This isn't a new concept, but I am hoping to add a bit to what others have suggested. I was trying to recover a few years of my wizard's life lost to bad magic, and our campaign restricts us to things from Core and APG. On top of that, my mage is morally opposed to necromancy, so this wasn't an easy search. In the process, I may have discovered a path to minor godhood. Now, I am considering saving this for a BBEG instead of using it for my PC. I wanna walk you through it and see what the community thinks.
Let us start with the Rod of Security as talked about by Duskblade in this post. The rod allows one who is so inclined to live in a pocket paradise that prevents aging, and unlike with a timeless plane, the aging will not happen retroactively once you leave. You wouldn't have to spend more than a full round of two in the real world before returning. Depending on your character's current life span, how often you wish to exit, and how many creatures you bring with you, a character could easily extend their life for thousands of years. I intended to just spend a few years in there after the character retires to regain his lost life. But then I wanted to to be reached by the outside world while holed up.
To overcome this problem, I intended to go to the Sending spell, but I found it limited. Better option? Greater Scrying and the cantrip Message. Now all I need is an envoy on the material plane. The book says you can always choose not to resist a spell, so my envoy would just choose to never resist my scrying. I can cast Greater Scrying once a day and check in on him occasionally for twenty hours. Additionally, I could just leave my familiar to watch the mirror and establish some sign for the envoy to make when someone wants to talk to me. If you need to reach my wizard, just approach his envoy and wait for him to signal me. Then it occurred to me, why stop at one? I could easily have several Greater Scryings going at once by level twenty. I would just need some extra mirrors. I could watch the world with intelligent envoys! But how does one get intelligent envoys that can go where I need them to?
This one actually stumped me much longer than it should have. The easy answer for about 5k at level 20 is Simulacrum. Level ten wizards are intelligent enough to follow orders better than any hireling, and access to level five spells mean they can teleport! Now, you can influence the outside world through a small contingent of teleporting wizards that allow you to have an envoy in every place of power if you so desire. The ones you aren't scrying can still use Sending to tell you of important events, and you can view different ones on different days. You are only limited by money, and as the centuries wear on, that becomes less and less of an issue. This was when I started thinking of them as “Aspects” and I realized what I may have stumbled upon. Money and time would eventually become trivial, and since I made a crafting-wizard, my power is limited only by how much I can build. I have a few more things to overcome, but this is the crux of the Rod of Security God.
Well that is my two copper on the subject. What do you think?
The Gate spell fixes a lot of problems that may arise from living on another plane. Need to get things from the mortal world? Have an Aspect gather the items together and Gate to that spot. You shouldn't need to leave to get the supplies, but I will leave the exact method to you. If you actually care that 100,000 years isn't true immortality, make two or more Rods of Security. As one paradise starts to get close to its expiration date, have an Aspect you are scrying open a new one and gate there. This will require two Aspects to be somewhere secure and keeps them from serving as envoys, but that simply adds 10k to the price of immortality. Finally, you can transport your Aspects or even others by opening two gates and using your paradise as an intermediary point. Just watch the number of days remaining as you increase the number of creatures in the paradise.
I miss one detail - how is money not being an issue with time if you avoid going out too often to make it? Especially the ammounts you'd need to pull all this off. Just through crafting on the plane and sending out your simulacra/hirelings to sell the stuff?
I miss one detail - how is money not being an issue with time if you avoid going out too often to make it? Especially the ammounts you'd need to pull all this off. Just through crafting on the plane and sending out your simulacra/hirelings to sell the stuff?
Basically. That and services. Level 10 wizards could make quite a bit of money just selling their services, and the master can work as a go-between and adviser with knowledge from all over the world. With nearly-infinite time, one could make a nearly-infinite amount of money.
The Rod of Security creates a non-dimensional space, not a plane.You can't plane shift or gate to or from it. It's designed for someone and thier best buddies to crawl into a hole an pull it in after them.
Hmm. You may be correct, but I think there is reasonable evidence to consider the space created a plane. The demiplane entry says that it covers "all extradimensional spaces that function like planes but have measurable size and limited access." To me, that sounds like an exact description of the Rod of Security's paradise. As for the term "non-dimensional space," the rules tend to use those terms interchangeably. If you don't believe me, check the edit under the Handy Haversack.
Who is the person on the outside? And, why are they helping you?
If they are doing a favor to your wizard. Favors to friends who haven't been around for a while tend to be friends no more. Or, if the person on the outside dies, then your stuck in your timeless dimension.
This could be an excellent intro/background for your BBEG though.
Additionally, the level 20 Wizard in the Rod of Security could be making things over the 200 day period and then drop them off in the real world to be sold.
the rod can only be activated once per week.
I'm pretty sure you have to spend at least a week outside for every 200 days you spend inside. I would assume the time spent inside doesn't count for the recharge time.
the rod can only be activated once per week.I'm pretty sure you have to spend at least a week outside for every 200 days you spend inside. I would assume the time spent inside doesn't count for the recharge time.
I have heard this argument before, but that isn't how the entry reads. The Rod of Security does not stop time at all. One must still eat and drink while in the paradise as indicated by the presence of food and water. There is no reason all your items won't recharge and the entry says "the rod can only be activated once per week." It does not say you must wait one week. This is probably meant to keep you from jumping in and out of the paradise as a combat-safety zone.
If you are level 20, you can become immortal. You can also start throwing Wish spells around. A well-crafted wish could probably "change your true form to that of an immortal X." Even if you sacrificed 19 caster levels to become a hatchling dragon, you end up with "time enough at last" and the youth and vitality to claw your way back up the power tree.
But you can do that AND do your plan, indeed if you're immortal you can take it that much further with demiplanes and permanent gates. Moreover a permanent demiplane Has more options and more clearly-defined interactions with other magic, like plane shift.
If you're going the BBEG route, it makes even more sense. An ancient and powerful wizard, ten thousand years old, squatting in a timeless demiplane. The moment he leaves he will turn to dust, but as long as he remains he is safe. For millenia he has plotted, sending out simulacra, doing business deals, and raising a cult in his name. Now he's sending his avatars and his servants to hunt for mythic creatures. His intention is to bring the mythic critters to his demiplane, kill them (thus completing a mythic challenge) and gain both immortality and the ability to grant spells from the appropriate mythic abilities.
If his god complex has progressed enough, he'll also be investigating the Starstone, or other means of ascension. In spite of Paizo's general rule of keeping divinity mysterious and statless there are several ways mortals have ascended.
Thanks for the thought! Unfortunately for my future BBEG, my friends don't use anything but the Core and APG as I mentioned at the start. It started as a rule by the GM in this wizard's campaign and after finding all the easy, broken abilities in the Ultimate books, I tend to agree. That means no Immortality discovery or Create Demiplane.
I like the idea of trying to Wish for immortality, but as I would do with a player, I think I may have this one go wrong since that is clearly beyond the defined abilities. Hmm, this could lead to him getting stuck in a timeless space as suggested. Yesssss... I like that. Now he needs a McGuffin like the Starstone to attain true immortality. This has possibilities. Thanks again!
why not just use a demiplane and astral projection?
Rod of Security does say it is a non-dimensional space, but item creation lists gate as a spell.
I think the most pertinent line is:
When the rod's effect expires, is dismissed, or is dispelled, all the affected creatures instantly reappear in the location they occupied when the rod was activated.
Which reads more like magnificent mansion.