If all faction leaders in your setting had to fight man to man, who would win?

In a battle between 12 reincarnated heroes, 10 great wyrms, 9 literal gods, and the 6 primordial forces of existence, the crippled old homeless man would win.

If were using faction very loosely and just as "a group of whatevers with a leader" then the Ink Burner would win, due to the fact that he can literally erase pieces of reality.

If it's just nations or government factions, likely King Daluris VII, due to the fact his sword, Calibrand, is the most powerful object in the world.

Uhhh...

>a bunch of politicians with lackluster fighting skills
>in the same arena with a god-like dragon
>all sharing an arena with an elderitch god-corrupted emperor who has BTFO'd gods

Let's just say there's a very good reasons the PCs are being told to take the sabotage-y, stab-in-the-kidneys-while-they're-asleep approach.

Celeritas the Bright Lord takes it with ease.

Unfortunately for everyone else.

Well, the demonic trickster god of selfishness hasn't really managed to fully manifest yet.
So, probably either the dragon who rules the Mayan dinosaur people, or the half-dragon sorceress who runs sky-France.

There's a lich who would definitely be in the running, but I'm not sure she counts as a faction just with her, a bunch of mummies dressed as butlers, and a couple of grad students. She has schemes, though. Are schemes enough to qualify you as a faction?

Queen of the fleshwarpers, hands down.

She turned herself into the capital city. She'd win against both the prime minister of the wizard democracy and the immortal warrior emperor of not-rome.

In threads like these, and "describe your party" or "describe your character" I can't ever tell whether people are shooting the shit or being serious with the kind of absolute garbage they write out. Reminder that these are the people cursing out Forgotten Realms, Tolkien, and GRRM and probably enjoy Moorcock.

>Everyone is stupid, everyone but ME!

Hard to say.

The Three would probably win if it was an all out duel and they agreed beforehand to work together. 10/10

Lich King - he has thousands of years of experience, magic, and he'd likely survive even if he loses.
9/10

The Ironbound Empress would do well I imagine but everyone else hates her and without her legions, she couldn't take on all three of The Three.
I'd give her a 8/10

Orc Lord - depends on how many orcs are around and how badly they think he can win.
7/10

Hierophant, Prince of Shadows - Both rely too much on the manipulation of others to be good in a straight up fight. Still they have loot from all over the dragon empire to turn up with. They'd bring the dakka, and if someone were to sneak in a win as the other big guys fight, it'd be one of these two.
6/10

Dwarf King, Elf Queen - Both strong contenders, but on their own away from their holds or forests they wouldn't last long.
6/10 each

High Druid - if it happens far enough away from the Empire, sure. Especially if she can charm a koru behemoth.
5/10, 9/10 in the wilds

The Reaper wouldn't do well. Most of his power is tied into keeping the seals in the Abyss from tearing open.
3/10, and that's with prep

The Diabolist is just a powerful warlock. And the armies of the abyss were depleted at the end of the last campaign so she'd get smushed.
1/10

His Glory, The First, Conquerer of Orthal, Belloc, Dorecheen, Kalmuren, and The Halfway Kingdoms, Duke of all the Roeidlands, Fire on the Water, Bearer of Haleen’s Seal, The Grey Eye, Emperor Upon the Ashen Throne, The True Immortal, His Majesty Darnic Valstrein Denehein the 1st, Glory be His Name.

>peasant rebellion leader
>oligarchic ruler of the Venice expy
>teenaged king of a weird mix of Poland/France
>shadowy sorcerer who may or may not the leader of the mages brotherhood
I'd say the latter normally, but the teen king has a familial resistance to magic and isn't a bad fighter on his own. Peasant leader is the first to go, the not!Doge goes next being around 60 years old, and it's a crapshoot between the shadowmaster and the young king.

The Black Pharaoh

The elf

Would probably be a tossup between the human Emperor and the Elven King.

Sathon. He's a fucking beast, or is now. Pulling that reveal on the players is one of the top 5 moments in my GMing career.

Published material is, and should be, held to a higher standard than whatever the average GM turns out just to have fun with his buddies.

