Breeding for SLAs using the Half-Fiendish Variety rules

[Jowgen]

The Half-Fiendish Variety (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060630a) articles provide guidelines on how one can customize the SLAs of a given half-fiend based on the ones their Fiendish parent's had. The specific text:


The spell-like abilities are where you can customize to your heart's content, and where it is most appropriate to customize. Not all demons or devils have the abilities listed in the table on page 148 of the Monster Manual. In fact, most don't have them (especially the higher level ones). So, to make your half-fiend more personal, you can replace any ability at any level with an equivalent one that the model fiend has. In doing so, you should be thinking not of comparative spell level, but of comparative combat effectiveness.

Originally, I thought this was of limited usefullness, as the SLAs of most Fiends are pretty limited. Then it occured to me that this could actually prove quite useful, as the SLAs that the model fiend can pass on are not limited to the ones gained from its base fiend race.

So the basic idea is to template et al. the living bejesus out of some Fiends to give them as big a pool of SLAs as we can, have them sire half-fiend off-spring (with races that qualify for Magic in the Blood) to cherry pick the best SLAs from those pools, and then if needed have those half-fiends sire other half-fiends between themselves to further refine our list of SLAs.

The purpose of this thread is thus to create a good protocol for creation these elite SLA Fiends, as to create a list of all the SLAs one might be able to squeeze into the "gentic SLA pool". From the top of my head, the other Half-X templates that grant SLAs by level seem like the best place to start, although some might be hard to justify (e.g. Half-Celestial).

The question of which SLAs are truly equivalent is best left untouched in my opinion, as that's largely DM territory.

[Inevitability]

1. Get a fiend with reproductive organs.
2. Kill the fiend.
3. Cast Create Undead on the fiend to turn it into a Corpse Creature.
4. Spellstitch the corpse fiend into having whatever SLA's you want it to have.
5. PaO the corpse fiend into a human.
6. Make the corpse fiend have sex with another human. If blasphemous pseudo-necrophilia is too icky for your tastes, more manual means of fertilization can be employed.
7. Repeat until pregnancy occurs. BoED material may be useful in ensuring this.

The resulting child will be half-fiendish (D&D genetics ignore polymorph) and can inherit any SLA's you want it to have.

[Jowgen]

1. Get a fiend with reproductive organs.
2. Kill the fiend.
3. Cast Create Undead on the fiend to turn it into a Corpse Creature.
4. Spellstitch the corpse fiend into having whatever SLA's you want it to have.
5. PaO the corpse fiend into a human.
6. Make the corpse fiend have sex with another human. If blasphemous pseudo-necrophilia is too icky for your tastes, more manual means of fertilization can be employed.
7. Repeat until pregnancy occurs. BoED material may be useful in ensuring this.

The resulting child will be half-fiendish (D&D genetics ignore polymorph) and can inherit any SLA's you want it to have.

Interesting, so this could basically take care of any Conjuration, Necromancy or Evocation spell of 6th or lower (provided the base fiend has enough Wis). I do have some concerns though, mainly around the means employed to restore reproductive ability.

Polymorphing into a human shouldn't be nessecary, as Fiends can explicitly breed with just about anything. However, undead can generally not procreate with living things, so if D&D genetics are unaffected by PaO as you say, then the PaO would do nothing to give the Undead creature the ability to sire offspring.

Now there might be a work-around to this by somehow making the Fiend into one of the few types of undead that can sire children; but then comes the next problem that the parent wouldn't technically qualify as a Fiend -i.e. an outsider with the Evil subtype- anymore.

So basically, there would need to be a way to preserve reproductive capacity upon undeading and spellstiching the Fiend, plus a means to restore Fiend-status without using Polymorph once that is done (as to avoid getting some kind of half-undead instead of a half-fiend).

[VisitingDaGulag]

the SLAs that the model fiend can pass on are not limited to the ones gained from its base fiend race.What makes you so sure? How do we know that an augmented fiend is still a "model" one?

[Crake]

I am so confused at the point of optimizing an article that basically says "Here are some guidelines, but ultimately, DM, do what you want". The DM can literally say whatever he wants and give whatever SLAs he wants to the half fiend, no need for any of this. He could literally say that the Babau who sired this particular human was a master of stealth and assassinry, give the dude nightstalker's transformation, or the dretch that sired this poor sob was actually a high level necromancer, give the half fiend animate dead, create undead, command undead etc.

I just seriously don't understand the point of this thread.

[icefractal]

It's more of a world-building than an optimizing thing. It's something that characters in the setting might want to accomplish, so it's interesting to consider what methods they might take to do so.

Although it could be PC-scope if playing an immortal character who raises beings from birth just to have as henchmen. And there are probably ways to speed that up as well.

[Crake]

It's more of a world-building than an optimizing thing. It's something that characters in the setting might want to accomplish, so it's interesting to consider what methods they might take to do so.

Although it could be PC-scope if playing an immortal character who raises beings from birth just to have as henchmen. And there are probably ways to speed that up as well.

The thing is though, it's ultimately a guideline, just like magic item creation, so it's still ultimately up to the DM no matter what, and I think most DMs would go by theme, rather than hard rules in circumstances like this, giving SLAs based on the theme of the parent, rather than any direct attempt to duplicate the exact SLAs that the parent had.

[Jowgen]

I'm looking into this both for PC and NPC purposes as a kind of Emerald Legion-light thing. Like, some wannabe-Iggwilv villain, or a PC with lots of ambition and Fiend-knowledge, decides he wants to breed himself an army, or establish a dystopian society, of Uber-Half-Fiends. In this society/army, your worth is dependent on the rarity and usefulness of the innate magic you've inherited from your Fiend parents. Just as an example.

Also, it just really suits my depantic dispostion to nail down exactly how one might geneology-explain a particular SLA showing up in a particular creature.

[Flickerdart]

There are suggestions in one of the Fiendish Codices for alternative fiendish SLAs. Without any templating at all, you can customize a potential fiendish ancestor's loadout.

Warlock invocations and shadowcaster mysteries are also spell-like abilities, so class levels can give you a nice set of goodies to play with.

[Jowgen]

There are suggestions in one of the Fiendish Codices for alternative fiendish SLAs. Without any templating at all, you can customize a potential fiendish ancestor's loadout.

Warlock invocations and shadowcaster mysteries are also spell-like abilities, so class levels can give you a nice set of goodies to play with.

Found it, FC II p. 108. This is good because it provides some clear equivalents, as opposed to the article, which just has the combat-power guideline.

The interesting ones from this include Cloudkill (for Cone of Cold), Silent Image (for Disguise Self), Bestow Curse (for Fear), Gaseous Form (for fly), Displacement (for Major Image), and Locate Object (for see invisibility). Thank you.