1 Necromancer vs 1 City

[Jowgen]

Scenario:

You are a single Necromancer, tasked with the decimation of a large city. Let's say Dragonport from Cityscape.

You must do so purely via the deployment of Animate Dead created Undead, of which you have exactly 100 HD worth (no Spawns).

All 1st party splatbooks, dragon/dungeon mags and wotc web material is available to you.

Your undead are all Awakened and created with the benefit of Desecrate, but no Corpsecrafter and such.

You may pre-position your undead inside the city ahead of time, as well as monitor their movement/condition and give them remote orders in real time.

Other than creating, placing and directing your undead, you may take no other actions.

The city is alert to a vague threat, but not undead attacking from the inside specifically.

Your goal is the death of as many people as possible.


What is your choice of Undeads and strategy for their deployment?

[Zanos]

A handful of zombie dragons strafing with flyby attack and metabreath feats seems like a good strategy. They will have very high AC, DR 5/slashing to help with arrows, and be probably killing a ton of people on every strafe. Maybe have a necrosis carnex in a safe area the zombies can go back to for heals. What kind of opposition are we talking about? I dunno what a handful of low level NPCs are going to be able to do against a 40+hd dragon zombie.

[Evoker]

Well, let's see here. Let's figure out what we need to overcome first. Dragonport houses a population of 13,000, primarily human. With a GP limit of 40,000, we have to assume that any magical or mundane item with a value of 40,000 GP could be used against us. As a large city, we are facing minimum 3 level 10 clerics, 6 level 5 clerics, 12 level 3 clerics, and 24 level 1 clerics. We could face up to a maximum of level 15 clerics. We also have a minimum of 3 level 10 characters of any other PC class, and minimum 3 level 11 warriors.
I'm not sure what to do with this information, so I leave that up to the rest of the playground as to what the implications of this information is. It's troubling though, as it's telling us we're facing quite a lot of relatively high-level PC classes. Any tactic will have to accommodate that threat.

[Vizzerdrix]

Can we spell stitch?

[Quertus]

Position one of your undead as the Mayor of the town / Governor (President Führer King) of the surrounding region. Have them give horrific orders that result in the deaths of the citizenry.

Zombie Dragons and/or Petal archers, that never get within range of counterattack and flee when threatened, aren't horrible either.

If it's a port town, hiding in the water far off the shores, and only attacking weak targets could rack up infinite kills over infinite time. Think like the undead!

Can we poison their water supply? Cut them off from their gods? Haul antimagic to them somehow? Dump buckets of lava or huge boulders on the city from orbit?

Hmmm… perhaps I'll position a team of Zombie Dragons (Zombie Paragon Half-Dragon Dragons) beneath the city at the lava level, and slowly dig up?

Would Zombie Dragons of 2-headed Lernaean Dragons retain the "immune to attacks" properties? Perhaps throw in half-golem for magic immunity.

[Maat Mons]

Am I reading this right? All the undead have to have been created by Animate Dead? Not, for example, Create Undead, Create Greater Undead, or any other spell?

Unless I'm mistaken, restricting this to Animate dead restricts it to Skeletons and Zombies.

I'm not sure how the "no spawn" bit is supposed to work. If your undead would normally be able to create spawn, they somehow lose that ability? Or do you just mean the spawn aren't under your control?

[Zanos]

Some quickmaffs on a Great Wyrm Gold Dragon Zombie:
41d12+164(430) hp
21 AC(this could be an issue, we want to push this to the point that archers need a 20 to hit him. Add Greater Mage Armor and a Tower shield for 31)
DR 5/Slashing
250 ft(clumsy) fly
Bite for +48(4d8+22+Power Attack)
70ft cone breath weapon for 12d10 fire damage, Ref 38 halves. How big is the circle a 70ft cone makes when fired downwards, anyway?
Frightful Presence, 360ft, DC 38 negates
Saves are 23/21/23
14 feats, consider:
Breath of Unlife(Add negative energy to damage, needed for other metabreaths)
Maximize Breath(120 flat damage)
Tempest Breath(Adds a tornado to breath weapon, flatten anything that doesn't burn down in the inferno)
Recover Breath(More breath attacks)
Split Breath(Two half strength breath weapons, good since the point is maximum death)
Flyby attack
Power Attack(Up to -41 to hit for +82 damage)
Maybe some martial trainings for Tome of Battle shenanigans.

I don't think two of these will have an issue turning any city without some serious NPCs into an apocalyptic firestorm. Best chance is probably for low level casters to fish for a natural 1 on the will save for command undead, but that's 25+5 ft/2level range, so we can pretty comfortably stay outside that. I also think there might be a dragon that has a breath weapon that inflicts level drain. You could use one of those instead to kick off a normal wightpocalypse.

[Silly Name]

70ft cone breath weapon for 12d10 fire damage, Ref 38 halves. How big is the circle a 70ft cone makes when fired downwards, anyway?
Frightful Presence, 360ft, DC 38 negates
Saves are 23/21/23
14 feats, consider:


Don't zombies lose special attacks and qualities? The zombie dragon would then not have its Breath weapon or Frightful Presence, right?

Tactically speaking, if I can sneak in undead where I want, I would first use them as assassins. Am I allowed to give them poisons? Because if yes then I can make them poison the water supplies of the town too (probably that first, then go for the assassination of city leaders, maybe steal powerful magic items so the defenders can't use them against me), and as long as they remain undetected there's a nice likelihood the township will turn paranoid and do a lot of the killing themselves.

Yes, the clerics can probably cure and even neutralise the poison, but if my undead can pollute the water faster than the clerics can counteract it, then I still get to spread death and paranoia for a while.

If going this route, I'd favour Small or Tiny creatures with high base Dex, since they make for good infiltrators. Halfings or perhaps some fairies.

We then probably want some big hitters to keep the city busy and raise the likelihood of high level PCs dying - and since we're limited to Skeletons and Zombies, we can focus on big beaters. It could be fun to use zombie Girallons and Giant skeletons to destroy the town walls, mostly because the idea of a zombie girallon amuses me.

If the town is seaside, I would also not mind the opportunity to raise a zombie kraken from the depths - it's just terribly stylish, don't you think?

[Zanos]

Don't zombies lose special attacks and qualities? The zombie dragon would then not have its Breath weapon or Frightful Presence, right?
Zombie/Skeleton dragon are in draconomicon, are created with animate dead, and retain certain dragon features that a normal zombie would lose.

[Silly Name]

Zombie/Skeleton dragon are in draconomicon, are created with animate dead, and retain certain dragon features that a normal zombie would lose.

Ah, makes sense. I was wondering if there was a dragon-specific exception. A couple of those bad boys could then probably wreck havoc on the city no doubt.

And they leave you with exactly 18 HD worth of undead - enough to animate two zombie monstrous crabs! :smallbiggrin:

[Jowgen]

I shan't comment on any specific ideas on the the strats or forces for now as to avoid stifling creativity.


Am I reading this right? All the undead have to have been created by Animate Dead? Not, for example, Create Undead, Create Greater Undead, or any other spell?

Unless I'm mistaken, restricting this to Animate dead restricts it to Skeletons and Zombies.

I'm not sure how the "no spawn" bit is supposed to work. If your undead would normally be able to create spawn, they somehow lose that ability? Or do you just mean the spawn aren't under your control?

Quite, Awakened Animate Dead Undead is specifically what thou art working with. The Awakened part does give you feats and Ex abilities to play with btw.

There are a handful of other things that one makes, like Necrosis Carnex, but for most intents and purposes Skeleton/Zombie is the bread and butter here.

The "no spawn" thing was purely included to preclude Wight apocalypse shenanigans in case someone thought to employ some means to get a Negative Level attack on one.


Can we spell stitch?

If you can figure out a means to make your Animate Dead created undead have enough Wis to get some sufficiently suitable SLAs, be my guest.


Well, let's see here. Let's figure out what we need to overcome first. Dragonport houses a population of 13,000, primarily human. With a GP limit of 40,000, we have to assume that any magical or mundane item with a value of 40,000 GP could be used against us. As a large city, we are facing minimum 3 level 10 clerics, 6 level 5 clerics, 12 level 3 clerics, and 24 level 1 clerics. We could face up to a maximum of level 15 clerics. We also have a minimum of 3 level 10 characters of any other PC class, and minimum 3 level 11 warriors.
I'm not sure what to do with this information, so I leave that up to the rest of the playground as to what the implications of this information is. It's troubling though, as it's telling us we're facing quite a lot of relatively high-level PC classes. Any tactic will have to accommodate that threat.

I like this line of thinking. Gold star.

[Albions_Angel]

Uh...

You said the undead are awakened, right?

Can... can I animate a 1HD human skeleweg? And, like, order him to be a Wizard. I can give him int boosting items. And he could take 49 levels. And then just... end the city? Or the world? Or the universe? At my command?

I mean he doesnt need 49 levels. He needs enough for a locate city bomb. Or, you know, wish. Im gunna assume that if we stick to the spirit of the challenge, he cant use HIS animate undead. But thats hardly necessary.

[Esprit15]

Rather than go for the biggest dragon when that would be overkill, why not go for several lower HD ones to spread the damage out, and allow them to gang up on all those annoying clerics and warriors? Five young adult gold dragon zombies seems more useful than two great wyrm zombies. You come out ahead on total damage from the breath weapon, and certainly can do more damage in melee. If you get them all together.

[Zanos]

I mean he doesnt need 49 levels. He needs enough for a locate city bomb. Or, you know, wish. Im gunna assume that if we stick to the spirit of the challenge, he cant use HIS animate undead. But thats hardly necessary.
I don't think awakened undead can advance.


