Author Topic: Mindstealer Master  (Read 7382 times)

Offline phaedrusxy

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Mindstealer Master
« on: October 30, 2014, 11:52:25 PM »
Mindstealer Master


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Brave words. I've heard them before, from thousands of species across thousands of worlds, since long before you were created.
-The Borg Queen, a Mindstealer Master

 The Mindstealer Master is the ultimate monster spawning factory, assimilating psychic and genetic information from myriad creatures and recombining it in new ways, some of which may have never been seen before in any creature that has previously existed.

BECOMING A MINDSTEALER MASTER
The Mindstealer Master typically starts out as a Mindstealer Drone which encounters a Deepspawn and assimilates its abilities.

 ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Must have taken all levels of the Mindstealer Drone and Deepspawn monster classes.

Class Skills
 All skills are class skills for a Mindstealer Master.
Skills Points at Each  Level: 4 + int

Hit Dice: d8


Level
Base
Attack Bonus
Fort
Save
Ref
Save
Will
Save

Special
1st+0+0+0+2Spawn Drone, Absorb Drone, Delegated Power, Deceivingly Innocent Form, Telepathic Command
2nd+1+0+0+3Pre-programming, Expanded Archive
3rd+2+1+1+3Advanced hardware, Sleeper Agent
4th+3+1+1+4Universal Knowledge, Revive Drone
5th+3+1+1+4Reprogram Drone, Universal Mastery
6th+4+2+2+5Assimilate
7th+5+2+2+5Resistance is Futile
8th+6+2+2+6Adaptation
9th+6+3+3+6Eternal Overlord

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The Mindstealer Master does not gain any new proficiencies with armor, weapons, or shields.

Spawn Drone (Su): The Mindstealer Master may spawn Mindstealer Drones, which are 100% loyal to him (as thralls/believers of Thrallherd). This is a modified version of Spawn Child, from the Master's Deepspawn levels, and functions as that ability except as noted here. The Mindstealer Master (hereafter referred to as "the Master") may also use Early Birth to create these special Spawn Children more rapidly, but they will then die and decay as normal within 1d4 minutes if not Absorbed by the master before then.

At first level, the Master may only spawn Drones with a single level of Mindstealer Drone, and no other class levels. However, such drones may advance by gaining experience points (usually done by draining creatures of all their memories and assimilating them). The Master may control a number of drones at once equal to its own hit dice, but the advancement of the drones is limited. The master may only have one “full strength” drone with hit dice equal to the Master’s minus 2, one drone with the Master’s hit dice minus 3, and so on. Drones with only 1-3 levels of Mindstealer Drone and no other levels or hit dice only count as 1 hit die creatures for the purposes of these limitations. So the Master may control up to his hit dice of these at once. The Master's drones may not take levels of Mindstealer Master while they remain under his control. If they do, they become "free-willed" Masters of their own, and migrate to a new area so as to not compete with their Master's food source.

Any drones which gain enough hit dice (via class levels) to exceed the Master’s control limitations become uncontrolled. The Master may absorb other drones to regain control over a “renegade” drone (unless the renegade's has an equal or higher number of hit dice than it's master), but drones which have been uncontrolled for more than a week become “free-willed” and cannot be reclaimed by their Master. All Mindstealer Drones and Masters consider these renegades to be a threat to their race, and will spare no expense to exterminate them. However, if the renegade drone survives long enough to become a Mindstealer Master itself, then the others will accept it back into the "family".

These controlled minions replace the Favorite Child ability of Deepspawn, as the Favorite Child would just be too jealous of all of these Drones, and no doubt have to be put down after it started fighting with them.

Absorb Drone (Su): The Mindstealer Master can reabsorb living drones it has created to gain all of their stolen knowledge (including their Psychic Archive). The Mindstealer Master must absorb at least one drone per day or begin to “starve”, taking one point of intelligence drain per day which cannot be healed until it "feeds" by absorbing a drone. "Blank" drones which do not have any stolen memories do not provide any sustenance, and so are useless as "food" for the master, even if they were created with the Pre-programming ability. Absorbing a drone instantly cures all Intelligence drain the Master has suffered from starvation. Absorb Drone has a range of touch and requires a move action from the Master to use.

