Archmage at war

[Eaglejarl]

I could use some help for my novel from you kind and knowledgeable GitP forumites. I'm trying to figure out how an archmage would handle an actual military-style battle.

The good guys are:


Colborn, a 25th level Lawful Good vampire wizard (there was a Helm of Opposite Alignment involved). He's focused on battlemagic (whatever that means in game terms; I haven't decided)
A dozen paladin of levels from 13-18, equipped with Haste, strength between 30 and 40, and powerful magic swords that can produce an Anti-Magic Field on demand. (They also have various other enchantments and magic items, but those are the main ones.)
A handful of wizards / sorcerors / clerics of levels 12-15.


The bad guys are:


Around 10,000 shadows and wraiths
A hundred or so mid-to-high level vampires with caster levels (wizard or cleric)
A few hundred low-CR undead (zombies, skeletons, etc) to serve as disposable trap detectors and such


The fight is taking place in the mountains. Colborn and the others are standing on a bluff looking down on the bad guys, who are camped in a wide valley about 50' below the bluff. The sky is overcast, so the undead don't have to worry about sunlight.

Colborn and crew need to do a lot of damage really fast, because the vampires are going to fire off a Sending as soon as they come under attack, and dozens of high-caster-level undead are going to start teleporting in and kicking butt. Colborn is a massively arrogant guy who doesn't play well with others and believes that magic is the be-all-and-end-all; he's going to want to do everything himself, and views the people with him as meatshields and minion-stompers intended to keep the bad guys off of him while he takes care of business.

The rules of engagement are:


Allowed sourcebooks: pretty much anything
No homebrew or custom magic -- it has to come from an actual book
No Epic of any kind (including the Epic Handbook)
No psionics
Strictly according to RAW -- cheese is eagerly welcomed (although I can't break the story, so no Pun-Pun, gate-chaining Solars, or other omnipotent tricks)


If you were Colborn, what would you do?

[Gildedragon]

For one:
Paladins have the AMFs on at all times, AMF means shadows can't attack them, nor the wraiths. Paladins have their armors polished mirror bright and sanctified, this holds the vampires at bay. Ideally the armor is intelligent (counting as a creature, spending its standard actions keeping the vamps at bay) so the paladins can attack with reach weapons.

He ought get [War] spells, he might need to affect large areas

6' thick walls of stuff can hold the incorporeals back, or thin force walls. [War] ectoplasmic armor to buff the pal's vs the incorporeals.

Wands of Daylight to be used to counter the darknesses the vampires are sure to shine.
Transparent walls (there is a spell that turns rock transparent) if the battle can be drawn out until dawn you will win if there is no shadow to hide in.

Actually forcewall around the keep. Wall of stone traps around the keep that trigger when the ghoulies step in, cutting them off in all directions. Stone gets made transparent. Byebye vampires.

[With a box]

25th plain wizard is gain notting from epic levels(21 to 25) without epic feats except 4d4 hit points and caster level(witch no longer increase his spell/day):smalltongue:

1. control weather what? it's on the standard cleric spell list. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0953.html):smallwink:
2. after the vampires are died, delete rest with appropriate manner (Wraiths ard powerless in daylight)

Daylight Powerlessness (Ex)

Wraiths are utterly powerless in natural sunlight (not merely a daylight spell) and flee from it.

[Adverb]

I agree that Control Weather is good. Putting down some sunlight on that army disperses all of the vampires and wraiths.

The Shield spell (or some other Magic Missile immunity) is a must-have for someone who might be the prime target of an army full of casters.

If you're a high-level wizard facing a large army of mooks, Blistering Radiance is low-damage, but covers a pretty big space for a good long while, denying it to anything with low HD. (Purify Spell can help here.)

Golems do pretty well against undead.

Mostly, though, this seems like a setup that you're better off ignoring mechanics for. He's the uberwizard of your setting, he raises a staff and fire rains from the sky in huge quantities.

