Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Addimarchus 07-02-06, 03:03 AM	So the Lich wants to have a force to protect and despoil. Thinking long and hard he comes up with this idea. 1) Capture some of the good guys that come to investigate/end him. 2) Pick the ones with the better physique. 3) Clone said example. 4) Flesh to stone the clone. 5) Animate object the statue 6) Awaken construct (possibly incarnate as well, if he's lonely ;) ) 7) Rinse, repeat. 8) Optional exrtra, cast enlarge on some to create 'large' or 'giant' sized minions Voila ! Army of 'smart' soldier statue warriors. Yes ? No ?
Encard 07-02-06, 04:46 AM	Not so good, methinks. What happens if someone casts Stone to Flesh on the statues? I'm not sure your spell combination would work here. Besides, this seems like an awful lot of work to get an army of animated statues. It costs 1000 GP per clone, plus whatever the cost of Awaken Construct is (can't recall where that's from); Animate Object only lasts 1 round/level unless you Permanency it, which costs you XP; animated objects are also pathetic - it doesn't matter if you started out with a powerful; adventurer, in the end you still get a 2 HD construct. Unless I missed something major, this doesn't really look viable. Why not just build golems from the mangled flesh of adventurers the lich slaughtered (or, heck, from entire villages the lich slaughtered)? Or golems from metals acquired via dread pacts with nameless powers of the lower realms... maybe even nameless beings from the Far Realms, creating a golem that really gives of a Should Not Exist vibe. Maybe the lich found a way to magically speed up the Green Star Adept transformation (probably via an artifact of some sort), giving him access to a small army of high-level construct-ish gishes. Then again, maybe he's the inventor of the warforged in your world - handy things, those, particularly if you can get a few Warforged Juggernauts or Warforged Titans. There are plenty of options for an army of contructs that, in my opinion, are better than animate object'd, flesh-to-stoned adventurers. *shrug*
kelvinaw273 07-02-06, 07:35 AM	I think that a cloned, petrified, animated and awakened being would have the same mind and thoughts as the original adventurer. Now the lich may have to fight this creation rather than the original person ...
Addimarchus 07-02-06, 11:56 AM	Yes, good points there, many thanks. I like the idea of the 'green stone' transformation thingy, I'll have to look it up again, totaly forgot about that one. How about some sort of bargain with Illithids for some knowledge for creating their brainsucked puppets ? Need too much 'assume supernatural abilities' to pull it off ? I'm realy after something other than 'standard' golems, but I'd like an idea for 'mass canon fodder' that doesn't mind getting offed, as well as not realy being in a position to be made to give out the evil liches plans/ideas. I'm finding it hard to creat ' peons' that can give a high level party a good run for their money, that won't invariably be turned on their master. :( The spawns of Kyuss are 'good' but the group is getting near the climax and I'd like something............'special' :D
terrainmonkey 07-02-06, 12:04 PM	I'm finding it hard to creat ' peons' that can give a high level party a good run for their money, that won't invariably be turned on their master. if you are going to use illithids and far realm abberations, why not try the half illithid template and put it on umber hulks. these make for great minions and i have done in several characters with just one of them. i call them umber hulk "Overseers" IMC. just a thought. also, Feral template from savage species on ogres is also good. make them mindless creatures. a feral half troll ogre barbarian raging is a force to be reckonned with on the battlefied. a lot of them? now you're talking. entire farmies of raging frothing regenerating ogres with 32 strength or higher? yeah baby! hope this helps.
