Magical SuperMax Prison

[Nagog]

Hey ya'll! I just finished a campaign the other day, and by the end of it my character had formed a multi-planar peacekeeping organization, similar to DC Comics Green Lantern Corps. Part of the organization includes managing a magical supermax prison in Bytopia. It was hinted at that in a later campaign with another DM one of our characters may be held here and we may need to bust them out. Outside of the obvious option of Imprisonment, what are some good ways to hold high-profile criminals (spellcasters and otherwise)?

[nickl_2000]

Hey ya'll! I just finished a campaign the other day, and by the end of it my character had formed a multi-planar peacekeeping organization, similar to DC Comics Green Lantern Corps. Part of the organization includes managing a magical supermax prison in Bytopia. It was hinted at that in a later campaign with another DM one of our characters may be held here and we may need to bust them out. Outside of the obvious option of Imprisonment, what are some good ways to hold high-profile criminals (spellcasters and otherwise)?

A permanent Anti-Magic field and really thick walls should take care of most of your problems.

Magic Jar is another effective option.

[Shabbazar]

Before you get into techniques, you might want to consider what techniques are allowed and what the concept of appropriate punishment is on that plane. European prisons are distinctly nicer than US prisons and South American prisons are much worse. So I guess the DM has to decide how NG and LG are defined. Cue all the alignment debates. I'm sure most corrections officials around the world consider themselves to be good people serving society, but what they do in practice varies enormously.

There is much debate in American corrections as to the humanity of extended solitary confinement. There seems to be a lot of evidence that long term solitary is psychologically damaging, but for many (most?) of the people confined there it is the end of a long road of failed softer options.

If the Bytopians felt it was necessary to give someone 1 hour out of their cell per day for exercise/human contact (somewhat the American standard), that would obviously provide an intermittent opportunity for escape.

So in addition to considering various techniques you should probably consider how those techniques are implemented.

[stoutstien]

Hey ya'll! I just finished a campaign the other day, and by the end of it my character had formed a multi-planar peacekeeping organization, similar to DC Comics Green Lantern Corps. Part of the organization includes managing a magical supermax prison in Bytopia. It was hinted at that in a later campaign with another DM one of our characters may be held here and we may need to bust them out. Outside of the obvious option of Imprisonment, what are some good ways to hold high-profile criminals (spellcasters and otherwise)?

Is the prison design in a way to just contain or contain and punish?

[Wildarm]

Hey ya'll! I just finished a campaign the other day, and by the end of it my character had formed a multi-planar peacekeeping organization, similar to DC Comics Green Lantern Corps. Part of the organization includes managing a magical supermax prison in Bytopia. It was hinted at that in a later campaign with another DM one of our characters may be held here and we may need to bust them out. Outside of the obvious option of Imprisonment, what are some good ways to hold high-profile criminals (spellcasters and otherwise)?

Each prisoner is in their own Demiplane which requires some token or badge to access. Prisoner is placed in demiplane and petrified. Stays like that until the time for release(if ever). Prison itself is a fortified compound with wards in place to prevent planar travel in and out. Some powerful celestials serve as wardens and defenders of the complex.

[Brookshw]

Lead lined to prevent scrying and something to lock down travel magic, e.g., teleport, gate, etc. Consider the Hallow spell or other means, such as locking up a bunch on Canoloths (possibly misspelled). That's your bare minimum. Glyphs of warding, force walls, etc are also important to limit creatures abilities to move around and break out. Antimagic areas/shackled are also a plus. Adamantite walls etc never hurt. Build redundancies.

Powerful guards help. Golems and things immune to mind affecting abilities are a plus (as is the silence spell).

Prevent things from coming in and going out as much as possible, self sustaining abilities will add to this, e.g., create food and water.

Also, you're on Bytopia, a plane of goodness (I'm not sure that's the plane you want, consider Belierin in Elysium. It's already a supermax prison, never hurts to have backup handy if necessary). As a good plane I'd expect counselors and opportunities for redemption to be available.

