You're gonna Save the World!

[Xar Zarath]

If you were a Wizard (say 20 levels) and decided to be a messiah/religious leader, what would you do? (BTW nobody knows you're a Wizard unless you tell them etc)

*No shenanigans or total rewriting of the cosmos/multiverse. Just stick to plain old vanilla Wizard and this Earth.

*Also no offense to anyone, just wanted to catch your thoughts on what it would be like to a religious saviour type like character with actual magical powers. SO please no offending others beliefs.

[Flickerdart]

I'm going to skip over this Earth, partly to avoid religion/politics things, and partly to make it easier for me.

Let's pick a new planet in a parallel universe, and call it Blerth. As a wizard we can actually go to Blerth under our own power, with plane shift. Assuming that the multiverse theory holds, we can find such a planet with relative ease.

Blerth is exactly like Earth, with one major difference - the planet is being plagued by a global threat, which is well-publicized. It doesn't actually matter what the threat is. It could be disastrous climate change. It could be an asteroid on a collision course, or a supernova sun. It could be hyper-destructive warfare, or aliens, or legions of the undead, or a pandemic, or an energy crisis, or snakemen infiltrating the world governments.

Then I would solve this problem. The "how" is usually trivial:

Climate problems or pollution: Use fabricate to extract a pollutant and lock it into a manageable solid form that can be safely destroyed with disintegrate.
Asteroid: Go to space and blow it up.
Supernova: Teleport everybody to a new planet, terraform it with magic.
Warfare: Out-warfare everybody. Can you say bulletproof minions?
Aliens: Out-warfare them too. Or buff myself to the nines and convince them to come in peace.
Undead: Command undead, then spell-stitch them with command undead to command more undead for me.
Pandemic: Summon so many unicorns.
Energy crisis: Craft decanters of endless water.
Snakemen: True seeing and detect thoughts should root them out eventually.


As soon as I start solving the problem, approximately 90% of my daily slots will be used on called angels to fly around trumpeting my involvement. Marketing is important! Then people are super grateful to me and I usher in a post-scarcity utopia.

[khadgar567]

probably pull unlimited succubus works and became some one like dan bilzerian( minus the poker and beard)

1. Planar Bind a Mirror Mephit, which has Simulacrum 1/day as a spell-like ability.

2. Cut off one of its fingers.*

3. Use the finger to make a Simulacrum of it (with the actual spell).

4. Order the Mirror Mephit Simulacrum to make another Mirror Mephit Simulacrum, giving you two in total.

5. The next day, order both Mirror Mephit Simulacra to each make a Mirror Mephit Simulacrum, giving you four in total.

6. The next day, order all four Mirror Mephit Simulacra to each make a Mirror Mephit Simulacrum, giving you eight in total.

7. Repeat until you feel you have enough Mirror Mephit Simulacra.

8. Order them all to start making Succubus Simulacra instead and to keep doing so every day for the rest of eternity.

9. Occasionally take one of your Succubus Simulacra to somewhere on the Material Plane that the moon is full and cast Steal Life on it, thereby allowing you to stay young forever.

10. Enjoy your Unlimited Succubus Works for all eternity.

[paranoidbox]

probably pull unlimited succubus works and became some one like dan bilzerian( minus the poker and beard)

1. Planar Bind a Mirror Mephit, which has Simulacrum 1/day as a spell-like ability.

2. Cut off one of its fingers.*

3. Use the finger to make a Simulacrum of it (with the actual spell).

4. Order the Mirror Mephit Simulacrum to make another Mirror Mephit Simulacrum, giving you two in total.

5. The next day, order both Mirror Mephit Simulacra to each make a Mirror Mephit Simulacrum, giving you four in total.

6. The next day, order all four Mirror Mephit Simulacra to each make a Mirror Mephit Simulacrum, giving you eight in total.

7. Repeat until you feel you have enough Mirror Mephit Simulacra.

8. Order them all to start making Succubus Simulacra instead and to keep doing so every day for the rest of eternity.

9. Occasionally take one of your Succubus Simulacra to somewhere on the Material Plane that the moon is full and cast Steal Life on it, thereby allowing you to stay young forever.

10. Enjoy your Unlimited Succubus Works for all eternity.



Maybe I don't get it, but how does this save the world?

