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I was working on a campaign setting and ran into an issue: How do you go about constructing a prison to contain a single epic level (21+ level) wizard indefinitely, assuming that the society imprisoning the wizard does not have access to epic level magic?

Get him while he is asleep, hook him up to something that keeps him that way.

As of 3.5, Antimagic Fields are non-epic spells that, while unreliable against epic-level wizards, can help contain them. Requires only an 11th level wizard, 12th level sorcerer, or a 15th level cleric (11th if their domains include Magic or Protection) to cast, automatically negates non-epic spells, item abilities that are magic in nature, supernatural abilities, and spell-like abilities, and attempts to pre-emptively dispel any epic-level spells as if it were a 20th level caster.

Maybe increase the effectiveness of the field by having multiple casters, which could happen because you're the DM and you can fudge things the way you want. Tie the field to a series of objects or a Permanency spell (which is a lower level spell than Antimagic Field. And ignore that Antimagic field is not on the list of spells that can be made permanent. You're the DM).

Or just use it in conjunction with Samuel's idea. Remember, if you are trying to contain a massively powerful wizard, you're probably going to want something to negate their ability to cast spells. Preferably multiple things.

You face lots of issues with this. The major thing is if he has any of that fun still or silent spells. First you need to drain his active spells he's had memorized. Second your going to need to nix his spellbook. Third your going to need to bind him so he can't teleport, planeshift, shadow-walk or any other quick escape away. Fourth if he's an Arch-Mage your going to need to figure out what spells he has "at will" then make sure he can't do them. If it requires speaking take his tongue and keep him gaged. If moving, then bind the @#$4 out of his arms. And so on..

A high level wizard has so many magic get out of jail free cards you need to go extreme in order to contain him. But step one is always drain him of useful magic spells including building fake you know he can escape from prisons so he runs out of his utility spells as well.

If you got something to suck the magic out of him (get him while he is weak- like after fighting) and make it so he can't regenerate spells. Which only takes preventing him from getting continuous 8 hours (4 for elves) of sleep. So lock him in a bell tower or foundry.

Have the local guard club him for non-lethal damage every half hour or so, and so keep him permanently unconscious. This should also help prevent him from healing any damage, so even if he regains consciousness, he'll be at 1 or 2 hit points.

Or just have a level 1 Cleric club him to negative hit points, stabalize him with a Cure spell, then leave him there. If he looks like he's about to die, toss a Cure Light Wounds his way to keep him afloat. If he stabalized naturally, club him to negatives again.

One of my goals, when thinking about this, was to minimize the number of wizards required on-site on a daily basis, so I do appreciate the anti-magic field and foundry idea.

What if he was bound tightly in place, gagged and place in a cell in an anti-magic field at the bottom of a dungeon manned by dwarves (this is assuming, of course, that he's been drained of his spells prior to being imprisoned and his spell book taken away from him)? Since he does have levels in Archmage, would the anti-magic field counteract his at-will abilities?

First question is what is he being imprisoned for? What purpose is this serving, what benefit are his captors reaping? That's going to dictate practical concerns regarding what will and won't be reasonable measures.

White Haven wrote:First question is what is he being imprisoned for? What purpose is this serving, what benefit are his captors reaping? That's going to dictate practical concerns regarding what will and won't be reasonable measures.

I envisioned something like this: His first crime was breaking with the local wizard guild, something that the wizards take very seriously. The resulting battles with the guild assassins and wizards killed off many guild members. Eventually, as his power grew, the collateral damage became so great that he became kind of a walking act of nature, and then when he finally went on the offensive (after basically becoming the world's first epic hero) pretty much everyone was forced to get together to put him down.

That's my general idea. As for a reason why they are keeping him around, that's a great question. I was thinking that perhaps they use him as kind of a brain trust, like Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption. There must be some advantage to having the world's smartest man locked up in your basement.

Couldn't you break his fingers so that he can't do the finger-waggly bits that a lot of spells require? (Or, in the extreme scenario, lop his hands off altogether.)

It might take a while to pull it off but assuming that the polymorph other spell is available one could keep nailing him with these while he is intelligent until you turn him into a tree or something else completely non-threatening.

Crom wrote:There must be some advantage to having the world's smartest man locked up in your basement.

Yeah, but not if you can't let him communicate. It sounds to me like the only reason to allow such a character to live -- assuming having him alive and walking around is viewed to be the worst of all outcomes -- would be some sort of contingency in the event of a catastrophe. Which would require releasing him, and then finding somewhere in the multiverse to hide from him.

