Objective: Establish a permanent, self-sufficient settlement. Failing that, survive as long as possible.
Resources: Four ECL 10 characters. Ten million gold in equipment, including additional slaves (base cost CR squared times 100 gp; particularly useful ones cost more) and vehicles from the D20 Mecha SRD (Guardians of Order). Sixty-eight days to prepare.
Everything bought or built during the prep time must fit within a single hundred-foot-radius sphere, which will then be permanently transposed to the colony site.
The target to be colonized is a plane, indefinite (possibly infinite) in extent. There are no known inhabitants of greater than animal-level intelligence, although there are quite a few magical beasts, aberrations, and spontaneously-generated undead. The geography is complex, mostly irrelevant to immediate survival, and detailed scouting reports cut into the budget (NPC spellcasting costs for cross-planar scrying). Local plant life is sufficiently biologically compatible to allow foraging, per standard Survival skill, and local megafauna are, often as not, made of palatable meat, although extracting and processing it requires appropriate Profession and Craft skills.
Special rules and restrictions:
The settlement will face a random encouter, in the form of a wandering predator or natural disaster, every 2d6 hours. Each encounter will have an EL approximately equal to the number of hours passed since the last encounter. If the group splits up (more than half a mile between teams) roll separately for each.
No Pun-Pun. No artificers. No Pun-Pun. No cross-planar transport effects, except Word of Recall and maybe the really short-range stuff like DDoor. No Pun-Pun. No infinite loops, or anything else that would have allowed the characters to escape captivity with trivial ease. No Pun-Pun. No back-from-the-dead or soul-binding effects (Speak with Dead is fine). No memory bottle. No Pun-Pun.
No Vancian spellcasting. Anyone who would normally use spell slots or prepare spells gets converted to spell points. Divine and arcane are in separate pools, but, say, a multiclass cleric/paladin or warmage/hexblade would have a single pool of points shared by both classes. Tome of Magic classes are unmodified.
Instead of a full recharge after 8 contiguous hours of rest, points (mana, mojo, and psi) recover by one-tenth the maximum total, rounded up, per hour of rest. Whenever a spellcaster's reserve is more than half depleted, they automatically become fatigued; exhaustion sets in below 25%. it's not possible to recover from such supernatural fatigue until the underlying magical energies are replenished.
Anything that would normally be an insta-kill (including Disintegrate and the result of a failed save on a Coup de Grace) instead deals 4d6 Constitution damage. Anyone who can spontaneously cast 'cure' spells has equal access to 'restoration,' greater, lesser, and regular-type.
Level-independent XP awards. Everyone who participated in an encounter to any degree gets an equal share, regardless of standard rules for cohorts, NPCs, etc.
Morale rules (Heroes of Battle) apply to everyone who's not immune to fear. For this purpose, a 'pile of corpses' is 3 or more Medium-sized corpses per square in each of 4 or more contiguous squares. It takes 4 Small creatures to equal one Medium, or a correspondingly larger number of smaller creatures; 3 Large corpses, or a single Huge or larger, count as a pile all by themselves.
Armor bonus, including enhancement, can apply to AC or as hardness, at attacker's discretion. Any attack that beats touch AC inflicts a minimum of 1 point of damage.
Last, definitely not least, bell-curve rolls. All uses of the d20 are replaced by 3d6. Critical threat ranges are modified accordingly.
Anyway, with 10 million gp, I would recommend purchasing an obdurium dome (complete with floor) to cover the entire settlement, then adding the Prismatic and Bladed enhancements (if I recall the correct names, see the Stronghold Builder's guide). Put permanent walls of force underneath the dome as a backup. Then you'll want to put some spell turrets loaded with 9th level spells on top of the dome (see DMG2). Finally, buy some decanters of endless water, some everfull larders, and a bottle of air for everyone in the party. Spend your remaining cash on some comfortable chairs and suitable entertainment. Also some sort of disintegration effect to deal with waste removal (Possibly construct a septic tank and then draw lots each day on who uses the at-will item of disintegrate on the contents). Put a Forbiddance spell up on the whole thing, too. You'll need to do that after being put on your plane, so that will necessitate getting a level 11 or better Cleric NPC. You'll want a level 20 Cleric with an orange Ioun Stone and a bead of karma, which means nothing within the CR range you indicated should ever be able to dispel it.
Your plan seems pretty good, but it doesn't fulfill the primary objective. Best-case, you're looking at death from old age within a few centuries, and no realistic prospects of a breeding population.
More likely, a series of earthquakes (EL 8) shatter the outer walls and strip off any active defenses outside the Wall of Force, then someone inside gets bored or lazy and botches the sewage-disposal. Shadows (or other incorporeal undead) sneak in through the breach and attack with hit-and-run tactics, draining sleepers from underneath the floor; it's all over with in under a year.
It's right there in the OP: Four ECL 10 adventurers of any playable race/class combination. If you want more than that (for example, to set up a breeding population of kobolds or goblinoids), they can be bought from the slavers who're 'sponsoring' the expedition, as part of the 10^7 GP equipment budget.
So you could colonize the plane with undead shadows or green slime and that would be considered "winning"? (Shadows are a bad example since they require humanoids to reproduce.)
I can't account for party incompetence. Someone forgetting to disintegrate the sewage shouldn't be a problem unless they forget for several weeks. If someone forgets to play the Lyre on their shift, that is also a result of incompetence, and the dome is still rather difficult to destroy (go for the hardness spells anyway, since you can afford it).
Of course, if you see a need for the party to leave for some reason, you can always include a section of wall with no enhancements that swings out, and disintegrate the wall of force behind it when you need to (your Wall of Force caster will need to kill enough monsters to regain the XP for Permanency every time, however). This will likely result in occasional party deaths, however, which could throw a wrench into the whole "just barely avoiding inbreeding" thing due to the decreased population.
Make sure to have a wizard/sorcerer, Cleric, and druid in the party, then stock up on spell trigger items (wands & staves) - high level effects without needing to hire high level casters.
Green slime isn't playable. It might be utilized as part of a defense system, especially in conjunction with spell turrets (for example, turrets disable inorganic attackers, antilife shell drives the meaty ones to take cover in nearby alcoves, where they are then digested) or other construct guardians. By itself it's just another biohazard, with no effective defense against even non-magical fire.
A trap using the Earthquake spell is listed in the DMG as CR 8, so having a naturally-occurring earthquake as an EL 8 encounter seems quite reasonable. According to the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook, it does 3d6x10 damage to structures, five times that much if they're underground. If the 2d6 keeps coming up 8, that could be three earthquakes per day.
Earthquakes can also take down spell turrets. Even if self-repair is sufficient to survive the damage, once they're buried, they can't attack anything, and can't dig themselves out, so they're permanently neutralized unless you're sending more mobile colonists out for maintenance and repair.
Prismatic Screen wall augmentations are fairly nifty, but if you want to cover the whole outer surface of the 100' radius sphere, that's more than three million gold all by itself. Obdurium's not cheap either, especially if you want multiple layers. Your funds are vast, but not infinite. Also, Prismatic's Violet layer is against the no-planar-transport rule, so a Shambling Mound with the Half-Dragon, Half-Fiend, and Gelatinous templates and the Great Fortitude feat could walk right up to a prismatic-screened wall, facing a less than 15% chance of petrification, and little or no chance of other ill effects. Once there, it could begin grinding away at the underlying Obdurium with it's caustic tendrils, and since any successful attack deals at least one point of damage, it would inevitably break through.
Lyre of Building is great, but it can't protect something on the opposite side of a contiguous force-bubble. Opt for Wall of Force as the outermost layer, and you've got no active defense, so eventually some magical beast with Disintegrate as a spell-like ability will breach it. Go for conventional structures as the outermost, and either there's no force-bubble backing them, in which case incorporeal attackers will eventually sneak through, or there's no Lyre making them indestructible, in which case they're eventually going to be torn apart.
The problem is not "how do I build a superlative turtle," it's "how do I build a resilient city." A system that has the internal infrastructure to rapidly and repeatedly recover from disaster, rather than a bland, brutal shell to shrug it off.
Teleportation Circle is off-limits because of the 'no cross-planar' and 'nothing that would allow trivial escape' clauses. Phase Door would be alright, though, and can be made both permanent and selective.
The shambling mound is difficult, but that's one of the reasons we have an airlock (an idea which I approve of); so that PCs can leave and kill anything the defenses can't. Also, such a tailored creature shows that the DM is deliberately trying to foil the PCs, in which case there's little point in trying because the DM always wins. I suppose if it only comes around once every couple millenia, given the odds of something like that actually existing, it'd be reasonable. I assume that every generation produces PCs of similar power, right? Otherwise we'd have to bring in some monsters of the same ECL.
