A Land Far Away

Is there a spell that is much like the Men In Black red laser thingy and permenantly and irrecoverably wipes a persons memory of a certain period or event?

It's in BoVD. Canon is questionable.

There's also a Bard spell: Modify Memory. But it's 5 minutes per casting that can be wiped (or altered), so you may need a whole wand to clear out just 4 hours of bad experiences.

Wish. It's level 9.

The "questionable BOVD spell" is also level 9, so I'd go with Wish. Wish also has a nicer name than the BOVD one which is bang on point. For fun, I will put it here, in the spirit of unrated 18+ness.

***

Mindrape
Enchantment [Evil,Mind-Affecting]
Level: Sor/Wiz 9
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range:Medium (100 ft. + 10
ft./level)
Target: One creature
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw:Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes
The caster enters the mind of a creature,
learning everything that creature
knows. The caster can erase or
add memories as she sees fit and alter
emotions, opinions, and even alignment.
When the caster is done, she
can leave the creature insane (as
described in the insanity spell) or
seemingly unaffected, without any
memory of the intrusion.
Severe changes to personality and
changes to alignment can be corrected
by a break enchantment spell
(although an atonement spell might be
needed as well, depending on circumstances).
Alterations to memories and
subtler thoughts can be restored only
through use of a miracle or wish.

...

"Unexplainable phenomenon in DM plots" are also known to alter memories though, like Wild Magic, fairies doing crazy fey things, extraplanar critter prerogative, Mind Flayer mad scientist, someone who really wishes psionics played a bigger part in D&D, etc.

The water of the River Styx also erases the memories of those it touches. The longer your exposure to the water, the more memories you lose. An evil caster could easily have planes hopped down to a lower plane, obtained a few flasks, then hopped back to use in their nefarious plans.

uuuh that's a 'Neuralyzer' there n00blet okbyethanks.


*sheeeesh*

"modify memory" is the best thing outside of "wish". most MiB memory erasure is short-term, dealing with alien sightings etc. i don't think they do the whole "new identity" thing much. though, using that spell to wipe people's minds would be sweet. plus, it's low enough level that it's workable into a PC concept.

I'd just say your NPCs developed their own spell to zap memories MiB-style, or perhaps learned it from a planar-bound demon or devil. Having the material component be water from the river Styx seems appropriate (and costly).

The problem with Styx itself is that a failed save (fort DC 17) means the victim has total amnesia. A successful save only erases eight hours, which sounds like more of what you're going for.

So I could see Styx "water" + spell = erasing memories up to 8 hours in the past, no save.