I'll start by saying that Tongue-Eater rulez.
My players are feeling very good about themselves after having their way with Kazmojen last session. It was a tough battle but they did well even though they weren't at full strength. There are 5 PC's in the group: dwarf Bbn2/Ftr2, half-elf Rng4, human Clr4, human Wiz4, human, Rog3/Wiz1.
Enter Tongue-Eater. Since I don't anticipate they will have many problems at the Lucky Monkey, I decided to give T.E. a boost.
First off, I used 28 point-buy for his stats. His baseline stats were Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 8. I started him as a Bbn, added the werebaboon template, and then added the other 2 Bbn levels. On to that, I added the feral template from Savage Species. I also ditched his armor and falchion and gave him a ring of jumping. The ring is an extra bonus for the group but also because I'm hoping to have T.E. jumping and climbing all over the place during the battle.
I now give you the new and improved Tongue-Eater!
Tongue-Eater, Male Feral Half-orc Werebaboon (afflicted lycanthrope) Bbn3, Hybrid Form: CR 7; Medium humanoid (human, shapechanger); HD 3d12+9 plus 1d10+4; hp 45; Init +7; Spd 50 ft.; AC 21 (+3 Dex, +8 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 21; BAB +3; Grp +11; Atk Claw +11 melee (1d8+8); Full Atk 2 claws +11 melee (1d8+8) and 1 bite +9 melee (1d6+4); Space/Reach 5 ft./5 ft.; SA Improved grab, pounce, rage 1/day; SQ Alternate form, baboon empathy, darkvision 60 ft., DR 5/silver, fast healing 2, low-light vision, scent, uncanny dodge; AL CE; SV Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +4; Str 26, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 6.
Languages: Common.
Skills and Feats: Climb +19, Control Shape +8, Intimidate +4, Jump +17, Listen +9, Spot +3. Alertness, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Multiattack.
Skills: Werebaboons have a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks and can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened.
Fast Healing (Ex): Tongue-eater heals 2 hit points of damage each round as long as he has at least 1 hit point.
Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, Tongue-eater must hit with a claw or bite attack. He can then
attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it
can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity.
Pounce (Ex): When Tongue-eater makes a charge, he can follow with a full attack.
Possessions: Heward’s handy haversack, four potions of cure light wounds, potion of blur, potion of jump, potion of magic fang, potion of enlarge (5th level), ring of jumping.
Tongue-eater, enraged: HD 3d12+18 plus 1d10+6; hp 56; Init +7; Spd 50 ft.; AC 19 (+3 Dex, +8 natural, -2 rage), touch 11, flat-footed 19; BAB +3; Grp +13; Atk Claw +13 melee (1d8+10); Full Atk 2 claws +13 melee (1d8+10) and 1 bite +11 melee (1d6+6); SV Fort +11, Ref +6, Will +6; Str 30, Dex 16, Con 22, Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 6.
Creative Director
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Yay, Tongueater!
Althoguh you might want to reconsider ditching his falchion, especially if you want to wreak maximum havoc on your players. Everything I've heard about the Tongueater fight indicates the high damage combined with the awesome crit-range with that falchion is what makes him a real PC-killer.
Yay, Tongueater!
Althoguh you might want to reconsider ditching his falchion, especially if you want to wreak maximum havoc on your players. Everything I've heard about the Tongueater fight indicates the high damage combined with the awesome crit-range with that falchion is what makes him a real PC-killer.
Very true. I originally ditched the falchion and armor for the cool factor as well. I pictured TE sitting in a squat position counting his coins on the floor and then pouncing on the players when they enter.
Wielding a falchion two-handed and critting would be certain death. Giving him a couple more attacks with slightly less damage is probably a good equalizer considering his significant buffing.
So while I don't necessarily set out to kill the PC's, I do want to instill some fear in them. ;>)
I completely agree with dumping the falchion. I killed 3 out of 4 characters last session with this guy and several backup. The PC's were greatly out numbered. I am bringing them back to life, at their request due to the overwhelming odds. I had also incorrectly converted his DR. Bad DM move.
Neomorte
I completely agree with dumping the falchion. I killed 3 out of 4 characters last session with this guy and several backup. The PC's were greatly out numbered. I am bringing them back to life, at their request due to the overwhelming odds. I had also incorrectly converted his DR. Bad DM move.
Neomorte
The DR is big. Switching it to 5 instead of 10 is a huge difference. There's a good chance that most attacks won't do anything with a DR of 10. At least some characters can chip away at DR 5.
