Help me optimize d20 Warfare

[juton]

In most campaign settings there are two or more nations at war with one another. D&D never really seems to deal with armies in the thousands but in some settings I think it's a possibility. I'm curious as to how their battles would play out. Obviously for most kindoms the bulk of their troops are going to be humans without any magical ability.

I'm assuming two large nations can throw together armies of 10,000+. I going to do some handwaving and say that an army that size has at most 5 Wizards of 5th-6th level. Those Wizards are dangerous but can't really stop all those Fighters by them selves, and the still have their opposites to deal with. They might have a collection of various magical beasts but I'd imagine there numbers to be in the hundreds at most.

So basically there are two parts to this:
What would these armies look like?
- How would they be organized, would the Roman model work in D&D?
- If you where a general what magic or beasts would you try to get to aid you in battle?

What tactics would they use?
- How would they win the field with a minimum of casualties?
- How would they win with a minimum of cost?
- How would they deal with any insurgents in the areas they conquer?

[Amadi]

Level 1 Clerics with Wand of Cure Light Wounds, wielding Tower Shields and heavy armour. Their function is to use the 50 charges to heal back fallen soldiers. (0 to -9 hp) They can also keep up Bless for a relatively good time, and hold their own in battle (Ward domain?), especially as barricades. The AoO hardly matters if you have AC in the 20's.

Dragonfire Inspiration Bards, in focused archer-squads. (Bunch of warriors with a longbow and WF-Longbow) Those arrows of 1d8+1d6 are quite probably going to kill anything they hit.

All the 3rd+ level casters pick up Rolling Flames (2nd level spell), and get the material component. This spell is capable of wiping a lot of people down, or at least thinning the ranks in any given area enough that breakout there will be imminent. They are also given scrolls of invisiblity, to allow them to cast this unharmed. If possible, this should be aimed at the enemy archers, as they can deal the most damage. The largest effect on this is probably on opposing psychology.

Any sufficiently high level character gets an activated item of suggestion, the aim is to use it on enemy sub-leaders, and give them stupid strategical ideas. Confusion in the enemy ranks is something that wins battles, and wins them fast.

[KellKheraptis]

Take a look at the Phalanx guide in the guide section.  It shows how a cadre of level 2 crusaders lead by like a level 6 lieutenant can pretty much pwn anything in the MM.  And also, if you subject a high level character or characters to an army like that, pray there aren't spellcasters, let alone spellcasters that know what they're doing.  Nothing spells slaughter like t-o-r-n-a-d-o at 13th level.  And it's frighteningly easy to speed that spell up to a swift action to cast.  After that, it's a matter of climbing a rope trick and coming back once the weather is nice again, amid all the corpses (which become your army if you're a real bastard).

[Bozwevial]

A wizard with Invisible Spell and some time to prepare can convince an entire army that Hobbes was right, and that life is nasty, brutish, and short. Invisible walls of iron slow down the enemy greatly, invisible caltrops catch them off-guard, you can even use an Invisible Move Earth to create invisible pits which you then fill with black lotus extract.

The black lotus extract is also invisible.

Oh, right. Tornadoes are terrifying enough. Invisible tornadoes? Those are something else entirely.

[Kuroimaken]

Well, assuming no stupidly high-level Wizards, here's a couple of thoughts on what an army comes up with IMO.

On the matter of beasts:

1) Anything that flies is a great threat. Nothing spells out 'tactical advantage' like being able to move past an entire army straight to the rear flank, where leaders typically remain. If the critter in question is able to do so undetected, well... You can kiss a lot of military leaders goodbye. Even something as relatively simple as a soldier riding on a flying mount's back with a bagful of Alchemist's fire is going to create a lot of havoc.

2) Critters with resistance to fire are preferrable. This is because barring caster armies, fire is the most readily available and relatively easy to use form of crowd control. It's very easy to send an army back if you have enough flames and a favorable wind. (For those familiar with the Three Kingdoms era or Dynasty Warriors, refer to the battle of Chi Bi.)

3) Critters with damage reduction and/or high natural armor make for a very credible threat. Mundane archer fire is rendered practically useless by a DR as low as 5/magic (again, assuming no army-buffing shenanigans) and footmen will still take a very long time to kill the thing. Cavalry stands a better chance thanks to the fact that mounted combat damage is more efficient at lower levels, but it requires a large amount of maneuverable space to be efficient, which isn't always readily available in a battlefield.

