Dire Stirge

[Someonelse]

I'm running an epic level game with divine rank and I came up with a cool monster to throw at my PCs. I just wanted to share it here because I think it's really cool and I can't really show it to my players yet.
The stirge is one of my favorite monsters, but they're only good for low level encounters. They're deadly at first level and merely annoying at 5th. By 20th level they're not even worth swatting at. So I made a stirge that would capture the attention of a high level party, especially if there's a few of them.
This stirge feeds on gods. Rather than draining constitution (which I suppose it could still do Con damage, but gods are immune to ability damage), it drains divine rank.
One thing you must understand is that with this game I'm doing DR kind of like a form of XP. You kill a god and divide their divine rank amongst the party. This means that you end up having partial divine ranks, for example, right now the party has 1.6 divine ranks. They count as DR1 until they earn that second rank.
So the divine dire stirge (I'm still not sure what to call it exactly) drains 1d4x0.1 divine ranks, once it has drained one full rank it detaches and flies away.
I started with a Stirge and added 10 hit dice, then I applied the Paragon template from the Epic Level Handbook, made it large size, and then gave it divine rank 0. check it out...

(note: we use a few house rules so this doesn't jive with RAW 100%, just FYI)

Divine Stirge
Size/Type: Large Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 20d10+260
Hit points: 360
Initiative: +15
Speed: 240ft, Fly 720ft (Perfect)
Armor Class: 57 / CEAC69 (-1 size, +11 Dex, +13 Nat, +12 Insight, +12 Luck), T44, FF34, +12 CE
Base Attack: 20 (+15 Str, -1 Size, +25 Luck) -14 CE
Grapple: +76 (20 BAB +15 Str, +4 Size, +25 Luck, +12 Racial)
Attack: Touch +59 / +45 CE, & Attach & Drain 1d4x0.1 DR
Space/Reach: 10ft
Special Attacks: Attach, blood drain
Special Qualities: DV60ft, low-light vision, Immune to Acid, Cold, & Electricity, Fire Resistance 10, DR20/Epic, SR46, FH20
Saves: Fort 12+14+10=, Ref 12+11+10=, Will 6+10+10=
Abilities: Str 40/+15, Dex 32/+11, Con 38/+14, Int 18, Wis 30, Cha 25
Skills: 135 (23/11); Sneak 23+11+10=, Perception 23+10+10=, Tumble 11+11+10=, Survival 11+10+10=, Search 11+4+10=, Swim 6+15,10=, Balance 5+11+10=
Feats: Weapon Finesse B, Imp Init, Improved Maneuverability (x2), Dodge, Mobility, Combat Expertise,
Challenge Rating: 21
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
SLA: CL 15th, 3/day; Greater Dispel (+15), Haste, See Invisibility
Languages: (doesn't speak, but understands) Common, Giant, & Undercommon

A stirge’s coloration ranges from rust-red to reddish-brown, with a dirty yellow underside. The proboscis is pink at the tip, fading to gray at its base.

Combat
A stirge attacks by landing on a victim, finding a vulnerable spot, and plunging its proboscis into the flesh. This is a touch attack and can target only Small or larger creatures.

Attach (Ex): If a stirge hits with a touch attack, it uses its eight pincers to latch onto the opponent’s body. An attached stirge is effectively grappling its prey. The stirge loses its Dexterity bonus to AC and has an AC of 12, but holds on with great tenacity. Stirges have a +12 racial bonus on grapple checks(already figured into the Base Attack/Grapple entry above). An attached stirge can be struck with a weapon or grappled itself. To remove an attached stirge through grappling, the opponent must achieve a pin against the stirge.

Blood Drain (Ex): A stirge drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution damage in any round when it begins its turn attached to a victim. Once it has dealt 4 points of Constitution damage, it detaches and flies off to digest the meal. If its victim dies before the stirge’s appetite has been sated, the stirge detaches and seeks a new target.

Transmutation
A deity is immune to polymorphing, petrification, or any other attack that alters its form. Any shape-altering powers the deity might have work normally on itself.
Energy Drain, Ability Drain, Ability Damage
A deity is not subject to energy drain, ability drain, or ability damage.
Mind-Affecting Effects
A deity is immune to mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).

[neriractor]

seems pretty cool but you should ask inevitability about it, I think they´ll like it a lot :smallwink:

[Strigon]

What this thread was actually about is the most unsurprising thing I've ever been surprised by.

[flappeercraft]

To begin with ask Inevitability, his username literally was Dire_Stirge but he changed it about a month ago. Also, if it is high power Epic level which I presume it is due to them having Divine ranks and same for the players, then this thing is not going to last a round or even land a hit if your players even optimized a bit. This thing on the campaign I'm currently running would probably get killed with ease by one of my players by 15th level maximum. So unless your intention is to slightly annoy them, (assuming they optimized and are decently powerful) then this I guess is ok. Adding the Half-Fiend template could also help it out a bit to make them a slightly bigger annoyance and if you also add Half Dragon that would make them a small annoyance.

edit: Also you might want to find a way to work around Freedom of Movement which would render them completely useless. Dispelling on its own would probably be out since an Epic character who can cast Freedom of movement and is a demigod likely has at least 25 CL before CL boosters which would still be undispellable to these Stirges.

[Inevitability]

Hey, what's up? :smalltongue:

Also, I'm seconding the suggestion to let them get around FoM somehow, but that alone is not enough (turning incorporeal at level 21 isn't that hard either). Just give it a special ability along the lines of this.


Grapple Anything (Ex). A Divine Stirge can grapple any creature, regardless of spells that would make a creature immune to being grappled, the swarm subtype, the incorporeal subtype, or similar effects. It still needs to make grapple checks and touch attacks normally, and all other grapple rules apply. Don't ask how it works.