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I'm going to be running an Eberron game soon, and one of the players has expressed an interest in playing one of the Inspired 'gone rogue'. Unfortunately, the rules for Possession of the Inspired are ... Very much in favor of the Quori.

I can always come up with a custom item, but is there a way to become immune to possession more or less all the time in 3.5? Answers that work from moderate levels are preferred, but anything that works will give me something to work with.

I am looking for pre-existing solutions which are rules legal as a starting point.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm going to assume that enlisting into the legions of the undead is not an option? \$\endgroup\$
    – Theik
    Feb 27, 2015 at 21:28
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    \$\begingroup\$ I thought this is what tin foil hats were for? \$\endgroup\$
    – Dewi Morgan
    Feb 27, 2015 at 23:10
  • \$\begingroup\$ While Necropolitan would work, I'm afraid it isn't really in the genre of what the player (and I) am looking for. \$\endgroup\$
    – Scrollreader
    Feb 27, 2015 at 23:59

9 Answers 9

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The Planar Ward soulmeld (Magic of Incarnum page 83) grants continuous protection against mental control, specifically including possession. It is permanent unless (forcibly) unshaped.

Any character with a Constitution score of at least 13 can gain this protection by selecting the Shape Soulmeld feat (Magic of Incarnum 40).

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The spell Protection from Good|Evil|Law|Chaos will provide the protection you need. All 4 of the spells have the ability "Second, the barrier blocks any attempt to possess the warded creature ... or to exercise mental control over the creature ... This second effect works regardless of alignment."

The easiest thing to then do would be to put the spell on an amulet or other item that can be enchanted to provide the effect continuously. The price for an Amulet of Protection from Evil would end up being 1 (Spell Level) * 1 (Caster Level) * 2000gp (use activated or continuous) * 2 (spell duration measured in minutes/level) for a total of 4000gp. Note that this price is only a guideline, and 'permanent' protection from possession (plus the other effects of the spell) it would not be unreasonable to increase this amount.

A slightly more expensive option, but one that doesn't have to be custom made is the Ring of Mental Fortitude (DMGII), which makes the wearer immune to all mind effecting spells and abilities for 110,000gp.

Another item that you can use if you don't mind using Forgotten Realms books is the Cowl of Warding (Magic of Faerun, p156), which grants Mind Blank in addition to other effects. This method however is much more expensive at 200,800gp.

And if you allow psionics there is the Third Eye Conceal which grants Psionic Mind Blank for the low cost of only 120,000gp.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ You should note how the pricing guidelines are only guidelines. Constant protection from evil (or whatever) would definitely be something that I’d be looking to charge more than the guidelines suggest for, personally. \$\endgroup\$
    – KRyan
    Feb 27, 2015 at 20:05
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    \$\begingroup\$ @KRyan Interestingly, the immunity to possession and mental control part of the spell protection from evil--as a constant effect--Pathfinder makes available for 4,500 gp (via an ioun stone (clear spindle) resonating within a wayfinder). And the possessor needn't eat or drink. \$\endgroup\$
    – Hey I Can Chan
    Feb 27, 2015 at 21:57
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    \$\begingroup\$ Milo approves this answer. \$\endgroup\$
    – gatherer818
    Feb 28, 2015 at 5:09
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The lowest level option is the 4th level class feature of the Spirit Shaman class. The cheapest continuous protection is the Dracanite Helm for 12,000 gp. The most ironic option is to be a level 11 binder, figure out how not to sleep, and continuously summon pseudonatural lantern archons.

Item Based

Expensive option: Buy a "Dracanite Helm" (Ghostwalk p70, 12000 gp) which: "... protects the wearer from all forms of possession." (and gives +2 AC)

Cheap option: Buy the "spiritwarder" shortsword from Ghostwalk (p66). It has protection from possession 1/day (which explicitly blocks possession, not simply suppresses it), and it automatically triggers on a possession attempt. At 4500 gp, you can get a golf bag of these if absolutely necessary.

Very cheap option, some downsides: Become a necropolitan (Libris Mortis p114). The ritual delevels you from 3 to 2, but is otherwise cheap at 3000gp and 1000xp if you do it exactly when you hit level 3). Surviving as an undead PC is left as an exercise to the reader, but it can work quite well in the right campaign.

Feat option: You can get a Lantern Archon or Coure Eladrin (looking at the familiar handbook) with the Celestial Familiar feat, a way of getting a familiar in the first place. These familiars are featured in the planar handbook and BoED. You can also use Planar Familiar via planar handbook to get a lantern archon if BoED isn't allowed. Alignment restrictions apply.

Very expensive, aggressive, evil option: Carry a darkskull. Moving unhallow means that your undead are awesome, and you immediately suppress all mental domination within range (due to the mobile magic circle against good.) .. From a close reading of protection from evil, the controller/controlled creature doesn't seem to get a will save to resist that part of the magic circle. Useful if you're on a quest to "liberate" other Inspired. (And being an evil cleric will help quite significantly, since your army of undead will both be helped by the spell and immune to mind control.)

Class-based:

Be a cleric. Divine metamagic extend persist protection from possession. (It'll last for 48 hours, recast it every day.0

Incantrix/spelldancer extend/persist prot possession as wizard.

Spirit shaman level 4, infinite duration protection "from spirits." Very apposite class for the character. Make sure to look at the handbook.

If you can figure out how to not sleep, maintaining a summoned lantern archon via the binder's Zceryll bind can keep protections up.

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    \$\begingroup\$ "never been updated" Au contraire! \$\endgroup\$
    – Brian
    Feb 28, 2015 at 0:37
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Don't do it

"Inspired are not intended for use as player characters. [...] The Kalasthar are a better match for PC adventurers." - Races of Eberron, pg 100.

