The Power of Ten, Book Three : The Human Race

So, time for the obligatory post-final chapter post from me! It’s all number-crunching, recaps, a little bit of conversation and info dumping, some metastory... but no story here.

No, I haven’t forgotten about the couple extra epilogues and stuff. Also, I should probably gather all the trembling songs in another master post, too.

But, that’s future idle work!

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As thing stand there at the end, Traveler is sitting there as a Deep Fifteen. I actually managed to load the Excel Sheet up on my Discord, so I’m going to pin it to the Announcements area there.

Notes: I don’t claim perfection in tracking Stats. There were a LOT of Stats. I also didn’t fill out all her spells towards the end, as there were a whole damn lot of them, and having some left open for emergencies IS a thing.

But still, she’s a very Deep Fifteen, if not as Deep as Aelryinth (who has bunches more Advanced Classes than she has).

Timeline-wise, the start of the story takes place at the end of Year Ten, when the citizens of Terra-Luna take their first trip off-world en masse to show an undead force trying to come from a Shroudworld how much they disapprove of being invaded. Invading a world of Power of Ten gamers already optimized to slaughter undead proved to be a VERY bad idea.

Also, there were no dead to Animate around the world, because they were already reduced to vivus, so no spontaneous Shroudlords and the like.

Traveler’s future role in the metaverse is naturally helming the first army of the Creation Crusade against the Shroud (the Cancer of Death, as it were). At first, she’ll be rescuing worlds in the middle of being invaded, stop the invasion, and increase the ranks of her army so that she can do so faster and faster.

Once she reaches a certain point, she’ll be able to assault anchor worlds that are in the middle of making Shroudgates, thus stopping multiple invasions at the same time, while breaking off another army to keep saving worlds and recruiting more people to serve.

By my estimations, there needs to be at least ten active armies who can take out a Shrouded invasion within six months for them to be at parity with the continuous invasions from all the Deadworlds already conquered. So, figure a dozen armies of thousands of Tens and Ten+’s optimized for killing undead, fiends, and constructs, all without direct Divine support.

That would give them ‘parity’ against the expansion, doing nothing for worlds already taken for the most part. Those armies would naturally be even tougher, and if they haven’t sent out investing forces, huge in number, while the older Deadworlds naturally have the most powerful Shroudlords ruling them.

Her biggest issue is of course the fact she herself can’t leave, and it is very difficult for ANYONE to leave (or enter) a Shrouded world. The trick to this is naturally the Shroudgates that bring the undead to new worlds to conquer, and so tie back to a previous Deadworld already conquered. Take that world, and all the gates leading off it are open to you, and then the ones off them, etc.

Thus, taking nexal Deadworlds will be a thing, just so forces can keep following her without needing a Shroud to collapse and having to use a Pyramid to jump to her.

With access to Perpetual Spell, she doesn’t have to worry about her previous tricks not working here and there, especially Ki Recycling. Well, that still works, but you have to use a weapon, so it is much slower.

With Commander Haru’Ara there, she has access to Legendary-class magic and magical items (only arms and armor, but he can gain more Levels!), and with the wealth of worlds, there is no doubt she’ll soon be gilt out in CL 20 magical items, one goldweight in value per day, however long it takes.

With Bey Azzar, six Wishes a day, slowly increasing the Stats of her people every day.

She’s going to be looting whole worlds worth of Stuff, such as it is, and often leaving totally empty worlds being reborn in vivus behind.

If you didn’t understand her words to Bey Azzar about the Warlock Pacts, it works out to this:

There is a limited number of Warlocks per world that the major forces, including the Alignments, can sponsor.

Those limits are AGGREGATED under the Shroud. So, if there’s a thousand worlds under the Shroud, then there are potentially 500,000 Heavenbound, for example, that can have operating Pacts under the Shroud.

They are not limited by world, they are limited by the Shroud.

So, once the Shroud comes down, they do have to quickly balance out or leave, but the armies of the Shrouded Crusade can effectively have insane amounts of Warlocks attached to them.

And she is definitely going to abuse that for everything, yes indeedy.

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Final Stats!

It’s all on the last sheets of the spreadsheet, but I’ll summarize.

Her starting Stats were 8/16/16/18/12/12 Str/Dex/Con/Int/Wis/Cha.

She Nogged them all to base 18 by sacrificing a bunch of spell slots from secondary classes that she couldn’t use anyway.

Between Classes, Marks, Sustained Stat Raises, some Racial Bonuses and Age bonuses, Masteries, and the like...

Str 33, Dex 44, Con 45, Intelligence 51, Wisdom 39, Charisma 42.

Note that she is using no magic items to actively raise her Stats.

