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

[tetrasodium]

Perhaps there is a corner case argument that everyone with a great deal of personal power who wants control over the world and will leverage their power to get it is criminally insane... but human history is FULL of this stuff.

As for Faerun - as an ex-archaeologist and student of anthropology and ancient history, I can tell you that it makes little sense as a world and the conveyor belt of world-ending problems it suffers without anything really changing underlines this - spellplague aside (which was undone because the default status quo has too much weight). It is a kitchen sink hodgepotch, and I don't think it every claimed to be anything else. It was developed as a place to tell children's stories at first, and it shows.

Greyhawk makes much more sense, as does Dark Sun, Krynn and Eberron etc. They are the products of worldbuilders, not 'I need somewhere, anywhere to host adventures' storytellers...

Another point about the conveyor belt of disasters... anywhere prone to tornado probles have fairly standard tornado shelters. Florida backyards are dotted with little pointless nuclear fallout shelters dating back to the cuban missile crisis & if korean dramas on netflix are any indication they aren't that out of place there either. Taking that a step further, florida has the miami code a bunch of infrastructure dedicated to shelters & supplies plus a ton of laws that are written to ensure avoidable problems after a big storm don't happen again.. Having dated people who were kids in homestead after andrew(and seen it myself), lived through wilma, worked in the building with the post office across the street from the anthrax building, & so on... FR doesn't even pretend to learn anything from those disasters so often held up as defense for the cultural stasis because it doesn't make the walled cities of Athas with its single apocalyptic troubles & limitations look like some kind of wishy washy half assed red light district of extreme permissiveness.

The whole "I don't need somewhere, anywhere is ok" thing works to a degree, but somewhere along the line FR & planescape became something very specific loaded with very specific& often conflicting plot armor treated as a sacrosanct. 5e is especially bad at elevating FR & planescape specific lore to the point of limiting design & getting reinforced with mechanics. Aside from the eberron stuff nearly every official book dedicated to FR with tasha's going one further by reprinting artificer but with all the eberron stuff replaced by FR & planescape stuff to finally abandon any shed of pretense for them being the "kitchen sink setting" they get held up as while pushing it into dominating basically every aspect of 5e.

 

[Krachek]

I still wonder, even if the wizard can win any duel, how he will find time to manage 500 millions of people and a thousand kingdoms. This is a rough estimate from earth population in 1400. Even with scrying and teleportation it will take a complete hierarchy of sub leaders to manage and control these kingdoms. In term of DnD fantasy, rebels and rebellions should continuously spread out.

 

[Iry]

I still wonder, even if the wizard can win any duel, how he will find time to manage 500 millions of people and a thousand kingdoms. This is a rough estimate from earth population in 1400. Even with scrying and teleportation it will take a complete hierarchy of sub leaders to manage and control these kingdoms. In term of DnD fantasy, rebels and rebellions should continuously spread out.

Hypnos Magen can cast Suggestion at will, Solars can use their 30 CHA to make impassioned speeches, etc. I'm not suggesting a brainwashed world, because I'm sure the Solars wouldn't support such a plan in the first place. But it does make for an amazing PR campaign that continues to run worldwide without taking up too much of your time.

 

[Krachek]

Hypnos Magen can cast Suggestion at will, Solars can use their 30 CHA to make impassioned speeches, etc. I'm not suggesting a brainwashed world, because I'm sure the Solars wouldn't support such a plan in the first place. But it does make for an amazing PR campaign that continues to run worldwide without taking up too much of your time.

Then the fun begin. This leader need help, and even if the Mage has a perfect control over the Solars and Magens, a wise Dm might suggest to its players that there may be a way to break this control and take down the mage. Indeed it makes amazing prelude to a campaign.

 

[Eltab]

I still wonder, even if the wizard can win any duel, how he will find time to manage 500 millions of people and a thousand kingdoms. This is a rough estimate from earth population in 1400. Even with scrying and teleportation it will take a complete hierarchy of sub leaders to manage and control these kingdoms. In term of DnD fantasy, rebels and rebellions should continuously spread out.

Regularly visit China, the Incas, Ottoman Turkey, the Hapsburgs (Austria plus), the Pope.
Rotate visits to Russia, somebody in India, Aztecs, France, south Africa, Java.
The rest of the world can be influenced from those places, or does not have enough surplus wealth / resources to fret over.

Rule with a light hand, you need not deal with rebellions. Be a 'neutral arbiter' (in spirit as well as name) and everybody will think you are OK if not be happy.

 

[Starfox]

To me, this is like asking why people who build nuclear weapons don't rule the world. Wizards are just too busy doing magic. With all of the spell work they are supposed to do, they are one of the classes with theleast downtime. What I see as more likely is that a wizard would form a partnership with another powerful character and help them in critical junctures.

