High-Level NPCs

[Celebrim]

I was thinking about DMs and house campaigns...

Well, I have two (that I know about, I've never detailed the whole world) - the Lord of Dee and the Master of the Mysterious Isle. I have never used either, and have no real plans for ever doing so.

I have them mostly for two reasons:

1) So that I can have campaign level secrets. Who and even what these people are campaign level secrets. Their stats would never show up in any authorized campaign setting book for the world. They exist only by rumor and legend of their great might. For example, a neighboring kingdom sent an army to invade Dee. A great wind blew up, and cloaked the army in dust, and when it finally died down lifted the whole army found itself in a desert 400 miles away. The army limped out of the desert, and since that time no one has ever attempted to take the city. These are the sort of things that I want to be able to say can happen in my campaign world. The secrets I have locked in me never to reveal, and wouldn't reveal except if they came up in play. It something for players that hear rumors to wonder about, and in the authorized works I'd only let them appear in a shrink wrapped adventure with a seal on it. And even those might have a selection of 4 alternate answers, so that DM's could keep the secrets for themselves. Campaign level secrets are precious.
2) So that in the event I wanted it, I could justify deus ex mechina and wonders of any sort imaginable. It's not likely, but it leaves the door - if not open - then at least available and unlockable.

and people who think archmages do nothing but sit around and build golems all day.

Perhaps they sit around and eat pealed grapes all day, while being fanned by female djinn and conversing with gold dragon colleages over a game of chess?

And thus intentionally do not use them as NPCs or story elements...

And there we part company. Because I can't really think of a reason to have uber-powerful PC's as major story elements unless your game has gone on so long that the PC's have become the sort of uber-powerful folk that can interact with the NPC's as peers or near peers - and arguably Cook is of the same mind. It is very important in my opinion to never deprotagonize the PC's. It's easy for an author to never deprotagonize hsi characters, because they are all his characters and because he can always direct events along paths that all his characters to shine, fail, or succeed against all odds whenever he wants to do so. That is one of the main things that distinguishes the novel as art, from the RPG.

Well, I thought the beauty of Cook's setup was that a lot of the difficulties the uber-mages experienced were a result of their own nature, not their level of power.

Yes, but Cook is able to play his characters like puppets, getting them to act according to his whim. So of course, he can always use the excuse of their character to get them to do whatever he wants (and because he is a writer of some talent, he can make this mostly plausible). But this logic, while it works quite well for novels, doesn't work for RPGs.

I don't co-DM. I'm talking about NPCs (says so first post), not PCs. Players don't determine NPC actions, so there's only one author on that side of the storyline.

You are missing my point. Unlike the author of a novel, the DM is not all powerful. He sheds some of his authority as the games creator, for the sake of the enjoyment of the game. He choose not to govern the actions of the PC's, and so becomes cocreater with the other players of the story. There choices influence the story in ways that are completely unpredictable, unexpected, and to the novice DM undesirable. Sometimes the DM even has good cause to be frustrated at the player's strange choices. But if you don't let the players play, you don't have much of a game. Likewise, the DM concedes a certain amount of authority to random chance. Even if you are the sort of DM who feels free to fudge every dice, the random fates dictated to the players by the dice they throw are sometimes beyond your control.

Cook doesn't have these problems when he sets out to craft a story.

And yet, RAW, they still sleep 8 hours every night, eat 3 meals a day, require an hour to regain spells, and crap regularly.

Yes, but if they are smart they are doing this in Mord's Magnificent Mansion or equivalent, so that they are never caught with their pants down. It's amazing how easily a mage of sufficient stature can dispense with mundane problems.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Exactly half as competent. Which can be interesting if the division of knowledge skills is randomly determined. It also means that the archmage is still the only one* casting 6th-level or higher spells (they're probably not as smart as the original either). There's one choke point.

Given that simulacrum are constructs and explicitly can't advance, I'd say they have no XP and can't make magic items, so that's another choke point.

Simulacra certainly can't make more simulacrum, and each one costs the caster 1000xp minimum.

And here the spell is...

