Gruftzwerg
2022-03-23, 03:29 PM
"I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many. I am the BORG." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMt3SzAH_i0)
Welcome to my newest TO build. The time has come to reveal the true origin of the BORG in 3.5! We'll dive into the deepest secrets of the BORG (in 3.5).
"Who was the first BORG?"
"How did they become BORG?"
"How powerful is the Collective?"
"How did they build their technology (Cyber-implants, Borg Cubes/Spheres/Pyramids)?"
Everything will be revealed. Prepare some popcorn and some drinks for the show:
Disclaimer: Not intended for play unless you wanna unleash the biggest plague of all time into the 3.5 multiverse. But maybe some other jerk DM already did this mistake for you. And now you (as DM) have to deal with the BORG Hi-Jacking your players' realm via their alien dimension traveling technology (or spells in 3.5). What a messy multiverse this is..^^
Background:
Once upon a time there was a Changeling girl by the name Danzek. She had the big dream to be connected to anyone (of importance). Or shall we better say that everyone shall be connected to her. To achieve her goal she changed her identity countless of times. One of her most powerful identities on her way to her goal was to resemble a Mulan human woman by the name "Mulan" (sorry, it's late and I'm out of gas to be creative atm...^^). End of backstory!
Stats:
STR: 10
DEX: 14
CON: 14
INT: 10
WIS: 14
CHA: 16 + 5 lvlUp + 5 Wish + 6 item = 32max
Alignment: Neutral-Evil
Religion: Lolth
Skills: Besides from Concentration there is nothing really of importance (except the min. requirements for the PRCs). Further, since each Hivemind also gives Skillpoints temporary, we can always quickly readjust when needed.
Warlock 2 / Cleric 3 / Eldritch Disciple 5 / Vermin Lord 10*
* =Vermin Lord is used to progress Warlock
lvl
Class
Feats
Class Features
1st
Warlock
Racial Emulation
Eldritch Blast 1d6
Summon Swarm
2nd
Warlock
Detect Magic
Eldritch Spear
3rd
Cleric (of Lolth)
Verminfriend
Rebuke Undead
Spider (Domain)
Pride (Domain)
4th
Cleric
5th
Cleric
6th
Eldritch Disciple
Southern Magician
Rebuke Undead (progression)
Eldritch Blast 2d6
Gift of the Divine Patron: (Corrupting Blast)
7th
Eldritch Disciple
Entropic Warding
8th
Eldritch Disciple
Eldritch Blast 3d6
9th
Eldritch Disciple
Divine Metamagic
Gift of the Divine Patron: (Fiendish Resistance)
Spider Shape
10th
Eldritch Disciple
Eldritch Blast 4d6
Eldritch Spellweave
11th
Vermin Lord
Chitin +1
Vermin Servant 1 HD
Crawling Eye
12th
Vermin Lord
Draconic Aura: Vigor
Blood Drain
13th
Vermin Lord
Spider Hand
Eldritch Blast 5d6
14th
Vermin Lord
Chitin +2
Swarm Armor
15th
Vermin Lord
Obtain Familiar (---)
Wings of the Vermin
Vermin Servant 4HD
Disembodied Hand
16th
Vermin Lord
Spiderlegs
17th
Vermin Lord
Chitin +3
Spew Vermin
Eldritch Blast 6d6
Noxious Blast
18th
Vermin Lord
Draconic Familiar
(Blue Dragon Wyrmling)
Poison
Pincer Claws (1d8 for medium size)
19th
Vermin Lord
Vermin Servant 16HD
20th
Vermin Lord
Chitin +4
Hivemind
Devil's Whispers
Early game combat will be dominated with Summon Swarm & Eldritch Spear. Note that the swarm invocation only has a standard action cost and thus can be recast each turn. This results in maximum control of their dmg since the dmg already occurs at the the end of the round where you cast/summon em (and you choose the squares where they spawn in/on). The Spear helps with long range combat and will be later abused for fluff as distruptors for the BORG. Entropic Shield is the base for the BORG shields.
