No brains
2020-06-23, 02:20 AM
If you want an omelette, you need to break a few eggs. If you want to make ghouls, you need a 6th level spell slot.
Normally, casting Create Undead gives you 3 ghouls that you can control for a while. If Summon Greater Demon is upcast at 6th level, you can summon a challenge 7 maurezhi who could create potentially more ghouls, albeit with far less control.
If I decide my goal is to make a bunch of ghouls, dropping a maurezhi into a humanoid settlement sets me off to a great start. The trouble is (I assume) that a ghoul is only made if a humanoid dies from the charisma damage from a maurezhi's bite. This creates an issue of optimizing the hp-to-charisma ratio of target humanoids. What can be done to guarantee a ghoul party?
First, picking a good target monster puts you well on your way. Quaggoths seem to be an ideal candidate. They can stand up to the hp damage of more than the ~3 bites that it takes to reduce their charisma to 0. It seems like kuo-toa, lizardfolk, and troglodites are the next best bets.
One way to help maximize ghoul output is to stretch the hp of your targets. Ray of Enfeeblement could halve the damage of the maurezhi's bite while leaving the charisma damage intact, but saving every round keeps this from working well in the best of situations. Assuming control can be maintained or the maurezhi is smart about its goal, it may be possible to knock-out loop humanoids. If a humanoid can survive a critical hit without instant death, a knockout bite against a stable target dips them down two death save failures before resetting them to zero. Barring that, pop-up healing can possibly be abused to mitigate the hp effect of the bite until charisma damage does its job.
Magical healing is also probably useful to keep the maurezhi alive while it is fighting. The good news is that it is a fiend, not undead. That means it can receive most forms of healing. It still needs to be kept above 0 lest the spell fail.
Finally, you need an exit plan. 'Air dropping' a maurezhi and then flying or teleporting away is likely what's going to be safest for you in the long run. Even if the maurezhi realizes you are helping it fulfill its purpose, the text of Summon Greater Demon says that your demon will attack the nearest non-demon after it makes it save, which it gets to try every round for an hour- while also sticking around 1d6 rounds after the spell ends early. In the end, this strategy is not about gaining an army of ghouls so much as leaving a massive problem for someone else to have to handle.
Can anyone else think of any suggestions for this crazy plan? I realize that this strat defies PHB+1 and possible readings of knock-out's interaction with damaging creatures at 0 hp, but allowances were made in the name of theorycrafting. Did I miss any other rules? Can I benefit from any other spells or effects? Do I just need to find an ideal drop zone? What do you think?
Normally, casting Create Undead gives you 3 ghouls that you can control for a while. If Summon Greater Demon is upcast at 6th level, you can summon a challenge 7 maurezhi who could create potentially more ghouls, albeit with far less control.
If I decide my goal is to make a bunch of ghouls, dropping a maurezhi into a humanoid settlement sets me off to a great start. The trouble is (I assume) that a ghoul is only made if a humanoid dies from the charisma damage from a maurezhi's bite. This creates an issue of optimizing the hp-to-charisma ratio of target humanoids. What can be done to guarantee a ghoul party?
First, picking a good target monster puts you well on your way. Quaggoths seem to be an ideal candidate. They can stand up to the hp damage of more than the ~3 bites that it takes to reduce their charisma to 0. It seems like kuo-toa, lizardfolk, and troglodites are the next best bets.
One way to help maximize ghoul output is to stretch the hp of your targets. Ray of Enfeeblement could halve the damage of the maurezhi's bite while leaving the charisma damage intact, but saving every round keeps this from working well in the best of situations. Assuming control can be maintained or the maurezhi is smart about its goal, it may be possible to knock-out loop humanoids. If a humanoid can survive a critical hit without instant death, a knockout bite against a stable target dips them down two death save failures before resetting them to zero. Barring that, pop-up healing can possibly be abused to mitigate the hp effect of the bite until charisma damage does its job.
Magical healing is also probably useful to keep the maurezhi alive while it is fighting. The good news is that it is a fiend, not undead. That means it can receive most forms of healing. It still needs to be kept above 0 lest the spell fail.
Finally, you need an exit plan. 'Air dropping' a maurezhi and then flying or teleporting away is likely what's going to be safest for you in the long run. Even if the maurezhi realizes you are helping it fulfill its purpose, the text of Summon Greater Demon says that your demon will attack the nearest non-demon after it makes it save, which it gets to try every round for an hour- while also sticking around 1d6 rounds after the spell ends early. In the end, this strategy is not about gaining an army of ghouls so much as leaving a massive problem for someone else to have to handle.
Can anyone else think of any suggestions for this crazy plan? I realize that this strat defies PHB+1 and possible readings of knock-out's interaction with damaging creatures at 0 hp, but allowances were made in the name of theorycrafting. Did I miss any other rules? Can I benefit from any other spells or effects? Do I just need to find an ideal drop zone? What do you think?