Spells of Mass Destruction

[Slife]

If they have enough cash and experience, you could have some small mountains animated as stone golems. Outfit them with fixer scarabs, or have a wonderous item that casts unlimited mud to rock and have someone constantly use it. Imagine the havoc that you could cause with one of those things.


Scarabs:
http://wizo.wizards.com/ka/fall04/page16.php

 

[jeff37923]

Just how blown up do you want this campaign world? Are we talking some cites torched, scorched and barren earth from horizon to horizon, or "What's going on? There's not supposed to be an asteroid belt here..."?

No asteroid belt, planet busters are a little too much. Same goes for (Oh my dear god that's just heinous but beautiful to read!), Armageddon Device.

Otherwise, spells that can cause enough damage to the fantasy world-spanning civilization that there is nothing left larger than a village. ALL cities (or at least their populations) have been destroyed. A few entire small land masses are indeed, "scorched and barren earth from horizon to horizon". I'd like to stay away from spells that depend on planar travel or chronomancy (plot hook).

 

[Loincloth of Armour]

Only when discussing RPGs would you need to know the plural of apocalypse!

Actually, in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', (TV series), Buffy actually turns to Giles and says, "Before I met you, I didn't realize there was a plural form of apocalypse."

 

[MonkeyDragon]

I'm gonna echo someone else and say huzzah for druids. A few psycho druids could wreak some major havok. There's all the weather control and big summoned beasties, but theres one example that never fails to give me the giggles. You want bombs? It's all about the fire seeds.

Say youve got a 20th level druid that can cast 6th level spells 5/day. All fire seeds. You cast the spells one after the other without discharging them, and wind up with 40 charged berries. Taking an average on the d8 of damage, they're worth a total of 980 damage! Whee! Reflex for half, but still. And they ignite flammables. So either stuff them all in a flask and stick it somewhere strategic, or wildshape and sprinkle them around a city, and kaboom! And that's just one druid's 6th level spells. Betcha a crew of them could level regions in days.

Of course it all depends on what kind of destruction you want, but I'd think that if all you want gone are things like cities, technology, and infrastructure, then a band of crazy druids intent on destroying all that stuff and let nature reclaim the land might be kinda cool.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

And I thought it was an incredible feat to get a copy of The Srinshees' Spellshift for a character of mine. LOL.

The most powerful spell I know of (having read almost none of the d20 3rd edition supplements) is the 1st edition version of Shapechange.

Casting that spell (it was 9th level) enabled the mage to transform into pretty much anything else he wanted to become. Only singular beings and deities could not be duplicated (thus, if the tarrasque was a singular entity, period, it could not be duplicated. If more than one existed, it could be duplicated.)
The mage gained ALL the powers of the creature, except those solely dependent on the mind (interpreting in the players' favor in all questionable circumstances) and except for magic resistance. And the mage retained those powers, until he became something else, when he would gain all of that creatures' powers, and so on, for the 10 minutes/level the spell lasted.
The mage retained all his own abilities and spells, and if he choose a form that allowed spellcasting, he could unleash his own power in addition to that of the creature assumed.

A mage using Shapechange could become a Tempest, and rain lightning down on a city until it was destroyed. He could become a Tarrasque and eat up the countryside (and be almost unkillable, even by Spheres of Annihilation.) He could become a dragon with unlimited breath weapon capability. He could become an energy draining undead and create an undead plague, ultimately destroying an entire region with negative energy. He could become a titan or a kraken (I mean, a truly enormous creature) and stomp cities flat underfoot. He could become a monstrous black pudding that could eat whole populations (along with all the trees, vegetation, and even topsoil in the area, not to mention buildings and cities.) He could even (just maybe, this truly being at the limit of the spells' possibilities) become a solar and proceed to wreak holy vengeance upon all wrong in the world.

If your worlds' mages had large scale access to the 1st edition Shapechange spell, and a World War type situation broke out, I could well see your world being reduced to ruins by these archmages run amok.

