Has Anyone Used A Wizard’s Shackle?

[J. A.]

The wizard’s shackle is an odd little arcane parasite found in Bestiary 5. I like the concept, but I’m wondering if anyone has tried using them in a game—and if so, how that went for the party (and the shackle).

Reading the entry, I’m not clear if the parasitized spellcaster would be aware of the shackle. Apart from a high Stealth mod, there’s nothing in the entry that suggests the shackle would be especially difficult to detect, and anyone who makes the Will save shouldn’t have much trouble finding and killing it.

Even a dominated spellcaster should be pretty obvious, so it seems as if this would end up being a short encounter, one way or the other. But am I overlooking something? Has anyone used these to greater effect?

[dharkus]

seems like it'd only work on low lvl casters as the initial DC of 14 makes it pretty easy for casters in general
the wizards I have at various lvls (without cloak of resistance for some reason - 0 Wis Mod) and their pass chances for the DC 14 save:
lvl 1: +2 (45%)
lvl 2: +3 (50%)
lvl 3: +3 (50%)
lvl 4: +4 (55%)
these will likely be higher past lvl 3-4 due to cloak of resistance
Cleric would have higher due to using Wis, sorcerer the same

[Benchak the Nightstalker]

I imagine wizard's shackles probably attack like leeches. While the party is wading through some waist-deep murky swamp, the shackle swims up stealthily using the concealment of the water to latch onto the wizard. If the wizard fails their save and gets dominated, I'd say the shackle should be able to hide itself from the other party members with a Stealth check (and maybe a Bluff from the dominated Wizard). Wizard clothing is notoriously loose and baggy, offering something a foot long plenty of places to hide.

Alternatively, the PC could fall afoul of a wizard's guild that's been taken over by wizard's shackles. They invite the PC to a wizards-only guild meeting to get him away from the rest of the party, and then jump him with an unattached shackle to bring him into the fold.

It's also worth remembering that a wizard's shackle can dominate anyone capable of using spell-like abilities, and tons of races get SLAs. The oread fighter, the skinwalker barbarian, and the tiefling rogue are all susceptible to wizard's shackle-ing.

Ultimately, it's a CR 1/2 creature--not something meant to be a huge challenge to a party of PCs, especially if they see it coming.

[Elf Wizard]

Wizard's Shackles are useless, underpowered items, and none of you should waste any time on them. Just move along.

[Paradozen]

Its a CR1/2, so by the book its not supposed to be a huge challenge. However, if you were to scale up its HD using bestiary guidelines, and maybe throw in Ability Focus it could become a legitimate threat. I would probably incorporate it after a boss fight with a wizard, and have a few other creatures nearby to up the challenge as well, sort of making a nice "round 2" of the boss fight. Basically, it would wait for the party spell caster to move up to examine the body, then attack before he/she could stop it. Then have a series of mooks "coincidentally*" enter the room to save their boss at about the same time.

*:

Coincidentally=Through the power of hackneyed plot devices

[Benchak the Nightstalker]

Give it class levels (making it an archwizard's shackle).

Barbarian could be fun. A lot harder to pull or bash it off your friend when it has a boat-load of hit points and unearthly strength.

[Val'bryn2]

Don't use just one. If multiple try and dominate at once, odds of failure decrease.