silence is worse than being gagged and bound for years, 24/7?
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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Assume a very large city, with a learned gentry, and probably a magical college. The ruler would occasionally have need of imprisoning those for whom you can't take away their spell book; sorcerers and the like. How do?
In a general sense, a monarch could rule "Well, she's too dangerous, just hang her." but prisoners can be useful in the long run, and adjudicating certain spells for individuals could become expensive. Give me ideas for an institution that can safely house those of magical blood for an indefinite period of time.
Has no one mentioned a simple anti-magic field??
Has no one mentioned a simple anti-magic field??Assume a very large city, with a learned gentry, and probably a magical college. The ruler would occasionally have need of imprisoning those for whom you can't take away their spell book; sorcerers and the like. How do?
In a general sense, a monarch could rule "Well, she's too dangerous, just hang her." but prisoners can be useful in the long run, and adjudicating certain spells for individuals could become expensive. Give me ideas for an institution that can safely house those of magical blood for an indefinite period of time.
This... or Flesh to Stone sounds like a good "prison" as well.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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Has no one mentioned a simple anti-magic field??Assume a very large city, with a learned gentry, and probably a magical college. The ruler would occasionally have need of imprisoning those for whom you can't take away their spell book; sorcerers and the like. How do?
In a general sense, a monarch could rule "Well, she's too dangerous, just hang her." but prisoners can be useful in the long run, and adjudicating certain spells for individuals could become expensive. Give me ideas for an institution that can safely house those of magical blood for an indefinite period of time.
And if you wanna go super-by-the-rules, you have a wizard that lives in the city cast the antimagic field on his familiar, then that familiar just needs to stay near the prisoner. It can be a rat in the walls. Simple solution.
Cheap solution - gag him, remove his spellpouch, bind him.
Sorcerers get Eschew Materials as a bonus feat, and not all spells have a material component in the first place.
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Anti-magic field doesn't work on it's own due to the casting restrictions, but wouldn't an anti-magic trap work?
Essentially a glyph of anti-magic. Give it a true-seeing visual trigger that fires off whenever anybody is in the cell, automatic reset, and spell effect (antimagic field). As far as I can tell, the glyph can cast on itself despite not being a living creature.
It used to exist outside of Pathfinder and I see no reason why the spell acts different in Pathfinder.
The useful part about antimagic is that all the dangerous sorceror abilities are spell-like effects, which will be nullified as well right? The Dragon-blooded breath weapon would be stopped I think, but he can still grow claws, not like that's going to change anything inside of a well built cell really.
Stone to flesh does come with a DC 15 fort save - casters aren't known for their awesome fort saves..
Removing matrial component would be a stupid thing NOT to do.
Is silence worse than being gagged and bound - no but ask amnesty if they would consider it torture. For extended periuodes of time - I would deem it an evil act.
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Removing matrial component would be a stupid thing NOT to do.
As was mentioned previously. This thread is about sorcerers who get eschew materials for free. Sorcerers don't cart around spell component pouches.
One of the big spells to defend against is dimension door. Only a verbal component and fairly low level to cast as a silent spell.
Depending on the bloodline and level the sorcerer can have many potent abilities even without still and silent feats as they don't require any somatic or verbal components.
you all got great option to make spellcasting impossible, but isn't the reason for emprisonment that the person is alive and mentally normal, so he can think about what he did wrong and comes out a reformed man. Or else we could just put all our real world prisoners in an artifial coma.
There are quite a few reasons for putting people in prison; honestly I don't think most legal systems clearly delineate which reasons they're using (which would affect how we treat the people in prison). But I don't want to derail everything like that.
It looks like the OP is looking for a way to imprison spellcasters because there might be a use for them later on, rather than to punish them, or rehabilitate them, etc.
So any number of suggestions listed will work... though most of them will not leave the sorcerer in the mental state to be useful later. That is, about his/her only reason to do whatever useful thing the ruler wants him/her to do is to get out of the prison, and hopefully stay out. If it's "come out, cast this spell, and then go back", well, that's not exactly an incentive.
