Forbidden Techniques

[Afgncaap5]

I'm doing a bit of work in an Eberron campaign, and I'm coming up to a part where it would behoove me to have a few truly surprising monk elders as enemies. I'd like each of them to be the master of some sort of "Forbidden" or "Unbeatable" technique, and I'm trying to come up with good ideas for them. So far, I've got two:

1) The Consumer of Hearts can pin an opponent and fluidly rip its heart out, killing it instantly. For this one, I'll basically be using a mind flayer with the serial numbers filed off, making use of its Extract power. (The four tentacles gripping the skull being replaced with a fluid, hook-like method of grappling a player, etc.) One minor problem with this is the psionic abilities, and how they can only be refluffed so far to retain credibility (I mean, sure, a master monk might be spiritually in-tune enough to fade away as if to another dimension or light-of-foot enough to seemingly float in the air, but how do you get Charm Person to work here?) Similarly, the issue of creature type may (though I doubt it) be an issue; I may say that two centuries of consuming hearts to stay alive has shifted his type to aberration, but I'm not sure yet.

2) The Zephyr Master is an act of blatant cheating on my part. This master has achieved true perfection over his long life, but unlike the Consumer of Hearts is still a very frail, aging mortal. The force of his blows travel through the air like wind, allowing him to strike every opponent within his chamber in a round, and he can move fast enough/block proficiently enough to be truly immune to physical attacks (I've not worked out spell-use yet). Basically the challenge with the Zephyr Master will be to outlast him, as the Zephyr Master's great age means that he can't possibly keep up this burst of activity for longer than half a minute or so. (Four rounds plus 1d3 more rounds is how I'm thinking of randomizing it.) If the players can survive until the master can't attack any more, then they can easily defeat him one round later. (Ideally, the reflex saves required to avoid his Zephyr Strikes will urge the players to use their action points.)

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for other Forbidden Techniques that I could put onto a third master, or if there are any comments on the first two. While a part of me feels a bit bad for designing a monster with abilities that wouldn't be available to a player... well, I'm fine with it in the name of cinematic action sequences.

[Venusaur]

Some sort of Dragonfire Adept inspired fire breather might be cool, especially since half-dragons in Eberron are so persecuted by dragons.

[Red Fel]

I'm doing a bit of work in an Eberron campaign, and I'm coming up to a part where it would behoove me to have a few truly surprising monk elders as enemies. I'd like each of them to be the master of some sort of "Forbidden" or "Unbeatable" technique, and I'm trying to come up with good ideas for them. So far, I've got two:

1) The Consumer of Hearts can pin an opponent and fluidly rip its heart out, killing it instantly. For this one, I'll basically be using a mind flayer with the serial numbers filed off, making use of its Extract power. (The four tentacles gripping the skull being replaced with a fluid, hook-like method of grappling a player, etc.) One minor problem with this is the psionic abilities, and how they can only be refluffed so far to retain credibility (I mean, sure, a master monk might be spiritually in-tune enough to fade away as if to another dimension or light-of-foot enough to seemingly float in the air, but how do you get Charm Person to work here?) Similarly, the issue of creature type may (though I doubt it) be an issue; I may say that two centuries of consuming hearts to stay alive has shifted his type to aberration, but I'm not sure yet.

Yep, re-fluffed Illithid works.


2) The Zephyr Master is an act of blatant cheating on my part. This master has achieved true perfection over his long life, but unlike the Consumer of Hearts is still a very frail, aging mortal. The force of his blows travel through the air like wind, allowing him to strike every opponent within his chamber in a round, and he can move fast enough/block proficiently enough to be truly immune to physical attacks (I've not worked out spell-use yet). Basically the challenge with the Zephyr Master will be to outlast him, as the Zephyr Master's great age means that he can't possibly keep up this burst of activity for longer than half a minute or so. (Four rounds plus 1d3 more rounds is how I'm thinking of randomizing it.) If the players can survive until the master can't attack any more, then they can easily defeat him one round later. (Ideally, the reflex saves required to avoid his Zephyr Strikes will urge the players to use their action points.)

So, with regard to his Zephyr Strikes, he's either using Blood Wind (unarmed or weapon strikes hit as though they had 20 foot reach), or he's got levels in Bloodstorm Blade and uses the throwing abilities on his fists (hey, it could work); with regard to his defenses, you could basically just give him a fixed number of uses of the Wall of Blades maneuver from ToB (block any ranged or melee attack with an attack roll instead of your AC), modified to allow unarmed parrying. He expends all of his uses and then he's a target.


I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for other Forbidden Techniques that I could put onto a third master, or if there are any comments on the first two. While a part of me feels a bit bad for designing a monster with abilities that wouldn't be available to a player... well, I'm fine with it in the name of cinematic action sequences.

Well, let's see. You've got the guy who pins down his opponents and kills them. To beat him, don't get grappled. You've got the untouchable guy who strikes from range. To beat him, wait him out. What's left?

You could have the guy who specializes in keeping people at range. Basically, give him very high SR, Deflect Arrows and Improved Evasion, forcing enemies to engage him in melee. Next, give him combos like Stand Still + Thicket of Blades, which will freeze anyone who moves within his melee range and keep them from getting close; give him that Training Dummy that increases your five-foot step to a ten-foot step so that he can constantly keep himself outside of melee range; give him a feat like Knockdown that lets him make a trip attack when he deals 10+ damage against an enemy. He is the master of the "Untouchable Fist," a school of combat that renders its wielder untouchable by magic and unreachable in melee combat. The secret to beating him is to corner him - if he runs out of space, he can't take anymore steps and can be fought normally.

[Prime32]

Swordsage/Hellfire Clawlock who sold his soul to Hell for power.

Shifter who became a weretouched master... and kept going. Now he can turn into all the animals. At the same time. While using kung fu on you.

Dead warforged inhabiting a circlet of preservation, who constantly teleports himself between three bodies to attack with all of them at once.

[7th son of sons]

Perhaps a master of the "Way of the Unbound Assault", who's a sort of monk/shadow dancer/swordsage/what-have you, who, so long as he keeps momentum on his side, will run at the party, pounce on them, unleash a full flurry of attacks, and then disappear into the shadows of his monastery. the way to beat him would be to take that momentum away from him, whether by grappling him, tripping him, or any other way of limiting his movements. This wound possibly put him at odds with the "Way of Heart Consumption", but hey, evil rarely gets along with evil.

[Afgncaap5]

Dead warforged inhabiting a circlet of preservation, who constantly teleports himself between three bodies to attack with all of them at once.


Ahh... I like the feel of that. I may use it for them monk, or I may make it an entirely different monster, not sure.