4) Undead are gruesomely efficient when it comes to mass warfare. Intimidation factor notwithstanding, they can march THROUGH punishment, aren't easily confused, are immune to fear and panic, and run no risk at all of betraying their commander (plus, in some cases, can produce spawn). Constructs (golems in particular) are even more ridiculously efficient, as they share that same resillience, and in some cases are even preferrable to undead as they aren't vulnerable to Turning or Rebuking (which can turn an army back on itself). They ARE ridiculously expensive however.

Incorporeal Undead (hello wraiths and specters!) are where it's at though. Immune to conventional weaponry and capable of flight, plus typically packing army-reducing strength (ability damage/drain attacks). And not requiring equipment, even.

5) Critters with area attacks (hello breath weapons!) are the medieval fantasy man's flame/acid/electricity/sound/negative/positive energy-throwers. Their capacity for eliminating opposition quickly is second only to massive area spells.

6) Giants deserve special mention. They make for very efficient ranged combatants, to the point where enough of them can conceivably replace an entire archer squad. Their downside is that they also make REALLY big targets.

As a general rule, D&D is aimed at the individual level. That's why there are almost no AoE save or dies, and why even buffing more than one ally at once typically doesn't affect more than, say, 20 soldiers (and that's assuming the guy is relatively high leveled). Adapting its mechanics to mass warfare isn't very easy, but it can be done. At least speaking in terms of military organization, it works much better.

Dragonfire Inspiration Bards, in focused archer-squads. (Bunch of warriors with a longbow and WF-Longbow) Those arrows of 1d8+1d6 are quite probably going to kill anything they hit.

Give them alphorns. Hello 7-mile-wide buffing!

[emissary666]

Critters with a burrow speed would possibly be more effective than flying. Armies do have the possibility to see something in the air, but not underground. Also, outsiders are highly effective although not cost effective.

[Kuroimaken]

Critters with a burrow speed would possibly be more effective than flying. Armies do have the possibility to see something in the air, but not underground. Also, outsiders are highly effective although not cost effective.

That's a very good point. Though I suppose dwarves and other subterranean folk could null that advantage, couldn't they?

[juton]

Interesting thoughts Kuroimaken.

The important PC Classes (ie Spellcasters) to an extent are born not made (possibly excepting Wizards). So if I was a general, I may get 200 Clerics and 100 Sorcerers, I won't get any more because there aren't any more. Magical beasts are similar in number. Mind you that's just my interpretation of the material, if you want every person in Faerun to have a PC class, hey it's your campaign. The campaigns I play in have the conceit that the PCs are some how special and that the vast majority of other characters are not.

So Kuroimaken and emissary666 point out a few good points, you can use magic to take out the enemy's commander and spellcasters. Ballistas can help defend against flying creatures but I can't think of anything.

When I think D&D mass combat I think horde of mooks vs something interesting. When it comes to just dealing with hordes of infantry are there any creatures/classes lower than CR 10 that can stand up to being overwhelmed 500:1?

[Anklebite]

Interesting thoughts Kuroimaken.

The important PC Classes (ie Spellcasters) to an extent are born not made (possibly excepting Wizards). So if I was a general, I may get 200 Clerics and 100 Sorcerers, I won't get any more because there aren't any more. Magical beasts are similar in number. Mind you that's just my interpretation of the material, if you want every person in Faerun to have a PC class, hey it's your campaign. The campaigns I play in have the conceit that the PCs are some how special and that the vast majority of other characters are not.

So Kuroimaken and emissary666 point out a few good points, you can use magic to take out the enemy's commander and spellcasters. Ballistas can help defend against flying creatures but I can't think of anything.

When I think D&D mass combat I think horde of mooks vs something interesting. When it comes to just dealing with hordes of infantry are there any creatures/classes lower than CR 10 that can stand up to being overwhelmed 500:1?

anything with good DR, really....  how about a 10th level warlock with all feats into improved DR/cold iron using fey heritage? or maybe a fighter who stacked "roll with it"? a 10th level wizard or sorcerer can cast stoneskin, not that they need it to wipe out a paltry 500 people.  a trollblooded warforged juggernaught might be able to be immune to normal damage at level 10. a pixie warlock1 could wipe them all out, even though it would take a while. a half minotaur mineral warrior fighter2/pounce barb1/crusader5 with a spiked chain and great cleave could probably kill em all.  actually, a mineral warrior human cleric1 could do it, DMM persist lesser vigor and use burrowing shenanigans to kill them all.  a single shadow or wraith could wipe out the army, too.

