Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lord Karsus 04-13-06, 01:36 AM	-Please, tell me your opinions on this NPC. Does everything seem to mesh and/or seem reasonable. The only problem is that I have yet to come up with a name for this character, so I will simply call him 'X', for the sake of simplicity. X is a Half-Illithid Wizard / Ocular Adept (Faiths and Pantheons) X was the apprentice of Jord Bastilion, a member of the Dark Cabal of Sephir. The Dark Cabal was a group of evil wizards with similar intentions- mainly world domination. They quickly seized control of the Island-Nation of Sephir, and sent their fell armies to conquer the rest of the world. As the armies of the Dark Cabal spread, Jord Bastilion found himself with a problem. X, his apprentice, was quickly growing in power, and was demonstrating himself a very capable apprentice- a little TOO capable for his liking. Consulting his Quasit familiar, Jord decided to get rid of X, lest he be slain by his own apprentice. Jord summoned X to his private chamber, and a spell-battle quickly commenced. Jord, being the master- and the more powerful of the two- gained the upper hand. Because of his strange sense of humor, instead of outright killing X, he conjured a Time Portal, and cast X fifty years into the past. Weakened and dying, X suddenly finds himself in the Underdark. Eventually, a group of Illithid come upon the dying boy, and for whatever their reasons are, bring him back to their city. After being tortured and victim to their alien experiments, X was chosen to become an Illithid himself. X was to undergo Ceremorphis, and become a Mindflayer. During the process, chaos struck the Illithid city. The thrall began to rebel. In the confusion, X was able to escape his bondage halfway through the Ceremorphis process. Using his innate arcane powers, he was also able to forestall the Illithid tadpole from fully transforming him. But, he was too late from stopping it from drastically changing him. Wandering the Underdark, X eventually comes upon a hive of Beholders. Using his arcane and fledgling psionic powers, he is able convince the Beholders to not only allow him to live, but to aid him. Of course, something is lost in the translation, and X is forced to undergo the excruciatingly painful process in which humans are transformed into Ocular Adepts. Now living in the Beholder city, X is slowly able to gain more and more influence. Utilizing his arcane and psionic powers, X was able to secretly influence the mind and actions of the Elder Orb of the city, effectivley making it a puppet leader. X now controls the actions of the city from behind the scenes. -Comments?
Fithero 04-13-06, 01:54 AM	Just a couple of holes that i can see - the deal with turning into a mind flayer is that they put one of those larva in your head... and it pretty much eats your brain... *then* begins to transform the body... thats gonna make it pretty hard for him to be the same character... with the loosing of the brain and all. You might be able to find some way around it... perhaps the illithids were doing a experimintal process which allows the new mind flayer to keep the memories of the host human.... might work. 2- beholders are totally racists (as are mindflayers) and really hate other races... especially mind flayers. So to find a half illithid/human ruling in a beholder city is pretty much as far out there as it gets. Its possible if he became on of those Ocular Adepts, but he would have to survive the the time before he was initiated. 3- influence the elder orb? (elder orbs dont actually rule(i think).. they just uber powerfull beholders (have more racial hd and 6lvls or sorc)) you might mean the hive mother.. i dunno.. whatever. Anyway, point is, is that these guys are uber.... *uber* tough and that is highly unlikely that your character could effect them with magic... i mean... they are the leader of a beholder city for a reason. thats pretty much all i can see atm, if you can find a reason to explain these 3 things, its a pretty solid story. hope this helps Later
Lord Karsus 04-14-06, 02:55 AM	Just a couple of holes that i can see - the deal with turning into a mind flayer is that they put one of those larva in your head... and it pretty much eats your brain... *then* begins to transform the body... thats gonna make it pretty hard for him to be the same character... with the loosing of the brain and all. You might be able to find some way around it... perhaps the illithids were doing a experimintal process which allows the new mind flayer to keep the memories of the host human.... might work. -That might be a problem. I don’t want to go down the ‘experimental process’ route. I think that I might change his total levels to include a few in Psionics before X was captured by the Mindflayers and underwent their Ceremorphis process. This way, it sounds feasible that, if he escaped before the process was finished, he could have somehow enthralled the Illithid tadpole in his head while it was still weak, and saved his own mind/memories. What do you think? 2- beholders are totally racists (as are mindflayers) and really hate other races... especially mind flayers. So to find a half illithid/human ruling in a beholder city is pretty much as far out there as it gets. Its possible if he became on of those Ocular Adepts, but he would have to survive the the time before he was initiated. -I haven’t finalized the amount of time that X spend wandering the Underdark, but when the Beholders encounter him, I had the notion that X would be able to “charm” them using his heightening Psionic powers. Of course, something got “lost in the translation”, and when the Beholders sought to aid him, they thought the best way of doing so would be by making him one of them, since Beholder’s are very vain. Of course, X would have had to go along with the process, or risk being killed or something equally more gruesome. 3- influence the elder orb? (elder orbs dont actually rule(i think).. they just uber powerfull beholders (have more racial hd and 6lvls or sorc)) you might mean the hive mother.. i dunno.. whatever. Anyway, point is, is that these guys are uber.... *uber* tough and that is highly unlikely that your character could effect them with magic... i mean... they are the leader of a beholder city for a reason. -Yes, I meant Hive Mothers. That’s for straightening that out. This is the end of X’s story, so by this point, he is going to be at his full strength, with all of the levels I am intending him to have. By this point, I am envisioning X to be something like: X, Half-Illithid Wizard 6 / Psion 8 / Ocular Adept 4 -That is 18 HD, which is pretty tough. Total levels aren’t going to be exactly that, but in that neighborhood. Plus, Beholders aren’t immune or especially resistant to Psionics, so that is how I envision X gaining his hidden control of the city.