The template for Inspired (in Magic of Eberron, pg 144) is seriously OP. The rules for banishing an inspired's Quori spirit (also in that section) mentions that it only lasts for 10 mintues per level of the caster that did the exorcism.

Make them Kalashtar

Have them instead become possessed by a Kalashtar spirit. The Kalashtar and Inspired are both inhabited by Quori spirits, one with permission and cooperation of the host, and the other by force and subjugation.

Maybe their Inspired spirit was displaced, maybe one of the Kalashtar spirits that was defeated in the early history of the Quori secretly was imprisoned, and was released by this person.

Maybe the PC fought a Kalashtar agent, and as the agent was dying, they managed to banish the Inspired spirit. The spirit could then offer to transfer to the player to keep it out forever, because it's own vessel was dying and could not be saved.

Mechanically give them a Kalashtar to play, even if they "started out" an Inspired.

Plot implications of ex-Inspired non-Kalashtar

Plot wise, if you found (or made) an in-game way of completely stopping Quori possession permanently, you'd be painting an enormous target on the PCs back. The Inspired will do anything to keep such a secret from becoming common knowledge, because it would mean the end of their invasion of Eberron.

The Kalashtar may treat them with hostility as well - from their perspective, there's no guarantee this wouldn't work on them too, and their hosts are willing.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ The information and conclusions painted here are basically correct, but the final conclusion (Don't do it) I disagree with. Playing a character with the Inspired hunting them down sounds like it could be a lot of fun, not necessarily a bad idea. \$\endgroup\$
    – Please stop being evil
    Mar 8, 2015 at 19:50
  • \$\begingroup\$ The GM is of course free to do what they think best. I just wanted to make the implications clear. Personally, I still wouldn't do it unless all of the characters have a beef with the Inspired, because otherwise this one character could end up dominating the plot of the campaign. \$\endgroup\$
    – Gustav Bertram
    Mar 9, 2015 at 8:17
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Use Lesser Planar Binding to summon a lantern archon and order it to follow you around for a year and a day (the limit of a single cast of that spell) to keep you always under the effect of its magic circle against evil

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    \$\begingroup\$ +1 if for no other reason than a character in a game I’m in did this very thing (I think the lantern archon was a familiar or something rather than the result of lesser planar binding, but same idea). We didn’t have any special need for protection from possession, but the magic circle against evil certainly was useful. \$\endgroup\$
    – KRyan
    Sep 23, 2020 at 3:34
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There's always undeath, it makes you immune to a great many things, including mind control. Vampire, Mummy, and Lich are (if memory serves, since I don't actually have access to the books at the moment) achievable through ritual. Maybe not the direction the PC is thinking of going, but it's AN option.

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Carry around a miniature house upon which you have cast Hallow. This costs 1K gp and for another 4K you and all your buddies can get replenishable Death Wards for a year and a day as well. If you need an NPC Cleric to cast the spell for you, you'll have to shell out another 450 gp, but, really, that's pittance. Note that Hallow is instantaneous and thus cannot be dispelled.

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Protection From Evil (or Good, or Law, or Chaos) + Permanency.

Small XP cost, but any of the 'Protection' spells give you immunity suppression of the effects from mental control.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Technically, they only suppress mind control/possession; the effect still takes place, it just doesn’t actually grant any control to the one who used it. This is relevant if your permanent protection from evil is dispelled. \$\endgroup\$
    – KRyan
    Feb 27, 2015 at 20:01
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    \$\begingroup\$ Also, unless I am mistaken, Protection from X is not an allowable permanency target. \$\endgroup\$
    – Scrollreader
    Feb 27, 2015 at 20:03
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Scrollreader: It isn't on the list of spells that can be made permanent. Doesn't mean that can't be house-ruled, though. It isn't on the list for the same reason there isn't a pre-built 'Protection from X' amulet - cheap immunity to mental control is not something the game designers wanted. As a DM, I'd permit Permanency before an item, since Permanency can be dispelled much more easily. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jeff
    Feb 27, 2015 at 20:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ This is probably my backup plan, if I can't find anything that works. And yes, that's part of why I'm leery of just making an item of Protection from Evil. \$\endgroup\$
    – Scrollreader
    Feb 27, 2015 at 20:16
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    \$\begingroup\$ Don't be so quick to think items are inviolable. You can't pickpocket a permanent spell, nor replace it with a visually identical item (that possibly has Nystul's Magic Aura...). And that's just the beginning. There are so many other interesting things you can do with an item that the character will carry around with them for the entire campaign, keeping it close at all times for protection. \$\endgroup\$
    – Dewi Morgan
    Feb 27, 2015 at 23:19
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I can't read the possession rules at the moment, but: can you easily possess a possessed person? Is a possessed person necessarily even aware of the possession? If no to both, then how's about this scenario?

Party gets a job offer from wizard. Wizard (who passes alignment check as good) says "Look, this job has a high risk of possession... here, let me show you how easy it is... " picks up a wand, player rolls vs possession, fails, and wizard, having made his point, puts down the wand again. It's assumed but never stated that the possession has ended.

Wizard says "You lot are going to be easy meat for people maliciously possessing, so at least one of you needs an amulet of protection, which you can keep as part of your payment if you succeed. And if you don't, well... I guess I won't be seeing it again anyway."

Player carries the amulet around with them for rest of campaign. Player is in fact still possessed, and by the evil amulet, not by the good (and equally mind-controlled) wizard.

Evil amulet will permit player to continue acting as normal, at least until some critical point in the story, where the players have brought together all the amulet's requirements.

Amulet does indeed provide protection from possession, by fighting off those who attempt to usurp it.

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