Build Me A Superlaser (3.5)

[The Glyphstone]

So I'm playing in a low-mid epic game, with a fair bit of houserules (triple gestalt, to begin with) that make for a fairly ludicrous power level even with Epic Spellcasting outright banned. My character in particular is a quasi-deity with a fairly substantial cult worshipping it, and after coming into an appropriately absurd amount of money by sacking a city, I decided to build myself a flying doom fortress to house said cult. I've affectionately named it the Death Star, even if it looks more like a Borg Cube, but what any proper Death Star needs is a superlaser, via a custom magic item embedded into the hull that casts some sort of destructive spell to rain death upon my enemies.

Parameters:
-Functionally unlimited money - if the end cost is over ten million GP or so, it might need to be toned down.
-Central spell must be long-range, capable of dealing damage to objects, and probably high level for a good caster level cap. It can be single-target, as I have batteries of Energy Ball cannons for AoE/point defense.
-The central spell can have metamagic feats applied to it, and the spell level can go above 9th if necessary.
-Any 3.5 material, likely any Pathfinder material on a case-by-case basis, plus the Stronghold Builder's Guide.
-That's no moon, it's a 200-ft. cubical obdurium-shelled battle station.

[Ruethgar]

I feel like a Death Star should utilize Locate City Bomb if it can. An item of Locate City Bomb with Enlarge slapped on it as cast by Circle Magic for a range of 800 miles and a radius of 400 miles. Use the explosive version for maximum effect.

[The Glyphstone]

That's an option, if I can get the Locate City Bomb trick approved. Other backup options would be nice though, as one problem with Locate City Bomb is that it doesn't actually inflict damage on anything that isn't alive/mobile. I can just carpet-bomb the surface with fire/ice/acid/sonic-balls to kill people, but I can't leave smoking craters where castles used to be.

Also, note additional parameter, it doesn't have to be effective against optimized Epic-level threats; that is what my character is for. This is just a really, really awesome and expensive bit of flavor for the most part.

[MisterKaws]

have a wizard/cleric/incantatrix 10/dweomerkeeper 10, with ONLY the necessary item creation feats, and the rest dumped into epic spell levels, metamagic efficiency, improved CL, and improved int, in this order(can be done with some psion's help), build you some item with an intensified twin maw of chaos, persist if you plan on torturing targets with regeneration. For a literal laser, you can go intensified twin enhanced radiant assault.

Both are SpC.

[Âmesang]

Side note, is there any chance you could just animate (http://mksonic.homestead.com/files/unicron.gif) the "Borg Cube"/"Death Star?"

[khadgar567]

gonna leave this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?450810-Pimp-my-Airship-The-Damocles) as start
then since pathfinder is usable then add greater auto loader( 20 bolt magazine with 3 bolts per turn regen) magazine to main cannon this would probably handle the much dakka needed as possible
now its up to you to find the remaining needs
(sub item from steelforge city in bottle (for better understanding bottled city of kandor) allows you to supply from any where

[icefractal]

Depending on how powerful you want to go with it ...

Your Superlaser is a Cleric. Specifically, a Cleric with Permanent Emanation (Consumptive Field), Distant Shot, and Brutal Throw. Said Cleric can auto-hit things at any distance and does NI damage. If you want to go really nuts, get Bloodstorm Blade in there and be able to hit any number of visible targets at once.

[The Glyphstone]

Depending on how powerful you want to go with it ...

Your Superlaser is a Cleric. Specifically, a Cleric with Permanent Emanation (Consumptive Field), Distant Shot, and Brutal Throw. Said Cleric can auto-hit things at any distance and does NI damage. If you want to go really nuts, get Bloodstorm Blade in there and be able to hit any number of visible targets at once.

That's both TO trying to sneak into an actual game, and not a Superlaser, just an infinitely destructive weapon. I did try to iterate that this is not an exercise in creating an epic-grade weapon (I can do that easily myself), but brainstorming ideas for a huge destructive doom cannon I can strap to the bottom of my floating fortress, like the Death Star or the Alien Mothership from Independence Day.

Radiant Assault's not bad. Maw of Chaos is probably Oomphier though. Maybe just an array of linked Disintegrates?

[Aresneo]

An at-will item of Enhanced Disintegrate deals 480 damage at a time and costs just over 6.2 million gp. It doesn't have the area of destruction some of the over suggestions have but can be fired all day long.

