Help with Institutional Magic Abuse

[Jack Simth]

To get around this, I wouldn't be surprised if the the society had developed some sort of magical device that could be placed at a certain interval (say on every xth streetlight) that would act as a repeater for Message spells.

Oh, that.

You can send a Message, reliably, through a Greater Scrying.

Shouldn't be too hard to get it installed in a Crystal Ball (the normal variety, based on Scrying - which, as it's a command-word item, and doesn't specify otherwise in the item description, takes a standard action to activate rather than the hour long casting time of the spell - one Crystal Ball with scrying at a central tower, the guy who sends up a flare deliberately fails his will save, then has a chat with command... who can end the call, and start chatting with reinforcements elsewhere).

Even if you can't, though, the Scrying spell itself lets you hear the subject; a grunt on the ground could give a report (although not answer specific questions or receive orders) with a normal Crystal Ball.

 

[the Jester]

First of all, regarding dancing lights, note that this might lead to a significant gnome presence in the guard, and therefore a significant gnomish influence in the state as a whole (fascist gnomes! I love it!).

Second of all, both the doppelganger and the wererat ideas are great- and if you consider rats to be "small burrowing mammals", then you can tie the gnome force into the rat spies as well.

Registering as chaotic to magical divination might be a crime. I imagine zone of truth would be awful common in court cases- at least, when the defendant was testifying.

 

[roguerouge]

Your better fascist states typically have a loudspeaker system projecting propaganda in public places and making announcements on high. I'm not sure if Magic Mouth is still around, but you could have permanent magic mouths repeating, "The leader is your friend. Obey the leader!" or "The spies of the Enemy are everywhere! Suspect everyone! Trust only the leader!" Write up a list of a few dozen such commands. Sprinkle as necessary for flavor. (Heck, no need for permanency if you've got the manpower. You just need dedicated spell-casters to do it every day.)

Target the charm persons on the friends and families of suspected subversives to foster informing and collaboration. Too expensive to just cast it on everyone. (Although, you could taint the water supply with a "charm person" potion, I guess. It's not that different from a love potion.)

Finally, a good use for familiars. See previous parts of this thread for material on animal spies.

Public use of properly worded suggestion and command spells might have a great impact. ("Confess!" "Turn yourself in to the proper authorities!" "State the name of the leader of the resistance movement." "Sign up for Gnome Youth groups now!")

Some fascist societies have an obsession with order and hygenics. Make sure to have the streets prestidigitation'ed every couple of hours.

Might want to watch The Prisoner for inspiration on diabolical techniques, but since they tended to like truth serums and hallucinogens a lot, not every episode will be helpful. See above re: water supply and potions.

Skills: Now is the time to really abuse the social skills of diplomacy, bluff, intimidation, gather information, sense motive, craft:writing and perform. Yes, perform and craft:writing! The Italian Facists crafted a "Cinema of Distraction" to keep the populace fat and happy. Need I remind you about the power of Nazi rhetoric and Riefenstahl's films? Now let's talk about what a few dozen evil expert writers might be able to do to the impressionable minds of young children. Evil school textbooks! Or, you'll recall what Orwell did with government book publishing in his book, 1984. Go read the threads where people argue that these skills are broken and see what you can LEGITIMATELY use. Have npcs go, "You know, now that you put it that way, it does make a lot of sense! The leader really is my friend! Gnomes should be trusted. Elves really are the skum of the earth!"

For total creep factor: the Dream and Nightmare spells. The leader is talking to you in your dreams! Randomize in the populace every week or so to save on expenses.

Fake terrorist incidents. Have concealed summoners use stilled, silent spells to bring in something nasty every once in a while, so that the City Guard can instill order and provide the "national emergency" excuse for all these decreases in civil liberties.

Instill an hysterical fear of the Other far beyond the actual threat they pose.

 

[Xanterith]

Make resisting a spell cast by someone in authority a crime.

 

[szilard]

2. Communication magic would be great. If police can call in the big guns, adventurers will have to beware. Sending would be perfect, but is a little high level. Message, similarly, but the range is quite low.

Have watchtowers regularly spaced around the city to be used as relay points. They'll still be too far apart for Message, but Silent Image is a first level spell with long range - and which can be used to send complex visual messages. Whispering Wind (2nd level spell) works well, too: have a central point where someone is continuously stationed to receive Whispering Wind messages.

3. Divination magic would be great. I find that divinations suck at actually predicting the future in D&D; I guess that's a function of magic being a Player Character phenomenon. But if someone could figure out how to do some serious Minority Report with divinations, that would be fantastic.

Charm Person and Detect Thoughts are a good combination for getting someone to let their guard down and seeing past it...

Really, I'd focus more upon spying and informants (possibly compelled or magically subverted). It is creepier.

4. Cheap magic items are fine, but remember that they would have to be parceled out. And RAW magic items would be preferred to self-designed ones.

Figurine of Wondrous Power: Silver Raven - can help solve your messaging issues, as well.
The Serpentine Owl is also useful for spying.

