wish or true resurrection?

[der_kluge]

Continuing the discussion about my tomb of the lizardman king. At the bottom, I'm going to have an iron golem with a rod of <blank>, with two charges.

His goal is to head down to the chamber where the body of the lizardman king and his queen are. Activating the rod (through a command word, perhaps), he will resurrect the king and queen, so they can thrive once more. (hence the two charges)

Now, what I was thinking, plot-wise, is that the land became frozen, through an ice age. With his people dying, and no chance for survival, the tomb was built to house him and his people so that they could once again come back after the land was more inhabitable.

Now, technically how to do that is stumping me. I could give the golem a rod of true resurrection, or a rod of wish. It seems that either would be capable of returning the lizardman king back to life. Alternately, a rod of miracle should be able to do it as well. Technically, miracle only reproduces spells of 8th level or lower, but I'm willing to allow it to cast true resurrection. A minor point.

I prefer the miracle/wish over res since the PCs could use it to bypass an exceedingly difficult vault puzzle should they be unable to solve it through mental means. Res won't do that. Normal resurrection's duration is too short, also.

But, I need some ideas here.
If you were a young, vibrant lizardman king, and saw all around you, your people freezing to death, your food lines disappearing, and all hope lost. You construct a vast chamber, and you house some servants in stasis, and unborn eggs in stasis so that the people can be reborn. Lich-hood isn't an option for numerous reasons.
Do you put yourself in a temporaral stasis?
Kill yourself so you can be resurrected?
Or something else that is reversable through a wish?
Or something else?

 

[fba827]

given the scenario - the lizard king should opt for stasis over death.

Why? You've said that all the others are dieing... if you can bring yourself back, why can't you bring back the others?

Or, from another perspective, if dieing is a bad thing (since you are obviously dismayed by the fact that others are passing on) then why would you kill yourself even on the off chance you could be brought back to life. Also, you said lichdom was not an option (which, again, points back to needing to die first)

Hence, I'd say the lizard king's logic should point to stasis. So, the rod should be for removing stasis (wish or miracle).

I realize you are getting the influence from ancient egyptian era and the pharohs all went for death in the hopes of coming back to life. However, I tend to think that if the pharohs had a more sure-fire way (i.e. powerful arcane/divine magics that are proven to work) that they would have gone for the stasis instead of the death option...

Anyway, that's just my reasoning... (the other perspective could be easily argued as well I suppose.)

 

[der_kluge]

I thought long and hard about it yesterday, and came to the same conclusion. Unfortunately, wish/miracle is out, since the campaign is kind of a Gilligan's Island meets Land of the Lost. In that, the PCs are stranded on a lost continent. So, if I give them a rod with a wish or two in it - *poof* - the PCs could wish to be back home. Or wish for their ship to never have sank. Or something along those lines, and then there goes my game.

But, not all is lost, temporal stasis can be dispelled via dispel magic.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[yennico]

Continuing the discussion about my tomb of the lizardman king. At the bottom, I'm going to have an iron golem with a rod of <blank>, with two charges.

His goal is to head down to the chamber where the body of the lizardman king and his queen are. Activating the rod (through a command word, perhaps), he will resurrect the king and queen, so they can thrive once more. (hence the two charges)

Just two questions ?
How can a golem use a magic item ?
How can a golem utter the command word ?

How about a golem with implanted anti-magic field ?
If the king and queen is under the temporal stasis spell and the golem enters the room, the temporal stasis spell is temporary suppressed.

To fight against a golem with surrounded anti-magic field is really nasty

How about this:
I don´t know if this is do not break or bend any rules.
The golem enters the king´s chamber. This event triggers a magic mouth. The mouth utters a command word which ends the spell temporal stasis.

Just my 2 cents
yennico

 

[der_kluge]

Re: Re: wish or true resurrection?

Just two questions ?
How can a golem use a magic item ?
How can a golem utter the command word ?

Suspension of disbelief? I realize that iron golems aren't suppose to be able to communicate. I figure if you can create a 5,000 lb. mobile, bipedal automaton impervious to most magical effects, making it talk would be a breeze. Just add magic mouth to the recipe, and voila!

Besides, this way, if the PCs defeat (which they'd better, otherwise they'll be in a real world of hurt), they gain a magic item from the encounter.

 

[der_kluge]

Although you know, a golem that radiates anti-magic is certainly interesting in its own right. What a rat-bastard thing to do!

 

[yennico]

Re: Re: Re: wish or true resurrection?

Suspension of disbelief? I realize that iron golems aren't suppose to be able to communicate. I figure if you can create a 5,000 lb. mobile, bipedal automaton impervious to most magical effects, making it talk would be a breeze. Just add magic mouth to the recipe, and voila!.

You can add a mouth to an automaton, but for speaking and talking the golem also needs some kind of mind.

If you also add a mind, the golem is not a mindless construct .

You can add a special magic mouth like the spell. When triggered it utters one single phrase.

Just my 2 cents
yennico

 

[yennico]

Although you know, a golem that radiates anti-magic is certainly interesting in its own right. What a rat-bastard thing to do!

I know that this is a method for a rat-bastard DM. Sometimes I´m a rat-bastard DM.

Just my 2 cents
yennico

 

[yennico]

Re: Re: Re: wish or true resurrection?

Besides, this way, if the PCs defeat (which they'd better, otherwise they'll be in a real world of hurt), they gain a magic item from the encounter.

If you want to give the PC any kind of magic item after a defeat of the golem, put the item in a trapped chest. The golem also guards the chest.

I do not know the level of the PCs in your party , but I do not recommend to give the PCs a rod of <9th or 8th level spell> with two charges. If this spell is wish, the rod is like a ring of three wishes. Two wish spells from a rod save IIRC 10.000 xp for the spellcaster.
8th and 9th level spells are very powerful and IMHO should be very limited in a game.
I would recommend to think about a solution without 8th and 9th level spells.

Just my 2 cents
yennico

 

[der_kluge]

Well, I've opted against the wish/miracle solution for various reasons, but balance isn't one of them. I don't think wish/miracle would seriously unbalance a 9th level party. It just gives them a mulligan, or a gimme, which sometimes in my games, might be just the thing the party needs.

I've opted for a rod of greater dispelling in any case. Which I think will serve my purposes quite well.