Peacefully Uniting Everybody -- how do? [3.PF]

[Malimar]

Okay, so there's this person -- details unknown other than she's not yet a god -- we'll call her Unity. Unity wants to a.) unite all the nations of the world under one banner -- hers -- as peacefully as possible and b.) do a holiday to have everybody in the world do an act of worship of her at once, on the (probably correct) theory that this will elevate her to godhood.

Unity is perfectly willing to violate people's autonomy and engage in a little light conquest if necessary, so she's for sure not Good, but she'd prefer to get everybody behind her all legit-like, so she's probably not actually Evil.

Unity is restricted to at most 9 class levels. Race is unrestricted -- so if the best way to do it is, say, 16th-level sorcerer casting, then e.g. a rakshasa sorceror 9 is fine.

(All first-party 3.0, 3.5, and PF material freely available. Third-party, Dragon Magazine, and homebrew considered if it's great. Using the Giant's Diplomacy fix, so the obvious diplomancer/jumplomancer/assplomancer shenanigans are less straightforward to accomplish.)

Here are the major nations we'll have to unite:
regular mode:

• humans
• dwarfgnomes
• elves
• mongrelfolk
• merfolk
• sahuagin
• locathah
• tritons
• kuo-toa
• drow

hard mode:

• mind flayers
• aboleths
• rakshasa
• devils
• celestials
• modrons
• yugoloths

super-hard mode:

• demons
• slaads

How does Unity unite the world under her rule?

[Palanan]

I love the concept. I'm guessing this is for a BBEG, or at least a mid-campaign threat?

Also, what exactly is Unity giving people as the rationale to celebrate her in particular? Her message seems to be "yo, peace," but why is peace under her dominion any better than peace under, say, St. Schnauzenmitzer the Mild?

And beyond this, does she have a game plan for post-Unity transfer of power?

Of course, her plan is ascension, but I’m guessing she’ll keep this to herself. What’s the plan she’s giving out to the masses? Is she founding a dynasty with the worthiest males in the land? Is she chairing a constitutional committee to create a more perfect unity? Or is she hoping really hard that no one in the entire world will be asking any awkward questions?

.

[Particle_Man]

Lawful Neutral, likely. Wants to unite everyone? Probably some lawful religions could get on board with that, including the obscure but cool Sapphire Hierophants. That said, they might sniff out the betrayal at the end since their stick is free access to Commune.

Also, do the prayers of outsiders really count? I htought it was just mortal prayer that mattered.

[White Blade]

Guide of the Weak Steel Dragon (Age Category) + Marshal 1/Exemplar (X) is probably always the right choice for these purposes by CR. Here's the breakdown for CR 19 (Great Wyrm Marshal 1):

Spoiler: Brute Force Diplomacy

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Diplomacy: 42 Ranks + 13 CHA 36 (Cha 24 + 5 from elite array + 6 from Cloak of Charisma + 1 from hitting HD 38) + 13 Marshal Aura + 3 Skill Focus + 2 Negotiator + 2 Bluff synergy = +75 - 20 for Nemesis/Horrible deals + 15 from Divine Insight (which, of course, Unity spams every time there's a serious negotiation) = +70.
An Elder Brain (let's get this business REALLY STARTED) has 26 HD and 24 Wisdom, setting it's opening DC at 48 (15 + 26 + 7) and its Nemesis/Horrible Deal at DC 68 - Literally impossible to roll for you. A loose coalition of elder brains should be easy to form, then Unity could conquer the world that way (Unity won't of course. Why would Unity do that?). Pit Fiends forming a coalition with you to usurp their boss (Bel, I think in 3.5?) should have an easy time of it. I'm not actually sure that Bel himself is a serious problem. Modrons might just sign on for the project regardless, but Tertians are not a real threat to the project. The Celestials should be onboard if you make the appropriate promises of just social order, without too much trouble.

All of that is assuming you don't use epic spells to solve your problem.

Now that we've done that the brute force way, what other paths are open to a Steel Dragon.

