Interesting Item idea, need a little help

[Dareoon Dalandrove]

After reading the excerpt from Complete Divine I had an idea. It says in the excerpt that an imprint is left behind after a person dies and that is what allows spell like speak with dead to work. "The dead" also have no concept of time. Using these as the basis I thought of an item utilizing a dead spellcasters mind.

OK so here it is. After a spellcaster is dead the skull is removed and the craft wondrous item feat is used (I'm unsure of the specifics and would like a little help). Basically once everything is complete the skull can then cast, at the users command and discretion of course, any remaining spell that were in the spellcasters mind at the time of death. Once all spells have been exhausted the skull crumbles into dust

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

It sounds like a rather nifty little idea. What, exactly, do you need help on?

You could make the skull retain the personality of the mage, perhaps? Then the possessor of the skull needs to coax it into casting the spells though however means would have been effective in life.

 

[Dareoon Dalandrove]

It sounds like a rather nifty little idea. What, exactly, do you need help on?

You could make the skull retain the personality of the mage, perhaps? Then the possessor of the skull needs to coax it into casting the spells though however means would have been effective in life.

I was looking for a little help on the mechanics of it. Also wondered if anyone else thought it was a cool idea. Another take on your suggestion it might be function as a cohort. Your character and the head argue so you throw it in a sack "Lights out bub". It would be plenty of knowledge so I could see it granting virtual feats, skills, and insight bonuses. I think there's a lot it could be used for.

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

There are three basic ways you could do it.

An item.

An intelligent item.

An undead.


As either item, I'd construct it as a staff, but give it the cost penatlies of being single use powers, as in T&B. Then you would have to decide on it's spell list. A waste for the cost of an intelligent item, since it would eventually lose power, thou you could give it more spell abilities as opposed to a spell list. Like Fireball once per day, light three times per day, etc.

As an undead, things get fun. How would you like an extremely overzealous mage who tried to become a Demi-lich directly, instead of passing thru that whole pesky "Lich" thing first. A botched spell and ritualistic decapitation later...

As a full spell caster, he just gets his spells back every day like the rest of the party. The PCs have to coax a very arrogant creature to aid them. It would probably help his survival to pretend to be an item for a while, but one too many times being tossed in a sack after a battle would finally get to him. It would be good fun to watch the PCs cast Identify on a non-item.


PS. Unbeknowst to the PCs, but beknowst to us, he to is gainning XP

 

[Vlos]

I actually have developed two spells exactly for this type of use. The first prepares the skull (my character is a halfling shaman so carrying around a large skull is too much. shrinks them down like a head hunter would). The second spell is the retriever/reader spell.


Spell: Seebora's Totem Skull
Level: 3
Components: V,S,M
Casting Time: 1 Hour
Range: Touch
Saving Throw: None
Duration: Permanent
Description:
This spell shrinks and cleans a skull down to 1/12 its normal size. By placing a skull from a non-living being, which has never been previously animated, in a water/herb solution and casting this spell, the skull will lose any and all fleshy parts (down to the bone) and shrink to 1/12 its normal size. The skull will "harden" in that it it will gain a AC 12, hardness 8 with 20 hit points.

The process is like a super dehydration, and does not make the item magical, but the effect is permanent, and cannot be dispelled.

The skull once created into a totem will be just as if it had never been shrunk, but will he smaller and harder to destroy. Any spells that would work on a normal skull will work normally on a Totem Skull.

Material Components: One skull from a corpse that has never been animated by a animate dead type spell. Herbs and roots worth 10gp per size category of the base creature mixed in a water solution large enough to submerse the skull.



Spell: Seebora's Mind Search
Level: 7
Components: V,S,M
Casting Time: 8 Hours
Range: Touch
Saving Throw: WILL(Special)
Spell Resistance: None
Duration: Permanent
Description:
This spell allows the caster to probe a prepared skull and retrieve prior knowledge that it had.

This is an improved version of Speak with Dead. It allows the caster to concentrate and search/question the skull for information that it had known when it was alive.

Since the skull/being is dead, it does not get any Spell Resistance, but it does get a one time WILL save to resist the spell, though at a -4. If the skull makes it's save, then the spell fails and the skull cannot be the target of either Speak with Dead or Mind Search again. It also cannot be animated. If the skull fails the save, then it is properly prepared for future use.

Also the skull could not have been the target of either a Speak with Dead or Mind Search prior to casting of the spell, also the corpse from which the skull was taken could not have been animated prior to casting. This includes low level undead, but higher undead and natural undead (those that came alive by curses or unnatural means) can be included. Excluded Skeletons and animated constructs/beings. Included, vampires, wights, lichs, etc.

Once the spell is cast on the skull, the skull is prepared to be searched at any time in the future. Any information that the being knew during its life can be searched. Though a concentration check is required to retrieve any information. Even though the skull has been prepared and "indexed" it still takes time to concentrate and retrieve the information. The more personal/private the information, the longer and harder the concentration check is required.

The base concentration check has a DC of 10, Common/public knowledge has a +5 DC, Uncommon Knowledge has a +10 DC, Private Knowledge has a +20 DC, Secret Knowledge has a +30 DC. Forgotten or Knowledge Magically sealed/locked also adds a +30 DC.

Also the amount of detail trying to be researched is factored in. General information is +0, while moderate details are +10 and specific details are +30. For example, searching for information about a meeting, his body guard was there, is general information, his name was "gerard" in moderate details while the spelling would be specific details.

Also the futher back in the history of the skull/being the harder it is to search as well. Add a +1 to the DC for every 10 years back. This applies in the beings life, not the life of the skull/corpse.

The time required to search the information is based on the DC check. For every point above 10 takes 1 minute. So a search on common knowledge would take 5 minutes.

The information retrieved is as the being knew it when they were alive. It is not encrypted or misleading, unless the being who knew the information was mislead.

The caster can search as much and as often as they like given the time.

DC Modifiers (Base of 10) [add all that apply]:
> Personal [First hand] Information +0
> Non-Personal (Second hand) +10 [someone told me rather than being there]

> General Detail +0
> Moderate Detail +10
> Specific Details +30(minimum)

> Common Knowledge +5
> Uncommon Knowledge +10
> Private Knowledge +20
> Secret Knowledge +30(minimum)

> Magically/Psionically Blocked +30(minimum)

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Neat idea... however, to make it a bit more sinister I'd give the item an Ego score much like an Intelligent Weapon based upon the dead spellcaster's stats. If the Alignments of the dead spellcaster and the item user are similar then there is no problem. If they are opposed then the Ego of the item would start trying to exert it's will on the item user. I haven't read the whole thread so I apologize if this has already been covered.