Furthermore, all of our level 1 commoners will have 4 ranks in Craft (Adamantine Wall) and Skill Focus in the same, and will grant each other Aid Another bonuses sufficient to repair all damage from the encounter (if we can swing the Elite array or a +2 to two skills feat for craft and something else, likely profession, on em, they'll be guaranteed success for a +600 to the check, although it's more likely we'll have several groups repairing different sections, but the point is that the bonus is so high we can voluntarily increase the DC in order to speed things up to be fixed between encounters). An Alarm spell is probably a good ide, or a series ringing the fortress. Finally, objects are an exception to the rule that any hit deals at least 1 point of damage. Hardness can reduce damage to 0, as can Damage Reduction. Quoth the Wizards' Glossary:
Only damage in excess of the object's hardness is actually deducted from the object's hit points upon a successful attack.
Our object's Hardness will be 60, thanks to an at-will item both of Hardening (Spell Compendium) and Augment Object (Stronghold Builder's Guide), each at CL 20. It will have 240 HP (see later math), and be repaired between each battle, as well as a break DC of 60. Also saves of +12 for each type that it needs to make. That should be sufficient to survive anything.
We have an active defense in the form of spell turrets (probably only 1 or 2, considering the expense and the need for funds elsewhere). Blasting out 9th level damage and save-or-dies every round is an active defense. Anything they can't kill, the party will. All party members are keyed to the turret to be ignored, of course.
The goal here is to survive. Given a 100 ft radius sphere, we aren't building a city. We're building an outpost. What I've given you is a self-sufficient fortress which, bar a modification or two to take care of something I didn't think of, is unassailable by anything within your EL range. It has 300 people living in it, all trained in the maintenance of mundane defenses, and 4 PCs, at least one of whom should be trained in the maintenance of the magical defenses. If we're building a city, that's another story, but you're going to have to give us more than a 100 ft radius. That's a small village, at best. Furthermore, I'd posit that the surest way to survive a harsh environment is to minimize contact with that environment. The fewer monsters the PCs need to fight, the longer they and their colony survives.
Maybe tomorrow I'll stat out the exact cost of this citadel, if you'd like. I'll guarantee you that it's less than 10,000,000 gp, though. The Stronghold Builder's Guide is useful for many things, but its costs are far higher than a creative spellcaster's work.
EDIT: Did some calculations tonight, actually. Made appropriate changes to above post to reflect new knowledge.
We can use the Fabricate spell to turn raw Obdurium into our wall. We need 124412 cubic feet of obdurium. If we assume that it has the same density as iron (which we can, since Obdurium changes nothing about the weight of armor compared to adamantine, which changes nothing compared to iron), we'll need 60,339,820 pounds of Obdurium, using the density of wrought iron (heavier than cast iron). One pound of iron costs 1 sp, and obdurium walls cost ten times as much as iron, so we might reasonably extrapolate that 1 pound of obdurium costs 1 gp. This is clearly unacceptable. As such, I am forced to propose a different shape; a cylinder with a 100 ft radius, 10 ft high, 3 inches thick, made of adamantine. Hope nobody's claustrophobic. Final cost for this is going to be 4,170,601 gp (rounding up). I'll do the rest tomorrow. I assume the cost for putting holes in where the forcecage passes through is equal to the materials saved thereby, because I'm lazy and it sounds reasonable (also provides ventilation, however brief, which'll be nice). If you insist otherwise, I'll work out the cost of raising a 20-ft section of the roof 10 feet. Shouldn't be much.
For slaves to provide a stable, growing population-- and, as important, able to contribute to their own defense against monsters AND the elements, it's hard to beat dwarves. They get fun bonuses to craft skills with stone (our primary physical defense mechanism), and metal (hooray arms and armor!). They get decent combat bonuses, can be kept alive a bit easier, and the clerics have some really good domains to choose from for settlement purposes. Even if they can only be NPC classes, a Warrior/Expert/Adept mixture isn't all bad.
Start with 100 warrior Dwarves, 100 adepts, and 200 experts. Your experts are your major breeding population, and all should have 2-3 different crafts and professions. Between them, all of your needs in masonry, fletching, blacksmithing, armor making, carpentry, etc... should be met, as should the major professional needs. Even with all of them at level 5, you're looking at only 1M gold spent of your 10M, and if they can be PC classes, switch it to , 200 Fighter 4/Crusader 1, 100 cleric 5's, and 100 Wizard 5's. Even at double the cost (2M), we'll still be coming in way under budget.
Next up, some support NPCs. These are the guys that are going to make our level 5s a lot better-- and the best part is, they're cheaper. A level 1 Gold Dwarf with a base 14 Cha gets boosted to 16. Here is where Marshal is amazing. All of your dwarf fighters? They just got a +5 to their will saves (thanks to the Wizards casting some Cha boosts on the Marshals in shifts), to help any morale checks during combat. The Marshals, of course, are sitting safely behind the walls, as the Dwarf Fighters fire balistas or crossbows at whatever dare approach (50 dwarves on a 450' wall makes for one every 9 feet, well more than enough to pepper everything that approaches of low-to-moderate level). And, as a bonus, all of your craft people? Yeah, a few of the Marshals have Motivate Intelligence to help those craft checks get done a bit faster and more reliably. 50 or so spread out can cover most of our starting population, and should cost 100 GP each.
Of course, these dwarves won't be able to stop EVERY CR 2-15 that comes their way. Walls will be destroyed and, as an indefinite colony expands, they'll need more stone to build more walls, more barracks, and more... well, everything. So, one of the PCs? 10th level Elf Generalist Wizard with the Collegiate Wizard feat. 5 spells/level means your Elf doesn't have to blow any of the 10M on spells to still have a relatively filled spellbook. Plus, with the point system, they can blow a Wall of Stone every hour, and recover the mana (or do they get mojo?) fast enough to be ready for the next encounter. Their minimal need for sleep is also a plus! As they get XP (and even if they are on a tower in the middle of the city, they should be able to get SOME XP by launching a fireball at any foe who approaches), they can provide some beautiful permanencied walls of force (behind, not in front of, the walls of stone), to protect against ethereal and incorporeal foes. Not right away, but they have time. In the mean time, emergency Wall of Force in the direction the enemy is coming from should be most welcome.
And, of course, what Optimization attempt would be complete without the C.o.D.Zilla? Have one cleric, and one druid. They get so much utility here-- battle, curing, even resurrecting PCs later on (you did remember to bring 1M worth of diamonds for that very reason, right?). Plus, both can help out a lot against natural disasters. Fun! Let's face it-- the Dwarves are going to be able to stop any corporeal creature heading their way, as long as it doesn't have range. It's the Druid and the Cleric that are going to have to deal with the incorporeals, and that are going to have to rampage out of the safety of the city walls to deal with approaching foes.
For the last PC, I lean toward a Tomb Tainted Soul Dread Necromancer 8/Pale Master 2. Free skeletons means free drey creatures from the abominations and magical beasts that attack. This means you have a nice little group that can engage opponents while the dwarves safely fire away from the tops of the ever-expanding walls (and less Wizardly spells to repair the walls). The Dread Necromancer can use more Rebukes on undead than the Cleric probably will, leaving the the Cleric free to power their spells with Divine Metamagic. This leaves the PCs without a skill monkey, but with undead to set off traps, and mostly fighting from a defensive position, this becomes less essential.
The big problem now, though, is food. Scavenging for 454 people and one animal isn't an easy task. Fortunately, we have millions of gold left! Murlynds spons with Amulet's of Pretidigitation for everyone! Now, instead of a bland, barely palpable mush, everyone's eating ribeye steak. Is that decantur of endless water getting old? How about apple cider, milk-- pick a flavor, any flavor. Did the Dwarf Brewer fail his check? No matter-- as long as it has the alcohol content, you're drinking the finest whiskey ever made by man or dwarf.
With four spellcasters, you *should* be able to take shifts on whose-turn-it-is-to-beat-up-the-ethereal/incorporeal/ranged-death-dealing bad dude. Even working together won't deplete you indefinitely; the Cleric and the Druid can be in melee-buff-mode all fricking day long.
A few of the Dwarves will die along the way, but this should be rare and the result of major natural disasters. Even if one in every 20 dwarves gives birth every year, you're looking at 22 new dwarves born each year. By the time 22 years go by, you have 495 new Dwarves, effectively doubling your population. The level 2-8 encounters shouldn't take many Dwarf lives; the 9-15, the PCs should handle. Natural disasters will be your biggest worry, but Raise Dead can help with that a lot.
With Dwarf crafters to shape the walls, a level 10+ Wizard to provide the stone and make Murlynd's spoons and Amulets of Prestiditation (in the future), and 450 to start with, there shouldn't be any worries on repairs, expantion of city defense or structure. So, our tally so far...
