Post/Author/DateTime	Post
diphycue 01-05-06, 01:36 PM	I was interested in what people had for ideas, not only on a good back story for this guy, but also what kind of breeding process would of had to have taken place to make such a thing. Half-Ogre Half-Red Dragon Half-Black Dragon Gheden Paragon Barbarian 1 Large Dragon (Augmented Giant) HD 1d12+28 (40 hp) Init +6 Speed 120', Fly 240' (Average) AC 51 (10, +13 Nat, +12 Insight, +12 Luck, +6 Dex, -1 Size, -1 Flaw), Touch 38, Flat Footed 45 BAB/Grapple +1/+29 Attack 2 Claws +51/+51 (+1 BAB, -1 Size, +24 Str, +25 Luck, +2 Beast Claws), Bite +44 (+1 BAB, -1 Size, +24 Str, +25 Luck, -5 Secondary attack) Damage 2 Claws 1d6+1d6+46 (+24 Str, +20 Luck, +2 Beast Claws), Bite 1d8+32 (+12 Str, +20 Luck) Space/Reach 10'/10' SA Breath Weapons DC36, (Greater Dispel Magic, Haste, See Invisibility) 3/day, Detect Mindless Undead SQ Darkvision 60', Low-light vision, Immunity (Acid, Fire, Sleep, Paralysis, Nonlethal, Stunning, Massive Damage, Fear, Confusion, Energy Drain), Call of Undeath 3%, Detect as Undead, Fortification 50%, Fatigued in Sunlight, Necrotic Life, Slow Aging, Vulnerable to Holy Water, Vulnerable to Turning, +2 Saves vs. (Poison, Disease, Necromancy), Dead Nerves, Cold Resistance 10, DR 10/Epic, SR 47, Fast Healing 20, Regeneration 1, Epic Natural Weapons, +10 All saves, +10 All skill checks, -8 (Open Lock, Sleight of Hand, fine motor skills), Rage 1/day, +4 Intimidate, Fast Movement Saves Fort +25, Ref +16, Will +20 Abilities Str 58, Dex 23, Con 36, Int 27, Wis 30, Cha 26 Skills Literacy, Climb +38, Intimidate +26, Jump +38, Handle Animal +22, Listen +20, Survival +24, Swim +38, Spot +18, Ride +20, Speak (Common, Giant, Orc, Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Gnome, Undercommon, Terran, Aquan, Ignan, Auran, Abyssal, Infernal, Draconic) Feats Endurance, Diehard, Toughness, Troll Blood, Power Attack, Cleave, Improved Sunder Flaws Vulnerable, Inattentive Alignment Neutral Evil ECL 20 CR 22 Possessions: Beast Claws, Clothing
Jodjod 01-05-06, 03:15 PM	I'm not sure if this has been posted in seriousness, so I'm not gonna say a word.
diphycue 01-05-06, 03:30 PM	I seriously want ideas. I first posted a request in the Optimization boards, kind of a curiosity experiment... but once I got a decent build I wanted to see what other people would think of a background. I might actually consider playing something like this.
Shaggy_Shaggs 01-05-06, 03:42 PM	Perhaps the character was the creation of an extremely low-Cha wizard who consulted many dark powers and conducted many dark rituals in order to create himself a son, since he had no social life due to his low Cha and could not win a woman. In order to make up for his own crippling deficiencies, he imbued the 'son' with every power he could magic or bargain up. Alas, irony struck, as the 'son' was too much a monstrous freak of nature to ever interact with his father or people in any meaningful way. This unwanted 'son' was thrown away like so much rubbish and now wanders the countryside alone, seeking someone to love him and take him seriously.
diphycue 01-05-06, 03:58 PM	That's not bad... anything else?
Shaggy_Shaggs 01-05-06, 04:11 PM	:uh-huh: You don't have a real high Sense Motive modifier, do you? :nonono:
WhrenKehrsyn 01-05-06, 04:58 PM	I think you may not understand fractions very well, having 3 halves in your monster and all... As for breeding, maybe a boy black dragon and a girl red dragon had relations. Then the girl dragon started having an affair with an ogre, whos super seed made its way into the developing baby dragon creating a 3/2 creature. Realizing he was accually 1.5 creatures the thing wanders a world that in no way accepts him in any 'civilized' locale and ponders the obvious falsehood that is mathematics in procreation! By the way that was pretty cute Shaggy =0)
Shaggy_Shaggs 01-05-06, 05:00 PM	I'm glad somebody got it. :P
diphycue 01-05-06, 05:20 PM	Well, it could be a breeding experiment... or for that matter a half-red/half-black dragon has a child by an ogre... then a botched ressurrection results in making it half-undead...However some god imbues it with power as a paragon creature, because of services rendered while in the afterlife, prior to the resurrection. That's an easy way to do it... but I'm interested in what other people come up with. As for not knowing when someone's making fun of me, well, it happens so much I just assume it's my milieu.
