One of my players is considering a character background which involves having been the victim of a body thief - a being who jumps from body to body, "pushing" the new body's original consciousness into the body thief's previously occupied body. I could just handwave the idea as it's a background element, but what if I do want to use it? What I'm wondering is: what, if any, rules are there which could describe the process?
My first thought was the Magic Jar spell, but that's a rather complicated "shell game" and involves two high-level casters and a certain degree of willingness on both parts.
Is there anything in the psionics rules which could assist in describing the process? I know next to nothing about that part of the game, but psionics sounds like it would the likely place to look for something like that (and it lets me move away from the spellcaster requirement).
Apparently some one else has been reading the Cleric Quintet...
Maybe just simple possession?
An outsider (demon, devil, angel, whatever) or a ghost.
You could also have the person (jumper) know a unique spell or be under a unique curse.
Apparently some one else has been reading the Cleric Quintet...Or Anne Rice's "Tale of the Body Thief"...
But it specifically happens in DnD in the Cleric Quintet. You know, so there.
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One of my players is considering a character background which involves having been the victim of a body thief - a being who jumps from body to body, "pushing" the new body's original consciousness into the body thief's previously occupied body. I could just handwave the idea as it's a background element, but what if I do want to use it? What I'm wondering is: what, if any, rules are there which could describe the process?
My first thought was the Magic Jar spell, but that's a rather complicated "shell game" and involves two high-level casters and a certain degree of willingness on both parts.
Is there anything in the psionics rules which could assist in describing the process? I know next to nothing about that part of the game, but psionics sounds like it would the likely place to look for something like that (and it lets me move away from the spellcaster requirement).
I think it was the osirion companion, but there was a canopic jar magic item that might enable a body theif to work with a magic jar spell. If not, it could be the basis for a magic item that would allow your idea to work within game mechanics.
There is Mind Switch and Mind Switch, True, but they are 7th level and 9th level powers respectively. (See the SRD for more info on each.)
If I remember correctly, there is at least one feat in SKR's Ghostwalk to allow ghost PCs to temporarily possess another, but it's only temporarily and not a swap. Also, I seem to remember an evil artifact in Book of Vile Darkness that had body-swapping as a power.
In 3.x & Pathfinder, I'm not sure you'll find anything for low- to mid-level characters that'll replicate a true body swap ability (my guess is to prevent players from rolling up a physically weak, but high mental stats PC who swaps into a physically strong lunkhead).
It's not D&D, but you might look at Eclipse Phase. It's sci-fi, but it treats PC mental and physical stats separately, and it's normal for PCs to upload themselves ("re-sleeve") into other bodies. It would take some work to convert to 3.x/Pathfinder, but the core book is Creative Commons licensed, so you can download it for free (and later buy the PDF or HC if you like it enough).
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Does the player want any benefit from this background? There are certainly some drawbacks, particularly if the body's orginal occupant made enemies.
I might recommend something like a botched reincarnate spell, or perhaps a displaced ancestor / descendent using some godlike device to travelup or down his lineage.
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Ravenloft has the Apparatus.
Else there's Mind Switch and True Mind Switch like previously posted.
If you really want to frak with the player's mind, his character could be a mind seed (implanted personality that takes over the original) so he *thinks* he's been mind switched but in reality he's a seed who the original hit with modify memory. :-)
The best place to go for inspired body thievery is Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates.
Indeed. I was about to say that, but Vattnisse beat me to it. During my early teens, The Anubis Gates inspired me to run an adventure where the bad guy switches bodies with a PC.
Thank you, everyone, for all your suggestions! While no perfect solution has been presented, there certainly are enough ideas to get me started. :)
Some further background: the PC in question is not intended to gain any benefit from the situation (this having happened over a year before play has begun), and the body thief has been doing this for a long time (its original body is long gone, and the PC's own body may indeed be the same).
For more body thief ideas you might want to pick up a copy of
You might also look at the Khymer from Races of Obsidian Twilight. You can get a free preview of the Khymer here.
Bear in mind that just because something requires a high level spell, that doesn't mean it requires a high level caster to be behind it.
Perhaps sometime in the past a very powerful wizard/sorcer/etc. created an item to allow someone to do exactly that. Remember that magic items do not have to exactly match the effects of the spell they were based off of. Later on this item fell into the hands of the idividual who screwed over that PC. The NPC in possession of it could be a thief who stole it, merchant who bought it, random schmo saw it fall out a window and picked it up, whatever you want.
This has the advantage that you can work the hook into your story later. Maybe the players wants to track the guy down and get revenge. Maybe a rash of the same thing starts happening in a city the characters are in and he remembers important clues from his experience. Maybe the wizard who made it is tracking down people who had it used on them and enlisting their aid to capture the theif. Maybe another wizards wants to research the effects to make his own and is going to enlist the PC's help, willing or otherwise.
Just say that it is an item based on one of the spells mentioned in this thread. Then say the player doesn't know any other details. Work the rest of it in when you are ready and have a good idea of what you want it to do.
Now that I remember it... if you are allowed monster PCs, maybe your body thief could be a Puppeteer (the regular, non-Harrower version). But he/she/it would be really weak physically without a host.