Horrifying punishments in pathfinder (mainly executions)

[ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester]

Pathfinder is a game with dark aspects and elements. dark subject matter like torture, crime, death and other subject matter that is quite uncomfortable to think and talk about, are potentially able to be used. So, in the vein of dark fantasy law and order, i was wondering what kind of Non-standard (i.e not the usual hanging, beheading or burning that has been done before). Points for being especially creative and/or terrifying. but please...lets not have rape be an element of these executions. its disturbing enough as it is without the added trauma.

okay. to start this going...

1. The LAST THRONE OF THE MONARCH: an execution reserved for the nobility. the victim is locked into a chair of metal by both the hands and feet. the chair is then hooked onto a crane and submerged slowly into a Vat of molten gold, heated to white hot temperatures. once the monarch is completely submerged in the liquid gold, a sorcerer flash freezes the victim in the liquid gold, freezing them solid and then the chair and the victim is drawn out of the vat, a golden statue of their last moments of agony before their death.

[KestrelZ]

Forcible polymorph or mind control magics give very creative, and horrific punishments as well.

I would be careful on this line of thought as all cruel punishments are traumatic, by definition. It can create very interesting debate on the nature of crime, punishment, and rehabilitation. For example, is it ethical to force a helmet of opposite alignment on a criminal?

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

There's a thread around her about creative use of curses. Start there.

[Kolokotroni]

I think you could pretty dark with combining healing magic and torture. Or even more significant healing like regeneration. You really could have a bird of prey eat someone's liver over and over again.

[BigNorseWolf]

Dominate person. force them to kill their loved ones.

Ring of sustenance. Ring of regeneration. Put them in a sarcophagi.

Turn them into a ghast.. in a room with their loved ones.

Repeated uses of illusions to screw with someone's sense of reality.

[ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester]

Being forced into A Bag of digestion,

Being locked inside a slime filled bottomless box or Oubliette.

Ritual sacrifice can also be pretty nasty, especially if done by evil cults like Lamashtu.

[ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester]

For a Vampire, Being Buried alive in a locked Iron Maiden, with a small amount of blood being given before entering. the key element is that they will be starved to near death, but never allowed to die of starvation. They go Mad in there.

Beheading and then being preserved and reanimated in a jar, with the lips stitched up and the tongue cut out. Your existence is condemned to being a head in a jar for all time.

[ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester]

Being locked into a forced reincarnation loop. The idea of being alive, killed, brought back and killed again, and so on and so on, for all time.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester wrote:

For a Vampire, Being Buried alive in a locked Iron Maiden, with a small amount of blood being given before entering. the key element is that they will be starved to near death, but never allowed to die of starvation. They go Mad in there.

Beheading and then being preserved and reanimated in a jar, with the lips stitched up and the tongue cut out. Your existence is condemned to being a head in a jar for all time.

In pathfinder vampires dont actually need blood. They just crave it. "Good" idea though.

[Thefuzzy1]

Even without the magic infused world of golarian there are plenty of real world tortures. One that stands out for me is a set of two metal bowls placed bottom to bottom one open end down over the mid section of the condemned holding several rats and in the other a small fire is lit,to escape the heat the rats will claw their way out through the victim. Add to this any number of awful magics like healing or regeneration to prolong the suffering or simple spells like phantasmal killer that literally scare you to death. Illusions and mind control, soul traps and necromancy a better question is how the world is not even more messed up with magic where most high level mages have ptsd from what they have seen/done to or by monsters (most sentient) in the pursuit of gp. For high magic torment I would go with permanent sustenance and regeneration and create a demi plane with no time and a square foot of "space" normal gravity. leave your undying victim standing upright with no sensory input or ability to move from now till rovagug consumes all.

[JLBorges]

I find fleshwarping to be pretty horrific. One really memorable moment from last year involved being captured and enslaved by Drow and watching as a favorite NPC friend was fleshwarpped into an Irnakurse over the weeks while were plotting our escape. Rescue wasn't an option; she's still down there.

