RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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My Savage Tide game will be starting up again soon and the 8th level party (with splatbooks they're at least 9th equivalent) is going on safari on the Isle of Dread.
I noticed hezrous on the random encounter table and I'd like to run one properly - playing it to the hilt and making full use of all its abilities.
Can anyone give me some good tips? The party can handle a bit of RBDM and like a good strategic fight with nasty surprises.
"RBDM"?
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16, 2010 Top 4
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"RBDM"?
Rat Bastard Dungeon Master
As for demons, they are the physical personification of malevolent destruction. If the hezrou can break some of the PCs toys, do it. If it can learn of NPC allies, kill them and burn their homes. If it can separate the group, split 'em up. If it can eat a dead PCs face, nom, nom, nom!
None of this hunting in the woods stuff, either. That's for devils. Kill, smash, break, rape, and make the ones who watch suffer with the knowledge that they're next.
Oh, and if you can find and possess a child to wear while you're doing all this, so much more the creapy.
Start off the fight in gaseous form so you can hit them with your stench ability without them knowing what is going on, if possible summon some dretches before the fight and have them use stinking cloud on the party too (granted the party will probably save on a whole but with 4d10 stinking clouds you have some chance that the party will fail... if you want to keep the save throws to a minimum you might decide that each additional stinking cloud in the same area just increases the DC by 1). Use the concealment from the stinking clouds to reform then grapple the caster, when the party congeals on your position to save the caster hit them with blasphemy, then (with quicken spell-like ability on one or the other) teleport out.
Hit and run tactics are the order of the day then and if someone gets close enough hit them with unholy blight or chaos hammer, use the dretches to hold people down (tag team style) and get in the way.
If they get close to getting you... run away. Far away, then teleport fairly close so you can watch and follow them (stealthfully)... when they set up camp teleport in hit them with another chaos hammer or unholy blight then teleport out before they can react... rinse, lather, repeat as desired, the next morning the spell chuckers will be down spells (didn't get 8 hours of rest) and you summon up more Dretches and go in for the kill.
"RBDM"?
Rat Bastard Dungeon Master
Thanks! :)
A hezrou can be very dangerous against an all-good party because of (a) unholy blight, at will, and (b) blasphemy. Combine that with the ability to greater teleport at will, and it can plink away at a party all day without getting caught in melee. That can spell trouble for a party without a lot of ranged offense.
NOTE! CL 13 Blasphemy vs. level 8 good-aligned character = instant paralysis for 1d10 minutes, no save!
Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss.
This is your friend. It has a section specifically devoted to running demons, how to combine the fluff of their love for chaos and destruction with the crunch of their mechanical abilities and Intelligence scores. It even breaks it down by different types (brawlers, spell-like ability users, sneakers, etc.). I'm pretty sure the hezrou is featured specifically.
Have fun. >:)
Do paralyzed opponents get saves vs Teleport? Oh yeah, they can only teleport themselves, plus 50 pounds of the PCs' gear. Darn.
Maybe use the paralyzed PCs' gear against them? Like masterwork manacles, tie them upside down from trees with their own rope, stuff like that.
Maybe teleport their geat to the Hezrou's island allies. That way, the PCs can get their gear back....after fighting against those using it!
Using Blasphemy and then coup-de-gracing the PCs might be less than fun.
Do paralyzed opponents get saves vs Teleport? Oh yeah, they can only teleport themselves, plus 50 pounds of the PCs' gear. Darn.
Plus 50 lbs of objects...halflings and gnomes clock in at 30-40 lbs. If they're a wizard? Chances are they don't have much gear. They do get a DC 21 Will save to resist, but you want to put some investment into a party? Paralyze that halfling and have the hezrou take him along to watch as he disassembles a farmhouse family for a few minutes, and leave him there to wander back to his friends with a message painted on his chest in gore that their families are just as safe. Is it bending the "objects" rule? Yeah, a little, but dang will it be worth it.
Have the hezrou play some Blair Witch games with them, dog them with teleport and gaseous form-- hiding in empty containers as it tags along and watches and then taunts them with the information. Use the telepathy to make one or two members think they're hearing things that no one else can hear. Make them paranoid with doubt as they try to figure out where it's hiding and then disappear for a day or three, just to deposit some kind of Se7en-esque finger/ear/nose trophy in their path up ahead.
This thing lives forever, and it relishes cruel destruction the way a labrador goes after a rawhide bone. Disembowel mounts while they're at the inn. Leave an animal companion's head in the druid/ranger's backpack. You could have this thing follow them for weeks, abusing and destroying the NPCs the party thinks they've saved, sweeping up in their wake and maiming the same people who thought they were safe now. That's going to galvanize a group to lay a trap and try destroying it because it's tormenting them and never directly challenging them.
