Goals for the most powerful wizard?

[Mrark]

Hi everyone. I am playing a wizard gray elf decently optimized (wizard 5, incantatrix 10, archmage 2, may be looking for high incantatrix if dm allows me to) and I recently obtained some great powers (despite loosing the ability to cast shapechange [it was way too broken, and the DM couldn't really handle it], I got a lot of bonus: 10 level spells, +2 Caster level, +2 to all mental stats, some immunities, a philactery-like ability and some other cool stuff). My character was aiming to this power since the first levels of the campaign, and now I don't really know what his goals could be. He is pure neutral, no means to hurt others but still could do it if the rewards makes it worth, same with good deeds. So yeah, at the moment he is the most powerful wizard in the whole world, & the most intelligent living creature (with an intelligence score of 37).
So what could he aim to do now? He is immortal by age and virtually immortal by violence, he is powerful, he is damn clever, but he still loves some members of his party, a monk and a warrior. What could his goals be? Being an universal ruler? Becoming the alpha predator by killing anyone who could cause him problems? Any advice, idea or simply what you would like in the same situations is appreciated.

[Doctor Despair]

Reminds me of the premise of Overlord.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Well, if he loves his companions, making them immortal is worth, like, a few rounds, but it's still a worthy goal.

Also, enriching his life by improving the state of the multiverse in general. I mean, he lives there, so making it a better place for everyone improves it for him, as well.

Perhaps work on giving the Material Plane a magitech-oriented Industrial Revolution?

Think of it like this: most First World residents have standards of living far higher than any king from the Dark Ages, even people considered to be living under the poverty line. Such a king would marvel at all the tech we have access to, considering such to be miraculous.

Now imagine what could be done by adding magic into the mix.

The aforesaid king (which, in this case, would be your wizard) would vastly increase his own standing by uplifting everyone else, because the higher the common man's position is, the higher his is by dint of the fact that he's got far more resources and can afford to live even better by comparison.

So aim for something like that. Even if he's True Neutral and doesn't really care about sacrificing himself to help others, he does care about himself. And he's smart enough to realize that uplifting everyone pushes himself up that much higher. And he's not Evil, so (I assume) he doesn't value hurting others for the enjoyment of watching them suffer.

[Doctor Despair]

He could start plotting to destroy the deities and elder evils, as they're probably the only things that can vaguely threaten him now if he's carelesz

[Kayblis]

When I got to that point with my wizard, after 2 years of play, I decided it was time to turn the campaign into the perfect sandbox. I dedicated myself to create paradise.

Some 9th level spells are just too much for a normal character, and this is the case with Genesis. You create a demiplane completely under your control, and decide what characteristics it bears. You can then grow this demiplane over time with more castings, and bring living beings into it through plane shifting means. It's your own demiplane, so only you can make an attuning fork for it at the start, unless someone wants to do the needed research. I brought plants from over the planes, then simple life forms, then larger creatures. You can create a community by bringing sentient creatures, and your control over the plane makes you almost a god in your own realm.

Then you start building your kingdom in this plane. You bring beings from every corner of the multiverse. As it grows, it develops a mind of its own, and you rule over a mini-Sigil of your own making. At this point, you might consider yourself a moving force in the planes, and if you're ballsy enough you can even challenge the supreme beings we all know from the multiverse, but never interact directly - break into Orcus' palace to steal his legendary rod, challenge Demogorgon's army, claim a layer of the abyss, invade Minauros to spite Mammon and join the Blood War, make a trading post inside one of Lunia's mountains and flip the angels off. When you remove yourself from the post of "Adventurer" and ascend to "Ruler", you'll find out that the wealth of lore of the planes are within your reach, and have been ever since you got the powers to affect them. This game can go on indefinitely, well into the epic levels, as you destroy nondeities of absurd CRs, and don't have to rely on shaky DM adjudication on how deities work(let's be honest, Deities & Demigods is a poorly thought-out book, you don't need to use it).

Edit: Do remember your party members are still there, and you three can rule together. Treat yourself as an enabler, make sure your friends are more powerful than any other. Let them rule over a portion of the lands too, and delegate powers to them as needed. If you're really into sharing, you can even make a custom 10th level spell to share spell slots with them, and give them some options that are easy to use(base it around Metaconcert, if your DM likes to use spell bases for custom spells). That's really not needed, because I'm sure they're pretty optimized too, but it's an option to make the game flow better if you want to.

