How to build a superweapon...

[druid91]

So if as a player you were given a large amount of manpower and resources and were told to kill someone.

And you happen to be an artificer.

Is there any way of by RAW (Within reasonable limitations) constructing a superweapon?

Like a giant doom cannon or something.

[Invader]

I think what you'd be building would be highly dependent on what/who exactly you're trying to kill as it would take vastly different things to kill a 20th level wizard compared to say a 5th level fighter.

[druid91]

Illithid hunting at the time.

[Invader]

That's slightly less vague. A single ilithid shouldn't be that hard to kill. What level are you, does it have class levels, how much money and XP do you have to spend, are there other people in your group...

[druid91]

Oh If I was just looking to kill illithids I'd go do it... I was more looking for ways to fulfill my desire to look like a cackling supervillain while causing massive damage to a settlement.

[Deth Muncher]

Gonna need a leeeeetle bit more data from you.

Is this an existing character, or are you building one?
-If it's an existing character, what level is it and what's the feat selection?
-If it's a new character, exactly what kind of death machine are you looking for here?

Actually, in general, what're you looking for here? Are you looking for a man-portable device? A giant robot? A tank? A fortress?

[Dumbledore lives]

Gonna need a leeeeetle bit more data from you.

Is this an existing character, or are you building one?
-If it's an existing character, what level is it and what's the feat selection?
-If it's a new character, exactly what kind of death machine are you looking for here?

Actually, in general, what're you looking for here? Are you looking for a man-portable device? A giant robot? A tank? A fortress?

A giant robot tank fortress?

[druid91]

Definitely not man portable.

More like ship mounted, or if I can manage it, astral asteroid mounted.

The character is a hobgoblin Samurai//Artificer/modified Renegade mastermaker.

1: Samurai1|Artificer1: Daisho, Point Blank Shot [Tome]
2: Samurai2|Artificer2: Exotic Weapon proficiency (Laser-gun)
3: Samurai3|Artificer3: Legendary Artisan , Command [Tome]
4: Samurai4|Artificer4: extraordinary artisan
5: Samurai5|Artificer5: Wil d talent ,Hunter [Tome]
6: Samurai6|Renegade MMkr1: Landlord
7: Samurai7|Renegade MMkr2: Craft wand , Murderous Intent [Tome]
8: Samurai8|Renegade MMkr3: Quick Draw
9: Samurai9|Renegade MMkr4: Rapid Reload , Sniper [Tome]
10: Samurai10|Renegade MMkr5: Craft Rod
11: Samurai11|Renegade MMkr6: Psionic Talent , Two Weapon Fighting [Tome]
12: Samurai12|Renegade MMkr7: Craft staff

Artificer knowledge
Artisan bonus
Disable trap
Item creation
Scribe scroll
Brew potion
Craft wondrous item
Craft homunculus
Bonus feat (Craft Construct)
Craft magic arms and armour
Retain Essence
Battlefist +2
Craft master
Self repair
Supporting construction
Embed component
Ancestral Weaponry
Pledge of loyalty (Broken)
Horde Breaker
Kiai!
Whirlwind
Ancestral Guidance
Blind fighting
Terrible blows
Iaijutsu
Parry Magic
Subtle Cut
Blade of Devastation
Iaijutsu Focus
Cut Magic

[Tvtyrant]

Didn't someone once make a wand-cannon that fired 100 spells a turn or something?

Well, Rod of Many Wands combined with metamagic uses on the wands will let you nuke something (you can use all of your charges at once if you like, and get stupid amounts of damage).

[Deth Muncher]

Definitely not man portable.

More like ship mounted, or if I can manage it, astral asteroid mounted.

The character is a hobgoblin Samurai//Artificer/modified Renegade mastermaker.

