How to Shield the Earth

[Emperor Tippy]

To get Telekinetic Sphere to have a diameter capable on enclosing the entire earth requires a Caster Level of 23,018,202.

Now this may seem impossible, but it's not.

Step 1: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 20).
Step 2: Gate in 10 rats.
Step 3: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 30).
Step 4: Gate in 15 rats.
Step 5: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 45).
Step 6: Gate in 22 rats.
Step 7: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 67).
Step 8: Gate in 33 rats.
Step 9: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 90).
Step 10: Gate in 45 rats.
Step 11: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 135).
Step 12: Gate in 67 rats.
Step 13: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 202).
Step 14: Gate in 101 rats.
Step 15: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 303).
Step 16: Gate in 151 rats.
Step 17: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 454).
Step 18: Gate in 229 rats.
Repeat until your CL is high enough (39th casting of GCF)

Or for a quicker way:
Step 1: Gate in an Effertie.
Step 2: Have the Effertie Wish you up a scroll of GCF at CL 48,000,000 (legal).
Step 3: Have the Efferie Wish you up a scroll of gate at CL 6,000,000
Step 4: Shapechange into a Lilitu.
Step 5: Use the Scroll of GCF.
Step 6: Use the scroll of gate to gate in 24,000,000 rats.
Step 7: Cast Telekinetic Sphere around the planet.

Or for the quickest way:
Step 1: Gate in a Solar.
Step 2: Wish for a CL 24,000,000 scroll of TK Sphere.
Step 3: Shapechange into a Lilitu.
Step 5: Use the scroll of TK sphere.


So if your DM ever wants you to stop a comet or asteroid from hitting the planet, now you know how.

[Albonor]

Wait, you can wish for something requiring a greater caster level than you have? I thought it was implied that you could not...

[Recaiden]

Why a lilitu? I admit, i don't know what that is.

[NEO|Phyte]

Why a lilitu? I admit, i don't know what that is.

I'm guessing it has an ability that lets it autosucceed on UMD checks, because you'd need one hell of a modifier to it to use one of those scrolls.

[Emperor Tippy]

Why a lilitu? I admit, i don't know what that is.

Fiendish Codex 1. Has the Item Use (Ex) ability, which lets you auto-succeed on any UMD check.

I'm guessing it has an ability that lets it autosucceed on UMD checks, because you'd need one hell of a modifier to it to use one of those scrolls.

Correct.

[Fizban]

Why not just Shapechange into a Zodar and wish it up yourself?

[Emperor Tippy]

Why not just Shapechange into a Zodar and wish it up yourself?

Zodar is in MM2. Which is 3.0. Much better to use 3.5 approved methods.

[JeminiZero]

Rather than gate in all those rats. You could just use (or hire someone with)the Chicken Infested feat.

[Emperor Tippy]

Rather than gate in all those rats. You could just use (or hire someone with)the Chicken Infested feat.

Yeah, there are lots of things you can do with unlimited chickens.

[DigoDragon]

So if your DM ever wants you to stop a comet or asteroid from hitting the planet, now you know how.

Or imprison the populous akin to the slave shields of Star Control 2?

[Arakune]

why the scroll are legal?

[Tengu_temp]

why the scroll are legal?

They are legal by RAW, in the same way that by RAW you can perform actions while dead, because it doesn't say you can't.

[detrevnisisiht]

......Why do I have the feeling that my eyes are about to explode from the awesome I just read?

*pop* O God!!! They burn with the flaming heat of the supernova that the planet was just saved from!

Congratulations tippy, you win as many cookies as you can fit in that thing.

[Griffin131]

They are legal by RAW, in the same way that by RAW you can perform actions while dead, because it doesn't say you can't.

No, theyre legal because of the wording on Wish, and the wording on scroll creation.

Its not that id doesn't say you can't, in fact Wish says you can wish for any magic item and scrolls don't limit the caster level you scribe them as. So someone could do the GCF+rat trick, get a massive CL and then scribe the scroll. Using Wish to duplicate that is just a shortcut.

[Douglas]

Step 1: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 20).
Step 2: Gate in 10 rats.
Step 3: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 30).
Step 4: Gate in 15 rats.
Step 5: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 45).
Step 6: Gate in 22 rats.
Step 7: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 67).
Step 8: Gate in 33 rats.
Step 9: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 90).
Step 10: Gate in 45 rats.
Step 11: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 135).
Step 12: Gate in 67 rats.
Step 13: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 202).
Step 14: Gate in 101 rats.
Step 15: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 303).
Step 16: Gate in 151 rats.
Step 17: Cast Greater Consumptive Field (at a CL of 454).
Step 18: Gate in 229 rats.
Repeat until your CL is high enough (39th casting of GCF)

Haven't we gone over this before, Tippy? Greater Consumptive Field's caster level bonus does not stack with itself, and the best you can normally get out of repeated castings of it is a mere doubling of your pre-GCF caster level.

[D Knight]

whats with all the rats? whats the reason for all the rats because i am missing something and that annoys me.

[Were-Sandwich]

I'm guessing Greater Consumptive Field needs something to consume.

[kamikasei]

Haven't we gone over this before, Tippy? Greater Consumptive Field's caster level bonus does not stack with itself, and the best you can normally get out of repeated castings of it is a mere doubling of your pre-GCF caster level.