Delegated Power (Ex): For every Mindstealer Drone under its command which has more than three hit dice, the Mindstealer Master itself counts as one level lower for the purposes of which forms it can access with its Change Shape and Psychic Combine class features (from its Mindstealer Drone levels). For example, if a 3rd level Mindstealer Master (total character level 14) had absorbed the abilities of a 12th level psion, but currently had 3 Mindstealer Drones under its command with more than 3 hit dice, then it could no longer access any of the abilities of that psion via its Change Shape or Psychic Combine abilities. It could still impart them to its spawn via Pre-Programming or Advanced Hardware (see below), though.

Deceivingly Innocent Form (Ex): The Mindstealer Master receives Deceivingly Innocent Form as a bonus feat.

Telepathic Command (Su): The Master can communicate telepathically with any drones under its command if they are within 1 mile. Since this is a very limited form of telepathy, it does not allow the Master to qualify for feats or classes which require the Telepathy ability.

Pre-programming (Su): A Mindstealer Master of at least second level can create drones which already have knowledge of forms within their Psychic Archive, as if they’d absorbed them. These forms must be from the Master’s own Psychic Archive. In addition, the Master may imprint knowledge of class abilities from his psychic archive onto drones he creates. Drones created in this way may have class levels up to one less than the Master, but the first three levels must always be of Mindstealer Drone.

Expanded Archive (Ex): At second level, the Mindstealer Drone's Psychic Archive expands. It can now "remember" up to twice its total hit dice of creatures.

Advanced hardware (Su): Once a Mindstealer Master reaches level 3 of this class, it can create drones that are an actual monster hybrid of a form the Master has genetic knowledge of. The created spawn receives Monster Blooded and Monster Hybrid as bonus feats, and hit dice according to the creature chosen for these feats. The total hit dice of the spawn may not exceed the Master’s level -1, and the first three levels must always be of Mindstealer Drone. If the drone ever becomes free-willed (it's Master is destroyed, or exceeds his capacity of controlled drones), the Drone loses the bonus feats, and must choose two of its other feats to replace with them. This ability does not supercede the control limits of Create Spawn, or any other abilities of the Mindstealer Master.

Sleeper Agent (Su): Upon reaching 3rd level, not only does the Mindstealer Master gain the ability to shape the bodies of her drones as she wishes. She also may give them any memories she wants, including the memories of creatures she has within her Psychic Archive, creatures she has Assimilated (see Assimilate below), and she may also fabricate memories entirely from scratch, although in the latter case such creatures have inherently unstable minds and are prone to breakdowns (-4 to Will saves vs. any Mind Affecting abilities, once per week Will save vs. DC 15 or go permanently insane as the Insanity spell). She may program such creatures such that they do not even know that they are Drones, and may believe themselves to be the creature whose mind she has implanted within them. She may alter or implant memories into these minds as they are formed, and/or block off certain aspects of the mind and memories which will only be released at a certain time, or after witnessing a specific trigger. A frequent usage of this ability is to replace a creature with a Drone which thinks it is the original, and program it to then "remember" that it is a drone, and what its mission is (often assassination) once it has passed within some area of high security.

Universal Knowledge (Ex): The Mindstealer Master has by 4th level amassed an amazing depth and diversity of stolen memories and knowledge. When making any skill check, it may use 1/2 its HD (rounded up) in place of the number of ranks it has in any skill (even if that number is 0). In addition, it counts as being 'trained' in all skills that can only be used by someone with ranks in them.

Revive Drone (Su): The Master may revive a drone which has been dead for no more than one week and whose body is mostly intact. This ability has a range of touch and requires one hour of concentration. This otherwise works as Raise Dead, except the drone does not lose a level.

Reprogram Drone (Su): Starting at 5th level, the Mindstealer Master may use Psychic Reformation on any drones it controls as a standard action with no XP costs. This ability has a range of touch. It may only imprint the drones with abilities that it has knowledge of within its Genetic Knowledge (Deepspawn) or Psychic Archive (Mindstealer Drone) abilities, however, and the drone must meet any prerequisites needed for imprinted abilities.

Universal Mastery (Ex): At level 5 and up, the number of creatures the Mindstealer Master may remember via its Psychic Archive is unlimited.

