If you were Wizard 20

[Rubik]

I think everybody's missing the whole "Wizard 20" thing.

That's just what I started out as. I'm totally revamping my levels ASAP.

[Vizzerdrix]

I already plan on having all the spells. All of them. Except maybe some [vile] ones that have nothing but horrible uses.

Then I'll keep room open for those, and a few interesting spells from 3rd party material.

Now I want to go stat up the feats and spells. I might do that and order lunch.

Also, could a laptop, tablet or smartphone double as a spellbook?
Would save on having to craft a BBB.

[Rubik]

Then I'll keep room open for those, and a few interesting spells from 3rd party material.

Well, I don't want the [vile] ones. Most of them, anyway. Bleh.

Though if there are [vile] spells that have non-evil uses, I might be up for those. I'd have to look.

I'd go in for some spell/power research, though. There is a lot of potential for stuff that would be ridiculously useful IRL that wouldn't be in a D20 game. Store a top-of-the-line PC in your mind and connect to the internet whenever you want? Sure!

Also, could a laptop, tablet or smartphone double as a spellbook?

I'm sure we could make it work. There are rules for alternative spellbooks out there, after all. We'd just have to adapt.

Though I'd suggest keeping a copy in your head to avoid unfortunate accidents with small children and cups of soda.

[legomaster00156]

That's just what I started out as. I'm totally revamping my levels ASAP.

But then what's the point? You're treating this as a character optimization exercise rather than an exercise in how someone with near-godlike powers could alter the real world. There are loads of char-op exercises elsewhere.

[Svata]

But then what's the point? You're treating this as a character optimization exercise rather than an exercise in how someone with near-godlike powers could alter the real world.

Well, yeah, its kinda what we do.

[Rubik]

But then what's the point? You're treating this as a character optimization exercise rather than an exercise in how someone with near-godlike powers could alter the real world. There are loads of char-op exercises elsewhere.

I enjoy optimizing. My computer, my schedule, and life in general.

It's something I've thought about for a long time, and if I found myself faffing about with D&D powers in real life, I'd totally optimize the hell out of my own personal character build.

People who think it's "bad RP" to optimize one's character are idiots. I would totally optimize myself, and calling acting like me "bad RP" is stupid.

[legomaster00156]

I enjoy optimizing. My computer, my schedule, and life in general.

It's something I've thought about for a long time, and if I found myself faffing about with D&D powers in real life, I'd totally optimize the hell out of my own personal character build.

People who think it's "bad RP" to optimize one's character are idiots. I would totally optimize myself, and calling acting like me "bad RP" is stupid.

Not once did I imply that optimization is bad. I am saying, however, that isn't it better to optimize within the limits actually set by the thread?

[Rubik]

Not once did I imply that optimization is bad. I am saying, however, that isn't it better to optimize within the limits actually set by the thread?

I guess, but honestly, I hate slot-based casters. If I had to stay wizard 20, I'd use spell points and find ways to pull in non-wizard spells (and then research psionic powers as spells), then cast spontaneously from my entire stored-in-my-head spellbook and find ways to regenerate spell points. It's doable, I'm sure, but psionics is just easier to manage, since there are ready-made options for all that.

[Xar Zarath]

But then what's the point? You're treating this as a character optimization exercise rather than an exercise in how someone with near-godlike powers could alter the real world. There are loads of char-op exercises elsewhere.

There are always those who optimise up the wazoo in these kinds of threads. However there are also those who go by the parameters set by the OP. So no harm done, you get to see both sides and take interest in the posts you do like. If no one posted about turning in Stp erudite, Dark Chaos Shuffle, Pun-Pun, Dweomerkeeper, and Psionics in these kinds of thread the playground would implode from the lack...at least I think it would

Anyway back to thread...what if despite stating time and again you're politically neutral, the world leaders/government still don't believe you, what would you do? I mean a walking talking nuclear power would be on the watchlist, wouldn't it?

For that matter, how would the world truly react if a real wizard came to Earth/came from Earth?

[CIDE]

I changed my mind. After the self-optimization (doesn't really matter how/what at this point) I will deviate away from my big scary star ship plan. Instead I will don a blazer and bow tie while wielding a green tipped probe and travel around in a ship that's larger on the inside. Maybe a scarf instead. I can rock a scarf.

Now I just need some sort of catchy name or title....

[legomaster00156]

I changed my mind. After the self-optimization (doesn't really matter how/what at this point) I will deviate away from my big scary star ship plan. Instead I will don a blazer and bow tie while wielding a green tipped probe and travel around in a ship that's larger on the inside. Maybe a scarf instead. I can rock a scarf.

Now I just need some sort of catchy name or title....

Professor What.

[Xar Zarath]

What if you decided to act as a patron to a country? You heal, restore, raise, protect and nurture this country/its people, what do you think the effect will be to it (and the people) and to the rest of the wider world? What would other governments and people think?

