Haley Hahn's page

Sounds like fun, and would make a good movie also. :)

I ran into this exact problem once.

What I decided was yes, each head can have it's own headgear. I needed the Hydra to be smarter, so I got headbands of Int. However, I felt each head needed it's own headband. (Treat each head as a different creature, for boost that effect mental powers.)

However, it would only need one ring of pro to gain the AC bonus. (Many separate minds, but all share the same body!)

Basically, the item slots are the same. Except each mind needs it's own headgear. Really having multiple heads is a penalty, because it forces you to buy more crap, for the same effect. So instead of only buy one headband of Int +6, I had to buy six.

Same is true for Ettins.

About a year ago, I was making a similar druid super villain. DMing high lvl parties is a lot of fun, but it's lots of work. I always felt, well designed villains beyond their stat blocks are always the best. Even if the players out smart you, and find away to overcome your work. They will still have fun, because their enemy is more than a another hard encounter.

It's so worth it when the players say "Holy Crap, That guy was a bad-ass! You put some thought into this."

I find in the past what makes villains great is what I call the Villain Platinum Package.

1. Power- I think you have that down. This druid sounds scary.

2. Toys- Having powerful items nobody else has. Like artifacts.

3. Base of operations- A well planned lair, with traps, warning systems, magical defenses. For high lvl parties, I prefer lairs to be spacey. Don’t divide it up by rooms, but by buildings. You don’t have to hand draw up every building, just write down the purpose, defenses, treasure, how the building will react to the party. How will the building warn other buildings?

4. Minions- Every super villain has minions. Not just pointless cannon fodder, but some mildly powerful opponents. Cohorts are good. Maybe a druid understudy. This guy is an undead druid, this step should be easy.

5. Allies- Everybody has allies. (How many allies does your pcs have?) Maybe the druid has some powerful fiends giving him advice. Maybe he use to adventure in his younger days, so does he have a party of his own. I know this is the last encounter, so maybe go a little light on this one.

6. Play your villain smart- He didn’t get this powerful by being stupid. He knows he has powerful enemies, and he knows about magic. Even nondruid magic. Have the entire place be rigged with magically defenses, from wizard to cleric magic. (Remember when I was talking about allies.) Spells I like are Forbiddance, unhollow, desecrate, wall of force, all walls, mage’s private sanctum, etr.

Further he should have several “What if” plans ready to go. Maybe he already knows the party is after him. And always have an exit plan.
Take time to review the spells in your source books. Look at every spell and ask “how can the players use this spell to mess everything up?” Be prepared.

7. The edge- He should have some kind of ace in the hole. Something that allows him to do something a little outside the box. Don’t break the rules, but bend them.

EX: the druid spell “Awaken”. This spell is awesome, because it gives trees and animals a voice and mind. However the game creators put a material cost of 2,000 gold worth of herbs and oils. This way nobody can go nuts an “Awaken” the entire forest. However what if your druid learned how to mass produced these herbs and oils. What a nightmare. The players would never see it coming. Also this could bring up moral dilemmas as well. Now the forest is not made up of plants and animals, but people. Also what if some of the “awakens” don’t agree with what the druid is trying to do?

8. The Encounter- If you do things correctly, he should know the party is here, and looking for him. This will give him time to prepare. Maybe grab some of his minions, and go to the party. The Five things that matter in encounters are…Who has surprise, who has the terrain advantage, How prepared both sides are, minions and how powerful the villain is.

9. Be evil- Being evil is easy, and being good is hard. Always has been. Don’t be afraid to play the moral dilemma card. What if the players discover killing the druid, will unleash a plague. Or discover the druid sent an army of undead dire bears to destroy the town by the river. Now the party needs to decide, what is more important? The druid or the town? Maybe the players will break the first rule of adventuring . Never split the party!

Have fun!

Ashiel, I would like to play one of your games, if the orcs and kobolds joined forces. And if they worked together, and played off each other’s strengths. Imagine the possibilities, especially if they had a spell caster leading them. A Kobold Sorcerer! Or the Drow! What a bloody nightmare, for 1st lvl.

I have a player in my game, who wants to become a lich. I’m use to overpowered PCs in my game, so I said “Sure!” Right now I’m working on a hand out for his Evil Necromancer to become a Lich. It talks about researching, building the phylactery, transferring the soul, preparing the body, items needed, spells needed and etr…

I decided to have this entire process be time consuming. It will be hard and costly! I’m designing this for my campaign, and for that character. Also I’m making a lot of stuff up, but trying to keep things balanced and real.

If you want I’ll let you review what I’ve came up with. I don’t know what kind of game you have, but maybe you and your DM will like some of my ideas.

Remember, I’m use to overpowered PCs. For a normal game, I think Lichs are well…Hardcore!!

Let me know if you are interested, and I’ll give you my e-mail or something.