you can sell or arm a private army with... either way Its recommended that if you have a moving castle in the sky you put "soldiers" if you will on it. Once in a 2nd edition game I played a sick Arcanist and raised a Flying Enclave :smallsmile: most fun I ever had was managing the enclave (arming it, creating an economy, and other governmental stuff like that)

Sith_Happens
2011-11-05, 08:17 PM
Now that I think about it, you might want to wait a while before going through with any of this, for one simple reason: You're in Faerūn, a.k.a. Land of the Epic Level NPCs (Most of Whom Are Wizards). Having a floating doom fortress is pretty much the perfect way to eventually attract the attention of Elminster or the Seven Sisters or one of the other dozens of characters who seem to exist expressly for the purpose of curbstomping any PC's who think they can carve out a major role in the setting.

jjpickar
2011-11-05, 11:11 PM
I would take some inspiration from Gulliver's Travels and spin it like a D&D BBEG, don't make it into a floating fortress at all, rather a flying death trap. Build a small town in Neoclassical style (Think Washington DC) and advertise it as a haven for learning and also hint that there might be some magical knowledge as well. Permanently enchant it with Suggestion spell traps that cause all affected to become lost in thought. Wait for adventurers to show up, become enchanted, and then herd them off the side of the island by hitting them with sacks full of pebbles. For those not affected, have a few monsters and traps scattered around, maybe a dragon in a sort of central area. Also, spread some treasure around near each monster's lair. If you're a lich, hide you're Phylactery somewhere in a heavily trapped room at the bottom of a subterranean labyrinth beneath the town.

The money you'll make from selling all the magical loot from the inevitable flood of adventurers should defray all costs associated with you're own personal dungeon/adventure site/deathtrap.

Vixsor Lumin
2011-11-06, 03:20 AM
I would take some inspiration from Gulliver's Travels and spin it like a D&D BBEG, don't make it into a floating fortress at all, rather a flying death trap. Build a small town in Neoclassical style (Think Washington DC) and advertise it as a haven for learning and also hint that there might be some magical knowledge as well. Permanently enchant it with Suggestion spell traps that cause all affected to become lost in thought. Wait for adventurers to show up, become enchanted, and then herd them off the side of the island by hitting them with sacks full of pebbles. For those not affected, have a few monsters and traps scattered around, maybe a dragon in a sort of central area. Also, spread some treasure around near each monster's lair. If you're a lich, hide you're Phylactery somewhere in a heavily trapped room at the bottom of a subterranean labyrinth beneath the town.

The money you'll make from selling all the magical loot from the inevitable flood of adventurers should defray all costs associated with you're own personal dungeon/adventure site/deathtrap.

Not saying this is a bad idea, its a actually pretty brilliant and evil plan that I approve of, but how does it compare to having a FLYING DOOM MACHINE!!!! I vote for after you have secured your place as ruler of all existence you do this with a village somewhere our with your island if you choose, because who knows maybe the Good character your partner rolls up after you to get his revenge (and restore peace and justice I guess) will fall for it.

nedz
2011-11-06, 01:24 PM
Two ideas:
1) You could use it to rob a bank. Just make sure that the bank is within 100 feet of the ritual. Feel free to substitute Bank with any valuable location.

2) What happens if you break the island in half ?
Do both halves still fly ?
If so: then then you can repeat this many times: in principle an infinite number of times.
What would you do with:
A flying archipeligo ?
A pile of flying aggregate ?
A pile of flying sand ?
A large flying dust cloud ?

How fast can it go ?
Can you use this to sand-blast an army ?

Scarey Nerd
2011-11-06, 01:39 PM
Two ideas:
1) You could use it to rob a bank. Just make sure that the bank is within 100 feet of the ritual. Feel free to substitute Bank with any valuable location.

2) What happens if you break the island in half ?
Do both halves still fly ?
If so: then then you can repeat this many times: in principle an infinite number of times.
What would you do with:
A flying archipeligo ?
A pile of flying aggregate ?
A pile of flying sand ?
A large flying dust cloud ?