Rather than go for the biggest dragon when that would be overkill, why not go for several lower HD ones to spread the damage out, and allow them to gang up on all those annoying clerics and warriors? Five young adult gold dragon zombies seems more useful than two great wyrm zombies. You come out ahead on total damage from the breath weapon, and certainly can do more damage in melee. If you get them all together.
Yeah, there's probably a tradeoff somewhere here. A couple things I considered was that bigger dragons have a bigger cone breath weapon, which results in a quadratically larger AoE. They also have a faster fly speed, so they can get in and out faster and cover more distance in a flyby attack. They have more hitpoints, which means they are less vulnerable to being focus fired down between retreats to heal up. It's got higher AC, so again, less vulnerable to focus fire. They have higher saves, which means that any magic that is cast on them has a lower chance of sticking. That said, it is more adversely affected by a bunch of people throwing stuff at it and hoping it rolls a nat 1 on a save. It's possible that some combination of weaker dragons would be more effective.


Another thing I forgot for this strategy is the strafing breath feat from dragonlance:


An old red dragon has a fly speed of 200 feet, and its breath weapon is a 120-foot cone. If it is flying at an altitude of 80 feet, its breath weapon affects a circle on the ground with a radius of 80 feet. Using Strafing Breath, it can cover an oblong area 80 feet wide and 180 feet long, with both ends shaping like half circles.

Actually, can awakened zombie dragons take epic feats? :smalltongue:

[Evoker]

Rather than go for the biggest dragon when that would be overkill, why not go for several lower HD ones to spread the damage out, and allow them to gang up on all those annoying clerics and warriors? Five young adult gold dragon zombies seems more useful than two great wyrm zombies. You come out ahead on total damage from the breath weapon, and certainly can do more damage in melee. If you get them all together.

The problem with that is that it isn't too hard for the Clerics to pull off 20 HD worth of turning between level 10, +4 for a phylactery of undead turning, +1 for an Ephod of Authority, -4 to the dragon's effective HD from a Rod of Defiance, so the cleric only needs a 13 or higher on the turning check to turn 20 HD worth of zombie. And that's the minimum level cleric. A level 15 cleric only needs the Phylactery and Ephod.
And it's easy for a cleric to get near a zombie between Hide From Undead and a Fly spell cast by one of the 9+ wizards of high enough level to cast it.

[Albions_Angel]

I don't think awakened undead can advance.

As far as I can tell, spell compendium doesnt say that they cant. It says:


They gain 1d6+4 Int capped at the average for their previous race
they regain armor and weapon profs from their previous life (so some shopping around for a mage corpse may be required)
They regain ex abilities
They gain +2 on will saves vs control, and +2 turn res
the spell requires a human bone and 250XP



Nothing there says they cant gain levels, and with above animal int, I think by default they now can.

[Zanos]

As far as I can tell, spell compendium doesnt say that they cant. It says:


They gain 1d6+4 Int capped at the average for their previous race
they regain armor and weapon profs from their previous life (so some shopping around for a mage corpse may be required)
They regain ex abilities
They gain +2 on will saves vs control, and +2 turn res
the spell requires a human bone and 250XP



Nothing there says they cant gain levels, and with above animal int, I think by default they now can.
The skeleton template says:


Advancement

As base creature (or — if the base creature advances by character class).
So not unless awaken explicitly grants the ability to advance back.

It is interesting that you can advance skeletons by RHD. Didn't know that.

[PrismCat21]

Pre-position the Undead both inside the city, and underneath. Have them tirelessly work on destroying the foundation of the entire city, leaving it just stable enough to last until the entire city is ready to collapse.
Then collapse the city. Instant death to a large percentage of the low HD population, damage to higher HD, all organization within the city is disrupted with no clear pathway to anywhere, resources of nearly everyone in the city will be used to save themselves or others, aboutsolute chaos everywhere.
Any Undead that wasn't sacrificed in the collapse is now free to go on a killing spree in a city that will be unable to mount any sort of organized defense. Even if all the Undead were sacrificed in the collapse, you just destroyed a city and killed a good portion of the population instantly.

[Evoker]

Pre-position the Undead both inside the city, and underneath. Have them tirelessly work on destroying the foundation of the entire city, leaving it just stable enough to last until the entire city is ready to collapse.
Then collapse the city. Instant death to a large percentage of the low HD population, damage to higher HD, all organization within the city is disrupted with no clear pathway to anywhere, resources of nearly everyone in the city will be used to save themselves or others, aboutsolute chaos everywhere.
Any Undead that wasn't sacrificed in the collapse is now free to go on a killing spree in a city that will be unable to mount any sort of organized defense. Even if all the Undead were sacrificed in the collapse, you just destroyed a city and killed a good portion of the population instantly.

You'd have to do a lot of digging. According to the scale of the map in Cityscape, Dragonport appears to be about 2-3 square miles in area. Assuming you animate nothing but 1 HD skeletons, they could still move only about 1 five-foot cube per 8 hours per worker, while digging through dirt, according to Races of the Dragon's rules for mining. That's 300 five foot cubes per day. 1 square mile is 5280*5280 feet = 27.9 million square feet, or just about a million 5 foot by five foot squares. Assuming you want to dig out to a depth of 10 feet (in order to cause 1d6 falling damage), that's 2 million cubes. 2 million / 300 = six thousand, six-hundred and sixty seven days. I'm sure you see the problem with this plan.

[AvatarVecna]

You'd have to do a lot of digging. According to the scale of the map in Cityscape, Dragonport appears to be about 2-3 square miles in area. Assuming you animate nothing but 1 HD skeletons, they could still move only about 1 five-foot cube per 8 hours per worker, while digging through dirt, according to Races of the Dragon's rules for mining. That's 300 five foot cubes per day. 1 square mile is 5280*5280 feet = 27.9 million square feet, or just about a million 5 foot by five foot squares. Assuming you want to dig out to a depth of 10 feet (in order to cause 1d6 falling damage), that's 2 million cubes. 2 million / 300 = six thousand, six-hundred and sixty seven days. I'm sure you see the problem with this plan.

Digging out the whole thing would cause a premature collapse. Granted, even digging a network of tunnels to the point that the remaining stone can only hold up the city if not damaged further would require a great deal of archaeological precision in your mining, and would still take forever without cheating.

[Quertus]

What sort of Divinations can the NPCs manage at level 9? Will dipping the corpses in lead change anything?

What is the range on turning? Can strafing Dragons move fast enough to avoid flying clergy?


You'd have to do a lot of digging. According to the scale of the map in Cityscape, Dragonport appears to be about 2-3 square miles in area. Assuming you animate nothing but 1 HD skeletons, they could still move only about 1 five-foot cube per 8 hours per worker, while digging through dirt, according to Races of the Dragon's rules for mining. That's 300 five foot cubes per day. 1 square mile is 5280*5280 feet = 27.9 million square feet, or just about a million 5 foot by five foot squares. Assuming you want to dig out to a depth of 10 feet (in order to cause 1d6 falling damage), that's 2 million cubes. 2 million / 300 = six thousand, six-hundred and sixty seven days. I'm sure you see the problem with this plan.

Yes. The problem is, you didn't start from miles down, at the lava layer.

You're undead - who cares how long it takes?

(EDIT: For those who do care, the… Pyroclastic Dragon iirc should *greatly* increase your pace. So, sign my mining effort up for a Zombie (lead-dipped Paragon Half-Dragon) 4-headed Pyroclastic Dragon or two)

[Evoker]

Digging out the whole thing would cause a premature collapse. Granted, even digging a network of tunnels to the point that the remaining stone can only hold up the city if not damaged further would require a great deal of archaeological precision in your mining, and would still take forever without cheating.

Oh yeah, I was assuming that cross-bracing sufficient to prevent a pre-mature collapse was included in the time presented for mining duration, as you wouldn't want a "normal" mine to collapse either. Probably should have specified that.

EDIT:

Yes. The problem is, you didn't start from miles down, at the lava layer.

You're undead - who cares how long it takes?
Brilliant! Even better: What if we just wait for the Tarrasque to awaken and randomly wander over to the city? That would probably be even faster and more effective!

EDIT 2 ELECTRIC BOOGALOO:

What sort of Divinations can the NPCs manage at level 9? Will dipping the corpses in lead change anything?

What is the range on turning? Can strafing Dragons move fast enough to avoid flying clergy?

(EDIT: For those who do care, the… Pyroclastic Dragon iirc should *greatly* increase your pace. So, sign my mining effort up for a Zombie 4-headed Pyroclastic Dragon or two)
In order:
The sorcerers/wizards are guarunteed to have the spell levels for Contact Other Plane and Scrying/Locate Person, at a minimum. They could go up to Discern Location.
The Clerics have at minimum Commune and Scrying, and up to Discern location.

Turning has a range of 60 feet, but it's hard to "avoid" a cleric who's cast "Hide from Undead".

And finally, the Pyroclastic Dragon's breath weapon might not work for tunneling, as, while it is a "disintegrating line" it only specifies that "Creatures within the area of the line must succeed on a Fortitude save or crumble to ash" and does not specify any effect upon objects, and even if it did work, you'd still have to tunnel through a similar volume of ash, and while that provides a pretty significant boost to the mining check, it's still not *that* fast.

[Quertus]

Can Animate Dead create Zombie Dragons that break the usual 20 HD cap for Animate Dead?

What real city is Dragon Port most like? How long did / has that city last(ed)? That might give us a maximum timeframe on collecting our kill count.

EDIT: the OP said "decimation". We may need to include some way to count the citizenry, to ensure we only kill 10% of them.


Brilliant! Even better: What if we just wait for the Tarrasque to awaken and randomly wander over to the city? That would probably be even faster and more effective!