It'll be all about the build up, about the gradual, constant, grinding terrorizing. Each terrible act personalized and dedicated to a different party member, using the little bits of personal information it learned riding shotgun. Make them want nothing more in that game than to find and punish that demon, and you will have succeeded far more gloriously.
Just my thoughts,
-Ben.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Sweet! For tormenting there's already Olangru but I like the Blasphemy/ steal their stuff idea. First a bit of roughhousing, gouging and hacking etc. then teleport up in the air, gaseous form, blasphemy, normal form, gloat gloat gloat steal lots of stuff.
It will be good training for the fighting of future blasphemy-spamming demons too.
Love it - this thread is great - thanks guys!
What classes/races are your party? Some classes/races get immunity to paralysis. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is dragon shaman.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16, 2010 Top 4
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Sweet! For tormenting there's already Olangru but I like the Blasphemy/ steal their stuff idea. First a bit of roughhousing, gouging and hacking etc. then teleport up in the air, gaseous form, blasphemy, normal form, gloat gloat gloat steal lots of stuff.
Once your demon has 'em paralyzed and is gloating over them, make sure he marks them as his own... say, by biting the left ear off of each of them.
Nom, nom, nom.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Nom nom nom!
There's a Half-orc Forsaker, a Halfing Spellthief, a Halfling VOP Druid, a Human Arcane Archivist and a Water Genasi Fighter/ Armadillo (2 spiked shield PrC).
I think I'm good to go :-)
Oohh, just to really ramp up the rage...
Paralyze then stick the halflings on the Gensai's spiked shields.
Nom nom nom!
There's a Half-orc Forsaker, a Halfing Spellthief, a Halfling VOP Druid, a Human Arcane Archivist and a Water Genasi Fighter/ Armadillo (2 spiked shield PrC).
I think I'm good to go :-)
Oohh, just to really ramp up the rage...
Paralyze then stick the halflings on the Gensai's spiked shields.
And give the VOP druid some gold pieces! MUHAHAHAHA!!!
That actually sounds like a really neat party. Is an arcane archivist like the archivist in Heroes of Horror, but with arcane spells? Is the Forsaker the 3.0 PrC from Sword and Fist?
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Good lord, I almost choked reading that! And not the usual interweb lost-my-coffee-ha-ha hyperbole either!
Its a great party. A little overpowered but I just double the mooks and everyone's happy :)
The Forsaker is reworked (LINK) - at the bottom of the page sorta.
The Arcane Archivist is a mixture of Archivist with Arcane spells and Loremaster, reworked to 10 levels.
BAB 0 1st level, then +1 per 2 levels (0,1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,5)
Poor Ref en Fort, Good Will
Full Arcane Progression
Requirements 2nd level Arcane spells, 5 ranks in Know Arcane, 5 ranks Decipher Script
1:Lore, Dark Knowledge (Tactics) 3/day
2:Bonus Feat (Wizard)
3:Dark Knowledge 4/day
4:Dark Knowledge (Puissance)
5:Dark Knowledge (Foe)
6:Greater Lore
7:Bonus Feat (Wizard), Dark Knowledge 5/day
8:Dark Knowledge (Dread Secret)
9:Dark Knowledge (Foreknowledge)
10:True Lore, Dark Knowledge 6/day
Lore: Arcane Archivists gather knowledge. At 1st level, a loremaster gains the ability to know legends or information
regarding various topics, just as a bard can with bardic knowledge. The loremaster adds her level and her Intelligence
modifier to the lore check. See the Player’s Handbook for more information on bardic knowledge.
Greater Lore: At 6th level, an Arcane Archivist gains the ability to understand magic items, as with the identify spell.
True Lore: At 10th level, once per day an Arcane archivist can use her knowledge to gain the effect of a legend lore spell or an analyze dweomer spell.
Dark Knowledge as Archivist (Heroes of Horror)
It's great for a bookworm, and all those little plusses really help the party.
Careful of the spellthief, some of the abilities they get are much more than they look like at first...
Hm... water gensai... I think you could probably play on that some too, as Gensai are Outsiders...
If devils are "illegitimate sons", then demons are "richards". Go for cheap shots, a smidge of randomness, and anything that will piss them off. A demon is chaotic evil made flesh, and that includes rage. Its part of their thought process to be angry, and want everyone around them angry as well.
Break weapons, fight dishonorably, use teleport for the first 5 rounds of combat just to keep the party running about like fools (and they know it).
Arrange corpses in amusing manners, spit on enemies (I have them spend a move action horking it up, and then use a touch attack roll. No damage, but wow it makes the palladin mad when a couple of dretch hork slimy brown mucus into his visor).
