[3.5] Inanimate BBEG

[Thurbane]

Hi all,

I need some ideas for a stationery/inanimate BBEG. I want him to be at the heart of a dungeon, but his sense extend through the dungeon – if anyone is familiar with the Dungeon Keeper computer games, this is sort of what I’m looking for.

The prestige class in Dungeonscape would be ideal, but I’m struggling to think of an inanimate creature to give levels to. The Brain in a Jar might be OK, but we don’t use psionics in our games. Is there any templates, spells or other things that could be applied to an otherwise “normal” monster to make it immobile?

I want the dungeon to be full of traps and servitors, that the party must battle through to get to the BBEG at the heart of it all.

I’d like to avoid homebrew, if possible – I seem to remember someone made some D&D conversions of Dungeon Keeper for AD&D. I like my BBEGs to be as RAW as possible – something that would be usable in an RPGA game.

[Lhurgyof]

Chanth, I think it's called? It's from the Dark Sun Monster Manual (Terrors of Athas, which can be found at Athas.org), and it's a bunch of brains sewn together of great psionicists. Replace Psions with wizards/sorcerers and you have yourself a really creepy monster.

[Raistlin1040]

Warforged and just say he's rusted or something, or his body is too broken to work?

[Runestar]

An elder brain (underdark/lords of madness/MM5) isn't really inanimate, but he may very well be, since it moves only when relocating.

[Serpentine]

Insect hive queens come to mind, anything with a hive-mind, or an enormous plant with roots and shoots and seeds all the way through.

[Kami2awa]

In the Thief games, one of the final missions has you up against a mad scientist who has sealed himself in an impregnable chamber while he plans to destroy the world. He's not immobile but he won't leave the chamber and you can't get in; you have to saboutage his efforts from outside, killing him in the process. However, he can taunt and mock you throughout the level over a tannoy system, (naturally explaining his whole plan and motivation in the process) and attack you remotely with a wide variety of machines and robots.

[hamishspence]

The Dungeon Lord PRC in Dungeonscape might be good for this BBEG.

EDIT: the OP already mentioned this.

Hmm- Rylkar from MM 5. A bloated creature resembling a huge rat, with a horde of lesser rylkar minions.

[Zeta Kai]

Quick! To the Homebrewmobile!

[Critical]

Quick! To the Homebrewmobile!

I lol'd.

Anyway, Brain in a Jar from LM seems like a good idea. With some class levels, perhaps.

[WinWin]

Maybe an awakened Yellow Musk Creeper. Fiend Folio.

[Psyx]

Maybe have a brain in a jar... and give it still/silent spell and a bunch of caster levels. Maybe go illusionist with it too.

[TheManlyFlower]

You could just do something as simple as a construct that was built into the floor. It could have been there for ages and its arms/head have ceases however its eyes follow you like one of those creepy paintings...

Heck, in its chest cavity you could throw one of those test tubes with a brain floating in water, to provide the golem with more humanoid/BBEG thoughts. (Protected with permanent wall of force or some such to prevent a rock from killing him)

[Choco]

+1 for Elder Brain. Just reduce its stats if your group is a lower level.

[Lysander]

How about the Genius Loci. Basically it's a giant shapeshifting ooze that pretends to be part of the landscape. It magically enslaves one creature at a time, using them as a tool to draw in prey. But although they are enslaved, the slave's personality and goals are somewhat shared by the genius loci. So just have an evil magician enslaved by a genius loci, the two working together to accomplish some wicked goal in addition to gobbling up innocent victims.

If you want something a little more normal, you could just make the dungeon a prison for the BBEG. Maybe they're bound up in invulnerable shackles that also prevent teleportation. Maybe they're some huge beast and the corridors were deliberately made too small for them to ever exit. Perhaps a magical compulsion has been put on them to never leave.

[Lord Loss]

I used an Awakened Yellow Musk once. It was quite fun.

[sdream]

If you want something a little more normal, you could just make the dungeon a prison for the BBEG. Maybe they're bound up in invulnerable shackles that also prevent teleportation. Maybe they're some huge beast and the corridors were deliberately made too small for them to ever exit. Perhaps a magical compulsion has been put on them to never leave.

Bonus points if the BBEG in the center of the dungeon is purposefully pissing off the PCs with harassing attacks - to goad them into "killing him" or "destroying his doomsday device"... ie releasing him from his prison, where he can pop up later outside for some more hijinks.

Bonus Bonus points if the only way to defeat him later is to rebuild something like that same dungeon or put him back in the center of the original and try to post better signage so some other group doesn't do the same thing.

