[3.5] Fastest road to world domination?

[Flickerdart]

Let's take a bunch of level 1 guys, and put them on a continent with ten million people. Let's say one tenth of these ten million people live in densely packed cities (10 cities, 100,000 people per city) and the other 90% are distributed around the countryside,surrounding each city with 100 towns of 1000 people and 8000 villages of 100 people. Each major city is 100km apart from the nearest other, each town is 10km away from the nearest town, and villages are typically 1km apart or even adjacent. Communications between population centres are reliable.

These level 1 guys each start in the vicinity of one of the villages. Without resorting to outside help, what PC race-class combination can become powerful enough to rule (or alternatively, slaughter) over this whole mess the fastest? What about just one city, or just one town? Assume standard DMG demographics, WBL, etc. Also assume that CR-appropriate encounters are readily available, just enough to get you to level 20.

For the purposes of the challenge, outside help means the following:

Commissioning magic items, custom or otherwise. If you need a magic sword, you will probably loot some type off a monster, but as soon as you need to go buy a specific amulet, you fail.
Buying services from another character. No spell purchases, no hirelings to fall into traps for you.
Binding, commanding, or otherwise compelling or using wandering monsters. Creating them is okay, though. So yes golems and animate dead, no planar binding or rebuking Wights, even if you indirectly cause the Wights by level-draining somebody (or having other Wights level-drain somebody - so no Shadowpocalypse). Monsters are there so you can kill them for XP and loot. I'm leery of allowing the rearing of animals with Handle Animal, because someone is going to bring up Bubs. Awakening a bunch of trees, I'm also not thrilled about, but it's technically creating them since they weren't creatures beforehand.
Pazuzu, Pazuzu, Pazuzu. You must not treat with any higher being, including sacrifice rules or other deific intercessions. Gold for items exchanges are a-ok.


Also, LCB is out, just because it's unsportsmanlike.

Remember that the minimum caster level rules exist (at least, in RAI) - you can get 9th level spells at level 1, but you're gonna need that CL17 to fire 'em off.

As a benchmark, ye olde adventurer timetable (4 encounters per day) attains level 20 in just over two month (66.5 days). A 20th level spellcaster doesn't need very much help to kill or mind control every living creature in the scenario. How easy is it to beat this time?

[AvatarVecna]

Let's take a bunch of level 1 guys, and put them on a continent with ten million people. Let's say one tenth of these ten million people live in densely packed cities (10 cities, 100,000 people per city) and the other 90% are distributed around the countryside,surrounding each city with 100 towns of 1000 people and 8000 villages of 100 people. Each major city is 100km apart from the nearest other, each town is 10km away from the nearest town, and villages are typically 1km apart or even adjacent. Communications between population centres are reliable.

These level 1 guys each start in the vicinity of one of the villages. Without resorting to outside help, what PC race-class combination can become powerful enough to rule (or alternatively, slaughter) over this whole mess the fastest? What about just one city, or just one town? Assume standard DMG demographics, WBL, etc. Also assume that CR-appropriate encounters are readily available, just enough to get you to level 20.

For the purposes of the challenge, outside help means the following:

Commissioning magic items, custom or otherwise. If you need a magic sword, you will probably loot some type off a monster, but as soon as you need to go buy a specific amulet, you fail.
Buying services from another character. No spell purchases, no hirelings to fall into traps for you.
Binding, commanding, or otherwise compelling or using wandering monsters. Creating them is okay, though. So yes golems and animate dead, no planar binding or rebuking Wights, even if you indirectly cause the Wights by level-draining somebody (or having other Wights level-drain somebody - so no Shadowpocalypse). Monsters are there so you can kill them for XP and loot. I'm leery of allowing the rearing of animals with Handle Animal, because someone is going to bring up Bubs. Awakening a bunch of trees, I'm also not thrilled about, but it's technically creating them since they weren't creatures beforehand.
Pazuzu, Pazuzu, Pazuzu. You must not treat with any higher being, including sacrifice rules or other deific intercessions. Gold for items exchanges are a-ok.


Also, LCB is out, just because it's unsportsmanlike.

Remember that the minimum caster level rules exist (at least, in RAI) - you can get 9th level spells at level 1, but you're gonna need that CL17 to fire 'em off.

As a benchmark, ye olde adventurer timetable (4 encounters per day) attains level 20 in just over two month (66.5 days). A 20th level spellcaster doesn't need very much help to kill or mind control every living creature in the scenario. How easy is it to beat this time?

The best method? Depends on what exactly you're accomplishing. I discovered a handbook for destroying the world; one of the options is to have a breath weapon from a particular source, take a feat that lets you increase the base damage in exchange for increasing the time it'll take to recharge said breath weapon (this feat effect can be sticked infinitely), stacking the feat effect infinitely, and then sneezing and destroying all of creation. A first level character, right out of character creation who can destroy the non-element immune parts of the universe with a single standard action.

But this is about world domination; we want to take over. We could do it as a wizard, using arcane power to rule the masses with an iron fist. But that seems boring.

My suggestion? Go Bard/Sublime Chord, and build it to be a decent spellcaster and a powerful diplomancer.

Spend your days adventuring, and your nights orating your adventures to the crowds. If you max out your Perform (Oratory), and the audience was suitably impressed, you could use Diplomacy to ask the audience to spread word of your achievements. The bard has enough abilities to be an effective solo party, provided they pick their fights carefully. Continue leveling, maxing out Diplomacy however possible. At level 10, go into Sublime Chord; you'll start getting higher level spells, while still having the bard's versatility and skill. Continue maxing out Diplomacy, and begin spreading rumors that you would be better at running the continent than its current ruler. If the government is just, they will bow to the desires of the people eventually and you'll be in charge. If they are more domineering than that, they'll have you arrested at some point; use social skills and spells to escape and convince the leader that you'd be willing to take an advising position, allowing them to keep their power while appearing to cooperate with the people's wishes. Spend the rest of your career increasing your influence over them while making yourself out to be the best adviser ever, when secretly you're manipulating them into making every decision you wish them to make.

One way or another, you're the one in charge.

This method may not be the most effective, but it's certainly classy; it's also neat because it uses the continent's capable communication network to its advantage.

Alternatively, just build a complete diplomance and be done with it.