[PF] Help with this long-distance murder weapon

[gr8artist]

Warning - Neorus, Volcanon, Wimble, Navi, and Pob - Look no further!

Ok, so we're having a round-robin campaign, and my turn to DM is coming up in a few weeks, and here's what I want to do...
The players are tipped off that a newly appointed leader is ascending in power too rapidly. With some incentive, they decide to investigate.
They find a magical mirror, a relic from ages past, with a great and fearsome power. This mirror has the ability to kill any person, any place. The user speaks a secret code to "wake up" the spirit of the mirror. It will then cryptically ask the user for the name of the person to be killed. The user must speak the name of the intended target while imagining the likeness of that person. The spirit in the mirror will show the user a reflection of the one to be slain, to verify the target is correct. If the user confirms, the spirit rushes out and proceeds to kill the victim. This can happen about once every two weeks... maybe every new moon and every full moon.
The crooked ruler was using this mirror to kill everyone above him in the hierarchy, moving up the ladder via attrition and murder.
Players kill ruler, smash mirror, world moves on.
(Props if you can name the item this mirror is modeled after)
My quest: Find a solid, in-game mechanic that can kill a desired target anywhere in the world. Most of the victims would probably be noblemen and commoners, npc characters between levels 4 and 8, so the spell can safely rely on save-or-die spells. The spell shouldn't be 100% guaranteed; if the BBEG finds out the players are coming for him, he may use the mirror on them. The deaths don't need to be immediate, but shouldn't take more than 2 weeks. The deaths must be clean... no summoned creatures engaging the victim in a bloody deathmatch. We can combine multiple spell effects together, such as a debuff spell and a kill spell, if necessary.
The lower the item's caster level, the better. I don't want this thing getting too OP.

Possible solutions:
A) The mirror's effect is identical to a heightened "phantasmal killer" spell, or something like it. The problem is Phantasmal Killer's limited range...
B) The mirror summons some kind of nearly undetectable spirit that hunts out the victim (magical pursuit spell?) before snuffing it with a few necromantic spells or SLA's. This seems like a good option, but I don't know what creatures might be able to pull it off.

Extra Credit:
Is there any good way to get charisma-based casting (preferred) or intelligence-based casting (not as preferable) and have cleric domain powers without calling DM fiat and throwing it together? I want to make a joker-esque spellcaster, a kind of "Mad Hatter meets Hannibal Lecter" type villain that follows a CE deity of murder, madness, and misfortune.

[Vaz]

It is 3.5 Have it be an Intelligent item, with the ability to speak a command word to Mind Rape and Loves' pain itself against any target the BBEG's target.

That is 3.5 though.

[drax75]

"Props if you can name the item this mirror is modeled after"

Sounds like a Death Note

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Note

What do i win?

[Zubrowka74]

"Props if you can name the item this mirror is modeled after"

Sounds like a Death Note

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Note

What do i win?

With the confirmation dialogue I'd say some kind of computer, HAL 9000 perhaps ? Or Windows Millenium...

[Lapak]

With the confirmation dialogue I'd say some kind of computer, HAL 9000 perhaps ? Or Windows Millenium...Yeah, the 'ancient magic mirror that shows you faces' sound like a computer or a video-screen of some kind, but I don't think any of us have tagged the right reference yet.

[gr8artist]

Yeah, it was Deathnote. The confirmation is something I had to add in so the players didn't accidentally kill themselves or something like that.
That Love's Pain (http://dndtools.eu/spells/book-of-vile-darkness--37/loves-pain--184/) spell is brutal. It's close to what I want, but I don't want to restrict it like that, and I don't want the mirror to rewrite memories to make the kill work.
Do you think it'd be fair to use DM fiat and use a custom spell that deals 1d6/2 caster levels to the victim, regardless of distance? It's the aggressive part of Love's Pain, without the countermeasure of needing to love the victim. Would you say that makes it one spell level better?
Still looking for other answers or ideas, especially creatures that might hunt down the victim and kill them in their sleep.

[drax75]

honestly gr8artist?

I would have it be a Will save or die spell on a "ancient artifact" (no reason to really make it sound OP or add un needed flair)

If the party gets a hold of it let them find out what it does through trial and error. Error being when they use it in a way you do not like. and Just make it up from their.