[Nifft]

What if you decided to act as a patron to a country? You heal, restore, raise, protect and nurture this country/its people, what do you think the effect will be to it (and the people) and to the rest of the wider world? What would other governments and people think?

They'd publicly make fun of you for supporting socialist health care and selling milk in bags, and citizens from other nations would sneak across the border to get decent healthcare.

(That's basically Canada.)

[Xar Zarath]

They'd publicly make fun of you for supporting socialist health care and selling milk in bags, and citizens from other nations would sneak across the border to get decent healthcare.

(That's basically Canada.)

It wouldn't be that bad...you would be like Superman, the Pope and Batman/Bruce Wayne all combines with the power to rewrite everyday rules of reality for your "worshipers"

[Vizzerdrix]

What if you decided to act as a patron to a country? You heal, restore, raise, protect and nurture this country/its people, what do you think the effect will be to it (and the people) and to the rest of the wider world? What would other governments and people think?

You'd get murdered by another country. Your best bet is to quietly build your power for a few years then carve out your own nation using iron golems and undead. Or better yet, don't, unless you like politics.

[Rubik]

Yeah, I'd be arranging everything behind the scenes. Manipulate the world into a Good-aligned planetary government that cracks down on humanitarian abuses hard and set up organizations to see to it that potential problems are nixed before they start, as well as fixing the ones already extant. Ensure the system keeps running smoothly by magically monitoring things, preferably with the help of a few archons and such. Then I'd have some fun.

[ryu]

You'd get murdered by another country. Your best bet is to quietly build your power for a few years then carve out your own nation using iron golems and undead. Or better yet, don't, unless you like politics.

That would be a thing if there were even any that could pull it off. There is no muggle weapon or army that poses a real threat to the kind of wizards this forum makes.

[Rubik]

That would be a thing if there were even any that could pull it off. There is no muggle weapon or army that poses a real threat to the kind of wizards this forum makes.

How many d6s of damage does a full-yield, multi-megaton nuclear missile deal, anyway? And what kind of Str and Con damage does the radiation poisoning do? We need to figure these things out so that we have defenses up and ready at all times. I'm not sure even infinite hardness and immunity to ability damage would do much against a direct hit, and yes, we can always Contingent Teleport away prior to then, so maybe it's not such a big deal.

Though I'd rather hit the missile with a solid Forcecage, myself, to prevent collateral damage. That, or Plane Shift it to the Negative Energy Plane.

[Troacctid]

That would be a thing if there were even any that could pull it off. There is no muggle weapon or army that poses a real threat to the kind of wizards this forum makes.

In other news, the Titanic is unsinkable.

[Rubik]

In other news, the Titanic is unsinkable.

It is if it's made from riverine.

[Troacctid]

It is if it's made from riverine.

One disjunction later...

[Rubik]

One disjunction later...

I'm pretty sure muggles without access to magic items can't cast that.

[ExLibrisMortis]

For all we know, nuclear missiles use some weird wording similar to lava, and fire resistance 1 is enough to be immune. Unless WoTC publishes a D&D 3.5 book detailing these things, we'll never know.

[Rubik]

For all we know, nuclear missiles use some weird wording similar to lava, and fire resistance 1 is enough to be immune. Unless WoTC publishes a D&D 3.5 book detailing these things, we'll never know.

8d10 disintegration/force damage per megaton, maybe? That would be enough to destroy most things. Especially if it ignored DR and half hardness.

[ExLibrisMortis]

8d10 disintegration/force damage per megaton, maybe? That would be enough to destroy most things. Especially if it ignored DR and half hardness.

Nukes are on such a huge scale, that I would factor in distance, and use a logarithmic scale (I assume that you aren't throwing quite so many different nukes that the calculations become tiresome). Using example numbers: 20d6 damage for one ton TNT at point blank range*, add 2d6 every time you double the yield (that's about 40d6 for a kiloton, 60d6 for a megaton), and subtract 1d6 for every 100 feet you are away (so you take no damage from a megaton blast at 6000 feet, or about 1800 metres).

Eh... 20d6 from one ton TNT sounds too low, and maybe 1800m range for a megaton blast is too little. But that's the kind of system I would use.

Edit: perhaps you should make everyone within a 20' per doubling area take point-blank damage, and count the 100' increments from the edge of that area. For a megaton blast, that gives you a 400' radius sphere where everything takes 60d6 damage, plus a 6000' radius in which you take decreasing amounts of damage.

The central area would be completely cleared, including vaporising rock, but most of the outer damage is from heat (in the form of superheated air and extremely bright light (for unusual spectral variations of 'light')). Using a two-component damage, searing fire and disintegrate, of which the disintegrate portion falls off first, might simulate that best. That could be way complicated, but it's okay if you throw one or two blasts for story reasons.

