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Durzan
2017-08-10, 12:56 PM
Okay, So I created this creature over the past couple of days, intending to use it to challenge my players a bit when they finally get to the dungeon where some of them reside. The trouble is, I'm not sure what CR should be... It should be at least a CR 8-9, but it could probably be a bit higher. Heck, one of my friends said it was a CR 10.

The current idea is for this creature to be able to be an extreme encounter for level 8 or 9 characters. Also, it is supposed to be something which the player characters haven't seen before, so as to add some of that sense of wonder that some of you have talked about back into my players.

As you may notice, I based it off of the Wraith, but took it in a different direction.

Bane
Medium Undead (Incorporeal)
HD: 8d12 (56 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: Fly 60 feet (Good)
BAB: +4
Defense: 16 (+4 Dex, +2 deflection), Touch 16, Flat-Footed 12
Attacks: +8 Incorporeal Touch(1d4 + 1d6 Wisdom Drain + Fearful Paralysis)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./ 5 ft
Special Attacks: Wisdom Drain, Fearful Paralysis, Capture Soul
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft, Lifesense (60 ft), Incorporeal Traits, Undead Traits, Aura of Fear, Fear Synergy, All-Around Vision, Spell Resistance, Light Vulnerability
Saves: Fort. +2, Reflex +6, Will +9
Abilities: Str. None, Dex 18, Con. None, Int. 15, Wis. 16, Cha. 15
Skills: 66 Skill Points
Feats: Track, Blind-Fight, Improved Initiative, Combat Reflexes, Spring Attack
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary or Gang (2-6)
CR: ???
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Evil
Advancement: 9-12 HD (Medium), 13-20 (Large)


Banes are terrifying undead shadowy undead servants created by the demilich Eragar to capture souls for him to consume later. They take the form of a misty dark fog that coalesces into a vaguely humanoid figure with many glowing gem-like orbs in the midst of its “body.” These orbs are what it uses to contain the souls of its victims.


Combat


Capture Soul (Su): As a full-round action, a Bane can rip the souls of helpless creatures from their body and trap it within itself. This ability functions as the spell Trap the Soul, except that it ignores spell resistance and can only target helpless creatures within melee range. If the Bane is interrupted, it is entitled to make a concentration check. Upon use of this ability, the target must make a DC 20 Will Save or have their soul trapped within one of the bane’s glowing orbs. The victim’s body remains fine and intact, but unless their soul is retrieved, then it cannot be revived. Destroying the Bane frees any souls it has trapped. A bane may hold a number of souls equal to the number of HD it has. A bane may release the souls it has collected or transfer them each into a single gemstone per soul as move action.


Wisdom Drain (Su): Living creatures hit with a Bane’s Incorporeal Touch Attack must make a will save (DC 16) or take 1d6 points of wisdom drain. On each such successful attack, the Bane gains 5 temporary hit points. The save is charisma based.


Lifesense (Su): A Bane notices and locates living creatures within 60 feet, just as if it possessed the blindsight ability. It also senses the strength of their life force automatically, as if it had cast deathwatch.


Aura of Fear (Su): Banes posses a supernatural aura of fear that affects all living creatures around them. Any living creature must succeed on a Will Save (DC 16) each round they are within 30 feet of a Bane, or else they become shaken. If a target is already shaken, then they become frightened; if they are already frightened, then they become panicked. The effect lasts as long as the victim remains within 30 feet of the Bane, and for an additional 1d4 rounds after the victim leaves the area of effect. If the victim becomes shaken, then they automatically fail additional saves against that particular Bane unless 24 hours has passed. If the target succeeds 3 times on the save, they become immune to the aura of that particular Bane for 24 hours.


Fear Synergy (Su): When in groups of 2 or more, the Bane’s Aura of Fear becomes amplified. For every additional Bane in the group, the DC of the Aura of Fear increases by 2 for all banes. So long as there is more than 1 Bane, then if a target is already shaken, then they become frightened; if they are already frightened, then they become panicked, and if they are already panicked, then they cower in fear.


