Keeping a body hopping Villian dead

[VoodooHoodoo]

We are fighting a BBEG who is possessing bodies so when we defeat him he can just escape to another. We don't know exactly how he is doing this - though it might be some blessing of an divine-like entity (He's a fighter when we first met him).

At 16th level we are looking like we'll be encountering him again soon and we'd like to keep him locked down this time.

We have access to the cleric, wizard, witch, bard and alchemist spell lists. We know he has an ally who can cast at least resurrection. He also seems warded from our divinations to locate his actual body

So what to do?

[Mairn]

Need more details on the body hopping to give you an accurate method of stopping it. Does he turn in to a ghost of some sort? Does it have a range? Do you know if it would work in an Antimagic Field?

[I3igAl]

Paizo Publishing]Trap the soul[/url]is a spell that could get him. You have to beat his saves/SR however.

I would also consider the fact, that if your GM wants you to get the guy he will likely bring in some plot devices. If he wants his BBEG to escape to reuse though, that's his decision.

[Reecy]

Definitely need more Detail.... I could think of at least 10 different things

1.A god is involved
2.An Artifact is involved
3.Spell is working
4.This is not his home plane
5.Deal with a Demon Angel Devil
6.Some Crazy Ritual is active
7.Some Crazy Wish
8.Undead
9.Soul Cage or something
10.DM likes torturing you

[Mairn]

If you don't mind being blatantly evil about this: Use Trap the Soul or Soul Bind to steal his soul, them sell it to a daemon for a quick buck.

Edit: Bind a Shinigami and have it permanently destroy its soul (can only be brought back with miracle or wish!).
Or you can try casting Destruction which should work unless the DM is using shenanigans.

[Black Moria]

The two spells that come readily to mind for this type of situation is dimensional anchor and trap the soul.

Dimensional anchor would work if the transfer mechanic falls within the scope of things that the spell prevents. Most likely the villain is doing some funky astra projection or ethereal jaunt to switch bodies.

Trap the soul is the 'certain' solution but it is a 8th level sorceror/wizard/witch spell (which you could have if the encounter is at 16th level).

[Lincoln Hills]

If he's freed automatically when his host dies, you'll need a non-fatal way to lock him in place. Temporal stasis might do the trick, but flesh to stone is lower-level. Others can probably suggest easier ways to trap the psyche along with its current host. It'd be a good idea to use protection from evil or a magic circle when confronting him, to keep him from 'riding' one of the PCs.

That said - these are direct methods, and it sounds like the GM is presenting the villain more like a puzzle than a straightforward enemy. Besides, it's a little rough on the poor guy whom the villain happens to be 'riding'. If you choose to confront the problem at its root instead, your methods should involve divination and plain old street-level investigation to find out how it's being done - there's probably a device (a Macguffin) that's being used to enable this body-hopping, and locating it (along with confronting your arch-enemy in his 'true' body) is a tried and true staple of this sort of adventure.

[darkwarriorkarg]

Offhand:

1) Plane Shift the BBEG.
2) Trap The Soul. Optional: Feed to Cacodeamon
3) Render him unconscious and slap him in a lead box.
4) Flesh to Stone, then Stone Shape him into a round ball.

Actually, a combination of 1 and 4:
Flesh to Stone, Stone shape into a crude angel statue, then plane shift the now inanimate object to the negative energy plane or abbadon.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

Go watch The Fallen and do what Denzel does.

[VoodooHoodoo]

Details are hard to come by as magical divination is pretty much not going to be helpful.

We know he was 'possessing' a golem and also an unliving. We have not seen any ghost about - though now we do have permanent see invis in case we missed it last time. We don't know about range but I would think it's over several miles if not considerably more. We didn't have an antimagic field last time we met him (though we do now and that will have to be tried).

Half the party are not going to be up for any deals with evil outsiders or soul eating.

Magic Circle vs Evil will be running!

Flesh to stone (assuming he's not in another golem) and Temporal Stasis are both going on the list to try.

I'm pretty sure he has the resources to plane shift back from where-ever (or be found by his allies and they certainly can do it). Though plane shifting him into a dead magic demiplane (with the portal removed) is on the list for when we are 17/18th if he's still about.

[Thanael]

Tiny Coffee Golem wrote:

Go watch The Fallen and do what Denzel does.

Please allow me to introduce myself I'm a man of wealth and taste...

Great Movie.