The Emperor of the Roman Empire is weak (level 1) but is unable to die, so he could outlast the others.

>Human Queen who has generals do the fighting for her
>Elvish Queen who has generals do the fighting for her
>Human Emperor who's ancient and never was really skilled in martial in the first place
>Honorabru Orcish Shogun
>Glorious Orcish Dragon King minus Mandate of Heaven
>Korean Orcish King of Lots of tiny rockets
>Naga Caliph who's never fought in a real fight in his life and weighs 450 pounds
>Dwarvish King who's busy fighting Gobbos
>Gobbo Khan who's busy trying to fit horses into dorf holes
>Scheming vampire lord surrounded by mountains
>A shitload of Lizardmen chieftans
>Catfolk Raja high on Opium
>The Blackguard who convinced her court wizard to Lichify her and became Punchlich
>Trollish tribals figuring out how corn works, and where these weird long-ears came from
>The Pope
>The Doge
>Slinky Jewbold trying to reclaim his lost lands from the Naga, and his army of surprisingly badass Jewbolds
>Elvish King of Pirates, Slayer of Orcish Ninja, and his trusty ironclad

My money is on the Lich Bitch. Liches are super OP in this setting - that's why the church spends so much time hunting them down. Don't want the common folk to know there's a way to live forever, even if it's top-class heresy (and also fucking brutal).

Probably either the Noctesangue emperor who's trained all his life as a martial and formed his empire around warfare or a higher empire who managed to turn one of the last dragons into a necrotic shell of it's former self.

Pic related.

*higher vampire

Setting is a Changeling the Lost spy agency.
Each court is a department.
-Spring Queen is an aged veteran spy lady who basically runs the whole agency's day-to-day operations and could coordinate most of the forces.
-Summer King is an extremely hot-headed black ops commander.
-Autumn King is an almost 150 year old sickly looking man mechanic. Basically runs Department Q and is capable of animating all of the technology and weapons in his massive shop.
-The Monarch of Spring is a highly classified individual known only as Chill. The only thing that is known is that this person is highly effective and absolutely ruthless. Only bodies and terror remain in Chill's wake.

Chill would win.

Not-Germany post daemons
>Insane part-giant organless king in dwarvern runic steel.
>A giant knight who's armor is covered in his own skin. The ITCH is unbearable, so he constantly flings himself into combat to have the ITCH 'gone'.
>Megomaniac Degenerate knight who has a magical split-personality that makes him inflict as much terror as possible to spread itself. At Any Cost.
>a giant God of 'flies' that only wishes to consume. It flesh holds former-humans that are now giant mosquito fly things that ambush normal humans and carry them away.
>A diamond skulled skeleton who rides a giant underground skeleton lizard that has been converted into a walking tank through steel plating and cannons.
>A crystalized count who can't move and would normally really on his slowly crystallizing knights who are also losing their independent thought.
Counts
>The head-knight of the ancient religious knight order from Not-Germany, he leads a alliance who wish to take back the old cursed lands
>A few hundred barons and counts from balkanized kingdoms
>A slav who is a leader of the secret order of paladins known as Wardens.
>Knights of the Tear Master. Complete berserker who leads a band of blood thirsty warriors constantly fighting in the name of their long dead king.
Horde
>A giant immortal magical daemonic Minotaur who has conquered most the world who wants to destroy Not-Germany for limiting his blood sacrifices.
Misc.
>A celtic forest-spirit who only cares about fighting.
>The Grand albino Yeast-King. Wears 'rare' iron armor and has a chitin blade that can infest a user with rapid flesh-eating bacteria.
>A hundred barbarian shaman kings who praise the god of chaos!
>Xom! The god of chaos! Everything he does has no purpose due to his existence having no purpose! He might kill everyone, turn everyone's armor to jello, teleport everyone to the sci-fi past of the world that is long-long forgotten, or all three! He might not even have fun and leave.
I don't know who would win.

Wonderbeard easily.

Running an AD3VA campaign with a Nordic/Judaism twist.

>Guy in charge of not!NERV is just some >shmuck, albeit he has several Norse gods >contained as his personal weapons of war.

