Devil's Theatre's page

You can change stats of your creatures as you wish, if you are the GM.

The examples that are shown in bestiary are just the basic member of a race.

There could be so many reasons for a creature to gain intelligence in a fantasy world.

But well if for some reason, you really want to do it with mechanics:

Add the savant template...then just follow the instructions to create npcs.

I was looking for a RAW way of doing it for piece of mind (plus I have a player who's a little bit of a RAW-Nazi, but to be fair he has calmed down on that quite a bit.)

That being said, I'm not one for third party material, but Green Ronin Publishing is a fairly trusted publisher, one of my favorites along with Goodman Games, and that is a very interesting and frankly, near perfect addition. So I may well make an exception. Thank you very much for letting me know about it.

The Advanced creature simple template from the Bestiary can be used to snag a +4 to Intelligence, and then the rest needed can be gained by milking the NPC stat array, and / or using PC point-buy.

That all said, Sorcerer seems like a more intuitive fit for a beastie spellcaster, and Charisma is easier to get up to good spellcasting levels.

I had forgotten about the Advanced template. Thank you. As to the caster type, it's because of a story element that I want to go Wizard with it. Thanks though.

I'm looking into making a normal magical beast with animal level intelligence sentient and smart enough to be a study-based spellcaster and have no idea how to go about it.

Awaken doesn't work on the monster type and templates alter planes of origin, appearence, heritage or some combination of all of the above. So I don't want it to be dependent on such inherited templates. (Although I am not opposed entirely to them in specific instances.)

While one use I want would be perfectly suited to a half-dragon basilisk, since I would want this particular monstrous NPC to be a wizard and those two only net you a 4 Int, 9 if you raise it to max via permenant magic spells like Wish (which you may take note isn't even enough to get Cantrips!)

Also I like the mythos behind intelligent magical beasts and would like to be able to use NPCs like talking, intelligent (but otherwise normal) blink dogs and displacer beasts and the like.

Lastly, my campaign does incorporate D&D 3rd edition material (and of course it's revision "3.5") but not any (other) third party material.

A'koss wrote:

And sure enough the question of the location of the Octychs has come up. So as I gather, these are the locations of Octychs we know about:

Warlock's Walk contained an octych.

Now that's interesting: I wasn't aware that ** spoiler omitted **

I just checked the original manuscript and it's not mentioned in there (nor is the word "triangle"), so I wonder if this was added to the

d20 version of Warlock's Walk published in OJ#23?
Some quick research found an octych mentioned in the possession of the ruling house of the Duchy of Urnst, as discovered in their vaults by the Seer of Unrst (OJ23, p. 24). He appropriated the octych, then lost it in the nearby ruins of Inverness. That summarizes the octych's presence in OJ23, and there's not one found in the Warlock's Walk trials themselves, so far as I can tell.

So, it looks like the known locations are still just:

1. Castle Greyhawk.
2. Dragotha's Lair
3. Ghost Tower of Inverness
4. One possibly in Mordenkainen's possession?

Correct?

Allan.

Actually I just looked at Oerth Journal #23 myself and found both the reference to the octych in the article "Seer of Urnst" but also found a more subtle reference to an octych (although not mentioned by name) in the Warlock's Walk adventure. The major artifact "The Astral Gate" which includes in the description that it is a "triangular yellowish-gold shard" that "radiates strong conjuration (teleportation) magic" also that it's purpose is to act as a portal key when placed in the correct recess of the eight-pointed star symbol upon the floor of Area 1 in the Great Hall of Maure Castle. It goes on to explain that the resulting portal leads to a demiplane called "The Solemn Vale."

Now if that's not the exact description of another octych I do not know what is.

The article "The Seer of Urnst" explains that the octych in "Return to the Ghost Tower of Inverness" is indeed the same that the Duchy of Urnst once possessed.

I believe this brings the confirmed octych locations to
1. Castle Greyhawk (orange)
2. Dragotha's Lair (crimson; Pinnacle Peaks)
3. Ghost Tower of Inverness (deep-blue)
4. Warrior's Walk (golden yellow; Solemn Vale)

...with an unconfirmed one in Mordenkainen's possession.

Correct?