Overpowered Enemy Races


Advice


I am building a custom campaign for my home game and I want to have an OP enemy empire that the players have to either fight or avoid. I'm looking at the Drow for now but I'd like some other options. Races that have huge stat buffs or any innate abilities that give them a huge advantage are what I'm looking for. The setting is the Skyborne setting, so minor steampunk/magicpunk, floating cities, fallen empires, all land covered in a sinister semi-magic forest, and lots of glorious airships.


Serpent folk?


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Nymphs, they are the most annoying pieces of s***. The innate charisma ac bonus makes them a pain to deal with if you boost the stat. It allows them to be full casters with ridiculous armor classes. But then again you are the DM so if you want to pick a specific race and then give them so buffs go ahead. Its better to pick a race you want for flavor and adding to it, than be forced into picking one that already has the buss but no flavor.


Java Man wrote:
Serpent folk?

Not powerful enough. I'm looking for something more along the lines of the Kuo-Toa from DnD.


Good point, Alaric. Flavor is important.


Dominick Nate wrote:
Java Man wrote:
Serpent folk?
Not powerful enough. I'm looking for something more along the lines of the Kuo-Toa from DnD.

Are you confusing them with Lizard Folk?

Serpent Folk are essentially Yuan-Ti from 3.5


They are also 7th level druids naturally, centaurs are naturally powerful. I can't think of much else other than a lot of draw nobles or a demon empire.


Rakshasas?


That would work well actually, and since there is a large variation of types you could have the stronger ones be the rulers and the less powerful ones be regular citizens.


NoTongue wrote:
Dominick Nate wrote:
Java Man wrote:
Serpent folk?
Not powerful enough. I'm looking for something more along the lines of the Kuo-Toa from DnD.

Are you confusing them with Lizard Folk?

Serpent Folk are essentially Yuan-Ti from 3.5

I was confusing them. They're something to consider.


Dragonkin are pretty scary, especially if they have a dragon they've bonded to.


The Rakshasa are definitely an option, but probably not for "regular citizens." That many Rakshasa isn't quite justifiable. They could be part of a multi-racial empire though, and that might be where I go with my Evil Empire.


Dragons and dragonkin are a solid choice as the later generations are weaker. Setting it up as a feudal empire with infighting amongst the 'nobilty' makes intrigue an option. We did this some ages back and the GM used colored dragons as the BBEGs. He evened them all out and they produced all manner of eggs, so it was hardly 'pure'. Our problem was the GM moved just as the game got real interesting.


Dominick Nate wrote:
The Rakshasa are definitely an option, but probably not for "regular citizens." That many Rakshasa isn't quite justifiable. They could be part of a multi-racial empire though, and that might be where I go with my Evil Empire.

Rakshasas seem to have a lot of slaves and followers. Maybe some sort of grunt work race like the Trox or something. I was considering mentioning it but they don't seem smart enough to have an empire.

Pick a lowly thrall race. That seems fun.


Offhand I think there are too many variables to the question. Is there a CR guesstimation that you'd prefer? Size, alignment, deities, creature type? Type as in humanoid or fey or undead, etc. And as importantly, do you prefer a race with little or no racial hit dice?

Then there's your own DMing style. If you love or allow the usual preferred min-maxing, having creatures with good reflexes that resist mind-affecting and the like would make them much tougher. Suddenly the go to save or suck spells aren't nearly as useful. But if you ban psionics & prefer players to keep it cool with the summoning dire tigers & creating pits every round, then no special consideration is really needed.


if you don't mind using non paizo stuff i threw this together for one of my campaigns although didn't get very far as i didn't really like dming that much.