[holywhippet]

Teleport object, repeatedly, on very large containers full of oil. Drop them on the enemy encampment then light it. Normally an oil flask only does 1d3 damage for two rounds but with that much oil you should get a lot more damage for longer.

[Eaglejarl]

Thank you, everyone. These ideas really help. Now I have a sense of where to go with this. Much appreciated.

[Kane0]

If I were the epic caster in this scenario I would look into spells and research that would end the war, not simply fight it. Things that tackle the root cause, or some means of sabotaging the enemy entirely.
Failing that, i'd look into a way to provide undead killing magic en masse to my allies and give as much battlefield support as possible (taking out key targets, chokepointing and funelling the enemy, etc). As a high level wizard i'd make a great effort to use all available resources in the most efficient manner possible.

I've always found Undeath to Death to be a very good spell for this kind of situation, and it can be meta-magic'd to boot. Spells like sunburst and the like are also good picks for research.
I don't know the build of this fellow, but Wizards get scribe scroll for free and Undeath to Death is on both the Wiz/Sorc and Cleric list so rhat means that he can pump out as many scrolls of it as humanely (vampirically?) possible for his mates to spam without needing UMD shenanigans or whatnot.
I don't know myself, but i'm sure theres a way to get this spell to army-wiping proportions given the right metamagic cheese. You'd just have to make damn sure the caster (your vampire) is outside of the blast radius.

Constructs would make an excellent March against undead given enough time to get a big enough force together.

[Erik Vale]

Notes well liked FF writer.
Woo.

Given the pre-existing WOF-Ring gate trick, I'd use some sort of divination to locate to vampires and run it at about neck height for decapitation. Depending on what action activating the AMF is, have 1 or two paladins control a blade each, deactivating and reactivating the AMF field such that they can't be attacked [incorporeal creatures winking out of existance prevents them readying actions, the AMF is activated by readied action, the swish might be a free]. The ring-gates should also deal with zombies/other well, given that it cut down a forest [ignoring the physics that says the plane does nothing]... Given that it's a force effect, it could theoretically affect incorporeals such to cut them apart, but the exact effects of that are iffy at best.

This leaves only the vampires you cant see, those protected by the wall of force [probably by one of their own], and disjunction as problems. Pull artefacts out of a spell component pouch and hand them out, as long as the gods don't put up a stink about it [have the wizard COP/other about it first] it means should the paladins be disjoined the disjoining vampire has a chance of becoming a vampire commoner with a god [well, really powerful thing] out to get him that may or may not be discriminate... This may backfire by the thing attacking the paladins for trying to provoke this. That'll handle the disjunctions. I'm not sure as to getting around mindblank and other anti-divinations. Vampires protected by walls of force may give out before your casters with walls of force.

Incorporeal Nova. This will kill 20d4 HD of incorporeal creatures under 9 HD. Buy custom items of it.

COP to talk with some powerful devils/demons other. Get them to figure out where a Greater/Normal [I think] Precipitate Planar breach to their plane will end up when you cast it next reaching their plane, have them bunch up there. All Outsiders on the other side will then be able to make DC 15 Knowledge [Planes] check to move to the prime material on the other side of the breach.

Get a large number of mice, and some chaos beasts, store them in a eveloping pit. Apply to horizontal surface and let loose. They can't reproduce using the dead, but they'll be able to turn the rodent into chaos beasts... I think, I'd need to check.

Wish for a Miracle, which is a spell that can perform mass resurections... This is beyond wishes standard effect, so it would need adjudication in it's favour [you have the fiat]. At worst you've created a large number of meat shields and forced the undead to spend the time to re-turn them, at best, the army has returned to life.

Anti-Osmium bomb trick again, airburst. May lead to irradiating the area, I'm not up on physics so much, but it should jelly corporeal nicely. Problem is doing it safely.

