Binding a demon to your body [3.5]

[true_shinken]

Can it be done? I skimmed through a few books and found nothing on it.
I ask because though I like the idea of the Masked Demon (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71073) prestige class, I dislike the way the inner demon itself works, so I'm looking for alternatives.
Binder is similar, but I wanted one demon, just a single one, bound to someone's body on a permanence basis.
Any thoughts on this? Am I missing it on some obvious books?

[Marnath]

I don't remember exactly what book it's in, but there is an Acolyte of the Skin PrC that at the capstone makes you an outsider(I think.) Try looking in the BoVD, maybe that's where I saw it.

[Woodsman]

It's not BoVD. It might be Complete Arcane, actually. Lemme check...

Edit: Yep, Acolyte of the Skin comes from Complete Arcane

[Greenish]

That's essentially what a demonbinder (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20070430a&page=3) does.

[true_shinken]

It's not BoVD. It might be Complete Arcane, actually. Lemme check...

Edit: Yep, Acolyte of the Skin comes from Complete Arcane

But Acolyte of the Skin is just one of the 'become something' prcs stealing a piece of good fluff. ^^
I was for something like... 'if you bind a babau, you get X and Y bonuses' and such.



That's essentially what a demonbinder (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20070430a&page=3) does.
Indeed, I had already seen that class, but wanted something that could be done against someone's will. If all else fails I'll have to work with demonbinder, though.
Also, demonbinder get to choose which demon they bind. I want a one-demon thing. I'm trying to watch my figure. /Tenacious D

[Volthawk]

Well, there is a 3rd party template that does this. Demon-possessed, from the Advanced Bestiary.

[druid91]

I don't know about that but there is a dragon PrC that uses a demon as it's heart.

[true_shinken]

I don't know about that but there is a dragon PrC that uses a demon as it's heart.

Very interesting. Do you know the edition number?

[TheGeckoKing]

Isn't it the Disiple of Asharaldaron from the Draconomicon?

[druid91]

No not the magazine.

Draconomicon... Disciple of Ashardalon.

It's for dragons but it could probably be modified.

[Wings of Peace]

If the only thing stopping you from playing a Binder is the fluff then just re-fluff it. Instead of saying that you're binding Demons say that you're releasing locks on the Demon inside of you. When you draw your circles you're releasing the spiritual locks placed on you in order to allow some of the demon's power to filter through. If you fail the binding check it just means you were unable to handle the release and some of the demon's psyche overwhelmed your own thus causing behavioral changes.

[peacenlove]

Fiendish Codex Hordes of the abyss has rules for demon possession, and in the book of vile darkness there are 2 spells that make the demon unable to flee the possessed, and unable to affect him in any way respectively. The spells are permanent also, but dispellable.

[true_shinken]

If the only thing stopping you from playing a Binder is the fluff then just re-fluff it. Instead of saying that you're binding Demons say that you're releasing locks on the Demon inside of you. When you draw your circles you're releasing the spiritual locks placed on you in order to allow some of the demon's power to filter through. If you fail the binding check it just means you were unable to handle the release and some of the demon's psyche overwhelmed your own thus causing behavioral changes.

It's not the fluff. I don't want a guy who wakes up and decided 'today I'm going to bind demon X!'
I want a guy who had a demon bound to him, probably against his will, but has a few powers out of it.


Fiendish Codex Hordes of the abyss has rules for demon possession, and in the book of vile darkness there are 2 spells that make the demon unable to flee the possessed, and unable to affect him in any way respectively. The spells are permanent also, but dispellable.
Looks like exactly what I want. Damn, I have to buy that book.

[pffh]

It's not the fluff. I don't want a guy who wakes up and decided 'today I'm going to bind demon X!'
I want a guy who had a demon bound to him, probably against his will, but has a few powers out of it.

That's what he refluffed it as. A demon is bound inside you and by doing the circles/rituals you are letting a small part of the demon through your souls/minds/whatever defenses and trying to control it. Good pact = you succeed, bad pact = more of the demon comes through.

[druid91]

Then IIRC a modified Disciple of Ashardalon is close to what your looking for.

[Brendan]

in a campaign im running I refluff xp and leveling to binding a demon to your body, but I can't really think of much other than binder, rules-wise. a warlock could work...

[Aharon]

There's also a 3rd party book that does pretty much exactly what you want, but the crunch is horrible - you are likely to end up either a lot weaker than without a demon, or possessed, or dead.

If you are interested anyway, I will try to dig out the name of the sourcebook.