[Flickerdart]

Maybe I don't get it, but how does this save the world?
Unlimited manpower is usually a pretty decent first step. Assuming that you have an effective way of managing your simulacra, their teleportation, shapeshifting and face skills should allow you to exert significant political pressure. A wizard that goes by that route could shape the world without ever emerging from the shadows - which goes against the premise, but whatever.

[khadgar567]

Unlimited manpower is usually a pretty decent first step. Assuming that you have an effective way of managing your simulacra, their teleportation, shapeshifting and face skills should allow you to exert significant political pressure. A wizard that goes by that route could shape the world without ever emerging from the shadows - which goes against the premise, but whatever.
hell I can act as celebrity and rule Za Wārudo

[Telonius]

First off, I'd make sure I have the Arcane Disciple feat twice, for Healing and Creation. Then, load up on the Charm, Illusion, and Divination spells. Find out the real threats and neutralize them, saving a bunch of people in a very public fashion; or, set up a few "self-fulfilling prophecies" (if there are no significant dangers). Take Leadership, and get some PR guys working around the clock. Get in good with some wealthy and influential players in local politics. Assure them that you won't be undermining the local government; play nice with the authorities. Make sure I have Fabricate and start outfitting my followers. Create Food and Water and/or Heroes' Feast to give some suitable miracles; obviously the Healing spells will help too.

[Flickerdart]

hell I can act as celebrity and rule Za Wārudo
That's not really how celebrities work.

[khadgar567]

That's not really how celebrities work.

I mean stay on the spotlight and use my simulacras to rule the world Illuminati syle

[dascarletm]

.
Supernova: Teleport everybody to a new planet, terraform it with magic.


I have some follow-up questions as a thought experiment.

1. How would you find said planet? I'm not sure which divination would be useful here.
2. How would you terraform said planet? Really curious.
3. How would you, assuming the threat is coming soon, teleport everyone in a timely fashion, or halt said apocalypse to make time a non-issue? Earth is huge, and having seen traffic here in southern California, even if you have 10 in every large population center this would take a while.

[Flickerdart]

I have some follow-up questions as a thought experiment.

1. How would you find said planet? I'm not sure which divination would be useful here.
2. How would you terraform said planet? Really curious.
3. How would you, assuming the threat is coming soon, teleport everyone in a timely fashion, or halt said apocalypse to make time a non-issue? Earth is huge, and having seen traffic here in southern California, even if you have 10 in every large population center this would take a while.


There is no reason to discount Blerth's science. We know of a substantial amount of planets that may be habitable or nearly habitable. View the planet in question through a telescope, then use greater teleport to scout out the star system. Bring some astronomers and their gear with you so they can set up telescopes in other solar systems.
Assuming we are reasonably successful in #1, the amount of terraforming necessary should be fairly low. A rudimentary understanding of chemistry should allow you to measure the planet's current atmosphere, then use true creation to produce compressed gases in any quantity you feel like (since gas can be compressed pretty much infinitely). Plant growth will help you help any seeds you plant to become successful (and you can true creation up some soil for them). Decanters of Endless Water provide pure drinkable water. It's relatively simple to exterminate local fauna and flora using any method you care to name, and quash local diseases with remove disease spam, which you can spread out by using imbue with spell ability to dub clerics in your name and then give them sanctum remove disease (a 2nd level spell, even if it's in a 3rd level slot). If the gravity is too high, you can destroy chunks of the planet using gated Umbral Blots and loads of bribes (since you cannot control them).
Teleport through time backwards in time to a point where the threat far enough away. Simulacra of yourself or gated solars and dragons can be used to distribute your efforts. Generally, astronomical doomsdays can be detected well in advance of the actual event, so there's absolutely no time pressure. Teleportation circle is your friend.

[Honest Tiefling]

So...What's to say that a messiah has to save the world? Personally, I'd try to see what the silliest thing I could get people to rally behind is. I'm currently thinking of a dirty sock with ruffles on it.

[Xar Zarath]

Wouldn't you like to drop down a few heals, remove diseases and raise deads? After a few of those, people will probably drop to their knees praising you

[ThinkMinty]

Hmm. I would probably make it impossible to recognize my face. I don't necessarily want credit, or the blame, for how I'd go about saving the world.

Strangling the last king with the entrails of the last priest would be a start. Granted, that's a metaphor, but a world with me as the most powerful arcanist is going to be finding itself devoid of tyrants in short order.