Edit: You could use Blizzard to grind sections of the undead army to a halt. Not too damaging given cold immunity, but it'd lock corporeal creatures down until a dispel was flung at it.

Extra Edit:
Reading the scenario, Wish/Other for what you need for the maths to figure out how much antimatter you need for your antimatter bomb. [will require heavy divinations] Have a astral projection of you/other ranged transport delivery service cause several of these bombs to go off above the undead such as to do minimal damage to the terrain [again, I think physics will leave the area irradiated], build it so that the kinnetic energy pulps pretty much everything, this will leave vampires who depending on their protection level, will either all be mist looking for their coffins [which may well have shattered], to them being trapped in closed portable holes etc. Those in magnificent mansions and the like will probably open their doors later and go 'Where'd everyone go?'
Edit: This also incorporeals... Perhaps after that, straffing run dropping large numbers of Greater Gylph Seals [MIC] primed with Incorporeal Nova, if you drop enough, the only survivers will be vampires in portable holes/mansions/those with coffins close enough that weren't in the blast radius above level 9. This entire plan is spell based and so should fly with him. Physics does work [if at the will of the gods and being often fiddled with] particularly anti-osmium bombs which you have shown. Having been their vampire, he should know how their vampire's are protected, can we have details?

[RedMage125]

I know blasting as a wizard is generally held as inferior, but a few large-area AoE spells modified with Transdimensional Spell will obliterate those shadows and wraiths (those monsters do not have a lot of hit dice, usually depend on incoporeality and turn resistance as defenses), and be completely harmless to your army of living creatures.

[Threadnaught]

Have the army hold the bad guys at bay for 20 minutes for Sunny Day to take effect. Then once 201 rounds are up, have the army teleport away and Transdimensional Locate City Bomb the place.

[Bronk]

How about have the battle go just like the archmage wants? As his minions protect him and pick off any baddies that get too close, and surround them to pen them in, he raises his staff and casts something that takes advantage of having them all stuck in a valley. Maybe an earthquake spell, raise volcano or some other area damaging spell... but affected by 'consecrate spell' metamagic feat, so that half the damage is divine, affecting even the incorporeal undead.

Edit: Also, those paladins will have to be pretty careful with those AMF swords... they would end up negating their own protections against the vampires or ruining parts of the archmage's spells.

[Eaglejarl]

@Bronk: Cool ideas, thank you.

@Kane0: Undeath to Death, and Sunburst: excellent. Thank you! As to the "end the war, not the battle / buff others"...Colborn specifically sucks at that. He's a "does not play well with others" type and wants to dish the beatdown out himself.

@Threadnaught: What is Sunny Day? Apparently my Google-fu is weak.

@Erik Vale: Whoa, thanks! Lots of ideas. Good point about the WOF/RG trick probably working against incorporeals; I wasn't actually thinking of that (:smallredface:), so I'm glad you reminded me of it. This is going to be a p!$$ing match between Jake and Colborn to see who can kill the most bad guys; the WOF/RG trick would put them on an even footing, so I will need to find a way to disallow it. The AM bomb would be effective, but already off the table for reasons explained in ch44 (and, out of story, because they were cool / useful twice, but boring if used too much).

Incorporeal Nova - Oh my god, it's like Paizo sat down and said "Hm, we need a spell that will let Colborn win this bet. What would be good...?" Thanks for pointing me at it.

Oh, incidentally -- as far as I can tell, very little of the energy from an AM explosion is ionizing radiation. I'm not certain, but I think AM is remarkably "clean", and would not seriously irradiate the surrounding area...although, of course, it's REALLY GOOD at blowing the surrounding area off the map.


@Guigarci: What does War domain do as regards large areas? I checked on the SRD and all it mentions is weapon proficiency, plus a spell list? I seem to recall reading something about this...I think it gives much larger areas at the cost of longer casting times? Don't remember the details or where that was, though.

[Gildedragon]

@Bronk: Cool ideas, thank you.