[Umbral Reaver]

Turn someone into a free-willed undead then pour concrete over them.

[Nargemn]

In the first book of Legacy of Fire, a prisoner of the gnolls is tortured and killed while the PCs watch on. I went into detail, and had a gnoll cleric in attendance. The torturer would rip out the prisoner's innards with hot pokers and then the cleric would shove them back in and heal him before he died. This went on for several minutes.

[Ipslore the Red]

ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester wrote:

Being locked into a forced reincarnation loop. The idea of being alive, killed, brought back and killed again, and so on and so on, for all time.

Resurrection requires the soul to be willing. Only a grand hex can forcibly reincarnate someone, and that's, what, a capstone for one class?

[Malag]

Cutting of finger or toe could be pretty gruesome and yet it can be served for burglary type offenses without actual mechanical penalty. It might not be execution type punishment, but it's good thought for general justice system.

Adam

[DungeonmasterCal]

I used a guillotine like device that instead of using a blade a huge iron fist that crushed their skulls into pulp. They were place on it face up so they could see it coming down on them.

[The Shifty Mongoose]

I had an evil witch who is disgusted at the way she sees human men talk about elven women. She has a custom Bestow Curse the GM has approved in case men try to make crude advances at her:

She curses them with impotence, to be lifted upon True Love's Kiss. Either the offensive people learn to live in a mutually stable relationship, or, more likely, it'll never happen and they'll see it as the most terrifying curse imaginable.

[Arcanemuses]

A practical execution seems best. Evocation mages need targets to practice on.

[SmiloDan]

Steven Brust's Draegaran (sp?) series has a capital punishment called "starring" or the imperial star. I have no idea what it is, but I imagine it might involve being strapped to a star-shaped frame or block and having your limbs lopped off before being beheaded, but I'm totally guessing.

[Mark Hoover]

I always found crushing and drowning pretty dark in real life. Also torture traps like you find in the Saw movie series. Sure, you're a level 6 fighter but if you're beaten, weakened by magic and loss of items, then chained in place with a box of rats around your head, there's not really much you can do except scream.

Just take some of your favorite tortures from the real world and Pathfinderize them. One of my own was a group of inquisitors that used curses on the witches they hunted, in conjunction with the Brand cantrip. Essentially they'd brand a victim as part of the curse and then release them. This was usually reserved for suspects who hadn't actually committed any acts of witchcraft...yet.

Anyway any time the victim then cast a spell, was in the presence of one of the inquisitors or just simply went near these obelisks the inquisitors had throughout the land they'd suffer 1 point of non-lethal damage from the burning ache of the brand. Unless they found a way to cure the curse they couldn't protect themselves; the victims were just simply ALWAYS on the verge of debilitating pain.

[Rynjin]

There's one canon one that's pretty bad.

Punishment of Seven Angry Suns:

This is the punishment meted out by the child-god Walkena, ruler of the city of Mzali in the Mwangi Expanse, to those who offend him.

The punishment lasts for seven days, and when each day dawns the citizens of Mzali decide what the next punishment will be. However, the seventh punishment is always imposed last. The authorities in Mzali declare that no one has ever survived or escaped this punishment, but some people claim to have done so.[1]

First Punishment – left floating face-up in the swamp
Second Punishment – tied to an aurochs and dragged through the bush
Third Punishment – stripped naked, and stung by a dozen angry scorpions
Fourth Punishment – force-fed hallucinogens, then flung into an obsidian-lined pit
Fifth Punishment – sharpened reeds are threaded beneath the skin
Sixth Punishment – packed into a pit of salt
Seventh and Final Punishment – staked out in the desert and left to die of exposure

I think repeated castings of Greater Contagion is a good one. Pump the guy full of every disease possible and watch them rip the victim apart over a matter of days.

[Wolf Munroe]

Tiny Coffee Golem wrote:

ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester wrote:

For a Vampire, Being Buried alive in a locked Iron Maiden, with a small amount of blood being given before entering. the key element is that they will be starved to near death, but never allowed to die of starvation. They go Mad in there.

