D&D 3E/3.5 Best way to implement these in strict 3.5 rules?

[swrushing]

[/QUOTE]

1) is a ring which confers "mental" invisibility, by forcing others minds to disregard the wearer. I.e. a wearer of this ring is percieved to belong to the most trivial, negligable social class or order known to the obsever, and / or whoever would appear the most innocuous in a given situation.

this sounds like nothing more than a circumstantial bonus to hide checks with the limitation that its going to fail under direct suspicion. You need to focus more on what the result is and not the niggling parts. I would give it an enchantment aura and require the suggestion spell as a requisite. other than that, its a use item with skill bonuses.

2) is a magic helmet which provides moderate healing once per day, probably something like a few cure light wounds spells and / or one cure disease or remove poison effect. But the downside of the item is that it constantly lectures you on matters of health, advocating abstinence when you drink, warning of injury when you contemplate a fight. It is supposed to be so annoying that you can barely stand to use it.
DB

look at the rules for intelligent magic items. make this such a beastie with the personality you describe. Give it the speech, or telepathic speech, as you see fit.

Then, all you have to do is enforce the usual penalties for having someone talking beside you all the time. most likely this would show itself as unfavorable circumstance penalties to concentrate, listen, initiative, and if its actually making noise others can hear, move silently. if its going to keep him up at night, fatigue.

 

[I'm A Banana]

1) is a ring which confers "mental" invisibility, by forcing others minds to disregard the wearer. I.e. a wearer of this ring is percieved to belong to the most trivial, negligable social class or order known to the obsever, and / or whoever would appear the most innocuous in a given situation. I.e., if you were in a busy kitchen, observers would think of you as a cook. If you were in a heavily guarded fortress, anyone noticing you would assume that you were one of the guards.

This should be a strong effect, but something which could be overwhlemed by direct suspicion. I thought, it isn't exactly an illusion, (if it were handled as an illusion, what sub-type?) or is it? Should I use like some kind of hypnotism or suggestion effect? it just makes you sort of not think of a person in a threatening, uninteresting way that does not grab your attention. If you thought about it, you would realise that you never did see the guy in a cooks uniform, you just thought he was a cook even though he was wearing plate mail and carrying a mace. I thought of using the Bluff or Disguise skill, but it didn't seem to quite fit. Also, the effect should work on players as well.

There's a few way to handle this. My idea? Just use a ring of Alter Self or Disguise Self. The wearer can choose what to look like, so they can choose to blend in, to look like a servant, etc, and the spell already has a bonus built-in for Disguise checks. In one case, it is an illusion, so it works exactly like "I thought I saw him wearing an apron!", in the other it's a transmutation, so you actually do look like the guy. Go with the lower-level to achieve the effect, most likely.

Another way would be to make a new spell, something like Unnoticability. It'd be a mind-affecting compulsion, of the Enchantment school, affecting the caster. It'd be first level. When cast, it makes the user blend into the social surroudings, making people react to them as if they were part of the normal people in the area -- a local from town, a priest in a temple, a servant, etc. This effect is dispeled under similar conditions to Invisibility (e.g.: if they attack), but it can also be dispeled by making a Sense Motive check, opposed by the user's Bluff check. This spell gives a +10 bonus to this use of the Bluff skill (but no other uses of the skill). It's basically a very limited Disguise/Alter Self spell, but gives you a bonus to Bluff instead of Disguise. The new spell can happen if it's a major role, or if you've got room for it.

is a magic helmet which provides moderate healing once per day, probably something like a few cure light wounds spells and / or one cure disease or remove poison effect. But the downside of the item is that it constantly lectures you on matters of health, advocating abstinence when you drink, warning of injury when you contemplate a fight. It is supposed to be so annoying that you can barely stand to use it.

What I was having trouble figuring out was how to handle this 'annoying' effect. Force the wearer to make saving throws every so oten or lose a point or two of temporary Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma? Contested diplomacy checks? What would be fair but strong enough that the character would actually feel some hestiancy to use the item....

