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View Full Version : (3.5) Statting out S.H.O.D.A.N. for D&D



maniakmastah
2010-01-15, 05:16 PM
Hey y'all, it's been awhile since i've posted, but i've been doing some planning for my campaign and have been creating a Ravenloft style domain inhabited with cyborg style (and thoroughly psychotic) humanoids, freaks, monsters, environmental horrors, other post apocalyptic/ nuclear wasteland theme ideas for this domain, all except my villain. I had been debating on what the Darklord should be. It couldn't be a living humanoid, the mad scientist thing is done to death, and no monsters or outsiders. Left wondering, I decided to kill some time and watch some videos from old school games and looked up the System Shock series, and after listening to dialogue from the main villain SHODAN, it hit me. This was my villain, a psychopathic AI with a god complex and utter disdain for fleshling races. Now inspired, i had the idea, but what could i make SHODAN as. So, GITP faithful, i humbly come to y'all to pitch some ideas to fully portray SHODAN in 3.5. A big part of the horror from her comes from her sheer omnipresence and while she herself couldn't harm the protagonist in the game, she made her influence known through various other means and i wanted to portray this aspect of her. I eagerly await your suggestions.

Harperfan7
2010-01-15, 07:23 PM
That's tough, she'd have to be some sort of ghost, or better yet, an intelligent incorporeal construct (I don't think I have ever seen one). Either way, you'll have to homebrew her up. The problem is, why does she have things like magic jar and enchantment spells, but nothing to attack the pcs with?

Shodan doesn't work well in D&D.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, try to come up with an intelligent dungeon. Just make it one big "intelligent item".

It'll have speech and telepathy, but no real ability to actually affect the pcs (unless it can activate its own traps or whatever).

maniakmastah
2010-01-15, 08:32 PM
That's tough, she'd have to be some sort of ghost, or better yet, an intelligent incorporeal construct (I don't think I have ever seen one). Either way, you'll have to homebrew her up. The problem is, why does she have things like magic jar and enchantment spells, but nothing to attack the pcs with?

Shodan doesn't work well in D&D.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, try to come up with an intelligent dungeon. Just make it one big "intelligent item".

It'll have speech and telepathy, but no real ability to actually affect the pcs (unless it can activate its own traps or whatever).

Hmmmm, the living dungeon theme could work, or SHODAN herself could be the domain. What i mean is that while herself, as an entity, can't physically harm the PCs, it does have countless minions whom she can command and control, and her being able to activate her own traps and everything within the domain would be a good idea, as well as the aformentioned omnipresence, there is no way to hide from her, for she is everywhere.

deuxhero
2010-01-15, 08:38 PM
Don't you need another darklords's will to kill a darklord or something? The Many could work as the other thing though.