Monster help

[Asteron]

I'm currently backporting a 4e adventure and we are coming up on a mid-boss fight. The PC's are about to track down the Little Bad on the Plane of Shadows and have the chance to kill him. The adventure has him teamed up with shadowborn hobgoblins, which are easily translated into being hobgoblins with the Shadow or Dark templates. The problem is that those options are very boring (they've faced both of those things before...) I was thinking about using Draconians from Dragonlance, but I'm not completely sold on them.

Does anyone have any suggestions of flavorful creatures and templates from either 3.5 or Pathfinder I could use in this fight?

[Asteron]

I just realized that I forgot to give any info about the party! Its a level 6 gestalt party:

Druid//ranger/MMoF
PF Fighter//PF PsyWar
Wizard/Abjurant Champion//Duskblade/Swashbuckler
Warblade//Factotum/Monk/Swashbuckler

They all have templates to make them a bit more powerful.

And I wonder why no one replies to my posts...

[Chester]

What do you mean by "more flavorful"?

You could always add the fiendish template . . . make them have glowing red eyes and extra hard to kill.

[Asteron]

I suppose it should read "more interesting."

This is going to take place on the plane of Shadows. I'd like some interesting creatures who are at home in darkness. Creatures with the Shadow template are old hat for this campaign...

My current plan is some templated drow led by the Dark Creeper LBEG.

Lolth-touched, Vampire, half-dragon... Stuff like that.

[Urpriest]

What sort of powers do the 4e hobgoblins have?

Chances are you can keep them as Shadow Hobgoblins, and get the flavor out of their class features. After all, you've already established that this guy works with Shadow Hobgoblins in the plot, wouldn't it be hard to justify him suddenly getting Draconian or Drow minions?

[Asteron]

Sorry, I'm really bad at making myself clear...

They've seen Hobgoblins and Shadow creatures, but not Shadow Hobgoblins; that was that for this fight only. These would be brand new allies of this guy that they've never met before. Heck, they've never even seen the Dark Creeper, just heard about him.

Here's what I've got in my head:
Half-Dragon Drow Stoneboned Paladin of Slaughter 5
Lolth-touched Mineral Warrior Drow Crusader 5 (refluffed for her son)
Vampire Drow Sorcerer 5
Spell-Warped Dark Creeper Duskblade//Swordsage (w/ Kung Fun genius) 7

Would that be too much for them? They are just as tricked out as these guys are as far as templates go...

[AlanBruce]

Have you considered the Shadar Kai? They are fey found the Fiend Folio p. 150 that live in the Plane of Shadows.

Tricky fellows, they have abilities that mimic the assassin and have some interesting tricks, such as HiPS.

You can apply the above mentioned templates to them and have some interesting fey encounters.

[Asteron]

Have you considered the Shadar Kai? They are fey found the Fiend Folio p. 150 that live in the Plane of Shadows.

Tricky fellows, they have abilities that mimic the assassin and have some interesting tricks, such as HiPS.

You can apply the above mentioned templates to them and have some interesting fey encounters.

That's a possibility. However, the LBEG's former boss, who he betrayed recently, is a Shadar-kai... But it could work.

My story for these guys is that he paid them for emergency protection.

[AlanBruce]

I just realized that I forgot to give any info about the party! Its a level 6 gestalt party:

Druid//ranger/MMoF
PF Fighter//PF PsyWar
Wizard/Abjurant Champion//Duskblade/Swashbuckler
Warblade//Factotum/Monk/Swashbuckler

The minions don't have to be Shadow Themed necesarilly, even if they are on the Plane of Shadow.

I sent these at my 8th level party awhile back. It's a dangerous encounter if played intelligently.

Spellwarped Blackspawn Raider [Dragonblooded] Barbarian 1

Lesser Aassimar [Dragonblooded] Bard 6 with DFI

Human [Dragonblood] sorcerer 6

Lesser Fire Genasi Archivist 6

Silverbrow Human [dragonblooded] Duskblade 5

Half Dragon Changeling Paladin of Tyranny 3 (I used white dragon, but you can change the type as needed)

Human Rogue5/Swordsage1


The bard hides in an area inaccesible to the party, but within musical range of his allies. The sorcerer opens up with shock and awe, granting them a penalty to initiative.

The Blackspawn Raider charges, ideally from above, doing massive damage plus DFI.

The Archivist debuffs from a similar hidden and inaccessible outcropping.

The sorcerer adds to the debuffing, hidden in an inaccessible area, focusing on enchantments, mostly.

The duskblade does his arcane channeling tricks on a party member until it drops.

The rogue (hopefully) gets some nice SA.

The PoT uses his BW and resorts to one handed blade in order to get a claw attack, plus bite. Smite as needed.

All attacks gets +4d6 fire damage due to DFI.


If the party is gestalt, they should be able to handle them, but it can still be a pretty difficult encounter due to DFI. That is, until someone casts resist fire.