>anti!NERV leader is another coporate joe.
>Has a Jet Alone type mecha, but that's it.

>Odin in a weakened state, partially amputated
>Mindbolted and in the service of a 14 year old
>who doesn't know shit about him yet.
>Fully capable of shedding his restraints

>God, capital G.
>As in the bible/torah/koran
>In all his power and raw might

In a man to man fight?
Imma give it to God, though Odin might pierce his ribs with Gungnir, leading to a Golden Throne type scenario.

meanwhile Loki is probably off fucking a horse or some bullshit.

Damn, this is a legitimately hard question.

>Campaign is a "Humans are the only race" setting
>But there are a few legendary figures and unique non-humans in the mix.
>Of those, a few are actual faction leaders.

Without a doubt, it would be Tyranog, The World's End, who is said to "Devour worlds the way a man draws breath". But he's sort of cheating.

So if it were among everyone else... Maybe Maester Martin or Lord Bloodthorne.

>Maester Martin is an old scholar who oversees the keep of Highrock. He is widely respected as a fair and just leader who shows discretion and tactful poise. Despite his age, he is very skilled with sword and spell.

>Lord Bloodthorne oversees the citystate of Mankolle. He served for many years as a Knight of Garard's Circle until he bested Mankolle's previous ruler in a test of combative trial. He is clever and cruel, and secretly has the blood of beastmen in his ancestory.

talk shit post material

So in the current era of the campaign, there’s:
A talking meteor
A king from a bloodline cursed to die an early death
A very large cold corpse
Annubis stoned out of his mind
A retired talking tree
A troll that thinks he’s god
A purple worm dragon

So in a fight it would probably go something like this:
>Tree used to be a famous troll slayer, but he’s a tree so he won’t last long.
>Talking meteor mucks about in space and probably sends out some knights.
>The cold corpse doesn’t make it two steps outside the border of his kingdom because the dwarves keep throwing hissy-fits and ballistas from the moon.
>Troll flies around in his airship with a cannon that can level cities and blows up both the tree’s kingdom and the King’s kingdom
>Said king has a heart attack or something before this whole mess started because curse.
>Stoned Annubis triggers the McGuffin that does complicated magic stuff and seperates the entire planet into a demiplane of floating islands.
>Meteor can’t really fight anymore because demiplane. Probably gets eaten by a frost giant (they come from another galaxy).
>Purple worm dragon fights airship and could feasibly tear the thing in two, killing the troll.
>Stoned Annubis vs purple worm dragon depends on whether or not the McGuffin was activated, since stoned Annubis would then get more stoned and would basically trandscend to godhood over the demiplane.

But how can a dragon be a "Golden Emperor" if he's actually red?

The Angel of Wrath with the Angel of Pride coming close second

Let's see. The setting I'm brewing has various kings, generals, bandit leaders, mayors, as well as a plethora of gods and their churches, and a fair number of bullshit entities from outside reality. Oh and one random Slavic drifter.
Who do you think would win?

A vampire mage-lord who rules the world, vs a half-vampire with a cursed blade and his angel girlfriend.

I'm gonna give to the guy who could probably stand a chance in DBZ. Vampire lord wins in a 1v1, or in this case, a 1v2.

She is said to be worth 1000 trained soldiers

Is this Dominions reference?

Nice try, but nobody actually plays 13th Age.

My money is on the Dwarven King of Durak'el with +4 Full Plate Immune to Fire, Cold, and Lightning and nonmagical weapons with Resistance to Magical Weapons and a +3 Halberd that deals 1d10 bonus Fire Damage to all creatures save Demons and Devils and Undead which take 2d10 bonus Radiant Damage instead. He can also cast a blinding light from it that blinds for up to 3 rounds (20 Dex or Con save) once per day. His crown gives him resistance to both Necrotic and Radiant damage as well as Advantage on Saving Throws of any kind 3/day at will and he has Saving Throws in everything. He's 20 Fighter/10 Cleric, and an Avatar of Dumathoin who's pushing 500 years old and outlived both his son, his grandson, and his great grandson (who died in battle not old age).

