Temporarily impair a spontaneous caster

[Eanow]

Mechanics question relating to a game I'm GMing, for Pathfinder.

My players (level 5, nearly 6) will come across a dungeon/prison/holding cell area in a larger complex they are exploring during the next session, and inside it is a bard who's in pretty bad shape. Mechanically, I want to have him weakened, unable to cast anything but 0th-level spells, but recover naturally after a few days. Fluff-wise, he's been beaten and tortured for a few days, and the mental stress of the situation has caused him to be unable to focus on his sense of self (i.e. his Charisma). Also, it seems kind of silly if you have a spontaneous spellcaster as a prisoner without some mechanic preventing them from using magic to escape. Ideally, I want him to initially be a weak character (during the session) they rescue who later can be a useful NPC, as they don't have any arcane spellcasters since the sorcerer's demise.

I considered ability score damage, which heals normally at the rate of 1/day, but best I can determine from the Pathfinder rules ability score damage can't actually remove your ability to cast higher level spells. From the PRD:


Diseases, poisons, spells, and other abilities can all deal damage directly to your ability scores. This damage does not actually reduce an ability, but it does apply a penalty to the skills and statistics that are based on that ability.

Ability score drain looks like it would remove the higher-level spellcasting, but it doesn't heal naturally over time, requiring a restoration spell, which I don't want to require.

I'm not above hand-waving this a bit and just having it function the way I want it to narratively, but it's always nice to have things rest on rules whenever possible.

Any suggestions?

[Strormer]

Were this a situation I was going to DM, I'd just say that he's effectively "used up" his spell slots over the course of time he's been tortured and hasn't been able to properly rest to regain those slots. That doesn't necessarily mean that he's actually cast those spells, but just that the energy has been used up. It could even be that he's tried casting and the spells always fizzled. Stressful situations can do a number on those concentration checks.

That said, is this mechanical reasoning going to affect the players or their experience, because if it doesn't then this whole question is really just a mental exercise for you, as the primary role of any DM is to provide the world in which the PCs get to play. You may have reasons behind events that the PCs will never know because, honestly, how many of us in reality have no idea how microchips are made, but use a computer every day. We know there's some elements in the universe, then some arcane manufacturing processes, then we can watch YouTube. The PCs are the same way. He's exhausted and unable to cast more than the most basic of spells. Okay, that's now a fact of the universe. I don't need to know exactly how an NPC came to be in such a situation when there's a simple line of meta thinking that could extricate him from it easily. That's the suspension of disbelief that makes the whole game possible.

Either way, I hope you and your players have fun. NPC bards can be some of the most entertaining allies parties can have, for both sides of the DM Screen.

[NightbringerGGZ]

Find a justification for his spells per day to be consumed (or just mostly consumed). At that point it would be reasonable to assume that nightmares resulting from his experiences leave him unable to rest sufficiently to recover his spells. You can even apply some other conditions to help simulate this (Fatigued for example). When you need to advance the plot he gets some actual rest and starts to recover.

[Trundlebug]

He gets is own cell/cage/stall/box too small to sit or wedge comfortably, is dressed in the worst, patched, dented, ill fitting suit of full plate in the town with fused gauntlets, and only allowed 2 hours to sleep every 4 hours. Water is constantly dripping from above. Blinded, gagged and ears muffled. Won't kill or drive mad but will make spellcasting difficult. These are base measures. The more tech and magic at your disposal the more elegant the solution. This could be accomplished by, kobolds, say.

The wizard's suite. That said my 1st idea was poison but nope, you took care of that approach. Custom poison? One would think with the power spellcasters possess someone some where came up with a spellcasting fuzzing dose. Pathfinder has alchemists for pete's sake.

[Alex12]

The PF SRD has third-party rules for using the Heal skill for torture. Among those things is "Erode Willpower"
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/skills/heal Right at the bottom of the page. Sounds like exactly the sort of thing that would prevent spell recovery, especially for a Bard.

[Eanow]

I'd forgotten about the needing restful sleep part, which would work perfectly. Thanks!

[13ones]

You could also fix the caster with an item that causes such physical pain while moving that it imposes a concentration check too high to actually allow him to cast. Like a bladed bracelet or collar or something.

[nedz]

You could have a spelltheif steal hit slots. If you do it in his sleep he shouldn't get a save.

[Alex12]

You could have a spelltheif steal hit slots. If you do it in his sleep he shouldn't get a save.

To my knowledge, Pathfinder doesn't have spellthieves unless you port them in from 3.5.

[Haladir]

At my Pathfinder table, the revised ability damage rules is one of the few rules in Pathfinder that I have replaced with the 3.5 equivalent. I.e. temporary ability damage does remove your ability to prepare some higher-level spells.

But just not letting the prisoner get enough sleep certainly will make him unable to prepare spells for the day.

[Coventry]

Give the chains that the prisoner is wearing a enhancement penalty to charisma. After wearing them for 24 hours, his spellcasting is adjusted to the new amount ... which happens to be 10.

Twenty-four hours after being freed from the chains, his CHA stat reverts to normal.

So you could rescue the guy (but he's still wearing the cursed collar), and then have to figure out how to get the collar off him ... and then wait 24 hours after that.


Of course, give a PC a cursed magic item, you have to worry about whether or not they will use it against you in the future. Sleep deprivation may be a far better course to take.