[balistafreak]

I think a GLaDOS-esque BBEG would make a highly amusing end boss.

[Zaydos]

Thoon Elder Brain from MMV? Has spell-like abilities, no psionics. Has a 20-ft fly speed unfortunately, but it could sit in its pool. It is CR 15 so might be too strong (what level are you looking for?). Does have Dominate Monster 3/day, though.

[Vantharion]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...aledEvilInACan
That will most likely help you, assuming you can make each will save to avoid opening tabs.
I would recommend something that would exert influence onto the creatures around it, aka some form cultists or mind control.
Don't forget to have the players conviently track down a way to immunize themselves from the mind control... but don't let them cure EVERYONE... unless you want them to be able to.

[Rixx]

[Beelzebub1111]

A Crypt Guardian...I think it's called. From the Fiend Folio. The Real Dungeon Master.

[Drogorn]

How about a poltergeist-style creature? Can't affect the characters directly and they can't affect it directly.

[Lysander]

How about a poltergeist-style creature? Can't affect the characters directly and they can't affect it directly.

Or just a bad guy with the ghost template, doomed to forever haunt the place where he died.

[Randel]

How about he is a Lich who is held in chains at the center of the dungeon. The various monsters in the dungeon are either animated constructs or mindless creatures who are immune to his mind control. However, he does have some illusion powers that he can use to mess with the players or agitate the creatures guarding him so that they are more dangerous than before.

The goal of the dungeon is to keep him chained up because if he is destroyed then he will just reform next to his phylactery. He wants to be destroyed so that he can leave this place.


Or, it could be a Lich or powerful wizard who was petrified (and thus not dead to be resurrected or reformed) who somehow managed to retain a fraction of his mind or power after the petrification. He's quite insane and either wants to kill. possess, or trick anyone around him to either kill or release him.


Or it could be any number of awakened things... an awakened ooze that looks like a lake of inky death, an awakened mass of green slime that seeks to feed itself until it grows large enough to overflow the dungeon and conquer the world...

Actually, an intelligent mass of Green Slime would die if it ventured out into the sunlight so it might have a master plan that involves covering the world in darkness. It could manifest as a voice in the heads of various undead or vampires who seek to cover the world in darkness so they could 'rule the earth!". But once the undead actually complete their goal then it turns out the Green Slime was just using them so that IT could leave its dungeon and cover the world in flesh-eating slime!

Give it caster levels and the ability to command oozes or move masses of water around. Maybe its a cleric and uses its Rebuke Undead power to control undead beings to do its dirty work and then other spells to lift up masses of its otherwise inert slimy body to hurl at its enemies.

Imagine the adventurers entering the lair of the Slime Priest to see a huge lake of green slime covering the cavernous room. Then the lake itself casts Control Slime and lifts up a cubic mass of itself and hurls it at them!

Replace green slime with Brown Mold or similar and you get an intelligent mass of heat-eating mold that wants to spread out of the dungeon and devour ever flame, every single spark of heat in the entire world. If the oceans turn to ice and the grass and animals are forever frozen into icy sculptures of the dead then so be it.

Bonus points if all the monsters in this dungeon love cold and are damaged by heat and the players have an opportunity to flood the whole dungeon with hot water or steam to 'kill all the monsters inside without wasting our time' give them full XP for all the monsters and then let them know that the sapient brown mold the dungeon was built to contain just LOVES heat.

[sciencepanda]

My first thought was a demilich. Although that would probably be a bit too tough for most parties. I suppose you could take the unmoving hyperintellegent skull idea and apply it to a weaker undead.

[DementedFellow]

Am I the only person who read the title and thought Sauron?

[Hirax]

Put an evil spin on Inevitables

[Janus]

Can't help much in this thread (still new to D&D), but I've been wanting to do this in 4e.

Am I the only person who read the title and thought Sauron?

Actually, my first thought was Skorne (Gauntlet Legends/Dark Legacy)

[Set]

A critter designed for the RPG Superstar contest (by that years winner, even), the Dungeon Core, might be useful for this sort of idea. Her idea of having a Phrenic Dungeon Core that has awakened into psychic ability seems particularly fun.

It's the second monster in the entry.

[Ponderthought]

A mummy sorcerer with the Dungeon Lord PrC locked in his sarcophagus. Dispense with the Egyptian feel if it isnt appropriate, because alot of different cultures mummified their dead. You could put a really cool spin on it with a really huge, ornate sarcophagus. And he wants ouuuuuutttt.