400 Dwarves, level 5 (1M gold, 2M if double price for usefulness/PC levels/whatever).
50 Dwarves, level 3 (Marshals, 45K, 90K if double price).
45 Barracks to start off with (18K gold)
4 Barbicons to start off with (4K gold)
Masterwork Weaponsmithing tools, Masonry Tools, Armorsmithing tools, Fletching tools, Carpentry Tools, Glassblowing tools, Blacksmithing tools for each Expert (70K gold)
Presumably, the Dwarves can make their own armor and weapons (1K for 100 Dwarven Waraxes, 6666 gold, 6 silver, 7 copper for 100 breastplates, ), in the 68 days, and they should be able to do so without fail (8 ranks, +2 racial bonus, +3 bonus from Marshals aura, +2 bonus from tools = +15 bonus; taking 10 gives a result of 25, more than high enough for each... meaning they can make 1 breastplate every 38 days, and 1 waraxe every week... This means 100 experts could make the armor and the weapon for every Warrior. If we have PC classes, then 100 wizards (Int 16 each), should be able to hit 35 on craft arms and craft Armor (8 ranks, 3 Int, 3 Marshal Aura, 2 Aid Other from Marshals, 2 from Masterwork Tools, 2 Racial mod, 5 from magecraft, take 10), with plenty of skill points left over. That lets them make a Breastplate every 28 days, and 2 Dwarven War Axes every 7 days, or enough to supply a breastplate and a waraxe to 200 Fighters. The Clerics can make the shields without spending a domain or feat; they just need 8 ranks and they are set (they could make enough for all the Fighters and all the Clerics in 2 weeks, leaving enough for each to make his own breastplate and a Warhammer).
Let's get extravagent, and say we're spending 50K on all of this, buying some extra iron to make more later.
This leaves us with $6,699,250. And we're just getting warmed up!
The Dread Necromancer should have a solid supply of turning gear; the Cleric, too, should have equipment to get more bang out of their Divine Metamagic. Let's just be crazy and say they blow 500K between them on just that gear. If each PC spends 500k on themselves *after* this, we're looking at $4,199,250 GP left.
At this point, we have two options.
We can splurge, and get a Midgard Dwarf (CR 5, but exceptionally useful- let's call it the equivilent of CR 30 and blow 90K on the guy-- he's worth it). We'll even ultra-protect him. We're going to make him a fancy Smithy (2K), with magically treated (12K) obdurium walls (60K), a wall of force (40K), covered by a prismatic wall x 8 (420K, PCs and Midgard Dwarf immune), incredible (25K) flying (15K) and burrowing (10K) speeds (total cost, 584K). This guy is the meal-ticket for the dwarves for all of his natural born life... get him just enough XP on weak garbage, and he can make anything in the Arms and Armor, Forge Ring, and Wonderous Item categories, even if he's not high enough level or doesn't have the right spells. That is intense, and over the course of ~200 years, he's making a LOT for you. Get three of them, have them work in 8 hour shifts each (another 180K), and you can really crank things out *fast*. If you leave the remainder of the 10M ($3,345,250), in materials for them to craft with, and able to make nearly 7M worth of magic items tho help sustain the dwarves indefinitely. Golems, both to work and defend... items to summon monster IX at will to fend off foes... entire batteries of +5 ballistas, +5 ammunition (total bonus, not enhancements)... The regular dwarves can be crafting better armor, Clerics can help in the process. Assuming the dwarves are forever limited to the resources of the PCs and their masters, they *should* be able to survive long enough for future wizards, druids, clerics, fighters, etc... to replace the PCs when they die/have to leave, and create a growing population. As their population grows beyond the capacity of the magic items to feed them, they should easily be able to mount patrols to defend those dwarves farming/herding. In theory, they should be able to clear areas much like modern cities of pests after a few generations-- even if only one in ten dwarven females gives birth every year (assuming a 50/50 distribution), the population is more than sustained.
Edit:
The second option, is to just blow the remaining GP on either arms/armor for our dwarves, or magical defenses for our initial stronghold. The advantage of the first, is that if the PCs randomly die right away, the dwarves have a chance of survival. The problem is, there is no real opportunity to expand. The advantage of the first, is that they are somewhat better able to deal with an unlucky rush of undead that the PCs can't quite handle. I don't think either gives the long-term protection of having a "I can craft EVERYTHING" trio of slaves, protect to extreme measures (and even capable of going a bit on the offensive from their hyper-protected stronghold; even doubling the size (and cost) to provide nice living quarters leaves millions to work with.
The PCs should be more than well-enough equipped, and the regular dwarves should be able to dip into that initial fund and any nearby trees to quickly make ranged weapons for themselves.
Hardness can reduce damage to 0, as can Damage Reduction.
Normally, yes. However, rules specific to this challenge supercede more general rules.
The fewer monsters the PCs need to fight, the longer they and their colony survives.
Not necessarily. The key is that level-independent XP thing I mentioned: If four main defenders and two apprentices can draw off and thereby defeat, say, a group of six CR 2 wolves, while nearby a group of 30 noncombatants sets up an outlying workshop, everyone on the scene gets 100 xp. That's an almost negligible fraction of the xp required to advance from 10th to 11th level, but for the first-level skill monkeys working on the shop, it's fully one-tenth of what they need to get to 2nd level. Thus, judicious exposure to danger is actually critical to long-term survival, since it's the only way to replenish your supply of mid-to-high level heroes.
Bell curve rolls also help: low-end monsters have fewer chances to surprise high-level defenders with runs of good luck when an automatic success is ten times less likely.
The hundred-foot-radius sphere isn't much of a city by itself, I agree; it's only about 780 stronghold spaces. Rather, it is meant to be the seed from which a city will grow. In that context, an armored shell with an airlock is perfectly appropriate, and necessary for the early stages of survival, However, sooner or later a section of wall will need to be not merely repaired, but replaced. Rust monsters, for example, won't show up often, and when they do, most likely the spell turret will get them. Even if one got close enough to the wall, it would only get a handful of rounds to feed before being destroyed, and the magically-augmented wall has a less than 1% chance of succumbing to the monster's corrosive advances. However, on a sufficiently long timeline, possible becomes probable and probable becomes inevitable, so you'll eventually need some means of replacing that lost material. I don't think there's a spell that can create real, permanent adamantine, at least not for any reasonable price (Wish works, creating up to 25,000 GP of raw adamantine ore which Craft skills could refine into 75,000 GP worth of ingots, then nearly a quarter-million worth of nonmagical wall, but it requires a high-level caster and substantial chunk of XP), so consider exploratory mining. Races of the Dragon has rules for the Profession: Miner skill, and a rod of metal and mineral detection could allow widely-spaced tunnels to effectively locate even very small deposits.
They get so much utility here-- battle, curing, even resurrecting PCs later on (you did remember to bring 1M worth of diamonds for that very reason, right?).
[snip]
Natural disasters will be your biggest worry, but Raise Dead can help with that a lot.
The rest of it looks good, it's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for, but remember: no back-from-the-dead magic. Animating skeletons is fine, but Raise Dead is off the table.
Plus, with the point system, they can blow a Wall of Stone every hour, and recover the mana (or do they get mojo?) fast enough to be ready for the next encounter.
To clarify: "mana" is divine spell points, "mojo" is arcane spell points.
Although your rules never did mention that all damage is minimum 1,
Second-to-last paragraph in the OP.
It's actually a pretty important change to the balance of combat: minimum damage on a touch allows low-level creeps to chip away at high-level tanks with the cumulative effect of small bumps and scratches, rather than waiting for criticals, and the attacker's-option thing makes Power Attack much more tactically interesting, all without adding much math or any dice rolls.
Get the specialized manpower you need and then make more and more each day.Bring a library of hair samples as well, or Make the Rune using
Simulacrum's dont eat or sleep,etc. Be sure to create some who have craft Rune Circle or Craft Rune, and use this as a way to create new bases, etc.
You will want a breeding population, but the key is the to outnumber the entire native population of the plane, using the unfair advantage of magic.
Still needs details to be filled in,but I think its a solid plan.
Next is the issue that they don't heal naturally, can't even be magically healed by conventional means. 100 gold per hit point adds up fast, especially when you're under attack two, three, a dozen times a day. They might make good shock troopers, but not very good long-term defenders.
do this:
Cast Energy Transformation Field linked to Simulacrum
Energy Transformation Field
Energy Transformation Field(MoF p92)
– Creates a permanent 40’ radius area that absorbs spells to power its own linked spell. For each spell or magic items that is targeted into or used within the area of effect, the magic is negated & transformation field gains 1 “charge” per negated spell level. Once the transformation field a number of charges equal to or greater than the spell level of the linked spell, it consumes the appropriate number of charges & activates the linked spell (if a target is required, the closest living creature to the field is the target). Any extra charges wrap around for the next use, though for each unused day, one charge disperses. This spell can only be negated by Limited Wish, Wish, Mordenkainen’s Disjunction, or Miracle.This spell is suppressed by Antimagic Field.
– Creates a permanent 40’ radius area that absorbs spells to power its own linked spell. For each spell or magic items that is targeted into or used within the area of effect, the magic is negated & transformation field gains 1 “charge” per negated spell level. Once the transformation field a number of charges equal to or greater than the spell level of the linked spell, it consumes the appropriate number of charges & activates the linked spell (if a target is required, the closest living creature to the field is the target). Any extra charges wrap around for the next use, though for each unused day, one charge disperses. This spell can only be negated by Limited Wish, Wish, Mordenkainen’s Disjunction, or Miracle.This spell is suppressed by Antimagic Field.
