Anthrowhale
2017-06-17, 07:59 PM
Death cults are about power. They come online early and build to world-breaking power from there making death cult leaders excellent BBEGs.
By character level 7 you are already a force to be reckoned with.
Cleric 7 (Spell, Undeath)
Feats:
1. Extend spell
3. Persistent Spell
6. DMM[Persistent Spell]
Cast Death Knell (Cleric/Domain/Dread Necromancer 2) to convert your first death of the day into caster level+1 and then cast DMM[Persistent] Consumptive Field (Cleric 4) and convert 4 more deaths into caster level+4. On day 1, you reach caster level 12. Since castings of Consumptive Field overlap in their caster level bonus you only modestly benefit (through caster level itself) in the following days, leading to a sequence of caster level 12, caster level 14, and then caster level 15. And with a strength bonus of +14 you won't be losing any arm wrestling competitions with the heroes.
You're not done yet. You can also use:
Anyspell (Spell 3) to cast Improvisation (Bard 1) to gain a +7 bonus to any skill check, ability check, or attack roll
DMM[Persistent] Divine Retaliation (Cleric 3)
Venomfire(Cleric 3) on any poisonous pets.
DMM[Persistent] Cloud of Knives.
At character level 13 you begin a slow ascension into nigh-infinite caster level with all the consequences that entails.
The key to ascension is combining Consumptive Field and Greater Consumptive Field (Cleric 7). This is well known, but the interaction of these two spells is somewhat subtle because each is cumulative with the other but not with castings of itself. A Cleric 13 uses Death Knell to reach caster level 14, then alternates Consumptive Field and Greater Consumptive Field to increase caster level. Somewhat surprisingly, caster level does not increase exponentially. Instead, it limits out to increasing caster level by the base caster level * 4/3 per cycle of Consumptive Field + Greater Consumptive Field. Going through the cycles, we get:
CF+7, GCF+10, caster level 31
CF+15, GCF+19, caster level 48
CF+24, GCF+28, caster level 66
CF+33, GCF+37, caster level 84
CF+42, GCF+46, caster level 102
...
The number of cycles you can complete in one day are dependent on the number of available spell slots and your fuel source. By this level you have many new spells which can ruin a kingdom or a party of heroes.
Blasphemy (Cleric 7) kills anything nonevil in a 40' radius.
Control Winds (Cleric 5) provides metropolis++ levels of destruction. All the other control spells (Snow&Ice, Sand, Water) are also very impressive.
Ghost Trap (Cleric 6) allows you to shut off the wightpocalypse.
Mantle of the Icy Soul (Cleric 6) + Algid Enhancment (Cleric 6) provide attack+lots (enhancement), AC+lots(Deflect), and many temporary hit points.
Greater Anyspell can be used for Dragonsight (Wizard 5), Otiluke's Suppressing Field (Wizard 4), and/or Phantasmal Thief (Wizard 5). Suppressing Field can be made persistent with the Alternate Spell Source feat.
Limited Wish (Spell 7) for Owl's Insight (Druid 5) to get Wisdom+lots(Insight). There is now a 95% chance that each victim of spells you cast fails their saving throw.
Repulsion (Cleric 7) and/or Antilife Shell (Cleric 6) keeps the heroes from dogpiling you.
At character level 17 you have the power to ruin cities, kingdoms, and worlds.
The extra few levels give you access to the bigboy spells of which there are some doozies.
DMM[Persistent] Reach Limited Wish[Owl's Insight] means you have as many extra spell slots as desired.
Apocalypse from the Sky(Corrupt 9) means you can bring down world-scale destruction around caster level 360 after a few thousand deaths. With suitable protections for your fuel source this allows you to really cut down on the competition.
Fimbulwinter (Cleric 9) provides a kingdom scale winter for months that you control(!) The blackmail potential is obvious. A metamagic rod of Maximize Spell is great.
Erupt (Cleric 9) can be used to create very large craters that nothing survives for those times when your enemy is somewhere nearby but you aren't quite sure where. No one ruling a kingdom misses the implications of a 20 mile radius crater.
Befoul (Cleric 8) allows you to poison large scale water sources killing everything in them.
Despoil (Cleric 9) allows you to kill off plant life in a large area. Remember your ecology lessons for the implications on animals!
Spread of Savagery (Cleric 9) ends metropolis scale civilizations slowly. Cast several with overlapping areas to partition a kingdom such that no one dare travel.
Death cult leaders do have some practical limits although they are very high.
Killing things takes time and there is only so much time in a day. Assuming we want to limiting buffing to an hour, there are 600 rounds available. If a minion walks into the Consumptive Field with a wounded toad then walks out you can get 1 death per 5' edge in the consumptive field implying something like 30 deaths/round. Hence a caster level of 18000 is probably a reasonable stopping point. At this level persistent spell is no longer required because round/level spells last for 30 hours, you can deal with Atropus directly using Erupt, and Fimbulwinter easily covers the entire planet.
Obviously you can go further. With a suitable tower containing a large hole in the middle minions could rain wounded toads through your (Greater) Consumptive Field at a much higher rate.
As a death cult leader you have many potential enemies so it's good to have and keep a low profile, at least initially and later on you might want to slum.
You don't have to use intelligent creatures as your primary fuel---that's just for special holidays. Donkeys are only 8gp while animals like a Bat (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/bat.htm) or a Toad (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/toad.htm) are probably the best fuel source you can find. You want large scale production which provides a good task for cult minions. The fuel needs grow well with your ability to extract tribute from neighbors.
The other really obvious sign of a death cult leader is the aura of necromantic magic. After charging up Consumptive Field, you can prune it back to only affect you using Disjunction (Spell 9). All the strength, temporary hit points and caster level with no accidental deaths of minions. Adding on Otiluke's Suppressing Field[Divination] means no one can really tell which spells you have.
Now, try to avoid showing off your strength of 36000 accidentally.
Although you end up with incredible caster level the ascension process has some vulnerabilities.
Your ascension is delicate because at caster level 20 it takes 700 cycles (and 6 million deaths) of Consumptive Field + Greater Consumptive Field to reach caster level 18000, all of which is vulnerable to a single Disjunction or interrupted day. Redundancy can help quite a bit here. Have widely dispersed prepared fuel sources accessible via Greater Plane Shift. Memorize plenty of extra (Greater) Consumptive Field spells. Use Otiluke's Suppressing Field[Abjuration] (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?398518-Disjunction-vs-Otiluke-s-Suppressing-Field) to keep the Disjunctions away.
At the end of the ascension process, you have:
Skill checks: +9000 (Luck, Improvisation)
Darkvision: 34 miles (Dragonsight)
Blindsense: 17 miles (Dragonsight)
Spot: half normal range penalty (Dragonsight) +4500 (~17 miles, Owl's Insight) +9000 (~51 miles, Luck, Improvisation)
Ability Checks: +9000 (Luck, Improvisation)
Initiative Checks: +9000 (Luck, Improvisation)
Strength: +36000 (Consumptive Field + Greater Consumptive Field)
You destroy 30 10' cubes of stone with an improved unarmed strike.
A light load is something like 10^720.
Wisdom: +9000 (Insight, Owl's Insight)
Save DC: +4500 (Wisdom, Owl's Insight)
Spells/level: +1125 (Wisdom, Owl's Insight)
AC: +6000 (Deflect, Algid Enhancement)
Attack: +6000 (Enhancement, Algid Enhancement) +9000 (Luck, Improvisation)
HP: +42000d8 (Temporary, Consumptive Field + Greater Consumptive Field + Algid Enhancement)
Every desired Cleric spell with a duration of 1 round/level or more at caster level 18000.
Every desired arcane spell of level 5 or less with a duration of 1 minute/level or more at caster level 18000.
Using Heroics via Anyspell, you can get:
Improved Unarmed Strike + Stunning Fist to Stun 5x/day with a Fortitude DC of 4500 to negate.
Weapon Focus[Unarmed Strike] + Ring the Golden Bell gives unarmed strikes with a range of 20 or 40 miles (unclear whether you have 5 or 10 range increments).