Shaggy_Shaggs 01-05-06, 05:26 PM	Come on, man, all you gave us is a stat block, you didn't even include a single seed of non-statistical background or personality information. There's really nothing there to work with other than "This is a physically impossible character that no sane DM would ever allow." If you want serious answers, could you please give us something to work with as a foundation?
Sluagh 01-05-06, 06:30 PM	...what kind of breeding process would of had to have taken place to make such a thing. Half-Ogre Half-Red Dragon Half-Black Dragon Gheden Paragon Barbarian 1 The only answer for something this retarded is "A Wizard did it." I think you may not understand fractions very well, having 3 halves in your monster and all... Technically four halves.. the base creature accounts for the fourth "half".
diphycue 01-05-06, 06:56 PM	Exactly...I wasn't wanting to tell people what I thought or could come up with... I wanted to see some other people's creativity, given just a stat block. I already know what back story I'm going to use for it, barring a few minor specifics, I was just curious what other people could come up with.
Shaggy_Shaggs 01-05-06, 07:07 PM	*rolls Reflex save vs violently exploding polygraph : 27 : saves* The problem is, when you come up with something that has blatantly been cobbled together in an attempt to get the most plusses, is completely impossible, and don't give even a hint of what you want out of it story-wise, you make it pretty obvious that you don't actually care any about the background, have given it no thought at all, and want others to do all the work for you. Furthermore, you insult the intelligence of everyone here by saying that's not the case, like you expect them to believe it. From what I've seen around this forum thus far, seeing one person's creativity doesn't stifle that of others at all. Humor me: show me what you've got so far for background. ;)
KublaiKhan 01-05-06, 07:25 PM	If I may quote from "Eric" by Terry Pratchett: "No, really. It's Quezovercoatl. half man, half chicken, half jaguar, half serpent, half scorpion, and half mad." The parrot's beak moved as it worked this out. "That makes a wossname total of three homicidal maniacs," it said. "About right, yes," said the statue.
KublaiKhan 01-05-06, 07:27 PM	Oh, and Shaggy? Sense Motive [ to counter bluff ] is wisdom based. He's insulting wisdom, not intelligence.
diphycue 01-05-06, 07:29 PM	Well, I'm currently playing a True Necromancer Lich with a Warforged Artificer traveling companion. He is a worshipper of a god named "Harrow" who is the evil god of cold and death. Recently we've encountered a group of black dragons who the god has instructed us to destroy. Well, being two extremely evil people, after taking out the head dragon, we began sacrificing and experimenting on the dragon's children. Using the sacrifices of the other dragons as "spiritual fuel" (using rules from BoVD for rewards from sacrifices) we began imbuing a wyrmling black dragon with negative energy, in essence creating a half-undead black dragon. Not long after doing this, we enlisted the aid of our dwarven town (our first mission was to take over a mining town) to raise the dragon. In the meantime we have been sent to conquer, kill, or convert a group of opposing gods troops, "Ifurita" an evil goddess of fire. Many of the troops are monstrous humanoids and the like, orcs, goblinoids, minotaurs, etc...One of the champions of this group was a Half-Ogre/Half-Red Dragon (half-ogre from SS). After a massive undead vs living battle, this guy was captured, horribly level drained. Of course, the two of us got an idea... so we went to see what we could do with our two creatures. After judicious uses of wish and miracle, contact other plane and various high level spells and sacrificial rites, we presented the resultant creature to Harrow, and he imbued it with energy, making a nigh invulnerable helper that my character could control. (I did take Leadership for the cohort, though, as of yet, I can't use it, since it's too high of a level.) See, mostly worked out, minus a few specifics, and mostly done in game.
