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Madeiner
2014-03-17, 10:50 PM
Hi :D
So, one of the characters in a game i DM has acquired a powerful wizard staff.
Among other powers, the staff can store up to five spells of any level, and the user can cast those spells as if prepared/known.

The only way to store spells into the staff is to kill a spellcaster and the staff can choose one spell to "steal" from the target's mind.

Now, the player doesnt know this, but staff is a sentient artifact and wants to create the most chaos it can.
The staff is able to cast those stored spells by itself, without any external commands.
What it wants to is find five spells that it can chain together to bring as much destruction as it can, with no regard for anything.

One caveat: i want the player to figure out something is wrong, over time, by analyzing the staff spell choices. When the staff has four spell, i'd love for the player to think that if it gets one more, then it would have the ultimate combination to produce something really nasty.
However, those spells alone should not be especially threatening.


Random example:
- one spell that can create a small fire out of a dying creature
- one that can amplify the effects of fire when cast on a large area
- one that will make a level 2 or lower spell effect that was active on a dying creature pass on to the nearest creature
- one that will lower the effective spell level of the next spell you cast
- one that will refresh the remaining duration of a previous spell if the target dies

Each of those alone is not threating. By chaining those spells together, the staff could make a chain of exploding corpses and obliterate an entire city

I would love something like that... with published, possibly well-known, spells (and probably one homebrew to set up a chain).
Anyone can help me?

Gavinfoxx
2014-03-17, 11:25 PM
game and edition?

Also do you want to TPK the party? Or do you just want miles of destruction? To end the setting?

Madeiner
2014-03-17, 11:33 PM
We are playing pathfinder.
I dont want a tpk, just some chaos and destruction. Not ending the campaign, but something along killing hundreds of citizens or changing the lay of the lands or severely damaging a city. Hordes of undead are also fine, but i would love something flashier like fire

Gavinfoxx
2014-03-17, 11:35 PM
You'd have better luck putting [PF] in the subject line, and asking a mod to move this to the 3.5e/d20 forum...

Also possibly making it a metamagic rod or something...

DCraw
2014-03-18, 12:45 AM
How creative is the staff? You can have a lot of fun with Major Creation if you don't mind abusing the open wording with a little chemistry knowledge. Timely application of CL cubic feet of, say, ammonium nitrate (or pretty much anything discussed here (http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/things_i_wont_work_with/)) can create plenty of havoc. Extra points for filling the throne room with FOOF, causing everything to self ignite.

If 3.5 material is allowed, creating an Ice Assassin of the King (and/or other political lynchpins) could throw the nation into chaos. Pair this with Simulacrum and try to find out just how poorly managed a kingdom can be before the nobles rise up in open rebellion.

Programmed Image can also be fun. Again, though, this requires the staff to be a bit creative. For instance, have it create an illusionary double of a diplomat from a neighboring kingdom and make him declare war. Geas or Simulacrum could also be used for this.

None of these really synergise, but you don't actually need more than one spell to create plenty of chaos in D&D.

icefractal
2014-03-18, 03:19 PM
For this purpose, you'll probably need to bring in some homebrew stuff. I suggest using the (2E, I think) idea of metamagic as spells. Which then lets you create a big doomsday spell out of several parts. So for example:

Ethereal Jaunt + Transdimensional Spell + Flash Frost Spell + Fell Drain Spell + Locate City

Everything in 10 miles/level take a negative level - which means all the level 1 characters die and then rise again as Wights. And the Ethereal + Transdimensional thing means that it goes through walls. Pretty devastating if you use it inside a city.

Ring_of_Gyges
2014-03-18, 04:10 PM
What does Pathfinder do with creating extra-dimensional spaces inside extra-dimensional spaces? The traditional answer is *BANG* off to the astral plane we all go.

That only takes casting rope trick twice.