Help me create a custom Elder Evil

[Silex]

As the title implies, I am looking to create my own Elder Evil to pit against my players. I want it to tie in thematically with the basis of everything else I am setting up.

Basically, I am setting up all major NPC villains as members of the Order of the Cyst, a group of fanatics, all with the Mother Cyst feat, who are dedicated to unleashing the Elder Evil upon my world and it's inhabitants.

I would appreciate any and all help and suggestions in my endeavor!

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Undead were cropping up throughout the city. An entire apartment was turned, and in the basement they discovered a tendril of undead flesh had burrowed out from between the stones like a stray tree root. It was a difficult battle to destroy it, and even then, it just retreated from whence it came. The tendrils were discovered at every outbreak of the undead plague, no matter how many they drove away more would just find their way back in. The source must be found.

They traveled deep underground, to where the diviner told them they would find it. As they grew closer they saw a few glimpses of the thick stems of the undead tendrils working their way through the earth. They were careful not to disturb any, for their goal was not to fight each tendril, but to strike at the source. Finally, they came upon the the enormous cavern that housed the cyst, a grotesque mass of undead flesh embedded in the planet itself....

[Silex]

While I love this, I suppose I should have been a bit more clear of my needs. I am looking for advice and suggestions to design an elder evil; name, abilities, stats, etc.

[Geddy2112]

abilities, stats, etc

"If you stat it, they will kill it"

Generally, an elder evil/deity is unable to be killed by mortal means. Do you want the party to be able to kill this thing at the end of the campaign, or do they just have to stop the cult? Even if they have to stop the elder evil, if it requires magic plot item X or the help of some other deity the fight can be narrative-if they have it they win. Stats and mechanics are only needed if you plan on using combat rules to have the party fight the thing.

[ExLibrisMortis]

An elder evil boss fight is a bit like an MMORPG boss fight: you start with (a) big bag(s) of hp and all-round defences (to get a long fight), and then you need to add a number of attacks that are more than 'fort DC 42 or die' - the attacks should be pretty complicated, introduce some unusual mechanic (such as Ragnorra's Worldskin), and subtly discourage straight nuking.


That's all very general, because it's not totally clear what you're trying to do.

What do your cultists want from the Elder Evil?
What does the Elder Evil want?
What is the cultists' power source? Necromancy.
What is the Elder Evil's power source?
How is the Elder Evil going to turn on the cultists?

[Silex]

If the pcs "kill it", it will effectively cause the Elder Evil to lie dormant once again.

As far as what the cultists want from the Elder Evil, is simple. Power and a deeper knowledge and understanding of the Mother Cyst.

The elder evil wants to raze the world, ridding it of sentience, bringing for it's "Childeren" (n
Skulking cysts).

[Gildedragon]

Well hmmm cyst themed

Throbbing fluid sacks start to appear on trees, and rocks, animals

Pustules erupt across the landscape like grotesque mushrooms...

Cyst feats can be used on these spontaneous cysts.

The elder evil is a cyst burried deep in the world

The Worldcyst
The Primordial Boil
The Blemish

I could see two cults trying to bring it about: one believes that lancing it will purge the world of evil... The other wishes to make it spread. Both don't much care for the damage that manifesting the Worldcyst will wreck.

Omens: Healing spells are warped. Remove disease and purify food and drink do not work.
Eventually healing above max HP has a cyst appear.

Druidic spells are impeded

Oozes are bolstered

Acid damage is enhanced

[Silex]

I love this! "The World Cyst"! I also absolutely love the signs of its coming. It gives me an easy way to get the pcs involved, providing a lot of adventure hooks! Keep em' coming folks!

[Gildedragon]

Boss battle:
Setting: a vast foggy swamp, fleshy islands rise from the muck. At its center a throbbing dome of flesh.
Enemies: several "zombie" cultists*, an empowered and twisted paladin from the Lancer faction and/or a life-obsessed necromancer; a fleshy or oozy amd very evil archlich
Goals: prevent the cyst from popping, break the connection the cyst has to leylines/whatever is feeding it.
Aftermath:
Best result: cyst slowly recedes. New races have been created. Cyst feats become useless... Until cyst can regrow
Bad end: cyst pops, everything cystified dies instantly... Including the world's fertility
Bad end: cyst manifests fully, everything is turned into a mass of throbbing flesh: world gets kronenberged

*there's some tree-pod generated zombies musk zombies iirc, they'd be fantastic

Cysts might also give deformity feats

[Silex]

I really like the direction this is heading. I am pumped about diving into this adventure with my players! Would love to hear more ideas and suggestions!

