I nerd some horrible, horrible things.

[ChudoJogurt]

I have alluded to my players that a certain alchemist (a wizard of around sixth-eigths level) has a habit of doing terrible things to her former student that tried to sell put her secrets to competition.

My problem is that I'm having some trouble coming up with said terrible things, that would be alchemically inspired, and still be potentially reversible without high level (above 4th level) magic.

I'd be very grateful for ideas. I'm willing to bend rules somewhat, but I would like them to be based on and stay sort of generally within the realms of known mechanics and rules, rather than invented whole cloth.

Ps:
Not sure about rules on graphic content on this forum, but still, I certainly am not asking for florid descriptions, just ideas for effects or combinations of effects and implements that would create something that would emphasise how Evil said NPC is and why her servants are very reluctant to get on her bad side.

[Cygnia]

The Book of Vile Deeds has some rather nasty addictive drugs and poisons that an immoral alchemist might have brewed up.

[Doctor Despair]

Why not give them levels in Talontar Blightlord and have him convert her into a juju zombie?

Alternatively: give him levels in Fleshwarper and have him slap a bunch of unseemly, deforming grafts on her.

Alternatively: you can get bonus vile feats for worshipping an elder evil, so if he can brainwash her into doing so, you can put on Willing Deformity and then any number of deformity feats. Changing her alignment to neutral or nonevil would actually remove the feats.

[mucat]

Bestow Curse is level 3-4 (depending on class) and has some pretty crippling, permanent-until-removed effects. I would use its effects as a rough guideline for power, but reflavor it as alchemy-themed body horror. For minor offenses, give the out-of-favor minion a terrible case of gas. Then itchy boils. Do unpleasant (and gradually escalating) things to their face. Remove their student's nose. Dissolve part of their skin. If they persist in displeasing the wizard, seal their eyes and mouths with featureless skin. Turn bits of their anatomy (or for a different flavor of evil, their pets) inside-out.

All of this unpleasantness can be reversed by the alchemist herself, or by someone of comparable skill (again, much like Bestow Curse and Remove Curse are identical-level spells). But for most of her students and servants, crossing the Boss will seem like a really poor career move.

[Particle_Man]

Man doesn’t anyone hire assassins anymore? :smallsmile:

Then just animate dead and you are golden. Party hats optional.
:smallsmile:

[Bohandas]

What if he just burned them with acid? Like dumped it on their face or forced their hand into a container of it. Since we're staying within the rules it would just do hit point damage.

[Phhase]

Did you ever read the story Escape from Spiderhead? Maybe the alchemist did something similar, and grafted an implant to them that allows him to remotely dispense chemicals directly into their bloodstream for testing -or punishment- (or if she's really a bastard, reward*) purposes. Potentially removable, but surely not without risk, considering what nasty chemicals could be inside.

*Addicting the assistant to recreational drugs they provide and control the supply of would make for a very conniving supplemental method of control.

[afroakuma]

Of the most vilest of venoms do we not present direction, for to knowingly seek their creation is a great wickedness. Appalling crimes against nature are these materia and such solution must never be drawn nor distilled, for to do so is to repudiate the creed of the alchemist's art in favor of the poisoner's profession, and with a wanton cruelty that would insult the honor of the rudest assassin or trader-in-pain. Hear now of the profane materia that hath been crafted by masters gone before who fell from the true path, and seek never to replicate these.

• Hemophagia
The hemophagia is a substance born of good intent gone horrifically awry; in small dosages, it allows a body weakened by sickness or the touch of a vampire to recover stamina more quickly through the imbibing of donated blood. In large dose, however, and such is not so large as to require long-term administration, but one proper concentrated draught shall do... in such measure, the body's metabolism becomes warped terribly, such that the drinker of the mutagen requires blood to survive. No other physiological change takes place to facilitate the acquisition of such blood - no proboscis is grown nor do fangs or claws emerge. The victim of the hemophagia may stave off physical wasting with any blood in sufficient quantity, but mental wasting is certain unless the blood of sapients is consumed. The victim seldom takes pleasure in this act, as while the draught creates the physiological need for blood, it in no way alters the mindset or appetites or palate of the victim - at least, not in and of itself. Some victims' minds break, and they come to savor the taste.

