Elkad
2018-04-14, 06:21 PM
Help me guard my city.
Powering them by handwavium magic is fine, just needs to make some sort of sense.
Major city (probably a capital). LN (tending good) leadership.
Basically benevolent, but they expect to screen (and tax) entrances and exits heavily. Creatures who don't fit their ideal can enter, but are taxed higher and/or may draw special attention.
I don't want invasion to be impossible, I just want to know about it.
I expect to have a fair amount of smuggling via bribing guards, secret tunnels, etc, but nothing will be consistent. Just stealthing past the guards should be viable.
Stuff I've come up with so far.
Everything is at CL25 for purposes of Dispelling it (as an item, so 1d4 rounds), getting past it with NonDetection, etc.
Note: I have gone with a restrictive interpretation of Mind Blank. It does not prevent all Divinations from finding you. It prevents scrying, and mental effects (detect thoughts, detect alignment, etc). Something like Detect Undead or See Invisibility works just fine on a Mind Blanked subject. Use Non-Detection instead.
Walls.
120' high, extend 120' underground, 60' or more thick. Tunnels inside for guards.
Modified Forbiddance effect. Blocks planar travel. Covers full wall area, plus extends vertically to a height of 600'. You can teleport THROUGH it, but not land anywhere IN it.
Does not damage creatures (it's unaligned).
Password updated daily, and may differ between areas.
You can walk through it with spell resistance, but you have to check every 5'. Any square you fail to enter is forbidden to you for 24 hours.
Passwall is CL check as well. Check each square it penetrates.
Need to boost the hardness of the walls.
I specifically don't want Wall of Force effects.
Need a way to block Earth Glide. I'd like it to be something like paint you could scrape through. Can I just use a layer of wood? Coat the entire wall in Shrieker fungus?
Gatehouses.
Has same Forbiddance effect as walls.
Invisibility Purge, Detect Charm, Detect Evil, Detect Chaos, Detect Undead. All always on, and the Detect spells cause the detected subject to glow and make a humming noise. Different sound/color for each Detect Spell.
Is there a Detect Outsider I'm missing? I'd like to tax them too.
I don't want to go all the way to True Seeing, though I'll probably give a bunch of officers an item that does it a limited amount of time a day (and only works inside the city. I'll expect people to have stolen/liberated a fair amount of them for other purposes (shopkeepers, etc))
Teleportation.
Entire city is (from 120' down to 600' up) covered by a Superior Anticipate Teleportation effect. Delayed 4d4 rounds. Flashing light and loud siren (Listen DC:-20) sound at arrival point for the full duration. The light penetrates magical Darkness as an 8th level spell. Magical Silence is penetrated in the same fashion. (Simply teleporting into a room deep inside a house would work fine). Note that this is actually useful at times. You can teleport into an occupied area and know your location will warn people to move away so you have a clear landing.
Scrying.
Mage's Private Sanctum over the whole city. Modified to be penetrated by a CL check (DC40).
Flight. I want you to be able to just fly over the walls. I want you to get caught when you do.
Key areas will also have towers with nets (Fine-sized mesh) completely covering them. Steel cables with Glasssteel probably. Extend the Forbiddance over the whole city (a ceiling at the 600' level, so it intersects with the walls).
Underground. Need to cover this as well. More Forbiddance? Tremorsense? Guards on some sort of Earth Glide mount?
Powering them by handwavium magic is fine, just needs to make some sort of sense.
Major city (probably a capital). LN (tending good) leadership.
Basically benevolent, but they expect to screen (and tax) entrances and exits heavily. Creatures who don't fit their ideal can enter, but are taxed higher and/or may draw special attention.
I don't want invasion to be impossible, I just want to know about it.
I expect to have a fair amount of smuggling via bribing guards, secret tunnels, etc, but nothing will be consistent. Just stealthing past the guards should be viable.
Stuff I've come up with so far.
Everything is at CL25 for purposes of Dispelling it (as an item, so 1d4 rounds), getting past it with NonDetection, etc.
Note: I have gone with a restrictive interpretation of Mind Blank. It does not prevent all Divinations from finding you. It prevents scrying, and mental effects (detect thoughts, detect alignment, etc). Something like Detect Undead or See Invisibility works just fine on a Mind Blanked subject. Use Non-Detection instead.
Walls.
120' high, extend 120' underground, 60' or more thick. Tunnels inside for guards.
Modified Forbiddance effect. Blocks planar travel. Covers full wall area, plus extends vertically to a height of 600'. You can teleport THROUGH it, but not land anywhere IN it.
Does not damage creatures (it's unaligned).
Password updated daily, and may differ between areas.
You can walk through it with spell resistance, but you have to check every 5'. Any square you fail to enter is forbidden to you for 24 hours.
Passwall is CL check as well. Check each square it penetrates.
Need to boost the hardness of the walls.
I specifically don't want Wall of Force effects.
Need a way to block Earth Glide. I'd like it to be something like paint you could scrape through. Can I just use a layer of wood? Coat the entire wall in Shrieker fungus?
Gatehouses.
Has same Forbiddance effect as walls.
Invisibility Purge, Detect Charm, Detect Evil, Detect Chaos, Detect Undead. All always on, and the Detect spells cause the detected subject to glow and make a humming noise. Different sound/color for each Detect Spell.
Is there a Detect Outsider I'm missing? I'd like to tax them too.
I don't want to go all the way to True Seeing, though I'll probably give a bunch of officers an item that does it a limited amount of time a day (and only works inside the city. I'll expect people to have stolen/liberated a fair amount of them for other purposes (shopkeepers, etc))
Teleportation.
Entire city is (from 120' down to 600' up) covered by a Superior Anticipate Teleportation effect. Delayed 4d4 rounds. Flashing light and loud siren (Listen DC:-20) sound at arrival point for the full duration. The light penetrates magical Darkness as an 8th level spell. Magical Silence is penetrated in the same fashion. (Simply teleporting into a room deep inside a house would work fine). Note that this is actually useful at times. You can teleport into an occupied area and know your location will warn people to move away so you have a clear landing.
Scrying.
Mage's Private Sanctum over the whole city. Modified to be penetrated by a CL check (DC40).
Flight. I want you to be able to just fly over the walls. I want you to get caught when you do.
Key areas will also have towers with nets (Fine-sized mesh) completely covering them. Steel cables with Glasssteel probably. Extend the Forbiddance over the whole city (a ceiling at the 600' level, so it intersects with the walls).
Underground. Need to cover this as well. More Forbiddance? Tremorsense? Guards on some sort of Earth Glide mount?