PDA

View Full Version : Monster Suggestions (My Players stay out)



Soonerdj
2010-03-05, 04:40 PM
Yes Fink that means you too.

Anyways my group of players are in the process of raiding a halfling smuggling ring that also happens to be a temple to Olidammara. And in one room they are going to encounter 4-6 clerics on pillars working together to summon a monstrous creature to repel this unwanted invasion.

So my question is; What sort of creature/s would clerics and casters of Olidammara summon?

I'd like something that could give three players fighting between CR 10 and CR 13 a run for their money or lives.

Any suggestions are appreciated thanks. :)

Erishiamu
2010-03-05, 05:08 PM
Would it be too tolkeinesque to suggest a ringwraith type enemy? Multiply evolved wraith and some offhand reference to the Nazgul would be funny and could be built to be challenging enough.

Masaioh
2010-03-05, 05:14 PM
A group of Slaad.

Soonerdj
2010-03-05, 05:18 PM
A group of Slaad.

Where can I find them, I'm guessing MM correct?

Oh and while Wraiths and Dread Wraiths would certainly be fun the party has no real cleric and pretty much all skimped on Fort saves so I can't but help that I would kill them all very, very quickly.

PinkysBrain
2010-03-05, 05:21 PM
Slaadi are in the MM yes (not the SRD though).

Also they are neutral creatures, which fits a bit more with priests of Olidammara ... generally summoning something evil is evil.

Yorrin
2010-03-05, 05:23 PM
...really? C'mon guys, really? A cabal of Clerics summoning stuff, how can it be anything but a demon? Fiendish Codex has some good ones that your players probably aren't over-familiar with.

EDIT: Of course they might not realize it... they might think they're summoning some sort of avatar of Olidammara.

jiriku
2010-03-05, 05:25 PM
Advanced fiendish tyrannosaurs! OK, slaadi are probably better. Seriously, take a blue slaad and advance it up to maximum hit dice, then give it rapidstrike and improved rapidstrike on both of its claws, and you have yourself a POWerful frightnening beast.

PinkysBrain
2010-03-05, 05:27 PM
...really? C'mon guys, really? A cabal of Clerics summoning stuff, how can it be anything but a demon?
Slaadi are like the neutral version of demons ...

Geiger Counter
2010-03-05, 06:11 PM
Slaadi are like the neutral version of demons ...

Slaad must kill sapient creatures to reproduce, this makes them evil. There is nothing about them which suggests they are chaotic. Wotc just plain sucks at understanding alignment, even noticed something about demons and devils.

quasit/imp=tiny flying shapeshifting improved familiar
dretch/lemure=weakling
Babau/hamatula=sneaky guy that uses his skin as a weapon
Balor/pit fiend= big flying fire guy
succubus/erinyes= flying hottie with charm
Armanite/Narzugon=cavalry

This is incredibly lazy stating, they should just have one of each kind and say they vary in alignment.

Soonerdj
2010-03-05, 06:29 PM
Well actually my party is evil, which I should have mentioned earlier.

I like the demon idea. Them having a Malconvoker doesn't seem like a stretch due to Olidammara being the god of trickery and all. So any good demons in addition to Neutral creatures. Good creatures are an option but seeing how this temple is the center of a massive smuggling criminal organization I doubt good aligned creatures are there forte.

PinkysBrain
2010-03-05, 06:35 PM
At int 6 I'd call red/blue Slaadi more inherently violent than evil ... they don't hunt to reproduce, they just reproduce with whatever they happen to hunt.

PinkysBrain
2010-03-05, 06:39 PM
Well actually my party is evil, which I should have mentioned earlier.
Any chance they are running from the law?

A bunch of smugglers summoning some Zelekhut's to attack them would be rather ironic.

Geiger Counter
2010-03-05, 06:42 PM
At int 6 I'd call red/blue Slaadi more inherently violent than evil ... they don't hunt to reproduce, they just reproduce with whatever they happen to hunt.

any creature with 3 or more points of intelligence can make moral decisions, and murder/rape is an evil decision.

Khatoblepas
2010-03-05, 07:20 PM
any creature with 3 or more points of intelligence can make moral decisions, and murder/rape is an evil decision.

Slaadi reproduction is more like a spread of entropy than murder. Eventually, everything will become slaadi, the embodiment of primal chaos. Or at least, that's what the slaad represents. Just like the whole point of their being similiar creatures on both sides of Law and Chaos in the Blood War is that the evil beings are so similar and yet they cannot get along since their ideologies and methods are so different.

