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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Felix" data-source="post: 3657857" data-attributes="member: 3929">I don't think the Helm is a one-use item. I suppose this is the text you refer to:The curse only works once; that is, a character whose alignment has been changed cannot change it again by donning the helmet a second time.The second clause suggests that the helm still functions after it has changed a person's alignment; it doesn't change his alignment back because it's one charge is used up, it's simply a one-way ticket to an opposite alignment. Are there rulings I'm unaware of that expand upon this text to make it a charged item?EDITOh, I don't know, maybe the part in the text where it says: When a helm of opposite alignment has functioned once, it loses its magical properties. *facepalm*Idiot.Even so, 4000k for a high-risk prisoner. At some point the incarceration costs would be worth Helming someone, even if you don't apply it to the common everyday muggers you get in jail.I wouldn't say it's necessarily atonement that the Helm is going for. A successful Helming would both protect society from an Evil person by removing the Evil; it would also ensure <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rehabilitation" target="_blank">rehabilitation</a>: they would be able to provide a benefit to society. Atonement and the state of their soul would be the prisoner's to worry about.And naturally I mentioned A Clockwork Orange because of the connection. Though Helming does not quite leave the prisoner as vulnerable as poor Alex. And if you wanted to make sure they weren't at the mercy of their former associates, well, that's what colonial prison colonies are for, eh? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />But you can make it statistically impossible for them to pass every Will save. The Helm says that the character must save again if he passes a save, take the helm off, then puts it back on. If it's a move action to put it on someone, then you can force 5 saves every minute. How many minutes of this must pass before you can statistically guarantee that he failed? Not to mention the availability of Detect Evil or the other various Evil-radar magics.EDITYou can guarantee that the Helm has worked with a simple Detect Magic. At any point the Helm becomes mundane, you know that it has applied its curse.Absolutely. The Helm would be used judiciously by the prison and target very specific people. Detect Chaos is available as well, you know, so they could easily control for the alignments they wanted.If the purpose of the Helm program is temporal, then considerations of this sort wouldn't matter. At that point it becomes a campaign-specific question of what place alignment has in determining your place in the afterlife.Who says they don't?  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" /> Setting aside for the moment that I disagree that the Helm is a one-use item (EDIT even though it clearly is  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":o" title="Eek!    :o"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":o" /> ), at the very least the Helmed prisoners remain human, if stripped of their free-will to have it returned to them altered. Though as chickens they would be much less costly to incarcerate for their sentence.The benefit that the Helm has vs Statue is that the Helmed individual would have the opportunity to add to society while the Statue is simply that. Additionally, the Helmed individual is much harder to free than the Statue, requiring a higher level spell to revert.I'm not going to touch the magical abilities to divine innocence, but rather suggest that the use of the Helm be judicious: Evil people (or Chaotic, or Good) are targeted specifically because of their alignment. It would be much easier to weed out Good prisoners who may or may not be innocent, and simply not Helm them.</blockquote>

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