How to work a party over?

[theimmortalblackmage]

I'm currently running a 3.5ed Campaign for 7-9th level characters. The current trouble I have is that they're way too powerful combat-wise and I want to screw with their heads.

Here's what I've got so far:

I'm going to trap them in the town from 'The Created' (RM2). The mastermind for all of this will be a Mechanatrix Wizard of about 9th-12th level. He's going to be packing a lot of illusion type spells (minor image, major image, etc.) and going to have a lot of things floating around the town (invisible stalkers, doppelgangers, etc). He's a servant of the Xammux (Book of Vile Darkness) and he's basically torturing them in order to figure out how they tick.

I heard about a spell called Phantasmal Farce, but I can't seem to find it. I was told it was 2nd ed, so I'm hoping someone out there can help me find the spell. Also, any other evil tricks you guys can think of would be most helpful.

 

[shadyizok]

Hmm. I don't know the spell but I ran a self created dungeon of a blue dragon once completely filled with traps to not only hurt them but made them feel stupid. Maybe you can use this trap somewhere:

a T-fork in the road, left has a 10 by 10 foot deep hole after which the corridor continues the other has just the corridor. If they go right nothing interesting happens, but players are usualy to curious for their own good. If the try to cross the chasm they find out that over the 10 foot hole there is an antimagic field and beyond the hole is just a wall with an illusion showing a corridor.

Also make sure you give em some cursed items, maybe set up a little scene where a monster is attacking some villagers. They help the villagers who in return give them their family heirloom as thanks. But the whole attack was actually a ruse with some doppelgangers and a dumb or mindcontrolled attacker and the heirloom is actually a cursed amulet or something. Maybe the amulet (helm) of opposite alignments?

Or kidnap/mindcontrol/suggest one PC away and replace him with a doppelganger to lead the party in a trap. I've done this once by taking a player apart and saying he got kidnapped (after some rolls and such) and asked him to play a doppelganger posing as his character who is trying to sow dissent amongst the party members.)

 

[Asha'man]

Phantasmal Force was 2e and hasn't been directly converted, but IIRC it was basically Minor Image. You can find the 2e text of it really easily by googling, and see for yourself. (Top 2-3 hits, for me)

As for tricks, one might be to take innocent NPCs (Allies or friends of the PCs, for best effect, but that might be impractical), and subject them to a Veil spell (6th level wizard spell) to make them look like dangerous monsters. It lasts for many hours. Then you can either allow the PCs to "ambush" them, or somehow make them attack the party (Charm them, if necessary). Making the PCs the aggressors would likely be the most effective, since it makes it harder for them to rationalise it away ("we had to defend ourselves", vs. "If only we'd paid more attention, we might have realized they weren't really Minotaur!!") and really makes them kick themselves.

Use Planar Binding to call a Night Hag and get it to dream haunt any chaotic PCs. Then you can make up all the freaky crap you like, since in a dream, the hag has total control. And as an Outsider, it's likely to be quite twisted. You could use Nightmare spells as well, but since it's a 5th level spell, the cost in spell slots may be too high. That, however, has the benefit that it keeps the PCs from getting proper rest, which will really help to run them ragged -and it means you can haunt multiple PCs per night.

I might have more later. Just tell me -how far are you willing to go? What are your players willing to put up with before it stops being fun?

 

[theimmortalblackmage]

a T-fork in the road, left has a 10 by 10 foot deep hole after which the corridor continues the other has just the corridor. If they go right nothing interesting happens, but players are usualy to curious for their own good. If the try to cross the chasm they find out that over the 10 foot hole there is an antimagic field and beyond the hole is just a wall with an illusion showing a corridor.

That sounds absolutely fiendish! I'll definitely throw that in.

Also make sure you give em some cursed items, maybe set up a little scene where a monster is attacking some villagers. They help the villagers who in return give them their family heirloom as thanks. But the whole attack was actually a ruse with some doppelgangers and a dumb or mindcontrolled attacker and the heirloom is actually a cursed amulet or something. Maybe the amulet (helm) of opposite alignments?

