D&D 5E 20th level Wizard vs the World

[nevin]

Assassains poison. Put a coal burning stove in his room while he sleeps. Coat his sheets or put toxin in his bath, 20 5th level mages with fireball while he's sleeping. Clerics make iron golem, dump a thousand rot grubs on him while he's in a bath.

The real question for the survivability of the mage is, do the people

 

[Hohige]

Assassains poison. Put a coal burning stove in his room while he sleeps. Coat his sheets or put toxin in his bath, 20 5th level mages with fireball while he's sleeping. Clerics make iron golem, dump a thousand rot grubs on him while he's in a bath.

The real question for the survivability of the mage is, do the people who work for him like him or hate him.

The Aberrant Mind level 9 casting Psionic Dominate Person or Gear + Heightein Metamagic is pretty easy to manipule him.
The Wizard is defeated.

 

[nevin]

If your talking real world polonium from the russians, désigner poisons from the us. and nuke the city he's in without warning after disabling all alarms while hes sleeping or distracted. Sniper with 50 caliber explosive concrete piercing bullets or drop a main electrical wire on him .

 

[Oofta]

This actually makes me think it might be fun to set up as a scenario. Tim the Enchanter and evil 20th level mage has taken over the kingdom. The party of 11th level PCs knows who Tim is, what he's capable of and how.

How do they take him out? Assume he's not a particularly popular leader outside of those he's directly in control of and that the PCs can get to him someplace other than his impregnable tower of doom.

I don't think it would be as hard as some people think.

 

[TheSword]

I would go so far as to say I don’t believe a 3e caster could take over a world... and hold it, not in any believable way or for more than a relatively short period of time.

 

[UnknownDyson]

Then the demons play along until it suits their needs at which point they lawyer up on the caster and do only the absolute minimum to satisfy the letter of every request and subjugate it when possible. Once the abyssal manifest zone comes along the demons now control the world and the ones not under direct control of the wizard show him their version of gratitude by having him tortured to death by their best guy.

Making a deal with the devil only ever works for the devil

I think you're confusing demons with devils. They don't care about laws or honoring agreements. They would simply kill the wizard if they felt like it. Or melt his brain and turn him into some abomination. Using this method, the wizard loses control as soon as the demoncyst is created and will most likely be killed by a demon lord. But the OP didn't say you had to survive.

There are no deals involved, this is unleashing chaos and entropy.

 

[Oofta]

I think you're confusing demons with devils. They don't care about laws or honoring agreements. They would simply kill the wizard if they felt like it. Or melt his brain and turn him into some abomination. Using this method, the wizard loses control as soon as the demoncyst is created and will most likely be killed by a demon lord. But the OP didn't say you had to survive.

Eh. Poe-tae-toe poe-tah-toe. Or french fries.

Point is, it wouldn't be a "win" for the wizard. If they could even pull in enough demons to open a plane to hell. The more demons you pull in, the more likely it is that you're going to slip up and they'll be able to follow the letter of the instructions given while eating the wizard's soul.

I mean, would someone with a "pet" demon or 10 have a leg up as long as the demons were having fun? Sure. There's just no "that was easy" button to push. I was also kind of assuming survival was part of the point.

 

[Krachek]

They didn’t take over the world. Most absolutist rulers had very little widespread influence without the support of others. Casting a couple of spells a day doesn’t change this.

Indeed. But the world in a fantasy setup can be very different in size. The earth, half the earth, a quarter, a small island the size of England siting on top of a turtle in an infinite sea.
I won’t stop a DM saying it’s impossible. if he want to build a world rule by an overpowering wizard, why not. sure there will be hole and possibly big hole in its story. But there is hole in most fantasy story, and DnD is full of realism bug.

 

[jgsugden]

Glibness (via Wish), 20 Charisma and Expertise in Persuasion allows you at least a 32 (sometimes up to 37) Persuasion Roll. A roll of 30 allows you to do the 'Nearly Impossible'. So you can reliably do the nearly impossible persuasive things.

If you toss on Charisma's above 20, Guidance, Eagle's Splendor (from a hireling), wearing Glamerweave, you can raise that result into the 40s fairly reliably. That should allow you to do pretty much anything that is even remotely possible with persuasion, and convincing someone to follow you should fit into that description.

 

[Oofta]

Glibness (via Wish), 20 Charisma and Expertise in Persuasion allows you at least a 32 (sometimes up to 37) Persuasion Roll. A roll of 30 allows you to do the 'Nearly Impossible'. So you can reliably do the nearly impossible persuasive things.

If you toss on Charisma's above 20, Guidance, Eagle's Splendor (from a hireling), wearing Glamerweave, you can raise that result into the 40s fairly reliably. That should allow you to do pretty much anything that is even remotely possible with persuasion, and convincing someone to follow you should fit into that description.

Persuasion checks aren't magic, you can't magically influence everyone by having a winning smile even if you can convince a lot of people.