help- Dalekyr's new underwater creations [Eberron, but any]

[Kol Korran]

Tomer, Guy, Alon, Ariel, please read no further, it would ruin the experience...

hello folks. i need some help in thinking up an idea for underwater aberrations.
my party is going to investigate an underdark underwater dungaon that is filled with aberrations made by the Daelkyer. (masters of shaping flesh and forms for thos who don't know). i want to put in some various minion type monsters there.

i could have gone with aquatic dolgaunts or dolgrims, but if at all possible, i want something new. i would like to take an existing race and adapt it aunderwater, making it more disturbing, and preferably with a new power that makes it more effective underwater. CR for such a creature should be about 4.
I do not request a whole make up and stats of a creature, but rather just a cool idea.

the basic races i consider this far are orcs (this taking place in the shadow marches), grimlocks, and... Ettercaps (i thought of maybe granting them a power to shoot gooey webs that makes the target sink?)

any thoughts? :smallsmile:

[akma]

I`m imagining something that pulls special tentacle like arms that enable it to move fast when it is closed to the buttom or a wall.

Since they were created on purpose, they should fit the task they were created for. If they were created to guard something, they could shoot parts of their body or use the enviorment for battle (I don`t know how the dalekyr prefer to arm their creations in general, but if I would be an expert in creating creatures, I would invest in naturel weapons instead of crafted ones).
Since I imagine you`ll use them in more then one battle, they should be able to use diffrent stratagies. It could be done with equipment and class levels, but maybe the Dalekyr created some subtypes, or some of them are more advanced then the others, being made later, after the Dalekyr has prefected his methods and gave them more abilities.
For exemple, the early ones could shoot some of their body parts, but will have to reattach them. Later ones would regenerate without need to reattach the organs, and the latest ones could not only regenerate lost organs, but also make special attacks with the shot organs (explosions? disease? teleportation? paraylization?). And maybe even a more advanced type, that can regenerate lost organs immediatly, and create more organs for themseleves and others.

[McSmack]

I could see something like an aquatic dark mantle or a choker. Definitely something with tentacles of some sort.

I think some sort of humanoid aboleth spawn would be cool. As aberrations, aboleth's should be daelkyr creations. They're the illithids of the sea. So they could have some sweet minions. Some sort of three-eyed shark-man with 4 tentacles growing out from right behind it's head.

Perhaps have some the standard dungeon mooks but with their legs replaced by octopus tentacles or something.

Zombie sharks would be pretty pimp too.

This is taking place in the Shadow Marches (totally read that just now) you could go with something less aquatic and more reptilian/amphibious. Make some sort of crocodilian race, orcs with big crocodile maws and tails. Pair that with some monsterous toad things. I recall a monsterous frog that was pretty nice in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, that should be just below the CR you need.

Have a boss be a knight that was turned into a frog thing by the daelkyr, and forced to protect the temple he had sworn to destroy. Give him a nice magical greatsword, and some cool charge abilities, Leap attack. Name him Glenn and see if anyone gets the reference.

[Steel Mirror]

What about gnomes as basic breeding stock?

The flesh-shaper took your basic gnome, then added gill slits to its chest where the lungs used to be. The creature can no longer survive in the air, but it is meant to be an aquatic guardian so that is acceptable. (Water breathing)

The now vestigial legs are replaced with barbed tentacles trailing behind its twisted body. They aid in prey capture and locomotion. The arms are retained but the hands refashioned to have long, spindly, deceptively strong fingers. (Swim speed, improved grab, high grapple bonus to drown intruders)

The eyes are poorly suited to watery, murky conditions. They are enlarged and moved to either side of its head to enlarge the field of vision, depth perception being of less use underwater than other senses. The nasal cavity is dramatically expanded, giving the creature a bulbous protrusion where its nose used to be and allowing it to sense the presence of minuscule amounts of blood in the water. This large cavity is now also suited to produce high frequency sonic vibrations, which enable rudimentary echolocation. The ears are removed in favor of simple large auditory canals directly behind each eye. (Blindsight, scent, poor eyesight. The scent ability will be especially important later)

