Electromagnetic blast in Eberron but effecting Magic [Archive] - Wizards Community

Electromagnetic blast in Eberron but effecting Magic [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
REN
10-27-05, 01:22 PM I was watching TV the other day and ideas kept popping up in my head for a D&D adventure hook. One that sticks out alot is how an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) can effectively disable our modern elctronic gadgets, and what a similar but magical pulse like device can do in a world that relies on Magic for it's technology.

I was thinking of having the PCs explore a part of Sharn that has had some rather unexplained magical outages. Examples may mean failing lifts, and blocked toilets (ahhh.... ideas from another thread I started concerning magical toilets). The outages could come from someone or some group that is performing tests on a new sort of MEGA WEAPON that can disable magical devices in a fixed radius. Eventually this magic item can do something as big as shut down an entire fleet of Airships - just imagine the number of crashes! Or just cause pure havok in a city such as Sharn - no more lifts, running water, etc... .

Anyhow, the adventure itself is something I'll throw together once I've completed my current one, but I was hoping for ideas from the community.

thanks!

Hmmmm... perhaps that's what happened in the Mournland!
Endgame50
10-27-05, 01:32 PM A giant mordenkainen's disjunction. The regular sort is nasty enough.

That being said... skyway will probably come crashing down.
Thrincold
10-27-05, 01:40 PM A giant eldrich machine that performs a retain essance on all magic items in a radius. Its being used to feed some sort of war machine for one group or another. Remember in sharn, that the towers themselves would fall if magic was negated.
ekomega
10-27-05, 01:42 PM Mordenkainen's Disjunction is so powerful that it would make a great terrorist eldritch machine if anyone could improve the radius significantly. As the spell stands, it would have a devastating effect if used in Sharn.
DarkWarriorKarg
10-27-05, 01:57 PM Prehaps someone is laying the groundwork for an endritch machine capable of using the anient epic spell, Oppenheimer's Thermonuclear Resolution.
deClench
10-27-05, 02:12 PM Um... why not just keep it as a temp effect. The "pulse" SUPPRESSES all magic items within radius for 1d6 rounds or something to that effect. It's a great idea. Not to say you can't still have your epic level M's Area Disjunction and eat it too, but I certainly haven't played much epic level stuff.

I guess it would be like a ginped antimagic field. The items wouldn't work (save or no?) temporarily, but it's not a persistent effect so spells could be cast within radius.
jonthegm
10-27-05, 02:32 PM Antimagic Bubble
Abjuration
Level: Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 7
Components: V, S, M/DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25ft + 5ft/lvl)
Area: 10-ft.-radius emanation
Duration: 10 min./level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: See text

An invisible barrier springs up centered at the location designated, and this barrier is immobile. The space within this barrier is impervious to most magical effects, including spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities. Likewise, it prevents the functioning of any magic items or spells within its confines.

An antimagic bubble suppresses any spell or magical effect used within, brought into, or cast into the area, but does not dispel it. Time spent within an antimagic bubble counts against the suppressed spell’s duration.

Summoned creatures of any type and incorporeal creatures wink out if they enter an antimagic bubble. They reappear in the same spot once the field goes away. Time spent winked out counts normally against the duration of the conjuration that is maintaining the creature. If you cast antimagic bubble in an area occupied by a summoned creature that has spell resistance, you must make a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) against the creature’s spell resistance to make it wink out. (The effects of instantaneous conjurations are not affected by an antimagic bubble because the conjuration itself is no longer in effect, only its result.)

A normal creature can enter the area, as can normal missiles. Furthermore, while a magic sword does not function magically within the area, it is still a sword (and a masterwork sword at that). The spell has no effect on golems and other constructs that are imbued with magic during their creation process and are thereafter self-supporting (unless they have been summoned, in which case they are treated like any other summoned creatures). Elementals, corporeal undead, and outsiders are likewise unaffected unless summoned. These creatures’ spell-like or supernatural abilities, however, may be temporarily nullified by the bubble. Dispel magic does not remove the bubble, though Mage's Disjunction might.

Two or more antimagic bubbles sharing any of the same space have no effect on each other. Certain spells, such as wall of force, prismatic sphere, and prismatic wall, remain unaffected by antimagic bubble (see the individual spell descriptions). Artifacts and deities are unaffected by mortal magic such as this.

Should a creature be larger than the area enclosed by the barrier, any part of it that lies outside the barrier is unaffected by the bubble.

Arcane Material Component
A pinch of powdered iron or iron filings.
REN
10-27-05, 02:45 PM WOW! I didn't want the total destruction of Sharn, but with Skyway falling... ayyyyy!

