Prison for an Archmage

[JadePhoenix]

Hello, playground. I need a little help.
In my game, there are no 6th level spells. Well, they exist, but getting one is as hard as getting an artifact, basically.
There is this character (a PC from a previous campaign) that grew to become the world's most powerful wizard (Human Wizard 12/Archmage 5, probably). In this process, he learned two 7th-level spells (one is probably going to be Limited Wish, not sure about the other one).
I want this character to be in a prison. I already stablished beforehand that the world's biggest and baddest prison was The Cube - a giant adamantine cube with bound devils and constructs as staff. I'm thinking this guy needs to be blindfolded, gagged and manacled inside and antimagic field. Is there any way to escape this with 5 spells (because he took Spell Mastery at some point, obviously)?

tl;dr Is it possible for a 17th level spellcaster restricted to 6th level spell to escape an antimagic field cell while blindfolded, gagged and with his hands chained?

[Essence_of_War]

Well...the obvious answer of metamagic'd invoke magic is out.

Initiate of Mystra (PGtF) might do it if the archmage could also have cleric levels?

Edit:

I didn't see the 17th level thing, but if they were a cleric 3/Wizard X/Archmage Y that could be do-able. And it might actually make some sense since the benefits of taking additional caster levels sort of drop off if you don't have additional spell levels.

[JadePhoenix]

Well...the obvious answer of metamagic'd invoke magic is out.

Initiate of Mystra (PGtF) might do it if the archmage could also have cleric levels?

He doesn't. It's not Faerun, as well.

[Essence_of_War]

Just checking, you didn't mention that regional stuff was explicitly banned.

Those are the only two methods that I know, w/ magic. All of the shadow hand teleportation maneuvers are Ex abilities. So I guess if he were somehow able to make escape artist checks to get out of the bindings, he could teleport out of the AMF and then go nuts?

I think you've closed the big loopholes. Unless he's preposterously dextrous and has an Ex way of escaping the AMF's radius, I think you've got him bound up pretty well.

Edit:

Dimensional Shackles from the SRD seem like a fun way to bind him:

Dimensional Shackles
These shackles have golden runes traced across their cold iron surface. Any creature bound within them is affected as if a dimensional anchor spell were cast upon her (no save). They fit any Small to Large creature. The DC to break or slip out of the shackles is 30.

Moderate abjuration; CL 11th; Craft Wondrous Item, dimensional anchor; Price 28,000 gp; Weight 5 lb.

[Elemental]

Just remember to weld the shackles shut.
And set up some spells to activate as soon as the antimagic field goes down in case of trouble.

[Baldin]

Im confused, do you want a prison to hold an archmage or do you want a way for him to escape it?

Basicly theres no way an archmage can escape a prison as u described it if he can only stay in the AMF.

Theres no magic he can use, he has no physical strengths and is bound.

However if he can get himself to be transported to the prisons infirmary or any place without antimagic field, then yes he can escape. Mainly because he can learn 1 spell as a spell like ability and if he makes that spell his limited wish or smt the like he can just teleport of dimension door away, if posible.

However on his own, if he is held in a AMF i dont think he can do anything.

cheers
baldin

[Douglas]

Depending on a detail of interpretation, specifically whether its immunity to AMF applies to new castings into an existing AMF or only to existing Walls when a new AMF arrives, and whether the caster himself being in an AMF stops spellcasting in general regardless of specific spells, Wall of Force might do it.

Cast a Wall of Force between the wizard and the source of the AMF, and suddenly he's not in the AMF any more - it's an emanation and needs line of effect, which Wall of Force blocks. Once outside the AMF, he can cast Teleport. He'd need Still Spell, Silent Spell, and Eschew Materials to pull this off with the bindings and gag and no spell component pouch. Limited Wish to duplicate Wall of Force might also do it and wouldn't require Eschew Materials. It would still need Silent and Still, however.

Wall of Force or Limited Wish spell-like ability as one of his Archmage High Arcana would remove all feat requirements from it, as the SLA wouldn't have any verbal or somatic components. Other spells would still need their components removed, however, at least until the gag and/or hand bindings are off. Teleport in particular would need to be Silent.