[Nagog]

Is the prison design in a way to just contain or contain and punish?
Contain for the most part. In a 5e setting, containment is far more secure than execution, as a single casting of True Resurrection could revive a supercriminal, while containment until said supercriminal dies of old age is much more secure and permanent.

Each prisoner is in their own Demiplane which requires some token or badge to access. Prisoner is placed in demiplane and petrified. Stays like that until the time for release(if ever). Prison itself is a fortified compound with wards in place to prevent planar travel in and out. Some powerful celestials serve as wardens and defenders of the complex.
Petrification may present an issue of it's own, as from my understanding it's a form of stasis, so the detainee would not die of old age as planned.

[stoutstien]

Contain for the most part. In a 5e setting, containment is far more secure than execution, as a single casting of True Resurrection could revive a supercriminal, while containment until said supercriminal dies of old age is much more secure and permanent.

Petrification may present an issue of it's own, as from my understanding it's a form of stasis, so the detainee would not die of old age as planned.

The solution is simple then. Expedited aging.

If course nothing is stopping them from committing suicide if they know they have an ally that has true Resurrection

So what's for the solution for the super buddies that are either already undead or in some other way immune to death by old age?

[Fayd]

Major weakness: by being on another plane, the entire design is weak to Banishment. It’ll sent mortals back to the prime material.

[SirGraystone]

First thing that come to mind are the Dimensional Shackles that block any form of transdimensional travel, including teleport, dimension door or plane shift. I wouldn't make the whole prison antimagic since the guards may want to use some, But some kind of anti magic collar that stop the wearer to use any kind of magic would be better. Keep prisonners in 30' deep well with smooth walls that can't be climb, closed with adamantite door at the top. For the more troublesome have them wear helm that cut sound and sight for a week or month.

[Nagog]

The solution is simple then. Expedited aging.

If course nothing is stopping them from committing suicide if they know they have an ally that has true Resurrection

So what's for the solution for the super buddies that are either already undead or in some other way immune to death by old age?

Presumably eternal containment, or if possible/applicable, Feeblemind.


Major weakness: by being on another plane, the entire design is weak to Banishment. It’ll sent mortals back to the prime material.

This organization is very open in it's recruitment (My character is the only one of the original group stationed here that isn't native to Bytopia), so the guards would be immune, however the inmates may have issues. How would you suggest safeguarding against this?

[MoiMagnus]

Since it is a "SuperMax Prison" you want, I will assume you don't want a kind prison where the prisoners are simply cut of their right, but live a decent life, while preparing to be reintegrated into the society. So here are some more extreme suggestions:

1) Body destroyed. Soul in a Magic Jar. Whatever top protection you need to make sure the Jar is not accessible. Note that getting rid of the Jar somewhere where even gods cannot find it would be a good solution (like lost in the Far Realm, or something like that).

2) Memory erased. Killed and reincarnated in another race. Body send back to very young age. Goal is to raise that (unrecognizable) child as a good person, so that even if he ever find his memories back, he do not recognize himself in who he was. That's the most efficient way to get rid of someone in a world where soul exist: transform him in someone completely different.

3) Assuming you take a strict interpretation of how resurrection works (To be resurrected, the soul must be willing to come back to life, but the soul does not know what spell is trying to resurrect it, and cannot do weird stuff like "I only accept the 6th resurrection, on a Saturday". No: either the soul want to come back to life, either it doesn't.), then you make a clone of the prisoner. Meaning that if he somehow tries to escape, you can just kill him, and he will resurrect as a clone inside your prison.

[Damon_Tor]

Casting Imprisonment on every supercriminal is problematic. For one thing, I would expect them to have enough hit dice to make the spell very expensive. For another, the fact that the imprisoned individuals do not age means your prison population will continue to grow, there will be no dieoff to reduce it. After several millennia the accumulation of very evil, very powerful beings would pose an unnecessary risk to the cosmos. It's also a 9th level spell, so your wardens will have to be very high level spellcasters, which might be hard to source.