The first problem with Simulacrum, on this mission, is that there's no set price on how much a lock of exotic hair costs, so there's no way to guess what the backers will decide to charge you for that 'library of hair samples.'
Next is the issue that they don't heal naturally, can't even be magically healed by conventional means. 100 gold per hit point adds up fast, especially when you're under attack two, three, a dozen times a day. They might make good shock troopers, but not very good long-term defenders.
Good point- use eschew materials when you make the Rune.Or just use the materials you have at hand (PCs)and ring one slave each of the proper type,and copy him.
Healing isnt a problem-Why bother, just make more!
For the record, regeneration is a form of natural healing (so a simulacrum war troll doesn't have it), I'd probably count the Energy Transformation Field as an 'infinite loop' (since it could, if I'm understanding this right, turn any at-will item with a 1st-level spell into an immobile once-per-minute item duplicating a 9th level spell), and Eschew Materials doesn't apply to any of the components of a Simulacrum spell because they're all worth more than 1 gp.
Dire werebear contagion for cheap troop upgrades? Interesting idea. An afflicted lycanthrope would probably be priced quite reasonably, since uncontrolled shapeshifting is a disadvantage in many common circumstances, and there's a very real chance that you could lose critical skill-sets in the initial rampages, to say nothing of the architectural issues. However, once you've made it through that transitional generation and everyone in town is a natural lycanthrope, the survival prospects are greatly improved.
Since you'd be wanting to phase out the unstable afflicted lycanthropes as quickly as possible, the long lifespans of dwarves and elves might actually be a liability. Consider races with a shorter breeding cycle, such as humans, orcs, goblins, and kobolds.
Upon further consideration, Simulacrum falls under the category of 'trivial escape,' since it would allow the party to replace themselves with nigh-indistinguishable copies and slip away in the confusion.
For the record, regeneration is a form of natural healing (so a simulacrum war troll doesn't have it), I'd probably count the Energy Transformation Field as an 'infinite loop' (since it could, if I'm understanding this right, turn any at-will item with a 1st-level spell into an immobile once-per-minute item duplicating a 9th level spell), and Eschew Materials doesn't apply to any of the components of a Simulacrum spell because they're all worth more than 1 gp.
Dire werebear contagion for cheap troop upgrades? Interesting idea. An afflicted lycanthrope would probably be priced quite reasonably, since uncontrolled shapeshifting is a disadvantage in many common circumstances, and there's a very real chance that you could lose critical skill-sets in the initial rampages, to say nothing of the architectural issues. However, once you've made it through that transitional generation and everyone in town is a natural lycanthrope, the survival prospects are greatly improved.
Since you'd be wanting to phase out the unstable afflicted lycanthropes as quickly as possible, the long lifespans of dwarves and elves might actually be a liability. Consider races with a shorter breeding cycle, such as humans, orcs, goblins, and kobolds.
Since Werebears are good aligned, it seems reasonable that Were Dire Bears are, too; they go off on their first full moon, and generally don't attack people (which is part of why I went with them over a dire tiger). Moreover, the worst-case-scenario with the were bear is that the dwarves permanently gain a the good alignment if they didn't already have it. That... doesn't seem like a bad thing. Of course, they'll all be made aware that they are Lycanthropes, so they just change shape, not behavior, involuntarily. Again, this doesn't seem like a huge problem in the long run. Heck-- on gaining the template, the Dwarves can take 20 skill points from the animal HD, put them all in Control Shape, and they're set.
So... yeah. Weretigers are more powerful, but evil. Werebears, though, are good guys! We like them.
Good and Helpful are strongly correlated, but there are important distinctions.
Other than the initial transformation under a full moon (which can be carefully planned for and monitored), they don't have any confusion (since, presumably, you will make them aware that they have the disease, as they will be made aware they are contracting it).
In fact, with 12 HD, they can put 20 ranks into the Change Form skill (MM 303), and they will *never* change unless they want to. No moon-changes, no "I took damage BLRHARGHKILL!" changes. So... there shouldn't be any confusion, any times per month. If they change shape, it will be a deliberate desire to do so, and they don't lose their personality or their memories-- as long as they are aware they are Lycanthropes (which, again, they should be).
Of course, if there is a possibility that the the Dwarves will rise up and overthrow their ultimate masters... then perhaps we want to re-examine how thoroughly we want this colony to succeed. My assumption is that they want a fresh, plentiful supply of slaves for future generations, but are themselves fantastically powerful. If not... maybe we don't want direbears.
It's a good idea... I don't see much of a problem with it.
For other considerations, may I recommend starting with kobolds? Having the later generations taking dragonwrought feats will allow you to play fun little Cheezewrought Instabold games, if you want. Heck, even if you don't, they make for convenient little buggers to have around.
Suddenly Good alignment could motivate one of those marshals to confront apparent cruelty or corruption where a Neutral middle-manager would walk away muttering "it's not my problem, I've got my own team to take care of."
The ominous overlords themselves aren't on the scene; they're worlds away, watching the crystal ball with jaded half-interest and placing bets on the outcome. They're not so much looking for a steady supply of slaves (although that might be a nice consolation prize) as a good show and a well-surveyed landing zone.
A proper military incursion, with supply lines and everything, would ultimately cost more than ten million gold, provide less useful intel on the ecosystem and long-term habitation do's and don'ts, and it would be something they've all seen before. The slavers as a whole have no reason to intervene with the colony's ongoing function, but an individual might decide to meddle somehow, particularly to manipulate a wager.
Most likely, nobody in the colony has any loyalty to, or means of communicating with, any of the backers after the sixty-eight day prep time. Of course, just because they're not out to get you doesn't mean you're not allowed to be paranoid; between occasional Morale problems, neglected social skills among the workers, the possibility of indigenous doppelgangers or sleeper-agent saboteurs, and the problems inherent in abundant supplies of low-grade booze with top-shelf taste, there's going to be a brawl at some point. Even with Good intentions, a werebear might end up turning a 'normal' into pink paste by forgetting to pull a punch.
If the slavers are just watching, and placing bets ala Rat Race, then this seems like an opportunity to have a colony split, and make another-- the only ones in danger of permanently losing their alignment are those who don't know they have the disease (all do), and after the first generation changes, there's no danger of alignment shifts at all. Afflicted Lycanthropes really have a shoddy deal but ALL of those problems vanish in the second generation... and I don't see how those problems are likely to prevent the colonization of the plane.
Subversives, spies, etc... are well and good (or well and evil, as the case my be), and of course there will be alcohol related problems (they're dwarves! They're a 4' collective of AA mountainmen with Klingonesque honor quibbles fer cryin' out loud!), but any collection of humanoids is going to have conflicts, but the playing field remains level-- dwarf vs. dwarf doesn't offer much more protection than Direbear vs. Direbear, and since everyone can shift at will/prevent shifting at will... at least all of the afflicted are on the same playing field. Of course, the natural-borns will be able to beat up their folks with relative ease, but the initial colonists probably have it comin' for bein' all slavey and accepting of their lot... or for bein' all revolutionary and demanding a 5 day work week, health benefits, and a dental plan.
Either way, it sounds like a great opportunity for excitement, while not really providing a risk to the survival of the colony as a whole. Stronger slaves, mild chaos (without really being anything I can see as settlement-endangering), mild brawls (that would happen anyway), and a lot more "This plane is OURS" capability a lot faster. Plus, any subversives just get to up the ante on the consequences of their actions. Sounds like win/win/win to me.
Figure the Infecter can bite 1 dwarf each round. That's one bite every 6 seconds, 10 dwarves a minute, 600 dwarves in one hour... wait to make sure it's not a full moon, have the wizard start making an encampment for the buggers with his walls of stone. Get everyone infected as soon as a satisfactory pen is created, and you're good to go-- a bunch of good natured things that, per the MM, aren't gonna be whacking anyone there that isn't evil. Morning, they all turn back to normal, they know what's happened, and they are informed in the strictest of terms that transforming into a Hybrid is okay, but animal is no-no.
No danger of alignment shift, as long as they don't change to full animal form (and, really, I can see no compelling reason for them to do so; Hybrid provides many more benefits) after that initial transformation... that's a possibility, but if the PCs strictly enforce the rule for the first generation, then everything should be fine (of course, the PCs will be weaker than the dwarves in terms of CR, but should be more than capable of dealing with the situation, especially if they just remove curse + execute first-time offenders.
No real cabin fever (we're talking one night), everyone knows what's going on at the same time, and everyone's getting those handy + will saves on their rolls. The PCs can kind of baby-sit throughout the whole thing, and try to keep everyone calm.
Alternatively... make everyone go animal form so often their alignments all change. The only one in danger of being evil is the Dread Necromancer, and frankly they're the most expendable party member; replace them with another stoner wizard, with a ToB monstrosity, an artificer, or anything else that won't cause problems. Now we have a good colony that may not like the situation they're in, but have no real way of avoiding it. Of course, they may eventually split, but that probably won't be for a generation or two (communes have shown this tendency historically). But, even then, you're not looking at extinction, and by the time any dwarf is a full adult, they should be level 5+ if they've participated in encounters at all, even if just by carrying ammunition or cleaning up after an earthquake.