1: Samurai1|Artificer1: Daisho, Point Blank Shot [Tome]
2: Samurai2|Artificer2: Exotic Weapon proficiency (Laser-gun)
3: Samurai3|Artificer3: Legendary Artisan , Command [Tome]
4: Samurai4|Artificer4: extraordinary artisan
5: Samurai5|Artificer5: Wil d talent ,Hunter [Tome]
6: Samurai6|Renegade MMkr1: Landlord
7: Samurai7|Renegade MMkr2: Craft wand , Murderous Intent [Tome]
8: Samurai8|Renegade MMkr3: Quick Draw
9: Samurai9|Renegade MMkr4: Rapid Reload , Sniper [Tome]
10: Samurai10|Renegade MMkr5: Craft Rod
11: Samurai11|Renegade MMkr6: Psionic Talent , Two Weapon Fighting [Tome]
12: Samurai12|Renegade MMkr7: Craft staff

Artificer knowledge
Artisan bonus
Disable trap
Item creation
Scribe scroll
Brew potion
Craft wondrous item
Craft homunculus
Bonus feat (Craft Construct)
Craft magic arms and armour
Retain Essence
Battlefist +2
Craft master
Self repair
Supporting construction
Embed component
Ancestral Weaponry
Pledge of loyalty (Broken)
Horde Breaker
Kiai!
Whirlwind
Ancestral Guidance
Blind fighting
Terrible blows
Iaijutsu
Parry Magic
Subtle Cut
Blade of Devastation
Iaijutsu Focus
Cut Magic

I don't know what the hell game you're playing in, but dear sweet Raptor Jesus I want in.

Personally, I'd say you might want to take a peek in the Stronghold Builder's Guide on how to make a mobile doom fortress - or at the very least, take a look at some of the turret weapons and other defenses it has. Other than that, my best advice is to check out every single magic item entry in the Eberron books and see what you can do.

[Reluctance]

Eldritch Device. ECS P. 273. Alternately, the Annulus.

I mean, doing astronomical amounts of damage to a single character or even a small area isn't too horribly hard. But when you absolutely, positively need a city and every inhabitant wiped off the map, you need a Plot Device. A little because most boom spells don't have the sort of radius you're looking for. Partially because if you succeeded with a single casting of Miracle, the narrative would feel flat. And partially because attempting to **** things up on that sort of scale without giving the DM advance notice is asking for thrown books and heavy handed fiat-based countermeasures. Better to announce your intentions to find/build an artifact towards that purpose, and then work with the DM towards that end.

[Ezekiul]

Locate City Bomb

"locate city (RoD) - 10 mile/level radius, finds a city

1. apply snowcasting (FB) - spell now has the cold descriptor
2. apply flash frost feat (PHB2) - spell now deals 2 points of cold damage to all in area (and makes area slippery but we don't care about that)
3. apply energy substitution (electricity) (CArc) - spell now deals electricity damge
4. apply born of three thunders (CArc) - spell deals half electric, half sonic, but what is important is that it now requires a reflex save, allowing us to...
5. apply explosive spell (CArc) - all creatures/things in area that fail their reflex saves are shunted to the outside of the area of effect (10 miles/level) and take 1d6 damage per 10' moved!

voila, you have just nuked an entire kingdom with a 4th level spell slot, a handful of snow and a silly combination of feats. Of course you have to be creative as well to not get shunted 200 miles yourself, or end up with a thousand tons of debris and bodies on top of you."

pasted from http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72212

[ThiagoMartell]

Locate City Bomb

"locate city (RoD) - 10 mile/level radius, finds a city

1. apply snowcasting (FB) - spell now has the cold descriptor
2. apply flash frost feat (PHB2) - spell now deals 2 points of cold damage to all in area (and makes area slippery but we don't care about that)
3. apply energy substitution (electricity) (CArc) - spell now deals electricity damge
4. apply born of three thunders (CArc) - spell deals half electric, half sonic, but what is important is that it now requires a reflex save, allowing us to...
5. apply explosive spell (CArc) - all creatures/things in area that fail their reflex saves are shunted to the outside of the area of effect (10 miles/level) and take 1d6 damage per 10' moved!

voila, you have just nuked an entire kingdom with a 4th level spell slot, a handful of snow and a silly combination of feats. Of course you have to be creative as well to not get shunted 200 miles yourself, or end up with a thousand tons of debris and bodies on top of you."

pasted from http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72212

Like it has been pointed out so many times, this does not work.

[Medic!]