Shaggy_Shaggs 01-05-06, 07:35 PM	Soooo.... essentially this character has no detailed background. It's just nameless backgroundless typical black dragon -> corpse -> a wizard did it -> a god did it. (Hint: Your character's orders, friends and motives and such really don't have anything to do with this monstrosity since it was a corpse for most of the process and the change was almost all physical.) Pray tell, have you thought any about his personality traits?
diphycue 01-05-06, 07:42 PM	backgroundless? well, of course a wizard did it, I'm playing a wizard... As for a god being involved, well, the DM's in control of that, but since I am the "Prophet of Harrow" a High Priest in his service, he tries to help me help him. Our mission is to convert what can be converted and destroy what cannot. Anyhow, I gave more than just "random happenings wizard did it"... It was a pretty decent summary of a couple months of playing. Do you want to know specifically the stats for each dragon killed and the rolls for each sacrifice and the specific spells involved in the combinations? At no point was the component creatures dead...weakened, sure, tortured, definitely...but never dead. Though, it might have been easier to work on. As for personality traits... extremely violent (unoriginal, but still acceptable), held in check by servtitude to Ghessek (my True Necromancer). Anything else?
KublaiKhan 01-05-06, 08:14 PM	Nah, see, if you want a playable character, you want to give him some personality. Violent's too...cliche'. That, and he's a mishmash. Let's take a look at what kind of attributes a chimera like that would have. First, take alignment. That's about the only thing I can see there that wouldn't have a conflict, as red and black dragons are both always CE, and ogres are usually that. But beyond that, the poor creature's going to have severe difficulties in the mental department, and may drift to neutral-by-reason-of-insanity. Red Dragons are known to be extremely vain. This is going to conflict with everything else in this chimera, 'cuz no matter how you stack it, he's butt-ugly and a half-breed. [ I know you've got Cha 26. He's still going to be ugly as sin. This is going to be a case of high charisma 'cuz you can't look away, not because you want to look toward. ] This will lead to immense frustration, as his draconic pride is not going to be particularly happy with the fusion, especially not with something as low as an ogre into the mix. Ogres are 'lazy and bad-tempered' to start with, and tend to smash whatever gets in their way. Combining all this, on top of the creature's inherent instability, he's going to be very self-loathing, I think. In other words, you've got a suicidal chimera on your hands. Probably clinically depressed, and almost certainly schizophrenic. Also, being CE, he's going to want to kill whatever made him that way--in point of fact, *you*. So he's only going to follow your orders out of fear or compulsion, not through any sense of loyalty. And with those stats, he's probably strong and smart enough to set something up to eventually turn on you. So in other words, you have a cohort coming who hates your existence, has the means to end it, and is unstable enough to do so. Good luck.
diphycue 01-05-06, 08:45 PM	Thank you, THAT's the kind of feedback I was looking for! Yeah, it'd be fun, and the whole evil gets what's coming to it, thing... Any other ideas?
Krelios 01-26-06, 03:05 PM	A 20th level character with 40 HitPoints? Better hope you don't fall down the stairs... There's no story for a template-stew like this.
interpretivechaos 01-26-06, 06:13 PM	I'm getting a sudden image of Marvin from Hitchikers guide to the galaxy (This guys a super genius), who is going to hate his life. I would probably play him as an arrogant self loathing creature who occasional gets bored enough to say... eat a village or something.
Omnirahk, half-Rahkshi 01-26-06, 06:46 PM	Make him good! What? We know for a fact that he is going to HATE the ones who made him. So what if he's doing everything possible to be a thorn in their side. And he comes to the conclusion that it's possible for him to be a hindrance, annoyance, danger, and embarrassment all at once. What villain mastermind wouldn't be ashamed to have created a hero?