Lol. My EDIT (darn ninja evokers) includes a solution: Pyroclastic Dragons.

Yes, I admit, if the city isn't still there by the time you collapse the shaft, you will score 0 fatalities - and that's what you're supposed to care about for this exercise

(EDIT: any way we can get Teleport Through Time, to get started long, *long* before the city is founded?)

EDIT:
EDIT 2 ELECTRIC BOOGALOO:

In order:
The sorcerers/wizards are guarunteed to have the spell levels for Contact Other Plane and Scrying/Locate Person, at a minimum. They could go up to Discern Location.
The Clerics have at minimum Commune and Scrying, and up to Discern location.

Turning has a range of 60 feet, but it's hard to "avoid" a cleric who's cast "Hide from Undead".

And finally, the Pyroclastic Dragon's breath weapon might not work for tunneling, as, while it is a "disintegrating line" it only specifies that "Creatures within the area of the line must succeed on a Fortitude save or crumble to ash" and does not specify any effect upon objects, and even if it did work, you'd still have to tunnel through a similar volume of ash, and while that provides a pretty significant boost to the mining check, it's still not *that* fast.

Dang it, Evoker, why you gotta ruin my dreams? :smallwink:

That's not the first time I've remembered the Pyroclastic Dragons wrong. :smallfrown: :smallredface: So, I need a new critter. Anyone got any suggestions?

The "Hide from Undead" Cleric I'm OK with - you aren't "avoiding" him, you're racing your jet along random paths, and the invisible hot air balloon has to get lucky to find you. Yes, they'll get you eventually (if their spell doesn't wear out first) but you'll wrack up quite the pleasant kill total before they do. Heck, you *might* "accidently" fry them in the process.

AFB - what problems do those Divinations cause?

[Zanos]

Can Animate Dead create Zombie Dragons that break the usual 20 HD cap for Animate Dead?
Yes. The HD cap comes from the zombie/skeleton templates themselves. It also specifically references animate dead, so while it's irrelevant to this discussion you can use alternative methods of creating skeleton and zombies like plague of undead or a mohrg to create >20hd zombies and skeletons.

[ExLibrisMortis]

If not for the "no spawn" restriction, a zombie great wyrm shadow dragon would be your best bet. 37 HD, breath weapon inflicts 8 negative levels, save DC 36. Without spawn, they aren't as good, but 8 negative levels is still a lot. Unfortunately, it doesn't do anything to structures, which makes them a bit weaker when attacking cities.

Undead can stack a lot of positive energy resistance with Positive Energy Resistance + Inured to Energy. Good for your high-HD juggernauts.

If you are willing to homebrew or interpret a little, you could use incarnum to defend your zombie dragon. Zombie dragons don't qualify for a lot of incarnum feats because of the Constitution requirements. Undead Meldshaper, as we know, is pretty useless, because it doesn't change this. However, if you rule that awaken undead returns feats possessed by the creature pre-zombification, or that Undead Meldshaper allows you to use Wisdom in place of Constitution for feat qualification, you can use Shape Soulmeld (Brood Keeper's Heart) and Open Heart Chakra to become immune to any spell that targets a specific number of creatures. That includes disintegrate, for example.

[Maat Mons]

If we can get feats onto the undead dragons, aren't there shenanigans with metabreath feats?

[Quertus]

Yes. The HD cap comes from the zombie/skeleton templates themselves. It also specifically references animate dead,

Cool, thanks.


you can use alternative methods of creating skeleton and zombies like plague of undead or a mohrg to create >20hd zombies and skeletons.

Except we can't?



Scenario:

You are a single Necromancer, tasked with the decimation of a large city. Let's say Dragonport from Cityscape.

You must do so purely via the deployment of Animate Dead created Undead, of which you have exactly 100 HD worth (no Spawns).

All 1st party splatbooks, dragon/dungeon mags and wotc web material is available to you.

Your undead are all Awakened and created with the benefit of Desecrate, but no Corpsecrafter and such.


Or did I miss a clarification that was not then retroactively added to the OP?

EDIT:
If we can get feats onto the undead dragons, aren't there shenanigans with metabreath feats?

Hmmm…



Some quickmaffs on a Great Wyrm Gold Dragon Zombie:
14 feats, consider:
Breath of Unlife(Add negative energy to damage, needed for other metabreaths)
Maximize Breath(120 flat damage)
Tempest Breath(Adds a tornado to breath weapon, flatten anything that doesn't burn down in the inferno)
Recover Breath(More breath attacks)
Split Breath(Two half strength breath weapons, good since the point is maximum death)
Flyby attack
Power Attack(Up to -41 to hit for +82 damage)
Maybe some martial trainings for Tome of Battle shenanigans.

No, none here :smallbiggrin:

[AvatarVecna]

If we can get feats onto the undead dragons, aren't there shenanigans with metabreath feats?

Yeah I'm pretty sure the Ending The World Handbook has an option where a lvl 1 adventurer causes the apocalypse with two feats in exchange for a 5 year cooldown.

[Zanos]

Or did I miss a clarification that was not then retroactively added to the OP?
I think your brain flickered while reading my post:

It also specifically references animate dead, so while it's irrelevant to this discussion you can use alternative methods of creating skeleton and zombies like plague of undead or a mohrg to create >20hd zombies and skeletons.

[AvatarVecna]

Yeah I'm pretty sure the Ending The World Handbook has an option where a lvl 1 adventurer causes the apocalypse with two feats in exchange for a 5 year cooldown.

"Happy" to report that metabreath feats look like they're off the table in general, barring a ruling from OP: Awaken Undead lets you take feats again, but you still have Con -, and most metabreath feats I'm looking at have a Con prereq.

[AvatarVecna]

This is a weird kinda challenge where the simplest explanation for how we arrived at this set-up is that the necromancer in question is a quite powerful wizard who's made a foolish "I could take over that city with basic undead as long as they were smart enough" and now has to put his money where his mouth is. The alternative is assuming a novice necromancer who doesn't have access to better undead options either dropped 20k XP awakening a small army, or managed to actually rob a draconic graveyard which...good luck.


Large City: Conventional/Monstrous; AL N; 40,000 gp limit; Assets 26,216,000 gp; Population 13,108; Mixed (82% human, 6% halfling, 4% gnome, 2% dwarf, 1% elf, 1% half-elf, 1% half-orc, 3% other).

*checks DMG for rules on this*




Total
12052
552
168
108
60
24
30
24
30

6

15

12

15



3



3


Total
Class/Level
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25


102
Adept
57
24

12



6






3












102
Aristocrat
57
24

12


6





3














189
Barbarian
96
48
24

12



6







3










93
Bard
48
24

12



6






3












93
Cleric
48
24

12



6






3












10405
Commoner
10312
48

24


12





6











3


93
Druid
48
24

12



6






3












433
Expert
340
48
24


12




6









3






189
Fighter
96
48
24

12



6







3










189
Monk
96
48
24

12



6







3










93
Paladin
48
24
12


6





3















93
Ranger
48
24
12


6





3















189
Rogue
96
48
24

12



6







3










93
Sorcerer
48
24

12


6





3














659
Warrior
566
48
24

12



6







3










93
Wizard
48
24

12


6





3
















Dragonport is officially ruled by a council of governors, who covertly cooperate with a tribe of sahuagin dwelling in the outer depths of the bay. The council pays tribute to the tribe out of the city’s profits and consults with the sahuagin before expanding the city or changing policies. In exchange, the sahuagin do not raid Dragonport; they also prevent ships from departing without paying docking fees, protect the community from pirate attack, and discourage the development of nearby rival ports.

*makes notes*


Dragonport is built for functionality. Most of its buildings are squat and square, though some have sloped roofs to protect against sea storms. The majority of the city’s structures are wooden; stone is simply too difficult and too expensive to come by in any great quantity. Only near the central docks, and along the main thoroughfares, is any effort made to beautify the architecture, and even here such efforts involve cleaning and whitewashing more than fancy construction.

*makes notes*


Like most port cities, Dragonport has a fairly high crime rate. The city watch keeps the peace along the main thoroughfares and the central docks, scattering criminal gangs that grow too large, preventing crime from spilling over into the important neighborhoods, and ensuring the comfort and security of ship captains or caravan leaders. In the back alleys, though, travelers risk their lives—or at least their coin purses. Many citizens of Dragonport are actually proud of the city’s reputation for crime, embracing it as proof of their own toughness.

*makes notes*


1. Civic district
2. Fine shops
3. Wealthy residential district
4. Average residential district
5. Dwarf neighborhood
6. Garrison
7. Gnome neighborhood
8. Guildhall district
9. Marketplace
10. Temple district
11. Caravan district
12. Fisher’s wharf/Waterfront
13. Inn/Tavern district
14. Red-Light district
15. Shantytown
16. Slave quarter
17. Slum/Tenement district
18. Tannery district
19. Warehouse district

Scores are 1-5, with 1 being best for me and 5 being worst. I've pulled a select quote that stood out to me from each one.


Workers keep the streets relatively clean, so the district has a better odor than most.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 4
Currently Occupied: 3
Guards: 4
Crowded Buildings: 4
Adventurers: 1

Conclusion: Likely patrolled even at night, even by just janitorial types, is likely made of stone, and likely doesn't have too many buildings close together for the fire to spread.


The air has a light scent of perfume, and armed guards patrol the streets.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 3
Currently Occupied: 4
Guards: 5
Crowded Buildings: 3
Adventurers: 3

Conclusion: Even at night, high likelihood of a guard giving us trouble, or even late-night adventurers robbing/perusing at the richer shops.