Cursed items are a neat idea... not sure how to make it work. For reference, the closest thing my party is kin to is the Knights of the Dinner Table. If you haven't read the comic, here's the scoop: we play to win. If something gets in our way, we kill it. I can think of a really neat sword that just outright hurts the party members, but I've got a Warforged Incarnum that I would have to deal with. Hmm...

Or kidnap/mindcontrol/suggest one PC away and replace him with a doppelganger to lead the party in a trap. I've done this once by taking a player apart and saying he got kidnapped (after some rolls and such) and asked him to play a doppelganger posing as his character who is trying to sow dissent amongst the party members.)

This one, on the other hand, I'll have to try.

Phantasmal Force was 2e and hasn't been directly converted, but IIRC it was basically Minor Image. You can find the 2e text of it really easily by googling, and see for yourself. (Top 2-3 hits, for me)

And here's the problem I ran into: it's not Phantasmal FORCE, it's Phantasmal FARCE. Note the A and the O. The point of Phantasmal Farce is to make something that is real seem illusionary. So if they disbelieve, they will register the illusion as false, but will still be hurt/charmed/etc.

As for tricks, one might be to take innocent NPCs (Allies or friends of the PCs, for best effect, but that might be impractical), and subject them to a Veil spell (6th level wizard spell) to make them look like dangerous monsters. It lasts for many hours. Then you can either allow the PCs to "ambush" them, or somehow make them attack the party (Charm them, if necessary). Making the PCs the aggressors would likely be the most effective, since it makes it harder for them to rationalise it away ("we had to defend ourselves", vs. "If only we'd paid more attention, we might have realized they weren't really Minotaur!!") and really makes them kick themselves.

Use Planar Binding to call a Night Hag and get it to dream haunt any chaotic PCs. Then you can make up all the freaky crap you like, since in a dream, the hag has total control. And as an Outsider, it's likely to be quite twisted. You could use Nightmare spells as well, but since it's a 5th level spell, the cost in spell slots may be too high. That, however, has the benefit that it keeps the PCs from getting proper rest, which will really help to run them ragged -and it means you can haunt multiple PCs per night.

This I'll look into, but I think I'm going to have a pair of Warforged in the party (no sleep for them). Then again, I might have none.

I might have more later. Just tell me -how far are you willing to go? What are your players willing to put up with before it stops being fun?

I'd rather have more nasty tricks for them and not use some of them instead of not having enough and falling short.

 

[Dragonwriter]

With illusions, you can also do a variety of things that you just dream up. I don't know about "The Created" but you can always mess with the party by using Major Images to make it look like various buildings are inhabited, warm and cheery, but when they approach, everything goes dark and there's no one in there. Or there's skeletons (inanimate) and the place is really a ruin... There's a lot of things you can do with that.

Ghost Sound and Ventriloquism are nice little spells that, even if the PCs make the "disbelieve" Will save provides some creepy atmosphere. Whispers ranging from pleas for help to oaths and curses directed at the party... I suggest working on several different "voices" to provide some more creepiness.

You can also use Major Image to make it seem like there's a crying child in the PC's path, or in a ruined building, or some such. Of course, when the PCs investigate, the child disappears and they fall victim to some trap... Maybe a summoning trap, or a pit. Or both. Whatever your devious mind wants to come up with...

And just to throw them off, use things a few times, but make it real. With the crying child example, maybe the mastermind snatched the child, forcing the kid to cry and stay in this spot. Then when the PCs get close and realize the kid is real, something really nasty happens, like a big monster jumps out of somewhere and they have to protect a now-terrified child in the middle of a fight with a big nasty beastie.

Also, try to find some monster entries that are really outlandish monsters, but legit. Make a big deal out of the description (even overplay it a little). Maybe the PCs won't believe the critter is real... And then get a nasty mauling for their doubt. One that might be neat is the gorgichimera, or whatever its' name was, from the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth module updated to 3.5. It's free and right here. And that's just a single critter. There's also the dracolisk in there and there's plenty of other beasts in different books. And you could also throw some "mundane-looking" monsters in there, like Varags (MM4) cloaked to look like hobgoblins or bugbears...

