To kill an army


Advice


Does anyone know of a way to kill an entire army of about four hundred mooks within a few minutes max? Access to 9th level druid, cleric and sorcerer/wizard spells, if neccessary.

PD


What level are the mooks?

In general any blasting spells will work.

Hell, buy a wand of fireball. Sure it might be only 5d6, but if the mooks are really low level it could kill them even on a successful save. And that's 50 charges. Send your allies against any that survive the fireball. While flying and greater invisible.

There are probably more efficient spells, but that's the easiest one off the top of my head.

Silver Crusade

Chain Lightning. 20 castings, and you've killed them all in 2 minutes.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

My transmuter, Haylannar, slew approximately 700 foes in approximately 5-10 minutes at 10th-level.

Unless the enemy has spellcasters of their own, you're not going to need 9th-level spells.


Metamagic can speed up things. Quicken Spell adds a second deadly spell per round, and Widen Spell increases the amount of targets by up to 300% (!).


couple of cloudkills would do it pretty quickly, couple that with some walls to keep them from fleeing. Also, Earthquake, Storm of Vengeance, Whirlwind, would do it pretty quickly as well.


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Too easy - Control Winds at Max level - instantly put the army into a tornado effect (lots of damage, etc).


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Taxes and economy. Seriously, read Robert Lynn Asprin's book, Myth Conceptions. Essentially the main character needs to beat an entire army from invading his kingdom with apprentice level magic and a few friends. Without spoiling it too hard, the invasion is stopped by making the foe realize it's more financially viable to quit their campaign than to conquer and loot the place.

If that doesn't suit, drop cloudkills, walls of fire, and control weather. Lots of battlefield control plus gallons of oil and simple flaming arrows work wonders too. Summoning monsters, specifically placed Fear effects on leader types, and just good old-fashioned having minions of your own and that pretty much handles it.


Widened Sunburst if you can swing it, 160' radius death and blindness.


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A few shadows, coupled with a bunch of illusory shadows for maximal effect, should get the job done. Armies are usually a lot of low-level martial types with mundane weapons. They'd be slaughtered, and each dead soldier means another shadow.


Like Dracovar said, Control Winds does it pretty well. Every member of a humanoid army in a .18 of a mile (at level 12) takes ~72.75 damage. At level 18 this increases to a whole quarter mile diameter. Best option is to take the form of a small, innocuous bird, fly above weapon range (it's 40 ft a level and you can fly higher till you get to a good spot to drop it) then drop it in the middle of the army.


Here are some ways, from low level spells up:
2: Stone Call - 40' radius, 2d6 damage once
3: Thorny Entanglement - 55' radius, 1m/l, 2d6 damage per round
4: Control Water - 10'/l long x 10'/l wide x 2'/l high, 10m/l, how long can you swim?
8: Earthquake - 80' radius, bury up to 1/4 of creatures
9: Tsunami - 10' long x 10'/l wide x 2'/l high, 5r, 8d6 save for half plus 6d6 save half per round carried

My favorite is Thorny Entanglement.

/cevah


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blahpers wrote:
A few shadows, coupled with a bunch of illusory shadows for maximal effect, should get the job done. Armies are usually a lot of low-level martial types with mundane weapons. They'd be slaughtered, and each dead soldier means another shadow.

Umm... but then wouldn't you have an army of shadows?


Mark Hoover 330 wrote:
blahpers wrote:
A few shadows, coupled with a bunch of illusory shadows for maximal effect, should get the job done. Armies are usually a lot of low-level martial types with mundane weapons. They'd be slaughtered, and each dead soldier means another shadow.
Umm... but then wouldn't you have an army of shadows?

I mean if you're using them in the first place, that is probably a bonus


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I'm a fan of earth kineticists for wiping out armies. DR, at-will AoE and earth glide is really all you need. It's even completely reasonable for a party of adventurers to take one on.

Of course, if you're a fan of cheese, you can always make an ifrit with Blistering Feint, a battle poi, and Equipment Trick (cloak). Feint everybody that can see you, deal your weapon's fire damage (i.e. 1d4+enhancemnet+any other boosts) to anybody you feint. So basically you wave your cloak and the army bursts into flames. Great supervillian move.


