I don't remember how the spell functions exactly but world wave might do this?
Earthquake might also? But I don't think it does work.
A more unusual method would be to cast summon elder worm and have it burrow around directly under the castle. Thus compromising its foundation. That's probably the most effective way. I can think of.
Do you have a particular list to pick from? Do you want the most effective spell? Do you want the lowest level spell that is still effective? Earthquake is pretty good. Planar binding series has several options available capable of doing so. Depending on the DM it might fall within the bounds of wish. And of course siege of trees
Edit: ninja
If we're talking as low a level as possible, and time isn't pressing, a large number of Unseen Servants could get to work undermining the foundations. As far as I can tell there is no clause saying you can't have multiple servants going at once.
Transmute Rock to Mud could work on the bedrock beneath the castle, if you had some way of exposing it (such as with Move Earth or simply digging the old-fashioned way).
Disintegrate could be very handy for deleting load-bearing 10' cubes. A successful Knowledge: Engineering check might be especially useful with this method.
If you could somehow find and control a Vemerak you could have it burrow under the castle and Earthquake it to rubble.
Expeditious excavation or lyre of building.
Lyre of building is surprisingly good at destroying things because you can use it to build tunnels, which then collapse.
Disintegrating a ten foot load bearing cube a few times might be a really good idea.
Get the expanded summon monster feat, cast Summon Monster III or higher and have a Thoqqua burrow in or beneath the walls. It might take a few tries but the holes should have an effect eventually.
Soften Earth and Stone can cause a little damage by causing earth to settle directly, but possibly more to a castle built at the top of a cliff. Aim at the cliff not the castle directly.
Control Water can flood out a castle protected by a moat or maybe on a river. Besides possibly damaging the castle if you do it right, supplies are sure to be ruined.
Control Winds on a reasonably windy day can make tornados.
Cloudkill is the neutron bomb way of taking castles.
I prefer clandestinely summoning/creating a shadow and just having it pick off sleeping soldiers before overwhelming the rest in a mini-shadow apocalypse.
Does it destroy the castle? Technically no, but it certainly is effective giving you a shiny new castle and an army of shadows. Win win!
Yes, but there are many ways to take a castle by magical infiltration, and the OP was specifically asking for ways to physically destroy them.
Sign a contract with a devil?
That is pretty much the answer for everything.
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Expeditious excavation or lyre of building.
Lyre of building is surprisingly good at destroying things because you can use it to build tunnels, which then collapse.
Why not build new walls? For source material, use old walls. New walls are freestanding, or open up directly to the party.
/cevah
Why, Wish of course!
"I wish that castle had no walls."
Create Pit level 2 Wizard spell. Creates a 10X10X10 interdimensional pit. You could put it under the wall and see if it buckles. At CL4 its a 20X20X20 and that would most likely make problems. Not to mention since its interdimensional when it dismisses it expels its contents back out (look out for falling stone!).
There's a theory that dungeons exist in these worlds because there are so many magical options for knocking down, flying over, or making holes in walls. Anyone who's serious about security will go underground.
Well, it would take a lot of castings, but stone to flesh is the most satisfyingly horrible answer.
@Create Pit suggestions:
"You must create the pit on a horizontal surface of sufficient size." This precludes putting the pit underneath part of the castle wall, as there isn't enough horizontal surface.
Also, Alchemist 23, only the depth of the pit grows with higher CL, not the width/length.
A Druid, use Treants equipped with +1 adamantium earth breakers. They do double damage against buildings.
They also gain the siege of tree spells which turn trees into catapults
Animate objects: All the furniture begins to flail at the walls
Telekinesis: Throw big rocks at the walls or perhaps simply rip the walls down.
Adamantine greatclub + high strength
Sympathetic vibration is a weird way bards can sort of do it.
Transmute rock to mud on the foundations, repeatedly.
You have to go with the castle sinking into the swamp. And then the next castle. And then the one after that...
Of course there's always "bombs."
Either the Explosive runes /dispel magic trick or a series of small boxes with Greater glyphs of warding in them. For the latter use whatever energy type would be most effective against walls, or another spell that's effective against walls.
Be a Summoner, Summon a couple of medium to large Earth Elementals, have them take down the foundations.
Fabricate. Make a bunch of siege engines. Your army of commoners can take it from there.
Warp their gates/drawbridges, etc so they can't be opened. The castle becomes a prison. Now, add fire/disease/whatever blows your kilt up. A couple desecrations and you will get a few haunts developing. Lots of rotting former defenders will invite hungry things in.
As to why you destroy the castle. If you aren't able to hold it from your enemies, destroying it means that they can't just take it back and use it against you, again.