What game is this? If it's DnD 5e, that's a bit overpowered.

I would have to discount the Necromancer my players work for and the distant Fey King. Between the two of them the Fey King would have curb-stomped the Necromancer until his recent power-up (the players delivered him the last living heir of his hated foe for a blood ritual juice up).

Among the more mortal rulers, the de-facto leader of the Rakasha Raj would probably come ahead in a man-to-man fight. That or the revered patron of the Isabella Clans who is basically a Scottish version of the Lady of the Lake.

I'm a sucker for the Dragon head-of-state trope. Only if shapeshifting into a human -isn't- a thing though.

Neat.

One of the largest tragedies of Dragon fiction is making dragons that can cast spells and dragons that "shape shift" into a human form. Remember D&D nerds, less is more!

In a straight up brawl?

Probably the fae queens, Night and Day. They kind of cheat because, besides being atrociously powerful in raw magical capability, they're sharing two halves of a single consciousness which means they get to team up. Normally they're occupied running their kingdom and looking after their people so they haven't actually been on the battlefield themselves in a long, long time, but without the lesser fae to keep them busy there isn't much to stop them dropping a star on your face.

If we consider armies in the equations things get kind of weird, though.

The person who gets the largest raw boost from having his army around is Artulen the Eastern King. On his own he's sort of a small fry, being a mostly normal human at peak physical ability with all their stats multiplied by 5. The trick is that he gains from and shares his physical strength with the men under his command. This means that if he's leading an army of a thousand strong, he is effectively 1,005 men condensed into one individual and each of his soldiers will be worth 6. At the head of an army he effectively becomes a minor god and would likely obliterate anyone dumb enough to match him head on.

Admari the Younger doesn't really get a boost to his raw power, being a twelve foot tall metal avatar of war and plasma breath, but he does get a pretty huge boost to his utility. He heads a massive merc outfit called the Eternals and they field just about any specialist under the sun. Thirty foot stone golems who are almost-earth benders, minotaur, flying races who can manipulate the weather, some of the strongest battle mages in the world, and more. Admari also a Tactical Genius and has access to a fair bit of divining magic to help apply his forces practically. He couldn't take any of the factions in a pitched battle, but the Eternals are all battle hardened veterans and they have a suite of tactics for harassing and shaving down opponents bigger than themselves
(cont.)

That's the point.
(Also he's gonna die at some point in the campaign)

probably the Arbiter A.I. given that its body is one of the most advanced warships in existence

kinda hard to kill one of those by yourself

Zenith the Lost would be dangerous, but not make it very far in an engagement with the really competent factions. He can pull souls out of the underworld to fight for him and has a commanding grasp of death magic which gives him a lot of raw potential but he's got no head for tactics. His battle plans revolve around
>throw demons at it
>blast with death
>repeat

Locus the Eclectic is a pretty minor leader in her own right, heading up a mostly irrelevant faction of lizardmen on the far western edge of the world. Though she doesn't really have any retainers to call on, she does specialize in making golems. Very large golems. If you gave her enough time she could get the Rocky Mountains to stand up and march.

The winner is still probably the fae queens though. Day has it in good with the nature spirits and Night's got a deal going on with the mountains. Unless you're sitting in the middle of the ocean or a barren tundra the plants are going to be uprooting themselves to strangle you and the boulders are going to try and roll over and crush you if you happen to walk next to them.

If you take the fae out of the equation it's probably Admari or Artulen, depending on how well they apply their forces. Admari would have to take an extended guerrilla campaign, shaving numbers off of Artulon's army until the king was weak enough for Admari to walk in and finish the job himself. Zenith is too much of a dumbass to keep himself from getting assassinated and Locus doesn't really have the resources to protect herself early in the engagement.

Related: youtube.com/watch?v=t348e24vDyA

I've slowly stopped giving a shit about the opinions of people who aren't my players when it comes to my RPG material because of the exact reason you cited.
People like the stuff they like, and anything I painstakingly build to be SUPUR PERFUCT is gonna get shit on by someone for whatever reason. So I just make the stuff I like and my players like and stopped caring.

