Guardian Monster of a Planet

[Morof Stonehands]

In a setting I am creating, the planet that is the main focus is the exact center of the Material Plane. It is where everything started. Before there were gods, there was only arcane power. Now I haven't fleshed it all out yet, but this arcane power is sort of like a crystal or some mass of energy. It is located in the core of the planet.

And it needs a guardian.

That kind of power will be wanted by many and they will try to take it for themselves, especially evil and corrupt gods. So I am trying to think of some sort of guardian that the Arcane energy created to protect itself. I have a few ideas right now:

1. Primal Elementals - (From ELH, I will advance 1 of each type to max HD, 288)
2. Some sort of uber-construct, mindless, existing only to protect it's "creator".
3. A being of immense power, i.e. an NPC with 20 levels in about 7 different classes.

Some things to think about - It has to be able to beat a God almost single handed (might get rid of the first 2 options because of this). I don't really want Pun-Pun esque things.

I am looking for suggestions, ideas, builds, templates, whatever to make a guardian creature for this energy/planet/universe.

[Zytil]

This is basically what the tarrasque is in all my campaigns, whether or not it actually ends up being brought up.

It's also buffed to hell, so there's that.

[nobodez]

Echoing Zytil, Mr. To is pretty much your basic planetary guardian/avatar, though I say basic, because as written he's not that dangerous beyond being a natural disaster (which he's great at. He's a disaster-level encounter for low-level parties, not a combat encounter for high-level ones).

If you want to have more fun, I'd recommend adding templates, or perhaps go with a dragon of some sort and slap some class levels on it.

[Telonius]

There's a monster in MM2 called "Spirit of the Land." It's a 20-HD, CR 23, Huge, Incorporeal Fey with a whole bunch of at-wills. It fits the theme almost perfectly, so it might be a good place to start looking. Maybe give it a bunch of templates or class levels, or access to all four of the elemental manifestations.

[Morof Stonehands]

This is basically what the tarrasque is in all my campaigns, whether or not it actually ends up being brought up.

It's also buffed to hell, so there's that.

This is a strong creature for sure. What kind of buffs/templates do you use to make it stronger? Ideally it should be able to defend against an attack from a God for a good amount of time.



There's a monster in MM2 called "Spirit of the Land." It's a 20-HD, CR 23, Huge, Incorporeal Fey with a whole bunch of at-wills. It fits the theme almost perfectly, so it might be a good place to start looking. Maybe give it a bunch of templates or class levels, or access to all four of the elemental manifestations.

I like this one! A follow up question for you though is: It can take class levels?

[Piggy Knowles]

This sounds like a job for the Emerald Legion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101587).

EDIT: Here's (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5689601&postcount=80) the direct link to the creature's stat black. DO NOT think that because this technically has a CR of 21 that it's an appropriate CR 21 challenge. The Emerald Legion is literally unstoppable against anything not ridiculously well prepared for battling it specifically (more or less the only thing that can give a chance against it is a Dweomerkeeper who uses a supernatural Graymantle spell to suppress its regeneration, followed by a lot of the appropriate kind of damage very quickly).

[Chronos]

If it needs to defend against gods, then whatever it is, it needs divine ranks itself.

[malonkey1]

I would actually stat it like an Elder Evil, complete with divine magic immunities. That'd give it enough defenses to take on deities, and enough firepower to take on player characters.

[Telonius]

I like this one! A follow up question for you though is: It can take class levels?

It does list an advancement by hitdice, but no reason you can't just handwave it. It does have appropriate mental scores for something with class levels.

[Mnemnosyne]

It doesn't sound to me like this thing needs stats. It can be arbitrarily powerful within whatever limitations you choose to give it, but none of those limitations need be numerical stats of any sort.

This is with the assumption that if you want this creature defeated at all, it should be via plot device/ritual, at the culmination of a grand scheme, not by the players optimizing whatever damage combo you will let them get away with that will kill the thing.

[Eldest]

It doesn't sound to me like this thing needs stats. It can be arbitrarily powerful within whatever limitations you choose to give it, but none of those limitations need be numerical stats of any sort.

This is with the assumption that if you want this creature defeated at all, it should be via plot device/ritual, at the culmination of a grand scheme, not by the players optimizing whatever damage combo you will let them get away with that will kill the thing.

Very much this. If you stat it, they can kill it.

[Morof Stonehands]

I would actually stat it like an Elder Evil, complete with divine magic immunities. That'd give it enough defenses to take on deities, and enough firepower to take on player characters.

This is a good idea. Thanks!


If it needs to defend against gods, then whatever it is, it needs divine ranks itself.

I will also look into this, it seems to fit the idea for certain.


It doesn't sound to me like this thing needs stats. It can be arbitrarily powerful within whatever limitations you choose to give it, but none of those limitations need be numerical stats of any sort.

This is with the assumption that if you want this creature defeated at all, it should be via plot device/ritual, at the culmination of a grand scheme, not by the players optimizing whatever damage combo you will let them get away with that will kill the thing.

The more I look into the stats for him, I am inclined to agree. However, this is a being that the PCs will have to help at some point, so it will need some sort of stat block, in case they fail and it gets destroyed.

The way I look at it, if Gods have stats, but are pretty much unkillable, then this should have stats as well, but also be pretty much unkillable.

[Mnemnosyne]

The problem with that is that the published statblocks for gods are easily killable, often by characters that aren't even epic level. The only interpretation I personally find reasonable that allows those (or really, any) stats to be used for gods is if they are the stats of the avatar, not the actual deity.

Even if you have them trying to protect it somehow, you probably don't want them somehow in combat alongside it. Either it is fantastically powerful and makes their presence trivial, at which point you need some sort of bizarrely contrived situation to make them important, or it's not, and you begin to wonder what it did during all the time they weren't around. If they have to protect it, it seems more likely they have to do so by interfering in and preventing the use of a device, or a ritual, or some other indirect means of defeating it.

[HeyThereImBear]

If you're using 3rd party stuff I can give you a quick way to make it literally unkillable, have every class/ability, inf stats, and not be pun-pun.

[Vhaidara]

You have ELH, look up the Genus Loci. Advance it. Give it minions. It IS the planet.

[Slipperychicken]

You could give it stats like a deity. Maybe slap some templates and divine ranks onto a will-o-wisp? That way it normally looks like a glowy sphere of energy.

So something like Paragon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/paragonCreature.htm) [base creature] with 20 cleric levels and Divine Rank 16-20.