Adding an extra baddie [book 2 spoilers]

[Tinalles]

We're just about to start book 2. I've been busily laying the groundwork for Aldern's obsession since the very first session. He latched onto a female PC -- Juron, from the Lands of the Linnorm Kings -- and wooed her with gifts of armor, weapons, and a portrait sitting. They had a lovely dinner at the White Stag. I cackled inside my head in anticipation of the "let us consummate our hunger, my love!" line.

Aaand ... the player just announced that he's not having fun with this PC, because she's a one-trick poney. We're on 3.5 rules, and he chose to play a warlock, which is about as one-trick as you can get. So I can see that. I allowed him to retire this character and come in as a new one. I'm not one to make somebody play a PC he's not having fun with, as long as he doesn't swap TOO often.

Anyway, he announced that Juron would head off into the world in pursuit of her own goals. And I instantly thought "No way is Aldern going to let the focus of his obsession just leave. He's going to intercept her and add her to his pack of ghouls."

Which basically means that the party is going to have to fight her. The logical place for her to show up is in the final encounter with Aldern. But I'm worried that if I throw a dread ghoul warlock 5 into the mix, I will totally murder the whole party. How can I do this in a reasonably balanced way?

TL;DR The PC Aldern Foxglove has obsessed over is leaving the party and getting replaced exactly at the beginning of book 2. I want to have the old PC show up in Aldern's pack of ghouls, but I'm worried that adding a dread ghoul warlock 5 (we're on 3.5 rules) to the final Misgivings encounter will unbalance it. Suggestions?

Note: I discussed it with the player (giving as few spoilers as possible) and he's okay with his former PC showing up as an undead villain.

[Anguish]

Good news...

Disease (Su) Ghoul Fever: Bite—injury; save Fort DC 12; onset
1 day; frequency 1 day; effect 1d3 Con and 1d3 Dex damage;
cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Charisma-based.
A humanoid who dies of ghoul fever rises as a ghoul at the
next midnight. A humanoid who becomes a ghoul in this
way retains none of the abilities it possessed in life. It is not
under the control of any other ghouls, but it hungers for
the flesh of the living and behaves like a normal ghoul in all
respects. A humanoid of 4 Hit Dice or more rises as a ghast.

Note the line: A humandoid who becomes a ghoul in this way retains none of the abilities it possessed in life.

So... Juron becomes yet another ghoul. No warlock levels. Problem solved.

Cool situation by the way.

[Anguish]

Addendum:

RotRL AE page 107 agrees with the above.

"Those who succumb to his ghoul fever arise as normal ghouls—they do not
retain any abilities they had in life."

[tonyz]

Of course you could give her a warlock level or two back, just to make her something more than a standard ghoul. Just say that her powers were weakened by the transition to undeath, but not completely destroyed. (Maybe she got a level or two back hunting by Aldern's side?)

Remember, if it makes for a better game, you can always change the rules.

[Tinalles]

Well actually, Aldern would probably do the deed personally using his Create Spawn ability, which would make her a dread ghast. Those get to retain class levels -- his create spawn ability doesn't say anything about losing abilities.

But taking away some of her warlock levels looks like a good solution anyway. Part of the character's backstory was that her warlock patron thingummy was actually a powerful fey creature rather than a devil. A fey might well want nothing to do with an undead critter, so she's have to start over with a new patron anyway.

The other thought I had was that I could keep all her warlock levels and swap her in for Rogors Craesby. The encounter at the farms might be a little tougher, but then again it's a fairly large group, so that wouldn't hurt too much.

[Anguish]

Are you running Anniversary Edition? I keep reading his statblock on page 107 and nothing there suggests anything unusual. Maybe I'm blind but there's nothing about dread ghasts, and the text I mentioned above is present specifically stating that his creations are normal ghouls.

I'm not at home to look at my original books for the 3.5e version.

Still, DM's prerogative to make the fun funner.

[Haladir]

[Total aside-- I find it amusing that you're using the Anniversary Edition, and are back-converting it to 3.5, while I was using the 3.5 version and converting it to Pathfinder...]

You're the GM. Make the character the way you want to in order to tell the story you want to tell. It's OK to play fast-and-loose with the rules a little here. Aldern is a specific uniquie character with a nonstandard template. Feel free to make the undead version of the PC as tough or as weak as it needs to be for your group. I promise you that your players will never tell that you, effectively, created your own template.

As the great Gary Gygax typically responded when asked about specific D&D design choices, "It's MAGIC!"

EDITED to add...

The original 3.5 version of The Skinsaw Murders used the dread ghast template from Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary for Aldern Foxglove. Dread Ghasts have both the Disease (ghoul fever) and the Create Spawn abilities. The Create Spawn ability granted the dread ghast template to the slain victim, which keeps all of its abilities. If I recall correctly, James Jacobs stated that they dropped the inclusion of the template in the Anniversary Edition for space reasons.

[As a second complete aside, I greatly preferred the artwork of The Skinsaw Man from the original edition to the updated version in the AE. (I can say the same of the artwork of Myriana in Book 3.)]

[Tinalles]

Yes, I'm running the original 3.5 AP.

I have the anniversary edition, and I'd really rather run that. But there are two group members who are ... hmm, let's say deeply committed to sticking with the 3.5 rule set. It was something of a struggle just to get them to agree to a game set in Golarion at all. They wanted to stay in Eberron.

[Anguish]

Tinalles wrote:

They wanted to stay in Eberron.

I hear you. I didn't want to leave there either but it was just too much work doing settings conversion. Golarion still doesn't feel like home to me.