Defend this City! [3.5]

[Kansaschaser]

City: Megaville
Population: 50,000
Mixed: Human 80%, Halfling 6%, Gnome 4%, Elf 3%, Dwarf 2%, Half-elf 1%, Half-Orc 1%, Other 3%
Community Wealth: 250,000,000 gold
Power Center: Conventional (City Council of 12 members)
Power Center Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Community Authority: Lawful Neutral Fighter, level 20 (Sheriff)
Highest level NPC's: Adept 16, Aristocrat 15, Barbarian 16, Bard 18, Cleric 18, Commoner 22, Druid 17, Expert 20, Fighter 20, Monk 15, Paladin 14, Ranger 14, Rogue 19, Sorcerer 15, Warrior 20, Wizard 15.

All the NPC classes are basically strait out of the DMG. Nothing special or great about them.

Attackers: Demons. When they attack, they will be opening up Gates (as the spell) into the city at random locations. There will be at least one demon for each man, woman, and child in the city. There will be all kinds of demons, from Balors to Vrocks. The above NPC's would be greatly outmatched since they are not built to their full potential.

When: This will happen in 6 months time. You have a maximum of 6 months of preperation time.

You: You are a level 15th character with fore-knowledge of this event. You can make anything as long as it follows the Test of Spite fix and ban list. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=113644) You have standard wealth (200,000 gold) by level.

Problem: You are basically like Cassandra from Greek mythology. You may know this even is comming, but no one will believe you. No matter what you get on a Bluff or Diplomacy check, no one will help you. You must defend the city by yourself.

How: How would you defend this city?

[Invader]

16th lvl cleric of any good deity

Plane shift to celestia/Elysium/etc. and beg the help of the angels, solars, archons, etc. to help in the impending fight. Angels would 1. know you weren't lying about the invasion and 2. know about it before you anyway.

[JadePhoenix]

I just have to say Megaville is the worst name ever.

[Lactantius]

Way to unspecific.

How many Balors?
How many Vrocks?

Do they carry regiments of the ancient blood war (say: Yugoloths)?
Or are we just talking about Tanar'Ri?

It makes a huhe difference if we talk about 1, 5, 10 or 20 Balors?
Same goes for Mariliths.

Anyway, apply greater anticipate teleportation, forbiddance, hallow, refusal and repulsion with widen spell metamagic at crucial choke points (magic academy, castle, power places, temples).

You may not ward the whole city, but you can drive them off the real important places. Create evacuation runes, maybe teleportations for the civilians. Or create another myth and rumor to make most civilians leave the city (say, a disease, curse). Well stuff that makes the city emptier and the losses low.

[GodGoblin]

I would make a Wizard, using a variety of summons and spells to poisen the towns water supply, fill the streets with deadly fog and fiendish wild creatures I would over the 6 months make the city uninhabbitable, a real horrific place to live that cant sustain life and cause the whole place to become abandoned.

Then the demons come, Ill be waiting in my out of the city wizards tower using divinations to discover when the demons arrive.

Locate City Bomb.

Edit: I think ive just made my next BBEG....

[Kansaschaser]

I just have to say Megaville is the worst name ever.

The name was changed to protect the identity of the innocent.



Way to unspecific.

How many Balors?
How many Vrocks?

Do they carry regiments of the ancient blood war (say: Yugoloths)?
Or are we just talking about Tanar'Ri?

It makes a huhe difference if we talk about 1, 5, 10 or 20 Balors?
Same goes for Mariliths.

Anyway, apply greater anticipate teleportation, forbiddance, hallow, refusal and repulsion with widen spell metamagic at crucial choke points (magic academy, castle, power places, temples).

You may not ward the whole city, but you can drive them off the real important places. Create evacuation runes, maybe teleportations for the civilians. Or create another myth and rumor to make most civilians leave the city (say, a disease, curse). Well stuff that makes the city emptier and the losses low.

How many Balors? As far as I can tell, it will be an even spread. 5,000 of each kind of demon. So, that means 5,000 Balors, 5,000 Mariliths, 5,000 Bebiliths, 5,000 Glabrezu, etc...


I would make a Wizard, using a variety of summons and spells to poisen the towns water supply, fill the streets with deadly fog and fiendish wild creatures I would over the 6 months make the city uninhabbitable, a real horrific place to live that cant sustain life and cause the whole place to become abandoned.

Then the demons come, Ill be waiting in my out of the city wizards tower using divinations to discover when the demons arrive.

Locate City Bomb.

Edit: I think ive just made my next BBEG....

I'm trying to protect the city, not destroy it.

[Invader]

Entice hero's from all over the world to a huge tournament with say $200,000 in prizes. Coincidently it falls the day of the invasion.

I agree though, it would be infinitely more helpful to have some idea of how many of each type were coming.

[Kansaschaser]

Entice hero's from all over the world to a huge tournament with say $200,000 in prizes. Coincidently it falls the day of the invasion.

I agree though, it would be infinitely more helpful to have some idea of how many of each type were coming.

5,000 of each type of Demon.

[GodGoblin]

5,000 Balors... :smalleek:

And hey the city is protected! The vast majority of its inhabbitants survive, the demon host is destroyed, and eventually people will start to move back! :smalltongue:

As casualties go its pretty good lol

[Kansaschaser]

5,000 Balors... :smalleek:

And hey the city is protected! The vast majority of its inhabbitants survive, the demon host is destroyed, and eventually people will start to move back! :smalltongue:

As casualties go its pretty good lol

The Demons are comming after the citizens, not the city. I'm willing to destroy parts of the city if necessary, but the lives of the people is what I'm trying to save. If you make the citizens move away, the Gates will open where the people are living. You will just spread the problem out to a wider location.

[Invader]

5,000 of each type of Demon.

Sorry I was writing my post when yours posted so I missed it lol.

If my plan didn't bring a huge army of angels and 5000 balors were coming and no one believe me I wouldn't try to stay because everyone is screwed lol.

[Marlowe]

I just have to say Megaville is the worst name ever.

Really? you think it's worse than Townsville, Glendale, or Humansville (I can never remember if the latter is Missouri or Arkansas, but I facepalmed when I noticed it)?

[supermonkeyjoe]

Some kind of auto-resetting Holy Word trap shenanigans? as a bonus it will clear out any evil people in the city as well.

[Kansaschaser]

Some kind of auto-resetting Holy Word trap shenanigans? as a bonus it will clear out any evil people in the city as well.

Oh! Traps! That's an angle I didn't think about.

What kind of traps and spells would work best for this city? Also, how many could I make in 6 months with only 200,000 gold in wealth?

[Jane_Smith]

You guys are going about this all wrong. If you really want to save the city from demonic invasion, no matter the numbers in its horde, use all 200,000 gp of your wealth and hire pun pun. He will handle it all in a single round.

[GutterFace]

Kill everyone, raise them as undead to fight with you MUAHAHAH!

zombies don't fear demons.

[kabreras]

Raise a Mythral in the city with all the apropriate spells to leave the demons outside and stop them from entering.

[Namfuak]

You guys are going about this all wrong. If you really want to save the city from demonic invasion, no matter the numbers in its horde, use all 200,000 gp of your wealth and hire pun pun. He will handle it all in a single round.

Read the fix, serpent kingdoms are banned and pazazu is banned. However, candles of Invocation are NOT banned, and the normal gate Eferetti, exchange two wishes for the last to be whatever he wants, first wish for another candle and second wish for whatever, would still work. That would be a really easy way to stock up on assorted magical items and traps and such. You could also wish for scrolls of spells. Since "Eaten by the Hounds" is not really a threat here because we aren't in Ravenloft, we should be good.

Presuming that the Hounds are still a threat, let's assume that we can't use the candles. If the city has been around for awhile, we can hire necromancers to raise up all the skeletons in the graveyard to fight for us. Also, demons tend to have DR/Good, so make sure that we have lots of scrolls/wands of align weapon so all of the defenders have good-aligned weapons.

Although it says portals will be random, I'm going to go on the assumption that they are only semi-random. What I mean is that they will definitely spawn on a street that is sufficiently wide, and not in/on buildings (if I'm wrong correct me, although this will still presumably work). Use makeshift barricades to force demons to move in specific ways, they have numbers but probably not individual strength, so we take advantage of our better training to force them to pile into specific areas. Make sure that there are plenty of magic users debuffing and battlefield controlling the demon masses, and archers should be aiming for any demons who take flight. Have a couple of magic-users who are focused on area debuffing, and have a couple who are focused on debuffing the stronger demons, like the vrocks and balors.

[Kansaschaser]

You guys are going about this all wrong. If you really want to save the city from demonic invasion, no matter the numbers in its horde, use all 200,000 gp of your wealth and hire pun pun. He will handle it all in a single round.

With the Test of Spite rules, Pun-Pun cannot be created, so he doesn't exist in this world.


Raise a Mythral in the city with all the apropriate spells to leave the demons outside and stop them from entering.

How do you make a Mythral? I've heard of them, but I thought it was Epic magic. I'm only level 15.

[Morph Bark]

On the bright side, this means there will be 5000 +1 vorpal swords to loot afterwards!

[Invader]

5,000 of each type of Demon.


Read the fix, serpent kingdoms are banned and pazazu is banned. However, candles of Invocation are NOT banned, and the normal gate Eferetti, exchange two wishes for the last to be whatever he wants, first wish for another candle and second wish for whatever, would still work. That would be a really easy way to stock up on assorted magical items and traps and such. You could also wish for scrolls of spells. Since "Eaten by the Hounds" is not really a threat here because we aren't in Ravenloft, we should be good.

Presuming that the Hounds are still a threat, let's assume that we can't use the candles. If the city has been around for awhile, we can hire necromancers to raise up all the skeletons in the graveyard to fight for us. Also, demons tend to have DR/Good, so make sure that we have lots of scrolls/wands of align weapon so all of the defenders have good-aligned weapons.