kelvinaw273 07-02-06, 01:29 PM	<sigh> It's hard being an evil genius megalamaniac out to take over the world! The prenial problem is finding good help that is competent, tough, ambitious and loyal. Those that are competant and ambitious are typically also difficult to control, those that are tough and ambitious tend to fight, those that are tough and competent but not ambitious tend to lack initiative, and those that are loyal are typically so because they lack one or more of the other traits; in many organisations, all three. How to encourage competency: I find a rigorous training schedule and competative examination to be an excelent method for ensuring that staff are well able to do their jobs. Too much competative examination may lead to staff dissatisfaction and overly high stress levels, however. I recomend not killing more than a quarter of your prospective employees in this method. For specialist employees, I recomend that you try not to kill many of them at all - after all, making them special costs money! How to toughen up your toughies: Experience is often the very best teacher, so all employees are required to attend regular outward-bound orienteering courses, with substantial rewards in place for the survivors. First class equipment is also necessary, but remember that a suit of armour is useless without a decent fighter inside it (if I had a gold piece for every time that a fellow BBEG has tried to encase zombies in heavy armour and found them merely overly-vulnerable to trip and grapple attacks <sigh>). Constant training and real-life combat will also help you overcome the prenial BBEG problem of having your elite troops unable to hit a lone 'hero' at ten paces. Five men who are good shots are worth more than ten who are not - remind them of this, and advise that if that is what the mortality rate needs to be, so be it. You will soon see your minions becoming brilliant sharp-shooters! How to Harness Ambition: Ambition is a hard one, because ambitious people want to reach the top of the tree, which is where YOU are. As long as the organisation is moving up and out, there is always room for them to step up, but should conditions change you may find that you have a half-dozen lieutenants jockeying for Captain via dead-man's shoes. Internal competition is once again your saviour. Keep your underlings' eyes' on each other, and they won't be watching you. But do set rules - the last thing you want is headquarters blowing up as part of an internal feud. Precise assassination harms the organisation much less and is so much neater. How to encourage loyalty: For the average grunt, fear is an excelent motivator, especially if you have trained them correctly (see above). For the more proffesional aides, you need to be more subtle. These are often the people who are also ambitious, tough and competent with their eye on the top job - yours. If they are strong enough to deal with the people who would challenge you, they are likely strong enough to challenge you themselves should they get organised. It is therefore important to recruit the right people at the outset. Psychotic maniacs are right out, I'm afraid. These are people to avoid, in every sense of the word. In fact, political points can be scored by disposing of such people wherever and whenever you find them. Should you employ them you will find them unpopular with their underlings (and overlings), unpredictable (you could be next) and frankly, they are a hazard: for some reason, people rashly assume that because you employed these individuals and gave them several battalions of orc infantry that you are in some way responsible for the casual laying-waste of peasent villages that get in the way when you gave quite clear orders to attack the castle, not the villages. Social Outscasts are excelent fodder for loyal subjects. People unjustly denied their due in society due to the sins, incompetance or prejudices of others are ideally suited for working for you loyally, as you have given them the opportunity that society at large denied them. Further, should you need to move against mainstream society, they already have an axe to grind. Nascent Heroes are another source of excelent recruits, if you pick those with ethical codes that permit strict justice and are perhaps a little weak in the area of altruism. A promise of discounted equipment and good pay will quickly win them over. You should also look into those with reputations for steadfastness and honour. Make no mistake, arranging a little disaster to befall the friends and family of these people and then being there to assist them out of the hot water can do marvels not only for your organisation but for your PR as well. Magiced Monsters This class of creature is best used on a long leash. The most effective monsters against would-be heroes are the smart ones, and they are smart enough and tough enough to be a problem. Engineering thinsg so that the heroes tackle the monster rather than you is an excelent way of taking down the goody-two-shoes and the competition at the same time. Golems are handy for brute force, but controllers are always required if you want them to have any initiative whatsoever. Awakened creations are one possible solutions, but again they tend to then have minds of their own! At the end of the day, if you want good help you have to part with good money. Green and Blue dragons are always open to negotiation if given proper deference and / or encouragement (both, while thoroughly corrupt, have a weakness for their mates and/or eggs and young). Feral monsters tend to be hard to control, but if you can assemble them in holding areas you can bypass and others cannot, they can serve as adequate guardians.