I'm wanting to create an antagonist for my groups current Asian themed game, and I'm really wanting to emulate the character Shiromori from the Mystery Skulls animations, but I'm not really sure how to go about it.
The main goals for the monster to be able to do would be to be able to track others over extreme distances, travel through the earth at great speeds (not necessarily teleport speed), and to pose a significant threat to a 10th level party as only a solo encounter, though she would likely use ambush tactics to single out targets.
I can always just 'say' she can do these things of course but I'm hoping to at least have a possible frame of reference, and possibly a better grasp of what would be really flavorful magic abilities/spells to give her in order to help her be an effective assassin. Normally winging it wouldn't be so bad, but this group is pretty high on the optimization ladder and has proven to be very coordinated to a point I've had some trouble challenging them with combat. They welcome challenges like this and would love to feel a real sense of fear to know this being had their number. Due to my limited free time for such endeavors at the moment I'd love to know if anyone has some ideas or possible numbers I could work off of!
Scrying would take care of the tracking aspect, and gets bonus points for having something of the target to use as a focus.
You could copy an earth elemental's earth glide ability for her burrowing, just speed it up by a lot.
If you want her to be able to solo out targets then plant growth and wall of thorns would be effective and thematically appropriate.
Shiromori herself seems to be a half-fiend dryad or other plant-oriented creature. And most of the rest of the abilities stated so far could be gotten by adding levels of druid.
Her scissors I would have transform from a dagger equivalent (light, P/S) to a greatsword equivalent (2 handed, S). Maybe 1d6 damage in small form and 2d6 in large.
Scrying would take care of the tracking aspect, and gets bonus points for having something of the target to use as a focus.
You could copy an earth elemental's earth glide ability for her burrowing, just speed it up by a lot.
If you want her to be able to solo out targets then plant growth and wall of thorns would be effective and thematically appropriate.
Shiromori herself seems to be a half-fiend dryad or other plant-oriented creature. And most of the rest of the abilities stated so far could be gotten by adding levels of druid.
Her scissors I would have transform from a dagger equivalent (light, P/S) to a greatsword equivalent (2 handed, S). Maybe 1d6 damage in small form and 2d6 in large.
I hadn't really thought of Half-fiend Dryad that would be pretty rad. If I was going to be adding class levels in addition to this how many would be appropriate? Assuming I'm making her a challenging fight for a group of four level 10 characters I would think putting her at a CR 12 or so would be good so maybe around 6-8 levels? Not a huge fan of Druid since the spell list is good but the other features are mostly wasted, but I yeah I can't think of much that would be better.
Depending on how much work you want to do, you could add the half-fiend template, buff her racial hit die until she's high enough level, and let her cast spells as an Nth level Druid (maybe 10? keep it a few levels below her target CR). Pathfinder adventure paths do this kind of thing for boss monsters with regularity. You're DM, you don't have to tiptoe around class levels and templates if you don't want to.
Generally speaking, adding caster levels to monsters who already have a huge number of hit die is gonna delegate those spells to support casting, since they're not going to have high enough spell levels to be that useful offensively.
I haven't seen whatever video she's from, but if you want her to just supplement natural attacks and natural abilities with some minor spells, give her a few levels in Druid. If you want her to be doing a lot of different nature stuff that her pre-built Dryad abilities won't cover, let her Cast-As.
Applying half-fiend and 9 levels of druid gets to cr12. Druid 9 is enough to wild shape into a medium earth elemental 24/7, so we're going to apply that, then file off the serial numbers so she still looks like an evil plant lady. Elemental form is nice because she doesn't need wild casting.
Shiromori CR12
NE Outsider (native)
Init +9; Senses darkvision 60ft., low-light vision; perception +25
==========
Defense
==========
AC 28, touch 19, flat-footed 19 (+9 dex, +9 natural)
hp 121 (6d6+9d8+60)
Fort +12, Ref +17, Will +18; resist nature's lure
dr 10/magic and 5/cold iron
immunity to poison
acid, cold, electricity, and fire resistance 10
spell resistance 23
Weakness: tree dependent
==========
Offense
==========
Spd 30 ft., earth-glide 60 ft.
