D&D 5E How to evict a soul in a ring of mind shielding

[TaranTheWanderer]

I have a character who has a ring of mind shielding. The Dm has skinned it that the soul trapped in the ring can read my character's thoughts when he wears it. My character is a divination wizard and pride's himself at knowing all the tricks to circumvent protections as well as to protect himself from divinations.

He won't wear the ring as long as the soul can read his thoughts.

I'm trying to think of a good way to evict the soul. My one idea is that the soul is possessing the ring. Maybe a simple Protection from Evil will do the trick.

We have a Paladin of Kelemvor with us so I'm sure he'd be happy to send the soul to its rightful place.

We're 9th. Any thoughts?

As a side-note, the soul says it was a wizard and is 'doing research', which is why it refuses to leave. I surmise that it's hoping for a way to come back to life. But that's just a guess.

 

[Aaron L]

If this occurred in a game I was DMing, I would allow the Banishment spell to force the soul out, or a Dispel Evil and Good (which is basically 5th Edition's equivalent of an Exorcism spell.) I would certainly rule that a simple Protection from Evil and Good would hedge out the soul's ability to read your PC's thoughts (the lowly Protection from Evil and Good is even effective against Demon Lords.) Hell, I might even allow a simple Dispel Magic to turn the trick. Just scroll through a list of the Abjuration spells, choose any that seem as though they could work, and try out each of them in turn. Eventually one of them should work.

Magic mostly works on the basis of symbolism; if you can come up with a symbolic reason why something magical could work, then it should work.

That is, unless your DM has just decided to be a prick about it.

 

[Weiley31]

This is important for me to know as my fighter battle master scored one of these rings.

 

[Shiroiken]

Totally a DM call. In my game the party found one, and it was inhabited by the person who was just wearing it... that the party just killed. In my game, the ring normally traps the soul of the person wearing it when they die, vacating the previous soul. This means that the ring is a really good item, but you're going to have to deal with someone in your head who probably doesn't like you. I would require a Dispel Good or Evil or Hallow spell, or a Dispel Magic against a 5th level spell slot. My party never dealt with it, because they didn't need the item (I think they just tossed it in a river or something).

 

[Torquar]

Convince it to leave? Or just make friends with it, RAW I don't think there's a way to make it leave.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

So, it turns out it’s been homebrewed. The ring functions because of the soul in it. Without the soul the ring would be useless. I guess I have to make a decision to ditch it or keep it. It’d be nice if there was a way to prevent it from reading my character’s thoughts but, if I could do that, I wouldn’t need the ring.

 

[77IM]

That... is actually a pretty sweet dilemma. It shields your thoughts from everyone, except this one guy, who gets to read all of them all the time. Kudos to your DM.

 

[MarkB]

So, it turns out it’s been homebrewed. The ring functions because of the soul in it. Without the soul the ring would be useless. I guess I have to make a decision to ditch it or keep it. It’d be nice if there was a way to prevent it from reading my character’s thoughts but, if I could do that, I wouldn’t need the ring.

One alternative would be to find some way to swap the souls. Do you know anyone who's dead, who wouldn't mind living in a ring for awhile, and who you don't mind having read your thoughts?

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

So, it turns out it’s been homebrewed. The ring functions because of the soul in it. Without the soul the ring would be useless. I guess I have to make a decision to ditch it or keep it. It’d be nice if there was a way to prevent it from reading my character’s thoughts but, if I could do that, I wouldn’t need the ring.

Can your character have conversations with the soul in the ring? It would be interesting to find out that that there were other powers/spells the ring offered you if you asked the trapped soul. You know, like commune, but this soul answered it. Or locate creature or other divinations.

I ask because I did nearly this exact same thing and the player who has it just discovered this feature and in our last session ended up having their character using the locate creature ability of the soul in the ring. He’s got more positive and (negatives!) to look forward to.

 

[MarkB]

Technically the soul isn't trapped in the ring - it can choose to move on to the afterlife at any time - so it would qualify for some form of resurrection if it was willing and met the other requirements of the individual spells. Of course, you're probably looking at either resurrection (if it can direct you to its remains) or true resurrection (if it can't), so certainly not a cheap or easy solution.