[Biggus]

Seek out artifacts and other very powerful magic items, partly for his own power and partly to stop them falling into the hands of others who might use them against him?

Make alliances with other great powers of the world, so if something he can't handly alone threatens him/the world he's in a better position to deal with it?

Explore other planes/worlds, to expand his knowledge/find worthy opponents/acquire loot not available elsewhere?

[Mrark]

When I got to that point with my wizard, after 2 years of play, I decided it was time to turn the campaign into the perfect sandbox. I dedicated myself to create paradise.

Some 9th level spells are just too much for a normal character, and this is the case with Genesis. You create a demiplane completely under your control, and decide what characteristics it bears. You can then grow this demiplane over time with more castings, and bring living beings into it through plane shifting means. It's your own demiplane, so only you can make an attuning fork for it at the start, unless someone wants to do the needed research. I brought plants from over the planes, then simple life forms, then larger creatures. You can create a community by bringing sentient creatures, and your control over the plane makes you almost a god in your own realm.

Then you start building your kingdom in this plane. You bring beings from every corner of the multiverse. As it grows, it develops a mind of its own, and you rule over a mini-Sigil of your own making. At this point, you might consider yourself a moving force in the planes, and if you're ballsy enough you can even challenge the supreme beings we all know from the multiverse, but never interact directly - break into Orcus' palace to steal his legendary rod, challenge Demogorgon's army, claim a layer of the abyss, invade Minauros to spite Mammon and join the Blood War, make a trading post inside one of Lunia's mountains and flip the angels off. When you remove yourself from the post of "Adventurer" and ascend to "Ruler", you'll find out that the wealth of lore of the planes are within your reach, and have been ever since you got the powers to affect them. This game can go on indefinitely, well into the epic levels, as you destroy nondeities of absurd CRs, and don't have to rely on shaky DM adjudication on how deities work(let's be honest, Deities & Demigods is a poorly thought-out book, you don't need to use it).

Edit: Do remember your party members are still there, and you three can rule together. Treat yourself as an enabler, make sure your friends are more powerful than any other. Let them rule over a portion of the lands too, and delegate powers to them as needed. If you're really into sharing, you can even make a custom 10th level spell to share spell slots with them, and give them some options that are easy to use(base it around Metaconcert, if your DM likes to use spell bases for custom spells). That's really not needed, because I'm sure they're pretty optimized too, but it's an option to make the game flow better if you want to.

THIS is on the to-do list for sure :smallsmile:

[Mrark]

Well, if he loves his companions, making them immortal is worth, like, a few rounds, but it's still a worthy goal.

Also, enriching his life by improving the state of the multiverse in general. I mean, he lives there, so making it a better place for everyone improves it for him, as well.

Perhaps work on giving the Material Plane a magitech-oriented Industrial Revolution?

Think of it like this: most First World residents have standards of living far higher than any king from the Dark Ages, even people considered to be living under the poverty line. Such a king would marvel at all the tech we have access to, considering such to be miraculous.

Now imagine what could be done by adding magic into the mix.

The aforesaid king (which, in this case, would be your wizard) would vastly increase his own standing by uplifting everyone else, because the higher the common man's position is, the higher his is by dint of the fact that he's got far more resources and can afford to live even better by comparison.

So aim for something like that. Even if he's True Neutral and doesn't really care about sacrificing himself to help others, he does care about himself. And he's smart enough to realize that uplifting everyone pushes himself up that much higher. And he's not Evil, so (I assume) he doesn't value hurting others for the enjoyment of watching them suffer.