I'm so dissappointed, my players killed Tongueeater in three rounds, in the end, he was blind deaf and on fire, they massacred him. It was just sad, I think he got one hit in.
Toungeeater tore away at my party. There would of been a TPK if not for Bob. The whole party constintly complained about Bob the sorcerer, whose only melee weapon was a glaive (he took martial weapon prof). After all the comments of cutting it in half while he slept so he could hit things w/o backing up, two members were down, the rest about to drop and Toungeater felling good. Bob hit w/ a max damage crit for like 36 damage. It was still a close victory. Only one PC was standing at the end but only one actually died (the halforc fighter who had one silver dagger).
My party finished TE in one round... THere's an archer (a simple fighter with a bow). He shot his bow with a sleep arrow and TE failed his save roll... a bad dice.
I should say that the party, before entering the kitchen, had scanned all the room with detect evils and listens... they moved very quite.
Nanmaniac
My party finished TE in one round... THere's an archer (a simple fighter with a bow). He shot his bow with a sleep arrow and TE failed his save roll... a bad dice.
Great. The archer in my group just bought the 2 sleep arrows from Skie's.
I should say that the party, before entering the kitchen, had scanned all the room with detect evils and listens... they moved very quite.
Nanmaniac
Quietly you mean? Well I certainly don't except my group to do anything quietly!
I'll be unleashing my version of TE on my group tomorrow night so I'll let everyone know how it goes.
My party just faught with TE last night (after a all but one TPK vs. Kazmojen) The new party came in the back door and faught TE first and fresh, TE fell back to the court yard aftera Crit from one of my plaers he faught with the other advanced apes from the trees. the only reason i think my part was able to beat him down was that TE and some bad rolls (and a few good criticals) and that there was a 4th level monk in the party and was able to by pass the DR. Also my fighter was strong enought to chip away at the DR. the rest of the party could do almost no damgae to TE but they did take care of the advanced apes
my party concisted of
a cleric of st. cuthber 4
Monk Elf 4
fighter human4
human socr4 (the onlyone the suvived the fight with Kozmojen)
Mongeral folk rouge>vaint (he wants fighter feats insted of sn) 4
The thugs and ally bashers were no chalenge to the party however they did almost burn down the lucky monkey with a burning hands that was never put out
Tongue-Eater got a rude awakening at the hands of a lizard-folk wielding a greataxe in my campaign. He got critted on the charge after the pc's barged in the back way and round 2 was more of a formality than anything. Good luck with the beefed-up Eater of Tongues!
My party got to the LM last night:
dwarf Ftr2/Bbn2
human Clr4 of St Cuthbert
human Wiz1/Rog3
half-elf Rng4
human Wiz4
So what's the first thing they do? SPLIT UP!!! The dwarf, cleric, and wizard head over to the stables and put their horses away. The dwarf then proceeds to bash the side door down and starts yelling Sarcem's name. The rogue and ranger head to the BACK DOOR and the rogue starts picking the lock. I couldn't believe it. All I could do was shake my head in disbelief.
The rogue got the lock open and I had them make Listen checks. They heard something moving inside (TE getting into position since he heard the door being unlocked). The rogue opens the door...
I read the description of the room but it's still pretty dark inside (they got to the LM in the evening). As he scans the room, 4 sets of yellow eyes peer at him from the darkness. TE says something to his "brothers" and about eating flesh and lurches at them from the shadows. The rogue wins Init, TE second, the Rng last. With his first action, the ropue steps into the room in front of the Rng and tells him to go for help. TE pounces and does a full attack while raging and almost kills the rogue. What was I supposed to do. The ranger runs to the side of the building to get the rest of the party. TE dispatches the rogue in the next round.
But here's the interesting thing. After the rng ran away, the baboons starting snacking on his body. Combat ends and so does TE's rage! A couple of rounds later, the party returns and fights TE and the baboons. The baboons go down fairly easily but TE fights til the end. The wizard's flaming sphere and magic missiles and the cleric's inflict moderate wounds end up making the difference (since they all bypass DR). At the end of the battles, the dwarf is at -7, the ranger at -6, and the cleric in single digit hp's. By sacrificing himself, the rogue may have saved other members of the party.
