Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 3104461" data-attributes="member: 3146">Well, some you can and some you can't. You could dispel a cloudkill or an elemental. You can't dispel an earthquake or a move earth. The problem with this is that the range of D&D spells is, for the most part, quite limited (long range and a massive area of effect is why Sunburst IS a world-shaking spell). In general, in order to use magic against the fortification, you need to come within bowshot of its walls. So, you can move up and do your thing at 4 AM, but by doing so you've started the engagement at 1 AM and the defender can shoot or fireball you just as you can shoot or fireball him (perhaps better because you have to expose your fireballer to retaliation in order to get it off but your opponent does not have to expose his magical resources to yours until he chooses to retaliate and at that point, choosing to retaliate for you simply means prolonging the engagement instead of retreating to try again at 1 PM).The big advantage of the static fortifications is that they force the besieger to expend resources in order to use melee troops and allow the besieged to field a higher percentage of ranged troops--all of whom have better protection than the besieger's ranged troops will. Thus, while the attacker has more troops in your example, the defender can actually make use of a much higher percentage of his troops at any given point in the engagement and his troops have an advantage because of the fortifications. Magic weakens that advantage (because fortifications offer less of an advantage against magic than against physical weapons) but it still remains an advantage.</blockquote>

Verification