Sounds cool. But how to deal with all the other powers? In this settings we are facing about a dozen of super elite great wyrms with extra abilities and stats. What to do with other powers that can threaten my power? Destroy all of them one at a time?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Sounds cool. But how to deal with all the other powers? In this settings we are facing about a dozen of super elite great wyrms with extra abilities and stats. What to do with other powers that can threaten my power? Destroy all of them one at a time?Contact the Good and Neutral ones and explain to them how improving the tech/magic level of the world will benefit the world (and them, since they're a part of the world), and get them on board for helping you (or at least not interfering; they can benefit from your efforts all they like, so long as they don't try to ruin your plans). Get them on board and have them as backup when you attempt to contact the evil dragons to explain how it will benefit them, as well. If the dragons attack, well, you have backup, and you get XP for defeating them. And if you're a wizard, you have plenty of time and resources to prep for the encounters ahead of time, as you know what kinds of things you're likely in for, with plenty of knowledge-gathering spells (both direct and indirect) and several allies to help with the planning.

[Mrark]

Contact the Good and Neutral ones and explain to them how improving the tech/magic level of the world will benefit them, and get them on board for helping you (or at least not interfering; they can benefit from your efforts all they like, so long as they don't try to ruin your plans). Get them on board and have them as backup when you attempt to contact the evil dragons to explain how it will benefit them, as well. If the dragons attack, well, you have backup, and you get XP for defeating them. And if you're a wizard, you have plenty of time and resources to prep for the encounters ahead of time, as you know what kinds of things you're likely in for, with plenty of knowledge-gathering spells (both direct and indirect) and several allies to help with the planning.

I literally don't care about a single dragon coming to me. I can kill it in one round, maybe two. But still more of them focussing on me could cause a lot of problems. More, my character isn't THAT good. I mean of course he could benefit of world general improvement, but won't really struggle to make it his main goal. I mean, the concept of him being the greater good and leading the world is surely something that could catch his attention, but mostly for selfish purposes. He still is a neutral wizard who achieved a great amount of powers by himself, he has this inner selfish attitude.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

What are his views on politics? Has he been wronged by anyone in power during his climb to the current power level? He may seek unseat them and may even usurp their position, thinking he's smart enough to do a better job. From there he'll inevitably clash with others in power and usurp theirs as well. Eventually he may even become an emperor over an entire continent.

He could seek to share his knowledge, open a school for wizards and train future generations in the use of magic. Or teach them wrong on purpose, as a joke.

Are there other powerful wizards in the setting? He may look into what their goals are and if it's something he doesn't agree with, eliminate them before they can rise to his same power level. Sort of like the Githyanki queen, who keeps tabs on her most powerful subjects and kills them if they exceed a certain level so that none can ever grow strong enough to overthrow her.

He could go into seclusion and spend decades or even centuries inventing a completely new type of magic.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

I literally don't care about a single dragon coming to me. I can kill it in one round, maybe two. But still more of them focussing on me could cause a lot of problems. More, my character isn't THAT good. I mean of course he could benefit of world general improvement, but won't really struggle to make it his main goal. I mean, the concept of him being the greater good and leading the world is surely something that could catch his attention, but mostly for selfish purposes. He still is a neutral wizard who achieved a great amount of powers by himself, he has this inner selfish attitude.Good is about sacrificing yourself for the betterment of others. This is about spending an effort to improve your own life by improving the society upon which you base your life. If the base is sturdy and healthy, your life will be far better for it.

It's called enlightened self-interest.

Say you visited the real world in one of the better-put-together First World countries, whether that be the US and Canada, or Western Europe. You see how well the "commoners" have it -- better than pretty much anyone in your own world -- and it piques your interest. You do some research on the 1% and realize that they're living in what amounts to a utopian world, surprisingly comfortable considering literally zero magic is involved. Then you do research on the history of how the world got this way.

If you want to improve your own life, whether that be for security or creature comforts, it wouldn't take much to realize that you could give a boost to your own Material Plane to push them into similar development, only with magic. Widespread education and lots of people working together to improve the world would massively improve the lot of all the common people, but it would improve the top 1% even more. And you're at the top of that 1%, meaning you get the most benefit out of helping others to improve their own lives.

Again, enlightened self-interest. Help others to improve in order to improve your own lot in life. You're not doing it to help them -- you're doing it to help them to help you.

