How to make a fake slave [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

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JeminiZero

2012-03-25, 11:24 AM

Xynphos

2012-03-25, 11:28 AM

Assuming you are the caster. You could take Dragon Familiar and get a Silver/Gold dragon, which have Alternate Form.

And having a dragon to use wands is just cool :smallwink:

Communard

2012-03-25, 11:29 AM

Can't you just take the party member with the best Bluff and have them pretend to be the slave? Unless they are going to be in a potentially lethal situation or sold or something...

Bastian Weaver

2012-03-25, 11:30 AM

Why not let another party member pose as a slave, then help him (and other slaves, perhaps) break out?

Vizzerdrix

2012-03-25, 11:33 AM

Animate dead on a fresh body, with gentile repose? Just cut out the tongue so they can't try to talk to it.

Inferno

2012-03-25, 11:46 AM

Hire a Commoner to do it? A few silver at most should have somebody jumping at the chance, maybe promise a whole gold piece to their family should things go horribly wrong?

dgnslyr

2012-03-25, 11:58 AM

Putting a commoner in danger seems a bit unknightly, but having a party member with a good bluff skill sounds like a good idea. How good are these slavers? Just ordinary thugs? A mindflayer cabal?

Otomodachi

2012-03-25, 12:25 PM

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TrojanPrisoner

If someone is lacking bluff, the important thing is to carefully plan ahead how to respond to certain questions.

Yes, you really DO want to sell this person as a slave... (so that you can later take these slavers down)

Why, yes, he *IS* very strong... (especially in matters of slaying you, dude)

so on, et cetera, blah blah.

Wookie-ranger

2012-03-25, 12:51 PM

Leadership feat? seams a bit too obvious not to have been mentioned already, but the cohort would do anything you ask anyway; so for most purposes that would qualify as a mind-controlled slave anyway.
and then again, there are few builds that don't benefit from Leadership

try rod of ruler-ship (or something like that) i am AFB right now, but i think that makes people follow you around.

a bit ... odd... but does your DM allow PC on PC skill checks? if yes try to Bluff/Diplomacy the Paladin. :smallbiggrin: "i swear this is the actor i hired to play the slave! he is just begging to let him go because is is sooo much into his role! is he not a great actor?" :smallbiggrin:

What about undead? a zombie looks like he did in live. so try to "find" a someone that just happened to have died of some horrible poison and cast Animate dead (note, animate dead is not an evil spell :smallamused:)
if you want to go the extra mile look for creatures that have a very low body temperature, i would argue some cold-subtype would qualify, and "find" that poisoned body. a little disguise he and there and he looks like new!

except for that i like the peasant idea, give him a few silver and promise that if everything goes well he gets a few A PLATINUM and some random (aka: minor) magic stuff; like a +1 axe to help with woodcutting of something.

nedz

2012-03-25, 02:34 PM

Volunteer the paladin. Stripped of his usual armour and weapons he will be unlikely to be recognised. Have him cast Undetectable Alignment (Level 2 Pal) on himself, its probably best if he appear neutral. Tell the slavers that your slave is a bit mad, and that he thinks he's a paladin (bluff required here, but not by your pally).

Coidzor

2012-03-25, 02:41 PM

Animate Dead is an evil spell (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/animateDead.htm), but it is a relatively common houserule for it not to be. Hellbred PCs can do it without repercussion though.

Note the "Necromancy [Evil]" line in the spell description.

JeminiZero

2012-03-25, 07:05 PM

Thanks for your replies. There is a reason why nobody in the party is volunteering for Trojan prisoner (and why no actress in her right mind is taking up the role). The reason being that the slave has to be female. And:

of course the syndicate will "examine" any Slave brought in very very closely (if you know what I mean).

Yes, this syndicate deals with that kind of slavery.

How good are these slavers? Just ordinary thugs? A mindflayer cabal?

Just plain thugs thankfully.

a bit ... odd... but does your DM allow PC on PC skill checks? if yes try to Bluff/Diplomacy the Paladin. :smallbiggrin: "i swear this is the actor i hired to play the slave! he is just begging to let him go because is is sooo much into his role! is he not a great actor?" :smallbiggrin:

What about undead? a zombie looks like he did in live. so try to "find" a someone that just happened to have died of some horrible poison and cast Animate dead (note, animate dead is not an evil spell :smallamused:)
if you want to go the extra mile look for creatures that have a very low body temperature, i would argue some cold-subtype would qualify, and "find" that poisoned body. a little disguise he and there and he looks like new!