Flesh to Stone is better. It has no costly component and it can be cast by lower level employees. But it still has the problem of making the target immortal, and it doesn't even shrink the target down to a managable size like Imprisonment does, so you'd still have the problem of an ever growing accumulation of powerful evil guys sitting around, and now you also have a sizable storage problem. Using demiplanes for storage brings us back to requiring high level spellcasters.

I think a good solution is to use Flesh to Stone on beholders, turning them into anti-magic projectors. Beholders can be bred fairly easily with the Dream spell. Once the beholder is created and petrified, break off its eye stalks to reduce the risks of handling it and mount it in place overlooking a row of cells or any other part of the prison you expect the convicts to be able to inhabit. With a 150 foot come, a single beholder can neutralize many convicts at once. This means they can socialize, have communal meals, and exercise.

[Nagog]

Ok, here's the dealio so far (This is specifically for one prisoner, also references the Great Wheel Cosmology, the one the DM used for this campaign):

The prisoner is kept in a Demiplane cell with a permanent anti-magic field inside. Visitations of his daughter (she's 5 and was a very important part of the story) is allowed on a bi-monthly basis. During such visits, the Prisoner will be escorted by no less than 2 guards, each sustaining their own anti-magic field. Before such visits, the Prisoner will be hit with a Quivering Palm to prepare for the possibility that the Prisoner will escape at that time (this precaution will also be taken in the event of a security breach).
Upon admittance, high profile prisoners will have their pinkies removed, both as an outward sign of their status as prisoners (to prevent impersonation of other personel) as well as providing a component for the Clone spell as a contingency against suicide and revivification and as a method for recovering the prisoner should they escape (see the Quivering Palm bit).
Should the customer be too difficult to contain, they will be subjected to a Minimus Imprisonment and jettisoned into the Sea of Elemental Chaos beyond the Outer Planes.

General Containment will be managed with petrified Beholders providing round-the-clock antimagic fields in both recreation and communal areas and overseen by monks to prevent martial prisoners from acquiring weapons with which to attempt escape.



As a note, this organization can be comprised of as many high level classes as necessary now that the campaign is over. This is more for use as a DM tool more than anything, as a way to contain big baddies for parties who are against killing or baddies who cannot be killed, as well as a fun challenge to throw at your players should one of them be detained here.

[Tetrasodium]

A lot of the work has already been done for you. Both eberron campaign setting & eberron campaign guide (3.5 & 4e) touch on The Dreadhold. Also Dragon Magazine issue #344 has about 20 pages or so about its security/defenses/staffing/some prisoners/etc

[Keravath]

Ok, here's the dealio so far (This is specifically for one prisoner, also references the Great Wheel Cosmology, the one the DM used for this campaign):

The prisoner is kept in a Demiplane cell with a permanent anti-magic field inside. Visitations of his daughter (she's 5 and was a very important part of the story) is allowed on a bi-monthly basis. During such visits, the Prisoner will be escorted by no less than 2 guards, each sustaining their own anti-magic field. Before such visits, the Prisoner will be hit with a Quivering Palm to prepare for the possibility that the Prisoner will escape at that time (this precaution will also be taken in the event of a security breach).
Upon admittance, high profile prisoners will have their pinkies removed, both as an outward sign of their status as prisoners (to prevent impersonation of other personel) as well as providing a component for the Clone spell as a contingency against suicide and revivification and as a method for recovering the prisoner should they escape (see the Quivering Palm bit).
Should the customer be too difficult to contain, they will be subjected to a Minimus Imprisonment and jettisoned into the Sea of Elemental Chaos beyond the Outer Planes.

General Containment will be managed with petrified Beholders providing round-the-clock antimagic fields in both recreation and communal areas and overseen by monks to prevent martial prisoners from acquiring weapons with which to attempt escape.