[Melcar]

Hi everyone. I am playing a wizard gray elf decently optimized (wizard 5, incantatrix 10, archmage 2, may be looking for high incantatrix if dm allows me to) and I recently obtained some great powers (despite loosing the ability to cast shapechange [it was way too broken, and the DM couldn't really handle it], I got a lot of bonus: 10 level spells, +2 Caster level, +2 to all mental stats, some immunities, a philactery-like ability and some other cool stuff). My character was aiming to this power since the first levels of the campaign, and now I don't really know what his goals could be. He is pure neutral, no means to hurt others but still could do it if the rewards makes it worth, same with good deeds. So yeah, at the moment he is the most powerful wizard in the whole world, & the most intelligent living creature (with an intelligence score of 37).
So what could he aim to do now? He is immortal by age and virtually immortal by violence, he is powerful, he is damn clever, but he still loves some members of his party, a monk and a warrior. What could his goals be? Being an universal ruler? Becoming the alpha predator by killing anyone who could cause him problems? Any advice, idea or simply what you would like in the same situations is appreciated.

Well, I play a level 32 human wizard, once in a while which we started back in 2002. Anywho, the thing is, that I have had a bunch of goals: Find certain artifacts, create certain personal spell, etc. But the overarching goal from the very beginning was to become the most powerful arcane spellcaster in Realmspace!

[Mrark]

Good is about sacrificing yourself for the betterment of others. This is about spending an effort to improve your own life by improving the society upon which you base your life. If the base is sturdy and healthy, your life will be far better for it.

It's called enlightened self-interest.

Say you visited the real world in one of the better-put-together First World countries, whether that be the US and Canada, or Western Europe. You see how well the "commoners" have it -- better than pretty much anyone in your own world -- and it piques your interest. You do some research on the 1% and realize that they're living in what amounts to a utopian world, surprisingly comfortable considering literally zero magic is involved. Then you do research on the history of how the world got this way.

If you want to improve your own life, whether that be for security or creature comforts, it wouldn't take much to realize that you could give a boost to your own Material Plane to push them into similar development, only with magic. Widespread education and lots of people working together to improve the world would massively improve the lot of all the common people, but it would improve the top 1% even more. And you're at the top of that 1%, meaning you get the most benefit out of helping others to improve their own lives.

Again, enlightened self-interest. Help others to improve in order to improve your own lot in life. You're not doing it to help them -- you're doing it to help them to help you.

This could take to... annoying downsides. Let's say the world starts evolving, and the umanity starts creating powerful weapons. Let's say we get to the point were we have rifles. At this point, rifles tend to level the differences between a well trained warrior and a commoner. Let's say the city where i live and rule gets some snipers together. This could become a problem to me directly, or to my lower level allies. Have you read the mistborn trilogy? The idea is the same of the one followed by the lord Ruler: keeping humanity at a level where they can't be a problem to your ruling.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

This could take to... annoying downsides. Let's say the world starts evolving, and the umanity starts creating powerful weapons. Let's say we get to the point were we have rifles. At this point, rifles tend to level the differences between a well trained warrior and a commoner. Let's say the city where i live and rule gets some snipers together. This could become a problem to me directly, or to my lower level allies. Have you read the mistborn trilogy? The idea is the same of the one followed by the lord Ruler: keeping humanity at a level where they can't be a problem to your ruling.You're a level 17+ wizard. You can destroy entire planes of existence with some effort.

There are so many ways to become immune to physical weaponry, even magickified weaponry, it's not even funny.

If you're having problems with weapons shoved in your face, you're definitely not trying hard enough.

As one example (of many), store your body on a genesis demiplane and use astral projection to go on walkabout. Anything that manages to "kill" you without literally erasing your mind and soul from existence just shunts you back into your body. And that's not even including ways to become immune to damage or death from damage altogether.

Another example, delay death + beastland ferocity means you simply don't die from HP damage, flat-out. You could be hit by all of Earth's WMDs while standing in an exploding nuclear reactor filled with all of the radioactive material on Earth and you'd be 100% fine until one of those spell effects ran out.

There are more. Many, many more. And most can be used in tandem, even. Granted, some of those do rely on shapeshifting magic (which you don't have), so the numbers are cut down by a significant fraction, but even then, it's honestly not hard for a T1 spellcaster at that level.

[Mrark]

You're a level 20+ wizard. You can destroy entire planes of existence with some effort.

There are so many ways to become immune to physical weaponry, even magickified weaponry, it's not even funny.