Beheading and then being preserved and reanimated in a jar, with the lips stitched up and the tongue cut out. Your existence is condemned to being a head in a jar for all time.

In pathfinder vampires dont actually need blood. They just crave it. "Good" idea though.

Golarion-specific vampire madness from lack of feeding:

Pathfinder Chronicles: Classic Horrors Revisited (specific to Pathfinder's Golarion setting) does say vampires go mad if they go too long without drinking blood. It actually suggests they feed very often because of that.

Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Night (also specific to Golarion) has optional undead starvation rules that are a bit more forgiving than what is originally suggested in Classic Horrors Revisited. They're written with a focus on vampires but can be used for other kinds of undead as well.

The two books do conflict regarding ghouls though. Classic Horrors Revisited says ghouls prefer the flesh they eat well-aged. Blood of the Night hunger rules say, for undead that eat flesh, the flesh has to be so fresh to qualify. I prefer that ghouls favor aged flesh in my game, so ignore the freshness aspect of the hunger rules for them.

As for torture to terrify someone? Put two people in a pillory, or otherwise restrained in an area haunted by a possession monster. In our campaign it was a vilkacis, a rage-filled werewolf spirit that possesses people to spread lycanthropy. The spirit will probably possess one of the two people. In our case the vilkacis tries to possess the strongest one first. If it succeeds, the other person is locked inches from a murderous possessed creature. That creature could escape and kill them, or it might try to attack them from its restraints while the possession lasts.

The experience is terrifying for both people, because either of them could potentially be possessed and kill the other with no control, or be killed by the other if that one is possessed. Or not killed, but have it be a risk for the duration of the possession.

[Silent Saturn]

How about punishing somebody by making it known to all other citizens that crimes committed against this person, and ONLY this person, are legal?

At this point, the exact nature of the punishment depends on how loyal his loved ones are and how bad public opinion of him is, with the occasional outlier of a law-abiding citizen with a sadistic streak.

[Turin the Mad]

From the Princess Bride, "the Pain" is eminently suitable.

Having ones limbs eaten by green slime.

Breaking on the wheel.

Impalement.

Being drawn and quartered.

Broken on the rack, then drawn and quartered.

Stoning.

For higher level sorts that aren't immortal, locked into an anti-magic field chamber lined with sheets of lead on all three axis.

For more unkillable types without access to higher level magic on the part of the executing authority, dipping the condemned in molten lead for 2 or 3 rounds (as per lava). The remains are hoisted out, left to harden, then dropped over the deepest body of water known to the kingdom. Plenty of big bads can take the damage ... but they can't take what equates to total sensory deprivation save for pain.

If you're really mean and have a capable enough cleric with access to the right Focus fork, plane shift them afterwards to the Positive Energy Plane.

[Legowaffles]

Enjoy my friends, enjoy:

Suggestion 1 (leaves the target alive, if you can call it that):

Well. We need knives, tongs, fire, branding tools, salt, nails, stitching supplies, and target to enjoy our utmost attention. Healing spells not required, merely beneficial (to make sure the target isn't accidentally killed during the process).

First, start with the targets hand. Either one, flay the skin from it. Cover it in salt, then cover the salt covered hand in bandages (don't want the salt getting away). Make sure to nail the bandages to the hand for extra certainty! Do the same to the other hand. Then sew their lower arms together.

Stick the tongs in the fire awhile to heat them up, then have your minion hold open the target's mouth so you can grab their tong with the extremely hot tongs. Stick a few nails through the poor fools tongue. Then, stick the tongue (with nails through it) into the idiots mouth, and have it sewn shut.

Heat up a knife, then stick it into the targets eyes. Carefully, you don't want to accidentally kill the target of your irritation! Then, sew their eyes shut.

Make sure the target is stripped (if they weren't already, you've clearly been doing something wrong), then nail their knees together, and stitch the target's lower legs and feet together.

