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subject42
2010-04-07, 12:22 PM
I've been running the Rise of the Runelords module for my players (Hook Mountain Massacre) and due to a slightly large (5 PCs) party of optimized players, they've been rolling over most encounters.

To counter this, I'd like to up the challenge a bit. In an upcoming encounter, they'll be fighting a necromancer stone giant and his fighter bodyguard. I'm planning to add another bodyguard and would like suggestions one what I could put together.

My thought is to put together a fairly horrific undead giant that was killed and animated for too much backtalk to the necromancer.

I'd like to make use of the swarm shifter template (animated undead parts) for shock value, as well as something that grants fire resistance, as my players have pyromaniacal tendencies.

What would you guys do to make this guy scary and revolting?

The PC party consists of a wizard, sorcerer, ranger, swordsage, and Psywarrior/Warshaper. All are in the level 7 - 8 range.

Darklord Xavez
2010-04-07, 12:26 PM
What class is the necromancer?

subject42
2010-04-07, 12:29 PM
What class is the necromancer?

Pathfinder Wizard. I'm away from my books at the moment, so I don't remember the exact level or racial hit die.

Darklord Xavez
2010-04-07, 12:31 PM
Okay. If it were a cleric, I would say this:
Lots of castings of Create Undead + Lots of castings of Summon Nature's Ally I = Swarm of Tiny-sized Wights! (auto-hit swarm attack for 10d6 negative levels!)
-Xavez

hamishspence
2010-04-07, 12:34 PM
While there is a Wight Template (Savage Species) its Humanoid only- so no wight animals.

Darklord Xavez
2010-04-07, 12:37 PM
While there is a Wight Template (Savage Species) its Humanoid only- so no wight animals.

Darn! Swarm of Tiny-sized zombies it is then.
-Xavez

hamishspence
2010-04-07, 12:43 PM
Crawling Claw Swarm from Lost Empires of Faerun are quite creepy- technically they are constructs rather than undead though.

It's only CR 2 though.

Making them requires Craft Construct, CL 7th (or higher) character must be 7th level or higher, animate dead, cat's grace, lesser geas.

Basically- a swarm of severed hands (each is Tiny).

Noedig
2010-04-07, 01:17 PM
My DM and I slapped a undead together when I last played a necromancer type. Basically it was giant (stone, hill, fire, whatever) that had been killed, cut open, and stuffed with 50 or 60 tomb motes and stitched it back up. Then we Create Undead (Greater), spell stitched it, awakened it, and what we got was a huge, rotting, undead carrier. I affectionately dubbed it the "Blighter Bomb".

We gave him a desecrate SPA, and when he died, he'd explode in a burst (30') of negative energy, AND release the tomb motes.

cssmythe3
2010-04-07, 01:19 PM
Undead kids.

Undead infants.

This thread is crawling with gross-ness:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/130133-creepy.html

Darklord Xavez
2010-04-07, 01:21 PM
Undead kids.

Undead infants.

This thread is crawling with gross-ness:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/130133-creepy.html

That thread is AWESOME.
-Xavez

the humanity
2010-04-07, 01:24 PM
give him a daze attack.

Darklord Xavez
2010-04-07, 01:29 PM
give him a daze attack.

Wait. You mean gaze attack, or an attack that dazes?
-Xavez

the humanity
2010-04-07, 01:31 PM
the second. or a dazing gaze, I suppose.

Darklord Xavez
2010-04-07, 01:33 PM
the second. or a dazing gaze, I suppose.

That sounds like double trouble!
-Xavez

LichPrinceAlim
2010-04-07, 01:34 PM
so, my fave is to use the following for deadly abilities:

Creature-Something the PCs should fear, like an Adult Dragon
Templates-Bodak, Swarm Shifter (your choice)

make it so when the monster takes damage, it "bleeds" its swarm.

as for a BBEG...

Race: Human (cliche but cool) Templates: Swarm Shifter (Scarabs, locusts, sand)
Class: Cloistered Cleric 6/Walker in the Wastes 10/Contemplative 1/Heirophant 3

all hail Imenotep from the Mummy movies...

subject42
2010-04-07, 01:35 PM
I affectionately dubbed it the "Blighter Bomb"

That is AWESOME. I'll have to see if I can adapt it.

Noedig
2010-04-07, 01:39 PM
:smallbiggrin: YAY! I helped

SilverStar
2010-04-07, 02:22 PM
Somewhere, there's something called an atropal swarm.... not quite as nasty as its epic level counterpart, but you really can't lose with undead fetuses.

There's that thing from Libris Mortis that lets necromancers get free metamagic, too... that undead little girl-thing.

Eww.

Arcane_Secrets
2010-04-07, 04:04 PM
Somewhere, there's something called an atropal swarm.... not quite as nasty as its epic level counterpart, but you really can't lose with undead fetuses.

There's that thing from Libris Mortis that lets necromancers get free metamagic, too... that undead little girl-thing.

Eww.

I think you mean the atropal spawn (which is also from Libris Mortis), and what you're thinking of is the slaymate iirc. I'll check a bit later.

Shiva asori
2010-04-07, 04:26 PM
Atropal scion and slaymate are the monsters you're thinking of.

Flickerdart
2010-04-07, 04:30 PM
While there is a Wight Template (Savage Species) its Humanoid only- so no wight animals.
Gravewight (The Standing Stone) expands that to Monstrous Humanoids and Giants. Making Monstrous humanoids is fairly easy, you can just make them Tauric and stick a Gnome on their head.

Optimator
2010-04-07, 04:32 PM
Hivenest monsters (Dungeonscape?) with some sort of rotgrub infestation crawling over the body.

Piedmon_Sama
2010-04-07, 04:34 PM
Somewhere, there's something called an atropal swarm.... not quite as nasty as its epic level counterpart, but you really can't lose with undead fetuses.

There's that thing from Libris Mortis that lets necromancers get free metamagic, too... that undead little girl-thing.

Eww.

Slaughterchild/Slaymate (it has two different names for some reason) is a fantastic creature. The party Duskblade found one wandering the Dreamlands of Limbo (long story) and adopted her when he sensed the aura of power coming off her. The Cleric and Fighter immediately wanted to kill her out of hand (the party's whole raison d'etre is hunting undead, essentially), although in almost all respects she seems to be a normal, terrified 8-y/o girl with almost no idea what's happened to her. The infighting was furthered when the Cleric's player confessed that empty eye-sockets and big toothy mouths (the Slaymate's features, that is) freaked him the hell out.

Brigham
2010-04-07, 04:39 PM
You could look into some of the Giant's work Here are two of my favorites.

The Charred Horror
http://www.giantitp.com/articles/6AaJhMSc1hfIf1zpbML.html

Lenrin, Hunter of Thieves
http://www.giantitp.com/articles/j3OQJcsTXBmpzofgwRi.html


Also, Tomb Warden and Lurking Terror from Libris Mortis might be fun to look at, though I admit they don't really fit your criteria at all. :)


You could always pull a One-Legged Gnoll Jump:

PC: I rebuke undead.
DM: It fails.
PC: . . . . no, it does not.
DM: These aren't undead. They're living dead.