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Has no one mentioned a simple anti-magic field??Several people. It's my favored solution as well.
However, it technically can't be made permanent or cast on an area as opposed to the caster himself. So doing so is a house rule, basically.
Am I missing something in the item creation rules, or why can't you create a "wondrous item" which is a cell that has a dead magic zone within it? You can use antimagic field to create it; I don't think its normal spell target issues apply if you're just using it as a spell known needed to create the item.
It would take a well constructed cell, an 11th level wizard, and 198,000 gp for continuous use spell with a normal duration of 10 min per level, 6th level spell at CL 11. It's expensive, but the description of the city suggests they would have the resources to build such a thing, and would certainly be prepared to invest in it given its usefulness.
A cheaper, more individual option would be using geas/quest which allows no saving throw. Geas in part allows you to force someone to "refrain from some action or course of activity." You could set that action to "cast spells." The only problem is I'm not sure how to adjudicate if the caster knows remove curse -- if they cast it, is the geas just gone, or do they take the penalty for 24 hours but are otherwise free of the spell?
Flesh to stone. You can't keep them gagged forever (a sorcerer has to eat) and cutting off their fingers/hands/tongue is kind of cruel. But you could avoid all that unpleasantness by just turning them into a rock and sticking them in an empty room in the basement, and it's way cheaper than trying to come up with an AMF. Problem solved.
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They would just kill sorcerers, and from that, they'll start persecuting anybody with arcane talent.
The reason is because it becomes impractical to imprison such beings. Even learned folks wouldn't be able to reliably tell if the caster is a sorcerer or not. Not to mention, the NPC class adepts are also spont casters.
Feeblemind works, but it's fairly high level in the campaign world sense. Anti-Magic Shell works, but requires even higher level.
Has no one mentioned a simple anti-magic field??Several people. It's my favored solution as well.
However, it technically can't be made permanent or cast on an area as opposed to the caster himself. So doing so is a house rule, basically.
Am I missing something in the item creation rules, or why can't you create a "wondrous item" which is a cell that has a dead magic zone within it? You can use antimagic field to create it; I don't think its normal spell target issues apply if you're just using it as a spell known needed to create the item.
It would take a well constructed cell, an 11th level wizard, and 198,000 gp for continuous use spell with a normal duration of 10 min per level, 6th level spell at CL 11. It's expensive, but the description of the city suggests they would have the resources to build such a thing, and would certainly be prepared to invest in it given its usefulness.
A cheaper, more individual option would be using geas/quest which allows no saving throw. Geas in part allows you to force someone to "refrain from some action or course of activity." You could set that action to "cast spells." The only problem is I'm not sure how to adjudicate if the caster knows remove curse -- if they cast it, is the geas just gone, or do they take the penalty for 24 hours but are otherwise free of the spell?
This. Done.
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How about Baleful Polymorph every spellcaster, that are proven guilty?
If I remember correctly, it doesn't let people cast spell from that state and, supernatural ability won't work either, aka no shapeshifting?
But the heck? You're the GM, if a spellcaster are put to prison tries to cast spell, could you not just say: Ok you cast the spell, but nothing happens.
If they spellcraft check why, just say it has been dispel from unknown source.
Do so forever! until their times is up.
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Am I missing something in the item creation rules, or why can't you create a "wondrous item" which is a cell that has a dead magic zone within it? You can use antimagic field to create it; I don't think its normal spell target issues apply if you're just using it as a spell known needed to create the item.
It would take a well constructed cell, an 11th level wizard, and 198,000 gp for continuous use spell with a normal duration of 10 min per level, 6th level spell at CL 11. It's expensive, but the description of the city suggests they would have the resources to build such a thing, and would certainly be prepared to invest in it given its usefulness.
Yeesh, 200k GP a pop? That's...a whole lot of GP. Even if you do put in two to a cell (and the area's small enough to make more than two people impractical, and even two pretty cramped). I mean, it's worth it if you have a 15th level Sorcerer to imprison, but what do you do about the 5th level ones?
