Sons of Kyuss in Pathfinder: Please Heckle


Conversions


I'm gearing up to run Age of Worms in Pathfinder, and of course converting its iconic monster was the first step. (Since even 4th Edition has gone back to "Sons" from "Spawn," I went with the classic version.)

I think that all the straightforward conversion has been done right. The only part that needed choice was a new feat and skill distribution, and I'm not entirely happy with either; perhaps some racial skill bonuses are in order. (The 3.5 Spawn had a heck of a Jump check, but that was back when Jump was its own skill that ran off Strength.)

So, fellow Paizonians: is this a suitable CR 5 critter?

SON OF KYUSS
CR 5

XP 1,600
CE Medium undead (wormspawn)
Init -1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +7
Aura fear aura (40 ft., DC 14)

DEFENSE
AC 11, touch 9, flat-footed 11 (-1 dex, +2 natural);
Hp 30 (4d8+12); fast healing 5
Fort +3, Ref +0, Will +4
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +2
Immune undead traits
Weaknesses curative transformation

OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee slam +7 (1d6+6 plus Kyuss’s gift and worm transfer) or touch +7 melee touch (worm transfer)
Ranged worm throw +2 ranged touch (worm transfer)
Special Attacks create spawn, Kyuss’s gift, worm throw (10 ft.)

STATISTICS
Str 18, Dex 9, Con —, Int 6, Wis 11, Cha 15
Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 16
Feats Acrobatic, Toughness
Skills Climb +9, Acrobatics +6, Stealth +4, Perception +5
Languages Common
SQ create spawn, Kyuss’s gift, fear aura, curative transformation

ECOLOGY
Environment any land and underground
Organization solitary, pair, shamble (3–4), or horde (3–4 plus 1–6 Huge or larger zombies)
Treasure none

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Fear Aura (Su): All creatures within a 40-foot radius that see a son of Kyuss must make a DC 14 Will save or become panicked for 4 rounds. If cornered, a panicked creature begins cowering. If the Will save succeeds, the creature is shaken for one round. Any creature that makes a successful saving throw against the effect cannot be affected again by the fear aura of that son of Kyuss for 24 hours.
Create Spawn (Su): Once per round as a free action, a son of Kyuss can transfer a worm from its own body to that of an opponent. It can do this whenever it hits with a slam attack, but it can also make the transfer by means of a successful melee touch attack or a ranged touch attack, hurling a worm at a foe from a distance of up to 10 feet.
Each worm is a Fine vermin with AC 10 and 1 hit point. It can be killed with normal damage or by the touch of silver. On the son’s next action, the worm burrows into its host’s flesh. (A creature with a natural armor bonus of +5 or higher is immune to this burrowing effect.) The worm makes its way toward the host’s brain, dealing 1 point of damage per round for 1d4+1 rounds. At the end of that period, it reaches the brain. While the worm is inside a victim, a remove curse or remove disease effect destroys it, and a dispel evil or neutralize poison effect delays its progress for 10d6 minutes. A successful Heal check (DC 20) extracts the worm and kills it.
Once the worm reaches the brain, it deals 1d2 points of Intelligence damage per round until it either is killed (by remove curse or remove disease) or slays its host (death occurs at 0 Intelligence). A Small, Medium-size, or Large creature slain by a worm rises as a new son of Kyuss 1d6+4 rounds later; a Tiny or smaller creature quickly putrefies; and a Huge or larger creature becomes a normal zombie of the appropriate size. Newly created sons are not under the control of their parent, but they usually follow whatever son of Kyuss created them.
Kyuss’s Gift (Su): Any creature hit by a son of Kyuss’s slam attack must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC 12) or contract this supernatural disease.

Kyuss's Gift
Type: disease, injury; Save Fortitude DC 12
Onset 1 day; Frequency 1/day
Effect 1d6 Constitution damage, 1d4 wisdom damage (rotting flesh and dementia), target gets only half the benefits of natural and magical healing; Cure 2 consecutive saves

Curative Transformation (Ex): Any remove curse or remove disease effect, or a more powerful version of either of these effects, transforms a son of Kyuss into a normal zombie.