 

[TheAnnoyingMinMaxer]

Here is how I would do it. One may consider it simulacrum cheese, but imean the spell is just so good there is almost no reason not to use it in all of your plans. Once you reach Unlimited power, never leave your base and have your simulacrum do the dirty work for you. But I digress. The plan:

Part 1 - Attaining your new form
Spells required - Magic Jar, True Polymorph, Simulacrum/Wish
Step 1. Cast Simulacrum on yourself, either using the 12 hour casting or wishing one into existence.
Step 2. True Polymorph your simulacrum into an adult red/gold dragon. If your DM allows it, try to True poly them into an adult red/gold dragon, specifically one day away from becoming an ancient dragon. This should work, but if not, it's fine if you're just an adult dragon. Just have to wait a couple thousand years....
Step 3. Create another simulacrum of yourself if you want a carbon copy of your humanoid form that you're still in. You'll need this form soon enough. And by that I mean half a year.
Step 4. Cast magic jar on yourself and possess your simulacrum Pit fiend/Dragon.
The product:
In case you haven't noticed, you are now a pit fiend or an ancient dragon who is also an elite spell caster with access to an 8th and 9th level spell slot and 8th and 9th level spells.

Part 2 - Amassing your army (of not simulacrums!)
Spells required - True Polymorph, Planar Binding, Magic Circle (optional)
Step 1. True Polymorph a blade of grass into either a Glabrezu, a Bone Devil, or a Nycaloth. If your DM lets you use the summoner variant use those for a chance at an even larger army.
Step 2. (If you want, go ahead and put up a magic circle to make sure this doesn't go haywire later.) Use planar binding to bind the fiend to your service for up to 180 days.
Step 3. Repeat for 180 days. You should be able to do this 2 times a day.
Step 4. Keep a track of your fiends with signs. Branding might be better if you chose bone devil due to their resistance to fire, because that won't impede them in battle.
Step 5. Use the most recently binded fiends to guard you while you rest. It would be a shame if a Nycaloth came out of nowhere and killed/severely damaged you while you sleep. But with your incredible power, you should be fine.
The Product:
Now, you have 360 Moderately expendable troops. Keep track of them, or you may find yourself slowly dying in your sleep.

Part 3 - Ruining a poor king's day (Gaining control over a territory)
Spells required - Magic Jar, Suggestion, Greater Invisibility/Dimension Door/Teleport(All optional)
Step 1. Magic Jar yourself into your simulacrum old body that you made half a year ago. We wanna look like an adventurer to complete this part.
Step 2. Command your Fiend army to hide themselves outside of the city
Step 3. Teleport yourself into the king's castle using dimension door or teleport, or sneak in with Greater invisibility.
Step 4. Find the king and cast Suggestion on him. Suggest that he goes out to your fiend army and tell them to rain chaos over the townsfolk, and make sure that everyone can see that he was the one commanding the army. Tell him to act evil while he's at it as well.
Step 5. Command your Fiend army to Go attack the townsfolk without killing or injuring too many people. Tell them to attack you when you get there, but tell them not to hit you, and make it look like they're missing with each attack.
Step 6. While your army is attacking the city and the king is looking super evil, swoop in as an adventurer and knock out all of your Fiend army. Don't kill any of them; we'll still need them later. Proceed to kill the king.
Step 7. When everyone is cheering, persuade them to let you be king because you saved them from the Fiend army. Move all of the "dead" Devils down into the dungeon of the castle, and make sure they wake up. Nurse them back to health or have a trusted servant do it for you.
Step 8. Find your Dragon body and Re-Possess it.
The product:
Now you're the king over a massive kingdom. Whenever you're around people, Polymorph yourself into what your human form looked like. Dragons can Polymorph themselves at will, but they wouldn't be able to cast spells, which is why we needed the simulacrum. You should be able to throw that away now if you please, but You might not want to. You may need it for espionage and stealth missions when you've begun your largest conquest.

Part 4 - Reveal yourself!
Spells Required: None, but prep your best battle spells. You might need 'em....
Step 1. Reveal yourself to the kingdom. If they attack you, unleash your Fiend army on them. Tell them to knock out everyone, and not to kill anyone. Use spells if you need to. You should be fine with just your claws, your tail, and your bite. Your breath weapon is certainly to dangerous for anyone you face.
The product:
You now have complete control over a kingdom and they know your motives. They may not like them, but at this point it's your way or the highway. The highway being death. Your fiend army may die out, but you can instead search out high mages wanting to earn cash to help you to continue expanding it. Either way, use them as a police force, making sure that people aren't planning to take over your land.

