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The J Pizzel
2008-03-10, 09:50 PM
Hey Gang,
I'm sending my players against an evil Druid who's obessed with animal abonimations and the such. I've already made them fight the (iic) Reaping Mauler, which I think is on pg 84 of the MM III, it's a crazy ass armor wearing Dire Bear. Anyway, I'm not very good on druids and especially evil druids. Any ideas on how to spec him out. Also, I want the party to fight tons of animal type abominations. They don't actually have to be animals, just resemble them. Oh, he's in a swampy bog watery area and he's has a Black Dragon who's guards him. Party is 4 level 14's. Damage output is very high but, they can't take too much of a beating, they have no druid or cleric. Party is: Warblade, Rogue, Wizard, and Monk. Wizard is Batman, Warblade's AC and Damage is pretty nice, and Monk mainly just flanks for Rogue's hella SA damage.

Core, all MM's, all Completes, and Draco are allowed. Thanks in advance.

jP

DementedFellow
2008-03-10, 09:58 PM
Beget Bogun spell in Complete Divine.

Each Bogun costs 25 XP. You could have 20 Boguns flying at the party. Even though they have small hit dice, they are bound to connect with their poison.

It kinda fits in with the abomination motif you have going there. This is more for a random encounter though, not some climatic fight.

Prometheus
2008-03-10, 11:02 PM
I definitely like your willingness to extend the definition of Druid beyond animals in this case. Aberrations and Magical Beasts. Lords of Madness has two templates that can be applied to almost any creature (animals if you want to go that way). Favorites from MM I are Krenshar, Grell, Chuul, Grick, Otyugh, Girallon, Monticore

Squash Monster
2008-03-10, 11:19 PM
Take a look in Lords of Madness. It has two related things that will be useful for this fellow. The first is Aberration Wild Shape, which does exactly what you think it does, and fits him perfectly.

The second is Aberration Blood and all the feats that stem from it. These feats give the holder a mostly useful deformity. What I would recommend that you do is take a bunch of regular animals and give them these feats (ignoring the fact that Aberration Blood requires humanoids). They're designed for humans, so it'll take a little bit of creativity, but you should be able to manage it.

For example, take a dire wolf and give it Inhuman Reach (which makes its neck grow an extra few feat instead of growing its arms). Then cast Awaken on it and get it Improved Trip and Combat Reflexes. Now you have a pretty good chain tripper, in wolf form.

Smiley_
2008-03-10, 11:28 PM
Plant monsters might also be a nice touch. They have insane abilities to lay down massive ammounts of damage with their multiple attacks. A fiendish swamp plant of some sort would fit perfectly, taking 10 foot steps backward every round to force any melee character to provoke attacks of opportiunity.

I was once thinking of a plant shape based druid, but I never got around to it.

Kol Korran
2008-03-11, 08:46 AM
just some ideas out of the top of my head:

- the Horrid animal template from Eberron (basically you turn a dire animal into a meaner animal, with improved natural armor, acid damage added to their natural attacks, and acid immunity). this could work well for the creatures sent after the party, and ESPECIALLY well for the druid himself and his animal companions if the black dragon is present. (the acid immunity). if you can't find it, i could look and write the template here for ya.

- Chimeric creatures! nothing says animal abberation like a weird chimera. build a few different kinds (i don't remmeber on which MM the template is) for a realy confusing encounter. (you can probably tweak and add the horrid template to it as well. oh, and if you give them black dragon heads, it can be another hint to that encounter).

- some sort of upgraded stirges hiding and joining some fight or another. could be great if they are fighting plants or such (explains why the stirges attack only them). would be interesting with roper...

- a huge massive gibbering mouther, swimming under the surface, and rising up to attack when it senses enemies. you can make the eyes and mouths out of various animals, and instead of gibbering there will be roaring, hooting, snarling and more... a somewhat weird idea, but it can work...

- one improved yrthak, or a flock of regular ones (3-4). keep it as an option for when they choose to fly... this could also work with wyverns, gryphons or manticores. you could add the Horrid, half dragon, or half fiensih template to them (i don't have lords of madness, but i assume there are soem more there).

