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arkanis
2008-04-23, 01:14 AM
The Faceless Ones
Ancient beings from a time before time, they are neither alive nor dead, physical or ethereal. Time itself holds little meaning to them.
Unlike other beings in existence, the Faceless have no sense of identity or self and exist on a plane beyond mortal understanding. Endless voids appear where their faces would be and suck up all life and magic into their endless expanses.
http://images.gfxartist.com/images/ArtworkItem/full/63454.jpg

Faceless One
Size/Type: Huge Undead (Chaotic, Evil, Extraplanar, Incorporeal)
Hit Dice: 102d12+1566 (2144 hp)
Initiative: +12 (+8 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)
Speed: 100ft., fly 200ft. (perfect)
Armor Class: 57 (-2 size, +8 Dex, +16 deflection, +16 luck, +9 insight)
Base Attack/Grapple: +51/--—
Attack: Incorporeal touch +91 melee (4d6 negative energy plus 2d4 negative levels plus stasis touch)
Full Attack: Incorporeal touch +91 melee (4d6 negative energy plus 2d4 negative levels plus stasis touch)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft.
Special Attacks: Chronal blast, rebuke/command undead, Spell-like abilities, stasis touch, summon past time duplicate, time leach
Special Qualities: Abomination traits, black haze, DR 35/epic, turn resistance +20, divine void, null time field, time regression, regeneration 35, sonic immunity, SR 112, undead traits, unholy toughness
Saves: Fort +42, Ref +36, Will +50
Abilities: Str Ø, Dex 27, Con Ø, Int 24, Wis 29, Cha 43
Skills: Balance +66, Bluff +66, Concentration +69, Hide +62, Intimidate +66, Jump +69, Knowledge (arcana, religion, the planes) +59, Listen +66, Move Silently +66, Search +45, Sense Motive +66, Spellcraft +66, Spot +66, Swim +66, Tumble +66
Feats: Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Weapon Focus (incorporeal touch), Greater Weapon Focus (incorporeal touch), Quicken Spell-like Ability (time stop)
Epic Feats: Blinding Speed (×5), Epic Toughness (×5), Epic Fortitude, Epic Reflexes, Epic Will, Spell Stowaway (time stop), Epic Weapon Focus (incorporeal touch), Epic Initiative, Automatic Quicken Spell-like ability (time stop)
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 76
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: None
A faceless one's natural weapons are treated as epic, evil, and chaotic-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Spell-Like Abilities
At will—animate dead, blasphemy, create greater undead, create undead, cone of cold, desecrate, detect life, detect magic, greater dispel magic, greater invisibility (self only), finger of death, plane shift, slay living, speak with dead, spectral hand, greater teleport, unholy aura; 5/day—haste, slow, greater teleport, tongues, trap the soul, true strike, unholy aura; 2/day—safe time, time duplicate (epic spell); 5/day—haste, project image, weird; 1/day—time stop. Caster level 51st; save DC 26 + spell level. The DC is Charisma-based.

Rebuke/Command Undead (Su)
Faceless ones can rebuke or command undead as a cleric with a level equal to the faceless HD + 6.

Negative Energy Aura (Su)
A 30-foot-radius spread negative energy aura spreads from each faceless one. All undead in the field (including the faceless one) are treated as if having turn resistance +20 and a negative energy version of fast healing 20. Living creatures in the aura are treated as having ten negative levels unless they have some sort of negative energy protection or protection from evil. Creatures with 10 or fewer HD or levels perish (and, at the faceless one option, rise as spectres under the faceless one command 1 minute later).

Constitution Drain (Su)
When the faceless one hits a living opponent with a touch attack, the opponent takes 1d10 points of permanent Constitution drain, or 10 points on a critical hit. The faceless one heals 5 points of damage per point of Constitution taken, gaining any excess as temporary hit points. These temporary hit points last a maximum of 1 hour. The attack allows a Fortitude save (DC 59). The DC is Charisma-based.

Black Haze (Su)
Attackers always have a 20% miss chance.