If you need to stop their approach then a few well lain symbols of insanity should work. Just keep them covered until the enemy is between them before you reveal the symbols. For good measure you could slap a symbol of strife in the middle. Why fight the enemy when you can make the enemy fight themselves.


I was wondering when the Distracting Cloak cheese would be mentioned.

Blistering Feint wrote:

Your foes flinch from the heat of your weapon, giving you an opportunity to slip past their defenses.

Prerequisites: Combat Expertise, Improved Feint, Ifrit.

Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on feint checks made while wielding a weapon that deals fire damage. Anytime you successfully feint a creature while using such a weapon, you may deal its fire damage to the enemy.

Distracting Cloak wrote:
When you attempt a Bluff check to feint, you can use your cape to create a diversion instead of denying your opponent his Dexterity bonus to AC. Compare the result of your Bluff check against the feint DC of each opponent that can see you (DC = 10 + the opponent’s base attack bonus + the opponent’s Wisdom modifier, or 10 + the opponent’s Sense Motive bonus if he is trained in Sense Motive and this bonus is higher). You can attempt a Stealth check to hide from any opponent that you successfully feint against in this manner, even if that opponent is observing you. If you do not have cover or concealment against any of these targets at the start of each of their turns, they automatically spot you at that time.

And of course, the Battle Poi is a weapon that deals fire damage. You add your Strength mod and all other modifiers to damage as usual.

Distracting Cloak trick build:
Human level 5
Mutagenic Mauler Brawler 2 / Fighter 2 / Bloodrager 1

Traits:
Coherent Rage (Bluff)
Any Bluff as Class skill trait

Brawler
1. Planar Heritage (Ifrit), Combat Expertise, IUS (B)
2. Improved Feint (B)
Fighter
3. Blistering Feint, Equipment Trick: Cloak (B)
4. Twinned Feint (B)
Bloodrager
5. Power Attack, (Familiar)

Items:
Potion of Enlarge Person x3: 150 gp
MWK tool for feinting: 50 gp
Cracked Magenta Prism Ioun Stone: 800 gp
Huge Battle Poi (held as a two-handed weapon): 20 gp

Feint bonus: 19 (22 if you choose a Bluff mod familiar)
(5 ranks, 3 class skill, 1 trait, 2 Silver Tounged alternate racial trait, 2 modifier, 2 Blistering Feint, 2 MWK tool, +2 competence bonus)

Strength mod: 9
(18 Base, +4 Mutagen, +2 Enlarge Person, +4 Bloodrage)

Huge Battle Poi (Enlarged): 2d6 + 19 (+13 without Power Attack)

Feint up to four times in a round with Twinned Feint (like cleave, but for feints and only takes a move action). So place two durable tied up opponents in your melee reach, then feint until everything that can see you has spontaneously combusted.

****


Mark Hoover 330 wrote:
blahpers wrote:
A few shadows, coupled with a bunch of illusory shadows for maximal effect, should get the job done. Armies are usually a lot of low-level martial types with mundane weapons. They'd be slaughtered, and each dead soldier means another shadow.
Umm... but then wouldn't you have an army of shadows?

We simply release wave after wave of death ward-ed Tian-Shu needle snakes. They'll wipe out the shadows.


deuxhero wrote:
Like Dracovar said, Control Winds does it pretty well. Every member of a humanoid army in a .18 of a mile (at level 12) takes ~72.75 damage. At level 18 this increases to a whole quarter mile diameter. Best option is to take the form of a small, innocuous bird, fly above weapon range (it's 40 ft a level and you can fly higher till you get to a good spot to drop it) then drop it in the middle of the army.

My personal fav use is to finagle Control Winds into a Greater Glyph of Warding on a trapped scroll tube.

Then charm some soldier shmuck to wander into the center of the army and open it.

No need to be anywhere near the blast radius....


Sorcerer/Wizard
* [9] Polar Midnight.
* (Optional) [6 Spell Slot] Dazing Fireball.
* (Optional) [7] Hold Person, Mass.
* [5] Khain's Army [Evil].
* (Optional) [3] Fireball.