Although it says portals will be random, I'm going to go on the assumption that they are only semi-random. What I mean is that they will definitely spawn on a street that is sufficiently wide, and not in/on buildings (if I'm wrong correct me, although this will still presumably work). Use makeshift barricades to force demons to move in specific ways, they have numbers but probably not individual strength, so we take advantage of our better training to force them to pile into specific areas. Make sure that there are plenty of magic users debuffing and battlefield controlling the demon masses, and archers should be aiming for any demons who take flight. Have a couple of magic-users who are focused on area debuffing, and have a couple who are focused on debuffing the stronger demons, like the vrocks and balors.

The problem is no one believes you so you can't barricade (barring magical barricades) the streets or have anyone in place before hand.

[Toliudar]

Make an artificer, I suppose. Holy Word traps are awkward for any neutrally-aligned citizen. Perhaps you can disseminate traps of Banishment, creating an arbitrarily high caster level, throughout the city (or around a gathering place where you've invited everyone). Be ready to send apology notes to all of the other planes that the demons end up on 20% of the time.

Alternately - if the gates are going to open where the people are, not where the city is, then invite everyone to a magical tournament on the day of the invasion, and use scrolls of Gate to send them all to one of the upper planes. That way, the notoriously-difficult-to-draw-into-human-affairs angels are forced to help defend their own turf.

[Invader]

It's going to be a normal run of the mill day and suddenly all hell breaks loose. I think the Mythal idea is feasible but again you'd have to pay or convince someone powerful enough to help you. I'm assuming convincing someone is out of the question and although I'm not sure of the exact cost/time/material it would take to make one strong enough to keep out an attack this size but I would assume 200,000 gp wouldn't be nearly enough.

[The Winter King]

It may be wise to look at BOED. Its full of stuff to kill evil outsiders.

Good spells(no pun intended) are:
Celestial Brilliance: Evo, S/W/C 4, 60ft light deals 2d6 to evil outsiders every round. Lasts for Days/CL on objects. Fill the city with them

Blinding Glory: Evo S/W 9, 100ft radius spread/level, all evil is blinded while in light with no save or SR. Hour/level. Very nice.

Other than that, If you find away around money constraints, Holy Word traps are great.

Antipathy and similar cast before they arrive might guarantee they not enter the city.

If possible find allies: Celestia, Ysgard, Baator, and Gold dragons may be willing to help you.

Or Evacuate the City Via Kidnapping.

[Kansaschaser]

Make an artificer, I suppose. Holy Word traps are awkward for any neutrally-aligned citizen. Perhaps you can disseminate traps of Banishment, creating an arbitrarily high caster level, throughout the city (or around a gathering place where you've invited everyone). Be ready to send apology notes to all of the other planes that the demons end up on 20% of the time.

Alternately - if the gates are going to open where the people are, not where the city is, then invite everyone to a magical tournament on the day of the invasion, and use scrolls of Gate to send them all to one of the upper planes. That way, the notoriously-difficult-to-draw-into-human-affairs angels are forced to help defend their own turf.

Oh snap! I forgot that most of the city is going to be Neutral and/or Lawful Neutral. I was trying to figure out the best placement of Holy Word traps around the city. I guess that would be bad now.

Do you know how expensive it would be to host a tournament! I don't think I have the funds for that. I might be able to convince the city officials that a tournament would be good for the city and make participation mandatory. That's a thought...


It's going to be a normal run of the mill day and suddenly all hell breaks loose. I think the Mythal idea is feasible but again you'd have to pay or convince someone powerful enough to help you. I'm assuming convincing someone is out of the question and although I'm not sure of the exact cost/time/material it would take to make one strong enough to keep out an attack this size but I would assume 200,000 gp wouldn't be nearly enough.

I can't convince anyone of what's going to happen, but I can hire people to do things. I don't think I can spend all of my wealth to pay someone to create a Mythal. I'm not allowed to spend more than half my wealth on any one item or service. I'm pretty sure the Mythal would cost way more than what I have. Also, if the Mythal stopped teleportation, then the Wizard guild might get a little peeved with me.

[demigodus]

Read the fix, serpent kingdoms are banned and pazazu is banned. However, candles of Invocation are NOT banned, and the normal gate Eferetti, exchange two wishes for the last to be whatever he wants, first wish for another candle and second wish for whatever, would still work. That would be a really easy way to stock up on assorted magical items and traps and such. You could also wish for scrolls of spells. Since "Eaten by the Hounds" is not really a threat here because we aren't in Ravenloft, we should be good.

gating in other creatures is banned. Also, the "there are no free wishes" rule would probably kick in if you tried to wish-chain

[Kansaschaser]

gating in other creatures is banned. Also, the "there are no free wishes" rule would probably kick in if you tried to wish-chain

Yeah, the DM said that if I gate in another creature with Wishes, I would have to pay the creature for the Wish. Same price as paying a Wizard to do it. :smallannoyed:

[Invader]

Given your wealth limitations and lack of help I really think the only way you'd have a chance is with some kind of divine intervention either the angels
I mentioned before or a deity which is probably less likely.

One thing that might help is greater illusion spells and creating a fake town and people or make it appear that there are no people in the city. Given the size of the invading army it surely would last forever but it might give the town a little more time to defend itself when the attack comes.

The Winter King is right though, BOED is going to be a good bet for feats, spells, and items. I also think its safe to say anything short of a full cleric or arcane caster is your only good choice. Any martial classes aren't going to be able to do anything for you.

Just out of curiosity, is this a challenge just for you or are you in a party?

[demigodus]

You are basically like Cassandra from Greek mythology. You may know this even is comming, but no one will believe you. No matter what you get on a Bluff or Diplomacy check, no one will help you. You must defend the city by yourself.

Are you still allowed to use diplomacy to turn people into your fanatics? They might believe you are crazy and no demons are coming, but they are happy to set up the preparations because it would make you happy.

What alignment are you? As an evil artificer, you could get a LOT of crafting xp/gold from sacrificing fanatics (via the BoVD sacrifice ritual), just so you don't have to worry about pesky things like WBL. Make a **** ton of scrolls of Celestial Brilliance. Go around city/have fanatic wizards go around the city, casting it in every single crevice. Not sure if you can stack Bane Magic (outsider) on it, but if you can, go for it.

[Kansaschaser]

It may be wise to look at BOED. Its full of stuff to kill evil outsiders.

Good spells(no pun intended) are:
Celestial Brilliance: Evo, S/W/C 4, 60ft light deals 2d6 to evil outsiders every round. Lasts for Days/CL on objects. Fill the city with them

Blinding Glory: Evo S/W 9, 100ft radius spread/level, all evil is blinded while in light with no save or SR. Hour/level. Very nice.

Other than that, If you find away around money constraints, Holy Word traps are great.

Antipathy and similar cast before they arrive might guarantee they not enter the city.

If possible find allies: Celestia, Ysgard, Baator, and Gold dragons may be willing to help you.

Or Evacuate the City Via Kidnapping.

I like Celestial Brilliance and Blinding Glory. I need to find a good way to use them. Maybe I could be a Cleric 5 / Runecaster 10 and place a bunch of runes around the city of Blinding Glory and Celestial Brilliance. I need to figure out how much each rune will cost though.


Given your wealth limitations and lack of help I really think the only way you'd have a chance is with some kind of divine intervention either the Angela I mentioned before or a deity which is probably less likely.

One thing that might help is greater illusion spells and creating a fake town and people or make it appear that there are no people in the city. Given the size of the invading army it surely would last forever but it might give the town a little more time to defend itself when the attack comes.

The Winter King is right though, BOED is going to be a good bet for feats, spells, and items. I also think its safe to say anything short of a full cleric or arcane caster is your only good choice. Any martial classes aren't going to be able to do anything for you.

Just out of curiosity, is this a challenge just for you or are you in a party?

I did a rebuild quest where I was sent into the future. I fought the invading army and died. I was then teleported back to the past and "repaired". I was given a new body and new abilities. So, I can make anything I want. Of my party, I was the only one teleported into the future. I know my party will be there in the city and they will perish as well. I can't convince them of what will happen either. Although, they know out of character. They are doing a pretty good job in character of acting like I'm paranoid.

[Kansaschaser]

Are you still allowed to use diplomacy to turn people into your fanatics? They might believe you are crazy and no demons are coming, but they are happy to set up the preparations because it would make you happy.

What alignment are you? As an evil artificer, you could get a LOT of crafting xp/gold from sacrificing fanatics (via the BoVD sacrifice ritual), just so you don't have to worry about pesky things like WBL. Make a **** ton of scrolls of Celestial Brilliance. Go around city/have fanatic wizards go around the city, casting it in every single crevice. Not sure if you can stack Bane Magic (outsider) on it, but if you can, go for it.

I'm Neutral Good. If I were an Evil Artificer, would I even care about saving the city?

[JeminiZero]

Look up the Sacred Item (Complete Champion 126) spell. An item imbued with this spell does 7d4 (at lowest CL) damage to evil outsiders upon contact, no save no SR (there IS a save but it only applies to undead fleeing). It has no effect on non-evil/non-outsiders and non-shapechangers, so the general populace should be safe. The duration is permanent, so you can stockpile as many of these items as you can produce. It like the Clerical equivalent of Explosive Runes*.

*Note: You could ALSO use mass explosive runes if you wanted.

For a start You can imbue ammo (slings, arrows) with it, and have your militia make range touch attacks with said ammo. Thats WAAYYY more effective than anything a level 1 warrior would normally be able to do. And of course, you should cast this on your militias armor as well, just so that the first demon that strikes the guy gets a nasty surprise. You can even cast it on their weapons for making melee touch attacks: Clubs are free, one guard can carry several.

(On a side note, evil outsides pack a lot of mind-hosing powers, so be sure to bring protection from evil, or magic circle evil, so that your militia don't wind up killing each other.)

If you have additional castings, you can throw them on the scenery: The doors to houses, the clothes of the people (for similiar reasons that you cast on guard armor) and every cobble stone of the road, every brick in your buildings. When a demon blows up the moment he steps out of the portal, you know you're doing something right. (The downside is that this is vulnerable to area dispel).

