(3.5) building a prison

[Soup]

Hey all,

I'm working on a campaign which most likely has the players starting off (or at some point finding themselves) in a prison. Well, more like a labor camp really.

I'm looking for a way to null spells, SU effects and psionics for the prisoners, while hopefully allows prison guards to still use them. Can you guys think of anything?

My first thought was having the prisoners wear collars which supress these abilities. The only problem would be that such a collar would be fairly expensive and can't be used on a wide scale. Also, if the players were to get a hold of such an item, I shudder at the thought of what they'll do with it.

An AMF could work I suppose, but I'd rather have the guards able to use spells and effects.

[ahenobarbi]

AMF in "prisoner area", no AMF in "staff area" so staff can buff themselves and blast prisoners?

And you know if you are holding decent level casters in prison items that make it impossible to cast are actually wort every cp you pay for them :smallwink:

If you don't want players to use that items just make "personal casting removal collar" - it needs to be crafted for specific creature (dunno mix a dose of blood of that creature during creation or something like that) and works only for that creature.

[Madeiner]

What's the technology level?

You could have "magic distortion fields/collars". They only work in a 1 mile radius around a special tech/magic machinery that is below the prison itself. The players will have to deactivate the machinery to escape. Depending on if you want to go "moral", make sure the players know that deactivating said machinery will probably allow for a revolt. Murderers will escape and guards will be killed...

[Red_Dog]

I've had to build a law-prison town. (its not all finished, but basic stuff I had to design).

Ok so here is a list of basic things for level 8 average joe world[most creatures are at that level]=>

=> Master-worked Manacles
=> Magical Alarms
=> Adamantine manacles[not sure which book, i think Dungeonscape but DC to break is 50(!)]
=> Manacles with Permanent Dimensional Anchor. [prevents a prisoner from plane-shifts/ethereal jaunts]
=> Arcane Mark on all prisoners as somewhat of a "number".
=> Wide spread use of Gease/Quest. Prisoner is ordered to fail the save, and if he/she won't he/she is punished. When gease is applied, simple things like, do not leave this place without escort should be enough as command.
=>Various wards and signs are a great way to restrict traffic and create "clearances". They would need to be renewed so a human element here could be exploited.
=> Signs of sealing works wonders on manacles and locks. If manacles are broken/opened => sign goes of severely wounding everyone around that's not immune to force.
=> Things like arcane eyes work as cameras.
=>Exotic weapons like pincer staff(koatoa use them) and "mancatcher-looka-likes" can be used to transport prisoners from one place to another. Combining this with ray of enfeeblement to it is easier to contained a grappled individual. Will look very "hanibal lectory"
=> If prisoner is being transferred, placing spymaster's coin into manacles as a "tracking device" in case of a break-in.

As the "weight of crimes" increases, other forms could be implemented =>

=> Spells such as bestow curse(or its greater or lesser versions) for some period of time, can make for nice prolong "assisted incarceration".
=> Various soul stealing mechanics could trap a person in a gem
=> A ritual to change alignment to say Lawful-evil and then death would mean sending a person to 9 hells. Alternatively simply contacting Devils, Daemons or Inevitables and handing the subject over, accomplishes a similar goal.
=> Finally the most severe punishment of all is [B]"Imprisonment" Spell. Basically unlike other soul stealing spells (as far as I think), this one makes a subject insane fairly soon. For this, in the prison town there is a dungeon that has a lot of empty cells, all different sizes. If another imprisonment is warranted, a new cell is made and subject is placed inside, than the spell is cast. This gives a SLIM chance of freedom (at leas location can be pinpointed), but otherwise, no other gimmick (that I am aware of) can undo this.

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P.S. As a practical example, a party had to rescue "an enemy of state" type of individual before he was imprisoned. He was transported on a convoy in a Metal cast iron crate, with locks locking the only door. Inside, was a bottle that contained the prisoner[efreeti] that was encased in a forced chest and secured with chains in 4 directions and those chains were warded with Sign of sealing casted by CL10(I think? I forgot exactness). On the ceiling of the box, a ward (forget which one) that casted dimension anchor on the bottle if the bottle was removed. The bottle also had spymaster coin grafted in to it. The box also contained an arcane Eye, floating around as a "video camera" to alert when to activate the coin. Efreeti himself had dimension shackles on him. (Bottle didn't count as extra dimensional pocket but as "his ability to get in to it")...

So yeah, some of these high level... ^^ And for the record, party did broke thru all of that. I was a bit surprised. Knock spell fixes a lot. And they got lucky that one of them dispel sweeped the bottle at the end and got the coin.

So yeah, hope this helps ^^

[bloodtide]

There are mundane ways to deal with magic:

1.Gag or otherwise keep spellcasters silent. Anything that stops them from speaking works.

2.Restrict movement. You need free hands to spellcast, so leave no spellcaster with a free hand. Anything that stops hand movement works.

3.Sight. A spellcaster must see to target spells.

4.Rest. A spellcaster needs rest to regain spells.

5.Clear mind. A spellcaster needs a clear head to cast spells.

And if you put all of them together, no one is casting any spells.

Example: Velus the elf is gagged, chained to a cart with his arms spread, blindfolded, is beat and otherwise prevented from sleeping more then an hour, and is drugged up too. Velus won't be casting any spells.

Granted you'd get the rare spellcaster with still spell, silent spell and other such abilities. But even so you will still stop them cold with the no rest and not a clear mind.

[ahenobarbi]

Ah true if you make sure they don't get more than 7 hours rest/day no casting for them (if they didn't have any spells prepared/ spell slots on them when they arrived... but I think you could make sure they don't). It would be enough and less cruel then constantly beating them up gagged and with hands tied

I assume you care about morality because if not you could just kill them & trap their souls. It would be much safer than prison.

[Hirax]

The temporal stasis spell is a fine solution for long term prisoner storage.

[gbprime]

What LEVEL will the PC's be when they're in prison?

Most prisons assume low level types. You need something like the "all plastic prison just for holding Magneto" by the time the spellcasters hit 9th, though. Before that it doesn't need to be anything too special.

A cheaper route would be a Bestow Curse (or Greater Bestow Curse) to give all a person's Spells, Spell-like, and Supernatural abilities a 100% chance of failure inside a certain area... like ground Hallowed to a particular deity of law.

That way, busting out requires good old fashioned elbow grease, or someone on the outside who can smuggle in a Remove Curse or Unhallow.

[Lapak]

Speaking just in terms of cost/effectiveness, if I was a ruler who was cruel (or heartlessly practical) and I wanted to keep spellcasters alive in a prison camp for some reason, I'd cut out their tongues and clap them in irons. The rare spontaneous spellcaster who has Still and Silent available to him might cause trouble and/or escape (though he might not, as any spellcasting guards would not have similar limitations), which would put him on the 'kill on sight' list for his troubles. Costs me only a good set of manacles per prisoner, and if it's supposed to be a temporary thing I could always have their tongue regenerated upon their release.

That's probably not the best route to go if you're imprisoning PCs, but I thought I should throw it out there; it's infinitely more practical than giant AMFs or custom-designed (and probably expensive) magic-suppressing items.