Fearful Paralysis (Ex): Any living creature hit by a Bane’s touch attack must also succeed on a DC 16 Fortitude save or become paralyzed for 1d4+1 rounds. The save DC is Charisma-based.


All-Around Vision (Ex): Banes do not actually have eyes, instead using small pulses of sound and negative energy to sense their surroundings via a method similar to echo location. As a result, Banes get a +4 bonus to perception checks, and cannot be flanked.


Spell Resistance (Ex): Banes have a Spell Resistance equal to 10 + their number of Hit Dice.


Light Vulnerability (Ex): If the Bane is within the area illuminated by a spell that creates bright light when said spell is initially cast, then the bane must make a fortitude save (DC 10+Spell Level+Ability Modifier) or it takes 2d6 points of damage and is stunned for one round. A successful save halves the damage.

And of course, additional ideas, suggestions and so forth are welcome and greatly appreciated. Feel free in helping me fine tune both the mechanics and lore.

Edit: Updated the Bane.

rferries
2017-08-10, 02:49 PM
The touch attack allows saves to prevent the added effect (like Wraiths, but unlike Allips, Shadows, and virtually all other energy-draining undead) and the aura needs 3 failed saves to become deadly (unlike Bodaks, Medusae, etc.), so I'm tempted to say CR 5 or 6. However, the high Charisma is a killer - makes the aforementioned attacks much harder to resist than normal for even a CR 8 creature (plus gives a deflection bonus to AC when you write up that line). If you give it the Ability Focus (Aura) feat I could almost see this being a TPK in the absence of a cleric, especially with magic immunity on top of being incorporeal.

Delicious flavour - the trap the soul doesn't have any real mechanical benefit but I prefer this creature concept to Devourers.

OttoVonBigby
2017-08-11, 06:23 AM
I like this concept. Paired with that of the demilich, it makes good in-universe sense.

The fact that searing light and other standbys work normally tells me it's not necessARily gonna be an auto-TPK encounter, particularly if the PCs expect to deal with undead. And moreso if the PCs have ghost touch weapons, and have anticipated having to deal with flying enemies. So it's a "swingy" monster in that way; like fighting an allip, this could be easy or tough depending on the party's situation. CR 7 does seem low, though. I'd guess 8 or 9, leaning more toward 8 unless I'm missing something.

Lore-wise, it occurs to me that, in order to distinguish these from the many variations on the Dark Incorporeal Undead theme, you want a couple of distinctive visual, or otherwise sensory, cues. You have one: the aura. But visually-- since they were engineered for a specific purpose, maybe their shape is just barely humanoid? Maybe they have glowing, hungering "eyes"? (Maybe they have LOTS of "eyes"? Given the theme in its feats, it could even have All-Around Vision?) Certainly, if it were my monster, I wouldn't give them the typical resemblance to a particular race/individual; it seems to me that demiliches would think in more abstract/freaky terms.

The onnnnly other thing that comes to mind is that, if I'm the demilich creator of these, do I actually want my Soul-Harvesters to be glass cannons? What good does it do me if, in encounter #1, a bane scores me a soul or two, only to be destroyed by the vengeful party remnants (who are better prepared this time) in encounter #2? Mightn't it make more sense for banes to be tankier? (That aura, plus a slow-and-steady approach to soul-stealing, might actually make them scarier if they're tanky!)
...Unless of course they are deployed in groups (which, yikes!) or with backup. Likewise, if Mr. Demilich never deploys these guys very far afield from himself, the risk of losing banes in transit diminishes.

rferries
2017-08-11, 12:19 PM
Maybe they have LOTS of "eyes"? Given the theme in its feats, it could even have All-Around Vision?

I second this! I've often felt that undead/outsiders etc should automatically have this ability (even if they have humanoid forms they should have preternatural senses, IMHO).

I'd like to see you flesh out the details - maybe give them Track as a bonus feat and ranks in Search, Survival and Knowledge (the planes), so they can hunt souls across dimensions?