Does anyone have any more thoughts or ideas for the prophetic omens signifying the awakening of the World Cyst?

[Silex]

Or any ideas for specific abilities?

[Graysire]

I imagine the signs of its coming are similar to those of the Toxic Jungle in Naussica(though the outcome is different)
I also imagine It taking many traits from things like The Flood from Halo
Also, what if the only way to destroy the World Cyst is destroy the world, just as a mother cyst can't really be destroyed except by killing the host, so instead of killing it they have to make it become dormant once more?

[Silex]

Exactly what I was saying in an earlier post about overcoming the World Cyst. To kill it is to kill the world, as I think it best suited to feed off of the natural life energy of the world itself! But I like the omens! As always, still open to more ideas And suggestions! I want to make this the most memorable campaign my players have ever experienced!

[Silex]

Any thoughts on how to achieve the goal of making the World Cyst dormant again after it's coming?

I want it to be challenging and still very dangerous to the PCs. After all, what is an adventure without danger and excitement?! Lol

[Graysire]

Well, I think another question then is exactly why is it awakening? Is it the efforts of the cultists? Is it on its own but the cults have formed around it?

[Silex]

The efforts of the cultists are what awaken the evil. Through various ancient rituals and sacrifices, the World Cyst awakens, beginning to gather power by feeding on the world's natural life force

[rel]

Alternate bad end.

The Cyst is the black core of the world itself, to destroy the Cyst is to destroy the world...

Challenge accepted. Through the application of vast shenanigans or epic cheese the PC's deploy an arbitrary amount of damage directly into the Cyst.

The planet shatters.

The setting is now hundreds of mountain and continent sized chunks of earth and water floating in a vast ocean of air.

While above them like some misshapen moon the Cyst floats. Dormant. For now...

[Graysire]

Alternate bad end.

The Cyst is the black core of the world itself, to destroy the Cyst is to destroy the world...

Challenge accepted. Through the application of vast shenanigans or epic cheese the PC's deploy an arbitrary amount of damage directly into the Cyst.

The planet shatters.

The setting is now hundreds of mountain and continent sized chunks of earth and water floating in a vast ocean of air.

While above them like some misshapen moon the Cyst floats. Dormant. For now...

I like this bad end as the normal end, because that sounds like a really cool campaign setting

[daremetoidareyo]

One sign can be simultaneous eruptions of volcanoes and mountains. Spewing huge blobs of necromagma and negative energy particulates.

[Silex]

Alternate bad end.

The Cyst is the black core of the world itself, to destroy the Cyst is to destroy the world...

Challenge accepted. Through the application of vast shenanigans or epic cheese the PC's deploy an arbitrary amount of damage directly into the Cyst.

The planet shatters.

The setting is now hundreds of mountain and continent sized chunks of earth and water floating in a vast ocean of air.

While above them like some misshapen moon the Cyst floats. Dormant. For now...

While I like this a lot, I want my PCs to have the opportunity to overcome it, without destroying the world!

[ArendK]

Idea-

The Cyst changes foes and gets more deadly based off how many "infected" are together akin to necromantic saturation. On top of that, as more of them are together, they start sharing abilities or developing new ones as a rapid evolution process to counteract repeated tactics.

For instance; a group of bandits, their mounts, 2 dogs, and the scouts falcon get infected. The cyst forces the bodies to take the strengths of each strength in their "collection." A dogs snout, horses speed, falcons wings, etc. etc. Could push this to supernatural abilities as well for really terrifying combinations. This could result in cultists capturing a wide variety of creatures to "absorb" their abilities through the cysts.

What I'm picturing is essentially slivers from M:TG, with a dose of zerg/tyranid syndrome.

