Easiest way to turn outsider?

[Albonor]

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.)?

[Emperor Tippy]

Dump the half-celestial or half-fiend templates on him? +4 LA

[Albonor]

Maybe, but the +3 CR is not for show in this case. Even if Blasphemy is still banned, the increase in stats, extra immunities and resistance and powers make him a lot tougher than before for a 5 PCs group of level 17. At CR22, The demon prince of snakes will be a fearsome adversary as it is.

I considered the Entropic template from Plannar Handbook, it does not synergise with the abilities and gives the Outsider type...

Hm.....

[Enlong]

Alienist PRC?

[holywhippet]

A level 20 monk is considered to be an outsider. Not sure how you'd justify it in game though.

[Albonor]

Yeah, Both of those would work but I'm looking for the simplest answer here. Isn't there a template that does that without changing much to the creature? So far half-fiend and Entropic are running for it but, it IS the playground forums so bring out the possibilities!

[KillianHawkeye]

I second Half-Fiend. Your group is going to expect him to have some fiendish resistances and immunities anyway, since he used to be a Balor. For one, the ability increases aren't going to make much of a difference, basically boiling down to +2 on attacks/damage/Initiative/Reflex/AC and +1 on Fort/Save DCs, and +20 hp. As for resistances and immunities, it only gives immunity to poison and Resist 10 to everything but sonic. The SR and DR from the template are non-issues since the Ha-Naga already has those. That doesn't seem like it will make much of a difference to 17th level PCs.

Also, as far as blasphemy is concerned, I don't see much of a problem with it. Ha-Nagas only have 20 HD, meaning that your 17 HD PCs (unless they have big LAs) are not even going to be paralyzed by blasphemy. At worst they all get dazed for 1 round, and the Ha-Naga can only do it once per day. I'd worry more about destruction or the fact that it casts as a 21st level Sorcerer with access to Cleric spells and the Chaos and Evil domains.

[Keld Denar]

Well, if a cleric cast the spell Turn Anathema (SpC Clr2/Pal2), he can turn outsiders with alignment components opposite his!

:P

[Mr.Bookworm]

Just change his type?

Really, he casts spells as a 21st level sorcerer, just refluff those as demonic powers, and choose appropriate spells.

Seems like that would be all that's needed.