How to take over the world?

[Corsair420]

I'm not sure if this is the right spot exactly or not so I apologize if its not.

I have a plan to take over my DMs world a some point in the future, he created the world and the pantheon and I have had first hand experience physically changing the lore of his world through a previous character (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=402435), he welcomes and loves the challenge to create new things and see his players get so involved in the world, so theres no worry about that here.

first a bit of backstory, a previous character I made, an evil Hellfire Warlock, helped set in motion a fairly cataclysmic event that plunged the entire world into a war that lasted literally decades, when that war finally ended our good party (another campaign) reignited a new war after less then like 2 years. My Character is young man that grew up during this age of strife and has come to believe that the only way to end the conflict is to unite the world under one banner, to this end he became a cleric for his cause, using the Dream and the War domains (his dream to see a united world take up his waking and his sleeping hours it is part of his very being after 20 years, and War because he knows it will take war to end war).

His plan is that over the years he has heard about the Infernal Battlefield of Acheron, where countless armies battle each other for eternity, some with leaders, some without, countless sides, countless warriors. If he could get to this plane he could recruit an army like the world has never seen, an endless army to walk across the planet and unite everywhere under his banner.

At the moment hes a 13th level cleric, he has a maxed diplomacy just with skill points (so 16) and the leadership feat, but I'm trying to figure out the logistics needed to get myself to the other plane (simple as paying someone to teleport me there) but getting the army BACK to the material plane. the original plan was to use the Pazuzu trick (pazuzu, candle of invocation for infinite wishes, and multiple gate spells).

I'd like to know what everyone thinks of the basics of this plan, I dont have much more than this worked out at the moment, so comments, ideas etc etc is all welcome, please let me know what you all think.

[KingAtomsk]

As a 13th-level Cleric you're high enough level to cast Plane Shift or its Greater counterpart to get to the desired plane. As for getting the army back to the material plane, you may have to depend upon DM fiat because there simply aren't any spells 7th-level or lower that are going to transport entire armies from one plane to another. Maybe you could convince your DM to let Miracle work once you have the requisite 9th-level spell slots.

[Milodiah]

Any army powerful enough to destroy the world will have casters powerful enough to facilitate its movement across planes, most likely. Unless, of course, the DM pays attention to the idea behind Acheron and points out that the forces there are forever occupied with their current war and cannot withdraw for this little expeditionary campaign.

[Corsair420]

well per the DMG description, "Many armies populate Acheron, but leaders are scarce" That line is the basis for this plan, and nowhere does it say they won't join, so the plan is to try and recruit as many as I can by diplomacy, combat, coercion, etc etc.

The original plan was to use the Gate spell, I don't expect to get there right away, I'm sure I'll gain a few levels before actually reaching it so I might have access to the spell, but for large numbers without some fancy DM handwaveyem it would just take numerous casting of the spell.

The logistics of teleporting an army between planes are not the only question here though, what does everyone think of the plan? any comments or coencerns or ideas?

[Milodiah]

Now, this is my understanding of Acheron, don't equate it with your DM's, but Acheron is in a 1984 state of perpetual flux. No army is ever going to be strong enough to stamp out another, and no army is ever going to be weak enough to be stamped out. This state of constant give-and-take means there's simply never enough spare troops or equipment to go off on a tangentially-related expeditionary operation, because it would upset the balance. At the very least, they aren't going to spare enough of an army to actually take over much more than an outpost.

Perhaps a better option would be to coordinate with the Nine Hells...they like to influence the affairs of the material plane, as long as you're willing to make a literal deal with the devilslawful evil. But you're a warlock, so I'm just going to go ahead and assume thumbs-up on that?

Let's look at Clausewitzian strategy for a moment: your three main targets are the opponent/world's military power, their physical territory, and their will to fight. At least one of these three things need to be reduced to a point at which they are willing to concede defeat as a more preferential option than to continue fighting. A few options I see:

Collaborating with demonschaotic evil, bent on destruction and chaos as an end in and of itself, would allow you to damage the first of the three, as the inevitable battles between the forces of the world and the demons would deplete military resources quite heavily. However, demons are not inclined towards the second, which would be acquisition of territory. The third point could be contentious, but it would be my opinion that a lengthy conflict against demonic forces would severely damage the population's will to fight in the immediate and long-term future.

Collaboration with these forces of Acheron, if achieved, would fulfill more or less the same objectives: you would find yourself with a military force ready and willing to square off with that of the opponent, but their desire for unending conflict would make holding territory difficult, and a cessation of hostilities, much like the demons mentioned above, would be unthinkable to your forces.

