Demon Possessed BBEG

[Bluydee]

Okay, so my level 3 party has been investigating evil in a town and have discovered that the town's mayor has been conducting evil rituals and is possessed by a demon. What can I do to make this a threat and flavorful? My group is mid-optimized. I'm thinking making him a tainted raver as well.

[paperarmor]

This looks like a job for Fiend of Possession! just take your favorite (evil) Outsider mix with more or less any gorram thing that could be nearby and Voila!

[Deldramir]

Well depending on what you wanted to do with the mayor and demon there's a few things I can think of off the top of my head*

At third level they'll have little protection from possession themselves so once they drive the demon out of the mayor I'd possess one of the players (fighter of course) which will open up a couple of options:

- The players have a rousing game of 'subdue or murder each other' until there's no one left or they take an unconscious, possessed body to someone who can effectively banish the demon
- Have the demon be dormant inside of the possessed player (maybe allowing a secret save every 24 hours if that's your thing) and use your new PC meat suit to kill the other PCs in their sleep or just turn on them at an inappropriate time

You could also make your mayor/demon a recurring character, and being mayor if the PCs don't out him or defeat him he could make them fugitives in the town. In fact if he knows the PCs are a threat already he could make them criminals and throw the town guard at them. Now if your PCs are non-evil (or if you use the alignment system) they have the added concern of fighting and potentially killing guardsmen who are simply doing their jobs. This then opens up the obvious avenues for defeating different encounters; bluffing them, diplomacy (maybe with potential to recruiting some guards to the cause), or flat out crushing them.

What's the basic background of your campaign? Is it pretty light or do you want to throw some depravity in there as well and try and disturb your players?

* My so, so, so hungover head. Please excuse any typos. I'll endeavor to make sense.

[Bluydee]

Really, it's a mixture between serious play and lightheartedness. I would like to make this flavorfully evil and depraved.

Other notes: I have looked at fiend of possession and am now looking for fiends with high mental scores and good SLAs. My party consists of a dread necromancer, a factotum warblade, a sorcerer going into abjurant champion and an imported gunslinger from PF.

So far I have been thinking to make the mayor a fiendish tainted raver tiefling, mutated by the possession of the fiend. In addition I was thinking to use paladin of slaughter and barbarian, as well as abyssal heritor feats.

[Shinken]

Fiendish Codex II has really cool rules for demonic possession. It's one of my favorite sets of rules in 3.5. Definitely check that out.

[Blackhawk748]

If you dont want the party to get possessed you could just give the Mayor the Unholy Scion template, its solid power wise and very flavorful.

[Shinken]

What I'd do is make the possessing demon a babau (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/demon.htm#babau) with the possession ability from Fiendish Codex. I'd also build the mayor as a simple single-classed Aristocrat, someone that could actually be a good mayor - good mental stats, Diplomacy, Knowledge skills. Keep him low level. Have the babau escape when it's cornered and you will have a recurring villain already set.

[DrKerosene]

Really, it's a mixture between serious play and lightheartedness. I would like to make this flavorfully evil and depraved.

Other notes: I have looked at fiend of possession and am now looking for fiends with high mental scores and good SLAs. My party consists of a dread necromancer, a factotum warblade, a sorcerer going into abjurant champion and an imported gunslinger from PF.

So far I have been thinking to make the mayor a fiendish tainted raver tiefling, mutated by the possession of the fiend. In addition I was thinking to use paladin of slaughter and barbarian, as well as abyssal heritor feats.

I'm curious about the explanation for how a PoS with Barbarian levels became a mayor, or the context of the town.

I always like the idea of a Hexblade/PoS debuff-build at low levels that pretends to focus on the weapon. Pointing with the weapon (dramatically!) for Hex, using Smite, make the Shadow Companion appear from it, a thematic spell or two that might be weapon focused. Add that all to a Fiend of Possession hiding in the "Boss's weapon"/loot, and you've got something the party might fight over before you actually use it for anything.

I love cheesy tropes, and I think the idea of a Demon-Possessed-Gun would be great if the Gunslinger has any Charisma. Ranged "Smite" *wink* would be useful to the Dread Necromancer or Sorcerer too.

Edit: Just because it's cool, I'd suggest home-brewing a gestalt gun from the DMG ones that adds the "Flamer", or something like a breath weapon, just to cash in on the super-low Reflex Saves with a brimstone theme.

[atemu1234]

There's a template for it in Advanced Bestiary (3rd Parry though) and rules in one of the fiendish codexes.

[Crake]

Fiendish Codex II has really cool rules for demonic possession. It's one of my favorite sets of rules in 3.5. Definitely check that out.

for reference, it's the first codex, not the second that has possession rules

[ShurikVch]

From the Book of Vile Darkness:
Rod of Possession: This rod allows a willing user to draw a fiend or malevolent ghost into himself for possession. When the rod is activated, the wielder is automatically possessed by the nearest appropriate possessing creature, even if the creature is unwilling. The identity and attitude of the nearest spirit are often at the DM’s discretion. This rod is frequently used in unspeakable rituals of black magic.
Caster Level: 9th; Prerequisites: Craft Rod, imprison soul (http://dndtools.eu/spells/heroes-of-horror--70/imprison-soul--1441/), impotent possessor (http://dndtools.eu/spells/book-of-vile-darkness--37/impotent-possessor--123/); Market Price: 20,000 gp;Weight: 3 lb.