Inevitability
2014-11-08, 06:04 AM
"Oh gods, there were... hundreds? Thousands? Millions? I just don't know. They were coming from everywhere, holes in the floor, dark passages, clusters of webs we overlooked... And then there was that kobold, who just stood there and laughed. That kobold... just what was he? Was he even a kobold?"
--- Account of Zyxwulf Treeclimber, halfling rogue and only survivor of the Cavecrawler party.
Silly build, as expected of me:
Barragrax was no ordinary kobold. He was always exploring the dark tunnels beneath his warren, going deeper and deeper each day. Until once he didn't return. His clan searched the tunnels for a few days, then assumed Barragrax got eaten by a predator. 'He had it coming' the people said, and they went back to their usual lives of being bullied by a dragon and being slaughtered by adventurers.
Barragrax, however, didn't die. He stumbled upon a group of drow, who captured him. There, the kobold was brought to a small drow city and forced to work as a slave.
Barragrax worked for years, but never ceased his plans to escape. One day, he ran away during an attack by duergars. A few miles away from the city, the kobold stumbled upon the corpse of a drow. Most of the things on it were normal goods; weapons, armor, and a few vials of poison. However, there was one thing that Barragrax didn't understand. It was a scarab-formed amulet.
Barragrax continued his live in the underdark, feeding on lone travelers, cave beasts, and the occasional fungus. However, as his possession of the item continued, so did his knowledge about it. Finally, twenty years after his escape from the drow city, Barragrax managed to put it on and activate the item.
Slowly, the amulet corrupted him. His teeth grew sharper, his skin tougher, and six smaller eyes appeared on his face. Eventually, spider legs grew from his back, turning Barragrax into a horrific spider-kobold abomination. He didn't mind himself, and in fact enjoyed using his new powers to win fights more easily. In fact, the kobold became a minor legend in the area; with several races speaking about a tiny arachnoid monster killing whoever entered the network of tunnels it lived in.
However, even legends can't live forever. One day, a powerful dwarf ranger entered the tunnels, sought out the kobold, and slew after a long battle. It's skull cracked open by a mighty hammer swing, Barragrax died.
The dwarf made a camp to rest after the long, long battle. His limbs were tired, several toxic bite wounds had reduced his power, and there could be other predators nearby. The ranger made a camp, guarded it with several protective spells, and went to sleep. However, he made the mistake of leaving the kobold's corpse within the boundary.
That night (or was it a day? you can't be sure underground) Barragrax rose. His flesh had toughened even more, his senses sharpened, and an unnatural air of fear surrounded him. The kobold crept towards the sleeping dwarf, and ended his killer's life with a bite to the neck.
Barragrax, who had been reborn as a horrific undead being, uttered a single sound. It was a call, a call to the thousands, no the millions of spiders who died in those caverns. And it was answered, by billions of tiny voices saying they were coming.
Barragrax is a NE Restless Prey kobold (because optimization) rogue 7/ Fang of Lolth 10/ Incorporeality ritual 2/ whatever 1
Mandatory are 10 ranks in UMD, the Dragonwrought feat, and the Leadership + Epic Leadership feats. The required 25 charisma for EL can be achieved by starting with 15 charisma (elite array) then adding the +3 from venerable age and +6 because of the Restless Prey template.
Next, Barragrax' cohort. This is a human cleric of Malar of at least 17th level. One of the chosen domains is Animal. This cleric also uses at least two cheesy tactics; one to gain infinite money, and another to gain infinite XP.
Most of Barragrax followers are Hairy Spiders with the restless prey template applied to them. They should technically count as ECL 1 characters that way. Furthermore, Barragrax' cohort is continuously making those spiders incorporeal through the Ritual of Transfiguration (a fast time plane may or may not be involved).
However, recently the kobold has gathered a few cults of humans worshipping Malar around them, who believe he is an avatar of their god. They admire the ruthlessness with which his spiders completely tear his foes apart, and those substitute some of the spiders as followers.
Now, take a look at the little nifty ability gained by Restless Prey.
Restless Prey Symbiosis (Su):A restless prey creature gains a +2 profane bonus to its Charisma score for each additional restless prey creature within 30 feet. This bonus persists as long as the creatures stay within 30 feet of each other. Additional profane bonuses to Charisma scores from additional creatures within 30 feet stack with each other. For example, each member of a group of 3 restless prey rhinoceroses gain a total +4 profane bonus to their individual Charisma scores, as long as all three remain within 30 feet of each other.
