| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I am running a home brew campaign where my PC's (6 players, lvl 10-11)are fighting various false gods. Through some clever use of Druid spells they have come upon my next big false God a little earlier than I would have liked (Druid, dragon disciple sorcerer, inquisitor/fighter, magus, rogue/summoner, ranger +wolf), They are powerful for their levels, even though I have them on the low wealth track.
I have the area planned, as well as the minions prepped, I am just lacking a BBEG!
For this particular boss I was hoping to do a "Living Dungeon" crawl, resetting roof spike traps at entrance, acid walls and floors, strange poison gases (and diseases) as they fight their way down. Various Oozes really seem to fit this concept well, I am hoping to have a variety of Oozes and one that is fully controlled by an intelligent God artifact (accidentally swallowed by the Ooze).
What would be an appropriate stat block for this Ooze? Should I add templates to one or make up something new? Is it possible to give an Ooze speech? Telepathy? Can Oozes swim (as the room fills with blood (reduced visibility) can Oozes survive this? Is this just not a feasible BBEG and I should use something else?
I would appreciate any help I can get making a tough and memorable monster to really test the party. Thank you.
worm that walks take that build a nice evil cleric and go to town. I know you said ooze so just change the description to an ooze instead of vermin. To me this is nice since you can taylor make how tough you want the caster to be while providing some awesome visuals.
There are a few intelligent oozes.
Templates sound good, maybe look at this ooze? he seems to fit ok actually
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/oozes/riftcreeper
This looks like a good start. Tough, swims, moves quickly and is intelligent (for an Ooze). I shall look into some templates for this, But it looks like a pretty good start for a BBEG. Thank you.
I'm currently making a module with an ooze as the BBEG. I'm using this guy
https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/bestiary/monster-listings/oozes /tyrant-jelly
except he swallowed a giant Vescavore egg instead of a giant wasp egg, so I'm adding the half-fiend template which will let me bump his int up to 9, and his CR up to 11.
http://paizo.com/prd/monsters/halfFiend.html
You could add more templates, increase his HD, or add more mythic ranks if you need to bump his CR higher. Of course if you wanted to use this guy you'd need to have a lot of vermin around in your dungeon, so it might not work for you.
|
Well, if you want to go Lovecraft there's always a Color Out Of Space, maybe with a template or some class levels.
A Brain Ooze with class levels is also solid, and you could make it a 10th level Oracle or Sorcerer on top of it's base stats as a CR 14.
I'd go with one of those based on them already being smart and dangerous plus having enough spare CR to play around a bit.
Well, if you want to go Lovecraft there's always a Color Out Of Space, maybe with a template or some class levels.
A Brain Ooze with class levels is also solid, and you could make it a 10th level Oracle or Sorcerer on top of it's base stats as a CR 14.
I'd go with one of those based on them already being smart and dangerous plus having enough spare CR to play around a bit.
Thank you, I would use color out of space, except my players have very little sonic damage capabilities and don't seem to want to pick any up (despite facing several sonic vulnerable beings). I will have to figure out how to add class levels to a brain Ooze, or use a Riftcreeper with some extra minions.
Some of these idea's are truly diabolical. I will have to save them for future encounters.
|
It's old, but D&D did an article on variant intelligent oozes "link" , and then the Alkilith Demon (an ooze demon that can change into a Cloudkill) gave our group a nasty fit in the Age of Worms campaign, and it happens to be a free online print still on the D&D 3.5 site, minor conversions needed, "link" .
I generally think a BBEG should be more than a standard monster; it should be customized, and encountering it should not JUST be an encounter with a monster - there should be environmental factors in the fight as well.
I had an idea... It's somewhat inspired by both the Leviathan of DMC3 and the fish parasite of Zelda OoT. I don't know how well-developed the background for the BBEG is, but what about something like this (yeah it's cheesy but that's what RPGs are for right?):
of the Blood Queen
the High Priest led the yearly Offering
Three thousand leeches swell from the Offering
Into the Kalyx of sacrifice they where put with sea salt
And this thirtieth day of the eight hundred and thirtieth year
A foul blight happened
And the leeches would not be consumed
And the leeches became more numerous
And they fell upon the ground of the altar
And they spread down the mountain
And the people of the Blood Queen were afraid
And the people of the Blood Queen were sacrilegious
And the people bade to the Kalyx
And the Kalyx entered the mind of the people
And the people heard the Laughter of Leeches
And the people venerated the Kalyx
And upon the thirtieth day of the eight hundred and fortieth year
of the Blood Queen
The Blood Queen awakened
The Blood Queen said:
Your sacrilege will stop.