Spoiler: Build Thoughts

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Feats: Apprentice (Entertainer), Keeper of the Forbidden Lore (only if using epic spells), and Ecclesiarch should be taken. Skills: Perform (Oratory), Bluff, Disguise, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Knowledge (Local), Spellcraft (only if using epic spells), Sense Motive should all be maxed out (or as close as you can reasonably get it, depending on age category). With Perform (Oratory), the dragon far, far outstrips mere mortals - If you're using a Great Wyrm Marshal 1, a effective roll of 93 with Divine Insight/Taking 10 means that you can be infinitely better than the greatest performers in the world (At 30, you attract divine attention and international renown, whereas 10 is begging so keep that in perspective). (You can give her Versatile Performer if you want the novelty of her being the Best At Every Form of The Arts Ever Invented, since it would make her proficient in 8-10 more depending on where you put her INT) You can use the other skills to mark out her destiny as a demigod. Draconic Knowledge, Knowledge (Local), and Gather Information will keep you on the up and up of any occurrences. Diplomacy and Sense Motive will help you navigate and gain control of political alliances. Disguise and Bluff have the obvious purpose of hiding the fact that you are (in fact) a dragon, even from people with true seeing (just admit that you're an extraordinarily intelligent, competent dragon that wants to run things wherever possible though - Also pick up Cloak of Khyber if possible). Greater Teleport means being wherever you need to be, Restoration means never having to sleep (you still need to rest to cast, but that's fine - Hang out with powerful lords late into the night). Persistent Strength of the True Form, Persistent Scintillating Scales, Mind Blank, Ring of Evasion, Soulfire Armor, and Freedom of Movement allow Unity to lead any bloody crusades you want without hesitation.

A smart Steel Dragon would begin by infiltrating and organizing a nation to its own preferences and its entirely reasonable that it has done this across multiple nation states by the time it begins to pull them together. That will mean implementing a cosmopolitan education system in all of its territories, of course, and so forth. Such an ideology, a cosmopolitan assimilationist ideology would be difficult to instill in races anything like humans (much less, say, Dwarves), but again 90+ perform checks.

It would be better to assimilate slower moving, long-lived species first and convince them of the ideology over time. It shouldn't be hard to mold a drow city to Unity's cause with a proper rebellion, organized by our favorite invincible, ultra-strong fake!Spartacus and her male-drow rebels during a civil war. Those places are so fractious you can likely blow them up with the wave of the hand Forgery, using Divine Insight and Unity's high high INT. Then, a more stable, rational government can replace the fractious drow historical ones - Either through repeat performances, through assimilation, or through drow-copycat states. Such drow will have an ideology of cosmopolitanism and acceptance drilled into them by their draconic matriarch, Unity.

Meanwhile, Unity creates for herself a close, patronage relationship with many dwarven clans - Such clans might be looked on with scorn by others, of course, but Unity can shower them with wealth, good fortune, and good health by acting as emissary for them or Teleportation networking them. These broad dwarven clans would be lifted up, and fosterages would be exchanged between them, forming a pan-dwarven identity and ultimately a pan-sapient identity through exchanges of drow/gnomes/other underground races. Teleportation Networks assure them wealth. Unity would then have a sprawling network whose primary loyalty is to her and would be able to sway dwarven councils and kings. Ultimately, a unified confederation of dwarven/drow hegemony under her reign benefits everyone involved (including orcs/goblins, if she subjugates them.) and maintains smooth lines of trade for the flow of wealth. From here, contact should be made for reconciliation with the above land elves. Such a spectacular success would allow Unity to insinuate herself with however many above-ground elven cultures she pleased - Broad welcomes to her own parties of loyalist drow and then, of course, orphanages/schools for free that teach the benefits of her own style of government.