Okay, so we start with a few dozen followers. However, each of those grants Barragrax a +2 bonus to charisma, as long as they are within 30 ft. of him. As they are incorporeal, that means they can all gather in his square without any trouble.
Now, for each spider who joins him, Barragrax gains +2 charisma. This empowers Leadership, which in turn allows him to have more spiders, who further boost his charisma, etc. Eventually, he'll have an army of incorporeal spiders, all gathered around him.
To maintain a steady increase of spider slaves, Barragrax needs to choose one hundredth of his spiders to stay close to him. The other 99% can freely roam (and don't necessarily have to be incorporeal as a result).
One may think those spiders only serve for increasing leadership, but this is not true. Barragrax can also apply his charisma bonus to AC, Save DC's, damage,, and other things. This also applies to his spiders; not to mention the bonus his non-corporeal spiders gain for being close to each other (approximately around a few thousand points to charisma).
So what do we have in the end? An incorporeal kobold, covered in thousands or millions of incorporeal spiders, with all of them having near-infinite AC and damage, who inflict a negative level on a hit and have a fear aura with an infinite DC. Oh, and then I'm not mentioning the group of high-level clerics continuously creating new spiderslaves. And the millions of spiders he can casually send to attack a single person entering his domain and not even notice they are gone.
Craft Contingent spell. Seriously, if Barragrax takes a few wizards as minions and has them give him some protections against common attacks, uncommon attacks, and whatever else you can think off, you already solved 99% of the 'what if' scenarios.
For really big problems, a spell that teleports/plane shifts Barragrax to a cluster of prearranged spiders so that his charisma doesn't change would allow him to move without making a large part of his minions disappear. Destroying those will be difficult, but there should be magical traps and alarms everywhere just in case.
Even if all those spots are killed, all Barragrax needs is himself. He can just lay dormant a few centuries in a cave wall in some far-off grotto, then return to spread death once again.
If you want a less powerful villain, simply limit the spiders Barragrax can command. That way, he's only very hard to defeat.
Hope you like it. I don't think I've ever seen people abusing restless prey, so I though I'd give it a try.
--- Account of Zyxwulf Treeclimber, halfling rogue and only survivor of the Cavecrawler party.
Silly build, as expected of me:
Barragrax was no ordinary kobold. He was always exploring the dark tunnels beneath his warren, going deeper and deeper each day. Until once he didn't return. His clan searched the tunnels for a few days, then assumed Barragrax got eaten by a predator. 'He had it coming' the people said, and they went back to their usual lives of being bullied by a dragon and being slaughtered by adventurers.
Barragrax, however, didn't die. He stumbled upon a group of drow, who captured him. There, the kobold was brought to a small drow city and forced to work as a slave.
Barragrax worked for years, but never ceased his plans to escape. One day, he ran away during an attack by duergars. A few miles away from the city, the kobold stumbled upon the corpse of a drow. Most of the things on it were normal goods; weapons, armor, and a few vials of poison. However, there was one thing that Barragrax didn't understand. It was a scarab-formed amulet.
Barragrax continued his live in the underdark, feeding on lone travelers, cave beasts, and the occasional fungus. However, as his possession of the item continued, so did his knowledge about it. Finally, twenty years after his escape from the drow city, Barragrax managed to put it on and activate the item.
Slowly, the amulet corrupted him. His teeth grew sharper, his skin tougher, and six smaller eyes appeared on his face. Eventually, spider legs grew from his back, turning Barragrax into a horrific spider-kobold abomination. He didn't mind himself, and in fact enjoyed using his new powers to win fights more easily. In fact, the kobold became a minor legend in the area; with several races speaking about a tiny arachnoid monster killing whoever entered the network of tunnels it lived in.
However, even legends can't live forever. One day, a powerful dwarf ranger entered the tunnels, sought out the kobold, and slew after a long battle. It's skull cracked open by a mighty hammer swing, Barragrax died.
The dwarf made a camp to rest after the long, long battle. His limbs were tired, several toxic bite wounds had reduced his power, and there could be other predators nearby. The ranger made a camp, guarded it with several protective spells, and went to sleep. However, he made the mistake of leaving the kobold's corpse within the boundary.
