Party want to give a body to an inanimate object!

[Fishyninja]

Hello everyone.

My players came up with two requests yesterday which kind of stumped me so I wanted to throw it to the forum and see if any ideas come through.

The Party is level 5 at present

This post will be split into two parts;

This part will focus on two deceased Characters (Damien the Flower Wizard, Church Grim the Paladin)

So Damien managed to find a sentient weapon. A rapier called Fiore. Fiore has the soul of a nymph binded to her and can grant some druid spells to the wielder, the nymph soul that was bonded to sword was young and as such Fiore is very childlike (imagine between 8-12 year old child). Damian was going to look after her and try to find a way to restore her to her former self. Well unfortunately Damien died so another party member is now holding onto Fiore. Church was a Warforged Paladin, who also died around about the same time as Damien, the party was able to recover Church's body, and now our Artificier wants to try to Bind Fiore to the body of Church to give her a body and locomotion etc.

So Really my questions are:

Should I let them?
If so what do they need to do to make it work?
What limitations should I put in place? I ask because the player who players the Artificer has a habit of trying to stretch his class abilities to the limit.


I did have an idea of making her sort of an NPC that they may have to look after and care for. I even managed to find some art I could use for her.

https://i.imgur.com/UmTy1e4.png

This part is probably going to be a touch simpler. The party were fighting a Succubus and after they killed her in a fit of RP I described her body as disintegrating into ash which the Artificer, has now collected as he wants to try and do something with it.

I have not clue what to offer him, I'd rather try to offer him something rather than say 'It's normal ash' so I need ideas for what you could use Succubus Ash for.

[nickl_2000]

This part is probably going to be a touch simpler. The party were fighting a Succubus and after they killed her in a fit of RP I described her body as disintegrating into ash which the Artificer, has now collected as he wants to try and do something with it.

I have not clue what to offer him, I'd rather try to offer him something rather than say 'It's normal ash' so I need ideas for what you could use Succubus Ash for.


Part of a formula for a magical items seem appropriate to me. A love potion, staff of charming, eyes of charming all seem appropriate.

If to go more directly, make it a custom "Dust of Charming" similar to sneezing and coughing.

[Contrast]

True Polymorph (9th level spell) lets you turn an object into a creature permanently in an hour. Reincarnation (5th level spell) lets you turn a dead creature into another random living creature in an hour. Polymorph (4th level spell) lets you turn a creature into another creature but only for an hour.

In terms of permanence Teleportation Circle lets you make a 5th level spell permanent by recasting it every day for a year.

They won't directly let you do what you want (well...I mean I guess there's Wish) but just to ballpark what sort of power of magic we're casting here - we want to turn a specific creature into another specific creature and be permanent. We're probably looking at the higher end of the spectrum (equivalent to 8th or 9th level magic). That's some serious juju. Reduce spell level by requiring a lengthy ritual with more participants/skill checks/material components.

If they're willing to accept a more partial solution in the short term (limited to a certain amount of time per day or some other more esoteric restriction) with an eye to becoming permanent in the future I'd say some sort of ritual, requiring a semi-expensive material component (something related to the nymph and warforged nature of those involved I would suggest) which is consumed which will become permanent if cast enough times in succession.

Unless you just think it sounds fun then you can really make it as easy as you want.


It is kinda weird to try and jam the soul of a nymph into the body of your dead friend of course (particularly when this would prevent magic which would bring your friend back to life potentially which I assume is why they have been carrying round his corpse...).

[Fishyninja]

It is kinda weird to try and jam the soul of a nymph into the body of your dead friend of course (particularly when this would prevent magic which would bring your friend back to life potentially which I assume is why they have been carrying round his corpse...).

A good point however the Artificer doesn't see the warforged as a friend or as a creature. It is another machine, a tool to be used, broken and repaired.


Part of a formula for a magical items seem appropriate to me. A love potion, staff of charming, eyes of charming all seem appropriate.

If to go more directly, make it a custom "Dust of Charming" similar to sneezing and coughing.

All good ideas.

[Bloodyshadow1]

For the first, I wouldn't just let them try to do it, I mean unless it has a really high DC, especially at level 5
Maybe you could make a side quest for them to go on so that a more accomplished artificer or other spellcaster could
bind the fairy's soul to the warforged body, but that's up to you.
If they still want to try, than maybe make it so that if they fail the high DC for the roll than Fiore's soul could be lost
or they could do it wrong and make her go berserk and they have to put her down in Church's body

Even if it does work than you would be the one to control her and rp for her since she's an NPC, not a robot sidekick for the artificer

It seems to me like it's completely ridiculous for a level 5 party to try something like this so a failure with real stakes
might be what the party needs to realize that they aren't invincible and doing things outside their level can result in
something like this.

as for the ash, I would rule it as just ash and that it's just the succubus' body since the fiend's essence is being reformed in the
9 hells or the abyss, or whatever and the essence is the important part. Of course you could just let them use it to decrease the
component cost in the creation of something that would relate to the succubus. I think love potions were suggested, but something
that helps against mind control could also be an option, it would just decrease the material cost instead of giving it an actual bonus
in creation though so like knock a hundred gold of the item cost in item creation

[Segev]

Let the Artificer use the ash of the dead succubus as a component in addition to Fiore to build a new Warforged body, which will be pretty and feminine and also be Fiore because she was built into it.

Resurrect your dead PCs.

Or, for poetic symmetry, have Damien be bound into a sentient item Fiore carries around. "We can't build you a new body, Damien. Unless you want to be a girlforged, too? I think I still have SOME succubus ash lying around."