Remove ads

Scaling Up

Reader mode
Even more, where is the "must feed the soul jar more souls" idea coming from, exactly? Dracoliches have two requirements only. One, they are on the same plane as their phylactery and Two, that they have a dragon near the phylactery. This is why our undead dragon god of death and decay needs it recovered. And it's also why he had Sophia guarding the damn thing. Sophia was his planned backup body. So long as the soul jar is not on the same plane as Falezore (or however it's spelled), he's in serious danger of dying and not coming back this time. If he's on the same plane as it, but there are no nearby dragons to take over, again dracolich go bye bye.

So really, regardless of what's done, having any dragons involved in it's transport and disposal is a Bad Idea.
 
While it's true that a "Generic low fantasy army" would not stand much chance against a modern military, once you get into high fantasy things may get a bit more dicey. When even an average mage can cause widespread devastation if they want, artillery and missile strikes probably wouldn't phase the army as much as you would think. The run of the mill soldiers wouldn't fair very well, but then again they don't fair very well against many threats in their own world settings either. Then you get into the "hero" types, such as Dark Schneider who are individually capable enough that they are extremely dangerous.

And in this case, the bulk (or entirety?) of the army is auto-reviving intelligent zombies who look more and more like a zombie every time they have to revive? I don't care how tough a soldier is, that would be enough to potentially break anyone. Can the military and PRT deal with this army? Probably, but it's not going to be a cakewalk.

Come to think of it, why would anyone think walking a cake is easy? Cakes can't move on their own.
 
Yeah... but here is the issue...

So, you decided that you need an army that is almost unable to be defeated conventionally because they'll continually revive and get back up each time because you don't want it to be a stomp. Great. Excellent...

Just one small problem.

Now you got to write them being defeated without it seeming to be a deus ex machina.
 
Maybe the army is bribe-able? If you could change things so they end-up in a purgatory, rather than their original hell (kicked to a hell, later, if they prove utterly irredeemable?), would that do the trick?

Otherwise, there are many, many, ways to defeat an 'invincible' army. Massed Rust Monsters, anyone?

Or... You can't (generally) die of indigestion, though you might wish you could... (Reverse the 'army marches in its stomach' principle?)
 
Last edited:
Harry Leferts said:
Yeah... but here is the issue...

So, you decided that you need an army that is almost unable to be defeated conventionally because they'll continually revive and get back up each time because you don't want it to be a stomp. Great. Excellent...

Just one small problem.

Now you got to write them being defeated without it seeming to be a deus ex machina.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Invincible army? Not so much, but probably not the curbstomp everyone assumes it'll be. Zombie armies and even powerful intelligent undead get stopped all the time in D&D, usually by a plucky group of 4-8 adventurers.

EDIT:
I'd imagine that if they revive a bit worse each time, then there is a finite number of times they can revive before the army is just bones that are literally falling apart. It might be a large number, but still finite. Plus the city DOES have multiple individuals who should be able to Turn Undead.
 
Last edited:
FaerieKnight79 said:
Invincible army? Not so much, but probably not the curbstomp everyone assumes it'll be. Zombie armies and even powerful intelligent undead get stopped all the time in D&D, usually by a plucky group of 4-8 adventurers.

EDIT:
I'd imagine that if they revive a bit worse each time, then there is a finite number of times they can revive before the army is just bones that are literally falling apart. It might be a large number, but still finite. Plus the city DOES have multiple individuals who should be able to Turn Undead.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
*Pinches nose* But here's the thing... we keep hearing about how this is going to be an absolutely massive fight, how this army is getting freaking hyped to hell and back with how strong they are, that the US Military on American soil alongside several ships who are from a Kardashev Type II civ, along side multiple very powerful dragons alongside other beings will be having a lot of trouble with said army continually able to resurrect. Whenever someone makes a point regarding a modern military, we then get "Well, yeah, but these guys can ______ and thus easily counter them."

It becomes hard to see how one is going to be able to bring it to a good conclusion without it being either a massive let down or, as mentioned, a Deus ex Machina being involved somehow.

Granted, some bits... just make me scratch my head. Like how they know there's an army marching in their direction, while we see characters continuing to go to school and the like. There's no evacuations for civilians or anything, not even at the hospital. And no real explanation for why the US is not getting as many civilians as they can out of the way. We're not seeing a Watsonian explanation for that nor for why they have not begun to hit them already as far out as they are.

Doyalist, it makes sense as it is obvious to have a big clash, but still.

As an aside... bringing in "Oh, zombie armies" with regards to the US military and it having them easily match them makes me cringe as it brings up very bad memories of one particular fictional battle...
 
Or, it'll be a hard fight fought on multiple fronts which ends up coming down to a handful of Heroes stepping up, as typically happens when facing such an army in D&D. Maybe one which the heroes end up getting a severe beating during.

