M. Breqs's page

loimprevisto, alientude;
Good catch, thanks guys, I missed that. Sort of renders this course of action really impractical, huh?

;)

Could still be done with multiple castings of shrink item over time, but the permanency would be cost prohibitive. A bunch of 5th level wizards or 6th level sorcerers could pull it off over time, but again - not practical at all.

As for the container, shape stone (or a lyre of building, or a dozen dwarves with strong backs and a few) could easily hollow out a reservoir on the surface of any exposed rock. After all, the water needs to shrink, nothing else...

Lincoln Hills;
Oh, we're not trying to short-cut the game at all. It's more of a mental exercise, just to see if it could work. The GM is in on our discussion, so it's all above-board. He mentioned the "Rule Zero" thing. And yes, it would be a one-shot deal, so we wouldn't want to waste it. My character is a divination specialist though, so we'd go out of our way to minimize the chance for error...

AvalonXQ;
Hadn't thought of whether or not it's actually 100 gallons or 400K gallons still for purposes of the dust of dryness.

As for line of effect, AMF doesn't need it, so that's still one option.

Anyways, the "no damage from size-changing" precedent, while not explicit for something like that, is the deal-killer though. I had forgotten that.

Some thoughts...

I would assume that the moment the magic is dispelled, the explosive velocity or the water constrained in the adamantine sphere would be instantaneous. Note that that instantaneous is infinitely more explosive than anything on this chart:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_explosive_detonation_velocities
Is that reasonable?

Given that a pellet would expand from a tiny (say a 5mm diameter sphere?) to an olympic swimming pool, the volume of expansion is vastly greater than any conventional, real-world explosive.

So my gaming group is in a storyline where we are adventuring to gather a powerful weapon to defeat a massive, dense army. The GM sees us getting to level 20 for an epic battle at the end... But I think we've found a short-cut that requires a 9th level Wizard and a minimum of 10,500 gp (more if you want to be safe about it).

Constructing the Weapon of Mass Destruction

1. Craft a reservoir or tank. Fill it with 409,600 gallons of water (that's 1,550,504 litres, about 60% of an olympic swimming pool. Or 3,418,276 pounds of water.)

2. Cast Shrink Item, and permanency (7,500 gp)

3. Take the now 100 gallons of water. Apply dust of dryness (850 gp to buy), creating a single pellet.

4. Craft a small hollow spherical adamantine object with a tiny, pellet sized hole in it (value would vary, from 60 gp for an arrowhead to say 3000 gp for something the size of a handheld weapon).

5. Place the pellet in the sphere.

6. Seal the hole in the sphere with sovereign glue (2400 gp to buy)

OPTION 1: Place the sphere in an extradimensional space (such as a bag of holding, 1250 gp to craft) until ready to use... After all, If this goes off accidentally, you wouldn't want this in the same area or plane of existence as your party.

OPTION 2: Heat the tank of water to boiling before casting shrink item. Yay for scalding damage!

OPTION 3: Create multiple pellets and put them in the same adamantine sphere for a corresponding increase in destruction.

OPTION 4: Adamantine really isn't necessary, but would create some very deadly fragmentation. It also protects the pellet(s) pretty well, prior to detonating.

Using the Weapon of Mass Destruction

When you want to detonate the weapon, greater dispel magic, disjunction, or anti-magic field should do the trick. The complicating factor is detonating the weapon from a safe distance.

A set of ring gates would work (really expensive at 40,000 gp to buy), to cast the spell from a safe distance... So would a contingency teleport (1,500 gp focus, must be 11th level caster) in order to get to a safe distance. An arcane archer with a CL of 11 and Imbue Arrow could imbue said arrow with Anti-Magic Field to activate when it strikes the target.

Questions

So, some questions.

- What do you think would be the destructive power of 1.5 million pounds instantaneously bursting out of a sealed adamantine sphere (or even many times that mass if you used multiple pellets)?

- What would happen to a walled fortress with this detonated inside it? I would figure the walls would collapse... What about the effect to an assembled army in the field?

- What would the safe distance be for something like this?

- Any other ways to safely detonate the weapon?

Anyways, thanks for your thoughts all.

Cheers!

Cool guys - thanks for some of that advice! I'm really hoping to contribute something to an already solid party, and I hadn't thought of a cleric with artifice domain!

Wow man - heavy situation.

Here's a short answer, and it's by no means the only one. As I see it, it's just a game. You'll have decades to play. If your friend is really dying, and if he's a close friend, I'd say put Kingmaker on hold. So you move away and can't finish it - no biggie, it's just a game. Start Kingmaker with another crew in your new town. It's not THAT important after all. But if buddy really want's to get the closure on his campaign, I'd suck it up.

Ask yourself this: a few years down the road, which would you regret more?

Again, just my opinion, and I'm a total stranger to you. Take it for what it's worth.

Hey all - first post here, and I'm looking for some advice on making a useful build for a very specific character concept. I'm about to join as the fifth player in a party where every role (tank, rogue, arcane caster and healer) are all covered. They're 7th level, but I can reasonably expect we'll play the campaign through to about 15th or so.

So I have in mind a Dwarven Engineer. A grizzled old dwarf with the knowledge and skills to use physics and science to alter the dungeon / subterranean environment - or bring down a fortress wall. Armed with a Handy Haversack full of tools (pulleys, wedges, levers, gearboxes to amplify mechanical force, and possibly alchemical items), he essentially functions as the party's problem solver for the environment.

He's not necessarily a magic user, but he'll use magic as just another tool at his disposal. In addition to mundane items (noted above), some of his goodies would include:

The character will probably focus on Int as the primary stat. It's 4d6 drop the lowest, so I don't really know what the stats will end up being unfortunately.

Skills such as Knowledge Engineering, Knowledge Dungeoneering, Knowledge Arcana, Disable Device, a number of relevant Professions and Crafts (carpentry, stonemasonry, etc) and possibly Use Magic Device would all be useful.

The real issue I have is deciding which class to take - this is where I need your help!

Ranger: A favoured terrain for "underground" would be helpful, as would the Dungeoneering knowledge. They do pretty well with 6 skill points, yet remain a good 2nd line combatant.

Rogue: 8 skill points, including disable device and use magic item (for scrolls if necessary) seems pretty cool. Unfortunately the party already has a rogue, and I'd like to try something else. But if this is the best option, I'll go for it regardless.

Wizard: I REALLY didn't want to make this character a primary spellcaster - it doesn't fit the flavour. Also, the lack of skills is sort of crushing. That said, Craft Wondrous Item would make it pretty easy to kit this character out.

Alchemist: producing alchemical items is pretty cool! Also, the manufacture of bombs is right up this character's alley for flavour purposes. They can also take Craft Wonderous Item, can't they?

Bard: They get decent skill points, and the perform skill would help out with a Lyre of Building if I ever do go that route. Lore would also help with problem solving, though I don't see the character in this light - and with Cha as a penalty for dwarves, he'll be sort of gimped from the start.

At any rate, there's a lot of options. But some of the ways I see the character benefiting the party follow:

Anyways, any advice on class? Any other advice on potential "engineering" tricks?

Thanks all!