Up next there are the undersea races - How do we make that work? Well, Tritons seem to form smaller bands, but they're also immortal survivalists. It should be easy to convince such bands that freedom of movement would benefit them and that Unity will prove a beneficent patron. They'll be onboard at least after she manages her basic objectives. Merfolk have a charisma bonus and so ought to be pretty social. They have strong singing cultures, so just go ahead and show up and impress them with music if Unity took Versatile Performer. I don't know what lifespans or cultural organization looks like among the Sahuagin, but they're tribally organized in the Monster Manual - Unity can probably convince some tribes to serve Unity directly through patronage or Mass-Charm-Monster, but ultimately these guys are evil aligned genociders. You want more than some basic homage - You want to overwrite their culture like you did with the drow. You're going to have to gut the whole society at some point. You're also at a disadvantage in that they're pretty high level and have relatively decent stats. Tough nut to crack. Probably subjugate them within your Triton/Merfolk confederation. If they're a sprawling undersea empire, go in, turn into one, and get promoted through the ranks, issue reforms, and hope for the best. Ultimately these people are bad news. I guess you might just bribe the Sahuagin nobility to stop being monstrous towards other species if there's no religious injunction towards it. I know nothing about Kou-tau or Locathath cultural groupings, but they shouldn't be harder than the other options.

Mongrelfolk, Humans, and surface elves should probably come last - Elves are chaotic and humans are humans, so they probably have the largest distribution of nations. Diplomacy will be key here as will all of the wealth you extract as pseudo-monarch of the Underdark and Undersea territories.

I think that taking nine levels of Dragon Ascendant would be better flavor wise than taking levels in marshal and whatever, but it's obviously suboptimal.

EDIT: Superhard Mode: Obsidian Dragon Psion (Telepath) 9, solving your problems with Mindseed is pretty much the only way to go.

[Palanan]

Waiting eagerly for the OP to give us more details.



*Snoopy vulture*

[TheTeaMustFlow]

(All first-party 3.0, 3.5, and PF material freely available. Third-party, Dragon Magazine, and homebrew considered if it's great. Using the Giant's Diplomacy fix, so the obvious diplomancer/jumplomancer/assplomancer shenanigans are less straightforward to accomplish.)

Eh... No they aren't. Giant's Diplomacy is just as susceptible to ridiculous diplomacy shenanigans as the normal rules; probably much more so, in fact.

Excluding epic skills, the core rules only say you can get someone to be "helpful", offering the DM some latitude as to what that means exactly. Giant's Diplomacy, on the other hand, gives "will trade dirty string for castle" as a specific example of something you can do by only adding a measly +10 to your DC. It's still a matter of just getting big enough numbers, it's just that those numbers will be a bit different. Different, not necessarily harder - the DC for hostile to helpful in RAW is 50, the DC for the equivalent in Giant's (Nemesis+Horrible Deal) is 35+targets level+target's wis modifier. Often that'll be lower, and even when it's higher it probably won't be that much harder. (And that's if you consider giving away your castle to be "helpful". If you'd class it as "fanatic", which you probably should, then it would be DC 150 in RAW, which is much more reasonable.

So yeah, diplomancy is probably an even better option with these rules, so go do that and get people to sign away their countries for a ball of yarn.

(Honestly, I have no idea why these rules get recommended so often. Not only do they not solve virtually any of the problems in 3.5 diplomacy, but they add new and shiny ones, such as that high level/wise characters arbitrarily become pigheadedly difficult to persuade even when a deal is obviously in their favour. If someone other than a professional diplomat asks the high priest of Pelor if they can donate to the temple, not only will they always be refused, but they'll have a good chance of being thrown out.)

[Feantar]

(Honestly, I have no idea why these rules get recommended so often. Not only do they not solve virtually any of the problems in 3.5 diplomacy, but they add new and shiny ones, such as that high level/wise characters arbitrarily become pigheadedly difficult to persuade even when a deal is obviously in their favour. If someone other than a professional diplomat asks the high priest of Pelor if they can donate to the temple, not only will they always be refused, but they'll have a good chance of being thrown out.)

I think you're misinterpreting the rules here - diplomacy is to convince someone of something (in your examples). The high priest of Pelor doesn't need convincing to receive a donation. It is similar to not using bluff when you're not actually trying to deceive. Now, if the high priest of Pelor had a hunch about not receiving your donation, but nothing else, which would seem very minor a reason to refuse, it is then that diplomacy goes into play. And yes, a very high level character will usually learn to follow their hunches more than a low level one, simply because he's survived partially because of them.

About the other issues you mentioned, you're absolutely right, they don't really fix anything. They just make diplomacy more specific, which can also be a bad thing as vagueness is always in the benefit of the party with the most influence (in every case, the DM).