 

[Staffan]

Actually, in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', (TV series), Buffy actually turns to Giles and says, "Before I met you, I didn't realize there was a plural form of apocalypse."

I thought that was Riley to Buffy.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

On the more mundane scale, there's Holy Word, Word of Chaos, Dictum, and Blasphemy. All of them auto-kill most people in a 60' radius, no save.

For the Frostburn spell--I still need to know how much it jacks up the DC of Ice Age to make it so that, not only is it always winter, but it never gets to Christmas. (Perhaps there's a discount on the DC and other costs if Aslan's arrival or the two kings and two queens sitting on the throne at Caer Paravel end the spell).

 

[William Ronald]

Invoked Apocalypse from Arcana Unearthed is a good choice. It covers an area of a 100 foot cylinder per level by 100 feet high per level, doing 10d6 of damage for one round per level. (It can only be cast once per year before destroying the caster.) As I understand it, it is now a 10th level spell in Arcana Evolved. (I never liked Apocalypse from the Sky as it seemed vastly more powerful than any other 9th level spell -- even with its rare material component.)

Staffan, check the Epic Level Handbook for ways to reduce the spell DC.

As for spells, the Invoked Devastation and the Rain of Colorless Fire from the World of Greyhawk setting were never detiailed, but each destroyed a powerful civilization. (The second spell, cast by the surviving empires of the Baklunish Empire turned the lands of the Suel Empire - which cast the Invoked Devastation -- into burnt dust. The Invoked Devastation is closer to the type of disaster which jeff37923 desires. No cities were left in the Baklunish Empire, only survivors.)

It might be best to just tell the story and not worry so much about the game mechanics.

Of course, natural disasters -- which humans or non-humans can trigger in a fantasy world -- can do a lot to reduce a population. Here are some sights for information on real world events. (I found some links while doing research on a new homebrew campaign that I am working on -- for various historic and prehistoric events.) Let's just say that either a rapid onset of an ice age or a supervolcano eruption would suffice to bring civilization in a fantasy world (and likely ours as well) to an end.

The Ice Ages: Global land environments for the last 130,000 years is quite technical at times, but has tremendous maps. Read the bit on the Younger Dryas, which only took a few years to happen, for details.

The Toba Volcano: This volcano, now a lake in Sumatra, erupted violently some 76,000 years ago, triggering an ice age and greatly reducing the numbers of humanity then on the planet to perhaps a few thousand people. Here are some links: Super Volcano Toba, Toba Volcano,
BBC story on supervolcanoes, Impact of Toba Explosion on human evolution, Questions on "human bottleneck"

Enjoy the devastation.

 

[A'koss]

Wasn't the Invoked Devastation brought about by the artifact called "The Bringer of Doom". The Bringer of Doom (in one of it's variants anyway) is actually kinda neat and operated under a priciple so simple even a BC politician could get it. The BoD was a little box. A little box with a crystal on top. A nice, shiny red crystal on top. Touch crystal... and box go boom.

Big. Boom.



Cheers!

 

[Alzrius]

As for spells, the Invoked Devastation and the Rain of Colorless Fire from the World of Greyhawk setting were never detiailed, but each destroyed a powerful civilization. (The second spell, cast by the surviving empires of the Baklunish Empire turned the lands of the Suel Empire - which cast the Invoked Devastation -- into burnt dust. The Invoked Devastation is closer to the type of disaster which jeff37923 desires. No cities were left in the Baklunish Empire, only survivors.)

While it is true that the original versions of these spells were never detailed, it's a little-known fact that there were personalized versions developed that did receive some detail.

In Reverse Dungeon, one of the last 2E products, there's a false Mace of St. Cuthbert that has, in the hollow part of the mace, the writings for invoked devastation and rain of colorless fire as 10th level spells. It goes on to stress that these are not the original versions, but less-powerful ones meant for use by only a single caster. Casting these spells kills the caster, but also utterly destroys everything in a half-mile (or was it a mile?) radius.

Of course, as William pointed out, the original Rain of Colorless Fire did indeed leave cities behind, but then, these are close approximations, and not the original spells.