All in all, my version of TE was a lot of fun. The players were pretty shocked at how powerful he was but they also really liked the flavor of him pouncing and slashing with his claws. I did tell them what he was at the and how I modified him.
there was a 4th level monk in the party and was able to by pass the DR. Also my fighter was strong enought to chip away at the DR. the rest of the party could do almost no damgae to TE but they did take care of the advanced apes
Remember though that in 3.5, afflicted lycans only have DR 5/silver, not 10. That makes a huge difference.
That was an excellent description GJ, not to mention an exciting encounter.
What bypasses 5/silver?
Masterwork doesn't I believe, but do +1 weapons?
Silver of course.
Thanks,
Bulette
i know my players have been playing DND a lot longer than i have (i have only about a year) and the said that magic would bypass it (i knew better)... i went home and looked it up and found that i was right. i was a little bothered that it did not work. (it's ok i made his rage last too long) I also leared that i need to trust what i have read and make people look up the rules if they think i'm wrong. But it was good from them because kozmojen was a near TPK
Only silver bypasses damage reduction 5/silver. If you hit Tongueater with a +5 wounding keen shapechanger-bane adamantine greatsword, five points of the damage you do is ignored.
Of course, you'll probably kill poor l'il Tongueater with one hit anyway, at that point.
Monte Cook has some cool house rules on DR which allows +2 or greater weapons to bypass silver damage reduction. Check it out here:
http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?otherd20_damage_reduction
Only silver bypasses damage reduction 5/silver. If you hit Tongueater with a +5 wounding keen shapechanger-bane adamantine greatsword, five points of the damage you do is ignored.
Of course, you'll probably kill poor l'il Tongueater with one hit anyway, at that point.
Monte Cook has some cool house rules on DR which allows +2 or greater weapons to bypass silver damage reduction. Check it out here:
http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?otherd20_damage_reduction
This is exactly where my party got screwed up... the monk wants to run a campain in the AU world (but dose not have any adventures ready for it) and that's what rules they had screwed up in their heads... we figured this out the next gaming sesion
there was a 4th level monk in the party and was able to by pass the DR. Also my fighter was strong enought to chip away at the DR. the rest of the party could do almost no damgae to TE but they did take care of the advanced apesRemember though that in 3.5, afflicted lycans only have DR 5/silver, not 10. That makes a huge difference.
You're right that inflicted lycans only have DR 5/silver, while true blooded lycans still have 10.
I couldn't remember if toungeeater was afflicted or not, but I thought he wasn't. Besides, how it was written, being still 3.0, the DR was intended as 10 and there was risk of infliction. With 3.5 afflicted lycans cannot inflict others. Even if I'd off know for sure he was afflicted I'd of made him a natural.
I did however leave hints to the party of various material available in Caldron, an made sure everyone was fully aware of the new DR system at start up. Too bad the only guy that listened until after TE was the brand new player, who bought a silver dagger and cold-iron dagger. He was quickly dispossed off in the fight however.
My group played the encounter yesterday.
Only 1 player had a silver weapon with him. T.E. almost screwed the entire party. This is the first campaign they play in 3.5 They now know the new DR rules ;-)
I would suggest using the TE mentioned above minus 1 barb level. Then I think the encounter will still be a challenge for 4 lvl 4 characters!
I couldn't remember if toungeeater was afflicted or not, but I thought he wasn't. Besides, how it was written, being still 3.0, the DR was intended as 10 and there was risk of infliction. With 3.5 afflicted lycans cannot inflict others. Even if I'd off know for sure he was afflicted I'd of made him a natural.
Ooo, I totally forgot about the chance of infection. And the paladin got bit several times...
Given the urban nature of my Greyhawk setting that I'm running the Evil Variant A.P. in, I placed the Lucky Monkey just outside of the city of Rauxes and totally removed all werebaboons, including Tongue Eater. I compensated by doubling the total number of bandits, so their fight was a huge barroom brawl that took place as the party rogue crept upstairs.
Maybe next time...
The party found Shensen in the basement, took her as a prize, then the half-fiend priest of Erythnul sacrificed her (using BoVD rules) to desecrate his brand new temple - Kazmojen's former lair in the Malachite Fortress.
M
I would suggest using the TE mentioned above minus 1 barb level. Then I think the encounter will still be a challenge for 4 lvl 4 characters!
He definitely would still be a challenge. There are 5 PC's in my group so I tend to boost some of the enemies a bit.
Ooo, I totally forgot about the chance of infection. And the paladin got bit several times...