Just about any magical restraint other than the AMF could be dealt with by Dispel Magic if necessary.

[Essence_of_War]

Once outside the AMF, he can cast Teleport. He'd need Still Spell, Silent Spell, and Eschew Materials to pull this off with the bindings and gag and no spell component pouch.

I don't think he even needs those.

If he has the SLA High Arcana, and has added Plane Shift and/or Teleport w/ it he should be in the clear completely.

[Douglas]

Teleport can enter an AMF, but I don't think it can leave one.

[Essence_of_War]

Oh no, I agree with you on the need to break Line of Effect first.

I was just saying that he wouldn't need silent/still/eschew if he took teleport or plane shift as an SLA for one of his High Arcana.

[JadePhoenix]

Im confused, do you want a prison to hold an archmage or do you want a way for him to escape it?

I have this prison, I wanted to know if it was enough to keep him there. My goal is that the players will have to break him out of there, because they will need to get a part of the Rod of Seven Parts he hid away.

Sidenote: which spells would you get through Spell Mastery? And which methods could you use to live about 200 years as a human?

[Emperor Tippy]

Break AMF by making a box out of your bed and cloths, teleport away.

Might need a pretty absurd escape artist check with feats spent on it and way high dex to get out of the manacles first though.

[Essence_of_War]

Rub yourself down with Quintessence (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/quintessence.htm)?

If the prison wanted to preserve you for some reason, this might be part of their method. The Quitessence keeps the archmage diverted out of the normal time stream, so that once imprisoned and placed within it, he can effectively live out all of eternity de-coupled from the regular time stream. Getting him out of the quintessence could be an additional layer of challenge to the escape...

Teleport and/or Plane Shift are pretty good spells to get as SLAs...

[Douglas]

I have this prison, I wanted to know if it was enough to keep him there. My goal is that the players will have to break him out of there, because they will need to get a part of the Rod of Seven Parts he hid away.
It may be possible for him to break out, but each method would require some portion of character build to include certain specific things. If you want him to still be there so your players can break him out, just don't give him those build elements. Unless he's already been established as the kind of paranoid planner who'd deliberately seek ways to escape from such a prison "just in case", that's all you need to do.

[gbprime]

Oh no, I agree with you on the need to break Line of Effect first.

I was just saying that he wouldn't need silent/still/eschew if he took teleport or plane shift as an SLA for one of his High Arcana.

You're saying the PLAYERS have to break this guy out? That's easy then. A PC or two throws up a quick barrier made of two sticks and an oversize cloak. This breaks line of effect to the Antimagic, the guy then uses his ARchmage SLA Teleport to poof out.

So the real question should be... how do the PC's get out afterward? :smallbiggrin:

[JadePhoenix]

Break AMF by making a box out of your bed and cloths, teleport away.

No bed or cloths for him, then. Thanks.


Rub yourself down with Quintessence (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/quintessence.htm)?

If the prison wanted to preserve you for some reason, this might be part of their method. The Quitessence keeps the archmage diverted out of the normal time stream, so that once imprisoned and placed within it, he can effectively live out all of eternity de-coupled from the regular time stream. Getting him out of the quintessence could be an additional layer of challenge to the escape...

Teleport and/or Plane Shift are pretty good spells to get as SLAs...
I like this idea, now I just need a reason on why they are keeping him there eternally.

Also, I've decided I'll have him as a green star adept for the immortality. The best part is that it's a bit easier to keep him in prison, since he has no need of food, beds, clothing and stuff like that. Wizard 12/Green Star Adept 10 it is.


You're saying the PLAYERS have to break this guy out? That's easy then. A PC or two throws up a quick barrier made of two sticks and an oversize cloak. This breaks line of effect to the Antimagic, the guy then uses his ARchmage SLA Teleport to poof out.

Yeah, that's not supposed to be the challenge, it's all the devils and constructs guarding him. The antimagic field is there so the party can get him out.

[Telonius]

One thing I can think of that could break him out would be an Orb of Dragonkind - the Brass Dragon Orb. Artifacts are specifically excluded from being affected by antimagic fields, and this one is a Major Artifact. So, if he had a friend (or a set of PCs) with one of those, they could Teleport in, grab him, and Teleport out again.