If you can, take a peak at the Burning Eye of Al-Ghautra in the DMG2 on page 111. It could be reflavored to possibly work for your purposes, or maybe one of the other Magic Events listed would work or spark some creative juices.

[Deth Muncher]

Okay, so here's my plan for you. You can make the D&D version of the M1 Abrams tank, which is a crawling fortress with a ballista which does 3d6 damage. Depending on how much you enchant everything on it, you're looking at an unmodified cost of ~110k, sans cost of enchanting the ballista to auto reload/have Unseen Servants do it for you, as well as any special bolts you want to use. But that's an Adamantine crawling fortress moving at 10MPH. (About a fourth as fast as an actual Abrams, but it'll do.) This also doesn't take into account how you'll see out of the thing - presumably you just make sure you're protected so you can look out a small viewing port without taking an arrow to the knee eyeball.

Alternately, use one of the cannons from Stormwrack for the main gun.

[nyarlathotep]

Like it has been pointed out so many times, this does not work.


Yeah and most illithids have more than one hitdie, making the version that does work, not especially viable. Perhaps if you targeted the slave pens and hope the wights disrupt them, but that seems like not only an evil thing, but also not very superweapony.

[Tokiko Mima]

Construct a device to cast several Teleportation Circles into space several hundred miles above the surface of the planet. It must have at least two charges.

Construct and train/program two teams of warforged Dragonfire Adepts with the Power Surge, Enlarge Breath, Shape Breath, Maximize Breath, and Lingering Breath feats. (Include Force breath effect if possible. No need to damage potentially valuable objects!)

Issue your threat to the nearest large socioecomonic body with a great deal of well... stuff you want. Demand most of it. They won't respect you if you don't!

Regardless of the response, send the first team into space a little off target, and have them blast the natives of a nearby nation into kingdom come, and lay down a swath of fire/electricity/cold/acid/sound/force that damages all within for days or weeks.

Allow the first team to recharge while you await the riches that will most assuredly are hastening to you as soon as soon as your incredible capacity for global annihilation has time to fully sink in.

???

Profit.

[Tokiko Mima]

Oh wait? This was only one person I was supposed to kill. My bad. :smalltongue:

[ThiagoMartell]

Oh wait? This was only one person I was supposed to kill. My bad. :smalltongue:

Nevermind, metabreath bombs are all too fun :smallbiggrin:
Btw, I think the best way to do this would involve summoned creatures/planar binding, dominate monster and psychic reformation/dark chaos shuffle.
Why waste your time hiring DFAs that might or might not qualify for metabreath feats? Even a lowly hellhound can be used to reduce an entire country to ashes :smallbiggrin:
(it's also easier to get rid of the hellhound later)

[Medic!]

In that case....arrows of slaying?

[druid91]

The character I'm playing is evil. Not full on puppy kicking, but more practical evil. So wightifying a whole ton of slaves is the sort of thing he'd do. But while that is a good idea, it's not what I'm looking for.

[ThiagoMartell]

The character I'm playing is evil. Not full on puppy kicking, but more practical evil. So wightifying a whole ton of slaves is the sort of thing he'd do. But while that is a good idea, it's not what I'm looking for.

Even that version of the Locate City Bomb does not work anyway. Fell Drain only applies to targets of the spell, and Locate City does not target creatures.

Just get a creature with a breath weapon, change a few of it's feats around, fly really high and have fun. Call the creature Bahamut Zero is you want to be particularly infamous.

[druid91]

I meant the general concept of creating a wightpocalypse in their slaves, as opposed to the delivery system.

I don't understand? What does the breath weapon do?

[ThiagoMartell]

I meant the general concept of creating a wightpocalypse in their slaves, as opposed to the delivery system.

I don't understand? What does the breath weapon do?

You need to use metabreath feats for this to work. Some of them (the ones that matter) can be stacked with each other. There is no limit to how much stacking you can do, and using a metabreath feats just means you take longer recharging.
Enlarge Breath increases area of effect.
Lingering Breath means it "sticks" to the area and deals continuous damage.
So you could cover an arbitrarily large area (say, a country) with a few damage for an arbitrarily long period of time (say, a year).

[JeminiZero]

More like ship mounted, or if I can manage it, astral asteroid mounted.