Some lesser modrons would sit idly by and watch someone burn to death if it didn't conflict with their prime directive. They would kill someone if their superior told them so. They wouldn't help someone who was being crushed by the gears of mechanus unless they were gumming up the works. A high ranking modron might order the systematic dissection of live creatures for science. No morality. It's just what they do. They are incapable of morality. (As in, physically incapable. Slaadi and Modron don't have a good/evil portion of themselves, being manifestations of the ethical axis of alignment. It's like saying a tape deck should be able to play CDs. Similar technology, very different in practice. They have the ability to reason, but no ability to think outside of Law and Chaos.)

Slaadi are chaotic and unpredictable, and should be played as such. Unless the summoners are commanding the slaadi, they should do whatever they strike as the most interesting thing to do. Not just eat the player's faces. Sometimes they should start dancing, or furiously writing a sonnet, or try to converse about the weather to the nearest player. One might even start helping the player. Think Animaniacs, but more dangerous. The perfect summoned creatures for a chaotic neutral deity! Just.. make them more chaotic than what's written in the monster manual.

Summon a few slaads of each colour (including mud slaads, which can serve as a minion), and if the players get through them too quickly, just throw more powerful ones at them. Portals to Limbo aren't clean cut things, after all. ;)

Have the slaadi all have their own agenda. No teamwork, just chaos. The terrain warps and twists around the player as the essence of primal chaos seeps in, letting the smuggling ring slip out the back door. After all, Olidammara states that material goods have little value, and temples can be anywhere, not just big stone buildings. And a hideout isn't much use once it's been found. The look on the player's faces when the entire hideout becomes a playhouse for creatures whose only rule is the Rule of Funny (their own unique brand of it, of course) should be priceless. Bonus points if the clerics are dead serious about it until the portal opens. Or their ritual could be revelling and cavorting. Nothing says that summoning has to be a sombre affair, especially for clerics of The Laughing Rogue. Make sure that they have the last laugh.

Their god demands it.

Geiger Counter
2010-03-05, 07:33 PM
Slaadi reproduction is more like a spread of entropy than murder.

Okay then, I have thought up a new type of angel. It looks just like a planetar except it's blue and it's arms end in short lances instead of hands. The go around the prime material stabbing folks. When it stabs a creature to death it turns into a creature just like itself. But this is not an evil act it's more about spreading good.

Khatoblepas
2010-03-05, 08:01 PM
Okay then, I have thought up a new type of angel. It looks just like a planetar except it's blue and it's arms end in short lances instead of hands. The go around the prime material stabbing folks. When it stabs a creature to death it turns into a creature just like itself. But this is not an evil act it's more about spreading good.

Slaadi and Modron don't have minds like us mortals do. Good and Evil are irrelevant to them. They can no more be good or evil than a toaster, or the colour green. They literally would find it almost impossible to think like we do. To assign objective morality to creatures from a plane lacking it is folly.

Besides which, Slaadi don't go around reproducing with every creature they meet, just when the great wheel of chaos stops on "implant egg!" They don't go on grand crusades to implant their eggs in people. They don't do anything in a systematic way. Your angel example is a creature made entirely for one purpose. Slaadi are not that. And thus, perfect for Olidamarra, especially since his divine lands border on Limbo!

elonin
2010-03-05, 08:32 PM
Go for Baylors or Pit Feinds. Or else feindish, dire, undead, aberrations of some kind.

Soonerdj
2010-03-05, 09:09 PM
Considering one of my players is a Neraphim (Kermit lol) throwing in some Slaadi would be interesting if I recall the lore correctly.

Masaioh
2010-03-05, 09:12 PM
Wow, I had no idea Slaad would be thought of as a good idea. I know nothing about Greyhawk, I just wiki'd Olidammara and found out he/she/it is CN. What are CN outsiders? Slaad.

Seeing as how this place is a smuggling ring inhabited by mostly neutral people, they would be concerned primarily with protecting themselves and their wallets. Either have them summon some neutral outsider or accidentally summon a devil/demon.

Soonerdj
2010-03-05, 09:16 PM
I did think of a funny scenario where they fight the "Plane-eteers" composed of a Red, Green, Blue, Gray, and Pink (Heart) who when they die summon a Death Slaadi

Geiger Counter
2010-03-05, 09:36 PM
Slaadi and Modron don't have minds like us mortals do. Good and Evil are irrelevant to them. They can no more be good or evil than a toaster, or the colour green. They literally would find it almost impossible to think like we do. To assign objective morality to creatures from a plane lacking it is folly.

Besides which, Slaadi don't go around reproducing with every creature they meet, just when the great wheel of chaos stops on "implant egg!" They don't go on grand crusades to implant their eggs in people. They don't do anything in a systematic way. Your angel example is a creature made entirely for one purpose. Slaadi are not that. And thus, perfect for Olidamarra, especially since his divine lands border on Limbo!

