How Would you Kill A King?

[mr_odd]

During this Fall, my players are going to try to prevent the king from being assassinated. I need some help coming up with clever ways for the assassins to attempt to murder the king.

These are the details:
¤3.5 campaign
¤The king always has some kind of protection with him.
-His protection in the throne room is composed of two elite guards and a wizard.
-He regularly takes walks or eats in the castle gardens and is watched by two snipers and a wizard.
¤The assassins must use a dagger called "The Soul Blade" to kill the king. This weapon destroys a person's own soul, preventing any kind of resurrection.
¤The assassins are the captain of the Guard and the head wizard of the mage tower. They both have lackeys that will do their bidding.

I thought about having the assassins murder one of the guard wizards and then replace him with an alter self spell to do the deed. Does the Playground have any better ideas?

[Socksy]

What level is the assassin? Are they an Assassin, as in the PrC?

[mr_odd]

What level is the assassin? Are they an Assassin, as in the PrC?

No, they are a level 10 fighter and a level 12 wizard.

[madtinker]

My first thought was how to protect a king, and using a body double to trip up assassins. Then the body double kills the king and quietly assumes the throne...

But to answer the question...

You could plant a body double, kill him, and then when they declare an emergency and whisk the king away to his bunker, the assassins are waiting for him.

You could teleport him away from his guards and execute him.

You could infect him with a disease, then offer to perform surgery and the knife accidentally slips...

[mr_odd]

My first thought was how to protect a king, and using a body double to trip up assassins. Then the body double kills the king and quietly assumes the throne...

But to answer the question...

You could plant a body double, kill him, and then when they declare an emergency and whisk the king away to his bunker, the assassins are waiting for him.

Hmmm, I think I really like this idea. The assassins are close to the king already due to the positions they hold. They could be the two "protectors" that follow the king to the bunker.

[Hazrond]

Why not make one of the assassins a wu jen, at 13th level they get a spell called Body Outside Body, it is essentially a short duration set of clones that all have everything you had at the time of casting, (minus the spell slot for casting it, they also cant cast spells), so have them using martial maneuvers (via feat) and send them in (disguised via disguise self before casting the spell of course) at the king in vicious guerilla attacks, after their 10 round duration is up they disappear, along with their copies of the soul blade

[Shining Wrath]

Cantrips are your friend. Have your wizard research a new version of Launch Bolt that will work on The Soul Blade.

Use the feats Silent Spell and Still Spell.

A dagger that's just lying on the dais flies over and kills the king. Have lackeys cry out "A miracle! The gods deliver us from the tyrant!".

Yeah, someone might suspect, but that's why you are prepared to ruthlessly suppress investigations.

[Socksy]

Fighter 10 and wizard 12?
Right, let me make one and see whether I can kill your king!:smallamused:

Assuming no magic items at all:

If you can't get your hands on any scrolls of Shapechange, then boost your Diplomacy (or better, that of a bard or sorcerer ally) and cast Planar Binding to get an Efreeti. Get the diplomancer to make it Friendly or Helpful to you, and Wish the King dead. Better, Wish him onto the Positive Energy Plane, since that's an example wish and therefore hopefully won't go wrong.

EDIT: Wait, there's a dagger involved.

>Have a room with no doors or ceiling.
>Dimension-door in
>Planar Bind an Efreeti
>Have a barrier between it and the rest of the room
>Wish the King into the room, using the Diplomancer
>AMF the room with the next wish
>Kill the King.

[PersonMan]

Simplest solution I can think of:

-King goes for a stroll.
-Level 12 Wizard inserts himself (in disguise) as the guard wizard.
-L12W kills both snipers. Probably something like SoD -> stab the body so it looks like the work of a rogueish type.
-L12W invisibly approaches the king, binds (via Hold Person or similar) then stabs away.
-L12W returns to post. Depending on the plan, he can drink some KO-juice, summon something to punch/stab him and then willingly fail his safe to fall unconscious.

[saxavarius]

The captain is fighter 10 and the head mage is wiz 12 correct?

The wizard could give the captain a single use item that would teleport the king to a "secure" location where they can weaken the king (poison his food?) so the final blow can be made at little risk with the dagger.

This means the party can identify the assassins and stop the kidnapping, or failing that they have to figure out who did it and where the king is. Then they have to get to the king to stop the assassination and defeat the BBEGs.

a custom item made using a baleful teleport is within the Wizards abilities.
http://dndtools.eu/spells/city-of-splendors-waterdeep--16/trobriands-baleful-teleport--341/

[Necroticplague]

This one is mostly the wizard's doing, but that just is how the system works. So without further ado:

1. Planar Binding a Shadow creature that can use the dagger.
2. Have it sneak in to wherever the king sleeps when it becomes night. Thanks to its Shadow Blend ability, unless some of the area are lit by Daylight spells, its impossible to see (it has total concealment). Just to be extra-safe, cast Silence beforehand, which would make it impossible to hear as well.
3. It slits the Kings throat with the dagger in his sleep.
4. The undetectable Shadow creature comes back, drops off the dagger, and then promptly returns to the plane of shadow where it came from.