So they need to be able to talk to him without being crushed into a paste, that rules out any sort of full-powered-but-can't-leave imprisonment. As a fallback, I'd probably go with layered antimagic fields, and if possible, some adaptation of spell sequencers and dispel/disjunction effects to automatically fire off on detecting active magic in the dead zone if he manages to force something out past it. Oh, and definitely a planar binding so he can't sidestep into Sigil for a quick drink.

Why not simply remove his conciousness from his body and place the body in stasis on the Astral plane? You can talk to him and you don't have to worry about him getting out easily.

Plus, you can have him stuck in a crystal ball. What is not to like?

That would be a cool idea. Because then there will always be the temptation to steal him.

Crom wrote:Since he does have levels in Archmage, would the anti-magic field counteract his at-will abilities?

Anti-magic fields, the way the rules are written, are rather draconian in their enforcement. Spells, and anything resembling spells (spell-like and supernatural abilities) that are not epic-level themselves are automatically cancelled. If they are epic level, there's some chance of it working, but it tries to counterspell with a fairly high success rate (save + 20 vs DC 11 + caster level of the spell, I believe). Magic items cannot use any of their magical functions while in the field (that +2 vorpal longsword is nothing more than a masterwork longsword until you take it out). If magical creatures enter the field, then they can experience a temporary bout of Sudden Existence Failure until the anti-magic field goes away.

So, yes. An anti-magic field would be able to suppress at-will abilities that are magical in nature.

It's been a while since I've read the 3.5 rules, but I think that anti-magic should contain him if you actually managed to end up capturing him already (a truly terrific feat against an intelligent full caster). The biggest concern is the wizard's allies. In addition to any friends he made in his 21+ levels of adventuring, even non-power-gamey epic casters can create entire worlds and species to serve them.

Yes a half dozen Permanence Antimagic Field sound right.
I can see it now

You have an aged looking man sitting at a small desk. On his legs a match pair of ankle bracelets dominated by identical large black stones. In the cornors of the room sit large copies of the stones inside fine meshed cages on platforms with large statues standing guard next to them(For extra fun Statues are Stone Golems since Golems period are unaffected by AMF). In the middle of the room stands a towering statue holding the largest stone on bent knee as if presenting it towards those who enter through the only entrance.

While the room is large it is mostly bare. There in the middle of the room sits a simple bed, at it's foot a large clothing chest. A large pattern is drawn on the floor(A larg Gylph of Warding's that won't activate unless the Anti-magic fields all wink out and thus would hit our Wizard, could be a Blasting Ward, a Hold Ward or just a simple Web ward)

On the edge of the pattern sits a table half in the patter half out a large chair sits on one side inside the pattern a dozen cheap looking chairs sit outside. On the other side of the pattern 180 the entrance and the table sits a second smaller table with two well warn but comfortable looking chair. On the table sits several carved cups and a small stack of books.
------

So you have you brain trust locked in a well guarded cavern. He carries his own anti-magic field on his person plus several built into the room. As he's been there so long he's gotten friendly with the guards and being good dwarfish dwarves one or two of them dice with him to pass the time.

Being a wizard they premit him books but nothing to write with. After all this is an ultra powerful wizard until he goes the Lich route. just sticking him underground and chained to a wall in an anti-magic route is going to quickly drive him insane. So he needs to be kept active to a point. Taken out to see the sun every once in awhile and his mind kept sharp. Having nothing else to do besides sit, gamble(Character fact, is a good gambler after all this time or a terrible one Hah Hah! Oh bad luck there Sir, looks like that's two King's daughters, three and a third kingdom's and ten dragon's hordes you owe me, once you bust out of here, begging your pardon Sir)

A half dozen anti-magic fields, Eight golems, plus one titan class Golem and half a dozen armed to the teeth plus more on call should be enough security for one as strong as him. Add in a few knock-proof locks(IE manual locks such as heavy portcullises) and you've got a good setup.

Mr Bean wrote:Yes a half dozen Permanence Antimagic Field sound right.
I can see it now

You have an aged looking man sitting at a small desk. On his legs a match pair of ankle bracelets dominated by identical large black stones. In the cornors of the room sit large copies of the stones inside fine meshed cages on platforms with large statues standing guard next to them(For extra fun Statues are Stone Golems since Golems period are unaffected by AMF). In the middle of the room stands a towering statue holding the largest stone on bent knee as if presenting it towards those who enter through the only entrance.

