Fun with Glabrezus! (Glabrezii?)

[OverdrivePrime]

My party is knowingly heading into an encounter with a Glabrezu, and I want to change things up a bit, seeing as how demons are embodiments of chaos and probably shouldn't all fit the PFSRD description to a tee.

Here's a standard Glabrezu: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/demon/glabrezu

It has an absolutely ridiculous series of feats that really don't make a lot of sense to me: Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Critical (pincer), Persuasive, Power Attack, Vital Strike.

I don't really see much use for Great Cleave, Vital Strike and Improved Critical on this beast, as I imagine a good strategy for it is to mess up its foes with consecutive blasts of spell-likes, and then wait for someone to be dumb enough to close into full-attack range.
Cleave is... eh. Persuasive seems to be really just for flavor because it's a manipulator, and I'll probably keep it.

I was thinking of swapping in:
Quicken Spell-Like Ability (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/d/dispel-magic) (Dispel Magic)
That - if I understand counterspells right - should allow the Glabrezu to use its at-will ability to Dispel Magic to attempt a counterspell every round without readying an action. Since my party consists primarily of casters, I think that would really prolong the fight without making it completely deadly.

I'm also thinking of swapping in Combat Expertise (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/combat-expertise-combat), Improved Disarm (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/improved-disarm-combat---final) and Greater Disarm (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/greater-disarm-combat---final), to make life hard for the melee without destroying their prized weapons.

Additionally, I was considering swapping some stats around - dropping 2 from dexterity and adding 2 to charisma, maybe dropping 2 from strength and adding 2 to wisdom.

Thoughts? What have you done to make memorable demons?

[VoxRationis]

I don't deal with high-level outsiders much in my campaigns, but I can tell you that a Latin-type ending doesn't really apply to anything ending with "-zu." "Glabrezii" would apply if the singular were "glabrezius," and if the singular were "glabrezus," the plural could be "glabrezi" or "glabrezus" (macron over the u).

[OverdrivePrime]

I don't deal with high-level outsiders much in my campaigns, but I can tell you that a Latin-type ending doesn't really apply to anything ending with "-zu." "Glabrezii" would apply if the singular were "glabrezius," and if the singular were "glabrezus," the plural could be "glabrezi" or "glabrezus" (macron over the u).

So, is it just like moose or goose? No matter how many you have, it's just glabrezu? I summon 5 glabrezu to the field. Hmm... I guess that works.

[VoxRationis]

The ending can be pretty much anything (same as the singular, or possibly with an s at the end, or possibly some Abyssal plural form I don't know); I was just saying that the Latin -ii plural ending doesn't apply.

[Crake]

That - if I understand counterspells right - should allow the Glabrezu to use its at-will ability to Dispel Magic to attempt a counterspell every round without readying an action. Since my party consists primarily of casters, I think that would really prolong the fight without making it completely deadly.

A quickened spell still cannot be used out of turn. It's a swift action, not an immediate one. So you'd still need to ready an action, which is a minimum standard action.

What you could instead do is give it quicken for some kind of offensive power, then have it ready its normal dispel magic to counter enemy spellcasting. Though you need to remember, depending on the level of your players, a regular dispel magic might not really be too effective, since it caps at +10 on the caster level check. That means that if your players are at level 10, its only a 50% chance to counter their spells. He'd probably be better of by "countering" with damage, forcing a concentration check.

[OverdrivePrime]

A quickened spell still cannot be used out of turn. It's a swift action, not an immediate one. So you'd still need to ready an action, which is a minimum standard action.
Hmm... Good point. My other option for quicken spell-like is Confusion, which is 3rd level on the Bard list, and a really mean spell to spam at a party. Particularly when the Ranger and Duskblade have terrible will saves.

Or maybe I just swap out Dispel for something with more bite to it. What 3rd level spell fits a "Deceiver" theme but still packs a wallop?