Other useful items that are affordable:

Chime of Opening
Medallion of Thoughts


-Stuart

 

[szilard]

Fun with Permanency:

Permanent Telepathic Bond: for really fast communication.

Permanent Alarm: want to be aware every time someone crosses a threshold? (warning: this can get annoying)

Permanent Magic Mouth: endless possibilities, including signaling, guarding, and warning. It can respond to audiovisual stimuli, so it could activate whenever someone passed who wasn't displaying a particular token. I also like the idea of the Watch coming in to arrest someone and activating a Magic Mouth that informs the criminal that they are being arrested (and their right, or lack thereof) - if the Watch doesn't deign to talk to you directly, it is kinda creepy.


-Stuart

 

[Neijin]

Earrings of the Wolf from Dragon 334 p71 would be useful. They are 2,000 gp each and enable the users to hear the surrounding noices of other earrings in the set.

I once ran a campaign that had a similiar fascist type feudal Japanese feel to it. For true law enforcement, cast a Hallow effect on an area in a large city. Put a Discern Lies effect on it. It lasts for a whole year. Then build a courtroom around the Hallowed area. People giving testimony would be required to walk in and out of the Hallowed area until the state sponsered spellcasters could see that the Discern Lies effect had landed on the witness. Remember that someone would have to save each time that he/she entered the area. In this way, even a strong willed character will roll a 1 eventually. Also, if you have some more money, put a permanent Otiluke's Dispelling Screen up near the courtroom and have people walk back and forth for a few minutes to make sure they don't have any spells on them like Mind Blank. Alternatively, you can "test" for Mind Blank by using some harmless effect like "Light" on a witness and see if the aura is detected.

Really, all you need is one 9th level cleric to travel from town to town casting Hallow. If resources are really tight, you could have multiple courtrooms built using the edges of the effect, so that only one or two 5 ft squares "The Witness box of Justice" are within the area. Thus, with clever and unusual shaped buildings you could have multiple booths.

Remember that to truly be a fascist society, the society needs to obey its own laws, but just have hideous laws. For example, gnomes are not executed on sight just because, but because it is against the law to be a gnome. This distinction is what divides tyranny from straight thuggery, and heightens the sense of law vs. freedom. Make sure the PCs know that all the actions taken by the government are lawful acts, even if evil.

 

[igavskoga]

Since the magic has been well covered, I thought I would speak to a few social details.

Part of the lethality of a tightly run fascist-style government is its combination of socialized "good works" which balance out the oppression and make it difficult for the populace as a whole to revolt as a single body.

For all their oppression, you could stake your life on the trains being *exactly* on time in Mussolini's Italy. Saddam's Iraq provided free food to the population.

The streets should be impeccable. Children should be able to wander the streets at night the closer you come to the central hub. Some version of basic health care should be free. The trains, if there are any, should always run on time. People should be provided with food rations. All goods should be highly subsidized, down with foreign imports - this makes domestic business infinitely cheaper to operate! One's surest bet and biggest goal in life should be to land a government job, guaranteeing employment for life. Advancement in society should also be inherently tied to loyalty, membership, and participation in the ruling party.

Its little things like this which keep the public at large off-balance, and make it difficult for a resistance movement to sweep the hearts and minds of the people.

Sure, some guy is worried that a buddy of his got snatched up in the middle of the night but he's doing so while standing in line waiting for a free rationing of flour, milk, rice, and tea - and on his way back home his daughter is being looked over and cured of a recently developed disease.

 

[phindar]

I apologize if its been covered, but:

Helm of Opposite Alignment. Works wonders when washing brains.

As for monsters... mind flayers, beholders, rakshasa, and ogre magi. All Usually Lawful Evil, which puts them on the fascist side at least philosophically. Ogre Magi has invis at will and polymorph, rakshasa have alternate forms and some telepathic abilities (don't they... MM... just out... reach), and illithid, well, no more need be said there. Beholders, I just like beholders. (And they guard the lower chambers of the Central Bureaucracy, if memory serves.) Also, hobgoblins are Lawful Evil. Its always good to have some fascist humanoids on tap, for the mercenaries and brute squads.

 

[Sleeping Dragon]

Quaal's feather tokens (bird) have always been a favoured magic item of mine...cheap & useful for communication (though not instantaneous as some since the bird needs to fly to the target.)

Interestingly, the item description doesn't state any need for the sender to know where the target is, or even necessarily who they are (whether something along the lines of 'the people who killed the three government agents near the docks last night' or 'the leader of the rebel alliance' qualifies as a designated target is up to the DM.) You could instill tremendous paranoia in your players by having the authorities use bird tokens to send them periodic messages along the lines of 'We know where you are and are coming to get you' or 'Big Brother is watching you.'

Creatures with detect chaos at will could be sent around town casting this spell over and over again, arresting anyone that comes up as chaotic. Naturally, anyone they can't read will be presumed to be hiding something. The only one of these I can find with a cursory search of the Monster Manual is the formian myrmarch, which doesn't fit, but there's probably a lower CR creature that can do this in one of the monster books. If the society is lawful evil, they could employ blackguards to do this with detect good.