Assimilate (Su): At 6th level, the Mindstealer Master has learned to infect and take over creatures, as well as consume and recreate them from scratch. Any creature hit by the Master's bite or tentacle attack must make a Fortitude save (DC 10+1/2 Master's hit dice + Master's Int modifier) or be infected with a supernatural disease which will slowly turn it into a Mindstealer Drone under the Master's control. There is no incubation time for this disease, and affected target takes 1d4 points of Charisma drain immediately and another 1d4 Charisma drain per hour. Each instance of Charisma drain after the first may be resisted with another Fortitude save (same DC), but this does not cure the creature of the infection, but merely slows its completion.

This infection is a powerful curse, not a natural disease, and such even works on creatures normally immune to diseases. Unlike normal diseases, this disease continues until the victim reaches Charisma 0 (and is converted into a Mindstealer Drone) or is cured as described below.

To cure the disease (and prevent Assimilation), the curse must first be broken with break enchantment or remove curse (requiring a DC 20 caster level check for either spell), and then the disease can be magically cured as any normal disease. This only works if the victim has not been Assimilated (drained of all charisma and turned into a Mindstealer Drone). Once a victim has been Assimilated, only a Wish or Miracle may convert them back to their previous forms. Even death and subsequent resurrection will not remove the curse once it has reached its conclusion. Additionally, if the target has been Assimilated and then Absorbed by the Mindstealer Master, the Master must first be destroyed before they can be brought back by any means short of direct deific intervention.

When the target's Charisma is drained to zero it is Assimilated. The Master chooses how many Mindstealer Drone levels to add to it, or how many of its levels to replace with Drone levels (up to 3). The target keeps any other current levels, and starts with knowledge of its previous form. If any of its levels are racial class levels, it gains Monster Blood and Monster Hybrid as bonus feats as with the Master's Advanced Hardware ability. If the Assimilated target has as many or more hit dice than the Master, then it is too powerful to be controlled, and instead lapses into a coma from which it can only be awakened from by consecutive casting of Remove Curse, Cure Disease, and Restoration (or other magic which can remove a curse, a disease, and restore the ability drain).

Resistance is Futile (Su): At 7th level, the Master has learned enough about creature physiology that it may modify the abilities it has stolen to bypass resistance and immunity. however, such modifications are complex, and hence only the Master itself or the most powerful drone it can create (master's HD-1) can benefit from this ability. When choosing one absorbed ability to use (via Change Shape or Psychic Combine), the Master or Drone may modify that ability to bypass 5 points of damage resistance per Mindstealer Master level. It may also affect creatures normally immune to the ability, but such creatures get a +5 to their saving throws against the ability and ignore half of the damage of the ability (which is not bypassed). If the ability does not do damage and does not normally allow a saving throw, the target has a 50% chance to ignore the ability each time it is subjected to it. The Drone or Master may only have one such immunity-bypassing ability at a time, but may change which ability Resistance is Futile applies to each time they select another absorbed ability to access via Change Shape or Psychic Combine.

Adaptation (Ex): The Master's knowledge of the myriad defensive and offensive abilities of creatures has advanced to the point that it may create new defenses against abilities it has been exposed to, even if no creatures which it has genetic or psychic knowledge of has such a resistance. The Master may grant itself or a drone it Spawns or Reprograms the ability to become partial immune to any ability that it has personally been affected by, or which any drone which it has previously reabsorbed has been affected by. While active, this partial immunity gives the Master or Drone a 50% chance of ignoring the effects of the ability each time it is affected by it.

Each Master or Drone may only have one such Adaptation at a time. The Master may change the ability its own Adaptation protects against as a Standard action, and may change the Adaptation of all Drones which are within range of its Telepathic Command as part of the same action, if it so wishes.

Eternal Overlord (Su): The Mindstealer Master has learned to leave a psychic imprint of itself within all the creatures it creates. If the Master is ever destroyed, this psychic seed will then germinate within one of them over 1d4 days, with the Master being reborn within the body of its offspring. The Master will then immediately reconfigure its new body to match its own one. This works as the Clone spell, except that all creatures created by the master count as clones.
« Last Edit: December 04, 2014, 08:41:45 AM by phaedrusxy »
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Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Mindstealer Master
« Reply #1 on: November 09, 2014, 11:17:45 AM »
So over 100 views and no comments? I think I addressed several concerns on this in another forum. So does that mean it's perfect now? :D
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Offline oslecamo

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Re: Mindstealer Master
« Reply #2 on: November 09, 2014, 11:56:29 AM »
Delegated power +advanced hardware is still broken as all hell as it means you're playing a whole party of your own where the members are just one level behind the actual players. That's the main thing I complained in the other forum, wasn't addressed in any way, saw no reason to suppose anything else important was adressed, got better ways to spend my time.

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Mindstealer Master
« Reply #3 on: November 09, 2014, 02:12:48 PM »
Delegated power +advanced hardware is still broken as all hell as it means you're playing a whole party of your own where the members are just one level behind the actual players. That's the main thing I complained in the other forum, wasn't addressed in any way, saw no reason to suppose anything else important was adressed, got better ways to spend my time.
That's not possible. Let's see what the worst case scenario is:

For a Master that is ECL 20, it can have one ECL 19, one ECL 18, one ECL 17, etc, down to ECL 3, where it could have three drones with only Mindstealer Drone levels, for a total of 19 drones. The 16 drones spanning ECL 19 to ECL 4 could all be monster hybrids of some kind, but they'd have to take up 3 of their levels with Mindstealer Drone. Mindstealer Drone limits them to forms lower than their own HD and CR, so at best the ECL 19 drone could assume forms with 18 HD or CR. So your "party" is going to be equivalent to ECL 18, 17, 16, 15, and so on, so substantially weaker than a party of 20th level characters (but of course still strong). Meanwhile, the Mindstealer Master is basically a useless blob as it can't assume any forms from its Psychic Archive at all. So you're trading max power for numbers of actions and abilities.
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Offline ketaro

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Re: Mindstealer Master
« Reply #4 on: November 09, 2014, 04:05:07 PM »
Thats actually not true because Delegated Power puts no restriction like that onto Advanced Hardware and Advanced Hardware itself puts no limitation on itself like that.

Delegated Power ONLY reduces your effective Master level for Change Shape & Pyschic Combine and nothing else. As read.

While that limitation you described applies and is described in the Create Spawn power, Advanced Hardware reads to supercede that limitation, and makes sense in that reading in that it IS coming off as a higher level version/upgrade to your normal Create Spawn ability, effectively removing it and giving you 20 Drones at 20th level that are all just 1 level lower than you.
« Last Edit: November 09, 2014, 04:08:53 PM by ketaro »

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Mindstealer Master
« Reply #5 on: November 10, 2014, 07:35:57 AM »
Thats actually not true because Delegated Power puts no restriction like that onto Advanced Hardware and Advanced Hardware itself puts no limitation on itself like that.

Delegated Power ONLY reduces your effective Master level for Change Shape & Pyschic Combine and nothing else. As read.

While that limitation you described applies and is described in the Create Spawn power, Advanced Hardware reads to supercede that limitation, and makes sense in that reading in that it IS coming off as a higher level version/upgrade to your normal Create Spawn ability, effectively removing it and giving you 20 Drones at 20th level that are all just 1 level lower than you.
Well that was certainly not the intent. I will edit it later to change that (no time right now).
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Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Mindstealer Master
« Reply #6 on: November 30, 2014, 04:53:16 PM »
Addressed this by explicitly stating that Delegated Power doesn't ignore the Create Spawn limits on drones.
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Offline oslecamo

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Re: Mindstealer Master
« Reply #7 on: December 01, 2014, 12:27:18 PM »
Very well, with that out of the way here's my next critiques.
-The power math is still off. Assuming a simple scenario of Mastah of level X with a couple max drones, that's still a mini party of dude level X-1 and two dudes level X-2 (mastah himself), which would be an EQL of level X+1, not taking in account all the other bonus. Strongly suggest capping the max drone at mastah HD-2.
-Universal Knowledge... No, just no. There's dozens of other monsters that would be better qualified for this ability, and besides max ranks in every skill is the kind of thing begging for be exploited by itself. Suggest instead ability to take 10 on all skill checks or something like that.
-Resistance is Futile... Indeed it is. Pick all those basic level 3-drones that don't weakn you. Strap them to your shoulders or something. Give them forms that have some save-or-die attack. Now throw a dozen of them or so, that although they have crappy DCs, your opponents still fail on natural 1s. There is a reason why I make immunity-piercing only comes online at high levels. So you can't just grab lots of low-level monsters with some leadership-style ability and force your opponent to roll until they get a 1. You could make this only benefit the Mastah itself (or just one minion) and would still be pretty good.


Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Mindstealer Master
« Reply #8 on: December 02, 2014, 11:46:47 AM »
Very well, with that out of the way here's my next critiques.
-The power math is still off. Assuming a simple scenario of Mastah of level X with a couple max drones, that's still a mini party of dude level X-1 and two dudes level X-2 (mastah himself), which would be an EQL of level X+1, not taking in account all the other bonus. Strongly suggest capping the max drone at mastah HD-2.
Sounds reasonable. Brings it more in line with Leadership.
Quote
-Universal Knowledge... No, just no. There's dozens of other monsters that would be better qualified for this ability, and besides max ranks in every skill is the kind of thing begging for be exploited by itself. Suggest instead ability to take 10 on all skill checks or something like that.
How about basically giving the "bardic knack" + Jack of All Trades combo (half virtual ranks in all skills that don't stack with real ranks, and can use all skills as if trained)?
Quote
-Resistance is Futile... Indeed it is. Pick all those basic level 3-drones that don't weakn you. Strap them to your shoulders or something. Give them forms that have some save-or-die attack. Now throw a dozen of them or so, that although they have crappy DCs, your opponents still fail on natural 1s. There is a reason why I make immunity-piercing only comes online at high levels. So you can't just grab lots of low-level monsters with some leadership-style ability and force your opponent to roll until they get a 1. You could make this only benefit the Mastah itself (or just one minion) and would still be pretty good.
Sure.

Edit: Done (used the JoAT + bardic knack combo above for Universal Knowledge).
« Last Edit: December 02, 2014, 12:11:56 PM by phaedrusxy »
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Offline oslecamo

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Re: Mindstealer Master
« Reply #9 on: December 04, 2014, 06:52:38 AM »
I would suggest that it doesn't give a crapload of ranks, and you just use the Bardic Knack text: "When making any skill check, you can use 1/2 your bard level HD (rounded up) in place of the number of ranks you have in the skill (even if that number is 0)." Then another clause that you can use "trained only" skills even if you have no ranks on them.

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Mindstealer Master
« Reply #10 on: December 04, 2014, 08:42:19 AM »
Replaced the text. Anything else stand out as FUBAR? :D
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Offline oslecamo

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Re: Mindstealer Master
« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2014, 07:18:12 AM »
Ugly picture is stll ugly, would much rather see girl in frilly dress, but crunch-wise looks fine now, added to the index!

Offline Rekmond

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Re: Mindstealer Master
« Reply #12 on: January 07, 2016, 12:57:07 AM »
Question.

How would the God's Avatar ability interact with Delegated Power?

Would they have separate pools entirely or otherwise....
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Offline ~Corvus~

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Re: Mindstealer Master
« Reply #13 on: January 17, 2016, 03:32:17 AM »
Resistance is Futile (Su): At 7th level, the Master has learned enough about creature physiology that it may modify the abilities it has stolen to bypass resistance and immunity. however, such modifications are complex, and hence only the Master itself or the most powerful drone it can create (master's HD-1) can benefit from this ability. When choosing one absorbed ability to use (via Change Shape or Psychic Combine), the Master or Drone may modify that ability to bypass 5 points of damage resistance per Mindstealer Master level. It may also affect creatures normally immune to the ability, but such creatures get a +5 to their saving throws against the ability and ignore half of the damage of the ability (which is not bypassed). If the ability does not do damage and does not normally allow a saving throw, the target has a 50% chance to ignore the ability each time it is subjected to it. The Drone or Master may only have one such immunity-bypassing ability at a time, but may change which ability Resistance is Futile applies to each time they select another absorbed ability to access via Change Shape or Psychic Combine.
This has me a little twisted.
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