Finally the creature's teeth are ill-suited to attack, and are replaced with sharklike serrated teeth which are constantly shed and replaced. Armored spines less than a quarter inch long adorn its back, shoulders, and scalp, providing some protection and proving deadly in close combat. (Bite attack, automatic damage every round it sustains a grapple, natural armor bonus)

The resulting creature is still intelligent, but hateful. The increased abilities require a dramatic rise in calorie intake, but the flesh-shaper turns this into an advantage. He embeds a deep hunger in the creature's psyche and the tendency to enter a frenzy when blood is scented. It is now a proper guardian and is unleashed on the aquatic backwaters of its master's lair, where it perhaps escapes into the wild as well. (Frenzy ability, gains a bonus to injured enemies and is more likely to attack them. Can scent blood from a great distance and is likely to seek out such sources and attack)

In combat: The abomination begins by attacking with its tentacles and teeth, hoping to establish a grapple. If successful, it tries to drag the opponent underwater and drown them. Its barbs and tentacles make escaping such a grapple a daunting prospect. When an enemy is weakened, any of the creatures who can will move to attack it, swarming around it in a nightmare of flashing teeth and undulating tentacles. The creatures make full use of the underwater 3D battlefield to reach these weakened enemies. Such combats have a high chance of attracting yet more attention form wandering abominations, who charge into the frenzy with desperate disregard for their own safety, seeking their next meal.

Notes: The creature's echolocation allow it to function in dark conditions, but are also semi-audible. Characters who are underwater while such a creature(s) is nearby hear mournful, haunting tones that seem to express deep sadness and agony. It is almost impossible to discern the location of the creature from this sound alone, but it also means that they are less likely to achieve surprise on adventurers who are keeping one ear underwater, so to speak.

The creatures retain most of their intelligence, and many are capable of commanding the simple magic that their ancestor stock had. They use prestidigitation, dancing lights, and ghost sound to great effect to hide their true numbers and to unnerve their prey leading up to an attack.

[Aergoth]

If you've got races of the wild, refluffing Raptorans as an underwater race would be interesting.

But failing that, gnollsharks Give them a grapple ability coupled to a bite attack (they hold on until they die) and the ability to "run" underwater once per round. 1d8 hit die. No legs, vestigial arms. Huge teethy mouths that grin. Hunt in packs, dark vision.

[Forged Fury]

I'll second aquatic darkmantle. Although in the Shadow Marches, I'd definitly give whatever you put together leech like qualities (blood drain, whatever).

[Kol Korran]

good responses. here are my thoughts on the matter:

@ akma: hello again! i like the idea of detaching body parts... very fitting of the Daelkyr there is some emphasis on swarms in this adventure, so... perhaps they can detach parts of their skin and the flesh below it as a small swarm (medium sized?) that can swim and attack, while the swarm carrier has some other abilities? (such as speiwng some poison cloud or alchemical natural substance that spreads well in water?)

thanks for pointing out thart i may need to use them further on. i think some may be tool users, while others will have augumented abilities (as you suggested)- bigger swarms, or with new abilities.

@ McSmack: The dark mantle is a good idea, as to Aboleth minions, that could work, but i'd prefer not to make them too close to the creature itself. (there will be an Aboleth near the end of the adventure).

zombie sharks? sorry, they just don't fit in the setting. it's in the swamp anyways.

the crocodilian idea does appeal to me, but i'd prefer to veer off from the half humanoid- half animal type of thing. i want an aberration! think mind flayer, aboleth, gibbering mouther, dolgaunt... i'm aiming at strange weird stuff that will make my players go... "wait, what???" but preferably with a concise theme.


Have a boss be a knight that was turned into a frog thing by the daelkyr, and forced to protect the temple he had sworn to destroy. Give him a nice magical greatsword, and some cool charge abilities, Leap attack. Name him Glenn and see if anyone gets the reference.

i don't get the reference either... :smallfrown: some video game? book? movie? the boss monster/s are already planned. but since you're one ofthose who actually read the thread, i'll keep the surprise for now...

@ Steel Mirror: thanks for the thought of reply, but the idea just doesn't fit my adventure. it feels mostly like humanoid-turned-shark to me, which is not what i'm trying to convey. i liked the idea of hunger in them though.

@ Aergoth: raptorans eh? i've read about them once, will have to look them up. as to Gnollsharks- no. see the above comments. but thanks for the reply.