As a note, this organization can be comprised of as many high level classes as necessary now that the campaign is over. This is more for use as a DM tool more than anything, as a way to contain big baddies for parties who are against killing or baddies who cannot be killed, as well as a fun challenge to throw at your players should one of them be detained here.

Keep in mind that the target of resurrection magic knows who is casting the spell and can choose not to be resurrected. They can just wait for one of their allies outside to resurrect them. This also applies to occupying a clone. The soul must be willing. The DMG states the following:

"A soul can't be returned to life if it doesn't wish to be. A soul knows the name, alignment, and patron deity (if any) of the character attempting to revive it and might refuse to return on that basis."

Once a character contained in your prison dies, the odds of you getting it back are slim to none unless it wants to come back since you can't force it to be resurrected and it can always choose only to be resurrected by one of its allies.

This makes the prisoners especially dangerous since they can freely attack the guards since if the guards kill them they escape.

In addition, old age is also not a barrier to escape since dying of old age is unpredictable. If a creature dies of old age in your prison then someone outside the prison can still cast true resurrection (it fixes any organs that aren't functioning properly) to return the creature to life, take a part of their body, cast clone, and even if they die again of old age, the soul can occupy the clone 120 days later after it matures.

In D&D, death isn't a barrier and is probably one of the easiest ways to escape a prison unless your prison is surrounded by a barrier that can also contain souls.

As a result, long term containment through something like Imprisonment, perhaps on a hidden demiplane, is possibly the best option. Their location can't be scryed and the caster of the demiplane spell is the only one who knows how to get there.

[Nagog]

Keep in mind that the target of resurrection magic knows who is casting the spell and can choose not to be resurrected. They can just wait for one of their allies outside to resurrect them. This also applies to occupying a clone. The soul must be willing. The DMG states the following:

"A soul can't be returned to life if it doesn't wish to be. A soul knows the name, alignment, and patron deity (if any) of the character attempting to revive it and might refuse to return on that basis."

Once a character contained in your prison dies, the odds of you getting it back are slim to none unless it wants to come back since you can't force it to be resurrected and it can always choose only to be resurrected by one of its allies.

This makes the prisoners especially dangerous since they can freely attack the guards since if the guards kill them they escape.

In addition, old age is also not a barrier to escape since dying of old age is unpredictable. If a creature dies of old age in your prison then someone outside the prison can still cast true resurrection (it fixes any organs that aren't functioning properly) to return the creature to life, take a part of their body, cast clone, and even if they die again of old age, the soul can occupy the clone 120 days later after it matures.

In D&D, death isn't a barrier and is probably one of the easiest ways to escape a prison unless your prison is surrounded by a barrier that can also contain souls.

As a result, long term containment through something like Imprisonment, perhaps on a hidden demiplane, is possibly the best option. Their location can't be scryed and the caster of the demiplane spell is the only one who knows how to get there.

True Resurrection cannot ressurrect someone who died of old age. The description is:


You touch a creature that has been dead for no longer than 200 years and that died for any reason except old age. If the creature's soul is free and willing, the creature is restored to life with all its Hit Points.

So old age and destruction of the body is the only way to perma-death someone. Likewise, Clone does not have the descriptor for knowing where the clone is, as it's typically a safeguard implemented by the individual against death. Since it isn't revival or resurrection, the only decision they get is willing to return (see description for Clone below), which, as I understand it is a yes or no question. Once you've passed on into the afterlife, there really isn't much that can change your mind. Becoming a devil in the lower planes means you don't remember your previous life, and going to the higher planes or paradise, you'll either be in bliss and not want to return or no new information can get to you to convince you you need to return. So once the decision is made (typically right after death), the decision is made.