Near 100% chance of working, requires little investment, and simple in its elegance.

[mr_odd]

Fighter 10 and wizard 12?
Right, let me make one and see whether I can kill your king!:smallamused:

Assuming no magic items at all:

If you can't get your hands on any scrolls of Shapechange, then boost your Diplomacy (or better, that of a bard or sorcerer ally) and cast Planar Binding to get an Efreeti. Get the diplomancer to make it Friendly or Helpful to you, and Wish the King dead. Better, Wish him onto the Positive Energy Plane, since that's an example wish and therefore hopefully won't go wrong.

EDIT: Wait, there's a dagger involved.

>Have a room with no doors or ceiling.
>Dimension-door in
>Planar Bind an Efreeti
>Have a barrier between it and the rest of the room
>Wish the King into the room, using the Diplomancer
>AMF the room with the next wish
>Kill the King.


Simplest solution I can think of:

-King goes for a stroll.
-Level 12 Wizard inserts himself (in disguise) as the guard wizard.
-L12W kills both snipers. Probably something like SoD -> stab the body so it looks like the work of a rogueish type.
-L12W invisibly approaches the king, binds (via Hold Person or similar) then stabs away.
-L12W returns to post. Depending on the plan, he can drink some KO-juice, summon something to punch/stab him and then willingly fail his safe to fall unconscious.


This one is mostly the wizard's doing, but that just is how the system works. So without further ado:

1. Planar Binding a Shadow creature that can use the dagger.
2. Have it sneak in to wherever the king sleeps when it becomes night. Thanks to its Shadow Blend ability, unless some of the area are lit by Daylight spells, its impossible to see (it has total concealment). Just to be extra-safe, cast Silence beforehand, which would make it impossible to hear as well.
3. It slits the Kings throat with the dagger in his sleep.
4. The undetectable Shadow creature comes back, drops off the dagger, and then promptly returns to the plane of shadow where it came from.

Near 100% chance of working, requires little investment, and simple in its elegance.

Suppose I was to use any of these, how would the party attempt to stop it?

[malonkey1]

Wizard casts a hold person on each sniper while the King eats, leaving him unprotected when the fighter runs in and stabs away. Teleport corpses away, after first casting gentle repose to fudge the time of death (important later). Next, put a hat of disguise on the fighter to disguise him as the king, and do the same for one of the guards in on the plot to turn him into the fighter. Next, sometime during the week, stage a "discovery" of the king's "freshly killed" corpse (the reason for gentle repose), along with the snipers, out in the wilderness, where his death could be written off as a highway robbery. For added effect, you'll want to get rid of a carriage, horse, and find a pretext for the "king" to leave, where the Wizard, the patsy, and the fighter (with the Wizard and Patsy now disguised as the snipers), stealing off into the night (or better yet, teleporting into their proper places), while leaving the king and his snipers in the wild sans carriage, and robbed of all gold and jewelry. The items themselves are kept in a bag of holding that is hidden under a false bottom in the Wizard's spell component pouch.

[Lightlawbliss]

what magical defenses does this king have (items, buffs, and what not)? what is his build? Does the king suspect anything? who hires the PCs?

It would be perfectly logical to have the party be hired by the wizard that wants the king dead, slip an item that makes the king look like somebody else on him when he isn't looking, and lackey tells the party they saw ____ (a known assassin, possibly with a "of ____" for political moving) at ___ location waiting for the king.

for added fun, tell the king you are testing his guards and they want to ensure a true threat to the king could be stopped by having the king himself test them.

[Fayd]

Have someone who can earthglide. Have this person have the ability to kill quickly, preferably with something like assassin's death attack. Have this assassin wait in the walls, study target, glide out of walls, shank and remerge with the wall, possibly as a coup de grace while the king sleeps.

Find some way to put contact poison on an important part of the kingly regalia, like the crown. Alternatively, his silverware. After this weakens the king, go all Julias Ceaser on him.

Bargain with a spirit of plague to strike the king down. Finish as above.

Design a new throne for some important event, invested with magic to grant the king incredible wisdom, justice, and other kingly virtues. Then include a sliding panel in the back with the Soul Dagger on a spring. Press a button and *sniker snack* no more king.

Have the castle prepare the king an expensive and luxurious bubble bath. Have an assassin with water breathing hide beneath the thick foam. Et tu, Bubbly?

How's this for some ideas?

[Necroticplague]

Suppose I was to use any of these, how would the party attempt to stop it?

Against my plan?

Detection. First, you have to know that a Shadow creature is afoot. Since you can't see it, you're going to have to do something else. Blindsight and blindsense would allow you to know where the creature is. A good Listen check can tell you the square. Blindsight would even allow you to fight it as normal. Unless it has Darkstalker, in which case you're screwed. If its Silenced, then the place going silent would be an indicator its near (though no very precisely). Mindsight would also give you location. Then, you fight the shadow creature while suffering from a 50% miss chance (unless using blindsight without creature having darkstalker). If you have no special senses, though, you're completely screwed (which is why its a near perfect plan).

