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I am thinking of using a Chuul in a current campaing I am running. But wanted to get a little feedback in what people think of them overall as a monster.
The party consists of 3 8th level characters sorceress, paladin and rogue. I thinking of adding an NPC cleric to the group the last one they had died.
I liked the look of the creature but I am concerned 2 maybe be a little too much for them to handle. They are very inconsistent in battles sometimes they kick butt on creatures I send they're way expecting it to be hard and other times they get crushed by wandering monsters. As an addtional cavaet this group consists of my neice and newphew and sister. So I am not about doing a TPK here.
Instead of sending 2 at them, how about 1 along with a group of skum it is working with. Perhaps they are all working for some powerful aboleth that resides elsewhere.
They have human intelligence so they could be working with just about anything. Given their aquatic nature (though amphibious ability) I'd try to pick allies with a similar nature. So if I was going with hags, I'd choose them to be teamed up with sea hags, even if the entire combat was taking place on dry land.
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Lizardfolk are a chuul's favorite meal so I don't think they'd work. You could, however, make your NPC cleric a lizardfolk druid out for revenge for her tribe though.
Chuul are solitary by nature. They rarely speak to anything outside their own race and, even then, only speak to prospective mates during mating season.
I think an encounter playing up the chuul's penchant for taking trophies would be good. Instead of teaming the chuul with another creature, pit him against another creature who also wants the party dead. Maybe it's mating season and a pair of male chuuls are competing to see who can bring in the most trophies to impress a prized female (more trophies means the chuul is stronger breeding stock.) Being evil by nature, the chuuls would have no trouble interfering with each others' hunt. One chuul might even come to the party's rescue only to turn on them as soon as its rival escapes.
Another route you could take is making the chuul a "swamp god." Say a small tribe of boggards (bullywugs if you're using 3.5 rules) has grown to fear the creature so much they regularly attempt to capture humanoids as sacrifices to the beast (maybe that's where the lizardfolk druid comes in.) The chuul doesn't work with the boggards and thinks nothing of eating any it can catch, but it takes advantage of their fear.
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Lizardfolk are a chuul's favorite meal so I don't think they'd work. You could, however, make your NPC cleric a lizardfolk druid out for revenge for her tribe though.
Chuul are solitary by nature. They rarely speak to anything outside their own race and, even then, only speak to prospective mates during mating season.
I think an encounter playing up the chuul's penchant for taking trophies would be good. Instead of teaming the chuul with another creature, pit him against another creature who also wants the party dead. Maybe it's mating season and a pair of male chuuls are competing to see who can bring in the most trophies to impress a prized female (more trophies means the chuul is stronger breeding stock.) Being evil by nature, the chuuls would have no trouble interfering with each others' hunt. One chuul might even come to the party's rescue only to turn on them as soon as its rival escapes.
Another route you could take is making the chuul a "swamp god." Say a small tribe of boggards (bullywugs if you're using 3.5 rules) has grown to fear the creature so much they regularly attempt to capture humanoids as sacrifices to the beast (maybe that's where the lizardfolk druid comes in.) The chuul doesn't work with the boggards and thinks nothing of eating any it can catch, but it takes advantage of their fear.
Hmm, I see some possiblities here. The party comes in to help the lizardmen with their problem and shore up relations with the tribe who has been working with the hags yet the hags being busy have not cared enough to help defend the lizardfolk from their own problems. This has merit.
Thank you I think this will help me with leading into to other parts of campaign like where did that chuul come from? Why did it arrive? Perhaps it was convinced to start hunting in the area? I think this works not exactly what you guys mentioned but it certianly helped get those cogs moving thank you.
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Well, a hag coven is capable of casting charm monster so it's entirely possible the chuul is being controlled by the hags. The hags may have discovered its lair and decided the chuul would be a good way to distract people from the threat they pose. They only need to re-charm the chuul within nine days at minimum to keep it under control.
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Well, a hag coven is capable of casting charm monster so it's entirely possible the chuul is being controlled by the hags. The hags may have discovered its lair and decided the chuul would be a good way to distract people from the threat they pose. They only need to re-charm the chuul within nine days at minimum to keep it under control.
Actually the hags already have an alliance with the lizardmen. This plan is to see both the Baron whom the party works for and the hags who have an uneasy truce with the Baron for now perhaps at one another throats or even seen weakened so a third party can control the Valley this is set in.
In this case a Necromancer who loves fear related spells; as well as illusions; casts nightmare spells alot and lives in a swamp north of the valley. I am thinking he has a pet black dragon too. perhaps bog mummies; though the swamp they live in is unnaturally cold and don't bog mummies have problems with cold? What other undead to use?Besides bullywogs what other swamp creatures are there? lizardmen? Could you include troglodytes? or are they only underground?
My personal preference is not to buy in too deeply to the flavor already assigned to creatures and races. It is great as a starting point, but if something doesn't work for you, change it. Maybe the flavor describes the majority of the type of creature, but the ones the party are encountering are unusually members of their species. Don't let someone else's flavor text get in the way of a good adventure.
So if you want troglodytes in the swamp, put them there. There is no reason they couldn't live in the swamp. They don't have any special ability that makes it easier to live there for them, but they don't suffer any more penalty than say a group of humans would.
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A lot of this will depend on the type of swamp and the climate.
There aren't many humanoids that make their homes in swamps. Trogs are primarily a subterranean race and not well-equipped for aquatic environments.