My personal favorite tactic involves casting it on a small pebbles, and loading a ludicrous number of pebbles into a bag of holding (or equivalent effect like Horde Gullet). Then fly above the horde of evil outsiders and invert the BoH inside out, sending a rain of pebbles, each doing 7d4 on touch, no save. Even a balor will drop instantly to that. Its also possible to use sand, but that becomes more vulnerable to wind effects.

Now try and see how many castings of Sacred Item you can crank out before invasion. Its a cleric 4 spell so mid-level clerics can cast it everyday. Make Tippy-esque self-resetting traps of Sacred Item if you can.

Incidentally, Sacred Item is also my go-to spell for Wighpocalyse recovery.

[Kansaschaser]

Look up the Sacred Item (Complete Champion 126) spell. An item imbued with this spell does 7d4 (at lowest CL) damage to evil outsiders upon contact, no save no SR (there IS a save but it only applies to undead fleeing). It has no effect on non-evil/non-outsiders and non-shapechangers, so the general populace should be safe. The duration is permanent, so you can stockpile as many of these items as you can produce. It like the Clerical equivalent of Explosive Runes*.

*Note: You could ALSO use mass explosive runes if you wanted.

For a start You can imbue ammo (slings, arrows) with it, and have your militia make range touch attacks with said ammo. Thats WAAYYY more effective than anything a level 1 warrior would normally be able to do. And of course, you should cast this on your militias armor as well, just so that the first demon that strikes the guy gets a nasty surprise. You can even cast it on their weapons for making melee touch attacks: Clubs are free, one guard can carry several.

(On a side note, evil outsides pack a lot of mind-hosing powers, so be sure to bring protection from evil, or magic circle evil, so that your militia don't wind up killing each other.)

If you have additional castings, you can throw them on the scenery: The doors to houses, the clothes of the people (for similiar reasons that you cast on guard armor) and every cobble stone of the road, every brick in your buildings. When a demon blows up the moment he steps out of the portal, you know you're doing something right. (The downside is that this is vulnerable to area dispel).

My personal favorite tactic involves casting it on a small pebbles, and loading a ludicrous number of pebbles into a bag of holding (or equivalent effect like Horde Gullet). Then fly above the horde of evil outsiders and invert the BoH inside out, sending a rain of pebbles, each doing 7d4 on touch, no save. Even a balor will drop instantly to that. Its also possible to use sand, but that becomes more vulnerable to wind effects.

Now try and see how many castings of Sacred Item you can crank out before invasion. Its a cleric 4 spell so mid-level clerics can cast it everyday. Make Tippy-esque self-resetting traps of Sacred Item if you can.

Incidentally, Sacred Item is also my go-to spell for Wighpocalyse recovery.

Sacred Item! I think you just saved my city.

Okay, so I'm going with a Cleric 5 / Runecaster 10. Then I'll make a resetting trap of Sacred Item to fill the city with them. I'm going to offer to repave the city streets with small cobblestone. Each cobblestone will be a Sacred Item. I'll also offer to "enchant" the city guard's weapons and armor with runes to make them more effective. At the same time, I'll also make them Sacred Items. I'll also put a couple runes of Blinding Glory and several runes of Celestial Brilliance throughout the city.

I think I should be good now.

[Averis Vol]

could you try to use illusions to make the city look already destroyed and get some kind of immunity to scrying on the citizens? so the citizens are hidden from the easier kinds of detection, then you could have the buildings "destroyed" and maybe corpses strewn about. then make an image of a terrosque moving off in the distance.
honestly, with 5000 of each....one level 15 char cant do it without a lot of cheese.

EDIT: forgot about the powerful NPC's, i still advocate an evasive maneuver, maybe once you hide everything, wait til the demons attack and assault there now emptyish plane, destroy the one calling the shots and then they will probably just return, the campaign isn't worth it anymore. bout all i got.

[Toliudar]

Do you know how expensive it would be to host a tournament! I don't think I have the funds for that. I might be able to convince the city officials that a tournament would be good for the city and make participation mandatory. That's a thought...

You're bang on that not being able to convince anyone that they should listen to your plans is a major impediment to properly planning your defenses for this assault. Your three paths to getting around this would seem to be:


Take over control of the government (entirely do-able with some dominate/charm magic or something similar, but prone to backfiring at the DM's whim.
Become loved and respected in spite of your loony ideas about an invasion from the abyss, and get people to do what you want them to do out of friendship/loyalty/etc.
Don't rely on the resources of the city AT ALL when planning your defense.


I lean towards the latter because it's the least dependent on the cooperation of the DM. Still, we are talking about tens of thousands of demons - you're not going to be able to deal with this alone, regardless of what you do.

Re: cost of a tournament. It doesn't have to be a tournament, and it doesn't have to be mandatory. You've got an 18th level bard in the city? Hire them for two days. The first day, they wander around the city diplomacy-ing crowds into thinking that their show tomorrow is going to be the Best Thing Ever and Not To Be Missed. The second day, the bard puts on the show, and everyone has a great time - right up to the point where the demons show up. Fortunately, at that point, you have an eighteenth level bard close at hand who can inspire everyone.

You've been using some of your six months of prep time to Plane Shift to scout out a location just outside (or inside, if you can swing it) a Place of Awesomeness And Great Power in the upper planes. An amphitheatre right next to Heironeous' swimming pool, so to speak. That's where you gate everyone when they show up for the show. Who doesn't love a mystery concert tour? That way, when the demonic hordes start showing up, Heironeous will have already known about it for weeks in advance thanks to divine ranks, and is ready to assemble the celestial masses to deliver unto the demons the righteous smackdown they deserve.

For bonus points, this plan still works perfectly in tandem with traps of Sacred Item (but NOT dismissal - in this scenario, the people are all extraplanar, and you do NOT want to scatter them all over the universe), which you can plant around the amphitheatre as desired (what kind of LG god would object to having Sacred Object cast on things in his neighbourhood. Traps of other long-term protective spells, that your poplulation walks over when they emerge from the gate, might also be a good thing.

[Kansaschaser]

could you try to use illusions to make the city look already destroyed and get some kind of immunity to scrying on the citizens? so the citizens are hidden from the easier kinds of detection, then you could have the buildings "destroyed" and maybe corpses strewn about. then make an image of a terrosque moving off in the distance.
honestly, with 5000 of each....one level 15 char cant do it without a lot of cheese.

I could use Illusions to supplement the stuff I'm already doing with Sacred Item, Celestial Brilliance, and Blinding Glory.

Although, if most of the demons will be blind from Blinding Glory, the Illusion spells will only be useful in areas where there is not a Blinding Glory.

[Kansaschaser]

You're bang on that not being able to convince anyone that they should listen to your plans is a major impediment to properly planning your defenses for this assault. Your three paths to getting around this would seem to be:


Take over control of the government (entirely do-able with some dominate/charm magic or something similar, but prone to backfiring at the DM's whim.
Become loved and respected in spite of your loony ideas about an invasion from the abyss, and get people to do what you want them to do out of friendship/loyalty/etc.
Don't rely on the resources of the city AT ALL when planning your defense.


I lean towards the latter because it's the least dependent on the cooperation of the DM. Still, we are talking about tens of thousands of demons - you're not going to be able to deal with this alone, regardless of what you do.

Re: cost of a tournament. It doesn't have to be a tournament, and it doesn't have to be mandatory. You've got an 18th level bard in the city? Hire them for two days. The first day, they wander around the city diplomacy-ing crowds into thinking that their show tomorrow is going to be the Best Thing Ever and Not To Be Missed. The second day, the bard puts on the show, and everyone has a great time - right up to the point where the demons show up. Fortunately, at that point, you have an eighteenth level bard close at hand who can inspire everyone.

You've been using some of your six months of prep time to Plane Shift to scout out a location just outside (or inside, if you can swing it) a Place of Awesomeness And Great Power in the upper planes. An amphitheatre right next to Heironeous' swimming pool, so to speak. That's where you gate everyone when they show up for the show. Who doesn't love a mystery concert tour? That way, when the demonic hordes start showing up, Heironeous will have already known about it for weeks in advance thanks to divine ranks, and is ready to assemble the celestial masses to deliver unto the demons the righteous smackdown they deserve.

For bonus points, this plan still works perfectly in tandem with traps of Sacred Item (but NOT dismissal - in this scenario, the people are all extraplanar, and you do NOT want to scatter them all over the universe), which you can plant around the amphitheatre as desired (what kind of LG god would object to having Sacred Object cast on things in his neighbourhood. Traps of other long-term protective spells, that your poplulation walks over when they emerge from the gate, might also be a good thing.

I still plan on lureing most of the citizens to a "safe" location for their protection. This will be the most defended area with lots of Celestial Brilliance, Blinding Glory, and Sacred Items. I really like the "hire a Bard" idea. Inspire Courage on the City Guard seems like a great thing to do.

I'm also going to place a couple runes of spells that are permenent that cause Force damage. These runes will activate when a demon passes within 30 feet and they will cast the spell every round. The spell will be maxamized for free too.

It's gonna take all my money, but I'm sure I could get this accomplished.

I'm hoping for an 80% survival rate, if not better.

[Lysander]

About your Cassandra situation: Is it that you CANNOT convince anyone you are correct no matter what you do, because fate or a curse has decreed it or something? Or is it just that you HAVE NOT provided any evidence so you seem like a doomsday prophecy spewing lunatic, but people could be convinced if you provided proof?

If it's the latter then maybe your first step should be to figure out how to prove that demons are going to invade so everyone helps you.

Seek out a famous oracle to endorse your view? Ask the local clerics to cast some divinations? Submit yourself to magical scans to analyze your sanity and whether you speak the truth? Before the city council, summon a captive demon and interrogate it about the demonic invasion plans?

[Kansaschaser]

About your Cassandra situation: Is it that you CANNOT convince anyone you are correct no matter what you do, because fate or a curse has decreed it or something? Or is it just that you HAVE NOT provided any evidence so you seem like a doomsday prophecy spewing lunatic, but people could be convinced if you provided proof?

If it's the latter then maybe your first step should be to figure out how to prove that demons are going to invade so everyone helps you.

Seek out a famous oracle to endorse your view? Ask the local clerics to cast some divinations? Submit yourself to magical scans to analyze your sanity and whether you speak the truth? Before the city council, summon a captive demon and interrogate it about the demonic invasion plans?