Spider domain extends Rebuke Undead to Vermin, which we can abuse to increase our spider hivemind (more on that later). The Pride domain gives the BORG a free reroll when they roll a natural 1 on their initial save (can't be triggered by itself!).
We abuse Racial Emulation to pick up Verminfriend (requirement for to enter Vermin Lord later).
Eldritch Disciple helps with the preparation to enter Vermin Lord.
Southern Magician is in preparation for using Divine Metamagic on originally arcane spells (for the hivemind Sorcerer spells).
Spider Shape is a nice ranged defensive option due to the web ability (against melee type) and can be combined with summon swarm once the enemies are webbed. We will also abuse it for our main combo (Assimilation: see below).
Finally we can enter our desired prc of choice: "Vermin Lord" (via the temporary emulation to be a drow). We start to grow the BORG typical Chitin armor and some other gadgets that fit the theme to some degree.
Crawling Eye, Disembodied Hand and Spider Form look like mediocre choices as invocation, but you couldn't have been fooled more by the warlock guides out there. The key to abuse here is the "Symbiotic"-template from Savage Species. The Eye and the Hand only have some base stats altered (HP, AC, movement..) but have "otherwise identical stats"! Thus they count as diminutive humanoid and can be used as "guest" for the Symbiotic Template. This is the base for the "Assimilation" ability of the BORG. Danzek can gain control of creatures willing to form a symbiotic bound with her. Since the "host" creature now gains all of Danzek's abilities, it can now also use this combo on other creatures. Now reread the quote of the BORG Queen at the top:
"I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many."
Danzel is the first link in this combo and also becomes the last link in the combo (readjusting the symbiotic chain might be needed from time to time). To achieve this, we need to change the BORG's type (now Aberration) to a legal one. For this, we use Spider Shape after (!) using Crawling Eye/Disembodied Hand. As spider the eye/hand now counts as vermin which is a legal type for the Symbiotic template again.
This way (by ending the chain with Danzek), all creatures share their abilities with each other and the mind of Danzek is sole in control. The 1st stage of the Collective is established!
"WE ARE BORG !" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUTeO6VpDcc)
Vermin Lord also provides us with 3 Vermin Servants with up to 1HD, 4HD and 16HD. We will include em into our Collective to cross-share all abilities:
1HD: Monstrous Spider, small: 1HD; poison and web ability; DC = 10 + 1/2 HD + CON (+4 specific for the web ability)
4HD: Monstrous Crab, medium: 3HD; Improved Grab (for claw attack) & Constrict: 2 x (claw + strength) damage (the other BORG abuse the Pincer Claws for this).
16HD: Bonespear: 15HD; Attach, Drag, Horns, Poison, Fast Healing 5, Immobile Stance
With Obtain Familiar and Draconic Familiar we summon a Blue Dragon Wyrmling. Sadly, the dragon & magical beast types are excluded from the Symbiotic template. We need to delay the assimilation to lvl 20.
With the access to Devil's Whispers & the Hivemind ability the build is now complete. Or shall I say that the real mess is about to start?
Devil's Whispers is Suggestion at will. And if the target fails his save, he believes it was his own idea. This will make him "free willing" to become a symbiont host. Due to being able to spam Suggestion at will, anyone will sooner or later fail his save.
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE !
All BORG have 3 options to create a swarm for the Hivemind ability (requires animals or vermin).
a) Use the Vermin the BORG has accumulated via Rebuke Vermin (Spider Domain ability).
b) Use other BORG in Spider Shape to form the Hivemind.
c) Use the swarms from other BORG, who use their Summon Swarm invocation (concentration), to summon and keep the swarms alive.
As you can see, with these options at hand, we can easily create insane big swarms, each providing epic Sorcerer casting and a bunch of extra skill points and feats. With this, we can now break the entire game/multiverse. We can craft almost anything we want and cast as much as we want (There is no limit to how many times you can rebuild a swarm per day. Thus rinse and repeat if you run out of spellslots.).