The idea of chasing after someone with this stolen 'nuke' is intriguing. Perhaps a sort of race to stop a runnaway lightening rail loaded with this artifact!

oooh-ahhh. I can just see the excitement in that chase.
jonthegm
10-27-05, 02:55 PM Antimagic Grenade

This 4'' cold-iron ball seems heavier than normal. It is activated by giving it two good squeezes around the middle of the ball. One round later, an Antimagic Field goes off, centered around the ball. After the spell wears off, the ball crumbles to dust.

Moderate Abjuration; CL 11th; Craft Wondrous Item, Antimagic Field; Price 3300 gp; Weight 0.5 lb.
Radkres
10-27-05, 03:51 PM How about a device that absorbs magic in its area once it has charged with enough magic it explodes using the magic it has absorbed as the blast wave as it covers the area with microscopic dragon shards that contaminate the area with magic deadening effects. Until cleaned up the area in magically and psion dead. Any magic or Psion device or person etc must be manually cleaned of this dampening material. This gives you the ability to have dead areas and the problem of getting the stuff off.
makeshiftwings
10-27-05, 03:55 PM I was also thinking Mordenkainen's Disjunction. It really is the magical equivalent of an EMP.
Just another user
10-27-05, 08:39 PM A giant mordenkainen's disjunction. The regular sort is nasty enough.

That being said... skyway will probably come crashing down.

I think they have set up some contingency spell for such situation, I don't remember the rules, but I think a contingented spell can't be dispelled, nor dijuncted before it is activated.

But probablty nothing definitive, something like an extra empovered, widened extended Feather fall to give the time to evacuate the people over and under Skyway.
Edymnion
10-27-05, 09:29 PM Um, you get the same effect by just casting Dispel Magic or Greater Dispel Magic on a magical item. Surpresses it's magical effects for 1d6 rounds.

All you need is an item that will do area dispells.
SpyGuy
10-27-05, 09:45 PM Didn't that Glass Tower that was taken out by terrorists fall due to something like a Disjunction?
ekomega
10-27-05, 10:19 PM No, it was something else. I can't remember which magazine it was in, but it had to do with an imprisoned Radiant Idol and his anti-fly spell radius.
Tek
10-27-05, 10:37 PM Imagine this:

I huge eldritch machine that powers out a huge disjunction, and everything that get's disjuncted is powered back to the machine which does something akin 'retain essence', and it uses the energy from the retain essence to power the field further, thus creating something that... never stops growing.

The first disjunction powers a small field from the retain essence, anything caught in the new field gets disjuncted (sp?) and its essence goes on to expand the area of the machine, and then all the items in the new area get disjuncted, then those power it.. and the area would increase exponentially, because the bigger the field the more the items, thus creating a bigger field, until finally, all of Eberron is covered in the field and everything is... back to the dark ages? Mwhahahaha!
Pinky's brain
10-27-05, 10:38 PM Um, you get the same effect by just casting Dispel Magic or Greater Dispel Magic on a magical item. Surpresses it's magical effects for 1d6 rounds.

All you need is an item that will do area dispells.Only when an item is specifically targeted does it get surpressed. There is really no good way to surpress magic items, apart from an AMF. That's one of the reasons my DM changed MDJ's disjunction effect on items into a surpressing one.
Edymnion
10-27-05, 11:17 PM Okay, so we just need to make up a Dispell, Mass spell. Same as dispell, but it affects everything in the area as if it were targetted :)
thebassu
10-27-05, 11:28 PM How about a device that absorbs magic

A magic item that absorbs magic. The Artificer can then retain essence on that magic without destroying the item.

Or...

An item that absorbs magical spells then can be used as a 1-use aoe offensive item. 1d6 for every level of spell that was absorbed.
Nurgan_the_drunked
10-28-05, 04:14 AM A magic item that absorbs magic. The Artificer can then retain essence on that magic without destroying the item.

Or...

An item that absorbs magical spells then can be used as a 1-use aoe offensive item. 1d6 for every level of spell that was absorbed.
This sets up a nice plot in my mind. Innocent artificer makes the device as a way to absorb latent magic energy around him. Doesn't realise at first that it nullifies magic items. Bad guys get wind of item, steal item, prepare to boost power. Heroes get called in to investigate artificers murder, find villains just as their preparing their big showdown: an anti magic field on a major magical support structure in Sharn....
makeshiftwings
10-28-05, 12:45 PM Imagine this:

I huge eldritch machine that powers out a huge disjunction, and everything that get's disjuncted is powered back to the machine which does something akin 'retain essence', and it uses the energy from the retain essence to power the field further, thus creating something that... never stops growing.