Need_A_Life 04-15-06, 02:06 PM	My suggestion Chronological Order: 1) When he became a half-illithid [THIS CANNOT BE APPLIED TO A CREATURE WITH THE HUMAN SUBTYPE! HUMANS BECOME MIND FLAYERS, NOT HALF-ILLITHID] he lost all memories and personality. 2) The new creature was however influenced by the powerful tie to arcane magic that the host had, it had a close tie to magic and it influenced the illithid mind. 3) The illithid began to act more and more like the host and began to travel away from his kin, he desired not for his secret to be discovered. 4) He was captured by Beholders and seeing this abomination, the beholders began to torture him with the most painful method they knew. He was to have the same ritual as Ocular Adepts performed on him. He survived this and even managed to escape. 5) Enter campaign Don't influence Beholders, they will hate your guts! Likely they will be able to slaughter you easily. A standard beholder will negate all your magic and if there's more than one they'll coordinate their efforts to bombard you with Disintegrates or Flesh to Stone and then cover you with Antimagic ad nauseum!
Lord Karsus 04-15-06, 11:44 PM	1) When he became a half-illithid [THIS CANNOT BE APPLIED TO A CREATURE WITH THE HUMAN SUBTYPE! HUMANS BECOME MIND FLAYERS, NOT HALF-ILLITHID] he lost all memories and personality. -My entire idea was that he escaped bondage before the Ceremorphis process was fully implemented. As a result, he was kind of hanging in limbo, somewhere between a Mindflayer and a Human. That's why I chose Half-Illithid. If the Half-Illithid template cannot be added to a human, without choosing to go down the route you suggested, how do you think I can get this human to be somewhere between Illithid and Human? Is there a different template, or creature, or something? A Quasillithid, if such a thing exists? Don't influence Beholders, they will hate your guts! Likely they will be able to slaughter you easily. A standard beholder will negate all your magic and if there's more than one they'll coordinate their efforts to bombard you with Disintegrates or Flesh to Stone and then cover you with Antimagic ad nauseum! -Enslaving a group of Beholders is integral to the plot line I have established with this character. It's not going to be part of the actual campaign- it is just a historical story that happened quite a while ago, in relation to when the campaign is going to be taking place. So, the actual semantics of things don't matter too much in my eyes. Sure, it is a long shot that said character would be able to covertly "dominate" a Hive Mother, and make it his puppet, but, I suppose, X was lucky.
TheRubberBandit 04-16-06, 12:48 AM	Im not too good at backgrounds im just saying.... Dont say kosher. You most likely do not even know what it means, and if you do then you would know that it shouldnt be applied here.
Lord Karsus 04-16-06, 01:17 AM	Im not too good at backgrounds im just saying.... Dont say kosher. You most likely do not even know what it means, and if you do then you would know that it shouldnt be applied here. -The word Kosher comes from the same root word as the word for 'proper' and/or 'correct'. If I posted "Does this NPC Background sound Kaf Shin Resh?" Not too many people would understand what's going on. Kosher, people understand. Or, to get to the same answer using a different route, Kosher is a specific set of rules that applies to food, in order for it to be clean and all. I'm looking for this character background to pass all of the D&D Rules, and to be a correct character.
Fithero 04-16-06, 09:14 AM	Ok Lord Karsus, the main problem ive got with this background is that it just doesnt seem realistic (as realistic as things get in a fantasy role playing world) Its like when people make 1st level characters and say "my characters is cool, calm, collected and has been the winning factor in three major wars...." Its a 1st level character... there is no way that has happened at all.... Its like with your character... even a 20th level character based totally on mind control would be hard pressed to subvertly control a beholder city. Its just to unrealistic. Sorry man, but your trying to put together a character that doesnt really make sense... or follow the story at all. Its like trying to make a half celestial, half fiendish, tauric (gorgon) human who is a gestalt druid/paladin follower of Bane..... Admitedly its not as far out as that... but its pretty much out there. You seem to be just grabbing templates and Prc's and throwing them together for a good combo. Sorry if this is comming off as harsh Lord Karsus, just throwing it out there. Later
Lord Karsus 04-16-06, 09:57 AM	Ok Lord Karsus, the main problem ive got with this background is that it just doesnt seem realistic (as realistic as things get in a fantasy role playing world) Its like when people make 1st level characters and say "my characters is cool, calm, collected and has been the winning factor in three major wars...." Its a 1st level character... there is no way that has happened at all.... Its like with your character... even a 20th level character based totally on mind control would be hard pressed to subvertly control a beholder city. Its just to unrealistic. Sorry man, but your trying to put together a character that doesnt really make sense... or follow the story at all. Its like trying to make a half celestial, half fiendish, tauric (gorgon) human who is a gestalt druid/paladin follower of Bane..... Admitedly its not as far out as that... but its pretty much out there. You seem to be just grabbing templates and Prc's and throwing them together for a good combo. Sorry if this is comming off as harsh Lord Karsus, just throwing it out there. Later -This is no 1st level character. His total levels are going to be something like: Half-Illithid "Quasillithid" Wizard 6 / Psion 8 / Ocular Adept 4 -Still, I do understand that a 18th level character being able to covertly control a beholder hive is a little farfetched. This is not any character that is going to be used by a PC, or even in the campaign. It is a figure in my Campaign Setting's past. That's why I am not too interested in the nitty-gritty, such as, "Well, the DC for his spell is 18, and the Beholder Hive Monther naturally has a +11 to it's resistance, so there is a slim chance that it could have worked...". Strange things have happened in our world's history, and I want this situation to be one of those strange quirks that occurred in my Campaign World.