I am currently in the process of developing an ancient, primal force in my woodland adventure. My intent is to surprise my players with a moment where their elven escorts, and perhaps their characters, are suddenly possessed by an ancient, ambivalent force.
My question is, has there been any rule printed in a Pathfinder text, or any 3.5 text, so far that has addressed character possession? I know it's more than likely just a contested Will Check, but I want to make sure that I'm covered in case others have had better ideas for approaching such a thing.
Thanks!
Not really sure about the existence of specific rules, but the spell Dominate Person would be an excellent place to start.
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sometimes story trumps rules.
In this case for the story, you want the characters to be possessed.
Have the characters make Will saves.
This is not to fight off the possession but to see who fights it off first.
The player with the highest roll is able to cut the possession short a round or two (assuming that doesn't hurt the story) with the next highest roller coming out of it the next round.
Paizo used this same technique in Serpent's Skull.
BTW Like your avatar...
My question is, has there been any rule printed in a Pathfinder text, or any 3.5 text, so far that has addressed character possession? I know it's more than likely just a contested Will Check, but I want to make sure that I'm covered in case others have had better ideas for approaching such a thing.
You can look at the spell magic jar. That is how possesion by ghosts workds. Basically it is a will save to avoid being possessed.
If there is a risk of possession more than just once in your game, you can set the DC based how strong the ancient, primal force is a the given location.Other than that, I like Krome's suggestion, if it is a story-device rather than an encounter-obstacle, you might just let the possession take who ever rolled low on a will save.
I liked the possession rules covered in the 3.5 Eberron campaign setting. Afraid I don't recall the book it was in, nor do I know if it was any different than Book of Vile Darkness.
In the Council of Thieves AP #28 The Infernal Syndrome, there is an article on possession. If you can, check it out. It might be what youre looking for.
Ya, tis an excellent article.
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to respond.
I'll try and seek out the material you've all mentioned. The idea of working it into the story sounds close to what I'm going for.
The moment I'm looking to create involves a PC party of three and an elven escort of about ten. On the way to a deep woods elven kingdom they encounter a grotesque icon that predates anything elven in the area. An elven scout will inspect it if the party doesn't beat him to it. From there I was thinking of having every NPC and party member who fails a Will Save become possessed and attack whoever made their save. We'll see where that goes.
Thanks again.
By the way, Krome, thanks. You can't beat Tordek.
Magic Jar is the simplest reference, since it's core.
One thing I like to do, is to take the player aside, and let them know they're no longer playing their PC, they're playing the possessing entity. Usually the sorts of players I play with have quite a bit of fun with this, attempting to TPW the party. :)
I'll second Zappo's Eberron suggestion. I'll also add that if I recall correctly, it's in the original campaign setting for 3.5.
Gotta be careful though. Players HATE losing control of their character. And a scenario like that one could easily end up with a TPK if the players roll poorly on their saves.
I agree with this 100%. Make it a nasty will save to avoid. Pull the players that fail it aside and tell them they are possessed and to role play it to the point of making the other characters do what they want. Should make for some interesting gaming.
Gotta be careful though. Players HATE losing control of their character. And a scenario like that one could easily end up with a TPK if the players roll poorly on their saves.
It's all covered in the story. There won't be a loss of anything. At least not anything major. It will basically change the current adventure, setting it in a completely different direction.
The party is on its way to a deep woods elven kingdom which lies in a massive wood where pockets of creation energy still exist. It's the raw natural energy that will be a problem for the party as they encounter an ancient ruin where a certain idol is located. The energy is not evil but it's not good. It wants to grow and encourage change. It does not like the life that has tried to reign it in. From this idea I have some great creatures that the party, depending on their preferences and character choices will either have to protect or slay. It's going to be a fun few months. :)
Gotta be careful though. Players HATE losing control of their character. And a scenario like that one could easily end up with a TPK if the players roll poorly on their saves.
Weird.
The players I play with love an excuse to whack other PCs.