D&D 5E DM Question: Player died and entered Ring of Mind Shielding. How shall he (and his party) get him out?

[ehenning]

In an encounter with a medusa, one of my players turned to stone and then fell 20 feet to be smashed to bits. However, I ruled that his soul entered a Ring of Mind Shielding upon his death. One of his party has the ring, but doesn't realize yet that his compatriot is in the ring. The party collected his body's rubble, but haven't decided what to do with it yet.

Looking for suggestion on how the character can get out and into a new body (or his old body if they can put it back together). I don't want this to be easy, and I am fine if the character fails and his soul is lost.

Some ideas:

- He must find someone who is willing to swap places with him! Convincing another person to enter the ring could be some interesting RP
- His party must prepare an inanimate body for him to inhabit. As he was the wizard, they will have to quest to find someone to help with the creation of the body.

I am open to all suggestions.

TIA

 

[Blue]

I'm going to answer this sideways - what is the player doing during the session(s) they are trying to get his character out?

That to me will absolutely inform how long (in session time, not in-game time) is the maximum it can take, and that will determine what I can make the task.

 

[Al2O3]

Devils love to help out, are powerful and good with souls. If the party find a body with a soul included I'm sure someone from the Nine Hells would be willing to change soul in the body for the price of all that body's souls or similar.

Sent from my Huawei P10 plus

 

[ehenning]

I'm going to answer this sideways - what is the player doing during the session(s) they are trying to get his character out?

That to me will absolutely inform how long (in session time, not in-game time) is the maximum it can take, and that will determine what I can make the task.

The player is completely onboard. His character is a conjuration wizard, and he has been trying to see if there is a way he can use his magical abilities to influence his fate (which I'm limiting but not completely against). In real life, he plans to hang out in the next room and have a mic on in the main room, then message me what he wants to say to the character that puts the ring on.

I don't want this to take more than one session (ideally taking about 2 hours max to resolve). I have told the player to roll up a new character in case this doesn't work out.

 

[ehenning]

Devils love to help out, are powerful and good with souls. If the party find a body with a soul included I'm sure someone from the Nine Hells would be willing to change soul in the body for the price of all that body's souls or similar.

Good idea. And as all deals with the devil, the details are what get you...hehe

 

[mflayermonk]

Can his spirit occupy an Animated Armor or Helmed Horror for a few mods?

 

[KahlessNestor]

Good idea. And as all deals with the devil, the details are what get you...hehe

Give him the Magic Initiate Warlock feat or a level in warlock to represent his new pact.

Alternatively there may be a druid who can Reincarnate or a cleric who can Raise Dead or whichever spell he needs.

Maybe you can find him a recently deceased body (a monster the party killed?) and have him deal with a decomposing body until they find the right rituals to bring him back.

Ise Mendong on his stone body and ise Stone to Flesh (is that a thing in 5e?)

Sent from my SM-G900P using EN World mobile app

 

[THEMNGMNT]

This is very cool. A few suggestions:

Once the player's mind occupies a new body, have the Ring of Mind Shielding no longer work. It saved the player's soul, but at a cost.

I think the obvious solution is to find an individual or faction who can manipulate stone or earth, as well as turn stone to flesh. That might be as simple as finding an alchemist to create a reagent from the medusa's blood. Or it might be as complicated as making a pact with an elemental lord, god, or demon prince. So I think you should be able to resolve this fairly quickly.

If you wan to draw it out, I would suggest you get the player into a new, temporary body as quickly as possible. One thought is to put him in the body of a construct and essentially have him be a warforged. Another thought is that since the player is a conjuration wizard, perhaps his old master is able to conjure him a new body but one that will dematerialize in a few weeks or months. So there's a ticking clock. Might be fun if the new body has no set appearance, but can be reshaped at the will of the player--in other words, he's a doppelganger.

Best of luck.

 

[Quickleaf]

In an encounter with a medusa, one of my players turned to stone and then fell 20 feet to be smashed to bits. However, I ruled that his soul entered a Ring of Mind Shielding upon his death. One of his party has the ring, but doesn't realize yet that his compatriot is in the ring. The party collected his body's rubble, but haven't decided what to do with it yet.

Looking for suggestion on how the character can get out and into a new body (or his old body if they can put it back together). I don't want this to be easy, and I am fine if the character fails and his soul is lost.

Some ideas:

- He must find someone who is willing to swap places with him! Convincing another person to enter the ring could be some interesting RP
- His party must prepare an inanimate body for him to inhabit. As he was the wizard, they will have to quest to find someone to help with the creation of the body.

I am open to all suggestions.

TIA

The player is completely onboard. His character is a conjuration wizard, and he has been trying to see if there is a way he can use his magical abilities to influence his fate (which I'm limiting but not completely against). In real life, he plans to hang out in the next room and have a mic on in the main room, then message me what he wants to say to the character that puts the ring on.

I don't want this to take more than one session (ideally taking about 2 hours max to resolve). I have told the player to roll up a new character in case this doesn't work out.

The conjurer is a soul without a body.

Now he just needs a body without a soul!

For example, maybe there's a rival NPC wizard who ended up being subjected to magic jar? Back in my Planescape games, we had a shadow fiend (shadow demons in 5e) doing in a brisk trade in soul gems. Alternately it could be some plane-traveling or astral projection mishap. Whatever you decide, the body is left in a catatonic state. Course, it isn't just left lying there...

I'm imagining a twisted version of Sleeping Beauty here. A dungeon built around this catatonic NPC. If built by the NPC's enemies, it's to keep the body out of the hands of the NPC's followers/henchmen, and to ensure that if he were ever to return, there'd be traps/guardians keeping him in (a bit of a reverse dungeon: easy in, hard out). If built by the NPC's friends or henchmen, it's to keep the body safe until his hopeful return.

EDIT: In case it comes up, you might give the conjurer-in-the-ring some unique abilities. I'm thinking the sentient magic item rules in the DMG and maybe the special features for magic items tables in the DMG.

 

[Redthistle]

Look at the concepts for creating a warforged.

Some origins for that race say that to activate a warforged's body, a soul must be infused to it.

Nothing 5e-official has come out yet for the warforged race, other than one Unearthed Arcana article. There has been at least one offering on the DM's Guild (although that might have been pulled), and a number of postings here on ENWorld you could look at.

Another possibility is a 3PP - Kobold Press has a variant warforged called a gearforged in their Midgard Heroes for 5E publication, available through DTRPG.

There are a number of people working at 5e updates for the Eberron setting, pending an official roll-out.

I've got to say, you've thrown a fascinating idea into the thought arena.