[PF] Weapons of Mass Destruction

[Dyllan]

I was reading the Tippyverse thread (nice to finally see that explained), and had an idea for a post-apocalyptic world (or at least continent) loosely based on the Tippyverse. The idea being that at the height of the Tippyverse various factions fought to the point of mutual destruction. It would be localized to the cities, for the most part, but would include all of them (due to the principles of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) being put into effect... and then acted out).

So my question is, what kinds of WMD's can we see in a high magic world (anything Pathfinder printed by Paizo is fair game, no third party or 3.x stuff).

Also, any self inflicted mass destruction (due to experimentation) could be cool too.

[Blyte]

Devastating Blow (Ex)
At 19th level, as a standard action, a two-handed fighter may make a single melee attack with a two-handed weapon at a –5 penalty. If the attack hits, it is treated as a critical threat. Special weapon abilities that activate only on a critical hit do not activate if this critical hit is confirmed.


This ability replaces Armor Mastery.


---

there was a guy who used this power while wielding a tetsubo.

game over man.

game over.


--- edit.. but on a more serious note..

I thought it would be pretty neato to play in the new neverwinter 4e campaign, after the spell plague going through the remains of neverwinter. Perhaps the WMD could be magi-biologic?

[Dyllan]

Well, thanks for the Tetsubo thing, although I was more thinking "wipe out a city" kind of stuff.

I've done some forum diving, and so far found a lot of stuff that only works by using half a dozen 3.5 splatbooks... and is therefore not legal in a Paizo-only Pathfinder setting.

Of course, I could homebrew anything, but I'd like to have as much of RAW explanation as possible.

[Lord Vukodlak]

You want a MWMD? I had one in a campaign once and I kept my notes on its effects, its easily adaptable to your needs. Maybe a bomb instead of a ritual cannon.
Did you ever play breath of fire IV? if so remember the Hex Cannon? I have stats for that if your interested. Imagine a six mile radius blighted with malice so nothing can live there again. It is a weapon powered from the pain and sorrow and despair of human sacrifices who are tortured to the point of insanity first and are explicitly selected based on their connection to the target

[Psyren]

Tsunami, Cursed Earth, Gating in various unsavory critters could be WMDs.

Greater Shout with some metamagic could flatten a few buildings as it would ignore their hardness.

[arguskos]

Depending on your use of physics, the Anti-Osmium Bomb and the Squirrel Nuke could be useful here. I'll try to dig up links. I believe they both still function in PF.

[Dyllan]

Psyren - thanks for the input - I like both Tsunami and Cursed Earth... if I go with this, there will be at least one city destroyed by each.


Depending on your use of physics, the Anti-Osmium Bomb and the Squirrel Nuke could be useful here. I'll try to dig up links. I believe they both still function in PF.

Thanks for that. I had read something mentioning the Anti-Osmium Bomb, but couldn't find any info on what it was. And the Squirrel Nuke sounds... interesting. Never heard of it at all.

[SamBurke]

It's a whole ton harder in PF, that's for sure: PF balanced casters quite a bit.

[Psyren]

It's a whole ton harder in PF, that's for sure: PF balanced casters quite a bit.

It's not really "balanced" so much as "we corrected some vague wording on some things." The core causes of LWQW remain (and in some cases are exacerbated.)

[SamBurke]

It's not really "balanced" so much as "we corrected some vague wording on some things." The core causes of LWQW remain (and in some cases are exacerbated.)

I'm also talking about the lack of OP Splatbook magic. There's very few metamagic reducers, the PrCs are nothing over-special: casters don't get the tricks they used to.

Spells were toned down (Death > 10dmg per CL, and so on).

[Weezer]

Well here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2010735#post2010735) is the link to the anti-Osmium bomb.

Another WMD is for a caster to fly (or teleport) into high orbit, using a necklace of adaptation to breathe, and then dropping a large kinetic kill vehicle, probably using srink item and some extradimentional space to allow for larger objects, onto the target. Boom.

[MukkTB]

As DM you can rule in the older splatbooks to power your MWMDs

[Dyllan]

As DM you can rule in the older splatbooks to power your MWMDs

Yes, but if I do that, then they players can use those splatbooks too... and we're back to the problems that made us leave 3.5 in the first place.

[Dyllan]

Well here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2010735#post2010735) is the link to the anti-Osmium bomb.

Another WMD is for a caster to fly (or teleport) into high orbit, using a necklace of adaptation to breathe, and then dropping a large kinetic kill vehicle, probably using srink item and some extradimentional space to allow for larger objects, onto the target. Boom.

Hmm, using antimatter in a fantasy setting... how would the wizards even know that such a thing could exist? You have to be familiar with something before you can create it...

I suppose the good old "drop stuff from orbit" idea still works... although aim could be tricky.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Hmm, using antimatter in a fantasy setting... how would the wizards even know that such a thing could exist? You have to be familiar with something before you can create it...

Magic or perhaps a bit of logic. For a wizard magic is a bit like science. So they investigate things.

You have positive and negative energy two opposite forces. There for a mage cold theorize there is a counter point to matter. The theory of antimatter predates any evidence that it exists.

I once again put forth my idea of the hex weapon. The city is cursed everything with in its bounds will wither and die. But the city is structurally intact. If your familiar with Taint from heroes of horror its kinda like that.

Now because the city is intact it would dare people into scavanging the outskirts where the taint is weakest. Perhaps using protective magic armor to seal them from the enviroment.

[Weezer]

Those are both points that many people have brought up as evidence that these wouldn't work. The easiest one to resolve is the aiming one, just practice. You don't need to be incredibly accurate, you are dealing with nuclear weapon size explosions and once you get an idea of where your kill vehicle will land when you drop it, you'll be fine. Also it's not like big hunks of rock or metal are hard to get a hold of for a high level wizard, just drop 15-20 rocks, you'll hit the city eventually...

In addition to what Lord Vukodlak said, remember that an intelligence of 18 is the upper bound for normal humans, when you're dealing with a wizard that has 30+ intelligence it's not a big leap that he'd be able to follow the line of reasoning Lord Vukodlak laid out.

[jaybird]

Apocalypse From The Sky (http://www.dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Apocalypse_From_The_Sky_(3.5e_Spell)), though as it's 3.5 that's an issue...maybe make a spell similar to it that's Epic level, then tag Fell Drain onto it? Zombie apocalypse, just add Wizard.

[DoctorGlock]

There was a "Super Weapons" thread in the role playing section just the other day, just look there. It ran the gamut from orbital kill to planet cracker to big bang scale devices