@ Forged Fury: the dark mantle's ability to grasp and take hold appeals to me greatly especially if combined with the swarm idea above. i won't go for blood drain however as that is the dolgaunt's shtick. i want something else. which brings me to:

The idea i have so far: if you've read the book "children of dune", there is a sort of a sand trout (forgot the name), which when it attaches to others of it's kind, creates a new creature (the sand worm) inside the encapsulated ball, over time. this idea draws from that, and your inspiration.

the base creature (orc? grimlock?) has a very thick skin, that seems to be in patches. this gives it a decent- high NA. from afar it attacks either with weapons or some natural ability i haven't thought of yet. (thinking poison spores here).

when in close combat, or when badly wounded, the skin flaps detach into free swimming creatures (manta ray like? dark mantle like? leeach/ eel like?) that attack the offending creature. instead of biting, they grapple the attacker, some attach to it, constricting (causing some damage) and diminishing movement (1d4/6 minuses to dex and attack). if the attacker succeeds, he can remove some of them. if the target is fully encapsulated (dex=0) the swarm injects eggs or some other substance (equal to a disease) that may start transforming the creature to 2-4 others of their kind.

none of my party have high dex though, now that Ipix have departed...

the original creature slowly dies from exposure to water (hey! just like the sand worms!) which could be quite horrific.

improved versions: bigger swarms, faster swarms, perhaps with some psionic abilities such as stunning? coming to think of it, i can have varied base creatures, depending on who the creatures capture...

your thoughts?

[GoatBoy]

Quick monster: The Elder Eidolon template from Lords of Madness simply involves taking a normal creature and turning it into an ancient construct guardian, which incorporates bizarre magic and impossible geometry. Not an aberration, true, but it can serve as an easy-to-make, customizable monster which gives an eerie, unearthly feeling.

Normal humanoid races with some of the aberration grafts can be pretty scary, too, and they have unusual powers.

[akma]

Acid will require less saving throws then poison, and it`s damage is easier to deal with (therefore less dice rolling and shorter combat, but you might prefer the opposite). You can of course have both, or some for some creatures and some for others.

As for improvements - some skin parts could strangle, some could burn, some could mimick magic and psionics. What about a wall made of such skins? Such method could be used to protact their casters and wounded.
Any spell or ability that deals with skin (none springs to mind) could be usefull.

[McSmack]

good responses. here are my thoughts on the matter:
zombie sharks? sorry, they just don't fit in the setting. it's in the swamp anyways.
i don't get the reference either... :smallfrown: some video game? book? movie? the boss monster/s are already planned. but since you're one ofthose who actually read the thread, i'll keep the surprise for now...


Yeah the zombie sharks were pretty much an aside. The reference was to the old SNES game Chrono Trigger, which makes me feel old.

Have you looked in Lords of Madness? There's quite a bit of interesting tidbits there you could use. There's a Psudonatural creature template that might work well. There's also some creepy grafts like Amphibious Skin and Mucus Projector which throws Aboleth slime on the target causing their skin to turn into a thin slimy membrane on a failed save. You could adjust the save DC's to make this easier on the party.

That idea for the 'dune trout' type creature was pretty cool. I could see some sort of creepy aberration that gets into a creature and bores into their mind, driving them insane and controling them. Their bodies slowly transform from the host creature to nothing more than an egg sac for the parasite. I could see the party fighting mooks who's skulls explode when they die, and some dark mantle-esque thing trys to attach on to them like a leach, burrowing into their skin.

Like a face hugger from Aliens, except instead of just planting eggs the thing wraps around them, cuts a hole in them and then pulls itself inside over the course of a few rounds, like an octopus squeezing through a tiny hole.

Also there was a type of monster in the BoVD that were sort of a mix between a velociraptor and a praying mantis. I'm AFB right now or I'd tell you more. I recall they have no eyes, blindsight, and elemental resistences.I used them in a mist shrouded town once and creeped my players out good. Give them a slimy coating and you've got yourself a creepy aberration hive thing.

[Inyssius Tor]

A black and slimy man-thing, molded out of a single giant leech as if it had been clay.

Bloodsucking squid tree.