My god is the one that sent me into the future and then let me rebuild my character. I was told by my god(or divine agent), that I cannot convince anyone of what is to come. "Someone of divine importance" will be born to the citizens of this city in the future that will end the 1,000 year war in Hell. This is another thing I was told by the agent of my god. Again, I can't convince anyone of this either.

I've tried to do some diplomacy, and it fails every time. Through DM Fiat, they always make up some reason they won't help. I also paid a Cleric to use Discern Lies on me while I told them what happened. Everyone present believed me. However, when I went on to discuss how to protect the city, it's like everyone was struck with amnesia about the previous casting of Discern Lies. Then they don't believe me anymore.

I've also tried to use Bluff to help. That was somewhat helpful as long as I lied about the reason. I could lie that some orc or goblins were scouting out certain sections of the city for an attack, and then city officials would boost the defense of the city somehow, but it's been minor changes.

Edit: I was given the impression that if I drastically alter the way the city functions too much, then my god will be punished by the other gods and he may lose some divine rank.

[NM020110]

Hmmm...my suggestion might violate alignment, but it should see the invasion stopped.

You have foreknowledge of a large demon invasion. A knowledge(the planes) check should tell you that their natural enemies include the angels/archons, and the devils. If you tell the devils of the invasion, then they will likely intervene. If I'm remembering their backstory right, they fell because they were too zealous in their duty to prevent the demons from invading the prime material. If you offer them information, and invite them to use divinations to confirm it, they may see fit to intervene. A disjunction, followed by a miracle to remove any insanities, followed by a voluntarily failed zone of truth should offer a very high standard of proof.

If they do, however, the city will become a battlefield for the blood war, necessitating some fairly strong evacuation procedures.

Edit: Due to further clarification on the cassandra situation, the above probably won't work. Your best bet is probably the sacred cobblestones...

[Downysole]

Mythals are described under the Lost Empires of Faerun, page 45+. Probably outside your league.

I always liked greater magic weapon, align weapon, sacred item, etc. on your troops' ammunition. Tack on some Blessed Aim, Haste, Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, Sacred Item (defensive), and a variety of other buff spells and you can turn all level 1 soldiers in your vicinity into demon-killing machines with bows.

You can't do a whole lot of this preparation beforehand, except Sacred Item, I guess. But maybe you can provide a cheap laundry business for the whole town and buy a few decent-level clerics who can cast Sacred Item on every non-magical piece of clothing they get coming in. The whole town would be blessed in no time, and it has little effect on those pesky evil and neutral human-types. Cobblestones works too, but that assumes that your baddies will not be flying.

Also, during the fight, don't imagine for a second that the baddies won't use their teleportation, flight, and other special abilities to avoid your traps and barricades. Bottom line is that you have to protect the people. Doing that with lots of beautiful ammunition is one way, and protecting them bodily is another. Still, 5,000 Balors... 40,000 total demons... Woof.

[Downysole]

Oh yeah, and something I forgot to mention: you know exactly who's coming to town; use that to your advantage. Learn the strengths and weaknesses of all the demon types coming and do your best to utilize them.

For example, a Glabrezu (and all demons) are going to be able to take whatever energy damage you throw their way and laugh at it...except SONIC!!! Also, this guy is a bruiser with low dex and huge size. Touch attacks, more specifically Ranged Touch Attacks, such as a lot of arrows with sacred item or the cobblestone idea would work well on them.

Then take it a step further. Learn names, histories, details about the alliances that have brought them to the city, and do your best to use this information against your foes to keep them off guard. Just knowing that their goal is to eradicate the people of the city for a thousand years is enough to tell you that making some of the people disappear in front of the demons will make them PISSED! How can they accomplish their goal if a group of 100 gets away? Wait...Fred the Balor took them? We should totally gang up on Fred and make him give those guys back!

You get the idea.

[Invader]

Sacred Item! I think you just saved my city.

Okay, so I'm going with a Cleric 5 / Runecaster 10. Then I'll make a resetting trap of Sacred Item to fill the city with them. I'm going to offer to repave the city streets with small cobblestone. Each cobblestone will be a Sacred Item. I'll also offer to "enchant" the city guard's weapons and armor with runes to make them more effective. At the same time, I'll also make them Sacred Items. I'll also put a couple runes of Blinding Glory and several runes of Celestial Brilliance throughout the city.

I think I should be good now.

Keep in mind sacred item effects only 1 item per casting. I can't do the math because I'm at work but even with every spell slot you have and spending all if your gold on scrolls that's only going to get a few thousand sacred items (estimated) and most if the demons will require multiplke stones to be killed. You'll still be a long way from defeating all of them although it is a very good preparation.

[Toliudar]

Other ideas for outsourcing survival techniques:


+1 to the idea of advertising for adventurers to be hired for a job, with instructions to show up to the city on the day before the invasion happens.
Form the Boy Scouts of demon hunting - free training for young adults who want to learn self-defense techniques against demons in general. Everybody gets sacred item sling bullets. Plus, there's juice and sandwiches after. In real life, people PAY for access to training and socialization opportunities, even in situations where the training may never get used. Why should Megatown be any different?
Spend time in the next few months making friends with powerful spellcasters in other cities. Do nice things for them in exchange for future favours. On the night before the attack, use a series of Sendings to call in the favours.

[Red_Dog]

I'm going to make a very quick comment=>

A Number of daemons large as this[forget for a moment about Balors, Marlith and any influential daemons, they are a whole different story] will raise 5 metric tons of red flags ALL over the cosmology.

This means that you can alert a large amount of "people" about this if they somehow miss this. Its been said a lo about Devils and angels, but I suggest

=>Daemon Princes.
Yep. These guys. First you can summon Pazuzu[you are good alignment so you can totally ring him up and he is likely to pick up the phone, and first call won't land you an alignment shift!] and ask him, whats up with all this, and where is this LARGE number of daemons came from? Under who's command are they marching? Or who did they desert?

After you find out the latest feed from Abyss's CNN, you can do two of the following=>
>If the daemons are marching under a command of some particular Price, alert his "competition" about this. This means, as soon as daemons start to enter he city, the competition will start entering the daemon prices territory, forcing the Prince to immediately withdraw.
>If these are deserters, than alert the prince so he/she can pimp smack them back into their place. This is likely to bring down these enormous armies back down to a "usual" daemon invasion that you can handle with no issues.

P.S. Just talking to a Devil or a Daemon Prince is NOT an alignment change unless you are a Paladin. Even a cleric is allowed to "just talk" about this. Don't mention your time travel shtick and you'll be fine. The devils aren't recommended as, while they do hate daemons with the most passion possible, they ARE ALWAYS looking out for themselves. This means, that even if you somehow succeed in getting them to help you without any divine back lash[they are more connected with gods then daemons, so backlash is more likley], they WILL make every conceivable effort to profit from this. From trying to buy the town's souls, to black mail you into helping them to buy town's souls.

This is why I suggested daemon princes. They are conniving and terrible, but contacting a right Prince will tie him/her up and will likely to be issues free in a long run. Abyss isn't unified, they won't work together easily and since the nature of the issue is "funneling of forces" no prince will just assign some force to the town and is likely to keep all hot mess in Abyss where it belongs.

[Invader]

I'm going to make a very quick comment=>

A Number of daemons large as this[forget for a moment about Balors, Marlith and any influential daemons, they are a whole different story] will raise 5 metric tons of red flags ALL over the cosmology.

This means that you can alert a large amount of "people" about this if they somehow miss this. Its been said a lo about Devils and angels, but I suggest

=>Daemon Princes.
Yep. These guys. First you can summon Pazuzu[you are good alignment so you can totally ring him up and he is likely to pick up the phone, and first call won't land you an alignment shift!] and ask him, whats up with all this, and where is this LARGE number of daemons came from? Under who's command are they marching? Or who did they desert?

After you find out the latest feed from Abyss's CNN, you can do two of the following=>
>If the daemons are marching under a command of some particular Price, alert his "competition" about this. This means, as soon as daemons start to enter he city, the competition will start entering the daemon prices territory, forcing the Prince to immediately withdraw.
>If these are deserters, than alert the prince so he/she can pimp smack them back into their place. This is likely to bring down these enormous armies back down to a "usual" daemon invasion that you can handle with no issues.


Pazuzu is banned.

[Red_Dog]

Pazuzu is banned.

*sigh*, I though just asking for Intel won't be a "bannable". Pazuzu wishing is definitly a terrible practice, but I though just talking to him over some refreshments about local news wouldn't so bad.

Very well than. Next best guy is [B]Graz'zt. He has more limited pool of intel, but is FAR more power-hungry and ambitious. Either of scenarios will interest him.

Contacting him is a bit harder. One need to find a cult, than rough them up[not hard for CL16] and tell them to arrange an audience.

If this doesn't work, we can go and beat around the main bushes=>
Demogorgon OR Pale night.

Demogorgon is contacted in similar way as Graz'zt, but he is tougher to talk to, and has his tentacles in lots of divine bowls, so... yeah, tread lightly
His pride might just prevent him from co-operating. However, you do get 2 chances[one per personality]! ^^

Pale Night is a nice quest on her own. Dangerous quest directly into her layer of Abyss, that will lead you to speak with HER directly. She is co-operative to a point. Be VERY careful, she is powerful... and bat poop bunkers insane, way more so than Demagorgon[even though it might not seem so at first glance].
Advantages however include her likely non-involvement in this event and accurate intelligence on what is happening.

[eulmanis12]

hire some mercs (you will only need a small number, one of them, or you will need to be able to teleport) Stage a series of flashy attacks all around the city against the local authorities 3 month prior to the invasion of the horde, issue a manifesto around the city full of all sorts of rediculous demands. In the manifesto state that your force is part of a larger (demonic)cult that has infiltrated the city and will stage a mass assault in 3 months if the demands arn't met. The leaders of the city will respond by mobilizing to defend against an army of cultists and demons on the day that the actual invasion is going to happen. the only reason they arn't mobilizing now is that they don't think there is a threat, so, Create a Threat.