Or I may be overthinking this. But nuke ∩ magic is worth it!


*Or use 10d6 for one kilo at point-blank, and 30d6 for a ton.

Using this reference, you see that a kilo of C4 (which is slightly stronger than TNT, Wikipedia tells me) can be stopped by a cast-iron bathtub, a bomb blanket, and a toilet. The bathtub has hardness 10, and the blast deals half damage to objects, allowing the tub to withstand up to 20 points of damage - which is roughly 6d6 averaged. Taking into account that the toilet was destroyed first, 10d6 for a kilo of TNT at point-blank seems fair enough. Effectively, the toilet absorbed 4d6 damage, even though explosions don't work that way in D&D.

[Vizzerdrix]

However many D6 wouldn't matter. Yes you'd have HP, but that doesn't insure that real weapons will even effect them as opposed to just putting holes in you. Remember YOU wake up a Wizard 20, not, The world changes to conform to D&D rules.

[Rubik]

However many D6 wouldn't matter. Yes you'd have HP, but that doesn't insure that real weapons will even effect them as opposed to just putting holes in you. Remember YOU wake up a Wizard 20, not, The world changes to conform to D&D rules.

It would have to, as far as us wizards are concerned; otherwise, we'd need a ton of houserules to port everything from hp and temp hp to hardness to BAB and AC to saving throws for real people. We can give real effects numerical equivalents that would affect us and be affected by us in a way that is simulationist enough that the D&D rules could cover it. We'll assume for now that the numbers on things are relatively accurate, else there's not much point in thinking about this subject.

[ImperatorV]

What would I do if I woke up as a level 20 wizard?

Step 1: Use divination to find if anyone else also became a wizard. If yes, find them and make sure they don't have any grand delusions of "fixing the world." Keep a celerity and contingent AMF on standby to be ready to fight them if necessary. In general, people who just want to do what they want are safe, anyone who thinks they know what's best for the rest of humanity is too dangerous to live should be reasoned with until they realize they are not infallible and no one should have such a huge power advantage over the rest of humanity. If they see me as a threat, however, no mercy shall be shown.
Step 2: Put together a group of intelligent young people with a wide variety of ideologies and backrounds. Teach them to be wizard 1s. Send them out into the world. Repeat a few times in different locations.
Step 3: Notify all governments and other high-level wizards that if they attempt to stop or control the spread of magic, I will hunt them down.
Step 4: Hunt down wizards and governments as necessary.
Step 5: Once magic has spread widely enough that no one wizard or small group of wizards can make sweeping changes to the world without meeting resistance, begin teaching wizardry to disadvantaged children across the world and making public speeches about my personal political beliefs, without using magic to force them on people.
Step 6: Wonder how the frick I turned out to be the guy democratizing magic when I often decry democracies.

[Rubik]

What would I do if I woke up as a level 20 wizard?

Step 1: Use divination to find if anyone else also became a wizard. If yes, find them and make sure they don't have any grand delusions of "fixing the world." Keep a celerity and contingent AMF on standby to be ready to fight them if necessary. In general, people who just want to do what they want are safe, anyone who thinks they know what's best for the rest of humanity is too dangerous to live.
Step 2: Put together a group of intelligent young people with a wide variety of ideologies and backrounds. Teach them to be wizard 1s. Send them out into the world. Repeat a few times in different locations.
Step 3: Notify all governments and other high-level wizards that if they attempt to stop or control the spread of magic, I will hunt them down.
Step 4: Hunt down wizards and governments as necessary.
Step 5: Once magic has spread widely enough that no one wizard or small group of wizards can make sweeping changes to the world without meeting resistance, begin teaching wizardry to disadvantaged children across the world and making public speeches about my personal political beliefs, without using magic to force them on people.
Step 6: Wonder how the frick I turned out to be the guy democratizing magic when I often decry democracies.

Huh. I take it that the first person you're going to stop is yourself?

[ImperatorV]

Huh. I take it that the first person you're going to stop is yourself?

Hahaha! Touche my friend. I suppose in my mind, the difference between me and everyone else who thinks they know what's best for the world is I want to put everyone on a level playing field. I've seen a lot of people in this thread, and in the real world in general, that I heartily disagree with. I would not want to be ruled by them, and so I would think no one would want to be ruled by someone else with a different viewpoint. So, I think the best solution would be to prevent anyone from being in charge, by giving everyone the opportunity to have power. It won't be utopia but it's better then risking dystopia.

EDIT: I suppose I should edit my plan of action. I didn't originally have "Attempt to reason with them" in step one. That seems like something that should be done. It is now added.

See, this is just reinforcing my point. My original draft had me killing people who maybe didn't deserve it. No one can be trusted with such a huge amount of power, but given that some people are already wizard 20s in this exercise, moving everyone else up is the best solution.