Sights and sounds resemble those of the noble estates, but the servants here are less likely to sport their masters’ insignia, and patrols of private guards are encountered as often as the city watch is.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 3
Currently Occupied: 2
Guards: 5
Crowded Buildings: 4
Adventurers: 3

Conclusion: Big lawns and heavy guards on the lookout for those that don't belong means this is a hard pass probably.


The people here are far from poverty-stricken, but broken fences, cracked cobblestones, and the occasional drifter appear here and there.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 1
Currently Occupied: 2
Guards: 3
Crowded Buildings: 2
Adventurers: 2

Conclusion: This is much better - fewer guards, more wooden walls, bunched up buildings, and no pesky PCs poking around lower suburbia.


In keeping with dwarves’ architectural tastes, structures are usually squat and built of heavy stone.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 5
Currently Occupied: 2
Guards: 4
Crowded Buildings: 2
Adventurers: 4

Conclusion: Dwarves are tough and dangerous, and the masonry won't assist you in spreading fires.


Most of the buildings here are traditional in style, matching those found elsewhere in the city, but the garrison itself resembles a fortress. Built of stone, it has narrow windows and flat roofs with crenellations to cover defending archers. Patrols move in and out of the garrison on a regular basis, usually during shift changes.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 4
Currently Occupied: 2
Guards: 5
Crowded Buildings: 3
Adventurers: 5

Conclusion: Possibly the worst place to start a fire if you wanna go unnoticed as long as possible. Only set it ablaze once you want to draw attention.


Although the shops are sized for all comers, the residences and many of the restaurants are designed for gnomes only.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 3
Currently Occupied: 2
Guards: 3
Crowded Buildings: 2
Adventurers: 3

Conclusion: A little closer together because gnome-sized buildings, and it's nighttime so people are home, but overall nothing particularly juicy here.


These guildhalls contain both individual offices and large meeting chambers capable of holding hundreds of people at once. Some were built specifically for this purpose, while others are converted warehouses or taverns.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 3
Currently Occupied: 1
Guards: 4
Crowded Buildings: 2
Adventurers: 5

Conclusion: Lots of people probably, but here, that also ends up meaning lots of guards and higher-level NPCs for sure.


The busiest district in any city, the marketplace is filled with people from all walks of life, buying, selling, haggling, arguing, browsing, and otherwise passing the day in commerce.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 1
Currently Occupied: 5
Guards: 3
Crowded Buildings: 1
Adventurers: 3

Conclusion: Lots of wooden buildings close together will make this blaze quickly, but the only people there this time of night will be tough individuals whose attention you don't want yet.


Many of the towering temples are built of stone, adorned with monolithic pillars and graven images.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 5
Currently Occupied: 3
Guards: 4
Crowded Buildings: 2
Adventurers: 5

Conclusion: Too tough to burn, too highly patrolled, and too likely to wake up the high priest - and we wanna delay that as long as possible.


People from many different regions congregate here, and frequent brawls erupt from the mix of disparate customs and tempers frayed thin by long travel.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 1
Currently Occupied: 1
Guards: 2
Crowded Buildings: 2
Adventurers: 5

Conclusion: Lots of wagons and caravans here, tons of people all together (even if not in buildings, exactly), and far enough from the rest of the city that guards will mostly let them police themselves. Downside: there's pretty solid chances that some long-term member of the caravan has had to fight off quite a few bandits in his day...or worse, that a party of adventurers has joined up as temporary security in exchange for swift passage to Dragonport.


The buildings here are in relatively poor repair, and many of the shops are simple stalls or wagons.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 1
Currently Occupied: 5
Guards: 2
Crowded Buildings: 3
Adventurers: 1

Conclusion: Easy to burn, unlikely to draw attention...and probably scores no kills. Hmm...


Guards and nobles are more common here, petty criminals less so, and the taverns are slightly cleaner.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 1
Currently Occupied: 2
Guards: 4
Crowded Buildings: 4
Adventurers: 4

Conclusion: Wooden ships burn easy, but you're likely to run into guards and sailors here, and the ships aren't exactly rubbing elbows...


Usually located near city gates or main entrances, the inn district features row upon row of establishments dedicated to the needs of travelers. A few city governments have the foresight to keep these areas clean and relatively free of crime, in order to create a good impression on visitors. Most, however, leave the inns and their patrons to fend for themselves (truly important visitors stay in the upper-class districts). Travelers bring a wide variety of accents and languages to the streets but also make good prey for criminals, since they probably don’t or can’t stay long enough to file a complaint. Adventurers often lodge in such districts.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 1
Currently Occupied: 1
Guards: 2
Crowded Buildings: 1
Adventurers: 5

Conclusion: Almost the perfect storm. Wooden buildings crowded, designed and advertised with an eye towards maximizing occupancy even during the night, unlikely to have guards just wandering around...but obviously, there's going to be adventurers here from out of town, or a local group getting together for the first time, or...whatever. Frickin' PCs.


The city guard patrols the district, but frequent bribes ensure it turns a blind eye to “dubious” goings-on so long as they don’t harm or inconvenience important people.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 1
Currently Occupied: 2
Guards: 1
Crowded Buildings: 2
Adventurers: 4

Conclusion: Guards looking the other way, poorer district looking to make money so cheap construction as fits the city, likely to be occupied at night...and higher-than-average chance that some powerful individual is perusing illicit wares. You know it, I know it, let's not pretend we don't know what they're here for: stolen magic items getting fenced for less than their true value. :smallwink:


The inhabitants of a shantytown make the perfect prey for a vampire. They have few defenses, city officials rarely listen to their complaints, and no one cares about unclaimed corpses lying along the road or in gutters.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 1
Currently Occupied: 1
Guards: 1
Crowded Buildings: 1
Adventurers: 1

Conclusion: Perfect.


On casual observation, this looks just like any other impoverished district. Only a closer examination discerns the occasional noble or noble’s servant, or the cartloads of prisoners or war captives being readied for sale.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 3
Currently Occupied: 1
Guards: 3
Crowded Buildings: 2
Adventurers: 2

Conclusion: Might be well-defended just because there's a lot of money in the slave-trade. Middling starting point for arson.


Others shelter in rotting slums, infested with rats and roaches, whose buildings threaten to collapse around them.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 1
Currently Occupied: 1
Guards: 1
Crowded Buildings: 1
Adventurers: 1

Conclusion: Another perfect district for starting some fires.


Nobody comes to this district without specific business.

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 1
Currently Occupied: 5
Guards: 1
Crowded Buildings: 2
Adventurers: 2

Conclusion: Far less likely to be occupied at night, but your biggest concern would be if there's an alchemist toiling away who might notice what you're doing.


Hired guards protect many warehouses, since the city watch does not reliably patrol poor neighborhoods

Odds of:
Stone Construction: 3
Currently Occupied: 3
Guards: 5
Crowded Buildings: 2
Adventurers: 1

Conclusion: Guards are readily available, and while the warehouses are essentially pinatas filled with fuel for the fire, they probably won't spread to other buildings afterwards. This is for when you wanna get attention by burning a lot of gp worth at once, not claiming lives directly.Districts in order from most to least vulnerable to arson:
Shantytown: 5
Slum/Tenement district: 5
Inn/Tavern district: 10
Red-Light district: 10
Average residential district: 10
Slave quarter: 11
Tannery district: 11
Caravan district: 11
Fisher’s wharf: 12
Gnome neighborhood: 13
Marketplace: 13
Warehouse district: 14
Guildhall district: 15
Waterfront: 15
Civic district: 16
Dwarf neighborhood: 17
Wealthy residential district: 17
Fine shops: 18
Garrison: 19
Temple district: 19


5 @ 20 HD: Young Adult Gold Dragon (Zombie Dragon)

Size/Type: Huge Undead
Hit Dice: 20d12+63 (193 HP)
Initiative: +5
Speed: 60 ft, 200 ft fly (poor), 60 ft swim
AC: 17 (-2 size, -1 Dex, +9 natural), Touch 7, FF 17
BAB/Grapple: +20/+38
Attack: Bite +28 (2d8+10)
Full Attack: ? (sample block suggests zombie dragon can make a full attack, but I don't see anything confirming that???)
Space/Reach: 15 ft/10 ft (15 ft with bite)
Special Attacks: Breath Weapon 5d10/50 ft cone/DC 21, Frightful Presence
Special Qualities: Blindsense 60 ft, DR 10/magic, DR 5/slashing, Darkvision 120 ft, Immunity to Fire, Keen Senses, Slow, SR 21, Undead Traits
Saves: Fort +12, Ref +11, Will +12
Attributes: Str 31, Dex 8, Con -, Int 6, Wis 10, Cha 12
Skills: Listen +26, Search +21, Sense Motive +23, Spot +26
Feats: ToughnessB, Improved Toughness, Quick Reconnoiter, Improved Flight, Improved Initiative, Skill Focus (Listen), Skill Focus (Spot), Danger Sense
Challenge Rating: 8
...right, given distances involved, reckon we've got 5 minutes before the whole town is awake and all these adventurers and high-level NPCs are coming to kill us, and another 5 minutes before we finally get totally cornered and shot down. With a recharge time of 1d4 rounds per breath weapon, we're looking at two 50-ft cones per 5 rounds per dragon, which are 200/400 ft apart. DR 10/magic means most guards can't do anything to us outside of a lucky crit, but we should be able to take full cover from enough of them using buildings and getting concealment from smoke that this should prove difficult. And you're too tough to be turned without some way of boosting the maximum undead that can be turned - the most they can get is 19 HD, and you count as 22.

