How to imprison a demon of possession ?

[Idares]

Long ago I played an Apostle of Peace. He was called the Keeper, he guarded something the PC's needed: A Demon of Possesion. I gave him the Rodof Possession from BoVD to keep the demon in and the PCs couldnt harm the Apostle.

I now need the demon to be imprisoned into an object, how would you do that? I need the demon to actually posses the object able to use it's abilities, not just be inside.

Closest I can find is using magic circle focused inward. Would the object be able to move then or will it have to stay in the circle?

What if it was a ship or a wagon?

[Segev]

Make the item in question a magic item in its own right with planar binding as a primary spell in its construction. The continuously-active spell commands the bound creature to remain within the item.

[ATHATH]

If you can somehow find an Incarnate (a TN Paladin Variant from Dragon 310), he can Rebuke the demon and tell it to possess the item.

[Zaq]

You may need to talk to your DM about homebrewing something (or if you are the DM, just talk to yourself about homebrewing something). Most effects that imprison beings in objects are very careful to not let the imprisoned being have any control over the outside world. (Doing otherwise isn't much of an imprisonment for the magical beings that populate the D&D multiverse.) Pretty much anything that lets the demon have access to the powers of the item it's in isn't going to force the demon to stay there.

There's nothing saying you couldn't homebrew something that does exactly what you want, of course, but I can't think of a single existing effect that imprisons something in an object without sealing it away entirely, and I can't think of a single existing effect that grants you control over an object you're in but doesn't leave you free to exit it.

[Flickerdart]

Could you simply design an intelligent item, and say that it's intelligent because of the demon inside it?

[Quertus]

You may need to talk to your DM about homebrewing something (or if you are the DM, just talk to yourself about homebrewing something). Most effects that imprison beings in objects are very careful to not let the imprisoned being have any control over the outside world. (Doing otherwise isn't much of an imprisonment for the magical beings that populate the D&D multiverse.) Pretty much anything that lets the demon have access to the powers of the item it's in isn't going to force the demon to stay there.

There's nothing saying you couldn't homebrew something that does exactly what you want, of course, but I can't think of a single existing effect that imprisons something in an object without sealing it away entirely, and I can't think of a single existing effect that grants you control over an object you're in but doesn't leave you free to exit it.

Golems are powered by spirits that have access to an item's abilities, but are unable to leave.

[Flickerdart]

Golems are powered by spirits that have access to an item's abilities, but are unable to leave.
No, they're not. Golems are powered by the life force of an elemental, but the elemental itself has no control over the creature. The golem has its own independent mind (well, pseudo-mind for most golems, who are mindless).

[Zaq]

Golems are powered by spirits that have access to an item's abilities, but are unable to leave.

Eh, kinda. The fluff says that golems are inanimate forms animated by a bound spirit, but they're treated like creatures, not like items (intelligent or unintelligent). And there's no rules for releasing the bound spirit from the golem (short of destroying the golem, but that doesn't leave you with a free spirit; it arguably destroys the spirit) or for taking a specific spirit and putting it into a golem body. You spend the time and gold to make a golem body and you go through the ritual of animating it, but that just kind of conjures a vague elemental spirit of indeterminate origin and indeterminate identity; you don't start with an identifiable elemental spirit (or a demon, in this case) that you shove into the golem you have prepared.

So yeah, from a fluff perspective, you're not entirely wrong, but from a mechanical perspective, that really doesn't have anything to do with what the OP is looking for.

[Bad Wolf]

The Trap the Soul spell sounds like what you're looking for. It's an eighth level Conjuration Sorcerer/Wizard spell, so you'll need to have one of those on hand. If you can trick it into accepting a trigger object for the spell, it automatically is imprisoned inside the gem.

[Jack_Simth]

The Imprison Possessor spell, Book of Vile Darkness page 98, is pretty much made for this. As long as the demon, for one reason or another, can posses objects (such as because it has a few levels in the Fiend of Possession PrC), and for one reason or another possessed the object when someone with the spell was around, then the demon can be stuck there.

[MisterKaws]

Sanctify the Wicked is the best one for this case: Fpr some weird reason, evil outsiders can't be sanctified, but they can still be affected by the brainwashing err... persuasion effects, so he would see you as his friend and savior, and would be pretty much willing to do anything for you, including entering an item and staying there as an overpowered intelligent item, with spreading good and whatever as its purpose.

