If you want to be extra evil with your big bad, have them use a hellfire-weapon. This will prevent resurrection, and still permits speak with dead, as this does not require access to the soul.
True, but i want the PCs to see the bodies.
That still is possible. The hellfire weapon only prevents the soul from being able to return to the body, the body itself is unchanged.
Cool idea... but i'd like the bodies to be immediately recognizable.
"Rapid aging" may come with visual changes, but "reduced years of life" probably wouldn't.
On a cellular level, your body would effectively lose the ability to repair itself and respond to illnesses, so the mechanical consequence would be equivalent to permanent levels of Exhaustion. Externally, you would look the same, though, after a few months, your new "effective age" would probably catch up with you.
However, the Hellfire weapon is definitely a solid solution if you don't mind sending their souls directly to hell.
Exploring Eberron have a magic dagger of Dhakaani origin doing just that - preventing resurrcetion and speak with the dead. It's only Uncommon, so on higher levels it shouldn't be hard for a bad guy to get one.
Aside from that he may just intimidate the NPC to not go back or answer quiestions, like promissing he would kill his kids or destroy the work of his life if he comes back from dead. After all, all resurrection spells except Revivify require the target to be willing.
If you want to be extra evil with your big bad, have them use a hellfire-weapon. This will prevent resurrection, and still permits speak with dead, as this does not require access to the soul.
Question - What type of hellfire weapon would be most appropriate for a very high level wizard?
Question - What type of hellfire weapon would be most appropriate for a very high level wizard?
Honestly, if it's a high level wizard, it would probably be better for him to use magic, and possibly to resurrect a spell like Trap the Soul, but trapping only the soul and not the body. There are multiple advantages to this, like the bodies being dead without a mark on them but horrified expressions on their faces, and the for wizard to have trophies and being able to torture the souls for information and/or fun. Finally, the NPCs could potentially be restored, unless of course the wizard traded the souls to devils or other fiends in exchange for power.
Or you could use the mechanic for [Tooltip Not Found], and say that the wizard has created a ritual to help him capture souls that way, linking back to the points above.
Sounds good... could the evil wizard zap two targets with it?
See - in my head, its sort of a "snap" encounter. The villain (probably) doesn't have time for an elaborate ritual twice.
The two (friendly) NPCs confront him verbally, he decides to zap them, then leaves their bodies for the heroes.
He didn't plan it in advance. He just decided "Well, these two have outlived their usefulness." Also: "**** the heroes. Let them see how far i am willing to go."
So, no time for a ritual, then, but you could just create a variation of the Finger of Death spell that captures the soul in a gem instead of creating a zombie ? Maybe with one additional target per level so you can zap both at the same time ?
Sounds good. Thanks.
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That's helpful. Thanks!
"Rapid aging" may come with visual changes, but "reduced years of life" probably wouldn't.
On a cellular level, your body would effectively lose the ability to repair itself and respond to illnesses, so the mechanical consequence would be equivalent to permanent levels of Exhaustion. Externally, you would look the same, though, after a few months, your new "effective age" would probably catch up with you.
However, the Hellfire weapon is definitely a solid solution if you don't mind sending their souls directly to hell.
Exploring Eberron have a magic dagger of Dhakaani origin doing just that - preventing resurrcetion and speak with the dead. It's only Uncommon, so on higher levels it shouldn't be hard for a bad guy to get one.
Aside from that he may just intimidate the NPC to not go back or answer quiestions, like promissing he would kill his kids or destroy the work of his life if he comes back from dead. After all, all resurrection spells except Revivify require the target to be willing.
Question - What type of hellfire weapon would be most appropriate for a very high level wizard?
The lowly dagger is always a good choice ;)
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Ahhh....
Only problem is, he has to drop both NPCs. Huh.
Sounds good... could the evil wizard zap two targets with it?
See - in my head, its sort of a "snap" encounter. The villain (probably) doesn't have time for an elaborate ritual twice.
The two (friendly) NPCs confront him verbally, he decides to zap them, then leaves their bodies for the heroes.
He didn't plan it in advance. He just decided "Well, these two have outlived their usefulness." Also: "**** the heroes. Let them see how far i am willing to go."
Sounds good. Thanks.