Harrow Blade 01-26-06, 09:36 PM	I am all for a creative challenge so I'll have a crack at this nut. I have read all the posts so far and will try for something a little different to 'the wizard did it'. We all know that the wizard always does it and so in defense of all wizards everywhere that have not yet conjured, created, mutated, mated with or some how been responsible for a monstrosity I will offer this alternative. No one knew how it started but the battle had been raging for days now. The landscape was torn and ravaged by the forces each brought to bear on it's opponent. Karvanthrilas, an ancient black dragon was pitted in mortal combat with Randarkalain a younger yet massively proportioned red dragon. Each was scorched by acid or fire and bleeding heavily from dozens of wounds, wings hung torn and broken in the aftermath of the stunningly vicious aerial contest. Rage had long since taken over was the only thing keeping each great beasts from collapsing into a heap in exhaustion. Sensing the end was near each of the mighty reptiles lunged in the desperate need to finish the fight. Randarkalain's massive jaws closed around the neck of Karvanthrilas in what he thought was the decisive move, teeth punching through scales and coming together in a sickening crunch and spray of blood. Yet even as life fled the black his claws found an open wound on the belly of red and powerful muscles bunched and moved tearing open the flesh spilling guts, bile and organs onto the bare earth. Both dragons lay there, spirits leaving both bodies and the blood mingled in the mud as the two living creatures never could. It was a lone ogre that came across the devastation of the two dead dragons, yet this lone ogre was far from average. An Ogre Mage of considerable power Gruthkis, as he was know, saw a great opportunity in the flesh of the two mighty beasts. Acting quickly he began to forge a mighty set of dragon plate, using hide from both creatures and the blood to aid in powering the invocation he was imbuing the armor with all the power he could manage. this massive out pouring of power attracted the spirits of the dragons that had not yet passed on to Tiamet's realm. Karvanthrilas, the older and more cunning of the two saw an opportunity and guided his spirit into the flow of power moving from the ogre into the armor. Randarkalain was not one to bested and so he followed his foe and joined his spirit into the flow of power. Gruthkis felt the sudden surge of power as the two dragon spirits surged through him and into the armor tearing at his soul as they passed. He staggered under the force of the powerful assault and he staggered, fumbling the incantation. What had been a steady flow of power, controlled and precise, became a wild thing bucking out of control as both the ogre and the armor thrashing about on the ground. Somehow the two dragon spirits in the armor and the ogre merged in a hideous merging of power, flesh and spirit. The natural regeneration of the Ogre Mage went into overdrive fueled by the infused power and the armor-ogre meld began to grow, morph and change. When the change had finally finished the creature that lay unconscious on the earth was both more and less than the sum of the creatures that had come together. So conflicted was mind of the creature as the three spirits fought for control that all memory who it had been fled deep into the subconscious as each personality fought for dominance. Dispite being unable or perhaps unwilling to remember what it was that brought it into being the creature retains it's sharp mind and decerning eye. Cunning and devilishly intelligent the creature knows it's weaknesses and it's strengths and as such is not one to lightly rush out into the world. However when it chooses to make it's presence felt it will do so with consiquences that may very well be felt throughout the planes. (ok so it's an Ogre Mage. i tried :D ) Harrow Blade
DBoot 01-27-06, 12:22 AM	Honestly, from a CO standpoint, this thing is a monstrosity. It lacks elegance, and it suffers from some glaring weaknesses (such as the aforementioned 40 HP). That said... perfect CD material. I'm going to disagree with the general sentiment here. 27 int, 30 wis, 26 charisma; those are some hefty mental stats. He/She maybe a freak of nature, but he/she is a brilliant, insightful and persuasive freak of nature. His/her mental stats are outside of the bounds of normal humans (nonepic characters without magical enhancements), and that should be taken into account. Consider that he/she could puzzle through any sort of existentialist conundrum in a fraction of a time it would a human. Though physically monstrous, there is no reason why the character can't come to terms with his/herself and his/her origins. I'd like to see a thoughtful, well adjusted individual, who, while having misgivings about his/her birth, regardless appreciates the fact that he/she is alive. With his/her brains, disguising his/her form is a snap (or a hat of disguise or what not). He/she rises above the pull of instinct and doesn't devolve into a ravening beast. Being the bastard creation of magic and gods is a mere trifle if you've got the right attitude for it. I'd bump the character's alignment to TN over time. He/she may be compelled to serve (for now), but I'd say that's a problem for the character to tackle over time, as he/she makes these personal decisions. Probably not what you're looking for, but the world needs less angst, and who better to lead the charge than the last thing you'd like to meet in a dark alley?
kraegor 01-28-06, 05:53 PM	I didn't think that different colored dragon where matable? As in, a black can't mate with a red, like a dwarf really can't mate with an elf. If this is the case, then you would just have to pick 1 dragon to go with. And why do that? just pick up Half-Celestial and a Feral Template to work with if you are going a warrior type route. Much more effective than 2 half dragon templates.