Stasis Touch (Su)
As the temporal stasis spell, except as an at-will supernatural ability. Caster level 51st; save DC60. The DC is Charisma-based.
Objects which strike or touch a faceless one automatically take 1d4 points of damage each round they do so (ignoring hardness) as they are rusted and erroded by time. Only artifacts are immune to this ability.

Chronal Blast (Su)
As a standard action, the faceless one can make a ranged touch attack against any creature within 100 feet. If it succeeds, the subject is targeted by a spasm of space-time flux, dealing 30d6 points of damage.

Life Leach (Su)
All living creatures within a faceless one's presence (60ft. radius) must make a Fortitude save DC77 every round they remain in the faceless one's presence or gain 1d4 negative levels. The faceless one gains 5 temporary hit points for each negative level bestowed on a victim.

Time Leach (Su)
For every round of apparent time experienced by the faceless one, it automatically absorbs the “future” from any creature it has successfully encapsulated in static time via its stasis touch (not its null time field), no matter the distance separating victim and faceless one, and no matter the number of victims. Of course, to the victim no time passes at all, but each apparent round experienced by the faceless one ages the victim 1d4 years, at the same time healing the faceless one 5 hit points per year aged. A victim who is not somehow released from static time by a friend who can cast dispel magic, greater dispel magic, or some other likely spell, eventually ages to death. Victims killed in this manner automatically fall out of static time as desiccated husks that disintegrate to a fine dust with even the lightest touch. Victims who are released prior to death immediately apply the physical effects of aging, but not the mental effects.

Summon Past Time Duplicate (Sp)
Once per day, a faceless one can summon a duplicate of one its foes stolen from a parallel alternate past. The stolen time duplicate has the same stats and possessions as the original, but is treated as if having two negative levels (which simulates a less experienced version of the original). The faceless one can never summon a past time duplicate of a creature with more than 91 HD (add sufficient negative levels to compensate for high foe HD, if necessary). The past time duplicate, despite having most of the knowledge of the original, serves the faceless one loyally like any summoned creature. If the past time duplicate is slain, the original is not harmed because the duplicate was pulled from a parallel past. However, the original does not necessarily realize this, and must make a Will save (DC 30) or be shaken for 1d4 rounds after witnessing the death of a duplicate for the first time.

Abomination Traits
Immune to polymorphing, petrification, and other form-altering attacks; not subject to energy drain, ability drain, ability damage, or death from massive damage; immune to mind-affecting effects; fire resistance 20; cold resistance 20; nondetection; true seeing at will; blindsight 500 ft.; telepathy out to 1,000 ft.

Undead Traits
Immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromantic effects, mind-affecting effects, and any effect requiring a Fortitude save unless it also works on objects. Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, or energy drain. Negative energy heals. Not at risk of death from massive damage, but destroyed at 0 hit points or less. Darkvision 60 ft. Cannot be raised; resurrection works only if creature is willing.

Null Time Field (Ex)
Faceless ones continually generate a 30-foot-radius spread null time field. All creatures and objects in the field, except the faceless one, must make a Will saving throw (DC 77) each round to take any actions. On a failed save, subjects are stuck in a static time stream until their next round of actions, at which time they must make another saving throw. While a subject is stuck in a static time stream induced by a null time field, the faceless one can use its static touch on the subject, though in all other ways, the subject is invulnerable to attacks and damage as if in temporal stasis.

Time Regression (Su)
If the faceless one spends an action per round for four rounds, at the end of the 4th round the faceless one regresses back in time 4 rounds, to the very 1st round it originally began concentrating on time regression. On its second pass through the time stream, it can take completely different actions, based on its knowledge of the future (though if it takes different actions from its first pass through the time stream, the events of the original time stream are also changed, thus so can everyone else).

Regeneration (Ex)
Faceless ones take normal damage from Holy, Brilliant Energy, and Sunblade weapons. Also, spells which create light (such as Light, Dancing Lights, Daylight, Glitterdust, Celestial Brilliance) deal 1d6 normal damage per caster level to a faceless one upon being cast within 30 feet of them (max number of damage dice is equal to 5 x spell level).

