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View Full Version : DM Help I am looking for various items and/or feats for a villain.



Hogsy
2016-12-07, 08:50 PM
I have just made the baddie of the final dungeon my party will delve into during this adventure, and I was looking for items to equip him with and some feats. He's not a caster, so the encounter will go south very quickly unless he can cast some major debuffs or CC effects on some party members. What items are there (spell-trigger ones) that have such effects? Any items that can cast "remove curse" continously, or that grant immunity to curses altogether? Are you aware of any feats that could have such effects? I am thinking of picking up Martial Study for maneuvers that have CC effects, but I'm not sure yet. Any ideas? He's an abberation(evil outsider), but has a regular humanoid body so equipping the items will be fine. Also, he was hand-picked by the BBEG(od) of my campaign to lead his army from the planet he's currently in into the plane in which the campaign mainly takes place. If you want some additional information or something just ask. Thanks in advance!

NevinPL
2016-12-08, 04:40 AM
You should start with the usual sources:

BoVD,
CoR,
HoH,
LM,
LoD,
LoM.

EE, EoE could be helpful too.
As for "noncaster debuffing", Hexblade (with bits from Dragon, or that ACF from PHB II) comes to mind.

Stealth Marmot
2016-12-08, 09:09 AM
Tanglefoot bags are criminally underrated.

First thing's first, let's talk about the villain. You say that your villain is not a caster, but also a leader of an army. That indicates that this character has great amounts of martial prowess, AND he is also likely to have command of minions. Being a leader of an army means being a form of military strategist, and the guy is evil so the idea of using his minions to his own benefit is not breaking character. Using his own people to corral the PCs is a very easy method of crowd control that doesn't even require money. Look on the list of weapons and armor and outfit personal guards with feats and equipment that prevent movement and mobility for the players.

I mentioned tanglefoot bags, but command word activated spells like entangle work too, along with command word evard's black tentacles. Keep in mind that tanglefoot bags can be easily thrown by first level warriors and still be effective.

Have the main villain wear a Ring of Freedom of Movement, and have him clog up the battlefield with all sorts of entanglements, tentacles, sticky spots, traps, and all sorts of stuff that slow down the PCs, but not him due to the ring.

A martial and evil leader is not going to intentionally engage the players in anything resembling a fair fight, and will in fact try to lure them to where he holds the most sway. Have him command evil clerics who cast Unhallow on the area beforehand. Have him set traps. Have him command minions who are there just to get in the players way and die. Make sure that they meet in closed area so the players can't use distance or flight to their advantage. Heck, the best defense against a ranged attack or spell can just be a DOOR that he commands closed or locked, separating the party for a couple of rounds as someone needs to blast it back open. He has an army, he should not ony use it, but he should make every effort to put EVERY single possible soldier between him and the PCs. He's evil!

Hogsy
2016-12-08, 10:54 AM
Tanglefoot bags are criminally underrated.

First thing's first, let's talk about the villain. You say that your villain is not a caster, but also a leader of an army. That indicates that this character has great amounts of martial prowess, AND he is also likely to have command of minions. Being a leader of an army means being a form of military strategist, and the guy is evil so the idea of using his minions to his own benefit is not breaking character. Using his own people to corral the PCs is a very easy method of crowd control that doesn't even require money. Look on the list of weapons and armor and outfit personal guards with feats and equipment that prevent movement and mobility for the players.

I mentioned tanglefoot bags, but command word activated spells like entangle work too, along with command word evard's black tentacles. Keep in mind that tanglefoot bags can be easily thrown by first level warriors and still be effective.

Have the main villain wear a Ring of Freedom of Movement, and have him clog up the battlefield with all sorts of entanglements, tentacles, sticky spots, traps, and all sorts of stuff that slow down the PCs, but not him due to the ring.

A martial and evil leader is not going to intentionally engage the players in anything resembling a fair fight, and will in fact try to lure them to where he holds the most sway. Have him command evil clerics who cast Unhallow on the area beforehand. Have him set traps. Have him command minions who are there just to get in the players way and die. Make sure that they meet in closed area so the players can't use distance or flight to their advantage. Heck, the best defense against a ranged attack or spell can just be a DOOR that he commands closed or locked, separating the party for a couple of rounds as someone needs to blast it back open. He has an army, he should not ony use it, but he should make every effort to put EVERY single possible soldier between him and the PCs. He's evil!

The reason I wanted to find ways for him to get some spells or whatever is exactly because his minions can't. He pretty much commands an army of xenomorphs with a custom template of mine that means they are affected by the evil god. But now that I'm thinking about it, it seems reasonable that the god also provided the leader of his army with a couple of his own clerics to aid him in his mission. I could remove an amount of money from the general equal to that of hiring mercenaries and that'd be it. But since the whole dungeon leads up to a final confrontation between the general, his personal guard and the party then I should make it not only look like that, but be like that. Minions trying to weaken the party, eat up some resources to make the incoming fight easier and whatnot. In his private lair, there will also be a portal to another world that he's going to use in order to get his army to the other plane so I could have the fight move on over there, where the party finds out he has already taken most of his army over there and they're rampaging this planet and all these innocents are dying. That way, the battle with the general could be a "bad party vs good party" kind of deal at first but end up being a clash between armies during the second part so he fails to take his army to where he intends to. Thanks a lot for the ideas and for the tanglefoot bags. I'm going to go look for trap ideas and design a few of my own now to fit the aesthetic of the dungeon.