(Alternately, he is a previous owner of the Orb already, and one of the 7th-level spells he learned was "Teleport Object." The point of origin is his hand. When he enters The Cube, the spell is dispelled, he has the orb in his hand again, and is able to teleport out to safety - but that's more of a "how the wizard did it" than "how the PCs saved the wizard.")

[Brock Samson]

If you don't make him a Green Star Adept, I like the Quintessence idea. They're obviously keeping him there because they're terrified of him, and they can't have him running around, and they can't kill him because someone else could theoretically resurrect him elsewhere, so time-stasis in a prison cell is the only way to make sure he isn't freed upon the world!

[JoshuaZ]

There's a 9th level spell in Lords of Madness called "Invoke Magic" which lets you cast a spell of fourth level or lower in an anti-magic field. That might be relevant/helpful.

[Coidzor]

Having him just be chilling out as a guarded statue would've been pretty simple if they could capture him in the first place. Unfortunately stone to flesh and flesh to stone are both 6th level spells...

[hymer]

chilling [...] stone to flesh and flesh to stone are both 6th level spells...

But Flesh to Ice is level 5. And so is Break Enchantment. Just put him in a large freezer of sorts, should work.

[gbprime]

Having him just be chilling out as a guarded statue would've been pretty simple if they could capture him in the first place. Unfortunately stone to flesh and flesh to stone are both 6th level spells...

Break Enchantment can restore someone who has been petrified. But you'd need a charmed medusa or something to turn him to stone in the first place.

I like the Flesh to Ice idea too. Maybe there's a whole gallery of frozen arch villains. :smallamused:

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Break Enchantment can restore someone who has been petrified. But you'd need a charmed medusa or something to turn him to stone in the first place.

I like the Flesh to Ice idea too. Maybe there's a whole gallery of frozen arch villains. :smallamused:

Oohhh... I like this one. That way, the PC's have to make sure they're thawing out the right evil wizard. With potential plotlines of "Oops, we kinda let that one out too..."

Edit: Green Star Adept is a TRAP. 1/2 casting means he is going to not even be able to access 6th level spells. This makes him nearly worthless for your plot needs.

[Essence_of_War]

If you don't make him a Green Star Adept, I like the Quintessence idea. They're obviously keeping him there because they're terrified of him, and they can't have him running around, and they can't kill him because someone else could theoretically resurrect him elsewhere, so time-stasis in a prison cell is the only way to make sure he isn't freed upon the world!

I like this thinking too.

Perhaps it's the safest thing to do with him. If they kill him, he could be resurrected, he could be impressed into service in the armies of the 9 Hells, he could be called into the service of his evil deity and given a new form etc etc.

In that context, it might be safest to just smear him with quintessence, or turn him to to stone, and toss him in THE CUBE for all eternity.

[Randomguy]

Can't you still act when covered in quintessence? It said that psi-like abilities and psionics where harder to manifest while immersed in it, but that means you can still use them (and it says nothing about arcane spells being affected).

His familiar could theoretically break him out.

[Andorax]

Does he have to be human, or is looking human close enough?

Elan (the race, not the bard) from the Psionics Handbook can solve the food, water and age issues.

[Rubik]

Can't you still act when covered in quintessence? It said that psi-like abilities and psionics where harder to manifest while immersed in it, but that means you can still use them (and it says nothing about arcane spells being affected).

His familiar could theoretically break him out.Quintessence does inhibit psionics, but completely immersing anything in it cuts it off from the timestream, meaning that all time has completely stopped within it. All you'd need to do would be to scrape a bit of it away and time starts back up again, though.

[SowZ]

Consider this- IF he had the ability to escape, he would have done it already assuming he has been in this prison for any amount of time at all. And really, if his captors don't intend on capitalizing on his magical abilities one day what possible reason would they have for spending such a ludicrous amount of resources imprisoning him? Why not kill him and be done with it? Lock up the remains- it doesn't sound like anyone can cast true resurrection in this world.

His best chances of escaping sound like wait for the opportunity to arise when someone tries to use him for his skill, (if he is kept imprisoned so well I think most mastermind type people would think it wasteful not to make use of him,) OR some outside interference gives him a little bit of wiggling room hoping he will return the favor by doing something grand for them.