Of course you should avoid a fighter... but getting a few wizards at level... say 40, 50, or even 100, can add all the protection you need. Make them take shifts on protecting the city, and use all the usual precautions (contingent teleport and so on) to make them last as long as you need them.
The important thing to think about, when considering a very high-level initial purchase. is "Could I get a better value by making the dreadnought one level lower, and spending the surplus on breeders, or gear?"
Also, how does one control an uber slave?
Not a problem with Simulacrum.So if your serious, please give Simulacrum a fair shake.
P.S.Get a hold of Necrotic Cyst/Necrotic Tumor and your worries about controlling your colony go by by.
That energy transformation field? If I'm reading it right, it costs almost 1.3 million gold to set up, plus a dedicated workshop and crafter team working out some way to create, sculpt, and transport snow without any of the usual refrigeration, craft-enhancing, or burden-bearing spells (since they'd get absorbed). For all that, it only produces two simulacra per day, and they don't last long on the front lines since they're too expensive to fix.
Necrotic Cyst would be a very effective means of control, yes. There is a downside, though: the increased vulnerability to undead, particularly melee damage. Probably best to use it only on the Marshals, the Midgard dwarves, and other crafters or support units that would be particularly disruptive if they rebelled, but who are not routinely expected to fight.
Living Wood and Deep Coral repair themselves for free. Deep Coral is only available underwater, but with all those Decanters and liberal use of the Airtight augmentation, you can create an underwater environment wherever you need it.
The Bladed augmentation is an effective defense against (most) incorporeal creatures, because the blades are force effects. It's not innately indestructible, but with a self-repairing substrate it doesn't need to be, and it doesn't block line of effect for a lyre.
Outer shell of living wood, airtight and bladed. Water-filled section, maybe twenty feet thick, guarded by Elder Eidolon Krakens (Lords of Madness) with some magic item that gives natural weapons the ghost touch property. Inner shell of deep coral, nonmagical, but with a few pillars reaching across the water section, to allow phase doors. Inside the coral is a layer of airtight, magically augmented, ethereal-solid paper; if it's torn, but the stone is untouched, the interior guards know what to look for.
Phase-door pillars aren't actually attached to the wooden shell; the whole inner section is Extremely Slothful Sailing, allowing it to rotate within the shell and thereby randomize exterior phase-door locations. No structural connection to the surrounding ground means much less to worry about from earthquakes; only the outer shell is at risk, and it heals very quickly.
What am I forgetting?
There's also a psionic ability, Matter Manipulation IIRC, that does something similar, but also increases hitpoints.
And the Dwarvencraft ability from Races of Stone is cheap, while further increasing the hardness and hitpoints (and saves!) of the shell.
JaronK
Next up: the surrounding terrain. Could be an ocean, could be a jungle, could be a scorching desert, could be solid rock. Nothing that does systemic damage on a per-round basis (like hard vacuum, total immersion in lava, or crushing hydrostatic pressure), but other than that it could be nearly anything.
What parts of the plan depend upon, or could be influenced by, external environmental factors? Would it ever be worth it to pay cross-planar rates for scrying during the prep time?
JaronK
What about when you go outside? I imagine that capturing a sand thoqqua and driving off a vegetarian shark would require somewhat different tactics, skill sets, and armaments.
Why would i go outside? Explain. We bring someone to cast some Create Food & Water enough times each day to feed everyone.
Obvious answers, though. Every character takes landlord feat, and then we dump, say, 5 million to it, doubling it. Now we have 13 million and six-hundred-thousand to spend on a castle. We obviously make it flying, so land-based encounters can't harm us.
We make the whole thing out of some quite durable material, cast spells on it to make it's hardness high enough so it only takes 1 damage from just about anything. In addition, we fill it all the way around with forcewalls cast by our 50th level wizard. Now, we are immune to Earthquake, due to flying in air, and forcewalls that are just about impossible to dispel for CR 12 encounters.
Also, Disintegrate is great for eliminating the volume of sewage, but doesn't help at all with the smell. Over a sufficiently long timescale, that becomes a morale issue.
Landlord isn't applicable here because it assumes a degree of social networking that's not available to condemned slaves, and a degree of pre-existing infrastructure that isn't available to interdimensional colonists with no resupply. If one of the starting characters has the Landlord feat, that just means they had a really nice house on the Prime Material, before they got captured. Also, the ten million GP can't be 'invested' because it isn't available as actual money; it's more like, you requisition particular tools, materials, and constructions, the owners add up how much it's costing them and refuse to provide anything that would go over the budget.
Subsequent generations could take the Landlord feat and gain full benefit from it, but this would involve reallocation of wealth within the colony rather than the arrival of additional resources from outside.
Making the whole place airborne would be great, but it's probably too expensive. Making the whole shell out of Living Soarwood and holding it up with Immovable Rods would be almost as good,
You need to be able to access the outside to fight off things that the spell turrets can't kill (like natural disasters, or monsters with broad magic immunities), to repair or replace sections of the outer hull, and to allow the population to expand.
The whole point of using materials that self repair combined with stupidly high hardness is that you don't have to repair or replace hull sections. It repairs itself and no matter how hard you hit it, it takes 1 damage from any attack.
Also, Disintegrate is great for eliminating the volume of sewage, but doesn't help at all with the smell. Over a sufficiently long timescale, that becomes a morale issue.
Stronghold Builder's Guide has some excellent waste disposal options. Check there. A permanent portal to the plane of ooze is a great idea.
But yeah, getting it airborn is a good idea.
JaronK
The whole point of using materials that self repair combined with stupidly high hardness is that you don't have to repair or replace hull sections. It repairs itself and no matter how hard you hit it, it takes 1 damage from any attack.
Since the only surface that automatically heals every round is living wood, which is flammable, the outer shell might catch fire and burn indefinitely, cancelling out the self-repair and allowing heat-resistant creatures to tear through the wall as though it was ordinary wood. Smoke and heat-ripples might even provide concealment against the spell turrets.
Even with fire protection, a creature with multiple attacks per round (something as simple as a skeleton with two-weapon fighting) might deal damage faster than the surface can repair itself, or multiple creatures could focus on a single section for the same effect. If the defenders are a few minutes slow in arriving, the section could be destroyed outright, in which case self-repair would no longer apply.
Or, a creature with, say, Wood Shape could breach the wall without actually causing damage.
Since the only surface that automatically heals every round is living wood, which is flammable, the outer shell might catch fire and burn indefinitely, cancelling out the self-repair and allowing heat-resistant creatures to tear through the wall as though it was ordinary wood. Smoke and heat-ripples might even provide concealment against the spell turrets.
Then may I suggest putting a few Decanters of Endless Water on top of the structure? They can pump out 5 gallons per second and are cheap, and would make your whole structure look like a giant fountain with a sheet of water coming down the sides. That should handle any fire related issues.
Also, the Hardness on the wall means heat resistant creatures would still take a VERY long time getting through. Plus, making it dwarvencraft quality and casting Augment Object make it unlikely the wall will actually catch in the first place.
Even with fire protection, a creature with multiple attacks per round (something as simple as a skeleton with two-weapon fighting) might deal damage faster than the surface can repair itself, or multiple creatures could focus on a single section for the same effect. If the defenders are a few minutes slow in arriving, the section could be destroyed outright, in which case self-repair would no longer apply.
Well, this is why that rule about always doing 1 damage is silly, since the wall is so strong that a Terrasque has trouble getting through it but a few house cats can just claw through. But yeah, you'll want turrets and other wall enchantments to keep things away. A Killing Fog Veil might help... SBG page 38 has a variety of options.
Or, a creature with, say, Wood Shape could breach the wall without actually causing damage.
Have an underlayer of metal just under the wood for this purpose. After the creature is destroyed, the wall should grow back (he's got to destroy the entire thing before it stops regrowing.
One option to consider... there's a rune somewhere (I forget where) that automatically turns all water that passes over it into steam. Take a decanter of endless water, and attach it to a 1 foot long 1" diameter Riverine tube, with said rune in the tube. Turn it on full blast. 5 gallons of steam per second blasting out that nozzle provides half the thrust of a space shuttle engine. Get a bunch of these and your structure can fly (or at least hover) quite effectively... just figure out a way to keep it upright so it doesn't just spin around and fall down like the Challenger.
JaronK
Then may I suggest putting a few Decanters of Endless Water on top of the structure? They can pump out 5 gallons per second and are cheap, and would make your whole structure look like a giant fountain with a sheet of water coming down the sides. That should handle any fire related issues.
Also, the Hardness on the wall means heat resistant creatures would still take a VERY long time getting through. Plus, making it dwarvencraft quality and casting Augment Object make it unlikely the wall will actually catch in the first place.
