Disarming a character from powers?

[Rechan]

What would it take to inable a PC or NPC from using their powers (At Will, Encounter and Daily)? Particularly the Warlock and Wizard?

Before, all you had to do was take away a wizard's spell component pouch, or blindfold him/gag him for him to not be dangerous.

For the martial classes (and for the most part, the paladin), taking away their weapons prevent them from doing their thing. With the cleric, his implement (holy symbol) might be an issue. Or nothing may.

Now, I don't know if removing the implement will help. From the Wizard implement article:

A wizard without an implement is like a slightly near-sighted man with glasses: The man can still see, but without his glasses, he can’t read the road sign across the way. Likewise, while wizard traditions are associated with a particular implement, a wizard need not possess or hold a given implement to use a power belonging to that tradition. For instance, a wizard belonging to the Hidden Flame order can cast the fire spell cinder storm even if he doesn’t own, has lost, or is not holding a magic staff. But if he does have a magic staff, it aids the accuracy of his attack, and his mastery of the Hidden Flame technique allows him to deal more damage with the spell.

So it looks like the wizard can still do some of his spells without his implement in hand.

The next option is "Line of Sight"; blindfolding the guy. When I received a demo for 4e, the guy running it said that I received a -4 for using a targeting spell without line of sight. However, that guy is certifiably full of poo, so it's questionable whether that's true or not.

So I'm left wondering, if the characters are taken prisoner (or the PCs take an enemy prisoner), how do you neutralize their powers? If you can't, it would make better sense just to kill rather than take captives.

 

[hong]

The correct answer to this question is not to take the PCs prisoner.

 

[Rechan]

The correct answer to this question is not to take the PCs prisoner.

I'm planning a campaign where the PCs start in jail (and thus must hatch an escape plan). Proper countermeasures should be in place so that they must use their heads and not kill themselves doing a frontal assault. So it's a pertinent question, at least as far as I'm concerned.

 

[DandD]

Some guys really can't be detained. We will have to wait for the rules, however, to see if blindfolding and tying up the guys might help, which I guess surely will do. Some others on the other hand simply can't be hold down, like Supervillains in a normal prison. No matter how many times Superman, Batman, The Flash and other friends beat up the villains and give them to custody, they get easily free and rampage, pillage and gut their way free.

 

[hong]

I'm planning a campaign where the PCs start in jail (and thus must hatch an escape plan). Proper countermeasures should be in place so that they must use their heads and not kill themselves doing a frontal assault. So it's a pertinent question, at least as far as I'm concerned.

The correct solution to this scenario is not to start the PCs in a jail.

Nevertheless, if you insist on starting them in jail, the first part of the escape plan is when the eladrin fey steps out.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I'm planning a campaign where the PCs start in jail (and thus must hatch an escape plan). Proper countermeasures should be in place so that they must use their heads and not kill themselves doing a frontal assault. So it's a pertinent question, at least as far as I'm concerned.

I plan on also having them do a prison escape in my 4e campaign (with prologue session explaining how they got there). I would say there is a variety of ways you could do this:

-show of force from the jail-wardens (mine is somewhat higher tech, so having guards with shotguns and repeating rifles will do this)

-limit their access to their powers (starvation, lack of sleep, training, etc.)

 

[Rechan]

-show of force from the jail-wardens (mine is somewhat higher tech, so having guards with shotguns and repeating rifles will do this)

Yow!

I was thinking the place would be a Hobgoblin prison, so the average guard would be fairly nasty. I hadn't considered shotguns tho.

-limit their access to their powers (starvation, lack of sleep, training, etc.)

Now that's an idea.

By the way, Fallen Seraph - do you all ready have your prison plans drafted up? I just received a useful pdf free by its writer; has all sorts of prison break scenarios and other tricks (along with d20 rules) I could share.

 

[VannATLC]

Hong, normally, you're a funny man. I don't think its very helpful in this instance.

Rechan - Its a good question.

If, for some reason, VSM is totally missing as a prequisite for spells, I will be re-instituting it. Thats the only thing I think is necessary. Everything else can be dealt with by being bound. We've been informed (Somewhere) that teleporting required contigious spacing, so a cell with a door, not bars, would work.

Additionally, prison cells in my campaign will have appropriate restraints, etc, for all the PC races, born out of experience... at least until they come to areas where people don't know what an eladrin is.

 

[hennebeck]

Hong brought up a good question, one that has been batted around here a bit.

Can Eladrin Fey step past a locked door?

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Yow!

I was thinking the place would be a Hobgoblin prison, so the average guard would be fairly nasty. I hadn't considered shotguns tho.

Hehe, yeah... That isn't the half of it too. Instead of normal guard dogs. Since this setting has lots of Aberrations (thanks to reality bending) and a Aberration Aristocracy, the guards have Aberration-Dogs, so think skinless Dobermans with toothed appendages coming out of their backs, etc, etc.

If they get out then they got to deal with Inquisitors (this world's Paladins) and their "sniffers" (mutated humans who walk on all fours and can sniff out people from miles away).

Now that's an idea.

Thanks

By the way, Fallen Seraph - do you all ready have your prison plans drafted up? I just received a useful pdf free by its writer; has all sorts of prison break scenarios and other tricks (along with d20 rules) I could share.

Nope, still in planning stages. Got to wait for the rules to come, since they start off normal and spend a couple weeks in jail so they develop their abilities in there. So slowly want to introduce new powers, class features over the length of the session. That would be awesome to see Thanks.