The first disjunction powers a small field from the retain essence, anything caught in the new field gets disjuncted (sp?) and its essence goes on to expand the area of the machine, and then all the items in the new area get disjuncted, then those power it.. and the area would increase exponentially, because the bigger the field the more the items, thus creating a bigger field, until finally, all of Eberron is covered in the field and everything is... back to the dark ages? Mwhahahaha!

So that's what happened to Cyre...
The Fireballed Mage
10-29-05, 12:56 AM ECS page 273. Eldritch Machine: Spell Sink. quote, "... this black orb blankets a 3-mile radius with an antimagic field." unquote.

Go wild. :D
stone_dog
10-29-05, 02:08 PM No, it was something else. I can't remember which magazine it was in, but it had to do with an imprisoned Radiant Idol and his anti-fly spell radius.
It was a petrified Radiant Idol. The curse is so powerful that even the calcified body of an Idol negates flight magic.
Endgame50
11-01-05, 01:27 PM I think they have set up some contingency spell for such situation, I don't remember the rules, but I think a contingented spell can't be dispelled, nor dijuncted before it is activated.

But probablty nothing definitive, something like an extra empovered, widened extended Feather fall to give the time to evacuate the people over and under Skyway.

Contingencies have no special immunity to being dispelled. A disjoining would take it out just like any other magical effect.
ekomega
11-01-05, 01:40 PM It was a petrified Radiant Idol. The curse is so powerful that even the calcified body of an Idol negates flight magic.

I was being intentionally vague, so as to provide an idea for someone without spelling out what they can go look for in a magazine.
Urko
11-01-05, 03:54 PM RE: The Glass Tower falls

I believe that despite the fact that Keith Baker wrote the adventure in question, he has still stated that that's just one possible explanation. The timing could have been coincidental, or related to the actual cause of the tower's crash.

