Mind Trap (3.5e Power)

By manifesting mind trap, you place your psyche in a gem or large crystal (known as the mind trap), leaving your body lifeless. Then you can attempt to take control of a nearby body, forcing its psyche into the mind trap. You may move back to the trap (thereby returning the trapped psyche to its body) and attempt to possess another body. The spell ends when you send your psyche back to your own body, leaving the receptacle empty.

To manifest the power, the mind trap must be within spell range and you must know where it is, though you do not need line of sight or line of effect to it. When you transfer your psyche upon casting, your body is, as near as anyone can tell, dead.

While in the mind trap, you can sense and attack any mind within 10 feet per caster level (and on the same plane of existence). You do need line of effect from the trap to the creatures, but you must be on the same plane. You cannot determine the exact creature types or positions of these creatures. In a group of minds, you can sense a difference of 4 or more Hit Dice between one creature and another and can determine whether a life force is powered by positive or negative energy. (Undead creatures are powered by negative energy. Only sentient undead creatures have minds.)

You could choose to take over either a stronger or a weaker creature, but which particular stronger or weaker creature you attempt to possess is determined randomly.

Attempting to possess a body is a full-round action. It is blocked by protection from evil or a similar ward. You possess the body and force the creature’s psyche into the mind trap unless the subject succeeds on a Will save. Failure to take over the host leaves your life force in the mind trap. However, you may attempt to possess the target again next round.

If you are successful, your psyche occupies the host body, and the host’s psyche is imprisoned in the mind trap. You keep your Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, level, class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, alignment, and mental abilities. The body retains its Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, hit points, natural abilities, and automatic abilities. A body with extra limbs does not allow you to make more attacks (or more advantageous two-weapon attacks) than normal. You can’t choose to activate the body’s extraordinary or supernatural abilities. The creature’s spells and spell-like abilities do not stay with the body.

As a standard action, you can shift freely from a host to the mind trap if within range (which is unlimited, so long as it is on the same plane), sending the trapped psyche back to its body. The power ends when you shift from the trap to your own body.

If the host body is slain, you return to the mind trap, if on the same plane, and the psyche of the host departs (it is dead). If the host body is slain on a different plane, both you and the host die. Any psyche with nowhere to go is treated as slain.

If the power ends while you are in the mind trap, you return to your body (or die if your body is on another plane or destroyed). If the power ends while you are in a host, you return to your body (or die, if it is on another plane), and the psyche in the magic jar returns to its body (or dies if it is on another plane). Destroying the receptacle ends the power, and the power can be dispelled at either the mind trap or at the host’s location.

Focus: Unlike most powers, Mind Trap has a focus of a jewel or gem worth 100 gp. However if you possess a psicrystal you may assign it as your focus for free.

XP Cost: If made permanent, each person brought under your sway costs 6000 xp.

Augment: By spending an additional 2 PP, you may target another person with this power. Your mind is shared between both bodies, but you do not gain additional actions per round. In other words, one body may do a swift and a move action, while the other body uses your remaining standard action. You may control as many bodies as you can augment, but still are limited by your actions per round. If one target is slain on another plane while you still have other bodies in play, you do not die until you perish on another plane with no spare bodies in control.

By spending an additional 3 PP, you may reprogram the mind of a body you are possessing with a fragment of your psyche. When you leave the body (or the power ends) the original host dies, and the body remains mentally you. Over time, your mental double may grow into a different person, but they generally carry on your mutual wishes. The mind cannot be returned until the possessed body is slain and then revived, or via the effects of reality revision, psychic chirurgery, miracle, or wish. Using this augmentation costs an additional 6000 xp cost, and the copied psyche is 8 levels lower than you are similar to the effects of mind seed. Use of this version gives the power the [Evil] descriptor.

For every 2 PP you spend augmenting, this power’s save DC increases by 1.