While the room is large it is mostly bare. There in the middle of the room sits a simple bed, at it's foot a large clothing chest. A large pattern is drawn on the floor(A larg Gylph of Warding's that won't activate unless the Anti-magic fields all wink out and thus would hit our Wizard, could be a Blasting Ward, a Hold Ward or just a simple Web ward)

On the edge of the pattern sits a table half in the patter half out a large chair sits on one side inside the pattern a dozen cheap looking chairs sit outside. On the other side of the pattern 180 the entrance and the table sits a second smaller table with two well warn but comfortable looking chair. On the table sits several carved cups and a small stack of books.
------

So you have you brain trust locked in a well guarded cavern. He carries his own anti-magic field on his person plus several built into the room. As he's been there so long he's gotten friendly with the guards and being good dwarfish dwarves one or two of them dice with him to pass the time.

Being a wizard they premit him books but nothing to write with. After all this is an ultra powerful wizard until he goes the Lich route. just sticking him underground and chained to a wall in an anti-magic route is going to quickly drive him insane. So he needs to be kept active to a point. Taken out to see the sun every once in awhile and his mind kept sharp. Having nothing else to do besides sit, gamble(Character fact, is a good gambler after all this time or a terrible one Hah Hah! Oh bad luck there Sir, looks like that's two King's daughters, three and a third kingdom's and ten dragon's hordes you owe me, once you bust out of here, begging your pardon Sir)

A half dozen anti-magic fields, Eight golems, plus one titan class Golem and half a dozen armed to the teeth plus more on call should be enough security for one as strong as him. Add in a few knock-proof locks(IE manual locks such as heavy portcullises) and you've got a good setup.

That's an awesome description! It kind of reminds me, a little, of Magneto's situation in X-Men 2.

The dwarves part just came up at random, but they seemed to be the logical choice for dealing with at least a lifetime standing watch over a powerful wizard.

My idea was that the Prisoner would be the quest giver for the party, though I'm not sure how as of yet.

Grandmaster Jogurt wrote:It's been a while since I've read the 3.5 rules, but I think that anti-magic should contain him if you actually managed to end up capturing him already (a truly terrific feat against an intelligent full caster). The biggest concern is the wizard's allies. In addition to any friends he made in his 21+ levels of adventuring, even non-power-gamey epic casters can create entire worlds and species to serve them.

You know, I never gave any thought to his potential companions. I suppose that means the jail has to double as a fortress.

Crom wrote: You know, I never gave any thought to his potential companions. I suppose that means the jail has to double as a fortress.

If it's a Dwarf Hold then by default it's a Fortress.
You can even stack it. On the surface a Magi Guide control town set on a high hill. The hill itself containing a Dwarf hold on a mostly played on mine which has been re-purposed as a prison for our Wizard plus as a place where Dwarf Craftsmen sell their products to the local city who then distribute them to the rest of the world. Something just under a easy days ride from the outskirts of the nearest major city(Or even local Capital)

Of course, if you don't have lots of money on hand, cursing him into a different form unable to speak common and lacking real hands will pretty much rid him of all the spells worth anything, though it may be hard to interrogate him. I'm a little rusty on my 3.5 (too much Dark Heresy and Paranoia recently) but I think that should do it.

Throw him into a gelatinous cube.


Or, alternatively, as has already been stated, keep throwing troops and challenges at him until his resources are depleted, get his spellbook, and then poison him to lower his constitution and place a wasp nest in the cell with him so he can't make his concentration checks.

To be honest, do what you would, as a GM, do to fuck over a player.

Just turn him into a tree. When you need to interrogate him you bring in a druid to cast Speak with Plants.

Get ahold of a cooperative Malkavian of fairly low generation and have it use Childmind. Wait, wrong game.


Lobotomy should actually work fairly well here, especially because you could always have a high level Cleric fix him should you need to put him to use. Alternatives include outright killing him, though that still leaves the possibility of a True Res from an ally. Sticking subject into an Anti-Magic field and amputating his limbs, cutting out his tongue, gouging his eyes, etc. will be along similar lines of effectiveness as a full frontal lobotomy, and still leave him alive should you end up needing him. Keep him in constant pain to force concentration checks for all spells. Do what you can to keep his Con low so those checks are as difficult as possible. Do not, under any circumstances, let him have a full eight hours sleep. Sure, it's impossible to keep him conscious indefinitely, but you can keep his sleep well under the requisite 8 hours with ease.


I'd personally go with the lobotomy. Try casting shit with an intelligence of three at best.