I was excited last month when I read the preview of Graymalkin Academy, as I have a wizard in my group who took Collegiate Wizard (from Complete Arcane) and this sounded like it'd be fun for his character.
Unfortunately, I opened up the magazine to find that it features several monsters that simply don't exist in my game. Now, the Drow are the only one I have a hard and fast rule about. Aboleths and Rakshasas (and some of their minions, like the Skum) are simply monsters I've never used, and their introduction would be sorta dificult to explain.
So I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for enemies that were a little less... exotic.
Well without delving too far into your campaign world or finding out what you consider too exotic, and also not having recieved my copy yet might I suggest lifting the plot and applying it to monsters or humans or ghosts or something that you do use.
This might mean some radical relocations. Assuming the aboleth lives in a submerged lair with his skummy buddies (remember I don't have my mag yet) you will probably have to substitute in an evil warlock/psion or what-have-you in a nice dry cave or dungeon complex (lifted from your Dungeon back issues). Perhaps he/she has some orc/orc-like thugs (whatever you use for mooks). Otherwise you are probably looking at statting up a vampiric merfolk whatever and some aquatic flunkies.
As for the rakshasa the two things that stand out about most about them is thier shapechanging ability and their magic resistance. Assuming those are the reasons the author used them (again - no mag) just use a doppelganger and give him some spell resistance (he's such a good shapechanger that magic has trouble sticking to him). Otherwise a good rogue or bard with lots of disguise and a custom magic item (say made out of a beholder's central eye or something) might work just as well.
Well that's what I got.
Watch they just used the rakshasa for his pelt.
GGG
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I've actually been musing about using this adventure as a follow-up to my Red Hand of Doom campaign, set in Eberron.
Thus, I too had issue with the exiled drow sorceress, as that doesn't fit too well w/ Eberron's Xen'drik Drow style.
I also planned on placing the Academy within the Blade Desert (read, no water), as a secret facility of the now-shattered Cyran empire, and found that made bringing an aboleth into the picture a mite tricky...
If drow isn't your style, than I recommend evil exiled elf sorceress (throw the extra level in there to comepnsate). And, I think you'll find the manipulative, shapechanging rakshasas don't require too much integration into a campaign, as they likely infiltrate daily life with little difficulty.
My solution for the aboleth and skum was more exotic (xern transmuter/sand shaper w/ xern thralls, dust wights, and a crawling apocalypse, ala MMIII, MMIV & Sandstorm), so I'm not too sure what to suggest... Grimlocks, duergar, illithids, and derro all make for solid Underdark monsters, at the very least.
Edit: Whoops, realized you didn't have a problem with the drow...
Magagumo - Can you say more about what you did with placing it in Eberron? I was hoping to put ours some how connected to Arcanix.