Post/Author/DateTime	Post
TheMrBlack 02-03-05, 12:22 PM	I'm working on a bbeg for my current Ebberon Campaign. What I want to do is this.... There is an artifact (there always is isnt there?) that a half demon/half construct (I'll explain in a moment) is after in order to take revenge on an old enemy of hers. She will be based in the lower regions of Sharn. Now.. the problem... the half demon/construct bit. She would have been a succubus who crossed a balor, who had torn her wings (and unfortunately her right arm as well) off, exiled her to the mortal realms, cursed her so she'd live for centuries unless she was violently killed, at which point, instead of returning to her abyssal home, she'd just cease to exist. Her arm was rebuilt by an artificer so that it resembles the arm of a Warforged. The artifact she's looking for would fit into her arm, granting her god like abilities (stat increases, invulnerablities, etc). The artifact is taken care of... my problem lies in what to do class wise with her, would the arm make her half construct? Would she just have the standard level progression of a succubus plus classes? Would the arm factor into her ecl/la? Any ideas?
Kolakuba 02-03-05, 12:28 PM	I think you had a half-golem template in either the Fiend Folio or MMII, but I don't have my books with me, so I don't know how this would fit. You also have rules for grafts in the Fiend Folio, as well as Complete Arcane if I'm not mistaken, so you could modify some of those, and see how that works.
Golbez57 02-03-05, 02:39 PM	Yep, any major enhancements that you add will likely raise your BBEG's Challenge Rating, which might be good or bad dependent upon how that'll make her stack up against your PCs. Say, for instance, that CR 7 Succubus is intended to go against your Level 5 party. Adding any templates is going to make her an almost-impossibly-tough foe, regardless of whether or not she has the artifact equipped. In that case... you can always scale back her Succubus hit dice. Since you've cast her as someone who could rouse the attention of a balor, I don't know that this is the best option, but you could look around for a Succubus level progression a la Savage Species; I believe there might be one in The Planar Handbook along with the Chain Devil and other outsiders, but am unsure. She already is unable to fly, so taking away another minor supernatural ability might scale her back to CR 6 before any templates are considered. In case you want to pump her up, well, by all means, Templates ahoy! I only remember seeing half-construct in an older issue of Dungeon, but am sure that I've seen half-golem in one of my Monster/Fiend supplements. Those two would seem to be most fitting with what you've described. Alternately, class levels are very easy to add as far as figuring out new abilities and adjusting CR. It sounds to me like Artificer might work well, espeically if she had any part in building her arm. Depending on how the Template descriptions read, she might even be able to use her infusions on her arm. If she's knowledge-obsessive, you might make her a cleric of The Shadow. Just some thoughts! Have fun.
TheMrBlack 02-03-05, 03:47 PM	That was the template I was thinking of, the Half Construct, man I wish I could remember where it is... as for succubus progression it is in Savage Species. I think I'm going to try to put the two together and toss on another template, something to, like you said, make her worthy of the intention of a balor. As for the arm, I was actually considering Artificer from the start. I may toss in a monk level or so to make her a hand to hand combatant. Being half warforged (so to speak) she'd be unable to use alot of her abilities, such as polymorphing and what not, at least that's wha tI'm going to do story wisel. Her charisma would drop too I'd think. Mmm maybe not though, since it's not really appearance.. hmm. As for weapons I'm thinking infusions on her arm, some permenant enchantments like a force spell useable a certain amount of times a day, maybe minor elctrical stuff... Of course, while I do want her defeatable, I dont know if I want her dead. I think I may want to use her again sometime. As for level, I'm not intending on tossing her and her cronies against the pc's for a while, and they're 13th now. Thanks for the input =)
Golbez57 02-03-05, 04:25 PM	No problem! This sounds like a really interesting villianess, TheMrBlack. I was visiting Paizo's website looking for a reference to a back-issue of Dragon, and so I took a look at the Dungeon back-issues for you, too. #91 has the Half-Construct template, I believe; my friend ran that adventure and said that he and his players really enjoyed it. Granted, it used 3rd Edition rules, but I don't imagine it'd be too tough to adapt the Template to v3.5. Since she is still a Succubus in her icy (flame-y?) black heart, you could give her a "mature" edge and create some 'forged, uhm, servants for her. This could be kinky and dark at the same time, like all memorable Succubus encounters should be. :devil: .... :love: Of course, that's all dependent on the style of your campaign and the preferences of you and your players. We have pretty "clean" games ourselves.
Cairn Stone 02-03-05, 06:12 PM	If you can't track down that issue of Dragon that Golbez mentioned, you can find the Half-Golem template on page 209 of the MMII. It includes construction rules and DCs for adding limbs as well as other stats, so if your succubus is going the "do it yourself" route, you can use that stuff. Anyhow, good luck with your bbeg. :devil:
TheMrBlack 02-04-05, 08:29 AM	Thanks guys! Yeah I was considering having her have an entourage of "fixed" toys... Warforged slaves and what not. We'll see if the party can get into the idea. Heheh, time to whip out that Book of ERotic Fantasy! (j/k)