This isn't about directly killing 13108 people with attacks, this is about setting the town on fire. We're assuming that most of the population is asleep at night, including high-level adventurers for the most part. 50/50 chance that any given cleric prepared at dawn (and has few slots remaining) or dusk (and has many), but that's not super-relevant to my plan - my plan is to knock over enough dominoes that by the time my dragons are dead-dead, there's bigger problems on a scale that even these NPCs will have trouble with.

DZ1 starts in the small farm just south of the westmost "17: Slum". Its general route is to fly NNW through "17: Slum", the adjacent "15: Shantytown", the adjacent "16: Slave Quarters", and then (now that the town is getting truly roused) into "18: Caravan District". Not all caravans will need to be set ablaze - burn a decent number, and while they'll all be trying to escape, they'll be fighting each other for control of carriages and wagons that weren't torched - even though not many were, it's still fewer than they all need to escape, and they'll kill each other to make sure they're not part of the slim minority that definitely can't get away. Use their lack of cooperation and distraction to your advantage to torch more wagons, making them even more desperate. If you're more worried about wagons getting away than torching slums and slaves while they're sleeping, then you can reverse this path to get more wagons burning (although this gets possible-caravan-adventurers roused faster).

DZ2 starts at the northmost point of the southwestern "17: Slum". It will fly through the slum towards the docks setting fires along the way, light a couple ship's sails on fire, then circle back towards the southwestern "13: Inn/Tavern District" now that adventurers are already awakened. Circle back to the slums if the taverns get too hot for you, but more likely the slums are merrily burning and you're dead from attacking the tavern district. If any other ships that weren't burned try to set sail, they might run into trouble with sahuagins if they didn't make sure their departure fees were taken care of.

DZ3 starts at the southmost point of the southeastern "15: Shantytown", and works its way north through the path of Shantytowns and slums until it reaches "14: Redlight District" and meets up with DZ4. DZ4 starts at the northpost point of the northeastern "17: Slum" and works its way south through that district until it meets up with DZ3 at "14: Redlight District". The two of them will burn down 14, then head west together through "17: Slums", "19: Warehouse District", and then finally "4: Average Residential District". By that point, they've probably been killed.

DZ5 starts at 3, setting one big fire at every noble house he comes across. This is a bad target for spreading tons and tons of fires and killing lots of people, but great at dragging attention to the center of the city (where the fewest people are being killed, but they're the richest ones too), while the other four dragons are busy burning the edges of the city down.

EDIT: There might be something to be said for 25 Brass Wyrmlings doing something like this too. Might be too easy for basic guards to kill though.

[TheCount]

Im in favor of digging.
mind you, lets dig 20 under the deepest part of the city, just to make sure Detect evil dont catch us.
as for time, yes its works with us. Evolved undead is a great template.

as for the plan undermine the city blocks, and, when we are ready, flood it all!

that aside, i would go for some undeads with good ex abilities.... or maybe something that has earth powers....

[Calthropstu]

Hmmmm. First a small number of disguised zombies would bring solitary victims to me. I would order the undead to torture them in very specific ways with the intention of setting up circumstances where greater under are created naturally through hatred, fear, and death combinations. Ideally a self replicating undead would be created such as a wraith, wight or shadow setting up apocolyptic scenarios.

If this is not able to be accomplished, I would instead animate creatures that could burrow and dig. I would order them to dig out massive tunnels do eradicate the earth supporting the city itself, then collapse the entire city from below.

edit: didn't even know digging had already been mentioned. But yeah, it's a solid strategy and far more effective than raining death from above. People would just retreat underground during a zombie dragon attack. But when the earth itself starts collapsing? People just panic and die.

[Incorrect]

The digging is a very creative solution.
I remember somewhere, someone optimized the tunnel digging capabilities of kobolds, but I can't find it now.

Alternatively a big zombie creature, with a burrow speed that leaves a tunnel, then we just make it fast.

[Fouredged Sword]

Command Undead won't be a problem. All the undead in question are not mindless and in those cases Command Undead acts like charm person. The problem for Command Undead is that the undead in question are being controlled by a necromancer who has ordered them to kill the town. They won't stop just because they like someone in the town.

No, your bigger problem is how metagamed the city is. If I was running a town in a 3.5 universe with a 40K GP limit I would have a panic button ready to go. That panic button would be a mid level Factotum with their class ability to ignore spell resistance holding a 29K gp scroll of wish. One cast of that and everything attacking the town makes a willsave or is transported directly to the positive energy plane.

Zombie dragons are the best defense against this, due to their high willsaves. Anything relying on masses of weak undead is going to see the undead hoard decimated.

You also need to survive whatever the head cleric of the town throws at you when they uncap their 8K scroll of gate and point a servant of Palor at you. I would think this takes the form of a solar in the service of Palor with a hate on for undead. So your zombie dragon needs to contend with a 20HD outsider with 20/20 cleric casting and the ability to summon unlimited reinforcement through chaingateing.

Here your zombie dragons die because of solar spam.

No, for this to work I think you need to catch the city completely by surprise.

And for that we fall back on our old friend delayed blast fireball.

Qunitessence can be used to prevent the bead from going off until the desired moment. You create a zombie version of some small creature with a burrow speed and have it dig down under the city. Unhewen stone has 900HP. That means you need to deal 900HP of damage to it all in one go for a fireball to push through it. Well, that's just a matter of time and you are an undead necromancer. You can wait, burning your 7th level spell slots each day to create more fireballs. When the time is right you have undead rats deliver the massive piles of explosives into position in under the city.

The first moment the city realizes that they are under attack is the moment that 900D6 damage worth of fire blooms up through the ground and annihilates anything not immune to fire damage. If you apply searing spell to the delayed blast fireball spell even the immune things vaporize. You remove all things within about 10 feet of the ground and the ground itself about 30 feet down. If the city stood next to a body of water it is now an inlet.

Then you cast wish (instantaneous transport) to deliver the remainder of your stockpile of nearly endless pile of searing delayed blast fireballs next to anything you dislike. Anything the initial blast missed is hit for Xd6 damage, reflex for half (each 20d6 increment), fire immunity only reducing the damage by half. Each fireball deals 5 damage minimum, no save, no resistance even if the face of something with divine rank's ability to always roll 20s.

The problem is that undead are mostly incidental to this plan. You can skip all the undead and just use wish to deliver all the delayed blast fireballs however you please. The ability of quintessence to stock up unlimited amounts of delayed blast fireballs and the ability of wish to simultaneously remove them from the quintessence and deliver them to the surroundings of everyone you dislike just means that your plan requires time.

[Quertus]

So, what are my potential plans? President Führer King, Dragons (varies), archers, sea, mining… arson, poison, mixed? Did I miss any?

President Führer King should start the game surrounded by fanatical cronies, with signed papers to execute order 66.

Dragons should start… next to the sleeping PCs & High Priests, tbh. Or outside their inns, with Paragon Half-Dragon skeletons positioned and prepared (holding an action) to destroy any intervening barriers, to ensure that the breath weapons dispatch the most dangerous foes early.

Archers should start outside town, adjacent to civilians who will inform them where incoming hostiles are located (where's your Invisibility to Undead now?) - although, if I'm not undead, and I'm guiding the undead, I can do that myself.

Sea undead… should probably just team up with the sea monsters (EDIT: sahuagin), and forever be the ones who kill those who don't pay their dues etc.

Mining undead should start at or near the lava level, far enough in the past to complete their work at the height of the city's population (and, ideally, during a storm that wrecks Divinations and divine power).

Arson undead (200 Paragon Half-Dragon ½-HD monsters (kobolds?)) should begin loaded down with a metric ton of oil, spread throughout the city.

Poison undead should start… heck, in the well?


I think your brain flickered while reading my post:

Reading comprehension is not my strong suite :smallredface:

@Fouredged Sword - this is why the OP specified that "we" aren't doing anything beyond directing the undead.

[Silly Name]

Alternatively a big zombie creature, with a burrow speed that leaves a tunnel, then we just make it fast.

Ankhegs and Dire Badgers may be a good option for this: they tunnel at the same speed (10 feet per round), leaving behind a tunnel 5 feet in diameter, and both only have 3 HD.

One of them covers 144.000 feet in one day (roughly 27 miles). We can have 33 of the critters, meaning they create 891 miles (roughly) of tunnels every day.

Our other options are Delvers: bigger, same speed and tunnel diameter as above, but they possess a corrosive slime and Stone Shape at CL 15 every 15 minutes as an Extraordinary ability (which means Awaken Undead gets that back!). Each of them has more HD, leaving us with only 6 Delvers, top, but their special abilities may be used strategically to speed things up or strike at important buildings housing powerful magic items or adventurers.

[Quertus]

I missed Death from Above :smallfrown: I suppose they begin positioned… in orbit, hauling in asteroids of lava?

So, President Führer King?

His strategy is pretty simple, actually: insanity. All meetings conducted in Emperor's new clothes (so no holy symbols or spell component bags to be seen), his office sends frequent rezoning and relocation orders (ostensibly as "protection from arson" and for "town improvement", both of which are true, but also to deplete town funds, and destroy holy ground), etc. But the important work is carried out by the other undead.

What are they? Legitimate businessmen, probably in the slave quarters. 6 HD, for leadership. Have you seen just how horrible running a business is for a town? There'll be earthquakes and natural disasters galore - probably every few minutes if their followers *also* open legitimate businesses.

Perhaps occasionally one cohort will "go rogue", and "steal" all the funds these businesses have collected, and use these ill-gotten gains to gate in an apocalypse or something; otherwise, everything is perfectly aboveboard, the slaves are whipped in accordance with local ordinances, etc.

[Calthropstu]

The digging is a very creative solution.
I remember somewhere, someone optimized the tunnel digging capabilities of kobolds, but I can't find it now.