Taunt, and don't be clever. Call them stupid, and when they call you stupid back, say they're even more stupid than you. Throw childish tantrums, knock over trees/walls/buildings. Throw stuff, the more disgusting/annoying the better. Feces, innards, beehives, if your throwing a rock or a weapon, your doing it wrong.
Steal their stuff and do terrible things to it, then give it back. Take their backpacks, remove contents, wait until just before dawn, summon dretches, have them get in the backpacks, return backpacks, watch and laugh. Leave half of what you stole up ahead of them; leave the other half behind them. Swap their drinking water for monkey blood. Chew on their weapons. Have dretches cast stinking cloud in their sleeping bags.
Cool ideas!
Taunt, and don't be clever.
Chaotic doesn't mean stupid.
If you have more time (or seek something for an aftermath), do the old "Wedding Gift" routine:
After they have pissed off some abyssal force or other, wait a bit. Then, have one character's father (or other very close family member) send them a message that the characters are invited to the wedding.
Maybe the character's mother died earlier, maybe she was dead before. But somehow, his father found love again. A very charming, very nice, and very beautiful woman who seems to feel genuine affection for daddy. Let the characters meet her beforehand, let her ask them for their blessing.
Stress that his father's really happy.
And then, during the wedding, when everybody is dancing, she will ask the character for a dance. She'll get close to him during the dance, and...
In perfect Abyssal (assuming he speaks abyssal, but if they had more than just a few dealings with demons, it's not that unlikely).
She'll confess to him that it was her who killed his mother, and that she's not a human (or elf, or whatever) woman at all.
She's a succubus. It is easier for a succubus to make an old, lonely man fall in love with her than for Senator Palpatine to convert Anakin Skywalker! She has him wrapped around her finger.
Then she tells the character that he can of course expose her - but then, it is revealed that his father was trafficking with demons - and she'll play it up as if he knew what was happening. This cannot end well for the father. His reputation will be ruined even if he gets out of this alive.
And she can twist the dagger further by pointing out that she was acting on the character's behalf! He gave his blessing to this marriage, after all.
Then let her announce to the wedding party at large that she and her husband are going to start their honeymoon the very next day - and let her look into the character's eyes when she says it.
Taunt, and don't be clever.
Chaotic doesn't mean stupid.
If you have more time (or seek something for an aftermath), do the old "Wedding Gift" routine:
After they have pissed off some abyssal force or other, wait a bit. Then, have one character's father (or other very close family member) send them a message that the characters are invited to the wedding.
Maybe the character's mother died earlier, maybe she was dead before. But somehow, his father found love again. A very charming, very nice, and very beautiful woman who seems to feel genuine affection for daddy. Let the characters meet her beforehand, let her ask them for their blessing.
Stress that his father's really happy.
And then, during the wedding, when everybody is dancing, she will ask the character for a dance. She'll get close to him during the dance, and...
** spoiler omitted **
Oh, ow, ah! ~clutches my groin~ Ow! Ow! Ow!
You are one evil SOB!
I like it! ~Wicked smile~
Chaotic doesn't mean stupid.
Never said it did, but it can often mean lazy. Allways putting forth the maximum effort is a hallmark of order. Path of least resistance is a common branch of chaos.
I meant to give your taunts only a moments thought. Of course make them relative to the intelligence of the demon in particular, hezrou are smarter than dretch after all. But impusle control is hardly a trait demons can claim to have, so what comes out of their lips should be spur of the moment, implusive, and often has no thought behind it.
I play most of my "combat demons" (because the succubus/devil/4th edition thing is one of the few things I actually agree with regarding 4th fluff) as rabid beasts that can speak. Or John Romero zombies that can speak. Cunning, vicious, determined, implacable, amoral, and capable of actually conversing with you just enough to make you realize its going to enjoy doing to you what it just did to your freind.
NOTE! CL 13 Blasphemy vs. level 8 good-aligned character = instant paralysis for 1d10 minutes, no save!
An important safety tip! That's why I wouldn't use it: it's no fun for the DM nor for the players. It's not all that much fun for the Hezrou either: no thrill of battle, no adrenaline rush, no fun of uncertainty, no proving that you are their master. After the Hezrou's used this a bunch of times over the centuries, I'm sure it functions as an escape hatch if they get in trouble.
NOTE! CL 13 Blasphemy vs. level 8 good-aligned character = instant paralysis for 1d10 minutes, no save!An important safety tip! That's why I wouldn't use it: it's no fun for the DM nor for the players. It's not all that much fun for the Hezrou either: no thrill of battle, no adrenaline rush, no fun of uncertainty, no proving that you are their master. After the Hezrou's used this a bunch of times over the centuries, I'm sure it functions as an escape hatch if they get in trouble.
That's what I thought at first, but now the idea of "paralyse everyone, take their stuff, and leave them naked in the jungle" is starting to grow on me. That's the kind of cruel joke a demon might play.