[Malimar]

I love the concept. I'm guessing this is for a BBEG, or at least a mid-campaign threat?

Thinkin' 'bout inflicting Unity on my campaign setting, once the current thing-that-makes-my-setting-unique (a global flood) is eventually solved by one of the many parties to try over the years. Not sure if I intend to use her as a BBEG (in which case, the party may be working with the last holdouts of resistance to her rule, so probably demons and slaads, so that could be interesting) or just setting background.

Also, what exactly is Unity giving people as the rationale to celebrate her in particular? Her message seems to be "yo, peace," but why is peace under her dominion any better than peace under, say, St. Schnauzenmitzer the Mild?

Good questions. Let me think on them.

And beyond this, does she have a game plan for post-Unity transfer of power?

I think her plan is to continue to rule even once she becomes a goddess.

Of course, her plan is ascension, but I’m guessing she’ll keep this to herself. What’s the plan she’s giving out to the masses? Is she founding a dynasty with the worthiest males in the land? Is she chairing a constitutional committee to create a more perfect unity? Or is she hoping really hard that no one in the entire world will be asking any awkward questions?

I was kind of thinking marriages might be how she gets the ball rolling. There's at least one nation whose king is looking for a spouse and his main criteria are political alliances and personal power, so a dynasty might not be out of the question.

That said, if she's, an Outsider or a Dragon (as White Blade suggests) or whatnot, her stated plan could easily just be to rule forever.

Also, do the prayers of outsiders really count? I htought it was just mortal prayer that mattered.

Pretty sure you're right, but (a) is as much its own goal as a means to (b), which is why the Outsiders are on the list. Plus, as long as there are groups not under her dominion, there are groups who could potentially resist her.

Guide of the Weak Steel Dragon (Age Category) + Marshal 1/Exemplar (X) is probably always the right choice for these purposes by CR.

Ooh, specifics! I like this.

I think that taking nine levels of Dragon Ascendant would be better flavor wise than taking levels in marshal and whatever, but it's obviously suboptimal.

Ooh, excellent point, actually.

Waiting eagerly for the OP to give us more details.

Got some more details about the world she's to conquer, which I can type out once I've got some time.

Only preliminary notions about Unity herself, don't want to set too much in stone in case anybody else has ideas about her that are more interesting than mine.

[redking]

Your problem isn't the build for the character, but political obstacles. The various different races (including different species when talking about non-humanoids) have fundamentally different interests, often opposing interests. I guess what I am saying is that there is no diplomatic or peaceful solution. The solution is a lawful neutral or lawful evil "new order" that uses military force to subjugate the other races. You will need to select a race to be the vanguard of this mission, and they can have certain other races as allies or thralls.

A good example from D&D fiction is the New Order regime of Lord of Night Ariakan, leader of the Knights of Takhisis that almost conquered the entreity of the continent of Ansalon. His armies had a human and humanoid core, the Tarmak auxilla playing the role of supporting and countless hordes that the draconians played in the War of the Lance. Other troops included goblinoid levies and conscripts, some remaining draconians, and an airforce - hundreds of chromatic dragons of at least young adult age.

The New Order ideology was something that was used to get various different races onboard. You will probably have to make an example of recalcitrant races by destroying them entirely.

[Malroth]

Repeating spellclock of wish built to make spellclocks of sanctify the wicked.

[Eldariel]

Honestly, the easiest way to get unwilling allies to cooperate without magic or violence is a common enemy. WW2 is a good example as are the various Earth vs. Aliens pieces of fiction. So all she needs is a big enough threat (real or imagined) to everyone's interests: the Far Realm (or an equivalent) and Elder Evils offer an easy access to such. Then it's just a matter of making the threat seem big enough, making the alliances binding enough and going from there.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

I think you're misinterpreting the rules here

No, I'm not.

The high priest of Pelor doesn't need convincing to receive a donation.

Yes he does:

-10 Fantastic... Example: An offer to pay a lot of gold for something of no value to the subject[

Giving a donation is the same as paying for something of no value. 0 = 0.