necrons:
Ability Score Racial Traits: Necrons characters gain a +4 bonus to strength, +2 bonus to intelligence, +2 bonus to wisdom and a +4 bonus to charisma.
Type: Necrons are undead/construct
Size: Necrons are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.(0rp)
Base Speed: Necrons have a base speed of 20 feet and is not modified by armor or encumbrance.
eternal march: unable to run but may still double move
Languages: Necrons begin play speaking Common,Necrill and necron(secret language). Necrons with high Intelligence scores can choose any languages they want (except secret languages, such as Druidic). See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.
Defense Racial Traits
Battle-Hardened Members of this race gain a +1 bonus to CMD.
Necron flesh is ceramite granting a +10 armor bonus that does not stack with other armor bonuses and no max dex or armor check penalties or spell failure chance and always counts as masterworked for the purposes of enchanting and provides damage reduction 3/- that stack with other forums of damage reduction and counts as ghost touched for the purposes of touch attacks.
Cold immunity, electric immunity, fire resist 15, acid resist 15, sonic resist 15.
Fall damage immunity
spell immunity disintegrate
fast healing 3
immunity to compulsion,charms, and fear
Feat and Skill Racial Traits
Skill Training Knowledge (engineering) and disguise are class skills
Stalker :Perception and Stealth are always class skills for members of this race.
Senses Racial Traits
See in Darkness :Necrons can see perfectly in darkness of any kind, including that created by spells such as deeper darkness.
sees through sees the exact locations of creatures or objects under blur or displacement effects and sees through illusions The range of true seeing conferred is 120 feet.
Other Racial Traits
Necron: Necrons count as both undead and constructs for any effect related to race.
Weapon Familiarity (1 RP) familiar with necron weapons
No Constitution score. Undead use their Charisma score in place of their Constitution score when calculating hit points, Fortitude saves, and any special ability that relies on Constitution (such as when calculating a breath weapon's DC).
Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).
Immunity to death effects, disease, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning.
Not subject to ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, or nonlethal damage.
Cannot heal damage on its own if it has no Intelligence score, although it can be healed. Negative energy (such as an inflict spell) can heal undead creatures. The fast healing special quality works regardless of the creature's Intelligence score.
Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless).
Not at risk of death from massive damage, but is phased out when reduced to negative its charisma score in hit points.
Undead do not breathe, eat, or sleep.
A construct is hard to destroy, and gains bonus hit points based on size, as shown on the following table.
Does not age or rust
they gained both cha mod to hp and bonus hp per hd based on the construct size and have immunities to many different things some of which they get on 3 fronts they had some racial weapons most common was the gause cannon 200 foot range 2d12 damage attacks vs touch ac cannot be deflected by normal means(deflect arrow, catch arrow and other similar effects) and the necron scythe 1d6 19-20x3 for the one handed variant and 2d8 19-20x3 for the two handed variant and both had 5-10 foot reach so they could attack in melee and at 10 foot reach


For empire, you can do anything from a Litch ruled island in the middle of nowhere, to an underground city of evil mole people. The orc filled Mountains in the Holds of Belkzen, to cult ruled cities in Nex.

As far as OP goes, that goes more to how you play the monsters. Sometimes a low 1/2 CR monster can be scarier then CR 16.

Perfect Example would be tuckers kobolds. In some stories people would rather lose over half their party jumping down a giant hole then face them.

Dark Archive

Dominick Nate wrote:
Java Man wrote:
Serpent folk?
Not powerful enough. I'm looking for something more along the lines of the Kuo-Toa from DnD.

Pathfinder serpeantfolk are pretty good. Better than kuo-toa by far. They are immune to mind affecting magic and get some nice spell like abilities like mirror image, suggestion, and dominate. They also have SR. From a strict mechanics point of view, they are better than drow. You might also want to look at deurgar.


Munavri, they get +4 to dex, -2 to str, +2 to everything else, telepathy, and SR.


Dominick Nate wrote:
I am building a custom campaign for my home game and I want to have an OP enemy empire that the players have to either fight or avoid. I'm looking at the Drow for now but I'd like some other options. Races that have huge stat buffs or any innate abilities that give them a huge advantage are what I'm looking for. The setting is the Skyborne setting, so minor steampunk/magicpunk, floating cities, fallen empires, all land covered in a sinister semi-magic forest, and lots of glorious airships.

