Blinding Beauty variants?

[Albions_Angel]

Hi all, me again.

Building myself a fey queen because nothing I have found really takes my fancy. She will be a high level NPC, one of 3 ancient fey lords (The Summer Lady whose court is abound in the forests during summer, The Winterking who holds sway during the winter months, and the Dancing Man/Harvestman/Lord of Lies who is supressed most of the year but emerges in force with his rag-tag band of trixy fey beasties at the equinoxes when the other leaders are weakest, and whose followers are happy to ambush travelers when they can).

Anyway, Summer Lady is up first. Going to largely refluff the half-fey template I think, building a sorcerer of around 15th level, but going from spells to SLAs, etc, and throwing in a few other abilities.

Something that struck my interest was the Nymph's Blinding Beauty. It seems like a good ability to have, but a beautiful fairy queen would probably get pissed if she could only blind her mortal peons. Im sure i have read about a fear inducing version though I cant remember the name. Is there an enthralling version? One that charms people that look upon a creature? What about an awe-inspiring one?

Also, anything else people might want to suggest for a fey leader to have as an SU or SLA would be helpful.

[Zaq]

What method are you using for building her? Are you trying to build her mostly according to PCish rules, possibly fudging away some LA? Are you looking for a printed monster that only needs minimal tweaking? Are you designing a monster from the ground up?

If you're designing from the ground up (or at least you're comfortable doing some tweaking of existing stuff), it wouldn't be hard for you to just start with the nymph's ability and then cross out the parts you don't like and write in your replacements. (Building on what you said, just replace "blindness" with "fear" or with whatever you're looking for.) If you're looking for an existing monster ability in that vein, well, I'm certain there must be something out there, but I don't know where to look just off the top of my head.

[Albions_Angel]

Building from the ground up but with as much "real" stuff as possible.

I'm not a bad story teller. But I have a tendency to let narrative get in the way of gameplay. I am happy to "homebrew" but SUCK at balance of my own skills and abilities, so I would rather rip premade ones off other creatures.

I basically want 3 versions of the same thing. One that enthralls in some way, one that creates fear, and one that creates madness.

The enthralling one I think will be hardest. Do I want it to cast permanent Charm Person? Is that too strong? Too weak? Useless? What about Dominate? Now THAT seems too strong. Suggestion? How about just falling madly in love with the person? Is there even a spell that does that?

The fear one is easy-ish. Its just a modified Frightful Presence that acts on sight, not an aura. Probably with a bit of Hold Person in there (I want them rooted to the spot, terrified, not running for the hills). But then I wonder if there is a better way of holding them terrified than hashing together one thing that is designed to force them to flee, and another that is designed for making them stay.

The insanity one... well probably something that either casts a permanent Irresistible Dance or permanent Insanity would do.

These will be high level creatures that arnt really designed to be encountered in "combat" situations so I have no issue with the permanency of the effects until Miracle or Wish is cast or the effect is removed by the "caster" (for the fear and enthralling ones, not for the insanity, he shouldnt be able to remove that through will alone).

And at what point does that conflict with the SLA that I have planned. The Summer Lady is getting Dominate Person a certain number per day, and probably Charm Person at will. But if she already has effectively a gaze attack at will that does the same, whats the point? Same with the Winterking and Dancing Man who will be getting Fear/Hold and Insanity SLAs respectively.

[Flickerdart]

For enthralling, just steal the dominate person gaze attack of a bog standard vampire. If you want it to be weaker, the hypnotism aura of an allip works fine for "peons."

For madness, the gibbering of a gibbering mouther (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/gibberingMouther.htm) is a suitably low-level effect.

[Inevitability]

If she's Good, a casting of Inner Beauty forces all within 15 ft. to make a fortitude save or be stunned. If you can find a way to switch the spell on and off (Otiluke's suppressing field, perhaps?), you can force people to make a saving throw whenever the spell gets turned back on: combine with an item of permanent Inner Beauty for extra fun.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Liches have an aura of fear, and there's the classic draconic frightful presence (which is replaced/enhanced by the Dispassionate Watcher of Chronepsis and Dragon Ascendant prestige classes).

[nedz]

Unearthly Beauty - level 8 (Fey / Druid).
It's like Blinding Beauty except that you can die.

[Albions_Angel]

Unearthly Beauty - level 8 (Fey / Druid).
It's like Blinding Beauty except that you can die.

Can I just point out, I love the way you put this. Made me laugh.

Looking more and more like I will have to create my own versions though. So from a balance perspective, how is this.

Entrancing Beauty (Su): This ability affects all humanoids within 30 feet of the Summer Lady. Those who look directly at the Summer Lady must succeed on a DC 10 + CHA + 1/2 HD Will save or become enamored by her, acting as if under a permanent Suggestion spell. The Summer Lady can suppress or resume this ability as a free action and can end the effects at will. The save DC is Charisma-based. The spell can only be broken through Wish or Miracle, or through normal spell failure states. The Summer Lady's Courtiers are immune.

I put in the variable DC because I am tempted to give the ability to a few of her courtiers at lower levels. As it is, her DC is hovering around 30 ish. Not that she will use it all that often.

Terrifying Visage (Su): The ability affects all humanoids within 30 feet of the Winterking. Those who look directly at the Winterking must succeed on a DC 10 + CHA + 1/2 HD Will save or drop any held items in fear and are permanently Paralyzed. The WInterking can suppress or resume this ability as a free action and can end the effects at will. Creatures who failed the save, but are released by the Winterking remain Shaken while in his presence and for one hour afterwards. The save DC is Charisma-based. The spell can only be broken through Wish or Miracle. The Winterking's Courtiers are immune.

Again, a variable DC as I may give some of the courtiers this ability. Thinking of a sort of winter variant of the Verdant Prince as an honour guard, as its already basically a mini Winterking.

Dementing Appearance (Su): The ability affects all humanoids within 30 feet of the Dancing Man. .... I dont really know what to do for this one. I kind of want them to fall under the sway of irresistible dance, but also loose all knowledge of what they were doing/be unable to cast spells. They should follow the Dancing Man while dancing until he ends the effect and then perhaps be under the sway of "Touch of Idiocy" for an hour? I dont know.

[Inevitability]

Unearthly Beauty - level 8 (Fey / Druid).
It's like Blinding Beauty except that you can die.

The beauty aspect still doesn't work on nonhumanoids, though. Only when you use the spell to kill does it let you target target any creature.

[meschlum]

If you're willing to look at Pathfinder, there are a number of templates that do things close to what you're after.

Nightmare Lord gives a few ways to inspire fear, and allows you to enter other people's dreams in order to dominate them as well as a knack for illusions. Fluff it as granting them dreams full of everything they desire, and you get a seduction effect.

Dream Creatures are good at some illusions and sleep effects, and can surround themselves in large areas where reality itself seems a bit off.

Suzerain entities can force diplomacy on anyone who isn't out to kill them, and are very good at it - as well as boosting their allies.

Inveiglers can charm people and no one will be able to tell they are affected, and lie quite handily.


In 3.5, you might want to look at the primordial denizens of the Abyss, who have a knack for driving those who see them insane - some call them qlippoth, I believe.


Or simply mix in some Barb levels of abilities, with a knack for Entrancing people and making useful Suggestions. You could refer to the songs of the harpies, with a somewhat more attractive body perhaps?