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View Full Version : Prison Items [3.5]



Froogleyboy
2009-06-28, 05:22 PM
Ok, I'm starting a 3.5 game and the players start out in a maximum security prison. I need some stuff that they could buy (they Don't use money, they use other forms of currency). I need weapons, and other forms of equipment

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-06-28, 05:37 PM
Not much(off the top of my head):
Shiv: Dagger, reduce damage by one dice size, -1 penalty to attack rolls for poor quality, breaks if you roll a nat-1. Increase Slight of Hand by +2.
Glass Wraps: Treat unarmed attacks as armed, +1 damage, piercing, x3 Crit. Essentially glass in cloth, wrapped around the fist.
Poisons: More expensive and weaker than the public versions, and has a failure chance
Drugs: probably your players won't want any
Magic items: Any item brought in will be powerful(to justify the cost of smuggling, it better be very valuable), designed to look like a mundane item, hit with Nystul's Magic Aura, and will never leave the posession of the owner. Keep in mind, powerful means a different thing inside than out. An item of Message at-will is going to be worth your weight in gold, while a Periapt of Wisdom +6 is nearly worthless.

Ravens_cry
2009-06-28, 05:41 PM
In modern prisons, cigarettes are basically a form of currency. In a Ye Olde style prison, I guess hooch or other crude liquor of some form or the other would be about equivalents. None of the prisoners are going to have armour, unless you want to get really weird and have leather armour made from human skin or multiple sewn together prison uniforms stuffed with hay or hair for crude padded armour. A shank or shiv is basically a dagger, though you could have een that only deals piercing damage,provides a bettter then dagger concealment bonus though slows movement by 10 ft to medium creatures while concealed because of place of stowage.

LibraryOgre
2009-06-28, 07:55 PM
It depends a lot on the prison you're talking about. If they have work to do, like in a modern prison, you're looking at purloined tools or pieces of the work they're doing. They may also have chains available, in the form of restraints weakened from the walls.

Corwin Weber
2009-06-28, 08:10 PM
Drugs of any kind would be common barter. What would be available in your campaign is up to you, but if it's a classical medieval setting, both marijuana and opium would exist. Someone else mentioned hooch, very likely. Stashed food as well, anything dried and preserved. Hard tack, meat that was allowed to dry... Anything someone could stash that wouldn't spoil quickly would be valuable in case the guards decided to put a prisoner on short rations. In terms of weapons, you're looking at improvised stuff, shivs, garrotes, even a small sap or other bludgeon. It's also possible that in a campaign setting there might even be magical items or other comforts. If there's any sort of organized crime, you can put good money down that luxuries are being brought in for the select crowd, anyway.

It's really kind of amazing what gets smuggled into most prisons. What gets improvised can be even more amazing.

Froogleyboy
2009-06-28, 08:42 PM
This is awesome keep it coming, and, no they do not get to work. Its very high security. Warforged stalk the halls 24/7 (for they do not need to sleep) but out on the court yard, humans man ballistas which they shoot at anyone who fights or attempts to run. The prison is an entire town. Each building includes 5 cell blocks, 1 court yard, and 5 apartment complexes for guards

quick_comment
2009-06-28, 08:48 PM
Spell components would be immensely valuable, unless the prison has no arcane casters and/or is blanketed in an antimagic field.

Imprisoned clerics would have to be stopped from obtaining a holy symbol by some means.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-06-28, 10:49 PM
Spell components would be immensely valuable, unless the prison has no arcane casters and/or is blanketed in an antimagic field.

Imprisoned clerics would have to be stopped from obtaining a holy symbol by some means.That's impossible. Ignoring the spell 'Summon Holy Symbol' (IIRC, level 1, verbal components, Cleric), a Cleric can carve a holy symbol into his own flesh if he wants to, and cast with that. You can't keep Holy Symbols out. Material Components are easier, but Wizards wouldn't be able to do much anyways, and Sorcerers are unlikely to have the right spells for their components anyways.

Ravens_cry
2009-06-28, 11:28 PM
The prison is an entire town. Each building includes 5 cell blocks, 1 court yard, and 5 apartment complexes for guards
Sounds like the guards are almost as much prisoners as the prisoners. :smalleek:

Froogleyboy
2009-06-28, 11:31 PM
Gaurds can leave whenever. And they have great luxaries (the job pays GREAT)

HamsterOfTheGod
2009-06-29, 01:52 AM
This is awesome keep it coming, and, no they do not get to work. Its very high security. Warforged stalk the halls 24/7 (for they do not need to sleep) but out on the court yard, humans man ballistas which they shoot at anyone who fights or attempts to run. The prison is an entire town. Each building includes 5 cell blocks, 1 court yard, and 5 apartment complexes for guards

I assume it's a breakout scenario or fight the monsters and npcs/inside the prison scenario (as opposed a Dirty Dozen scenario)?

If so then the initial guards should be a very easy CR for the unarmored and unarmed or improvised weapon armed pcs. After the initial break, the pcs can gather weapons from a guard or arms locker.

