Help with a BBEG Build...

[Ranting Fool]

*Spoiler Warning*

If you are players in my campaign and are lurking around in the Playground for useful hints and tips (Ben, David I'm looking at you) please do not read this thread as what is asked will come up at some point in your future and you will spoil the fun (That or a Random God of Pettyness might just smite you)

For the rest of you helpful people please click below


OI I told you not to read this! :smallbiggrin:

Right what I'm looking for is help with a BBEG Druid coming up in the campaign. I don't want overpowered kill them all just to make the boss enounter something of a challege (Also bare in mind the BBEG is very very unlikly to run/be talked down as he has gone stark raving mad)

Party of Goody types all level 6 are
H/Orc Barbarian, basic powerattacking THW smasher
Halfling Necromancer (My little story driver NPC who has more utility and debuffs then anything deadly at the moment)
Half elf Druid (has wolf pet, isn't Opt as such yet as he is still learning the class)
Human Wizard (Can do a fair bit of damage with Scortch/fireball)

I haven't yet worked it out but they have very nice stats but lacking in the WBL department because they keep being nice and giving gold away/haven't had downtime for awhile and need to craft stuff

Setting: Big Underground Jungle, think Land of the Lost. (Undead get holy flamed by the sun so no undead summons or anything in the encounter)

I want the BBEG to be a level or 3 higher then them. His Race is Goblin (Stats can be anything) but I want him (Or Her) to be in animal form for the fight. Any Jungle / Dino pet, but not that fleshripper one, would be good and was thinking of the BBEG being very though and doing a lot of summoning (Maybe being an ape and jumping from tree to tree until blasted down) this will be an ambush (unless a good spot is made but the druid has been mostly relying on Scent via spell to warn him) so time for prebuffing

So: Useful feats (other then Natural spell which is a must, happy to give a flaw)?
Items? (Since they are lagging behind on WBL i'm happy to kit the boss out with things that could be used by them as long as it isn't TOO powerful)
Tactics?

There could well be (depends if they go for the plot hooks) a lot of Evil Druids that need to be squished coming up so any advice could be useful for later.

Trying to go for a bit more then the standard "see good guys and smash" in the tactics

Oh two minor things, they have a knocked out NPC Wizard with them who has gone Innsane (Glyph of) so they are dragging him to go get cured

Death is posible. I do not want to wipe the group but I do want it to be a hard fight for them.

[moritheil]

While I agree you probably don't want your BBEG to charge in and start one-shotting them (that way lies TPK), consider the alternate path to difficulty: defenses. I recall building a CR 6 undead completely by RAW to have over 40AC. It involved some tricks that doubtless won't apply to your goblin, but there's nothing that says you can't just handwave his AC to be, say, in the 30s, and give him Mettle via Pious Templar and some excellent saves. This would require different tactics (coordinating attacks, flanking, etc.) and make him into a memorable encounter.

When PCs can't affect a boss readily, they tend to really sweat - even if it's not doing that much damage to them. I'd say that's the way to go.

[Ranting Fool]

When PCs can't affect a boss readily, they tend to really sweat - even if it's not doing that much damage to them. I'd say that's the way to go.

Very true... quite awhile ago I had them face off Vs a mage with Fly + Protect from normal Arrows, nice and high up and did a few Extra Ranged Summons, nothing they couldn't swat but since they had never really encounted something out of range they started to freak out "Get the mage to teleport me up next to him so I can hit him as I fall down" was something the Barbarian came up with :smalltongue:

I want to avoid doing too much handwaving. But yes hard-to-kill was what I was hoping for :smallbiggrin:

[docnessuno]

Is the BBEG's race fixed? How would you feel about a shifter? (wich maybe got reincarnated in a goblin)

One of the best things a summoner druid could ever get (Beast Spirit) is sadly avaiable only to shifter druids as a racial substitution level.

[Ranting Fool]

This guy is fixed as a Goblin but there will be other druids.