[Inferno]

Renegade mastermaker is similar to Green Star Adept with the advantage of not being aweful.
Might be off limits for being Eberron content, but it's worth mentioning.

[Rubik]

Consider this- IF he had the ability to escape, he would have done it already assuming he has been in this prison for any amount of time at all. And really, if his captors don't intend on capitalizing on his magical abilities one day what possible reason would they have for spending such a ludicrous amount of resources imprisoning him? Why not kill him and be done with it? Lock up the remains- it doesn't sound like anyone can cast true resurrection in this world.Then you're giving his (very powerful) soul to whatever fiends reside in the afterlife he's bound for.

Do you really want to give the devils access to artifact-level power?

[Hylas]

Then you're giving his (very powerful) soul to whatever fiends reside in the afterlife he's bound for.

Do you really want to give the devils access to artifact-level power?

I have to agree with this. I once played in a homebrew world (not d20, but still applicable) where a particularly evil party member couldn't be killed because he knew too much and that information couldn't go to the evil god and his minions. The elves were planning to stasis him and place him 100 feet underground and would come back for him in 200 years or so when his knowledge didn't matter anymore.

[Zale]

I have this prison, I wanted to know if it was enough to keep him there. My goal is that the players will have to break him out of there, because they will need to get a part of the Rod of Seven Parts he hid away.

Sidenote: which spells would you get through Spell Mastery? And which methods could you use to live about 200 years as a human?

Put the prison in some part of the Astral Plane.

Timelessness insures the wizard never needs to eat or drink, and also that he never ages.

Just stick him in that Cube, or whatever, and leave him. Just make sure there's something to keep someone from letting him out..

[JadePhoenix]

Edit: Green Star Adept is a TRAP. 1/2 casting means he is going to not even be able to access 6th level spells. This makes him nearly worthless for your plot needs.

Wizard 12/Green Star Adept 10 is perfect for my needs, actually. He gets 9th level slots and a monstrous caster level.


Having him just be chilling out as a guarded statue would've been pretty simple if they could capture him in the first place. Unfortunately stone to flesh and flesh to stone are both 6th level spells...
But the world caps at 6th level spells. Only spells of 7th level and higher are artifact-rare. As a GSA, he couldn't be targeted by flesh to stone, though.



Does he have to be human, or is looking human close enough?

Elan (the race, not the bard) from the Psionics Handbook can solve the food, water and age issues.
He has to be human, he was a player character from the previous campaign.



Consider this- IF he had the ability to escape, he would have done it already assuming he has been in this prison for any amount of time at all. And really, if his captors don't intend on capitalizing on his magical abilities one day what possible reason would they have for spending such a ludicrous amount of resources imprisoning him? Why not kill him and be done with it? Lock up the remains- it doesn't sound like anyone can cast true resurrection in this world.
There's reincarnation and Healers to worry about. Killing him is not really an option.


His best chances of escaping sound like wait for the opportunity to arise when someone tries to use him for his skill, (if he is kept imprisoned so well I think most mastermind type people would think it wasteful not to make use of him,) OR some outside interference gives him a little bit of wiggling room hoping he will return the favor by doing something grand for them.
Yeah, that's the idea. Give the PCs a window during which it would be easier to get to him and then they have to break him out.


Renegade mastermaker is similar to Green Star Adept with the advantage of not being aweful.
Might be off limits for being Eberron content, but it's worth mentioning.
Atually, in this environment GSA is better because of the caster level bonus. The warforged thing is a dwarven trade in my setting, so it would be very weird anyway. Thanks for the suggestion.



Put the prison in some part of the Astral Plane.

Timelessness insures the wizard never needs to eat or drink, and also that he never ages.

Just stick him in that Cube, or whatever, and leave him. Just make sure there's something to keep someone from letting him out..
Hm, I'll justify it not being in the Astral Plane with the githyanki. Their presence is realy important in my setting (this wizard's mentor tried living in the Astral Plane to avoid dying of old age and ended up enslaved by the giths).

Thanks a lot everyone, lots of good ideas.