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Message: <blockquote data-quote="A'koss" data-source="post: 1099787" data-attributes="member: 840">This has been beaten to death many times before. A castle can be fortified with enough magic to be a pretty safe place. It's not cheap, but it can be done. However... it does nothing to protect the populace of your kingdom. While the king may be save in his spell-impregnable fortress, his people are like sheep to the slaughter. And that said, no matter how good your defenses, anything can be circumvented by a dedicated and resourceful enough foe. Any defense you put up can be dispelled and a coordinated attack by HLers will breach any castle. Also, your castle will quickly become your prison - you're only safe(ish) while inside it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />I think you illustrate pretty well why those who rule countries would be the strongest, intelligent and most resourceful people available. Rule by meritocracy is something I've always considered to be the ideal in a D&D world. I also think you're not considering patriotism as a motivator in one's own country. The HLers of a particular kingdon are very likely to great and well-respected heroes and have sentimental ties to the people and places they grew up in. Not all, of course, but history has shown that patroitism goes a long, long way. Go to war, and you can have your pick of the spoils - including your own territory, support of the kingdom or even just a lump of the conquered's treasury & magic.First of all, you kinda missed what I was getting at. I merely showed what a single HL wizard can accomplish, that wasn't to say that's what you would do if you were a ruler. I suggest it would more likely to be coordinated squads of HLers to do the job. You also assume that the attacker and the defenders in this case are of equal strength and that the wizard actually need fear retribution (he is protected by the ruler(s) of the country he lives in).If the wizard really fears retribution you could always get an item of mind blank 1/day out of the deal (if the HL wizard doesn't own one already - which would be very prudent for any HL character). Since the spell lasts 24 hours all you need to do is create a 1/day item, and that will run you 48,000 gp (@15th level caster level). Quite reasonable really for what you get.You assume that whomever was attacked is in any position to deal with, or even possesses knowledge of (if the attacker(s) used mind blank), the attackers. It could also be just a tactic to lure out the defender's best HLers and wipe them out on their terms. Sure, the wizard reveals himself (or "allows" the defenders to find him) and waits in place of his choosing for the defenders best and brightest to come get him.Remember that D&D is largely a game of Good vs. Evil and Law vs. Chaos which, unlike in the real world, are forces that shape the universe and all that jive... Conflict comes right out of the box...The overwhelming majority of Undead seek to seek to destroy all life, so that really not a question of if, the only question is - can you contain their spread. We had discussed this topic at length and decided in the end it's better to just handwave this threat aside. Otherwise, civilizations would be geared explicitly towards preventing this this threat - a la Final Fantasy.Cheers,A'koss.</blockquote>

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