Humans will try to live just about anywhere and trolls, ogres, goblins and orcs can be found just about anywhere civilized races avoid so long as there are caves for them to lair in, but you probably want something more exotic.
Grippli live in swamps and locathah live in rivers and lakes, but they're usually neutral so they're unlikely antagonists. If you have access to the Monsters of Faerun book, you've got Meazels (web-footed, filth-covered humanoids) and Sivs (basically bullywug monks.) Harpies are common to swamps as well. They don't have much for a society, but they do gather in sororities.
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My personal preference is not to buy in too deeply to the flavor already assigned to creatures and races. It is great as a starting point, but if something doesn't work for you, change it...
Also completely valid. I tend to stick to the flavor text as a personal preference, but there's nothing to say a tribe of troglodytes can't adapt to a swamp or a nymph can't take up residence in a really nice public park.
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What do you guys think about bugbears in a swamp? Not sure why this interests me but it does for a minions. I guess I am thinking about the first book Pazio did on monster revisted where they made the bugbear like a hunter who enjoyed fear of the prey. I sort of see a tribe of those guys working for my main bad guy here.
Perhaps a level or 2 in ranger and they hunt down other races since the bad guys research is into fear I sort think it work esthetically.
That is why I want to have mummies because of their fear ability as well.
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Which bad guy are we talking about again?
Bugbears could be pushed around by a sufficiently powerful evil creature and, if you're ignoring the typical ecology of a chuul, why not? If you're suggesting the bugbears serve the necromancer, even better.
I probably wouldn't give every bugbear class levels though. Three tops; a leader, a lieutenant and a sergeant. The leader could be about level 4, the LT level 3 and the sarge level 2. Then you've got a bunch of fodder bugbears for the party to chew through.
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You would only give him 4 levels of ranger?
The party will be about 9th level probably when they match up against him I am thinking.
Thank you for the help I was hitting a bit of a snag there and this got the juices flowing again. Now I just need to get it typed up and stat everything up.
Party is about to face a nighthag and her minions next session. I based it off the Dungeon adventure 107 Mellorn Hospitality I amde some adjustments but I think it will be pretty fun. I amde the elves for example a little more evil to shake up their persception of elves over all at least their leader is. My newphew reads the Monster Manual cover to cover so he has a tendancy to meta game and think alignments for races and the like at always the same as well as stats. So I am throwing curveballs.
I took the oytugh and combined it with a bearded devil from the Pathfinder Council of theives Sixfold trial big bad guy.
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I thought the party was going to be level 8 so a 3HD/4lv Bugbear Ranger along with a bunch of mooks sounded okay to me. If they're going to be higher level, make the bugbear leaders tougher and, maybe, give a few elite bugbears a level or two of rogue or barbarian.
Thank you, I did say 8th sorry about that. I think by the time they finish with the nighthag they will more than likely be 9th level.
So how many bugbears do you think? The leader his 2nd in command and a sgt. Then like 10 others?
Thank you for all the help and being a sounding board.
I thought the party was going to be level 8 so a 3HD/4lv Bugbear Ranger along with a bunch of mooks sounded okay to me. If they're going to be higher level, make the bugbear leaders tougher and, maybe, give a few elite bugbears a level or two of rogue or barbarian.
Thank you, I did say 8th sorry about that. I think by the time they finish with the nighthag they will more than likely be 9th level.
So how many bugbears do you think? The leader his 2nd in command and a sgt. Then like 10 others?
Thank you for all the help and being a sounding board.
Frankly, as a GM, I tend to be a bit lazy. I don't want to have stats for 3-4 different types of NPCs attacking the party. So I wouldn't worry about different stats for the leader, other officers, and grunts. I'd just get one set of stats and define their position by their personality. Maybe roll their hit points and put them in rank by highest number of hps to lowest. As for the level, I'd say 4-6 bugbears with 4 levels of warrior each (plus racial HD of course).
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And I don't mind statting up a few different flavors of monsters. You could make it as simple as "Bugbear A is the leader because he has a greatsword instead of a morningstar," or "Bugbear A is the leader because he has five levels of ranger." It's going to come down to how much time and energy you want to spend on it.
pres man's solution would let you spend more time crafting your BBEG and take the least amount of effort. You could do 4-6 level 4 warrior bugbears and give one or two of them slightly better loot to indicate their authority. Giving all the bugbears four levels also means you need less of them.
If it were my game, I'd probably wind up spending half a Saturday statting up these guys:
Megatron - Level 5 Bugbear Ranger
Starscream - Level 3 Bugbear Rogue
Soundwave - Level 2 Bugbear Barbarian
Thrust and Dirge - x2 Level 1 Bugbear Warriors
The Seekers - x6 ordinary Bugbears
*The party is probably going to kill them before they learn their names anyway but using Decepticon names helps me keep track of their initiative.
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Thank you both for the help. I will post and tell you how it goes once we reach the swamp and the players deal with the Nighthag and her minions first.
I will more than likely flesh out the Megatron ... but less likely to flesh out some of the others. I see the Megatron character as possibly coming back later as a dreadknight.
Velcro by the way I love that you named the bugbears after Decepticons.
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It's more fun than simply referring to them as Bugbear #1, #7, etc., and I don't worry about it screwing with immersion since my players rarely want to know the names of every random monster they're going to kill in ten minutes. Not that any of us are that concerned with immersion anyway.
I've had players attacked by The Little Rascals, The Muppets and The Cosby Kids among other names I've used.