Designing a "puppet-master" NPC

[SmashBro1701]

Hello everyone!

I have recently started a new Ravenloft campaign, and was having difficulty finding supporting rules/classes to create my current miniboss villain.


The party consists of 6 ECL 7 characters so I was assuming it should be ECL 9

This particular baddie must blend in with the other fair/carnival attractions going on in the town at the time, so I was thinking something along the lines of the Puppet from R.L. Steins' 'Night Of The Living Dummy' or the demon Yuri (from the Inuasha anime, S01E04)

This NPC will be a small wooden construct (with the awaken construct spell cast upon it) which makes a grapple check against prospective victims using its' puppet strings and then applying a paralysis effect. Over the course of the day it drains an ability score (likely wisdom or charisma) to zero, at which point the victim turns into a non-magical puppet itself and the construct finds and ambushes someone else.

While these effects are pretty straightforward, it seems incomplete. It needs ventriloquism to make its' victim speak at the appropriate times, for instance, which implies a level or two of caster.

I am fairly new to the scene as a GM, so I was hoping to get some suggestions on good synergistic prestige classes to throw a couple of levels into, as well as advice on balancing the end product.

Thanks for any help you can throw my way!

[SangoProduction]

As a DM, you don't need pre-published stuff in order to implement it.

Throwing your voice can be a perform check. But everything else seems definitely in the realm of homebrew. And with sufficient warning, or potential countermeasures, probably not one that's all too problematic... for a table that pays attention.

[Particle_Man]

This made me think of the Chaos Beast for some reason. You might want to have a look at that to see if there are any ideas worth stealing/reskinning.

https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/chaosBeast.htm

As for class levels, while not a prestige class a few levels of Beguiler could be surprisingly effective.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Hmm, the Dragon Shaman class might be worth looking at. Some nice passive auras to boost the puppets, and if you choose Blue as your totem dragon you get ventriloquism at-will.

[mattie_p]

Does it have to start as a puppet? This makes me think of Fiend of Possession (Fiend Folio) combined with Soul Eater (BoVD). It merely possesses the puppet. Then it possesses the grapple victim and applies negative levels as it sees fit until it is dead. Base creature can be any outsider with the evil subtype (so something low CR like an Imp could be used, add class levels to fit. Finding a way to add a level of mindbender and then the mindsight feat is optional but encouraged).

If it has to start as a puppet, it gets a little more complicated because we have to turn the puppet into an outsider. Pseudonatural (acquired template from CArc) gets the puppet to outsider, subtype can be gotten via ritual of alignment from Savage Species. Then proceed as above.

[Gruftzwerg]

There are some options that come close to your request imho:

a) Effigy Master
An EM can make constructs that look identical to real creatures from simple materials (wood, leather, metal, and wire..). You could even refluff the materials to include dead body parts to become something like Dr. Frankenstein.

b) Simulacrum / Ice Assassin
Kill your victims and use either of the spell to represent the puppets. A Mirror Mephit familiar could easily be abused for creating a cheap simulacrum army. Another character option to get access to the spells would be Incantations (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/incantations.htm). This turns the spell into some kind of ritual (I recommend to make it necromancy based) and can work for many classes. (I have abused this idea in my Orochimaru build if you are interested).

c) Ghostly Visage + Ice Assassin + Symbiont template (aka Curse Mark)
With these ingredients I created the Curse Mark ability for my Orochimaru build. It melds into the victim and turns the target evil over time to get control over the target. Have a look at the build (in my signature) for a better explanation.

[SmashBro1701]

Wow! Some of these suggestions seem to be right on the nose for what I had intended. Thank you for your advice!

[Thurbane]

NOt sure of this helps at all, but Dragon 339 has the Carionette, a tiny Construct. They can mind swap with helpless targets, fire Slow needles, and have at-will Ventriloquism.

It's CR 3, so you can throw some class levels on there. Maybe combine with some of the other suggestions?

[Paragon]

This would be a fine addition to this Ultimate NPC Database (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13m4hw6j_Y8Nt7H5e9OuCBUb1OOARbaCA4TjSfY0GI9I/edit#gid=0) once it is done ;- )

[ShurikVch]

While not exactly what you ask, - how about Carrionette (Dragon #339)?
By inserting needle with string attached into a victim's neck, it initiates Magic Jar-like effect (with the doll's body as the "receptacle")
"Basic" Carrionette is CR 3, but you may beef it via some template(s), or even class levels (Swordsage 6?)

[Maat Mons]

Expanded Psionics Handbook has a monster called a Puppeteer. It's a 4-inch-long leach-thing that mind-controls creatures it latches onto. It doesn't even need to latch on anywhere in the vicinity of the brain. So one could hide inside a puppet and wait for an unsuspecting person to reach a hand inside.

[ShurikVch]

Kani Doll (Bestiary Of Krynn, Revised) able to do ability damage on a grapple, but don't have the "puppet" flavor