But even if we disregardthat example, it's immaterial. You can use almost any other example to show how the system is unsalvageably flawed. We'll use one which can't be argued - asking for directions to a non-secret location. This is the exact example used for an "Even" deal, offering no modifier to the check. (Which is itself very dubious - if I, a random lv1 commoner with +0 diplomacy ask another random commoner in the street for directions, I should have a better than 50% chance of getting them.)

Once again, with this system characters unfathomably become less willing to give people directions as they level up. Using the High Priest of Pelor as an example again, not only will that paragon of holiness, charity, and general Neutral Goodness tell any random stranger asking for directions to naff off, he will also do the same to his own parishioners, or even his own wife, unless they happen to be trained diplomats - the circumstance bonus for an intimate relationship is only -10, whereas the base diplomacy check for a high level cleric will easily hit the 30s if not the 40s.

This example can be repeated for literally any kind of persuasion. It does not matter how reasonable the proposal is, it does not matter how much they stand to gain, it does not matter how much they trust the person making it. Higher level and wiser characters will always be more likely to refuse, regardless of circumstance. This isn't merely wrong, it's actively nonsensical. Pigheaded obstinacy is not wisdom, it is its precise opposite.

[Zaq]

This sounds a little bit like the Harmonium (Hardheads), whose one-sentence tagline is basically “peace and harmony—or else.” If you’ve got access to any good resources for Planescape fluff, that might be a jumping-off point for you.

[AvatarVecna]

Presuming this is a world filled with NPCs who are WotC-build levels of optimal, taking over will be pretty easy and you'll even get to keep the moral high ground because the primary mean of conversion is a [Good] spell. Okay so there's a few paths towards what I want to be capable of doing, which is having a Good prepared caster cast "Sanctify The Wicked" (BoED, Sanctified 9th). Casting this spell will cause you to lose a level, but is a "close range, SR Yes, Will save vs spend a year having your moral outlook on life changed to [Good]", which is pretty solid effect. A casting of this will turn an agent of evil to a powerful force for good, although if they were highly dependent on Su/Sp abilities they're kinda out of luck (unless it was a breath weapon, since the example sanctified dragon still has its Su breath weapon). Anyway, spellcasting wouldn't fall into that category since it's not Sp, Su, or even Ex most of the time, and targeting prepared casters capable of 9th lvl spells would allow them to also spread the good word. Do note that one of the consequences of casting the spell is that the target explicitly hates the caster. Yes, this spell is basically objectively worse than its evil counterpart Mindrape in all ways but one: Sanctify The Wicked maintains the in-universe moral high ground. But there's ways of avoiding those two big consequences...

Spoiler: The Build

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Solar Angel rebuilt using elite array, BoED feats, and the Saint template. Ends with a statblock more or less like this:

Size/Type: Large Outsider (Angel, Extraplanar, Good)
Hit Dice: 22d8+220 (319 hp)
Initiative: +10
Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares), fly 150 ft. (good)
Armor Class: 73 (-1 size, +6 Dex, +25 natural, +14 Wis, +14 exalted, +5 deflection), touch 34 (48 vs brilliant energy), flat-footed 67
BAB/Grapple: +22/+33
Attack: Unarmed +45 (4d6+18, +1d6+1 holy vs evil or +1d8+1d4 holy vs evil outsiders/undead)
Full Attack: Unarmed +45/+40/+35/+30 (4d6+18)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities, spells (CL 20/21*, DC 26+spell level, +4 if nonviolent)
Special Qualities: Change shape, damage reduction 15/epic+evil, darkvision 60 ft., fast healing 10, freedom of movement, greater sustenance, low-light vision, immunity to acid/cold/electricity/petrification, mindshielding, protective aura, regeneration 15, resistance to fire 15/sonic 15, SR 32 (36 vs evil**), tongues
Saves: Fort +26 (+34 vs poison), Ref +23, Will +30
Abilities: Str 26, Dex 23, Con 24 (30), Int 26 (28), Wis 31 (39), Cha 28 (32)
Skills: Bluff 25 (+36), Concentration 25 (+35), Diplomacy 25 (+44), Knowledge: Arcana 25 (+34), Knowledge: Dungeoneering 25 (+34), Knowledge: History 25 (+34), Knowledge: Local 25 (+34), Knowledge: Nature 25 (+34), Knowledge: Nobility & Royalty 25 (+34), Knowledge: Religion 25 (+34), Knowledge: The Planes 25 (+34), Listen 25 (+39), Search 25 (+34), Sense Motive 25 (+39), Spellcraft 25 (+36), Spot 25 (+39), False Theurgy 2
HD Feats: Improved Natural Attack, Improved Initiative, Improved Unarmed Strike, Knowledge Devotion, Sacred Vow, Subduing Attack, Superior Unarmed Strike, Vow Of Poverty
VoP Feats: Exalted Spell Resistance, Gift Of Discernment, Holy Subdual, Intuitive Attack, Nimbus Of Light, Sanctify Natural Attack, Touch Of Golden Ice***, Vow Of Nonviolence, Vow Of Peace, Words Of Creation
Environment: Any good-aligned plane
Organization: Solitary or pair
Challenge Rating: 26
Treasure: Nothing you greedy graverobbers haha
Alignment: Lawful Good
Advancement: 23-33 HD (Large); 34-66 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: -

