Help finding the perfect henchmen

[Kresolf]

I'm GMing a new campaign and I need some advice on the basic "thug" for my villains.

Main Story Hook:

The party is investigating a new recreational drug that hit the streets. They come to find out the drug turns its users into monstrous humanoids under the control of the BBEG. The drug isn't made just for profit - it is a recruitment method. The monstrous humanoids are the basic thugs to give a villain a foothold within the capital city's intricate sewer system, where he plans on gathering artifacts necessary for summoning a banished evil.

Ideally, I would love to find some sort of template I could add to humanoid races that grotesquely distorts their minds and bodies. I appreciate any help in finding just the right foot soldier for my villain's pending demonic onslaught (maniacal laugh). The conventional lowbies (goblins, skeletons, etc) just don't feel right.

I am looking for something that can think for itself, yet is obedient to its masters. The closest thing I have found to what I am looking for is the Sinspawn (in appearance). I may just steal the stat block for them and call it something else.

Don't know what I am really looking for yet, any help is appreciated!

[VRMH]

Might Yellow Musk Creeper be an option?

[Eragar]

I would suggest looking here

Some of the things that come to mind on that list are:
fleshwarped

fungoid

half-fiend

mana wasted mutant

This one looks like it would work very well thematically

[EvilMinion]

Hmm... perhaps work with the Abomination template?

Pick a secondary creature they were using as the base, and good to go..
Perhaps a slightly different creature for the higher end thug.

Maybe the main bad guy has been using the crushed up carapaces from various subterranean beetles, for instance, to make his drug.

And the users eventually start to take on some of the beetle characteristics.

More common weaker beetles for the basic street level drugs, some rarer more exotic or powerful beetles for special folks.

That way, you have a number of different beetle types to work with, for different variations of the same theme for your thugs.

Spiders might work too, but I like the beetle variety.

[Rynjin]

Maybe do something with the Chymickal Zombies from Carrion Crown?

They're basically JuJu Zombies with a chemical dependence

Quote:

Chymickal zombies are dependent on an alchemical elixir to keep their brains preserved and functioning. A chymickal zombie must inject itself with this elixir at least once per week. Failure to do so results in the loss of 1d4 points of Intelligence per week. This Intelligence loss is permanent and cannot be restored, but further Intelligence loss can be prevented with a new injection of the elixir. Once the chymickal zombie’s Intelligence reaches 0, it loses all of its chymickal zombie abilities and becomes a normal zombie in all ways.

And then change up the appearance to suit you.

This allows your minions to keep any class levels and abilities they formerly had, but gives them a very important reason to keep working for the villains (even if the villains are much weaker than they are), because otherwise they turn into mindless zombies.

And it's a pretty well used trope that I've always liked, it lets you draw in all kinds of thugs. Regular old junkies (they need to have more...and now they really NEED to have more), those looking for power (all they want is the stuff that makes them strong, who cares about the side effects?), and even good people in a bad situation (Jimmy was crippled in an accident. Evil Von Babykiller offers him a drug that will let him walk again! Oh but unless he does Lord Babykiller's bidding he'll turn into a shambling corpse. Muhahahahaha!).

[Kresolf]

All of these seem like great ideas! I will go with the the additives of the drug are what cause these changes, as EvilMinion said.

To the villains, the drugs are a source of recruitment, modification and experimentation. Fungiods and yellow musk creepers will suffice for now, yet as the methods are more perfected and refined, they will move onto other specimens (beetle abominations etc). The Chymikal Zombies look great too, especially for the story elements.

Eventually the transformation will lead to half fiends, but for only the strongest of the users. The unfortunate lesser beings will suffer with being mutants- outcast junkies with nowhere to run even if they could/wanted to.

[Tels]

There is a template in the 3.5 Module Seven Swords of Sin (a Paizo product) that involves, basically, nano-bots infecting and mutating a creature. It's not on the PFSRD, but if I can find the module, I'll type it up for you.