Debihuman
2017-08-15, 08:41 AM
Without ghost-touched weapons, the party is screwed. With ghost-touched weapons the bane is screwed. I am a bit ambivalent about that. You can put it through VT's CR estimator but I don't have time for that at the moment.

Wisdom drain has a copy-pasta error in that refers to the wraith not the bane.

Should have 39 hit points. 6 x 6.5 = 39. (average hit points is 1/2 the HD +.5) d6 is 3.5, d8 is 4.5 etc.

Capture the soul should be a supernatural ability or spell-like since it uses trap the soul as its basis.

Sorry to for the short critique but I haven't had time to read this forum and have a lot of catching up to do. Been off-line here for far too long.

Debby

Durzan
2017-08-17, 10:26 AM
Updated the OP.

Friend analyzed it based on what I told him, and he thought it to be about about a CR 10 or so with some of the changes I made at his suggestion (in a world where clerics don't exist that is).

Added a couple of HD, lowered the Bane's Charisma a tad to compensate. I then added a couple new abilities, removed or altered others, DC 16 is about right.

Also fleshed out the lore a tad bit based on you guys's suggestions.

Estimated CRs and Suggestions are of course still encouraged and welcome.


Without ghost-touched weapons, the party is screwed. With ghost-touched weapons the bane is screwed. I am a bit ambivalent about that. You can put it through VT's CR estimator but I don't have time for that at the moment.

Wisdom drain has a copy-pasta error in that refers to the wraith not the bane.

Should have 39 hit points. 6 x 6.5 = 39. (average hit points is 1/2 the HD +.5) d6 is 3.5, d8 is 4.5 etc.

Capture the soul should be a supernatural ability or spell-like since it uses trap the soul as its basis.

Sorry to for the short critique but I haven't had time to read this forum and have a lot of catching up to do. Been off-line here for far too long.

Debby

Thanks for pointing out the copy-paste error. Where can I find VT's CR estimator?

As far as HP goes, I heard that you take the average HD and round up, which is why the average HP is a bit higher than what you would probably calculate.

Debihuman
2017-08-17, 03:56 PM
U
Thanks for pointing out the copy-paste error. Where can I find VT's CR estimator?

Here you go. Note: it's on this site probably way back and it's just easier for me to post it.

Vorpal Tribble’s CR Estimator

#1. Divide creature's average HP by 4.5 to 6.5.
4.5 for 5 HD or lower, 5 for 6-10 HD, 5.5 for 11-15 HD, 6 for 16-20 HD., 6.5 for 20-25 HD.

#2. Add 1 for each five points above 10 its AC is, subtracting 1 for every 5 below.

#3. Add 1 for each special attack (+2 to +5 or more if it has a decent number of spells in its spell-like abilities).

#4. Add 1 for each quality unless you deem it worthy of more. Add 1 for each resistance and 10 points of DR it has, and 2 for each immunity. Subtract 1 for each vulnerability.

#5. Add 1 for every two bonus feats it has.

#6. Divide total by 3. This should be its rough CR.


As far as HP goes, I heard that you take the average HD and round up, which is why the average HP is a bit higher than what you would probably calculate.

In 3.5 you ALWAYS round down. If you deviate from that with house rules it helps to note that so it doesn't look like a mistake. This is what makes critiquing other people's stuff so difficult. Everyone uses house rules but almost nobody bothers to mention it to people critiquing stuff. I try my best with these things.

All-Around Vision makes no sense for creatures without eyes, especially since these should be blind without eyes. They already have Lifesense so they don't usually need to make Spot checks (not sure why you have perception check as 3.5 uses Spot and Pathfinder uses Perception). You could give them Superior Lifesense adding that if they get a +4 bonus make Spot checks and cannot be flanked.

Grapple is missing from stat block and should be written as:

BAB/Grapple: +4/—. Just copy and paste the dash if you can't create it. I do it all the time from Word.

It helps to have all special qualities listed alphabetically.

Banes should have some link to their master as a special ability. How are they in contact?

Level Adjustment should be — as well.

Just some last minute critiques I thought I'd point out.

Debby