That night (or was it a day? you can't be sure underground) Barragrax rose. His flesh had toughened even more, his senses sharpened, and an unnatural air of fear surrounded him. The kobold crept towards the sleeping dwarf, and ended his killer's life with a bite to the neck.
Barragrax, who had been reborn as a horrific undead being, uttered a single sound. It was a call, a call to the thousands, no the millions of spiders who died in those caverns. And it was answered, by billions of tiny voices saying they were coming.
Barragrax is a NE Restless Prey kobold (because optimization) rogue 7/ Fang of Lolth 10/ Incorporeality ritual 2/ whatever 1
Mandatory are 10 ranks in UMD, the Dragonwrought feat, and the Leadership + Epic Leadership feats. The required 25 charisma for EL can be achieved by starting with 15 charisma (elite array) then adding the +3 from venerable age and +6 because of the Restless Prey template.
Next, Barragrax' cohort. This is a human cleric of Malar of at least 17th level. One of the chosen domains is Animal. This cleric also uses at least two cheesy tactics; one to gain infinite money, and another to gain infinite XP.
Most of Barragrax followers are Hairy Spiders with the restless prey template applied to them. They should technically count as ECL 1 characters that way. Furthermore, Barragrax' cohort is continuously making those spiders incorporeal through the Ritual of Transfiguration (a fast time plane may or may not be involved).
However, recently the kobold has gathered a few cults of humans worshipping Malar around them, who believe he is an avatar of their god. They admire the ruthlessness with which his spiders completely tear his foes apart, and those substitute some of the spiders as followers.
Now, take a look at the little nifty ability gained by Restless Prey.
Restless Prey Symbiosis (Su):A restless prey creature gains a +2 profane bonus to its Charisma score for each additional restless prey creature within 30 feet. This bonus persists as long as the creatures stay within 30 feet of each other. Additional profane bonuses to Charisma scores from additional creatures within 30 feet stack with each other. For example, each member of a group of 3 restless prey rhinoceroses gain a total +4 profane bonus to their individual Charisma scores, as long as all three remain within 30 feet of each other.
Okay, so we start with a few dozen followers. However, each of those grants Barragrax a +2 bonus to charisma, as long as they are within 30 ft. of him. As they are incorporeal, that means they can all gather in his square without any trouble.
Now, for each spider who joins him, Barragrax gains +2 charisma. This empowers Leadership, which in turn allows him to have more spiders, who further boost his charisma, etc. Eventually, he'll have an army of incorporeal spiders, all gathered around him.
To maintain a steady increase of spider slaves, Barragrax needs to choose one hundredth of his spiders to stay close to him. The other 99% can freely roam (and don't necessarily have to be incorporeal as a result).
One may think those spiders only serve for increasing leadership, but this is not true. Barragrax can also apply his charisma bonus to AC, Save DC's, damage,, and other things. This also applies to his spiders; not to mention the bonus his non-corporeal spiders gain for being close to each other (approximately around a few thousand points to charisma).
So what do we have in the end? An incorporeal kobold, covered in thousands or millions of incorporeal spiders, with all of them having near-infinite AC and damage, who inflict a negative level on a hit and have a fear aura with an infinite DC. Oh, and then I'm not mentioning the group of high-level clerics continuously creating new spiderslaves. And the millions of spiders he can casually send to attack a single person entering his domain and not even notice they are gone.
Craft Contingent spell. Seriously, if Barragrax takes a few wizards as minions and has them give him some protections against common attacks, uncommon attacks, and whatever else you can think off, you already solved 99% of the 'what if' scenarios.
For really big problems, a spell that teleports/plane shifts Barragrax to a cluster of prearranged spiders so that his charisma doesn't change would allow him to move without making a large part of his minions disappear. Destroying those will be difficult, but there should be magical traps and alarms everywhere just in case.
Even if all those spots are killed, all Barragrax needs is himself. He can just lay dormant a few centuries in a cave wall in some far-off grotto, then return to spread death once again.
If you want a less powerful villain, simply limit the spiders Barragrax can command. That way, he's only very hard to defeat.
Hope you like it. I don't think I've ever seen people abusing restless prey, so I though I'd give it a try.