Any creature with at least a three of intelligence is fully capable of understanding morality and making moral decisions. Enslaving a creature who has done no wrong is evil, and thus formian task masters are evil. Ending the life of a sapient creature for your own reproduction is evil so slaad are evil.

You make the distinction between my angel and the slaad based on absolutely nothing. There is not enough information on the slaad to suggest they don't "go on grand crusades to implant their eggs in people". And there is not enough information on my angel to suggest that transforming people is the only thing that they do.

Also I do not personally consider randomness as a chaotic trait. Unless a player or creature rolls dice to decide on their next action no chaotic creature acts randomly. I personally ascribe hedonism and individualism as chaotic traits.

Beelzebub1111
2010-03-05, 09:58 PM
Any creature with at least a three of intelligence is fully capable of understanding morality and making moral decisions. Enslaving a creature who has done no wrong is evil, and thus formian task masters are evil. Ending the life of a sapient creature for your own reproduction is evil so slaad are evil.

You make the distinction between my angel and the slaad based on absolutely nothing. There is not enough information on the slaad to suggest they don't "go on grand crusades to implant their eggs in people". And there is not enough information on my angel to suggest that transforming people is the only thing that they do.

Also I do not personally consider randomness as a chaotic trait. Unless a player or creature rolls dice to decide on their next action no chaotic creature acts randomly. I personally ascribe hedonism and individualism as chaotic traits.
Well, Hedonism is basicly Glutony which is a deadly sin. Individualism can be construed as Pride (my way is better and I don't care what you think).

You're thinking of morality from a real life standpoint. This is a setting where killing evil is good. Neutral is Dangerous, but neutral is not Evil. Neutral is Just as likely to hurt you as help you, Neutral by outsider standards, is also extreme, as they are formed from it's very essense. there is no halfway. and that rolling a die before each action may be a good idea for Slaad, as they are FORMED from the very ESSENSE of randomness, change, and entropy.

Beelzebub1111
2010-03-05, 10:24 PM
Whatever your halfling clerics call up should be funny, ironic, or have something to do with Olidamarra's history. Best yet, all three. That is the way of Olidamarra.

An armadillO?

PinkysBrain
2010-03-05, 11:18 PM
Wow, I had no idea Slaad would be thought of as a good idea. I know nothing about Greyhawk, I just wiki'd Olidammara and found out he/she/it is CN. What are CN outsiders? Slaad.
His home plane also borders limbo.

Thajocoth
2010-03-06, 02:06 AM
Half-Celestial Slaad. Angel frogs! EVERY campaign needs angel frogs.

Soonerdj
2010-03-06, 03:34 AM
Half-Celestial Slaad. Angel frogs! EVERY campaign needs angel frogs.

Well one of my players is a Paladin / Monk Neraphim so we have the frog angle covered.

Beelzebub1111
2010-03-06, 06:21 AM
Okay, how high were these guys at work?

Yes, a huge armadillO with six-guns that shoot unlimited magic missiles.

No, just an armadillo, It's funny, Ironic, and has something to do with Ollidamra's history.

dspeyer
2010-03-06, 01:56 PM
Complete Divine lists Slaadi and Genies as Olidimarra's allies. Check out the Efreet (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/genie#efreeti). It looks memorable, but not quite tough enough. Add class levels or more of them (or both) to make the encounter more difficult. Three Efreet with 1 level each in crusader would be cr 12, and could have fun with white raven.

Geiger Counter
2010-03-08, 05:15 AM
Well, Hedonism is basicly Glutony which is a deadly sin. Individualism can be construed as Pride (my way is better and I don't care what you think).

Hedonism is not just gluttony (want of food), it also includes lust (want of sex), and greed (want of possessions). Sloth is hedonistic, it can include want of rest, but it also includes wanting to gain other things without effort. Envy is related to hedonism as it is want of something someone else has.

You are wrong about individualism. People who are strongly against individual liberties/pursuits tend to believe that there way is best.


You're thinking of morality from a real life standpoint. This is a setting where killing evil is good. Neutral is Dangerous, but neutral is not Evil. Neutral is Just as likely to hurt you as help you,

Um no, I am thinking of D&D morality which is much more clear cut. Your definition of neutral is wrong. Harming other people is evil, not helping people is neutral.


Neutral by outsider standards, is also extreme, as they are formed from it's very essense. there is no halfway. and that rolling a die before each action may be a good idea for Slaad, as they are FORMED from the very ESSENSE of randomness, change, and entropy.

Neither randomness, change nor entropy are related to chaos.
Okay first, there is no such thing as true randomness. Even rolling dice is an entirely deterministic process. Okay water melting, that is change. Water freezing, that is also change. Are these chaotic processes? And entropy in D&D terms sounds related to negative energy and the undead. If you are referring to societal entropy, that sounds more evil than chaotic. Alignment is about morality and ethics, not physics.