Nameless:
Facless ones are also nameless ones. They lack true names and thus are immune to all effects from Words of Creation (Book of Exalted Deeds) and lack a sense of identity and thus are immune to negative levels, energy drain, and Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma damage/drain.

Divine Void (Su):
Faceless ones emit a strange aura (100ft. radius) which disrupts divine energy and magic. No divine magic, divine bonuses, divine abilities (such as Turn Undead), or divine salient salient abilities can function in the presence of a faceless one. Beings with divine ranks lose all abilities granted by their divine rank while in this aura. This works similar to an antimagic field.
Beings entering the radius may attempt a Will save DC77 to negate these effects for 2d4 rounds, though after this duration they must make the save again or suffer the effects until they leave the radius.

Spell Immunity (Su):
Faceless ones are immune to all necromancy and enchantment spells of 9th level or lower unless they exclusively allow the effects to affect them.

Kizara
2008-04-23, 02:05 AM
Statis Touch gives no description on what it does, and gives a spell-level based DC statement (which is inappropriate for a single Su ability) without giving it's spell level.

This needs to be fixed. Maybe then I can understand what the (very longwinded) Time Leach is supposed to do.

Nebo_
2008-04-23, 06:20 AM
This would be pretty cool if it wasn't so very epic, and therefore unusable by most people who play D&D.

SilentNight
2008-04-23, 08:59 AM
I agree with Nebo_. Tone it down a little.

DracoDei
2008-04-23, 10:13 AM
Eh... why not have the best of both worlds? Keep this one up, but also do a "lesser" version.

Also the phrase "in its prescense" under Life Leach is ambigious, does it have to be able to see them? Do they have to be able to see it? Is only line of effect required? Is there any range limitation?

Zeta Kai
2008-04-23, 11:45 AM
I have a slight qualm with the Faceless One's CR. I went here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43009) to calculate the CR for myself, & I couldn't get a figure higher that 59, even counting all of the ridiculously strong abilities this thing is supposed to have. I understand that the CR calculator provided by Vorpal Tribble is an estimate, & is clearly not designed for trans-epic monstrosities such as this. But how did you arrive at CR75? How was that number calculated? I can tell that it's epic, but just how epic is it?

arkanis
2008-04-23, 12:31 PM
I actually used the epic creature called Phane as a basis for this.

Most of these abilities are strictly copy/pasted from the epic handbook from the Phane description.

These are supposed to be mostly greater versions of Phanes since they exist outside of time.

I actually just totally took a wild guess at the challenge rating. I'm open to suggestions here. Keep its Divine Void ability in mind though.

"Presence" fixed.

I'm not very good at epic things so please feel free to critique the hell out of this thing.

Kizara
2008-04-23, 03:30 PM
I actually used the epic creature called Phane as a basis for this.

Most of these abilities are strictly copy/pasted from the epic handbook from the Phane description.

These are supposed to be mostly greater versions of Phanes since they exist outside of time.

I actually just totally took a wild guess at the challenge rating. I'm open to suggestions here. Keep its Divine Void ability in mind though.

"Presence" fixed.

I'm not very good at epic things so please feel free to critique the hell out of this thing.


As I said in my earlier post, fix Stasis Touch. You don't even have an effect description.

arkanis
2008-04-23, 04:32 PM
Status Touch is one of the few things that need no fixing. It was copy/pasted from the epic SRD. You can look it up yourself in the SRD or epic handbook if you like. Look at the monster entry for Phane and look up the ability.

