Crowdsource: Guide to Greater Planar Binding

[Slithery D]

Timeless planes don't work like that in Pathfinder.

[Oterisk]

Gosh, that's embarrassing. I need to not jump to conclusions when I'm definitely off of my game. Of course, I've had this misconception for years. Not that it really matters anymore.

Still giving a Candle of Invocation to a Planetar can be used to gain access to 9th level spells, which is cool.

[Reduxist]

Necro’ing this thread to include the Caller’s Feather from the Monster Summoner’s Handbook. It’s rather cheap at 2,000 GP, or 1,000 if you craft it. Adding another +2 to the HD limit of planar spells and gate is great, and destroying it adds a bonus to the check. Not sure if destroying it adds another +2 to the HD limit, because 28 HD would be ludicrous.

Unfortunately, the only regular creature I could find with a minimum of 25 HD was the Shaggy Demodand (CR 18, CHA 20, Will +18 or +22 for divine casters, 29 SR). They... are not strong. They have five attacks and a bunch of spell like abilities, including empowered cloud kill, but they just don’t have anything else that makes them superior to other monsters. I really wanted to like the demodands because they could have been a good CE alternative to the asuras, but they’re just so... bad.

On the other hand, if the DM is extremely lenient, you can call up the Qlippoth Lords:

• Thuskchoon (24 HD, CHA 21, Will +27, 32 SR)
  
• Chavazvug (25 HD, CHA 22, Will +24, 33 SR)
  
• Oaur-Ooung (26 HD, CHA 22, Will +18, 34 SR)
  
• and, if your GM rules that destroying a Caller’s Feather adds an extra +2 HD, Isph-Aun-Vuln (28 HD, CHA 29, Will +31, 36 SR)
  

Each of these creatures are powerful in their own right, although some are more powerful than others.

• I find Thuskchoon to be the weakest personally due to his near-mindless weakness, but he is still an impressive grappler thanks to his entangling acid and trailing tar abilities.
  
• Chavazvug is a great pair up with any blaster thanks to its horrific appearance ability, and having resurrection as an SLA is not too bad if you can mind the penalties. Additionally, Chavvie’s great against demons.
  
• Oaur-Ooung is my personal favorite due to how many high-level qlippoth she can spawn; kill someone with a tentacle 600 ft. away? Create a qlippoth! Blast something to death with blisterwomb? Create a qlippoth! Have a turn to use an SLA? CREATE A QLIPPOTH!
  
• Finally, Isph-Aun-Vuln can mind control practically everything, objects included. He only has one bite attack... that deals 150 negative energy damage and does 1d6 wisdom drain. Also, he can cast wish once per day, so that’s also a nice plus.
  

I can go further into depth for each of them later, although their summaries are also pretty good starting points. Just be careful, though; you are deaing with demigods that are immune to mind-affecting effects, after all.

[Douglas Muir 406]

Reduxist wrote:

Necro’ing this thread to include the Caller’s Feather from the Monster Summoner’s Handbook. It’s rather cheap at 2,000 GP, or 1,000 if you craft it. Adding another +2 to the HD limit of planar spells and gate is great, and destroying it adds a bonus to the check. Not sure if destroying it adds another +2 to the HD limit, because 28 HD would be ludicrous.

The description on the Caller's Feather is badly written and confusing. My interpretation is that it's always a one-shot consumable and it always gives you +2 HD, but YMMV.

As noted, there's not a lot at 25 HD or more. Of course, unless you're playing some sort of superpowered campaign where the PCs are levels 18-20 and mythic as well, you probably won't have much call for stuff of this level.

Gating in a qlippoth lord sounds like a truly awful idea under almost any circumstances, but I'll note that you could make summoning a powerful outsider the center of a surprisingly low-level scenario: see this plot seed here.

cheers,

Doug M.

[E-div_drone]

Nearyn wrote:

@Doug M: There's something to be said for creative use of water-spells, and I won't pretend the Omox is useless, it can't be, even with just one casting of acid fog. The problem of the size and the restriction on grab persists though, making this thing's grappling really only useful against medium-sized creatures. You can't even enlarge it either, since enlarge is humanoids only, and the Omox is an outsider :(

-Nearyn

Engaging in some thread necromancy to point out that if you are pulling in one of these things, making a wondrous item imbued with Righteous Might should be quite achievable. That spell is not bound by creature type.

Also, the Contract Devil deserves special note on this list, given the infernal slave option for its internal contracts ability. Since that allows you to gain the service of a devil so long as you live, with a CR less than or equal to the character level of the person making the bargain, this allows for some truly powerful hench-beings. The especially ironic twist to this is that lawful evil characters typically have the easiest time arranging these contracts. Guess where their soul is likely going when they inevitably die? Now we look at the ways to escape this fate. What’s this? If someone else agrees, and the Contract Devil approves it, their soul can be on the hook instead, and we still get to keep the devil? Woot! Which, yes, a Contract Devil would jump at the chance to nab a good soul this way, given that the caster’s soul is most likely going to end up in hell eventually anyhow. Just make sure you have excellent security on your copy of the scroll, and you take precautions against the forces of good coming after you for your truly vile shenanigans.