[Kuroimaken]

Interesting thoughts Kuroimaken.

The important PC Classes (ie Spellcasters) to an extent are born not made (possibly excepting Wizards). So if I was a general, I may get 200 Clerics and 100 Sorcerers, I won't get any more because there aren't any more. Magical beasts are similar in number. Mind you that's just my interpretation of the material, if you want every person in Faerun to have a PC class, hey it's your campaign. The campaigns I play in have the conceit that the PCs are some how special and that the vast majority of other characters are not.

So Kuroimaken and emissary666 point out a few good points, you can use magic to take out the enemy's commander and spellcasters. Ballistas can help defend against flying creatures but I can't think of anything.

When I think D&D mass combat I think horde of mooks vs something interesting. When it comes to just dealing with hordes of infantry are there any creatures/classes lower than CR 10 that can stand up to being overwhelmed 500:1?

The difference in strength between a CR 10 creature and a regular mook is so vast that almost anything you set up against the mook will wipe the floor with it (assuming, of course, no mitigating factors towards the mook).  The AC alone prevents anything but a natural 20 to hit; at CR 10, DR is practically a given as well. That leaves what is commonly referred to as 'action economy', i.e. the critter having one set of actions against 500. Whether it can withstand an assault 500 to 1 is entirely dependant on whether the actions of those 500 will have any impact at all.

Let us consider the lowly Shadow (CR 3, from the monster manual). Against your regular adventuring party, party configuration notwithstanding, it's only going to give a lot of trouble at level 1, assuming it's the only enemy around. By level 3, assuming no spellcasters, it's quite reasonable to expect that at least one party member has a magic weapon, and therefore its meager 19 HP don't stand much of a chance. Assuming there ARE spellcasters, though, it hasn't been a credible threat since level 2 or less. The biggest part of what makes the shadow such a deadly force at such an early level against mooks though, is because it's incorporeal. On the hipothetical 500:1 scenario, the actions of the 500 will only matter if either A) there are spellcasters in their midst or B) at least ONE of them has a magical weapon. If neither condition is met, the shadow will eventually overpower its enemies (at an astonishing rate no less, since whatever it kills rises as a shadow, thus increasing its firepower over time) at no cost or injury to itself. Speaking from a military standpoint, that's an unbelievably good asset.

And that's a CR 3 creature we're talking about. A Greater Shadow alone stands at CR 9 and has improved stats, and would meet with much the same results. A clay golem is CR 10, has DR 10/adamantine, and AC 22, meaning practically anything at CR 2 or 3 barely even has a chance to hit it (and worse, the thing is immune to magic as well). A regular CR 1 mook would only be able to harm it on a confirmed crit (which is a 1 in 400 chance, nat 20 confirmed with a nat 20), and the thing has 90 HP, so it would last for a VERY long while. A few ballista shots to the face might disable it though, but then we're talking about using SIEGE WEAPONS against a SINGLE UNIT the size of a horse. However, on a 500:1 scenario, the 500 actually stand a chance to win, if barely, because of the action economy. A chance of 1 in 400 isn't that small when you have 500 attempts to do it with. It would eventually be worn down and possibly even destroyed, but quite a few soldiers would die in the process. And that's ONE golem.

And let's not talk about what an eleven-headed learnan pyrohydra would do to the poor bastards. Or a couatl. And this is just off the first Monster Manual; enough research would net you quite a collection of potential war beasties. 

[Akalsaris]

Warning: long wall of text to follow!  

Kuroi's reference to Dynasty Warriors I think is actually a very apt one.  You're likely to have thousands of crappy 1st-level peasants and warriors running around missing each other, about 5-10 mid-level NPCs that are somewhat deadly (i.e. Gate Lieutenants in DW), and then the very very high classed characters and monsters, who are ultimately what will decide any given battle based on how well they do after cutting through the masses of weak NPCs (or more likely flying past them).  

I don't think the idea of clerics in full plate with tower shields and wands of CLW is such a great idea, since you could afford to hire more than 300 1st level warriors for a week for less than that cleric's equipment.  More likely everyone is running around in leather with a longspear or morningstar and large wooden shield.  