[docnessuno]

Goblin druid 9
Str 8 Dex 13 Con 16 Int 13 Wis 16+2 Cha 9
HP: 71 - Fort +9, Ref +4, Will +10 - AC 16 (T: 12, FF: 15) - Ini: +1 - BAB: +6/+1
Skills: Concentration +15, Handle Animal +10, Heal +10, Knowledge (nature) +10, Listen (Wis) +10, Profession (Hunter) +5, Spellcraft +10, Spot +10, Survival +5
Feats: Ashbound [ECS], Greenbound summoning [LEoF], Natural spell, Rapid Spell [CD]

Items:
Armor of the beast [CC]
Ring of the beast [CC]
Mantle of the beast [CC]

Spells:
1: Camouflage x1
1: Entangle x2
1: Vigor, lesser [SpC] x2
2: Barkskin x1
2: Blinding spittle [SpC] x2
2: Snake's Swiftness, Mass [SpC] x2
3: Dominate animal x1
3: Girallon's Blessing [SpC] x1
3: Rapid Summon Nature's ally 2 x2 (cast as SNA3 thanks to ring of the beast)
4: Arc of lightning [SpC] x1
4: Dispel magic x1
4: Rapid Summon Nature's ally 3 x1 (cast as SNA4 thanks to ring of the beast)
5: Rejuvination Coccoon x1
5: Rapid Summon Nature's ally 4 x1 (cast as SNA5 thanks to ring of the beast)

Animal companion:
Giant Crocodile (plus 1 trick, Link, Share spells)

Wild shape forms:
Dire Bat:
Large - Fort +9, Ref +9, Will +10 - AC 24 (T: 15, FF: 18) - Ini: +6 - Fly 40ft (good) - Bite +10 (1d8+4) - +4 Racial on Spot and Listen checks - Blindsense 40ft
[S]Dire Lion:
Large - Fort +9, Ref +5, Will +10 - AC 19 (T: 11, FF: 17) - Ini: +2 - Speed 40ft - 2 claws +14 melee (1d6+8), bite +8 melee (1d8+4) - Improved grab - pounce - Two rake attacks on charge/grapple at +13 (1d6+4)- +4 Racial on Hide and Move silently checks
Megaraptor Dinosaur (quite on par with dire lion and fitting the theme):
Large - Fort +11, Ref +5, Will +10 - AC 21 (T: 11, FF: 19) - Ini: +2 - Speed 60ft - Talons +11 melee (2d6+6) and 2 foreclaws +6 melee (1d4+3) and bite +6 melee (1d8+3) - Lowlight vision - Pounce - Scent - +8 racial on Hide, Jump, Listen, Spot, and Survival checks

Tactics:
Start in dire bat form for better allaround defense and a fly speed. Summon, then summon some more. Use Snake's Swiftness, Mass to give free attacks to your beloved summons and your animal companion, Blinding spittle, Entangle and dispel magic to debuff the group and Arc of lighning to finish off troublesome foes. If given the chance Dominate the druid's companion. If bought low on HP retreat inside a Rejuvination Coccoon, while inside buff up with Barkskin and Girallon's Blessing, change to Dire lion and unleash the pain with a gazillion of pouncing attacks.

Summons:
SNA2 (actually 3): Dire Wolf d3 Crocodiles (less powerful but still decent, and fits the jungle theme)
SNA3 (actually 4): d3 Dire Wolves or Brown Bear Giant Crocodile (less powerful but still decent, and fits the jungle theme)
SNA4 (actually 5): d3 Brown Bears d3 Giant Crocodiles (less powerful but still decent, and fits the jungle theme)

[Ranting Fool]

Thank you very much docnessuno.

I looked up Ashbound... wow yeah what druid summoner wouldn't want that

Can't seem to find

Items:
Armor of the beast [CC]
Ring of the beast [CC]
Mantle of the beast [CC]

Which of the Eberon books is it in? (or does CC stand for something I don't know)

I like the Dominate animal :smallbiggrin: Though the druid's wolf does have the bonus saves vs Mind Control he'd HATE anyone who tried to take away his wolf's freedom

rejuvenation cocoon is cool too (Though spelt slighlty wrong so the search didn't work, flicking through books to find things phaa I say!) :smalltongue:

[docnessuno]

[ECS] Eberron campaign setting (ashbound should have that tag, editing it now)
[CC] Complete champion
[CD] Complete divine
[LEoF] Lost empires of faerun
[SpC] Spell compendium

If you did like Ashbound wait untill you see grenbound summoning

If you want to tone down the build change grenbound summoning for improved toughness (bringing it to 80 HP) and girallon's blessing for a level-appropriate "bite of the were?" spell.

[Piggy Knowles]

Hmmm.... it's a shame you're specifically looking for a jungle/dino theme. A winter-themed druid could have a lot of fun with this. Perhaps that is the particular method this goblin went mad? Decided that winter was inevitable and all-consuming, and he would be its harbinger, that sort of thing.

