| macc5200 |
I'm looking for help creating a monster template for an original race of beings in my campaign and would appreciate any feedback anyone can give me. A quick rundown of the creatures: They are called The Void and essentially come from a plane of non-existence. Their sole function is to act as harbingers to prepare a world for the source of their power (name TBD), essentially an omnipotent force that eliminates all creation/matter it reaches (kind of like "The Nothing" from Neverending Story).
My idea is that these beings are innately formless, with a physical appearance difficult to describe by the viewer, since they are the absence of matter. They can "consume" other beings and take on the shape/abilities of the creature along with retaining their own innate abilities.
So I'm trying to develop what abilities these type of creatures would have, so I can easily slap the template onto whatever other type of beast I want to use (e.g. A void Bugbear, A void hydra, etc.). I started by borrowing some of the abilities given by the ghost monster template, such as incorporeal and flight. What other abilities/features does everyone think these creatures would have? Thanks for the help!
| Sysryke |
Not trying to stifle your creativity, just asking for clarity. While the names are your own, how do these beings and their plane differ from the negative energy plane? Are they similar/the same? If so, I'd scroll exiting templates for those types of creatures. If they are more distinct, in what ways?
Utter nothingness is obviously an abstract concept. Some might argue that even thought is something. We were mortals can't truly conceive of nothing. That being said, you might embrace the brain bendy contradictoriness of these creatures and look at abilities from the denizens of the planes of chaos, madness, and or thoughts. For the thought aspect, not sure if it's the Astral or Ethereal plane where thoughts/ideas are reality, but I'd look there.
| macc5200 |
Thanks, this helps a lot! I had heard of the astral and ethereal planes, but hadn't heard of the negative energy plane and it sounds very similar to what I'm going for, so I'll start by looking at creatures abilities from there.
They are meant to be a bit of a paradox being denizens of nothingness, and I certainly don't claim to be a good enough writer to describe it adequately. I like how you mentioned about madness, because I did picture the creatures as almost Lovecraftian and was already thinking about having the players make Will saves when interacting or even just viewing them in their natural form, or else suffer from affects like confusion, fear, panic, etc.