She is a 6 (15) Wizard, Ten (14) Sage/Dark Phoenix Sorceress, and 6 or 6 (10) in her Secondary Classes, which number 20 or so, and 5 in all her Theurgic Classes, with dips in some Advanced Classes that also max at 5 (such as Alchemist Bomber).

Her Total Arcane Pool is 153. This is important because she can Cast a spell from her Pool for ½ its spell level, rounded up, -1, to a minimum of 1, meaning a 4th level or less Valence for 1 pt. Killing something with a Weapon, or critting, gains her 1 pt back to her Pool as well, in the wider world (killing via spell used to apply in the story, giving her effectively infinite mana as long as she used Shards in Weapon Attack Mode).

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Her Staff Clavus ended with 12 Slots (Zwolf!) and a 1.355 million gp value to it... She’ll probably enchant it as a Staff of the Magi or something for completionism. Among other things, it is +18 to hit undead.

Her Ring Einz is worth 520k, is a Ring of Telekinesis with a 750 lb limit, and effectively a +9 Ring of Protection, Death Ward, and Astral Ward (Mind Blank). It is also her Item Familiar and spellbook. She also wears a Ring of Wizardry I-V, and Ring of Prime Elemental Command (all 4 Elements).

Both items are indestructible and can’t be destroyed by any force short of a god.

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She has a base 784 Skill Ranks, with another +136 in bonuses from Einz’ Skill Rank sharing.

Her Concentration check is +97, and is her highest skill. Meditation is #2 at +95. Perception is 3rd at +74. Stealth is a mere +56, but she does have +9d6 Sneak Attack damage!

Most of her active Skill checks are at least +40.

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Her effective base Caster Level is 48 for all spells, with up to another +28 for Shards Spells in particular, and somewhat less than that for other types of spells. Her Spell Penetration beyond this is +9, +13 with Shards, with another +6 vs Outsiders and +7 vs Evil... and that’s without Silver Smiting or Spell Smiting.

She has +4 to the Save DC’s of all her spells from Spell Potency, with possibly an additional +7 or more, above and beyond Smites.

Suffice it to say she can smack a lesser god with spells, who should be immune to mortal magic.

Her Ranged Attack on Shards is +69 to hit, with some additional specific bonuses.

She has a +9 per die damage bonus on force attack spells, somewhat less on other types, with up to +12 per Spell Level of Fixed bonuses on top, and 2-3 types of residual effects for Rds/Spell Level.

Her first die of spell damage does 3-18 base, due to Superior Arcane Strike.

Her base Dispel Check is +66, potentially +72 against Evil magic. Her Girding of +8/+12 means her spells are a minimum target DC of 66 to be Dispelled in turn (and often much higher).

All her first level Metas effectively cost 0 to add to spells. All her common spells also have -1 Meta cost, so effectively, all her I and II Metas are free.

She has another effective -2 to total Meta Costs with Shards. In short, she can apply a monstrous amount of Metas to her Shards.

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She has 18 Permanent Spells, all Cast at 48 or greater (i.e. takes a CL 49+ to even Dispel them for a short time). Combined with Heavenbound Levels (and Shroudbound), she effectively has Detect Alignment V, Arcane Sight, and Detect Undead V up at all times (range 720 Feet sphere, instant awareness).

She has x50 forward vision, Blindsense and Blindsight to 60, Low-Light Vision, Devasight, Devilsight, Scent, Enchantment Sight, See Invisibility, Ultravision, and 120’ Infravision, along with 90’ True Sight, and can read lips perfectly.

She is immune to non-magical missiles, including normal gunfire.

She has Protection from Evil up all the time, suppressing any enchantment/charm magic that might afflict her.

With both Permanent Tongues and Comprehend Languages, she can understand instantly any language she sees or reads, speak any one language she doesn’t know to those nearby, and learn any language she is exposed to as well as a native within a half hour. Her voice can be heard up to three miles away without her raising her voice, either throughout the whole area or selectively as she wishes.

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Her Maximized Health is 100 (via racial Hit Dice, Con, Toughness, and Arcane Toughness).

Her Maximized Soak is 412, from Class Levels.

Her Initiative Bonus is +44. Oh, you thought you went first?

Her speed afoot is 105, as it is when swimming. Her Fly speed is thrice that, at 315, or about 200 mph.

Her Armor Class is a base of 70, up to 82 with Force Shield and Force Armor up.

As it stands, she is immune to fire, radiant, and cold damage (with Res/40 on top), and has resistance 40 to Lightning, Acid, and Sonic damage, while taking -5 per die from Force Damage. By magic items, she is immune to natural environmental extremes of any kind from vacuum to ocean depths, immune to poison, bleeding affects, and disease, in addition to having Free Action. She is also immune to most transformation effects, and thus rarely uses morphing as it would require removing her armband.