These might work, but my wizardly PC is also good-aligned (well nominally good-ish at any rate).

I'll think about the undead trick though. I need to figure a way to keep its body warm-ish for "examination".

Drelua

2012-03-25, 07:15 PM

Coidzor

2012-03-25, 07:24 PM

Thanks for your replies. There is a reason why nobody in the party is volunteering for Trojan prisoner (and why no actress in her right mind is taking up the role). The reason being that the slave has to be female. And:

Yes, this syndicate deals with that kind of slavery.

If you can't sneak or kill your way in, then you should just take steps to chastise the DM for setting up a no way to pass without a situation of at least simulated rape. :smallconfused:

dgnslyr

2012-03-25, 07:36 PM

If these slavers are looking for ladies, why not have the entire party go in drag? I mean, it worked in Final Fantasy 7, why not here? Besides, it's a fun alternative to sending some unlucky girl into the hands of nasty thugs who'll do Pelor-knows-what to her. If it's not a super srs bizness campaign, then I think it'll be a good laugh to see how it plays out.

Heatwizard

2012-03-25, 08:14 PM

You're a wizard? Alter Self, you're the slave. Suggestion or Dominate Person can get you past any, uh, tests once you're in private; if you banned Enchantment, your Rogue friend can tag along invisibly, help you fry 'im, and then use a Hat of Disguise to take his place and wave the party past.

Alternatively, you can try to pass with the age-old trick of Hand People Large Stacks Of Dollars. If you're feeling really generous, the money might even be real.

Pokonic

2012-03-25, 10:36 PM

Convince a dragon of some sort to use there alternet form for the sake of smashing evil. No, realy, convince it so pretend to be a slave and let it do whatever it wants when it's in the camp.:smallamused:

Voyager_I

2012-03-25, 10:43 PM

This sounds like a job for a high-class prostitute! Really, there's very few problems they can't solve. She'll definitely pass their 'examination', and it'll probably only cost you a few gold. Just make sure the pimp knows about it ahead of time. You should be able to convince the Paladin to go along with this, since she's really just doing her job. You might not want him to be their for the conversation with the pimp, but that's not too hard to arrange.

This would be the Westerosi solution. Just try to find a hooker who won't sell you out to the bandits.

Or, you know, you could just present the slave as something too good to be soiled by the common thugs. Get the boss to save 'her' for himself, and suddenly you've got the head of the snake at least somewhat isolated from his guards.

If your 'slave' happens to be a full-caster with Eschew Materials...

Acanous

2012-03-26, 02:22 AM

Could you please give us an average level and GP available to work with?
You mentioned Planar Binding a Succubus, so that's Lesser Planar Binding, a 5th level spell.. but you say 4th level spell slots are very valuable. I'm assuming you're roughly level 9?
Any higher and your 4th level spells will be inconsiquential.
Do you have Still/Silent spell and Eschew Materials? Are you a Specialist? If so, what school? Did your party Prestige at all?
If so, what classes?

If you are a Killer Gnome, for example, you could easilly silent image your way through this, by duplicating planar binding and having a shaow succubus.

If you are an enchanter, you could have the guards turn on the boss without having to go through the "Inspection", so a party member with bluff works to get you in the front door.

Conjuration? There's a Summon Monster for that (Ice Mephit IIRC)

You didn't ban necromancy from your post. Did you specialize in it? You know a Wight would probably eat that entire slaver's guild for you, and you'd only have to worry about stopping the wightpocolypse afterward.

Abjuration or Divination you'd need to be higher level to pull the win cheese, but Transmutation gives you an easy win here with Alter Self.
Have Transmutation AND Enchantment? That field mouse is now your eager female human slave.

Calanon

2012-03-26, 05:09 AM

To cut a long story short, I was wondering how a PC might get a fake slave. (Note the operative word here is "fake". Let us assume that said PC is in a party with a Paladin, so that kidnapping some random NPCs from a nearby village is ruled out. And no planar binding a succubus either).

In my time with my father we have discussed constantly rules for engaging in slave trade (Sexual or otherwise) the most important factor is always create a square deal...

So lets say for a moment that the PC plans to infiltrate a Slaver syndicate. To this end, he is going to pretend he has a Slave he wants to sell to them. And of course the syndicate will "examine" any Slave brought in very very closely (if you know what I mean). The best/only idea I've had so far is to get a long lasting Summon via Mount, and then trying to disguise it as a Slave.