In most cases I don't think wizards would want to get involved in mass battles unless their side was routing the other force - they're smart enough to know that they will be the #1 target of the opposing side, and any flashy spells like Cloudkill or Solid Fog would bring the other side down on them hard.

What would these armies look like? Large semi-organized masses of low-level NPCs with 1/500 or so being an actual threat
- How would they be organized, would the Roman model work in D&D?  Probably only for Lawful creatures like dwarves or hobgoblins - most races (humans included) would probably give up on organization and instead rely on simple tactics such as a pike wall or archer cover.
- If you where a general what magic or beasts would you try to get to aid you in battle?  Too specific to say, but I would want high-level spellcasters as a primary recruit, and devas or planetars or other trustworthy & powerful outsiders as a secondary, and dragons as a third (and classic) option.

What tactics would they use?  See above, but I think seige weapons would be largely abandoned in favor of hiring spell-casters - but like seige weapons, they would be extremely rare and heavily protected.
- How would they win the field with a minimum of casualties?  By praying that the high levels and monsters deal with each other instead of wasting resources on the mooks.  Most PCs would rather save their Cloudkill for the general's personal guard, and the opposing side should show the same level of tactical thinking.  Both sides know that it takes a day to study magic, so any army that invested heavily in spell-casters would seek to minimize their fights per day, while armies with hordes of warriors would instead constantly push their opponents, trying to harry the spell-casters enough to prevent them from recovering easily, and to hit the other side when their spells are exhausted.
- How would they win with a minimum of cost?  By relying on cheap supplies and pillaging the countryside, combined with some mid-level clerics or outsiders.
- How would they deal with any insurgents in the areas they conquer?  Pretty ineffectively, I'd guess.  Communication isn't easy, which makes it hard for insurgents to act, but also hinders their opposition.  In one of the games that I DM, the most effective way to deal with insurgents has been to plant spies in the opposing sides to report magically on their movements - again though, a very expensive and risky strategy.    

I actually use these tactics in 2 of the campaigns I run, since I run a 2nd ed game based around opposing the Red Dragonarmy (Dragonlance), and a 3.5 Birthright game (Birthright is a setting where the PCs are the kings of their own country).  

In the Dragonlance game, the PCs are all 16th to 18th level and the equivalent of epic-level characters in 3.5 - but they have several small armies of low-levels that they need to protect if they want to control an area after any given battle, while the Dragonarmy has several equal-level leaders and nearly a hundred dragons - and 2-3 dragons are easily a threat for the party.  So it's largely been a guerilla campaign, and in each case the armies keep their best troops in reserve, waiting for one side to show itself - so the low-mid level warriors are generally a critical part of the battles.  

One important aspect is that many of the warriors in the evil army are neutral-aligned peasant conscripts, so the PC's side has a strong incentive not to target them and earn their hatred, and likewise the Dragonarmy just wants to put down the rebellion and capture the opposing side as slave labor, so both sides are more concerned with the leadership than the mooks.  I could see this as the case in many non-racial battles in D&D.

In Birthright, there are very few high levels within the setting, so aside from the occasional summoned demon or dragon there isn't a lot that's tactically different from a straight medieval fight.  It helps that the BR setting treats small groups of high level characters or monsters as a buff to a standard unit instead of a force of their own, so their relevance to a fight is diminished (though still critical usually).  We haven't had many mass combats so far, so we'll see how things pan out with this.

[Anklebite]

the easiest way to optimize a lvl 10 char for taking out 500 mooks: landlord, leadership, wild cohort and dragon cohort(used the special ability of rogue10 for that one, yuk yuk yuk). use cohort cascades to get a variable army of your own, and proceed to rape the 500 mooks in a short amount of time (cohort is a wizard, dragon cohort uses breath weapon, wild cohort is the spikey retributive dino from MM3, but with great cleave, the stronghold is a mobile keep with spell turrets, and your followers are lvl1 dragonfire adepts with entangling exhalation who are fortified in flying keep. higher level followers are clerics, who use DMM: reach to heal those getting hit by the nat 20 rolls).

[Amadi]

I don't think the idea of clerics in full plate with tower shields and wands of CLW is such a great idea, since you could afford to hire more than 300 1st level warriors for a week for less than that cleric's equipment.  More likely everyone is running around in leather with a longspear or morningstar and large wooden shield.

You do not necessarily have access to those. All of your kingdom is going to war already, who are you hiring? Goblins?