At any time after the clone matures, if the original creature dies, its soul transfers to the clone, provided that the soul is free and willing to return. The clone is physically identical to the original and has the same personality, memories, and Abilities, but none of the original's Equipment. The original creature's physical remains, if they still exist, become inert and can't thereafter be restored to life, since the creature's soul is elsewhere.

[Bobthewizard]

This is D&D so I wouldn't have it look like a prison at all. Here are some ideas.

1. Every prisoner is under Imprisonment and the gems are put into jewelry worn by the most powerful celestials, but no one knows which necklace has which prisoners. The condition to release the prisoner is for someone to say the prisoner's name as the first thing they ever say to the wearer of the necklace.

2. All of the prisoners are True Polymorphed into cats living in an old lady's house, or trees in a magical forest in the Feywild, or rocks dropped in the bottom of the elemental plane of water, or coins put into circulation. The hard part isn't rescuing them, it's figuring out which cat/tree/rock/coin to rescue.

3. They are all under some sort of illusion like the ArchFey's Dark Delirium or the GOO Create Thrall and they just sit around in a plain white room not interacting at all.

4. The prisoners are under a permanent Phantasmal Force and think they are in the happiest place they could imagine. They all run around playing tag and peek a boo with each other and resist being rescued.

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

I have a supermax prison in my campaign world though I don't really play by the built in rules for it too much (when gods create prisons it doesn't need to imo).

Think of any kind of chaotic entity who can't be killed or reasoned with, this prison was built to contain that kind of threat, over time it also was expanded to include powerful entities who could be killed but it would be more difficult then it's worth.

At this point there are three different prisons, basically in concentric circles around each other. Between the exterior and between each prison is a an antimagic barrier preventing magical effects of any kind from passing through it.

The outer prison is for low level threats where if someone were to escape it wouldn't be a big deal. This circle is kept in order by Pentadrones and is guarded by Hundreds of Clay gladiators and 13 Iron Golems. This circle starts with a permanent earthbind and slow effect on everything within it.

The second circle is meant for extremely powerful creatures that are mortal (think player characters above level 11). This circle has a special ability that doesn't prevent magical casting but every non construct is struck by a major debilitation, it reduces Int, Wis, and Cha to 8.

The Third level is for things that are immortal and absurdly powerful. Each of these creatures is restrained by a crystalline substance. however their minds are transferred to an illusory reality, where they can all sit around plotting each others doom. (think of a combination of demonreach from dresden files but combined with fallout 3's memory lane.)

[Nhorianscum]

Imprisonment in a demiplane full of glyphs of warding with a *greater* use of wish used to destroy all knowledge of that planes existance along with the attunment frequency of that plane.

Extra points for blanketing the plane in glyphs of warding set to all the nastines.

Extra extra points for using another wish to erase the imprisoned beings true name.

---------

To be fair just setting up a demiplane while denying access to the "code" needed to enter is pretty secure. I'd say your DM will be nicer than this though.

[Keravath]

True Resurrection cannot ressurrect someone who died of old age. The description is:

So old age and destruction of the body is the only way to perma-death someone. Likewise, Clone does not have the descriptor for knowing where the clone is, as it's typically a safeguard implemented by the individual against death. Since it isn't revival or resurrection, the only decision they get is willing to return (see description for Clone below), which, as I understand it is a yes or no question. Once you've passed on into the afterlife, there really isn't much that can change your mind. Becoming a devil in the lower planes means you don't remember your previous life, and going to the higher planes or paradise, you'll either be in bliss and not want to return or no new information can get to you to convince you you need to return. So once the decision is made (typically right after death), the decision is made.

My mistake. I missed the old age clause in True Resurrection.

However, "old age" is actually quite ambiguous since no one actually ever dies of old age.

Consider the range of natural life times, even a human today can live to be more than a century. Some may die of a heart attack. Is the heart attack old age? Is a stroke old age? Is a failing kidney old age? Getting older may increase the probability of certain organs not operating correctly but being old by itself is not the cause of these since you can always turn around and look at someone else who is older.

