|
ok, when a Winter Hag is in a Coven the coven can cast Simulacrum (as well as other things)
Now - for plot reasons it would be good to have the W.Hag create a Simulacrum of herself and send it off on a task - but exactly what would the stats be like?
From the spell: Simulacrum creates an illusory duplicate of any creature. The duplicate creature is partially real and formed from ice or snow. It appears to be the same as the original, but it has only half of the real creature's levels or HD (and the appropriate hit points, feats, skill ranks, and special abilities for a creature of that level or HD). You can't create a simulacrum of a creature whose HD or levels exceed twice your caster level. You must make a Disguise check when you cast the spell to determine how good the likeness is. A creature familiar with the original might detect the ruse with a successful Perception check (opposed by the caster's Disguise check) or a DC 20 Sense Motive check.
I bolded the part I consider the important part...
so... anyone have any suggestions? How do I go about this creature build?
Looks like it would lose half it's HD (so BAB and Saves would go down) and half it's HP. Lose half it's feats (2) and half it's skill ranks. But what about "special abilities"?
For this very purpose, I gave a Winter Hag 10 levels of Winter Witch (Witch), and all 10 levels of Winter Witch (PrC)... now her clones still have full Winter Hag HD+10, and 10 levels of Witch. So they aren't useless.
The plan is to start sending them at the party pretty early. And constantly learn from each encounter... like Brainiac in the DCU. I haven't gotten a chance to use her, yet. But the party should be tired of killing her, and probably very good at killing her, by the time they meet the real her. They have been lulled into a false sense of security, and are hopefully surprised by the rest of her true abilities.
Like in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, when Dracula says, "BEHOLD, my TRUE powa!" Except it's a Winter Hag, not Dracula.
Hags, unlike Dragons, don't appear to have any special abilities tied to their HD, so I believe that the clones get all the special abilities (but with lower DC's due to lower HD).
Simulacrum is one of the least-defined spells there are. A winter hag's caster level should decrease if made into a simulacrum, but whether that means it should lose some of the SLAs is a totally open question.
|
|
thanks everyone - I guess you can see what I was thinking about.
VoodistMonk - While I agree with you for the most part, I don't think I want to start with that high a level monster. Hag with 10 levels would be... really tough. and realizing that she is in a Coven, that will add in two extra Hags (even if they are just Green ones). The PCs are 8th level now, and as you suggested this is going to be a recurring monster... so maybe I'll start adding levels as we go on? just start with the "Half-Power" Hag and build up from there.
AVR - yeah, that's the root of the question I guess. What would you advise?
I figured I'd drop two of the Feats (difference between 10 HD and 5 HD) and scale back the skills. Drop the BAB and Saves back for a 5 HD monster...and NOT give her the Ice Staff (at least at first).
The part of the story line that I haven't passed on to you is that one of the PCs is a Changeling and the Winter Hag is her mother. The long term mission of the Hag is to retrieve her daughter... though the players will not know this (we'll see how long it take to figure it out).
|
|
VoodistMonk - any suggestions on how to slowly build up the power on the Simulacrums over time? I figured I could increase the Hag by adding in a few levels over time - maybe even starting with a couple levels of Witch at first.
Then adding in a Winterwolf companion ... heck, maybe even starting with a Simulacrum of that too. Tack on some long term buff spells - Maybe handing the Simu the Ice Staff - realizing it only lasts a week. That sort of thing...
For which feats to drop off, maybe Great Fortitude and Alertness... for the reduction of the Stat Point she get's at 8 HD (pulling it back out as a 5 HD version) I was thinking of reducing WIS or STR, as those are odd stats and it wont effect the build.
As for advancing the Hag... the first additional feat I gave her was Ability Focus for her breath weapon. The damage is trivial, but the blindness for 1d6 rounds is worth investing in.
Then I gave her the only two Witch related feats I know about (Accursed and Split Hexes). But this doesn't really help you unless you dedicate her to being a Witch.
I based my build on Jadis, the Ice Queen from the Chronicles of Narnia. So, she is probably very different from what you have going on with your Hag.
As for the Coven... don't be afraid to explore the other critters that can join a Coven. The Witchfire is a fun addition to a Coven. You can search AON for monsters with the Coven keyword, there's a lot more than just Hags.