Or you're in the property development business in the market for some choice plots of land.
If you wait for a good, rainy day you can chisel through gates and weak points with call lightning. The rain will up your damage and help to shield you from return fire.
Fabricate. Make a bunch of siege engines. Your army of undead commoners can take it from there.
FTFY
No more downtime for rest, food, etc.
Also known as Greater Black Tentacles for those using the PFSRD.
Stone to flesh on a load bearing pillar maybe.
Expeditious excavation or lyre of building.
Lyre of building is surprisingly good at destroying things because you can use it to build tunnels, which then collapse.
how'bout a horn of blasting, or am I still 3 editions behind?
Why, Wish of course!
"I wish that castle had no walls."
Sorry, no.
The castle's owner wished the castle and it's walls were immune to all wish spells save the one he was using.
Well, it is a bit trite, but you can wish an ancient dragon's hoard into the castle, then watch the fireworks from a distance when the dragon comes to get it back.
I'm not quite sure how much damage it'll do to the structures, though, given it's between 11 and ~20 rounds of ~27 damage, ~19 after deducting the Hardness of Stone. So an expected range of about 209 damage to about 380.Thinnest castle wall I'm getting is about 7 feet, which is 1260 HP to breach. So it'll clear out courtyards and battlements but anyone inside a tower or the walls or the keep would be safe.
It also only messes with Evil creatures.
I'm not the one suggesting it. I'm just letting people know it can be found online under two names.
Decanter of endless water. Turn it on let it go preferably in some underground area where it will be hard to notice. Eventually it will wash out the foundation. You could do this with create water if you had to provided you have immense free time and no one gets curious and finds you.
how'bout a horn of blasting, or am I still 3 editions behind?Expeditious excavation or lyre of building.
Lyre of building is surprisingly good at destroying things because you can use it to build tunnels, which then collapse.
It would only affect crystalline objects, which the building probably isn't.
If you're allowed to be a Spheres of Power caster with access to Advanced Talents, then you could grab the "Energy Cloud" blast shape, and the "Disintegrate" blast type. Those two combined give you a moveable cloud of death and destruction that bypasses hardness and deals damage to both creatures and objects continuously every round for 1 minute/caster level. I doubt there are many castles that could stand up to that kind of assault.
Decanter of endless water. Turn it on let it go preferably in some underground area where it will be hard to notice. Eventually it will wash out the foundation. You could do this with create water if you had to provided you have immense free time and no one gets curious and finds you.
Be sure to use geyser mode. Don't want to wait forever.
Create water won't work due to the water disappearing after 24 hours.
/cevah
Why, Wish of course!
"I wish that castle had no walls."
Sorry, no.
The castle's owner wished the castle and it's walls were immune to all wish spells save the one he was using.
** spoiler omitted **
"I wish the ground underneath the castle was quicksand."
Decanter of endless water. Turn it on let it go preferably in some underground area where it will be hard to notice. Eventually it will wash out the foundation. You could do this with create water if you had to provided you have immense free time and no one gets curious and finds you.Be sure to use geyser mode. Don't want to wait forever.
Create water won't work due to the water disappearing after 24 hours.
/cevah
Flash floods don't last long either, but that is rather specious of me.
Now, assuming no drainage, which I will deal with later, the decanter will reach a steady state of a very heavy 432,000 gallons of water, with what is being created now being exactly offset by what "times out". (This is a 38 foot cube of water weighing app. 3.5 million pounds) Drainage will lower how much water remains in place, but won't help at all with slowing erosion, since the damage will mostly have been done well before each individual volume times out.
The decanter is one of the easiest to abuse items out there and has been since the LBB days.
Decanter of endless water. Turn it on let it go preferably in some underground area where it will be hard to notice. Eventually it will wash out the foundation. You could do this with create water if you had to provided you have immense free time and no one gets curious and finds you.Be sure to use geyser mode. Don't want to wait forever.
Create water won't work due to the water disappearing after 24 hours.
/cevah
Flash floods don't last long either, but that is rather specious of me.
Now, assuming no drainage, which I will deal with later, the decanter will reach a steady state of a very heavy 432,000 gallons of water, with what is being created now being exactly offset by what "times out". (This is a 38 foot cube of water weighing app. 3.5 million pounds) Drainage will lower how much water remains in place, but won't help at all with slowing erosion, since the damage will mostly have been done well before each individual volume times out.
The decanter is one of the easiest to abuse items out there and has been since the LBB days.
The Decanter's water does not go away at 24 hours. It uses Control Water in its creation.
The Create Water spell specifically calls out: This water disappears after 1 day if not consumed.
/cevah