If you're having problems with weapons shoved in your face, you're definitely not trying hard enough.

As one example (of many), store your body on a genesis demiplane and use astral projection to go on walkabout. Anything that manages to "kill" you without literally erasing your mind and soul from existence just shunts you back into your body. And that's not even including ways to become immune to damage or death from damage altogether.

Another example, delay death + beastland ferocity means you simply don't die from HP damage, flat-out. You could be hit by all of Earth's WMDs while standing in an exploding nuclear reactor filled with all of the radioactive material on Earth and you'd be 100% fine until one of those spell effects ran out.

There are more. Many, many more. Granted, some of those do rely on shapeshifting magic (which you don't have), so the numbers are cut down by a significant fraction, but even then, it's honestly not hard for a T1 spellcaster at that level.

I see I wasn't quite clear while describing the whole situation. It is true that I am a powerful and semi-optimized wizard, but ALL the tricks who cheat the game are banned. This include spells like astral projection and all the ways to completely outplay someone (like becoming immune to physical damage). Let's say that, in our world, if something breaks the game too much, it is banned, with the logic "what would happen if everyone did this?"


But yes, I agree that i could easily deal with those people. The problem could arrive if they start to target my allies (who are, of course, way more killable than me)

[MaxiDuRaritry]

I see I wasn't quite clear while describing the whole situation. It is true that I am a powerful and semi-optimized wizard, but ALL the tricks who cheat the game are banned. This include spells like astral projection and all the ways to completely outplay someone (like becoming immune to physical damage). Let's say that, in our world, if something breaks the game too much, it is banned, with the logic "what would happen if everyone did this?"So you can't cast spells because if everyone did it'd break the campaign?

[Mrark]

So you can't cast spells because if everyone did it'd break the campaign?

No, but let's imagine a world where every wizard uses "Astral Projection". Nobody dies, nobody kill nobody, everyone can do what the *beeeeep* he wants anytime, without fearing particular consequences. Let's say that common sense is the leading principle :smallwink:

[TheTeaMustFlow]

This could take to... annoying downsides. Let's say the world starts evolving, and the humanity starts creating powerful weapons. Let's say we get to the point were we have rifles. At this point, rifles tend to level the differences between a well trained warrior and a commoner. Let's say the city where i live and rule gets some snipers together. This could become a problem to me directly, or to my lower level allies.

If you are a high-level high-op wizard and you are seriously worried about mundane weapons, then it's time to hang up your pointy hat and knobbly staff in shame.

Despite their fetishisation by some of the less historically aware members of the fantasy fandom (both those who love guns and those who hate them), firearms are not 'game breakers' in a 3.5 world. (Actually, they weren't in our world either, but that's beside the point.) They are crossbows with bigger range increments, damage dice, and fire rates. If you weren't worried about a mundane's exact numbers before them - which you shouldn't have been - you're not worried about their somewhat bigger numbers after.


Have you read the mistborn trilogy? The idea is the same of the one followed by the lord Ruler: keeping humanity at a level where they can't be a problem to your ruling.

It is possible that I could think of a more impractical, unachievable, close-minded, and quixotically, paradoxically, unambitious objective for a hypothetical wizard-overlord than total threat suppression.

It would, however, take me some time. That's your grand goal, what you gained all your power for? To keep yourself and everyone else scrabbling in the mud out of cowardice, when you could be reaching towards the stars? That's just... well... boring.

[Mrark]

If you are a high-level high-op wizard and you are seriously worried about mundane weapons, then it's time to hang up your pointy hat and knobbly staff in shame.

Despite their fetishisation by some of the less historically aware members of the fantasy fandom (both those who love guns and those who hate them), firearms are not 'game breakers' in a 3.5 world. (Actually, they weren't in our world either, but that's beside the point.) They are crossbows with bigger range increments, damage dice, and fire rates. If you weren't worried about a mundane's exact numbers before them - which you shouldn't have been - you're not worried about their somewhat bigger numbers after.



It is possible that I could think of a more impractical, unachievable, close-minded, and quixotically, paradoxically, unambitious objective for a hypothetical wizard-overlord than total threat suppression.

It would, however, take me some time. That's your grand goal, what you gained all your power for? To keep yourself and everyone else scrabbling in the mud out of cowardice, when you could be reaching towards the stars? That's just... well... boring.

