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2021-04-16, 08:31 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2021
Suggestions wanted - Building the Arcane Prison
Hiya,
For my campaign I'd like to add in a secret prison for any and all magic users who break the law. My goal overall is to have a session or two of the PC's finding out where the NPC they need to find is, maybe another scouting/planning and then 3 or so of them breaking the NPC out.
I was toying with either a god sponsored island in the material plane, hidden away from the world or perhaps just another plane that they get thrown into where the magic doesn't function. Is there any official content that supports these options or any others you've used previously/wished you could ?
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2021-04-16, 08:38 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2017
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2021-04-16, 09:05 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2021
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2021-04-16, 09:14 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2017
Re: Suggestions wanted - Building the Arcane Prison
Well as the DMG says, there are places or even entire plane where magic just doesn't work, but you could also go for something more outlandish.
Ex: a place that is under the influence of a jungle spirit, so anyone trying to cast a spell within it gets transformed into a jungle animal for 1hxthe spell slot level (minimum 1 hour for cantrips), and the spell slot is spent without effect.Last edited by Unoriginal; 2021-04-16 at 09:15 AM.
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2021-04-16, 09:35 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2017
- Location
- Omaha, NE
- Gender
Re: Suggestions wanted - Building the Arcane Prison
Just as a side note: if the PCs who are meant to escape from the prison use magic, you might want to throw in a way to get around the prison's magic nullifying abilities. Like, if they have a specific token that they're attuned to they can cast spells. Or, if they've been blessed by the spirit that guards the area (which would require a side quest to gain the blessing beforehand), then they can cast without issues. That kind of thing.
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2021-04-16, 10:01 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2021
Re: Suggestions wanted - Building the Arcane Prison
I was thinking it would be a case of them using smarts to do the breakout . I would like to make it so they avoid a blow everything up angle. Possibly call in favours with the thieves/assassin guilds for info on previous escapes or maybe just let them really plan it out properly. I do like the idea of bargaining with the spirit for a blessing that allows them more power than others in the location.
To make it a little easier maybe I could have them get items that will work inside the field to limit the options and keep casters relevant.
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2021-04-16, 10:40 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2020
Re: Suggestions wanted - Building the Arcane Prison
What about permanent wild magic. If you try to cast a spell it fails and instead produces a wild magic surge. Incredibly dangerous, but could be beneficial too.
Probably a really terrible idea for a jail, but would be a really fun, chaotic escape!
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2021-04-16, 02:05 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2018
Re: Suggestions wanted - Building the Arcane Prison
Just recently did some checking on this myself. You might like Dreadhold, for example:
http://paizo.com/dragonissues/344/DR344_Supplement.pdf“Rule is what lies between what is said and what is understood.”~Raja Rudatha, the Spider Prince
Golem Arcana
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2021-04-17, 02:13 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2018
Re: Suggestions wanted - Building the Arcane Prison
I understand how some sources might give you ideas, but I think you should focus on what sort of narrative you want here.
Is this going to be a breakout plan like Guardians of the Galaxy where the party needs to shut down the magic dampening field from a control or battery area?
Is it a heist type breakout where the group is trying to sneak in and rescue someone?
Is it more political about trying to get information from fellow prisoners or organize a prison revolt to provide cover for their escape?
Is it merely a pocket dimension where magic just flat out does not exist? Are there magical tokens that once stolen would allow normal magic to be used.
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2021-04-17, 02:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2017
- Location
- UK
- Gender
Re: Suggestions wanted - Building the Arcane Prison
The imprisonment spell can give you some options.
The main difficulty in creating a prison for spellcasters is the Teleport spell, which has only Verbal components. Sorcerers can even bypass that with subtle metamagic. So not all the options of the Imprisonment spell works against that.
I would personally go for slumber or hedged prison.
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2021-04-18, 03:02 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2019
- Location
- Somewhere over th rainbow
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2021-04-18, 08:03 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2019
- Location
- Lower Menthis
Re: Suggestions wanted - Building the Arcane Prison
Make sure they put prisoners in heavy armor and handcuffs. That shuts down most spell casters since you can't cast spells in armor unless you are proficient in that armor, and you can't remove armor while you are in handcuffs. It would be kind of cool for the Eldritch Knight to save the day, rescuing the wizard.
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2021-04-18, 11:28 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2021
Re: Suggestions wanted - Building the Arcane Prison
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2021-04-18, 11:30 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2021
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2021-04-18, 11:44 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2017
Re: Suggestions wanted - Building the Arcane Prison
You could also have crazier stuff, like all the prisoners being stuck in a shared mental world created by a giant psionic plant.
Or the prisoners having been True Polymorphed into slabs of copper.
Or the prisoners having been petrified then left among many regular hyper-realistic statues.
In any case, remember that a large share of a casters' spells simply don't work if they can't see. So filling the whole prison with some kind of too-dense-to-see-through fog could be one of the security measures if an escape attempt is suspected/discovered.
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2021-04-18, 05:23 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2019
- Location
- Somewhere over th rainbow