Getting back to the original topic, I love the idea of AMP (Anti-Magic Pulse) as terrorist weapon. This hook goes to the top of the list of nasty things to spring on my players once they finally hit the City of Towers (they should be high enough level to deal with it by then). I've got a mad artificer NPC I've been working on who would make the perfect hapless, well-meaning creator of devices that threaten life as we know it.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
REN 10-27-05, 01:22 PM	I was watching TV the other day and ideas kept popping up in my head for a D&D adventure hook. One that sticks out alot is how an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) can effectively disable our modern elctronic gadgets, and what a similar but magical pulse like device can do in a world that relies on Magic for it's technology. I was thinking of having the PCs explore a part of Sharn that has had some rather unexplained magical outages. Examples may mean failing lifts, and blocked toilets (ahhh.... ideas from another thread I started concerning magical toilets). The outages could come from someone or some group that is performing tests on a new sort of MEGA WEAPON that can disable magical devices in a fixed radius. Eventually this magic item can do something as big as shut down an entire fleet of Airships - just imagine the number of crashes! Or just cause pure havok in a city such as Sharn - no more lifts, running water, etc... . Anyhow, the adventure itself is something I'll throw together once I've completed my current one, but I was hoping for ideas from the community. thanks! Hmmmm... perhaps that's what happened in the Mournland!
Endgame50 10-27-05, 01:32 PM	A giant mordenkainen's disjunction. The regular sort is nasty enough. That being said... skyway will probably come crashing down.
Thrincold 10-27-05, 01:40 PM	A giant eldrich machine that performs a retain essance on all magic items in a radius. Its being used to feed some sort of war machine for one group or another. Remember in sharn, that the towers themselves would fall if magic was negated.
ekomega 10-27-05, 01:42 PM	Mordenkainen's Disjunction is so powerful that it would make a great terrorist eldritch machine if anyone could improve the radius significantly. As the spell stands, it would have a devastating effect if used in Sharn.
DarkWarriorKarg 10-27-05, 01:57 PM	Prehaps someone is laying the groundwork for an endritch machine capable of using the anient epic spell, Oppenheimer's Thermonuclear Resolution.
deClench 10-27-05, 02:12 PM	Um... why not just keep it as a temp effect. The "pulse" SUPPRESSES all magic items within radius for 1d6 rounds or something to that effect. It's a great idea. Not to say you can't still have your epic level M's Area Disjunction and eat it too, but I certainly haven't played much epic level stuff. I guess it would be like a ginped antimagic field. The items wouldn't work (save or no?) temporarily, but it's not a persistent effect so spells could be cast within radius.
jonthegm 10-27-05, 02:32 PM	Antimagic Bubble Abjuration Level: Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 7 Components: V, S, M/DF Casting Time: 1 standard action Range: Close (25ft + 5ft/lvl) Area: 10-ft.-radius emanation Duration: 10 min./level (D) Saving Throw: None Spell Resistance: See text An invisible barrier springs up centered at the location designated, and this barrier is immobile. The space within this barrier is impervious to most magical effects, including spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities. Likewise, it prevents the functioning of any magic items or spells within its confines. An antimagic bubble suppresses any spell or magical effect used within, brought into, or cast into the area, but does not dispel it. Time spent within an antimagic bubble counts against the suppressed spell’s duration. Summoned creatures of any type and incorporeal creatures wink out if they enter an antimagic bubble. They reappear in the same spot once the field goes away. Time spent winked out counts normally against the duration of the conjuration that is maintaining the creature. If you cast antimagic bubble in an area occupied by a summoned creature that has spell resistance, you must make a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) against the creature’s spell resistance to make it wink out. (The effects of instantaneous conjurations are not affected by an antimagic bubble because the conjuration itself is no longer in effect, only its result.) A normal creature can enter the area, as can normal missiles. Furthermore, while a magic sword does not function magically within the area, it is still a sword (and a masterwork sword at that). The spell has no effect on golems and other constructs that are imbued with magic during their creation process and are thereafter self-supporting (unless they have been summoned, in which case they are treated like any other summoned creatures). Elementals, corporeal undead, and outsiders are likewise unaffected unless summoned. These creatures’ spell-like or supernatural abilities, however, may be temporarily nullified by the bubble. Dispel magic does not remove the bubble, though Mage's Disjunction might. Two or more antimagic bubbles sharing any of the same space have no effect on each other. Certain spells, such as wall of force, prismatic sphere, and prismatic wall, remain unaffected by antimagic bubble (see the individual spell descriptions). Artifacts and deities are unaffected by mortal magic such as this. Should a creature be larger than the area enclosed by the barrier, any part of it that lies outside the barrier is unaffected by the bubble. Arcane Material Component A pinch of powdered iron or iron filings.
REN 10-27-05, 02:45 PM	WOW! I didn't want the total destruction of Sharn, but with Skyway falling... ayyyyy! The idea of chasing after someone with this stolen 'nuke' is intriguing. Perhaps a sort of race to stop a runnaway lightening rail loaded with this artifact! oooh-ahhh. I can just see the excitement in that chase.
jonthegm 10-27-05, 02:55 PM	Antimagic Grenade This 4'' cold-iron ball seems heavier than normal. It is activated by giving it two good squeezes around the middle of the ball. One round later, an Antimagic Field goes off, centered around the ball. After the spell wears off, the ball crumbles to dust. Moderate Abjuration; CL 11th; Craft Wondrous Item, Antimagic Field; Price 3300 gp; Weight 0.5 lb.
Radkres 10-27-05, 03:51 PM	How about a device that absorbs magic in its area once it has charged with enough magic it explodes using the magic it has absorbed as the blast wave as it covers the area with microscopic dragon shards that contaminate the area with magic deadening effects. Until cleaned up the area in magically and psion dead. Any magic or Psion device or person etc must be manually cleaned of this dampening material. This gives you the ability to have dead areas and the problem of getting the stuff off.
