Wolfswift
2022-04-13, 02:49 AM
So, getting ready to do an encounter which includes a necromancer who dug up ancient lycanthrope corpses, constructed canopis stones (presumably by using bone meal from the unearthed corpses?) and summons Vilkacis (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/vilkacis/) to possess living prisoners to use their bodies as meat shields and disuade the party from murdering the innocent prisoners.
But... If the necromancer first drains a mental stat of a prisoner to 0 to make them unconcious/comatose, like say Wisdom, can the victim even resist being possessed? Or do they just have a reduced will save due to said wisdom damage/drain? What if all their mental stats were reduced to 0? Looking to keep them as savable, living prisoners to present a moral challenge to the party, but an easy vessel for being possessed regularly. Presumably a creature unconcious/comatose due to a mental score reduced to 0 will cease to be unconcious when a possessing creature uses it's mental scores in place of the unconcious creature's own?
Also, the party may be down a cleric this encounter, (intentionally, I play the cleric normally, but DM wanted me to run an adventure and said to make an excuse for my character to be absent, so he's being officially recognized and ordained by the church of his religion. The party will have a wand of cure critical wounds on a familiar. The party is stupid OP, it's literally recognized in game, my character will tell them they can handle a few lycanthropes.) but I'd figured the wizard could cast Protection from Evil (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/p/protection-from-evil/), (even if he didn't prepare or doesn't know it, he's a mythic Archmage with Wild Arcana (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/mythic/mythic-heroes/mythic-paths-paizo-inc/Archmage/#Wild_Arcana_Su), so he can cast any wizard spell) however that spell allows the possessed to get a new saving throw against ongoing possession, but if the possessed subject is basically braindead currently, can they even choose to make a new save? If he used Command Undead (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/command-undead/) himself and the necromancer had also used it... Is it a caster level check to see who's in control or... charisma check?
What other methods would the party have of saving the possessed prisoners if they can't remove the possessing Vilkacis? Nonlethal or other means of knocking them out is my first thought, presuming the host body is of a low enough HD, sleep might work? Or would the HD check for that go off the possessing entity? Presumably if the possessed body goes unconcious for reasons beyond 0 in a mental stat which is remedied by being possessed, then presumably the possessing entities will be unable to move the body and need to evacuate to continue doing anything, right? The party... isn't prepared to fight nonlethally... They can always take the -4 I suppose...
Should it be very hard for the party to realize the people attacking them aren't lycanthropes but possessed by the spirits of bloodthirsty lycans and are savable? Like what knowledge DC? How obscure should I make these guys? I chose Vilkacis because I searched d20pfsrd for possession and chose bestiary and saw them and throught it'd be perfect for the bandits to blame lycanthropes for the people going missing and such, but I do worry if the party doesn't realize these people need help, they might just steamroll them without batting an eye...
I'm thinking the possessed should be moderate leveled mercenaries/adventurers that were either captured or lured into being taken prisoner so they're not lightweights, but I don't know what abilities the possessors can use besides physical ability scores and probably some innate race stuff? It might be more difficult to make them pushover lvl 1 commoners that die easily to make them hard to keep alive... Not sure... But if they're too much of a pushover, then clearly the party will just ignore them and seek out the necromancer to destroy the Canopic Stones, right?
If a telepathic message is relayed to the possessed creature's mind, would the possessor hear it? Just so they can be bonded telepathically in advance for silent orders and such.
Also, if the necromancer makes Canopic Stones to summon Vilkacis (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/vilkacis/), could they control them with Command Undead (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/command-undead/) and have a virtually infinite number of them? Or should they be limited by like the Animate Dead (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/a/animate-dead/) limitation of 4x CL in HD of undead? Because the Necromancer does have a couple allies supporting them, but they'll probably both remain far from the frontline. The idea is that the Vilkacis possessed folks are the front line distracting the party while the necromancer's allies take potshots at the party from stealth. It's essentially an ambush, the necromancer has hidden comatose prisoners in the bushes nearby and is hiding nearby to summon Vilkacis to possess them and support them, while their allies snipe from further off.
What action would it be to summon a Vilkacis using it's Canopic Stone? Standard? Might they be able to summon multiples using Animate Dead to do so? They can stay possessing the same body for hours, so if commandable, they could be summoned in advance and be persuaded to lie in wait to ambush passersby...
Once summoned, if they aren't commanded, will they just stay summoned and run amok? Does summoning them once a day just recall them from wherever they've run off to? I'd presumed they like despawned back to the grave after a time and could be resummoned the next day... If Vilkacis just stay summoned and can just run amok, it'd be vital they be kept on a leash, lest the bandits invoke too much wrath too quickly and their whole operation goes up in smoke... I mean... That is sort of the party's draw, true, but I meant like the nearby city just torching the entire forest instead of sending the party.