Have you considered a simple meteor system?

Consider the rules for falling damage (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm). A 1 lb stone dropped from space would deal 20d6 damage. You just store a large number of these in some sort of extra dimensional space. In sufficiently large number this can flatten a city (its pretty much mass-catapult, without actually needing to buy expensive catapults). And its dirt cheap, so much so that you can add this on to your asteroid, in addition to some other main cannon.

[ThiagoMartell]

According to Heroes of Battle, avoiding falling objects is a DC 15 Reflex save, so not exactly "super".

[JeminiZero]

According to Heroes of Battle, avoiding falling objects is a DC 15 Reflex save, so not exactly "super".

Its still dirt cheap, and can be spammed in such numbers that anything which can't automatically make the save will inevitably take damage, possibly killing it depending on its HP total. (One hit from 20d6 ave 70, will pretty much instakill anything low-mid levels).

[ThiagoMartell]

Its still dirt cheap, and can be spammed in such numbers that anything which can't automatically make the save will inevitably take damage, possibly killing it depending on its HP total. (One hit from 20d6 ave 70, will pretty much instakill anything low-mid levels).

Well, you're going to need some kind of scrying device to aim that, so I wouldn't say dirt cheap.

[JeminiZero]

Well, you're going to need some kind of scrying device to aim that, so I wouldn't say dirt cheap.

Actually aiming a single moving target is *virtually* impossible due to the time it takes for falling objects to hit the ground. Which is why I recommend it to be used as either wide area bombarment (e.g. levelling a city), or only against fairly static targets (including stationary enemies e.g. asleep).

Edit: Also, since LoS is required, you could try targetting simply with a really good telescope.

[ThiagoMartell]

Actually aiming a single moving target is *virtually* impossible due to the time it takes for falling objects to hit the ground.
Really? IIRC, falling objects fall 300ft in the first round.


Which is why I recommend it to be used as either wide area bombarment (e.g. levelling a city), or only against fairly static targets (including stationary enemies e.g. asleep).

Edit: Also, since LoS is required, you could try targetting simply with a really good telescope.
I don't think line of sight would be required, just knowing the general location. "Really good telescopes" would require homebrew, so I'd stick to scrying. It keeps things a bit less cartoonish, as well, which might be a plus or not.

[ArcaneGlyph]

Arrow of Slaying tends to do the trick. Wreck the baddies saves first, then hit him with a true shot and the arrow. Game. Set. Match.

[NM020110]

Hmmm...four methods to do this that I can think of. Some might result in your target dying of old age first, but missing should not be possible...

Easy:
Infuse rockburst (Shining South), and then use it. Erasing the planet/plane should be sufficient to render your target in a dying state within a few minutes. You may need to dodge a book for trying this.

Medium:
Find a way to get many, many castings of Sympathetic Vibration, and use it on the freestanding structure known as the planet/plane until the structure crumbles. This one might take a while, and will probably attract hostile adventurers.

Hard:
Decanters of endless water/sand, set to geyser, and suspended a great distance up. Immovable rods may be helpful. Time to use is high, but a kill is effectively guaranteed. Just wait while the world floods...

Lunatic:
There are numerous spells which alter the weather. Given time (which you have), some very good math skills (which you should have), and persistence, you should be able to use them to effect the climate. Look to Venus for some inspiration, here...

[ima donkey]

Since you're evil if you make a sacrifice to an evil god with a knowledge religion DC 45 you can control weather for 24 hours (from BoVD). From the same book there is evil weather, use your control weather to make green fog which turns anything that doesn't make a DC 17 fortitude save into a random creature. Green fog covers 1d3 square miles and lasts 10d6 minutes. If your DM wont let you use control weather to cause green fog then use wish, DC 50 knowledge religion during a sacrifice.

Also you can drop barrels full of beads of force on towns but that's really expensive.

[Venusaur]

Crafting a Staff of Apocalypse from the Sky?

[The Random NPC]

Crafting a Staff of Apocalypse from the Sky?

Fun fact, Apocalypse from the Sky's range of Personal keeps it from affecting anyone but the caster.