• Neverdeath
The "blessing" that is a terrible curse, neverdeath once administered requires powerful magic to revoke. True to form as one of the ancient goals of alchemists, the substance defies the ordinary limits of nature by tethering the soul to the body and preventing its forcible departure, even maintaining the body with negative energy where necessary. Yet the pains of this potent concoction are twofold, for the trilloch essence within the brew prevents any kind of healing, natural or otherwise, from supporting the body above its most meager limits, and once the flesh fails the body itself does not become undead, rather healing itself up to exactly the bare minimum and losing something of the self en route. The ultimate fate of the neverdead is to become little more than living zombies, bereft of any sense of self or feeling save envy of the truly alive and a profound desire for the release of death.

• Oil of Odia
This noxious substance does not kill, but its corrupting nature corrodes what it touches - not in the manner of rust or other such oxidation, but a spiritual corrosion, the kind that twists a pleasant face into a scornful one and forever leaves the mark of the contemptuous etched into the victim's features. It is said that sufficient exposure will cause one to spit literal black sludge from the lips, a physical manifestation of frustration, contempt, hatred, and disgust bubbled up within the exposed victim and forced out of them like a kind of bile. This spit is acidic and vile in odor, and those who exude the offget of oil of odia are seldom welcomed anywhere long.

• Restware
To sleep is one of the great pleasures of life, to take rest and awaken in safety and comfort. Restware steals this small joy and replaces it with fear, for the victim of this draught will find their body stiffening and exuding thin resinous strands whenever unconscious, such that taking a complete rest slows their movements and makes life quite trying for them. Resting in the same vicinity without moving sufficiently becomes quite dangerous as the resinous threads build up around the body over time, eventually rooting the unfortunate to the spot as the resins begin tethering the body's very bones to the surface beneath. To avoid this fate, restware victims must forever be on the move, never sleeping more than eight hours and never traveling for less than four while awake.

[Elrak]

Just for general ideas, I think you could take inspiration from Overlord's "Happy Farm". I won't describe them all as I too don't knwo how graphic one may get on the boards but one of the things described in the light novel was that the subjects were used for experiments such as to inflict damage and restore them to understand the long term effect of magical damage and restoration/healing both on the subjects mind and their physical condition.

On an alternative route, you could have a look at the Mother Cyst Feat and the associated Cyst Spells as a way to both control the subject and inflict damage upon them.

[ShurikVch]

"The Porphyry House Horror" adventure (Dungeon #95) introduced the new drug: Demon's Breath - on the time of effect (1d10+50 minutes) it grants it user a Half-Fiend template, and switches their alignment to Evil; "Addiction: Extreme"; Craft DC: 35; Price: 10,800 gp

[Vaern]

Has anyone mentioned fusing her with a dog yet? Apply the lycanthrope template and have her permanently stuck in a hybrid werewolf form until cured.

[Fero]

The evil wizard hired people to lie in court to successfully sue his former student causing her to loose her license and straddling her family with unbearable debt.

The evil wizard cast erase on the student's signature on her brilliant thesis paper and wrote in his own name instead.

Every day the evil wizard casts suggestion on a random stranger to have the stranger find the student and insult her to erode her confidence.

The wizard caught the student and is using her to test the human body' tolerance for goodberries and the caloric density thereof.

[Telonius]

Has anyone mentioned fusing her with a dog yet? Apply the lycanthrope template and have her permanently stuck in a hybrid werewolf form until cured.

There's horrible things, and then there's crimes against nature that will scar the players forever. (Ed... ward..)

[Bohandas]

What if they made the people who displeased them into a human centipede

[Inevitability]

Summon or bind a Chaos Beast, expose the victims to it until they become amorphous gibbering beasts themselves.

Use Create Undead to create a Bone Creature, which retains the mental stats of the former living being, lock it in an adamantine box for a few centuries. Maybe put infinitely resetting magic traps of Inflict Minor Wounds and Cure Minor Wounds in there, too.

Cast Extended Summon Elysian Thrush (a Good act, but what you're about to do with it isn't, so it levels out), and expose the victim to it; they'll end up utterly apathetic and only interested in listening to more birdsong. Every 24 hours, expose them again for a few rounds to keep the addiction reinforced, leave them deprived otherwise, and put on a ring of sustenance to make sure the victim doesn't just die of thirst.