@Kane0: Undeath to Death, and Sunburst: excellent. Thank you! As to the "end the war, not the battle / buff others"...Colborn specifically sucks at that. He's a "does not play well with others" type and wants to dish the beatdown out himself.

@Threadnaught: What is Sunny Day? Apparently my Google-fu is weak.

@Erik Vale: Whoa, thanks! Lots of ideas. Good point about the WOF/RG trick probably working against incorporeals; I wasn't actually thinking of that (:smallredface:), so I'm glad you reminded me of it. This is going to be a p!$$ing match between Jake and Colborn to see who can kill the most bad guys; the WOF/RG trick would put them on an even footing, so I will need to find a way to disallow it. The AM bomb would be effective, but already off the table for reasons explained in ch44 (and, out of story, because they were cool / useful twice, but boring if used too much).

Incorporeal Nova - Oh my god, it's like Paizo sat down and said "Hm, we need a spell that will let Colborn win this bet. What would be good...?" Thanks for pointing me at it.

Oh, incidentally -- as far as I can tell, very little of the energy from an AM explosion is ionizing radiation. I'm not certain, but I think AM is remarkably "clean", and would not seriously irradiate the surrounding area...although, of course, it's REALLY GOOD at blowing the surrounding area off the map.


@Guigarci: What does War domain do as regards large areas? I checked on the SRD and all it mentions is weapon proficiency, plus a spell list? I seem to recall reading something about this...I think it gives much larger areas at the cost of longer casting times? Don't remember the details or where that was, though.

not the war domain. War magic (Dr 309) makes spells involve a ritual and take up a slot 1 level higher, but then they dish out the hurt over a large area.
If you sandwich the hordes (stopping their movement forward, cutting their retreat)

a [war]undeath to death would have long range and roughly triple the radius and would be a 7th level spell

[Kane0]

Then just throw in empower spell to get the most hit hice for your buck and thats a 9th level spell.

[Erik Vale]

@Erik Vale: Whoa, thanks! Lots of ideas. Good point about the WOF/RG trick probably working against incorporeals; I wasn't actually thinking of that (:smallredface:), so I'm glad you reminded me of it. This is going to be a p!$$ing match between Jake and Colborn to see who can kill the most bad guys; the WOF/RG trick would put them on an even footing, so I will need to find a way to disallow it. The AM bomb would be effective, but already off the table for reasons explained in ch44 (and, out of story, because they were cool / useful twice, but boring if used too much).

Incorporeal Nova - Oh my god, it's like Paizo sat down and said "Hm, we need a spell that will let Colborn win this bet. What would be good...?" Thanks for pointing me at it.

Oh, incidentally -- as far as I can tell, very little of the energy from an AM explosion is ionizing radiation. I'm not certain, but I think AM is remarkably "clean", and would not seriously irradiate the surrounding area...although, of course, it's REALLY GOOD at blowing the surrounding area off the map.


Antimatter was 'soft banned' for destroying the landscape, which is what all the pre-battle high order maths using computers/reference tables/scrying/etc is for, to determine how much you would need to summon where in order to do maximum undead pulpage with minimal/no terrain damage, however going with that being a no forward.... Partially because it leaves ghosts/shadows/etc.

To prevent the WOF/RG trick, walls of force/antimagic fields/extradimensional spaces prevent it rather neatly, which can protect lots of vampires. It can be banned the same way as AM bombs by saying "You want to cut into a gorge with [WOF/RG's common name]. You'll cause massive landslides!" [Fake Panic]