So consider a human wizard in your prison who dies of a heart attack at age 70 because they preferred the meat to the veggies while confined. Did they die of old age? What about one who was 60, 50, 40? The exact same thing kills each and every one of them ... are they all dying from "old age" or did they all just have a heart attack due to bad diets?

Perhaps in D&D, characters reach a certain age and just die because they are too old? I haven't seen that written anywhere though. However, unless they just die at a certain age because they are "too old" then even in D&D no one is dying of old age.

What happens if an old person in your prison catches pneumonia and dies? Did they die of old age since their immune system wasn't up to keeping the disease at bay? Or did they die because the cleric didn't cast cure disease on them?

Anyway, I agree that True Resurrection won't work for someone who dies of old age but, unfortunately, no one ever actually dies of old age so the clause is ambiguous.

[MoiMagnus]

My mistake. I missed the old age clause in True Resurrection.

However, "old age" is actually quite ambiguous since no one actually ever dies of old age.

D&D world clearly doesn't really works like our world. The world is essentially made of the 4 elements instead of particles and atoms. And the mechanics of death and souls are (most likely) very different from our world. It is not a big step to assume that diseases do not work as in our world (no bacteria, microbes and stuffs, but more whatever old cultures though about illness), especially since one can magically "cure diseases" without any concern on "what kind of disease it is".

My conclusion is that in the D&D world, peoples actually die of old age. As a mortal, contrary to immortal beings, past a certain point in your life, you have finished your time on earth, and your soul naturally wish to leave your body, leading to a death of old age.

[Imbalance]

D&D world clearly doesn't really works like our world. The world is essentially made of the 4 elements instead of particles and atoms. And the mechanics of death and souls are (most likely) very different from our world. It is not a big step to assume that diseases do not work as in our world (no bacteria, microbes and stuffs, but more whatever old cultures though about illness), especially since one can magically "cure diseases" without any concern on "what kind of disease it is".

My conclusion is that in the D&D world, peoples actually die of old age. As a mortal, contrary to immortal beings, past a certain point in your life, you have finished your time on earth, and your soul naturally wish to leave your body, leading to a death of old age.

Just had a similar conversation last session, how in a world in which one can magically purify water to drink, society is less likely to favor our own medieval preference toward alcoholic beverages. In that same vein, as relates to the topic at hand, the ultimate punishment is not death, but instead may very well be a true multiple life sentence. Imagine the proclamation of incarceration that forces the condemned to live. They mustn't simply endure the rest of their life as it is, not only a lifetime where the guilty are kept in a more clinical prison instead of a dangerous dungeon, where they may be healed repeatedly, and maintained without injury or sickness until the utmost end of their natural span of years, but also years that can be magically extended into as many lifetimes as the judge decides, all while never again knowing freedom. That would also exclude the freedom to die.

Due to the extreme expense of resurrection, yeah, death is still an effective punishment to deter most, but in the case of society's worst offenders, the kind of evil miscreants that cannot be allowed to come back in any form, make it so that they can never escape from themselves.

[Lord Vukodlak]

A magical permanent geas compelling them to prevent all escapes. You want to free a prisoner you have to fight all the prisoners.

If countering 9th level spells are an issue for your security. You are dealing with a prison of one situation.

[Damon_Tor]

In addition to my "Petrified Beholder Anti-Magic Fields" effect, another complementary security measure: gloves made of Bags of Devouring.

As long as the prisoners remain within the Anti-Magic fields, these gloves are just regular gloves and no harm comes to anybody. But if for any reason they step out of the field the cursed items activate and bite off the hands of the convict. This prevents them from casting most spells in the short term while being a nonlethal deterrent for escape attempts. Combine this with the silence effect of the Hallow spell and you have a near-total ban on spellcasting even if they manage to step outside the Anti-Magic Projectors.

