Greetings!
Beautiful Dragonblade! It's good to see you! Indeed, that was great fun with your character's first major battle in my campaign! Great stuff! I must also say that Dragonblade is a devious, skilled, and comprehensive player. He also had his sorcerer 20/monk 20 tricked out with a great armament of fine magic items, including many from the epic level sections. What a blast!
Reapersaurus wrote:
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Quote:
"You have ignored our points.
And don't take this personally, but I must point out that this is common for you to ignore rules-based problems with your world, in my loong experience in enjoyably talking about your incredible (yet firmly unbelievable and flawed) world.
Can you maybe address the issue at hand clearly, with in-game examples as to how exactly your world stops mages from Invisibly Teleporting over any congregation of grunts, casting Time Stop, then a bunch of spells, then Teleporting away?"
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End Quote.
No, Reapersaurus, I haven't "ignored" your points, or anyone else's. I didn't realise that I was on trial as it were, but then again, Reapersaurus, you seem to enjoy embracing a caustic, adversarial role, and I'm not really sure why. Still, I will answer your questions, even if you seem to desire to somehow turn our interesting discussion into some kind of trial or debate. Good enough.
My "firmly unbelievable and flawed world" indeed! That arrogant little snippet is simply rich Reapersaurus! Just rich! Still, onward we go!
In game reasons; well, many armies have magical banners or battle standards that prohibit various spells from functioning within their ranges. These can be thousands of yards, tens or even hundreds of square miles.
Many armies have developed spells that bring into being enchanted clouds that spread a magical vapor throughout the area, again, this effect can be dozens, or hundreds of square miles, that prohibit, mutate, or otherwise defeat numerous magical effects from entering the area, whether it is teleportation, flying, scrying spells, and so on.
Many armies have developed special war machines that maintain a constant magical "eye" that sees with True Seeing, as well as a battery of other detection/analysis spells that remain constantly functioning with telepathic bondings with several dozen wizards flying on their own or on some magical beast for example, that fly or remain on Reac alert for the Eye of Dominion to see mages enter the threat range of the army on the march, or while encamped, and the Eye of Dominion also immediately launches an array of deception/entrapment spells designed to confuse, slow, or otherwise deceive enemy mages into *believing* that they see x, or have even affected x in the manner they desire, meanwhile the waiting mages that are always on reac guard spring the trap on the attacking mages and the result is that the enemy mages bodies are ripped to pieces or sent back to the enemy in a jar of goo.
There are some forces that have developed mutated animals, and special flocks of interdemensional demonic vampire ravens that guard their foces by flying overhead in mass clouds of flying beasts, always on patrol. Enemy wizards can sometimes make it to the area of the army encampment, and even get off a few spells. Then, however, they are swarmed with the interdemensional demonic vampire ravens who plunge three foot long metallic purplish-black beaks into their bodies that pierce all magical protections, and begin draining them on the spot, leaving their shattered husks to fall to the ground, screaming in agony, for even as they seek to teleport away, or fly away, the mutated ravens stay with them, pecking away with their evil beaks. The wizards that are drained and killed, usually rather swiftly, then become vampires that serve the vampiric "flock master"--a mutated priest of darkness that maintains telepathic bonding with his entire flock of evil ravens, seeing through their eyes, tasting blood through their beaks...
Then, of course, there are enchanted siege orbs that can be carried into battle. These siege orbs are then linked to identified spell casters, who all attune to the orb with drops of their blood, and a prayer, spoken while touching the orb in turn, as they participate in ancient attunement ceremonies. Thus protected, they can serve the army as they are needed. Enemy spell casters, however, as they are not attuned to these sacred siege orbs, as they come within 100, 200, 500, or even 1000 miles radius of the orbs--some are of different strengths than other orbs, as there are different ranked orbs that can be fashioned--enemy spell-casters within range suffer a variety of effects, depending on the orb's alignment. Some will suffer maximized holy flame strikes each and every time they begin to cast a spell above 3rd level while within range. Once per round. Each and every round, for as long as they remain within range, which they are, being heathens, ignorant of. Or they can suffer many other effects. Evil orbs can send similar type spells, as well as special targeted summoning spells that summon a horde of demons right there within 10 ft of the spell caster, each and every round that he casts spells within the unholy range of the evil Siege Orb, and so on. These items function whether there is one enemy wizard entering the protected area, or ten thousand. The effects still kick in for each wizard or spell caster that isn't attuned to that particular Siege Orb.
