The movies Surrogate and Avatar come together.

[CIDE]

As the title suggests we're combining a concept shared between the two. Or for Dr Who fans compare the idea to the Gangers. the whole idea of dumping your mind, soul, consciousness, etc into another body. Or pilot another body like you would a drone. On its own isn't exactly a hard thing to do considering spells like Magic Jar or powers like Mind Switch. Both of which have their issues, though.

I wanted to include something new into the mix for a group of possible enemies that make heavy use of tactics that essentially involve "drones". Where the real person can sit comfortably in their castle and proceed to act as they would normally in a new body wandering around outside. Of course over long distances and possibly even interplanar if at all possible. The idea of the person dying when their avatar dying is NOT an option here.

The idea is that these avatar bodies were lab growth for a lack of a better term. Weird heavily armored regenerating bodies or whatever that they can just toss into battle without a worry in the world about faling apart. Or, possibly even constructs.

Does anyone know anything that would work for this concept? All books and dragon magazine allowed. Avoid homebrew but it may be considered. Epic magic is available.

[Uncle Pine]

Astral Projection might be worth investigating into.

[Zanos]

Dominate person will get you most of the way there. You can give the body telepathic commands and concentrating on the spell gives full sensory input. You could source bodies from polymorph any object or more traditional methods.

If you have epic magic you can just make a spell that does exactly what you want, though.

[CIDE]

Astral Projection might be worth investigating into.


Still carries the inherent risk of death I mentioned in the OP. Granted, now that I reread the spell it doesn't actually mention how the silver cord can be cut. Some research suggests the Gith silver sword but not much else.


Dominate person will get you most of the way there. You can give the body telepathic commands and concentrating on the spell gives full sensory input. You could source bodies from polymorph any object or more traditional methods.

If you have epic magic you can just make a spell that does exactly what you want, though.

Dominate Person still doesn't allow me to see through the person's eyes. Even with other methods to achieve that we're getting into some weird and convoluted territory on how effectively I'm controlling this person. It also has the issue of stats of the dominated entity.

As for Epic the character is an Artificer that I'm intentionally avoiding the cheesiest of stuff for. Such as also taking ten levels of Renegade Mastermaker, avoiding total gouda on equipment and tricks and conginent spells and stuff, etc. So, technically speaking it'll be a few more levels before the character can actually do anything with epic magic.

[icefractal]

If you have that kind of resources, death isn't too much a problem. Next to your real body, have two minions standing by, prepared to cast Revivify and Heal. No level loss, and you're out for less than a round before you can start deploying your next body.

With that method, either Magic Jar or Astral Projection would work. Or both, if you want to utilize a different body and not worry about losing equipment.

Alternately, if you combine Chain of Eyes or something like it, and Telepathic Bond to give orders, you can see through and direct whatever minion you want remotely. It's not quite the same as being there though, you couldn't cast spells through them or anything.


Edit: There is a way to use Magic Jar with no risk of death in fact, although it could cost you a Ring Gate instead, which is worse. But maybe you're undead or an outsider or something and Revivify won't work. In that case:
1) Give the minion one side of a Ring Gate, and have them swallow it. Or just stick it inside their armor if that's not possible.
2) Magic Jar to possess them, but you stay on the other side of the gate, with the jar.
3) If they die, you go back to the jar. If dispelled, you go to your body. Either way, have a minion with a readied action to shut off the Ring Gate in that event.
4) Since the other side of the gate is inside their body, nothing has LoE to it, so even if they get unexpectedly dropped into an AMF this will still work.
5) If they got nuked with overwhelming force though, enough to disintegrate them completely, then that force could blast through the gate and hit you. Use Foresight so you know to close the gate when this is about to happen.

This does require operating within Ring Gate range, but you can extend that through a booster network and/or a Gate (spell) to a demiplane.


Edit 2: Actually, maybe combining Magic Jar and Astral Projection would do this already? It gets confusing as to what "you" dies when the silver cord is cut, so perhaps if you cast Magic Jar first and then projected, only the (real) host body would die? But would you even be part of the Astral Projection in that case? :smallconfused:

[WhatThePhysics]

As the title suggests we're combining a concept shared between the two. Or for Dr Who fans compare the idea to the Gangers. the whole idea of dumping your mind, soul, consciousness, etc into another body. Or pilot another body like you would a drone. On its own isn't exactly a hard thing to do considering spells like Magic Jar or powers like Mind Switch. Both of which have their issues, though.

I wanted to include something new into the mix for a group of possible enemies that make heavy use of tactics that essentially involve "drones". Where the real person can sit comfortably in their castle and proceed to act as they would normally in a new body wandering around outside. Of course over long distances and possibly even interplanar if at all possible. The idea of the person dying when their avatar dying is NOT an option here.

The idea is that these avatar bodies were lab growth for a lack of a better term. Weird heavily armored regenerating bodies or whatever that they can just toss into battle without a worry in the world about faling apart. Or, possibly even constructs.

Does anyone know anything that would work for this concept? All books and dragon magazine allowed. Avoid homebrew but it may be considered. Epic magic is available.
Minimum Manifest Level: 15th.

Feat: Craft Universal Item.

Powers: Psionic Contingency, Psionic Dominate, Psionic Plane Shift, Psionic Teleport, Remote Viewing, Schism, Sense Link, Teleport Trigger.

Special: Psionic Contingency condition is "when I'm not psionically dominated or sense linked to this item's creator", with the contingency power being "Psionic Plane Shift to the same plane as a specific container". Teleport Trigger situation is "when I'm on the same plane as a specific container, but not psionically dominated or sense linked to this item's creator", with the predetermined location being "inside a specific container".

Process:
1) Craft a specific container for each drone you intend to have.
2) Craft continuous Psionic Contingency, Psionic Dominate, Remote Viewing, Sense Link, Schism, and Teleport Trigger items.
3) Acquire drones.
4) Become familiar with each drone.
5) Keep pictures, possessions, and nonvital body parts of each drone on your person.
6) Activate continuous Psionic Dominate, Remote Viewing, Schism, and Sense Link items for each drone.
7) Command drones to don continuous Psionic Contingency and Teleport Trigger items.

[Zanos]

Still carries the inherent risk of death I mentioned in the OP. Granted, now that I reread the spell it doesn't actually mention how the silver cord can be cut. Some research suggests the Gith silver sword but not much else.
Gith silver swords are pretty much the only printed thing that can damage a silver cord, and they attack against your normal AC and other defenses anyway. So your caster goes from dying in one hit if someone with a melee weapon can get past his defenses to dying one hit if someone with a melee weapon can get past his defenses.

What's the issue with magic jar/mind switch, by the way?

[ATHATH]

Maybe the Voidmind template?