*: With "Words Of Creation" on spells with verbal components
**: SR +4 vs evil spells and evil outsider's SLAs
***: YMMV on whether using a ravage to deal ability damage is sufficiently ungood to break a Vow Of Nonviolence. I'd certainly allow it in my game, because VoP Monks need all the help they can get, but you might feel differently. If that's the case, change it out for another Exalted feat you haven't already taken.

So...yeah. Solars without class levels, AFAICT, have an effective character level for things that care about that, but they don't technically have any character levels to lose because that's concerned with class levels - not even hit dice in general, just class levels. Racial HD and LA give this solar ECL of 22, but Character Level 0, and that's...weird. I guess you could call it a self-given negative level, although you're going to have to make a judgement call about whether casting a spell that gives yourself a negative level as penance is breaking your Vow Of Nonviolence? But it seems a fair enough way to tax the solar for casting this spell, makes it so they can't just spam it 5 times a day without repercussions. DC...32 Fort save the next day I suppose? Eh.

Anyway, the basic plan:

1. Research powerful evil clerics of morally-neutral deities
2. Prepares spell for the day for facing them (including "Greater Anyspell --> Glibness")
3. Cast Greater Visage Of The Deity on yourself for
4. Cast Glibness on yourself.
5. Cast Divine Insight on yourself.
6. Scry/teleport to target, immediately forcing a DC 41 Will save vs Calm Emotions aura via Vow Of Peace. According to the DMG a lvl 20 NPC Cleric will have a +20 Will save, so they almost certainly fail.
7. Bluff +68 to convince the probably-calmed cleric that you are an angel sent by their god to bestow a magic gift upon them, probably Giant's Diplomacy +61 (with divine insight) to get them to let you do it. They have at most +31 SM vs the bluff, maybe another +20 for the risk they're taking in trusting an angel (more likely +5 or +10), and its a DC 35 CL check for truth-magic to detect the lie. Diplomacy DC is base 42, probably 47 (neutral relationship, medium bad risk for them), and max 62 (they hate your guts and know you're probably gonna curse them for the hell of it or something), so that's popping Divine Insight for at worst a 90% chance for them to agree to it. (If using standard Diplomacy rules, this gets worse for you because you have to take a minute to present the deal, and rushing it would give you a -20 and gives you a 50/50 chance of making a hostile cleric into a friendly or helpful one, either of which probably lets you cast this on them).
8. Begin casting "Sanctify The Wicked" using False Theurgy trick to auto-fool any Spellcraft coming your way, assuming you've gotten this far without triggering combat. If you have...pummel them into unconsciousness with probably 20d6+76 nonlethal per round and then cast it on them anyway. It's another DC 41 Will save to resist, and not even MA this time (which will trip you up on that Calm Emotions aura if they're undead...actually, undead casters have it best against you cuz they're immune to your aura, your nonlethal damage, and your possible Dex damage via Golden Ice).
9. Use calling/summoning shenanigans and Planar Bubble to get them under a fast-time plane effect that makes the year pass by in a few rounds.
10. Cast another Divine Insight while you wait, you're gonna need it.
11. When they emerge, do a(nother) DC 62 Diplomacy to convince your new mortal enemy that actually they should be thanking you for cleansing them of sin by joining their cause and converting others as you've converted them, as peacefully as possible. They're a high-level cleric, the should be capable. Sure, it'll cost them character levels unlike your negative levels, but XP is a river. Not that you have to actually convince them IC, you have +61 vs DC 62 at worst. Sucks to be them.
12. Repeat once more with another couple suckers before Visage and Glibness wear off, them rest to regain spells.