You have become heathens.
And the Blood Queen smote the High Priest
And the Blood Queen took a tithe of the people
And the Blood Queen took the Kalyx and threw it
And it fell into the Living Lake of Lok-Gossoth
And the Blood Queen reigned.
And the people of the Blood Queen where saved.
So, you said the dungeon is kind of a "living dungeon". Why not have the end boss be part of the dungeon? Have the dungeon pass over into an actual huge organic being. The being is enormous, basically a cavern in itself, the walls consisting of rubbery, transclusent tissue - inspecting them closely shows tiny leeches burried into the flesh.
The background story more closely explained would be that at some point in history, a major civilization was dedicated to a god called The Blood Queen, who demanded blood sacrifice through leeches; the leeches were attached to the sacrifices, then poured into a sacred chalice together with sea salt to dissolve.
But due to the long and recurring sacrifices in the chalice, the enormous energy passing through it created the spark of sentience, which grew with every sacrifice until it was powerful enough to take control of the population, controlling their minds both through force of will and through the threat of getting drained by the leeches.
The idea being that "the Living Lake of Lok-Gossoth" has turned into a huge ooze by the influence of the chalice, who was weakened by no longer being venerated. The ooze was then buried in time, only to awaken due to whatever recent happenings you see fit.
When the party has gotten deep enough into Lok-Gossoth, they reach the central point, where the Laughter of Leeches resides. It is a large cavity in the being, and the ground is covered in leeches, four inches deep. In the center is a huge bulbous form, and in the center on the top of that resides the chalice, deeply embedded into the body. The walls move back and forth, and here and there long tendrils extend.
"As you enter the chamber, your minds are filled with an impossible laughter that sounds nothing like a laughter. It sounds like the smell of agony, and your eyes tear. Only after a second do you realize you stand ankle-deep in an unending swarm of leeches, crawling around your boots"
The encounter consists of four parts, basically; the environment, Lok-Gossoth, Lok-Gossoth's tendrils, and the Laughter of Leeches.
The environment:
- The cavity is roughly circular, about 75 feet in diameter, the 15x15 central ft being occupied by the central part of Lok-Gossoth. The roof of the cavity is only 20ft up however, making flying quite difficult.
- The room lacks any natural lighting, just like the rest of the beings interior. The smell of blood is so heavy that scent does not function here, though it's hardly much use anyway.
- The floor is covered in leeches, creating the effects of a Grease spell (Acrobatics DC 10 to move at half speed; fail by 5+ and fall). A creature that is prone on the floor, or that is tiny or smaller, are beset upon by the leeches; they act as a Leech Swarm except their space is only where the victim is, they cannot move, and it only takes a move action to shrug them off; they are land leeches, not burrowing leeches.
- The walls move at the command of Lok-Gossoth and people standing close to them risk being pushed.
Lok-Gossoth
Link to stat sheet here
While the whole being is Lok-Gossoth, it does have something similar to a central nervous system, centered around the Laughter of Leeches. The central part is a huge bulbous thing, constantly shifting but attached to the rest of the body.
Each round, it will typically spawn more tendrils, in addition to using either it's breath weapon or it's wall push. It's main job however is protecting the Laughter of Leeches; as long as it's alive, there is no way to pry the chalice from the creature's body.
Lok-Gossoth's Tendrils
Link to stat sheet here.
As the party enters the room, there's a half-dozen tendrils already waving about, attacking what they can reach. As Lok-Gossoth creates more, it creates them close to foes it regards as easy targets.
The tendrils will always try to trip foes within their reach, unless they have more than two legs (or no legs at all); in that case they try to grapple them instead. When only tripped opponents are within reach, they try to grapple a prone target.