[ArendK]

The efforts of the cultists are what awaken the evil. Through various ancient rituals and sacrifices, the World Cyst awakens, beginning to gather power by feeding on the world's natural life force

The Cyst isn't actually a Cyst as we would think of it, but rather the "heart" of the world in a pure and untainted state. Of course Cultists want to pervert and twist it through some Macguffy ritual. That's what cultists do!

[Silex]

That's actually a pretty cool idea. And yes, Slivers (in the right combination) can be very deadly!

[daremetoidareyo]

The Cyst isn't actually a Cyst as we would think of it, but rather the "heart" of the world in a pure and untainted state. Of course Cultists want to pervert and twist it through some Macguffy ritual. That's what cultists do!

Maybe it was just the 2016 election, but I don't think cultists bring about giant devastating events without good reason. You should have some legitimate injustice fueling the cultists

[Graysire]

What if the cultists are the caretakers of the core of the world and are druids, trying to change the core in order to help nature in the world far above. Along the way to the surface the intent got mistranslated and so the cultists on the surface are far removed from the actual intent and thus are causing much more disastrous changes.

[Silex]

I want to thank everyone for their input. All the suggestions are greatly appreciated! I will be sitting down this weekend and getting this all down on paper, getting everything fleshed out!

Any other ideas and suggestions are still welcomed up until that happens! Thanks again, and I hope to hear some more ideas from you guys over the next couple of days!

[ArendK]

Just running with the idea;
The more the "slivers" take different types of damage, they adapt different types of defenses.

For instance, They develop a specific elemental resistance that grows by 1 for every X (say 2-5) damage they take that continues to grow.

Hit by a lot of touch attacks? they grow faster with more insight/dex bonuses to AC. +1 for every two successful attacks that connect?

Hit by a mountain of meat with a big weapon? Damage reduction against the specific material that hit it (iron, wood, adamantine, silver, mithral, etc. etc) or the type (slashing/piercing/bludgeoning) that progressively scales.

Against Spells it develops SR (I'd say start 12+intended CR) that grows by one with each spell that effects the "horde"

These are just the defensive aspects that come to mind.

[arrowed]

This looks very cool. Are you still looking for omens?


Potions are affected. All potions form large bubbles of gunk inside, which need to be removed for the potion to work properly (otherwise the imbiber could end up with a cyst)
Sources of water turn foul. Water-based creatures like water elementals are corrupted into pus-creatures. When water is magically created, there is a chance that cyst fluids are created instead.
Boils, blisters, sores etc form unnaturally fast, and are unusually hard to get rid of. They also form on the recently dead.

[Silex]

I am still taking any and all suggestions! I will be sitting down sometime tomorrow evening to make all the decisions tied to this elder evil, so that I can get it all fleshed out and down on paper!

So any last minute ideas and suggestions are welcome! Hoping for something super cool or unique that hasn't been suggested yet, that I may incorporate into this being!

[Telonius]

The cultists have the idea that their cysts are a path to immortality. The idea is that cancers don't die on their own (their cells only die when the host does).

Also gives it a nice "better kill the whole thing" vibe to it. If they miss any of the Elder Evil, it'll just gradually regenerate.

[Silex]

My thought for the cultists motivations (and this is open to change), was that they view the world and the constant struggle to be out of balance.

They believe that the only way to rectify this is to awaken the World Cyst to cleanse the world so that it may start anew.

The other idea that I kind of scrapped as this all developed, was that they wanted a deeper understanding of their own cysts, and how else they may used for their benefit.

Aside from suggestions surrounding the Elder Evil, any ideas about the cultists are welcomed as well!

[Bucky]

There's no reason why the cultists all need the same motivation. You might have a mostly well intentioned group with a few members who are just in it for a chance at superpowers and intend to sabotage the 'cleanse the world' part if they succeed.

[Yklikt]

Planning to put this in Villainous Competition? There is an elder evil round now.

[Silex]

Was not my intention, but it would be kind of cool. But being that is falls under "homebrew", I'm not sure how well it would be received in a competition lol

[Silex]

So my thought process here, is to advance a skulking cyst to create the world cyst. Thoughts, ideas or suggestions?

[Gildedragon]

The world cyst itself ought not be directly engageable. Minions of it, it's herald/catspaw in the world... Yeah advancing the creature is a good idea.