[AvatarVecna]

If there's a way to get some really good range on "Erupt" (from Serpent Kingdom), that could do it with enough CL.


Level: Cleric 9
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Touch
Area: Burst with a radius of 100 ft./level
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude half
Spell Resistance: Yes

You draw molten lava up through the ground.

Every creature within the area that fails a Fortitude saving throw takes 10 points of fire damage per caster level and catches on fire (see Catching on Fire, page 303 of the Dungeon Master's Guide).

Furthermore, anyone wearing metal armor who fails the saving throw is also affected as though by a heat metal spell.

A successful saving throw negates the heat metal effect and halves the damage.

Structures and unattended objects automatically take full damage (no save).

Erupt leaves its entire area a blackened ruin incapable of supporting plant or animal life for a full year.

EDIT: The minute-long casting time is appropriate for a "charging up" blast, and can be shortened via metamagic if you'd rather not deal with that. The range is the real issue here: "Reach Spell" gives it a range of 30 ft, and "Ring the Golden Bell" can let you deliver the touch spell via an unarmed strike up to 5*(Wis mod+1) ft away, but that's not nearly enough range.

[Rebel7284]

Arcane Archer with that epic unlimited distance feat shooting arrows of metamagiced Apocalypse from the Sky is the biggest area + damage combo I can think of. Not sure how to convert it to a cannon though.

Putting a bunch of metamagic feats on Disintegrate probably is sufficient.

[AvatarVecna]

Arcane Archer with that epic unlimited distance feat shooting arrows of metamagiced Apocalypse from the Sky is the biggest area + damage combo I can think of. Not sure how to convert it to a cannon though.

Putting a bunch of metamagic feats on Disintegrate probably is sufficient.

AftS still requires the artifact to trigger, IIRC, so that might not work out as well.

[Rebel7284]

AftS still requires the artifact to trigger, IIRC, so that might not work out as well.

Ignore Material Components [Epic] is one solution.

Crafting a bunch of artifacts may not be out of question either at this level.

Also, converting to SLA removes the material component, but then it's more difficult to apply metamagic and arcane archer abilities.

20 mile radius beams of destruction seems pretty Death Starish though :D

[Ellowryn]

Best i got is an array of Intensified, Enhanced, Twinned, Split Ray, Chained, Enlarged Disintegrate. Each Disintegrate hits up to 84 targets dealing 450 damage per target or destroying 840 cubic feet of nonliving matter at long range. With 7 you can destroy roughly 1 square mile depending on how your dm rules buildings (one solid object including the land it is on or several smaller objects together). With 3,619 of them you can destroy roughly 1 large city per shot.

If anyone can find a reasonable way to change the ray to an area you can add things like explosive, but the only way i could find outside of homebrew were lenses from LoM which are far to subpar to be worth considering.

[Rebel7284]

I was under impression that chain spell doesn't work with rays.

[The Glyphstone]

If there's a way to get some really good range on "Erupt" (from Serpent Kingdom), that could do it with enough CL.



EDIT: The minute-long casting time is appropriate for a "charging up" blast, and can be shortened via metamagic if you'd rather not deal with that. The range is the real issue here: "Reach Spell" gives it a range of 30 ft, and "Ring the Golden Bell" can let you deliver the touch spell via an unarmed strike up to 5*(Wis mod+1) ft away, but that's not nearly enough range.

This...might be perfect actually. I could pair it with a Project Image to get the range, or if that doesn't work, try and import Pathfinder's Reach Spell for extra range categories.

I knew the Playground would be able to come through for me eventually!:smallcool:

[AvatarVecna]

Best i got is an array of Intensified, Enhanced, Twinned, Split Ray, Chained, Enlarged Disintegrate. Each Disintegrate hits up to 84 targets dealing 450 damage per target or destroying 840 cubic feet of nonliving matter at long range. With 7 you can destroy roughly 1 square mile depending on how your dm rules buildings (one solid object including the land it is on or several smaller objects together). With 3,619 of them you can destroy roughly 1 large city per shot.

If anyone can find a reasonable way to change the ray to an area you can add things like explosive, but the only way i could find outside of homebrew were lenses from LoM which are far to subpar to be worth considering.

It's worth mentioning that Disintegrate is medium range, not long range, and Enlarge Spell just doubles the distance covered. Still, the rest of this is along the lines I was working toward; the cost for firing one of these things at will is pretty steep, and it might not even be what the OP is looking for.


I was under impression that chain spell doesn't work with rays.