Have fun!

 

[NewJeffCT]

I'm currently running a 3.5ed Campaign for 7-9th level characters. The current trouble I have is that they're way too powerful combat-wise and I want to screw with their heads.

Here's what I've got so far:

I'm going to trap them in the town from 'The Created' (RM2). The mastermind for all of this will be a Mechanatrix Wizard of about 9th-12th level. He's going to be packing a lot of illusion type spells (minor image, major image, etc.) and going to have a lot of things floating around the town (invisible stalkers, doppelgangers, etc). He's a servant of the Xammux (Book of Vile Darkness) and he's basically torturing them in order to figure out how they tick.

I heard about a spell called Phantasmal Farce, but I can't seem to find it. I was told it was 2nd ed, so I'm hoping someone out there can help me find the spell. Also, any other evil tricks you guys can think of would be most helpful.

If any PC can cast True Seeing, your illusion is basically busted. So, take that into account.

but, sounds like a good encounter overall if they burn through their True Seeing ability.

 

[theimmortalblackmage]

If any PC can cast True Seeing, your illusion is basically busted. So, take that into account.

but, sounds like a good encounter overall if they burn through their True Seeing ability.

Thankfully, none of them can (I think). But all of these sound like great ideas. I've also heard to use things like crimson mist and whatnot and other creatures that have some kind of mist form so the PCs cannot see their incoming attackers.

 

[Asha'man]

Hm. I've never heard of that spell (I checked before the first post, the only thing I found was misspellings of Phantasmal Force). Maybe you can create a conversion based on the psionic powers Cloud Mind and Mass Cloud Mind, which are vaguely similar (make PCs believe that a creature isn't there):

Cloud Mind :: d20srd.org

Being undetectable is stronger than being thought of as an illusion for a few rounds, though, since the PCs will catch on quickly when they realize that the "illusion" can harm them. It shouldn't be very high level, probably a 3rd-5th level spell. (Mass Cloud Mind is a 6th level power)
If it can be cast on objects, of course, all kinds of fiendish options become available.

"The ceiling is caving in!" "Don't worry, it's just an illusion."

 

[shadyizok]

Try to get some party infighting going (you can really laugh your ass off that way!). Maybe by (through dreams or illusions) force players a choice between life and death between two party members. Also you could add some poisons or diseases. I remeber the book of vile darkness having quite a few.
You could set up one of the previous examples where a child or something is being threatened and the party tries to save her. But the child is a doppelganger that (perhaps with wraithstrike or truestrike to ensure a hit) strikes the party member that resqued her in the back with a poisened knive or one soaked in disease ridden blood.
Use such spells as destroy/corrupt water (dragon lowlevel abilities, the equivelent of lvl1 spells) to destroy their potions.
Dispell magic/shatter their weapons.
Or with illusions make them believe the previous things occured.

 

[theimmortalblackmage]

Asha'man - I know. I checked google, and the only references I can find to it's existence are here (Alternate Spell Casting Rules and Miscast Table) and here (Bob Senkewicz's Spells Page). If I find where it is, I'll definitely put it here.

Mind Cloud looks very interesting, but I think I'll alter it so one person thinks they see something, go paranoid, or have the party waste resources on a hallucination. There isalso Mind Fog which I intend to use on them ^>^ (-10 on all will saves ftw!)

shadyizok - I'll try for that, but the problem is that the majority of my party is made up of glass cannons- they can dish it out, but they can't take it. Poisons and disease are going to be interesting, but I think I'm going to have to get a baleful polymorph on the Warforged. Their immunities and lack of sleep are really going to make this a lot harder than it should be.

Dispelling magic weapons... now there's something I haven't heard of in a LONG time. Good idea though.

I will also attempt to post this module when I finish it and an update on how it went. I think that everyone here would get a good laugh on how this turns out.