The problem with this is the fact that we are not given any straight rules for what we can do. Even a mid-level wizard can cast planar bindings with all his daily spells, and get a lot of outsiders with extremely handy SLAs. The wizard isn't even at any risk here. Technically, given planar movement/teleportation, it would be possible to recruit opponents from the other side of the world, too.

[juton]

Akalsaris:

Thanks, that's exactly the type of info I was looking for.

Anklebite:

Ok, you can kill 500 mooks. Can you think of any way 500 mooks could survive some of the things listed in this thread?

[Havok4]

Something that would greatly increase the survivability of your army would be to have about one person in 40 be a dragon shaman with the vigor aura. This is basically the same idea as the clw wand cleric but much more cost effective and action economy efficient.  The aura based classes such as the dragon shaman and the marshal would work really well in a large combat environment and drastically increase any armies power.

[KellKheraptis]

Tower Shields can block line of effect and line of sight, and make you immune to archer fire.  Hedge rows, while not 100% perfect, make charging a painful idea at best (with the exception of course of CO Chargers).  Having consistent reach on opposing armies and a weapon to bring to bear if they get inside it for the one turn before they coordinate a step back can do wonders for screwing line warriors, as can a means of getting archers on higher ground.  A couple druids can summon flying mounts, at the very least, outsiders can do all kinds of neat shit, and most of them fly too.  Aerial superiority can utterly annihilate an opposing force, as can mastery of the terrain itself.  Even relatively low level spellcasters can really fuck with large numbers of enemy forces, just by manipulating the terrain.  As mentioned, Invisible spell can be absolutely devastating.  Imagine taking an elite cadre of your best front-liners, and using Invisible Alter Self to make them all Bauriars *spelling?*.  Give them lances, and let them charge through the enemy ranks.  A couple mid-level (i.e. 6th minimum) warlocks with Eldritch Spear might as well be invincible against the average level 1 fuckstick soldier, and make fabulous scouts (and even more so if they're level 8, when they can invisibly fly).

And in the event you play akin to one of the posts above, as an epic or near epic character leading mooks, imagine if you researched a spell to change all of them into something useful.  You don't even have to go apeshit with it and make them solars or something whacky, just add one LA 0 template.  Imagine the difference between 500 normal human level 1 warriors, and 500 level 1 human warriors with a tailored (i.e. epic magic used to remove the element of chance) unseelie fey template applied, granting darkvision and wings, among other things.  All of a sudden you have 3D mobility, automatic range on all melee, and effectively invincibility against nonflying foes.  Hell, if you're a cheapskate, fly by a quarry en route and DROP ROCKS instead of wasting arrows.  Sure to make a DM smile

[Anklebite]

Tower Shields can block line of effect and line of sight, and make you immune to archer fire.  Hedge rows, while not 100% perfect, make charging a painful idea at best (with the exception of course of CO Chargers).  Having consistent reach on opposing armies and a weapon to bring to bear if they get inside it for the one turn before they coordinate a step back can do wonders for screwing line warriors, as can a means of getting archers on higher ground.  A couple druids can summon flying mounts, at the very least, outsiders can do all kinds of neat shit, and most of them fly too.  Aerial superiority can utterly annihilate an opposing force, as can mastery of the terrain itself.  Even relatively low level spellcasters can really fuck with large numbers of enemy forces, just by manipulating the terrain.  As mentioned, Invisible spell can be absolutely devastating.  Imagine taking an elite cadre of your best front-liners, and using Invisible Alter Self to make them all Bauriars *spelling?*.  Give them lances, and let them charge through the enemy ranks.  A couple mid-level (i.e. 6th minimum) warlocks with Eldritch Spear might as well be invincible against the average level 1 fuckstick soldier, and make fabulous scouts (and even more so if they're level 8, when they can invisibly fly).