Your best option, really, would have to be to start off by assuming control of a nationstate in the world itself, in order to place yourself in a position from which standard war could be waged, while using the above two options as a softening effort to deplete enemy resources and will while you build yours. However, it would be unwise to permit your extraplanar forces to have enough power to actually win, because there is no victory to them, only an opportunity for further destruction, which is counterproductive to your goals.


...I recommend you just read On War, or at least the first book of it. If you're going to go as suicidal as "take over the world", you might as well have the understanding of military theory needed to leverage it.

[Threadnaught]

How about taking over the world using economics?

Emperor Win has a guide (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?222007-The-Definitive-Guide-to-the-Tippyverse-By-Emperor-Tippy) on achieving this.

[Corsair420]

You raise some valid points there Milodiah I didn't think about that, and just to clarify, the warlock was the evil guy who started the first war, he is not the current character I am talking about, the current is a cleric who is tired of seeing a world at war and believes he can unite it to end all wars.

As for demons and devils, there isn't much movement from the demons in my dms world, thats not to say they cant, but the first war was a war to try and allow Asmodeus access to the material plane, so devils are already very involved in this war. There are a few factions involved,

-Asmodeus and the nine hells.
-A Ninja(ex-PC) possesd by the soul of the black dragon in the black dragon orb who is also in possession of 3 of the orbs in total who leads an army of dragons and draconians.
-The humans of the main continent united under the banner of a 3rd character of mine who is the king of mankind(on that continent(I made a character he thought would make a great leader so i was forced into that one)).
-The ACTUAL dragons not being controlled by the dragon orbs who humans used to keep in a colliseum and force to fight who want to take their world back.
-My evil Hellfire Warlock with an army of undead, and cultists he's building

Those are the ones I know about, there could be more, but it is a massive world at conflict. another note, my DM does use the rule of cool IF it plays to your characters plot and backstory, in this case he knows what I want to do but will not help me do it, if I can find a logical way to do it in game, I can do it, he'll make the rolls necessary to see if the people join me or not, he thinks the concept is awesome, he just wont help me accomplish it, he'll just play the NPCs, so upsetting the balance of Acheron is nowhere on his list of worries.

Threadnought, I will read that because an economic victory is not out of the question either, though for my hellfire warlock, as hes the more sneaky of my characters bent on taking over the world

[Milodiah]

My only advice is to be careful when dealing with a group that's defined by their constant desire for fighting. After all, if you try to tell them "Ok, fighting's over guys", they might not exactly take your word for it. And I know that as a DM I would exploit that.

[Yael]

Monk 20

Seriously though, any caster with access to broken-level spells are cappable of that. The idea of bringing back extraplanar beings comes to mind immediatly (of course, after reading previous posts :) )

[Corsair420]

I'm sure i'll recruit more people FROM the material plane as I go so I can send htem back to acheron when i'm done and use wahts left to keep the peace... hopefully

[...]

Maugs from the FF live on Acheron and are mercs with a low price and a high CR.

[Corsair420]

I'm undecided on whether or not to enlist outright evil creatures or people, the cleric is lawful neutral and is smart enough to know that deals with devils and demons seldom go as planned, I'm sure there will be some as it'll be impossible to recruit ONLY non evil character on a plane devoted to war, I need to see how my dm actually has it populated

[Threadnaught]

Threadnought, I will read that because an economic victory is not out of the question either, though for my hellfire warlock, as hes the more sneaky of my characters bent on taking over the world

It begins with conquering a few (let's say 4) cities via economics, then you use some of the profits gained to establish an unbeatable military force. Imagine how much money you could make from selling 14400 Noble's Outfits a day at 1cp a piece, while paying some Commoner a mere 1gp a day.

Of course it does cost around 50000gp to link all the locations to each other and create the Resetting Fabricate Trap.

51000gp to have one city as the hub, 57000gp to have everywhere linked equally. Of course this is ignoring xp requirements.

[Corsair420]

The economic victory will work really well for Bim my evil character, he already has the infrastructure to start that, plus it'll work great for the plan I have for him, I'm gonna take a page from warcraft and develop a plague that I'm gonna try and spread through food, if I can establish trade with all or most major cities then I can get it to spread very quickly so cities will pay me to unknowingly spread my plague, and he's pretty much like the undead from warcraft every death will bolster my forces the plan is to have like a week or 2 long incubation so it has time to spread to as many before symptoms arrive so they don't know it comes from my food by the time I'm ready to attack the defenses will already be weakened. He was taking levels of dread necro before I remade him and he has an item that let's him cast necromancy spells as if he were a sorcerer of my characters level and that is separate from the normal undead count so I can get double the undead, and there are spells like undead lieutenant to get leaders for my undead beyond people