That's what I thought at first, but now the idea of "paralyse everyone, take their stuff, and leave them naked in the jungle" is starting to grow on me. That's the kind of cruel joke a demon might play.
As a player, what would you do next?
That's what I thought at first, but now the idea of "paralyse everyone, take their stuff, and leave them naked in the jungle" is starting to grow on me. That's the kind of cruel joke a demon might play.As a player, what would you do next?
"Glad I'm the wizard that took Eschew materials, and Spell Mastery a few times... let's get some help now... Summon Monster 6! Planar Binding!"
However I've had my share of really mean/crappy DM's that think this is what should happen to PCs everyday of the week... even going so far as to give items that where needed specifically to do part of an adventure, then in the very next combat target them specifically for distruction by creatures that neither had a reason to do so (non-intelligent) and no means to know that they were important to destroy... afterwards taunting the players on why they didn't protect something so important (attacked from ambush, lost initiative by 20 -- creatures initiative was 45 -- directed attack specifically at hidden items in bag of holding with multiple actions to steal said bag then breath weapon into it).
That's what I thought at first, but now the idea of "paralyse everyone, take their stuff, and leave them naked in the jungle" is starting to grow on me. That's the kind of cruel joke a demon might play.As a player, what would you do next?
I guess I'd sulk for a bit and then try to steal my stuff back.
Never said it did, but it can often mean lazy. Allways putting forth the maximum effort is a hallmark of order. Path of least resistance is a common branch of chaos.
I'm not buying that. In fact, path of least resistance is as lawful as it gets. Don't like the law? Well, just go with it, don't put any effort into correcting it.
But really, personal drive and lazyness isn't tied to good, evil, order or chaos.
But impusle control is hardly a trait demons can claim to have, so what comes out of their lips should be spur of the moment, implusive, and often has no thought behind it.
Impulsive doesn't mean stupid, either.
In fact, creatures of chaos, being accustomed to improvisation (not liking planning ahead) would actually be better at it.
Sure, the taunts are spur of the moment, but the demons are really experienced with that.
I play most of my "combat demons" (because the succubus/devil/4th edition thing is one of the few things I actually agree with regarding 4th fluff) as rabid beasts that can speak.
It's one of the (many) changes I hate with 4e, because it pigeonholes demons (and devils) into narrowly-defined roles. And that doesn't make sense, especially not for demons.
Demons are creatures of chaos. Not creatures of Rabies. They don't have a Role that dictates their every detail.
I guess I'd sulk for a bit and then try to steal my stuff back.That's what I thought at first, but now the idea of "paralyse everyone, take their stuff, and leave them naked in the jungle" is starting to grow on me. That's the kind of cruel joke a demon might play.As a player, what would you do next?
How would you do that without equipment and the threat of an insta-stun/death? +23 modifiers to spot and listen for the Hezrou. Taking 10, that's a 33 on each.
My point is that this is one of those situations (a party of this level) where the DM should sacrifice verissimilitude for fun.
I guess I'd sulk for a bit and then try to steal my stuff back.That's what I thought at first, but now the idea of "paralyse everyone, take their stuff, and leave them naked in the jungle" is starting to grow on me. That's the kind of cruel joke a demon might play.As a player, what would you do next?How would you do that without equipment and the threat of an insta-stun/death? +23 modifiers to spot and listen for the Hezrou. Taking 10, that's a 33 on each.
My point is that this is one of those situations (a party of this level) where the DM should sacrifice verissimilitude for fun.
Maybe the demon drank all the party's wine, spirits, and potions, and is really drunk, taking a -10 or -20 to his perception skills? Also, the PCs can camoflage themselves in mud and leaves and stuff.
[threadjack]
Also, the PCs can camoflage themselves in mud and leaves and stuff.
*in an Arnold Schwarzineiger(bad speller) voice* Get to the chopper. And upon seeing the demon's face you are one ugly motherf@&$er
[/threadjack]
[threadjack]
Also, the PCs can camoflage themselves in mud and leaves and stuff.*in an Arnold Schwarzineiger(bad speller) voice* Get to the chopper. And upon seeing the demon's face you are one ugly motherf@&$er
[/threadjack]
I'm pretty sure the Vow of Poverty druid would have a couple of tricks up his sleeve, too.
I'm pretty sure the Vow of Poverty druid would have a couple of tricks up his sleeve, too.[threadjack]
Also, the PCs can camoflage themselves in mud and leaves and stuff.*in an Arnold Schwarzineiger(bad speller) voice* Get to the chopper. And upon seeing the demon's face you are one ugly motherf@&$er
[/threadjack]
VOP characters are not allowed to own sleeves. They are the Michelle Obamas of the adventuring world! ;-)