Well, since I am not on trial here, and certainly my "unbelievable and flawed" world isn't on trial either,
that would seem sufficient. No handwaving at all. There are, as I mentioned, a wide array of magical items and spells that can be harnessed to fight and defend in warfare, at least in my campaign. There are specialized spells that have area effect ranges of dozens, or hundreds of square miles.
That just touches on the magical aspects.
Then, as Dragonblade describes, there are vast armies, tens of thousands, rank upon rank upon rank, all equipped, all using tactics, and even if they spend a hundred or a thousand or five thousand lives for every high-level wizard or cleric that they tear to pieces, the fact is, when the wizards and the clerics are gone, for they will be devoured early, or later when they have run out of spells, and are grappled, or tracked down, and they are torn to pieces, their bodies are hoisted high up on the beatsmen's battle standards to let the Valloreans or other humans or elves know the fate that their wizards and priests can look forward to, such forces had better have a large, well-equipped, and well-trained army.
Well, and that doesn't mention how when at least when armies are fighting the forces of darkness, those especially in favour of the Dark Gods of Chaos may experience their spells not working at all, or watch them backfire and effect their own troops instead, or watch themselves undergo savage, horrific mutations with every spell that they cast against the forces of Chaos. Fighting with such levels of magic while the gods of chaos watch is sure to attract their attention. While beastmen and evil human followers of the dark gods celebrate such attention, humans, dwarves, and elves find no solace in having the hand of chaos caress them, for when it does so, they are often mutated into gibbering monsters that are forever damned to scream and gibber in abject madness, forever tainted by their brush with the elder gods. That is if they are lucky. Others are grasped by demonic hands, and deliberately, slowly, carried into the dark realms, screaming in terror, as no one can save them, for the very plasma and jelly of Chaos washes about them. No one dares touch the horrific flow of jelly, or cast spells at it, for fear that they too, will be ensared into the realms of damnation and chaos.
Well, that then leaves the masses of well-equipped enemy forces of Darkness, or the forces of elves, valloreans, or other humans for example, if you are part of the attacking forces of darkness. The opposing forces will throw at you thousands of fiery darts and missiles, for even if they miss you, they will find the heart of one of your comrades. Beastmen or humans will charge you en masse, while hunter-killer groups target you especially, with special arrows, and continue to pound you over and over and over. If they don't get you, their own wizards may get you, or grappling fighters, or swift-moving rogues and other assassins. These forces are always moving, always watching, always prepared with some form of response to enemy spell casters. Everyone assumes that spell casters, wizards and clerics alike, are involved in every battle, at all times. Thus, forces and armaments are prepared for it.
In the end, you may kill thousands. How many of *you* are there? Beyond the corpses of the hundreds or the thousands that you killed, are hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands more, marching onward. They will be sure to think of you as they march over your wizard's corpse on their way to the next battle.
Oh, and some wizards and priests have developed various area effect defense spells that effect teleporting or flying enemies with *Shroud of Lead* *Frog Tongue* or *Globe of Hellfire*. These spells all effect teleporting or flying characters. Chances are slim that if they fly into the effect range, or teleport in, they won't be going anywhere else, as they will either be dead, or alive, but stretched upon the wrack and tortured by the enemy.
Some clerics or druids have deployed sentient spirits that watch over an area, protecting it with a variety of spiritual powers, or wizards have developed sentient, reactive and anticipatory spells, that when certain actions occur, or certain kinds of individuals trigger them or otherwise come to their attention, they then shift into effect. Some kinds of these spells can be simply enchanted into charms, amulets, stones, or other such methods and given to every soldier in the army, offering various kinds of protection. The same goes for the rest of the army, in march, or encamped. The defenses and countermeasures can be quite effective, and in fact can make it cost prohibitive as far as the certain cost in wizard's lives to make certain kinds of deployments and attacks, thus adding another factor in the commander's list of things to consider, and sacrifice...
So, there you go. I think that is a specific response Reapersaurus.
I think it illustrates my point quite well, all using "in-game" reasons.
Great stuff by the way Dragonblade!
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK
