Author Topic: 2 players requested for nightmarish saga of undead piglets and ghost whores  (Read 11914 times)

Offline Frogman55

  • Hero Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 806
  • I'm not very new!
    • View Profile
Jester's Realm.

K, it looks like its level 7, ?rules light?, dialogue heavy, homebrew and odd concepts welcome?

I'm tempted, but I may have to mull over things a hair.

I'm actually looking for someone that would let me actually try out an arcane swordsage (Sor0's new handbook inspired me a bit.

You start with 26000 xp, 28 point buy, flaws are up to you if you wanna risk them, max hp on first die, average thereafter, wealth will depend on whether or not you wish to be a native of the demiplane.  I would highly suggest going with native as if you are a new arrival you start with clothes and a small sack of money.

So level 7, with 5k xp handy for things like LA buyoff or crafting.

I'm going to take some time to put together the actual build, but I'd like to go with a Puppeteer Arcane Swordsage (Although I'm seriously considering a psion option instead).

Thumbnail Background: The Thing with No Name:

Thing currently resides upon Spittle (an otherwise unremarkable changeling rogue). Spittle wears an odd looking Pauldron, strapped down with grey leather. The Pauldron is made from old rusty iron inlaid with corroded copper. The old bit of armor appears magical upon inspection, though no actual functionality is apparent when identified - in actuality it only appears magical because the Thing resides within the rounded bit of metal.

His general practice is to charm potential wearers, convince them that he is, in fact, an intelligent item that can help them out (tailoring his persuasion to match their own preconceptions and desires), then dominating them entirely once they put him on. Spittle has only been wearing the Thing for a few days. The last owner was a brutal half orc who wore the Thing as a codpiece (that state of affairs only lasted a week until the Thing enticed Spittle to kill the oaf in his sleep). Before that a halfling Sorcerer wore him as a helmet. And so on.

The Thing isn't really interested in world domination, or killing everyone, or amassing wealth. He is, however, absolutely rabid about discovering secrets, trying new things, and seeing new places.
« Last Edit: April 29, 2014, 10:25:33 AM by Frogman55 »

Offline bhu

  • Uncle Kittie
  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 16054
  • Fnord bitches
    • View Profile
Th elinks dont work

Offline Frogman55

  • Hero Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 806
  • I'm not very new!
    • View Profile
Th elinks dont work
Well that's irritating.

The puppeteer is a little psionic monster in the pSRD. Linky
The arcane swordsage uses SorO's interpretations (which actually leave it making sense, which in turn makes me want to try it. Linky(For some reason I'm having trouble figuring out how to link to a specific post in a thread. I'll have to figure it out).

Ever read The Puppet Masters by Heinlein? It's like that. Little bug thingies that can touch people and take them over (though in this case the target has to fail a save against charm first). I want to play the bug. I'm considering levels in thrallherd or mindbender, and just not bothering with followers (my cohort would be my, ah, mount).

Offline VennDygrem

  • Epic Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 4587
  • Exceptionally Average
    • View Profile

Offline bhu

  • Uncle Kittie
  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 16054
  • Fnord bitches
    • View Profile
Th elinks dont work
Well that's irritating.

The puppeteer is a little psionic monster in the pSRD. Linky
The arcane swordsage uses SorO's interpretations (which actually leave it making sense, which in turn makes me want to try it. Linky(For some reason I'm having trouble figuring out how to link to a specific post in a thread. I'll have to figure it out).

Ever read The Puppet Masters by Heinlein? It's like that. Little bug thingies that can touch people and take them over (though in this case the target has to fail a save against charm first). I want to play the bug. I'm considering levels in thrallherd or mindbender, and just not bothering with followers (my cohort would be my, ah, mount).

At the levels you guys are playing not many opponents would fail a DC 13 save to avoid the charm. 

Offline phaedrusxy

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 10708
  • The iconic spambot
    • View Profile
I keep looking at this title and thinking it says a "nightmarish saga of undead piglet ghost whores" and thinking to myself "that sounds weird even for bhu". :P
I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

Offline Frogman55

  • Hero Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 806
  • I'm not very new!
    • View Profile
Th elinks dont work
Well that's irritating.

The puppeteer is a little psionic monster in the pSRD. Linky
The arcane swordsage uses SorO's interpretations (which actually leave it making sense, which in turn makes me want to try it. Linky(For some reason I'm having trouble figuring out how to link to a specific post in a thread. I'll have to figure it out).

Ever read The Puppet Masters by Heinlein? It's like that. Little bug thingies that can touch people and take them over (though in this case the target has to fail a save against charm first). I want to play the bug. I'm considering levels in thrallherd or mindbender, and just not bothering with followers (my cohort would be my, ah, mount).

At the levels you guys are playing not many opponents would fail a DC 13 save to avoid the charm.
Hopefully I can boost my Cha and use other methods to increase that save throw. But it's still a work in progress. I'm not 100% sure yet even what questions I want to ask. I know the concept will need some DM help, but given that we've got an awakened spider in the party, well, I'm not sure this is too much of a stretch.

Speaking of, Bhu, if I'm interested in a monster without LA, how do you want to play it? The puppeteer, for example, just has 1HD of racial hit die, and no LA.

It's racial abilities are -10Str, +4Dex, +4 Int, +6 wis, and +4 Cha. It also has 20' of telepethy, 60ft of blindsight, and some moderate psi-abilities. In general, if it has a host, it will only take actions on its own other than move actions to direct its host; in extreme situations it will act on its own to save itself.

How would you want to figure LA? It's clearly got 1 racial HD to contend with, and I'd assume that I could use point buy on it (for starters, if the Thing had a Cha of 20, then the save would be 16 (still not great, but better), not including other options that could potentially improve the save DC).
« Last Edit: April 30, 2014, 09:57:31 AM by Frogman55 »

Offline oslecamo

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 10080
  • Creating monsters for my Realm of Darkness
    • View Profile
    • Oslecamo's Custom Library (my homebrew)
And as previously mentioned the group is renting a haunted brothel as it's base of operations, pissing off the Church of the Goddess of Death.

And you may have an unliving artifact of prophesy known as the Dethpig.

And your secretary is a weird Dryad.

And the monk is haunted by a flock pf potentially sentient chickens.
But what's the party's general motivation/objective? Running the brothel? Following Dethpig's prophecies? How will my character end up joining them?

Asking this because my character's crunch is mostly done, but now I need fluff and I realize I have no idea if she would have any common goals with the party! :P

Or is this an "each one can bring their flavor of madness" campaign? :p

Offline VennDygrem

  • Epic Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 4587
  • Exceptionally Average
    • View Profile
Frogman: I may be wrong, but I believe creatures with only one racial hit die replace the hit die with their first class level.

Offline bhu

  • Uncle Kittie
  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 16054
  • Fnord bitches
    • View Profile

But what's the party's general motivation/objective? Running the brothel? Following Dethpig's prophecies? How will my character end up joining them?

Asking this because my character's crunch is mostly done, but now I need fluff and I realize I have no idea if she would have any common goals with the party! :P

Or is this an "each one can bring their flavor of madness" campaign? :p

The party was kidnapped from their respective planes by an insane Overdeity and placed within a Demi-Plane that is essentially un-escapable (sort of a goofery Ravenloft).  They got placed smack dab in the middle of things when the local Wizards college activated a forgotten artifact created by the God of Fear in some plot to take over the world by fulfilling an equally forgotten prophecy of some sort, and being the guiding hand behind it.  So they defeated the Wizards Guild by bringing it to the attention of said God, who is now their patron (and who coincidentally destroyed a small portion of the city in the process of wiping out the bad guys). 

Unfortunately for the party the awakened  kung-fu zombies the wizards were using as henchmen escaped vowing revenge, and may now be indulging in a political take over of the Evil Minions Guild (also sometimes referred to as the Evil Minions Union), which the party has recently done favors for (you're also well liked by the Assassin's GUild as you're their unofficial dating/hook up point). 

A grateful city set up the party as an official adventurers guild, and they bought a base that turns out to be a brothel haunted by the ghosts of it's former tenants who were murdered during less enlightened times.  Undead are illegal within the city so the group has had to keep quiet (especially since one of the party has taken a shine to one of the girls).  Complicating matters, in exchange for your patronage the God of Fear (Benny) has required you to temporarily store (hide)  another artifact of prophecy, this one taking the form of an intelligent undead piglet that most of the world would kill you to possess.  Benny is currently living in the basement hiding from his ex-wife Natasha (the Goddess of Death) whose day may have been royally fucked over by the activation of the first artifact.  While you're hiding him, the priests of Natasha drop by demanding you destroy your base or hand it to them because they just know it has to be haunted and they're tasked with returning the undead (who are usually less evil than said priests) to the afterlife, which is kind of a gulag run by Natasha. 

In short the parties motivations are:

Make the shitload of money necessary to pay their bills and repay some debts
Ensure no one realizes a god is hiding in their basement, especially his ex and her clergy
Ensure no one realizes they have the Dethpig
Ensure no one realizes there really are ghosts in the brothel
Avoid the machinations and attempted revenge of Brains (the kung fu zombie and his cohorts)
Avoid reprisals from the remnants of the local College of Wizardry
Survive repeated assaults by the Church of the Death Goddess

Options for joining:

They just had their grand opening and announced they're hiring
You could be pissed at the Death Goddess and may have heard they oppose her or some other rumor
You could know Goober, a local Dretch/Freed Outsider who is a local bartender at the monster bar and could introduce you
You could meet them on their newest mission

Offline bhu

  • Uncle Kittie
  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 16054
  • Fnord bitches
    • View Profile

Hopefully I can boost my Cha and use other methods to increase that save throw. But it's still a work in progress. I'm not 100% sure yet even what questions I want to ask. I know the concept will need some DM help, but given that we've got an awakened spider in the party, well, I'm not sure this is too much of a stretch.

Speaking of, Bhu, if I'm interested in a monster without LA, how do you want to play it? The puppeteer, for example, just has 1HD of racial hit die, and no LA.

It's racial abilities are -10Str, +4Dex, +4 Int, +6 wis, and +4 Cha. It also has 20' of telepethy, 60ft of blindsight, and some moderate psi-abilities. In general, if it has a host, it will only take actions on its own other than move actions to direct its host; in extreme situations it will act on its own to save itself.

How would you want to figure LA? It's clearly got 1 racial HD to contend with, and I'd assume that I could use point buy on it (for starters, if the Thing had a Cha of 20, then the save would be 16 (still not great, but better), not including other options that could potentially improve the save DC).

Let me think on that.  DOes Oslecamo have it done up as a monster class?

Offline oslecamo

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 10080
  • Creating monsters for my Realm of Darkness
    • View Profile
    • Oslecamo's Custom Library (my homebrew)

Offline phaedrusxy

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 10708
  • The iconic spambot
    • View Profile
Here it is.
I wrote up a monster class for this a couple of years ago also (well... mostly copied someone else's :P )
« Last Edit: April 30, 2014, 02:44:01 PM by phaedrusxy »
I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

Offline bhu

  • Uncle Kittie
  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 16054
  • Fnord bitches
    • View Profile
I keep looking at this title and thinking it says a "nightmarish saga of undead piglet ghost whores" and thinking to myself "that sounds weird even for bhu". :P

I had thought for a bit that he thread title might be scaring off potential pc's...

Offline Frogman55

  • Hero Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 806
  • I'm not very new!
    • View Profile
Originally posted by oslecamo, though I've made a few minor edits.
Puppeteer

Hit Die:d4
Level   BAB   Fort   Ref   Will   Features
1   +0   +0   +0   +2   Puppeteer  body, Enthrall, Parasite Brain, Hide Mind, Host Protection, Weak
Skills: 2+Int mod. Class skills are Bluff, Concentration, Diplomacy,  Intimidate, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, PsyCraft.

Abiltiy Scores: -8 Str, -4 Con, +2 Int, +2 Wis, +2 Cha

Proficiencies: A Puppeteer  is proficient only with its natural weapons.

Features

Puppeteer Body: At 1st level, the Puppeteer  loses all other racial bonus and gets magical beast traits (Darkvision 60ft and low-light vision). It’s a fine magical beast with a base speed of 5 ft. The Puppeteer  has one natural bite attack dealing 1d2+Str mod damage.

Puppeteers do not speak, though they can speak indirectly using a host body’s vocal cords, in whatever language the host knows. They cannot perform fine manipulation with their own bodies.

Enthrall: If a puppeteer is in physical contact with a creature it has charmed (the puppeteer establishes a physical hold by means of slender infiltrating tendrils), the subject acts as if Dominated. (Puppeteers often seek to charm victims first and then “ask” to be picked up.) As usual, orders against the dominated creature's nature allow it creature to make a Will save DC (8+1/2HD+Cha mod) to break out from the domination, but if they succeed they only regain control of their vocal capacities, after which the puppeteer recovers control automatically. The creature gains no control over their bodily motions, but may speak or communicate telepathically, or take actions that do not require movement (like a spell with no somatic or material components); the enthralled creature cannot take an action which directly removes the puppeteer from its body, although they can ask for help. All other clauses from Domination apply, like self-destructive orders not being carried out and ability to receive full sensory input as a standard action.

A puppeteer may start the game enthralling a warrior/expert/commoner of its own level for free, with which it shares a common main goal.

Parasite Brain: The puppeteer has blindsense and telepathy 15 feet plus 5 feet per 2 HD, up to 60 feet at 18 HD. At 19 HD the blindsense becomes blindsight 60 feet.

In addition, the puppeteer may use Psionic charm and Detect Psionics as a PLA 3/day each, using Cha as its base stat, with a manifester level equal to its HD. At 5HD it may use mental barrier as a PLA 3/day as well.

Hide Mind:A puppeteer cannot be identified as psionic by divination spells or clairsentience powers.

Host Protection:A puppeteer in control of a host is treated as an attended magic item for the purpose of making saving throws, even if the puppeteer is specifically targeted. A puppeteer that is attached to its host is treated as a creature in a grapple for the purpose of striking at the puppeteer instead of the host (but the host is not considered grappled in turn).

In addition, the puppeteer doesn't receive a bonus feat at first level, neither can it take flaws or traits.

Comments
(click to show/hide)

I would like to refluff the puppeteer into a spider of some sort, rather than a slug.
« Last Edit: May 01, 2014, 03:37:43 PM by Frogman55 »

Offline bhu

  • Uncle Kittie
  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 16054
  • Fnord bitches
    • View Profile
-4 con leaves you kind of vulnerable  :sofa

Offline bhu

  • Uncle Kittie
  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 16054
  • Fnord bitches
    • View Profile
I should mention the guild the pc's founded just had it's grand opening and announced they were hiring, so now is a really good opportunity to add you if we can get PC's done quick.

Offline Frogman55

  • Hero Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 806
  • I'm not very new!
    • View Profile
-4 con leaves you kind of vulnerable  :sofa
I could just go with the base stats from the monster's listing: -10 Str, +6 Dex, +4 Int, +6 Wis, and +4 Cha. When you consider that the puppeteer will pretty much never get to use that dex bonus (as he will usually count as grappling, and rarely need to take a reflex save as he counts as an attended magic item)(I guess it will help with initiative), it's not too overpowered.  :whistle

Anyways... I'm working on it now. I should have a finished sheet up in a few hours.

I kind of wish I could come up with a LA+1 template that seemed both useful and thematic. I'm considering both Dark and Lolthtouched, but neither of them quite seem worth the xp for the build. Oh well. Although, if I run with the -4 Con then Lolthtouched will pretty much just override that.

A question I forgot to ask (actually a statement I forgot to make): I'm assuming Psionic/Magic transparency is in effect?

[edit]Here's a build. Not done yet, but its something.
« Last Edit: May 05, 2014, 04:27:34 PM by Frogman55 »

Offline bhu

  • Uncle Kittie
  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 16054
  • Fnord bitches
    • View Profile

A question I forgot to ask (actually a statement I forgot to make): I'm assuming Psionic/Magic transparency is in effect?


yup

Offline oslecamo

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 10080
  • Creating monsters for my Realm of Darkness
    • View Profile
    • Oslecamo's Custom Library (my homebrew)
My character's crunch is done, just need to finish the fluff. Mind if I move it in the campaign thread and start posting in the IC?