I really do need suggestions on the challenge rating though. And the black haze ability and vulnerability to light since those abilities are my own creations.

smart thog
2008-04-24, 11:59 AM
This is really underpowered. Only 66 hit dice for a CR 75 undea. a cleric that is even 5 levels below it could beat it with ONE greater turning. Please, I know about the Divine nulling field, and a DC 56 can be easily beat by such a experineced cleric. The summoning past duplicate is underpowered, cause if a CR 40 clone can challegene you, you will have died at the hands of the faceless one before you roll the dice. Time regression will be hard to work out because you don't say if the other people can rethink their moves? How does that work with ranged attacks and spells? Also whats black haze that you mentioned under special qualities?

smart thog
2008-04-24, 12:02 PM
This is really underpowered. Only 66 hit dice for a CR 75 undea. a cleric that is even 5 levels below it could beat it with ONE greater turning. Please, I know about the Divine nulling field, and a DC 56 can be easily beat by such a experineced cleric. The summoning past duplicate is underpowered, cause if a CR 40 clone can challegene you, you will have died at the hands of the faceless one before you roll the dice. Time regression will be hard to work out because you don't say if the other people can rethink their moves? How does that work with ranged attacks and spells? Also whats black haze that you mentioned under special qualities?

arkanis
2008-04-24, 11:15 PM
Good point. I lowered their CR and gave them turn resistance.

Black Haze just gives them a 20% miss chance.

Time regression is kinda wierd. It takes some GM thought to undo things that have been done during combat regardless of positioning.

Tweaked statis touch to my liking.

Clone improved.

DC56 is easy? Its 10 + 1/2 HD + Cha mod. That sounds about right. a cleric of 66th level should only have a will save of +27 (not including Wisdom modifier). If the Wisdom modifier were +10 (that's 30 Wisdom) then their Will save would be +37 and if they had iron will and epic will that would be +43. On average that would still only be a 53. Doesn't sound impossible but it definately doesn't sound easy.

The Necroswanso
2008-04-24, 11:53 PM
mmmmm. I loves me some super epic monsters and this is as epic as undead get.

Mordokai
2008-04-25, 01:28 AM
I don't have much experience with such epic monstrosities but this one looks pretty neat. Sorry I can't comment on balance, but this really is WAAY out of my league. However, the flavour of the monster itself is really good. And I love the picture :smallsmile:

lord of kobolds
2008-04-25, 08:53 PM
thank you.
my roommate has been bragging about how his tournament character with extremely overpowered prestige class(he knows the DM's, so he gets to use any prc he wants) can kill anything.
now there is finally something to shut him up with.

arkanis
2008-04-28, 11:37 PM
LOL well this was just some random thing that popped in my head. I needed a god-killer and this was the idea that stuck. I hope someone finds it useful or at least inspiring.

Stycotl
2008-04-29, 12:40 AM
thank you.
my roommate has been bragging about how his tournament character with extremely overpowered prestige class(he knows the DM's, so he gets to use any prc he wants) can kill anything.
now there is finally something to shut him up with.

i always liked killing the characters of players like this with innocuous, fluffy bunnies. i used a duck once too, which was fairly entertaining. luckily, i haven't had to deal with that in years.

quick_comment
2009-04-19, 09:47 PM
Not too hard.

I can get a save DC of 50 at level 25 without any epic spells via giant size and void disciple.

Call it level 35, I can get the DC probably to at least 70.

Lets say the wizard has level 15 spells and -3 metamagic (through incantrix, improved metamagic, arcane thesis, whatever).

He can Cast an Ocular Split Twinned Improved Heightened Your choice of save or die(to above 9th). He stores two in his eyes, and fires both off as a full round action. Make 16 DC 70 saves or die.

Stormthorn
2009-04-29, 07:24 PM
He can Cast an Ocular Split Twinned Improved Heightened Your choice of save or die(to above 9th). He stores two in his eyes, and fires both off as a full round action. Make 16 DC 70 saves or die.

Ahh! Minmaxing strikes again. The monster is awesome. Now i must make one of my own to kill that minmaxer.

JoshuaZ
2009-04-30, 12:03 AM
Given how epic this thing is it should passively create problems for its surrounding.