CR12 might be too much, but sinister semi-magic forest makes me think Jorogumos have a place. Horror Realms has a section on Shenmen, the Golarion haunted/spirit filled forest land that is ruled by them. Maybe use them as distant overlords/local bosses with some subordinate tough humanoids working for them as their overseer class.

Sovereign Court

Well, you could go with rakshasas (high spell resistance) or serpentfolk (immune to mind-affecting, spell resistance). Initially these (near)-immunities will stymie your players. But in a while you'll see them switching to tactics that aren't affected by it (glitterdust or create pit instead of blindness). So what you'd actually be doing is narrowing the range of viable PCs.

It might be more interesting to go with a race with powerful abilities and strong stat bonuses, but that isn't so "locked down". A race of masterminds that tends to draw strength from class levels.


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Gargoyles
* +2 Str, +4 Con (-2 Int, -2 Wis, -2 Cha)
* +5 Natural AC
* DR 10/magic
* +2 Stealth
* 50ft flly (average maneuverability)
* 4x Natural Attacks (bite, claws, gore)
* Darkvision (60ft)

That's pretty damned nasty. Have their leaders be Kineticists (Con as casting stat!) and as this is a steampunk setting make their rank and file be brawlers. Lightly armored...but they get extra AC from class and natural abilities. Use the brawler class to make them experts at disarming, tripping or grappling (great choices as they fight unarmed). Their tactics become flying up and doing a combat maneuver check to disable the PCs and then tear their enemies apart with a flurry of natural attacks. Make it even harder for the PCs by having their lairs be full of 'fake' gargoyle statues, so the PCs never know how many will 'spring to life.'

----------------------

Centaurs
* +4 Str, +2 Wis, +2 Dex, +2 Con
* +2 Natural Armor
* +10 ft movement
* Darkvision (60ft)

Have them use hit and run tactics. The rank and file are Chargers (cavalier archetype). This gives them 50ft movement (and can move through 10ft of difficult terrain each round as if though it were normal terrain), better hoof attacks, and if at least lvl 11, overrun as a free action. Equip them with lances.

Mix in with the Chargers some Zen Archers. Again, they get the 50ft movement, a bonus to all of the important monk stats, and can do flurry of blows with a bow. So they can rain arrows down on the PCs while the Chargers cycle charge.

Have their leaders be bloodragers. Once again, 50ft movement (for that annoying mobility), great bloodrager stats, and the ability to buff themselves up.

Make your PCs not only fight an overpowered race, but need to come up with ways of taking away the Centaur advantages (such as setting traps, ambushes, or leading them into unfavorable terrain)


Does it have to be a base race? Why not just give them extra class levels? The Monster codex has a lot of great examples to pick from, just use one of those as the "base" creatures to populate your evil empire.


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I knew a guy that took an idea out of old school Sword and Sorcery (i think) that was both powerful and scaled up as the players leveled. Each individual enemy was part of a group. Each time one group member died, the rest got stronger. Something like +1 to hit, damage, saves and AC per lost group member. First one was a cakewalk. The seventh one was not so easy. I wish I remembered what they were called

Silver Crusade

I would focus on the conceptual. Pick a race that visually/thematically fits what you're looking for and don't worry about the power/challenge level. The latter can always be adjusted via templates and/or class levels as needed. If you're focusing on one main race of antagonists, you'll need to do this eventually anyway as the characters level up.


Also must say even kobolds can be scary if played intelligently...


A bit off topic, but I feel obligated to put this in now. Scary Kobolds

Grand Lodge

I'd go with Hobgoblins. Though not inherently powerful, they're extremely organized and militarized. Thus, it makes sense that they'd have class levels and because of that they're extremely scaleable to whatever power level you want.


