BoVD woes

[Blightersbane]

Our 5 member party started up small lordship which grew to small kingdom. Each pc had his own keep/temple or castle, hundreds of men a city of 6,000 even a small port all within 5 months playing about 3 times a month on average. Party was 14th level. The world was nice untilllllll the DM bought the BoVD and obiliterated the entire town killing 95% of the people destroying the crops and toppled every building. He said something along the lines of violent rain? some spors destroyed all crops and everyone took 10d6 in 180 sq miles. The BBeG was 18th level

what the F^%$##$%^$ just happened? Was this legit or not? Do any of you know what he used or did?

Any info much thanks

Bb

 

[Rystil Arden]

Our 5 member party started up small lordship which grew to small kingdom. Each pc had his own keep/temple or castle, hundreds of men a city of 6,000 even a small port all within 5 months playing about 3 times a month on average. Party was 14th level. The world was nice untilllllll the DM bought the BoVD and obiliterated the entire town killing 95% of the people destroying the crops and toppled every building. He said something along the lines of violent rain? some spors destroyed all crops and everyone took 10d6 in 180 sq miles. The BBeG was 18th level

what the F^%$##$%^$ just happened? Was this legit or not? Do any of you know what he used or did?

Any info much thanks

Bb

It's called "Apocalypse From the Sky". It requires a significant expenditure from the caster and a good artifact as a focus. It's quite legitimate, though admittedly BoVD is 3.0.

 

[Sejs]

what the F^%$##$%^$ just happened? Was this legit or not? Do any of you know what he used or did?

Any info much thanks

Bb

It's legit, but supremely bad form on the part of the DM. The spell itself (Apocalypse from the Sky, as Rystil mentioned) has some very steep casting requirements that I'm willing to be that the DM just handwaved away.

First, it has a casting time of 1 full day.

Second, casting the spell causes 3d6 points of Constitution damage and 4d6 points of Wisdom drain (you know, the permanant stuff) to the caster. Even memorizing the spell deals a seperate 1d3 points of Wisdom damage plus another 1d3 points per day it remains in their memory.

Third, the spell requires as a material component (not a focus, a component: it's consumed in the casting) an artifact, typically one of good that's been corrupted speciffically for the purpose of casting this spell.

Fourth, the spell deals 10d6 points of fire, acid, or sonic damage (caster's choice) to everything in the spell's area - including the caster.

Was any of this accounted for in your game? From the tone of your post, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it probably wasn't. Was there any warning? Did the caster take the damage, con damage, wis damage, and wis drain all and not die or lapse into a coma from which there is no recovery? What artifact did they use... or did they just convienantly happen to have one already on hand?

 

[RainOfSteel]

Was this legit or not?

You know, given a DM's power, anything is "legit", regardless of whether or not it is in some rulebook. Whether it was smart for the DM to do is another matter.

 

[Brother MacLaren]

It's legit, but supremely bad form on the part of the DM. The spell itself (Apocalypse from the Sky, as Rystil mentioned) has some very steep casting requirements that I'm willing to be that the DM just handwaved away.

In my opinion, as a DM, the way I'd use this spell would be as part of a high-level adventure. The BBEG is trying to recover the book that contains this spell. The PCs try to stop him, but if they fail it's on to the next stage: the BBEG tries to obtain an artifact to use as the material component of this spell. Some rumor exists, the PCs find out where the BBEG has been sniffing around, and the race is on. The PCs try to stop him again, but if they fail, there's one last chance. They have one day to break into his lair and interrupt the casting of the spell.

The 4d6 Wisdom drain is very significant -- if the caster is a cleric, and they fail to stop him from casting it, they can attack him the next day when he's greatly weakened (assuming a mean 14 drain, and a base 25 Wisdom, he's not going to be able to cast Restoration on himself, even from a scroll). If the caster is a wizard, he's either a drooling vegetable or he's conscious enough to realize he's failing every Will save he attempts.

 

[Tiberius]

Or undead; they're immune to ability damage/drain. Also, while it was listed as a component in the book, AftS was errated to use the artifact as a focus rather than a component, thus sidestepping the "Evil make a habit of casting this to destroy good artifacts they otherwise wouldn't be able to" problem.

 

[Notmousse]

So once the BBEG gets lichified he's casting it every friggin' day!

 

[Li Shenron]

So once the BBEG gets lichified he's casting it every friggin' day!

In my opinion this is too smart to think that they actually made it on purpose! But it seems great, a spell that only the liches or the most insane would cast.

 

[Tiberius]

So once the BBEG gets lichified he's casting it every friggin' day!

Well, he still has to contend with the 10d6 damage, but 11+d12 HD he has should handle that. Though with no Con bonus, it might be dicey.

 

[frankthedm]

Did the caster take the damage, con damage, wis damage, and wis drain all and not die or lapse into a coma from which there is no recovery? What artifact did they use... or did they just convienantly happen to have one already on hand?

An 18th level BBEG can easily have a clerical underling of 13th level which it is all it takes. Hell a warlock with cranked UMD {one time skill focus is not a waste] might be able to do it with some cash sunk into scrolls. Players are not the only ones who come back from the dead and heal stat drains you know!

Raise Dead
Conjuration (Healing)
Level: Clr 5
Components: V, S, M, DF
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Touch
Target: Dead creature touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None; see text
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

You restore life to a deceased creature. You can raise a creature that has been dead for no longer than one day per caster level. In addition, the subject’s soul must be free and willing to return. If the subject’s soul is not willing to return, the spell does not work; therefore, a subject that wants to return receives no saving throw.

Coming back from the dead is an ordeal. The subject of the spell loses one level (or 1 Hit Die) when it is raised, just as if it had lost a level or a Hit Die to an energy-draining creature. If the subject is 1st level, it loses 2 points of Constitution instead (if this would reduce its Con to 0 or less, it can’t be raised). This level/HD loss or Constitution loss cannot be repaired by any means. A character who died with spells prepared has a 50% chance of losing any given spell upon being raised, in addition to losing spells for losing a level. A spellcasting creature that doesn’t prepare spells (such as a sorcerer) has a 50% chance of losing any given unused spell slot as if it had been used to cast a spell, in addition to losing spell slots for losing a level.

A raised creature has a number of hit points equal to its current Hit Dice. Any ability scores damaged to 0 are raised to 1. Normal poison and normal disease are cured in the process of raising the subject, but magical diseases and curses are not undone. While the spell closes mortal wounds and repairs lethal damage of most kinds, the body of the creature to be raised must be whole. Otherwise, missing parts are still missing when the creature is brought back to life. None of the dead creature’s equipment or possessions are affected in any way by this spell.

A creature who has been turned into an undead creature or killed by a death effect can’t be raised by this spell. Constructs, elementals, outsiders, and undead creatures can’t be raised. The spell cannot bring back a creature that has died of old age.

Material Component: Diamonds worth a total of least 5,000 gp.

Restoration, Greater
Conjuration (Healing)
Level: Clr 7
Components: V, S, XP
Casting Time: 10 minutes
This spell functions like lesser restoration, except that it dispels all negative levels afflicting the healed creature. This effect also reverses level drains by a force or creature, restoring the creature to the highest level it had previously attained. The drained levels are restored only if the time since the creature lost the level is no more than one week per caster level.

Greater restoration also dispels all magical effects penalizing the creature’s abilities, cures all temporary ability damage, and restores all points permanently drained from all ability scores. It also eliminates fatigue and exhaustion, and removes all forms of insanity, confusion, and similar mental effects. Greater restoration does not restore levels or Constitution points lost due to death.

XP Cost: 500 XP.