1) Iron Half-Golem template
The first thing to craft is this tempalte. The test-subject will willingly fail the save to become a construct. The mind of the host is irrelevant due to the Symbiotic template. The guest ("eye" or "hand") is still linked to Danzek and thus unaffected. It (the template) suppresses any kind of mental changes that are targeted at the "host" creature. The guest has become the template and can't be targeted. You would need to target Danzek herself, but since she has a backup-link herself (the end link of the templates), she is in an infinite loop where she constantly regains control over the BROG and herself.
Now since we cleared that pile of rule crap, we can now talk about the nice boost this template gives. A big boost to STR, DR and a bunch of Immunities, most notable the "Immunity to Magic" (except electricity dmg). We will get rid of the electricity weakness left via assimilating our Blue Dragon Wyrmling (see below).
2) Assimilate Anything
With Hivemind we can easily cast a (Epic Heightened?) Polymorph Any Object to temporary change any targets type to a fitting one for the symbiotic template.
a) Blue Dragon Wyrmling
This is mainly for the immunity to electricity dmg. If the dmg is nullified the Iron Golem's weakness to it becomes irrelevant. If we don't take dmg, we don't get slowed either.
b) Colossal Animated Object aka BORG Cube / Sphere / Pyramid
Get a few of these (permanent) for your BORG armada to invade the multiverse. They will share their "20 Hardness" to the collective. Use Wish/Epic Teleport spells via Hivemind to emulate the "Warp-Drive".
The Phaser-Cannons are those BORG with a high DEX (25) who will pick Distant Shot as Epic feat (requires: Far Shot (PH) , Point Blank Shot (PH) , Spot 20 ranks, DEX 25) and invest the extra skill points into Spot. Now they can shoot at anything within sight without any penalties. Use Eldritch Blast or some epic ray spells for fun. Epic lvl metamagic helps to boost your spells until they feel like Plasma-Torpedo.
Once they are assimilated, they become a good source/spot to form a Hivemind. All creatures inside it can be added to the Hivemind, forming a very very big swarm. All BORG can still freely move inside the ship without breaking the swarm formation.
A "Tractor-Beam" can be emulated via Telekinesis + Reserve of Strength (using the interpretation that fully uncaps a spell's caster level cap) from a big Hivemind inside the Cube/Sphere/Pyramid.
c) Assimilate anything else left of interest
Any interesting species deserves a place in the BORG collective. Don't be to picky and pick anything useful that you come across.
3) Give your BORG any graft you want
With Racial Emulation and the bonus feats from Hivemind we can (re-)pick Graft Flesh for any race we want and give the BROG all kinds of grafts. Not all BORG look the same. There are some minor differences in the grafts they have. But almost all have one of the eye grafts available.
4) Craft anything else you need.
Be it Spelltraps with Teleport to emulate "beaming", Animated Objects for automatic doors or whatsoever crosses your mind.
LA-Information:
The Symbiotic template (+1) can be easily buyed off. If that option is not available, you can simply detach the template when you would normally level-up. Thus, the +1LA only counts for the encounter XP calculation and not for the XP needed for leveling up.
Even if not needed, the Queen will give herself a full Iron Golem Body (except the head) for completing the fluff. Once the Queen has reached lvl 20, there is no real reason to level up anymore.
Crating XP:
The BORG make experiments with those unworthy to assimilate, to get at least some value out of em. With Knwoledge Religion and sacrificing creatures for Dark Craft XP, the BORG have an infinite supply for crafting. Note that we abuse the bonus skill points provided by the hive for Knowledge Religion and thus all nearby BORG can "Aid Another" (stacking untyped +2 bonus) to raise the XP gained per sacrifice. This makes each sacrifice very efficient.
END
Our BORG Queen is now complete. Her BORG are nearly invincible (Immunity to Magic/Electricity, 20 Hardness, DR, Fast Healing 5, ...) and ready to invade the entire 3.5 multiverse to assimilate more species and add em to their own. All (important) abilities will be added sooner or later.
"You will be assimilated !"
"RESISTANCE IS FUTILE !"
