Creature that drains love

[Pinjata]

Hey guys,

I'm thinking of homebrewing a creature, not unlike Joystealer from 3.5. It is a creature that feeds of love, one person has recieved. Once this creature drains all the love from a person, this person loses all purspose in life, kills itself or just stops eating and dies.

How should I stat this creature?

What would a region, these creatures live in, be like? I'm thinking something along fey forest ... But I do not know how to fluff it.

[EternalPrime]

Sounds like my ex-wife.

*Rimshot*

[DrKerosene]

I preferred the Grey Jester from Heroes Of Horror, to the nymph like Joystealer, but I get that they have different environments they tend to be found in.

I would use the Shadow (CR 1/2) or the Intellect Devourer (CR 2) as a base monster. Combine/trade it with some low level fey creature for traits you want, and make it so the effect is based on Charisma instead of Stength or Intelligence.

Perhaps their main attack is like Vicious Mockery, but failing a Charisma check causes you to lose 1d4 Charisma instead of hit points. Maybe it’s a touch attack refluffed as a caress. It’s up to you.

I think they would be found near enough to some sort of good-sized frontier-town (civilization) to get a steady supply of “people-food”, but not enough to be easily noticed as a source of missing people.

Or they could be migratory, having a few routes they like to travel, “picking up” solo travellers. Rallying together with female travellers and seducing others. Only to drain all joy from them next to a secluded campfire.

[Particle_Man]

Is this a one off or a major part of the campaign? If the latter, you might want to come up with some virtue or emotion stats a la Exalted and then have a look at their fey folk.

If the former, a chr drainer like a shadow will work.

[Damon_Tor]

Hey guys,

I'm thinking of homebrewing a creature, not unlike Joystealer from 3.5. It is a creature that feeds of love, one person has recieved. Once this creature drains all the love from a person, this person loses all purspose in life, kills itself or just stops eating and dies.

Sounds like exhaustion to me.

I'd say take a monster with stats that approximate what you're looking for and add and an action that causes exhaustion to the target. You'd fluff it as "losing love" which might be expressed as memory loss or just a loss of feeling or a vague depression, but mechanically exhaustion is pretty close to what you're looking for.

[hymer]

I'm thinking something along fey forest
It sounds more like a creature from, or connected to, the Shadowfell. It is a land of existence without emotion.

[Potato_Priest]

It sounds more like a creature from, or connected to, the Shadowfell. It is a land of existence without emotion.

Except in the shadowfell, it wouldn’t have anything to eat, while in the feywild it would be incredibly easy to find food.

[stoutstien]

Why would you want to make a NPC based on my ex?

On a serious note look at the succubus draining kiss as a good base for a love draining attack.

[jh12]

How should I stat this creature?

I'm curious how you are going to stat your players. How do you determine how much love they have to start off with?

[Ventruenox]

Sounds like my ex-wife.

*Rimshot*

Have your DM award you inspiration for that one. Preach!

[Kyutaru]

You might want to also give this creature an outlet for all that power.

After all, Love is the strongest force in the universe.


http://www.nuklearpower.com/comics/8-bit-theater/041127.png

[Laserlight]

First thought was that you should use it in a seafaring campaign, but that would be draining the ability to luff.

I seem to recall tales from various cultures about ghostly women who seduce and kill men, and they're often next to water--a stream or well.

I'd go with a CHA Drain attack.

[No brains]

When defining the love that this creature eats, be sure to define all of the things it eats that count as love. Is friendship love? How about duty? Would it eat someone's love of sports or their favorite food?

Is this creature intelligent and/or patient enough to 'farm' love for it to eat? Maybe it could cultivate romances in secret just to devour passion before a connection is made.

Do other creatures use it like a clear shrimp to eat excess love they feel? Maybe a stoic warrior society uses this creature to enforce discipline among its ranks. Perhaps devils prize this creatures for their capacity to trim away any mercy they feel.

When you think about these things, it could have ramifications on its stats. If it can farm, it probably has good wisdom, charisma, and skills to back them up. If it hangs out with devils, it probably resists the energy types of their domains.

