[3.5] Need a eerie/intimidating "Artifact Guarding" for a campaign

[ajfonty]

Hi all,

I'm looking for a creature to function as a guardian for a very powerful artifact locked away deep underground.

Specifically, this guardian will hunt down the PCs after they acquire the artifact with another NPC. What I'm looking for is:

-- A unique look and style; something the PCs would not have run into before, and that doesn't exist in the world except as this artifact's guardian.
-- The ability to "hunt" the PCs through teleportation or other such strategies, though in-combat teleportation isn't necessary. Any flavor that adds to this sense of the hunt would be excellent as well, either through the creature itself or a series of rules it follows.
-- Pretty high CR/level (at least 12+). It doesn't have to be incorporeal, but it's alright if it is. More specifically, though, I want my PCs to feel as if their melee weapons/spells at their current level (7) aren't doing much against the creature, and thus they will need to try and elude it for enough time to find a way to stop it.
-- The ability to paralyze targets would be great, though level drain is alright too. Other intimidating abilities would be awesome as well.

What I'm looking for is the type of creature that will resonate with the PCs and add a certain level of fear into the group -- ie, "when will the creature strike next?"

Is there any particular monster that fits the description here?

[Coventry]

When you said paralysis, my mind jumped straight to the Mummy Lord (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/mummy.htm).

Will Save DC 17 or paralyzed with fear for 1d4 rounds.

Put the artifact on or very near to unholy ground when the party picks it up. Instead of immediately walloping the party, make them save vs. Despair (with the +4 bonus for the unholy ground, so DC 21), and then describe how the mummy rises up from underneath the earth, with bits of scrap cloth sliding along the ground ...

Basically, the body forms at the speed of plot - if some party members make the save and grab their buddies the pursuit begins immediately, otherwise stall until the party can flee. It has a movement rate of 15, and no CON score (so no running), so even heavily loaded party members should be able to outrun it and escape the spell range of a cleric.

Then they pass the mural that shows that exact mummy standing on a flying carpet, raining spells down from the skies. Once he gets airborne, they only have a little time before he gets mobile.

Options:

Throw in the Evolved Undead template (Libris Mortis) to increase CHA (and thus, the Save DC) and give extra abilities as needed.

If things go sideways, and the party opts to die by charging him - he beats them senseless, takes away their toy (er, artifact), teleports them out of his tomb, puts the artifact back where it was, slams the door and goes back to sleep.

The only question is, does this fit your "different" requirement?

[hisnamehere]

Have you looked at the Wendigo template from Fiend Folio? Lots of ability boosts, and eerie abilities. Definitely a 'hunter', bloody stumps and all.

[Averis Vol]

theres always the entropic reaper from forgotten realms, i'm not sure its exact stats but it gave Szass Tam a run for his money, that HAS to say something right there.:smallbiggrin:

plus its a grim reaper with a scythe made of pure negative energy that incinerates anything it touches. i cant see much more intimidating then that.

[Igneel]

Maybe throw in a Fiend of Possession [Fiend Folio, PrC] that messes with their heads by possessing objects like the floor, walls, doors, dust clouds etc placing curses, animating them to make them fight the characters, lord knows what else. If used with a fiend they could have a natural way of teleportation, so you can never really know when or where, or how it will strike next. Is that gold coin this man is giving me going to curse me? Will that statue fall over on top of me? Will the bed sheets try to choke me while I sleep? Sky is the limit with this PrC.

If you want a re-occurring villain theme, Soul-lock [Heroes of Horror, pg 47] might be nice. Basically gives anything a lich/ghost-like rejuvenation ability to come back from being killed to totally destroyed in 4-8d20 days. Only way to get rid of it is by figuring out a specific way. For example, a fighter was placed under a family curse and is cursed to keep coming back to life till the curse is removed. DM only template.

Unholy Scion [Heroes of Horror, pg 155] is another interesting template. I always find it more interesting to have the Unholy Scion still be a baby being carried by it's Dominated mother and/or father attacks the players. Does the paladin kill the parents despite them being controlled? Or the baby despite it being evil?

@hisnamehere:
If memory serves, the Wendigo are fey that are connected to oasis's and are cursed to stay within a certain distance from it or die. I might be wrong.

[Suddo]

If you want it to be unique home brew it and test it against copied versions of your PCs. I'd suggest Construct (for immunities) who's been scribed with teleportation runes which allow him to blink around at-will (only within line of sight). Want to have real fun make there be gems threw out the dungeon which are almost impossible to see (you could have a spot check if you want) and have those be acting as his eyes but he is otherwise blind outside of like 20ft (blindsight). That should give you a good chassis. Combine that with the above mentioned paralyzing gaze and bam. Also fill the terrain with elements that help him. Make him immune to fire and make the whole place covered in grease for example. Beyond that its a matter of what you want him to do.
You can also make it multiple constructs who act as one though this changes how powerful you want each one to be but allows each one to have his own tactics and ideas. One could grapple and bull-rush (battle-field control) and the other could swing something big and intimidating (probably cursed).

That's my idea.

[Kol Korran]

my idea is similar to that of Igneel. basically have a ghost that is tied to the item. the party MIGHT destroy/ contain it, but then it reforms near the artifact after such and such time. a few added ideas:

- i highly suggest to make it a unique creature, perhaps drawing from existing creatures' abilities, but ultimately a unique creature. it will be SOOO much more effective.

- it should have the ghost rejuvination ability, only that it always succeeds unless certain conditions are met (which the party will have to explore)

- give the creature the malevolence ability- now it can possess creatures, even the party members! over, and over again...

- i'd suggest to use as the base creature some sort of swarm (perhaps one from either BoED or BoVD) that is intelligent. keep the form obscure though- the "ghosts" is just multitudes of small incorporeal pieces of whispering shadows.

- every time the swarm kills someone it might grow (add another 5ft square) and gain some of the abilities of the dead... in fact they join it and it becomes stronger. as powers of now ghostly creatures are used their faces are formed briefly by the shadow slips...

- as it gains powers give it more powers. one that might be awesome is to "affect reality" in some small measure. each day it can change the roll of x/day d20 rolls, even while not rejuvinated! do it at the worst times (i.e.- saving rolls) the PC must take the worst roll.

hope this helped.

[hisnamehere]

If memory serves, the Wendigo are fey that are connected to oasis's and are cursed to stay within a certain distance from it or die. I might be wrong.
It's a template with the [Cold] subtype. They're generally found in cold forests, I believe, and the oasis-theme may be from a non-D&D source (but I'm AFB).


...acting as his eyes...
I like this idea in general. May I use it?

[Medic!]

An Inevitable could be about right for this with some fluff-tweaking, or any of the varieties of Haunts from...MM 4 or 5? The deathless template on an NPC with class levels could work pretty well too. (For some reason I'm thinking one with some levels in Risen Martyr from BoED would be cool but IDK and it's about 9 hours past my bed time)