I hope you all enjoyed our beautiful BORG Queen and leave some comments. I would love to hear your opinions and get some feedback on this. If any questions should remain, just ask and I'll try to explain it further. Thx for your patience, time and your interest for this build ;)
Welcome to my newest TO build. The time has come to reveal the true origin of the BORG in 3.5! We'll dive into the deepest secrets of the BORG (in 3.5).
"Who was the first BORG?"
"How did they become BORG?"
"How powerful is the Collective?"
"How did they build their technology (Cyber-implants, Borg Cubes/Spheres/Pyramids)?"
Everything will be revealed. Prepare some popcorn and some drinks for the show:
Disclaimer: Not intended for play unless you wanna unleash the biggest plague of all time into the 3.5 multiverse. But maybe some other jerk DM already did this mistake for you. And now you (as DM) have to deal with the BORG Hi-Jacking your players' realm via their alien dimension traveling technology (or spells in 3.5). What a messy multiverse this is..^^
Background:
Once upon a time there was a Changeling girl by the name Danzek. She had the big dream to be connected to anyone (of importance). Or shall we better say that everyone shall be connected to her. To achieve her goal she changed her identity countless of times. One of her most powerful identities on her way to her goal was to resemble a Mulan human woman by the name "Mulan" (sorry, it's late and I'm out of gas to be creative atm...^^). End of backstory!
Stats:
STR: 10
DEX: 14
CON: 14
INT: 10
WIS: 14
CHA: 16 + 5 lvlUp + 5 Wish + 6 item = 32max
Alignment: Neutral-Evil
Religion: Lolth
Skills: Besides from Concentration there is nothing really of importance (except the min. requirements for the PRCs). Further, since each Hivemind also gives Skillpoints temporary, we can always quickly readjust when needed.
Warlock 2 / Cleric 3 / Eldritch Disciple 5 / Vermin Lord 10*
* =Vermin Lord is used to progress Warlock
lvl
Class
Feats
Class Features
1st
Warlock
Racial Emulation
Eldritch Blast 1d6
Summon Swarm
2nd
Warlock
Detect Magic
Eldritch Spear
3rd
Cleric (of Lolth)
Verminfriend
Rebuke Undead
Spider (Domain)
Pride (Domain)
4th
Cleric
5th
Cleric
6th
Eldritch Disciple
Southern Magician
Rebuke Undead (progression)
Eldritch Blast 2d6
Gift of the Divine Patron: (Corrupting Blast)
7th
Eldritch Disciple
Entropic Warding
8th
Eldritch Disciple
Eldritch Blast 3d6
9th
Eldritch Disciple
Divine Metamagic
Gift of the Divine Patron: (Fiendish Resistance)
Spider Shape
10th
Eldritch Disciple
Eldritch Blast 4d6
Eldritch Spellweave
11th
Vermin Lord
Chitin +1
Vermin Servant 1 HD
Crawling Eye
12th
Vermin Lord
Draconic Aura: Vigor
Blood Drain
13th
Vermin Lord
Spider Hand
Eldritch Blast 5d6
14th
Vermin Lord
Chitin +2
Swarm Armor
15th
Vermin Lord
Obtain Familiar (---)
Wings of the Vermin
Vermin Servant 4HD
Disembodied Hand
16th
Vermin Lord
Spiderlegs
17th
Vermin Lord
Chitin +3
Spew Vermin
Eldritch Blast 6d6
Noxious Blast
18th
Vermin Lord
Draconic Familiar
(Blue Dragon Wyrmling)
Poison
Pincer Claws (1d8 for medium size)
19th
Vermin Lord
Vermin Servant 16HD
20th
Vermin Lord
Chitin +4
Hivemind
Devil's Whispers
Early game combat will be dominated with Summon Swarm & Eldritch Spear. Note that the swarm invocation only has a standard action cost and thus can be recast each turn. This results in maximum control of their dmg since the dmg already occurs at the the end of the round where you cast/summon em (and you choose the squares where they spawn in/on). The Spear helps with long range combat and will be later abused for fluff as distruptors for the BORG. Entropic Shield is the base for the BORG shields.
Spider domain extends Rebuke Undead to Vermin, which we can abuse to increase our spider hivemind (more on that later). The Pride domain gives the BORG a free reroll when they roll a natural 1 on their initial save (can't be triggered by itself!).
