Lyinginbedmon
2007-12-29, 04:40 PM
I've just been running a scenario of a Drow settlement in the cavernous Underdark versus a group of refugee Dwarves, and I've hit upon an interesting concept.
If we apply Greater Glyph of Warding (6th Cleric, 400 GP material component) to a regular piece of paper (But be certain to make the paper the location of the glyph within it's area, effectively so it can be moved, you can just apply it straight to the cavern ceiling if you can get there), make it a spell glyph with Earth Reaver and set the conditions to target any creature that doesn't speak a certain password (Let's say, "Ooh that tickles").
We then apply 20 of them to the cavern ceiling (We could do more, but this should be enough, if not overkill). Stick them close together over a 15 ft. area on the cave ceiling.
Now to light our match. We use Enlarged Summon Monster I (Though any will work as long as you can cast them) and put our summoned creature in the range of the glyphs (19 ft. away maximum because of Earth Reaver's 20 ft. area). Obviously, don't tell the summoned creature what the password is.
The result is that the entire selection of glyphs over that area goes off, causing 4d6 untyped damage abd 3d6 points of fire damage per glyph to our unfortunate creature and, more importantly, the ceiling because it's in the area affected by Earth Reaver.
That's a subtotal of 160d6+60d6 (Due to half damage to objects with fire) or a grand total of 220d6 (MAM 220/770/1320), easily enough to blast through the ceiling.
This causes a distinct structural issue in the ceiling, causing it (As any good DM will tell you) to collapse. Obviously, this is something an 11th level Cleric can pull off, alone if necessary. This still seems a distinct theory for "Why [Name of underground species] settlements shouldn't exist"
If we apply Greater Glyph of Warding (6th Cleric, 400 GP material component) to a regular piece of paper (But be certain to make the paper the location of the glyph within it's area, effectively so it can be moved, you can just apply it straight to the cavern ceiling if you can get there), make it a spell glyph with Earth Reaver and set the conditions to target any creature that doesn't speak a certain password (Let's say, "Ooh that tickles").
We then apply 20 of them to the cavern ceiling (We could do more, but this should be enough, if not overkill). Stick them close together over a 15 ft. area on the cave ceiling.
Now to light our match. We use Enlarged Summon Monster I (Though any will work as long as you can cast them) and put our summoned creature in the range of the glyphs (19 ft. away maximum because of Earth Reaver's 20 ft. area). Obviously, don't tell the summoned creature what the password is.
The result is that the entire selection of glyphs over that area goes off, causing 4d6 untyped damage abd 3d6 points of fire damage per glyph to our unfortunate creature and, more importantly, the ceiling because it's in the area affected by Earth Reaver.
That's a subtotal of 160d6+60d6 (Due to half damage to objects with fire) or a grand total of 220d6 (MAM 220/770/1320), easily enough to blast through the ceiling.
This causes a distinct structural issue in the ceiling, causing it (As any good DM will tell you) to collapse. Obviously, this is something an 11th level Cleric can pull off, alone if necessary. This still seems a distinct theory for "Why [Name of underground species] settlements shouldn't exist"