The General D&D thread

It depends: Is the paladin designed to be able to take hits and keep going? If so, you can skew a bit higher.

Still, at level 3... maybe two or three minions at most- IF you think one went down like a chump, well, bandit camp. Drop a new one in from the side.

So, I know there's a spell that you can put on someone that allows you to know their movements and location, like a tracking device or a Nightsister Blood Trail (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Blood_trail), but I can't for the life of me remember its name.

I think clerics of some sort may be able to access it?

On another note, I have good news and bad news:

The good news: my binder has found some fulfillment and spiritual comfort in life.

The bad news: said fulfillment comes from deciding to become a cleric of Vecna (who is apparently female in this campaign?). I'm betting that will put a damper on her already failing attempts to woo our cohort- a priest of Pelor.

edited 8th Feb '16 1:08:46 AM by Ashfire

Okay, so two or three minions to back the guy up. Got it. Any advice on what his warlock level should be, when you take the minions into account?

I think it's better just to assign legit-sounding numbers and spells to him arbitrarily, rather than through the entire player-character-making process and giving him all the appropriate class features; after all, there're going to be bits that are redundant or useless on a villain; all you need is what he's actually going to be doing on-screen.
As far as AC and hitpoint total, they just need to balance not going down first with not taking all day.

I think there're complicated-ish suggestions in the DMG and/or MM dealing with exactly how much damage he's going to be doing on most attacks and how hard his stuff is to evade, DC or plus-to-hit wise, but anything he does that alters the playing field, in addition to or instead of damage, need to be taken into account as well.
If he's just going to spam cantrips and the occasional scary spell all day, then that's much simpler to guesstimate the danger level of.

edited 8th Feb '16 8:59:11 PM by Knowlessman

i care but i'm restless, i'm here but i'm really gone, i'm wrong and i'm sorry, baby

A 3rd level Warlock will have a pact boon, two Eldritch Invocations, and only two spell slots.

He will be spamming Eldritch Blast. If you want to force your melee fighters to think tactically when going after him to smash his face in, give him repelling blast, so they have to force him to choose which one to keep out of his face, because he only gets one beam before level 5 (And if he IS level 5 then he knows more spells, and can pretty much roll the party with the help of his minions. Don't do that.). And give him Agonizing Blast. He's a warlock, he's taking Agonizing Blast. Hex too, if you want to be mean.

Remember, he doesn't need to be a full-fledged warlock. Just a good imitation of their combat abilities.

Also, which pact boon he uses, if you give him one, can change how he fights. A sword for if the party gets too close, or free range to have him snap off any cantrips he wants with the tome. You could theoretically give him a familiar, but that would serve little purpose when he has minions.

edited 8th Feb '16 9:15:49 PM by ultimatepheer

If you use the special familiar rules from the Monster Manual, the Warlock would gain magic resistance from the familiar, which is a big deal if you're facing off against a party of PCs. (You don't want your Big Bad going down to a single casting of Suggestion or whatever.) It can also offer abilities that other minions might not, like constant invisibility—very handy for scouting, surreptitious pickpocketing, psychological warfare, etc.

edited 12th Feb '16 9:30:47 PM by troacctid

Rhymes with "Protracted."

True; if he has a quasit, for instance, it can scout/keep watch earlier in the dungeon/camp/whatever it was, being all invisible and stuff, and possibly get caught and killed by the party or just be completely unnoticed by them but give the villain reason to say "I've been expecting you," or something equally or less cliched.

i care but i'm restless, i'm here but i'm really gone, i'm wrong and i'm sorry, baby

This is also a villain, not a PC - you could give them two or even all three of the Warlock's pact boons, to give them more options, if nothing else.

So, my 4th Ed. party opened the wrong door and let the Evil out of its Can. What's basically the avatar of Yog-Sothoth has been released into the world once more...and she's actually on their side. She put herself in the can when she realized there was no ascending to join the Elder Gods, she's a tool they don't even deign to notice, and what will really happen when they fuck up reality.

In the mean time, a lot of that power that's been contained gets loose and blasts the party members who opened the door on its way out.

So, considering having them go a little insane, maybe adapting sanity rules and madnesses for them. Also, these forces poked around in their heads trying to find a form they could take on, corrupting their image of what matters most to them. It hit our dragonborn paladin, the human warden, and the eladrin "monk", so I'm thinking:

• Bahamut and Tiamat turned into an Eldritch Abomination. Like a dragon with dozens of heads, tongue-heads, Color out of Space-scales, etc.
• Basically, Shub-Niggurath takes over a forest. An army of Lovecraftian ents and wildlife trying to consume everything organic, each one beautiful and unique and horrifying.
• Not certain what I'd do with the monk. How would you pervert the concept of martial arts via Cthulhu Mythos? The psionic part can be exploited.

edited 17th Feb '16 9:02:21 AM by Rotpar

"But don't give up hope. Everyone is cured sooner or later. In the end we shall shoot you." - O'Brien, 1984

@7909 Well, for what to do with the monk... what does the martial artist who looks within himself do when the self within looks back?

Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.

Hmmm...kind some kind of Eldritch Abomination Jungian Shadow?

Part of the problem is that this is the replacement character who is practically the same character. We don't know too much about her other than she's very similar to the original.

edited 17th Feb '16 11:17:22 AM by Rotpar

"But don't give up hope. Everyone is cured sooner or later. In the end we shall shoot you." - O'Brien, 1984

This week, our party learned that My Chemical Romance lied to us. Vampires will, indeed hurt you.

As a side note, if I ever want to scare players away from doing something or get them to feel like a situation is serious, negative levels seem to be the way to go.

I plan to use some home brewed high-tier martial classes I've found for a game. What I aim to do is make them something special, that only a few people have, and also hand this status over to druids, wizard and clerics.

What I'd like, in contrast, is some low tier casters to fill in blanks.

It depends on the edition.

3.5 has Adept to fill the role of "Expendable useless mage" for example.

Makes me think of a thing I saw in a thread (this is for Pathfinder, but converting to 3.5 is easy enough)

"What the PCs see: A twenty foot by twenty foot stone room, its floor ten feet below the floor of the hallway leading in. In the center lies an ornate coffin with no lid. The interior of the coffin is lined with silk. A frail, emaciated man wearing expensive finery lies in the coffin with his arms crossed over his chest. A ring on his finger is set with a large, glowing gemstone. A wooden stake protrudes from the man's heart. The room is otherwise empty.

What is actually going on: The entire setup - coffin, man, ring, stake, everything - is a dread vampire failed-apotheosis mimic. The gemstone on the ring is actually the mimic's eye, so anyone who studies it too closely is targeted by a dominate. As soon as someone does something stupid, the mimic unleashes its horrific appearance, then casts deeper darkness as a surprise round. Anyone the mimic hits with a slam (or who touched the mimic) is grappled with no escape, making it easy for the mimic to pin and blood drain to death. For bonus points, the entrance to this room is not at ground level, making it very hard to find your way out in the dark.

I threw two separate parties at this encounter - both fled with half the party dead, bricked up the entrance to the room, and swore never to return. In both cases the party paladin was the first to die - one tried to behead the vampire to finish killing it (and of course got their sword stuck to the mimic) and the other got grappled right off and only carried a two handed weapon..."

Yeah. Vampires can put the fear of the DM back into your players if you use them right.

edited 26th Feb '16 10:59:48 PM by BlackSunNocturne

Or if you decide you're a Tomb of Horrors-type DM. :|

i care but i'm restless, i'm here but i'm really gone, i'm wrong and i'm sorry, baby

Mimics can imitate Vampires?

Was there any indication it was a mimic beforehand?

I believe the mimic is a vampire in this situation.

With all the intelligence, spells, spelllike abilities, and stat gains that vampirism brings, and given to a natural, perfect shapeshifter with infinite patience.

A vampire stalking you is scary.
A vampire is stalking you and can turn into your bed, your closet door, the porch, even a section of ground that looks no different than any other 10 x 10 section of ground.

That. Is. Terrifying.

Except the Vampire template can only be applied to a Humanoid or Monstrous Humanoid. A Mimic is an Aberration.

edited 27th Feb '16 7:06:14 AM by Aetol

Worldbuilding is fun, writing is a chore

Actually putting the Dread vampire template on a Failed Apotheosis Mimic works.

“Dread Vampire” is an acquired template that can be added to any living creature with an Intelligence score of 3 or higher (referred to hereafter as the base creature). A dread vampire uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

The regular Vampire template can't be applied to a Mimic. Dread Vampire on the other hand....

,What Arcan said. The Mimic is the Vampire.

I've yet to use a mimic in my campaign. I think I should, but in a somehow more creative manner than the basic chest. Maybe next time they go on a boat... the whole vessel is a mimic.

That would be a Greater Mimic

Might be. I'm not too persnickety when it comes to things like that.

@Aeotol & Black Sun: Also, Pathfinder vampires can be added to any creature with 5 or more HD

As in, there is vampire decapus in one AP

Anyone remember how earlier in this thread, I asked for advice on making the Big Bad of a campaign I was running? Well, I've got my plans for the session about finished, and am looking for some feedback. I've made the session plans into a pdf, which you can read here.

Anything you guys think I should change about it?

edited 29th Feb '16 1:39:32 PM by MapleSamurai