Level: Sor/Wiz 7
Components: V, S, M, XP
Casting Time: 12 hours
Range: 0 ft.
Effect: One duplicate creature
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

Simulacrum creates an illusory duplicate of any creature. The duplicate creature is partially real and formed from ice or snow. It appears to be the same as the original, but it has only one-half of the real creature’s levels or Hit Dice (and the appropriate hit points, feats, skill ranks, and special abilities for a creature of that level or HD). You can’t create a simulacrum of a creature whose Hit Dice or levels exceed twice your caster level. You must make a Disguise check when you cast the spell to determine how good the likeness is. A creature familiar with the original might detect the ruse with a successful Spot check (opposed by the caster’s Disguise check) or a DC 20 Sense Motive check.

At all times the simulacrum remains under your absolute command. No special telepathic link exists, so command must be exercised in some other manner. A simulacrum has no ability to become more powerful. It cannot increase its level or abilities. If reduced to 0 hit points or otherwise destroyed, it reverts to snow and melts instantly into nothingness. A complex process requiring at least 24 hours, 100 gp per hit point, and a fully equipped magical laboratory can repair damage to a simulacrum.
Material Component

The spell is cast over the rough snow or ice form, and some piece of the creature to be duplicated (hair, nail, or the like) must be placed inside the snow or ice. Additionally, the spell requires powdered ruby worth 100 gp per HD of the simulacrum to be created.
XP Cost

100 XP per HD of the simulacrum to be created (minimum 1,000 XP).

It's weirder than I thought, since you can duplicate other people. (It does require 12 hours to cast though, although apparently you can steal someone's hairbrush and duplicate them that way!)

It does mean the wizard could make duplicates of people with different personalities as well as skills, if they don't mind the competency limits and, of course, expenditures of time and XP. (They pay off in the long run though!) He could even duplicate a king, although the suddenly lower social skills might be something of a giveaway. (Also, his wife would probably notice something different...)

A wizard more interested in intrigue than raw power might consider losing a level or two (over time) to make an army of snowmen worth it. Of course, when someone develops a counter-simulacrum ritual... cue seriously ticked off wizard.

I think the biggest problem with simulacra are the same problem a wizard in charge of a proper organization would face... they're not as competent as him, and opponents could take them out one-by-one (like that mob boss example I gave earlier). However, any proper intriguing wizard really needs some backup.

I didn't intend to zoom in on simulacrum. I had wanted to talk about astral projection and clone as well, but simulacrum enables wizards to deal with the non-combat aspects of intrigues so well...

In Cook's work, do these intriguing wizards have their own organizations, or do they try to handle everything by themselves? Arrogant wizards could easily make mistakes like that, but help is so ... helpful.

An iron golem** costs 5,600xp, 80,000 gp, and takes almost 3 months of work; a stone golem 3,400xp, 50,000gp, and nearly two months. A swift strike to take out a golem seems like a worthwhile endeavor; it takes a lot more to replace one than it does to destroy one.

In the long run, relying on Planar Binding is a heck of a lot more expensive, but casting that spell and negotiating with something with an alignment similar to yours, with proper rewards, would take a lot less time.

 

[Nellisir]

In Cook's work, do these intriguing wizards have their own organizations, or do they try to handle everything by themselves? Arrogant wizards could easily make mistakes like that, but help is so ... helpful.

The action of the third book focuses primarily on 3 archmage wizards - 2 protagonist and 1 protagonist. There's a minor character that's apparently also near or at archmage status, but of a scholarly/specialist bent.

The arntagonist, the Star-Rider, is a total one-man show. Even his flying horse gets pissed at him. He uses people as tools, but as the other side gets organized, he loses tools faster than he can recruit them.

Varthlokkur transitions from reculsive and isolationist to more involved. He gradually shares more of the "burden" over the course of the novels. He has a weird embryo/fetus monster that does the heavy lifting (literally) and spying.

Mist is the Empress of the Dread Empire. She has an entire organization of wizards to back her up, when they're not trying to stab her in the back. None of them can match Varthlokkur, but given time, they manage. They've got enough people to advance on multiple fronts, and they eventually throw in with Varthlokkur against the Star-Rider.