How fast can it go ?
Can you use this to sand-blast an army ?

I don't know what would happen if it were broken apart, I assume that the larger chunk would stay ensorcelled and the smaller piece would be lost, which is a shame because the idea of having a controllable sandstorm is beautiful, seeing as my character is themed around fire and deserts...

nedz
2011-11-06, 02:38 PM
I don't know what would happen if it were broken apart, I assume that the larger chunk would stay ensorcelled and the smaller piece would be lost, which is a shame because the idea of having a controllable sandstorm is beautiful, seeing as my character is themed around fire and deserts...

But if the pieces were exactly the same size ?
Assuming they both still fly: you keep one as it is and break the other one exactly in two.
Now you have a large island and two small ones.
Take one of the small ones and keep cutting it exactly in two, repeatedly: until its sand.

An easier way maybe is to perform the ritual on a beach.

Vixsor Lumin
2011-11-18, 03:49 PM
I wanna know what happened with your island!!! How did your final confrontation go? Has it happened yet?

Scarey Nerd
2011-11-18, 03:54 PM
The confrontation won't happen for a good long while. I don't even want to think about killing Azrael until I have slain the demon that holds my soul. He's my priority at the moment. As for the island, we, ah, sort of got sidetracked... After returning from Spellhold, turned out Borjan had got inside my head and was trying to possess me... I got almost all of him out, but not quite all of him, so there's a part of his consciousness residing in my mind. Which is grand. Azrael wanted to rob the magic shop in Brynnlaw because the owner was slightly rude or something, and I wanted to get any magical items that would help me resist a demi-god's influence. We epicly looted the place, got about 20,000gp of stuff and legged it, setting fire to Brynnlaw's docks in the process. And one of the town guards' ships.

I then suggested that we stop being evil adventurers and become villains, so we sailed to an island chain, killed the shaman of a tribal village and enslaved the village. We're such lovely people!

In other news, the player that plays the Drow that is our slave hates the fact that she's obliged to hate us, so she's rerolling as a Dragon Shaman and the Drow will be an NPC again. Now we can kill her and not feel bad about it :smallamused:

The Reverend
2011-11-18, 04:37 PM
Sovereign glue. Im not saying How to use it, just saying its incredibly easy to abuse in so so so many ways, and at higher levels easy to produce in tonage quantities. Especially since most spellcasters dont have good strength checks.

As an evil PC it was my goto for cheap and easy demonstration that I dont need to be more powerful than you...because you're dumb.

lamrar
2011-11-18, 10:03 PM
Have you considered making part of the island into a liquid pain/soul farm? Make magic items that can cast extract pain several times a day, and either find a way to trap the souls of those you kill, or abuse the rules for sacrifice, whatever gives you the greatest buck for your peasants.

Just imagine it: Your dark city drifts in over the peaceful village and your terrible minions stride forth to conquer and bring the horrified captives onto the island. They are met by the horrible machinery that will first extract their pain as they are tortured for days (one day/ point of cons iirc), and then finally, when they are broken and spent, they are brought before the ominous altar (preferably on the top of a looming ziggurat) to be sacrificed to the dark gods.

It won't be the most effective use of the island, but I find the combination of industrialization and dark magic deliciously evil :)

Soren Hero
2011-11-20, 12:17 AM
Have you considered making part of the island into a liquid pain/soul farm? Make magic items that can cast extract pain several times a day, and either find a way to trap the souls of those you kill, or abuse the rules for sacrifice, whatever gives you the greatest buck for your peasants.

Just imagine it: Your dark city drifts in over the peaceful village and your terrible minions stride forth to conquer and bring the horrified captives onto the island. They are met by the horrible machinery that will first extract their pain as they are tortured for days (one day/ point of cons iirc), and then finally, when they are broken and spent, they are brought before the ominous altar (preferably on the top of a looming ziggurat) to be sacrificed to the dark gods.

