I'm running a solo game for a person (And he's likewise running a solo game for me).
Baron Blacksteel, if you are reading this, I respectfully ask you to refrain from continuing to read it.
the long story:
Baron Blacksteel is a 6th level wizard who has recently acquired a usable castle, which is fine, he's put appropriate work into getting it. Likewise he's building up a force of minions so that he can later on go toe to toe with a Duke. This is all fine.
He has a penchant for buying scrolls of spells way above his level, so that he can have "nuke" options when he encounters things above his CR instead of running away from it. (Polar Ray saw a lot of use)
As part of a random quest (He openly asked for a random quest so that he could get enough xp to ping) he went on a vampire hunt. I expected him to Polar Ray his way through it, but he pulls out a scroll that I let him buy four sessions ago, Geas, and not the lesser form, the proper one that allows no save. Using some other spells to get the vampire (Invisible) to reveal their position, he casts Geas with the command “Unquestionably and unconditionally serve me with absolute loyalty” before the fight gets underway. The vamp doesn't get a save, I spend ten minutes looking for a rule that casting from a scroll would have a casting time other than standard action, too far away to interrupt with an AoO. I decide the vamp gets at least a spellcraft check to recognize it (they fail) and is unable to cover their ears to block it.
Baron Blacksteel now has a pet vampire, and not just a spawn. I'd like the boards thoughts on the situation in general, but I have two key questions:
A: How much wiggle room would the vampire have with a command of “Unquestionably and unconditionally serve me with absolute loyalty” ?
B: Is it kosher to hit him with his own trick, and have one of the wizards foes teleport in, and Scroll Geas him in two rounds?
tl;dr:
I have a player that managed to land a proper Geas on a Vampire, binding them into reluctant but loyal service. They did this using a loophole in the scroll casting time rules.
A: How much wiggle room would the vampire have with a command of “Unquestionably and unconditionally serve me with absolute loyalty” ?
B: Is it kosher to hit him with his own trick, and have one of the wizards foes teleport in, and Scroll Geas him in two rounds?
Well, the good news is that the vampire has been faking. Geas is mind-affecting and undead are immune to it. No doubt, since you as the GM were (ahem) totally aware of this, the vampire has just been biding his time to betray the Baron at the worst possible time.
The bad news is that he'll probably try to pull the geas trick again, on somebody who's not immune. So be wary.
(One of the nastiest traps I ever put in a game was a greater glyph of warding trap loaded with a quest - go to the Upper Planes and confess your attempted break-in to a powerful celestial.)
Best fun: Vampire's sire finds out, pops by when Baron is preoccupied, and breaks the enchantment on the Vampire. They conspire to ensure the vampire continues to pretend like he's under the gaes until the appropriate moment hits, at which point he eats the wizard.
In the meanwhile, it can do little things that cannot be traced back to him like leaving a gate unlocked, planting scrying sensors in places, sabotage, etc. All the while pretending to still be under the gaes.
I'd say give him his pet vampire for a bit, until it does something notable, then plan the break/conspiracy. It can set up a master vampire as a major villain in the player's future, perhaps one that works with all the other big bad guys as kind of a financier/planner.
In addition to the other things pointed out here it's worth also noting that such a thing would last about two weeks. From the description of Lesser Geas(Which is referenced by Geas):
PRD wrote:
If the instructions involve some open-ended task that the recipient cannot complete through his own actions, the spell remains in effect for a maximum of 1 day per caster level
Yeah, I think your player screwed up. Did he really not know about the casting time? It's entirely possible, given that he also forgot that undead would be immune anyway.
If he likes to nuke people with scrolls, keep in mind that the DC and caster level for the scroll will normally be the absolute minimum; scrolls of a higher caster level cost a LOT more. And the DC is computed as if the caster had the minimum sufficient casting stat for the scroll.
So scroll-spells tend to make poor SoD/SoS spells because the caster level is on the low side and the save is on the easy side. And they're still quite expensive.
Now what to do with your player? If he was acting in bad faith, call him on it. If he was just being a bit dumb, have the vampire turn the tables on him, and teach him a lesson about hubris.
Hmm, yeah. Undead are immune to mind-affecting spells. So, as Lincoln Hills has pointed out, the vampire has been faking.
Spoiler:
And now all the vampire has to do is wait till an unguarded moment, drain him dry, and raise him as a spawn (who will, of course, be bound to serve his maker faithfully, per the bestiary entry).
Then the shoe will be on the other foot, and you'll have a whole chapter (or more) in which Baron Blacksteel seeks to bring about his master's demise to secure his independence once more.
Then, potentially a chapter seeking a cure for vampirism, assuming the player is not okay with playing an evil undead creature who feeds on the blood of the living and can never get a suntan. Simplest solution might be to 1) destroy himself so he's just plain dead rather than undead, and 2) have himself resurrected.
I wouldn't actually turn him into a vampire. The player might not want to give up his new superpowers. The vampire template basically un-squishies a wizard.
As has been noted, the vampire is clearly not actually under the geas. I'd absolutely roll with it though, which may lead to fun.
That said, if this had actually worked (say if the Threnodic Spell metamagic feat had been involved, which allows mind-affecting spells to impact undead), my response as a DM would be to immediately have the vampire dominate the PC. Why? Well... EVIL. See, the vampire knows that the best way it could possible serve the silly mortal is to remove the ignorant buffoon's decision-making process from the equation. Clearly Count Flatula (don't like the name? Well 'ptttthhhhht' is what I say to you!) knows better than the dorky mortal.
