[PF] Plot Device WMD needed.

[LanternOG]

Hello,

I am running a Pathfinder Campaign set in the default setting (Golarion). As part of my plot I need a way to wipe out (or nearly wipe out) a major city. All the inhabitants do not need to be killed, but I do want whatever happens to kill most if not all inhabitants below level 3.

I am a veteran of 3.5 and the thought that immediately came to me to accomplish this was the Locate City Bomb with Fell Drain instead of explosive spell cast 5 or so times. The problem is that most of the necessary components (i.e. metamagics) for that do not exist in Pathfinder. I also know that by the rules the locate city bomb does not work anyway, but I am willing to bend the rules a bit as a DM to fit the plot. That being said, I want whatever I use as the plot device to make some sense in game. The group I have will investigate (they are very curious players) and I want to be able to give them coherent answers to their questions, such as if they use Detect Magic and Knowledge Arcana what school of magic the spell comes from.

Whatever the specifics are, they should be able to be done by a single or small group of mid to high level casters who do not need to survive the spell.

Any help you all can give would be appreciated.

[Telonius]

A heavily metamagicked Cloudkill would accomplish that just perfectly. Wight-ocalypse would do it too, but that might be overkill.

[Novawurmson]

1. Custom magic item/artifact/DM fiat.

2. Look at the high level Wizard/Druid/Cleric/Witch spells. I'll help you get started:

1. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/storm-of-vengeance) 2. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/cursed-earth) 3. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/e/elemental-swarm) 4. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/siege-of-trees) 5. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/e/earthquake)

Most of these require a few castings. Use apprentices with scrolls?

Aaaand my personal favorite: Whole bunch of scrolls of these (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/b/blood-mist).

[LanternOG]

Thank you for the quick replies.

What is the Wight-ocalypse? It sounds interesting.

Cloudkill also has some good possibilities. What kind of metamagic were you suggesting?

Blood Mist and Storm of Vengeance have possibilities.

Elemental Swarm and Siege of Trees aren't a good fit because they would take a while and likely cause a large amount of destruction of the city. The aftermath I'm looking for city more or less intact and and most of the occupants dead. That why I liked the idea behind the locate city bomb with fell drain, lots of death but intact structures.

Earthquake would actually destroy the entire city (It is an underground dwarven city), so it isn't a good fit here. However I will keep it in mind for future use.

As for scrolls being used by minions, that was a thought that had run through my mind. Seems like it would work better with a lower level spell like Cloudkill than with a higher level spell like Blood Mist.

[Ravens_cry]

You also need a good reason why it can't be repeated. For example, in Forgotten Realms a wizard trying to ascent to godhood wreaked magic and now the levels of spells required to repeat it can't exist.
You might think only a fool would try to repeat the world shattering apocalypse, but you'd be underestimating the number of fools in a typical party.

Here's an idea, an out of control magical starship crashes into the planet at a significant fraction of c.
Some of the crew was able to escape and land elsewhere, hiding underground, struggling to rebuild their technology while staying alive on this, for them, low gravity world.

[Novawurmson]

Didn't catch that you were going for as little structural damage as possible. I was going for the opposite XD

How about a custom magical item, the Candle of Madness? When burnt in it, a sickly-sweet smell gradually wafts through the area, replicating the effects of Blood Mist within a certain radius. The bad guys make a bunch of them, then light them all nigh-simultaneously in the most heavily trafficked/populated areas of town. Edit: I specified candles and scrolls (one-time use items) specifically because players wouldn't be able to get their hands on them, or if they did, they'd have a very limited number of times they could use them. For bonus points, give the bad guys masks that negate the effect of the candles.

Wights (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/wight) resurrect people they kill as wights. A wight can easily kill a level 1 commoner, who can easily kill and raise more level 1 commoners, until, well, you get the picture (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/Night_of_the_Living_Dead_affiche.jpg/220px-Night_of_the_Living_Dead_affiche.jpg). Also works with Shadows.

[LanternOG]

You also need a good reason why it can't be repeated. For example, in Forgotten Realms a wizard trying to ascent to godhood wreaked magic and now the levels of spells required to repeat it can't exist.
You might think only a fool would try to repeat the world shattering apocalypse, but you'd be underestimating the number of fools in a typical party.


I know this is a dangerous thing to say, but I trust the party not to go around wiping out cities. If nothing else the party Paladin and Cleric will both have issues with such a plan. I also don't intend to flat out tell them what happened. They will be coming onto the scene at least days (if not weeks) after this event happens. I just want to be able to answer their questions effectively.