As far as cutting down a winter hag's SLAs on a simulacrum go, I probably would remove the ones which a caster level of 5 could not support and replace with lower-level spells which it could. Maybe waves of fatigue to ray of exhaustion, charm monster to charm person, wall of ice to ice slick. A CL 10 doesn't support control weather either of course so I might just reduce it to control winds, she can still make bad weather worse.
If the original handed the sim her ice staff then she'd have the cone of cold though at reduced CL.
This is entirely IMO. Like I said there aren't rules.
Why don't try winter hag with the winter Oracle it will be a very good chance based in the stereotype of a coven witch
See this for notes from a designer (I know, that doesn't make it RAW, but I go by it). The main thing to remember from his notes is that Simulacrums are illusory and cannot be healed or cured (or mended, as they are not constructs) by any means other than the lab use noted in the spell. Unless maintained, they eventually take enough damage to become ice again when they perish.
https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2ljov?Simulacrum#9
|
|
thanks 2bz2p!
that answers way more questions than I even considered asking - and will help prepare me for when (not if) my players (bless their little black undead hearts) think of them.
So I think I'm about set for this now. I'll try to check back in with an update and any final work I put into this. and to see if anyone else comes up with input.
See this for notes from a designer (I know, that doesn't make it RAW, but I go by it). The main thing to remember from his notes is that Simulacrums are illusory and cannot be healed or cured (or mended, as they are not constructs) by any means other than the lab use noted in the spell. Unless maintained, they eventually take enough damage to become ice again when they perish.
Linkified.
You say:
"cannot be healed ... by any means other"
Lets look at what the spell says:
A complex process requiring at least 24 hours, 100 gp per hit point, and a fully equipped magical laboratory can repair damage to a simulacrum.
This provides you with an additional way to repair the sim. It does not limit you to only this way. Normal cure spells work fine.
Since the Sea Hag has 4HD and FULL coven ability, the Simulacrum of the Winter Hag at 5HD will have all the coven ability. But she will need two associates. A pair of Simulacrums of a Witch 2 with the Coven Hex can do, or Sorcerer 2 w/Accursed(?) bloodline. This gives a pair of 1HD casters to act as the 'coven' for the mini-hag.
As to the SLAs of the hag herself, keeping the frequency of use will not materially affect the encounter, so I don't see a need to reduce them. The actual SLAs, however, are an issue. To wit: CL. Her new CL is 5 (From 10). This means she should be able to handle a max of a 3rd level spell rather than a 5th level spell.
charm monster -- DC indicates it is a 4th level spell, not a 3rd level spell.
cone of cold -- is a 5th level spell.
control weather -- is a 7th level spell.
wall of ice -- is a 4th level spell.
waves of fatigue -- is a 5th level spell.
The control weather is the kicker. Way over what she should be able to handle. It normally needs CL 13 or better. At 5 less, she would have an effective CL 8, which is enough for 4th level spells. So I would rule out cone of cold, control weather, and waves of fatigue. I would keep the rest.
Of her special abilities, I would say:
Breath Weapon (Su): Cut the damage from 4d6 to 2d6, but leave otherwise the same.
Ice Staff (Su): This is based on the Cone of Cold, which she no longer has. I would replace it with a Freezing Hands spell (cold version of Burning hands), and be a +1 Frost quarterstaff. Or no spell and just the staff.
Icewalking (Ex): No change
Snow Vision (Ex): No change
For stat change, while it should normally be the best stat (Charisma) that would be reduced, Hags, are generally considered a combat roll and not a spell roll. It's combat role is based off Strength, so that would be reduced.
For feats, I would say GM's choice. It could have a small affect on combat, but won't make much difference in my opinion.
For skills, I would ignore that change as it is very unlikely to play a significant role in any encounter, and thus a waste of effort to determine where the ranks go.
I would also change from DR 10/magic to DR 5/magic. Look at the monster templates, and they go from DR 0 to DR 5 to DR 10 based on HD, so the same used her makes sense.
Now apply the reduced HD to saves, but not to the DCs, since they are Charisma based, and that did not change.
The big kicker is the HP. Down to 42 from 85, and vulnerable to fire. Fail a save to a good fireball, and the sim is gone.
/cevah