Magic Items as building security?

[ironcladfolly]

I've been running a campaign for a few years now from published sources, but I've decided to write things from scratch from here on.

In my upcoming adventure, I plan to have the players be thrown into prison, and require them to find their way out. I don't want to be too restrictive on what they can and can't do, but I also don't want the casters to be able to simply blast their way out, or use some other spell to break out. And realistically, I'd expect the prison guards would have thought of this too.

So what I'm wondering is this: is it possible to have a magic item that produces an ongoing effect —*in this case, Antimagic Field —*that can be "switched on or off" by the guards? I think it would be a fun and rewarding puzzle for the players to have to figure out why they can't cast spells, and have to destroy the item to get their powers back, so to speak.

[holywhippet]

You just make the prison uniform this: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/cursedItems.htm#robeofPowerlessness

[Mnemnosyne]

There isn't, to my knowledge, a printed item like this, but it's certainly reasonable to create one.

Antimagic field is normally a 10 ft. radius, which means a 20 ft. diameter sphere. Prison cells don't need to be particularly spacious, so if each prison cell is only 5 ft. wide and 5 ft. deep, a properly designed antimagic prison might be able to take advantage of a considerable amount of that area. The bigger problem is antimagic field is an emanation and blocked by removing line of effect, and if the prisoners have line of effect to the item generating the field, it's logical for them to quickly discern that it's doing so and then try to attack it through mundane means.

If you are willing to potentially give the players access to a material with these properties, you could come up with a material that 'conducts' emanations. It can't extend them beyond their normal range, but within that range, this particular material does not block line of effect of an emanation.

The biggest problem is the expense. An item of continuous antimagic field is worth 132,000 gp if we use the item creation tables. So you have to ask yourself, is it justified for whoever is doing the imprisoning to spend 132,000 gp on imprisoning a few magic-users? Or would they probably just go 'well since everyone knows we can't hold mages, any captured magic user is held unconscious until found guilty, then swiftly executed.' Plus, if you put an item worth 132,000 gp anywhere near the players, if they're anything like me, not only will they want to escape the prison, but they will do everything they can to figure out how to steal that item.

[ironcladfolly]

Thanks for the tips, guys! Both of these might be viable solutions.

Mnemnosyne, to account for the line of effect, is it possible to have the item positioned in the wall, between two cells? Say there are two 10x10 cells, side by side, and one of the bricks along the ceiling has been removed. Could the item even be a brick itself? I haven't really come across documentation that says that magic items have to be specific objects, or that they can't be certain objects, but maybe I'm not looking hard enough.

[Story]

The problem is that if they figure out where it's coming from, they might just cover it up to block LoE and then teleport away.

[TuggyNE]

Stronghold Builder's Guide has some Wondrous Architecture guidelines that should do the job pretty well. Unless they can cover all of the high-set runes around the tops of the cell walls or whatever, they won't be able to block the AMF, and IIRC it's substantially cheaper than mobile magic items.

[ironcladfolly]

Stronghold Builder's Guide has some Wondrous Architecture guidelines that should do the job pretty well. Unless they can cover all of the high-set runes around the tops of the cell walls or whatever, they won't be able to block the AMF, and IIRC it's substantially cheaper than mobile magic items.

This is exactly what I'm looking for. Lots of great options in here, and at prices far more reasonable. Thanks for the tip!

Furthermore, this is a much more open-ended question, but once the characters actually escape their cells, I'm trying to come up with interesting puzzles and stealth scenarios for them, so that it's not just another "Fight your way through all these guards" situation. Any suggestions from those of you who've run similar adventures before?

[Angelalex242]

Subjecting all prisoners to a robe of powerlessness is fairly effective, particularly if it's a reusable robe.

Then, every time the players come up with a clever plan, you can simply say 'under the robe of powerlessness's curse, you're too dumb to think of it. Sucka!'

[Story]

That seems kind of unfair, unless you normally give them hints for having a superhuman intellect.