I'm creating my first world as a GM, and I had the idea of putting a city on the map in the middle of a desert, except when the players arrive there is nothing, only sand. The villain is going to be a necromancer, and I imagine that he casts "Cursed Earth" on the area to turn the residents into zombies, then possibly uses "Polymorph any Object" or some similar spell to turn the buildings into sand, thus leaving nothing but a bunch of zombies buried in the sand.
Couple questions: Does my choice of spells make sense, in case they detect magic and spell craft to see what happened? If not does anybody have a better idea of how a city turned into sand covered zombies?
Next question, does this idea seem like a fun plot point? Again, first time creating my own world to GM, I don't want to create a concept that won't be fun for the players.
Any suggestions are helpful, I'm pretty new to tabletops and would love some advice!
Thanks.
I think your choices make sense, overall, though the 'Cursed Earth' is one I haven't heard before. But...
If I were to do this, I'd use a custom Incantation to do it. In case you don't know, Incantations are from the SRD, and have also been used in Kobold Press's Deep Magic (personally I don't like the book, but I love incantations). Incantations are a skill-based magic system, and with enough modifiers, and a long enough casting time, can pull off stunts like what you're talking. And if he simply memorized the incantations and didn't write them down, it isn't something that the PCs can copy from his spellbook, either.
Cydeth, thanks for the quick response! I had never heard of incantations, but based on what you said and a little quick research, it seems like that's exactly what I'm looking for. It looks like that will be a much cleaner way of going about it than I was planning, and it's nice to know incantations exist. I'm glad I can make this work without stretching the rules as it felt I was doing with my original plan.
Thanks again!
Is Hallucinatory Terrain any help ? I'm not certain if it can be made permanent, but Rule 0 applies.
Cydeth, thanks for the quick response! I had never heard of incantations, but based on what you said and a little quick research, it seems like that's exactly what I'm looking for. It looks like that will be a much cleaner way of going about it than I was planning, and it's nice to know incantations exist. I'm glad I can make this work without stretching the rules as it felt I was doing with my original plan.
Thanks again!
No problem at all. Honestly, I'd forgotten about them until I encountered them in Deep Magic, and have started building a number of them for more common use in my own campaigns, which is why they came to mind so quickly.
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When in doubt in cases like this use an Artifact. It can be small, big, immobile, something buried for millennia until someone finds it, becomes obsessed with it's powers, and activates it.
The beauty of this approach is that you don't have to build a villain with the ability to actually create the Artifact, just the means to cause havoc with it.
This.
Maybe an artifact that removes a city of the flow of time I.e. It no longer exists. The quest could then be to find the artifact to undo the effect, bringing the city back into existence.
I don't think Hallucinatory Terrain will work because of this part: "Structures, equipment, and creatures within the area are not hidden or changed in appearance." Both artifacts and incantations would work really well. Not sure which route I'll go, but I have time to decide since I think we'll be starting this in about 2 months. The artifact idea makes me think of R.A. Salvatore's "The Crystal Shard".
Thanks for the good, quick responses. Never unable to find solid answers on the message boards!
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I don't think Hallucinatory Terrain will work because of this part: "Structures, equipment, and creatures within the area are not hidden or changed in appearance." Both artifacts and incantations would work really well. Not sure which route I'll go, but I have time to decide since I think we'll be starting this in about 2 months. The artifact idea makes me think of R.A. Salvatore's "The Crystal Shard".
Thanks for the good, quick responses. Never unable to find solid answers on the message boards!
"Mirage Arcana" is the improved version of "Hallucinatory Terrain" which allows structures and such.
Still, both are just illusions.
As for cursed earth and such. I suggest saving the high level spells as much as possible. Each one can be it's own entire plot arc. Using them all at once, it lacks...elegance.
Baulder's Gate 2, in example, had an entire zone which was physically the inside of a circus tent, but one under the effects of Mirage Arcana and several disguised creatures. Plot was an illusionist toying with the party and it worked pretty well.
Anyway, with illusions, they are pretty tough for the DM in home brewed adventures. You need to get the "flavor text" so that the illusion seems real. You also should roll the will saves in secret, as it really ruins the enjoyment of a clever illusion when the players metagame that it isn't real. Suggest forcing silence or removing players that do manage to save vs the illusion, at least until most of the players save successfully.