What kind of spell(s) / spellcaster could accomplish a "compelling fog"?

[alexanderb]

I had this idea for the BBEG to set out a fog at night, that lasts about 6h, which instils the idea of "everything's fine, just stay indoors" among the citizens. I.e. it should tell them to stay indoors, and "don't worry too much about it, your brother is probably just visiting someone -- why would he be missing?" So the fog makes them agreeable to somewhat reasonable suggestions and requests.

The town has roughly 500 citizens, and is quite small. But the fog would have to cover quite a bit of ground nonetheless, as most people are farmers living on the outskirts of town.

Bonus points if it can be set of by a mook using a wand, or something else that means the BBEG doesn't even have to be there to make it manifest every night.

[avr]

Sounds like you want a monster with suggestion at-will; you're not going to get that sort of area of effect on a wand. There are some which can be obtained via planar binding/planar ally, or you could just hire (or bully, blackmail, even seduce etc.) a few satyrs. The fog might be an illusion to allow them to move about with stealth easily.

[alexanderb]

That's one idea. Although I'm not sure how well it scales. suggestion is 1h/l, which likely means that they'll have to talk to 500 people *daily* for it to stick. Which might not be too feasible.

[tonyz]

Guards and wards includes a fog with built-in suggestion spells.

Mind fog gives everyone in it a -10 to Will saves, making them very suggestible.

Both of those are above wand level, but maybe they could be put in a scroll. Perhaps the minion has a 1/day item that creates the desired effect. However you do it, though, this is a pretty powerful effect, probably in the range of a 7th- or 8th-level spell.

Perhaps a two-part effect. Control weather or summon weather could create the fog, and then the suggestion could come from something else. Mass suggestion is also a sixth-level spell but it only affects 1 creature per level, so again we're looking at very high-level magic here.

Possibly a darkskull variant (create an unhallow effect in a radius near the thing) or a pair of them (one for the fog, one for the suggestion).

[avr]

Does it need to target everyone, necessarily? Medieval farmers don't tend to go out much. Just have your agents go after the exceptions when they do go out.

[BigDTBone]

If it is for a bbeg then you just need to make a custom spell that is the highest level it can cast and call it a day. It discovered the ability via spell research. Yadda yadda. Put the spell into a daily use item for the cohort to activate. You need to be prepared for the adventurers to get ahold of the spell and item in the future.

[j b 200]

To piggy back on TBone, the mechanics of how the BBEG makes the effect don't really matter. Just say he learned a "ritual" or has a powerful McGuffin that allows him to create the effect. The idea is actually really cool, and makes for a great story.

[alexanderb]

I suppose I can just have a custom spell for making a fog that has a suggestion effect on everyone it passes by, making them accept reasonable requests at a reasonable will save -- much like Manacles of Cooperation. Then he can just gimp it a bit to reduce everyone else's will save by, say, 10. Then put it on a ring, or whatever, with one use per day.

What level would you say this spell is? Max? I haven't actually designed the details of the BBEG yet, so there's no real limitations in that regard -- but he's supposed to be a sorcerer.

He's also going to have basically Manacles of Cooperations, but as a necklace with a rather quite intense DC, made for those poor sods.

[LuniasM]

tonyz wrote:

Guards and wards includes a fog with built-in suggestion spells.

Mind fog gives everyone in it a -10 to Will saves, making them very suggestible.

Both of those are above wand level, but maybe they could be put in a scroll. Perhaps the minion has a 1/day item that creates the desired effect. However you do it, though, this is a pretty powerful effect, probably in the range of a 7th- or 8th-level spell.

Perhaps a two-part effect. Control weather or summon weather could create the fog, and then the suggestion could come from something else. Mass suggestion is also a sixth-level spell but it only affects 1 creature per level, so again we're looking at very high-level magic here.

Possibly a darkskull variant (create an unhallow effect in a radius near the thing) or a pair of them (one for the fog, one for the suggestion).

Mind Fog is actually pretty depressing, as it allows a Will save to negate the effect entirely regardless of the length of time spent in the fog. Depending on the level of this villain you may wish to bump the DC with stuff like Spell Focus / Spell Perfection and Persistent Spell.

To the OP:

Kingmaker Spoilers:

If you aren't opposed, there's an item in Kingmaker Book 3 - Varnhold Vanishing called the Oculus of Abaddon which may fit your needs, at least as a baseline. Once per year it may be activated to cast Mass Charm Monster affecting a 1-mile radius, and creatures who can understand language and less than 6 HD automatically fail their saves, while creatures with 6 HD or more get a Will save to negate the effect. You could base it off this item and change it to spread with mist within the radius, then tie it to a Suggestion to stay inside.