Sons of Kyuss are disgusting undead creatures created by Kyuss, a powerful evil cleric turned demigod. Completely mad, the sons of Kyuss wander caverns, crypts, and sometimes the open countryside searching for victims.
A son of Kyuss looks like a well-rotted zombie. Only once the monster is within 20 feet do the writhing, green worms crawling in and out of its skull orifices become apparent. A son of Kyuss is usually clad in rotted clothing, though a rare few wear decaying pieces of armor.
A cleric of 16th level or higher may use a create greater undead spell to create new sons of Kyuss. This process requires maggots from the corpse of a diseased creature in addition to the normal material components.
Sons of Kyuss split into multiple smaller groups when creating their own spawn, and it is rare to encounter more than three of them together. Occasionally a larger creature falls under the curse of a son of Kyuss and follows it as a normal zombie (see above).
Unlike zombies, sons of Kyuss do not have the staggered special quality, and they are intelligent enough to pretend that they have restricted movement until ready to attack. They normally use their fear auras to scatter victims, then gang up on individuals until they have caught all opponents.

Wormspawn Subtype: Wormspawn are undead or aberrant creatures created by and in service to Kyuss. Mindless wormspawn instinctively obey the orders of intelligent wormspawn.


That took care of the basic mooks, now for the templated semi-elites. I beefed the original template (Dragon #336) up just a tad, after noting that zombies get their Charisma set to 10 to avoid their being complete pushovers, and slapped free Toughness on there as well (and put in the option to have Improved Natural Attack instead of Improved Unarmed Strike, for the nonhumanoids).

Question: should the fear aura and Kyuss's Gift be changed to fully scale with the creature's HD?

FAVORED SON OF KYUSS

Creating a Favored Son of Kyuss
“Favored Son of Kyuss” is an acquired template that can be added to any living, corporeal creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature). A favored son of Kyuss uses the base creature’s stats and abilities except as noted here.
CR: Same as the base creature + 2 (for creatures with 9 HD or less) or +3 (for creatures with 10 HD or more).
AL: Any evil.
Type: The creature’s type changes to undead (wormspawn, augmented). Do not recalculate class Hit Dice, BAB, or saves.
Senses: A favored son of Kyuss gains darkvision 60 ft.
Hit Dice: Change all racial Hit Dice to d8s. Class Hit Dice are unaffected. As undead, favored sons of Kyuss use their Charisma modifier to determine bonus hit points (instead of Constitution).
Defensive Abilities: In addition to all of the defensive abilities granted by the undead type, a favored son of Kyuss gains channel resistance +3, fast healing 5, and DR 5/silver. If the favored son has 10 or more Hit Dice, this increases to DR 10/silver.
Speed: Same as the base creature.
Special Attacks: A favored son of Kyuss retains all the special attacks of the base creature and also gains the following special attacks. Save DCs are equal to 10 + 1/2 favored son’s HD + favored son’s Cha modifier unless otherwise noted.
Fear Aura (Su): All creatures within a 40-foot radius that see a favored son of Kyuss must make a Will save (DC 14 plus the favored son’s Charisma bonus) or become panicked for 4 rounds. If cornered, a panicked creature begins cowering. If the Will save succeeds, the creature is shaken for one round. Any creature that makes a successful saving throw against the effect cannot be affected again by the fear aura of that favored son of Kyuss for 24 hours.
Create Spawn (Su): Once per round as a free action, a favored son of Kyuss can transfer a worm from its own body to that of an opponent. It can do this whenever it hits with a natural attack or an unarmed attack, but it can also make the transfer by means of a successful melee touch attack or a ranged touch attack, hurling a worm at a foe from a distance of up to 10 feet.
Each worm is a Fine vermin with AC 10 and 1 hit point. It can be killed with normal damage or by the touch of silver. On the favored son’s next action, the worm burrows into its host’s flesh. (A creature with a natural armor bonus of +5 or higher is immune to this burrowing effect.) The worm makes its way toward the host’s brain, dealing 1 point of damage per round for 1d4+1 rounds. At the end of that period, it reaches the brain. While the worm is inside a victim, a remove curse or remove disease effect destroys it, and a dispel evil or neutralize poison effect delays its progress for 10d6 minutes. A successful Heal check (DC 20) extracts the worm and kills it.
Once the worm reaches the brain, it deals 1d2 points of Intelligence damage per round until it either is killed (by remove curse or remove disease) or slays its host (death occurs at 0 Intelligence). A Small, Medium, or Large creature slain by a worm rises as a new son of Kyuss (not a favored son) 1d6+4 rounds later; a Tiny or smaller creature quickly putrefies; and a Huge or larger creature becomes a normal zombie of the appropriate size. Newly created sons are not under the control of their parent, but they usually follow whatever favored son of Kyuss created them.
If a creature is infested with multiple worms, a single remove curse or remove disease destroys all the worms infesting the creature at once.
A favored son attacking a helpless opponent may use its foul embrace ability instead of this ability.
Foul Embrace (Su): By pressing its face against a helpless victim, the favored son of Kyuss can infest the victim with a rain of 2d6 worms. This ability is treated the same as the create spawn ability, but a victim slain by the resulting infestation rises as a favored son of Kyuss rather than a normal son of Kyuss.
Kyuss’s Gift (Su): Any creature hit by a favored son of Kyuss’s unarmed or natural attack must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC 12) or contract this supernatural disease.

