How Barghests come to the material plane ?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


It seems they all come here as young barghest and can go back as greater barghests, but... how ? They have no abilities for doing that themselves.


Ths only means they can;t use their own power to travel. But there is plenty of other powers that they can use.

Presumably there are hidden portals that they can use (permanent, or working only in specific conditions - the setting books mentione sometimes such portals). They may get help from other outsiders, or even deities like Lamashtu. They may get called with Planar Binding, Planar Ally or occult rituals, but failing their task (or never receiving one) they get stuck on the Material Plane (at least one barghest from the Adventure Paths belongs to this category).


Sure but...they are supposed to ALL come to the material plane to eat and grow and come back when they are turned into greater barghests.

"ALL", so I suppose there's a reliable way to come and go back.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Where do you get that all of them come to the Material Plane? We just know that they need to feed on innocents to grow, but since they're outsiders, they won't die if they don't do it, they just don't grow stronger. If a barghest wants to get stronger, he needs to find a way to the Material Plane, but we don't know if all barghests manage to do that.

However, I think for most it's just the question of time. They all eventualy find a way to get to the Material Plane one way or another.

I'm also not sure if all of them go back. The Bestiary says

Quote:
A barghest eventually sheds its skin to transform into a greater barghest, at which point it often seeks out a tribe of goblins or other creatures to rule.

It doesn't seem like greater barghests necessarily need to go back, at the very least they don't need to hurry.


Same way most non-native outsiders get there: they get brought here by a spell or find a portal on their plane.


I would assume that since it is a fundamental part of their life cycle that adult barghests would be able to send them to the material plane.


MidsouthGuy wrote:
I would assume that since it is a fundamental part of their life cycle that adult barghests would be able to send them to the material plane.

Except barghest (like all other outsiders) are not creatures created by evolution. I believe the original barhest were from Hell, but at some point they were snatched by Lamashtu who created her own breed. Anyway, there's no reason to think that they are supposed to be a species capable of reaching their full potential on their own.

And the greater barghest don't have any innate ability to plane shift or call other barghest. The most they could do is subjugate a tribe of humanoids and made them perform a ritual to call another barghest.


Lore-wise Lamashtu followers would be fairly confident in making deals with a barghest so they would be a natural target for bindings. Other evil summoners would also know that barghests are easy to make deals with as long as it involves violence against innocents. There is a lot of appeal to binding something that doesn't intrinsically want your soul/death.

And on a more practical level, GMs like them.


Adjoint wrote:
MidsouthGuy wrote:
I would assume that since it is a fundamental part of their life cycle that adult barghests would be able to send them to the material plane.

Except barghest (like all other outsiders) are not creatures created by evolution. I believe the original barhest were from Hell, but at some point they were snatched by Lamashtu who created her own breed. Anyway, there's no reason to think that they are supposed to be a species capable of reaching their full potential on their own.

And the greater barghest don't have any innate ability to plane shift or call other barghest. The most they could do is subjugate a tribe of humanoids and made them perform a ritual to call another barghest.

Then maybe barghest spellcasters are used to send young barghests to the material plane. I could easily imagine some barghest coming of age rite presided over by some kind of community elder with spellcasting abilities (or even the Barghest Hero-Gods) that results in the juvenile barghest getting sent to the material plane to feed and grow stronger.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

The obvious answer is: snakes.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / General Discussion / How Barghests come to the material plane ? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in General Discussion