A Scarab of Protection makes sure she gets a Save even against things that would not normally allow it. By now, she has used multiple Wishes to make sure that if something like a Death Curse hits her, it is fantastically weakened even before she has to Save.

Her Saves are +42 Fortitude, +40 Reflex, and +46 Will, with some additional bonuses vs various things. With both Mettle and Improved Evasion, she takes no secondary/remainder damage or effects if she makes a successful saving throw. These are generally made superfluous by her Sun Saves at +96, but if hit rapidly by several effects, could come into play if she can’t Refocus fast enough (she can generally address three Sun saves in a row without a problem).

She has Damage Reduction of approximately 14/-, thanks to Crystallized Warlock Damage Reduction.

Her general Ranged Attack Bonus is +37, and her Melee Attack Bonus is about +27.

Her basic Noble Rank is 15, a High Queen. She gets +3 for Humans and Elves, +5 for Halvyr, and +5 for Sylunar, making her both a Grand Hierophant of the Sylunar Church and an Empress, and Sylunar will consider her a Chosen Servant of the goddess.

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She has 20/20/20/20/19 Wizard spells known, which she can cast with Sorcerer Slots, or burn like Slots to power non-Wizard spells. (99 total)

Wisdom spell bonuses (Cleric Only) are 4/4/3/3/3, +5 Domain Spells, total of +22.

Charisma Spell Bonuses (Blighter/Druid only) are 4/4/4/4/3, +5 Domain Spells, for +24.

Sorc Spells Known are 10/10/9/7/7, for a total of 43.

Inquisitor, Minstrel, and Binder Spells together work out to 9/9/7/4/2 Known each, for another +93 Spells.

Thus, Traveler can have access to 38 Cantrips, 67/67/59/48/40 Spells Known (281 total in memory), which she can Cast with 28/28/27/27/25 Spell Slots. All Spells Cast are at +III Valences, and so are auto-Raised by three levels, and can either apply the extra Raised Spell Mastery effects, or apply +3 worth of Metas at full cost.

Her total spell pool is +390 Spell Levels, above and beyond her Spell Slots. This is IN ADDITION to her Arcane Pool.

Her Alchemy and Artificer Infusions are on top of this, of course...

Since she has all three Metas, Traveler does not have to speak, use materials/an implement, or gesture to Cast. If she uses Fastcast, she is Casting with literally a thought.

Her voice is her strongest Perform instrument, with Oratory and Song at +60. That means her Sublime Chord check is 70 normally, which is automatically a +4 Caster Level bonus to all her allies, Doubled with Words of Creation for Good Spells to +8.

Her Dark Phoenix Bloodline conflates cold and fire damage mastery, and she can use both for half-strength healing. This means she can turn a fireball into a healing spell with a range of a thousand yards, among other things, or use her Shards in fire mode to deliver healing kicks to an entire army using Chains.

As a reborn native of the Shrouded Earth, she has no capacity for Soul Magic.

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She has an Amethyst Dragon Dragonheart which she will use after she reaches Twenty and Halvyr/6 (Lesser Exemplar). Among the other benefits of half-dragondom, she will become immune to sonic and force effects, and will gain a breath weapon which she can take the Dragon Shaman class to build up and then stack on her Wrath and Reserves if desired.

She has access to the Nymph, Sylph, and Succubi Racial Classes if she so desires to take them. Those three form her Bound Servants through her Binder Class.

Edit: It was pointed out to me that she has a nine-tail Hu Hsiao Bound to her, and the Succubi is Possessing her, not Bound. How could I forget the tails and ears...

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Her name and image, including the singular appearance of her jetsilver magic, cannot be successfully imitated by any being, nor replicated in material form without her permission (at least on the same world).

Her Ur-Priest Levels allow her to take any divine spells via Faith from any god without them knowing, and since she is under the Shroud, they cannot learn of the theft. Her Blighter levels allow her to tear spells from the Land as well, but with her Theurgy levels she can simply use arcane or other energies for the same purpose... and the same applies to her Clerical spells, too.

She is a Lord of Rings, Lord of Staves, and Lord of Pyramids. She also finished the novel as The Perfect Halvyr Paragon, the First Wizard, a Sage of Focus, and a Champion of Creation, as well as Magos of the Blood and Magos of the Stars (Six Stars).

Her preferred Melee Weapon is Unarmed Combat, with Staff as a Profound Weapon. Her Preferred Ranged Weapon is Attack Spells (Shards, Rays, Orbs).

Her base Caster Level with Shards is 76. That allows her to potentially bring forth 38+3 Shards, which is possible with an IX Slot (which she does not have). Thus her current maximum is 30+3 Shards, spending a V+3 Slot of Greater Shards at VIII. Generally, it is more efficient to Pair or Admix a lower Valence level with Delimit tacked on.