Kyuss's Gift
Type: disease, injury; Save Fortitude DC 12
Onset 1 day; Frequency 1/day
Effect 1d6 Constitution damage, 1d4 wisdom damage (rotting flesh and dementia), target gets only half the benefits of natural and magical healing; Cure 2 consecutive saves

In addition to the previously described abilities, a favored son with 10 HD or more gains one of the following additional special attacks as a gift from Kyuss himself.
Infested Skin (Su): The favored son of Kyuss is so infested with worms that any creature that strikes it with an unarmed strike, natural weapon, or light weapon must make a Reflex save or a Kyuss worm is transferred to the attacker’s body. Any creature that shares the same square as a favored son (such as might occur during a grapple, bull rush, or tumble check) must make a Reflex save to avoid the same fate.
Noxious Breath (Su): Once every 1d4 rounds, as a standard action, the favored son of Kyuss can exhale nauseating vapor from its mouth in a 15-foot cone. All creatures in this area must make a Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1d4 rounds.
Wormburst (Su): Once per day as a standard action, the favored son of Kyuss can expel a 10-foot-radius burst of worms from its body. All creatures in this area of effect must make a Reflex save or become infested by 1d6 Kyuss worms.
Ability Scores: Str +4, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +2 (if a favored spawn still has a negative Charisma modifier, increase its Charisma to 10). As an undead creature, a favored son has no Constitution score.
Feats: A favored son of Kyuss gains Toughness and either Improved Unarmed Strike or Improved Natural Attack as bonus feats.

doggie!:

Mastiff of Kyuss (favored son of Kyuss fiendish riding dog)
CR 3
CE Medium Undead (augmented, wormspawn)
Init +2; Senses low-light vision, darkvision 60’, scent; Perception +9
Aura fear aura (40 ft, DC 14)
Defense
AC 13, touch 12, flat-footed 11 (+2 Dex, +1 natural)
Resist fire 5; DR 5/silver; SR 6
Immune undead traits
hp 12 (2d8); fast healing 5
Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +2
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +3
Offense
Speed 40 ft.
Melee bite +5 (1d8+5 plus Kyuss’s gift plus trip plus worm transfer); w/Smite Good, bite +5 (1d8+7 plus Kyuss’s gift plus trip plus worm transfer); or touch +5 (worm transfer)
Range worm throw +3 ranged touch (worm transfer)
Special Attacks create spawn, Kyuss’s gift, foul embrace
Statistics
Str 19, Dex 15, Con --, Int 4, Wis 14, Cha 10
Base Atk +1; CMB +5; CMD 17 (21 vs. trip)
Feats Skill Focus (Perception), Toughness, Improved Natural Attack (bite)
Skills Acrobatics +6 (+10 jumping), Perception +9, Survival +2 (+6 scent tracking); Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics when jumping, +4 Survival when tracking by scent

Special Attacks: as above, not going to reiterate.

Chimerical:

Kyuss Chimera (advanced 10 HD favored son of Kyuss chimera)
CR 11

(Note that this is a slightly toughened ordinary chimera, not one of the 27 HD Huge monstrosities guarding the Tabernacle of Worms.)