The invading army is expecting little resistance of note, because they don't see any fortifications and the forces arrayed against them are mostly far enough away to not be visible, or not recognized as a military force. The US Military is expecting to curbstomp this "fantasy army", not realizing that normal tactics will be less effective then ideal. although they'll have more of an idea of what magic is capable of then the fantasy army has of modern weaponry's capabilities. Both sides will be in for a rude awakening.

Then there's the Githyanki who are expecting to roll in and easily trounce any resistance in this "undefended" city. Again, a fight which both sides will be in for a rude awakening during.
 
FaerieKnight79 said:
EDIT:
I'd imagine that if they revive a bit worse each time, then there is a finite number of times they can revive before the army is just bones that are literally falling apart. It might be a large number, but still finite. Plus the city DOES have multiple individuals who should be able to Turn Undead.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
we're talking about fairly powerful magic here. Them continuing to respawn as animated skeletons is a firm possibility.
 
Harry Leferts said:
Now you got to write them being defeated without it seeming to be a deus ex machina.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Seeing how many of the dragons have Clerical Magic, the army can be Turned at least in part.

Plus, it's been stated that ending the necromancer ends the army, and ways of pulling that off have already been described.

So, less deus ex machina and more Chekov's Gun in this case.
 
Weird thought to the poster who says that it'll be difficult to write properly - why not let the author actually do it, rather than tell them that it's almost impossible? I know that one wrongly placed comment can REALLY screw up wanting to work on a story you're going gangbusters on. (An HP story I was given by someone else - one beta/reviewer made a specific comment about it, and it put me in a spiral of overthinking the hell out of the fic. I still occasionally look at the story and think about finishing it, but always when I'm in the midst of one I am working on and don't want to abandon.)
 
FaerieKnight79 said:
While mummies are "preserved corpses animated through the auspices of dark desert gods best forgotten", nothing in that suggests they are powered by positive energy. Not seeing anything to suggest that's different in 5th edition. So yes, a mummy that is powered by positive energy is a custom homebrew monster someone created for their campaign.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
... or a misidentified deathless from Eberron (or anywhere if you have the Exalted Deeds sourcebook), possibly if it's an in-character thing and not omniscient narrator.

AFAICT those are official in the campaign setting and/or from 3.5e or so onwards? And some of them have been mistaken for mummies. They may kind of look similar.

Deathless are Officially Not Undead but hard to tell apart if you can't poke them with positive or negative energy, or holy or unholy water. At least one of the Eberronians is the founder of an Evil cult...
 
Last edited:
To borrow a quote from Armsmaster : "I'm right here, you know."

I have a plan for this clown car pileup, and it doesn't involve any of the deities! Nor any fiends, either! It might involve a few dragons, though...

Suffice to say a number of pilots are about to get a rude wake up call at JB Pease and Hanscom AFB. And the PRT has a plan for the army out on Kittery Point.
 
Prince Chrom said:
D&D 5e changed the rules for base Liches such that they need to feed souls to their Phylactery or lose their minds and most of their powers, but I'm not sure why that would effect a Dracolich that isn't using 5e's rules.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Huh, really? My gaming group at the time read over the players handbook for 4e, got so offended at how much it insulted players, and decided to stick with 3.5 after that. Later we moved on to Pathfinder 1e, and never went back to D&D. Amusingly, the cat of one of the group also was offended enough by the 4th edition Players Handbook that when a bowl of tomato soup got spilled, she body blocked the soup from hitting any books except the 4e players handbook. Said cat had white fur, and hated being dirty or wet.
 
I think Taylor is favoured of both Bahamut and Tiamat, Dennis is favoured of Hlal, Amy is favoured of Tamara, Dragon is favoured of Sardior, Emily is favoured of Lendys. I think that's all the favoured so far. That makes all 5 favoured souls, does it not?

I'm not sure what the situation with Greg and Garyx is.
 
Remove ads
Level UP!!! New
  • Informational
    • FaerieKnight79 said:
    I think Taylor got Sorcerer levels from Tia, and Favored Soul from her brother. Might be wrong though.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Naurelin has 12 levels of sorcerer (courtesy of Tia) and 13 levels of Priest (courtesy of Bahamut)(Hence the bit of angst of whether or not she should Ressurect her mother).

    Helbrede is a level 9 Favored Soul. Sulazhaal is a L5 Bard. Naichi has 2 levels of Ranger. Aetherixen (Greg) is a stock red dragon, and is being slowly taught the ways of being one... including the included 17 sorcerer levels. Right now, Aetherixen knows a bunch of cantrips and 1st level spells (ones that cover some of the weaknesses of being a red dragon). Fountain and Jewel are just a straight up dragons of thier type (Jewel does have innate shapeshifting, making her an atypical moonstone dragon, and is being taught how to use her dreamwalking talent). Crystrani is also a bard, but knows very little magic.

    Kurya is an epic level Preist. Sonngrad an epic level Bard. Skadi (formerly Sophia) and Liamaril (formerly Emma) are straight up Great Wyrm dragons of their types with no spells.
     
  • New
  • Informational
    • Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top