[Invader]

*sigh*, I though just asking for Intel won't be a "bannable". Pazuzu wishing is definitly a terrible practice, but I though just talking to him over some refreshments about local news wouldn't so bad.

Very well than. Next best guy is [B]Graz'zt. He has more limited pool of intel, but is FAR more power-hungry and ambitious. Either of scenarios will interest him.

Contacting him is a bit harder. One need to find a cult, than rough them up[not hard for CL16] and tell them to arrange an audience.

If this doesn't work, we can go and beat around the main bushes=>
Demogorgon OR Pale night.

Demogorgon is contacted in similar way as Graz'zt, but he is tougher to talk to, and has his tentacles in lots of divine bowls, so... yeah, tread lightly
His pride might just prevent him from co-operating. However, you do get 2 chances[one per personality]! ^^

Pale Night is a nice quest on her own. Dangerous quest directly into her layer of Abyss, that will lead you to speak with HER directly. She is co-operative to a point. Be VERY careful, she is powerful... and bat poop bunkers insane, way more so than Demagorgon[even though it might not seem so at first glance].
Advantages however include her likely non-involvement in this event and accurate intelligence on what is happening.

I think this whole idea has merit. Short of stopping it or finding an equivilant army to defend with there's nothing the NPC's in the town can do that will be effective.

Let's say you mange to kill half the balors by the time the entire army has made it through the portals and nevermind the 250,000 cumulative points of damage from death throes inflicted from killing them, you suddenly have 2,500 at will fire storms and implosions every round. That's just the balors not to mention the other 45,000 demons running around.

[Red_Dog]

I think this whole idea has merit. Short of stopping it or funding an equivilant army to defend with there's nothing the NPC's in the town can do that will be effective.

Let's say you mange to kill half the balors by the time the entire army as made it through the portals and nevermind the 250,000 cumulative points of damage from death throes inflicted from killing them, you suddenly have 2,500 at fire storms and implosions every round. That's just the balors not to mention the other 45,000 demons running around.

By the by, I will still question Balor's presence there at all in such ODD ratio. = \ Balors come as any other general does. If there is 5k worth of generals, how many foot soldiers are there? It should be around 100k of vrocks alone. = ]

*Yes. Abyss is technically unlimited in its resources but there is a good reason why 5k of Balros don't rolfstomp the kingdoms every day.*

And even if one wants to use that many Balors... well how many dretches will there be exactly? I would say few millions. Yes a dretch is not very threatening, but they have high HP for there lvl and few million of them... well should be enough to cover the entire city in a few foot thick coating?

[Yukitsu]

The caster level 20 blasphemy is probably something what need be addressed.

I'd probably use 6 months of hard work on a shovel and with earth moving spells to make tunnels for evacuation outside the city in every single house without telling everyone until the last minute, get them all out as they were being invaded. Sovereign seal up the gates during the night, not that it'll stop all the fliers, but it's a start. Subsequently, I'd then probably demolish the city with explosive runes while the demons were hunting non-existant enemies.

Under no condition do I believe any form of combat would be feasible granted those resources. I also believe it will either be the city or the populace that will be lost, I don't think saving both is feasible.

[kabreras]

By the by, I will still question Balor's presence there at all in such ODD ratio. = \ Balors come as any other general does. If there is 5k worth of generals, how many foot soldiers are there? It should be around 100k of vrocks alone. = ]

*Yes. Abyss is technically unlimited in its resources but there is a good reason why 5k of Balros don't rolfstomp the kingdoms every day.*

And even if one wants to use that many Balors... well how many dretches will there be exactly? I would say few millions. Yes a dretch is not very threatening, but they have high HP for there lvl and few million of them... well should be enough to cover the entire city in a few foot thick coating?

Well you raise a good question here, or it is a miss from the DM, or the whole time travel thing is just an illusion made you to beleve it will happend.

[Red_Dog]

Well you raise a good question here, or it is a miss from the DM, or the whole time travel thing is just an illusion made you to beleve it will happend.

Here is a quick calc btw, just from no dretches present, and 5k of Balors, Hezrou and Marliths in first round present.

========================================>
5k of balors bring an average of 100k of dretches. Marlith have 50% of doing the same, so lets say another 50k. Hezrou has 35% chance, so 35k of dretches So yeah, we do have a wall'O'Dretches numbering in 185k.

This means that in 1st round, you have 3+ dretches PER person.
And that is just from doing rough numbers from the commanding daemons. I forget if there is a rule against summoned daemons summoning, but in second round... its going to be 249.75k of dretches... from dretches summoning dretches. That's 5 dretches per person... SO yeah... odds are pretty terrible, and I think these number DO warrant my solution of co-operating with Daemon princes = ]

P.S. If anyone is interested =>
~250K of dretches is 3.25 million hit points, & 500HD[in terms of banishing]
While 15k of leading daemons TOGETHER is => 3.22 million Hitpoints & 230HD

So yeah... this force belongs in Abyss, the sooner you stuff it back there, using any and all means necessary, the better = ]

[docnessuno]

Sorry for the OT but i wasn't able to resist:


Commoner 22

Srsly?

[Invader]

By the by, I will still question Balor's presence there at all in such ODD ratio. = \ Balors come as any other general does. If there is 5k worth of generals, how many foot soldiers are there? It should be around 100k of vrocks alone. = ]

*Yes. Abyss is technically unlimited in its resources but there is a good reason why 5k of Balros don't rolfstomp the kingdoms every day.*

And even if one wants to use that many Balors... well how many dretches will there be exactly? I would say few millions. Yes a dretch is not very threatening, but they have high HP for there lvl and few million of them... well should be enough to cover the entire city in a few foot thick coating?

I immediately wondered about this as well but I decided to just roll with it for fun lol. I think it's safe to say there's nothing you can reasonably do to make any kind of martial defense against that many demons.

[Red_Dog]

I immediately wondered about this as well but I decided to just roll with it for fun lol. I think it's safe to say there's nothing you can reasonably do to make any kind of martial defense against that many demons.

=>invaderk2

Mechanically speaking, I can think of exactly ONE creature type that can stop this in print.

Fiendish Codex 2, Legion Devil. I think that they were written in to explain, just HOW it is that daemons didn't roll all over 9 hells just yet. = ]

Look 'em up, they are sick. Even without re-feating them, a legion of just few thousands is unbelievable in its efficiency. They combine their HP pool, can not be mind effected as if one is effected, they ALL roll and statistically group of large than 20 will crit every time, pretty much Auto-hit[+4 to hit per devil], can aid each other [and WILL] to make epic skill checks to spot and than kill people and have quite a few means of moving around.

But according to the Fiendish codex entry, they require salary that must be paid or they won't work, or probably beat it out of you if you lied[unlikely, aid another sense motive lol]. So hiring them for a day for a large lump sum of gold can be cool-ish. Expect a Devil Lord on your behind though, as you are drawing forces away from blood war, and generally being arrogant about doing something that they generally can't afford to do[hiring few hundred units is a hefty tag, and DM can dictate the price as the FCII doesn't specify the price and minimum on hiring limit] = ]
*All this functions usually in 60ft radius... so 200-ish devils constitute a working "unit/regiment". So think roman legions, except each legion has its own leader and own contract if you are hiring it*

On upside, legion devil is not going to steal anyone's soul and will leave as soon as contract expires. So they are great mercs = ].

P.S. Speaking of official printed Mercs, look up WarTrolls. Fun and usually very co-operative. Pay them and they will come = ] They also regen like crazy and require very little support

[Lysander]

My god is the one that sent me into the future and then let me rebuild my character. I was told by my god(or divine agent), that I cannot convince anyone of what is to come. "Someone of divine importance" will be born to the citizens of this city in the future that will end the 1,000 year war in Hell. This is another thing I was told by the agent of my god. Again, I can't convince anyone of this either.

I've tried to do some diplomacy, and it fails every time. Through DM Fiat, they always make up some reason they won't help. I also paid a Cleric to use Discern Lies on me while I told them what happened. Everyone present believed me. However, when I went on to discuss how to protect the city, it's like everyone was struck with amnesia about the previous casting of Discern Lies. Then they don't believe me anymore.

I've also tried to use Bluff to help. That was somewhat helpful as long as I lied about the reason. I could lie that some orc or goblins were scouting out certain sections of the city for an attack, and then city officials would boost the defense of the city somehow, but it's been minor changes.

Edit: I was given the impression that if I drastically alter the way the city functions too much, then my god will be punished by the other gods and he may lose some divine rank.

It seems like your god (aka DM) doesn't actually want you to save the city, considering he's using divine amnesia fiat to thwart you.

So the important thing here isn't to save the city, since that's impossible. The key is this "person of divine importance". The demons are coming to kill them, they don't actually care about the city and the regular inhabitants there.

So a better strategy is to figure out, through magic and old fashioned sleuthing, who in the city will give birth to this child. Then you can either move those people elsewhere to a guarded place, so the demons can't reach them, and perhaps eliminate their purpose for attacking the city in the first place. Maybe that would make them call off the attack.

Or if you're willing to stray from purely good alignment, maybe you can negotiate with the demons to trade these people for the city's safety. Although they're chaotic so who knows how much faith you can have in a deal.

You may also have to accept that your DM might simply not let you save the city no matter what you do. In which case you should divert your attention to saving as much as possible. Maybe you're only supposed to save the child of cosmic significance and nothing else. Maybe you can just get a handful of NPCs you care about out. Instead of saving the city you should have plan B that just involves evacuating a few people, by force or trickery if necessary.

[kabreras]

Well as a wizard if i knew something like this would happend...
Trust me i would have my contingency greater téléport ready for the day.

[Red_Dog]

Almost forgot one more Daemon prince as a potential contact =>

Dagon. He knows quite a bit and generally regarded as a "seer" and lore keeper of Abyss history being one of the oldest things in abyss period.

The biggest advantage in dealing with him is that he is likely aware of w/e your god already did and clearly didn't tell anyone about this and therefore isn't likely to spill the beans.

