RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Since STAP has no dragons, and my party have met their first beholders and Illtithid in Golismorga, I figure I can go for a trifecta of classic D&D monsters, and throw them a dragon.
Ideally, a big slimy, rotten diseased one - coiled around the stone Head. I don't think the brain collector will really resonate with my group, and we haven't had a dragon yet.
Anyone have/ know of a mouldy dragon? Maybe one that breathes... yellow mold or something? :-)
The closest I could think of is a dracolich that has cultivated a colony of yellow mold on itself.
Sidenote-Muahahahahaha
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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That was one of my first thoughts too :-)
I figure I can get away with CR16 or so, so it fits nicely. If it's in the mold and its natural attacks are all moldy - that's nasty!
Though if you fight a dragon in hand-to-hand you're asking for trouble anyway.
The only prob with a dracolich is they recently encountered a real lich - he's taken over the missing eighth village. Mind you he was also working with a beholder, though they only saw it at a distance.
Hmmm - a lich, AND a dracolich? A portal from the eighth village to Golismorga? Maybe Khala instructed the illithid (replacement Kopru) to get proactive after the party took out a squad of Skinwalkers.
Could be something in that! Hmmmm.....
(And I bet there are a few nice CR 15 or 16 Dracoliches floating around the boards...)
If you want to be mean, you could try a Rust Dragon (from Draconomicon). It's basically a Dragon version of the Rust Monster :)
I don't think there are many moldy, diseased dragons around, but I'm sure there are templates that would work.
Amalgam Very Old Primal Brine Dragon/Yellow Musk Creeper (CR 16)
or
Plague Bearer Very Old Primal Brine Dragon (CR 16)
Change the breath weapon to black bile and you have a spectacularly nasty critter. ^_^
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Heh - nice ideas, thanks guys! A rust dragon would freak out the fighter with all his shiny-shiny, but I don't see it freaking out Illithid enough to stay away. Well, apart from the obvious "it's a big freaking Dragon" of course.
Con-damage breath weapons would scare anything, and thinking of the location got me thinking of ... shoot! Did I say yellow mold? I meant a breath weapon of Green Slime! Oops. Anyone heard of anything like that?
The Dracolich is cool but I just found out a few of them played Age of Worms in an old group.
Yellow Musk Creepers are kind of nice - and fit the area. I might try and work that one out. Good excuse for more minions too, get that action economy working for me... Thanks Turin!
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Current idea...
Two-headed Umbral dragon (breath weapons - light and darkness). An Umbral/Shadow dragon that got too close to one of those pillar of elder evil fire in Golismorga and got itself warped... with shades of Big D two-headedness.
One head still breathes Str-draining shadows, the other breathes purple energy which drains a random mental attribute. Int drain would freak out the mind flayers for sure, and induce them to give the beast a wide berth.
Current idea...
Two-headed Umbral dragon (breath weapons - light and darkness). An Umbral/Shadow dragon that got too close to one of those pillar of elder evil fire in Golismorga and got itself warped... with shades of Big D two-headedness.
One head still breathes Str-draining shadows, the other breathes purple energy which drains a random mental attribute. Int drain would freak out the mind flayers for sure, and induce them to give the beast a wide berth.
Two-headed stuff is almost always ape-themed through the STAP though, so no need to have a two-headed dragon I'm thinking.
Now, your original idea with a mold/slime-spewing dragon ... with plant traits ... that's nasty ... I'll have to see what I can come up with.
(Thankfully there are certain template/critter books that do an excellent job of outlining the benefits of stuff like this.) ^_^
EDIT: plant-trait-ish dracolisk with an instantaneous rot grub/mold/slime spewage breath weapon .... if it loses the spell chucking stuff, there's a great deal of CR re-gain to be had from garnering various unpleasantness stuff in the place of those mounds o' spells ... say, camouflage/hide in plain sight/chameleon type stuff ... flayers don't see it until they're too close ... or perhaps the dragon is itself a face-sucking horror ....
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Good points, all :-)
Rot grub/ green slime spewing... check!
Less spell-chucking - check! They never seem to equal five PC actions anyway :-)
What do we need? Something to keep it "alive" long enough to do all sorts of icky stuff.
Phasing like a phase spider - etherealness as a move action and materialness as a swift?
Incorporeality?
Concealment/camouflage? (20% or 50%?)
Splitting off mirror-images every round - possibly an interaction with non-Euclidean Golismorga itself...?
Anti-magic aura?
Hmmmm.....
Good points, all :-)
Rot grub/ green slime spewing... check!
Less spell-chucking - check! They never seem to equal five PC actions anyway :-)
What do we need? Something to keep it "alive" long enough to do all sorts of icky stuff.Phasing like a phase spider - etherealness as a move action and materialness as a swift?
Incorporeality?
Concealment/camouflage? (20% or 50%?)
Splitting off mirror-images every round - possibly an interaction with non-Euclidean Golismorga itself...?
Anti-magic aura?Hmmmm.....
eldritch spawn template ... when you absolutely positively must mind blast the player characters before eating their brains.
ethereal creature template ... when you absolutely positively must ambush the player characters before mind blasting them ... before eating their brains.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Eldritch Spawn template on an adult dragon! 17d8 sonic Muhahahahahah!!!
Thank you! You've got me digging through my Deluxe book of Templates. The Kinetic Absorption power of the siphon template is tickling me now! Especially when the fighter can dish out well over 150 points of damage on a charge :-)
Eldritch Spawn template on an adult dragon! 17d8 sonic Muhahahahahah!!!