Or if you allow the pcs to buy or smuggle in some real weapons then you can increase the cr of the guards/mosters/npcs a little bit.

Jesse Drake
2009-06-29, 11:56 AM
How about doing magic items in the form of prison tattoos. Now, normally they'd work like scrolls... But that would suck to spend an afternoon getting tattoos. How about having them work like wands... At least you'd get to use them fifty times. Also, I'd see mages being bad a$$, since they'd get tattoos instead of spell books. Either that or they'd scratch their spells into the prison walls or the bunk above them.

Funkyodor
2009-06-29, 03:26 PM
Padded armor for those who beat the crap out of their neighbors and take their extra clothes as armor.

Simple weapons like shivs, clubs, spears (if they can be hidden), reinforced gloves with metal studs (gauntlets/spiked gauntlets), slings. Maybe crude hammers & great clubs. Anything larger than dagger size with an edge would be hard to keep up and eventually turn into a large flat crowbar.

Take a page out of the third season of prison break if you want some more ideas.

Fixer
2009-06-29, 03:51 PM
Another option is not to limit the characters' choice of weapons and have all the active-duty guards with trained rust monsters and some form of heavy DR/adamantine (special magic items keyed to guards, so if stolen they are useless). Less time trying to track who managed to sneak in what and more time making sure the prisoners don't get out.

Someone tries to attack a guard with a metal weapon, the rust monster eats the weapon.

Attack a guard with a wood weapon and it has a hard time bypassing DR.

JeenLeen
2009-06-29, 03:52 PM
How about doing magic items in the form of prison tattoos. Now, normally they'd work like scrolls... But that would suck to spend an afternoon getting tattoos. How about having them work like wands... At least you'd get to use them fifty times. Also, I'd see mages being bad a$$, since they'd get tattoos instead of spell books. Either that or they'd scratch their spells into the prison walls or the bunk above them.

There are rules in Complete Mage or Arcane for using your body as a (albeit very limited in pages) spellbook. A person with Eschew Materials and a tattooed spellbook, or Spell Mastery, could be a valuable prisoner.

This could be a good idea for an NPC as well, someone who has the tattoos in an esoteric language that is thought to be just tattoos. Unlikely given the intel the prison probably has, but it would allow smuggled messages or other non-showy spells to be used or traded. Also, Scribe Scroll source.

If the whole place isn't AMF, which I imagine a high-security place is.

Tiki Snakes
2009-06-29, 03:59 PM
Another option is not to limit the characters' choice of weapons and have all the active-duty guards with trained rust monsters and some form of heavy DR/adamantine (special magic items keyed to guards, so if stolen they are useless). Less time trying to track who managed to sneak in what and more time making sure the prisoners don't get out.

Someone tries to attack a guard with a metal weapon, the rust monster eats the weapon.

Attack a guard with a wood weapon and it has a hard time bypassing DR.

The major reason for restricting weapons in prison, or certainly one of them, is to stop the prisoners gutting each other like fish.

Rust monster-guards would not help with this.

Also, there is just such a thing as Prison Hooch, I believe. Assuming i'm not mistaken about that, I understand it tastes legendarily foul.

But yeah, Prisoners can get very inventive. It's not like they've much else to do. Shivs, bits of pipe, chain, whatever. I doubt concealing a shiv would really reduce speed, however, you're talking a metal spike the size of a pencil, maybe?

In RL prison, trouble prisoners often 'attack' guards or other prisoners by spraying 'substances' into their eyes. Whatever comes to hand, really. Use your imagination. :)

As for general things they could buy, well. Take a look at the Basic Equipment list. Anything that exists entirely for comfort or luxory would become GOLD DUST, pretty much. The most 'powerful' and influential prisoners often, apparently, stuff their cells full of otherwise mundane items as a status symbol, (especially food from outside).

snoopy13a
2009-06-29, 04:23 PM
Also, there is just such a thing as Prison Hooch, I believe. Assuming i'm not mistaken about that, I understand it tastes legendarily foul.



It is called Pruno. They make it by fermenting fruit taken from the prison cafeteria.

I'd think a D&D prison would be more like a "stereotypical" dungeon than a modern prison. Prisoners kept in dark, damp cells, they may be constantly chained, only fed bread and water, etc.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-06-29, 04:39 PM
I assume it's a breakout scenario or fight the monsters and npcs/inside the prison scenario (as opposed a Dirty Dozen scenario)?No mention of the possibility of a Hogan's Heroes scenario?

Tiki Snakes
2009-06-29, 04:41 PM
It is called Pruno. They make it by fermenting fruit taken from the prison cafeteria.

I'd think a D&D prison would be more like a "stereotypical" dungeon than a modern prison. Prisoners kept in dark, damp cells, they may be constantly chained, only fed bread and water, etc.

It's a prison the size of a small town, with robocops patrolling the corridors.

Could go either way, really.

Asheram
2009-06-29, 05:00 PM
No mention of the possibility of a Hogan's Heroes scenario?

