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One of my players' characters is a vampire. During the last session he was rebuked by a powerful lich, and has been ordered to kill the rest of the team. Is there a way that others could save him?

Evil clerics channel negative energy to rebuke (awe) or command (control) undead rather than channeling positive energy to turn or destroy them. An evil cleric makes the equivalent of a turning check. Undead that would be turned are rebuked instead, and those that would be destroyed are commanded.

Would it be possible to counter this effect with turning, like rebuking counters turning? Is there some other solution?

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Accordingly to rules compendium, the command effect of rebuking undead is a permanent. The origin of it is a supernatural ability and unfortunately, those can't be dispelled. Unlike rebuke undead, turning can't be used to counter the other one.

A temporary solution

The spell command undead, could work for a day per caster level. However it could be dispelled, especially by a powerful lich.

The only one actual solution

The creature who rebuked undead must be destroyed. There is no other solution.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Plus 1 - An out-of-the-box solution could also be to convince the Lich to drop command (f.e. in order to command other Undead). \$\endgroup\$ – agodwithoutananswer Dec 10 '16 at 13:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ It seems like destroying the commander is less a solution and more of a temporary reprieve. That is, it appears that, once commanded, command continues upon the commander being brought back from destruction (for example, via the spell revive undead or when a lich reconstitutes). Yuck. \$\endgroup\$ – Hey I Can Chan Dec 10 '16 at 17:33
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The following is a temporary solution, which would work against the one specific command to kill the team. The vampire would still be vulnerable to future commands from the lich. Keep it away from the lich, out of range of future orders.

If the command effect is very literal, and magic usually is (zombie programming is tricky, for example. So is Wish.) then the command can be satisfied by making the vampire believe he has killed the team.

After that the team can claim they were all resurrected by a cleric or god, or reveal that the vampire was fooled. Although I don't know what magical effect would happen if the belief the team was killed was then revealed to be false.

Spells and tricks to fool a vampire are another question I think. It is probably quite difficult since vampire's get a lot of supernatural senses and high saves against Illusion.

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