After that, I give the sun eternal youth, because seriously, why should humanity move? The planet is where all our stuff is.

In terms of theological archetypes, I'm more Promethean than Messianic.

[Flickerdart]

Granted, that's a metaphor, but a world with me as the most powerful arcanist is going to be finding itself devoid of tyrants in short order.
All but one, eh?

[daremetoidareyo]

All but one, eh?

There is a precedent (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGEF6I5aS68)

[Honest Tiefling]

Wouldn't you like to drop down a few heals, remove diseases and raise deads? After a few of those, people will probably drop to their knees praising you

Was that to me? Because I think that would be step one to get people to worship the frilly sock.

[Rubik]

There is a precedent (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGEF6I5aS68)I think you mean president.

http://img.playground.ru/images/3/2/President-Evil-Obama-Jon-Stewart-screengrab.jpg

And I wouldn't want notoriety either. If I had to be public, I'd use an entirely different face and body type so nobody could suspect it was me. Probably be something cute-looking but inhuman, like a tanuki or something.

[ThinkMinty]

All but one, eh?

Are you implying that tyrant-slaying is somehow tyrannical, because you're interfering with the notion that tyrants can tyrannize unmolested or something?

[Rubik]

Are you implying that tyrant-slaying is somehow tyrannical, because you're interfering with the notion that tyrants can tyrannize unmolested or something?Maybe it's that "absolute power corrupts absolutely," and nobody in history has ever had the kind of power that a level 20 wizard has?

[stanprollyright]

First: kidnap all world leaders and bring them to a genesis time plane to negotiate a treaty of unilateral peace, immediate conversion to renewable energy, and extensive human rights. I will also demand that all professional militaries belong to me. Countries can keep their police and national guard, and are encouraged to demilitarize rather than cede military control. Any who refuse will be killed and replaced.

Second: Wander around the world's deserts for a while casting Plant Life, Control Weather, and Fabricate until they teem with life.

Third: Break the world economy with magic items.

Fourth: Change my face and retire. Go around doing prestidigitation for children.

[Xar Zarath]

Maybe it's that "absolute power corrupts absolutely," and nobody in history has ever had the kind of power that a level 20 wizard has?

I do wonder what our optimisers would do in this scenario? (without optimising of course)

[Rubik]

Second: Wander around the world's deserts for a while casting Plant Life, Control Weather, and Fabricate until they teem with life.Wouldn't that destroy the ecosystem in those places, though? The Sahara, maybe not so much, but certain deserts, such as the Mojave and various tundras across the world, have evolved as deserts, and the plants and animals there don't deserve to be destroyed.

Plus, messing with the weather can have major repercussions. Make sure you use plenty of divination to minimize the bad ones.


I do wonder what our optimisers would do in this scenario? (without optimising of course)Even if you're stuck with wizard 20, optimization is perfectly doable within that restriction. Why not optimize? I mean, you've already got power, but fine-tuning it to be effective is better than wasting your potential.

[Yahzi]

If you were a Wizard (say 20 levels) and decided to be a messiah/religious leader, what would you do?
I'd cast Wish and make myself a 20th level Cleric.

Then I'd start handing out Zone of Truth and Regeneration like candy.


Strangling the last king with the entrails of the last priest would be a start...
After that, I give the sun eternal youth, because seriously, why should humanity move? The planet is where all our stuff is.
Perfect!

[Rubik]

I'd cast Wish and make myself a 20th level Cleric.

Then I'd start handing out Zone of Truth and Regeneration like candy.I'd use a thought bottle and negative levels to retrain as a psion build before abusing Psychic Chirurgery to learn every spell and power in existence, and THEN abusing Fusion/Astral Seed shenanigans to gestalt myself a few times.

But that's neither here nor there.

[Yahzi]

I'd use a thought bottle and negative levels...
While I was still a wizard I would Wish for that kind of Cheese to Not Exist. :smallbiggrin: Because sooner or later somebody else is going to duplicate my powers. If all they are doing with that power is healing and telling the truth, I'm good with that. That other stuff... not so much.

[ThinkMinty]

Maybe it's that "absolute power corrupts absolutely," and nobody in history has ever had the kind of power that a level 20 wizard has?

That's true. It's why I'm sticking to tyrant-slaying and disaster relief/prevention until I adjust to that much power.