What's the wording on GCF? It might be possible to achieve the same increase more slowly even with non-stacking bonuses.

BTW, Tippy, I think you have an error in your math there. If I'm reading the progression right, step 9 should give you a CL of 67+33=100, not 90.

[OverWilliam]

*sniff* That's some tasty smelling cheese you got there, Tippy.

I don't know about anybody else, but if I was the DM and somebody tried this one I would rule that in order to cast that much higher level a spell from a scroll, you need more magic script to power it. This isn't a problem at lower levels (1-20) because you can use more potent runes to squeeze more power into a standard sized scroll, but as you go on increasing the power at some point you need to increase the amount script powering the massive spell. Therefore, in order to power a TK sphere that big, you'd need a scroll proportionately similar to the amount of script you'd need to cast one with a regular scroll. I don't know the exact math there, I'll leave it up to you guys if you want to Complete the Geek on that one, but that would be a pretty big scroll.

[Douglas]

What's the wording on GCF? It might be possible to achieve the same increase more slowly even with non-stacking bonuses.

Nope. GCF's caster level bonus is capped at half the caster level of the GCF. If your normal caster level is X, once you get the bonus to X and the total to X+X = 2X, the bonus from casting it again is just 2X/2 = X, no bigger than what you already have.

[NecroRebel]

Nope. GCF's caster level bonus is capped at half the caster level of the GCF. If your normal caster level is X, once you get the bonus to X and the total to X+X = 2X, the bonus from casting it again is just 2X/2 = X, no bigger than what you already have.

That isn't quite true, though GCF can't actually give infinite CL. GCF gives a CL bonus equal to ((2^n-1)/2^n)X, where n is the number of times you've nested GCFs and X is your original caster level, so you can get up to just under double your original caster level, but no higher.

Because bonuses from the same source don't stack, that means that the bonus from GCF always adds only to your original caster level (or your caster level after non-GCF bonuses of a different type), but the actual cap for GCF does still reference the increased CL from having cast GCF.

It does mean that particular method doesn't actually work, but the other two methods were quicker and easier anyway.



I do wonder, though... If you plan on stopping something with a TK-Sphere, why surround the whole planet? Unless the thing threatening you is coming from all sides or will actively move around any obstacles in its path, you could probably get the same defensive power with a moon-sized TK-Sphere on whatever side the threat is coming from. Do it that way, and your CL would have to be less than a quarter that for the whole planet.

[OverWilliam]

Do it that way, and your CL would have to be less than a quarter that for the whole planet.

Surrounding your entire planet with a protective barrier is just too cool NOT to do. Even if it could easily be taken care of in moderation (relatively speaking) putting a Bubble around the whole thing increases the awesome by orders of magnitude.

[kamikasei]

Nope. GCF's caster level bonus is capped at half the caster level of the GCF. If your normal caster level is X, once you get the bonus to X and the total to X+X = 2X, the bonus from casting it again is just 2X/2 = X, no bigger than what you already have.

Checked it, you're right. Well, actually NecroRebel's right.

[Pirate_King]

isn't that kind of a waste of magic, anyway, just to stop a comet? Why do you have to cover the entire planet? if you've got the resources to do all that, then you've got the resources to figure the comets exact trajectory, which you could stop or deflect with a good sized wall of force.

[Copacetic]

You could stop the same asteroid with a few immovable rods. Just stick them in fornt of it and press the button.

[Prophaniti]

Well, if GCF can't give a high enough CL, that kills the other two methods too, because it isn't possible to make a scroll of TK Sphere or GCF with a sufficient caster level (I mean at all, which means no wishing for it, it can't be done). So... More cheese, please, let's see if anyone can work around that.

[Irreverent Fool]

You could stop the same asteroid with a few immovable rods. Just stick them in fornt of it and press the button.

Immovable rods aren't immovable.

An immovable rod can support up to 8,000 pounds before falling to the ground

A comet weighs more than 8,000 pounds.

*sniff* That's some tasty smelling cheese you got there, Tippy.

I don't know about anybody else, but if I was the DM and somebody tried this one I would rule that in order to cast that much higher level a spell from a scroll, you need more magic script to power it. This isn't a problem at lower levels (1-20) because you can use more potent runes to squeeze more power into a standard sized scroll, but as you go on increasing the power at some point you need to increase the amount script powering the massive spell. Therefore, in order to power a TK sphere that big, you'd need a scroll proportionately similar to the amount of script you'd need to cast one with a regular scroll. I don't know the exact math there, I'll leave it up to you guys if you want to Complete the Geek on that one, but that would be a pretty big scroll.

If I was the DM and somebody tried this seriously I would stop DM'ing.

"If I was the DM..." has no place in these kinds of discussions. You know that.

Putting a bubble around the planet is just plain awesome though. People asking "why bother just to stop a comet" clearly don't see the big picture.

[OverWilliam]

"If I was the DM..." has no place in these kinds of discussions. You know that.

...Well I do now.

[FMArthur]

I wonder what kind of weather disasters this would cause if you didn't do it far out enough.

[OverWilliam]

^ That's why we're rounding at 24 MILLION for the CL instead of just over 23 million that the actual math works out close to. That would be quite interesting, though, I wonder what kind of stuff one could intentionally mess with using that one...