Contacting him from material plane is very tricky as his cults are rare and include Kraken and Kua-toa who are not likely to share information, be hidden in hostile environments[sea depths] & over all be a challenge to find and "convince" to co-operate. Dealing with him also carries a risk of involving Blipdoolpoolp which IS a deity and will try to screw Dagon over at every opportunity if only by proxy.
*Alternatively you can pass your knowledge planes and use contact other planes to make a collect call to him. This solution however might be on that list of things banned, or generally not favored by your DM as it smells quite funny as all solutions that involve "Contact other plane" do.*


So again, big quest, dangerous, high risk - high reward. Mostly a back up option tbh as this one can get sticky with direct odds with another diety.

[vampire2948]

Then I'll make a resetting trap of Sacred Item to fill the city with them.

That would be against the rules of the Test of Spite, surely?


5k of each type of monster you mentioned is far too much, whoever thought that was a good idea is clearly insane or thinks large numbers is a good way to challenge someone (look at the Immortals Handbook for how wrong that is) - This isn't something you can win in direct combat without epic spellcasting.

The solution is to go Artificer, create scrolls of Genesis, and use your 6 months to create a demiplane with appropriate stored resources and space to protect as much of the population as you can. When the army comes, you tell everyone in the city that they have to escape through a series of gates surrounded by a Antipathy spells of as high a DC as you can manage keyed against Demons.

Use multiple antipathies per gate for a greater chance that the Demons will fail their saves against at least one of them.

If possible, convince some of the population to leave prior to the attack. Perhaps by advertising your new genesis'd demiplane as a paradise of some sort.

Should be within your wealth limit if you use the usual Artificer-tricks for magic item cost reduction. Test of Spite rules limit this to 65% of the usual cost, at minimum.

[Calanon]

Raise a Mythral in the city with all the apropriate spells to leave the demons outside and stop them from entering.

Unfortunately, if we had access to Epic Spellcasting, this wouldn't be a problem :smallannoyed: Lets just go talk to the local Red Wizards group and convince them to construct a locate city bomb trick and coincidentally begin the testing on the day of the invasion ... Unfortunately even this will not kill off all the hoards of the Tana'ri (since most Demons have more then 1 HD... target it near the Manes and then we can talk :smallamused:)

Hmm... Lets see... buy a Candle of Invocation and then go in for infinite wishes... :smalltongue: Cheesy and out of my character but I can't think of anything cheap and easy to defeat all the Tana'ri (Without Epic Spellcasting)

[Invader]

Druid 5/Planar Shepherd 10 Plane of Syrania

This might sound crazy but...

Wildshape into a Planetar (casts as a 17th level cleric)
This will all you to either A. Recruit all the angels in Syrania to come fight for or B. convince them all to come help you bring everyone back to life.

Effectively the whole town will be killed or everyone will be killed until the demons have completed whatever their goal was.

If you angels help you fight you either win in which case yay! or you lose in which case you get busy with all those angels with cleric levels casting raise dead, resurrection, true resurrection, etc. until everyone is brought back to life.

Coincidentally Planetars and Solars both can cast dimensional lock and the area is a 20 ft radius which should give you more than enough time to blanket the whole city with relatively few angels to help you. Ta da! no more demon portals.

[vampire2948]

Coincidentally Planetars and Solars both can cast dimensional lock and the area is a 20 ft radius which should give you more than enough time to blanket the whole city with relatively few angels to help you. Ta da! no more demon portals.

Surely they'd just appear outside the city and fly/walk/slither in.

[Invader]

That would be against the rules of the Test of Spite, surely?


5k of each type of monster you mentioned is far too much, whoever thought that was a good idea is clearly insane or thinks large numbers is a good way to challenge someone (look at the Immortals Handbook for how wrong that is) - This isn't something you can win in direct combat without epic spellcasting.

The solution is to go Artificer, create scrolls of Genesis, and use your 6 months to create a demiplane with appropriate stored resources and space to protect as much of the population as you can. When the army comes, you tell everyone in the city that they have to escape through a series of gates surrounded by a Antipathy spells of as high a DC as you can manage keyed against Demons.

Use multiple antipathies per gate for a greater chance that the Demons will fail their saves against at least one of them.

If possible, convince some of the population to leave prior to the attack. Perhaps by advertising your new genesis'd demiplane as a paradise of some sort.

Should be within your wealth limit if you use the usual Artificer-tricks for magic item cost reduction. Test of Spite rules limit this to 65% of the usual cost, at minimum.

Genesis is a 9th level spell and he's only level 15 plus its 5000xp to cast.

[Invader]

Surely they'd just appear outside the city and fly/walk/slither in.

He said the portals would appear in the city. I follow the letter of the law, not the spirit lol.

[Spider_Jerusalem]

Highest level NPC's: Adept 16, Aristocrat 15, Barbarian 16, Bard 18, Cleric 18, Commoner 22, Druid 17, Expert 20, Fighter 20, Monk 15, Paladin 14, Ranger 14, Rogue 19, Sorcerer 15, Warrior 20, Wizard 15.

An EPIC COMMONER??

I'd say this city is automatically safe, unless there's an advanced awakened fiendish dire cat in the demonic army.

[vampire2948]

Genesis is a 9th level spell and he's only level 15 plus its 5000xp to cast.

An Artificer could make an item of it at 15th. XP to craft stuff could be an issue - But hell, he's got 6 months, and can only craft 8 hrs per day. He can go fight some dragons or something for xp.

[Zonugal]

This seems like a problem for the Scholar!

Elan Artificer 15 with all the standard feats.

Build an 1/day item of Teleport Through Time (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/pg/20030409b) and take yourself back by about ten years. Begin laying down any and all defenses you can manage in as subtle a way as possible.

In addition to this try to foster a prominent political career for your self as to plop yourself in a position of fair power.

[JeminiZero]

5k of balors bring an average of 100k of dretches. Marlith have 50% of doing the same, so lets say another 50k. Hezrou has 35% chance, so 35k of dretches So yeah, we do have a wall'O'Dretches numbering in 185k.

This means that in 1st round, you have 3+ dretches PER person.
And that is just from doing rough numbers from the commanding daemons. I forget if there is a rule against summoned daemons summoning, but in second round... its going to be 249.75k of dretches... from dretches summoning dretches. That's 5 dretches per person... SO yeah... odds are pretty terrible, and I think these number DO warrant my solution of co-operating with Daemon princes = ]

P.S. If anyone is interested =>
~250K of dretches is 3.25 million hit points, & 500HD[in terms of banishing]
While 15k of leading daemons TOGETHER is => 3.22 million Hitpoints & 230HD


An interesting piece of maths. Allow me to present the other side of the picture:

One self-resetting trap of Sacred item operating non-stop for 6 months can produce:

10 per minute x 60 min per hour x 24 hrs per day x 30 days a month x 6 mmonths = 2,592,000 sacred items.

At 7d4 damage each, that is a total of 45,360,000 HP damage. :smallbiggrin: For ONE trap. Get several if you can.

[Invader]

An interesting piece of maths. Allow me to present the other side of the picture:

One self-resetting trap of Sacred item operating non-stop for 6 months can produce:

10 per minute x 60 min per hour x 24 hrs per day x 30 days a month x 6 mmonths = 2,592,000 sacred items.

At 7d4 damage each, that is a total of 45,360,000 HP damage. :smallbiggrin: For ONE trap. Get several if you can.

Whats the monetary and xp cost for creating that many traps? Or even a reasonable amount of traps.

[Yukitsu]

IIRC, those weren't allowed in the test of spite anyway.

[Calanon]

This seems like a problem for the Scholar!

Elan Artificer 15 with all the standard feats.

Build an 1/day item of Teleport Through Time (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/pg/20030409b) and take yourself back by about ten years. Begin laying down any and all defenses you can manage in as subtle a way as possible.

In addition to this try to foster a prominent political career for your self as to plop yourself in a position of fair power.

I like how this is by RAW legal :smallamused: (Spell component pouch FTW)

and thank you for giving me a campaign idea :smallamused:

[JeminiZero]

IIRC, those weren't allowed in the test of spite anyway.

Well the ToS ruleset was designed for arena duels, rather than defending a location (where traps would be useful), so the DM might make an exception.

If not, start using reach-chain spell with Sacred Item: Reach to give it range at +2 (so it occupies a 6th slot), and then chain to affect 1 object per CL (either using normal metamagic for a 9th slot, of with a metamagic rod).

[killianh]

so a single level 15 against 5000 of each demon? ouch!

I'd play a Chaotic Good (because my soul would be worth more then to convert) wizard and strike a bargain to have devils arise to the city and fight them off, then the city wouldn't be destroyed because the city is lawful neutral. It may become a bit oppressed, but the main point is they are all still alive and following what I believe in :smallamused:

After which heroes of all types and good outsiders would come in droves to liberate the taken city. The six months would probably be spent in litigation over the contract for my soul, other things I might be able to get for them, and the war that is to come

[cagemarrow]

Rather than Cleric perhaps you could use Binder instead, if Bloodlines are allowed, with the proper build and binding one of your vestiges to Zceryll you can have at will once every four or five rounds Summon Monster 9. I had this going in one game by 13th level.

There are multiple summons that have both wizard or cleric spells as a 12th level caster, Fierre and Ursinal Eladrin I think. They also can summon Djinni, SM 7, which can create permanent plant based objects of up to 20 cubic feet in size at will. There are also summons that get either reincarnate or raise dead as spell like abilities, Olyphant and Owl Archon maybe.

With these your wealth and casting restrictions are gone and even if there are casualties you can bring back those that are willing the next day. During the Age of Wyrms campaign after the end game battle my Binder had to surrender to an Inevitable for breaking the laws of death by bringing back an entire city worth of victims using these options.

[Acanous]

I'd probably go Killer Gnome with that one feat that lets you swap any two spells of a level for a slot one level higher, and prep Silent image as a 9th level spell, then miracle-spam. Miracle spam a lot. You can get at bare minimum two a day, No XP cost thanks to it being a shadow miracle. With 6 months of prep time, you should have the holiest of holy untouchable cities in the multiverse.

Edit: Pretty sure the feat required is Spell Versatility, but could be wrong there.