CE Large undead (augmented, wormspawn)
Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +15

Defense
AC 21, touch 10, flat-footed 20 (+1 Dex, +11 natural, –1 size)
DR 10/silver
hp 95 (10d8+50); fast healing 5
Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +9
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +3

Offense
Speed 30 ft., fly 50 ft. (poor)
Melee bite +17 (2d6+8 plus Kyuss’s gift), bite +17 (1d8+8 plus Kyuss’s gift), gore +17 (1d8+8 plus Kyuss’s gift), 2 claws +17 (1d6+8 plus Kyuss’s gift); worm transfer on one attack per round
Range worm throw +13 ranged touch (worm transfer)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks breath weapon, foul embrace, Kyuss’s gift, noxious breath

Statistics
Str 27, Dex 16, Con --, Int 10, Wis 19, Cha 16
Base Atk +12; CMB +19; CMD 30 (34 vs. trip)
Feats Hover, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Skill Focus (Perception), Toughness, Improved Natural Attack (dragon bite)
Skills Fly +5, Perception +15, Stealth +7 (+11 in scrubland or brush); Racial Modifiers +2 Perception, +4 Stealth in scrubland or brush
Languages Draconic
Treasure standard

Special Abilities
Breath Weapon (Su) 20-foot cone of fire, once every 1d4 rounds, deals 6d8 points of damage, and allows a DC 17 Reflex save for half damage. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Noxious Breath (Su) as above
Foul Embrace (Su) as above


...no one? ;.;

Liberty's Edge

I don't have the source material handy to compare, but looks good to me. Can't recall, do the normal spawn have dr silver as well?


They do not... but their stats are from the 3.0 MM2, when DR was still /+X instead of materials. (Not that they have that either.)

EDIT: And the version from Dungeon #126, which I should have looked at first, also has no DR but does have substantially different skills.

Sovereign Court

evil midnight lurker wrote:

Question: should the fear aura and Kyuss's Gift be changed to fully scale with the creature's HD?

Yes.

Elder Evils has favoured son fast healing much higher, suggest 1 point per hd. Also cha bonus +4 to give +2 on the DC's. EE also agrees on toughness. As AC is so low they'll always get hit, they need the healing. Favoured also get move +10 ft (they're fast). I'd add Diehard as a bonus feat if >10HD which can get interesting combined with fast healing.

I favour removing the size restriction on becoming a Son a Kyuss. Also give a 5% chance to become a favoured son instead of standard.

I'll be trying this out very soon.


Miranda wrote:
evil midnight lurker wrote:

Question: should the fear aura and Kyuss's Gift be changed to fully scale with the creature's HD?

Yes.

Elder Evils has favoured son fast healing much higher, suggest 1 point per hd. Also cha bonus +4 to give +2 on the DC's. EE also agrees on toughness. As AC is so low they'll always get hit, they need the healing. Favoured also get move +10 ft (they're fast). I'd add Diehard as a bonus feat if >10HD which can get interesting combined with fast healing.

I favour removing the size restriction on becoming a Son a Kyuss. Also give a 5% chance to become a favoured son instead of standard.

I'll be trying this out very soon.

I played part of that adventure path in 3.5 and the changes you have done sound intersting. Please post your results I want to hear the effect in game.


Miranda wrote:
I'd add Diehard as a bonus feat if >10HD which can get interesting combined with fast healing.

They would require special ability - as Undead they are destoyed at 0 hp anyway, so Diehard would be useless to them.

Sovereign Court

Drejk wrote:
Miranda wrote:
I'd add Diehard as a bonus feat if >10HD which can get interesting combined with fast healing.
They would require special ability - as Undead they are destoyed at 0 hp anyway, so Diehard would be useless to them.

You're right, so call it Die Harder Allows undead to use a similar feat to Die Hard. Instead of being destroyed at 0 hp, they continue to function until -CHA (since they have no CON). Below 0 hp, they are staggered, or they may pretend to "die" as normal (if they have some degree of intelligence).

The feat allows them to continue to fight at a reduced capacity, run away, or pretend to be dead. This offers the opportunity for the undead to flank a party by going down and then suddenly reviving.