Finish the preparation stage by using a burning brand on their chest and back. We want the fools allies to learn a lesson.

Finally set this abomination loose into society. The ultimate torture from this process is the reaction of everyone that sees the subject.

For security purposes, if you have access to magics beyond simple healing, I suggest using said magics to make interesting things happen when you try to help this fool. For example, removing a nail could result in a chain lightning spell. Perhaps removing the bandages on a hand results in a bestow curse, removing the other results in contagion. Perhaps the bandages themselves, have explosive runes facing inwards. Thunderstones in the sealed eye sockets?

Suggestion 2 (Ends in insanity or death; Requires, generous DM):

Requirements: Healing Spells. A big brute capable of reliably cleaving through limbs. Minions capable of holding the target receiving the pleasure of your company. Works off the idea that you could restore a hand to an arm it's been cut off of by putting the hand (or other body part, obviously, this doesn't work for the head) to the arm's stump and casting a cure spell within a minute of casting. NOTE: That is not so far as I am aware, rules legal. Hence it requires GM approval.

Quite simple really. Have the minions stick the targets leg or whatever, out on a chair in front of them. Leave the knee over air. Have the brute cut through the leg at the knee. It's simply swinging down, brutes may lack brain power, but they can at least swing an axe down. Quickly put the leg back to the stump, and heal it. Repeat.

Variation for dealing with Paladins and other goody too shoe types: Make them watch as you do it to their friends, family, allies, and other loved ones. Bonus points if you can make them fall all the way to Antipaladin status by driving them mad like this.

Suggestion 3 (Ends in (probably multiple) Death(s)):

My personal favorite. I have yet to get to do it sadly.

Requires: Mind Switch or True Mind Switch. For best results, pair with the Body Snatcher Prestige Class

For this, you determine who the target of your displeasure cares and trusts for most. Sadly, if it's a cold hearted person this method is probably not appropriate. Mind switch the target's loved one. Use said target to kill the person you dislike horribly.

Did the Baron really irritate you? Does he have a pretty young wife? Are the two deeply in love? Mind Switch the wife my friends! When the wife (you) and the Baron go to bed, give the Baron a taste of your affections: A poisoned dagger, straight through the heart. Hope your DM uses the Unchained Poison and Disease rules! Bonus Points for additional mind screwing: end the Mind Switch just as the wifes hands are covered in the Baron's blood, holding the dagger that has gone through his heart, and the light in the Baron's eyes going out, with the most exquisite, look of betrayal upon his face.

Obviously, the previously mentioned is merely an example. For best results, the Body Snatcher prestige class grants additional power to the Mind Switch spells that would be useful. Access to the targets memories for instance. The ability to force the subject to make a second will save or be dazed for as long as it remains in your body is a definitely good one.

Suggestion 4 (Ends in (probably multiple) Death(s)):

For this, you want something like Control Body. The idea is to control the target's body, but not their mind. Force them (or rather, their body) to kill their friends, family, and other loved ones.

We need something like Control Body as we want the target to be entirely aware of what is happening, and realize they are utterly powerless to save themselves and their friends and family. Either leave the target alive at the end (probably as a broken shell of their former selves) or kill them.

I'm sure I could come up with other fun things decent and upstanding individuals such as the PCs and NPCs that would do the things outlined in this post could do.

[ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester]

This one is based on pandora hearts.

The mark of emptyness- a seal that is used to bind a fragment or creature of another dimension (called the endless empty) to a mortal host. The problem is the endless empty is an incredibly dangerous realm and the only way to escape is to accept a part of the empty into your soul. The downside to this is that it's in effect borrowed time. The mark becomes a clock that counts down the time left for the host. If it expires, the host is dragged into the empty and is trapped there. Forever.

Being dragged to hell by a demon is another horrible execution possibility. And there are a vast number of ways that you could do this, with forced contracts, marks of sacrifice and exile, or even just summoning a deamon to drag the victim into hell. Hell is not a fun place... Unless you are a level 30 badass that literally can walk to hell and back.

