Crinias
2012-09-15, 07:21 PM
Good day all. A few weeks ago I requested a bit of assistance (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=253490) regarding mind flayers, particularly their psionic counterparts. Today I come to you with doubts about the same topic, but for a more specific case.
Before I proceed any further, I would like to remind any of my players reading this forum to stop now.
Anyway, I'm currently making the primary antagonist for my campaign: an Ulitharid (Lords of Madness 158). I say 'making', but I've had the concept for him floating around my head for a few months now.
This foe is intended to be representative of everything that makes Mind Flayers feared. I need him (it) to be absurdly powerful, ruthless, and willing to do anything to achieve his goals. His role is clear: he has been prophesied to one day lead all Illithids into multiversal dominion, starting with Oerth. I need it to instill terror in the PCs.
I'm taking the whole 'Illithids come from the future' thing from LoM as canon because it's convenient: I can say that its not just a prophecy, he really did conquer the world, and all MFs who know about it treat him as a minor deity; he himself has taken on a name that means Prophet and Promised One. Fortunately for the PCs, only a few Elder Brains even know how this Prophet managed to conquer the world, so I can just move the goalposts around until it's time for the campaign to end.
And although unlikely, in case things get up to really high level, 15+, I fully intend for an Elder Evil to awakened by the Prophet.
Anyway, as I mentioned on the other thread, I will be using psionics. Therein lies the problem: Using the psionic versions of monsters means giving them many more abilities, often requiring the DM to increase the CR a notch or two.
The ulitharid as described in LoM, with a few spell-like abilities, is CR 12. The psionic version does not say its CR increases, despite it gaining the ability to manifest powers as a level 13 psion.
Further complicating the matter, a lot of the powers it possesses are close to useless (body equilibrium, psionic levitate, personality parasite, mass cloud mind, shatter mind blank) or are actually described wrongly (personality parasite is a level 4 power, not level 6, shatter mind blank is level 5, not 6), which leads me to believe that the writers of LoM just added the psionics as an afterthought of sorts, with near no concern for balance.
So this is my dilemma: I need to balance this ulitharid just right. He needs to be a completely terrifying threat, but not to the point that he is completely unbeatable. My players are optimizers (and in fact I will probably encourage them to play mostly spellcasters), so that may be a mitigating factor, but for the moment I have no clue just what to do with this monster. I really wanna mess with him, change all useless powers into way more useful stuff, change some of his feats, etc, but at the same time I cannot let his CR get too high for the party.
Originally I intended for the players to begin at level 7, and someone pointed out that a 'boss' NPC is more or less appropriate at the party's level + 4, but I am seriously considering making them start a bit later, perhaps level 9 or 10.
I mean, my main concern here is that everyone should have fun and not completely lose to the CR-inappropriate world-ending ulitharid. I realize that changing at which level the players start could easily alter almost everything balance-wise. The large town of Innsmouth does not get corrupted by cultists, it will get wiped off the map in the Prophet's search for clues of an artifact. The scale of how things work could get radically altered.
But what matters first and foremost is my party's fun, so I would highly appreciate any help.
Before I proceed any further, I would like to remind any of my players reading this forum to stop now.
Anyway, I'm currently making the primary antagonist for my campaign: an Ulitharid (Lords of Madness 158). I say 'making', but I've had the concept for him floating around my head for a few months now.
This foe is intended to be representative of everything that makes Mind Flayers feared. I need him (it) to be absurdly powerful, ruthless, and willing to do anything to achieve his goals. His role is clear: he has been prophesied to one day lead all Illithids into multiversal dominion, starting with Oerth. I need it to instill terror in the PCs.
I'm taking the whole 'Illithids come from the future' thing from LoM as canon because it's convenient: I can say that its not just a prophecy, he really did conquer the world, and all MFs who know about it treat him as a minor deity; he himself has taken on a name that means Prophet and Promised One. Fortunately for the PCs, only a few Elder Brains even know how this Prophet managed to conquer the world, so I can just move the goalposts around until it's time for the campaign to end.
And although unlikely, in case things get up to really high level, 15+, I fully intend for an Elder Evil to awakened by the Prophet.
Anyway, as I mentioned on the other thread, I will be using psionics. Therein lies the problem: Using the psionic versions of monsters means giving them many more abilities, often requiring the DM to increase the CR a notch or two.
The ulitharid as described in LoM, with a few spell-like abilities, is CR 12. The psionic version does not say its CR increases, despite it gaining the ability to manifest powers as a level 13 psion.
Further complicating the matter, a lot of the powers it possesses are close to useless (body equilibrium, psionic levitate, personality parasite, mass cloud mind, shatter mind blank) or are actually described wrongly (personality parasite is a level 4 power, not level 6, shatter mind blank is level 5, not 6), which leads me to believe that the writers of LoM just added the psionics as an afterthought of sorts, with near no concern for balance.
So this is my dilemma: I need to balance this ulitharid just right. He needs to be a completely terrifying threat, but not to the point that he is completely unbeatable. My players are optimizers (and in fact I will probably encourage them to play mostly spellcasters), so that may be a mitigating factor, but for the moment I have no clue just what to do with this monster. I really wanna mess with him, change all useless powers into way more useful stuff, change some of his feats, etc, but at the same time I cannot let his CR get too high for the party.
Originally I intended for the players to begin at level 7, and someone pointed out that a 'boss' NPC is more or less appropriate at the party's level + 4, but I am seriously considering making them start a bit later, perhaps level 9 or 10.
I mean, my main concern here is that everyone should have fun and not completely lose to the CR-inappropriate world-ending ulitharid. I realize that changing at which level the players start could easily alter almost everything balance-wise. The large town of Innsmouth does not get corrupted by cultists, it will get wiped off the map in the Prophet's search for clues of an artifact. The scale of how things work could get radically altered.
But what matters first and foremost is my party's fun, so I would highly appreciate any help.