Every day, three high-ranking religious figures will become heretics to their own faith - still devoted to the same deity, but now on the side of good instead of evil (so no lost casting, just a change of doctrine). They'll start converting their more powerful underlings. Once they've got their own church swayed properly they can turn their attention to the evil out there in the world. Convert the whole world to hippies by delegating!

Oh and before I forget: I saw somebody mention above the idea of using Wish spellclock to generate Sanctify The Wicked spellclocks, which gets around the item creation costs but the Sanctified Cost is for whoever activates the item, not who makes it, and you would probably count as both? Idk but it's definitely faster if it's cool with whoever's running the game.

[Xgya]

Presuming this is a world filled with NPCs who are WotC-build levels of optimal, taking over will be pretty easy and you'll even get to keep the moral high ground because the primary mean of conversion is a [Good] spell. Okay so there's a few paths towards what I want to be capable of doing, which is having a Good prepared caster cast "Sanctify The Wicked" (BoED, Sanctified 9th).

The Sanctify The Wicked idea is great, until you take into factor that the 9-class-level limit applies to everyone and everything, which limits the people charged with "converting" to monsters already capable of casting 5th level spells before class levels become involved.

If true optimization is available, I'd go for the self-Ice-Assassin plan myself. Make the Steel Dragon, as above, but then manage to put that same dragon everywhere at once, not as a show of force, but to work in the shadows directly multiple places at once.

Perhaps, to limit the "army of myself" plan, you can make it so the spell is rather unique (9th level spells in a campaign with no more than 9th level characters ought to explain that one) and Unity didn't manage to fully put the Assassins under its control. Enough to make them want to advance the divinity plan, just as cunning as the original, but only controlled to the point of not interfering with other versions of itself, and forbidden to ever come into contact with the original, or each other.

Edit: Hell, at that level of power, just make it so Ice Assassin (the spell) doesn't exist in-universe, but the spell used to create the clones is a spell Unity researched by itself that does similar things but with more limitations, notably not allowing it to copy other beings, and making them deactivate if they come too close to the original or another copy. Just call it Unity's Fractalmindedness.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Malimar
Good questions. Let me think on them.

Originally Posted by Malimar
Got some more details about the world she's to conquer, which I can type out once I've got some time.

Eagerly looking forward to more information on her brand, and about the world she wants to impose it on.

[White Blade]

A totally different flavor of world conquest would be a Brachina Fiend of Blasphemy 6/Marshal 1/Exemplar 2, using Charm Monster + Morality Undone + Atonement (turn evil, turn lawful) to kidnap and turn clerics to your cause. Most of the other parts are much the same as the ones I suggested for the dragon Unity. This Fiend of Blasphemy Unity will have a very different flavor from the dragon, of course, and will be more vulnerable to true seeing and similar schticks. Charm Monster at will is extraordinarily powerful, especially when you can use Marshal to make the CHA vs. check (+22 for your marshal powers) to bend people to your will.

If you're going the Saint Unity route, several things: 1. You can't make an outsider a saint. 2. I would assume that racial hit dice are character level and that if they are not, a character without couldn't use the sacrifice. Still, Saint/Apostle of Peace go great with dragons - Most dragons can and will break any weapon/creature which closes in the necessary distance to deal serious damage and Pacifying Touch is a no-save touch attacks that dragons will have no trouble delivering. I find that Apostle of Peace 2/Dragon X makes it nearly impossible to deal with infiltrators, which might be a benefit or a drawback for you.