... *Reading* Ok, both Undeath to Death and Incorporeal Nova fit in Greater Gylph Seals, so with access to the Flobovia Markets and money cheese you can purchase a theoretically infinite number of filled ones which you proceed to drop like bombs. [Spellcasting is a purchasable service, however previous chapters suggest that that service is limited, despite markets not being so]. Follow up with Lesser Planar Binding/Dragon Ally for something/s that flies fast with ok carry loads, pull off a carpet bombing. With enough of them, should it be successfully surprising [perhaps multiple of them being positioned above, locations based on wind conditions] you proceed to carpet bomb the area and hopefully get all/most undead under 9 HD. Drop Incorporeal Nova Gylp Seals first so as to not waste Undeath to Deaths... Of course, given prices are equal you should be able to do with just undeath to death [only 500gp more expensive with that being material foci cost].
Given that same seals can be filled with disjunctions as well, I'd also combine some Disjunctions first for where vampires might be hidden behind magic defences. Standard damage spells are needed for the coffins.

Summon Construct could work as well [again, smoke bottles, possibly dropped or broken in air but could just drop the bottle].

The Rods from God trick could work, however I've a feeling it'll be too destructive. However if you hit them with magic weapon first, the explosion might be considered magic. :smallamused:
Oo, if you manage to set something up that the rod impacts [tiny 'disk' of force] you could get a magic airburst. Probably not as controllable as antimatter, but that's a magical explosion to get rid of incorporeal creatures.

Portable Hole/Enveloping pit + Bag of Holding arrows. Small radius of most definately not a problem any more.

Sunburst [Which he should know having been a mortal wizard before, assuming he was of high enough level] would also be a good spell to fit in, and his level just hits the damage cap of 25d6 to undead. The spell has a 80ft radius, and auto-kills any undead harmed by light, like wraiths who have sunlight powerlessness. Depending on build he could be making the spell much larger in area, and it'd clear out undead above 9 [comes in at 87.5 damage/effect average, So 1 is needed to kill for every 7.2916repeat HD on average]. If War Spells are allowed stuff them in, given they are 25* in number I think that'd end up affecting a 2000ft radius, use metamagic to reduce [maybe invisible spell, so undead just disapear] that gets to 3000ft or 4000ft with War Wizard.

[Eaglejarl]

... *Reading* Ok, both Undeath to Death and Incorporeal Nova fit in Greater Gylph Seals, so with access to the Flobovia Markets and money cheese you can purchase a theoretically infinite number of filled ones which you proceed to drop like bombs. [Spellcasting is a purchasable service, however previous chapters suggest that that service is limited, despite markets not being so]. Follow up with Lesser Planar Binding/Dragon Ally for something/s that flies fast with ok carry loads, pull off a carpet bombing.


Oh. My. God.

That is so unbelievably horrifically broken. I wish I'd thought of it. Thank you!




With enough of them, should it be successfully surprising [perhaps multiple of them being positioned above, locations based on wind conditions] you proceed to carpet bomb the area and hopefully get all/most undead under 9 HD.


You're thinking too small. If spellcasting is a purchasable service and money is infinite, then there's no reason you couldn't pay to have NPC wizards use infinite numbers of Greater Teleports to Rods From God an infinite number of these bombs such that you can carpet the entire continent...in fact, the entire planet. Any undead of <9HD anywhere above ground would simply cease to exist.

Of course, that means that this trick falls into the "breaks the story" category, which means I can't let it happen. *sigh* Well, at least the fix is obvious. YAG: a fully general excuse to disallow game-breaking things.




Portable Hole/Enveloping pit + Bag of Holding arrows. Small radius of most definately not a problem any more.


Engineers: They Shouldn't Play D&D


Sunburst [totally rocks for this]

Yep, I was planning on that one.

Thanks for all this, and I'm glad you've been enjoying the story. What's your handle on FF.net? I'll give you a credit in the next A/N

[Threadnaught]

@Threadnaught: What is Sunny Day? Apparently my Google-fu is weak.

It's a move in Pokémon where the user makes the sun shine brighter. It counters Rain Dance, Sand Storm and Hail.
Though for D&D I'm referring to Control Weather, which has a 10 minute (100 round) casting time and takes another 10 minutes (100 rounds) for the chosen weather to take effect. It can create or remove atmospheric phenomenon, such as cloudy, rain, clear skies and wind.

