Protecting a castle from disintegrate

[Samalpetey]

So, I'm playing a military campaign and I plan on building a castle, but a disintegrate spell could ruin the outer walls pretty well. I'm trying to think of ways to protect them but the only thing I can think of is an antimagic field in front of the wall to negate spells. Any other ideas?

[Ernir]

The Lyre of Building (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#lyreofBuilding) works pretty well.

[Gildedragon]

Awaken it and give it a spellblade of disintegrate. Voila! As a bonus you get to shoot it back at the attackers.

[Samalpetey]

Awaken it and give it a spellblade of disintegrate. Voila! As a bonus you get to shoot it back at the attackers.

I thought awakening spells were only around for constructs, undead, animals and the like, not walls


The Lyre of Building (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#lyreofBuilding) works pretty well.
I was not aware of that function of the lyre of building. Thanks, now I just need a few of those and I'm set!

[TuggyNE]

Objects made out of livewood or similar are immune to disintegrate; they are living, but not creatures, so the spell does nothing to them.

[Samalpetey]

Objects made out of livewood or similar are immune to disintegrate; they are living, but not creatures, so the spell does nothing to them.

Oooh, that could work, but then again it isn't as cool as stone in my opinion

[Astral Avenger]

The Lyre of Building (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#lyreofBuilding) works pretty well.

I would say get 50 of them, that way you can have a little overlap with each 30 minute block and not have someone fire off a lucky disintegrate in that time. only 650000gp for all of them. :smallbiggrin:

[Samalpetey]

I would say get 50 of them, that way you can have a little overlap with each 30 minute block and not have someone fire off a lucky disintegrate in that time. only 650000gp for all of them. :smallbiggrin:

Then all I need is a bunch of golems/commoners to play them! :smallbiggrin:

[jindra34]

Build it out of smaller bricks/stones held together by poles running through the walls/interlocked like legos, might work. After all disintegrate can only hit one object at a time so as long as you can manage to keep the building blocks as individual objects you can make it take a HUGE amount of time and spell slots to punch a hole through it.

[Samalpetey]

Build it out of smaller bricks/stones held together by poles running through the walls/interlocked like legos, might work. After all disintegrate can only hit one object at a time so as long as you can manage to keep the building blocks as individual objects you can make it take a HUGE amount of time and spell slots to punch a hole through it.

Hmm, that sort of construction makes me think it'd leave a fairly weak wall, but it works. (On a side note, is there any way of making a permanant AMF? I've seen people mention areas of antimagic, but I've never seen a mechanical way of doing it)

[Matticussama]

You can enchant the walls with the 6th level spell Energy Transformation Field (http://dndtools.eu/spells/magic-of-faerun--20/energy-transformation-field--1756/) to protect it from all spell effects, not just disintegrate. It already has a duration of Permanent, so you don't need to go through the costly practice of enchanting the walls as magic items; just find a caster who will cast it over and over again, and pay for the material and XP components. Only Mordenkainen's disjunction, limited wish, wish, or similar spells can destroy the energy transformation field so you don't have to worry about it being easily dispelled.

As a bonus, the field converts that spell energy into a specific spell determined at the time of casting. So you could choose Summon Monster, for example, in order to turn your enemy's spells into an even larger army to protect your castle.

[Samalpetey]

You can enchant the walls with the 6th level spell Energy Transformation Field (http://dndtools.eu/spells/magic-of-faerun--20/energy-transformation-field--1756/) to protect it from all spell effects, not just disintegrate. It already has a duration of Permanent, so you don't need to go through the costly practice of enchanting the walls as magic items; just find a caster who will cast it over and over again, and pay for the material and XP components. Only Mordenkainen's disjunction, limited wish, wish, or similar spells can destroy the energy transformation field so you don't have to worry about it being easily dispelled.

As a bonus, the field converts that spell energy into a specific spell determined at the time of casting. So you could choose Summon Monster, for example, in order to turn your enemy's spells into an even larger army to protect your castle.

