D&D 3E/3.5 How a lord can be assassinated in DnD 3e?

[Cloudgatherer]

Imprisonment.

 

[Happiest_Sadist]

Flesh to Stone. The soul dosn't move on. Either grind the statue into dust and scatter it around the world, or use a stone shape spell to craft them into a mundane item or even use a couple to meld them into their own castle walls.

Or cast trap the soul, and deliver the gem to the most powerful dragon you can find. Hopefully the dragon will guard it for you.

 

[Chris Nagle]

Why not get a magic item created with Magic Jar, give the ring to the Lord so that when you assassinate the Lord the Magic Jar happens and his body is dead but his soul is in the ring.

Have the item with non-detection so that divination spells block information on where the soul is.

 

[Berk]

My group had a dillema that was something like this. We killed the leader of the local thieves guild and didn't want him coming back from the dead to seek his revenge so we animated his dead body. Simple cheap solution. Now if you really wanna get rid of him and you can use powerful magic, destruction works good, needs a wish then a true ressurection to bring someone back. Hard to find a wizard/sorcerer willing to give up 5000xp for something like that.

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

Am I Missing Something Obvious?

Why can't you simply burn the body or immerse it in acid - body gone. Works in the real world (when you don't want a body found I mean.

Doesn't this beat out everything except Wish, Miracle and True Res.?

And if your guy's got heavy hitters casting these spells for him, you've got no chance unless you nuke him, his closest friends and allies, his family, his town, his dog, his neighbour's dog, every other living thing he's ever known - but I digress.

Basically, if you're at the Wish level, then it's down to the gods to do you in.

 

[Enkhidu]

Well, the most obvious answer is to just Rule 0 all sorts of magic that brings bck people from the ed. That ususally does it.

But, if that's not an option, then you always have this option (assuming that you have access to all these spells - quantity as well as quality).

1. Kill the lord, take the corpse.
2. Cast Raise Dead on the lord.
3. Lord comes back and loses level.
4. Repeat 1-3 until lord starts losing CON because he can no longer lose levels
5. Repeat 1-3 until lord has a 0 CON.

And even True Res can't bring him back (though I suppose that multiple Wishes or Miracles might...)

 

[Oni]

There are some very creative ones here, I'm very impressed.



I'm going to vote for Flesh to Stone with the added twist of disintegrate. As he has already been flesh to stoned your not killing him with the disintegrate, merely damaging the statue. Gently sweep up the remaining fine powder and go dump it in farmer brown's slop trough, his pigs digestive systems should finish the work. The target never technically died so he cannot be brought back from the dead, and if his friends can recover and reconstruct whats left of him and bring him back well maybe you should reconsider the target.

 

[Madfox]

Obviously there are several ways to prevent the ressurection of an assassinated person, but none of them are easy and involve using a lot of resources. Sometimes though it is better to think about the remifications of ressurection magic might have for heritage laws and the like. In one official campaign raising somebody made that person unfit to rule and not only by law but also through game mechanics. Considering the social unrest that could form due to a ressurection it would not be too strange to think that no ruler is allowed to be raised unless under extra-ordinary circumstances. Even if the law does not forbid such practices, most good and neutral aligned clerics would keep it in mind. It is one thing to raise a relatively minor influential adventurer who you can really use for future missions, then to raise a lord with heirs who might go to war.

 

[Darkness]

Willing yes, but does it say that the spirit knows who is raising them? Or does it just say they know they are being raised?

...you always have this option (assuming that you have access to all these spells - quantity as well as quality).

1. Kill the lord, take the corpse.
2. Cast Raise Dead on the lord.
3. Lord comes back and loses level.
4. Repeat 1-3 until lord starts losing CON because he can no longer lose levels
5. Repeat 1-3 until lord has a 0 CON.

And even True Res can't bring him back (though I suppose that multiple Wishes or Miracles might...)

The problem with all this:

PHB, p.153:
A soul cannot be returned to life if it does not wish to be. A soul knows the name, alignment, and patron deity (if any) of the character attempting to revive it and may refuse to return on that basis. For example, if Alhandra the paladin is slain and her archenemy, a high priest of Nerull, god of death, grabs her body, Alhandra probably does not wish to be raised from death by him. Any attempts he makes to revive her automatically fail. If the evil cleric wants to revive Alhandra to interrogate her, he needs to find some way to trick her soul, such as duping a good cleric into raising her and then capturing her once she's alive again.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

1. Kill the lord, take the corpse.
2. Cast Raise Dead on the lord.
3. Lord comes back and loses level.
4. Repeat 1-3 until lord starts losing CON because he can no longer lose levels
5. Repeat 1-3 until lord has a 0 CON.

The only problem is, that the victim must be willing to return. If you try to raise him, he knows your alignment (and some other things, I am not sure what exactly), and if he does not trust you, you can`t do it.

Maybe summon or create some undead that cause negative levels, until he is level 1. Kill him "traditionally", and than get the corpse to a friendly, good cleric, and bluff him into believing he must be raised. (be sure he can`t use True resourection).
Than capture him again, and repeat the procedure. But I doubt this will possible...

If the victim has to pay for his resourection, than just repeat it often enough until he has no money for it. And if he is at effectively level 1 due to negative levels from death, spells, or undead attacks, he won`t be a good lord...