- swaaaarrrmss! massive, weird swarms! hell wasps swarms (preferably with some dead animals or such nearby), or other swarms. hey, now i'm thinking about it- why not a stirge swarm? horrid, fiendish, draconic chimeric frothing- at-their proboscis strige swarm! (evile luagh... evil laugh... going to take the medications)

-a few tree cilmbing/ swimming rust monsters? (though i have no idea what they will be doing in a swamp). the druid can send them to "destroy the filth of civilization" sort of thing... come to think of it, why not a swarm of rust monsters? (ok, settling down now).

hope this helped.

Meat Shield
2008-03-11, 10:02 AM
I think some of the taint templates and effects could help you as well. I would view the tainted creatures as experiments that were not as successful as some of the others, as they will have deficiencies as well as benefits.

Also, read the Island of Doctor Moreau. I think that has the kind of vibe you are looking for.

Mr. Friendly
2008-03-11, 10:07 AM
Have you looked at the Blighter Prestige Class? It's not super-awesome, but it's an evil Druid Prestige Class...

Leon
2008-03-11, 10:51 AM
Ex Druid Class

Squash Monster
2008-03-11, 11:27 AM
Ugh. Blighter is a horrible prestige class. It's really weak mechanically, and the flavor is stupid. (I'm an evil ex-druid, let's burn trees!).

I really wish there were better resources for evil druids in D&D. The BBEG in the campaign I'm running is a druid necromancer, and I'm ending up homebrewing just about everything he does.

Spoilered in case somebody from my group is reading.

He was one of those druids who was really big on the serenity of nature thing. But the more in-tune with nature he got the more sounds he noticed, like birds chirping, and deer scraping their antlers against things, and animals breathing, and the sound of trees growing. It didn't fit with his view of how serene nature is supposed to be, so eventually he snapped and decided to fix it. Now he's turning huge swathes of forest into much quieter undead versions.


Glad somebody else is running a druid as a BBEG, though. They really are quite perfect for one. They can compete directly with melee and mages via spells and wildshape. They make up the action deficit via animal companion and summons. And awaken lets them send mooks at you indefinitely.

Trog
2008-03-11, 11:43 AM
Don't know about stating him out but I can offer some tactical advice. First of all he should have some sort of advance warning network. Birds, likely, that will warn him of the approaching characters. Main tactic should be to cast as many summoning spells as he can to place foes between him/her and the PCs. Be careful of summoning things that do an excessive amount of damage as you have lightweights for HP and no Cleric. High AC is a must for survivabilty's sake. Probably have him ride atop the dragon (if it is large enough) and rein down spells on top of them as the dragon does a flyby attack using the dragon as cover. Ring of Feather Fall in case her drops overboard. Change shape before leaving the back of the dragon to heal up damage. I'd also recommend getting out those new dryads from the Desert of Desolation minis. They have neat stopping power when it comes to PC maneuverability. Lock down the PCs for you. Also having a treant standing by in reserve looking like any other tree until the right moment is good for taking things up a notch if the PCs are having too easy of a time.

The J Pizzel
2008-03-11, 12:53 PM
God I love this website. Thanks for all the input. Here's the short story. Bronn, an extremely old Centuar druid (and tons of fey around him) holds the knowledge that the PC's need. He doesn't want to give it out. PC's find out that Bronn's ex-apprentice is an ex-druid whose turning the beautiful forests around him into acres and acres of a swampy abyssal bog. He's obsessed with taking things around him and turning them into abominations of nature. Bronn agrees that if the players will end his reign, he will give the players what they want. Bronn can't bring himself to do it personnaly, since the ex-druid was like a son to him.

So, plant type monstors (shambling mounds and such) are utterly perfect. Didn't even think of those. Thanks.

I don't have Lords of Madness so, although those templates looked good, I can't apply them.

Chimeric monstor is a great idea. I'll give them head of swampy type monstors...maybe a crocodile, snake and black dragon.

Don't have Eberrron so "horrid" is out.

What book is "tainted" in?

Trog - thanks for the tactics advice.

Here's how I was planning the BBEG encounter:
Huge open marsh with a large mound right in the middle. The marsh is very deep and the mound is pretty large itself. On the mound they'll see a couple of small wood and thatch huts, and small camp fire and two large, dead trees. One is the Druid in tree-from, the other is a treant. As they approach the Black dragon will burst from the wather and surprise attack the most of them. While fighting the dragon the druid will begin casting defuffs and damage on the party. (OH, the dragon and druid will have already cast all personal buffs). Eventually they'll realize the spells are coming from the dead tree. If the players come too close, he wildshapes into something horrible and begins melee. Treant attacks only if necessary.