[AsuraKyoko]

Agony, also known as Liquid Pain (BoVD) is extremely addictive when used as a drug (Fort DC 25). It requires one dose per day, and is pretty much only procurable through thoroughly unethical means. The usage itself gives extreme pleasure, too, so the addicted person will enjoy taking it while it lasts. Recovery from the addiction is nasty: it requires two consecutive saves against withdrawal, and the DC increases by 5 for each withdrawal save attempted. Failing the saves deals 1d6 damage to dex, wis, and con, so it's very much a death spiral unless you get very lucky.

Edit: most of the other drugs in the book can be made via Craft (Alchemy), and some of them are incredibly nasty.

[Feantar]

There is the 4th level spell "Aboleth Curse" from Stormwrack. It's permanent. To quote part the text, The skin of the target creature transforms into a transparent, glistening membrane. A creature so transformed must keep this membrane moistened with cool, fresh water or take 1d12 points of damage every 10 minutes. In addition, its natural armor bonus (if any) decreases by 1, but it can never drop below 0.

Other than that, there's always bestow curse (see various books and posts for ideas) and Blindness / Deafness for a simpler approach. Severe scarring (or worse) is also an option as it involves the Regenerate spell.

But for truly terrible treatment they could've . . .
made them retrain their levels into Truenamer. :smalltongue:

[Bohandas]

Other than that, there's always bestow curse (see various books and posts for ideas) and Blindness / Deafness for a simpler approach.

I mean, if they want to lean on the alchemy angle and the horrivle angle then instead blindness/deafness they should just inject aqua regia into the eyes and the inner ear

[Analytica]

Adding templates or reincarnating into something both creates irreversible effects.

One really scary option though: kill then replace with a simulacrum. The simulacrum has the person's personality but cannot learn or grow, and cannot heal on its own. One does not even need to use the control one has on it other than to command it to stay alive: a simulacrum of someone ambitious will live knowing they can never achieve their ambitions, and also never die to escape it. Or even force the simulacrum to coup de grace its original template person: you live on knowing you killed the better version of yourself that you can never become like.

[Azuresun]

From the graphic novel The Invisibles, a drug that induces a certain form of suggestive state so that when the victims read a description of something, they will instead see the thing itself.

Very effective for torture, since you could show the subject a note that read "mutilated face" stuck to a mirror.

And later on, incapacitate the villain after injecting them with it, by showing them a mug with the words World's Best Dad on it.

[Bohandas]

*tests poisons on them

*forces one of the victim's hands into a jar of aqua regia and the other into a jar of pirahna solution to see which dissolves first

*pours alchemists fire on them then cools them off with liquid nitrogen

*harvests blood from all of them.

[Coeruleum]

It doesn't only have to be the torturee drinking the alchemical formulae, though I'm all for nasty drugs. The torturer could always go Mr. Hyde or Invisible Man. That adds the bonus of making the torturer potentially extra crazy from the side-effects of the potions. Vampirism is an option, including less-conventional forms like psychic vampirism, or become a werewolf, or a ghoul, maybe disguise yourself as someone near and dear to the torturee with something like the Polyjuice Potion but used in an extremely sadistic way.

[DrMartin]

we used to do a thing around here for this kind of post,

it goes like:

red fel
red fel
red fel

[Bohandas]

If you're over eighteen and have a strong stomach for sex and violence and gore it might be worth checking out parts 3 and 4 of L'ecole du Libertinage by the Marquis de Sade

[Beni-Kujaku]

If you're over eighteen and have a strong stomach for sex and violence and gore it might be worth checking out parts 3 and 4 of L'ecole du Libertinage by the Marquis de Sade

{Scrubbed}

Edit : "horrible enough to be moderated on sight" is quite a good description of what the book is about.

[ChudoJogurt]

From the graphic novel The Invisibles, a drug that induces a certain form of suggestive state so that when the victims read a description of something, they will instead see the thing itself.

Very effective for torture, since you could show the subject a note that read "mutilated face" stuck to a mirror.

And later on, incapacitate the villain after injecting them with it, by showing them a mug with the words World's Best Dad on it.

Oh, I remember that one. That was fun.
But yeah, the trick is to have the effect reversible. Crippling someone is easy (well, in D&D, at least). Crippling and then un-crippling someone that's kinda more complicated, unless Regeneration is in play, which is not.