And some other possibilities:
1. Temporal Stasis. It has a duration of permanent--all you have to do is keep any of the sorcerer's allies from finding it. It's a very high level spell, but we're assuming large well off city with a mage's college, so I'm assuming there's probably 1 or 2 people who can cast it and would be given ample incentive to do so.
2. Cast spells on the sorcerer while he is captured that lower his fortitude, then dose him repeatedly with ungol dust (a poison) until he is incapable of casting spells (Cha 9). Ungol dust deals Charisma drain, so once it's lost, it can't be regained except by magic means which hopefully the prisoner would be kept away from. (IIRC, even if he makes saves to cure the poison, the drain remains and is permanent.)
3. Use some mundane or magical means to keep him asleep (a low tech, higher maintenance of version option 1, basically.
Yeesh, 200k GP a pop? That's...a whole lot of GP. Even if you do put in two to a cell (and the area's small enough to make more than two people impractical, and even two pretty cramped). I mean, it's worth it if you have a 15th level Sorcerer to imprison, but what do you do about the 5th level ones?Am I missing something in the item creation rules, or why can't you create a "wondrous item" which is a cell that has a dead magic zone within it? You can use antimagic field to create it; I don't think its normal spell target issues apply if you're just using it as a spell known needed to create the item.
It would take a well constructed cell, an 11th level wizard, and 198,000 gp for continuous use spell with a normal duration of 10 min per level, 6th level spell at CL 11. It's expensive, but the description of the city suggests they would have the resources to build such a thing, and would certainly be prepared to invest in it given its usefulness.
The 5th level ones can be held using the more normal means of tying them up and gagging them.
Or see my more recent post.
I didn't say it should be used for every Tom, Dick, and Harry spellcaster. But for a spellcaster you're sure has every means of escaping, it's worth the investment, I think.
Oh, and I thought of one very simple further solution:
Never let them rest for 8 hours or more. Fight them, force them to cast every spell in their arsenal, and then have guards come regularly to keep them from being able to ever get a full night's sleep. ETA: They can be let sleep enough that they get some rest, just never the full night's sleep they need to regain energy to cast spells.
Never let them rest for 8 hours or more. Fight them, force them to cast every spell in their arsenal, and then have guards come regularly to keep them from being able to ever get a full night's sleep. ETA: They can be let sleep enough that they get some rest, just never the full night's sleep they need to regain energy to cast spells.
Not foolproof. How would you be sure that they used every spell availible.
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Had this idea saved for both a mechanized dungeon and a culture for whom space for prisoners was at a premium.
1. Petrify the prisoner.
2. Record the exact nature of the prisoner and their form.
3. Stone shape the prisoner into an easily stored form: cube or cylinder are probably ideal for filing away.
4. Keep the recorded nature, appearance, name, crimes, etc. of the prisoner carved or tagged into the reshaped form.
5. Store away for later.
This is diabolical. Are you sure you're not a devil, Mikaze? Those horns of yours... mayhaps you've some infernal ancestry?
Never let them rest for 8 hours or more. Fight them, force them to cast every spell in their arsenal, and then have guards come regularly to keep them from being able to ever get a full night's sleep. ETA: They can be let sleep enough that they get some rest, just never the full night's sleep they need to regain energy to cast spells.Not foolproof. How would you be sure that they used every spell availible.
Geas/torture/compulsion spell. I am assuming the prisoner is captured and at their mercy, and the city has a wealth of magical resources/casters because of the magic college, that something would work reasonably well. Hey, zone of truth works too. "Have you cast every spell you can?" "Ye-rrffgh-no."
Besides which, they probably put up a fight before they were captured so probably used up several slots to start with.
Never let them rest for 8 hours or more. Fight them, force them to cast every spell in their arsenal, and then have guards come regularly to keep them from being able to ever get a full night's sleep. ETA: They can be let sleep enough that they get some rest, just never the full night's sleep they need to regain energy to cast spells.Not foolproof. How would you be sure that they used every spell availible.
