PDA

View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next CR 14 Boss Monster: Necromancer of Vile Darkness [PEACH]



Gastronomie
2016-02-05, 06:46 AM
So, this is one random idea I have for a future campaign boss - an evil necromancer by the name of Giger Skullstein. But you could easily alter it into your campaign, changing the name and some traits.
Since my character Giger has split personality disorder, I gave him some unique abilities concerning his trait, but you could easily delete those and change them into something else of your choice.

Giger Skullstein, the Necromancer of Vile Darkness
Medium Humanoid (human), Lawful Evil (Duke is Chaotic Evil, while Travis is Neutral Evil)[/i]
Armor Class 18 (magical protection)
Hit Points 150
Speed 30ft.
STR 10 (+0) DEX 14 (+2) CON 12 (+1)
INT 20 (+5) WIS 18 (+4) CHA 16 (+3)
Initiative: +10 (to allow Giger to get his first turn faster)
Saving Throws: Dex +7, Con +6, Int +10, Wis +9, Cha +8
Skills: Arcana +20, History +15, Perception +14, Stealth +7
Damage Resistances: damage from spells, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons
Damage Immunities: Poison, Necrotic
Condition Immunities: deafened, exhaustion, poisoned
Senses: Darkvision 120 ft. (Magical Darkness included), passive Perception 19
Languages: Common, Abyssal, Draconic, Deep Speech, Infernal, Undercommon
Challenge 14 (11,500 XP)
Magic Resistance. Giger has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Multiple Personality. Giger has three personalities – Giger, Duke, and Travis. This makes it possible for him (them) to concentrate on up to three spells at the same time. Also, when Giger would be “charmed” or “frightened”, he can use his Reaction to temporarily switch his personality to either Duke or Travis, and then immediately reclaim control over the body, effectively negating the condition. While a personality is charmed or frightened, he cannot concentrate on a spell.
Book of Vile Darkness. Giger owns an artifact of terrible evil known as the Book of Vile Darkness (DMG page 222).
Superior Spellcasting. Giger is a 20th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 18, +10 to hit with spell attacks). Also, even if Giger cast a spell using his bonus action (such as Misty Step), he can cast non-Cantrip spells using his action as well.
Giger Skullstein has the following spells prepared:
Cantrips: Eldritch Blast (4 rays, Repelling Blast in effect), Mage Hand, Shocking Grasp
1st level (4 slots): Shield, Detect magic, Identify, Hex(con)
2nd level (3 slots): Hold Person (con), Misty step, Darkbolt
3rd level (3 slots): Counterspell, Unliving Weapon(con), Curse of the Putrid Husk (con)
4th level (3 slots): Evard’s Black Tentacles (con), Banishment (con), Giant Insect (con)
5th level (3 slots): Bigby’s Hand (con), Contagion, Scrying (con)
6th level (2 slots): Eyebite (con), Wall of Flesh
7th level (2 slot): Death by Thorns
8th level (1 slot): Feeblemind
9th level (1 slot): Apocalypse Spell
Click here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?477473-6-spells-from-the-Book-of-Vile-Darkness-PEACH) for info on underlined spells, which are spells taken from the infamous 3.5e supplement Book of Vile Darkness, converted into 5e.

Actions
Multicasting. Giger casts two spells.

Legendary Actions
Giger can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. Giger regains spent legendary actions at the start of his turn.
Eldritch Blast. Giger activates “Eldritch Blast”. He can shoot only 2 rays, however.
Summon Zombie. (Costs 2 Actions.) Giger summons 1d4 skeletons (CR1/4, Player’s Handbook page 310) and/or zombies (CR1/4, Player’s Handbook page 311) under his control, each within a 60 feet radius of himself. The undead have 20 Temporary HP in addition to their normal HP, and have advantage on all attack rolls they make. They take their turns directly after Giger, moving in the order Giger desires.
Spellcasting. (Costs 2 Actions.) Giger casts 1 spell of level 5 or lower.


Try searching "necromancer" in deviantArt. See there? That dark-green illustration of a man with zombies around him, a skull floating besides him, and with the lower body of a centipede. Yeah, I know how to post pics here, but I don’t want to get in trouble with any possible copyright issues (Deviant Art tends to be fussy about it, as far as I know). It certainly is an awesome work of art. And this is what Giger looks like in my head.

Giger is a gentleman who adores all sorts of art (sculptures, music, drawings etc.). He is also a talented wizard and keeps on studying about arcane forces, to make the lives of the people better. He has high regards for anyone who is skilled at something, such as artists, craftsmen and other wizards, greeting them with ulmost respect, telling them that they are "those who make the world advance forward".

The problem is that he also thinks anyone who doesn't have profession in a particular skill doesn't deserve to live.
He thinks these normal beings are worthless in their current state, and should all become mindless workers in the form of skeletons/zombies to labor all day. Or, oh, there's another option: becoming lab rats for arcane experiments. This is not because he hates them or thinks they are lower beings, but because he thinks that "that way they can contribute more to the world".
Basically, Giger's idea is that unless someone can "directly contribute to the advancement of mankind", he's better off as a mindless zombie who doesn't sleep or require food and labors 24 hours a day.
He must very value "efficiency".

Giger plans to create a dark empire ruled by wizards (sorta like Thay), where artists, craftmen and their lot, those who "contribute to mankind", are respected and loved. If someone can't prove himself as a skilled artist, wizard or otherwise show his skills of something that "zombies can't do better", he is killed and becomes an undead laborer.
Giger thinks that in this way, everyone would work better to become skilled artists and spellcasters, advancing forward all sorts of art and wizardry. And they don't have to worry about food - skeletons'll do that for you!
Isn't this quite a wonderful utopia? Don't think so? Too bad.

Giger also has split personality disorder. He has three personalities.

Giger is the main personality (Lawful Evil), who talks in a very calm and wise, respectful tone – except, as aforementioned, he's a mad wizard. Roughly based off Josef Mengele, so it's not much of a surprise that he's interested in experimenting with powerless people and most of the time killing them in the process, but believe me, he's friendly to anyone who can work better than a zombie.

The second personality, Duke (Chaotic Evil), is a mindless berserker who’s interested in nothing but destroying all of his surroundings. Giger despises him, as he believes that meaningless destruction is a bad thing (at least, in Giger’s mindset, what he’s doing isn’t “destruction”, it’s simply paying some necessary costs for the evolution of mankind). Thus Duke rarely comes out – and when he does, no one benefits from it.

And the third personality, Travis (Neutral Evil), is an innocent boy. …Yeah, the body remains adult, but the personality is an innocent boy, making it look rather creepy (much like Billy Milligan). Except he’s not the “it’s a bad thing to kill people” type of innocent, he’s the “why is it bad to kill people?” type of innocent – and dissecting peoples’ corpses and turning them into zombies is his favorite hobby. Well, he still loves flowers, and he likes to draw pictures of smiling people, so he’s not a bad boy, right…? (Apart from how the smiling people are zombies, and they’re eating the body parts of each other. So, pretty much, yeah, he’s darn evil.)

Giger is both intelligent and vindictive, as well as a bit timid when it comes to life-and-death situations (mainly since he thinks he must survive to someday accomplish his "sacred goal", as he calls it). He will always have some way to escape dangerous situations, so the PCs must disable all of them before going off to kill him.

Defeating Giger can net the PCs the Book of Vile Darkness. What to do with it is up to their decisions.


Comments and critisism greatly appreciated.