wingsandsword
Legend
Hence why I said sniper rifle. They aren't going to know instantly that it's nigh invulnerable. Attempting to kill the LeShay would start with small arms like a sniper attack, or a small-unit raid by an elite group like a SEAL team, and escalate up when they find that small arms can at most scuff his skin.Depends on the machine gun. The stuff carried by infantry or mounted on most land vehicles? You may be right.
The ones mounted on planes designed for dogfighting? It's a tossup.
The ones the AF & Army mount on tankbusting A-10s and certain helicopters? They'd penetrate, no doubt.
Yes, it's not magic, but they can do a LOT. +71 to Diplomacy and Bluff would make somebody the best speaker in human history. I'd tried to avoid the Hitler example, but it works quite well, and he probably only had half that bonus to the skill. It wouldn't work on everybody, but it would work on most people, and would make attempting to take him down by the people who oppose him be more like a resistance movement than a war.Skills are not magic, though. Even though the LeShay is more convincing a rhetorician than Hitler*Jim Jones, he cannot convince everyone hostile to him to be in his BFF army. And even those he convinces utterly are NOT mind controlled. Some will see through his charade and act. Some may even act against the LeShay even though they are "friendly", just because he's "corrupting everything" he thought the creature stood for.
Humans are very good at killing those they love...and retaining that love even after the killing has been done.
A DC 53 Charm Monster gaze effect (Caster Level 50) continuously active to anybody within 30 feet that meets its gaze however, is magic.
Like I said upthread, what scenario is deemed "dire" enough depends upon the awareness of the military commanders assessing the scenario.
At least in the United States, military commanders have no authority to launch nuclear weapons. Thanks to permissive action links, they cannot arm and launch a nuclear weapon without those codes. The authority to launch nuclear weapons is initiated by the President, and confirmed by the Secretary of Defense, then the codes are transmitted to the actual units. Without those codes, the weapons are not going off, not even tactical weapons are going to be armed without those codes. It's not like in Dr. Strangelove where a rogue General can order an attack, it hasn't been like that for several decades (although the USAF strongly resisted putting lock codes on weapons, saying it was insulting to their professionalism to imply that they might launch without orders). General Douglas MacArthur's illustrious career was ended in the Korean War when he demanded to drop nuclear weapons on China against the orders of President Truman.
Thus, if the POTUS, or even just the SECDEF is on the side of the LeShay, the US nuclear arsenal is completely out of the fight, no matter how many Generals want to attack. They could use chemical or biological weapons. . .except it's completely immune to poisons and diseases. I don't know the launch authorization processes for other countries, but again, releasing a nuclear weapon in this scenario will likely start WW III.