Otherwise you may never find exactly what your looking for.

just a tip, your God do what you want :smallbiggrin:

[gr8artist]

Well, the main reason I'm concerned with specifics and fairness is that the players might decide to keep it. It's highly unlikely, but the Barbarian's two goblin cohorts are borderline evil, and wouldn't want it to go to waste.
So, if they decide to keep it, I need a solid idea of what the limits of it are, and I need to be able to share that info so it's available to the other DM's on their turns.

[drax75]

Then simply say "It functions like this" and then provide a hard list that everyone can get access too. in other words do not try to attach it to a spell or current item simply set the effects and limitations and then keep that on hard copy at all times for everyone to see this way no one can say "but you said ....." because you can simply hold of the paper and show them.


Mirror of Kill this Person:

Like Will Save DC 27 or die
take Lose 1/2 your level in negative levels on a successful check (or take nothing again etc)
Break DC is 20
Items gives off a necromantic aura with subtle (whatever teleportation or message is).

etc etc etc

[Lapak]

Well, the main reason I'm concerned with specifics and fairness is that the players might decide to keep it. It's highly unlikely, but the Barbarian's two goblin cohorts are borderline evil, and wouldn't want it to go to waste.
So, if they decide to keep it, I need a solid idea of what the limits of it are, and I need to be able to share that info so it's available to the other DM's on their turns.This is why I model my ancient death artifacts on Farslayer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Swords_of_Power#Farslayer) instead. Kill whoever you want! No saving throw. No defense is possible (except a single specific artifact.) Distance won't save you. Barriers, magical or mundane, won't save you. Hiding won't, anti-divination won't, nothing will.

The only downside is that the thing ends up in the body of whoever you wanted murdered. You'd better hope that you're the first one to get to the body. You'd really better hope that if someone else picks it up they don't have reason to send it right back to you, point-first. :smalltongue:

In your case, on the other hand, I'd just have it extract a cost from the user. (Your villain does not necessarily have to realize that it's doing this.) It's a murder machine that takes a fraction of your own life away every time you use it, for example.

Or perhaps it does send forth a spirit, and the way to not die is that you CAN hide from the mirror-spirit. And the limitation is that until the thing fulfills its mission, it does not return and the mirror is useless. It just keeps attacking the same target over and over whenever the mirror recharges, until they are dead. So sending it against the wrong target depowers it unless you find another way to kill 'em. This is also why it's so effective as an assassination technique; if a target comes back to life the mirror goes after them again automatically until they are re-dead.

Heck, that right there might make the most sense for your solution. Lord Whatshisname sends the mirror-spell after a PC. If the PC survives, they can't take control of the mirror because it won't be satisfied until they are dead. Ta-dah! Superweapon the party can't keep and must destroy.

[avr]

A crystal ball with telepathy (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/c-d/crystal-ball) gives you a 1/day suggestion as a side effect. Suggestion can be used to make people do unwise if not suicidal things. Save DC is only 14 though. Expensive as.

A cheaper if multipart means might be to scry the persons bedchamber/privy/whatever, set up a trap of some sort (glyph of warding might do) then have a lantern archon (summon monster III) teleport it there. Maybe summon the archon again to teleport the trap back later to clear up the evidence.

[TuggyNE]

This is why I model my ancient death artifacts on Farslayer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Swords_of_Power#Farslayer) instead. Kill whoever you want! No saving throw. No defense is possible (except a single specific artifact.) Distance won't save you. Barriers, magical or mundane, won't save you. Hiding won't, anti-divination won't, nothing will.

The only downside is that the thing ends up in the body of whoever you wanted murdered. You'd better hope that you're the first one to get to the body. You'd really better hope that if someone else picks it up they don't have reason to send it right back to you, point-first. :smalltongue:

So, like this?

[AttilaTheGeek]

There's no way to kill someone undetectably from long range in pathfinder (which is, by they way, great). I'd just make a range-unlimited Persistent Phantasmal Killer, so they have to make both of two Will saves or both of two Fortitude saves. (Note that if they make the Will saves instead, which come first, they still take 3d6 points of untyped damage). That should let players save fairly well against its effects while still letting NPCs be killed off by it.

[Lapak]

So, like this?Oh wow, I missed that thread entirely. And it's even recent! Thank you for the link.