Alternatively a big zombie creature, with a burrow speed that leaves a tunnel, then we just make it fast.

Zombie purple worms. GG.

[Jowgen]

Loving the volume of interest this little thought experiment is getting :smallbiggrin:

Can't quite feasibly respond to all the various ideas, but there are three prevalent ones that I think would go well together and that I have thoughts on.


Burrow

Dire Badgers are probably the best bet I'd say, not just because they explicitly make tunnels without a reduction in speed, but because while its not part of the task, sourcing their corpses is quite simple as you can Call celestial ones with Halaster's Fetch 3.

Arson

I feel there are better lower HD creatures to use as a base for mass fire starting than wee dragons, who only get to breathe fire once every few rounds in a small cone, against which objects do get a save to avoid catching fire.

Assuming their +6 Natural Armor bonus suffices as proof of an exo-skeleton, the lowly 2 HD Magmin seems pretty ideal (thankfully Necromentals prove that Elementals can be raised as undead in principle). Retaining their fire subtype, they as skeletons get to be immune to fire and cold, the two most common energy types. Being Awakened restores all their arsonist abilities, including a 20 ft fire damage aura, the ability to light anything on fire with a touch , and metal weapons that strike them having to make a save or melt. The DC of their ability sadly drops to a mere DC 5 due to shifting to Cha (of which skeletons get a mere 1 of regardless of awakening), but plenty a commoner that has the misfortune of coming into range will still get hit and die, especially if they move in packs. If they can take the Life Leech feat they can rack up a lot of temp HP that way.

Another option would be the Firetongue Frog from Dragon 285. They only have 1 HD, explicitly have a Skeleton, fire subtype, feature DR 15 overcome by cold & magic (I think) which might interact favourably with skeleton cold immunity, their 2d6 Firetongue damage should suffice to light fires, and they have a 60 ft magical fly speed that if combined with flyby attack should let the spread a lot of fire over a wide area. I think I'd still prefer the Magmin for the auto-colateral damage aura, but these guys seem like a close second.

Zombie Dragon, aka. Trogdor

Regardless of how well the City can actually deal with a sufficiently beefy Zombie Dragon, or how much burninating it can effectively do, it at the very least will demand a concentrated response from the high level NPCs of the city.

So I think the ideal way to deploy a Trogdor would be in concert with Arson and burrow. One Trogdor should keep the city's main assets occupied for long enough for the Arsonists to spread enough fire that the fire itself becomes a threat for the city to contend with, even if all the Clerics immeidately deploy and manage to swiftly kill them, even though the Arsonists are doing their best to avoid fights in favour of just reaching more areas to set on fire. The Burrowers can both deposit the Arsonists just underground at strategic points to emerge from, sabotage the foundation of key city defenses/choke points, and one could even throw in a couple of tunnels for the Arsonsits to use in case they need to retreat and/or tactically move to another spot.

Lets say Necromancer goes whole hog on a premium 41 HD Zombie Gold Wyrm. He throws in 3 Zombie Celestial Dire Badgers to get to 50. He adds 24 Zombie Magmins split into 8 teams for 3 strategically placed throughout Dragonport, and two Zombie Firetongue Frogs to flit about for giggles.

Trogdor arrives above and gets to burninating. Badgers, having tunneled extensively under key defense force locations (i.e. adventurer inns) and escape routes in preperation, collapse said buildings/routes and immediately move towards the next 3. Arsonists emerge from Badger Tunnels throughout the City and each ignite one 10 ft section of a building each turn, after which they spend each turn charging to attack and ignite the next flammable structure, never tiring. Any time someone shows up to confront them, they seek to circumvent them while using their small size and surrounding fires to shake the pursuers.

Even in the best case scenario for the city, where they somehow manage to down Trogdor quickly and deploy their lower level forces effectively enough to hunt down all the Arsonsists flitting about in a matter of mintues -despite all the infrastructure damage caused by the Badgers-; the city will have some many clusters of spreading fires with no way out that containing the situation should be nigh impossible. People trampling each other as they flee in panic, drowing in the harbour in a bid to avoid the fire, as well as subsequent disease and starvation due to the economic impact of all this nets bonus deaths.

[AvatarVecna]

One of the reasons I think dragons are better than Magmin or similar is that while Magmin is going to set a lot more fire, it's also going to all be in the one place. Having a fire aura that will set stuff ablaze as we move is nice (so no having to spend an action on it), but we've only got a few minutes before we're buried in adventurers. Spacing out the fires gives them more room to grow on their own without you having to do so for them, and a fire aura as you move doesn't help with that. Burning aura is fast destruction, but the magmin's speed is slow, while the dragon moves fast but sets fires slow. If fires don't have enough time to spread, then we'll just have small pockets fully ablaze, rather than a ring of buildings around the edge of the city that are still in the process of properly burning down.

*thinks a moment*

...so really, what you wanna do is got zombie dragons as a taxi service - most things aren't as fast as dragons, and the right dragon type will retain immunity to fire, and get a (small) breath weapon now and then. Zombie dragon sticks to just moving 150/200 ft every round (depending on age), while a carried magmin lays waste.

...right. Trogdor is 40 HD Great Wyrm Red, with three magmin skeletons clutched in various claws, doing a low flyover on the town. Magmin's should have solid cover from the claws, but still exposed enough for auras to play a part in things, and likely won't get targeted instead of the huge zombie dragon. Trogdor's feats are focused around survivability - pure HD and dragon stuff will give a lot, but epic feats puts a lot of other options on the table as well. (Oh hey, that reminded me what "attempt 2" was gonna be!) In addition to Trogdor, there are 6 Wyrmling Red Dragon Zombies flying around, each with a Magmin skeleton, setting the more populous areas of the town previously discussed ablaze. What I'd probably do with the extra fireteam is have them start at the caravan district, meet the other guy at the slave quarters, and then head east to burn down the garrison properly.

(I'm working on figuring out just how effective Plan #2 would be that I got reminded of, but it's also essentially cheating around the OP limitations so ehhhhhhh.)

[AvatarVecna]

An "Advanced Dragon" gains one virtual age category per 3 HD beyond Great Wyrm, or per 5 HD if an epic dragon. From Adult to Great Wyrm, age categories advance at about 1 category per 200 years. Force/Prismatic Dragons are neutral, so not sure if they should be calc'd as if chromatic or metallic dragons, so let's assume the former since it's lower. Great Wyrm Prismatic Dragon would enter their twilight at 5600 years old, and would thus advance up to 16 age categories/48 HD at the time they began dying. This puts them well over 100, so a 100 HD Prismatic Dragon is totally feasible (unlike pathetic gold, which starts dying at merely 89 HD, ugh ****ing poser).

Oh and also while templates can affect the dragon's stats pre-zombie, if they don't increase HD than it doesn't cost us any more.

Awakened, 100 HD, Paragon Prismatic Dragon, Dragon Zombie
Size/Type: Colossal+ Undead
Hit Dice: 100d12+303 (1503)
Initiative: +20
Speed: 180 ft, 1050 ft fly (poor)
Armor Class: 85 (size -8, Dex 10, Natural +49, insight +12, luck +12), Touch 36, FF 71
Base Attack/Grapple: +100/+159
Attack: Bite +160 (8d6+63)
Full Attack: ?
Space/Reach: 30 ft/20 ft
Special Attacks: Breath Weapon (Prismatic Spray, DC 107), Frightful Presence (DC 107)
Special Qualities: Blindsense 60 ft, DR 25/epic, Darkvision 120 ft, ER 10 (all), Fast Healing 20, Immunity to Light and Blindness, Keen Senses, Slow, SR 110, Undead Traits
Saves: Fort +62, Ref +72, Will +67
Attributes: Str 96, Dex 30, Con -, Int 6, Wis 20, Cha 78
Skills: Listen +113, Spot +113, 206 ranks dealer's choice (+10 competence on all skills)
Feats: ToughnessB, Improved InitiativeB, Danger Sense, Quick Reconnoiter, Improved Flying, Improved Toughness, Combat Reflexes, Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Natural Attack (Bite), Energy Resistance 3, Exceptional Deflection, Great Charisma 1, Great Dexterity 7, Great Wisdom 10, Improved Combat Reflexes, Deflect Arrows, Infinite Deflection, Reflect Arrows, Spellcasting Harrier, Superior Initiative
Challenge Rating: 47



Why not stack on templates forever? I think it starts getting unreasonable that you'd find a dead one, honestly. Heck, Prismatic Dragons die of old age at 5600, but this one would've been a mere 3280, so it didn't even die of old age. But the idea of a highly-advanced version of a Paragon epic dragon doesn't seem too far-fetched to me. Turning it into a zombie would be dangerous to this town, but I think ultimately survivable - an unawakened zombie just has too many weaknesses in its meat. But give it skills and feats, and...what are they even gonna do to this thing?

Okay I mean sure, maybe the high-level casters in town can pull enough nonsense out of their butts to do something to this dragon, but realistically it's just going to murder everybody while everything they do either backfires instantly, fails to do anything, or has a very very slight chance of doing something useful only to be undone within a few rounds.

*edits the above statblock*


Feats: ToughnessB, Improved InitiativeB, Danger Sense, Quick Reconnoiter, Leadership, Extra Followers, Might Makes Right, Improved Cohort, Improved Toughness, Epic Leadership, Legendary Commander, Great Charisma 1, Great Strength 24



Lvl
Quantity


1
318000


2
31800


3
15900


4
7960


5
3980


6
2000


7
100


8
500


9
260


10
140


11
80


12
40


13
20


100
1 (cohort)



This version probably can't wreck the city personally - still 1500 HP, overwhelming AC and saves, DR/SR/FH that'll make them fairly invulnerable, but they won't be casually reflecting an arrow storm back at the town, or deflecting the SR: No/Touch attack spells that might have a chance at getting through otherwise, so murdering the town is slower than if you build to optimize yourself. But now...you could honestly just send your cohort, or your followers, and either group could take the town with limited losses. You could make your cohort a Commoner 100 and just have them put a million gp bounty on every person living in the city. There's a lot of options if you go this route.

