[3.5e] Recreating Nazarick: All Hail Ainz Ooal Gown

[BlackOnyx]

TL;DR - For those of you who have seen/read Overlord, how might The Great Tomb of Nazarick & its inhabitants translate into 3.5e?

(Also, caution. Possible Overlord anime/LN spoilers ahead.)



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As some of the anime enthusiasts here on the forums might already be aware, Overlord Season 2 began airing earlier this month. Once again, Madhouse has given us the opportunity to explore the New World alongside Ainz-sama and his merry band of floor guardians.


For those not in the know, Overlord (2015) was an anime based off the light novel of the same name. It details the exploits of salaryman Suzuki Satoru after he is transported to an unknown world after the servers to YGGDRASIL, a popular "full dive" fantasy MMO, are shut down.


Not knowing the reason for his appearance, Satoru finds himself trapped in the body of his character—a level 100 skeletal lich known as an Overlord. Joined by the npcs-turned-sentient of his guild's fortress, The Great Tomb of Nazarick, he has one goal: to survive and thrive in this strange new land.


Overlord has proven to be one of my favorite fantasy series in recent years and is one of the few anime for which I've actually gone out and read the light novels. It's a series that tells the story from the side of the "bad guys," and explores the rules that govern its world in exacting detail. Accompanied by endearing characters and and political intrigue, it's truly been a pleasure to watch (and read.)


To the point of this post, however.


As mentioned, one of the hallmarks of Overlord is the depth to which it explores its world's mechanics. Between the descriptions in the books and supplementary character sheets floating around, there is a wealth of information describing how magic works within the setting. Many of the rules—from "tier" system of magic to the names of individual spells themselves—closely resemble existing tabletop games and MMOs, including 3.5e.


That in mind, I wanted to ask those of you that might be interested: how would you port the world of Overlord (namely The Great Tomb of Nazarick and its inhabitants) into 3.5e? Character stats & races? Classes? Wealth? Are Ainz and the other floor guardians "merely" 20th level adventurers or have they already sailed off well into the realm of "epic?" How many millions of gold pieces would it take to create and manage the Great Tomb of Nazarick?


On these topics and any others you might come up with, I'd love to hear your thoughts.


Thanks much, and all hail the Supreme Leader, Ainz Ooal Gown.

[Mordaedil]

Seeing as the creator was a big fan of D&D and the various D&D games like Baldur's Gate and NWN, adopting them is actually fairly easy and the character sheets give a fairly decent idea, but some changes have to be made. The various people in society are all level 5 or less to match with their assesment that level 3 spells are rare and the peak of mankinds accomplishments, while Ainz and the rest are epic character with their access to super tier magic (read as epic spells and they make a ton more sense) and the way most of his buffs sound a lot like spells directly ripped from D&D.

It's actually a fairly straightforward effort if you assume Ainz then is either level 30 or 40 and the guardians are various monsters with class levels to make up the difference, like Shalltear is a vampire cleric or Cocytus which is an Ice Devil mixed with a deal of fighter levels. Or Entoma who is an insectoid template from Savage Species, Arachnomancer with a heavy focus on swarm and insect spells.

Also, yeah, Overlord borrows more from D&D than it does from MMOs, using simply jargons and level mechanics from MMO's. Ainz's way to prepare for PvP reminds me more about how everyone on this forum prepares for wizard battle than anything from any MMO.

[Calthropstu]

Mordaedil is correct. The spells are directly ported. Chain lightning is a 7th lvl spell in both. Lighning bolt is likewise a 3rd.
There are caveats. It looks like you can only protect yourself from one element. It also looks like it runs off a mana point based system instead of the vancian... in which case I advise converting spells to the psionic system.

[Malroth]

It's mentioned that they get access to their highest Tier spells besides their unique epic ones sometime in their late 40s this meshes well with the idea that 3 Yagdrassil levels is equivilent to 1 Dnd level which, if continued would put all the main cast somewhere around lv 35.

[umbergod]

It also looks like it runs off a mana point based system instead of the vancian... in which case I advise converting spells to the psionic system.

Why not the Spell Points variant from UA? Call it mana and be done with it :p

[Alcore]

I wouldn't port it to 3.5

I would port it to Mutants and Masterminds.


The world/setting is based off an MMO not a tabletop. A tenth level wizard can bench press (without magic) a first level warrior. The material seen/read supports this as Ainz performs physical feats a 40th level fighter would be hard pressed to replicate. 3.5 isn't ideal.... I tried :smallannoyed:

My take; level 30 or 40 (PL 15-20 capping most non primary powers at 10)

They never stopped adventuring when maxed so as much wealth as need plus a digit in spare change. MMO players often have huge pools of coinage building when they run out of sinks.



Why not the Spell Points variant from UA? Call it mana and be done with it :p i support this idea :smallsmile:

Edit: the spells and some setting fluff are some of the few things directly relatable to DnD.



This thread might help too;

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?532142-Overlord

[Zanos]

Overlord is pretty clearly partially based on D&D, with 10 levels of spells, a "Super" tier of spells, and many of the actual spells (Fly, Teleport, Haste, Lightning Bolt, Finger of Death, Gate, Animate Dead, Charm Person, Invisiblity, Wail of the Banshee, Delay Teleportation, Haste, Magic Arrow, Wish Upon a Star, etc etc)

That said Ainz is pretty clearly an epic level wizard. The overlord setting uses mana instead of slots, so maybe spell point wizard would be better.

Note that while most people are limited to 3rd tier or under magic there are explicitly two non-Nazarick characters in the setting that are above that, although both are very old.

[umbergod]

I was going to do this via an E6 setting with a lvl 30 PC+stronghold and minions. E6 would fit 3rd tier magic being what most can get, with the rare few gaining the "epic" feats that allow them to cast a 4th lvl spell 1/day

[Zanos]

Fluder could go up to 6th tier spells, and I think his apprentices could go up to 4th. It's not without precedent, but it's extremely difficult and the mortality rate for adventurers is pretty high. Evileye could also go up to 4ths.

[umbergod]

Fluder could go up to 6th tier spells, and I think his apprentices could go up to 4th. It's not without precedent, but it's extremely difficult and the mortality rate for adventurers is pretty high. Evileye could also go up to 4ths.

Welp, thats what i get for only reading through book 1 and 2 >.>

[Goaty14]

The world/setting is based off an MMO not a tabletop.

4e is the true D&D MMO from what I've heard.

[Mordaedil]

The world/setting is based off an MMO not a tabletop. A tenth level wizard can bench press (without magic) a first level warrior. The material seen/read supports this as Ainz performs physical feats a 40th level fighter would be hard pressed to replicate. 3.5 isn't ideal.... I tried :smallannoyed:

Except that in the setting if normal people are level 5-ish, that means Ainz as a level 35 wizard can fight as well as a level 20 fighter, but he fights using brute strength and doesn't know any techniques, hence why he's so impressive to people in that world. The dude hits people like a truck, but they can't figure out why he can't use techniques. Cause he's a wizard he doesn't have any fighting feats.

[umbergod]

Except that in the setting if normal people are level 5-ish, that means Ainz as a level 35 wizard can fight as well as a level 20 fighter, but he fights using brute strength and doesn't know any techniques, hence why he's so impressive to people in that world. The dude hits people like a truck, but they can't figure out why he can't use techniques. Cause he's a wizard he doesn't have any fighting feats.

Doesnt Ainz make use of the "Perfect Warrior" spell? Basically Tenser's Transformation but lasting as long as he needs?

[Mordaedil]

Doesnt Ainz make use of the "Perfect Warrior" spell? Basically Tenser's Transformation but lasting as long as he needs?

I think he uses Greater Create Item to make a pair staffs that look like greatswords. He tries to wield an actual sword at a point, but drops it because he lacks proficiency in martial weapons (which seems like it is taken straight from Baldur's Gate or NWN)

[umbergod]

I think he uses Greater Create Item to make a pair staffs that look like greatswords. He tries to wield an actual sword at a point, but drops it because he lacks proficiency in martial weapons (which seems like it is taken straight from Baldur's Gate or NWN)

Just rewatched the scene
He uses Create Greater Item to give himself full armor, then wields the sword he'd dropped before magicking the armor into existence

[Mordaedil]

In that case, I suppose it must be that he used that.

[Alcore]

In the novel he used a spell to trade levels of 'spellcasting' (definition for spell is vague) for levels of warrior. Most notably he used it on Sheltear briefly. No skills are make but attribute progression is affected (his attributes are scalled as warrior not 'spellcaster').



