3.5 Modifying incorporeal creatures for low lv. encounters

[Rising Phoenix]

Hello all,

First off, if any of my players frequent this forum, stay out!

Last night we had our first session in my homebrewed, semi cyber punk setting

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it has, among other things, firearms, aliens, androids (warforged), the equivalent of the internet, psionics and dinosaurs. And yes, somehow everything fits together without being too silly

. It went really well, rewarding months of preparation on my part and the PCs got hooked on every plot hook I had placed.

One of these involves an abandoned 3 story high shopping mall and the teenager girls that use it to commit suicide...
This story is based of the first episode of the anime Kara no Kyoukai, the garden of sinners: http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl...anime&aid=4932. Highly recommended if you enjoy supernatural gore.

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In a nutshell this severely ill, bedridden girl (who will be called Sally from now on) develops supernatural powers that allow her to mindrape other girls into committing suicide. She does this while in spectral form (so she's not undead) and when her victims have died, claims their souls as puppets to keep her company (so her victims are undead).
By the end of the first episode, she will have claimed the lives of seven girls (so 7 undead spirits + herself)

In the game, Sally has thus far managed to kill and claim 2 girls. The PCs, however, plan to investigate and probably stop her. If they don't intervene; she will not stop until some of the powerful NPCs in the settlement figure out what's happening.

I have a general idea on how the adventure will pan out, but I am unsure how to stat out the girl spirits without making them de-facto lethal.

The party consists of:

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1st lv LE Cloistered Human Cleric with Undeath, Death and Knowledge domains with fiendish heritage feat.
1st lv CN Beguiler Changeling.
1st Lv CG Human Bard.
1st Lv CG Halfling Sorcerer. (mage armor, silent image)
1st Lv CN Gunslinger. (will not be present next session)
1st Lv N Rogue. An assassin poison user.

The party has enough gold to afford a wand of magic missile and I am expecting the Cleric, Beguiler and Bard to hit lv 2 by the time they encounter the first of the spirits

I've checked the spectral and ghost templates, but they are impossible to tackle at this level. So I've been thinking of using the spectral template but getting rid of all the nasties (level drain, spawn) and reducing the incorpeal miss chance to 25%.

Each girl is a 1st lv commoner, thus with the application of this modified template they'll turn into a spectral creature with 6 hp. Manageable ,imo, for a lv 1-2 party. I am not sure what I'll do about Sally, yet.
(I will not be sending the spirits in droves after the PCs unless they act rashly and wait too long.)

Does this seem fair? Any suggestions?

Thanks in Advance.

R.P.

[Sinfire Titan]

You have two casters who rely on Mind Affecting abilities. The Cloistered Cleric will, arguably, ruin this encounter if he can Rebuke the Incorporeal creature at all (not all of them are undead, hence the if).

If the Sorcerer remembers his Mage Armor spell is useful against Incorporeal creatures, he may very well be the best offense they have.

The Rogue will be nigh useless unless the leader of the undead is susceptible to poisons. If the Cleric is in a good mood and asked properly, a Magic Weapon spell will remove some of his suck.

[Rising Phoenix]

Thanks for your reply,

You have two casters who rely on Mind Affecting abilities. The Cloistered Cleric will, arguably, ruin this encounter if he can Rebuke the Incorporeal creature at all (not all of them are undead, hence the if).

If the Sorcerer remembers his Mage Armor spell is useful against Incorporeal creatures, he may very well be the best offense they have.

The Rogue will be nigh useless unless the leader of the undead is susceptible to poisons. If the Cleric is in a good mood and asked properly, a Magic Weapon spell will remove some of his suck.

So basically only two characters get to shine if they think and are willing. Yes, I'm fine with that as I try to (well at least I think I do) give equal opportunities for everyone to shine.

I will likely give the undead spirits some minor turn resistance when in the presence of their controller and making Sally vulnerable to mundane poison, does not make sense, imo (holy water and positoxins will probably work, but I'll see).

How would you run this Sinfire Titan, if at all?

Cheers,

R.P.

[Sinfire Titan]

Thanks for your reply,



So basically only two characters get to shine if they think and are willing. Yes, I'm fine with that as I try to (well at least I think I do) give equal opportunities for everyone to shine.

I will likely give the undead spirits some minor turn resistance when in the presence of their controller and making Sally vulnerable to mundane poison, does not make sense, imo (holy water and positoxins will probably work, but I'll see).

How would you run this Sinfire Titan, if at all?

Cheers,

R.P.

I need to correct myself on something: Sally's immune to Sneak Attack due to the Incorporeal subtype. The Rogue's going to feel useless, and the Cleric and Sorcerer will be the only ones making a major contribution. I'd recommend simply giving Sally DR 5/Magic or so at this level, allowing the other characters to at least do something.


How would I run this? I'd make Sally a modified Human Ardent with the following Psionic Powers:

Vigor, Mind Thrust, any 1st level power.

1/day, Death Urge (expended for that particular encounter, or restricted to children or some other limitation).

Feats: Martial Study (any Shadow Hand), Martial Stance (Child of Shadows).


Tactics: Reflavor the Martial Maneuvers to supernatural powers she innately possess without telling your players. Every round, she moves 10ft and manifests Mind Thrust while repositioning the undead girls so they can interfere with attackers. Her HP will be decent from her Ardent levels. You don't need to make her Incorporeal thanks to Child of Shadows.

She manifests Vigor at the start of the encounter to ensure she won't die that quickly.

I'd give her an entourage of 4 of the ghosts, BTW. You have 6 PCs. Their actions will cause a massacre. Have her attack only if the PCs try to subdue her. Until then, have the undead stay hidden.

[Runestar]

I agree with sinfire titan - there aren't any low-cr incorporeal undead for a reason.

Closest I can think of is to use the savage progression of the shadow (savage species) to nab a cr1 version.

[Rising Phoenix]

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How would I run this? I'd make Sally a modified Human Ardent with the following Psionic Powers:

Vigor, Mind Thrust, any 1st level power.

1/day, Death Urge (expended for that particular encounter, or restricted to children or some other limitation).

Feats: Martial Study (any Shadow Hand), Martial Stance (Child of Shadows).


Tactics: Reflavor the Martial Maneuvers to supernatural powers she innately possess without telling your players. Every round, she moves 10ft and manifests Mind Thrust while repositioning the undead girls so they can interfere with attackers. Her HP will be decent from her Ardent levels. You don't need to make her Incorporeal thanks to Child of Shadows.

She manifests Vigor at the start of the encounter to ensure she won't die that quickly.

That's surprisingly similar to what happens in the series, awesome! Thanks for the 'build', I'll use it. =)

Runestar: Yep, that's why I came here for advise. These forums and its people are great!

R.P.

[Sinfire Titan]

That's surprisingly similar to what happens in the series, awesome! Thanks for the 'build', I'll use it. =)

Runestar: Yep, that's why I came here for advise. These forums and its people are great!

R.P.

That's what CO is good for: Making your concept work.