makeshiftwings 10-27-05, 03:55 PM	I was also thinking Mordenkainen's Disjunction. It really is the magical equivalent of an EMP.
Just another user 10-27-05, 08:39 PM	A giant mordenkainen's disjunction. The regular sort is nasty enough. That being said... skyway will probably come crashing down. I think they have set up some contingency spell for such situation, I don't remember the rules, but I think a contingented spell can't be dispelled, nor dijuncted before it is activated. But probablty nothing definitive, something like an extra empovered, widened extended Feather fall to give the time to evacuate the people over and under Skyway.
Edymnion 10-27-05, 09:29 PM	Um, you get the same effect by just casting Dispel Magic or Greater Dispel Magic on a magical item. Surpresses it's magical effects for 1d6 rounds. All you need is an item that will do area dispells.
SpyGuy 10-27-05, 09:45 PM	Didn't that Glass Tower that was taken out by terrorists fall due to something like a Disjunction?
ekomega 10-27-05, 10:19 PM	No, it was something else. I can't remember which magazine it was in, but it had to do with an imprisoned Radiant Idol and his anti-fly spell radius.
Tek 10-27-05, 10:37 PM	Imagine this: I huge eldritch machine that powers out a huge disjunction, and everything that get's disjuncted is powered back to the machine which does something akin 'retain essence', and it uses the energy from the retain essence to power the field further, thus creating something that... never stops growing. The first disjunction powers a small field from the retain essence, anything caught in the new field gets disjuncted (sp?) and its essence goes on to expand the area of the machine, and then all the items in the new area get disjuncted, then those power it.. and the area would increase exponentially, because the bigger the field the more the items, thus creating a bigger field, until finally, all of Eberron is covered in the field and everything is... back to the dark ages? Mwhahahaha!
Pinky's brain 10-27-05, 10:38 PM	Um, you get the same effect by just casting Dispel Magic or Greater Dispel Magic on a magical item. Surpresses it's magical effects for 1d6 rounds. All you need is an item that will do area dispells.Only when an item is specifically targeted does it get surpressed. There is really no good way to surpress magic items, apart from an AMF. That's one of the reasons my DM changed MDJ's disjunction effect on items into a surpressing one.
Edymnion 10-27-05, 11:17 PM	Okay, so we just need to make up a Dispell, Mass spell. Same as dispell, but it affects everything in the area as if it were targetted :)
thebassu 10-27-05, 11:28 PM	How about a device that absorbs magic A magic item that absorbs magic. The Artificer can then retain essence on that magic without destroying the item. Or... An item that absorbs magical spells then can be used as a 1-use aoe offensive item. 1d6 for every level of spell that was absorbed.
Nurgan_the_drunked 10-28-05, 04:14 AM	A magic item that absorbs magic. The Artificer can then retain essence on that magic without destroying the item. Or... An item that absorbs magical spells then can be used as a 1-use aoe offensive item. 1d6 for every level of spell that was absorbed. This sets up a nice plot in my mind. Innocent artificer makes the device as a way to absorb latent magic energy around him. Doesn't realise at first that it nullifies magic items. Bad guys get wind of item, steal item, prepare to boost power. Heroes get called in to investigate artificers murder, find villains just as their preparing their big showdown: an anti magic field on a major magical support structure in Sharn....
makeshiftwings 10-28-05, 12:45 PM	Imagine this: I huge eldritch machine that powers out a huge disjunction, and everything that get's disjuncted is powered back to the machine which does something akin 'retain essence', and it uses the energy from the retain essence to power the field further, thus creating something that... never stops growing. The first disjunction powers a small field from the retain essence, anything caught in the new field gets disjuncted (sp?) and its essence goes on to expand the area of the machine, and then all the items in the new area get disjuncted, then those power it.. and the area would increase exponentially, because the bigger the field the more the items, thus creating a bigger field, until finally, all of Eberron is covered in the field and everything is... back to the dark ages? Mwhahahaha! So that's what happened to Cyre...
The Fireballed Mage 10-29-05, 12:56 AM	ECS page 273. Eldritch Machine: Spell Sink. quote, "... this black orb blankets a 3-mile radius with an antimagic field." unquote. Go wild. :D
stone_dog 10-29-05, 02:08 PM	No, it was something else. I can't remember which magazine it was in, but it had to do with an imprisoned Radiant Idol and his anti-fly spell radius. It was a petrified Radiant Idol. The curse is so powerful that even the calcified body of an Idol negates flight magic.
Endgame50 11-01-05, 01:27 PM	I think they have set up some contingency spell for such situation, I don't remember the rules, but I think a contingented spell can't be dispelled, nor dijuncted before it is activated. But probablty nothing definitive, something like an extra empovered, widened extended Feather fall to give the time to evacuate the people over and under Skyway. Contingencies have no special immunity to being dispelled. A disjoining would take it out just like any other magical effect.
ekomega 11-01-05, 01:40 PM	It was a petrified Radiant Idol. The curse is so powerful that even the calcified body of an Idol negates flight magic. I was being intentionally vague, so as to provide an idea for someone without spelling out what they can go look for in a magazine.
Urko 11-01-05, 03:54 PM	RE: The Glass Tower falls I believe that despite the fact that Keith Baker wrote the adventure in question, he has still stated that that's just one possible explanation. The timing could have been coincidental, or related to the actual cause of the tower's crash. Getting back to the original topic, I love the idea of AMP (Anti-Magic Pulse) as terrorist weapon. This hook goes to the top of the list of nasty things to spring on my players once they finally hit the City of Towers (they should be high enough level to deal with it by then). I've got a mad artificer NPC I've been working on who would make the perfect hapless, well-meaning creator of devices that threaten life as we know it.