You could also affix Immovable Rods to the convicts, button locked in the "on" mode. Inside the anti-magic field they can move around freely, but as soon as they leave it that rod freezes in place and they can't move. So they'd be right there outside their cell with their hands cut off, making it fairly easy for your guards to correct whatever allowed the prisoner to leave the area of the Anti-Magic projectors in the first place.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

I'm not 100% but in the DMG I think they talk about a plane of existence that is just a prison.

Throw them in there and call it a day.

[Wizard_Lizard]

1 why not just kill them
2 feeblemind
3 there is an entir plane devoted to this.

[Nagog]

1 why not just kill them
2 feeblemind
3 there is an entir plane devoted to this.

1. Death is reversable in D&D (this has been discussed previously in the thread extensively)
2. Feeblemind still has easy solutions (easier than death), and in the case of a few prisoners, visitation rights are applicable
3. Planar travel is an easy way in, and I'm sure plenty of campaigns have been run with escaping from said plane.

[Temperjoke]

Honestly? Someone who does something bad enough to be placed inside one of these prisons should probably not be allowed visitation rights, or any rights for that matter. Also, while I understand your intent behind letting them die of old age, I feel it's kinda naive given how long some races live, and how many evil beings that could be put into a prison like this are functionally immortal.

Realistically, you've got three options: Containment, Rehabilitation, Punishment.

Containment: these are the prisoners that your only option is permanent restraint. They're the ones that may be immortal, may be irredeemable, etc. These prisoners are ones that are turned to stone, trapped via Magic Jar, etc., with the intent of holding them for eternity.

Rehabilitation: These are the super-evil villains who demonstrated mitigating circumstances, that there is some sliver of hope for. They still need to be contained, but with things like magical Geas restraints that would allow them to move about and hopefully become converted over time. Honestly, there really shouldn't be very many of these prisoners in this sort of prison, except for prisoners who've "graduated" from the Punishment section.

Punishment: These prisoners are ones who are potentially redeemable, but they have been sentenced to various forms of punishment. Using the Imprisonment spell on these prisoners is probably the best, because one of the terms of release from it can be sincere regret for their actions.

[Nagog]

Honestly? Someone who does something bad enough to be placed inside one of these prisons should probably not be allowed visitation rights, or any rights for that matter.
(...)
Containment: these are the prisoners that your only option is permanent restraint. They're the ones that may be immortal, may be irredeemable, etc. These prisoners are ones that are turned to stone, trapped via Magic Jar, etc., with the intent of holding them for eternity.


The person from the campaign this originated from has... unique circumstances, however some other examples I can think of for such an exception would probably be something akin to Hannibal Lector (though I haven't seen the movie, the iconic scene where he's being interrogated comes to mind), people who have valuable information or people who could potentially be useful.

For prisoners who are immortal (completely immortal, not like elves and such who are simply long-lived), Magic Jar would probably be the best bet. For those with incredibly long life spans, containment is the best solution, potentially alongside magic to make them age faster.

That being said, this is to create a Narrative Tool for DMs to use, not a player in a campaign to use to contain a few folks, so worldbuilding/locationbuilding is the focus here rather than quick easy fixes. Imagine you're attempting to contain the likes of Strahd, Acererak, and Lex Luthor combined into a single individual. What methods would you use to contain them, assuming they could outsmart a single spell?

[XmonkTad]

Imagine you're attempting to contain the likes of Strahd, Acererak, and Lex Luthor combined into a single individual. What methods would you use to contain them, assuming they could outsmart a single spell?

This prison contains many evil, or at least dangerous, individuals I would imagine a prison where rather than encasing the place in anti magic, that magic is an integral part of the containment. Walls of force, guards who can cast Detect Thoughts, cells that are solid walls until passwall is cast, and so on.

Since it seems like the plot BBEG that being held in here is a caster of some sort, he may be kept in an anti magic field, but it could be one that turns on and off "randomly" so that various spells can be used to help secure him (like locate object: contraband).