It's funny, because not only am I not seeing any text preventing it from applying to ray spells, I'm seeing text that makes it apply to basically nothing but ray spells.


Any spell that specifies a single target and has a range greater than touch can be chained so as to affect that primary target normally, then arc to a number of secondary targets equal to your caster level (maximum 20).

[Âmesang]

Honestly I'd be happy with, like, magic missile machine guns.

(pyew pyew)

[The Glyphstone]

The main argument against Chain Spell and Rays is that, by RAW, Rays do not have a Target, since that line is missing from their spell description.


Charm Person
Level: Brd 1, Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One humanoid creature
Duration: 1 hour/level
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

vs.


Disintegrate
Level: Destruction 7, Sor/Wiz 6
Components: V, S, M/DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Effect: Ray
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude partial (object)
Spell Resistance: Yes





Honestly I'd be happy with, like, magic missile machine guns.

(pyew pyew)


I have those already - specifically, Chain Missile machine guns, and Fireball/Acidball/Sonicball/Iceball 'grenade launchers'. But I needed a Main Gun, and it sounds like Erupt is a perfect candidate.

[Ellowryn]

It's worth mentioning that Disintegrate is medium range, not long range, and Enlarge Spell just doubles the distance covered. Still, the rest of this is along the lines I was working toward; the cost for firing one of these things at will is pretty steep, and it might not even be what the OP is looking for.


Crap, got it confused with the pathfinder version that bumped it up a range increment. Still worth adding though, as with the caster level required to make the death ray it should be reasonable to bump the total range to close to a mile.

Edit: Oh wait, he said Pathfinder is on the table so you can turn any spell of range touch to medium to long range. Just do taht with erruption, tossing on whatever metamagic you want.

[AvatarVecna]

The main argument against Chain Spell and Rays is that, by RAW, Rays do not have a Target, since that line is missing from their spell description.


vs.





I have those already - specifically, Chain Missile machine guns, and Fireball/Acidball/Sonicball/Iceball 'grenade launchers'. But I needed a Main Gun, and it sounds like Erupt is a perfect candidate.

I'd rule it to have a target, since it obviously does, but playing by pure RAW yes it doesn't work. And yeah, some of the effects of Erupt are awesome if you can find a way around the crap range.

"Sorry folks, but it turns out this here town is built on an inactivate volcano that's about to have a slight burp. This burp will last less than a second, but will kill everybody in town, destroy the buildings, and render the area (nearly a mile diameter circle) inhospitable for a year...and it goes off in 20 seconds."

[ExLibrisMortis]

I'm not sure it's a laser, but I'm reminded of this quote from Randall Munroe's 'What if?': "To put it another way, the Death Star caused a magnitude 15 earthquake on Alderaan".

Earthquake targets an 80' spread, and has a long range (which we can't use, see below). It's SR: no with a variety of reflex saves for half damage. It also has a duration: one round.

Since it has a duration, you can cast a persistent earthquake, even extend it if you want, after you make it fixed-range (such as by channeling, or turning it into a ray). You have a couple of issues to deal with: first, evasion (the save DC does not scale either, which is bad, but doesn't help structures), and second, the 1-round duration mentioned in the spell text, if your DM doesn't automatically allow Persistent Spell to overrule that. Incidentally, the lack of scaling and being SR: no means you can get a sanctum earthquake from the Earth domain as a 6th-level spell, reducing the cost, without losing any power.

If you get the spell to work persistently, you can pulverise 80' radius spreads, dealing 100 points of damage to all structures each turn, trapping creatures in fissures (they're going to roll a few 1s in those 14400 rounds), causing massive avalanches and so on. And you can fire that weapon every round, too.


I'm not sure what the optimal method is, but you could make a single-use magic item that casts persistent earthquake on whatever it hits after being fired out of a railgun.

[Tvtyrant]

Magic item of twinned, enlarge widened Earthquake at CL 50. The range is sadly only a mile, but it turns two 160 radius areas into rubble, instantly destroying caverns and cliffs, but also collapsing buildings. It also makes individuals take a reflex save or fall into a crevice and instantly die. It even uses the term "killing" and gives no way around it. If anything fails the save they die, no further questions asked.