Part 5 - BLOODSHED
Spells Required: Meteor Swarm and any other general combat-worthy spells.
Step 1. Find every Kingdom you can, and meteor swarm them. Proceed to take over it, and rebuild.
The product:
Im kind of tired of typing at this point. You should be done when you destroy and rebuild all kingdoms on Toril. If you please, you can head to other planes and take them over. If gods start to get mad at you and attack you, Plane shift to another plane and lay low. Gods only are effective in one plane, like the forgotten realms or Ebberon. If you want, epic progression is certainly something you can use. Search it up online if you're interested. It brings you up to 30th level and beyond, and grants you some cool and new features. If you do use it, then killing off entire kingdoms at a time is a super strong xp farming system. for every commoner you kill with meteor swarm, you get 10 xp. Seeing that really big kingdoms can have hundreds of thousands citizens, that means literally millions of xp from one kingdom. That's enough to instantly bring you from lv 20 to lv 30, and then get a couple mythic boons and spells while you're at it.
Ok im legit falling asleeip now, thank god i don't nees to see to type after yeears of schppl. If yiu git this far, gud f[r you, you got nithing.

 

[TheAnnoyingMinMaxer]

Here is how I would do it. One may consider it simulacrum cheese, but imean the spell is just so good there is almost no reason not to use it in all of your plans. Once you reach Unlimited power, never leave your base and have your simulacrum do the dirty work for you. But I digress. The plan:

Part 1 - Attaining your new form
Spells required - Magic Jar, True Polymorph, Simulacrum/Wish
Step 1. Cast Simulacrum on yourself, either using the 12 hour casting or wishing one into existence.
Step 2. True Polymorph your simulacrum into an adult red/gold dragon. If your DM allows it, try to True poly them into an adult red/gold dragon, specifically one day away from becoming an ancient dragon. This should work, but if not, it's fine if you're just an adult dragon. Just have to wait a couple thousand years....
Step 3. Create another simulacrum of yourself if you want a carbon copy of your humanoid form that you're still in. You'll need this form soon enough. And by that I mean half a year.
Step 4. Cast magic jar on yourself and possess your simulacrum Pit fiend/Dragon.
The product:
In case you haven't noticed, you are now an ancient dragon who is also an elite spell caster with access to an 8th and 9th level spell slot and 8th and 9th level spells.

Part 2 - Amassing your army (of not simulacrums!)
Spells required - True Polymorph, Planar Binding, Magic Circle (optional)
Step 1. True Polymorph a blade of grass into either a Glabrezu, a Bone Devil, or a Nycaloth. If your DM lets you use the summoner variant use those for a chance at an even larger army.
Step 2. (If you want, go ahead and put up a magic circle to make sure this doesn't go haywire later.) Use planar binding to bind the fiend to your service for up to 180 days.
Step 3. Repeat for 180 days. You should be able to do this 2 times a day.
Step 4. Keep a track of your fiends with signs. Branding might be better if you chose bone devil due to their resistance to fire, because that won't impede them in battle.
Step 5. Use the most recently binded fiends to guard you while you rest. It would be a shame if a Nycaloth came out of nowhere and killed/severely damaged you while you sleep. But with your incredible power, you should be fine.
The Product:
Now, you have 360 Moderately expendable troops. Keep track of them, or you may find yourself slowly dying in your sleep.

Part 3 - Ruining a poor king's day (Gaining control over a territory)
Spells required - Magic Jar, Suggestion, Greater Invisibility/Dimension Door/Teleport(All optional)
Step 1. Magic Jar yourself into your simulacrum old body that you made half a year ago. We wanna look like an adventurer to complete this part.
Step 2. Command your Fiend army to hide themselves outside of the city
Step 3. Teleport yourself into the king's castle using dimension door or teleport, or sneak in with Greater invisibility.
Step 4. Find the king and cast Suggestion on him. Suggest that he goes out to your fiend army and tell them to rain chaos over the townsfolk, and make sure that everyone can see that he was the one commanding the army. Tell him to act evil while he's at it as well.
Step 5. Command your Fiend army to Go attack the townsfolk without killing or injuring too many people. Tell them to attack you when you get there, but tell them not to hit you, and make it look like they're missing with each attack.
Step 6. While your army is attacking the city and the king is looking super evil, swoop in as an adventurer and knock out all of your Fiend army. Don't kill any of them; we'll still need them later. Proceed to kill the king.
Step 7. When everyone is cheering, persuade them to let you be king because you saved them from the Fiend army. Move all of the "dead" Devils down into the dungeon of the castle, and make sure they wake up. Nurse them back to health or have a trusted servant do it for you.
Step 8. Find your Dragon body and Re-Possess it.
The product:
Now you're the king over a massive kingdom. Whenever you're around people, Polymorph yourself into what your human form looked like. Dragons can Polymorph themselves at will, but they wouldn't be able to cast spells, which is why we needed the simulacrum. You should be able to throw that away now if you please, but You might not want to. You may need it for espionage and stealth missions when you've begun your largest conquest.