[Flickerdart]

Are you implying that tyrant-slaying is somehow tyrannical
Yes.


because you're interfering with the notion that tyrants can tyrannize unmolested or something?
No.

As a random dude, you don't have the authority to render judgment or execute anybody. Wielding your power to do so anyway is no less tyrannical than what the guys you're intending to kill are doing.

[atemu1234]

I'd take control of all world leaders, probably with Charm and Suggestion.

I'd halt all military conflicts. Probably work on fixing climate issues by using spells to produce unlimited electricity. Also, if anyone tries to resist, instead of using spells, I'll use nukes.

If I can use second edition spells, use Evolve to create new races. Because humans are boring.

I would be the god of the new world.

[Xar Zarath]

...I would be the god of the new world.

Hmm, would you supersede humanity by creating your own race of servitors? at that point it would kinda be a two class system between the atemutites and regular humans

[Yahzi]

Hmm, would you supersede humanity by creating your own race of servitors? at that point it would kinda be a two class system between the atemutites and regular humans
Sounds like somebody has been reading Oryx & Crake. :D

Or just Greek mythology. Except Atemu is Zeus and we're the titans...

[ThinkMinty]

As a random dude, you don't have the authority to render judgment or execute anybody. Wielding your power to do so anyway is no less tyrannical than what the guys you're intending to kill are doing.

I'll disagree with you on the whole regicide thing; I don't believe in kings. I'd be the Sword of Damocles...heck, my wizardly pseudonym would probably be Damocles.

It's a lot less messed up than the Enchantment-puppetry proxy regime backed up with nuclear annihilation thrown around at dissidents.

[Flickerdart]

I'll disagree with you on the whole regicide thing; I don't believe in kings. I'd be the Sword of Damocles...heck, my wizardly pseudonym would probably be Damocles.
And the tyrants don't believe in not kings. If belief counted for anything, we'd still be back at square one.



It's a lot less messed up than the Enchantment-puppetry proxy regime backed up with nuclear annihilation thrown around at dissidents.
Doesn't make it less tyrannical.

[atemu1234]

I'll disagree with you on the whole regicide thing; I don't believe in kings. I'd be the Sword of Damocles...heck, my wizardly pseudonym would probably be Damocles.

It's a lot less messed up than the Enchantment-puppetry proxy regime backed up with nuclear annihilation thrown around at dissidents.

My plan is definitely evil; but it can create stability. Your plan is beyond you, because one person cannot be in control of all of this at once; you'll need advisors, to divide power between you and your lessers - in a pinch mine can be subtle enough to maintain secrecy for years. Until the nuking starts, of course.

[Xar Zarath]

I've never really been in tune with the idea of a web of mind controlled servants. At some point (at least fluff-wise) wouldn't it be a hassle to micromanage every one of your mind slaves? Even if they were independent (to some degree) every major decision would suck up too much of your downtime, at that is even without your personal army of simulacrums and ice assassins needing new orders and updates...Any other alternatives to the charm/dominate ploy?

[Rubik]

I've never really been in tune with the idea of a web of mind controlled servants. At some point (at least fluff-wise) wouldn't it be a hassle to micromanage every one of your mind slaves? Even if they were independent (to some degree) every major decision would suck up too much of your downtime, at that is even without your personal army of simulacrums and ice assassins needing new orders and updates...Any other alternatives to the charm/dominate ploy?In my opinion, it would be more effective, more efficient, and more ethical to set up some organizations whose purpose is to improve matters in the world and to start fixing problems, with the enough power (and enough limits) to get things done responsibly.

Ecological damage? Fix it. Nuclear cold war? Fix it. Fascist regimes in third world countries? Fix it. Starvation? Homelessness? Epidemics? Natural disasters? Fix it. Fix it. Fix it. Fix it.

It's easier to run an organization (and weed out corruption therein from the get-go) than to personally micromanage every little thing.

[Heliomance]

Assuming we are reasonably successful in #1, the amount of terraforming necessary should be fairly low. A rudimentary understanding of chemistry should allow you to measure the planet's current atmosphere, then use true creation to produce compressed gases in any quantity you feel like (since gas can be compressed pretty much infinitely). Plant growth will help you help any seeds you plant to become successful (and you can true creation up some soil for them). Decanters of Endless Water provide pure drinkable water. It's relatively simple to exterminate local fauna and flora using any method you care to name, and quash local diseases with remove disease spam, which you can spread out by using imbue with spell ability to dub clerics in your name and then give them sanctum remove disease (a 2nd level spell, even if it's in a 3rd level slot). If the gravity is too high, you can destroy chunks of the planet using gated Umbral Blots and loads of bribes (since you cannot control them).


