Orbital holy beam satellite of obliteration

[noob]

Orbital holy beam satellite of obliteration:
This satellite orbiting the planet is said to be a star concentrated by the power of a god which sacrificed itself for creating it.
When there is too many undead creations in a short time at a place in the world the Orbital holy beam satellite of obliteration shoots pure concentrated holy power thus killing all forms of unlife and of life in a radius of 50 kilometers of the impact point either by being anathema to it or by overwhelming it with energy.
afterwards all matter in the area is blessed with holy energy and water turns in super holy water thus making the area unlivable for both undead and living people.
Ten years after the impact the area is still deadly but it now only deals 1d6 damage per turn to living creatures within it (2d6 for people within 10 kilometers of the middle) and undead takes 10 times the damage.
at that moment collecting materials from that zone is possible and everything made from materials of that zone deals 1d6 damage per round to undead it touch(or 1d4 damage per impact) except for water which is then super holy water which deals twice the damage of holy water but ten years later only water contains any trace of the power from the impact and all the super holy water is now regular holy water.

Yes it is the simplest way to have a "low magic" world where undead have all the power of a high magic world without having everything being undead nor having all the undead dying.

[rferries]

Now, now. Don't be snarky :D

[Drakevarg]

...really? Did you seriously start a new thread just to sass me?

I get you don't like my project, but making a separate thread to highlight your quip is just petty.

[noob]

...really? Did you seriously start a new thread just to sass me?

I get you don't like my project, but making a separate thread to highlight your quip is just petty.

You had no mechanic for stopping shade apocalypse(Because trust me once a village fell to shades and that there is 100 of them there is no way to stop them even with jade weapons or holy water unless you somehow have a giant supersonic army or something weird like that) or oniric vestige apocalypse(possibly even harder to counter since some of them might go through the plane of shadows and get at random places in unpredictable ways once an army walks and find the swarm).
Here there is a simple mechanic that counter those.
Right now I have no clear explanation how your setting survives undead once incorporeal spawn creating undead gets too high numbers and it is unlikely it never happened (especially since a dread necromancer vampire would have all the ease in the world for causing that and could want to do that for preemptively stopping all assassination attempts done by the living and replacing them by creatures that are harmless for them).

I like your project but I simply do not understand how there is still living creatures in your world while undead are just so much stronger(In high magic dnd 3.5 the explanation is that casters with appropriate amounts of divination and teleportation magic can manage those varied undead before they gets too huge groups(and if there is a really huge group of undead a huge group of casters with can try to teleport and army to fight it so the whole logistics problems of pursuing undead that rampage in random directions is way easier when there is casters) and heck even the typpyverse did agree that swarming undead were a problem and talks in detail about shadesteel golem based defenses(and traps)).

[Drakevarg]

You had no mechanic for stopping shade apocalypse(Because trust me once a village fell to shades and that there is 100 of them there is no way to stop them even with jade weapons or holy water unless you somehow have a giant supersonic army or something weird like that) or oniric vestige apocalypse(possibly even harder to counter since some of them might go through the plane of shadows and get at random places in unpredictable ways once an army walks and find the swarm).
Here there is a simple mechanic that counter those.
Right now I have no clear explanation how your setting survives undead once incorporeal spawn creating undead gets too high numbers and it is unlikely it never happened (especially since a dread necromancer vampire would have all the ease in the world for causing that and could want to do that for preemptively stopping all assassination attempts done by the living and replacing them by creatures that are harmless for them).

I like your project but I simply do not understand how there is still living creatures in your world while undead are just so much stronger(In high magic dnd 3.5 the explanation is that casters with appropriate amounts of divination and teleportation magic can manage those varied undead before they gets too huge groups(and if there is a really huge group of undead a huge group of casters with can try to teleport and army to fight it so the whole logistics problems of pursuing undead that rampage in random directions is way easier when there is casters) and heck even the typpyverse did agree that swarming undead were a problem and talks in detail about shadesteel golem based defenses(and traps)).

Could have easily left that question to the other thread.

The answer is really not that complicated. Unlike the apparent assumption of the standard setting, undead in my word are not ravenously and proactively trying to undo all life. Most of the spawn-producing undead you seem so concerned about are localized occurrences with no interest in rampaging across the countryside. Shadows will mostly just haunt whatever crypt or ruin they're emotionally bound to and are unlikely to lash out beyond their immediate surroundings, usually for specific and arbitrary-to-mortals reasons. (Example: the shadows that attacked the village I mentioned in the other thread were provoked by a bunch of memorial candles being extinguished. The shadows had died in a church fire and the candles were the last sign that anyone remembered them. When they went out, the shades flipped out and attacked the village.)

Zombies that wander around a swamp or an old graveyard are unlikely to do anything more than shuffle about in the general direction of anything that wanders too close, giving up as soon as they can't perceive their quarry any longer. Ghouls are probably the most proactively dangerous undead given they're intelligent and hunger for flesh, but they're also probably the easiest to put down in a way that'll keep them down.

Vampires could very easily be a threat to the populace, yes. Thing is, they're immortal and frankly don't need to. Any torches-and-pitchforks mobs are never heard from again and the rest of the populace eventually learns to quietly ignore the spooky castle on the hill. Most vampires aren't going to be genocidal "just because," any more than dragons would be. And frankly the dragon would be the bigger threat.

In short, undead are dangerous, yes. But so is plague, and neither are going to go out of their way to find new lives to ruin out of spite.

[rferries]

Only semi-related, but inspiration struck after re-reading your post, Noob. A slotless item useable by a PC:

Star of Destruction
This marvellous Colossal device is teleported to the heavens upon creation. Thereafter, its controller can call upon its power once per day to rain destruction upon her foes. Activating a star is a free action, but the device requires 1d4 rounds to charge and fire itself automatically.

A star of destruction may duplicate a particular spell once per day, which also determines the caster level and cost of the star (see below). The spell's range is calculated from the controller's space, but the spell's line of effect is determined from the star rather than the controller (this means that the star cannot target creatures and places underground).

Each star of destruction is crafted along with a small gem, the bearer of which controls the star.



Spell

Caster Level

Cost (gp)



fireball
5th
12,000


disintegrate (+5 bonus on ranged attack roll)
11th
52,800


sunburst
15th
96,000



Faint (fireball), Moderate (disintegrate), or Strong (sunburst) Evocation; CL varies; Craft Wondrous Item, overland flight, teleport, and one of fireball, disintegrate, or sunburst; Price varies.