The problem is not strictly related to my own security, but the whole world is BIG. I can't rule it all without other kings, or presidents, and everyone below them. To train an archer is ideally harder than to give a gun to a farmer and telling him to kill someone, and not everyone has my methods for staying alive.. Moreover, if the society gets to the point of creating a Nuclear bomb, even I could be threatened I guess. And nobody here wants to be threatened. My wizard's goal is to rule for his own purposes, not for making the people improve

[MaxiDuRaritry]

The problem is not strictly related to my own security, but the whole world is BIG. I can't rule it all without other kings, or presidents, and everyone below them. To train an archer is ideally harder than to give a gun to a farmer and telling him to kill someone, and not everyone has my methods for staying alive.. Moreover, if the society gets to the point of creating a Nuclear bomb, even I could be threatened I guess. And nobody here wants to be threatened. My wizard's goal is to rule for his own purposes, not for making the people improveWho in their right minds would want to rule the world when you could be unraveling the secrets of the multiverse?

There're so many much bigger and more important things.

Plus, the paperwork sucks.

[Mrark]

Who in their right minds would want to rule the world when you could be unraveling the secrets of the multiverse?


There're so many much bigger and more important things.

Plus, the paperwork sucks.



Well the idea is that, of course. But having a Command Center in the material plane, where everything is how I want, the way I want... It's cool.


Yep, it sucks

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Well the idea is that, of course. But having a Command Center in the material plane, where everything is how I want, the way I want... It's cool.

Yep, it sucksAnother point for "why should I help everyone" is PR. What better way to get people to worship you (and ascend to godhood as a result) than by giving them paradise and making sure everyone knows who did it?

[Melcar]

You're a level 17+ wizard. You can destroy entire planes of existence with some effort.


See, I've heard this on thise boards many times... Could you in detail explain how excactly you would destroy a planet?

[Gavinfoxx]

Ahem! Here are some things!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aG4P3dU6WP3pq8mW9l1qztFeNfqQHyI22oJe09i8KWw/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z9NJIs751Af3i0IEIJwCkIp9H9YFiZYZ7u-wmYVaheI/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14zilT4WGOyHM0AfpG4-GmD2FkgDg1HZ9HC1cTleQHds/edit?usp=sharing

Turn D&D into a sci fi realm! Post-scarcity with replicators, airships, transhumans, casual immortality, the works!

[Asmotherion]

Eliminate, Dominate or Allie all creatures of significant power in the setting. This is a long term goal, but totally realistic, and will ensure you have a steady source of powerfull allies, and nobody will be strong enough to resist you.

Make your own raceTM. I always like doing that when Epic Spells are on the Table.

Create some epic spells of your own.

Found your very own cult/accademy/secret society of spellcasters. In any case you want as many spellcasters available to you for the DC reduction they can contribute to your Epic Spells. They can profit by exchanging knowlage and spells with you etc.

In any case, this leads to stage 2: Expand your influence. Get Bases/Dungeons on multiple locations, and populate them with powerfull monsters loyal to you, and others with your more humanoid allies. Have at least 3-4 Stasis Clones stored in different demiplanes that only you know of.

Which finally takes us to stage 3: Inter-planar connections.
Start by gathering agents in as many Planes of Existance possible. If there is a Planetary Leader, attempt to gain their trust and allie with them. Memorise specific places on planes you can use to your advantage, such as the sea of fire for a Gate spell, or a timeless plane to recover all your spell slots in virtually one turn.

When all that is established, pursue a path of choice towards Apotheosis and turn your cult into your new church.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

See, I've heard this on thise boards many times... Could you in detail explain how excactly you would destroy a planet?

Planes I'm not so sure about (not saying it can't be done, saying I don't know how), but planets are fairly doable.

There are a couple of RAI planetkillers (as in, these are written with the clear intent that they can be used to end the world) - the most accessible is the Killing Frost of Ghulurak (DMG 115), which can be set up with a block of glacier ice, a fabricate spell, a DC25 craft check, and three symbols of insanity - or in other words, all easily within a days work for a 17th level wizard. Once set up it creates a region of deadly frost that expands 1 mile a week, the innermost mile of which casts a permanent dominate monster on everyone in it every hour to slave them to the will of the eponymous eldritch abomination. After a century this inner region also begins to expand at 1 mile a month.