I think you're underestimating significantly the size of a planet. A single 20th level wizard's spells would not be able to make a particularly meaningful impact on an entire planet, I'm pretty sure. Not in any sort of reasonable timespan. Not unless you're getting into exponential chain-gating shenanigans.

Probably unnecessary, though. I'm pretty sure Arcane Disciple (Travel) for Find the Path (The nearest planet other than this one on which the native lifeforms of this planet could comfortably survive) should work.




After that, I give the sun eternal youth, because seriously, why should humanity move? The planet is where all our stuff is.


How on earth are you planning to do that?

[ThinkMinty]

How on earth are you planning to do that?

I have Wish. I can wish for the sun to be immortal, and/or wish for the answer. Or wish for it to be possible, then wish for it to be done. There's options.

Heck, I can even Planar Bind it up to avoid spending anything on the wishin'.

But yeah, with magic, fixing the sun is easier than moving all the people off-world.

[Flickerdart]

I think you're underestimating significantly the size of a planet. A single 20th level wizard's spells would not be able to make a particularly meaningful impact on an entire planet, I'm pretty sure. Not in any sort of reasonable timespan. Not unless you're getting into exponential chain-gating shenanigans.
The post you quote literally explains how to do it, down to which spells to use and why they are effective. You're not just spamming spells like a tool, you're jump-starting chemical reactions.

[Heliomance]

The post you quote literally explains how to do it, down to which spells to use and why they are effective. You're not just spamming spells like a tool, you're jump-starting chemical reactions.

Okay, let's talk numbers.


Assuming we are reasonably successful in #1, the amount of terraforming necessary should be fairly low. A rudimentary understanding of chemistry should allow you to measure the planet's current atmosphere, then use true creation to produce compressed gases in any quantity you feel like (since gas can be compressed pretty much infinitely).

I won't dispute the ability to create enough compressed gas to alter the balance of the entire planetary atmos[here, but I feel that's on very shaky ground. However:

True Creation can make 1 cubic foot of material per level. I'll be generous and say you have enough caster level boosts to produce 30 cubic feet.

The effective volume of Earth's atmopshere is approximately 4.2 billion cubic kilometres[source] (http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_volume_of_Earth's_atmosphere) which translates to 1.483e+20 cubic feet. Again, I'll be generous, and say that you only need to create 1% of that to make the right air balance. That gives us 1.483e+18 cubic feet. So you've compressed that into 30 cubic feet, at a compression ratio of roughly a hundred million billion to one. I honestly don't know how to calculate what the result of that losing containment the picosecond you create it would be, but I'm pretty certain the word "catastrophic" is a significant understatement.

I rather suspect the word "apocalyptic" is also an understatement.


Plant growth will help you help any seeds you plant to become successful (and you can true creation up some soil for them).

Plant Growth will help you help seeds you plant in a half mile radius become successful. I'll slightly over-estimate that at one square mile. Earth has a total land surface are of 148,940,000 km2[Source] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth) which is around 57 million square miles. Again, I'll be generous and assume you're only going to try and cultivate 1% of that, so 570,000 square miles (rounding down). Seeing as you're a Wizard, presumably you're getting access to Plant Growth via Arcane Disciple (Plant). With the somewhat shaky interpretation that you can use the higher level domain slots to cast Plant Growth more times a day, that gives you 7 castings per day. That means you will be using all your castings of Plant Growth for 81,000 days (again rounding down), coming out to 223 years, in order to fertilise 1% of the planet's land area. To say nothing of how you're going to get around - but Teleport isn't a domain-only spell, so you probably have more of those.


Decanters of Endless Water provide pure drinkable water.

Decanter of Endless Water produces water at a maximum of 30 gallons every six seconds.

Earth has 1.386 billion cubic kilometres of water[Source] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_distribution_on_Earth). Of that, 2.5% is fresh water (34,680,000 cubic kilometres). Of that, 0.3% is in liquid form on the surface (103,950 cubic kilometres). That's 2.28e+16 gallons (rounding down again). At 30 gallons per round, it would take 144 million years to produce the total liquid surface freshwater on Earth - which is 0.0075% of the total water on Earth.