[Malimar]

It occurs to me that great wyrm dragons are comparable in age to the age of the world in this particular setting (which is somewhere in the 1270 to 3270 year range -- nobody's quite sure how much prehistory there is, for reasons inherent in the meaning of the word "prehistory"). And actually a great wyrm dragon would fit well with...

Honestly, the easiest way to get unwilling allies to cooperate without magic or violence is a common enemy. WW2 is a good example as are the various Earth vs. Aliens pieces of fiction. So all she needs is a big enough threat (real or imagined) to everyone's interests: the Far Realm (or an equivalent) and Elder Evils offer an easy access to such. Then it's just a matter of making the threat seem big enough, making the alliances binding enough and going from there.

...because a great wyrm dragon might well remember what the world was like before history began to be recordable, which in this setting is something nobody reasonable wants to come back (it has to do with the local equivalent of the Far Realm), and might therefore be inclined to bring it back to use it as a threat to unite the world against. Perhaps beginning by unleashing it to destroy whichever group she thinks is least likely to line up behind her.


Some world details:
The whole world is recovering from a global flood. 570 years ago, the then-mind-flayer-now-god Quasxthe flooded the world in an event known as the Inundation. 20 years ago, adventurers undid the Inundation by 1/6th, bringing the highest peaks back as islands in an event known as the Subsidence. My initial thought was that, once one of the many parties who have tried actually succeed in undoing the other 5/6ths, that's when Unity acts. But my girlfriend suggested, rather than planning that far ahead, just use her in the campaign I'm running now.

NPCs are generally calibrated to "realistic fantasy" levels, class-level-wise, i.e. popes and kings have 7 or so levels, everybody else has fewer. I'm being generous allowing Unity 9.

• mongrelfolk -- most of the surface world survived by piling onto boats, and the erasure of geographical borders means everybody interbred, so the mongrelfolk are now pretty much the most populous surface race. The mongrelfolk nation of Gus is ruled by a young half-vampire tiefling king who actually is seeking a wife, so one of my thoughts was that Unity could get started that way.
• humans -- The island of Mazerrajya is ruled by the rakshasa Ice Maharajni. Shell is a merchant city-state built on the tremendous floating shell of a long-dead giant turtle, ruled by a governor. The island of Romus is ruled by a deva, descended from the heavens to bring the word of Numiel (basically Pelor+Bahamut+Heironeous).
• dwarfgnomes -- in the Inundation, the dwarves and gnomes got together and built a fleet of submarines to house their civilizations. Over the centuries, they interbred into one species, the Engineers. The engineers now control the submarine fleet, a couple undersea mountain halls ventilated by portals to the Plane of Air, and a couple islands on the surface. Ruled by a council of elders. Warforged live in this civilization, in a sort of "16 Tons" debt slavery arrangement.
• elves -- survived by turning mangrove groves into boats and boat-cities, then colonized an island after the Subsidence. Ruled by a triumvirate of High Librarian (wizard), High Ranger, and High Druid.
• merfolk -- united under a queen
• locathah -- united under a king
• tritons -- up and moved their civilization from the Plane of Water after the devils took over, close allies with the merfolk. Like 50 micronations ruled by petty kings.
• sahuagin -- divided into three main nations, two of which pay tribute to the biggest, which is ruled by the mind flayer high priest of Quasxthe.
• kuo-toa -- divided into three main nations. One is closely allied with / work for the aboleths. Political system not well-defined.
• drow -- when the Inundation came, they up and moved their entire civilization to the Plane of Shadow, where they live to this day. The dozen or so city-houses were united for awhile, but there was a civil war and they're disunited again now.

• mind flayers -- some of the Elder Brains follow Quasxthe, some follow the NE god of darkness/secrets/death, some are Mind Flayers of Thoon (MM5)
• aboleths -- loosely organized
• rakshasa -- the Ice Maharajni is in charge of them
• devils -- follow Quasxthe
• celestials -- follow Numiel and two other Good gods
• modrons -- follow the LN god of engineering
• yugoloths -- follow the NE god of darkness/secrets/death

• demons -- disorganized but loosely arrayed below the CE goddess of destruction and fire and monsters
• slaads -- disorganized but some of them follow the high priestess of the CN god of madness