Thank you! You've got me digging through my Deluxe book of Templates. The Kinetic Absorption power of the siphon template is tickling me now! Especially when the fighter can dish out well over 150 points of damage on a charge :-)
I can see it now ...
"Whaddya MEAN the thing said "thank you" after I whacked it in the noggin for 150 hp?! "
*Splortch*
" Oh. " :)
eldritch spawn template ... when you absolutely positively must mind blast the player characters before eating their brains.
Which book is that in?
eldritch spawn template ... when you absolutely positively must mind blast the player characters before eating their brains.
Which book is that in?
Rite Publishing's PRPG "book of templates" as I recall. I highly recommend it, although some of them make you scratch your head, there are a dozen or so that are worth the CR bump in gold. The exemplar template, for example, is the answer to "what if I want a eally nasty version of Critter X?" (It is on par with a +3 CR - and of course you'll love the free max hp for the BBEG with +10 to all ability scores.
The eldritch spawn uses a unicorn as the base creature ... nasty. The abilities are INT-based, so making a dragon into one will rain ruin on the party with its potent abilities. Frankly, I wish I had thought of it before this thread provoked the tought. The terror a flying tentacle-faced dragon induces, mind blasting its foes before barfing a breath weapon that they do not get a Reflex save against is too awesome for mere words. Then the brain extractions begin ... make this thing an ethereal creature and there will be puddles of urine on the feet of your players ...
The funniest one is the accursed tarrasque. The first template in the book cuts the critter down to a CR 12 or so, and the accompanying pic makes me laugh every time.
Lemme see, Eldritch Spawn Adult Umbral Dragon.
CE Huge Aberration (augmented dragon, extraplanar)
CR 14 | SR 25 (11+CR)
Space: 15' / Reach: 10' (15' with tentacles)
Init +5 | Ability Scores: 27 Str, 12 Dex, 21 Con, 28 Int, 27 Wis, 26 Cha
Senses: dragon senses (darkvision increases to 180'); Perception +28, Sense Motive +24 = Feint DC 35 (10 +17 bab +8 Wis)
Aura: frightful presence (180', DC 26)
Speed: 40', fly 200' (poor); Fly +13, Stealth +19
AC: 36 (touch +25 natural)
Touch AC: 11 (10 -2 size +1 Dex)
HP: 195 (17 hit dice)
Fort +15, Reflex +11, Will +18; +4 bonus vs. mind-affecting effects
Immune: cold, death effects, negative energy, paralysis, sleep
SQ: insane, negative energy affinity, speechless, umbral scion
Melee: 4 tentacles +23 (2d8+12, 19-20 plus grab @ +31 CMB - 4 tentacle grabs = brain extraction), 2 claws +23 (2d6+8), tail slap +21 (2d6+12), 2 wings +21 (1d8+4)
SA: crush (2d8+12, DC 23), ghost bane, shadow breath (3/day, 50' cone, blinded 1d4 rounds & 6 Str drain - Fort DC 26 negates blindness & reduces Str drain to 1d4 ), brain extraction (free action if it manages to grab a creature with a skull and a brain in all four tentacles, killing the creature on the spot), dominate (any creature with fewer than 17 HD within range of telepathy; DC 27 Will/day - only one creature at a time that must remain within 100'), knowledge boost, psionic blast (DC 29, 60' cone, full-round action | sanity blast - 1/10 rounds | sonic blast - 9/day: 17d8 sonic, Reflex half | stunning blast - at will, Will vs. stunned 2d4 rounds)
(Sp, CL 17th, concentration +25)
* At Will: charm monster, darkness, detect thoughts, dream, levitate, shadow walk, vampiric touch
* 3/day each: ethereal jaunt, suggestion
* 1/day each: astral projection, plane shift
* 1/week: [/i]commune[/i]
Languages: telepathy 100'
Feats: Ability Focus (psionic blast), Hover, Improved Critical (tentacles), Improved Initiative, Vital Strike/Improved Vital Strike (usually used with tail slap), Multiattack, Power Attack [-5 attack/+10 damage], Skill Focus (stealth), Snatch, Toughness
Skills: Bluff +24, Diplomacy +24, Fly +13, Kn (arcana, local) +29, Kn (planes) +33, Perception +28, Sense Motive +24, Spellcraft +33, Stealth +19; 78 unspent skill ranks from increased INT
BAB +17, CMB +27, CMD 38 (42 vs. trip)
A thing of beauty, Turin, a thing of beauty.
Just out of interest, how did you 'justify' squirrelling away the +3 CR. (Apart from "they deserve it", I mean!)
As you well know CR is one of those things that has to be gauged relative to the group of characters that are going to be throwing down with it. From what I've gathered, your group is analagous to my own, so this would give them some fits at 14th level ... but gods help it when they're 15th or 16th and mind blank is on the menu.
With this critter, CR is definitely relative. However, if you make this critter a CR 17, give it its spells back - it will definitely need them to ramp up its AC/incorporeal touch AC, among other things. (And it never uses verbal spell components, combine that with eschewed materials that it should have for free and a few trinkets tucked in its scales and you have a pretty eerie critter ... when this things makes noise, it's really really bad news ... ^_^)
EDIT: I think I forgot to add in the hp from Toughness, which gives the critter a CR 14-range of 212 hit points.
EDIT Redux: If you want a more formidable CR 17 challenge without giving it spells, slap on the always lovely Exemplar template from the same book and change Toughness to Improved Perfect Health. NOW you're cooking with gas! ^_^ (Although I recommend a periapt vs poison ... cloudkills suck eggs ...)