Has anyone thought of beefing up Mammy Graul? My group consists of:
- A spiked chain wielding half-orc barbarian 3/ranger 4 with a war mastiff animal companion thanks to Natural Bond
- A human beguiler 6/mindbender 1 with the Mind Sight feat from Lords of Madness
- A human cleric of Desna 7 with Leadership and a 4th level warlock cohort
- A human factotum 5/chameleon 2 who can do ANYTHING
- And a gnome jester 7 whose hideous laughter spells make my DM dice rolls below 8.
After two dispel magics from the cleric and beguiler, they tore Xanesha apart and I'd like this to last a bit longer than usual. I'm thinking of swapping some stats and making her a 10th level dread necromancer. Has anyone else bumped her big fat fanny up in levels?
Check out the magic items in the Magic of Thassilon web enhancement, particular the Sloth book thingy. Nick said that he was going to give her one of the parts, but it got cut out in the end.
As much as I'd love to hand my PCs 1/3 of a Runelord's phylactery, my DM-Senses are tingling just a bit at the thought of that...
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I think if I was going to boost someone up it would be someone at the fort ot at Hook Mountain.
The Ogrekin are not supposed to be anything but an example of how this whole thing is like the Hills have Eyes or something equally repulsive.
My guys accidently burnt the house down just after meeting Mammy and her three sons. The Paladin surrounded by the sons jumped back oout of the room and they slammed the door. He then was going to burn the door down and I ruled that the place was so rotted, etc it just burned to the ground. Of course then Mammy dimensioned doored out and they say her fly away...
If I did not ease up on them a bit in the Fort we would have a TPK in the upper level of the fort.
Oh, big daddy Kreeg is getting a boost too. The thing is, I want to challenege my PCs a bit. Things have been almost a cakewalk thus far, and since I'd like to put the fear of death back into the game, Mammy's gettin leveled.
I didn't level Mammy, but I did swap her feats and spells around so as to give the players a little more of a fright...
1. I removed her Brew Potions feat for Corpsecrafter, from Libris Mortis, to bump up her zombies. While I was at it, I gave those zombies some quick-plates from the same book, making them Diseased and Unkillable. Sure, they'll still go down like punks if the cleric thinks to turn them, but that's if the cleric thinks to turn them...
2. I swapped out her summon monster spells for more direct necromancies. There's not much room in there for critters, and low-level summons are pretty suck at this point anyway. Look to Spell Compendium and Complete Mage for some fun ones - she's got Greater Spell Focus, make sure she uses it! Without it, her DCs are not-so-high, so I removed Reduce Person and swapped it out for a different 1st level spell without a save. In my case, Mord's Buzzing Bee, so that the poor sap she casts it on alerts the rest of the house to the party's presence.
3. I removed her familiar (her stat-block doesn't even give her hit points from having a toad!) and replaced it with Immediate Magic from PHB 2. Basically, as an immediate action, she can curse an opponent for a round, giving him a -2 to AC and saves if he fails a Will save.
I didn't level Mammy, but I did swap her feats and spells around so as to give the players a little more of a fright...
1. I removed her Brew Potions feat for Corpsecrafter, from Libris Mortis, to bump up her zombies. While I was at it, I gave those zombies some quick-plates from the same book, making them Diseased and Unkillable. Sure, they'll still go down like punks if the cleric thinks to turn them, but that's if the cleric thinks to turn them...
2. I swapped out her summon monster spells for more direct necromancies. There's not much room in there for critters, and low-level summons are pretty suck at this point anyway. Look to Spell Compendium and Complete Mage for some fun ones - she's got Greater Spell Focus, make sure she uses it! Without it, her DCs are not-so-high, so I removed Reduce Person and swapped it out for a different 1st level spell without a save. In my case, Mord's Buzzing Bee, so that the poor sap she casts it on alerts the rest of the house to the party's presence.
3. I removed her familiar (her stat-block doesn't even give her hit points from having a toad!) and replaced it with Immediate Magic from PHB 2. Basically, as an immediate action, she can curse an opponent for a round, giving him a -2 to AC and saves if he fails a Will save.
Nice. I'm taking your advice and bulking up the zombies with some LM stuff, but I think that a dread necromancer is the way to go. I'll post what happened after we play on the 8th .
That's... odd.
That's... odd.
Can't see your post? I can! MUUUUHAHAHAHHAAHAHAH! ;-)
Yeah, dread necromancer is a pretty badass way to go...and I'm all for making Mammy beefier. :-)
The picture for Black Lore of Moil from Complete Arcane immediately makes me think of Mammy Graul...
The picture for Black Lore of Moil from Complete Arcane immediately makes me think of Mammy Graul...
Ha! It's true!
The early years! Before she got WAAAAAAAAY too fat!
That's... odd.Can't see your post? I can! MUUUUHAHAHAHHAAHAHAH! ;-)
Yeah, dread necromancer is a pretty badass way to go...and I'm all for making Mammy beefier. :-)
Nicolas Logue can see dead posts!
Thanks for the response Nick. I'm keeping her armorless (just so I can keep accurate to the picture), and I'm solving the problem of the DN's lack of mage armor and fly spells by having her down a bottle of "moonshine"; two potions of said spells mixed together. I may need to add another son to the room to run blocking so she doesn't get overwhelmed too quickly.
Any suggestions for big daddy Kreeg? While more barb levels is always fun, I'm also thinking about adding the primitive template. While the jotunblood template is nice (and appropriate), it shows up later and I want to keep the aspects of the AP unique.
Maybe Mammy should be a bloatmage!