I can buy the argument to make TE natural instead of afflicated. I left his as afflicted. The cure of lycanthropy would be icing on the cake for an already brutal opponent!
For the record, my players have had the most trouble with TE so far in the AP. They just finished Flood Season last night and the the Ebon Triad baddies weren't even close to TE. They tore through Tark in comparison.
using your insperation a Made up a Sign of the Smoking eye Feralized Tongue eater Barbarian CR 21
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My party went through the start of Flood Season last night. The Lucky Monkey was just an absolutely brutal encounter for the group. I took GlassJaw's version of TongueEater with a few of my own modifications. The end result was essentially a single combat encounter that lasted over 6 hours of game time!
Party:
Ander Aslaxin - Human wizard 4
Torrek Spellmason - Dwarf Fighter 4
Gwydion - Human Holy Warrior (Book of the Righteous) 4
Penelope Littlesprout - Halfling Rogue 4
Sorin - Shifter Ranger 4
Since Gwydion was raised in the Lucky Monkey I let that player see the map and he was able to tell the rest of the group a bit about the layout of the place.
Basically, the party rushes to the Lucky Monkey after speaking to Jenya. They arrive late at night during a winter rain storm. The group approached the front of the building, while our shifter ranger (still Greyhawk, but I'm letting him play a shifter) circles the building to scope out the perimiter. He sees the dino's in the back snacking on the corpse pile and decides to rejoin the group.
I decided that the windows would not be all shuttered, since the rain storm started after the initial assault by the bandits. Looking into the main room, they spot a number of alleybashers and hillfolk in the common room. Gwydion and Sorin position themselves at windows, while the rest go to the main entrance. The halfling rogue picks the lock of the main door, while Ander casts invisibility.
The archers open fire, hitting two of the bandits, while Ander opens the door and pushes the table aside. Torrek charges in a kills the first bandit.
The party basically moves into the common room to deal with the bandits inside. The wizard, Ander, decides to scope out thge place while invisible. He makes his way around to the kitchens through a side passage (not the courtyard). He enters the kitchen where he sees TongueEater and the baboons. Unfortunetley, they detect him using scent, and enraged at the intrusion, TongueEater moves in to attack, followed by his baboons.
Ander flees and makes his way back to the common room and draws TongueEater and the baboons with him. At the same time, Torrek, hoping to make it to the kitchen quickly, enters the courtyard and alerts the remaining baboons in there. These end up also being led back into the common room.
The rest of the group had also split up, trying to make their way into the kitchen (with the basement stairs). So at this point Ander and Torrek lead baboons and TongueEater into the main common room, with Sorin and Penelope, while Gwydion is in the western half of the inn trying to reach the kitchen.
The melee in the main room is long and hard. Eventually Sorin is surrounded by the baboons, Ander flees outside, Torrek gets caught trying to fight off a single baboon on the stairs leading to the bridge while Gwydion is fighting baboons in the kitchen.
Eventually Penelope manages to tag Tongue Eater with a few beads from a necklace of fireballs, but his rage and fast healing keep him from dying. As he nears the end of the rage, Penelope is climbing up the western chimeny to get out. The fireballs also had the side effect of setting half of the inn on fire. Before his rage ends, TongueEater manages to drink a healing potion, keeping him from dying.
Eventually the bandits on the second floor wander down from all the noise, adding reinforcements to TongueEater and his baboons. Torrek and Ander fight them off and flee outside, Gwydion is knocked into the negatives by baboons and Sorin gets seperated form the group and ends up in the kitchen.
Sorin flees into the basement chased by TongueEater, where he runs into the group of bandits at the cellar hall. TongueEater manages to knock Sorin out.
Ander and Torrek, outside, circle around to try and find their friends. Penelope, on the roof, spots the bandits leaving with the loot. She uses a sling stone to alert the dinosaurs, who notice the bandits and leap to the attack. Eventually the bandits kill the dinos, but most of them are graveely injured or killed.
Penelope eventually makes her way inside to roadhouse to locate Sorin and Gwydion. TongueEater, at this point has bitten out and eaten Sorin's tongue. He decides to leave. Penelope finds him and Gwydion and uses potions to wake them up.
The group manages to corner TongueEater outside and fight him there. Ander manages to charm one bandit to help them out against the tongue-eating monster. But as they inflict a serious amount of damage on TongueEater, he leaps up and climbs up the side of the inn. With his incredible speed and climbing ability, he manages to flee. The encounter ended with TongueEater fleeing into the jungle, the Lucky Monkey in flames and a party Ranger minus one tongue. It was definitely the hardest encounter the party has faced yet in the AP.