...but I'm pretty sure this isn't what the OP had in mind when they put a limit on how much undead you could get - saying that your 100 HD of undead, without using spawn, got half a million HD worth of minions, means it technically follows the rules, but...yeah.

[Zanos]

Yeah, that prismatic dragon is the kinda thing I was thinking about abusing epic feats. Nice work.



One of the reasons I think dragons are better than Magmin or similar is that while Magmin is going to set a lot more fire, it's also going to all be in the one place. Having a fire aura that will set stuff ablaze as we move is nice (so no having to spend an action on it), but we've only got a few minutes before we're buried in adventurers. Spacing out the fires gives them more room to grow on their own without you having to do so for them, and a fire aura as you move doesn't help with that. Burning aura is fast destruction, but the magmin's speed is slow, while the dragon moves fast but sets fires slow. If fires don't have enough time to spread, then we'll just have small pockets fully ablaze, rather than a ring of buildings around the edge of the city that are still in the process of properly burning down.
Dragons can take the strafing breath feat, which allows them to move half speed and attack everything under them during their movement with their breath weapon. So a 250' dragon effects a line that is 125' long and 140' wide, plus the semicircles on the end.

[AvatarVecna]

Yeah, that prismatic dragon is the kinda thing I was thinking about abusing epic feats. Nice work.



Dragons can take the strafing breath feat, which allows them to move half speed and attack everything under them during their movement with their breath weapon. So a 250' dragon effects a line that is 125' long and 140' wide, plus the semicircles on the end.

Hmm...that's a three-feat investment that would probably be worth it on most dragons - particularly that triple-speed prismatic, oof.

[Demidos]

Alternate Path from any mentioned so far -- Top of the Line Skill

Setup:
One of the previous posters mentioned that they are in a loose alliance with Saguahin, which are typically very volatile and violent creatures. Raise a single 50 HD skeleton, of any description. Undead get 4 skill points per level (assuming 10 int). If you need more (e.g. if you got a poor intelligence roll during the awakening), use the feat "Nymph's Kiss" granting it a bonus skill point per level. The skeleton now takes Disguise, Bluff, and Forgery, and maxxes out ranks in each. The skeleton has an unbeatable Forgery check (minimum 54 in a skill that no one has ever taken, and that is opposed by forgery).

Write out secret orders to all the town militia saying the "vague threat" that was predicted was found out to be the Saguahin. Order them to attack Saguahin on sight. Use your unbeatable disguise and bluff to convince any doubters of your truthfulness, impersonating any officials of your choice. Make sure you get the orders to everyone you can, and indicate you think there might be traitors in the ranks, so to arrest anyone who protests the attacks.

Bonus Content:
At this point, you are optionally done, but it's probably better to take the form of some official friendly to the Saguahin and inform them that the town has decided to attack them. Show "proof" with unbeatable forgery, bluff, disguise, and in the form of the now mobilizing militia. Ideally the Saguahin are starting to mobilize by the time the town starts to respond, since this will grant maximal carnage. The plan can alternately be carried out with a skeleton with arbitrarily high hide and move silently, assassinating town leaders 1 by 1. Or both! Watch both sides burn, while sipping a dainty drink. Optionally, once the battle is decided, wreck the rest of the town with zombie dragons or whatnot.

Notes for skeptics: If someone actually took forgery (aka your DM is changing their stats on the fly, because NO ONE takes that), you should still have higher bluff to convince people that they are the traitor. This also works with lower HD skeletons, but it obviously becomes riskier the lower you go. The skeletons don't have to be human, so its not an issue that human skeletons have trash HD -- the disguise skill doesn't care much for the fact that a great wyrm dragon and a human are different, simply imposing a -2 to your check. If your DM (understandably) throws a book at you, you can do the same with arbitrarily high hide and move silently, and say you are invisible since you are worried about the traitors. Your bluff and forgery should still be high enough to carry the day.

[Ruethgar]

I’d go with digging. Maximize Circle Magic War Servant Horde can get you a nice 1080. Metamagic reduction for 20 casts/day each lasting 40hr Extend for 10 iterations of mining per cast. 21,600 minions 10,800 5ft cubes per 8hr for 80hr so 108,000 5ft cubes. What was it that you needed? 2million? Can rest 8 times easy before the first cast is done, more with Licid Dreaming, but let’s go with 8. So round down, 800,000 in three days casting, so 9 days casting 12 total to destroy the city?

[JeminiZero]

Lost Empires of Faerun has a 14 HD Huge Aberration known as Deepspawn. It has distinction of having "Spawn (Ex)". Ergo, an awakened Undead Deepspawn regains this ability. Spawn basically lets the Deepspawn consume any "Large or smaller corporeal, living creatures native to the Material Plane", and produce an identical but loyal copy. It can use Spawn every 4d6 days.

You could either quietly build up a hidden army for an eventual all out attack, or go for a pod person strategy where you gradually replace city inhabitants with Spawn. In the latter case, you have to act carefully, send in a few spawn as new immigrants, have them make friends, find potential subjects which can be replaced, lure them to the Deepspawn, repeat. Also, to keep any inquisition/detect thoughts/etc off their backs, the Spawn should be lead to believe that what they are doing is for the good of the city.

Also, since we are customizing Awakened Undead feats, consider taking: Bind Vestige, Improved Bind Vestige, Practiced Binder, Martial Study-Any Tiger Claw, Martial Stance-Blood in the Water. You basically bind Malphas, Summon a Raven, command it to go to sleep and Coup de Grace it (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?241913).

[hungrycrow]

Something that the digging plans don't seem to account for is all the dirt and stone they'd have to get rid of. Someone is going to notice your army moving a mountain of material outside the city.

[SangoProduction]

A handful of zombie dragons strafing with flyby attack and metabreath feats seems like a good strategy. They will have very high AC, DR 5/slashing to help with arrows, and be probably killing a ton of people on every strafe. Maybe have a necrosis carnex in a safe area the zombies can go back to for heals. What kind of opposition are we talking about? I dunno what a handful of low level NPCs are going to be able to do against a 40+hd dragon zombie.

Aren't mindless creatures unable to have feats?

[Zanos]

Aren't mindless creatures unable to have feats?
10 characters, bruh.


Your undead are all Awakened and created with the benefit of Desecrate, but no Corpsecrafter and such.

[SangoProduction]

Well, there's the straightforward path of getting the biggest, most horrifying creatures to attack the city. But how about a different path. As a necromancer of such immense power, you have nothing but time, as you can no doubt simply become a lich whenever you please.

Enter the city's political sphere. Encourage policies of disarmament, and reliance on the state for protection and well fare. (Preferably from high within the political landscape, but influence could be enough.) Ensure that many years go by without incident, with your undead patrolling far from view. If an enemy army tries to face off, they "randomly" get beset by "unknown" forces, wiping them out entirely.

Years go by. The populace is now living in a state of not needing to be self-reliant. Their killer instincts dull without anything to whet their skills against.

Then you introduce a new plan (by proxy, just in case) to bring in untiring farm workers "from out of state." Offer the farmers massive retirement accounts (by their standards, not yours) after these "foreign workers" prove themselves to be able to do everything day and night. You now control the city's food. Later, reveal that these dilligent workers are actually perfectly intelligent undead that "seek to atone for the mistakes in their lives through hard work and helping the living."

When the relative chaos of the reveal is over, start implementing policies to make undead more appreciated and accepted. Get people to actually want to do necromancy. Small stuff. Don't let them know any of the larger secrets. Start selling undead servant contracts. If you can manage it, even allow people who would normally get prison time to be able to instead serve that time after death.

If everything goes according to plan, we can now get undead real fecking close to even the most powerful of townsfolk who still regularly practice, without raising any suspicions. Hell. I'd say as a very sneaky plan, to offer "high tier training dummies" to those who are still powerful and still unwilling to give up their weapons. A few "accidents" happen here and there. They are just silly sports performers that got too in over their heads.

At this point, the city is yours to do with as you please. Slowly picking off the strong through various means, such as incarceration, hunting/training "accidents,' and so on. If you still desire to kill all the worthless pawns under your control, have your minions reveal themselves to not simply be pets or tools, and kill their "owners." By this point, there should be little to no resistance. But you have control over their food supply, even if they do. You don't need to eat. Your minions don't need to eat.

Now, the entire city is dead. Congratulations.

[Ruethgar]

Something that the digging plans don't seem to account for is all the dirt and stone they'd have to get rid of. Someone is going to notice your army moving a mountain of material outside the city.

Create Element: Earth for a single void stone to be the garbage bin. Or a teleportation circle to use the material elsewhere.

[Xar Zarath]

man, the power of the playground. if you all were in charge of a zombie apocalypse, I think we'd have around a week tops:smallredface::smallredface:

[PoeticallyPsyco]

70ft cone breath weapon for 12d10 fire damage, Ref 38 halves. How big is the circle a 70ft cone makes when fired downwards, anyway?

Fired directly downwards, the widest point of the cone will be between the 70ft edges. Looking at it from the side, you've got a right triangle with the dragon at the point at the top, the ground forming the base, and the other two edges being 70ft. The dragon is thus (another isosceles right triangle of radius of ground effect, height, and 70ft edge gives 70ft/(sqrt 2) = height) 50ft above the ground, and the radius of the effect on the ground is (70ft x sqrt(2) for diameter, divided by 2 for radius =) also 50ft. This is the largest possible ground surface to affect with the spell (significantly larger than just firing it horizontally from the ground).