Melee
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th)
. Constant—speak with plants
. At will—entangle (DC 16), tree shape, wood shape (1 lb. only)
. 3/day—charm person (DC 16), deep slumber (DC 18), tree stride
. 1/day—suggestion (DC 18)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 15th)
. 3/day darkness, poison (DC 19), unholy aura (DC 23)
. 1/day blasphemy (DC 22), contagion (DC 19), desecrate, unhallow, unholy blight (DC 19)
Druid Spells Prepared (CL 9th, DC=17+spell level)
. 5th: 2
. 4th: 3
. 3rd: 5
. 2nd: 6
. 1st: 6
. 0th: 4
==========
STATISTICS
==========
Str 18, Dex 28, Con 19, Int 14, Wis 24, Cha 20
BAB +12, CMB +16, CMD 35
Feats: weapon finesse, 7 others
Skills: Climb +13, Craft (sculpture) +11, Escape Artist +27, Handle Animal +23, Knowledge (nature) +22, Perception +25, Stealth +27, Survival +27
Languages: Common, Druidic, Elven, Sylvan; speak with plants
SQ: tree meld, wild empathy (+26), woodcraft
Druid class abilities: nature bond, nature sense, woodland stride, trackless step, resist nature's lure, wild shape 3/day, venom immunity
This is all before gear, long-term buffs, or figuring out the stats for the scissors. Already 2 hours in on it at this point.
Depending on how much work you want to do, you could add the half-fiend template, buff her racial hit die until she's high enough level, and let her cast spells as an Nth level Druid (maybe 10? keep it a few levels below her target CR). Pathfinder adventure paths do this kind of thing for boss monsters with regularity. You're DM, you don't have to tiptoe around class levels and templates if you don't want to.
Generally speaking, adding caster levels to monsters who already have a huge number of hit die is gonna delegate those spells to support casting, since they're not going to have high enough spell levels to be that useful offensively.
I haven't seen whatever video she's from, but if you want her to just supplement natural attacks and natural abilities with some minor spells, give her a few levels in Druid. If you want her to be doing a lot of different nature stuff that her pre-built Dryad abilities won't cover, let her Cast-As.
I normally would just wing it and mostly staple stuff on where I need it to be for the monster to work, but I'm also gonna be sending the stats to a friend who's out of state with even less prep time than I have. The plan is to help him run this plot over with his own group once it finishes, so for once I'm actually wanting to put down complete stats for stuff. The other monsters were pretty basic to do this one I just didn't want to fudge since it's one of the major antagonists of the game.
Applying half-fiend and 9 levels of druid gets to cr12. Druid 9 is enough to wild shape into a medium earth elemental 24/7, so we're going to apply that, then file off the serial numbers so she still looks like an evil plant lady. Elemental form is nice because she doesn't need wild casting.
** spoiler omitted **
This is all before gear, long-term buffs, or figuring out the stats for the scissors. Already 2 hours in on it at this point.
Holy cow thats awesome! You didn't have to go to all the trouble of that Darigaaz, but I have to say this is pretty close to what I was going for. I didn't realize Druid 9 let you stay shaped so long though, hadn't considered using it that way (I never really play druids)!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
EDIT : It seems you have already found what you are looking for; however, since I did some digging of my own ...
Could I suggest an Alraune with Wizard/Sorcerer Levels to replace some of its Racial Levels? A standard one would be CR13, (an Epic threat), so depending on your table you might want to shave a Character Level off for a Hard threat.
Unoffical image for reference.
* An Alraune has a high Strength Ability Score (24), matching up with Shiromori's Super Strength. It also comes with a 1/day Commune with Nature (Sp) to identify/track Targets, somewhat mimicking her Tracking ability. Her "no feet" image could be aligned with her legs ending in the flower, (which could be green to match the surroundings, giving the illusion of legs on grass?).