Saving throws still auto-fail on a natural 1, so on a scale of years with multiple attacks per day, occasional ignition is inevitable.
A Decanter-powered fountain would certainly improve matters, but an impact from above could clog, dislodge, or even shatter the item. That break in the shell could be a vulnerability, and the decanter itself can't be easily repaired - unless, of course, you pay extra to make it intelligent, and assign some clockwork menders (MM4) or formian workers or something.
Well, this is why that rule about always doing 1 damage is silly, since the wall is so strong that a Terrasque has trouble getting through it but a few house cats can just claw through. But yeah, you'll want turrets and other wall enchantments to keep things away. A Killing Fog Veil might help... SBG page 38 has a variety of options.
A single Tarrasque could go for full power attack with multiple natural weapons, maybe get multiple damage per attack past even the highest hardness, and it's mirrored hide would make effective suppressive fire against a variety of defenders. Cats, assuming they somehow avoid getting gibbed by the turrets, would wander off in search of easier-to-catch food.
Bladed works against poison-immune creatures, and is less trouble for friendly patrols.
Have an underlayer of metal just under the wood for this purpose. After the creature is destroyed, the wall should grow back (he's got to destroy the entire thing before it stops regrowing.
One option to consider... there's a rune somewhere (I forget where) that automatically turns all water that passes over it into steam. Take a decanter of endless water, and attach it to a 1 foot long 1" diameter Riverine tube, with said rune in the tube. Turn it on full blast. 5 gallons of steam per second blasting out that nozzle provides half the thrust of a space shuttle engine. Get a bunch of these and your structure can fly (or at least hover) quite effectively... just figure out a way to keep it upright so it doesn't just spin around and fall down like the Challenger.
JaronK
The Challenger was almost aerodynamic.
Creatures that need to breathe.
Creatures that don't need to breathe and that rely on wings to fly. (These don't work without air.)
Creatures that are used to pressure on surface of earth.
Fire. (Without air, nothing can burn.)
Natural Disasters. (Meteors are still possible, but those probably aren't CR 12 or less. Even if they are, get forcefields all around.)
All inhabitants will be either A: Undead or B: Constructs. (Warforged, probably.)
Once you're outside the atmosphere, neither the frequency nor the variety of the hazards is decreased; the 'space creature' template from D20 Future allows normal monsters to be adapted for life in vacuum. Asteroid hazards could be adapted from existing stats for falling-block traps.
The new environment does, however, greatly increase the potential severity of a hull breach; an inch-wide hole that would normally admit only an occasional Fine creature (which might gank a few sleeping peasants, or spread some easily-treated disease, or otherwise cause disruptions and inconvenience before being tracked down and crushed) is now a threat in itself, a leak capable of depleting the internal atmosphere and depopulating the entire outpost of organic life within minutes.
I'd be okay with an all-warforged outpost, but are you quite certain that you can get a Creation Forge (and all the support machinery, and crew, and a decent stock of materials) for less than ten million gold? Even if you could, would all of it fit within the available space? The picture on ECS p22 looks to be at least seventy feet high, and that's just the interior.
Saving throws still auto-fail on a natural 1, so on a scale of years with multiple attacks per day, occasional ignition is inevitable.
Sure, so go with the fountain. Also, making your structure mobile with a killing fog veil will make it harder to detect and better defended.
A Decanter-powered fountain would certainly improve matters, but an impact from above could clog, dislodge, or even shatter the item. That break in the shell could be a vulnerability, and the decanter itself can't be easily repaired - unless, of course, you pay extra to make it intelligent, and assign some clockwork menders (MM4) or formian workers or something.
There's nothing saying you can't build it out of special materials. Make the decanters out of Riverine if you must, or at least harden the heck out of them and put them under an obdurium grating.
A single Tarrasque could go for full power attack with multiple natural weapons, maybe get multiple damage per attack past even the highest hardness, and it's mirrored hide would make effective suppressive fire against a variety of defenders. Cats, assuming they somehow avoid getting gibbed by the turrets, would wander off in search of easier-to-catch food.
Considering we're talking about a hardness in the hundreds, and that damage is halved against structures, the Tarrasque actually can't do more than one damage per hit.
Bladed works against poison-immune creatures, and is less trouble for friendly patrols.
Doesn't provide camoflague though.
JaronK
They'd take with them some war trolls, after promising 25% of the land on the planet, the deal made and agreed on in a temple of a major deity to ensure that both parties stick to it. War trolls are awesome bodyguards and with the available magical protection the group can give them, they should be able to deal with problems.
A flying fortress sounds nice but the winds can blow it away. C'mon, it's a fantasy world, it will happen sooner or later so making sure that it stays in the right by using some neatly placed wall of force spells sounds like a good idea.
I think it would be a good idea to use materials found on this new plane. There's a reason they're still around - the planet and it's environment formed them so they have to be somewhat useful! Your magical buddies can always set up a base camp with the plethora of scrolls, wands, staffs and their own spellcasting. You should master the terrain and it's inhabitants, not become the eternal outsider. Tame the creatures and learn all about the fauna as quickly as possible! Make sure to bring some colonists with you that can breed really damn fast like goblins, kobolds and what not. You can start experiments with selected groups of those guys as soon as the base camp is secure and after scourging the area of baddies. Groups of two war trolls and a troll cleric should be able to kick some serious ass while cleaning up the neighborhood.
Ugh, this stuff is addictive to think about .. and trolls colonizing a new plane is just damn cool.
Moving the base to an area of vacuum first requires that such an area be available. In many settings, the atmosphere just extends indefinitely upward, and you've got no way of knowing whether that's true in this setting without paying up front for intel.
Anyone who has studied physics shoots your theory down. If there was infinite air upwards, there would also be infinite pressure on ground level, which would cause air to liguidify and would kill all life down there.
Once you're outside the atmosphere, neither the frequency nor the variety of the hazards is decreased; the 'space creature' template from D20 Future allows normal monsters to be adapted for life in vacuum. Asteroid hazards could be adapted from existing stats for falling-block traps.
D20 Future =/= D&D. If you reserve rights to use it, it is only fair that the PCs have access to laser guns.
I don't care about the traps, I'm encapsulated in walls of force.
The new environment does, however, greatly increase the potential severity of a hull breach; an inch-wide hole that would normally admit only an occasional Fine creature (which might gank a few sleeping peasants, or spread some easily-treated disease, or otherwise cause disruptions and inconvenience before being tracked down and crushed) is now a threat in itself, a leak capable of depleting the internal atmosphere and depopulating the entire outpost of organic life within minutes.
No, I wouldn't even make the thing completely solid. Destroying all organic life is a bonus, you know. Also, now none of the organic creatures can ever attack us.
I'd be okay with an all-warforged outpost, but are you quite certain that you can get a Creation Forge (and all the support machinery, and crew, and a decent stock of materials) for less than ten million gold? Even if you could, would all of it fit within the available space? The picture on ECS p22 looks to be at least seventy feet high, and that's just the interior.
Few level 20 wizards crafting constructs + casting Awaken Construct on them should solve the problem. Instead of warforged, we now have shadowsteel golems.
Also, at-will items of repair light damage at CL 1 from Spell Compendium allows us to keep the place in good shape forever, and also 'heal' all our constructs at will.
In case you insist on the vacuum-creatures, I would also get few 30-level construct warlocks as sentinels, these can fly all around, blast any encounter of this level with no difficulty and return back in. All their abilities are at-will, and they can be repaired with wands of repair light damage infinitely.
So, effectively my fortress is:
Indestructable (Forcewalls)
Very Hard (In case something gets past the Forcewalls. Hardness 200 etc.)
Repairs at rate of 1d8+1/repairer/section (Easily 5d8+5, or more.)
Well Guarded (The warlock sentinels can kill off any creature of this CR.)
Impervious to Organic Life (In a Vacuum.)
Anyone who has studied physics shoots your theory down. If there was infinite air upwards, there would also be infinite pressure on ground level, which would cause air to liguidify and would kill all life down there.
Get that physics out of D&D! It's already a place with infinite planes of water and air and such. Gravity doesn't work the same in D&D, so why should preasure?
One thought though: what about using extradimensional space? You could make the whole habitat smaller if each person's room was actually a portable hole or something.
JaronK
How about this: Bag of Holding yes, Portable Hole no.
Putting one bag of holding inside another destroys both, creates a 10' radius explosion dealing damage equal to the product of the caster levels (so, for example, attempting to put a Heward's Handy Haversack inside a Glove of Storing would deal 5*9=45 damage). A reflex save, DC 20, reduces the damage by half, but other than that there's no protection against it; the damage counts as a force effect, and ignores all forms of hardness, damage reduction, elemental resistance, etc.
The bags themselves are destroyed, and anything inside either of them is ejected, subjected to the damage from the explosion, and then scattered, potentially flying hundreds of feet or taking further damage on impact with a solid surface. Even if an item is destroyed outright, all it's pieces will remain on the original plane.
D20 Future =/= D&D. If you reserve rights to use it, it is only fair that the PCs have access to laser guns.