It won't be the most effective use of the island, but I find the combination of industrialization and dark magic deliciously evil :)

or you can add the nipple clamp from the BOVD, a permanent symbol of pain, spell clock of distilled joy, and creating overlapping manifest zones (the 10x time plane from eberron, and timeless) by anchor plane (FoE) i think. all information is from the complete cost reduction handbook by Bastion and PlzBreakMyCampaign, available at http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=7274.0

with this setup, you can have a constantly regenerating source of xp to craft with, and enslave people matrix style...even more deliciously evil :)

Toofey
2011-11-20, 01:28 AM
Giant Magnifying Glass.

flowandmagic
2011-11-20, 11:07 AM
Me again. I normally frequent the 3.5 section, but this isn't specific, so.

Level 10. The big one for my party, because since level 5 I've had a ritual book with a spell that allows me to raise a floating island 100 meters in diameter from the earth and control its flight. My question is: What do we put on it?

I calculated that you could fit a good 80 houses or so on such an island, or one pretty decent sized fort, or whatever. We're a VERY evil party, if that helps, so barracks for armies of evil out to do evil things evilly could be appropriate. My compatriot (good word that) suggested that we make a small floating village, though I couldn't think of a reason WHY we would do that, how it would benefit us. Aside from trade income, I suppose. What does the mighty Playground think?

PS. If you think my calculation of 80 houses seems off, it might well be, I just calculated the general area of my house in metres, divided the area of the island by that and then subtracted a load to allow for room for the island's edge, streets, etc etc.

Make floating islands as siege weapons and blackmail cities with them--pay up or you drop it.

Sgt. Cookie
2011-11-20, 11:17 AM
Don't forget to capitalise on the underside of the island. See if you can use something along the lines of reverse gravity to keep stuff stuck to the underside. Have an MC Escher style staircase that goes from one side to the other.

If you do it right you can effectively double your useable surface area.

Vknight
2011-11-20, 11:31 AM
Vknights list of abuses using this.

1) Is it a disc or hemisphere?
1,b) If a Hemisphere go into a mountain now you have a sphere of stone. Hire Dwarves to turn this into a city within the mountain and 50% or so of the resources go to them.

2) Wands of Lighting or Fireball can be nasty train thieves in UMD then equip them with one of these wands.

3) Sell part of the moving stone deathfortress to a dragon. As already stated. Offer him breeding material.
3,b) Does your Dm follow the rules half dragon have to be large to fly? Yes? Then get some giants and get the dragon drunk. No? Get some humans or dwarves for shocktroopers, halflings for archers etc.

4) Turn the fortress into a massive library. Turn it into the place where all arcane knowledge can be stored. Sell passes to enter the library at high values. Collect every bit of knowledge out there. A dragon and powerful mages as its guards will stop any would be thieves.
Then build individual rooms/homes that can be bought or rented by individuals. You now have people willing to die to protect this home which is personally guarded by you & a dragon.

5) Equip the edge with docking bays.
5,b) Spend the money to get 15-30each Wyverns, Pegasus, and Chimeras.
5,c) Look into breeding the above animals with the dragon

6) Decanters of Endless Water (Fail Knight probably). Place on the bottom to freeze slowly in long tubes. You know have ice bombs.
6,b) Combine with control weather for a storm then drop the ice.

7) Make it obvious your evil & preferably not a lich (You can still be a lich just make sure no one knows)
7,b) Give away free tickets to powerful NPC's. Invite them in and show them its just a library & you may be evil but you just want to protect knowledge in the event of anything bad happening.
7,c) Let them know anything they bring that is new will be added with a decent pay given to the individuals who found it.
7,d) Each group goes to work on finding things for you once they have proof.
7,e) Send in some assassins and plant a piece of evidence and take any new knowledge. Then pay a individual for bringing, this newly discovered a new knowledge to your hands.
7,f) Make sure the NPC's don't know it was you and they'll begin to become suspicious of each other.
7,g) Repeat above events hinting at one group so war breaks out.
7,h) Sell off any knowledge, services, and items to both sides
7,i) Profit!!