... must be done...
Must Be Done!
But then again, I know nothing!

quick_comment
2009-06-29, 05:54 PM
For the ultra high security section, they would have antimagic fields (redundant, overlapping) everywhere, along with permanent walls of force.

For the ultra, ultra high security section, the entire place would be blanketed by a mythal that just plain forbids magic except to people attuned to it. (See the spellguard of silverymoon).

Wizards are stripped of spellbooks and their skin given a good once over with erasure spells.

Clerics are stripped of their holy symbol and given restoration and erasure spells to remove any tattooed or scarred holy symbols.

Sorcerer, Psions and Martial Adepts are the hardest to contain.

A sorcerer with eschew materials is either in an antimagic field or he is out of the prison. If he has invoke magic, he must be magically imprisoned, either by the amber sarcoghagus spell, a forcecage on the astral plane (astral= no teleportation), or you can keep him unconscious (like in heroes. Use drow knockout poison)

Psions can be managed with damping shackles.

Martial adepts must be kept in permanent forcecages. Anything else they can just punch through with stone dragon techniques.


And god help you if you want to imprison a jade phoenix mage.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-06-29, 05:58 PM
Really, high-level prisons aren't a possibility for D&D. I have to wonder, might it be cheaper to just kill them and Rez them after their sentance is up? Maybe use Trap the Soul instead, to prevent untimely rezzing. 5K is far less than the yearly wages for one of those guards, let alone the cost of the prison itself.

snoopy13a
2009-06-29, 06:15 PM
Really, high-level prisons aren't a possibility for D&D. I have to wonder, might it be cheaper to just kill them and Rez them after their sentance is up? Maybe use Trap the Soul instead, to prevent untimely rezzing. 5K is far less than the yearly wages for one of those guards, let alone the cost of the prison itself.

Like with everything else, non-magic users are cheap to hold. Basic masterwork manacles should hold anyone who doesn't have a base strength of 26 or a +15 to their escape artist check. The few that can overcome this can be tossed into special cells.

As for magic users, they may face fines instead of imprisonment, be subject to a geas spell or choose between jail or execution (with execution the penalty for escape or using magic in prison). Higher level magic users may simply either be fined or executed (assuming they can be caught, of course).

Tiki Snakes
2009-06-29, 06:22 PM
Really, high-level prisons aren't a possibility for D&D. I have to wonder, might it be cheaper to just kill them and Rez them after their sentance is up? Maybe use Trap the Soul instead, to prevent untimely rezzing. 5K is far less than the yearly wages for one of those guards, let alone the cost of the prison itself.

I agree. High Level characters just aren't going to stay put. Neither should they be expected to, so really execution or 'community service' are the only real options.

Of course, if you have access to a suitably impressive spellcaster of your own, you can always go the planar-prison route, and have an entire demiplane set up to keep high level criminals locked up.

But I suspect, given that the PC's are Starting Out in prison, they aren't likely to be TOO high level just yet. :) They are low level enough to be troubled by siege engines, at the very least! ;)

Heliomance
2009-06-29, 07:06 PM
Um, ballistas? Is it even possible for them to hit a human-sized moving target by anything other than sheer luck?

Xenogears
2009-06-29, 07:24 PM
Grafts could make for an interesting option for the PC's to purchase in prison.

Tukka
2009-06-29, 08:19 PM
Um, ballistas? Is it even possible for them to hit a human-sized moving target by anything other than sheer luck?
Yeah, longbows with sleep arrows or arrows coated in drow knockout poison, or any poison that deals something other than Con damage (working under the assumption that the goal is to incapacitate rather than kill misbehaving or escaping prisoners) would seem to make a little more sense.

Assuming the prison yard isn't under the effect of an AMF, there would probably be a few spellcasters on hand with spells like glitterdust, stinking cloud, sound burst, sleep/deep slumber, ray of exhaustion, faerie fire, entangle, hold person and command readied. Tanglefoot bags would be on hand as well.

They'd also have a tracker available for hunting down prisoners who do manage to escape. Possibly they'd collect a bit of hair from every inmate and file it away to use to aid in the scrying of particularly elusive jailbirds.

Corwin Weber
2009-06-29, 08:31 PM
Ok, I think we're getting out of hand here. AMF's? Tattoo erasing?

Let's face it: Any character that was that high level wouldn't see the inside of a prison. Their cell would be a crossbow bolt to the back of the head... probably with the body cremated and scattered or animated as a zombie to prevent raise dead. In most campaigns, true res or wish would be rare enough that they likely wouldn't worry about it.

Froogleyboy
2009-06-29, 09:13 PM
Not really ballistas, more as Crossbows that shoot spears.

Corwin Weber
2009-06-29, 09:19 PM
Not really ballistas, more as Crossbows that shoot spears.

I think Arbalest is the word you're looking for.

HamsterOfTheGod
2009-06-30, 08:16 AM
No mention of the possibility of a Hogan's Heroes scenario?

Oh that's just a "survive prison" scenario with clean humor, eg you drop the soap and the guy behind you...trips :)