It's relatively simple to exterminate local fauna and flora using any method you care to name, and quash local diseases with remove disease spam, which you can spread out by using imbue with spell ability to dub clerics in your name and then give them sanctum remove disease (a 2nd level spell, even if it's in a 3rd level slot).

The numbers here are far more nebulous, and I can't do hard calculations. I'm certain that they're in a similar ballpark, however.


If the gravity is too high, you can destroy chunks of the planet using gated Umbral Blots and loads of bribes (since you cannot control them).

An Umbral Blot is a Medium construct which I will model as a 5ft*5ft*5ft cube. It can fly at 90ft per round, which means it can disintegrate 5500 cubic feet per round assuming a double move. The volume of the Earth is 1.083e+12 cubic kilometres[Source] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth), translating to 3.82e+22 cubic feet. A planet with higher gravity would almost certainly be significantly larger, but we'll stick with that.

So an Umbral Blot can disintegrate 5500 cubic feet every six seconds. 79.2 million cubic feet every day. 2.9e+10 cubic feet every year. Gravitational acceleration is directly proportional to planetary mass, so to drop gravity by 10% you need to remove 10% of the mass. (It's slightly more complex than that because the planetary radius also affects it, but I'll assume that the Blot is only removing material from inside the planet and the surface remains untouched. It works out in the terraformer's favour that way, anyway.)

So, again, let's assume you're looking for a 1% reduction in planetary gravity. Absolutely tiny, I know. Assuming you're starting from an Earth-volume planet (and I would like to remind you that if you're wanting to drop the gravity, you'll be starting with a larger planet), to destroy 1% of the material, the Blot would have to fly around the inside of the planet without crossing its path for approximately (and heavily underestimating) 10 billion years.

I hate to think what that would do to the tectonic stability of the place.



In conclusion, planets are really freaking big, and D&D magic is not equipped to work at that scale.

[Flickerdart]

I will remind you that spells can be cast more than once, so you can have multiple Blots (which can be enlarged for better rates) or living spells of Disintegrate or whatever your heart desires. You can wish for thousands of decanters using genies (or just do oxygen and hydrogen gas true creation and then burn them to produce water). The expansion rate of gas is a non-issue because the planet has nothing useful on it yet, so you can cast a delayed one or just be incorporeal while you do it.

[Rubik]

You can also DCFS one of your feats into Enlarge Breath, Greater Teleport into the planet's orbit, Shapechange into a dragon, and use the dragon's breath weapon, applying Enlarge Breath enough times to engulf and vaporize the surface of the planet. Use Shapechange to turn into another dragon and repeat. Wear away the surface of the planet using spread-effects, and it'll eventually be the size you want.

And you can open gates to the elemental plane of water to release millions of gallons of water every round until there's enough to suit your needs.

Terraforming is a bit more problematic. You'll probably need to perform some timebending shenanigans with fast time demiplanes to grow your plants (different demiplanes for different ecosystems) and Planar Bind critters that can Planar Bind more critters, and so on, like with Team Solars. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?188138-Team-Solars-(Archiving))

[Flickerdart]

Another idea - fimbulwinter gives you 4d12 weeks of snowfall and hail in a mile/level circle. As a 20th level wizard, these circles are 3,948 square miles in diameter. Except wait, we can Enlarge and Extend it, making it 8d12 weeks (average 52 weeks) and 15,791 square miles. Every day, this area is covered in 1d6+1 (average 4.5, why not empower it for 6.75) more feet of snow. That's approximately 3 trillion cubic feet of snow per day. The typical density of snow and ice is 70kg/m3. With 84 billion m3 to play with, we are producing 5.85 trillion kg (litres) of water per day per spell. New York (9 million people) uses 3.78 billion litres of water per day.

So per casting of this spell, we get enough water to support just shy of two New Yorks for a year.

How close is that to the Earth's total of fresh water? Well, we have 31,500,000 trillion litres of the stuff. One enlarged extended empowered fimbulwinter produces 2135.25 trillion litres throughout its casting. So we need 14,752 castings. Your basic 20th level wizard will have 6 level 9 slots and 6 level 8 slots (metamagic reduction can push the meta cost to 0), making this feat achievable in 1230 days, or just over 3.3 years.