And in the event you play akin to one of the posts above, as an epic or near epic character leading mooks, imagine if you researched a spell to change all of them into something useful.  You don't even have to go apeshit with it and make them solars or something whacky, just add one LA 0 template.  Imagine the difference between 500 normal human level 1 warriors, and 500 level 1 human warriors with a tailored (i.e. epic magic used to remove the element of chance) unseelie fey template applied, granting darkvision and wings, among other things.  All of a sudden you have 3D mobility, automatic range on all melee, and effectively invincibility against nonflying foes.  Hell, if you're a cheapskate, fly by a quarry en route and DROP ROCKS instead of wasting arrows.  Sure to make a DM smile

kell is correct about the fact that the only way to make it truely viable is to buff up your mooks. this can either be done by adding templates, using undead instead, buffing them all, or using some other means of improving your mooks.  think about it, have you ever heard of someone actually ENCOUNTERING a real army of mooks in any game/adventure/premade adventure path? they don't, because it is not truely viable. 

the wizard trying to create a new species to take over the world? viable.
the necromancer trying to muster up a massive undead army? viable.
the sorcerer trying to mutate a large following of fanatic followers in order to invade a country? viable.
the druid rallying every tree and critter in the forest to assault her enemies? viable.
the cleric rallying the church and then asking his/her god to buff them for victory? viable.
the artificer trying to make an unstoppable contruct? viable.
a caster trying to coherce the entire elemental plane of earth to aid in her conquests? viable.

the 500 level one warrior army armed with mundane weapons worth about 100g apiece? slaughtered.

[KellKheraptis]

For the record : I was once in a game just pre-epic (level 20 in fact) playing the Frenzied Berserker version of the Revenant Blade, and had been prebuffed with Freedom of Movement, as to avoid being pinned by the press of numbers, and had a total movement rate after everything of like 120 feet.  At level 20, I was the diversion the party sent at the opposing army of like 25,000, at least half of which fell to the wonder that is Great Flyby attack, and also Great Cleave.  When you can constantly power attack for +100 damage, you turn EVERYTHING into chunky salsa, and they even had an elephant cadre.  The spellcasters were of minimal threat, as the party wizard and cleric made sure I was packing both SR and either resistance or immunity to most save or lose spells (if the army managed to head off the party, they'd get back within the radius of the mythal, which even the minor effects the mooks could access would make them WAY more dangerous).  Once the spellcasters fell, it was a giant hunting game, and ultimately it was decided that they all fell to a man once the real threat was eliminated.  Only time I ever got to actually melee an army...usually I'm the spellcaster, so either I tac-nuke the whole field, or simply drop a hurrinado on their ass and let Mother Nature run her course.  Though summoning an Earth Monolith is entertaining

[Anklebite]

another favorite for destroying armies is a casting or two of blackfire (eighth level spell)

[Kuroimaken]

Kuroi's reference to Dynasty Warriors I think is actually a very apt one.  You're likely to have thousands of crappy 1st-level peasants and warriors running around missing each other, about 5-10 mid-level NPCs that are somewhat deadly (i.e. Gate Lieutenants in DW), and then the very very high classed characters and monsters, who are ultimately what will decide any given battle based on how well they do after cutting through the masses of weak NPCs (or more likely flying past them).  

And then you have an epic-level Fighter as Lu Bu?  

When going to war, any non-spellcaster with sufficient money to spend should have a starmantle cloak. As with incorporeal beasties, immunity to convenient weaponry is ALWAYS a force to be reckoned with.

Spellcasters cheat in mass warfare by gaining access to resources that no army in the world could get short of hiring another spellcaster of the same level. That's why classic BBEGs are typically evil Wizards, Sorcerers, other forms of spellcaster, or melee types with leadership (though seeing a diplomancer as a BBEG would be an interesting twist) - nobody else really has much of a chance to actually shake a kingdom, much less wage war on his/her/its own.

On the other side of the spectrum, when I started planning what a Wish Economy world's warfare would be like, my end conclusion was that they didn't use human mooks at all - they only used summoned outsiders, constructs and undead. Considerably more cost-effective than mantaining a regular army, much more deadly than a regular army, and much more versatile even in small numbers. The magical protection on each city would be so stupidly harsh, though, that warfare itself would seem pretty pointless - open field warfare would yield nothing and assaulting a capital would take such a lengthy amount of time it wouldn't be worth it. This means that in a Wish Economy world the whole damn material plane is at a perpetual stalemate similar to the Cold War, except not based on mutually assured destruction. Plus, they'd technically have infinite money and resources anyway - why would they go to war? For FUN?

Oh, one important thing to note: remember that actual warfare, unlike D&D combat, doesn't last minutes, but rather hours. Therefore, short-duration buffs are only worth anything in a battlefield if you're capable of effectively nuking the enemy (Improved Invisibility, for example, would only be worth anything IF and only IF you had a stupidly high rate of movement. Of course, if you did, you could start dropping Cloudkill on the opposition like nobody's business...).