If the Wizard can hold all the Undead in the valley for long enough, they can just about wipe out all the Vampires and disable the Shadows/Wraiths. Then he can just walk into the middle of everything and LCB the place.

Of course this relies on non of the Vampires, Shadows or Wraiths having Endure Sunlight from Libris Mortis.

[Erik Vale]

You're thinking too small. If spellcasting is a purchasable service and money is infinite, then there's no reason you couldn't pay to have NPC wizards use infinite numbers of Greater Teleports to Rods From God an infinite number of these bombs such that you can carpet the entire continent...in fact, the entire planet. Any undead of <9HD anywhere above ground would simply cease to exist.

Of course, that means that this trick falls into the "breaks the story" category, which means I can't let it happen. *sigh* Well, at least the fix is obvious. YAG: a fully general excuse to disallow game-breaking things.

Thanks for all this, and I'm glad you've been enjoying the story. What's your handle on FF.net? I'll give you a credit in the next A/N

God denial prevents ROG overkill... But that does sound like a way to introduce MAD into DnD doesn't it?
As for undead, that you can semi-counter with demographic tables [however, if you could institute Ebberon's ones somehow, gaining Colborn grants 2 24s, 4 23rds, etc etc] but I don't think those'll work given the story made so far, and for taking mages with you even if you could pay for the hirelings using the market, you couldn't hire more than there are people in the city... Unless you can hire extraplanar creatures.
! Greater Planar Binding + Neraph for access to level 18 wizards! This depends on how specific you can make your requests though.


... I haven't heard YAG before... Quick check reveals no relevant acronyms.

My relevant handle is 5 Coloured Walker [I have another I haven't been using/may stop using entirely]... And despite my nature I may just squee over that... I'll have to find somewhere private.


As to Control Weather for Sunlight... I... That could work technically... That's... World breaking. Just shift the sun around like you want, or introduce a new one... However if it's during the day but it's overcast then it could work for a "Surprise, now why do I smell bacon and see so much ash?" without being world breaing. You'd need a way to see through magical darkness though for surviving it... Ahh, Ebon eyes at level 1 and True Seeing [worth having anyway] at 6, those'll do.


... Not quite an edit, but I'm surprised Tippy hasn't shown up yet.

[Eaglejarl]

...even if you could pay for the hirelings using the market, you couldn't hire more than there are people in the city

Sure you can. The "Spellcasting and Services" page lists how large a city has to be to have a wizard able to cast spells of a particular level. It doesn't say a darn thing about there being a limited NUMBER of wizards of that level in the city. If you want unlimited spells, just walk into a metropolis and start throwing money out the window. (Although depending on DM whim you might not be able to get 9th level spells cast for you.)



... I haven't heard YAG before... Quick check reveals no relevant acronyms.


Now you know how *I* feel when all y'all start throwing acronyms around on this board. :P

Check chapter 42.



My relevant handle is 5 Coloured Walker [I have another I haven't been using/may stop using entirely]... And despite my nature I may just squee over that... I'll have to find somewhere private.


Ah! You're the one who pointed out the issue with non-lethal damage. Cool, thanks for that. You already got added to the Chapter 44 A/N. Now you'll be in the Chapter 45 one as well. :)



As to Control Weather for Sunlight...


Wouldn't work. Control Weather makes the weather change gradually, over a period of 10 minutes. The undead would have plenty of time to see it coming and hide -- the incorporeals would just go underground, and the vampires could teleport / dig themselves into the ground / go inside / whatever.



... Not quite an edit, but I'm surprised Tippy hasn't shown up yet.

Emperor Tippy, Emperor Tippy, Emperor Tippy! *looks around to see if the summons works*

[Gildedragon]

To deal with the gradual change: summon fogs; thick, blanketing, dismissable fog
While it is on it has the benefit of hiding the traps (glyph seals, greater glyph seals, instant trap, pits full of spikes) laid out around the keep, and hiding the sunning of the land. once the sun is online, dismiss the fog.