[OverdrivePrime]

Okay, so here's what I've got:
Jof'atheon "Call me James." CR 13 Glabrezu
CE Huge outsider (chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., true seeing; Perception +26

DEFENSE
AC 29, touch 8, flat-footed 28 (+20 natural, –2 size)
hp 198 (12d10+132) /___________ (flees at 50 hp)
Fort +19, Ref +4, Will +11
DR 10/good; Immune electricity, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10, fire 10; SR 24

OFFENSE
Base Atk +12; CMB +25; CMD 35
Speed 40 ft.
Melee 2 pincers +21 (2d8+11), 2 claws +21 (1d6+11), bite +21 (1d8+11)
Special Attacks rend (2 pincers, 2d8+15)

Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 14th)
Constant—true seeing
At will—chaos hammer (DC 20), confusion (DC 20), Smug Narcissim (DC 19), mirror image, reverse gravity (DC 23), greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), veil (self only), unholy blight
1/day—power word stun, summon (level 4, 1 glabrezu 20% or 1d2 vrocks 50%)
1/month—wish (granted to a mortal humanoid only)

STATISTICS Str 33, Dex 11, Con 33, Int 16, Wis 16, Cha 22

Feats Persuasive, Combat Expertise (-4 atk/+4 AC), Improved Disarm, Power Attack (-4/+8), Greater Disarm (+4 to disarm, weapon flies 15 feet away, random direction, roll d8), Quicken Spell-Like Ability: Smug Narcissism

Skills Bluff +34, Diplomacy +23, Disguise +21, Intimidate +23, Knowledge (history) +18, Knowledge (local) +18, Perception +26, Sense Motive +18, Use Magic Device +18, SoH: +5

Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic; telepathy 100 ft.

Equipment:
Funky raiment that looks like a combination of a football player's pads and a kimono. It is encrusted with flashy, but low-value rinestones. Adds +1 armor to AC, and is worth 800 gp
Gold bracelets, jewelry, armbands and anklets worth 2,450 gp
Rod of Beguiling (18,000 gp)
Belt of Physical Perfection +2 (16,000 gp)
I made the feat changes mentioned earlier, swapped out Stealth for Disguise skill ranks, added equipment (a bit expensive, but I'm cool with it), and swapped out Dispel Magic for Smug Narcissism, which is quickened.

He'll target the wizard with Smug Narcissism until it hits or the wizard is out of range, and then move onto the rest of the party.

Any suggestions on how to make this Glabrezu more interesting, or even better - a recurring antagonist?

[Graypairofsocks]

You could have him take a non combat role* trying to make a deal with the PCs, or some sort of merchant maybe selling slaves or items with a shady history (or someone who would buy them).


*not sure if you could do this as you already told your players about this, Depends upon what you said.

[OverdrivePrime]

You could have him take a non combat role* trying to make a deal with the PCs, or some sort of merchant maybe selling slaves or items with a shady history (or someone who would buy them).

I like it. My players are currently 800 feet underground with no teleport spells, and it'll take them at least 12 hours of travel to make it back through a very winding dungeon complex to make it to the surface.

Thanks to the scouting mission of a very brave (and well-equipped) familiar, the party knows that shortly after they recovered an artifact from the vault at the bottom of the dungeon, a gigantic beast, whose description sounds an awful lot like a glabrezu, appeared in the courtyard of the ruined castle they're under.

They've recalled the familiar (the duskblade's valiant raven, Zach de la Crowcha) and between now and then, the glabrezu has plenty of time to prepare. He's summoned a Vrock (who won't be present for the encounter) who is hard at work gathering dwarves from the nearby hill community with the help of a wand of Deep Slumber and a bag of holding. By the time the PCs emerge from the dungeon complex, there'll be 3-4 families of dwarves and another 4 dwarven craftsmen hard at work restoring part of the ruined structure. The glabrezu will have long since been veiled into the appearance of a charismatic dwarven architect and rune mage who's offering the families wealth and fame to help him restore the building to its former glory.

The "Rune Mage" is will be happy to trade his rod, belt and a small fortune in ancient jewelry in exchange for the artifact the PCs recovered. If not, the demon will seek to acquire it through less pleasant means, but will make it clear to the PCs that if they want to rumble, a lot of innocent dwarven women, men and children are going to get killed.

The PCs will likely see through the demon's disguise almost immediately, but that'll be half the fun.