Wow. Sounds like an awesome fight.
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Wow. Sounds like an awesome fight.
Yeah it was fun, but long. We started the game that night at 7 pm, went through the Flood Festival activities (drinking game and prep for the Demonskar Ball). We started the encounter at about 10:30 PM and it lasted until almost 5 AM the next morning.
But everyone was into it and they were determined to bring TongueEater down. The ranger's player is itching for some brutal payback.
GlassJaw, where do you get the natural armor +8, just discretionary DM bonus? The feral template adds +6 natural armor OR the base creature's natural armor bonus, whichever is better.
Well, I used GJ's jacked up feralized Tongueeater on my party today, and I think he was a success. The players were terrified of him, but the party managed to kill him off with no party deaths. However, the fighter (with best AC and hitpoints) was down to negatives a couple of times during the fight. Ultimately, the necklace of fireballs found in Drakthar's treasure did Tongueater in (combined with some blows from silver weapons procured to fight Drakthar earlier and with a fireball from the party's evoker that is now 5th level). Of course the fact that half the party is already 5th level and only half are still 4th level probably made him not quiet the threat he might have been, but he was still a dangerous and memorable opponent.
I now give you the new and improved Tongue-Eater!
Wow. I have to say that he scared the [censored] out of my party. I don't think they quite believed me when I described the situation...Alas, Tongueeater lost initiative and went down in four rounds.
Let me tell you, having a 5th-level cleric roll a critical hit when pounding away with an inflict serious wounds evens the playing field considerably.
This is an awesome build. Congrats!
I think Tongue-Eater was, so far, the toughest challenge my PC's have had to date.
It could easily have been a TPK, but the party lucked out in the layout of the encoutner.
The PC swashbuckler was the first in the door to the kitchen, so TOngue-Eater concetrated on him for the whole fight (He -is- a barbarian, and enraged after all!)
Of course, this worked out OK, because he ended up by the door to the other room, with the Cleric inside, who was able to heal (almost) as quickly as TOngue-Eater could damage him!
Of course, the Hill Baboons helped keep the party at bay, especially because one of the PC's also approached through the courtyard, activiating the encoutner in there, too!
On another note, how do you deal with someone inflicted wiht Lycantrhpy from a Wererat AND a were-baboon? :)
I modified TE by giivng him Two-Weapon Fighting and a pair of +1 kukris. The players were literally falling all over themselves to get out of the way of the snarling, slavering, white-hot ball of apish terror as he went into a veritable critical hit frenzy!
Ugly.
What did him in was a Shivering Touch spell from the Cleric. Dropped his Dex by 12 (and AC by 6) in one hit! The fighter and rogue made short work of him after that.
Fun while it lasted though.
For some reason my party tore TE apart. They kicked in the door, and almost the entire party went before TE in Init. With the Scout using a silver short-spear, the wizard blasting off her wand of MM(CL5), and the psion, he was almost dead before he got his first turn. After raging and attacking the scout he was dead in the next round. Almost no one was hurt.
I did make up for it with memorable window crashing and monkey flying as all the baboons in the courtyard, that the party passed by, smashed into the party. Just as they finshed up the monkeys the thugs from up-stairs came runing in. All in all it was a lot of fun.
Probably everybody realizes it, but I thought I'd point out that if Tongue-Eater has Improved Grab it only works on small or smaller foes (at least one category smaller than himself).
Guess why he has a potion of enlarge. :-)
I got to play that one, rather than DM it - was 3.0 stats. We nailed TE in one round. We had 5 PCs and an animal companion (A cheeth, I think - a big cat, anyway). Out of 6 combatants, only one - the Dwarven Fighter lacked a magical weapon. I was playing an Elven Cleric of Ehlonna who followed "the Path of the Cheeta" (my own development) and the rogue and I reconn'ed the area and figured out where TE was holed up. I Magic Weapon'd my bow and Magic Fang'd my companion, we assigned who was going where and slipped back to the door, making some really good Move Silently rolls. We kicked in the door and basically eradicated TE - I critted with the longbow, 3 other PCs hit good and solid, and the cheetah got a really good bite in.
Then I used my Speak with Animals to talk to the baboons and sent them home...
(I doubt it would be quite as easy if I were DM'ing it, tho...)