8) If a sphere lower it onto the ground and begin rolling. You don't need to control the tilt if its a perfect sphere it will do this on its own.

9) How about a sealed portal to 'such and such plane' that can be opened and sucks things in from below.

10) Fire cannons but make it appear the fire cannon is what keeps it afloat.
10,b) Build things to keep this belief going and work from there.

DiBastet
2011-11-20, 11:47 AM
If you can build down instead of up, create a whole underground dungeon from ground level to down, but upside down, like it was a dungeon built inside a mountain that was turned upside down! Flying underground upside down dungeon?

Vixsor Lumin
2011-12-06, 09:19 PM
With a floating island, you could own the sky! Start with a flat fee for unlimited use. Then introduce a new plan to charge for every individual application. A fee for shade, a fee each for rain, sleet, snow and hail, a thunder & lightning combo package. Then, when everyone hates the new plan, return to the flat fee, which will be four times higher than it was before, and people will thank you for it.

5 internets to whoever gets the reference.


But seriously, just mount it with a create food trap, a create water trap and a cure minor wounds trap, all self-resetting and unlimited use, possibly merging all three into one trap to reduce price, some sleeping area and then as much long ranged weaponry as you can handle.

Remember that ring gates don't count items that are put halfway through as part of their limit, so you can give a sneaky character with a ring of invisibility, one of the gates and a cloak of flying and have a large amount of casters look through the other ring waiting for a suitable target to present itself. The sneaky guy will never need to reactivate his invisibility, since he's just holding the ring gate for the casters to cast through, not actually attacking.

I get the reference!!! 8-bit theatre!! Thief and Fighter are my favorite characters

Aron Times
2011-12-06, 09:30 PM
This is what came to my mind when I read the OP. Just find a way to keep the Phyrexians door-to-door salesmen out and you should be good. Also, try to keep the main character out or he'll destroy it to power an airship. :wink:

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=198079&type=card

smasher0404
2011-12-07, 08:25 PM
If it just moves, aka overcomes any force, take it, send it into space,and set up two ring gates, one on your new satellite, another with you. Find a pesky hero, send them into space. Hopefully, they won't be prepared for the dangers of space

charcoalninja
2011-12-08, 11:33 AM
Surround the outside of it in permanent walls of force and ram it into things.

Rorrik
2011-12-08, 01:12 PM
If you can get a decent thickness, you could try building down rather than up. You could own the world's first flying underground base.

Heck, with all the mention of demiplanes and siege weapons, you could portal acid and such out the bottom of the disc, ballistae around the edges to fire down on less-willing-to-be-dumped-on targets. Also, for your end game, include a place where you can buckle yourself down while you shake the island (can you turn it upside down and such?) to throw off, crush, or otherwise kill your ambitious partner when the time comes.

Can you take it underwater, submarine/flying underground fortress sounds awesome to me.

Kane0
2011-12-08, 05:05 PM
Read a little of Looking for Party, see what Richard's village is like. That might give you some ideas.
In case you don't want to read it, make a false village of militant 'villagers' or undead (or both) with a small protected/isolated/hidden evil abode within (like a secret crypt or dungeon where you can do your evil work and keep your vault of treasure). You can operate form this hideout of use it to remotely control the population while you are elsewhere. An added benefit is that you provide a beacon to do-gooders that may even keep them away from what you are really doing somewhere else! Add traps, weaponry and other evil overlord/conquerer equipment as necessary. The town militia might be cohorts/followers and your army leaders, the keep in the middle of town might only be the mayor's residence, etc. This way you can be both a trading villiage and a fortress, a tool and a weapon!


Other than that I have an interesting idea. Does anyone remember the Zaratan, the giant turtle that acted like an island? Kill one (or find a way to keep it magically alive) and find a way to lift that as your floating monstrosity. The shell should do better than earth and you can hollow it out to build inside too!