The breath attack will still hit an area if fired from higher or lower than 50ft up (up to a maximum of 70ft in the air), but will hit a smaller area at rates that I am not willing to calculate. Firing at an angle other than horizontal or vertical will not only change the total area, it will dramatically change the shape of the ground effect in weird ways, so I recommend against this for the sake of sanity (unless you just want to hit a few targets standing next to each other, all within 70ft of the dragon; then you don't have to care about the rest of the splash).

[Silly Name]

-SNIP-

I think that while this is an effective methods, it goes against the limits of the challenge - we, the Necromancer, can only Animate and order the undead around, we can't do anything else directly.

Of course, the issue is resolved by giving the role of the infiltrator to one of your undead servants, decked out with magic items that keep them from rotting or being revealed as an abomination against life.

[SangoProduction]

I think that while this is an effective methods, it goes against the limits of the challenge - we, the Necromancer, can only Animate and order the undead around, we can't do anything else directly.

Of course, the issue is resolved by giving the role of the infiltrator to one of your undead servants, decked out with magic items that keep them from rotting or being revealed as an abomination against life.

Didn't catch that bit about actions being limited. So you'll definitely have to do all of that by proxy (even if that proxy starts as a proxy through an intelligent undead). It would thus be pretty hard unless you could also bring your wealth into the equation. If not, you just need to raid another town for some hats of disguise and then get the ball rolling. Their charisma scores won't be fantastic on average, but we can assume the maximum, since we have plenty of time to just cycle through candidates for our politician in training.

[unseenmage]

Death of as many people as possible? No time limit?
Let them live. Theyll die kn their own because mortality.
In fact, if more deaths is better than faster deaths we would want to help them prosper and multiply so as to get more and more deaths over the long term.

Unless we're just after deaths and not Humanoid or sentient/sapient deaths. In that case we normal insect infestations could be fostered. Or we could routinely feed and promote nuisance creatures like roaches, rats, and even stray or feral cats and dogs.


More seriously, passively attacking the city will.prove more useful than actively marching through the streets.
With the ability to place units as desired in advance and monitor and command them remotely a complete annihilation is definitely possible.

I would combine many tactics. Spreading poisinnand disease through the food and water supply, likely via simply mixing the rotting flesh of slain farm animals into it. Subtly of course.

Setting fires should be examined well too. Burning tactically uaeful.locations like the headquarters and homes of leaders and the military. Armory, barracks, and any arson susceptible defensible positions.

Killing anyone capable of handling undead while they sleep will be a must. Setting up some nice quiet carbon monoxide poisoning would be best. Literally coup de gras them while they sleep is a close second. On the note of holy sites, desecrating those and any related shrines or artifacts might bring some benefit, but that's situation dependent.

Remove resources, leadership, and silver bullets from.the enemy forces. Once that's handled a large enough settlement should collapse on it's own from there.

Letting the powerful few who can flee and remove even more resources, defenses, and leadership go ahead and flee will be best as well to.promote as many deaths as possible. You want guild leaders and noblemen sneaking away in the night with their coffers and guards so that even more common folk succumb to your schemes.

As we're allowed sentient undead that opens up a LOT more options. Rabblerousing faceless hooded voices of dissent. Dangerous gossip. Rumors that pit neighbor against neighbor.

Raise the general stress levels in the city over the period of about a week beforehand as best you can so that the entire place becomes a social tinderbox for the actual day of your arsons and assassinations. Rumors of outside threats just plausible enough to be real. Rumors of corruption or opportunism by not beloved but also not super effective leaders too. And if possible expose to the harsh light of day at least one or two actual crimes of the nobility to really heat things up.

Now, of the undead superpowers very few will trump proper feats and skills from being awakened. Any infectious or spawn creating undead would be best but there arent any(?) available with just basic animate dead.

That said, once your undead are exposed as a source of part of the problem you can fake that they're a much bigger problem.than they are by having your minions do a couple of live shows. This is more psychological/social warfare but it could be effective, especially if you've already primed the populus to believe the worst.
Have a couple of zombies pretend to be a mindless infectious undead vs a travelling merchant who 'rises' as a new zombie after being bitten.
Have a particularly high bluff undead fake being a terrible vampire who brainwashed friends and neighbors in the night.

EDIT
Choose well the season of your assault. The cold and elements can do a LOT of your work for you.

TLDR
Killing the citizens yourself is for chumps. Be the right proper villain and leverage your sentient undead into social saboteurs and let the madness of fear get the people to kill one another.

[Calthropstu]

Death of as many people as possible? No time limit?
Let them live. Theyll die kn their own because mortality.
In fact, if more deaths is better than faster deaths we would want to help them prosper and multiply so as to get more and more deaths over the long term.

Unless we're just after deaths and not Humanoid or sentient/sapient deaths. In that case we normal insect infestations could be fostered. Or we could routinely feed and promote nuisance creatures like roaches, rats, and even stray or feral cats and dogs.


More seriously, passively attacking the city will.prove more useful than actively marching through the streets.
With the ability to place units as desired in advance and monitor and command them remotely a complete annihilation is definitely possible.

I would combine many tactics. Spreading poisinnand disease through the food and water supply, likely via simply mixing the rotting flesh of slain farm animals into it. Subtly of course.

Setting fires should be examined well too. Burning tactically uaeful.locations like the headquarters and homes of leaders and the military. Armory, barracks, and any arson susceptible defensible positions.

Killing anyone capable of handling undead while they sleep will be a must. Setting up some nice quiet carbon monoxide poisoning would be best. Literally coup de gras them while they sleep is a close second. On the note of holy sites, desecrating those and any related shrines or artifacts might bring some benefit, but that's situation dependent.

Remove resources, leadership, and silver bullets from.the enemy forces. Once that's handled a large enough settlement should collapse on it's own from there.

Letting the powerful few who can flee and remove even more resources, defenses, and leadership go ahead and flee will be best as well to.promote as many deaths as possible. You want guild leaders and noblemen sneaking away in the night with their coffers and guards so that even more common folk succumb to your schemes.

As we're allowed sentient undead that opens up a LOT more options. Rabblerousing faceless hooded voices of dissent. Dangerous gossip. Rumors that pit neighbor against neighbor.

Raise the general stress levels in the city over the period of about a week beforehand as best you can so that the entire place becomes a social tinderbox for the actual day of your arsons and assassinations. Rumors of outside threats just plausible enough to be real. Rumors of corruption or opportunism by not beloved but also not super effective leaders too. And if possible expose to the harsh light of day at least one or two actual crimes of the nobility to really heat things up.

Now, of the undead superpowers very few will trump proper feats and skills from being awakened. Any infectious or spawn creating undead would be best but there arent any(?) available with just basic animate dead.

That said, once your undead are exposed as a source of part of the problem you can fake that they're a much bigger problem.than they are by having your minions do a couple of live shows. This is more psychological/social warfare but it could be effective, especially if you've already primed the populus to believe the worst.
Have a couple of zombies pretend to be a mindless infectious undead vs a travelling merchant who 'rises' as a new zombie after being bitten.
Have a particularly high bluff undead fake being a terrible vampire who brainwashed friends and neighbors in the night.

EDIT
Choose well the season of your assault. The cold and elements can do a LOT of your work for you.

TLDR
Killing the citizens yourself is for chumps. Be the right proper villain and leverage your sentient undead into social saboteurs and let the madness of fear get the people to kill one another.

Funny you mention this. I have stated this in other forums that I thought Ains Ool Goan from overlord would be better off playing the long game and imposing a "death tax" on the peoples he conquered. Naturally, the death tax can be covered by simply confiscating the corpse. He can help his people prosper, while slowly amassing the largest undead army the world has ever seen.

[unseenmage]

Funny you mention this. I have stated this in other forums that I thought Ains Ool Goan from overlord would be better off playing the long game and imposing a "death tax" on the peoples he conquered. Naturally, the death tax can be covered by simply confiscating the corpse. He can help his people prosper, while slowly amassing the largest undead army the world has ever seen.
I once set up a magic item cascade that generated millions of Constructs in short order.

I suggested adding Incarnate Construct to the tail end of the process and someone pointed out that that many eating, drinking, living people all at once would overwhelm society's infrastructures and cause a mass famine, followed shortly by plague and likely preceded by a big fat war.

Could we just set up several magic traps of delayed Simulacrum so that anyone who passes through a few select city archways is copy pasted?

Or hell, magic traps of Sim that only copies roaches, rats, cats, and dogs.
Any way to get Sim as a SLA on an Animate Dead-ed minion? That'd be best.

Sure it's not copy pasting your undead horde but I just like the idea of steeple-ing one's skeletal fingers and laughing as the poor mortals run out of food as they get more and more mouths to feed.

:smallbiggrin:

[Quertus]

"I aimed for the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."
-- Upton Sinclair

Yeah, IRL, people didn't realize that huge groups of people were "suddenly and mysteriously" getting sick, just because people were mixing the rat droppings in with the sausage or whatever.

You can kill a *lot* of "medieval" people with "legitimate" businesses (even without leveraging D&D rules for businesses attracting natural disasters), and no-one will be the wiser without mass media and an Upton Sinclair.

It's just important to go, like, years between "mistakes". Probably. Heck, how many restaurants do modern people eat at, that don't get abandoned by terrified customers until they're shut down? So, yeah, this seems a workable strategy (even IRL - be afraid. Be very afraid :smallwink:).