We can get better results by being a Red Wizard with Circle Magic, but for now let's assume a vanilla wizard 20.

[Rubik]

Another idea - fimbulwinter gives you 4d12 weeks of snowfall and hail in a mile/level circle. As a 20th level wizard, these circles are 3,948 square miles in diameter. Except wait, we can Enlarge and Extend it, making it 8d12 weeks (average 52 weeks) and 15,791 square miles. Every day, this area is covered in 1d6+1 (average 4.5, why not empower it for 6.75) more feet of snow. That's approximately 3 trillion cubic feet of snow per day. The typical density of snow and ice is 70kg/m3. With 84 billion m3 to play with, we are producing 5.85 trillion kg (litres) of water per day per spell. New York (9 million people) uses 3.78 billion litres of water per day.

So per casting of this spell, we get enough water to support just shy of two New Yorks for a year.

How close is that to the Earth's total of fresh water? Well, we have 31,500,000 trillion litres of the stuff. One enlarged extended empowered fimbulwinter produces 2135.25 trillion litres throughout its casting. So we need 14,752 castings. Your basic 20th level wizard will have 6 level 9 slots and 6 level 8 slots (metamagic reduction can push the meta cost to 0), making this feat achievable in 1230 days, or just over 3.3 years.

We can get better results by being a Red Wizard with Circle Magic, but for now let's assume a vanilla wizard 20.If you Empower and Maximize it, that affects both the duration and the amount of snow you get per day, so include a metamagic rod of Empower Spell and an incantatrix to apply Maximize after the casting.

[Flickerdart]

If you Empower and Maximize it, that affects both the duration and the amount of snow you get per day, so include a metamagic rod of Empower Spell and an incantatrix to apply Maximize after the casting.

Good thought. I forgot that since the duration is a variable, Maximize and Empower help us out.

We can also craft spell clocks (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cw/20070312a) to prime spells we want to repeat.

[Rubik]

Good thought. I forgot that since the duration is a variable, Maximize and Empower help us out.

We can also craft spell clocks (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cw/20070312a) to prime spells we want to repeat.Leave the clock near the planet's pole. We don't want prime real estate under ice and snow all the time.

[Jack_Simth]

If you were a Wizard (say 20 levels) and decided to be a messiah/religious leader, what would you do? (BTW nobody knows you're a Wizard unless you tell them etc)

*No shenanigans or total rewriting of the cosmos/multiverse. Just stick to plain old vanilla Wizard and this Earth.

*Also no offense to anyone, just wanted to catch your thoughts on what it would be like to a religious saviour type like character with actual magical powers. SO please no offending others beliefs.
The Q&D method is to take an established major religion, replace it's current leader (either by straight-up replacement and disguise, or via established means and a 'normal' infiltration of the orginization) with a simulacrum of an advanced Solar (so it doesn't lose anything) , and have it perform obvious miracles. Make sure to make a lot of "Prophets" the same way, have them introduced by the "leader" and have them go on a conversion spree. With obvious magic power, it isn't going to be too terribly hard to convince people. Just take a look at a Solar's spell-likes (this isn't even touching spells):

At will—aid, animate objects, commune, continual flame, dimensional anchor, greater dispel magic, holy smite (DC 21), imprisonment (DC 26), invisibility (self only), lesser restoration (DC 19), remove curse (DC 20), remove disease (DC 20), remove fear (DC 18), resist energy, summon monster VII, speak with dead (DC 20), waves of fatigue; 3/day—blade barrier (DC 23), earthquake (DC 25), heal (DC 23), mass charm monster (DC 25), permanency, resurrection, waves of exhaustion; 1/day—greater restoration (DC 24), power word blind, power word kill, power word stun, prismatic spray (DC 24), wish. (Emphasis, Emphasis, and Emphasis added)

The underlined ones are great for demos.
Oh, here. How about you glow green for a while? (Dimensional Anchor)
Want a permanent reminder? Got a pen? I just need to touch it for a moment (Continual Flame).
Oh, your uncle is sick? We can fix that (Remove Disease, Lesser Restoration)
Injured? Easily solved. I'll call upon some holy power... (Summon Monster VII: Avoral: Lay on of Hands)
Well... OK, I don't do this often, because people in general are supposed to go to their reward, but yes, I'll give your daughter a second chance... although she may not be willing to return. (Resurrection)

Commune is stupidly useful for you. As an at-will on a minion, it's pretty much the ultimate early warning system... assuming you can conceive of the appropriate threat. Also really good for double-checking to see if you picked a good target for replacement.