Use multiple Castings of Khain's Army to round up the enemy army, then unleash Polar Midnight - the Ghouls/Ghasts can Paralyze those that make it out. From there they can Attack, drag the enemy into the Effects of Polar Midnight (with the bonus of exploding to deal Damage themselves), or a well-timed mixture. Rinse and repeat. Optionally, include Hold Person, Mass or Dazing Fireball to prevent escape/dispersal and ensure maximum Damage/vulnerability, plus throw Fireballs at the stragglers remaining after your impressive show of magical might/sadism.

Cleric/Sorcerer/Wizard
* [6 Spell Slot] Dazing Fireball.
* (Optional) [7] Hold Person, Mass.
* [8/9] Summon Monster VIII/IX.
* (Optional) [4 500gp] Cauldron of Overwhelming Allies.
* (Optional) [121 500gp] Rod of Metamagic, Maximize.

Daze huge swathes of the army, optionally holding those missed, then Summon from the next lowest (or lower) lists to have multiple beasties much higher Level than your 'mook' enemies. A Cauldron of Overwhelming Allies will give you one quick boost to a Summon Monster Spell and is really cheap for a higher Level P.C., (you could even have multiple). If you have money to burn you could also ensure 3-5 Monsters for three Castings with a Rod of Metamagic, Maximize, adding additional Summons from your Cauldrons on top ... If your G.M. does not hate Summoning, they may now. xD


Sorcerer/Wizard
* [8] Symbol of Insanity.
* [5] Mirage Arcana.
* Any widespread Damaging Spells.
* [3] Fly or [5] Overland Flight.

Find a cavern or other funnelled landscape, placing Symbols of Insanity on the ground, walls, entrances/exits; etc. Set these to Activate on being looked at, attuning yourself/Familiar/Party. Cover with Mirage Arcana. In the meantime, have someone lead the army to your location via trickery, payment or simply challenging them to face you. Once they are all in you Dismiss the Illusion to reveal the Symbols - which affect most of the army. Fly above the army to avoid Attacks, then rain down whatever you like!

Dark Archive

I see a big lack of Spike Stones.Put a layer behind them and then one on top of em and enjoy seeing them kill themselves trying to run away.


Potato disciple wrote:

Does anyone know of a way to kill an entire army of about four hundred mooks within a few minutes max? Access to 9th level druid, cleric and sorcerer/wizard spells, if neccessary.

PD

Soooo many ways if you can essentially access any 9th level spell. For sheer speed I'll second a Widened Sunburst(s) +/- Widened Meteor Swarms(s) or maybe a Gate to the Negative Material Plane encouraged by use of Mass Suggestion and a whole lot of Bluff with a megaphone :p (How about Symbols of Fear and a Mass Suggestion that the Gate is the fastest easiest way to escape, get that herd/stampede going ...


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Symbol of insanity on a bouncy ball.


Awakened minnows in a control water sphere with the coven bonuses going on all cast magic missile with whatever feats and metamagic you wish, killing 5 enemies each. You can fit a -lot- of awakened minnows in a control water spell. Blood money pays the bills.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Evards Spiked Tentacles of Forced Intrusion...

Uh I mean Black Tentacles works fairly well. Any variety of the wall spells.

Conjure a few Air Elementals, have them whirlwind, fly 100 feet per move action (perfect) and drop their passengers as a free action means wide swaths covered each round. Oh and be sure to drop the mooks into the aforementioned walls or tentacles for an extra bit of damage.

If you want higher level...Holy Word / Blasphemy cheese also covers large areas...


We did have a huge battle once ... 9 PCs level 6-8 with more than average good attributes against nearly 2000 soldiers (with low level bards, clerics etc). It was too easy. And though the playing lasted three evenings, it was a fairly short fight. The players didn't have many wands, but good buff items and spells.

Fireballs were used, walls of fire combined with entangle were a huge ground control winner with ridiculous death counts, yet the fighters and archers of the group rocked. Protection from arrows coupled with a good buffed AC and the three archers flattened the floor against several hundreds of soldiers (though buffed with bless, bards song and other small cheap things).

Cavalry would have been a problem ... several readied walls of fire annihilated them.

The four level 5 spellcasters included in the army were a bigger problem than the first 1000 level 2-3 warriors. And they didn't last long.

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