[3.5] Aranea Thrall of Malcanthet

[maxion]

Hello everyone,
I plan on making Aranea Thrall of Malcanthet as one of bosses against my players. I imagine that I could fuse draining kiss with bite, and strengthen its web by some spell. Also as having no restriction from being a DM thinking bout gestatling-in 4-5 levels of Binder for both meeting PrC requirements for skills and Presuasive feat and adding some cheese (at least for me).
But aside from unlimited possibilities what I can do as a DM, what are your suggestions from official sources that I could add to my spider-succubus to optimize it somehow, remaining in theme of spider, succubus, betraying sneak attacking spellcaster. If you have non-official suggestions I'll also listen to them :)
Thank you in advance :)

[Venger]

What level is your party? What is their general optimization level? How hard should this encounter be?

[maxion]

I imagine it as something like encounter for 16 level party, and should be tough. :D
It like her to have fully finished PrC to get ability to change into succubus.

[Calthropstu]

A 16th lvl party would curb stomp a succubus with class levels.
This thing wouldn't even pose a roadblock.

[JNAProductions]

A 16th lvl party would curb stomp a succubus with class levels.
This thing wouldn't even pose a roadblock.

It depends how many and what class levels.

A Succubus with two levels of Fighter? Easy.

A Succubus with 20 levels of Wizard? Lot harder.

A Succubus with every single published level ever? (So max level in all PrCs, 20 levels in every base class, and let's throw on the racial Paragons too, because why not?) Virtually impossible to beat just because of sheer numbers.

I do agree that Succubus isn't adding a TON to the fight, so focus more on the class bit.

[Calthropstu]

It depends how many and what class levels.

A Succubus with two levels of Fighter? Easy.

A Succubus with 20 levels of Wizard? Lot harder.

A Succubus with every single published level ever? (So max level in all PrCs, 20 levels in every base class, and let's throw on the racial Paragons too, because why not?) Virtually impossible to beat just because of sheer numbers.

I do agree that Succubus isn't adding a TON to the fight, so focus more on the class bit.

Fair, but to be honest, it looks like the "becoming a succubus" thing is merely a waste of resources that this creature can ill afford. It adds no real power against adventurers of this caliber, and it falsely inflates the cr. In order to really make this thing a challenge, the pure waste would need to be compensated with something along the lines of 20 levels of wizard on top of everything else. And at that point, they are facing a 20th level wizard that happens to be cr 25+ but is really just a 20th level wizard.

[JNAProductions]

Fair, but to be honest, it looks like the "becoming a succubus" thing is merely a waste of resources that this creature can ill afford. It adds no real power against adventurers of this caliber, and it falsely inflates the cr. In order to really make this thing a challenge, the pure waste would need to be compensated with something along the lines of 20 levels of wizard on top of everything else. And at that point, they are facing a 20th level wizard that happens to be cr 25+ but is really just a 20th level wizard.

CR is just borked in general. I think the OP is safe making something that might, by the rules, be an overwhelming encounter, but in practice is more manageable.

Edit: Also, as the DM, they have infinite resources. They can go nuts.

[maxion]

So either make it much stronger than just this class, or put a bunch of minions in front, so the succubus could enchant the sh..t out of them? Because I like enchanting idea. Do you have some crazy stuff, assuming succubus would be a boss-support-control? I mean spells mostly. What about making a little focused on steak attacks? :)