[Jowgen]

Closest thing I know of is the Demonomicon of Iggwilv artifact from Dragon... 336? It has pages that are legal receptacles for spells like trap the soul or minimus containment. The trapped creatures retain awareness of their surroundings, can be communicated with using things like Detect Thoughts, and the trapped creature with the highest HD can use Dream 1/day on anyone who touched the book in the last 24 hours.

Would be easy enough to tweak it so that, instead of Dream, the trapped creatures could use some of its inherent abilities. Take the other (actually useful) artifact powers away, and you might have a good item on hand regardless. I think there are some other book-based items that can trap things and could have this mechanic added onto them.

[Idares]

The Imprison Possessor spell, Book of Vile Darkness page 98, is pretty much made for this. As long as the demon, for one reason or another, can posses objects (such as because it has a few levels in the Fiend of Possession PrC), and for one reason or another possessed the object when someone with the spell was around, then the demon can be stuck there.

Exactly what I want, thank you!

Im such a fool, I looked at the crafting spells for Rod of Possession. Impotent Possession doesnt help me, but I didnt bother to read the very next spell :smallannoyed:

[ace rooster]

You may need to talk to your DM about homebrewing something (or if you are the DM, just talk to yourself about homebrewing something). Most effects that imprison beings in objects are very careful to not let the imprisoned being have any control over the outside world. (Doing otherwise isn't much of an imprisonment for the magical beings that populate the D&D multiverse.) Pretty much anything that lets the demon have access to the powers of the item it's in isn't going to force the demon to stay there.


Minimus containment version of binding (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/binding.htm) is core and does nothing to disrupt the powers of the creature (other versions explicitly do). Likewise with forcecage and resilient sphere*. Line of effect can be a problem, so they are not applicable to this problem, but I would dispute the statement that imprisonments are very careful. They generally prevent interaction as a side effect, but they are not remotely foolproof.

*Which is why the best choice of target for these spells is often yourself, or a party member in trouble. I actually think they prevent interaction to avoid them being overpowered as defensive spells, rather than because they would be underpowered offensively.

I would rule trap the soul could do it. The assumption of the spell is that a trapped soul is powerless, but that might not be true for a fiend of possession. It would be like using a tank as a prison IRL. Most people would be powerless, because they can't hotwire a tank, and getting out is out of the question. If the person can hotwire a tank, they can use the tank, but they are still trapped. Hijacking abilites is what fiends of possession do, and trap the soul has no additional protections against this (why would it? the overwhelming majority of the time they would not be needed). They would still be trapped by the spell though.

Imprison possessor has a duration, so would require some very light homebrew.

[Jack_Simth]

Imprison possessor has a duration, so would require some very light homebrew.It has a duration of "Permanent". If the target has the ability to dispel things, you may need to say something about the person that got the demon stuck (Dweomerkeeper using Supernatural Spell, perhaps, or just a really high level Sorcerer who didn't want the demon reforming on it's home plane and hence didn't kill it), but you don't need to worry about it wearing off just because it was cast 2000 years ago (unless you've got OTHER homebrew about Permanent spells and caster death or really long periods of time).

Exactly what I want, thank you!

Im such a fool, I looked at the crafting spells for Rod of Possession. Impotent Possession doesnt help me, but I didnt bother to read the very next spell :smallannoyed:

Glad to help.

[ace rooster]

It has a duration of "Permanent".

I thought about adding an "I think" to my statement, oops. :smallredface:

Yeah, just go with that. The epic feat Tenacious magic is worth considering applying, if epic creatures exist in universe.

Edit: hmm, so that wouldn't work. Temporarily suppressing the spell would allow it to escape, and then the spell would reform but not pull it back in. I'm not doing very well today. :smallsigh:

[Jack_Simth]

I thought about adding an "I think" to my statement, oops. :smallredface:

Yeah, just go with that. The epic feat Tenacious magic is worth considering applying, if epic creatures exist in universe.

Edit: hmm, so that wouldn't work. Temporarily suppressing the spell would allow it to escape, and then the spell would reform but not pull it back in. I'm not doing very well today. :smallsigh:
Having there be a way out of the problem isn't fundamentally an issue, provided that the demon can't arrange for it to happen itself. It would, in fact, be a good reason for the thing to have a guardian in the first place.