Low level, chaotic evil, underground monsters


Advice


Running a session --tonight-- (yes, I'm giving oh so much time for replies, heh) and running into an unexpected obstacle ... hoping to get some help/answers/pointers here.

The party is comprised of 4 characters, all level 2.

They will be discovering an ancient underground temple complex ( think more on the lines of the size of a village rather than a single building ) that was once dedicated to gods of good (btw, custom-built world ... not Golarion). However, long ago this complex was abandoned and an unknown chaotic evil has risen from the depths below the mountain.

The idea is that the characters enter an environment that is very ... cthulu-like in that there is an 'old one' partially awake in this underground complex tearing at the sanity of any who are there. They are entering this place in pursuit of a lesser bad guy.

What I need/want are ideas for underground dwelling chaotic evil creatures who may be twisted/insane and worship this old one. The kicker, however, is that they need to be of low enough CR for a level 2 party to handle.

Note: Goblins, Orcs, and Kobolds are out. I need something that's not quite so 'common'.

Any ideas?


I think these guys would be perfect! Just change them to CE, that kind of makes more sense to me as they are Fey.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/mite.html#_mite
There are also other types of evil fey that could work well.

For something a little tougher:
Morlocks!
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/morlock.html#_morlock


mem0ri wrote:

Running a session --tonight-- (yes, I'm giving oh so much time for replies, heh) and running into an unexpected obstacle ... hoping to get some help/answers/pointers here.

The party is comprised of 4 characters, all level 2.

They will be discovering an ancient underground temple complex ( think more on the lines of the size of a village rather than a single building ) that was once dedicated to gods of good (btw, custom-built world ... not Golarion). However, long ago this complex was abandoned and an unknown chaotic evil has risen from the depths below the mountain.

The idea is that the characters enter an environment that is very ... cthulu-like in that there is an 'old one' partially awake in this underground complex tearing at the sanity of any who are there. They are entering this place in pursuit of a lesser bad guy.

What I need/want are ideas for underground dwelling chaotic evil creatures who may be twisted/insane and worship this old one. The kicker, however, is that they need to be of low enough CR for a level 2 party to handle.

Note: Goblins, Orcs, and Kobolds are out. I need something that's not quite so 'common'.

Any ideas?

That's a good question. If you want to make it based off of the Old Gods, I'd suggest making something like a (bunch of) Darkmantle(s) from the Underground cavernous ceilings to rain down and surround them as a first encounter.

If you want something that's a challenge, I would suggest the Festrog, which is kind of like a pus-covered Zombie.

These are a couple examples that would fit your theme, and if they seem a little strong, you could tweak them down, such as removing the Temp HP benefits of the Festrog, the Darkness ability of the Darkmantles, etc.

**Edit** If those don't work, then you can find yourself a monster you want here.


If its a custom world, then its time to add a custom creature. Since you're looking for something low CR and cthulu style, I would take goblin stats and then just think of a describe a new creature. I'm making a guess here, but if you are planning to continue along with the old god plot hook, this also gives you a low-lvl mook that can be upgraded and changed as the story progresses. Just changing the stat block to more powerful creatures as the PCs level up.

Since this "old one" has been partially awake you could have a group of humans there as well. They might have found this old complex previously, but during their looting process succumbed to the "old ones" whispers. It might have been a large group that killed each other so only a couple are still alive. The could be twisted in that they have done ritual scarring to themselves or even begun to transform, having like gills or webbed hands/feet, or perhaps even a fin showing their transformation and decent into madness.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

There's always the sahuagin.


Troglodytes (CR1) come to mind as an option. Another that fits the fluff almost perfectly but may be a little high are Derro (CR3)


A fairly comprehensive list (note: not all of them are CE, but could easily be made CE for the purposes of your adventure):

CR 1/3: drow, mites, ratfolk
CR 1/2: tieflings, vegepygmies
CR 1: ghouls, gnolls, troglodytes
CR 2: bugbears, sahuagin, skum


Wow ... great suggestions ... and fast!

Thanks everyone.

@HerosBackpack -- I had considered the Derro, though the 3 CR had turned me off and tinkering with their stats wasn't going very many good places.

@Fergie -- Mites are promising!

@caliga -- I probably will end up with at least a slightly custom creature and it's a good point that doing so will allow me to scale them as the campaign goes forward.

@Darksol -- I'll definitely throw some darkmantles in.

@TriOmegaZero -- I had considered the Sahuagin, but we're a little far from large bodies of water for it to make sense.

I appreciate the help ... off and running on some ideas now. I'll see how it turns out in about 7 hours ... hehe


Shadowborn wrote:

A fairly comprehensive list (note: not all of them are CE, but could easily be made CE for the purposes of your adventure):

CR 1/3: drow, mites, ratfolk
CR 1/2: tieflings, vegepygmies
CR 1: ghouls, gnolls, troglodytes
CR 2: bugbears, sahuagin, skum

Drow are seriously only CR 1/3 in Pathfinder? Wow ...

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

Underground lakes are pretty common. You might go back to the 3.5 manual for the kuo-toans. They are very good cultists of madness, as Shackled City showed.


Troglodytes are great for this. CR 1

Skum and skumbred humans might be even better if it is not creepy enough for you. CR 2, skumbred humans are presumably same stat as humans.

Mudra skeletons hint at something alien, maybe even a mudra skeleton champion. CR 1/2

Morlocks are basically degenerate humans that fit quite well too. CR 2

Adherers and derro are cool too but a bit high at CR 3.

Chaotic Evil Mongrelmen, slightly refluffed CR 1


mem0ri wrote:


Drow are seriously only CR 1/3 in Pathfinder? Wow ...

Well, they are if they're level 1 warriors.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Some other ones that haven't been mentioned:
Chokers (CR 2)
Crawling hand (CR 1/2)
Ghoul (CR 1) or Ghast (CR 2)
Huecuva- could for fallen priests of the old gods (CR 2)
quasit (CR 2)

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