Then, of course, there's Wish. As a spell-like, even. That's probably where Mr. Wizard is going to be getting his scrolls of Simulacrum, after the first.

[Heliomance]

I will remind you that spells can be cast more than once, so you can have multiple Blots (which can be enlarged for better rates) or living spells of Disintegrate or whatever your heart desires. You can wish for thousands of decanters using genies (or just do oxygen and hydrogen gas true creation and then burn them to produce water). The expansion rate of gas is a non-issue because the planet has nothing useful on it yet, so you can cast a delayed one or just be incorporeal while you do it.

Summoning multiple Blots (which, I remind you, you have no method of controlling) isn't going to make that much of a dent on 10 billion Blot-years. You'd need to summon a million of them to have it take 10,000 years.

As for the expansion rate of gas - does "nothing useful" include the planetary crust? Because I'm pretty sure gas compressed to a hundred million billionth of its normal size is going to do a number on the planetary crust.

[Rubik]

Summoning multiple Blots (which, I remind you, you have no method of controlling) isn't going to make that much of a dent on 10 billion Blot-years. You'd need to summon a million of them to have it take 10,000 years.

As for the expansion rate of gas - does "nothing useful" include the planetary crust? Because I'm pretty sure gas compressed to a hundred million billionth of its normal size is going to do a number on the planetary crust.See, that's why you kill two birds with one stone and use the compressed gas to destroy enough crust to reduce the planetary gravity like you wanted.

If you don't want to engage in downsizing, just make sure you're far enough away from the planet that the expansion won't cause significant damage, and let planetary gravity take care of the rest.

[Xar Zarath]

...Commune is stupidly useful for you. As an at-will on a minion, it's pretty much the ultimate early warning system... assuming you can conceive of the appropriate threat. Also really good for double-checking to see if you picked a good target for replacement.

Wouldn't it be more useful to cast Contact Other Plane or is it the same thing? Moreover, gating in solars and cutting off their limbs is usually legal because they obey you for those few moments when they're out of the Gate?

[Jack_Simth]

Wouldn't it be more useful to cast Contact Other Plane or is it the same thing? Moreover, gating in solars and cutting off their limbs is usually legal because they obey you for those few moments when they're out of the Gate?Plus Solars don't penetrate their own regeneration, so loss of a limb is a painful short-term inconvenience... not that you really need more than a few feathers.

As to Commune vs. Contact Other Plane:

Commune (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/commune.htm) is a divine spell that gives you a series of Yes/No answers (up to 1 per caster level), and the only failure chance is DM fiat (Contrary to the deity's interests or plot effects - some interpret Mind Blank/Nondetection to foil it, some don't). It costs 100 XP, so using it a lot will leave you a little behind the rest of the party if casting it directly. If you need to sort out a list of 16 different suspects, you'll need to ask about 16 questions ("Did Adam do it?" "Did Betty do it?" "Did Carl do it?" Et cetera through the list - note that this can be reduced to 4 if you want to sort out how to do a binomial search with Commune... well, 5 if you want to include the possibility of someone not on your list).

Contact Other Plane (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/contactOtherPlane.htm) is an arcane spell which gives you a series of one word answers to questions (half as many as Commune) with two different built-in failure chances (Int check plus percentile roll), and still has the exact same DM fiat failure chances. It has only a verbal component, so you can cast it as often as you dare (there are some severe consequences for failing the Int check if you cast it normally). If you need to sort out a list of 16 different suspects, you'll need to ask just one or two questions ("What's the first name of the guilty party?" "What's the last name of the guilty party?" - done, other than the lack of certainty)

So in general, Contact Other Plane is cheaper and gives you more information (fewer questions, but the answers are more information-dense). Commune is much more reliable, however.

In the specific example, however, Solars (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/angel.htm#angelSolar) get Commune as an at-will spell-like ability, so you ignore the costs and get as many questions as you like at the rate of 12 minutes per set of 20 questions (ten minute casting plus 20 rounds of asking questions at the rate of 1/round).