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View Full Version : Building a monster. Sort of



CIDE
2018-02-12, 06:14 PM
Hey playground,

I'd like to preface with an announcement to any other players in the game that I'm not trying to cheat or optimize or throw balance out to anyone that may find this thread.

To everyone else; I'm kind of stuck. I'm attempting to jump into a game where every character is an archfiend (template from dragon magazine 359, I believe). Everyone starts with the elite array and everyone starts with the aforementioned CR+2 template. There's a hard CR and HD limit of 16 for both. Otherwise, any template available--whether the base creature is eligibile or not-- is fair game as long as the final product is at 16hd and a cr16 or lower.

A lot of my initial ideas kind of fell through with most ending up becoming redundant with some of the monsters other characters were playing. Other ideas I just couldn't make work or get powerful enough like an archfiend Silthilar going crazy with body modifications and experimentation on all sorts of creatures. I also avoided easy things like a Spell weaver or phaerimm and breaking the game that way. Likewise, I've avoided the Illithid savant option available.

The idea I've kind of fallen back on was something more joker-esque with a Grey Jester from Heroes of Horror. I really love the idea of having a character that screws with the mind, manipulates those around them, etc. There's a lot of story and roleplay aspects and plotting to go through with that route but I also wanted it to be reflected mechanically as well via special abilities from templates or possbly from classes.

Bard or some variation of it seems like an obvious choice to fill the remaining hit die and a few templates like monster of legend, unholy scion, or tainted raver seem useful but not exactly a thematic fit. I'm not asking for a full build either. Just a few ideas to kind of fill this out.

There's pretty much no limit on source material. Other people have even pulled heavily from dragon magazine.


Or, if someone else had any ideas on the Silthilar (besides Cancer Mage cheese) I'm all ears for that idea too.

Falontani
2018-02-12, 06:32 PM
Silithar: Lords of Madness has a prestige class for grafting things onto others, if you can get a familiar (obtain familiar or just a level in wiz/sorc) then its a great class for that modifying thing, I would take a few levels of either warlock and grab obtain familiar, or artificer and become the party's crafter that also happens to mess with other people. If your playing with pathfinder as well I dont recall the name, but there were several abilities that allowed you to mess with creatures, and a Cancer Familiar from there would be pretty awesome if you went improved familiar route. (You could get a Gargantuan Hippogriff Cancer Familiar with battle form)

As for the Jester I would take the Jester class from Dragon Compendium. I do not know the template your applying, but its a fun little class to poke fun at others

CIDE
2018-02-12, 06:56 PM
The grafting class is flesh warper and with as few levels as I'd have it's hardly worth it. The jester class I've never seen before and is amazing thematically. Thanks for that.