[true_shinken]

That's what he refluffed it as. A demon is bound inside you and by doing the circles/rituals you are letting a small part of the demon through your souls/minds/whatever defenses and trying to control it. Good pact = you succeed, bad pact = more of the demon comes through.
Well, that must be a really really powerful demon to have all those binder abilities. I'm betting on FCI...
Wait, just though about looking for possession instead of binding and discovered there are rules for it in Book of Vile Darkness. I'm betting FCI does it better, though.

EDIT: This reminded me of Dororo. Are any of you familiar with (http://www.cinedica.com.br/capas/9691.png) it (http://www.interney.net/blogs/media/blogs/maximum/DororoManga.jpg)?

[Wabbajack]

There are the Infused Spellcaster and Infused Warrior PRCs in Dragon Magazine 321, they are based on bound celestials but you could make a homebrewed version and use these classes as basis.

EDIT: This (http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Classes-Prestige.pdf) PDF from Crystal Keep has a table with the specific effects of different celestials for the classes on page 135.

[true_shinken]

in the book of vile darkness there are 2 spells that make the demon unable to flee the possessed, and unable to affect him in any way respectively.
I couldn't find those spells in the index. Maybe they are from some other book?

[Ryuuk]

Looking at it backwards, there's also the Leadership feat and a cohort with the Fiend of Possession (Fiend Folio) prestige class. Who's trapped with who could be sorted out in RP, but mechanically, the two could be considered stuck together.

[HunterOfJello]

Fiendish Familars are fun for spellcasters. You get bonus spells learned as a wizard and an extra face on your body. Also, if you keep it on your back, you can always have someone with darkvision watching your back for you!

[An Enemy Spy]

Binding Demons to ourselves. That's going to help our case against the fundamentalists who think we worship the devil.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Looks like exactly what I want. Damn, I have to buy that book.

I'd actually advise against casting the spell that makes the bound demon useless. You can get some nifty bonuses from a possessed demon, so long as it's willing to co-operate with you, which can take some doing but hey...if it's bound inside of your body until you die, might as well try to convince it to enjoy the ride too, right?

[Prime32]

Looking at it backwards, there's also the Leadership feat and a cohort with the Fiend of Possession (Fiend Folio) prestige class. Who's trapped with who could be sorted out in RP, but mechanically, the two could be considered stuck together.This. You can get some awesome stuff (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3364) out of this. Note that a FoP possessing a weapon can change its properties as a free action. So auto-bane.

IIRC the Fiend Folio, Fiendish Codex and Eberron Campaign Setting have the same possession rules (the possession-related spells appear in an Eberron supplement), but only Fiend Folio has the PrC which makes it playable (rather than granting all abilities for +2 CR).

[golem1972]

An Evil Outsider Cohort with Fiend of Posession and Fiend of Corruption (both 6 level classes) seems to be your best bet (to me at least).

I've been playing around with a "Legion" build.
Basically, my Malconvoker gets himself turned into a Legion Devil, then binds a small army of Legion Devils / FoP and have them possess me. Kind of a Nano-bots effect. Possibly get a Legion Devil Cohort / FoP / FoC.

[peacenlove]

I couldn't find those spells in the index. Maybe they are from some other book?

Impotent Possessor and Imprison Possessor, at page 98, BoVD. And yeah the fiendish codex adds some more options for your possessed demon over BoVD.

[Runestar]

Dragons of Faerun has the diamond shield, which lets you trap a fiend inside and benefit from some of its abilities.

[LOTRfan]

Just a question: I notice that Demons (as long as they take 4 levels in warlock) qualify for this class pretty easily. Can a Demon bind other demons to itself?

[Acanous]

Kill him, raise him as some sort of intelligent undead, then cast Vile Death.

[true_shinken]

Impotent Possessor and Imprison Possessor, at page 98, BoVD. And yeah the fiendish codex adds some more options for your possessed demon over BoVD.

Can't believe I missed them, thanks.
Yeah, that's exactly what I want. The idea is a drow (probably a drow demonologist) that binds a demon to his half-drow son as he sends him to the surface as a spy. The binding is supposed to make the half-drow stick to the drow ways; he doesn't want his son to soften up.

[Keinnicht]

No not the magazine.

Draconomicon... Disciple of Ashardalon.

It's for dragons but it could probably be modified.

Oh god, why would they make that?

Ashardalon was bad enough. :smalleek:

If not a PrC, why not just give them the half-fiend or fiendish template (depending on how extreme the binding is) and throw in some adjustments based on specific demon type?