[Erik Vale]

Sure you can. The "Spellcasting and Services" page lists how large a city has to be to have a wizard able to cast spells of a particular level. It doesn't say a darn thing about there being a limited NUMBER of wizards of that level in the city. If you want unlimited spells, just walk into a metropolis and start throwing money out the window. (Although depending on DM whim you might not be able to get 9th level spells cast for you.)

I was talking about walking in with money, then turning the town into a Wizard Clown Car [WCCtm] which churns out more than it's populatio



Now you know how *I* feel when all y'all start throwing acronyms around on this board. :P

Check chapter 42.

Ahh



Ah! You're the one who pointed out the issue with non-lethal damage. Cool, thanks for that. You already got added to the Chapter 44 A/N. Now you'll be in the Chapter 45 one as well. :)

*Checks*
*Squees*
Ok... I've gotta go do something manly... There's a nearby forest I can cut down... Yep.



Wouldn't work. Control Weather makes the weather change gradually, over a period of 10 minutes. The undead would have plenty of time to see it coming and hide -- the incorporeals would just go underground, and the vampires could teleport / dig themselves into the ground / go inside / whatever.

Good point... But now you have the planet rotate faster if you cast at night. Or the sun orbit the planet faster depending on the cosmology.



Emperor Tippy, Emperor Tippy, Emperor Tippy! *looks around to see if the summons works*
I hear it works best if you cast via PM.

[Gildedragon]

Though, in all fairness, Tippy doesn't seem to do "not story breaking"
The splinters might make for a great new story but the original... Oh the original

[Erik Vale]

Though, in all fairness, Tippy doesn't seem to do "not story breaking"
The splinters might make for a great new story but the original... Oh the original

I don't know, the handcranked fireball machine gun isn't story breaking so much as simply cool...

*Thought*
Is Pun-Pun/Varient Theroff a god in the TYE Universe, or did he get stopped before ascension? Mostly out of interest.

[Eaglejarl]

I don't know, the handcranked fireball machine gun isn't story breaking so much as simply cool...


That is good indeed, and could indeed fit. Thanks for the idea.



*Thought*
Is Pun-Pun/Varient Theroff a god in the TYE Universe, or did he get stopped before ascension? Mostly out of interest.

He got stopped. And stomped. The gods in 2YE are pretty Johnny-on-the-spot about shutting down game-breaking infinite loops, and they get grouchy when they have to take time out of their busy days to go step on some mortal who thinks he's so smart.



[you were added to Ch44 A/N]

*Checks*
*Squees*
Ok... I've gotta go do something manly... There's a nearby forest I can cut down... Yep.


Try doing a few dozen one-armed pushups instead; it gives you better arms, and it's easier on the environment.

If you still feel the need after you get bored of that, try crushing a 6-pack of Miller Lite(*) on your forehead.


(*) Because there's no reason to waste good beer. Besides, Manly Men(tm) don't drink good beer.

[Gildedragon]

On protections from shades and preventing them from going to ground:
Ghostwall shellac

Pour the stuff by the gallon on the fields around the castle, coat the walls with it.
Stuff gets made via major creation

[Erik Vale]

@ Fireball Gatling Gun: Oh no, that was someone else's. If I remember it was just a hand cranked gear sort of thing filled with lots of Alexs/Simulcrums/Ice Assins that readied actions to cast fireball when they lined up with the firing tube.

*Makes use of google fu*

Here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?286544-so-we-have-the-technology-to-make-it) Also comes in 'Also a Mutha F*ckin' Dragon!', 'Hover Shiv of Dead or Immune' [X-Com] formats.

If you allow 3.0 material and make them wands of silent spells, you can have multiple activations/barrel [Multitasking, Savage Species].

