unseenmage
2013-08-01, 10:42 PM
Okay, I have this idea for a BBEG. Or at least a minor BBEG. idea started as a PC controlled thing but I think it's better served for when I DM.
The spell Minor Servitor from Savage Species makes Animated Objects with Int 3d6, Wis 1, and Cha 1d3. I thought I might make a Recharging Staff (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20041130a) Custom Magic Item or two of Minor Servitor 1-3xday and turn them lose on the countryside around my Artificer's tower.
Then I got to thinking, how long before they would start adversely affecting the countryside? How long before they'd run out of traditional materials and start animating the ground, the water, the corpses of native wildlife?
If the Artificer died and they just kept going... Animated Object-ocalypse!
All it takes is one poorly worded set of instructions, "Make as many of yourselves as you can with those Staffs guys; I'll be right back.", but then he never returns.
But it gets better! What if they were instructed to only make Tiny versions of themselves, no larger. Tiny is the minimum for the Swarm type. Now we potentially have Minor Servitor Swarms roaming about.
As these things are doing a number on the local ecosystem and settlements, possibly destroying buildings and roads to get at the animatable materials to break them down to the right size. They could even start killing live creatures and dismembering the corpses for material.
This line of thought led me to the Book of Vile Darkness (no surprise there!) where we find the Hivemind rules. The book mentions only Vermin or Animals but why not Constructs? Esp over the eternally long time these things can keep diligently working away. With enough littler creatures the Hivemind can attain Sorcerer spellcasting status, at which point it could conceivably change it's feats (Dark Chaos shuffle anyone?) and begin making more Recharging Staffs which allows for more conversion of material per day which leads us to the grand finale of the Animated Object-ocalypse.
My questions to you Playground are:
- What kinds of timeframes are we looking at here?
- What sort of CR creatures could this process survive in spite of at it's early stages?
- What size settlement could just nip this problem in the bud before it gets up and going?
- How, as DM, would you use this idea? Could it be better deadlier?
Thoughts? Suggestions? How I'm using too much fiat and not enough precedent? Bring it on Playground, I gladly welcome your input.
Edit: Minor Servitor is SL5CL9 so the soonest an NPC could start this process off using Custom Magic Item instead of R.Staff is lvl9. Lvl 9 WBL is what? And does the target item's price fall within that amount? If so how many can he afford?
This only matters for deciding the starting number of Objects animating other Objects and determining how long it takes them to amass enough numbers to become Swarms then how long until they become Hiveminds.
The spell Minor Servitor from Savage Species makes Animated Objects with Int 3d6, Wis 1, and Cha 1d3. I thought I might make a Recharging Staff (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20041130a) Custom Magic Item or two of Minor Servitor 1-3xday and turn them lose on the countryside around my Artificer's tower.
Then I got to thinking, how long before they would start adversely affecting the countryside? How long before they'd run out of traditional materials and start animating the ground, the water, the corpses of native wildlife?
If the Artificer died and they just kept going... Animated Object-ocalypse!
All it takes is one poorly worded set of instructions, "Make as many of yourselves as you can with those Staffs guys; I'll be right back.", but then he never returns.
But it gets better! What if they were instructed to only make Tiny versions of themselves, no larger. Tiny is the minimum for the Swarm type. Now we potentially have Minor Servitor Swarms roaming about.
As these things are doing a number on the local ecosystem and settlements, possibly destroying buildings and roads to get at the animatable materials to break them down to the right size. They could even start killing live creatures and dismembering the corpses for material.
This line of thought led me to the Book of Vile Darkness (no surprise there!) where we find the Hivemind rules. The book mentions only Vermin or Animals but why not Constructs? Esp over the eternally long time these things can keep diligently working away. With enough littler creatures the Hivemind can attain Sorcerer spellcasting status, at which point it could conceivably change it's feats (Dark Chaos shuffle anyone?) and begin making more Recharging Staffs which allows for more conversion of material per day which leads us to the grand finale of the Animated Object-ocalypse.
My questions to you Playground are:
- What kinds of timeframes are we looking at here?
- What sort of CR creatures could this process survive in spite of at it's early stages?
- What size settlement could just nip this problem in the bud before it gets up and going?
- How, as DM, would you use this idea? Could it be better deadlier?
Thoughts? Suggestions? How I'm using too much fiat and not enough precedent? Bring it on Playground, I gladly welcome your input.
Edit: Minor Servitor is SL5CL9 so the soonest an NPC could start this process off using Custom Magic Item instead of R.Staff is lvl9. Lvl 9 WBL is what? And does the target item's price fall within that amount? If so how many can he afford?
This only matters for deciding the starting number of Objects animating other Objects and determining how long it takes them to amass enough numbers to become Swarms then how long until they become Hiveminds.