[Mark Hoover]

There is a difference between pain and punishment versus outright torture. If you're just looking to execute someone in your games in a gruesome way, that's just a matter of picking a method that inflicts damage interestingly and describing it.

Horror or torture requires a little bit of humanity.

Take a human fighter 5 that has cheesed off the BBEG. Said BBEG has captured the fighter and is going to execute him. If they just want to be gross they gouge out the guy's eyes, drive spikes through his jawbones and then hang him by the spikes until death.

If however the BBEG wants an element of horror make sure the BBEG is there, talking to the fighter. Give the fighter choices; loose a foot in crippling agony or submit to a spell of Dominate for a day; die today or spare your life by providing the name of an innocent to slay in your stead.

Also remember that cruelty and torture often involve helplessness. Your 5th level fighter can romp on a couple ogres with all his gear on. Strip him down to bare fists in the presence of a couple ogres while, just beyond a metal gate their sister is being slowly tortured to death. The fighter is suffering wounds but more than likely will be able to take out one of the ogres; if the dice go his way he can take out both. Then however he's still gotta get through the gate... only to find that the image is being projected there by a scrying device from something that happened 10 minutes earlier.

THAT'S horror. Its not JUST gore for the sake of gore. Its being helpless in the face of a threat or thinking you've overcome the threat just to be proven terribly wrong.

[Lady Kamari Ipeq]

How about this, for places that are not too evil.

There is only one penalty for everything: Death.

The catch is, for lesser crimes the death is probabilistic. If you get caught doing minor theft, you are actually sentenced to 1% chance of death.

So you are brought out to the place of execution, and a wheel is spun, and there is 99/100 chance you are let go.

For some more serious crimes, the chance is 99/100 you will be executed.

You can ask for that chance to be decreased to 49/100 - if you are willing to be broken on the wheel rather than, say, beheaded, should you end up being executed anyway.

Thoughts?

[Lakesidefantasy]

The victim is petrified, his flesh turned to stone, then smashed and the broken pieces scattered in the desert.

[Mystic_Snowfang]

lock then in a room with nothing but a gnome that has begun the bleaching.

use baelful polymorph to turn them into an animal that is meant to be eaten. Then kill them and use trap the soul. Set the soul into a soulbound shell, but use something to dominate it. Then have then butcher their carcase and feed it to the people that they care about the most. THEN tell the people about it AFTER the meal.

[Goth Guru]

There is a topic where the condemned are sent through a killer dungeon. If they survive, they go free. My suggestion for a room was the march of the fire ants. To cross the room you have to go single file to stay clear of the permanent walls of fire.

The last one to leave the room is rewarded with a five dose bottle of healing potion.

If someone claims to be framed all the time, give them the devil fruit test. First you send them to an island prison. Then you give them one of a batch of devil fruit to eat. Devil fruit gives you a mutation, and a permanent zero swim skill. Sea water cancels their powers till they dry off. After they serve a year as a loyal guard, they can be deployed elsewhere, with a new identity. Note that many nobles and government officers will have now used fruit from the same batch. That's unless the fruit made you really monsterous, like a rat man, or a roachman. A squidman who can't swim is pretty lame.

[DungeonmasterCal]

Arcanemuses wrote:

A practical execution seems best. Evocation mages need targets to practice on.

I was once called cruel and inhumane because I had a mage that killed squirrels and rabbits for dinner on adventures using Magic Missile.

[The Indescribable]

Zero percent hit chance. I'd just say thanks for the meat and start cooking.

[Rynjin]

DungeonmasterCal wrote:

Arcanemuses wrote:

A practical execution seems best. Evocation mages need targets to practice on.

I was once called cruel and inhumane because I had a mage that killed squirrels and rabbits for dinner on adventures using Magic Missile.

...Wot?

That doesn't make any sense at all.

[DungeonmasterCal]

Rynjin wrote:

DungeonmasterCal wrote:

I was once called cruel and inhumane because I had a mage that killed squirrels and rabbits for dinner on adventures using Magic Missile.