Brutal Throw gives an extra +18000 to hit with thrown weapons
Zen Archery gives an extra +4500 to hit with ranged weapons (not compatible with Brutal Throw).
Martial Study[Mind over Body] gives +9000 to a Fortitude check 1/encounter.
Martial Study[Moment of Perfect Mind] gives +9000 to Will saves 1/encounter.
Martial Study[Action before Thought] gives +9000 to a Reflex save 1/encounter.
A glaring weakness here are the Reflex and Fortitude saves. An Illumian can get +4500 to Reflex saves and Veil of Undeath (Cleric 8) can zero out most Fortitude saves. Alternatively, a 2 level dip in Paladin of Tyranny + the Serenity feat could grant +4500 to all saves and +4500 Rebuke Undead/day.
Psionic Hole makes you invulnerable to psionics.
A Halfling could take Yondalla's Sense and further improve Initiative by +4500.
A Monk's belt adds another +4500 to AC.
Although clerics make the easiest death cult leaders there are a few alternatives.
A Dread Necromancer can acquire (Greater) Consumptive Field via Advanced Learning. A Dread Necromancer has only the normal number of spells and save DCs. The ascension is also more difficult as persistent arcane spells is more difficult. Overall, a weak choice.
A Wyrm Wizard can grant access to (Greater) Consumptive Field at the cost of 1 or 2 levels of spell access advancement. The spell access is better with a Sha'ir or Wizard than a Dread Necromancer, but the delayed access is a painful tradeoff.
A Drake Helm can grant access to (Greater) Consumptive Field at no cost in spell access advancement for spontaneous spellcasters. The cost however is high enough that it delays ascension access.
A generic Spellcaster can directly access Druid list spells, allowing Owl's insight earlier at the cost of delayed spell access (as a spontaneous caster). In the end, the limited spells known bites hard.
An Ur-Priest starts later (level 9) but reaches ascension sooner (level 12) and level 9 spells much sooner (level 14). Theurging to gain access to otherwise lost spells only works at unascended caster level unless you use Theurgic Specialist for a chosen school.
An Archivist trades better spell access granting things like Shapechange[Formian Queen] + Mindsight 50 mile radius. The cost is an unascended save DC.
By character level 7 you are already a force to be reckoned with.
Cleric 7 (Spell, Undeath)
Feats:
1. Extend spell
3. Persistent Spell
6. DMM[Persistent Spell]
Cast Death Knell (Cleric/Domain/Dread Necromancer 2) to convert your first death of the day into caster level+1 and then cast DMM[Persistent] Consumptive Field (Cleric 4) and convert 4 more deaths into caster level+4. On day 1, you reach caster level 12. Since castings of Consumptive Field overlap in their caster level bonus you only modestly benefit (through caster level itself) in the following days, leading to a sequence of caster level 12, caster level 14, and then caster level 15. And with a strength bonus of +14 you won't be losing any arm wrestling competitions with the heroes.
You're not done yet. You can also use:
Anyspell (Spell 3) to cast Improvisation (Bard 1) to gain a +7 bonus to any skill check, ability check, or attack roll
DMM[Persistent] Divine Retaliation (Cleric 3)
Venomfire(Cleric 3) on any poisonous pets.
DMM[Persistent] Cloud of Knives.
At character level 13 you begin a slow ascension into nigh-infinite caster level with all the consequences that entails.
The key to ascension is combining Consumptive Field and Greater Consumptive Field (Cleric 7). This is well known, but the interaction of these two spells is somewhat subtle because each is cumulative with the other but not with castings of itself. A Cleric 13 uses Death Knell to reach caster level 14, then alternates Consumptive Field and Greater Consumptive Field to increase caster level. Somewhat surprisingly, caster level does not increase exponentially. Instead, it limits out to increasing caster level by the base caster level * 4/3 per cycle of Consumptive Field + Greater Consumptive Field. Going through the cycles, we get:
CF+7, GCF+10, caster level 31
CF+15, GCF+19, caster level 48
CF+24, GCF+28, caster level 66
CF+33, GCF+37, caster level 84
CF+42, GCF+46, caster level 102
...