Note when in the cyst's presence: ooze born? Creatures crawling out of it would be a good idea.

I figure the cyst would throb at the core of a crater

Thought for the ooze: meteorite from the fat realms bearing something a'la The Thing.

[Silex]

That's actually a pretty cool thought. I'll have to take that into consideration

[Calthropstu]

How to create an elder evil:
Write numbers.
Add more numbers.
Write up special abilities to manipulate those numbers.
Add more abilities to manipulate numbers other people wrote.
Add more abilities to make yourself and others roll dice.

See, nothing to it!

[Calthropstu]

The world cyst itself ought not be directly engageable. Minions of it, it's herald/catspaw in the world... Yeah advancing the creature is a good idea.

Note when in the cyst's presence: ooze born? Creatures crawling out of it would be a good idea.

I figure the cyst would throb at the core of a crater

Thought for the ooze: meteorite from the fat realms bearing something a'la The Thing.

The fat realms? 0.o
Explains the whoole ooze thing I suppose...

But all joking aside, making this the progenitor ooze would be kinda cool. The source of all oozes.

[Silex]

Just a few hours away from sitting down to get this all down on paper! Any last minute ideas, thoughts or suggestions on anything?

[Val666]

Nice! I always like a good final boss production xd

Some Ideas:

1) Cultist irrigate the "cyst virus" across the lands, infecting the mind & bodies of the townsfolk. Some of them mutate into abominations. Cyst deformities around specific areas which turn some limbs into natural weapons, some of them growing giant arms, tentacles, get acid attacks, natural armor (I'm picturing some of the Left 4 Dead zombies but cysted xd) and other have their brains affected directly which allows The World Cyst to command them and give orders to the abominations.

2) Bosses related to The World Cyst have extreme mutations similar to the ones stated above. Be more creative, give them special attacks. To the abomination-like bosses, grapples, tramples, breath weapons (acid), use big animals, etc. The brain ones get psionic abilities, "spawn" more minions, spread the infection, fly, spells. Use the mother cyst spell line.

3) At some point have a cultist, boss, place, whatever, infect the players with the cyst. With magical aid, will saves or something, let the players overcome the domination of The World Cyst giving special resistances against cysted foes and some cool nice cyst related abilities for themselves. For the melee's enhancements to their key stat, maybe abilities earlier bosses had. For the casters enhanced mental stats, psionics spell-like abilities. You could grant the party a "telepathy" ability which only works between them. Other idea is to give them a 1/day "transformation" that gives the said bonuses, but better, hence the use limit. When they are close to an overwelming manifestation of The World Cyst, the signs of their mutations improve (in those occasions, a will or fortitude save to add some sassy roleplay or punishment). (Thanks Metroid Prime 3: Corruption)

4) USE THEIR LOVED ONES!!!! Family, mates, npcs they met and got involved with. MINDRAPE ALL OF THEM. Turn some of them into bosses, have the players kill their loved ones, drama! Choose one of those npc and make him the "spy", hanging with the pcs being friendly and helpul but in the end he was one of the firsts to be cysted. Steal things they love, CYSTABDUCTION, crush their hearts, brains and souls.

5) Add some flavor

6) ?????

7) Profit!

[Gildedragon]

The fat realms? 0.o
Explains the whoole ooze thing I suppose...

But all joking aside, making this the progenitor ooze would be kinda cool. The source of all oozes.

Gosh darn autocorrect.

[Calthropstu]

If we are going with the ooze progenitor, I would recommend giving it an elemental aura it can change at will. Since there are oozes of all kinds, it would make sense
Also, I like the idea of ooze spawn. Any damage caused simply detatches from the main form as a "primordial ooze spawn" with hp equal to the damage dealt. The more hitpoints an ooze spawn has the more abilities it has. Turning the combat into a nasty armada of oozes.

[Graysire]

If we are going with the ooze progenitor, I would recommend giving it an elemental aura it can change at will. Since there are oozes of all kinds, it would make sense
Also, I like the idea of ooze spawn. Any damage caused simply detatches from the main form as a "primordial ooze spawn" with hp equal to the damage dealt. The more hitpoints an ooze spawn has the more abilities it has. Turning the combat into a nasty armada of oozes.