[Deth Muncher]

Hard:
Decanters of endless water/sand, set to geyser, and suspended a great distance up. Immovable rods may be helpful. Time to use is high, but a kill is effectively guaranteed. Just wait while the world floods...

Lunatic:
There are numerous spells which alter the weather. Given time (which you have), some very good math skills (which you should have), and persistence, you should be able to use them to effect the climate. Look to Venus for some inspiration, here...


Since you're evil if you make a sacrifice to an evil god with a knowledge religion DC 45 you can control weather for 24 hours (from BoVD). From the same book there is evil weather, use your control weather to make green fog which turns anything that doesn't make a DC 17 fortitude save into a random creature. Green fog covers 1d3 square miles and lasts 10d6 minutes. If your DM wont let you use control weather to cause green fog then use wish, DC 50 knowledge religion during a sacrifice.

Also you can drop barrels full of beads of force on towns but that's really expensive.

I like you guys. You seem to go for the zazziest of evil overlord options.

[The Random NPC]

I personally like casting Planar Breach a couple of times. If you're lucky you can get 2 weeks of EVERY THING IS ON FIRE!

[lyko555]

According to Heroes of Battle, avoiding falling objects is a DC 15 Reflex save, so not exactly "super".

yeah but buildings can't dodge and if you drop say 100 stones on a city any one inside the buildings would be screwed as they collapsed. and if you drop enough stones everyone rolls a 1 eventually.

[panaikhan]

There is a potion creation variant somewhere, that lets you make a breakable object that carries the enchantment.
So make 'potions' (clay spheres) of Fireball, and drop them from a great height. Or launch them (carefully) from some huge war machine.
For extra insult, put something nasty inside the clay sphere.

[Tyndmyr]

So if as a player you were given a large amount of manpower and resources and were told to kill someone.

And you happen to be an artificer.

Is there any way of by RAW (Within reasonable limitations) constructing a superweapon?

Like a giant doom cannon or something.

Use immovable rods linked(ie, sovereign glued) to a spell turret of Sphere of Ultimate Destruction(Spc).

Press button to anchor cannon, activate spell turret, laugh manically.



Alternatively, look into Nailed to the Sky, a RAW-legal way to blow someone into orbit.

[Vizzerdrix]

How about this. In Waterdeep: City of splendors you will find a set of spells that act like the summon monster spells but the critters don't go away at the spells end. Use that to get a few thousand animals. Anything without a template that changes the type will do and I think some got added to the list by other books.

Now go into Monsters of Faerun, and grab the spell Create Darkenbeast. Now you have a flying swarm of nasty bat critters that can hold onto spells for you. Just keep them in darkness, get a few templates on them and tattoo Explosive Runes on every other one.

This is more of a mop up tactic for after you bombard an area.

[DeusMortuusEst]

If you're on a planet that orbits something, teleport into space and place a wall of force in its way. The shock when it hits should do some nasty things to the surrounding area (as well as creating a wall-shaped hole a couple of miles deep).

Unless the planet just plows past the wall, creating a tunnel through its core, it'll come to a full stop which will have serious impact on pretty much everything. The seasons at least will be seriously messed up, as will standard weather. If there's a moon it too will probably be a bit confused when it's parent planet suddenly stops.

Though the above suggestion isn't so much of a superweapon as much as 'use two spells, kill some catgirls and dodge the DMG'.

[Suddo]

I'll add something to the pile of mad scientist (although more chaotically random then evilly effective):
Marbles. Wish for 125,000 marbles and use it to cover 1767 square feet (353x353 zone) of DC15 trip checks. I'm away from my books maybe some else can fill in the detail but I think it should cover 1767 square feet (353x353 zone) with DC15 trip checks.

Beyond that Iron Heart Surge (IHS) is a classic way to destroy world (be a Vampire and IHS the sun) this can be done by crafting a magical item that gives you IHS (its in the back of the book there is a version for each discipline). But this won't hurt the Illithids much...

I assume you've read the Emerald Legion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101587) post, by JeminiZero who has posted in this thread, its a good read. The army could easily be mounted on a ship.

You could try and lift the planet earth as a hulking hurler and throw it into the sun, but you don't have that prestige class.

I'll post more as I think of it.