Any more advice. Like I said, I'm kinda raw when it comes to druids. I prefer clerics and wizzies.

JP

Kol Korran
2008-03-11, 04:38 PM
well, i'm glad the advice comes in handy. however, a few other ideas now that you mentioned the final battle:

- a druid is a master of the wild, use it! plunge them into the water with an air or water elemental (preferably water, but they may be flying). you can also use the dragon's (or the drui'ds wild shape) snatching/ grappling abilities to take them under water. make the ground full of rubble and pits when climbing to him (and then a stone shape to close the pit...). these are simple examples... when fighting a druid, you should feel liek you're fighting nature itself! (well, at least a high level druid. but he is, no?)

- this is the druid's home, the druid's swamp... make a previous attack- spreading poison/disease, summoning animals, a breath weapon swoop of the dragon. don't just have the druid wait for them, be proactive! a druid can easely leave of the land, and navigate his home land. can the characters? (time for a survival check, or godo divination spells).

- a druid is ideal for several fighting tactics (using the swamp elements, liek it's major current and such, a massive summoning of animals from a swamp owl form, massive barrage of damaging spells, variosu wild shape fighting). if you do various hit and run tactics he will become far more memorable, and far more itneresting to fight. if (and his dragons, and maybe other aids) can learn from battle to battle, (as do the characters), and thus become more challanging. don't forget, he might spy on the characters from whence they enter his domain ("who's a preety bird?")
by the time of the final fight the druid should have figured the common spells used, who's the tank, who is the sneaky, and so on. then it's jsut a matter of finding a methood to counter/ baffle their plans (don't play him is the evil genius who forsees every plan, but at least some surprises that shows intelligence should be present.

- as to high AC... give him one level of a class that can use heavy armor (Ftr for example), let him have acquired magical full plate, craft into it the enchantment that means it changes shape to fit the form you've wildshaped into. (forgot the name of this, or what book it's from. basically- the armor isn't absorbed to your animal form, and adapts to it. armored bear?) lastly- cast Iron wood from a scroll prior to the battle.

- don't forget: a druid who spends a long time in one place could have many other trained animals and beasts, as his/her handle animal skill is preety high... tainted bloated Croc platoon stending by!

- one last advice, that is right for every BBEG fight: it has to be a FIGHT! a gruelling, cursing, at times dangerous, at times frustrating fght, but it should move and flow, and change pace...

AslanCross
2008-03-11, 06:04 PM
What levels will you be playing at? MM3 has the Spellwarped template, which gives a creature nasty abilities if an enemy caster fails to penetrate its spell resistance.

For high levels, there's the Scouring constructs from MM5. They're really powerful though (CR 17-18) so they might not be good until the very end.
And yes, they're druid-made constructs, as contradictory as that sounds.

The Avalancher from MM3 might be good if the terrain you'll be using is mountainous.

For a druid working close to a city, you might want to use Rylkars (MM5). They're ratlike magical beasts that have a hive mind and a queen the size of a minibus. They thrive on rot and corruption and might be a good way for a druid to spread disease and decay into a city.

Meat Shield
2008-03-11, 07:34 PM
Taint is from Heroes of Horror (or Book of Vile Darkness?) Anyone?

Regardless, you can make it up. Take your basic treant. But due to years of experiments, the treant has gone from a majestic tall straight oak to something out of the movie Sleepy Hollow. It may not even have leaves anymore. The bark is gnarled, and pitted. Sap may flow freely (think oozing puss on a human). It strides with a zombie like gait, yet is obviously alive and wracked by pain. Pain that can only be quenched momentarily by the blood of the PCs.

Then you do things like a higher natural armor bonus due to the extremem knottiness and toughening of the bark because of the experiments, but maybe lower the dex because he is now more stiff. Or increase strength and lower con for the same reasons. Lower his speed, but allow him to short thorns at PCs. Make it creepy, make it unique.

Benejeseret
2008-03-11, 08:49 PM
Ooze elemental creatures

Template from (DR347 p062) that converts things into ooze elementals doing acid damage and (importantly) dissolves weapons and armour.

Rid the PC's of their basic equipment and then make them face the druid as he is...as nature made them.