# Astral Spell - Cutting the Silver Cord



## ashockney (Feb 23, 2004)

Hello all!

I have an epic villian who is considering using an "Astral Spell" to send a "duplicate" of himself on a mission.  I have a couple of related questions.  

1) Can the duplicate go out to the astral, travel back to a "coexistent" point with the prime material, and create a duplicate version of itself on the prime?

2) How do you cut the silver cord?  In the 3.5 edition PH, the spell says to see the "DMG" regarding ways to cut the silver cord, and I couldn't find any mention in the index, under spells, or under the "planar" travel/gameplay section of the DMG.  Anyone have any reference?  Any ideas?


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## dcollins (Feb 23, 2004)

1) Probably not.

2) Historically, cutting the silver cord has been limited to a powerful effect such as the following: attack by deity; disruption by astral _psychic wind_; or githyanki _silver sword_. Stuff like that. Someone else might give more 3.5 detail.


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## Plane Sailing (Feb 23, 2004)

1. I think not. He should plane shift somewhere else and then send his astral body to the prime material.

2. The MM 3.5 talks about a Githyanki with a silver sword and Improved Sunder is able to attack the silver cord (and it gives hp and harness values for the silver cord). I don't recall any other methods in the 3.5 rules (the 3.0 Astral Dreadnaught in MotP may have had the ability too)

Cheers


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## ashockney (Feb 23, 2004)

So what I'm hearing is that it won't be a problem to have "two" bodies present on the prime material plane:  his host body, and his astral spell duplicate.  

Also, as it regards destroying the cord, it requires the silver sword of a gith or perhaps the special ability of a limited number of creatures. 

This is Epic, so they WILL have resources to do this kind of thing.  I'm thinking if they have Truesight up (which is pretty much a guarantee) they'll see the cord.  Upon this, I'll give them a Spellcraft check to look up the spell in the 3.5 PH.  

The party will see they can truly "kill" the villian simply by severing the cord, in which case, they will use wishes (they have close to a dozen to call upon) to give them the requisite abilities or items to do so.  

So, the villian in question is Szzas Tam from the FR.  If you knew you were facing such odds, what do you think you would do?  I'm thinking he'll ready an action every round to teleport/dispel/planeshift if he is presented with an attack that could threaten his silver cord.

Thoughts?


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## GodPhoenix (Feb 23, 2004)

ashockney said:
			
		

> So, the villian in question is Szzas Tam from the FR.  If you knew you were facing such odds, what do you think you would do?  I'm thinking he'll ready an action every round to teleport/dispel/planeshift if he is presented with an attack that could threaten his silver cord.
> 
> Thoughts?




If he readied an action (a standard action) every round he wouln't be much of a challenge to PCs of even moderate level because his remaining actions in combat would be severely limited.  Szzas Tam is smart enough to have a truckload of contingency spells ready to kick in...just contingency a planeshift or whatnot if the cord gets attacked.

But would he really move that directly?  What if he made an elaborate construct that he controls, looks just like him, and has a limited number of his abilities.  Add in some flunky guards to beef up the encounter and you're set...and Szzas doesn't risk his bony hide.


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## Plane Sailing (Feb 23, 2004)

ashockney said:
			
		

> So what I'm hearing is that it won't be a problem to have "two" bodies present on the prime material plane:  his host body, and his astral spell duplicate.




No, exactly the contrary. He SHOULDN'T have two bodies present on the prime material. 



			
				ashockney said:
			
		

> Also, as it regards destroying the cord, it requires the silver sword of a gith or perhaps the special ability of a limited number of creatures.
> 
> This is Epic, so they WILL have resources to do this kind of thing.  I'm thinking if they have Truesight up (which is pretty much a guarantee) they'll see the cord.  Upon this, I'll give them a Spellcraft check to look up the spell in the 3.5 PH.
> 
> ...




I think that it is much more realistic for them to be able (perhaps) to recognise that he is astrally projecting and that it is virtually impossible to kill him here, so they dispel his astral projection and track down his actual location. 

Fighting his astral projection would be a needless waste of resources. If you allow even epic characters to kill off astrally projecting people (invalidating 9th level magic) you are setting an ugly precedent.

So, to recap.

1. Tamm should be on another plane - perhaps the negative material plane.

2. He astrally projects to the prime material to attack the PC's

3. The PC's best bet is recognising that he is astrally projecting and dispel the magic, then track down his actual location.

 - if necessary give Tamm an epic protective magic to render his silver cord immune to severing, or a superior epic astral projection that doesn't leave a vulnerable silver cord; if you have a world where wishes etc make it easy to server astral cords then epic casters are going to very likely to come up with counterbalances to those tactics.


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## ashockney (Feb 23, 2004)

Great ideas.  Thanks for the feedback.

The party is between 26th and 29th level.  They are very powerful.  Picture the Elminster/Simbul/Khelbun/Alustriel crowd intervening in events in the realms.

Szzas Tam has the "epic'd" up constructions (undead actually) working on his behalf, but he came to oversee the progress himself.  The situation requires phenomenal resources and abilities to surpass.  The party will be effectively trying to achieve the same goal at relatively the same time, mostly in an effort to thwart Szass Tam.  

I've decided to put the "location" on a demi-plane, somewhere other than the prime material plane (but connected at this point).  

Contingent spell vs. readied action = good idea.  Done.
Szass Tam really could care less about the party, they will be more of an annoyance, that could become a problem.  

As many resources as the party have, they will be unable to find and destroy Szass Tam.  They can't even find him, let alone destroy him and his phylactery.  They will (because they're big meanies) take full advantage of the "cord" opportunity, and I don't want to "wave this off".  He won't have advantage of any epic spells (other than meta-magicked up other spells we all know and love, any ideas?  He can cast up to 11th level spells, and has 3 improved metamagic feats (epic).)  He's cool.

Back to the original thoughts:  put this astral projected clone on another (demi-) plane.  

Anyone else know of, or care to comment on, the specifics of severing a silver cord?  Any other 3.5 references?  (particularly from the DMG)?


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