einarh@fagerborg.vgs.no wrote:

> Heh... oups, try to find those 10 (?) 7th level mages needed.
> *and* cooperate. I'd think such a feat impossible.
> But if one takes the Emerald Queen for example, she could cast 4 'polymorph
> other' per day. = 120 per month. And I think a cavalry war card needs 50
> horses or something. (oups.. I've never thought of this idea before).
> And she would still be able to take normal actions, as it only takes a
> couple of minutes each day to polymorph them.

Yes, it only takes two 8th level mages to have the same spell casting effect (with
respect to Polymorph Other spells) as Isealie. My understanding is that there are
100 mounts in a cavalry/knight/flying unit, which means Isealie or the 8th level
mages could come up with 120 such creatures in under a month.

This does not, however, take into account the possibilty of creating a lower level
version of the spell with a much longer casting time and possibly a few material
components according to the Spell Law material published in Dragon magazine a
while back. Or a slightly more powerful 5th level version of the spell, for that
matter. If one had both these versions of Polymorph Other, and one could convince
two 9th level mages to do this, they could potentially cast twelve Polymorph Other
spells a day, for a total of 360 spells a month....

Another thing to note about this issue. Couldn't the same mages cast Stoneskin on
all 200 members of a military unit, making them immune to the first 5-8 hits on
that unit? The Improved Armor spell in the BoM also has an undefined duration, so
a mage casting that spell 200 times on a unit of archers should be able to make
them armored as if wearing plate mail.

There are a lot of issues along these lines. What about priests? Couldn't
priests with access to the Glyph of Warding spell effectively mine their temples?
How about a druid casting Giant Insect spells for a month or two to create a swarm
of locust the likes of which would give most real life farmers nightmares for a
decade? Shall we talk about Animate Dead?

> Hmm.. restrict the power of wish then. Anyway, 18th level character *does*
> have an impact on the world, no matter what world we are talking about.

This is very true. There are very few characters with that kind of power in the
published materials. Several are close, however, and see the following note
regarding awnsheghlien.

> >Well, what do you folks think? Am I nuts or could this kind of thing easily
> >happen?
>
> Nope! I'd say it won't happen.
> If he tries to do that, the Magian or the Gorgon would have taken notice of
> him, and would prolly try to slay such a character before their power brgun
> to rival their own.

Ah, but why wouldn't the Gorgon or the Magian be doing this themselves?
Especially the Gorgon. The guy has been around for a very long time. Oh, his
spell casting ability might not be all that incredible, but he could certainly
have spent a lot of time doing this sort of thing. Several other awnsheghlien
spring to mind as well. The Chimaera is basically immortal. Isn't the Raven
too? Most importantly, however, what about elves? I've argued that there are
potentially thousands and thousands of elven wizards on Cerilia. If they are
immortal then they have plenty of time to go up in levels, and Cerialian elves are
unlimited in level advancement as wizards.... Once an elf reaches 18th level
shouldn't he be able to just Wish himself into semi-godhood?

Gary