[Themrys]

I seem to recall tales from various cultures about ghostly women who seduce and kill men, and they're often next to water--a stream or well.



That's using men's willingness to have sex with anything that moves to kill them, what does that have to do with love?


It seems to me the proposed creature is, in effect, the exact same as a creature that drains happiness, which is rather boring. Wouldn't a lack of love do something different to just causing depression? Perhaps it would render surviving victims incapable of having healthy relationships because they retroactively feel like they were never loved by their parents and are damaged by this? Or the victims who are only slightly affected would get more selfish because they feel like no one cares about them so why would they care about others? Something like that.


Does the creature need nourishment and doesn't drain so much as eat love? In that case it would likely seek out places where there is a lot of love. Or does it just enjoy the absence of love? Then it would prefer places where there is no love, and only drain away the love of those unfortunate enough to enter those places.

And of course, its ability to ensure a continued food supply would affect the wisdom stat.

[BurgerBeast]

I’d make it live in some cold northern region, because this typically maps to higher levels of depression amongst the populace... and you can explain this as the dark, cold presence of the love-draining spirits of the north/south.

Also, if you use the division of fey into seelie/unseelie or summer/winter, it’s a cool way to highlight that theme.

You could have a cold, sparsely populated northern region with connections to the winter court regions of the feywild.

[DrKerosene]

I seem to recall tales from various cultures about ghostly women who seduce and kill men, and they're often next to water--a stream or well.

Ah, that would be the Rusalka from Frostburn, (also 3.5e and) a CR 1 fey.

I believe Tales From The Yawning Portal has both a Kelpie and a Neried, which I think are similarly themed aquatic fey.

I’m still a bigger fan of the 3.5e Grey Jester.

I’d probably use a Nilbog templated on something else decent, and give it an ability to Channel Charisma Drain while a creature is affected by Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, possibly enslaving it if they get their Charisma reduced to 0. Instead of the Shadow’s Create Spawn ability.

[Laserlight]

Ah, that would be the Rusalka from Frostburn, (also 3.5e and) a CR 1 fey.

Pretty sure there are Chinese and Meso American tales too, although I am 3000 miles away from my books right now.



That's using men's willingness to have sex with anything that moves to kill them, what does that have to do with love?

Sexuality can be a bit more complicated than that--interviews with sex workers often have a comment "he just wanted someone who would talk with"--so it seemed to fit. If a DM told me "the monster lures you with her beauty, then kills you by draining the capacity for love", I wouldn't say "Hey, that's not connected at all".

[Scarlet Knight]

After all, Love is the strongest force in the universe.

Except for a nice MLT...



Is this creature intelligent and/or patient enough to 'farm' love for it to eat? Maybe it could cultivate romances in secret just to devour passion before a connection is made.




Sexuality can be a bit more complicated than that--interviews with sex workers often have a comment "he just wanted someone who would talk with"--so it seemed to fit. If a DM told me "the monster lures you with her beauty, then kills you by draining the capacity for love", I wouldn't say "Hey, that's not connected at all".

Stat it like a Vampire that dwells in a crowded city, picking off young people as they enter taverns. Give it ESP to read and learn what the victim desires, maybe give it illusion skills to play off that, and then when the victims is filled with joy at finding what it wanted, harvest the victim like ripe fruit.

The fun part is for any people rescued; making quests for depressed players to restore lost levels through joy ( clerics healing ill babies, bards creating great pieces, druids finding untouched groves, fighters winning tournaments, etc. ).

[Sigreid]

I might look at the night hag and base it off their disturbing the sleep. Use the same mechanic of exhaustion, but you're not tired from lack of sleep you just have no F's to give. Not even to take care of yourself.

Edit: For bonus points have the suicide song Grey Sunday playing quietly in the background when the creature is feeding.