Part of me is feeling like if this whole summoning possessing undead to force innocent people to stand in the way of the party as meat shields thing might be too convuluted and just be best to have normal zombie/skeleton hordes, but that's kinda boring and cliché...
But... If the necromancer first drains a mental stat of a prisoner to 0 to make them unconcious/comatose, like say Wisdom, can the victim even resist being possessed? Or do they just have a reduced will save due to said wisdom damage/drain? What if all their mental stats were reduced to 0? Looking to keep them as savable, living prisoners to present a moral challenge to the party, but an easy vessel for being possessed regularly. Presumably a creature unconcious/comatose due to a mental score reduced to 0 will cease to be unconcious when a possessing creature uses it's mental scores in place of the unconcious creature's own?
Also, the party may be down a cleric this encounter, (intentionally, I play the cleric normally, but DM wanted me to run an adventure and said to make an excuse for my character to be absent, so he's being officially recognized and ordained by the church of his religion. The party will have a wand of cure critical wounds on a familiar. The party is stupid OP, it's literally recognized in game, my character will tell them they can handle a few lycanthropes.) but I'd figured the wizard could cast Protection from Evil (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/p/protection-from-evil/), (even if he didn't prepare or doesn't know it, he's a mythic Archmage with Wild Arcana (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/mythic/mythic-heroes/mythic-paths-paizo-inc/Archmage/#Wild_Arcana_Su), so he can cast any wizard spell) however that spell allows the possessed to get a new saving throw against ongoing possession, but if the possessed subject is basically braindead currently, can they even choose to make a new save? If he used Command Undead (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/command-undead/) himself and the necromancer had also used it... Is it a caster level check to see who's in control or... charisma check?
What other methods would the party have of saving the possessed prisoners if they can't remove the possessing Vilkacis? Nonlethal or other means of knocking them out is my first thought, presuming the host body is of a low enough HD, sleep might work? Or would the HD check for that go off the possessing entity? Presumably if the possessed body goes unconcious for reasons beyond 0 in a mental stat which is remedied by being possessed, then presumably the possessing entities will be unable to move the body and need to evacuate to continue doing anything, right? The party... isn't prepared to fight nonlethally... They can always take the -4 I suppose...
Should it be very hard for the party to realize the people attacking them aren't lycanthropes but possessed by the spirits of bloodthirsty lycans and are savable? Like what knowledge DC? How obscure should I make these guys? I chose Vilkacis because I searched d20pfsrd for possession and chose bestiary and saw them and throught it'd be perfect for the bandits to blame lycanthropes for the people going missing and such, but I do worry if the party doesn't realize these people need help, they might just steamroll them without batting an eye...
I'm thinking the possessed should be moderate leveled mercenaries/adventurers that were either captured or lured into being taken prisoner so they're not lightweights, but I don't know what abilities the possessors can use besides physical ability scores and probably some innate race stuff? It might be more difficult to make them pushover lvl 1 commoners that die easily to make them hard to keep alive... Not sure... But if they're too much of a pushover, then clearly the party will just ignore them and seek out the necromancer to destroy the Canopic Stones, right?
If a telepathic message is relayed to the possessed creature's mind, would the possessor hear it? Just so they can be bonded telepathically in advance for silent orders and such.
Also, if the necromancer makes Canopic Stones to summon Vilkacis (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/vilkacis/), could they control them with Command Undead (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/command-undead/) and have a virtually infinite number of them? Or should they be limited by like the Animate Dead (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/a/animate-dead/) limitation of 4x CL in HD of undead? Because the Necromancer does have a couple allies supporting them, but they'll probably both remain far from the frontline. The idea is that the Vilkacis possessed folks are the front line distracting the party while the necromancer's allies take potshots at the party from stealth. It's essentially an ambush, the necromancer has hidden comatose prisoners in the bushes nearby and is hiding nearby to summon Vilkacis to possess them and support them, while their allies snipe from further off.
What action would it be to summon a Vilkacis using it's Canopic Stone? Standard? Might they be able to summon multiples using Animate Dead to do so? They can stay possessing the same body for hours, so if commandable, they could be summoned in advance and be persuaded to lie in wait to ambush passersby...
Once summoned, if they aren't commanded, will they just stay summoned and run amok? Does summoning them once a day just recall them from wherever they've run off to? I'd presumed they like despawned back to the grave after a time and could be resummoned the next day... If Vilkacis just stay summoned and can just run amok, it'd be vital they be kept on a leash, lest the bandits invoke too much wrath too quickly and their whole operation goes up in smoke... I mean... That is sort of the party's draw, true, but I meant like the nearby city just torching the entire forest instead of sending the party.
Part of me is feeling like if this whole summoning possessing undead to force innocent people to stand in the way of the party as meat shields thing might be too convuluted and just be best to have normal zombie/skeleton hordes, but that's kinda boring and cliché...