Now, obviously that's going to take a good long while to end the world - about 400 years or so to cover the whole Earth in the killing frost. But the thing is, there's nothing stopping you from making more than one - the only major restriction on spamming them is the associated 15000gp material cost. (Also note that getting rid of the inner region, the Heart of Ghulurak, is bloody hard - even after the statue in the middle is destroyed, it only shrinks at 5ft radius a month, or 88 years per mile, retaining full power while it does so, and existing dominations never fade on their own.)

Another alternative is summoning an Elder Evil from the book of the same name - all of which are a fairly involved process, and likely to provoke serious opposition, but doable and fairly world ending if pulled off. Someone who's looked into the book more deeply can probably offer more detail.

If you're willing to do things that are RAW but not RAI, you have some quicker options, such as:


"Fire brought within 5 feet of a brown mold causes it to instantly double in size." Doublings can get out of hand quite quickly.
Apparently putting a sphere of annihilation at the centre of the planet would be pretty bad. For exact effects, ask someone whose degree isn't in Social and Political Science.
Link a gate or similar method of planar travel that allows unattended objects to come through to the heart of a sun. (If suns only exist on the Prime Material, you may need to link it through an intermediate plane.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

See, I've heard this on thise boards many times... Could you in detail explain how excactly you would destroy a planet?A planet, or a plane? Because both are doable in RAW.

For a planet, the rockburst spell explodes and destroys a rock of 8 cu ft or more with one casting. Earth is made of what, exactly? Note that there's no maximum volume for the spell, just a minimum one.

Not a wizard, but an ardent with an extremely high manifester level, Widen Power, the Dominant Ideal ACF, and Metapower (Widen Power) and a suitably destructive AoE power tied to them can blast and vaporize everything in an infinite radius. Just add Widen Power millions, billions, or trillions of times or more. You can stack multiple iterations of a metapsionic feat so long as you have enough power points and psionic foci, but Dominant Ideal removes the focus component and some of the additional power point expenditure, and Metapower removes the rest. Take Leadership to get such an ardent, or use spellwork to get one using dominate shenanigans, planar binding, cloning, and so on.

For a plane, throw some brown mold on the elemental plane of fire. It'll grow exponentially quickly, destroying all the fire on the plane in the process. This changes the element of fire to the element of mold. I'm not sure what this would do to the Material Plane, but it can't be a good thing.

Since the outer planes are based on the beliefs of mortals, use one (or more) of the myriad ways of changing people's thoughts, from education to Diplomancy to mind-altering magic. That, or alter everyone's alignments away from the alignment of whatever plane(s) you want to destroy using self-replicating, self-teleporting, repeating traps (or spell clocks (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cw/20070312a) with sped-up subjective time). No more Evil-aligned creatures left in the Material Plane? Say goodbye to all the lower planes. Altering everyone's alignments to one specific alignment in this way can even shift one plane onto another, turning it into another layer of that plane. Yes, the plane still exists, but it exists as a portion of another plane, destroying its identity as its own thing. Want to shift a layer of Celestia into Hell? Yeah, that's a thing that can happen.

A magic trap/spell clock similar to the above, but with disintegrate to vaporize the planet a 10' cube at a time. It expands exponentially, so it's quite hard to stop once it gets started.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

For a planet, the rockburst spell explodes and destroys a rock of 8 cu ft or more with one casting. Earth is made of what, exactly? Note that there's no maximum volume for the spell, just a minimum one.


Firstly, no - the Earth is not a single object. Even if it were, it is not a "stone object", because of all the other stuff it's also made of, so it's not a valid target for the spell.

And even if it were a single object made entirely of stone, "A spell’s range is the maximum distance from you that the spell’s effect can occur, as well as the maximum distance at which you can designate the spell’s point of origin. If any portion of the spell’s area would extend beyond this range, that area is wasted".

Rockburst has a range of 100ft + 10/level. No doubt this can be extended quite significantly, but getting it to 12,742 km might take some doing.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Firstly, no - the Earth is not a single object. Even if it were, it is not a "stone object", because of all the other stuff it's also made of, so it's not a valid target for the spell.

