[3.5] Recreating Operation Valkyrie?

[RMS Oceanic]

Having watched Valkyrie recently (Good movie, in spite of Tom Cruise), I thought it would be interesting to try and recreate the July 20 Plot for PCs to try and execute.

The summary of the plan:

Spoiler

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The Original Operation Valkyrie was a Military Operation designed to secure Adolf Hitler's Goverment should he be killed or otherwise isolated, wherein the Army Reserves would sieze control of Government buildings in each region of the Reich in order to maintain control. The conspirators managed to get it revised so that the SS were not included in these plans, and the Reserves would focus on controlling Berlin, as the rest of the Reich would follow whatever Berlin ordered anyway. After blowing up Hitler with a bomb, Operation Valkyrie would be executed, and SS/Nazi members would be arrested. The reserves would believe they were upholding the Government of the Reich, while the conspirators would install a Government that could negotiate with the Allies.

Of course, for want of open windows and table legs, Hitler survived the bomb and retained control, and we all missed out on an opportunity to end the war nine months earlier.

I thought that if one stripped away all the Swastikas and flavoured it accordingly, this could make for an interesting mission in a military/political campaign, the success or failure of which would drastically alter the course of fate for the PCs. How would you plan it? Obviously some sort of Delayed Fireball variant for the bomb...

[AslanCross]

An active spell might not be such a good idea. The lowest-level Wizard could easily ping a hidden delayed blast fireball with detect magic. Also considering that fireball doesn't detonate with any pressure, any fire protection spells are likely to absorb most of the damage.

Even explosive runes might be thwarted if the leader is paranoid enough, but I think it might be better (the reader isn't entitled to a save). The problem is it doesn't deal as much damage.

[JeminiZero]

Even explosive runes might be thwarted if the leader is paranoid enough, but I think it might be better (the reader isn't entitled to a save). The problem is it doesn't deal as much damage.

ONE explosive runes won't do much damage. But you can scribe a whole book full of them (lets say 300 pages) for 1200d6 damage, save for half (which is probably insta-kill even if he saves).

Mysteriously, while everything within 10 foot of the book drops dead, anything 15 feet away is entirely unharmed, which means that positioning your bomb is off utmost importance.

[RMS Oceanic]

I had also hit on the idea of ensuring the backup plan: In the Plot, if the bomb didn't work, it was still vital to isolate the target to stop counter-orders getting out and proceed with the coup anyway, since you were pretty much guilty of treason. I thought of adding a device that conjures a Prismatic Sphere in the area of the blast, so even if he doesn't survive, he'll have difficulty getting anywhere in a hurry.

[Zergrusheddie]

Explosive Runes are one of the easiest spells to abuse. I had my Wizard do nothing but cast like 15 explosive runes a day (through the use of metamagics) whenever we were traveling to an area. Throw book at dragon, dispel magic on book, purposeful fail, boom. Strangely, the DM never let me do it again.
I digress.

Explosive Runes and Delayed Bust Fireball are the quintessential explosive traps. Contingency-Cone of Cold x3 (make it so they go off at a certain time) would work wonders if you made it affect objects, otherwise Mr. Wizard is basically running in with a backpack bomb, and I doubt he wants to do that. The DMG also gives rules for Magical Traps; Cloudkill and Grease would make an awesome Nerve Gas Bomb. Be sure to cast Magical Aura on anything: If magic exists, than people would throw a Detect Magic to be sure that you aren't bringing a magical trap into the office.

Your players may not want to actually play this scenario out though, on account of the mission failing and the conspirators being killed and all.

Best of luck
-Eddie

[loopy]

The other trick would be to convince the players to assassinate the guy using an explosive and not boldly stride into the room to slay him like every other BBEG they have probably faced thusfar.