Villain plotting help [3.5]

[Godskook]

Ok, so my ECL 3 party has just affronted an evil necromancer gnollish cleric, and one that the party had engaged in false-pretense agreements with. He's pissed, and I'm trying to plot what kind of mischief he'd be able to get himself up to, but I'm not too familiar with necromancy or clerics(Enough to get him out of the cross alive, but still). No metamagic abuses, due to houserules, please.

[Amnestic]

Any family members of the PCs that the Necromancer fellow could find out about? Murdering their family and then binding their souls and escaping to another plane raising them as undead to parade in front of the PCs is a good first step to revenge, methinks. :smalltongue:

[Godskook]

Sadly, that's unlikely. 4 of 5 party members are planar travelers(plot reasons, they're playing themselves).


I'm trying to find alternative undeads to the 'standard' zombie/skeleton setup, which aren't too useful, except as fodder, but I'm unsure if anything else can be animated via animate dead.

[MammonAzrael]

What level is the cleric? And how mean do you really want to get in your revenge? Bestow Curse (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/bestowCurse.htm) and Lesser Geas (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/geasLesser.htm) are both options. He can poison their food, summon undead that cause ability drain, and so on.

And if your players are playing themselves, then get your necromancer some way to Plane Shift, and you can really screw with them by killing their actual family in horrible ways and reanimating them.

If your group can handle that.

[Godskook]

Bestow Curse was already on the table, but is going to be *INCREDIBLY* hard for a wise cleric to drop on any of the PCs

[Amnestic]

Create (Greater) Undead are the big brothers of Animate Dead - Cleric 6 and 8 respectively to make fancier undead monsters. There's also the Summon Undead series from Libris Mortis (and reprinted in Spell Compendium) which ends at Cleric 5. Might be worth looking into, since it gives a wider selection once you get to Cleric 3.

[MammonAzrael]

Bestow Curse was already on the table, but is going to be *INCREDIBLY* hard for a wise cleric to drop on any of the PCs

Why? They're in false negotiations, right? He can deliver the touch attack by shaking hands at the conclusion of a meeting. Its a touch spell so he can cast it before he meets the party and hold the charge indefinitely.

And having the other info I asked for would help define the evil cleric's capabilities. I'm assuming he is at least 5th level?

[Jergmo]

Have the villain hire a 7th level cleric who has the feats Corpsecrafter, Metamagic Spell Focus (necromancy) and Fell Animate at least. Other feats in the Corpsecrafter line are just a bonus. I have it set up in my campaign so the Libris Mortis variants can be added to Animate Dead for an increased price.

Find out where the PCs families live. Hire this necromancer to go to each place and spread a Fell Animate Contagion with additional material component prices for enhancement of undead. Turn their families into real horror zombies, and everyone around them!

Zombie: human commoner. CR: 2 - Neutral Evil
HP: 20 Init: +1 AC: 13 (+1 Dex, +2 natural)
Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d6+3 plus disease) or slam +4 melee (1d6+3)
Full Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d6+3 plus disease) and 2 slams +4 melee (1d6+3)
Saves: Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +3
Str 17, Dex 12, Con Ø, Int Ø, Wis 10, Cha 1
Skills: —
Feats: Toughness, Improved Critical (bite)
Blood drain, disease, DR 5/slashing, single actions only

Zombie child: human commoner. CR: 1 - Neutral Evil
HP: 11 Init: +1 AC: 13 (+1 size, +1 Dex, +1 natural)
Attack: Bite +2 melee (1d4+1) or slam +2 melee (1d4+1)
Saves: Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +2
Str 13, Dex 12, Con Ø, Int Ø, Wis 10, Cha 1
Skills: —
Feats: Toughness, Improved Critical (bite)
Blood drain, disease, DR 5/slashing, single actions only

Zombie: human warrior. CR: 2 - Neutral Evil
HP: 20 Init: +1 AC: 15 (+1 Dex, +2 natural, +3 studded leather) or 16 (+1 Dex, +2 natural, +4 scale mail)
Attack: Bite +5 melee (1d6+4) or slam +5 melee (1d6+4)
Full Attack: Bite +5 melee (1d6+4) and 2 slams +5 melee (1d6+4)
Saves: Fort +0, Ref -1, Will +3
Str 19, Dex 13, Con Ø, Int Ø, Wis 10, Cha 1
Skills: —
Feats: Toughness, Improved Critical (bite)
Blood drain, disease, DR 5/slashing, single actions only

Blood Drain (Ex): If the bloodthirsty zombie scores a critical hit with its bite against a living creature, that creature takes 1 point of Constitution damage.
Disease (Ex): Successful melee attack exposes opponent to filth fever. Natural/unarmed attacks against zombie exposes to disease as well. Grappling with a zombie gives a -4 penalty on the saving throw. Exposure also subjects the target to the Slimy doom disease, with the initial DC being 18. A diseased victim that dies, either by being killed by the zombie or by the Constitution damage, rises as a zombie at the beginning of the next turn.

I had something for and their little dogs, too!, but I can't find it. These zombies are set up using the UA variant for enhanced undead rather than Corpsecrafter.

[Godskook]

Why? They're in false negotiations, right? He can deliver the touch attack by shaking hands at the conclusion of a meeting. Its a touch spell so he can cast it before he meets the party and hold the charge indefinitely.

Were in false negotiations, as in past tense.


And having the other info I asked for would help define the evil cleric's capabilities. I'm assuming he is at least 5th level?

He's a 5th level gnoll cleric, with approximate pre-racial stats of 14 Str, 16 Wis, and the rest undecided, including feats and domains. Assume he can handle purchasing items appropriate for his level, even slightly higher than WBL quantities of it, through vandalism.

[MammonAzrael]

Were in false negotiations, as in past tense.

Ok, so he doesn't have a non-suspicious way to approach the players then?


He's a 5th level gnoll cleric, with approximate pre-racial stats of 14 Str, 16 Wis, and the rest undecided, including feats and domains. Assume he can handle purchasing items appropriate for his level, even slightly higher than WBL quantities of it, through vandalism.

This means he can afford the 1125 gp to get a scroll of Plane Shift (or two), use that to travel to the "real" world, kill the players families, and reanimate them to send against the party as zombies.

You could have him craft a large number of low-level skeletons (preferably with the Corpsecrafter and Destructive Retribution feats), then send them at the party one at a time every couple of hours when the try to rest. Keep disrupting their 8 hours of uninterrupted rest, and the casters will never have the time to get their spells back. Just make sure the skeletons die close enough to the casters and their death explosion should ensure they'll need to start resting all over again.

You could have him scry or divine what their current goal or interest is, and then either sabotage, steal, or otherwise get involved with it. Possibly with a calling card if he wants them to know who screwed with them.