Also, zero level spells auto-regen without sleep. Not that there a whole lot of zero level spells worth a darn, but a creative player might think up a way to use one to escape. I still like the anti-magic field cell. Yeah it's expensive, but we're talking about a world where one magic spell can wipe even the memory of people off the planet. Besides, when caging casters, I say go big or go home.
Also, zero level spells auto-regen without sleep. Not that there a whole lot of zero level spells worth a darn, but a creative player might think up a way to use one to escape. I still like the anti-magic field cell. Yeah it's expensive, but we're talking about a world where one magic spell can wipe even the memory of people off the planet. Besides, when caging casters, I say go big or go home.Never let them rest for 8 hours or more. Fight them, force them to cast every spell in their arsenal, and then have guards come regularly to keep them from being able to ever get a full night's sleep. ETA: They can be let sleep enough that they get some rest, just never the full night's sleep they need to regain energy to cast spells.Not foolproof. How would you be sure that they used every spell availible.
DO they? That's interesting, I never noticed that.
Yeah, I agree--go for the cell. But I was challenged after I posted that to find cheap alternatives, so might as well throw out all possibilites. Keeping the guy awake isn't completely foolproof, but it doesn't cost 200,000 k.
Craft Wondrous Item some manacles with constant anti-magic field and dimensional anchor.
Then attach them to heavy lead anchor.
Also, zero level spells auto-regen without sleep. Not that there a whole lot of zero level spells worth a darn, but a creative player might think up a way to use one to escape. I still like the anti-magic field cell. Yeah it's expensive, but we're talking about a world where one magic spell can wipe even the memory of people off the planet. Besides, when caging casters, I say go big or go home.
This is true.
Acid orbs on the wall/bars/lock/whatever every 6 seconds for a year might weaken it to do something (not by RAW of course, but if you think about it overtime the tiny amounts of damage and wear might add up). No crazier then hearing stories of people digging out with spoons and such.
A low level gaurd approaches your cell - daze him, grab the keys.
Mage Hand keys or small objects that were left unattended to use as improvised lockpicks or weapons.
When you are let out to do your chores Spark, light some fires and cause a commontion. Escape in the chaos.
Seems like even level 0 spells would cause trouble in a prison.
DO they? That's interesting, I never noticed that.
Yeah, I agree--go for the cell. But I was challenged after I posted that to find cheap alternatives, so might as well throw out all possibilites. Keeping the guy awake isn't completely foolproof, but it doesn't cost 200,000 k.
DQ I can never tell if you're being sarcastic or not... :(
Did you really not know that 0-level spells don't get used up? Or were you making fun of me for being captain obvious?
Sorcerers learn a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells, as noted on Table: Sorcerer Spells Known under “Spells Known.” These spells are cast like any other spell, but they do not consume any slots and may be used again.
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I swear nobody on this forum sees when I post, maybe I should get a picture. :)
Craft Wondrous Item on manacles is actually more expensive than a trap. As I posted earlier, An antimagic trap is simple, easy, solves just about all problems with a sorcerer, and only costs 40,500 GP.
It needs a visual (clairvoyance) trigger that responds to somebody being in the cell that it's looking at, preferably beyond the bars so that it can't be tampered with. Automatic reset and a Spell Effect: Antimagic field.
I'm not seeing any horrible torture in this, any maddening mind altering problems, and you can still interrogate and question your prisoner just like any other.
On a roll of 97 on the drawbacks list under cursed items: Character cannot cast arcane spells.
Make each prisoner a collar that provides a minor magical effect. (Endure elements would be a good one. Saves on heating costs.) Give it the drawback. Boom. Done.
I still like the petrification idea better though.
Most of these methods, I also see, have a fatal drawback. People are trying to focus on "stop him from casting spells", not how to properly imprison a sorcerer.
Sorcerers have spell-like abilities that could help them escape from prison, or at least kill guards. You can remove their casting, and they're still dangerous.
This is why I think the Antimagic Field trap is the way to go. I also have respect for the petrification idea, but if you want to question the prisoner or be kind enough to allow visitors, petrification has some drawbacks.
