Hey there. I'm currently planning on running a campaign where the PCs are a part of an Arcane Inquisition. Their goal is to hunt down non-sanctioned mages that would threaten the empire they are a part of. It's a mixed crew of casters and martial characters that also have access to the Inquisition's Relics of Torture, devices that can detain such mages.
Two questions I have are:
1) Is there an item (or items) that do this already? It can be anything from preventing spellcasting to siphoning prepared spells, etc.
2) If not and I have to build them as a magic item, how would one go about it? Things such as price, CL required (in case the PCs want to build their own).
Thank you for any help.
Expend is a spell you might want to look at.
Also rope and a gag does wonders for stopping casting. While tied up you have the grappled condition, which forces a concentration check to cast a spell with a DC equal to 10+CMB of the tier+the spell level. So if you have a fighter or monk in the group to tie the wizard up his chances of casting are going to be pretty slim. The gag helps since he'll need silent spell on top of the concentration check to cast the spell. Combined with an item that uses the above spell I think you could lock a mage down pretty handily.
Expend is a spell you might want to look at.
Also rope and a gag does wonders for stopping casting. While tied up you have the grappled condition, which forces a concentration check to cast a spell with a DC equal to 10+CMB of the tier+the spell level. So if you have a fighter or monk in the group to tie the wizard up his chances of casting are going to be pretty slim. The gag helps since he'll need silent spell on top of the concentration check to cast the spell. Combined with an item that uses the above spell I think you could lock a mage down pretty handily.
Interesting. I don't completely follow the wording though. Does it affect spells or just spelllike abilites?
Monks.
oh and monks.
A bag over the head will stop anything that requires line of sight for targetting.
A gag and bound hands have been mentioned and are very effective.
Wow, definitely some gruesome, yet somehow fitting ideas. If the PCs don't (or won't) use some of the darker ways, I'm sure one of their rival NPCs in the Inquisition would. Somewhat of a foil to more of the innocent characters.
Lipstitch is definitely one of the more colorful spells. I'll look at that more. I thought about having a ring of slumber that puts the wearer under the spell of slumber until removed. I also plan on having the final blade guillotines from the Inner Sea Guide in here.
Shovel. Apply directly to the forehead as needed. Do not exceed two inches of indentation per week, as that might qualify for a depressed skull fracture.
That's one of the tricky businesses of dealing with spellcasters. If they've got the right setup, there is nothing which can stop them definitively and absolutely from spellcasting. A stilled/Silent cast of Freedom of Movement and that wizard's on the loose again. That's why in my experience if they ever come across an opposing wizard, he's dead, decapitated, and on fire, before they move on.
wizard's don't have freedom of movement on their spell list, also even with still and silent there is still the concentration check to get passed being grappled. Nothing in either metamagic feat states that you don't have to make concentration checks.
While it's not as brutally effective as, uh, completely maiming the spellcaster, and it's a third-party item, Mage-cuffs seem like the kind of thing that such a group might use as a sort of lightweight solution.
Ok, here is an expensive way. Buy a suit of weighted half-plate (standard half plate with an addtional 50lbs of iron plates added (100 lbs total). Put the wizard in it, and chain/manacle the arms behind him. Strap a tower shield to his arm (another 45 lbs, so were are up to 145 lbs encumbrance). Gag him. Replace the eye slit on the helm with a solid iron plate. He can't speak, he can't see to target his spells, he can't move his arms or fingers (for surety, weld the fingers of the gauntlets together).
Even if he makes his Concenration check (see posts above) and has both the Silent spell feats (and spells prepared for them), he suffers the ACP of half-plate (40%) and tower shield (50%), giving his spells a 90% chance of failure if he doesn't have Still spell (on a spell he has memorized). He can't get to his components, so no casting unless he also has Eschew Materials.
Finally, have someone with a wand of heat metal target the armor every now and then. Not enough to kill him, but enough to fatigue him through the high heat of that sweltering suit of armor.
Sure, he has a better armor class than I would prefer, but how many wizards do you know that can move while wearing 145 lbs of gear? And no magical buffs?
Master Arminas
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Look at the spell-blights available with bestow curse.
Look at the recent thread about an anti-caster witch - with some spell suggestions.
Magic manacles that place the manacled person in a tiny antimagic field would likely work.
The magic cuffs seem interesting. Admittedly I am trying to avoid antimagic field because it just doesn't seem... elegant I suppose. Too much of a sledgehammer approach. The plate mail + tower shield plan does give me an idea for making an iron maiden-esque containment coffin for really powerful mages.
I wonder if anyone can tell me if the spell Expend works on spells in addition to SU and Spell like abilities? I have a player now interested in it but I'm not too sure if it works against spells.
You know it looks like it is spell like and supernatural only so it probably won't hit spells. The loss domain has the following:
Aura of Forgetfulness (Su): At 8th level, you can emit a 30- foot aura of forgetfulness for a number of rounds per day equal to your cleric level. Creatures you target in this area must make a Will save or have no memory of any time spent inside the area. In addition, spellcasters in the area lose one prepared spell or available spell slot per round spent in the area, starting with 1st-level spells and going up through higher-level spells. Spellcasters are allowed a save each round to negate this loss (this save is separate from the memory loss save). These rounds do not need to be consecutive.
I've mentioned this strategy before:
Kill the wizard, and raise him if you happen to need him again.
You misunderstand this. The general idea for this is, the PCs are a part of the Magi Inquisition. They hunt down non-sanctioned mages, heretical clerics, and witches. However, due to the political power they wield, the inquisition wants to keep trials and executions of said rouge wizards public, to keep using these mages as scapegoats for the political turmoil as well as keeping public support of the inquisition. Taking mages alive also allows the organization to grab any new spells or items on the mage, whether to lock them away or to use them to further their agenda.
You know it looks like it is spell like and supernatural only so it probably won't hit spells. The loss domain has the following:
Quote:
Aura of Forgetfulness (Su): At 8th level, you can emit a 30- foot aura of forgetfulness for a number of rounds per day equal to your cleric level. Creatures you target in this area must make a Will save or have no memory of any time spent inside the area. In addition, spellcasters in the area lose one prepared spell or available spell slot per round spent in the area, starting with 1st-level spells and going up through higher-level spells. Spellcasters are allowed a save each round to negate this loss (this save is separate from the memory loss save). These rounds do not need to be consecutive.
Very interesting! I'll definitely look into this.
Also for the gagging/tying ideas, I decided to create a special department in the inquisition called the Binders whose entire goal is to safeguard the bodies of wizards until they reach the castle.