Albonor
2008-11-09, 04:20 PM
Hi,
The climax of my campaign may very well be the ascension of a powerful Balor to the status of Demon Prince. The PCs will (probably, I don't railroad that much) have the choice of dealing with his high "priests" during the transformation and facing him in Balor form afterwards or to let him turn and wait for him in hos fortress, where they will be sure he will run to as soon as he has his hew form.
Now, in my home setting, the Throne of Hell and the Chains of the Abyss are Overartifacts acting as Gods while archdevils and Demon Princes are simply catalysts, not granting spells themselves. So he already has a cult with spells, mainly consisted of Yuan-ti and Nagas.
The most powerful NPC of the campaign is level 18, with only a handfull over level 13. That means that major baddies are not CR 35. Actually, the most powerfull Archdevil is currently about CR 28. Thus, I think the PCs will be around level 17 against him.
Soooooooooooo....to get to the point, I thought that if they decided to let him turn instead of facing his most powerful priests, their guards and THEN him in Balor form he would, being Lord of the Snakes, turn into a Ha-naga (Serpent Kindoms, FR). CR22 seems correct for that guy and I like the concept. But this guy is an aberration and I want him to be an Outsider.
Now, short of DM fiat (I prefer the mental exercise to work around that), what is the lower CR-modifing way to make him an Outsider, using templates or very unsynergising PrCs (I will make sure he does not use Blasphemy so adding HD is not really a problem.)?
The climax of my campaign may very well be the ascension of a powerful Balor to the status of Demon Prince. The PCs will (probably, I don't railroad that much) have the choice of dealing with his high "priests" during the transformation and facing him in Balor form afterwards or to let him turn and wait for him in hos fortress, where they will be sure he will run to as soon as he has his hew form.
Now, in my home setting, the Throne of Hell and the Chains of the Abyss are Overartifacts acting as Gods while archdevils and Demon Princes are simply catalysts, not granting spells themselves. So he already has a cult with spells, mainly consisted of Yuan-ti and Nagas.
The most powerful NPC of the campaign is level 18, with only a handfull over level 13. That means that major baddies are not CR 35. Actually, the most powerfull Archdevil is currently about CR 28. Thus, I think the PCs will be around level 17 against him.
Soooooooooooo....to get to the point, I thought that if they decided to let him turn instead of facing his most powerful priests, their guards and THEN him in Balor form he would, being Lord of the Snakes, turn into a Ha-naga (Serpent Kindoms, FR). CR22 seems correct for that guy and I like the concept. But this guy is an aberration and I want him to be an Outsider.
Now, short of DM fiat (I prefer the mental exercise to work around that), what is the lower CR-modifing way to make him an Outsider, using templates or very unsynergising PrCs (I will make sure he does not use Blasphemy so adding HD is not really a problem.)?