[Invader]

I'd probably go Killer Gnome with that one feat that lets you swap any two spells of a level for a slot one level higher, and prep Silent image as a 9th level spell, then miracle-spam. Miracle spam a lot. You can get at bare minimum two a day, No XP cost thanks to it being a shadow miracle. With 6 months of prep time, you should have the holiest of holy untouchable cities in the multiverse.

Edit: Pretty sure the feat required is Spell Versatility, but could be wrong there.

For that to work don't you have to be able to cast the higher level spell already?

[Downysole]

The Cleric (being the demon killers they are) NPC will also be key in helping out. Even if you don't get him to believe you about the demons coming, maybe you can get him super paranoid...enough to start packing slots with sacred item and to help protect the city. Assuming, of course, that he can cast good spells.

Also, Demon Dirge is a good spell for this. I know there are others.

Speaking of which, you're going to have a lot of spell resistance checks to get through. Might want to try to buff up your CL or Spell Penetration to get past that.

[Zeb]

Problem: 50,000 demons attacking a Ln city from random(esqe) gates at 1 per citizen in 6 months time with the goal of killing all the citizens.

Your lvl 15 character with WBL has a stated goal of protecting the citizens, foreknowledge of the attack and no one believes.

Your options as I see it are Dodge, Deflect, and Defeat.

Dodge: Ways to avoid the problem;
Somehow remove the city or citizens
Prevent Demon entry, Hallowed/forbidance, weirdstones dimensional lock, redirection of the gates ect.
All of these are hard to do and are not sure of working.

Deflect Not my problem;
Find a way to make the demons attack somewhere else
Pit something else against the demon hordes, how about a crusade, demon hunt or giving the devils an advantage in the blood war to really keep them occupied?
It seems the demons are doing a scorched earth to kill just a few specific people who will result in the "chosen one" later, determine who these are via divination or what not and set them aside magically or focus your defense on them alone, which brings us to...

Defeat or how to slay those which oppose you;
I've got friends:as others have suggested arrange for powerful or numerous forces to be in the city at the time of the attack, angels, devils, heroes, mages fair, cleric convention, Olympic games for heroes, who's who's meeting of movers and shakers, concert so good it attracts divine attention. shoot even pick a fight/ start a war with other badass planar powers so they will be there when demons arrive, no one likes demons.

Victory thru public works Use logistics and preparation to win.
(use of traps or super crafter encouraged) repave the city and install monuments of scared item, public lighting: lamps of celestial brilliance every 15 feet, parks and squares with pro evil or forbiddance, shrines lamppost and roadsigns of banishment and dismissal don't affect the citizens but will clear vast swaths of the lesser demons. the big issue here is protecting against all those suicide bombers Balor death throes 100 untyped damage to everything in 100 feet is pretty hard to negate without total cover. So one use items of resilient sphere's, traps, or beads of force provided to key people or set off before the attack could provide safety for some.

A hero to save us this is probably more what your DM had in mind, you build the anti-demon hero. For a crusade to hell I have ran an Uther Lightbringer type character an exalted cleric/morninglord/radiant servant/Eye of horus-re/master of radiance, position yourself in the center of the city on the attack and glow brighter and holier than the noon sun on Celestia. Extended and widened celestial brilliances with all the doubling to light effects with a 30 day duration you can pop off quite a few a day and should be able to blanket the city in your holy light. Recruit a powerful wizard/abjurer friend or have the party work to protect you/prevent the big ones from exploding too close to you and you can do just fine (wizards built on the phrase "you shall not pass" work wonders, repulsion, teleport traps, antipathy, a whole host of wall and force spells.)




Really mitigating the 5000 Balor bombs is what will probably make the situation untenable.

If you have any questions/ want more specifics on any of the strategies let me know I didn't want to occupy too much of the thread, my personal choice would be auto resetting traps/ one use items of spells but if that seems too cheese the you did get a free free build to make a hero...

[Snowbluff]

Play a Wizard, Fimbulwinter and Persisted/Widened Bloodsnow. No one is taking the city. Except for undead, but no one cares about the undead.

Use Simulacum to make yourself 250 million gp worth of Solar Simulacra. You'll probably delevel, but you could get a scroll for it instead. IIRC That should get you around EXP costs.

[Rubik]

Honestly, you don't WANT the Blood War to end. It's the only thing keeping the demons and devils from overrunning the multiverse.

I say let them destroy the town. Or at least have The Chosen One.

If he's fated to stop the Blood War then he needs to die.

[Jack of Trades]

Buy a weirdstone for 65K. This will stop Gating in for a 6 mile radius.
Place it in the center of the town as a 'gift' modern art statute. With some free permanent walls of force and circles of protection from evil and chaos as a free extra (i.e. protection).

This will now protect the city itself from demons Gating in. Although they can Gate in beyond the 6 miles.

You now have two options which are not mutual exclusive.
1. Go for the angel help. Since eveything will be taking place outside the city, thanks to the weirdstone, no damage will occur to the city.

2. Buy some strategical placed empty warehouses around the city. Paint them a nice distinctive color(s). Place some big magic circles of protection or circles of dismissal (if that exists or can be created) in them.
Tell everyone ahead of time about the warehouses. Doesn't matter if they believe you, just that they know about them ahead of time.
Maybe add a few town criers to get things moving.

"Eek! :smalleek:Demons! He was right. Where is the closest big white building with a red cross?"

[Gandariel]

Do you want to do this the AWESOME WAY?

use self resetting traps of Sacred Items. As many as you can.
Each self resetting trap, working for 6 months, produces more than 2 milions of castings.
Enchant milions of grains of sand.
Then, put the sand all over the city.

When the monsters are 10 minutes from coming, whip out your scroll of Control Weather.
Summon a whirlwind.
When the demons arrive, they'll be greeted by an enormous whirlwind of holy sand and Awesomeness.

[Spuddles]

Just emerald legion it. Immunity to everything is pretty good.

[Spuddles]

An EPIC COMMONER??

I'd say this city is automatically safe, unless there's an advanced awakened fiendish dire cat in the demonic army.

Give the commoner epic casting. Chaos shuffle his feats to jacob's ladder up to 9th level spells; use psy reformation to redistribute skill points. Then BAM, commoner wins the universe.

[Rejakor]

Rejakor's Five Step Plan to Defend this City from the Evils of DM Fiat;

Step 1; The Great Save the City Heist

Steal a whole bunch of money from a bank in the city, or elsewhere. Repeat as necessary, using catspaws and that fool scrying spell (from a scroll probably) to avoid people seeing what's actually occuring as necessary. Don't reveal your face/identity for 21 days either side, a mask for the robbery and a hood for the rest of it should be fine. That's if someone has that spell that lets them look into the past. Now, you have money.

Step 2; Getting help.

You have the diplomacy and bluff skill, and you have money. Don't explain yourself to anyone! ANYONE! Simply diplomance or take what you need. You want clerics. Preferably runecasters, but clerics on their own will do. You need 1-3 traps of Sacred Item, too. You'll also want a network of lower level rogues/thieves guild contacts.

Step 3; Setting up.

Using your traps and your minions every single item in the town should be sacred. Buy several warehouses around town, and make them absolutely airtight. Then buy a weirdstone, but don't deploy it yet.

Have the two Light spells from Book of Nauseatingly Good scribed into Runes and then placed in strategic, PROTECTED locations. They work through iron cages, they work through walls of force, they work through permanent magic circles against evil.. make it so. Also set them up so you can trigger them up to three times, in case the demons retreat for another go later.

Additionally, prepare some many tons of sand with Sacred Item.

In this stage, your helpers should be as far as possible watching each other to make sure no-one blabs to the demons about these preparations. Basic secret organization cell structure, etc, and have as many of them charmed/dominated as humanly possible. Try to find an enchanter that you determine is not working for the demons and have that twinked enchanter/psion do all kinds of mindreadey/mindcontrolley bull**** on your behalf.

Compile a list of all the military might on the planet. Start screwing with it, small scale sabotage but the kind that would worry all these organizations, churches, academies, and nations.


Also set up a low-lying (roof level) force dome over the city, with some insane caster level. Get a circle of red wizards or whatever to cast it at CL 80 or whatever, but have it dormant somehow (rune?). Alternatively, have this set up to be cast in step 4.

Step 4; Tomfoolery and associated rocket science

Establish teleport circles in the warehouses, which are clearly marked. Ward your weirdstone all to **** but don't turn it on yet. Have the teleport circles point somewhere really stupidly safe, like a massive well defended church city or the super wizard guild. If nothing like that exists, buy permanent gates instead, and have them point at celestia.

Have information show up at the good guy groups you were previously antagonizing showing them that a new and very evil cult is behind the stealing of the sacred blah, magical phooey, and powerful zing zang. And is going to use it all to create a massive planar breach over the town of [the one you are going to protect]. Gauge how long it will take them to respond and have the info hit them so they show up a few hours from the time when the demon invasion is going to occur. A while after they start showing up, have a kindly old (fake) wizard who lives in the town bumble over and be like 'there are evil cultists in the town! they are planning to destroy it! [in an unspecified way, this should not trigger the DM fiat thing] I have prepared escape teleport circles in case things get bad but I will need your help in getting people to go to them and protecting them just in case!' etc etc.

Get your sand into position, and your minions in key positions to activate anti-aerial enchantments (and the force dome) and summon/planar bind chaff monsters to slow down/distract the demons (*they do not know what they are there to do, all instructions are written and only opened at specific times).

Step 5; The big, fat, kill.

You should know roughly when the attack is going to hit. Have scrying spells everywhere all over the city waiting for the first gate to open. The instant it does, BAM, weirdstone goes on. Warehouses with the door shut should be blocking LoE if they're airtight, and so gates/circles inside will still work.

You also pop the force dome, and the forces of Good should be reacting as Good does, and saving civilians + killing any errant/immune demons.

A druid goes 'herpy derpy CONTROL WEATHERS' and sudden hurricane lowers visibility, makes flying harder, and covers the sky in Sacred Sand which hopefully reaps a dreadful ****ing toll, all your runes go BAMF and suddenly the air is killing demons and your city is basically demon-immune for the time it will take you to get everyone somewhere relatively safer. The force dome stops long range nukes from going off, you can layer it/turn it into a globe underground too to make it even more sure.