Sovereign Court

I ran an encounter using Hill Giants as the base creature for a party of 10th level characters. I didn't use DR10/silver as the EE version doesn't have it, however most party members should have a +3 weapon by this level. The fast healing was set at 10. I used the increasing DC for saves which made them DC19 (using CHA=base creature CON). The speed was +10 ft but I didn't give them run as they were variant zombies.

They attacked in waves of 4 and the party decided to fight at range (since the Sons can't sneak effectively in broad daylight). They thus soaked up fireballs and lots of arrows. Once the party realised the "zombies" were closing fast, they used ice storm to slow them up. The fast healing kept the Sons going. The DC19 proved effective on the fighter failng several times to the Fear Aura. The Witch used Dimension Door to keep range along with the Bard. The Cleric ended up in melee with most of the Sons, using positive channelling to area effect them. Create Spawn and Wormburst were quite effective. Grapple attacks by the Sons seemed a good tactic. I decided that Wormburst has the same 1 round delay as Create Spawn. This meant that the archer Bard ended up trying to pick off the worms. In this situation I gave the worms improved cover plus their fine size (Base AC10 +8 fine, +8 cover) which became a race between the archer to pick off the worms before they burrowed next round.
I ruled the worms to be extraplanar and not undead, so the channels didn't affect them. In all only one worm got to burrow.
The party fought off 16 Favoured Son Hill Giants in four waves but they had to use most of their area effects and channels. The Die Harder, kept the monsters going for a couple of extra rounds until the party could do enough damage to bring them to -CHA.

If I use these again, I'd track the worms that missed a bit more, give them a 20ft move, and have them move in on the characters (taking attacks of opportunity), which should make things more difficult. The DC adjustment seemed fine, the will save was difficult, the reflex save easier. The speed kept the encounter interesting. I'd modify the template a bit to INT-2, WIS-2 as having your brain munched can't be good but boost the CHA = base creature CON (min 10) and drop Toughness, that way you can normally just retain the original hp.
I'd also make burrowing more unpleasant e.g. -1 CON instead of -1 hp and give a Sickened condition (the players certainly seemed to be affected that way). Makes it more like the Mummy film scarab beetles.
With a party that's more melee oriented, this could be a nasty encounter. Definitely a CR+3 template, maybe +4?
The consensus afterward was the best way to deal with the worms was to nuke them from orbit.


Miranda wrote:

I ran an encounter using Hill Giants as the base creature for a party of 10th level characters. I didn't use DR10/silver as the EE version doesn't have it, however most party members should have a +3 weapon by this level. The fast healing was set at 10. I used the increasing DC for saves which made them DC19 (using CHA=base creature CON). The speed was +10 ft but I didn't give them run as they were variant zombies.

They attacked in waves of 4 and the party decided to fight at range (since the Sons can't sneak effectively in broad daylight). They thus soaked up fireballs and lots of arrows. Once the party realised the "zombies" were closing fast, they used ice storm to slow them up. The fast healing kept the Sons going. The DC19 proved effective on the fighter failng several times to the Fear Aura. The Witch used Dimension Door to keep range along with the Bard. The Cleric ended up in melee with most of the Sons, using positive channelling to area effect them. Create Spawn and Wormburst were quite effective. Grapple attacks by the Sons seemed a good tactic. I decided that Wormburst has the same 1 round delay as Create Spawn. This meant that the archer Bard ended up trying to pick off the worms. In this situation I gave the worms improved cover plus their fine size (Base AC10 +8 fine, +8 cover) which became a race between the archer to pick off the worms before they burrowed next round.
I ruled the worms to be extraplanar and not undead, so the channels didn't affect them. In all only one worm got to burrow.
The party fought off 16 Favoured Son Hill Giants in four waves but they had to use most of their area effects and channels. The Die Harder, kept the monsters going for a couple of extra rounds until the party could do enough damage to bring them to -CHA.

If I use these again, I'd track the worms that missed a bit more, give them a 20ft move, and have them move in on the characters (taking attacks of opportunity), which should make things more difficult. The DC adjustment seemed fine,...

Congrats I like the changes you made and the encounter sounded frightening and exciting. Keep up the good work.

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