This is also intended to be a one off thing. The major cities in the setting, once they are aware this has happened, will react in wildly differing ways, but mostly by beefing up security. This only has to work once for my plot.

[Crasical]

A coven of witches can combine their spellcasting to get caster levels in the 100s. Combine this with a witch/cleric theurge leading them, and you have some pretty potent uncapped city-destroyers. Snake staff is a personal favorite.

[Ravens_cry]

I know this is a dangerous thing to say, but I trust the party not to go around wiping out cities. If nothing else the party Paladin and Cleric will both have issues with such a plan. I also don't intend to flat out tell them what happened. They will be coming onto the scene at least days (if not weeks) after this event happens. I just want to be able to answer their questions effectively.

This is also intended to be a one off thing. The major cities in the setting, once they are aware this has happened, will react in wildly differing ways, but mostly by beefing up security. This only has to work once for my plot.
They might not want to wipe out cities, though you never know, but a large lair full of baddies it becomes awfully tempting and begs why the Great Goods don't just use it. If it's just a one off thing, it should be a one off incident.

[TuggyNE]

Generally I'd agree that self-replicating undead (shadows, wights, etc) are probably the best way to do this. For that matter, you could combine several types of undead to get a more robust attack wave. (If the original casters want to escape this, there's an item called the Ring of Negative Protection, or some such, that prevents level drain and I think ability drain, and therefore avoids most or all of the replication mechanisms.)

I would note though that the Fell Drain version of LCB seems to work by RAW in 3.5, and neatly sets off a wightopocalypse, even though the Explosive Spell original doesn't work.

[Water_Bear]

An Eldritch Machine [Eberron Campaign Setting p.273] seems to fit the bill pretty much exactly.

Basically, the idea is that Wish (and Miracle) have a ton of raw magical power, but the safe uses you can put together with 6 seconds of prep-time are comparatively pretty lack-luster. But with a special ritual, the right Artifacts, and maybe a few other tid-bits like the blood of a virgin princess, you can get an effect on the scale of the lower bounds of Epic Spellcasting.

Sample effect include 3mi radius Anti-Magic Fields, Animating every corpse in a 2mi radius circle under your control, hitting everyone in a 5mi radius with Mass Inflict Light Wounds, and being able to track and send telepathic compulsions to every creature of a specific race in a 10mi radius. Putting any of those on a blimp and flying them in a straight line for a week would cause pretty hard-core chaos.

Of course, it's 3.5 material rather than Pathfinder, and the rules governing Eldritch Machines are meant primarily as guidelines for DM creativity. But it's a nice licence to create a WMD-scale magical effect without cries of "homebrew!" since technically you are following the rules as written.

[Sir_Wulf]

A suitably nasty plague can do this, but it needs to be contagious for a while before symptoms show. That allows it to spread far enough to overwhelm the available clerical healing once the outbreak starts to spread. Additionally, if the symptoms are nasty enough, or the first outbreaks occur in an "undesirable" population, healers may initially refuse to treat the victims.

"At first we thought it was the judgment of the gods: The wicked and debauched were reaping the harvest of their sinful deeds. It soon grew too dangerous to leave the Temple District, as the city watch deserted or died and the Sons of Desperation came to rule the streets. Nothing was too depraved for them once they knew that they were dying! Surely you see why I slew my brethren... Once I knew the gods had turned their back on all of us, it was the only mercy I could give!"

A suitable (homebrewed) ailment...

Rovagug's Rapture

Type disease, inhalation; Save Fortitude DC 18

Onset 1d3+2 days; Frequency 1/day

Effect 1d3 Wis damage and 1d3 Cha damage and target is fatigued; Cure 2 consecutive saves

Those suffering from Rovagug's Rapture feel vaguely tired, but only begin to exhibit symptoms after taking 3 points of Cha damage. They tend to become increasingly violent as their Wisdom goes down, feeling a powerful exhilaration whenever they commit a violent or destructive act.

[Malfunctioned]

Something I once used in my game was essentially a portal to the Positive Energy Plane. But instead of allowing transit it simply focused the positive energy effect into a giant beam around a mile across. You know the healing effect of the plane? And how if you gain double your total hit points from temporary hit points you explode? It does that, instantly.

Instant organic destruction on a massive scale.