We abuse Racial Emulation to pick up Verminfriend (requirement for to enter Vermin Lord later).
Eldritch Disciple helps with the preparation to enter Vermin Lord.
Southern Magician is in preparation for using Divine Metamagic on originally arcane spells (for the hivemind Sorcerer spells).
Spider Shape is a nice ranged defensive option due to the web ability (against melee type) and can be combined with summon swarm once the enemies are webbed. We will also abuse it for our main combo (Assimilation: see below).
Finally we can enter our desired prc of choice: "Vermin Lord" (via the temporary emulation to be a drow). We start to grow the BORG typical Chitin armor and some other gadgets that fit the theme to some degree.
Crawling Eye, Disembodied Hand and Spider Form look like mediocre choices as invocation, but you couldn't have been fooled more by the warlock guides out there. The key to abuse here is the "Symbiotic"-template from Savage Species. The Eye and the Hand only have some base stats altered (HP, AC, movement..) but have "otherwise identical stats"! Thus they count as diminutive humanoid and can be used as "guest" for the Symbiotic Template. This is the base for the "Assimilation" ability of the BORG. Danzek can gain control of creatures willing to form a symbiotic bound with her. Since the "host" creature now gains all of Danzek's abilities, it can now also use this combo on other creatures. Now reread the quote of the BORG Queen at the top:
"I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many."
Danzel is the first link in this combo and also becomes the last link in the combo (readjusting the symbiotic chain might be needed from time to time). To achieve this, we need to change the BORG's type (now Aberration) to a legal one. For this, we use Spider Shape after (!) using Crawling Eye/Disembodied Hand. As spider the eye/hand now counts as vermin which is a legal type for the Symbiotic template again.
This way (by ending the chain with Danzek), all creatures share their abilities with each other and the mind of Danzek is sole in control. The 1st stage of the Collective is established!
"WE ARE BORG !" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUTeO6VpDcc)
Vermin Lord also provides us with 3 Vermin Servants with up to 1HD, 4HD and 16HD. We will include em into our Collective to cross-share all abilities:
1HD: Monstrous Spider, small: 1HD; poison and web ability; DC = 10 + 1/2 HD + CON (+4 specific for the web ability)
4HD: Monstrous Crab, medium: 3HD; Improved Grab (for claw attack) & Constrict: 2 x (claw + strength) damage (the other BORG abuse the Pincer Claws for this).
16HD: Bonespear: 15HD; Attach, Drag, Horns, Poison, Fast Healing 5, Immobile Stance
With Obtain Familiar and Draconic Familiar we summon a Blue Dragon Wyrmling. Sadly, the dragon & magical beast types are excluded from the Symbiotic template. We need to delay the assimilation to lvl 20.
With the access to Devil's Whispers & the Hivemind ability the build is now complete. Or shall I say that the real mess is about to start?
Devil's Whispers is Suggestion at will. And if the target fails his save, he believes it was his own idea. This will make him "free willing" to become a symbiont host. Due to being able to spam Suggestion at will, anyone will sooner or later fail his save.
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE !
All BORG have 3 options to create a swarm for the Hivemind ability (requires animals or vermin).
a) Use the Vermin the BORG has accumulated via Rebuke Vermin (Spider Domain ability).
b) Use other BORG in Spider Shape to form the Hivemind.
c) Use the swarms from other BORG, who use their Summon Swarm invocation (concentration), to summon and keep the swarms alive.
As you can see, with these options at hand, we can easily create insane big swarms, each providing epic Sorcerer casting and a bunch of extra skill points and feats. With this, we can now break the entire game/multiverse. We can craft almost anything we want and cast as much as we want (There is no limit to how many times you can rebuild a swarm per day. Thus rinse and repeat if you run out of spellslots.).