Jurassic Pratt wrote:
I'd go with Hobgoblins. Though not inherently powerful, they're extremely organized and militarized. Thus, it makes sense that they'd have class levels and because of that they're extremely scaleable to whatever power level you want.

Ooh, i had fun throwing Hobgoblins at a party for a campaign. supplemented the Monster Codex with some hand made Kineticist Hobgobs and they were super effective :)

Dark Archive

Jurassic Pratt wrote:
I'd go with Hobgoblins. Though not inherently powerful, they're extremely organized and militarized. Thus, it makes sense that they'd have class levels and because of that they're extremely scaleable to whatever power level you want.

Red Hand of Doom proved that. Very great campaign.

Sovereign Court

Hobgoblins are also relatively sensible for an evil race; they'd conquer other races and conscript rather than purge them. Which gives you thematic room to spice up encounter with all kinds of other creatures as auxiliary troops while maintaining the hobgoblins as the core race. This way, the enemies won't have to fall back to the same talent set every time.

There's a chapter about them in Distant Realms about their state in Tian Xia. The whole state is a conquest machine, but very well-run. Hobgoblins have good physical stat modifiers and no mental penalties. Which is good if you're going to build a stable empire.

However, compared to drow, mind flayers, aboleths, serpentfolk - they might seem a bit mundane. I recommend adding some exotic touches to them - the way they did in Distant Gods with 1) Asian flavor, including geishas and samurai orders, 2) the churches of the Black Daimyo and the Minister of Blood.


for the lols you could make everyone in the empire a terasque and give them class levels that would be truly over powered


but in all seriousness use the race creation thingy and hand sculpt your own race make it something you can call yours


I like the hobgoblin suggestion. Could easily have some intrigue involved. Something along the lines of the hobgoblins being more aggressive than usual, of pushing far beyond what is tactically sound and burning instead of conquering. The PCs can find that the rank and file are unhappy with the situation but still follow orders. The PCs investigate and find that a more powerful entity is behind the scenes. This allows the PCs to 'level up' past the point where the hobgobbos are a threat and to move on to something bigger.


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After reading your into I think the gargoyle idea is a good one as well as an android or Ebberon Warforged idea that are scaled up a bit.

But any flying race would be good as well as any custom race you created.
For a ground power, I always liked how L5R D20 did naga's with the different types and how they were different from the traditional naga in D&D. They would also fit well in the magical forest part of the setting.
For cloud castles any powerful magic race would work.

MDC


Thanks for all the great suggestions so far. Lots of good ideas I hadn't considered and some I had but from a different perspective. Keep 'em coming. If I don't use the idea someone else might. Thanks again.


Depending on how much you want your players to hate you, a Zygomind - it actually turns out that they fell victim to its influence before the start of the first session, and everything that happens afterwards was the illusion/dreamscape it produced...

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Azlanti(aka humans but with +2 to all stats) reflavored to be not be humans? :D Humans are most over powered race after all, with bonus feat and bonus skills per levels. And you can customize them further with alternate racial traits.

Anyhoo, seriously speaking, let's see op races that don't need reskinning... Kasatha are fairly overpowered (no negative stats, +2 to dex and wisdom, and natural dodge bonus. Plus with four harms they can hold items same time as weapons... In other words, they make terrifying monks and casters certainly don't mind dex and dodge bonus to ac), trox make for good over powered dumb muscle. Both are pretty easy to give new flavor to if needed.(latter is duergar bred slave race, former are desert nomads)

(In general, trox are terrifying and something you want to avoid :D Whats with large insect with +6 str. Kinda similar to umber hulks actually.

And regarding kasatha, I don't see it hard to reflavor them to be sort of like 2012 XCOM reboot's Etherreals :D Creepy mysterious four armed jerks are creepy)

Here are bestiary links

Gonna link pictures too to sell them :D


What is funny is about 2 months ago someone asked me almost the exact same question for a home created world with almost the exact same description as the OP listed.
MDC

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