It seems like many stories of high level magic users in literature that where beaten but not killed usually have a rough end. Such as being sent to nasty planes of existence, held in stone amber ice etc, transformed into a toad, birds, inanimate objects. Some times it doesn't pay to be personally powerful.
DO they? That's interesting, I never noticed that.
Yeah, I agree--go for the cell. But I was challenged after I posted that to find cheap alternatives, so might as well throw out all possibilites. Keeping the guy awake isn't completely foolproof, but it doesn't cost 200,000 k.
DQ I can never tell if you're being sarcastic or not... :(
Did you really not know that 0-level spells don't get used up? Or were you making fun of me for being captain obvious?
No, I was serious. Yes, I know they're cast at will, but somehow my brain didn't leap to the connection that of course that would mean you could cast them even if you hadn't rested. I just wasn't really thinking about it properly, but of course you're right. And I am being completely serious now too. :)
I try to use ;) when I'm joking but I know I don't always, so I will try to make my tone more clear.
Stone to flesh seem to be the most practical solution. Living prisoners require facilities, upkeep, etc. which can become expensive over time. But statues? Hell, you could bury them in the ground if you wanted. Dirt cheap.
I try to use ;) when I'm joking but I know I don't always, so I will try to make my tone more clear.
Duly noted. I'll watch for the ;) from now on.
Also, the more I think about it, if you don't want to interrogate them, the stone to flesh thing sounds like the most viable option.
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Excellent! Thanks for the quality answers, everyone. I see some good, thoughtful stuff here, and some disturbing stuff too.
I find myself interested in the large-scale problems that would exist on Golarion, especially the ones requiring institutionalized effort to deal-with, so you would all have to agree, this IS a realistic and necessary problem in a world with sorcerers.
I think I'm going to use this as a story-seed idea, and have the players hear about this legendary prison. Like Harry Potter's Azkaban, they should necessarily be afraid of the legend of it, and the lengths the rulers of the realm would go in order to contain very dangerous individuals that have not outlived their usefulness.
- Hook: their mentor has been wrongfully accused and imprisoned
- Hook: there is someone inside who knows something vital to their mission, and their mission is incredibly important. Perhaps the ruler would allow a brief visit, or probably won't, and they'll need to access him/her on their own.
- Hook: there is someone with secret they absolutely need, but no one left alive on the outside remembers them being in there. The PC's have the secret to identifying this person.
- The prison is so magical, that it's pretty much a "throw them in there and forget about them" sort of place. Not even guards patrol inside.
- There is a fantastic garden inside, where the polymorphed and brainwashed sorcerers are kept. The animals and birds are all prisoners.
- There is a dungeon where certain strong-willed sorcerers have managed to reshape themselves into creatures of power and hatred. They dwell there in little sectors of their own making
- The garden is surrounded by a grove. In this grove are statues, said to be the remains of sorcerers who tried to circumvent the golems (who can case flesh to stone as a ray) or perhaps basilisks.
- The prison exists in one corner of the mana wastes, but no one knows that during one night of the year, the stars align, and a small section of that blighted area pulls back, allowing magic to ride on the moonlight in one corner of that dead place.
It's also a mental exercise, as it begs the question: "What do the scholars of the world actually know about sorcerers? Would a genius architect with an entire council of wizards know every spell, metamagic feat, and type of sorcerer in order to be able to contain them? I think assuming such removes some of the coolness of magic. How can everyone know everything? It's not science, after all.
Thanks everyone!
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This is diabolical. Are you sure you're not a devil, Mikaze? Those horns of yours... mayhaps you've some infernal ancestry?
Nah. Abyssal.
I just got to thinking about ideas for a character that absolutely refused to kill people but was still morally questionable in the lengths he was willing to go to keep that code. And prisons/dungeons I'd love to see or break into to rescue prisoners.
Another storage idea for the flesh to stone/stone shape combo:
Shape the prisoners into wheels/discs with a hole in the center. Multiple wheels can be stored horizontally or vertically on stone or steel rods. The edge of these wheels can be shaped/carved/imprinted with all of the relevant information about that prisoner, including the info needed to fully restore them. You turn the wheel to get the full story on each one. Carvings could be utilitarian or downright ornate.