And even if it were a single object made entirely of stone, "A spell’s range is the maximum distance from you that the spell’s effect can occur, as well as the maximum distance at which you can designate the spell’s point of origin. If any portion of the spell’s area would extend beyond this range, that area is wasted".

Rockburst has a range of 100ft + 10/level. No doubt this can be extended quite significantly, but getting it to 12,742 km might take some doing.It destroys one stone object within range. The planet is an object.

If you target a creature for a [Death] spell and most of its body is out of range, you still kill it if the creature fails its save (or whatever other defenses the spell allows), even if you couldn't target anything but the head.

So as long as the planet is within range of the spell, and the planet is made of stone, the planet bursts. It doesn't matter if most of it is out of range, since the planet is still one target. And yes, parts of the planet aren't made of stone, but most of it is, if it's anything like Earth. The stone parts of it would be destroyed.

[Malphegor]

Here’s always my goals for sufficiently high powered wizards:

1) Create a universe that lacks magic to run as a personal sandbox to test theories about the universe’s creation. Create a lifegiving planet inside that universe and try to influence it from outside so humanoids form.

2) Destroy the Far Realm, create barriers in the Demiplane of Nightmares so the Diaboli can have a break from fighting abberations all the time.

3) Open up a fully magically automated item shop across the world that transfer all gold produced to my hoard and teleports around. Whenever someone is in need of something rare or esoteric, my shops will appear on a formerly empty wall as if they were always there.

4) Back up the Weave multiple times if it exists. Magic must be preserved and hardened for the inevitable apocalypse when the systems that permit magic to function no longer exist. Hire spell to power erudites maybe to convert all my spellbook to Power Stones embedded in the very walls of my flying castle of terror.

5) Build an immense flying castle city state the size of a small country that is faster than a mercury dragon and turns like a cow. Reinforce it so it can handle hitting things really really hard because I am fond of ramming things with my small nation at high speed. I also want a big spooky skull on the castle because just because I’m arguably a hero doesn’t mean I can’t be intimidating.

6) Societal reform. I’m inclined to leave this to my more charismatic party members but it would be a nice hobby for our minds to improve the lot of the evil-by-necessity races like drow and goblin so that they are welcomed in often good-due-to-circumstance societies and there is less need for adventurer heroes. What’s the phrase from avengers, ‘we fight so that there isn’t a fight’ I think?

7) Fix the deserts. Look at that one scorpion Inevitable right in the face and kill it ruthlessly. Deserts are bad for life. Wasteland environments are something of an affront. Only the preservation of the ashworm makes it worthwhile. and that’s just one kind of worm.

8) Make 10th and higher level spells viable. Jailbreak magic so I can access superior powers to that which I currently possess

9) Have a go at exploring space in whatever form it takes.

[Yael]

Well, a campaign I'm playing pretty much ended two days ago. I was playing a Grey Elf (Fey) Cloistered Cleric 20 // Elven Wizard 15/War Weaver 5 (gestalt rules). She dedicated her life to preserve and restore the lost temples of forgotten elven religions, so she could teach their story and collect artifacts to protect them (she built an inverted tower 100 milles underground via Stone Shape and other mundane means~), and in the end decided to grab the Landlord feat and begin building a magic school/magic tower. I was searching for some price for a flying castle or a spell to levitate a tower and found actual rules for building an Arcane School in the Quintessential Wizard II, plus some rules for Tower building in Quintessential Wizard I, and I decided to go for it.

Being one of the strongest characters in the campaign, it was really easy (I also abused Shapechange, especially the Chonotyrim and the Cavernous Demon, plus some Greater Metamagic Rod of Extend and Divine Metamagic to get an Extended Empowered Maximized Time Stop, spamming actions and pre-buffing my entire party with my War Weaver class features), and as we're continuing into epic play, I can advice to build yourself a legacy, I already started crafting a Mythal to protect my tower, and several other epic spells to aid.

TL;DR: Build yourself a legacy, become immortal not by persisting the flesh, but by expanding the knowledge you've adquired into the youngest minds and prepare the future generations to wield your power via the knowledge they got from you.