Wishin' is fo' suckahs...

[Jack Simth]

My bad, i should have remembred that staf meeting in English, is not the same as in dutch, in dutch a "staff vergadering" (staff meeting) is a discussion of tactical planns of an armies leaders, not just the happenstance of the happenstance of mr general comming whithin conversation range with one of his underlings.

Not what I meant by that particular section you quoted; the wish as stated only specifies the timing of the confusion (the general having his staff meeting) not the location you want the confusion to erupt (at the staff meeting). So a literal fulfilment could have confusion erupting on your spot at a fairly random later time .... which could get interesting when you rolled "attack the caster"

 

[NimrodvanHall]

You are right.

 

[ZuulMoG]

Three wishes? One army?

1) I wish for an Earth Elemental Swarm spell to occur under the enemy army. (I direct the elementals to pull under as many horses, wagons, and then officers as they can for the duration of the spell.) Elemental Swarm is a 9th level spell, and therefore can be duplicated by a Wish spell w/o penalty. Two are also directed to rip at a local fault until our side is now 20 feet higher than the bad guys' side, giving us an impressive natural fortification to rain arrow and what-not down on their heads from.

2) While that's going on, I wish for a convincing meta-magicked illusion of and earthquake affecting the whole region, so the elementals are not immediately detected and Dismissed. (Synergistaically, the elementals also reinforce the illusion, making saves for disbelief even more difficult.)

3) Wish for a Chained, Widened, Regenerate Serious Wounds to affect my front line as battle is joined. (Another 9th level spell.) Or maybe Haste instead? Both good choices.

Ok, tell me where I went wrong.

 

[Jack Simth]

Ok, tell me where I went wrong.

It's 8th level spells that can be duplicated without penalty, not 9th. (in 3.5 SRD, at least - may be worded differently elsewhere)

 

[ZuulMoG]

Rats. Ok...

1) I wish for a suitably meta-magicked Major Image of an earthquake, once again noting the synergistic effect of the earth elementals on it, and of the illusion on preventing the earth elementals from being recognised.

2) I wish for a Monster Summoning VIII spell to bring forth as many earth elementals as I can get of at least Large size, and set them to the tasks described above.

3) I wish for a Monster Summoning VIII spell to bring forth as many air elementals as I can get of at least Large size, and set them to the task of harrassing spellcasters in the enemy army, with the specific aim of preventing them from doing any Dismissals, but also to prevent spellcasting in general.

Better?

 

[Jack Simth]

Rats. Ok...

1) I wish for a suitably meta-magicked Major Image of an earthquake, once again noting the synergistic effect of the earth elementals on it, and of the illusion on preventing the earth elementals from being recognised.

Mild problem - there's no metamagic feat that applies to Major Image to make it cover the area you want - it's the wrong type for Widen, so you only get 4 ten-ft cubes + 1 10-ft cube/level; at 17th, that's 21 10-ft cubes, or a 30x70 field, 10-ft high; you can get a sizeable portion of the army in there, though, and you will need to concentrate on this, and thus do it last. What you want is Persistant Image, so you don't need to concentrate.

Might let this slide, though, as the power level of such an illusionary earthquake is probably in line with an 8th level spell, and so cover the entire army in question.... for a little longer than you concentrate on it.

2) I wish for a Monster Summoning VIII spell to bring forth as many earth elementals as I can get of at least Large size, and set them to the tasks described above.

No room for Maximize, so you get 1d4+1 Large Earth Elementals as per Summon Monster VIII, that follow your instructions as above.

3) I wish for a Monster Summoning VIII spell to bring forth as many air elementals as I can get of at least Large size, and set them to the task of harrassing spellcasters in the enemy army, with the specific aim of preventing them from doing any Dismissals, but also to prevent spellcasting in general.

No room for Maximize, so you get 1d4+1 Large Air Elementals as per Summon Monster VIII, that follow your instructions as above.

Better?

Much. Of course, those large elementals for caster level rounds, while being quite devastating, are only going to kill around (2d4+2)*Caster Level opponents (assuming they are all 1-shotted, and the elemental can move on to the next with a remaining move action), unless you arrange for them to be tightly packed so the elementals can get more than one opponenet in per round; even then, you can probably only double that. Assuming everything goes perfectly (max rolls, tightly packed for double) and caster level 17, you take out (2*4+2)*17*2=340 soldiers. Without tight packing, and an average roll on the number of elementals, still assuming one-shotting, you get (2*2.5+2)*17=119 soldiers. Fairly sizeable chunk of the army. Of course, you could duplicate that with two Summon Monster VIII's and a few Persistant Images just as well, assuming you had them.

 

[two]

uh, seriously --

For 3 9th level spells -- forget about Wish. Like, seriously. Instead --

I would GATE in 3 different "helpers" to, well, help destroy the enemy army.

Particularly effective would be some high level monster that can create shadows or something along those lines. It turns 10 enemy units into 10 shadows, which then (along with the gated in big baddie) turns another 10 enemy units into 10 shadows, which then... etc.

Or something that turns the enemy into zombies, or something like that. It's obviously much better to use the enemy army against itself instead of just, well, killing them.

If you have a week or so, a battle of attrition vs. 3 high CR enemies with lots of spell-like abilities should be able to a HUGE amount of damage to any army. The summoned creates can just retreat for a while when real danger appears, after all.

Pick a high-end devil, a high-end demon, and a high-end undead?

So, the question is (I'm terrible at knowing monster abilities):

What sorts of monsters can turn their victems instantaneously (or near-instantaneously) into allies?

*are there any?*

 

[NimrodvanHall]

3 wishes 1 army:

wish 1:
I wish 25000 GP
wish 2:
I wish 25000 GP
Wish 3:
I wish 25000 GP

this money will be used to bribe the greatest dragon (with an alignment opposit to the army) i can find to pester the army for say 1 hour.