Seconding this, "Strength alone cannot win you this fight heroes"

[Gildedragon]

If we are going with the ooze progenitor, I would recommend giving it an elemental aura it can change at will. Since there are oozes of all kinds, it would make sense
Also, I like the idea of ooze spawn. Any damage caused simply detatches from the main form as a "primordial ooze spawn" with hp equal to the damage dealt. The more hitpoints an ooze spawn has the more abilities it has. Turning the combat into a nasty armada of oozes.

Best oozes for theme: Living Spells of Mother Cyst Spells

Better yet: Gelatinous Creature Living Spells

Imagine a bunch of jelly rats that implant necrotic cysts on people

Dripping oozing wolves and murders of crows that are always scrying on the afflicted

[Silex]

Nice! I always like a good final boss production xd

Some Ideas:

1) Cultist irrigate the "cyst virus" across the lands, infecting the mind & bodies of the townsfolk. Some of them mutate into abominations. Cyst deformities around specific areas which turn some limbs into natural weapons, some of them growing giant arms, tentacles, get acid attacks, natural armor (I'm picturing some of the Left 4 Dead zombies but cysted xd) and other have their brains affected directly which allows The World Cyst to command them and give orders to the abominations.

2) Bosses related to The World Cyst have extreme mutations similar to the ones stated above. Be more creative, give them special attacks. To the abomination-like bosses, grapples, tramples, breath weapons (acid), use big animals, etc. The brain ones get psionic abilities, "spawn" more minions, spread the infection, fly, spells. Use the mother cyst spell line.

3) At some point have a cultist, boss, place, whatever, infect the players with the cyst. With magical aid, will saves or something, let the players overcome the domination of The World Cyst giving special resistances against cysted foes and some cool nice cyst related abilities for themselves. For the melee's enhancements to their key stat, maybe abilities earlier bosses had. For the casters enhanced mental stats, psionics spell-like abilities. You could grant the party a "telepathy" ability which only works between them. Other idea is to give them a 1/day "transformation" that gives the said bonuses, but better, hence the use limit. When they are close to an overwelming manifestation of The World Cyst, the signs of their mutations improve (in those occasions, a will or fortitude save to add some sassy roleplay or punishment). (Thanks Metroid Prime 3: Corruption)

4) USE THEIR LOVED ONES!!!! Family, mates, npcs they met and got involved with. MINDRAPE ALL OF THEM. Turn some of them into bosses, have the players kill their loved ones, drama! Choose one of those npc and make him the "spy", hanging with the pcs being friendly and helpul but in the end he was one of the firsts to be cysted. Steal things they love, CYSTABDUCTION, crush their hearts, brains and souls.

5) Add some flavor

6) ?????

7) Profit!

I like a lot of this! The mother cyst feat and spell line were the inspiration behind this elder evil, and had already planned on giving each cultist (at least the higher ups, ie bosses and minibosses), the Mother Cyst feat.

Many of the underlings will likely just be infected with the necrotic cyst. Many of the cultists will also have various Willing Deformity feats!

I hadn't thought about making loved one a boss, and I absolutely love that idea! I want my players to be as vested as possible with this story!

I also really love the idea of an important NPC infiltrating the group of PCs, nudging them along, possibly causing them to inadvertently aid in the plans of the cultists!

Keep em' coming folks, you inspire me!

[Telonius]

Rgh, this is tough - the Villainous competition this time is "Elder Evils." There's quite a bit of ideas I could post, but I don't want to out my entry before the competition deadline. If you have a bit of time before you need this done, keep a look out for when Thurbane posts the reveal.

[Silex]

Rgh, this is tough - the Villainous competition this time is "Elder Evils." There's quite a bit of ideas I could post, but I don't want to out my entry before the competition deadline. If you have a bit of time before you need this done, keep a look out for when Thurbane posts the reveal.

Will do :) still have to design a prestige class after this, and get my story fleshed out and on paper. Probably have a few weeks until this campaign is ready to take flight!

If you'd like, post a link here so that I can take a look at what you've got once you post it!

Or, if you'd rather, feel free to message me your design!