MNblockhead
A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
Hoping the community ca help me brain storm a break-a-prisoner-out challenge.
I'm planning an adventure where the party has accepted a mission to infiltrate a Mind Flayer colony. This is a 5th edition campaign.
In one area, there is a transformation chamber and in one of the cells there is a Githzerai Zerth. I don't want to go into all the background details, suffice it to say that freeing the Zerth can provide them with a helpful ally for the rest of the mission.
My problem is how do the Mind Flayers keep the Zerth prisoner (he can planeshift at will once a day). 5th edition has monsters that use psionics and an unearthed arcan mystic class, but doesn't have fully fleshed out rules on how psionics work. I never played DnD with psionics in 1st ed. and didn't play again until 5th, so I'm trying to pick up on how it was played in the past. Based on Unearthed Arcana's mystic class, 5th edition uses a modified version of magic-psi transparency. If a psionic effect reproduces a spell, it is treated as magic. Otherwise, it is a distinct power.
So, my thinking is that an anti-magic field will prevent any of the Gith's innate spellcasting, including plane shift. But it would not affect its psychic defense power. So I could have the Gith held in the cell with an anti-magic field...
BUT mind-flayers consider arcane magic an abomination.
So... I need to assume something like a null-psionic field, which earlier editions had.
Question: would a null-psionics field be reproducting a spell and therefore treated as magic that can be dispelled? Or is it pure psionics and not treated as magic?
Yet, even if treated as an anti-magic field, you can't dispell it. So how to you end it? In RAW, it is only a one-hour concentration spell...so perhaps I have to have a mind-flayer gaoler who must maintain the field. Don't really like that. I would think the mind flayers would have come up with something more reliable.
I'm thinking I'll just assume that a member or some members of the colony have innate spellcasting (psionics) for Foribiddance and Force Cage and state that the colony has discovered some psionic power or artifact that keeps Force Case permanent.
That way the party could dispell the Forbiddance and the Zerth can then make Charisma saving throw to attempt to plane shift out. Of course the Zerth would not be an immediate help to the party as he can only plane shift once per day.
Another option is that the forbiddance effect covers the entire colony and is too powerful for the party to be able to dispell. So the Zerth must escape the colony, which give an incentive for him to help the party. Some form of permanent anti-magic / null psi field covers the cell, along with a physical barrier. Whether force cage or anti-magic field, neither can be dispelled using dispell magic, so I assume I'll need to have some artifact that can be physically destroyed that will take down the force cage or anti-magic field.
I'm very open for other suggestions.
I'm planning an adventure where the party has accepted a mission to infiltrate a Mind Flayer colony. This is a 5th edition campaign.
In one area, there is a transformation chamber and in one of the cells there is a Githzerai Zerth. I don't want to go into all the background details, suffice it to say that freeing the Zerth can provide them with a helpful ally for the rest of the mission.
My problem is how do the Mind Flayers keep the Zerth prisoner (he can planeshift at will once a day). 5th edition has monsters that use psionics and an unearthed arcan mystic class, but doesn't have fully fleshed out rules on how psionics work. I never played DnD with psionics in 1st ed. and didn't play again until 5th, so I'm trying to pick up on how it was played in the past. Based on Unearthed Arcana's mystic class, 5th edition uses a modified version of magic-psi transparency. If a psionic effect reproduces a spell, it is treated as magic. Otherwise, it is a distinct power.
So, my thinking is that an anti-magic field will prevent any of the Gith's innate spellcasting, including plane shift. But it would not affect its psychic defense power. So I could have the Gith held in the cell with an anti-magic field...
BUT mind-flayers consider arcane magic an abomination.
So... I need to assume something like a null-psionic field, which earlier editions had.
Question: would a null-psionics field be reproducting a spell and therefore treated as magic that can be dispelled? Or is it pure psionics and not treated as magic?
Yet, even if treated as an anti-magic field, you can't dispell it. So how to you end it? In RAW, it is only a one-hour concentration spell...so perhaps I have to have a mind-flayer gaoler who must maintain the field. Don't really like that. I would think the mind flayers would have come up with something more reliable.
I'm thinking I'll just assume that a member or some members of the colony have innate spellcasting (psionics) for Foribiddance and Force Cage and state that the colony has discovered some psionic power or artifact that keeps Force Case permanent.
That way the party could dispell the Forbiddance and the Zerth can then make Charisma saving throw to attempt to plane shift out. Of course the Zerth would not be an immediate help to the party as he can only plane shift once per day.
Another option is that the forbiddance effect covers the entire colony and is too powerful for the party to be able to dispell. So the Zerth must escape the colony, which give an incentive for him to help the party. Some form of permanent anti-magic / null psi field covers the cell, along with a physical barrier. Whether force cage or anti-magic field, neither can be dispelled using dispell magic, so I assume I'll need to have some artifact that can be physically destroyed that will take down the force cage or anti-magic field.
I'm very open for other suggestions.