If you can show me a laser gun in D20 Future with a price listed in gold pieces, I'll agree with you.
However, if it's lasers that you want, it says right there in the OP that you can use Mecha built with GoO's D20 Mecha SRD, which can potentially include laser weapons.
If you're looking for physical accuracy, how about high-energy cosmic rays? Some of them are sufficiently powerful, not just to split atoms, but to break subatomic particles down into quarks. Let's call that the equivalent of a Disintegrate spell effect. There's a solid precedent for a CR 7 trap being a single, 6th-level spell effect, caster level 11. If every EL 7 encounter you face while in vacuum is such an effect (and you seem to be arguing that there would be few other options), that means you'll be losing a ten-foot-square section of force wall, on average once per 42 hours. If you want to patch it, you'll need to deal with all those monsters that have been piling up; even without the 'space creature' template, there's still skeletons, zombies, shadows, maybe oozes, and the Mooncalf from MM2.
Some of them are sufficiently powerful, not just to split atoms, but to break subatomic particles down into quarks. Let's call that the equivalent of a Disintegrate spell effect. There's a solid precedent for a CR 7 trap being a single, 6th-level spell effect, caster level 11. If every EL 7 encounter you face while in vacuum is such an effect (and you seem to be arguing that there would be few other options), that means you'll be losing a ten-foot-square section of force wall, on average once per 42 hours. If you want to patch it, you'll need to deal with all those monsters that have been piling up; even without the 'space creature' template, there's still skeletons, zombies, shadows, maybe oozes, and the Mooncalf from MM2.
Hence the level 30 warforged warlocks killing each and every monster that exists, with at-will items of repair light damage for endless healing. :P
If you're not crafting magic items, what do you do when your existing repair-items are stolen, destroyed, or just dropped (and incinerated on re-entry)?
How do you craft magic items, when you've got no source of raw materials and your only workshops are in hard vacuum?
If you're not crafting magic items, what do you do when your existing repair-items are stolen, destroyed, or just dropped (and incinerated on re-entry)?
Major Creation.
Major Creation.
You'd need true creation for that to work, Major Creation is temporary.
Wall of Iron and Wall of Stone, however, are good starts.
JaronK
Also, I fully support our Dwarven reservation, complete with lycanthropic infections. The one thing is, why not hire a battalion (or at least a squad) of War Trolls, trick them out, Lycan them and use then to go hunting for more resources. Nothing like a massive, epic HD beast to make you open your coffers...
sell
To whom?
JaronK
No cross-planar transport effects, except Word of Recall and maybe the really short-range stuff like DDoor.
In fact, with 12 HD, they can put 20 ranks into the Change Form skill (MM 303), and they will *never* change unless they want to.
One problem: 12 animal hit dice plus 3 class levels is a total of 15, meaning the crafters will only be able to put 18 ranks into any single skill.
Barracks for most, four 'bedroom' sections for the non-replaceable units (10th level casters and Midgard dwarves).
A single 10ss dining hall, in which the entire infantry (100 warriors) and officer's corps (50 marshals) can assemble at once.
Five luxury kitchens (sure, the food is magically created, and Prestidigitation can change the flavor, but proper skill at cooking will still probably prove useful at some point).
Twenty smaller bars and eating-rooms, with Invisible Helpers waiting tables (1500 GP each might seem costly compared to a commoner, but then again, a shapeless magical force doesn't need food or sleep and won't keel over from old age).
Five to ten gatehouse/guard post/barbican combos, mostly entryways, plus a few interior choke points in the event of a major breach.
An armory for each gate; more than enough space for all the warrior's gear, plus any military-minded undead.
A library of sufficient size to contain a master book lot for every subject.
Multiple alchemy, spell-research, and golem-creation laboratories.
Workshops for every applicable craft and profession; one per three dwarf experts, so everybody can work an 8-hour shift every day but no bench space is wasted.
Three drydocks, just in case there's a nearby body of water you want to explore.
Tens of thousands of cubic feet of storage space for raw materials.
I've added all this up, and an initial group of 450 or so will require less than a quarter of the available volume; cut corners on the meeting and eating spaces and it's a lot less. What should fill the remainder?
Also, consider making energy snipers... use Binder 1 with Improved Binding to get Malphas birds (which spot targets) and then use Huge Brilliant Energy Dragonbone Greatbows of Distance on Enlarge Personed shooters that have Strongarm Bracers. The Cragtop Archer PrC helps a lot here. Such shooters can fire through your walls with ranges exceeding two miles with each shot while the birds spot for them, making them excellent for identifying threats and eliminating them quickly. Giving said bows the Force enchantment will both make use of their great strength and ensure that you never run out of ammo.
JaronK
Air.
A bottle of air can allow a single creature, or even a small group, to avoid depending on breathable atmosphere almost indefinitely. Almost, but not quite: using the bottle requires a standard action every minute or two, and it's difficult to perform standard actions while you're asleep.
Let's say you've got a lot of Small creatures, and few or no nonmagical fires, so there's only 400 humans worth of oxygen-drain spread across 4000 ten-foot cubes of interior volume, and you've figured out some way to provide them all with the Elvish four-hours-of-meditation-per-night benefit. The fortress arrives deep underground, or embedded in the ocean floor, or in some other airless environment. 60 hours of air, spread out four per night, means you've got a little over two weeks to get the place ventilated, or people start facing a choice between insomnia and suffocation.
:D
As far as I can tell, all the other non-breathers are non-breeders as well.
I assume that every generation produces PCs of similar power, right?
That's actually a really good question.
Rules for pregnancy, childbirth, and the emergence of young heroes:
Frequency of conception attempts and gestation time varies by species. Mom makes a fortitude save, DC 15, modified by environmental stresses, quality of medical care, etc.
Success produces a healthy, unexceptional newborn: ability scores based on the standard array, first level in an NPC class, gains XP as normal after starting age (commoner is simple, warrior and adept are moderate, expert and magewright are complex). No multiclassing.
Failure on the save results in a child who's not up to spec: physically or mentally crippled, possessed by something unpleasant, that sort of thing. For disabilities, look at Bestow Curse, but remember that it's tricky to fix because it's not actually a curse, disease, or injury. For spiritual complications, look at the Unholy Scion template from Heroes of Horror. For other options, get creative, but remember that the kid should be a liability for the group as a whole.
Failure by 5 or more results in the death of the child, and some kind of permanent trauma (2 points of drain to a random ability score) to the mother.
A natural 20 on the save results in the birth of a potential hero: elite array for ability scores, first level in a PC class, multiclass as normal.
Children are smaller, but also more active and growing, so (for humanoids, anyway) they require the same amount of food, water, and air as an adult of their species.
4 person party to oversee colony:
Warforged Warlock 2/ Cloistered Cleric 3/ Eldritch Disciple 5 .... healing and overseeing defenses
Warforged Cloistered Cleric 5/ Landforged Walker 5 ...... healing and melee combat
Dragonborn Warforged Psion (Shaper) 10 .......................... with Fabricate to expand facility
Dragonborn Warforged Sorceror 10 ..................................... with Wall of Stone..... cast multiple times everyday to form Perimeter wall and many inner Walls
Slaves bought:
Dragonborn Warforged Warlocks(10th lvl).... 24/7 sentrys with Unlimited firepower... and Flight and Great senses
1/2 Fey Troll Troops for Melee Combat and Meat Shield duty ..... can fly also
OCHRE JELLY for perimeter Guards and Waste Disposal(bodies)
:D
:D
All servants on the thing are warforged, and the population (In case something actually dies, which is highly unprobable..) reproduces by crafting new constructs and awakening them. All materials for this are supplied by true creation.
The thing is guarded by warforged warlocks of high level (20-ish.) that use teleportation magic to get outside, dispatch any threat, and teleport inside. If the threat is too powerful (Save-or die spells that affect constructs, for example..) it will be dealt with epic psionics, epic power using at least 50 participants will be used to get rid of it. (The DC will be ridiculously low with all those people.)
Repairing or re-casting walls of force is provided by at-will items of the given type. Alternatively, true creation can be put on such item as well.
Eventually, with true creations and such we will be capable of creating a creation forge, and increase our growth in population. Because our space-shuttle will be pretty large at this time. (Unlimited wealth and materials, and a lot of manpower..) We can stop to worry about these pretty futile threats that much.
/thread? :D
/thread? :D
Not quite.
How, exactly, are you allocating the starting budget?
What sort of teleportation are you using to bypass the 'no planar travel' rule?
What group-casting rules are you using to bypass the 'no Vancian' rule?
So when you do all the building, and math, cook the crap out of the books. Turn a job that spends 10 million into a job that costs 1 million but looks like 10 million from the outside (and books, receipts etc..) The first few encounters are going to be hard but I'm sure the party will be able to take care of it, though it will slowly wear you down as the fixtures start to crumble and fall apart due to shoddy (and cheap) workmanship. Blaim it on the laborers, the builders, the environment, the tools and the lack of funds; anything.