It's an intelligent magic item, with the spell-like abilities you describe above. To resolve the 'annoyance' use the intelligent item's Ego.

So basically:

1) Ring of Disguise Self or Alter Self
2) Intelligent magic helmet with Cure Light Wounds and/or Remove Disease or Remove Poison, with a substantial ego.

 

[Pbartender]

For the Ring, use an effect exactly the same as a hat of disguise (+10 disguise). If you wanted to you could combine it with an effect similar to the cloak of elvenkind (+10 hide). Only, make the effect a Charm [Mind-Affecting] effect against anyone within sight, instead of an Illusion effect. That means different people will get bonuses or immunities against it (it'd work better against gnomes, and less well against elves than your standard illusion, for example).

Call it the Ring of Inconspicuity.

 

[Drifter Bob]

Thanks for all the cool ideas.

I think for the ring, it's between an illusion or a charm / suggestion.

I don't think a disguise or hide works simply because it is supposed to work in the mind of the observer.

I couldn't decide which of the two

Maybe one way to decide between the two, is that an observer scrying the area or viewing it from a long distance should not be under the effect. They would be baffled why a guy in normal gear could seemingly slip through a group of guards or cultists. Would that make it more a charm? Are illusions supposed to work inside your mind or actually create images in space?

As for the hat, I think I make the mistake of thinking in terms of my lower level campaigns. I was intending to make this item avaialable to a 2nd level party, who would probably find say 3 cure light wounds and one cure disease or remove poison per day very compelling.

There needs to be some way to make them have to wear it in order to get the effect. You would have to wear it all day to recharge it maybe. The idea is its supposed to be funny, not annoying, not exactly cursed.

I think giving it ego etc. is a good idea. MAybe up it to regenerate 1-3 hp per round and / or provide immunity to poison or disease to make it tempting for higher level players...


DB

 

[Drifter Bob]

Another way would be to make a new spell, something like Unnoticability. It'd be a mind-affecting compulsion, of the Enchantment school, affecting the caster. It'd be first level. When cast, it makes the user blend into the social surroudings, making people react to them as if they were part of the normal people in the area -- a local from town, a priest in a temple, a servant, etc. This effect is dispeled under similar conditions to Invisibility (e.g.: if they attack), but it can also be dispeled by making a Sense Motive check, opposed by the user's Bluff check. This spell gives a +10 bonus to this use of the Bluff skill (but no other uses of the skill). It's basically a very limited Disguise/Alter Self spell, but gives you a bonus to Bluff instead of Disguise. The new spell can happen if it's a major role, or if you've got room for it.

1) I like this idea

2) I think you just wrote a cool new spell.

DB

 

[Camarath]

There is also this power (spell) from SRD under Psionic Powers.

Cloud Mind
Telepathy [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Psion/wilder 2
Display: None
Manifesting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. +5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One creature
Duration: 1 min./level
Saving Throw: Will negates
Power Resistance: Yes
Power Points: 3
You make yourself completely undetectable to the subject by erasing all awareness of your presence from its mind. This power has the following effects.
First, you are invisible and inaudible to the creature. It cannot even detect your presence by means of blindsense, blindsight, scent, or tremorsense. It cannot pinpoint your location by any means.
Second, the subject remains unaware of your actions, provided you do not make any attacks or cause any obvious or directly threatening changes in the subject’s environment. If you attack the subject creature, the effect ends.
If you take an action that creates a sustained and obvious change in the subject’s environment-for example, attacking a creature aside from the subject or moving a large or attended object the subject can see-the subject immediately gains a new saving throw against the power. An ally of the subject creature that is able to see or perceive you can use a move action to warn the subject and thereby grant it a new saving throw.

Cloud Mind, Mass
Telepathy [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Psion/wilder 6
Target: One creature/level
Power Points: 11
As cloud mind, except as noted above. Each creature is affected individually.

 

[Drifter Bob]

There is also this power (spell) from SRD under Psionic Powers.

