Suppress Despair

[HoboGod]

Let's say a necromancer has a mummy at her side because she likes murdering innocent people paralyzed by its Despair ability. But mostly, she has it by her side because she is paranoid and fears being ambushed. The necromancer understands that any of the hundreds of imaginary lawful good clerics stalking her would see the mummy while hiding in the shadows, be paralyzed for less than 30 seconds, and continue stalking her, completely immune to the mummy's despair for the next 24 hours. Therefor, the necromancer wishes to keep the mummy's despair suppressed until the enemy reveals itself.

The despair is a supernatural ability, she knows it can be suppressed with an anti-magic field, but she can't create one. However, if the mummy were wrapped in a shawl and mask so that it cannot be seen, would the despair still affect those who see the cloaked figure? How else might this ability be suppressed?

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Walk around concentrating on a Silent image spell of some other humanoid-shaped creature slightly larger than the mummy itself, so that the mummy is sheathed by its opaque image and can't be viewed by anyone until they interct with the illusion and make a will save to disbelieve? Or until you cease concentrating on it, causing the image to vanish.

Probably won't work because most DMs wouldn't let you maintain concentration for long periods of time and/or consider merely looking at a silent image to be "interacting with it" (I disagree, and point out the special prestige class feature of the Church Inquisitor called "Pierce Illusion" to demonstrate that this is DEFINITELY not the intended interpretation), but at the cost of a single level 1 spell, it's almost certainly the most inexpensive option I can think of...

 

[Persiflage]

Hat of Disguise, 1800gp, job's a good 'un

 

[HoboGod]

Hat of Disguise, 1800gp, job's a good 'un

BWAHAHAHAHA, I could see a mummy disguising itself as an English gentleman, people could walk up to it expecting to have discussions on danish treats and how to prepare a good tea only to hear "THE WORLD SHALL FEAST UPON ITSELF LIKE MAGGOTS TO THE LAMB! Head my word...."

That would be great.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Despair says "at the mere sight of a mummy", which suggests to me that as long as they can't see the mummy, the despair doesn't work. So just thrown a sheet over it.

Bonus: it looks like a ghost. Well, ok... really it looks like a trick-or-treater dressed as a ghost. But it's still keeps with the whole necro theme, right?

 

[Dandu]

Or you could cover the mummy in bandages to obscure its form.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Maybe you could have a whole Monster in the Darkness (MitD) thing going on like in order of the stick, with it carrying some sort of magical umbrella of magical (3.0) darkness, with Hello Kitty design on the exterior.

 

[Jhaelen]

Despair says "at the mere sight of a mummy", which suggests to me that as long as they can't see the mummy, the despair doesn't work.

Eh. Not really. It's not a gaze attack. I always felt it's more like an aura, though it's not described like one.

On the other hand it is a pretty nasty ability, so I might give the pcs some leeway. I remember a mummy encounter in my campaign that 'almost' ended in a tpk...

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Eh. Not really. It's not a gaze attack. I always felt it's more like an aura, though it's not described like one.

On the other hand it is a pretty nasty ability, so I might give the pcs some leeway. I remember a mummy encounter in my campaign that 'almost' ended in a tpk...

Actually now that you mention it, despair is a fear aura. But there's no single standard way that an "aura" works. Meh.

 

[HoboGod]

Paralysis in general is pretty nasty, I tend to house rule that coop de grace on a paralyzed foe does not save or die unless reduced to less than 10% of their total hit points.