...Wot?

That doesn't make any sense at all.

The guy was on a vegan kick and killing anything but bad guys was evil. Then we busted him out stuffing his face one night at Taco Bell.

[Alexander S. Modeus]

Here's an expensive one that I just heard: Throw someone into a vat of clw potions. Watch as they continuously are under the effects of drowning, while never truly dying. Repeat until the vat is empty. You might be there a while.

[The Indescribable]

I'd have to run the math but I doubt the clw would keep up with drowning damage.

[Turin the Mad]

drowning damage once your lungs run empty ... yeah, that'd be a bit hard to stop with a pixie stick of cure light wounds. ;)

[Zhangar]

Ecorche + reliable access to regenerate + polymorph any object = mink fur coat with a single "mink" donor?

(I had an evil witch who was doing that to captive kitsunes, actually. So no need for polymorph any object. Purveyor of the best fur coats and accessories in Irrisen!)

[BigNorseWolf]

Not deadly, but there's always the punishment fitting the crime.

Baleful polymorph for poachers.

Sex changing girdle for certain crimes.

[Turin the Mad]

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Not deadly, but there's always the punishment fitting the crime.

Baleful polymorph for poachers.

Sex changing girdle for certain crimes.

The latter being especially entertaining when it's been "built" with a seriously juicy save DC. Then the guards shove the knucklehead into general population. A rather lonely, bored, tired of looking at bearded faces and hairy torsos kind of lonely... ;)

[The Indescribable]

Turin the Mad wrote:

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Not deadly, but there's always the punishment fitting the crime.

Baleful polymorph for poachers.

Sex changing girdle for certain crimes.

The latter being especially entertaining when it's been "built" with a seriously juicy save DC. Then the guards shove the knucklehead into general population. A rather lonely, bored, tired of looking at bearded faces and hairy torsos kind of lonely... ;)

I was thinking more along the lines of a pillory.

[Goth Guru]

A hag might curse an adventurer to always reincarnate as an orc.

[The Indescribable]

Goth Guru wrote:

A hag might curse an adventurer to always reincarnate as an orc.

Or a reincarnation that screws up their class.

[Claxon]

For a truly dark and disturbing punishment (this might garner some harsh reaction so faint of heart or squeamish don't peek)...

Spoiler:

While this specific torture would probably work only for straight male characters...being force fed the elixir of sex shift and being raped would probably be something that most of as men who feel in control would probably absolutely abhor.

Hopefully those who read that are terribly offended, but it was the most horrible thing I could come up with.

[The White Lion]

Force someone to wait in the DMV for an eternity

[The Indescribable]

Claxon wrote:

For a truly dark and disturbing punishment (this might garner some harsh reaction so faint of heart or squeamish don't peek)...

** spoiler omitted **

Hopefully those who read that are terribly offended, but it was the most horrible thing I could come up with.

Already insinuated.

[The White Lion]

Vogon Poetry

2 points to whoever gets the reference.
(Yes, it is lethal)

[The Indescribable]

The White Lion wrote:

Vogon Poetry

2 points to whoever gets the reference.
(Yes, it is lethal)

Goodbye and thanks for the fish.

[Innocent Bystander]

The Indescribable wrote:

Turin the Mad wrote:

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Not deadly, but there's always the punishment fitting the crime.

Baleful polymorph for poachers.

Sex changing girdle for certain crimes.

The latter being especially entertaining when it's been "built" with a seriously juicy save DC. Then the guards shove the knucklehead into general population. A rather lonely, bored, tired of looking at bearded faces and hairy torsos kind of lonely... ;)

I was thinking more along the lines of a pillory.

I'm... not sure that any punishment for a crime should then engender more of the same crime, no matter if it is committed on someone who perpetrated that same crime. I mean, I can see this in a villain, but not in a legitimate government.

On the topic of horrible executions, a several-hundred foot drop can be pretty terrible, since they can see it coming. You just have to make sure that there's no way they can get access to Feather Fall.