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View Full Version : Wanted: A little Help Building an Army of One...



Armoury99
2008-02-22, 07:27 PM
Greetings fellow Stickites (trust me, its better than 'sticklers'), I'm requesting a little help from those more ruleswise and of superior supplimentelligence than I:

I have recently begun work on a new villain, whose 'shtick' (if you'll pardon the pun) is that he's an army of one. Former member of an ultra-lawful organisation, this person of such awesome egotism that he literally believes everyone should be him instead of themselves. He's out to conquer the world (or in his mind, perfect it in his own image), and his plan is to conquer the world by producing an army made up of clones/simulacra-type beings of himself, replacing its current population with reproductions of himself.

Naturally at about this point in my brainstorming session, I suddenly realised who my villain actually was....

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p167/anthem2521/agent_smith_poses04.jpg

:smallannoyed:

Oh dear, I thought (with a slightly more colourful metaphor in the place of 'dear'), so much for originality. But hey, I suppose I can fix/hide that with enough time and investment in his background. So.... in the meantime, I've been trying to work out how he'd achieve his aim mechanically. Simulacrum's a decent start, but how do I get the rest of my Army of One? Sugests please. There only restriction/guide to my DMing style are below:

What's acceptable?

Innovative use of existing spells- Yes
Inventing new magic to do this - Yes, as long as its cooler than the new spell: 'Create Army of Replicas'
Blatant world-breaking cheese - No

I suck at working out things like this, so please help - or if you can't help just feel free to send me money :smallbiggrin:

(thanks in advance)

Icewalker
2008-02-22, 08:02 PM
Hmm, I like that villain idea. And it sounds like he is different enough from Smith that it isn't that bad. Smith had a more specific purpose, I didn't see the connection (although I'm not a huge Matrix buff) until you showed it. So as long as you make his character not reminiscent of Smith in personality or looks, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I find that this kind of thing seems to happen relatively often. I was working on the Arabic desert region of my campaign world, figured out a cool villain who was the smart plotter type, and decided he would be trying to mess with government, and would probably be high up, and oh crap I just made an evil Vizier! After this I kept thinking and decided that perhaps his top minion would be the one who messed in politics for him, while he hung out hidden in the wastes. Thinking about his top servant and his personality, it would probably be some kind of weak-looking oh crap I just made Wormtongue!

Edit: Oh yeah, also, it's Forumites. :smallbiggrin:

Jack_Simth
2008-02-22, 08:45 PM
Mind Seed (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/mindSeed.htm) costs a lot of XP, but it does what you want. Hmm... is there a "Chain Power" feat out there?

BisectedBrioche
2008-02-22, 08:45 PM
These spells and psionic abilities might be worth noting;


Animate Dead (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/animateDead.htm) - Raises corpses as an undead
Create Undead (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/createUndead.htm) -More powerful version of animate dead
Mind Seed (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/mindSeed.htm) - Psionic power which replaces victim's mind with a copy of the caster's over a week
Polymorph (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/polymorph.htm) - Transforms target into another creature.


Maybe if all of those were used in a specific way (maybe a ritual) the villain could turn a random corpse into a perfect copy of themself? Or maybe a hombrew spell along the lines of;

Create Clone [Evil]
Level: Wiz/Sor 9
Components: V, S, M, XP
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: Touch
Target: One corpse of the same type as the caster which is mostly intact
Duration: 7 days/permanent
Saving Thow: None
Spell Resistance: No

The caster transforms a corpse into a living copy of themselves. This copy has the same memories, thoughts, etc as the caster. For all intents and purposes they are the caster, although they are a separate individual. When the spell is cast the change slowly occurs over up to a week. Over the first day the corpse has any damage repaired. Over the remaining 6 days the corpse gains any scars, or other enviromental features of the caster (including injuries) and changes to match the appearence of the caster in the order: Age category, race, gender, hair/eye colour/skin tone, weight/height, enviromental features (scars, tattos, etc). If the corpse already shares any of these traits with the caster then the time this change takes is reduced by a day. At the end of the final day the clone awakes with all the memories of the caster at the point where they began to cast the spell. The new clone retains the HD of the creature it was created from (to a maximum HD of the caster's spell level). The creature which the body formerly belonged to has essentually had their old body destroyed and can only be brought back by a spell which creates a new one.

Material Component: A black onyx gem worth 100gp per the creature's HD crush and mixed with a pint of the caster's blood. A few drops of this mixture is placed in an empty cocoon which is then placed in the corpses' mouth. The rest is rubbed onto the surface of the corpse. 1500XP.

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll
2008-02-22, 09:47 PM
Transforming a corpse, that's just sick and awesome. Use that one.

tyckspoon
2008-02-22, 10:22 PM
Create a 'cursed' Mirror of Opposition? Every X hours it recharges with the ability to create a perfect duplicate of the next living thing to stand in front of it. For greater evil and difficulty in use (so you don't get a situation where there's no apparent way for this guy to fail before somebody intervenes) maybe require a blood sacrifice. Splatter it with some sentient being's blood, and it attempts to polymorph (Fort and/or Will save) that being into a perfect duplicate of the mirror's creator. Probably with a subordination clause to keep the duplicates in line, if you don't want to get a Two Rimmers situation.