[sleepyphoenixx]

Unless the king is himself a reasonably prepared spellcaster killing him isn't really a problem no matter his bodyguards,
especially if the proposed assassins have all the time in the world to study any defenses.
There aren't really that many static defenses that are hard to overcome with an arcane spellcaster on hand and at least a day of prep time.

If the king is a low level expert or aristocrat it becomes downright trivial unless you're really low level.

The question is how they expect to get away with it in a world with divination magic. If the party actually knows that there's an assassination attempt coming the best defense is scrying for the attackers and taking them out before they act.

So you need protections against direct divination. You need a patsy doing the killing that can't be linked back to you. You need to find a way to foil Object Reading on the dagger.
Preferably, you'll need to kill or otherwise remove anyone with access to higher level divination magic or clairsentience powers who might get involved in the case.

[mr_odd]

Unless the king is himself a reasonably prepared spellcaster killing him isn't really a problem no matter his bodyguards,
especially if the proposed assassins have all the time in the world to study any defenses.
There aren't really that many static defenses that are hard to overcome with an arcane spellcaster on hand and at least a day of prep time.

If the king is a low level expert or aristocrat it becomes downright trivial unless you're really low level.

The question is how they expect to get away with it in a world with divination magic. If the party actually knows that there's an assassination attempt coming the best defense is scrying for the attackers and taking them out before they act.

So you need protections against direct divination. You need a patsy doing the killing that can't be linked back to you. You need to find a way to foil Object Reading on the dagger.
Preferably, you'll need to kill or otherwise remove anyone with access to higher level divination magic or clairsentience powers who might get involved in the case.

A. Can someone scry on the attackers without knowing who they are?

B. So if the Church Inquisitor of Pelor was behind everything, divination wouldn't be a problem... (the party has zero clerics)

[NecessaryWeevil]

So the captain of the guard - i.e. the guy who will be training and assigning the king's guards - and the head wizard (who will presumably assign his wizardly protector) want the king dead?

How could it be simpler?

Captain assigns an assassin to guard detail. Assassin sneak attacks the king with the dagger. Wizard teleports the assassin away. Game over. No need to get complicated.

Or, wizard magically controls a guard to kill the king. Even easier as the guard can't explain why he did or who made him.

[Vogonjeltz]

During this Fall, my players are going to try to prevent the king from being assassinated. I need some help coming up with clever ways for the assassins to attempt to murder the king.

These are the details:
¤3.5 campaign
¤The king always has some kind of protection with him.
-His protection in the throne room is composed of two elite guards and a wizard.
-He regularly takes walks or eats in the castle gardens and is watched by two snipers and a wizard.
¤The assassins must use a dagger called "The Soul Blade" to kill the king. This weapon destroys a person's own soul, preventing any kind of resurrection.
¤The assassins are the captain of the Guard and the head wizard of the mage tower. They both have lackeys that will do their bidding.

I thought about having the assassins murder one of the guard wizards and then replace him with an alter self spell to do the deed. Does the Playground have any better ideas?

What about when he is sleeping? Is there a protocol regarding food?

A level 12 wizard could try to use planar binding to compel a 12 HD minion to do their dirty work. Or dominate someone to act as the assassin.

Or they could resort to any number of contact poisons, ingested poisons, and so forth.

Is there a concern about collateral damage? If not, try doing a cloud kill or acid fog in a room after the doors have been physically barred/arcane locked.

A lot of plans may depend on the layout of the castle/places the king frequents.

*oops, I forgot the dagger requirement.

I suppose finding a way to dispose of the guards is the first step, advice above can apply to them.

[sleepyphoenixx]

A. Can someone scry on the attackers without knowing who they are?

B. So if the Church Inquisitor of Pelor was behind everything, divination wouldn't be a problem... (the party has zero clerics)

You can't scry on someone without having at least heard of a target or having some connection (a possession, likeness or some body part like hair).
You can find that out with other divinations easily enough though.

Divination, Contact other Plane, Stone Tell, Speak with Animals/Plants/Dead and Object Reading can all be used to identify your target.
It all comes down to what your players have access to and how they make use of it.

[SiuiS]

Ear poison. Has no one suggested ear poison? Ear poison is the answer.


*


More seriously, you stab the guy.
Wizard makes fighter ethereal.
Wizard casts Cursed Blade on the soul blade, or gives the fighter an item that can do it. Make sure the spell Benefits from the trans dimensional meta magic feat.
Fighter positions himself close enough to the king to attack him, invisibly, Intangibly, undetectably from the ethereal with a weapon that destroys the soul and the damage of which cannot be healed until the curse is removed.

Haven't checked the spell or the meta magic feat to make sure it works, but the basics of Put Knife In Kidney seem pretty straightforward to me.


To circumvent divination, basic ablative wizardry. Wizard uses either dream control or illusions to convince a lackey they have Divine Message to kill the king, by ordering another lackey to do it. Second lackey orders wizard to do it, wizard orders third lackey, third lackey orders original. Divination will get screwed up by the loop ("he was told to by someone else, he only passed on the message" being accurate all the way around) and will lead to a dead end if it ever gets broken by having "visions" tell the guy to start the process.