The Helm of Possession
Hello and welcome to From the Workshop, our weekly column where, once a week, a member of our design team lets loose one of his creations on an unsuspecting world. What, exactly, it is varies from week to week. Magic items, new monsters, NPCs, encounters, variant rules, adventure ideas, these things and more are all possibilities. This week, I’m proud to bring you a magic item any self-respecting villain would give his right thumb for, the Helm of Possession.
Helm of Possession
Aura: faint; divination; CL: 9th
Slot: Head; Price: 56,400gp*; Weight: 3 lbs
Description:
This helm, always ostentatiously decorated so as to leave no doubt that its wearer is in charge, appears to be a Helm of Comprehend Languages and Read Magic, and in fact functions perfectly in this regard. The item has a second, more sinister function, however. Each Helm of Possession is keyed to a control rod, though one control rod can be keyed to any number of helms. Three times per day (per helm), the bearer of the control rod can attempt to possess the wearer of the helm, forcing the subject to succeed on a DC 17 will save or be possessed as though by the spell Magic Jar, except that distance is not a factor, and the only way for the bearer of the control rod to be killed while using this effect is for his body to be killed in his absence. Even if the victim succeeds on the save they are not aware of the attempt, and if they fail their save they black out, and are not aware of anything that transpires while they are possessed. Even more insidiously, each time the victim is successfully possessed in this manner they take a cumulative -1 penalty to all future saving throws versus the helm’s possession ability.
Construction:
Requirements: Craft Magic Item, comprehend languages, magic jar, read magic; Cost: 28,200*gp
*This is the cost for a single helm-rod pair. Each additional helm keyed to the rod costs 8,000 gp.
The possibilities for this helm are numerous. Though inflicting them as “treasure” on an unsuspecting party has potential, my favorite use of this helm is as an escape mechanism for a recurring villain. The party begins hearing rumors of an evil lord building an army in the area and, being a four-man-army themselves, set out to deal with the threat. Their description of the man is fairly vague, but they hear about his helm, which is very ostentatious. They find the man, exchange heroic taunts with him, and then run him through. It isn’t until, several levels later, that the same rumors begin cropping up in another town, that they have any reason to believe this upstart was anything but dead and gone. Tracking him down again, they’re startled to realize he looks nothing like the man they killed before…though his helm is the same. It’s not long before they determine that the helm is the cause of their problem, and set out to destroy the obviously intelligent magic item, which had been possessing these poor men. Finally, at the end of the campaign, they realize the trick, track down the true villain, and deal with him accordingly.