1) Iron Half-Golem template
The first thing to craft is this tempalte. The test-subject will willingly fail the save to become a construct. The mind of the host is irrelevant due to the Symbiotic template. The guest ("eye" or "hand") is still linked to Danzek and thus unaffected. It (the template) suppresses any kind of mental changes that are targeted at the "host" creature. The guest has become the template and can't be targeted. You would need to target Danzek herself, but since she has a backup-link herself (the end link of the templates), she is in an infinite loop where she constantly regains control over the BROG and herself.
Now since we cleared that pile of rule crap, we can now talk about the nice boost this template gives. A big boost to STR, DR and a bunch of Immunities, most notable the "Immunity to Magic" (except electricity dmg). We will get rid of the electricity weakness left via assimilating our Blue Dragon Wyrmling (see below).
2) Assimilate Anything
With Hivemind we can easily cast a (Epic Heightened?) Polymorph Any Object to temporary change any targets type to a fitting one for the symbiotic template.
a) Blue Dragon Wyrmling
This is mainly for the immunity to electricity dmg. If the dmg is nullified the Iron Golem's weakness to it becomes irrelevant. If we don't take dmg, we don't get slowed either.
b) Colossal Animated Object aka BORG Cube / Sphere / Pyramid
Get a few of these (permanent) for your BORG armada to invade the multiverse. They will share their "20 Hardness" to the collective. Use Wish/Epic Teleport spells via Hivemind to emulate the "Warp-Drive".
The Phaser-Cannons are those BORG with a high DEX (25) who will pick Distant Shot as Epic feat (requires: Far Shot (PH) , Point Blank Shot (PH) , Spot 20 ranks, DEX 25) and invest the extra skill points into Spot. Now they can shoot at anything within sight without any penalties. Use Eldritch Blast or some epic ray spells for fun. Epic lvl metamagic helps to boost your spells until they feel like Plasma-Torpedo.
Once they are assimilated, they become a good source/spot to form a Hivemind. All creatures inside it can be added to the Hivemind, forming a very very big swarm. All BORG can still freely move inside the ship without breaking the swarm formation.
A "Tractor-Beam" can be emulated via Telekinesis + Reserve of Strength (using the interpretation that fully uncaps a spell's caster level cap) from a big Hivemind inside the Cube/Sphere/Pyramid.
c) Assimilate anything else left of interest
Any interesting species deserves a place in the BORG collective. Don't be to picky and pick anything useful that you come across.
3) Give your BORG any graft you want
With Racial Emulation and the bonus feats from Hivemind we can (re-)pick Graft Flesh for any race we want and give the BROG all kinds of grafts. Not all BORG look the same. There are some minor differences in the grafts they have. But almost all have one of the eye grafts available.
4) Craft anything else you need.
Be it Spelltraps with Teleport to emulate "beaming", Animated Objects for automatic doors or whatsoever crosses your mind.
LA-Information:
The Symbiotic template (+1) can be easily buyed off. If that option is not available, you can simply detach the template when you would normally level-up. Thus, the +1LA only counts for the encounter XP calculation and not for the XP needed for leveling up.
Even if not needed, the Queen will give herself a full Iron Golem Body (except the head) for completing the fluff. Once the Queen has reached lvl 20, there is no real reason to level up anymore.
Crating XP:
The BORG make experiments with those unworthy to assimilate, to get at least some value out of em. With Knwoledge Religion and sacrificing creatures for Dark Craft XP, the BORG have an infinite supply for crafting. Note that we abuse the bonus skill points provided by the hive for Knowledge Religion and thus all nearby BORG can "Aid Another" (stacking untyped +2 bonus) to raise the XP gained per sacrifice. This makes each sacrifice very efficient.
END
Our BORG Queen is now complete. Her BORG are nearly invincible (Immunity to Magic/Electricity, 20 Hardness, DR, Fast Healing 5, ...) and ready to invade the entire 3.5 multiverse to assimilate more species and add em to their own. All (important) abilities will be added sooner or later.
"You will be assimilated !"
"RESISTANCE IS FUTILE !"
I hope you all enjoyed our beautiful BORG Queen and leave some comments. I would love to hear your opinions and get some feedback on this. If any questions should remain, just ask and I'll try to explain it further. Thx for your patience, time and your interest for this build ;)