[Requilac]

Premise

You claim that the main point of this creature is to drain "love", but you have to keep in mind just how broad of a term that is in practical use in English. My first reaction to hearing that someone has lost their love indicates to me that the person would have lost romantic or sexual interest in someone, but the effect you claimed was far more similar to depression, or a loss of many different things that make life meaningful. Perhaps if you really wanted to design a creature that drains "love", you should actually make a type of creature whith various forms that each consume a different aspect of what we as English speakers consider "love". For the sake of organization, I will refer to this creature as a "spirit thief", where spirit in this sense is referring to personality characteristics which define a person rather than any sort of spiritual meaning.

Examples

The aspect you seem to be referring indicates more of a "love of life", or the ability to experience any sort of pleasure or enjoyment in general. This species of the creature would make it so that the person is physically unable to experience pleasure in its entirety. Let us call them Anhedonic Spirit Thieves, 'cause greek or latin makes everything seem more magical and spooky. This could very well result in people loving their will to live in general and easily result in death. I imagine that the Anhedonic Spirit Thieves would try to attract as least attention to themselves as possible by doing things such as (a) interacting with the victim in an incorporeal state, (b) affecting the victim remotely, such as by tampering with their mind or dreams using a spell, (c) being too small to actually be found (fits well with the fey theme, too) and/or (d) trying to pass them self off as something benign or common, such as by pretending to be a house plant or impersonating a neighbor. These would either be acting of their own accord, or commanded by something else as a device of mental terrorism.

The aspect I first though of may be more referring love as trust in others, so this species would make it so that victim is completely unable to trust anybody in the slightest. Naturally, these must be Paranoid Spirit Thieves . Not only would the victim just lose romantic interest though, they would also be completely unable to serve anyone but themself, because they are convinced everyone else is out to get them. Victims may socially isolate themself and take desperate attempts to protect themself from everybody who seeks to harm them, and indeed, they believe that literally everybody does seek to harm them. This would be especially hard to cure, because even if such a cure existed , the victim would be completely unwilling to accept it. After all, how would they know that a PC's Remove Curse spell isn't an attempt to steal the secrets from their mind! I would imagine that assassins, saboteurs, drow, or just anybody trying to cause chaos would sick the paranoid soul thieves on politically important people and get the victim to serve out their goals by their own accord.

If we were to focus on the aspect of love as having a purpose in life, which you proposed as one of the things which the original creature would drain, then we could also have a species which degrades one motivation to achieve goals in general. The best name for these would be either Avolitionistic Spirit Thieves or Apathetic Spirit Thieves, depending on how complex you like to get with your latin. A victim affected by this would be completely disinterested in trying to accomplish even the slightest of goals and would spend most of their time moping and eating at best, or being completely unable to get out of bed at worst. These would be an especially sinister type, because it wouldn't automatically be clear that the person is actually cursed and not just being lazy. I can easily imagine a warlord sending these out to feed on enemy soldiers, and the leader of these soldiers not realizing that they are cursed and not just lazy until it is too late.

If we are using the more broad term of "love" as affection for people in general, then a species of spirit thief may drain someone of their ability to feel any sort of sympathy or compassion for others. Victims would lose any and all sense of morality, and degrade into an endless course of criminal activity and just generally destructive behavior. Essentially those affected by this would turn into sociopaths or psychopaths. I don't know of any good word for this, but I believe that Depraved Spirit Thieves or Antisocial Spirit Thieves (for those of you with a good understanding of psychology) would be a good descriptor. Part of me imagines that perhaps these would take on the guise of people close to the victim when they attacked, making it so that the victim is convinced their lack of empathy was caused by that betrayal rather than any sort of magic. When talked to by the PCs, they may easily claim that they started behaving so criminally because they realized that nobody actual cares about morality when notable important person X did a horrible thing to them. These could be deployed by a fiend to prey on the populace so that they would be more willing to make deals with them. Perhaps some of the fiends are so able to get whole races to degrade into diabolism (the merrow, fey'ri or lizardfolk) because most of them have been attacked by the Depraved Spirit Thieves.

