Searing Light

[Dandu]

As noted in my award nominated presentation World Domination And You: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Supervillainy, placing mirrors in orbit can create a devastating effect on a small area of the world. How can we best bring this overly complicated, unnecessarily expensive, needlessly elaborate, and totally awesome means of bringing a country to its knees to fruition in a manner best befitting an egotistical 1970's James Bond-esque evil overlord in the world of Dungeons and Dragons?

Here is my plan.

1. Teleport onto the setting's moon. If the setting does not have a moon, create one using a very large boulder and Walls of Stone.
2. Cast Wall of Iron ten times to create some starting material.
3. Use Fabricate to create the frame of a giant mirror. (90 meters across sounds about right.)
4. Calculate the curvature necessary to focus sunlight onto specific areas of the world.
5. Using moon sand and the Fabricate spell again, create a giant parabolic of glass piece.
6. Cast Telekinesis and lift glass and fit it into the mirror frame. Note: things weigh less on a moon, so the amount of glass you can lift is much greater than what you would ordinarily lift.
7. Repeat steps 1-6 to form a giant array.
8. Now that you have turned your moon into a "death ray", cast Invisible Servant a bunch of times, and have them move your mirrors around to fry whatever insolent country defies your will like ants under a magnifying glass with concentrated solar rays.
9. ???
10. Profit

 

[Alexander123]

Creative idea.

 

[kitcik]

Pretty cool idea.

However, the whole thing, but particulalry #6, assumes that physics and magic interact as we think they would.

Based on the recent thread "magic & physics," apparently many people do not agree. Maybe telekinesis would not fare better on the moon... or maybe your "deathray" would grant the target country great profits from tancentric tourism.

If I was the DM, you could just mark down the XP for killing every living thing in a given country (and then I would be done with you as I don't run epic)...

 

[Alexander123]

I think Dandu meant this as more of a thought experiment than anything else.

 

[TanisFrey]

And we are thinking it right back at him.

 

[Greenfield]

I'd like to see the Craft skill check to make a parabolic mirror with a focal point over 200,000 miles away.

And then, of course, the idea that Unseen Servant spells would have the duration needed for this enterprise, or that they could hear orders in an airless world, or that they (being essentially mindless) could aim the mirrors with the needed precision, and keep them focused as the moon orbits and the world turns.

What's the "to hit" modifier for 221,463 miles? (Closest the Moon comes to the Earth) What is it at 251,968 miles (Farthest the moon gets from the Earth).

That's presuming, of course, that said Servant spells were even allowed to make an attack roll. (They aren't.)

So, other than the rules of the game, the laws of physics, and the DM's inevitable "Dispel ", it sounds like a great idea.

 

[Dandu]

Pretty cool idea.

However, the whole thing, but particulalry #6, assumes that physics and magic interact as we think they would.

Isn't it stated that you can use a magnifying glass to start a fire in the PHB?

If I was the DM, you could just mark down the XP for killing every living thing in a given country (and then I would be done with you as I don't run epic)...

Funnily enough, everything I used is available pre-epic.

I'd like to see the Craft skill check to make a parabolic mirror with a focal point over 200,000 miles away.

If we segment the mirror into many smaller mirrors, we can adjust it at our leisure.

Alternatively, you can assign 23 ranks to Craft: Mirror making, have a 34 Int for a +12 modifier, thow out a Moment of Prescience for +25, and get an army of helpers (Unseen Servants can make the DC 10 to assist other for a +2), and you're looking at a +60 modifier.

And then, of course, the idea that Unseen Servant spells would have the duration needed for this enterprise, or that they could hear orders in an airless world, or that they (being essentially mindless) could aim the mirrors with the needed precision, and keep them focused as the moon orbits and the world turns.

1. Unseen Servant has a duration of 1 hour/level. At level 20, you can easily extend that for 50 hours with CL boosts and all.
2. It is never explicitly stated that it needs to hear your orders. It can't actually hear at all. Control may be telepathic.
3. They can perform simple tasks with a DC of no greater than ten. If you set up some sort of control mechanism and tell the servant to adjust a crank/lever/whatever to keep a reticule aimed at the planet...

In any case, you could just replace the Unseen Servants with Warforged and achieve the same effect.

Well, better since Warforged are sentient.

 

[Noctos]

holy cow were you in my last game?

how i would f with players if they made this (mainly as a plot device and in a malfunction)
first: how did you get high enough in the sky to do all this?
second: your character must have a high int and wis for you to even consider i concept i would say 16+ in my world
third:as a dm i would half to allow depending on how you answered the first question.(argue a strong enough point and i accept)
forth: i would again alter the world to combat you and again you would hate me for it.


but in the true setting of DnD you would fail in understanding DM'S you would cause an whole NEW level of game play. be care full what you wish for>?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Make it into a "Death Star"

1) Use undead rather than invisible servants, no worries about spell duration.

2) Instead of wall spells, give them silvered shields

 

[Dandu]

first: how did you get high enough in the sky to do all this?

Teleport spell

And now for my next trick, I shall make a moon.

1. Start with large boulder that you bring into space.
2. Cast Wall of Stone. Repeatedly.
3. ???
4. Profit.