This could actually serve as a risky way to preserve an entire civilization if they knew some disaster was going to befall them. Just have to hope someone comes along that would get the meaning of the wheels...
I just got to thinking about ideas for a character that absolutely refused to kill people but was still morally questionable in the lengths he was willing to go to keep that code. And prisons/dungeons I'd love to see or break into to rescue prisoners.
Another storage idea for the flesh to stone/stone shape combo:
Shape the prisoners into wheels/discs with a hole in the center. Multiple wheels can be stored horizontally or vertically on stone or steel rods. The edge of these wheels can be shaped/carved/imprinted with all of the relevant information about that prisoner, including the info needed to fully restore them. You turn the wheel to get the full story on each one. Carvings could be utilitarian or downright ornate.
This could actually serve as a risky way to preserve an entire civilization if they knew some disaster was going to befall them. Just have to hope someone comes along that would get the meaning of the wheels...
Flesh to Stone with Stone Shape sound like a great combo to confine a prisoner, whether be magical or not. However, while it would take at least a 5th-level cleric to cast Stone Shape, it would take at least a 11th-level sorcerer or wizard to cast Flesh to Stone, for up to a Large prisoner at least.
It all depends on who's the strongest spellcaster to use such an efficient combination in the end.
This is diabolical. Are you sure you're not a devil, Mikaze? Those horns of yours... mayhaps you've some infernal ancestry?Nah. Abyssal.
I just got to thinking about ideas for a character that absolutely refused to kill people but was still morally questionable in the lengths he was willing to go to keep that code. And prisons/dungeons I'd love to see or break into to rescue prisoners.
Another storage idea for the flesh to stone/stone shape combo:
Shape the prisoners into wheels/discs with a hole in the center. Multiple wheels can be stored horizontally or vertically on stone or steel rods. The edge of these wheels can be shaped/carved/imprinted with all of the relevant information about that prisoner, including the info needed to fully restore them. You turn the wheel to get the full story on each one. Carvings could be utilitarian or downright ornate.
This could actually serve as a risky way to preserve an entire civilization if they knew some disaster was going to befall them. Just have to hope someone comes along that would get the meaning of the wheels...
I like the idea of a prison for mages that has a basilisk (or even dracolisk) that can petrify their prey for you, then those proven guilty get eaten by it.
I also like the idea of a medusa executioner that petrifies them then keeps their bodies as decor for the academy's courtyard.
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you all got great option to make spellcasting impossible, but isn't the reason for emprisonment that the person is alive and mentally normal, so he can think about what he did wrong and comes out a reformed man. Or else we could just put all our real world prisoners in an artifial coma.
also the antimagic field, how do you cast it on the menacles/room? It's a spell centered on "you", and I guess no spellcaster would like to polymorph himself to a room or menacles just so he can antimagic field the prisoner.
the create greater demiplane spell seems by far the best idea to me, however it is expensive and you need to be able to have a lvl 9 spell cast. Have golems as guards, in an dead magic area they are most likely the most powerful creature you can possibly control.
most other good ideas involved not-nice (to not get into an alignment derail) acts (cutting tongues or killing).
manacles of antimagic would be a wonderous item. (6 x 12 x 2k x 2)/2 is the cost of manacles of antimagic. it would be a dc 17+ to make. create greater demiplane is only so good, because they would have a portal leading into it. and the cost would be in the millions of gold to have construct guards and a sizable permenant world. not to mention what ever constrction costs would be for creating a building on a different plane of exsistance.
but if you're the gm, hand wave the cost, and call it arkham asylum
I was looking into this recently as my character started out a PbP game in a prison, and she's a Summoner. The GM handwaved it via Applied Phlebotinum, basically, which was fine by everyone; some sort of antimagic field or manacles.