No dice, most Slaver Syndicates would never allow any form of magic in there auction house. Logically they would have a person at the door casting Detect magic/True Seeing on everyone who enters and then having them pass through a Wall of Dispel Magic as to prevent foul play. Magic is clearly out as an option.

The most thorough method is to use Psychoactive Skin of Protean for a long-term Metamorphosis effect. In which case the only limiting factor will be the duration of Mount, which is already long enough for most purposes (especially if extended). But that costs a literal mountain of gold.

Psionics, very clever... I cannot say anything for Psionics as I do not know if your DM is treating Psionics as Magic...

So I'm looking for suggestions:
1) Any low resource intensive means of transforming a summoned Horse/Pony as human?
2) Any other means of getting fake slaves that are not actual people, but which look and feel like them?

You could honestly sell the Horse as it is... you would be surprised how much people would be willing to pay for a "trained" horse on the slave market... :smalleek: but I doubt your DM would go with that Anyone taking this one as seriously obviously hasn't been on this forum long enough
:smalltongue::smalltongue::smalltongue:

Assuming you are the caster. You could take Dragon Familiar and get a Silver/Gold dragon, which have Alternate Form.

And having a dragon to use wands is just cool :smallwink:

True Seeing overcomes this.

Can't you just take the party member with the best Bluff and have them pretend to be the slave? Unless they are going to be in a potentially lethal situation or sold or something...

Why not let another party member pose as a slave, then help him (and other slaves, perhaps) break out?

Best idea I've seen all day, bonus points if you put a blonde wig on him and put him in a dress :smallwink:

Animate dead on a fresh body, with gentile repose? Just cut out the tongue so they can't try to talk to it.

No dice so many give aways just from the fact that they usually give slaves a fresh medical examination to check for any defects that would decrease value...

Hire a Commoner to do it? A few silver at most should have somebody jumping at the chance, maybe promise a whole gold piece to their family should things go horribly wrong?

This is a good idea... If the DM is completely waving the whole Paladin Code of Conducts crap...

If these slavers are looking for ladies, why not have the entire party go in drag? I mean, it worked in Final Fantasy 7, why not here? Besides, it's a fun alternative to sending some unlucky girl into the hands of nasty thugs who'll do Pelor-knows-what to her. If it's not a super srs bizness campaign, then I think it'll be a good laugh to see how it plays out.

Best. Comment. Ever. :smallamused:

In my opinion, You can honestly get into the auction house as buyers more easily and nobody would question 4 males entering an slave house...

EDIT: If Doppelgangers use (Su) change shape then the door stops him, if its (Ex) then its the best idea so far

Heatwizard

2012-03-26, 05:53 AM

No dice, most Slaver Syndicates would never allow any form of magic in there auction house. Logically they would have a person at the door casting Detect magic/True Seeing on everyone who enters and then having them pass through a Wall of Dispel Magic as to prevent foul play. Magic is clearly out as an option.

Seems awfully generous to assume the enemy's got the resources to keep a sixth level spell up all day. The party in question is only slinging fourths, apparently, to put some perspective on it.

And supposing they do have an anti-magic setup in place, you just have to overcome it. Beat the caster level check, shut it down somehow, or find another way in; they wouldn't deny themselves arcane firepower if they had access to it themselves, so just use their entrance.

willpell

2012-03-26, 05:59 AM

Thanks for your replies. There is a reason why nobody in the party is volunteering for Trojan prisoner (and why no actress in her right mind is taking up the role). The reason being that the slave has to be female. And:
Yes, this syndicate deals with that kind of slavery.

So? People in the real world, who come from astonishingly poor countries and don't have entitlement issues, are often perfectly willing to subject themselves to such indignities in exchange for a bit of money (either to keep for a few hours of unpleasantess they can drink to forget, or for more long-term and possibly dangerous situations, to send home to their families who have only a vague hope of seeing them again someday). If not for the paladin, offering a commoner who works for 2 cp a day 500 gold in exchange for a few hours of being poked and prodded, with a risk of lifelong slavery if the PCs don't come through "but don't worry, we will", would be apretty fair bargain all told.

Gwendol

2012-03-26, 06:10 AM

I'm sure this has been proposed already, but just pose as buyers? Or do the cat-burglar thing and be a "fly-on-the-wall".
What is the purpose for infiltrating the slavers?

Andreaz

2012-03-26, 06:18 AM

You can't really just sell "one" slave without him being exceptional either. Companies have more to do than pandering to flea market peddlers.
Bring a score with you. Or something real nice, like a caster.

