Da'Shain
2012-12-20, 04:35 PM
TL:DR Soliciting aid in building/adapting an Elder Brain of Thoon with 10 levels of Illithid Savant to the Pathfinder system as the big bad of a campaign.
I've been asked to run a grueling campaign that'll take place over approximately two complete weekends' worth of time over vacation. My group has recently gotten into Pathfinder and loves it (as do I), so we'll be playing a Pathfinder game, but they also want to adapt some older 3.5 stuff to fit in, so we're doing that too. They want a challenge, and so I've decided to return a character from one of our old evil campaigns: Kranek the Knowing, an epic-level elder brain of Thoon who won an interplanar race for evil artifacts and became the champion of madness. I am going to tweak his build to make him ridiculously hard to kill (as these guys are, according to them, very proficient at optimization already in PF), but I'm going to make sure that there are alternatives to simply duking it out with him head on, just in case I make him too powerful.
So, the backdrop for this is essentially that, having become this evil champion, Kranek has remade himself and is bringing Thoon to dimension after dimension. Golarion is his next target, and one of the first signs of the invasion is the development of Psionics and the disappearance of nearly all of the setting's higher level magic users, rendering the first part of the story essentially a mystery as they try to figure out what the heck is happening without guidance from any but the most well-defended sources. I'm thinking that the oldest dragons will have some idea what's going on and have repelled assassination attempts, and the aboleths will have been approached for an alliance and still be considering it. Extraplanar beings such as gods are blocked from knowing what's going on on Golarion unless they manifest on the plane itself, which will be a quest in itself to get to happen; this is the effect of one of the artifacts Kranek had found. (Normal summons are okay; just that summoned creatures will not have any knowledge of what's happening and will only take back whatever they learn while summoned.)
For Kranek himself: I'd like advice as to how to build him. Currently, for maximum silliness, instead of simply giving the old character several artifacts of immense power, I've decided to rebuild him: as a normal Thoon Elder Brain (3.5, Monster Manual 5) ... with 10 levels of Illithid Savant from Savage Species. Who has already consumed several brains and gained the manifesting powers of a 20th level Psion Telepath, the Summon Monster abilities of a 20th level Master Summoner, the regeneration of a War Troll ... and I'm not sure what else, yet. I'd appreciate anyone out there's assistance in creating this character, who still has one class feature to pick and 1 special attack or special quality to pick, as well as feats and skills. Of course any other suggestions are welcome! Thanks in advance for the help.
EDIT: So far, for class abilities consumed, I'm thinking 20th level Telepath Psion manifesting, 20th level Master Summoner Summon Monster ability, and Pale Master's Deathless Mastery (immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, death effects, critical hits, ability drain, energy drain, and damage to physical ability scores). For special abilities/qualities consumed, I'm thinking War Troll Regen (only acid pierces) and possibly:
Demodand traits (can't be scryed upon at all by divine sources)
Protean traits (continuous freedom of movement, immunity to polymorph effects)
other possibilities as they are presented
So far, this would mean that in a straight out fight, he can still be banished or beaten into submission, but nothing short of finding a way to pierce his acid immunity can actually kill him. Is this too powerful? I figure that if they actually search hard for a way to do so I'll come up with some weapon or ability that lets them bypass the immunity.
I've been asked to run a grueling campaign that'll take place over approximately two complete weekends' worth of time over vacation. My group has recently gotten into Pathfinder and loves it (as do I), so we'll be playing a Pathfinder game, but they also want to adapt some older 3.5 stuff to fit in, so we're doing that too. They want a challenge, and so I've decided to return a character from one of our old evil campaigns: Kranek the Knowing, an epic-level elder brain of Thoon who won an interplanar race for evil artifacts and became the champion of madness. I am going to tweak his build to make him ridiculously hard to kill (as these guys are, according to them, very proficient at optimization already in PF), but I'm going to make sure that there are alternatives to simply duking it out with him head on, just in case I make him too powerful.
So, the backdrop for this is essentially that, having become this evil champion, Kranek has remade himself and is bringing Thoon to dimension after dimension. Golarion is his next target, and one of the first signs of the invasion is the development of Psionics and the disappearance of nearly all of the setting's higher level magic users, rendering the first part of the story essentially a mystery as they try to figure out what the heck is happening without guidance from any but the most well-defended sources. I'm thinking that the oldest dragons will have some idea what's going on and have repelled assassination attempts, and the aboleths will have been approached for an alliance and still be considering it. Extraplanar beings such as gods are blocked from knowing what's going on on Golarion unless they manifest on the plane itself, which will be a quest in itself to get to happen; this is the effect of one of the artifacts Kranek had found. (Normal summons are okay; just that summoned creatures will not have any knowledge of what's happening and will only take back whatever they learn while summoned.)
For Kranek himself: I'd like advice as to how to build him. Currently, for maximum silliness, instead of simply giving the old character several artifacts of immense power, I've decided to rebuild him: as a normal Thoon Elder Brain (3.5, Monster Manual 5) ... with 10 levels of Illithid Savant from Savage Species. Who has already consumed several brains and gained the manifesting powers of a 20th level Psion Telepath, the Summon Monster abilities of a 20th level Master Summoner, the regeneration of a War Troll ... and I'm not sure what else, yet. I'd appreciate anyone out there's assistance in creating this character, who still has one class feature to pick and 1 special attack or special quality to pick, as well as feats and skills. Of course any other suggestions are welcome! Thanks in advance for the help.
EDIT: So far, for class abilities consumed, I'm thinking 20th level Telepath Psion manifesting, 20th level Master Summoner Summon Monster ability, and Pale Master's Deathless Mastery (immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, death effects, critical hits, ability drain, energy drain, and damage to physical ability scores). For special abilities/qualities consumed, I'm thinking War Troll Regen (only acid pierces) and possibly:
Demodand traits (can't be scryed upon at all by divine sources)
Protean traits (continuous freedom of movement, immunity to polymorph effects)
other possibilities as they are presented
So far, this would mean that in a straight out fight, he can still be banished or beaten into submission, but nothing short of finding a way to pierce his acid immunity can actually kill him. Is this too powerful? I figure that if they actually search hard for a way to do so I'll come up with some weapon or ability that lets them bypass the immunity.