Ahuizotl (http://www.google.com/search?q=ahuizotl&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADRA_en).

A half-orc whose one massive eye has subsumed not only its head but almost its entire torso. In place of a pupil it sports a spidery Mark of Finding which seems to be shaped out of blood vessels (in the style of a normal bloodshot eye, if that's clear)--the same pattern as the dragonmark it once must have borne as a House Tharashk tracker.

In a swamp, slime and water can look a lot alike. There are monsters entirely made of slime. You can take advantage of this. You can also use monsters that look like clear water but are actually ravening ooze, knowing that if you put something suspiciously slimy in a watery area they won't spend much time avoiding the parts of the map that are just clear water. And the best part is, it only takes one still pool of water leaping up and snaring the wizard in its pseudopods before dragging him back into the muck to make your players afraid of water for the rest of time.

Take a stirge. Make it the size of a bear. Shrink its legs by fifty percent. Merge the head and body segments, so the head isn't obviously a separate part of its body but a (too-small) extension of its torso. Bend the wings downward, force them to act as legs too. Thicken the needle-like proboscis, split it in half down the center, fill it with teeth (bloodsucking fangs, really), and voila - the daelkyr approximation of a crocodile.

[Pokonic]

Take a stirge. Make it the size of a bear. Shrink its legs by fifty percent. Merge the head and body segments, so the head isn't obviously a separate part of its body but a (too-small) extension of its torso. Bend the wings downward, force them to act as legs too. Thicken the needle-like proboscis, split it in half down the center, fill it with teeth (bloodsucking fangs, really), and voila - the daelkyr approximation of a crocodile.
Holy crap!:smalleek:

Anyway, ebberon, right? Nothing worse than leach/bear hybrid as a freaky swamp creature created as mounts for the invasion of the Shadow Marshes now abandoned to create breeding populations by the delikiar.

[Kol Korran]

great ideas guys! some responses:

@ GoatBoy: read about the Elder Eidolon- cool monster! i don't think it'll fit into my "mook aberration" niche, but it can certainly go into the dungeon containing them. now what to put as a base creature? Chuul? some under water cloakers? hmmmm...

@ Akma: you're right- acid does work better than poison. and i prefer something simple for mooks.

loved the idea of a wall made of the skins i'm thinking a net more like it). maybe some other structures, such as floating shields? any other ideas for uses of the skin flaps?

@ McSmack: i'm starting to really love the lords of madness book, from the little time i have to read it. next campaign is an eberration campaign! :smallbiggrin: i'll stay away from boring monsters for now. this is simple enough i think. as to the velociraaptor-mantis... sounds cool but probably less underwater.

@ Inyssius Tor:ever thought of applying as a Daelkyr? lovely image for the stirge-croc, and i might try and fit something like that... somewhere, but i'm looking for humanoids to transform. the idea of the "marked" half orc is intriguing. perhaps i can work something with that.

thanks for the responses guys! :smallsmile:

[AslanCross]

Kythons. :smallamused:

[Kol Korran]

what are kythons? which book are they at?

[Cog]

Spoilered for gory (but D&D-official) artwork:http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/alto_pendragon/hive/Kythons.png
They're out of Book of Vile Darkness.

[Tvtyrant]

I remember thinking they would make for a good alien infestation arc when I read their section.

[mabriss lethe]

Orcs with Aberration Blood Feats. Aberration blood (webbed hands) seems perfect. Then give them something like Deepspawn for tentacles and waterspawn for some nice aquatic bonuses. Durable form and bestial hide can give them an ok boost to HP and AC, or Inhuman Reach to improve their threat range in combat.

[AslanCross]

Yeah, just give the Kythons the (aquatic) subtype and a swim speed and you're good to go. They're like the xenomorphs or the zerg---insectoid aberrations that like coming up with new and fresh ways to eviscerate humanoids.

[akma]

any other ideas for uses of the skin flaps?


A. Organic traps. Not only will the skin flaps attack, their "owners" will become aware of the invaders, maybe even sense them.
B. Containers.
C. Acid manufacturing for... Stuff. Maybe into vials to throw as acid grenades, but then your players will probably start buffing themselves with energy resisting spells.

If I`ll think of more before your next post, I`ll edit it in.