George Kamitani is a hero.

>Neutral location
The Archmage in charge of fantasy not!UN/Adventurer Guilds
>Near not!CIA headquarters
Fantasy not!CIA Head (yes, alone, without help of his subordinates)

depends on what you count as a faction leader

if we count in leaders of minor factions then I'd say Grom Gil Gorm, insert 15 titles here (yes the one from the Shattered Sea series) due to being the best warrior in the setting and the whole can be killed by no man bullshit

if not then it depends

High King Damur is the best warrior out of all of them

Queen Magna has a dragon and a magic spear

Velaron the Ascendant is basically the avatar of a blood god

the rest are mostly just politicians or just aren't that good in a fight

I'd bet on Velaron but Damur would give him a run for his money, Magna is a 50/50 thing depending on how the dragon behaves

I like you

The as-yet unnamed Mind Flayer who rules the space Mind Flayer army that's at war with the Beholders, and who made an army of Kaiju to fight them, one of which got hijacked by Orcus to wreak havoc.

my setting takes place in hell led by the seven princes, so probably satan since he reigns over wrath.

At this point? Probably one of the major Gods, like Napyxayt or Unstar. But equivalent of not Darkseid would be sneaky about us.
Out of leaders of galactic federations and republics, probably either The Monarch or high Lord RaVelis in his planetary suit.
On earth probably sacred seven because of their psychic bullshit or Archdragoon, who is a defacto leader of loosely connected wizard covens.

>Queen of the fleshwarpers
>turned herself into the capital city
I'm intrigued is this like a normal city or is it organic and meaty?

>Elven Empress of a Magocracy and her human Eldritch Knight husband
>Half-elf Sister Queens of the Day and Night blessed by Sarenrae and the Raven Queen themselves
>Hedonistic Orcish Warrior Princess who death forgot
>Dwarven Hollywood producer
>Not!Frieza as an Elf
>The Drow answer to Teddy Roosevelt with a penchant for Padme gambits

Man it's a real toss up. I'm half tempted to go with the Drow High Priestess for her own memetic badassery and also being the person who invented guns in the setting, though the Sister Queens did basically fight off the embodiment of nihilistic entropy possessing an arch fey to earn their throne.

the True Ending is Princess Crushbone seducing them all and everyone wins

Technically, the Dragon Queen, but she would never fight because she's a lazy thing that prefers sunbathing and being admired to doing anything physical.

Barring HER MAJESTY, THE AZURE MISTRESS, HERALDESS OF THE NORTHERN WINDS, I suppose the winner would be Lord Ajax, Jarl of Krieg. He's not a particularly good fighter, more of a fat sheriff than anything, but his symbol of office, The Axe of Krieg, is a far more powerful weapon than anyone, even he, realizes.

So it hangs above his head upon the royal crest in his throne room, only brought out for ceremony, and this fight.

You mean the Dominions video games? Nah, just got carried away. Incidentally, if you don’t mind a question of my own, do those games have their own setting?

>do those games have their own setting
IIRC one of the dev said the setting is loosely based on Earthdawn campaign his brother was running long time ago but developed into its own thing. Earthdawn is kinda Shadowrun prequel set thousand years before modern times when the magic was still common and magical races existed. Horrors are one of the direct influences from Earthdawn.

Well, one of the biggest "factions" in my setting are the Draconic Freeholds - basically a number of powerful, ancient dragons, somewhat independently of each other but also acting in reaction to what seemed like a good idea, have carved out small domains for themselves, basically large city-states. The largest is roughly the size of Luxembourg, more typically they're the size of Andorra or San Marino or Monaco. Some of them rule their nations like strongman despots; others have actually proven to be pretty competent and able rulers.

So basically it'll probably come down to a three-way brawl between Alsharan the Red, Eshanna the Brass, or Nebitsaba the Silver.

My bet's on the big red.

Did you draw this? Any tips for getting into this style of art?

Interesting. Will have to look into that then. Thanks!

Demon-Fairy Prince of the Australian Hell Moon obviously