The number of cycles you can complete in one day are dependent on the number of available spell slots and your fuel source. By this level you have many new spells which can ruin a kingdom or a party of heroes.
Blasphemy (Cleric 7) kills anything nonevil in a 40' radius.
Control Winds (Cleric 5) provides metropolis++ levels of destruction. All the other control spells (Snow&Ice, Sand, Water) are also very impressive.
Ghost Trap (Cleric 6) allows you to shut off the wightpocalypse.
Mantle of the Icy Soul (Cleric 6) + Algid Enhancment (Cleric 6) provide attack+lots (enhancement), AC+lots(Deflect), and many temporary hit points.
Greater Anyspell can be used for Dragonsight (Wizard 5), Otiluke's Suppressing Field (Wizard 4), and/or Phantasmal Thief (Wizard 5). Suppressing Field can be made persistent with the Alternate Spell Source feat.
Limited Wish (Spell 7) for Owl's Insight (Druid 5) to get Wisdom+lots(Insight). There is now a 95% chance that each victim of spells you cast fails their saving throw.
Repulsion (Cleric 7) and/or Antilife Shell (Cleric 6) keeps the heroes from dogpiling you.
At character level 17 you have the power to ruin cities, kingdoms, and worlds.
The extra few levels give you access to the bigboy spells of which there are some doozies.
DMM[Persistent] Reach Limited Wish[Owl's Insight] means you have as many extra spell slots as desired.
Apocalypse from the Sky(Corrupt 9) means you can bring down world-scale destruction around caster level 360 after a few thousand deaths. With suitable protections for your fuel source this allows you to really cut down on the competition.
Fimbulwinter (Cleric 9) provides a kingdom scale winter for months that you control(!) The blackmail potential is obvious. A metamagic rod of Maximize Spell is great.
Erupt (Cleric 9) can be used to create very large craters that nothing survives for those times when your enemy is somewhere nearby but you aren't quite sure where. No one ruling a kingdom misses the implications of a 20 mile radius crater.
Befoul (Cleric 8) allows you to poison large scale water sources killing everything in them.
Despoil (Cleric 9) allows you to kill off plant life in a large area. Remember your ecology lessons for the implications on animals!
Spread of Savagery (Cleric 9) ends metropolis scale civilizations slowly. Cast several with overlapping areas to partition a kingdom such that no one dare travel.
Death cult leaders do have some practical limits although they are very high.
Killing things takes time and there is only so much time in a day. Assuming we want to limiting buffing to an hour, there are 600 rounds available. If a minion walks into the Consumptive Field with a wounded toad then walks out you can get 1 death per 5' edge in the consumptive field implying something like 30 deaths/round. Hence a caster level of 18000 is probably a reasonable stopping point. At this level persistent spell is no longer required because round/level spells last for 30 hours, you can deal with Atropus directly using Erupt, and Fimbulwinter easily covers the entire planet.
Obviously you can go further. With a suitable tower containing a large hole in the middle minions could rain wounded toads through your (Greater) Consumptive Field at a much higher rate.
As a death cult leader you have many potential enemies so it's good to have and keep a low profile, at least initially and later on you might want to slum.
You don't have to use intelligent creatures as your primary fuel---that's just for special holidays. Donkeys are only 8gp while animals like a Bat (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/bat.htm) or a Toad (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/toad.htm) are probably the best fuel source you can find. You want large scale production which provides a good task for cult minions. The fuel needs grow well with your ability to extract tribute from neighbors.
The other really obvious sign of a death cult leader is the aura of necromantic magic. After charging up Consumptive Field, you can prune it back to only affect you using Disjunction (Spell 9). All the strength, temporary hit points and caster level with no accidental deaths of minions. Adding on Otiluke's Suppressing Field[Divination] means no one can really tell which spells you have.
Now, try to avoid showing off your strength of 36000 accidentally.
Although you end up with incredible caster level the ascension process has some vulnerabilities.