As the party gets worn down and you get a couple of deaths, teleport out of there with a scroll, helm of teleport, wotever; to a safe house with a mind blank item. Even set up a body double if you have to, the sky is the limit, you have 9,000,000gp at your disposal. Then, finally, adopt a rich persona in a city far away amongst other rich people and enjoy a long family line of wealthy individuals. Your grandchildren's grandchildren will never have to know what its like to have to adventure for a crust.
If the whole "evilness" thing bothers you, just donate half of your proceeds to a children's hospital or whatever helps you sleep at night. Perhaps even put it towards abolishing slavery. Sure you're alignment will take a hit due to the whole D&D view on ends justifying the means but enough good acts later will bring your alignment back into the holy light.
Just an idea.
Quake cracks the inner wall, amorphous flesh-eating ooze runs rampant in the daycare center. What do you do?
ignore that... since i can also have some Warforged Bards with Lyres of Building.. Reinforcing the structure at all times.... makes it Immune to Damage
but it could be Flying as well, to avoid earthquakes
:D
As the party gets worn down and you get a couple of deaths, teleport out of there with a scroll, helm of teleport, wotever; to a safe house with a mind blank item. Even set up a body double if you have to, the sky is the limit, you have 9,000,000gp at your disposal. Then, finally, adopt a rich persona in a city far away amongst other rich people and enjoy a long family line of wealthy individuals.
That's pretty much the same mistake Cain made.
Timeline;
JHVH creates the world.
" creates Adam.
Human population: 1
" creates Eve.
Human population: 2
Adam and Eve have two sons, Cain and Abel.
Human population: 4
Cain kills Abel.
Human population: 3
Cain runs off to some other village and finds himself a wife.
Human population: !!Div0!!
Remember: you are allowed no cross-planar transport, and are on a plane with no (known) native life above animal intelligence.
How much more? For 10 million, assuming double cost for useful, perhaps you'd make it more, I don't know, you can get 55 mature Adult, 102 Young Adult and 123 Young Gold Dragons. This is easily enough for a breeding colony, and I can't conceive of any cr12 or lower encounter which would make them pause, let alone cause casualties. Dragons eat what they hunt, so you don't need craft or profession skills to make this into food. The party can spend the other 38k on whatever they like, I don't care, or forego a couple of dragons to provide the party with some comforts or magical food producing goods. You didn't specify what to colonise it with, or what time scale, so I figure the dragons would have the place thoroughly colonised withing a few millenia.
Oh, and I did the volume equation, you can fit over 1200 huge creatures into a 100' radius sphere, in case you're wondering, so the cash is more of a constraint than the space.
How much more? For 10 million, assuming double cost for useful,
The guideline I've been using is that every quality that makes them useful for a colony, but is not reflected in the CR, adds to a multiplier. Dragons, for example, can eat anything, and have exceptional endurance for overland flying. Either one separately would be +50%, together they double the price. If they had, say, some ability that related to improving crop yields, the total would be 3x.
So, we've got Maroo's dwarven werebear forge-fortress, Amadi's ex nihilo warforged space station, Fugazi & carnivore's troll pit, and Jondera & train's dragon/kobold nest. How well do each of these scale down? What would you get with only half a million starting gold? What's the least you could start with, and still have any confidence of success?
It's only 100lbs/level so the sphere or encasement might have to lose some weight.
Maybe you've already thought of that though...
Besides, if you made the stronghold invisible, it's inhabitants could still be plainly seen; and if you made all the contents invisible, they'd effectively be blind. And deaf, too, if there's no atmosphere to carry sound.
With usage of True Creation and stuff I can manage the 10 million pretty well, all I really need is a few really expensive items and a bunch of warforged to carry them around, along with some higher-power characters.
@Invisibility: That's how you create windows, right? ;)
New rule: in a situation, like this one, where there are a lot of people in a relatively small space, and everyone has lots of responsibility and little or no opportunity to relax, there must be a chain of command.
Anyone who doesn't have the Leadership feat or some equivalent ability needs to have someone to report to. A normal person can manage a number of direct reports equal to their charisma score. This assumes that the manager has a higher Commander Rating; each underling with a Rating equal to the manager's counts as two, and each additional rank doubles the cost again. For example, a Lieutenant (rating 3) could only be ordered around by a civilian (rating 0) with charisma 16 or higher. The highest possible rating is 7.
The Leadership feat doesn't grant followers; instead, it allows the leader to function without orders. A cohort must be selected from the colony's existing population, and is subject to all the usual restrictions, but does not count against the leader's direct reports regardless of their respective commander ratings.
Feats which normally increase the number of followers instead increase the number of direct reports a leader can manage.
Next question:
1d4 rounds after arrival, the transposed sphere becomes a dead-magic zone. How do you react if
1) It's just the starting area, step outside and everything is fine
2) The dead-magic extends at least a mile in all directions, but there's a region where magic works normally within a day's walk
3) It covers the whole plane
1) Construct a fortress that can survive anything a naturally hostile environment can throw at it;
2) Kill off maraudering nasties without risk of losing your defenders;
3) Establish a sustainable breeding population.
First thing's first, let's get some immortal defenders going. Since planar travel magic is banned, I'm going to buy some level thirteen ghost slaves, all of them Psions of various disciplines and the Astral Construct power, with the only way to kill them being "give the body an honorable burial", and the body tossed into a Bag of Holding thrown into a Portable Hole before we leave. The body is lost forever, the ghosts cannot fail their level check to Rejuvenate if destroyed, and seriously little enough is even capable of harming them in the first place. These guys don't even show themselves until Astral Construct swarms have proven unable to take down the enemy, so the chances of all your protectors being disabled by a CR 12 encounter early on is essentially nil.
You also make sure you have a single higher level ghost Psion--say, level 28--who goes out hunting down the nastiest dangers the plane has to offer to earn xp. Every time he earns 3k, he returns home, manifests Mind Seed on some poor sod, and you have a free level 20 Psion. Between the ghosts flying around that can never be permanently destroyed, and the colony eventually becoming comprised of nothing but level 20 Psions, there is seriously nothing stopping you from pacifying the entire plane.
For style, I like kobolds; they have a nice lifespan, breed rapidly, and deal well with claustrophobic issues. Any humanoid will work, though, so pick and choose whatever. Incarnate Construct turns medium constructs into humanoids instead of giants, as I recall, so there is one potential option. Assorted spells to magically provide food and water work perfectly well, and you can wait on expansion until everybody is a level 20 Psion. By that point, nothing on the plane is seriously going to stop you, and you can throw around Reality Revision to make the weather behave.
For your Fortress of Solitude, I personally like Walls of Force inside Living Wood, both hardened to hell, complete with flooring. You have one entry point that is constantly guarded by, say, half your ghosts, where the Living Wood is intact but the Wall of Force has a very small hole (half an inch diameter, or less) to allow your ghosts to get out. Decanters of Endless Water, Sustaining Spoon, and large vats of algae (for air and partial waste disposal) maintain everyone alive.
All hail the Mind Seed.
You'll probably want to pay extra to make sure that the 28th level ghost psion has appropriate noncombat skills, such as mining, farming, armorsmithing, etc.
The problem with a ghost is the "no cross-planar transport effects" clause. Ghosts are only incorporeal when they're on the ethereal plane and manifesting on the material plane. You could plane shift a ghost from the ethereal plane to an outer plane, but it would just be a type of corporeal undead then (although it would still reform if you killed it); you might as well just go with a lich, at that point.
I know this wouldn't be allowed, but I think the best "colonist" would be a Fungiform Ego from the 3rd-party book Hyperconscious. It's a template that turns any corporeal creature (including undead!) into an intelligent ooze that's capable of turning others into Fungiform Egos via spores. So all you would have to do is send out wave after wave of infected creatures until the whole plane is occupied by Fungiform Egos.
The problem with a ghost is the "no cross-planar transport effects" clause. Ghosts are only incorporeal when they're on the ethereal plane and manifesting on the material plane.
The real purpose of that clause is to prevent reinforcements or resupply being brought in from outside the system, as well as various teleportation-based tricks. Besides, it's possible to cut out the 'manifestation' thing, just make ghosts permanently incorporeal, without disrupting Lusden's basic strategy.
It also amuses me that the wandering monster's side of things has turned into Pac Man.
The real purpose of that clause is to prevent reinforcements or resupply being brought in from outside the system, as well as various teleportation-based tricks. Besides, it's possible to cut out the 'manifestation' thing, just make ghosts permanently incorporeal, without disrupting Lusden's basic strategy.
How do you make ghosts permanently incorporeal? Ghost are only incorporeal when they manifest, and they only manifest on the material plane.
Might need to worry about betrayal from within, but if that's the biggest threat you're doing pretty well.
Just commenting, but a Lich can be permanently destroyed while a Ghost can't, at least not the way I have it set up. The actual immortality was the big reason to go with Ghost; nothing short of DM Fiat removes your protectors.
Ah...for whatever reason I thought that a ghost had to make a DC 16 save (which would fail on a 1), not a DC 16 level check. Good point.