How about:

Animating Aura(Su)
All Faceless Ones exhibit a powerful necromantic aura out to 100 feet.
Any humanoid or monstrous humanoid with 10 or fewer hit die that comes within 100 feet of a Faceless One automatically dies with no save and rises 1d4 rounds later as a zombie under control of the Faceless One. There is no limit to how many zombies the Faceless One can control this way. Humanoids with 10-20 hit die must make a DC 30 fortitude save to resist this aura and once they have saved against it cannot be effected by that Faceless One's aura for 1 minute, but the save DC goes up by 1 for every time they have had to save against the Animating Aura in the last 24 hours. This aura is so powerful that it ignores any Death Ward spell of caster level less than 15 and for caster level under 30 simply adds a +5 bonus to the fortitude save (or allows a save if the being has ten or fewer hit die). Animating Aura is a necromantic, death effect which can be voluntarily suppressed by the Faceless One as a free action.

Necromantic Arcana(su)

Whenever necromancy spell or spell-like ability cast within 1 mile of the Faceless One, roll 1d6: On a 1, the spell is cast as normal. On a 2, the spell is Heightened. On a 3 the Spell is Empowered. On a 4 the Spell is Maximized. On a 5 the Spell is Empowered and Maximized. On a 6 the spell is Empowered, Maximized and Heightened.

Additionally, the spellcraft DC for any epic necromancy spell is reduced by 2.


And then for extra fun maybe give it some of the Corpse Crafter feats as bonus feats too.

quick_comment
2009-05-01, 12:38 AM
Ahh! Minmaxing strikes again. The monster is awesome. Now i must make one of my own to kill that minmaxer.

This monster is WAY over CRed. If a non-minmaxed wizard (and its not minmaxed. Notice the lack of epic spells and infinite solars. This wizard is 1/100th of the possible power of a level 35 wizard)


GODS arent at CRs this high, and they have alter reality and life and death.

Limos
2009-05-01, 12:50 AM
[snip]

Excuse me, do you realize that the last post before yours is from 4-29-2008, and yours is 4-19-2009. That's a full year.

Please refrain from Thread Necromancy.

Schylerwalker
2009-05-07, 06:45 AM
Nameless:
Facless ones are also nameless ones. They lack true names and thus are immune to all effects from Words of Creation (Book of Exalted Deeds) and lack a sense of identity and thus are immune to negative levels, energy drain, and Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma damage/drain.

As far as I am aware, undead are already immune to any kind of ability drain. In fact, they benefit from negative levels as far as I'm able to tell.

Silence
2009-05-07, 11:58 AM
Don't you think that it's a bit.... Off that one of these guys could give the entire pantheon of normal gods a run for their money?

Harperfan7
2009-05-08, 04:38 PM
Excuse me, do you realize that the last post before yours is from 4-29-2008, and yours is 4-19-2009. That's a full year.

Please refrain from Thread Necromancy.

Don't you see? The Faceless ones are so powerful, even the threads discussing them suffer from time warp!

Also, if they have no sense of identity or self, how do they have 43 charisma?

quick_comment
2009-05-09, 01:17 PM
Don't you think that it's a bit.... Off that one of these guys could give the entire pantheon of normal gods a run for their money?

Thats only because of their divine void ability. And even then they couldnt kill a god. These things have no means of planar travel or teleportation, so the gods could easily flee. And the gods could easily trap it. Use divine creation or alter reality to create a scroll of widened forcecage. Cast it to trap the faceless one. Use alter reality (the forcecage blocks LoE for the divine void ability) to make the forcecage permanent.

Or they can use create artifact to create an artifact whose ability is: Anti-Divine Void: The wielder of this artifact is unaffected by the divine void ability.

Or create the Facemaker. This artifact sword is a +10 abberation-bane, abberation-dread longsword. Any faceless one within 100 miles when the wielder draws the facemaker is instantly destroyed.

There is really no way to come close to defeating a god without epic spells.

As I showed, a not-very-optimized level 35 wizard could obliterate these things. If I chose to optimize fully and make use of epic spells, a level 35 wizard could eat fresh faceless one every day for breakfast.