If we are going to really stretch the definition and think love more of as a closer connection the spiritual, then perhaps there is a species of Spirit Thief that removes ones connection to the Weave, Gods, or druidic magic. I would call these something along the lines of Sublunary Spirit Thieves or Temporal Spirit Thieves. Victims of these would be completely unable to use magic or any other supernatural power, because they have lost their ability to access the metaphysical aspects of the world. If these are being commanded by someone else, then they could be a valuable way to strip someone of their power without killing them, should capture be considered more valuable than assassination. If they are acting independently, than perhaps the spirit thieves would actually target magic users or holy people and possibly destroy the structure of a community or country.

Conclusion

I am sure that there are more than this that you could imagine. I personally find that having multiple species of these spirit thieves would be the best decision to go with, but if you would prefer if there is only one, then I would advise you to choose one perspective of love and model the creature accordingly. If you wanted to really make these the center of a campaign, then perhaps the species of spirit thieves could become so numerous that they drain traits unrelated to love, such as one's intelligence, sanity/sense of reality, ability to sleep normally, courage, sensory acuity (delirium), sense of attachment to their body ("depersonalization/out of body experience), ability to control emotions or ability to feel emotions. That's just my 2cp on the matter though, and I am far from a broadly experienced DM.

[Mercurias]

On the whole love thing, which has been hotly debated, I would probably just follow Sternberg’s Triangle.

Intimacy - The emotional connection and willingness to rely on the other person. Support and communication. When you’re drunk and say “I love you buddy!” to your DM, this is what you mean unless you’re actually in a relationship with them. BFF love.

Passion - What it says on the tin. The bright, intense feelings accompanying love. Fantasizing, the warmth that spreads through you entire being when you hold their hand, that desire to be together all the time, to bask in their radiance...This is that. New couple often have this set to full blast.

Commitment - Making the other person, or your relationship with that person, a priority. Willingness not to let anything stay between you forever, the strength to weather the bad times, viewing your relationship with the other person as permanent, and that it’s a good thing.

For your monster, I’d just say the characters feels the passion being drained from them. Life turns dim and dull. Nothing excites them anymore, not a beautiful person nor a roaring crowd. No triumph after a fantastic arcane discovery. Making the big score and walking away with a bag of diamonds feels empty. Ale tastes like sour fizz-water. Life becomes an endless endurance trial, and eventually the character just wants to lay down until it stops.

[jh12]

Ale tastes like sour fizz-water.

You go too far, sir. Too far. No monster could possibly be so evil.

[Sigreid]

While OP used the word love, it read to me like what he was talking about was your ability to feel connected to people or things. Your ability to care, without removing your need to care and feel part of something. That would be pretty terrible.

[Requilac]

While OP used the word love, it read to me like what he was talking about was your ability to feel connected to people or things. Your ability to care, without removing your need to care and feel part of something. That would be pretty terrible.

I believe that the OP was technically using the word love correctly, just not in a way that was immediately obvious. I think he was more just referring to a general "love of life in general" rather than any sort of romantic meaning. Hence why I assumed that my idea of the Anhedonic Spirit Thieves were probably closer to what the OP wanted than something that would cause someone to lose interest in a romantic relationship.

[Grek]

Give it the following attack:

Devour Love +11 to hit, range 5 ft. one target. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) slashing and 27 (6d8) psychic damage. If the target is referenced positively in any creature's Characteristics (Ideals, Personality Traits, Bonds Ideals, and Flaws; possibly including the creature itself if it has a positive opinion of itself), that creature must make a DC 14 Charisma saving throw or have the Characteristic in question replaced with apathy and indifference. If that creature elects to make the saving throw with disadvantage (they must choose before rolling), the target of the attack takes half as much psychic damage.

(scale numbers to CR, but the psychic damage should generally be Kinda Huge to be in theme)

[Spore]

I feel 'feed on despair' is much more in line with the actual creature than 'feed on love' because wouldn't such a creature implement 'love farms' and make their subjects happy enough to feed on their love for an extended period of time? (Yes, I know this is overthinking it)

It would capture people and give them a glimmer of hope, a solution which of course they cannot reach. Devour love sounds sappy (like a melodramatic romantic) to me enough to not take the whole idea seriously anymore (feeding on despair is similarly cheesy but at least everyone on your table knows someone who just enjoys suffering).