Except that in the setting if normal people are level 5-ish, that means Ainz as a level 35 wizard can fight as well as a level 20 fighter, but he fights using brute strength and doesn't know any techniques, hence why he's so impressive to people in that world. The dude hits people like a truck, but they can't figure out why he can't use techniques. Cause he's a wizard he doesn't have any fighting feats.exactly. Glad we agree.

Gaining multiple points of attributes each level (which is the norm rather than exception) doesn't provide any skill you wouldn't have without the proper class.



4e is the true D&D MMO from what I've heardfor DnD at least. You can definitely see the similarities

[Malroth]

imagine a 3.5 variant where instead of 1 stat point every 4 levels, every stat would increase by 1 every 4 levels. So take your 6 str wizard build and advance him to 30 with virtually unlimited time and money. +7 str from leveliing, +6 from enhancement item +6 from tome because you're loaded and you're, as a Wizard who hasn't invested anything, at 25 str.

[Falontani]

imagine a 3.5 variant where instead of 1 stat point every 4 levels, every stat would increase by 1 every 4 levels. So take your 6 str wizard build and advance him to 30 with virtually unlimited time and money. +7 str from leveliing, +6 from enhancement item +6 from tome because you're loaded and you're, as a Wizard who hasn't invested anything, at 25 str.

Whereas your strongest barbarian at level 5 with a 20 base +1 from leveling +2 from item and +4 while raging is only at a 27 temporarily still only has a 5 BAB vs the wizard who at level 30 has a 10 BAB and a 5 epic bonus (unless I'm forgetting how epic bab works)

[Zanos]

There are no characters comparable to a 20th level fighter in Overlord that aren't from Nazarick. Maybe like level 7 warblades.

[Breakman]

Well, I've had this sort of idea before, and I enjoy stealing NPC ideas for my games from the series. It's not terribly difficult to find classes that fit those of overlord. The ones I had the most difficulty with are Demiurge since his powers are somewhat vague as of yet, and Victim, since suicidal debuffers don't really exist (I think). Anyway, here's what I have.

Ainz: Epic level Necromancer Wizard
Albedo: Succubus, possibly a knight/blackguard or something along those lines.
Shalltear: Perhaps the easiest, since she's stated to be a vampire cleric and her powers as shown (the blood orb etc.) fit nearly perfectly with the lifedrinker PrC from book of vile darkness
Cocytus: As stated above, probably an Ice Devil fighter, possibly a warblade. His race is said to be "Vermin Lord" though, and as I recall, that's a specific high CR monster from MM III that might fit better, since it has four arms. Add some kind of ice-themed template maybe.
Aura: Dark elf Ranger, probably with beast heart adept to account for all the magical beast companions.
Mare: Dark elf druid, not much to say.
Pandora's actor: Fits the chameleon PrC very well, and is obviously a doppelganger. In my games, I made him a factotum/chameleon, for full versatility.
Sebas: Dragonblood monk. It's not really specified what kind of creature Sebas is, aside from the dragonoid bit, so he might be something like a Half-dragon instead.
Demiurge: I don't rightly know. Something with enchantment abilities, and some kind of devil, but the character sheet classes don't resemble anything I'm aware of. Fiend of corruption maybe?

The pleiades are also fairly straightforward: Dullahan Monk or other Pugilist, Werewolf Cleric, Doppelganger Sorcerer (lightning themed), Some type of intelligent Ooze Assassin (Assassin Jelly perhaps?), Warforged Sniper build, and an Insect themed druid or arachnomancer, possibly an Entomanothrope (fitting!) or else as said above an arachnoid template creature.

EDIT: I suddenly remembered that in the latest volume, Demiurge is shown to summon a legion of devils and cast what I assume to be meteor swarm. Not sure what you could do with that, but there.

[Mordaedil]

Demiurge is definately some sort of Pit Fiend or Balor.

Albedo though? Apparently her true form is that of a female Nalfeshnee.

You're welcome to the mental imagery.

[Incendax]

Ainz is a Sorcerer who cheats with a huge number of sells known. His charisma is massively greater than his rather mediocre intelligence, and constantly causes people to fall for his deceptions and be awe inspired by him. The books go on endlessly about how regal and striking he is, and he convinces people that he is correct with even flimsy arguments.

He’s basically a more powerful Xykon.

[Calthropstu]

Arise thread zombie! Arise and walk the forums once more! Do my bidding for I am the great Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown!

Wait Sorcerer King?

*shudders*