Basically just pick up a copy of Frostburn for a lot of neat snowy druid spells. Pre-buff with Snowsight and Snow Walk (shared with your companion, of course). Then shut the party down with snow effects - Obscuring Snow (level 2 spell, surrounded by a 30' radius of snow that completely cuts off all visibility), Arctic Haze (basically the same, but level 3 and deals a small amount of damage per round), and Blizzard (level 5 spell but a HUGE radius - 100'/level - with a foot of snow falling per level).

Again, you and your companion would be able to see and move through the snow thanks to your buffs, but the party would be completely shut down. It's a fight that, being unable to see or move, can potentially be very scary, but you can make it winnable by toning down your offense a bit.

[Ranting Fool]

Hmmm.... it's a shame you're specifically looking for a jungle/dino theme. A winter-themed druid could have a lot of fun with this. Perhaps that is the particular method this goblin went mad? Decided that winter was inevitable and all-consuming, and he would be its harbinger, that sort of thing.

It's only this next BBEG encounter that it must be a Jungle/Dino theme. Our beloved heroes are exploring a mage college/research lab type place of a long dead race :smalltongue: (Well there is a long and good reason for using this old trope but thats a storty for another post) the Druid is mad as a hatter but then with those pesky Symbols of Insanity left laying around by those mages and he's a Goblin because they were one of those experiments, like the underground jungle, that have been left on too long.

So any builds for any Druids would/will be useful later on in the campaign, even more powerful higher level builds.

[Ranting Fool]

First let me say that these items are top notch and any Druid would like them and thank you for pointing me in this direction... but.

NPC 9th Level = 12,000-ish (according to players hand book 2 anyway, 36,000 for a PC) now since I've realised I've been a tad too cheap with loot I'm more than happy to bump that spending power up but the items listed.

Mantel of the beast = 18,000
Ring of the beast = 8,000
Armor of the beast = 26,175
Total = 52,175

That and the fact that the Druid in the group would get items a level 10-11 PC would just be able to get at level 6 would over power him and make the other players less than happy.

There is always the problem that if my Druid is going to be a Dire Bat or Lion all the time then most items won't give a bonus while shifted.

Can Druids use neck items while shifted (if someone puts it on them?) what if any other less optimized items can work while shifted?

[docnessuno]

1st: edited the summons and wild shapes of choice to fit more with the theme

2nd: about items, i intentionally went overbudget following your initial statement, if you want to lower the overall value i suggest first removing the mantle of the beast (and changing the memorized spells with Girallon's Blessing [SpC] => another 'rapid' summon, Arc of lightning [SpC] => Magic fang, superior [SpC], that would be cast alongside barkskin while inside the cocoon). This could also serve s a nice hook to go looking for the missing part of the set.

If the budget is still to high you could change the armor to a +1 wild dragonhide (black) breastplate, worth 16600 gp. This would also increase the normal and flat footed AC in all forms by 2, but would obviously reduce the 'cool' factor.

Other druid concepts you might consider for upcoming NPCs:
Wild shape focused melee druid
Elemental-focused summoner druid (see: "rashemi elemental summoning" feat)
Master of many forms
Fochulan lyrist dual caster

Edit: (yeah, can't help it) i don't understand if you did note it but all the set of the beast (as well as normal 'wild' armour) has full effect while wild shaped.
And yes, it's possible to wild shape then equip something, but consider many magic items won't fit the new form (clothing and jewelry do resize, but the body shape could prove problematic, lacking the corresponding body slots for magic items). Also it would require assistance each time the character wants to wild shape.

[moritheil]

Can Druids use neck items while shifted (if someone puts it on them?) what if any other less optimized items can work while shifted?

This is what the wilding clasp is for: allowing amulets to work with wild shape.

[Ranting Fool]

This is what the wilding clasp is for: allowing amulets to work with wild shape.

Cheers that is very useful, it's cheap enough and can allow any item to work in shifted form as long as the item could be reasonably be worn by the new form So neck, funky hat could be cool.

I like the idea of a summoning Bat of Doom but for some reason I can now picture a large orange orangutan wearing a pointed hat saying Wizzard or even a bit of bling and a loincloth. I just have a very damaged mind I think :smallbiggrin:

@docnessuno: Yeah I noticed the set bonus stuff, I really liked the whole idea just I worry that dropping that much useful gear for just one member of the party could really unbalance things. Might save that set up for one of the higher level Druids they will/should/might come across.

[docnessuno]

Idea: to further lower the NPC gold and distribute some loot between the party consider this item setup:

Ring of the beast (9000 gp)
Ring of shield (custom magic item, constant shield, as the spell, CL1 - 4000 gp) => great item for anyone not using a shield
Wilding clasp (on ring of shield - 4000)