Your ascension is delicate because at caster level 20 it takes 700 cycles (and 6 million deaths) of Consumptive Field + Greater Consumptive Field to reach caster level 18000, all of which is vulnerable to a single Disjunction or interrupted day. Redundancy can help quite a bit here. Have widely dispersed prepared fuel sources accessible via Greater Plane Shift. Memorize plenty of extra (Greater) Consumptive Field spells. Use Otiluke's Suppressing Field[Abjuration] (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?398518-Disjunction-vs-Otiluke-s-Suppressing-Field) to keep the Disjunctions away.
At the end of the ascension process, you have:
Skill checks: +9000 (Luck, Improvisation)
Darkvision: 34 miles (Dragonsight)
Blindsense: 17 miles (Dragonsight)
Spot: half normal range penalty (Dragonsight) +4500 (~17 miles, Owl's Insight) +9000 (~51 miles, Luck, Improvisation)
Ability Checks: +9000 (Luck, Improvisation)
Initiative Checks: +9000 (Luck, Improvisation)
Strength: +36000 (Consumptive Field + Greater Consumptive Field)
You destroy 30 10' cubes of stone with an improved unarmed strike.
A light load is something like 10^720.
Wisdom: +9000 (Insight, Owl's Insight)
Save DC: +4500 (Wisdom, Owl's Insight)
Spells/level: +1125 (Wisdom, Owl's Insight)
AC: +6000 (Deflect, Algid Enhancement)
Attack: +6000 (Enhancement, Algid Enhancement) +9000 (Luck, Improvisation)
HP: +42000d8 (Temporary, Consumptive Field + Greater Consumptive Field + Algid Enhancement)
Every desired Cleric spell with a duration of 1 round/level or more at caster level 18000.
Every desired arcane spell of level 5 or less with a duration of 1 minute/level or more at caster level 18000.
Using Heroics via Anyspell, you can get:
Improved Unarmed Strike + Stunning Fist to Stun 5x/day with a Fortitude DC of 4500 to negate.
Weapon Focus[Unarmed Strike] + Ring the Golden Bell gives unarmed strikes with a range of 20 or 40 miles (unclear whether you have 5 or 10 range increments).
Brutal Throw gives an extra +18000 to hit with thrown weapons
Zen Archery gives an extra +4500 to hit with ranged weapons (not compatible with Brutal Throw).
Martial Study[Mind over Body] gives +9000 to a Fortitude check 1/encounter.
Martial Study[Moment of Perfect Mind] gives +9000 to Will saves 1/encounter.
Martial Study[Action before Thought] gives +9000 to a Reflex save 1/encounter.
A glaring weakness here are the Reflex and Fortitude saves. An Illumian can get +4500 to Reflex saves and Veil of Undeath (Cleric 8) can zero out most Fortitude saves. Alternatively, a 2 level dip in Paladin of Tyranny + the Serenity feat could grant +4500 to all saves and +4500 Rebuke Undead/day.
Psionic Hole makes you invulnerable to psionics.
A Halfling could take Yondalla's Sense and further improve Initiative by +4500.
A Monk's belt adds another +4500 to AC.
Although clerics make the easiest death cult leaders there are a few alternatives.
A Dread Necromancer can acquire (Greater) Consumptive Field via Advanced Learning. A Dread Necromancer has only the normal number of spells and save DCs. The ascension is also more difficult as persistent arcane spells is more difficult. Overall, a weak choice.
A Wyrm Wizard can grant access to (Greater) Consumptive Field at the cost of 1 or 2 levels of spell access advancement. The spell access is better with a Sha'ir or Wizard than a Dread Necromancer, but the delayed access is a painful tradeoff.
A Drake Helm can grant access to (Greater) Consumptive Field at no cost in spell access advancement for spontaneous spellcasters. The cost however is high enough that it delays ascension access.
A generic Spellcaster can directly access Druid list spells, allowing Owl's insight earlier at the cost of delayed spell access (as a spontaneous caster). In the end, the limited spells known bites hard.
An Ur-Priest starts later (level 9) but reaches ascension sooner (level 12) and level 9 spells much sooner (level 14). Theurging to gain access to otherwise lost spells only works at unascended caster level unless you use Theurgic Specialist for a chosen school.
An Archivist trades better spell access granting things like Shapechange[Formian Queen] + Mindsight 50 mile radius. The cost is an unascended save DC.