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Well, more a king, really.
Or Emperor? God-Emperor has a nice ring to it...
I'm not so up-to-speed with 2e full casting, beyond the received wisdom that it's been reigned in a lot from 1e.
With that in mind, how could one go about magically creating their own nation?
I'm talking 'wizard (or sorcerer) walks into the desert, raises city walls from the sand, brass constructs patrolling the walls, magically plentiful food and water supply', the works.
Builds are great, but just spitball theorycrafting is good too, any suggestions of what feats, spells, items, whatever would come in handy?
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Rituals would help for a lot of this. Animate Object to create patrolling statues. Plant Growth to help aid agriculture in the area. Hell, Fantastic Facade could make mundane stone walls look like beautiful architecture and more.
And while we don't have one yet, I could very much see a 9th or 10th level ritual down the line that lets you construct a city.
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Like Salamileg said, you're mostly wanting to look at rituals. I also think it should be said that there's no way to do this fast or cheaply, but if you are in the right setting and have a gm willing to work with you, it sounds very fun and rewarding.
If you are willing to accept refluffing, theres nothing that says your Craft rolls to build walls and buildings can't simply be using magic to raise them from the ground, and your starting crafting materials are spell components. Otherwise, I cant offer much in terms of permanent buildings. That said, heres a few spells, and items to look at
Spells:
Wall of stone is a must. It's worth noting that it also has an infinate duration. This can form your city's walls. Its simple, but effective. Nothing says you can't butt them up to each other if you want thick walls that can potentially be carved into battlements.
Create food, coupled with create water can handle food and drink needs. Also, Prestidigitation is essential; by default, food created by Create Food is bland, and a self respecting prince doesn't eat bland food. You can also hire other wizards to cast these once you establish your glorious domain more.
Once you have your structures built, you bet your ass that city should be decorated with magic. Item Facade can make thing look permanently well maintained, illusory object can create permanent images, which you can use to make maintenance free gardens, signage for you city's stores, or any number of decor you can imagine.
Verdant sprout can make real plants almost instantly for hedges, gardens, trees, and farms. The spell also provides food.
Items:
Decanter of Endless Water and the Bountiful Cauldron solve food and water issue, and unlike normal create food, the cauldron's soup is actually tasty. If you are clever, you can also use your decanters to push water wheels and the like.
Bottomless stein, if you want to add unending booze for a little razzle dazzle
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Does it need to be a real city?
Enough castings of 8th level, unlimited duration Illusory Scene might get it done.
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I also think it should be said that there's no way to do this fast or cheaply, but if you are in the right setting and have a gm willing to work with you, it sounds very fun and rewarding.
It's a sandboxy post-apoc homebrew, so hopefully can work with the setting. I'm fine with it not being quick or cheap; long-term goals drive the character.
Some helpful tips in these posts, thanks very much.
Does it need to be a real city?
Enough castings of 8th level, unlimited duration Illusory Scene might get it done.
Yeah. I can be emperor of my daydreams without any of the hard work, after all.
No reason the spellcasting can't put a bit of glamour on the place, though.
It's a sandboxy post-apoc homebrew, so hopefully can work with the setting. I'm fine with it not being quick or cheap; long-term goals drive the character.
Some helpful tips in these posts, thanks very much.
Oh yeah, you should be set then. Basically all of my examples can be done at level 10, as well. The highest spell is 5th level illusory object, and the highest level "essential" thing is the 7th level decanter.
If it's a sandbox, I suspect your goal would be totally doable, and honestly sounds like a great long term story and plot hook
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Does it need to be a real city?
Enough castings of 8th level, unlimited duration Illusory Scene might get it done.
Yeah. I can be emperor of my daydreams without any of the hard work, after all.
No reason the spellcasting can't put a bit of glamour on the place, though.
Theres very little practical reason you can't use Illusions for a significant number of the details and embellishment.
No one has to water an illusory garden, after all. And real gold costs more than just the appearance...
It makes things like Wall of Stone look much nice when finished.
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I also like the idea of illusory scene for entertainment, if we want to dig deep into the city maker aspects. Fireworks, animated animals in parks (and if you wanna flex, exotic or fantastical ones), etc are great for attracting people to the settlement and keeping them happy
Does it need to be a real city?
Enough castings of 8th level, unlimited duration Illusory Scene might get it done.
Yeah. I can be emperor of my daydreams without any of the hard work, after all.
No reason the spellcasting can't put a bit of glamour on the place, though.Theres very little practical reason you can't use Illusions for a significant number of the details and embellishment.
No one has to water an illusory garden, after all. And real gold costs more than just the appearance...
It makes things like Wall of Stone look much nice when finished.
This squared.
You can focus on one's dwelling in detail, since that'll have the bits you'll interact with and keep your lifestyle opulent. That's little more than transporting a house and having Animated Objects & Unseen Servants reconstruct it for you.
Then have a "city" backdrop upon which to look out upon, perhaps even wander through w/ all the background chatter and life, even if phony chatter and illusory life. And it can be ridiculously extraordinary, beyond any reasonable expectations of architecture or maintenance. It'd be easy to expand or reimagine a sizable portion of the city every day.
Hardly any need to defend it, once raiders realize there's nothing to steal (since your real domicile's to difficult to discern and if you play it right you can have the illusions freak them out).
Bonus points if you can find/charm/bribe an Aboleth.
Which leads me to the thought that such "cities" likely exist in the seas of the Vaults below. Though doubtful to human tastes.
I mean, 99% of creating your own nation is to do with the people and establishing a power base, building structures and fortifications is just window dressing.
Divination & Enchantment magic is very useful for this - knowing who the key people in the region are, knowing where the various threats and groups of people are, and being able to better manipulate and gain control of them will help you to build a power base.
The more magic you use to do this however, the more evil your actions tend to be.
Remember - once you have lots of people serving you, you can sit back and watch them build the city of your dreams for you (though using magic to reduce their workload will make you more popular.)
I think manipulating the weather is also a good way to gather support - if the farm village that happens to support you gets lots of rain, and the village that doesn't wish to join you suddenly suffers from blighted crops and a drought, the other villages should get the message and join you pretty quickly.
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I suspect most of the legendary wizards who created realms with magic fudged the reports of how fast they did it.
"He created a city out of thin air" (over several months of casting Wall of Stone multiple times per day, but there wasn't really anyone there to contest how long it took)
One of the key uses of illusion may actually be to hide your preparations; say you take months to build a city with Wall of Stone spells, but keep it all under wraps with illusions; and once it's done you cast some fireworks and dismiss your illusions and pretend you built the whole city right at that instant.
Reality is what you can get away with.