Part 4 - Reveal yourself!
Spells Required: None, but prep your best battle spells. You might need 'em....
Step 1. Reveal yourself to the kingdom. If they attack you, unleash your Fiend army on them. Tell them to knock out everyone, and not to kill anyone. Use spells if you need to. You should be fine with just your claws, your tail, and your bite. Your breath weapon is certainly to dangerous for anyone you face.
The product:
You now have complete control over a kingdom and they know your motives. They may not like them, but at this point it's your way or the highway. The highway being death. Your fiend army may die out, but you can instead search out high mages wanting to earn cash to help you to continue expanding it. Either way, use them as a police force, making sure that people aren't planning to take over your land.

Part 5 - BLOODSHED
Spells Required: Meteor Swarm and any other general combat-worthy spells.
Step 1. Find every Kingdom you can, and meteor swarm them. Proceed to take over it, and rebuild.
The product:
Im kind of tired of typing at this point. You should be done when you destroy and rebuild all kingdoms on Toril. If you please, you can head to other planes and take them over. If gods start to get mad at you and attack you, Plane shift to another plane and lay low. Gods only are effective in one plane, like the forgotten realms or Ebberon. If you want, epic progression is certainly something you can use. Search it up online if you're interested. It brings you up to 30th level and beyond, and grants you some cool and new features. If you do use it, then killing off entire kingdoms at a time is a super strong xp farming system. for every commoner you kill with meteor swarm, you get 10 xp. Seeing that really big kingdoms can have hundreds of thousands citizens, that means literally millions of xp from one kingdom. That's enough to instantly bring you from lv 20 to lv 30, and then get a couple mythic boons and spells while you're at it.
Ok im legit falling asleeip now, thank god i don't nees to see to type after yeears of schppl. If yiu git this far, gud f[r you, you got nithing.

 

[nevin]

<DM Hat>
1. simalcrum is an illusionary duplicate of the wizard with half hitpoints and all other abilities. Not a living being that can be possessed. So no magic jar.

2. shapechanging into Dragon or Pitfiend would work but I probably wouldn't let them have granular control of exact age. (if I did your enemies would as well)

3. you are going to just summon and bind lower planer creatures to create an army. Summoning them that way means when they die they actually die. What is your plan when an Arch Devil shows up to collect payment/retribution for you permanently killing his devils. I'd love to see the payment that is worth more than the soul of a wizard that can do this. (and no on the selling soul but staying on the prime material till you die. The payment would have to be so legendary the Archdevil would be shocked you could do it)

5. when you show up with an army of Devils, how do you keep heaven out of it? no way to hide the massive aura of evil that they would emanate. Every good cleric and paladin for a mile would know something bad was coming, and be praying for guidance. If hell's involved, heaven's involved. Just the way it works.

 

[nevin]

<DM Hat>
1. simalcrum is an illusionary duplicate of the wizard with half hitpoints and all other abilities. Not a living being that can be possessed. So no magic jar.

2. shapechanging into Dragon or Pitfiend would work but I probably wouldn't let them have granular control of exact age. (if I did your enemies would as well)

3. you are going to just summon and bind lower planer creatures to create an army. Summoning them that way means when they die they actually die. What is your plan when an Arch Devil shows up to collect payment/retribution for you permanently killing his devils. I'd love to see the payment that is worth more than the soul of a wizard that can do this. (and no on the selling soul but staying on the prime material till you die. The payment would have to be so legendary the Archdevil would be shocked you could do it)

5. when you show up with an army of Devils, how do you keep heaven out of it? no way to hide the massive aura of evil that they would emanate. Every good cleric and paladin for a mile would know something bad was coming, and be praying for guidance. If hell's involved, heaven's involved. Just the way it works.

forgot 6.

Gods are not only effective on one plane they just have to worry about dying on other planes. That doesn't mean they can't send ARMIES of their followers led by SOLARS, DEVA's, demigods, Heroes and the like. Or just cut a deal with the being in charge of the plane to imprison you forever as an integral part of the plane. And that's just being cheesy. If a pantheon of gods really wanted you dead, they'd probably send in thier version of Loki, or Hel to deal with you. But the ways to find you, kill you, or even imprison you once you start hiding in other planes is virtually unlimited.