* Arcanist/Sorcerer/Wizard 7 provides access to the Spells [3] Burrow, (for a general 15ft. Burrow Speed at 1min./C.L.), and [4] Earth Glide, (for Combat), to mimic Shiromori's Burrowing ability. This enables her to remain in her standard form without having to Polymorph into an Elemental.
* For the assassin theme you mentioned, you have the option to go Vigilante(Warlock) 10 - this grants 3/4 B.A.B., access to [0-6] Spells from the Sorcerer/Wizard Spell List at Magus progression, (max. [4] at Warlock 10), and elemental Mystic Bolts (Su) (which can be Touch Attacks). With the few Vigilante Talents left you have options for Blind Spot (Ex), Chase Master (Ex), Combat Skill (Ex) (for Exotic Weapon Proficiency), Shadow's Speed (Ex) or Weapon Familiarity (Ex).
* Arcanist/Sorcerer/Wizard 7 also gives access to [1] Infernal Healing and [4] Infernal Healing (Greater) to imperfectly mimic Shiromori's regenerative capacity. To mimic this better you could ignore Wealth by Level to give her P.C. wealth, so that she can have a Ring of Regeneration for constant Fast Healing 1 and the ability to restore lost limbs.
* Grant the scissor Weapon the Growing (+1 Bonus) Weapon Special Ability; this allows it to increase by 1 Size Category 1/day. Alternatively, you can make the most of the Alraune's unusual form with the [+4 000gp] Resizing Weapon Special Ability. An Alraune is technically a Large Creature, despite having a more Medium-sized Humanoid portion - so it could be interpreted that once she becomes tired of drawing in her prey, she picks up her seemingly innocuous "pruning scissors", only for it to suddenly become a menacing Weapon. (A [16 000gp] Ring of Perfect Sizing is a more costly alternative.)
* Shiromori can either wear [30gp] Silken Ceremonial Armour or a [200gp] Silk Kimono. If you do not go the Ring of Regeneration route but still want to power her up in a thematic way, there is the [67 000gp] Otherwordly Kimono.
* The "scissors" could be shears - whilst I could not find a specific page for these, there are references in Bestiary entries for various statistics here, here and more mundanely here under the Offence/Melee section.
Holy cow thats awesome! You didn't have to go to all the trouble of that Darigaaz, but I have to say this is pretty close to what I was going for. I didn't realize Druid 9 let you stay shaped so long though, hadn't considered using it that way (I never really play druids)!Applying half-fiend and 9 levels of druid gets to cr12. Druid 9 is enough to wild shape into a medium earth elemental 24/7, so we're going to apply that, then file off the serial numbers so she still looks like an evil plant lady. Elemental form is nice because she doesn't need wild casting.
** spoiler omitted **
This is all before gear, long-term buffs, or figuring out the stats for the scissors. Already 2 hours in on it at this point.
Technically it's druid 8, at which point you have 3 uses of wild shape per day at 8 hours each. 3x8=24 hours, and you get them all back after resting when you regain your spells.
I did cheat a tiny bit by combining the half-fiend's fly speed with the elemental body's earth glide to create the fast burrow.
I think somewhere during the process I was planning on giving her spring attack to combine with the burrowing, but I didn't commit to it.
EDIT: Benslayer's got a lot of great ideas in there too.
EDIT2: I didn't apply any archetypes but one that trades out venom immunity would be good seeing as dryads are already immune to poison.
EDIT3: Going for the domain for her nature bond would be best since not only does she not have an animal companion but it would give an extra spell slot of each level.
These are some really great ideas and a big help. I actually really like the idea of the otherworldly Kimono idea Benslayer! I could use that to kidnap a party member as a form of "warning" or perhaps a way to go about nonlethal assault.
I think I'll combine the ideas a little. Alaurne may be a better fit than Dryad, though with some slight reflavoring in some aspects to fit the humanoid nature more. As for which class to use as enhancements how good is the Nature Fang archetype? It replaces the nature sense, wild empathy, and woodland stride features with Studied Target, and wild shape with Slayer Talents.