Now this is a awesome idea. I didn't know about this spell, but I'll definitely use it now. Thanks!

[Snails]

The idea around Livewood is interesting.

I would suggest that major fortifications could be enchanted to heal "wounds". So Disintegrate can punch holes to sortie in, but the holes are temporary.

For power/cost balancing, a command item that creates infinite walls of stone, one per round, would cast 4 * 7 * 1800 = 50,400 gp.

As it is limited to "healing" a specific existing fortification (the full blown item would make extensive crude fortifications cost "nothing"), such an enchantment would probably be worth only ~5000gp.

[Samalpetey]

The idea around Livewood is interesting.

I would suggest that major fortifications could be enchanted to heal "wounds". So Disintegrate can punch holes to sortie in, but the holes are temporary.

For power/cost balancing, a command item that creates infinite walls of stone, one per round, would cast 4 * 7 * 1800 = 50,400 gp.

As it is limited to "healing" a specific existing fortification (the full blown item would make extensive crude fortifications cost "nothing"), such an enchantment would probably be worth only ~5000gp.

I'd agree liveoak is a interesting idea, but at the same time it basically centers around "Well, it's not really an object" and I think my DM might just ignore it's disintegration immunity, since it doesn't make sense. I might just ask my DM about those items as well

[TuggyNE]

I'd agree liveoak is a interesting idea, but at the same time it basically centers around "Well, it's not really an object" and I think my DM might just ignore it's disintegration immunity, since it doesn't make sense. I might just ask my DM about those items as well

That's fair enough; I did forget to mention that it's basically functioning on a rules bug (the gap in disintegrate's wording).

Another alternative is to use animate objects (probably with either CL-pumping shenanigans or cooperatively switching targets of a bunch of pre-cast animate objects instances onto the castle all at once). Then you either give it a Spellblade, as before, or build it with repair critical damage traps and chains inside to self-heal. These are a bit less wacky, but still on the upper edge of practical op.

Barring that, proper stacking of hardening and matter manipulation should help some. Pricey, but you can get to hardness 25 and 30 HP/in without any particular cheese. Duration Permanent and Instantaneous respectively; you'll need to watch out for greater dispel magic.

[avr]

You probably also want to protect against wall of fire, the psionic power energy wall (sonic), etc; the energy transformation field spell, while potentially amazingly cheesy, is the surest way there assuming you don't have dozens of lyres of building handy.

Making your wall out of many small objects or livewood could be a terrible, terrible mistake if your enemy uses energy wall (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/energyWall.htm) placed to damage your castle.

[Immabozo]

Hmm, that sort of construction makes me think it'd leave a fairly weak wall, but it works.

You could also leave a stronger wall behind it for strengthening the first and also providing a backup in case of failure of the first.

But my idea was making the "mortar" a permanancied force effect, keeping them all separate objects. But I have no idea how you would do this without epic spells, and then you could just create walls that are completely indestructible to all damage and magic, no matter how much damage is done, and no matter the spell's level or effect.

[nobodez]

I'd agree liveoak is a interesting idea, but at the same time it basically centers around "Well, it's not really an object" and I think my DM might just ignore it's disintegration immunity, since it doesn't make sense. I might just ask my DM about those items as well

well, according to the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook, putting a 1 foot layer of Living Wood on the outside of your walls costs only 200 gp per 10-foot square. And it doesn't matter if living wood walls are objects or not, since the spell specifically calls out "non-living matter".

[Darrin]

I'd probably start with some variation on a Spellblade (+6000 GP, PGtF) and go from there.

[Fouredged Sword]

Note, energy transformation field does nothing to prevent casting from outside the field. So it can work, but you need to apply it AROUND your castle, within medium range. That is a lot of castings, but it will prevent their casters from casting ANY magic while allowing your casters to cast ANY magic back at them!

Key it to magic missile, just to irritate them. Any spell cast will cause damage to the caster, and they can't cast shield as a reaction to protect themselves!