Now, I haven't done the Laughter of Leeches itself yet, since it's a caster with an intelligence score (and on top of that an object) and thus takes some more time than the oozes, and partly I don't have time for that tonight and partly want to know if you're at all interested in it Guardianlord. If this meshes badly with your plotline, or just doesn't seem that interesting an encounter, it'd be foolish of me to put an extra hour into it xD
Brain ooze, worm that walks heh. That'd be a sick BBEG
I like your style. Also the mezlan looks good. Only thing I've seen that might be problematic is some of the more interesting oozes are quite high crs already so adding things might end up in an impossible encounter.
As an aside though the simple templets are a quick way to up some monsters. Advanced, Mighty, and the mythic ones are nice and give good boosts. My favorite is mighty but you have to be careful with it.
I generally think a BBEG should be more than a standard monster; it should be customized, and encountering it should not JUST be an encounter with a monster - there should be environmental factors in the fight as well.
I had an idea... It's somewhat inspired by both the Leviathan of DMC3 and the fish parasite of Zelda OoT. I don't know how well-developed the background for the BBEG is, but what about something like this (yeah it's cheesy but that's what RPGs are for right?):
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **...
You have no idea how much I would love to do something like this. Unfortunately it does not fit my theme, though I wish I had come here sooner as this would have definitely been used.
I have no fear of overpowering my party, they already slaughtered 400 1hd skeletons (plus 2 mohrgs, 4 skeleton giants, and a shade), 15 frost giants and 20 frost wolves (I almost killed 1 player there, maybe next time =p), and they have taken on swarms of brownies, treants and various plants without issue. Druid + ranger + dragon disciple = massive pain.
In my campaign the false Gods were once trapped, but a thief broke the seal and allowed the gos and their artifacts (their link to this plane) to begin escaping. As one god is shut down and their artifact taken by the party the other grow stronger (more energy can leak through the crack). The gods are reclaiming the places and followers they once held thousands of years before. (undead, corrupted plants, frost giants, greedy bloodthirsty Orc horde, and insane festival (that the players think is entirely benign and friendly so far)).
The walls will be dark (absorb light as a deeper darkness spell), touching them will cause acid to burn and potentially disease or poison bile to slosh out hurting the players. The track will be dark and winding and filled with "faith guided" serpent folk and snake swarms.
This will lead to the unnaturally lighted fountain room (with disease clouds and ground fog hiding step plate tile traps), there the players will see a slave transform and then turn to fight them with the other Naga.
The main room is a deep desert spring that has long since dried, the various deep pools are regularly filled with slave blood and the bodies consumed by Oozes (the blood powers the heart and keep it "beating" and pouring out ichor). A huge reservoir of blood is held in a container above and feeds the pools via (snake shaped) tubes. As the fight begin the valves will be broken so the entire room may fill with blood (50% aquatic visibility and sickness on failed hold breath check), after several rounds it will be full and the various oozes will float obscuring their master Ooze who will move and cast, slipping in and out of narrow tunnels to heal or flank. Players will have to break open the drain hatch to escape alive (before or after they beat the BBEG)!
I am thinking of using a Riftcreeper with serpent bloodline sorcerer and a special poison + disease attack when the Ooze is really hurt.
Hopefully I can get them to adapt to an unexpected aquatic fight, Oozes (that I have been saving for this), and ability issues from disease and poison so that the fight isn't another blast and tank fight.
I will definitely be keeping some of these ideas for future games.
Brain ooze, worm that walks heh. That'd be a sick BBEGI like your style. Also the mezlan looks good. Only thing I've seen that might be problematic is some of the more interesting oozes are quite high crs already so adding things might end up in an impossible encounter.
As an aside though the simple templets are a quick way to up some monsters. Advanced, Mighty, and the mythic ones are nice and give good boosts. My favorite is mighty but you have to be careful with it.
My players regularly fight far above their own CR (at lvl 7 they beat a CR 25 fight they were supposed to run from =p). As long as I avoid incorporeal (no sonic or holy) they should be able to handle most things creatively.
I enjoy templates, ogrekin can be fun for an Orc boss you want wielding a huge weapon.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Half-dragon Gelatinous Cube. It flies.