@ Pun-Pun:
All those poor PC's that die every year by calling on Pazzuzu/COI/Sarukah's...

[Mnemnosyne]

As a vampire himself, Colborn is immune to the shadows and the wraiths; only a greater wraith could even harm him past his dr 10/silver and magic, and that would be a scratch that would be immediately healed by his fast healing. Therefore, it may be better to think of this fight more as Colborn vs. the vampire clerics and wizards, if he doesn't care about the paladins and such. The paladins and such would wind up having to deal with wraiths and shadows, while Colborn just exterminates the leadership of the enemy army, assuming he can find and defeat the vampires single-handed, which, either way you slice it, is going to be the toughest part of the whole battle, since they are the enemy spellcasters and therefore the real threats.

[Erik Vale]

Scenario is them attacking the undead. The place is defended by being looped portable holes/magnificent mansions/rope tricks which you can pick up and move while praying someone doesn't bring a bag of holding in, + Anti-Scrying features and traps of 'Undead killing spells of complete and total overkill within X-Distance'. And the battle should be as un-Drawn out as possible to avoid the bigger badder lich's being called upon.

[Eaglejarl]

Scenario is them attacking the undead. The place is defended by being looped portable holes/magnificent mansions/rope tricks which you can pick up and move while praying someone doesn't bring a bag of holding in, [...] And the battle should be as un-Drawn out as possible to avoid the bigger badder lich's being called upon.

Actually, not quite. This is not anywhere near Grǫfhamr. This is just Jake and Colborn going out on a seek-and-destroy mission to a random spot somewhere in Anundjå.

But, yes. It's really seriously important that the battle be over PDQ so the Big Damn Heroes can scamper before the liches get the word that they're there.

[Erik Vale]

I was talking about the bases standard defences, I believed it was sufficiently far away.

[Threadnaught]

As to Control Weather for Sunlight... I... That could work technically... That's... World breaking. Just shift the sun around like you want, or introduce a new one... However if it's during the day but it's overcast then it could work for a "Surprise, now why do I smell bacon and see so much ash?" without being world breaing. You'd need a way to see through magical darkness though for surviving it... Ahh, Ebon eyes at level 1 and True Seeing [worth having anyway] at 6, those'll do.

It has a ten minute casting time and takes a further ten minutes for the chosen weather type to take effect, it happens gradually. So in order to remove the cloud cover, you would have to hold the Undead in the valley for 20 minutes.
If it is night time, then it won't actually cause the sun to just appear as that isn't by itself weather. You can have a clear sky at night time.

You can change the weather whenever you want, but it's always a gradual change over ten minutes. The weather stays that way for the duration of the Spell unless it is changed, or dispelled.


If the battle is taking place during the day (something you implied) the Undead would need distracting from the weather. As already stated.

[Erik Vale]

Ah, the weather specified was sunny day, not clear skies. So it would slowly become a sunny day over the course of 10 minutes after it's casting time... Cast shortly after dusk to skip nightime...
... And now I know how DnD Link can switch from day to night with a song in OoT, he's actually casts control weather.

Anyhow, the new chapters up.

[Threadnaught]

Ah, the weather specified was sunny day, not clear skies. So it would slowly become a sunny day over the course of 10 minutes after it's casting time... Cast shortly after dusk to skip nightime...
... And now I know how DnD Link can switch from day to night with a song in OoT, he's actually casts control weather.

Anyhow, the new chapters up.

The Sunny Day thing was a Pokémon joke, not a serious suggestion.

There's another Spell for Time Travel, it's called Teleport Through Time, if Sun's Song is a Spell, it's this (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/pg/20030409b).

[Erik Vale]

The Sunny Day thing was a Pokémon joke, not a serious suggestion.

There's another Spell for Time Travel, it's called Teleport Through Time, if Sun's Song is a Spell, it's this (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/pg/20030409b).

No, that only works for going backwards, not forwards. That spell does work for travelling back to child link age with little modification.