[The Glyphstone]

If the Erupt thing hadn't already been suggested, I'd have gone with an Earthquake Cannon, but I think I like Erupt better thematically, since my character has Fire in his quasi-portfolio already. At CL61, the highest I can reasonably get in-game right now with my current resources, it hits a 6,100ft. radius for 610 fire damage, and I can apply Twin, Widened, Searing, PF Reach x3, and Explosive to it to double the radius, double the damage and make it ignore resistance/partial immunity, and force Reflex or be catapulted insane distances for more damage. Now that's a city-killing bomb.

[Gabrosin]

Raining down a stream of at-will Spheres of Ultimate Destruction would probably work better than regular Disintegrate, for a longer-lasting effect with each use. But the medium range is still a significant limitation.

[Ellowryn]

If the Erupt thing hadn't already been suggested, I'd have gone with an Earthquake Cannon, but I think I like Erupt better thematically, since my character has Fire in his quasi-portfolio already. At CL61, the highest I can reasonably get in-game right now with my current resources, it hits a 6,100ft. radius for 610 fire damage, and I can apply Twin, Widened, Searing, PF Reach x3, and Explosive to it to double the radius, double the damage and make it ignore resistance/partial immunity, and force Reflex or be catapulted insane distances for more damage. Now that's a city-killing bomb.

Unfortunately i checked, explosive doesn't work unless the spell forced a reflex save (erupt forces a fortitude). Don't forget Energy Admixture (Fire) for double damage.

[druid91]

One potential though probably not as optimal as the above earthquake cannons...

Cast Genesis to create a self contained demiplane. A sphere for convenience, with the Flowing time trait. Sped up to your groups desired level of cheese. Objective gravity goes towards the ground. Allowing you to use the entire inner surface of the demiplane.

Construct a permanant one way portal to a designated section of the exterior hull within the demiplane, and a two way portal for maintenance.

Then line the interior with enchanted Heavy Bombards. Reloading is a must to cut down on loading time and increase rate of fire.

With a single casting of Genesis, that get's you up to 18 Heavy Bombards, since each takes up a 10x10 area.

Even with time messed with with to only be 2:1 to realtime that's 36 shots a round. Speed it up more for a true machinegun effect.

[The Glyphstone]

Unfortunately i checked, explosive doesn't work unless the spell forced a reflex save (erupt forces a fortitude). Don't forget Energy Admixture (Fire) for double damage.

Well phooie. Any extra metamagics I can slap on to add a supplementary Reflex save to it?

Hm....Dragon 358 has Slimy Spell, Reflex vs. nauseate to all targets. Or I could Admixture in some sonic damage and get Born of Three Thunders.

[PraxisVetli]

Well phooie. Any extra metamagics I can slap on to add a supplementary Reflex save to it?

Hm....Dragon 358 has Slimy Spell, Reflex vs. nauseate to all targets. Or I could Admixture in some sonic damage and get Born of Three Thunders.

Hmm.
Bo3T & admixture is better, but slimy only cost the one feat.
I'd personally go slimy. It's funny to think any (somehow) survivors are nauseated.

[icefractal]

That's both TO trying to sneak into an actual game, and not a Superlaser, just an infinitely destructive weapon.Hard to tell what's TO in epic levels. :smallwink:

The main problem with spell based solutions is that the range is so short. Not only are you not reaching the surface from orbit, you might not even be reaching the length of your own death star. So it looks kind of silly.

The Arcane Archer + Distant Shot idea has promise though. That gets you the range, and can deliver a more laser-like spell. It still would be more ideal to have a beam directly stretching the distance, but sadly there's no Distant Shot equivalent for spell range, that I know of.


Edit: Aha, there sort of is, although it would only be a beam at the start and end. Make a demi-plane; that's where you keep your super-laser (this also allows you to take advantage of planar traits). Then when you want to fire it, open a Gate to the target location and blast the hell out of it. To avoid counter-attacks, have an anti-magic field readied to shut down the Gate immediately after firing.

If you want to keep your laser physically on the death star, still easy, you can just route it through said demiplane instead of originating from there.

[The Glyphstone]

To be fair, my 'Death Star' is only 400 ft on a side, and moves at 1MPH. So any Long-range spell will at least reach the length of the fortress...it's a flying fortress more than a spaceship.

[Anthrowhale]

You might also want to take a look at Boreal Wind as a seed. It does 15d4 cold in a 20' line to long range, pushes away targets, affects objects as wind, and can be redirected. This isn't a superlaser, but it might be at least a decent secondary weapon.

Spells by Volume (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?370519-Spells-by-Volume) may also have something useful. (It does not list Erupt, because by RAW Erupt has area constrained by range.)