Runestar

2012-03-26, 06:28 AM

This sounds like the plot of a bad fetish story...:smalltongue:

aldeayeah

2012-03-26, 06:36 AM

Send in a disguised + Alter Selfed caster and enchant the hell out of the slavers so that they don't feel the need to touch you. If they're really just thugs*, it shouldn't be that difficult. Why drag an innocent into this?

* They're never just thugs.

nedz

2012-03-26, 02:10 PM

What you want to do is find a few old washer women and cast seeming on them. Female Goblins Dwarves might do at a pinch.

Bastian Weaver

2012-03-28, 02:44 PM

Best idea I've seen all day, bonus points if you put a blonde wig on him and put him in a dress :smallwink:

If I were the DM, this wouldn't mean bonus points... it would mean automatic success! :smallbiggrin:

Particle_Man

2012-03-28, 05:42 PM

Simulacrim?

Calanon

2012-03-28, 07:02 PM

Seems awfully generous to assume the enemy's got the resources to keep a sixth level spell up all day. The party in question is only slinging fourths, apparently, to put some perspective on it.

And supposing they do have an anti-magic setup in place, you just have to overcome it. Beat the caster level check, shut it down somehow, or find another way in; they wouldn't deny themselves arcane firepower if they had access to it themselves, so just use their entrance.

Its a 5th level spell, in fact both of them are.

Its either have a precaution to a disguised Paladin raid or Not and have your entire set up taken down :smallannoyed:

better safe then sorry is the con mans saying :smallamused:

JonRG

2012-03-29, 12:51 PM

I don't think that all that much suspicion will be on the slave. They'll be too focused on these new slavers who they've never heard of before. Therefore, this would be my plan, inspired in large part by Burn Notice.

1. Find a contact in the seedy underworld that wants the slavers gone. If the person is overtly friendly to them, they can suggest you as a business partner. If an out-and-out foe, they can start rumors about your burgeoning group. Even if the syndicate's intention is to kill you, they'll want to gauge your strength, and that means meeting you. Perfect. Much of the con game revolves around people doing what you want, all the while thinking it was their idea.

2. When you meet them, claim to provide an innovative twist on their trade. Perhaps you cater to a particular niche, or have a better method of smuggling cargo. If you can find some way to improve their business, they'll at least work with you until they don't need you.

3. If you're in a business relationship with them, it's probably as the low man on the totem pole. But you're in! At this point, your new 'friends' will want to see your operation. No problem. Just rent a warehouse, then offer food and shelter to a handful of homeless, young women. The syndicate's visit might get rough, but no real harm should come to them. Once you've been vetted, thank the ladies for their time, give them some coin, and then arrange for them to get out of Dodge.

Conversely, the slavers aren't going to tell you much unless you're very lucky (or they're very stupid). Since you move among them as an ally, it shouldn't be hard to make use of scrying sensors. Gifts are a nice touch. If you're quick, you can ferret out their secrets before the sudden yet inevitable betrayal. Don't hesitate to sow discord among the men. Done right, they'll be too busy watching each other to watch you. Done wrong, you'll probably be killed. :smalleek: ... Maybe save that one for Espionage 102.

4. Now for the end game. In one fell swoop, you get the slavers caught in the act and rescue the slaves. Former clients should prepare for a world of humiliation and probably prison. Best of all, you can watch the head of the syndicate get dragged off, and see his expression shift from confusion to shock to rage. He'll scream a few empty threats. Just smile. You saved the day, and did it while being awesome. :smallcool:

gbprime

2012-03-29, 01:02 PM

You mentioned 4th level spell slots, so I'm assuming you have those. What level spells DO you have to work with?

Because Polymorph Any Object is the ultimate solution. Buy livestock, permanently polymorph it into human form. Sure it won't KNOW anything, but does that really matter to these particular slavers?

nedz

2012-03-29, 02:25 PM

I don't think that all that much suspicion will be on the slave. They'll be too focused on these new slavers who they've never heard of before. ...

Yes, and they may be hostile towards competition. However if you present yourselves as potential customers then you should find that the slavers are more likely to be friendly.
So splash some gold around and attract their attention, with a bit of luck they may even invite you in to see the merchandise without have to be prompted.

JonRG

2012-03-29, 03:03 PM

However if you present yourselves as potential customers then you should find that the slavers are more likely to be friendly.
So splash some gold around and attract their attention, with a bit of luck they may even invite you in to see the merchandise without have to be prompted.

I'm not sure a customer would receive the level of access Jemini wants. We'd need more details to suggest a proper alternative.