However, when I looked up medieval prisons, I was surprised to find they generally didn't exist. People just weren't imprisoned for years, unless they were royalty and stuck somewhere in exile. Instead, people had a short stay in a dungeon or cell prior to torture and execution.
Of course, Golarian isn't the real world, nor is it entirely medieval, but interesting facts nonetheless.
I'm big on explanations, and having things make a modicum of sense. I can't stand it when the GM says something like "this small city has an antimagic jail" just because he says it does.
What? How'd that happen? The city couldn't possibly afford something like that. If a small city has it, why don't all the big ones have one (or more)? Is it the site of some magical catastrophe, perhaps?
I hate ad hoc hand waving without any explanation at all. Not only does it totally takes me out of the immersion, it is often a missed opportunity to fill the world up with fun and imaginative details.
If it's a mystery to the vast majority of NPC characters, than the GM should say so, thus allowing the possibility that the PCs could try and discover the secrets behind it.
Too many GMs miss out on fun plot hooks for the sake of expediency.
Actually just had an awesome idea.
So in a fairly metropolis kingdom, anyone that commits serious crimes are sent to a prison owned by the magic academy where the guilty are turned into stone (Flesh to Stone). Once they are in statue form, they are then are turned into animated statues via the create animated construct feat and now act as loyal soldiers and bodyguards to the emperor wizard of the kingdom.
One issue I see with Stone Shape is that you can't use it to make fine detail. Sadly it can only make crude shapes and therefore, if you Flesh to Stoned someone then Stone Shaped them into a disc, you'd be hard pressed to sculpt them back with Stone Shape.
Due to the problems with Stone Shape actually being a form of mutilition, you'd probably try not to use it.
Just line the prisoners up, and use a medusa or basilisk or cockatrice to apply the flesh to stone effect until they fail. Don't need an 11th level caster.
Then store them underwater. If there's some massive magical effect that breaks apart magical bonds and such, such as an AoE Break Enchantment, the water breaks line of effect, AND if they do manage to get free, they are underwater and its damn hard to cast spells there. Dimensionally lock the area to proof it against teleporters and the ethereal, use tasked invisible stalkers for the gaseous ones, make sure anything magical in the area glows very, very brightly to thwart the shapechangers.
You only need a 7th level caster with Break Enchantment to get them out.
This would, of course, make more sense if a specialist transmuter could alter the spell so that they actually aged while petrified. Otherwise, all you're doing is sending them to sleep.
Those two brothers in Waterdeep who were specialist transmuters could alter petrify spells so people kept their awareness while petrified. That would be quite the punishment.
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The module Scourge of the SLavelords has the PC's start as prisoners. It's assumed you've used up all your spells in memory in various escape attempts, and been unable to get new ones by the mentioned lack of rest, interference at times of prayer, no material components, etc.
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If you had a reliable way to Stone Shape someone back to their original form, perhaps using a Restoration in combination with another Stone Shape, then yes, transforming them into a block or a wheel would be ideal. If they can retain their awareness for punishment purposes, that would be even better.
And, of course, you are all assuming that if the enchantment is broken, they just don't revert to their proper forms, anyways. Just because the stone they were made of gets warped doesn't mean the flesh doesn't go right back to the way its supposed to...Breack Enchantment might well turn them right back to the way they are supposed to be. It does just that for Polymorphed creatures, remember!
I will say that if you want to IMPRISON someone forever, doing this trick, and sticking him somewhere dark and deep is a pretty good way of getting them out of your hair for a good long time. I favor petrifying them, stone shaping them into a rough rock, dipping that in lead, wrapping it in more stone, and then dumping it overboard somewhere in the deep ocean. It'll sit and sink into the muck of the deep, deep ocean floor, and the lead means you can't scry the contents. It's just a rock, sitting there in the middle of millions of square miles of ocean, doing nothing.
Also, note that in previous editions you could Permanency an A-M Shell.
There was also a 1E magic item, a ribbon or something, in the old Undermountain set. It totally prevented use of magical abilities while tied around the neck of someone. Manacle up the spellcaster, tie the ribbon on, completely helpless.
==Aelryinth