The one hitch in this plan is that if wherever your mans are going isn't safe demons will just go there instead and kill you regardless.

If even the other planes wouldn't be safe (I guess celestia has.. no defences?), high CL permanent walls of force, tiny flakes of that antigravity rock + sacred item to create permanent '**** you' to flying demons, bottles of air so no outside contact necessary, traps of create food and water, and sealed forcewalled ingress egress warehouse teleporters, and a weirdstone would make it relatively demonproof, at least as much as anything is until you get an antichaos antievil mythal going (which you will after the initial attack) and then you start training up your very own tippyverse Sieged City Of Doom.


Optionally; Find out whatever fiat solution the DM wants you to use, like the magical doodad of antidemons or whatever the ****, and use that. Or go beg the gods for 50,000 solars to help out.

[Red_Dog]

Honestly, you don't WANT the Blood War to end. It's the only thing keeping the demons and devils from overrunning the multiverse.

I say let them destroy the town. Or at least have The Chosen One.

If he's fated to stop the Blood War then he needs to die.

Well, to be exact, Blood War can't be lost by daemons, unless someone magically seals all the abyssal plane connections, Which to my knowledge is impossible, there is infinite number of infinite layers, ergo a whole lots of daemons. Perhaps this child will be able to seal of the planes from each other trapping daemons forever in Abyss? Who knows ^^

Devils[and not angels, they are too busy enforcing abstinence and sobriety or w/e hehe ^^ No seriously Angels, while being LG, are terribly uninvolved in this very very important cosmic struggle and run errant for deities who are just as uninvolved hehe, "what do you mean? I am not reading into the lines at all *rollseyes*" = ) ] are what stopping daemons from running amok and burning the multiverse down as one big bonfire.
========================================>
However, the point of "[B]don't mess with cosmic balance, you don't know what it will do" is 100% valid as "don't touch that, you don't know where its been" = ) . That is why D&D has Inevitables tasked[or self-tasked] with doing exactly that => keep things where they are.

So expecting them to be quick on the scene or even be behind this[to kill a child that will turn multiverse upside-in]. So yeah, interesting fluff solution.^^

P.S. I am in general, a supported of fluff/plot solutions to issues as big as this. Unless your DM has an amazing new mass combat system he/she has been dieing to try out[if that's the case, PLEASE share that ^^ ], its likely that you have 6 month to advance plot as much as you can and resolve this before the tidalwave of poop makes landfall.

But than again, we all are making a lot of assumptions about what DM wants in the game that we are not playing, so what do we know? ^^

[kabreras]

You really think that noone of the 5000 24 int balors will figure your tactic of sacred items and pop a greater dispel magic to get ride of it ?

[arixe]

you could use searing light spells. or what its called in 3.5 you could also summon a few gales. they are pretty powerful in their light form. back to searing light you could secretly replace street lamps with orbs that attack outsiders with the spell. i think it deals d8s to outsiders.

[Invader]

you could use searing light spells. or what its called in 3.5 you could also summon a few gales. they are pretty powerful in their light form. back to searing light you could secretly replace street lamps with orbs that attack outsiders with the spell. i think it deals d8s to outsiders.

It should be reiterated

5000 balors = 1,450,000 hps + 45,000 other demons = more than d8's needed lol.

[arixe]

It should be reiterated

5000 balors = 1,450,000 hps + 45,000 other demons = more than d8's needed lol.

good point. but it take out the brunt of the weaker ones and if you maximize it then your dealing a decent set amout every hit. or just make something that can cast banishment over and over haha.

[kabreras]

TBH my thinking is that if you have to defend the place and so if the demons arrive, you are screwed and cant win at all at level 15, beeing 6 months or 6 years of preparation.

Your only chance is to find what they are looking for (you dont bring such an army just to destroy a city) and hide/protect/put somewhere else that thing.

[Voyager_I]

Don't allow the attack to happen. In a traditional battle, based on the information and resources currently available, you cannot win.

You will be facing an absolutely overwhelming force deploying in a manner that will make effective response exceedingly difficult and containment simply impossible. They will get in. They will have run of the city. Only your party and the notable NPCs will be able to slow them down at any location, and most of those won't be able to deal with even a single Balor.

Even if your party was tough enough to defeat the entire horde in battle, the simple fact is that you can only be in one place at a time, and the Demons will be everywhere. The city will have been utterly destroyed and the population all but eradicated before you could kill them all. Hell, the Death Throes of 5,000 Balors would be enough to cause catastrophic damage.



You have 6 months to discover and neutralize the forces responsible for the invasion. In D&D terms, that's plenty of time. A small party of high-level characters is much better suited to this sort of inter-planar commando raid than they are at trying to be a conventional army.

Alternatively, your real objective is not the preservation of the city; it's the safety of one as-yet unborn child. If it's possible, you may be able to achieve victory simply by getting them (or their parents) to safety. It's not the most heroic option, leaving the city to be consumed, but in the grand scheme of things it seems to have better odds than winning an impossible battle or assassinating a Demon Prince in his own domain.




Or, you know, just go fight four encounters per day for the next few months and be so far into epic levels that the entire demonic army probably won't give you experience.

[The Winter King]

It may be worth it just yo snipe at the balors, their death throe is a liability to the demons(balors-290,marilith-216, glabrezu-174,nalfashee-175, hezrou-133,dretch-13,vrock-115,babau-66, succubus-33). Almost no demons will make the save and most will be severely injured by it.

Dont just spread your CBs through the city, cast them on wearable items and wear loads of them. 2d6 apop is nothing to sneeze at.

Since you cant get help, create some traps of power word death set to kill any demons. traps of summon monster could help make up for your numbers.

Blinding glory is the best blinding good spell, but hardly the onlyone. many "Good" spells blind as well. It is therefore prudent to familirize oneself with the blind condition.


The character cannot see. He takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class, loses his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any), moves at half speed, and takes a –4 penalty on Search checks and on most Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks. All checks and activities that rely on vision (such as reading and Spot checks) automatically fail. All opponents are considered to have total concealment (50% miss chance) to the blinded character. Characters who remain blinded for a long time grow accustomed to these drawbacks and can overcome some of them.

Blindness removes LoS making most SLAs useless (beware of blasphemy and GDM of Balors, but you should really snipe them first)

It also makes attacking a fools errand.

[Invader]

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/ii636/invaderk2/simply.jpg

[Zeb]

Killing the 5000 Balors isn't hard, its that whole deaththroes/collateral damage/being alive afterwords that's the hard bit.

[Invader]

Killing the 5000 Balors isn't hard, its that whole deaththroes/collateral damage/being alive afterwords that's the hard bit.

Hence one of the reasons you don't simply kill 5000 of them lol. And if killing 5000 balors isn't hard, I never want to play in one of your campaigns lol.

[arixe]

Killing the 5000 Balors isn't hard, its that whole deaththroes/collateral damage/being alive afterwords that's the hard bit.

haha well you could just use that deaththroes thing to your advantage there will be nearly shoulder to shoulder demons in the streets balors probably with in range of each others death throe you could set off a chain reaction that kills all ground based demons haha. but only if your really really lucky

[Invader]

haha well you could just use that deaththroes thing to your advantage there will be nearly shoulder to shoulder demons in the streets balors probably with in range of each others death throe you could set off a chain reaction that kills all ground based demons haha. but only if your really really lucky

Someone else brought this up as well but you'd level the entire town as well which would be counter intuitive.

[arixe]

Someone else brought this up as well but you'd level the entire town as well which would be counter intuitive.

ah yes true didnt quite think that one thru but it be funny

[animewatcha]

Contact a genie or efreeti or whatever and.."boy do I wish that that day would never come."

"I wish this day would repeat itself forever."

[arixe]

you could always use the 6 months to get two if theirs a wizard in the party then he could use gate and summon solar angles to fight

[Anthrowhale]

Another tool that you might use is "Erupt" from Serpent Kingdoms. It's a L9 cleric spell doing caster level*10 damage at the same range as Blinding Glory.

It will destroy virtually all structures, but structures don't seem survivable anyways with 5000 walking/flying bombs attacking. You'll need to energy substitute it to Cold or Acid.

Combine with a Wierdstone to break initial gating, making the invasion slow enough that people have some time to duck into prepared underground defensive tunnels with strong wards and a plentiful supply of sacred stones to prevent demons from entering.

Invest in the appropriate energy immunity for all above-ground defenders. Note that Erupt is a Burst spell, and hence that the appropriate bend in the tunnel will protect those seeking shelter.

Use Erupt from a strategically chosen (and if possible prepared) position once the demons get close. Use something to lure the demons en masse towards this position. Cast Erupt, possibly a few times, to kill even the demons that save every time. The quantity of demons becomes irrelevant, so long as they are all within caster level * 100 feet. Casting is not instantaneous, so you should be clever about how you are going to scrape together a few rounds at ground zero of the demon invasion. Incorporeality and using the ground for cover can be helpful, as well as careful preparations.

Have a plentiful supply of sacred arrow wielding militia able to come out and clean up any demons that accidentally found sufficient shelter from Erupts.

For bonus points, avoid destroying your Wierdstone and make sure you have some way to dig out survivors afterwards as tunnel mouths may easily collapse.

[Rubik]

Now that I think about it, are the demons there to kill the child, or to take it and raise it to stop The Blood War? They'd want to stop the war so they have free reign on the rest of the multiverse. It's not like Good is powerful enough to stop them if the devils weren't there to bite chunks out of their hides.

Don't let them get the kid (or his ancestors). Destroy his soul instead, or make it otherwise unattainable.

[kabreras]

What he say. Ending the blood war is a bad bad bad idea.

[Crasical]

1. Buy a map of the city.
2. Divide city up into 60 foot squares.
3. Commune. You have 15 questions. "Will Square X be the site of one of the demonic invasion portals?"
4. If it isn't, ignore it.
5. If it is, rent out that area, cast Forbiddance there.