 

[ZuulMoG]

119-340 soldiers, and some portion of the enemy's spell-casters is a fair dent, and if the earthies succeeded at elevating my side of the battle field, I'm also left with an excellent tactical advantage. The opposing army will have to somehow deal with a 20' cliff. Either they retreat and go around it, giving my army and I a temporary reprieve to use our knowledge of their forces to devise new tactics, or use their siege equipment a long way from my city, only to have to repeat that procedure if they gain the 'walls'.

It might not be certain victory, but it'll sure put a crimp in my foe's plans...


Mind you, if I had my choice of 9th-level arcane spells, Wish would probably not be on the list. Shapechanging into a Gold Dragon would give me the ability to do a LOT of harm to enemy formations. Flight and that much strength would allow bombing runs with cauldrons of flaming oil, huge bundles of spears or arrows I could simply drop on the foes from a mile up and let the wind disperse over the target for devastating effect, logs that could shatter siege equipment and crush horses and riders, (one helluva Caber!) etc... Breath weapons were practically made for repelling armies, and I'd have two, one fire-based, the other poison. Not many creatures possess immunity to both. The AC I'd enjoy in that form, as well as the Damage reduction vs. missiles, would make it a very safe form too.

If I got to choose the battlefield, a well-placed Tsunami could win the battle in one stroke. A real Earthquake spell is only 8th level.

Gate, as noted, could bring a minion that a typical army's soldiers could not hope to do more than nick or scratch while he laid about to impressive effect.

A Symbol of Discord on my herald's shield could send the enemy's envoys into a suicidal rampage against each other, assuming I was Chaotic enough to condone violation of a truce.

A Widened Chain Lightning could slaughter as many as 35 soldiers per casting, and if I had the last few bolts target the same few wounded soldiers as the previous spell targeted, maye 37 or 38.

A Widened Lightning Bolt could hit four ranks of Medium-sized soldiers in tight formation for 80', or eight ranks for 40', and that's only 6th level. (Assuming one Medium sized soldier per 2.5 feet in tight formation (4 per 10' square), and that's 128 soldiers in the area of effect of one Widened Lightning Bolt.) Maximizing it (to 9th level) would render an elite squad of Ettins nearly dead, with 5hp remaining, easy meat for archers or pikemen to finish off.

Power Word Kill, well, it's Power Word Kill. 'Nuff said there.

At 8th Level, Insect Plague is a sure cure for an organized, orderly enemy formation. I could Wish for that easy enough.

Widened and Maximized, and Briarthorn spell (2nd level damaging Entangle) could knock a gaping hole in an army, virtually anhillating entire formations.

Widened and Widened again, Stinking Cloud'll really take the fight out of the enemy, stop a charge cold, and even after it clears, the victims will be easy meat for my forces.

This is kinda fun...

 

[Jack Simth]

uh, seriously --

For 3 9th level spells -- forget about Wish. Like, seriously. Instead --

I would GATE in 3 different "helpers" to, well, help destroy the enemy army.

Particularly effective would be some high level monster that can create shadows or something along those lines. It turns 10 enemy units into 10 shadows, which then (along with the gated in big baddie) turns another 10 enemy units into 10 shadows, which then... etc.

Or something that turns the enemy into zombies, or something like that. It's obviously much better to use the enemy army against itself instead of just, well, killing them.

If you have a week or so, a battle of attrition vs. 3 high CR enemies with lots of spell-like abilities should be able to a HUGE amount of damage to any army. The summoned creates can just retreat for a while when real danger appears, after all.

There's a catch; Gated creatures can only be at-will controlled for a number of rounds equal to your caster level, and that takes concentration, so you can only do one at a time. You might find your gated critters will be a tad annoyed with you after that. If you can throw lower-level spells around, though, you might consider Greater Planar Bindings - you make deals with them that can last for days, and can get up to 18 HD critters. A Sorceror of level 16 (minimum for Greater Planar Binding) can use GPB three times a day, and with the likelyhood of a very high charisma, can most likely control them for a while, too.

Of course, a level-12 Sorceror (minimum for Planar Binding) can bind a Noble Dijin or a normal Efreet three times a day and get three wishes out of each for no direct xp costs at all (Noble dijinn are Chaotic Good, Efreeti are Lawful Evil - choose your wishes accordingly).

Pick a high-end devil, a high-end demon, and a high-end undead?

So, the question is (I'm terrible at knowing monster abilities):

What sorts of monsters can turn their victems instantaneously (or near-instantaneously) into allies?

*are there any?*

Yep. Wights, Shadows, Wraiths, and Specters turn their victims into their own type, under the creator's control, 1d4 rounds after killing (well, draining something to 0, mostly - see individual entries) their victims. Shadows, Wraiths, and specters can be created under your control with Create Greater Undead, Clr 8, Death 8, Sor/Wiz 8. Ghouls and Ghasts (Create Undead, Clr 6, Death 6, Evil 6, Sor/Wiz 6) cause things that succumb to the disease they carry to rise as uncontrolled Ghouls or Ghasts (depending on the victims HD). Vampires can do similar (but takes 1d4 days after burial - they must be put into the ground, and there is a limit to the number of vampires spawn one vampire can control), and Mohrgs (Create Undead, Clr 6, Death 6, Evil 6, Sor/Wiz 6) turn things they kill into zombies 1d4 days later.

If you are evil, you can have lots of fun this way with Shapechange (Animal 9, Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9; costly focus, but no material components, and you gain all the Su abilities of the assumed form; Create Spawn is usually Su, and most critters that Create Spawn end up under the control of their creator).