Cloud Mind

Wow! Maybe I should get more into psionics after all. That sonuds very similar to what I'm looking for, only maybe a bit too powerful.

DB

 

[Camarath]

Also From Miniatures Handbook (but not OGL)

Helm of Glorious Recovery
1/d heal 4d8+7 must be worn 24 hours before use
Moderate Conjuration/CL 7/5600 gp

 

[Drifter Bob]

Couple more to chew over

Ok, since y'all are coming up with such good ideas, here are a couple more.

3) is a powerful spell, probably 7-9th level, which has the effect of causing someone to spin aronud and around in the air (think of Gandalf spinning on the floor after Saruman defeats him in the 1st lord of the rings movie- though that is not the source for the spell). The caster can cause them to spin slowly while you interrogate, or you can cause them to spin in wide loops fom very high (say, 100') to very low. Finally, if the caster is not interrupted and does not choose to release her victim, she can cause them to spin at an exponentially increasing rate until they fly apart and die.

I was wondering the best way to implement this spell from an earlier project. The idea is, anything spun at an exponentially increasing rate like that will eventually die if the spell isn't broken first. It should be roughly the same amount of time whether you have 10 hit points or 100, nor should damage reduction, fast healing, or regeneration matter. I had a theory on one way to handle this, but the publisher though it was too far out, and we ended up making the spell much more conventional.

4) is a combat issue from the same campaign as the one with the Imp. When I run my game we use pretty extensive house rules for combat, so sometimes things happen which I'm not later certain how to convert into D&D rules.

This is when the players are about 4th level. If they aren't very careful in a particlar area where their guard is probably down, they will get ambushed by some footpads, who use saps to attack from concealment. The footpads seek to capture one or more party members and make off with them in a boat. In our house rules

You know what a sap is of course, this is like a leather sock full of lead shot or even sand, which has been used since time immemorial to quickly knock people out to rob or kidnap them, or just to silence them. The way a sap should work, if you are moderately skilled in the weapon, and can attack someone who isn't wearing a helmet and /or heavy armor from surprise, you should be able to have a good chance of knocking them out. Even if you don't surprise them, a few blows to the head or the back of the neck should be enough to drop most people.

What would be the best way to implement this in 3.5? I didn't want to give the bad guys a bunch of really high level monk Feats, and the subdual damage rules combined with critical hits seem insufficient. The guys weilding the saps are about 3rd level.

DB

 

[Camarath]

4) Have you tried using Massive Damage and Nonlethal Damage from D20 modern.

Massive Damage
Any time a character takes damage from a single hit that exceeds the character’s massive damage threshold, that damage is considered massive damage. A character’s massive damage threshold is equal to the character’s current Constitution score; it can be increased by taking the Improved Damage Threshold feat.
When a character takes massive damage that doesn’t reduce his or her hit points to 0 or lower, the character must make a Fortitude save (DC 15). If the character fails the save, the character’s hit point total is immediately reduced to -1. If the save succeeds, the character suffers no ill effect beyond the loss of hit points.
Creatures immune to critical hits are also immune to the effects of massive damage.


Nonlethal Damage
Nonlethal damage is dealt by unarmed attackers and some weapons. Melee weapons that deal lethal damage can be wielded so as to deal nonlethal damage, but the attacker takes a -4 penalty on attack rolls for trying to deal nonlethal damage instead of lethal damage. A ranged weapon that deals lethal damage can’t be made to deal nonlethal damage (unless it is used as an improvised melee weapon).
Nonlethal damage does not affect the target’s hit points. Instead, compare the amount of nonlethal damage from an attack to the target’s massive damage threshold. If the amount is less than the target’s massive damage threshold, the target is unaffected by the attack.
If the damage equals or exceeds the target’s massive damage threshold, the target must make a Fortitude save (DC 15). If the target succeeds on the save, the target is dazed for 1 round. If the target fails, he or she is knocked unconscious for 1d4+1 rounds.