Curious: The Power Of Money and Authority?

[mystic1110]

This is a question of Curiosity. I'm currently thinking of a game where the villian will be the King. Only the King in this story will be a petulant child who just ascended to the throne. originally He wasn't going to be an actual threat - leaving all the fighting to his advisors and knights and whatever, but I was thinking . . . he is a corrupt bratty kid with the wealth of an entire empire at his beck and call and with no concept of good governance. Additionally he could imprison low level wizards somehow and force them to make him free items (still must include spell components)

My Question is basically - how powerful on the basis of ITEMS alone can we get a Level 1 Aristocrat?

[Aharon]

Arbitrarily powerful, if you don't use any wealth guidelines. With items, you can get +10^10 on any number if the wealth is great enough.
This would be a very brute force way to reach that goal - a very hard to beat build that exploits several obscure item rules (google Sofawall The Cube) comes at just a few hundred thousand gp.

[BowStreetRunner]

Well, for starters he should be able to max out the +5 inherent bonuses to every attribute through Manuals/Tomes.

[mystic1110]

So in that case lets define the potential wealth the emperor of a empire would have at his command and ignore the potential of forcing low level wizards to make items?

And I guess let's keep it in character - so no insane RAW loop holes and combos - just a really really really Rich Kid, trying to get as powerful as possible.

[Crinias]

Well, for starters he should be able to max out the +5 inherent bonuses to every attribute through Manuals/Tomes.

The stats are of little importance if he can't take or deal out any real damage. No spellcasting or martial training means he'll probably need lots of items just to survive in an actual battle, let alone doing damage. Have him hire an army or perhaps a highly experienced group of adventurers.

There certainly are many ways of making him personally powerful, but I'm of the opinion that it'd be less efficient.

[Gildedragon]

For one: grant them leadership as a bonus feat. Despite their power they have a limited liquidity, with most of their wealth tied up in various things.
Give them a freebie stronghold and access to magic, non expendable, items as needed.
Charged items: the amount available being equal to a PC their level+2

That or their WBL x10

[BowStreetRunner]

How about giving him a custom magic item of continuous Shapechange at CL20?

[Coidzor]

Probably going to want to put a rough ceiling on how much wealth you wanna throw into it, I think.

Also, IIRC, wish abuse can probably turn him into something with RHD and spellcasting like an ethergaunt.

[mystic1110]

So as for the wealth ceiling - what do you gus think?

200,000 GP for a level 20 adventurer seems to make them rich enough to own a small country right? So for an Empire I think the collective GP of 2 Million should make sense right? I guess in terms of liquidity only a quater of that can be used?

So 250 K?

That seems a bit low. What do you guys think?

[Aharon]

Actually, if you go by the Wealth-by-level numbers in the Dungeon Master's Guide, a 20th level character would have about 760.000 gp. 200.000 gp is reached at level 15.

If he's a smart kid, 200.000 is definitely enough. If you want flashy and/or impractical stuff (bad intelligent weapons, wands with a bad price/effect ratio) it could be too little. Basically, wealth is a great equalizer in DnD - and you have to decide how effective to use it.

[awa]

summoned creatures, controlled undead and constructs grant a lot of power and don't care about the owners power.

a single use wondrous item of gate is just as powerful in the hands of a commoner as in the hands of a high level pc

[Coidzor]

The azun-gund is always fun, too, and fairly cheap too, but on this scale it's not adding that much.

Oh. Hm. there's always obscene items of +30 UMD and things like Mr. Roboto (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19861634/Domo_Arigato_Mr._Roboto) or fun with Haunt Shift (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19862018/Expanding_on_Haunt_Shift)?

[mystic1110]

How's this with 760.000 as the level 20 GP (sorry about that - i don't have the DMG with me). Lets say the GP limit is 1 MILLION. How strong can you make the little tyrant? :smallsmile:

[TheStranger]

Yes, you can buy your way out of a lot of problems. But really, one of the most cost-effective uses of that kind of money is to hire a few high-level guards. I mean, for the cost of buffing a level 1 aristocrat up to the same relative power as, say, a 15th level PC, you could probably hire several 15th-level NPCs (each with the benefit of 15th level NPC WBL). Or buy a few powerful summoning items. It's just a better use of the money.

It's also thematically more appropriate, I think. It just feels odd if your spoiled boy-king is powerful in his own right.

[mystic1110]

Well the reason i didn't want to go the common rout of having him buy his way into power with powerful guards and allies is that the boy-emperor would fancy himself a heroic God-King. It's HIS power - and unless HE himself is like a powerful God there is no point. If one of his advisors could usurp him with a simple change of heart it wouldn't really feel the same.