Author Topic: Planar Invasions?  (Read 3446 times)

Offline Necrosnoop110

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Planar Invasions?
« on: December 01, 2011, 03:59:18 PM »
Why don't devils, demons, or other evil extra-planar creatures invade the prime material plane en masse and take over? I mean it's as simple as having access to Plane Shift. No? Yes? Am I missing something? And the bulk of the prime material plane inhabitants are pretty soft.   

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Offline 123456789blaaa

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Re: Planar Invasions?
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2011, 06:41:43 PM »
well which setting are you talking about?  invading ebberon is way different than invading the forgotten realms.
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Offline sirpercival

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Re: Planar Invasions?
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2011, 06:52:31 PM »
Because of the Blood War.  They're too busy worrying about and fighting each other.
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Offline Kethrian

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Re: Planar Invasions?
« Reply #3 on: December 01, 2011, 08:20:21 PM »
Plus the angels/archons/eladrins/guardinals/etc. are just sitting back watching.  If the lower planes decided to make a move, the upper planes would be ready to ambush them from behind in a moment's notice.
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Re: Planar Invasions?
« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2011, 08:44:48 PM »
Relatively few evil outsiders are actualy capable of casting plane shift.

Because of the Blood War.  They're too busy worrying about and fighting each other.

Not exactly. The devils made a deal long ago they would fight the demons for all eternity.

The counter-clause that the forces of good can't bother them at all in the 9 Hells, plus the devils get white card for corrupting mortals in order to make more devils to better fight the demons, slowly but surely building up their power.

Demons meanwhile aren't CE just for looks, they have plenty of internal fighting.

Offline Bozwevial

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Re: Planar Invasions?
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2011, 11:02:41 PM »
Logistics, for one.

While you can transport up to eight people with Plane Shift, it's basically impossible to get where you want to go. You need to use Teleport or something similar to get to the meetup point, then you need to use Plane Shift and Teleport again to get back to where you were bringing troops from.

Assuming you can use both of those at will, your Teleport is actually a Greater Teleport so there's no mishap, your teleport isn't the gimped version that only lets you take yourself and fifty pounds along, you have a CL of 21 for your (Greater) Teleport so you can actually bring seven other creatures with you, all the creatures you're bringing are Medium or smaller, and you can line up the creatures you're bringing so there's no delay in timing, then you can move seven creatures to the Prime Material every twenty-four seconds.

That's a pretty generous set of assumptions. If your teleport ability is crippled like the balor's, the invasion is effectively impossible because you emerge into a different place each time you shift and can't coordinate forces effectively.

If you do find a fiend of that power, it's a pretty safe bet he has more important things to do than be an interplanar Segway.
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Offline veekie

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Re: Planar Invasions?
« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2011, 03:01:43 AM »
Firstly, transporting 'troops' is a problem as mentioned previously, unless something wide open like Gate or a portal is used, it takes a lot of time from creatures high in the hierarchy to cross planar boundaries, and with a limited number of creatures at a time to boot, scattering them across the world.

Secondly, due to the way the evil planar power structures work, you are removing key middle and upper tier people from their seats of power, while leaving a relatively large number of mooks behind without resorting to Gates or portals. In either case, your seat of power is weakened by pulling significant forces out, and your enemies on your own plane would take advantage.

Thirdly, favorable grounds. While you have the home ground advantage in your native plane, and even enjoy some degree of extended held territory in the Blood War, invading across planes necessarily means you're doing without thousands of years of preparation and fortification, invading against potentially prepared strong points. Defeat is a sign of weakness, so you'd rather only invade when you are certain it'd work.

Fourth, organization. The evil factions are rife with dissension, so rousing up forces beyond those under your personal command is difficult. You need people to hold territory and crush spirits.

Fifth, significance. On the grand scheme of things theres just not enough value in a given mortal realm compared to all the other worlds out there. It has to become significant to be worth the temporary weakening of your forces where its critical.

Sixth, opposition. Due to the lack of home ground advantage, you might actually meet your opposite numbers in a fair fight. Screw that!
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