Creatures with possession powers question


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


Weird thought but might there be some cases where someone would willingly let a creature use possession to "borrow" their body in exchange for money? I assume this would mainly apply to melee classes since most possession abilities don't let you use the host's spells or supernatural abilities. It's not any weirder than outsiders letting people call them in exchange for money.


The possessors I can remember are pretty antisocial. I wouldn't advise anyone to take a shadow demon's money even if they're really hard up. Do you have a less psycho example in mind?


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After looking around a bit, I found the Ataxians, Tiny Outsiders associated with Cayden Cailean. Their Magic Jar ability is even "willing target only".
"Ataxians love to possess worshipers of the Drunken Hero and experience life in an “enormous” body, and they seize the chance whenever they can. Many tales of a drunken peasant single-handedly defeating a gang of ruffians can be attributed to the unexpected intervention of one of these servitors."
They'd probably pay in alcohol rather than gold, though.

Also, Astral Dragons and Prism Dragons of sufficient age - they're neutral/chaotic neutral, at least.


in the shadowrun setting game (Set in futuristic earth + magic) there is a new form of entertainment 'sim' that replaces tv and movies. it allow a user to experience the whole 5 senses of whoever record the 'film' (and if not regulated to keep the senses output in check can also be highly addictive. - chip addicts).

i can see some sort of high class geisha or playboy selling "a night in my 'perfect' body" to rich unattractive\shy\old etc clients.(high fines set to anyone who abuse the body. bodyguards ARE set for the night to make sure).

can also be used as a 3rd party to help negotiate a conflict. hiring out their personal to make the meeting when two sides can't even be set around the same table. (again bodyguards\fines etc).

underwater\flight experience for the morbidly hydrophobic\afraid of heights.

more and more..


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Prism dragons and astral dragons don't need a human body to fight, of all things. They might want to fake being humanoid of course (for longer than the duration of polymorph), especially prism dragons. The price there would depend on how much you care about being involved in their plans more than any power you could offer.

An ataxian probably wants experiences like zza ni describes only less potentially icky.

I don't see any comparison for reasonable prices other than what the GM sees as a reasonable reward for an adventure. You know that any of those will drop you headfirst into an adventure, right?


Pan, definitely not a Kitsune wrote:

After looking around a bit, I found the Ataxians, Tiny Outsiders associated with Cayden Cailean. Their Magic Jar ability is even "willing target only".

"Ataxians love to possess worshipers of the Drunken Hero and experience life in an “enormous” body, and they seize the chance whenever they can. Many tales of a drunken peasant single-handedly defeating a gang of ruffians can be attributed to the unexpected intervention of one of these servitors."
They'd probably pay in alcohol rather than gold, though.

Also, Astral Dragons and Prism Dragons of sufficient age - they're neutral/chaotic neutral, at least.

Interesting, I actually couldn't think of any non-evil monsters with possession off-hand (other than, of course, psychics with the possession spell.) I would guess it's because it seems like kind of a "bad" power in general (it's telling that the Ataxian's possession only works on willing targets.)


Yqatuba wrote:
Interesting, I actually couldn't think of any non-evil monsters with possession off-hand (other than, of course, psychics with the possession spell.) I would guess it's because it seems like kind of a "bad" power in general (it's telling that the Ataxian's possession only works on willing targets.)

Slightly relevant:

Some people are surprised by how many good Outsiders have Charm and Compulsion SLAs

Also, to make the Ataxians creepy again: Unconscious creatures count as willing for spell effects. Let's hope that their host was actually willing and not just black-out drunk…


Pan, definitely not a Kitsune wrote:
Yqatuba wrote:
Interesting, I actually couldn't think of any non-evil monsters with possession off-hand (other than, of course, psychics with the possession spell.) I would guess it's because it seems like kind of a "bad" power in general (it's telling that the Ataxian's possession only works on willing targets.)

Slightly relevant:

Some people are surprised by how many good Outsiders have Charm and Compulsion SLAs

Also, to make the Ataxians creepy again: Unconscious creatures count as willing for spell effects. Let's hope that their host was actually willing and not just black-out drunk…

Considering they're always CG I doubt they would. Also, I agree it's odd how many good outsiders have mind control. I can kind of understand though as I imagine they usually use them to AVOID hurting/killing people. (i.e, using mind control to make someone go away seems nicer than blowing them up with a fireball.)

Sovereign Court

I could see a marketplace in Cheliax where Fighters/Barbarians auction off their time by the day for possession. Higher than normal strength/con/hit point retraining for a higher wage. Basically serve as hp/stats buffs for weaker Wizards.


Yqatuba wrote:
Also, I agree it's odd how many good outsiders have mind control. I can kind of understand though as I imagine they usually use them to AVOID hurting/killing people. (i.e, using mind control to make someone go away seems nicer than blowing them up with a fireball.)

I don't actually think it's odd - I'm the guy in that thread who kept arguing that Charm Person isn't worse than a high BAB (or a sword). Both have evil and good uses (and I'd argue that there are more good uses for Charm than for threats of violence). I made that list because I wanted to prove that point.

Compulsion/Dominate is more problematic, but even that can simply be used to order someone to disarm and lock themselves in a cell - no worse than knocking them out and locking them up, just less effort because they're doing it themselves, and less violent because no one has to get hurt.

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