Idea for a BBEG - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Idea for a BBEG

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
ikkitulakubidiii
Jun 01, 2009 13:33:51 So I had an idea for a monster, which could also become the crux of a campaign. It would be the loot, plot hook, guide, weapon, and boss all in one. I might not be the first person to come up with this idea. I can see it being used as a main quest, side-quest, or even a parallel ongoing one. These are just some ideas that I had and wanted some reaction to; I haven’t worked out any of the math or stats required as of yet.

The notion is to have a possessed spell book. In my notes I jokingly called it a "paper liche", although it’s not too far off. The idea is that a mage bound his soul into his spell book, gaining himself immortality. The major abilities of the book are PC possession (expanding the book’s power), and spell memorization (he has access to, but not the ability to cast, every written spell it’s encountered). The book itself provides the party's mage strong powers, and also can give the party messages by manifesting pages of text at convenient times. The book itself is a large leather bound tome reinforced with metal in the spine and corners, and has a manacle extending from it and a lock keeping it closed. It is indistinguishable from a normal magical book until the party discovers its true nature, or it must move to further it’s purposes; at that point it can levitate and use mage hand, and all the spells it has written within it. I had the idea that it would also absorb the levels of mages that is possesses, becoming more powerful over time.

So basically the snag goes: party raids a dungeon, bypasses traps and guardians and finds the spell book, either hidden away or being used by an evil wizard. The party's mage is overjoyed at finding such a great artifact, imbuing him with several buffs and abilities.

The book itself can snag the party two ways: one, it features a treasure map or other plot hook, or two, it reveals itself to be an intelligent entity, seemingly benevolent, and then guides the party in its own interest (to gain more knowledge or a better host).

During the course of the quest, the wizard becomes more and more enthralled with it. Although it has a finite number of pages, the book itself can manifest words, effectively becoming infinitely long. Every day the owner must test vs. possession (X vs will). When he fails, he puts on the manacle and carries the book always, saying that it's too valuable to take out of his sight, among other weird behaviors.

So after this the quest just continues as normal, until: a) a more powerful wizard comes along or b) the book's goal is within reach. At this point the book could turn on the party, with the possessed mage charmed onto his side. Another possibility would be that if the party encountered a higher level wizard, the book may forcibly try to control him, and on a success dominates his mind; the more powerful wizard (with the unknown help from the spell book) defeats the party, and takes the book, becoming the BBEG the party has to defeat in the long term. The book could even remain covert after they defeat the BBEG, continuing its parasitic lifestyle and dropping more plot snags later in the campaign.
#2
yellowdingo
Jun 04, 2009 9:55:26
So I had an idea for a monster, which could also become the crux of a campaign. It would be the loot, plot hook, guide, weapon, and boss all in one. I might not be the first person to come up with this idea. I can see it being used as a main quest, side-quest, or even a parallel ongoing one. These are just some ideas that I had and wanted some reaction to; I haven’t worked out any of the math or stats required as of yet.

The notion is to have a possessed spell book. In my notes I jokingly called it a "paper liche", although it’s not too far off. The idea is that a mage bound his soul into his spell book, gaining himself immortality. The major abilities of the book are PC possession (expanding the book’s power), and spell memorization (he has access to, but not the ability to cast, every written spell it’s encountered). The book itself provides the party's mage strong powers, and also can give the party messages by manifesting pages of text at convenient times. The book itself is a large leather bound tome reinforced with metal in the spine and corners, and has a manacle extending from it and a lock keeping it closed. It is indistinguishable from a normal magical book until the party discovers its true nature, or it must move to further it’s purposes; at that point it can levitate and use mage hand, and all the spells it has written within it. I had the idea that it would also absorb the levels of mages that is possesses, becoming more powerful over time.

So basically the snag goes: party raids a dungeon, bypasses traps and guardians and finds the spell book, either hidden away or being used by an evil wizard. The party's mage is overjoyed at finding such a great artifact, imbuing him with several buffs and abilities.

The book itself can snag the party two ways: one, it features a treasure map or other plot hook, or two, it reveals itself to be an intelligent entity, seemingly benevolent, and then guides the party in its own interest (to gain more knowledge or a better host).

During the course of the quest, the wizard becomes more and more enthralled with it. Although it has a finite number of pages, the book itself can manifest words, effectively becoming infinitely long. Every day the owner must test vs. possession (X vs will). When he fails, he puts on the manacle and carries the book always, saying that it's too valuable to take out of his sight, among other weird behaviors.

So after this the quest just continues as normal, until: a) a more powerful wizard comes along or b) the book's goal is within reach. At this point the book could turn on the party, with the possessed mage charmed onto his side. Another possibility would be that if the party encountered a higher level wizard, the book may forcibly try to control him, and on a success dominates his mind; the more powerful wizard (with the unknown help from the spell book) defeats the party, and takes the book, becoming the BBEG the party has to defeat in the long term. The book could even remain covert after they defeat the BBEG, continuing its parasitic lifestyle and dropping more plot snags later in the campaign.

Its a very old D&D Critter refered to as a Possession.

OD&D Stats
Possession (undead)
AC: Variable
HD: 7-9
Move: 30'
#Appearing: 1
Save as: Cleric L9
Treasure Type: Variable
Int: 9
Alignment: Chaotic

It can use the Magical abilities of that which it Posesses. It can Animate the Object which it takes possession of, and can possess Living Targets. If turned, it becomes a grey shadowy cloud in the shape of the last object it possessed. If turned in this form, it is automatically destroyed.

#3
falcongk81
Jun 04, 2009 10:02:13 It certainly sounds like it has lots of merit. Of course, if the PCs discover its nature earlier than anticipated by some clever observations, you probably ought to be prepared with a backup BBEG, because if you pull some fast ones to keep them from being able to destroy it, they'll feel railroaded.

I think it sounds like a perfectly interesting BBEG.
#4
ikkitulakubidiii
Jun 05, 2009 12:21:05 I'm not overly concerned with them discovering it's true nature. It may even be likely that they discover sentience within the book, but to determine with certainty that it is malevolent should be much harder. If the PC's jump the gun they could be destroying a vital plot element! When they decide to fight it, the party will have to deal with 2 opponents; the possessed party member and the book itself. So unless it's a large party the defecting player should swing combat significantly. The mage would get buffs from wielding the book, and my intentions were to have the book be no combat slouch either; IMHO it should have a reasonable AC and HP due to it's size, metal reinforcement and flight (bobbing and dodging blows). It could also potentially flee, with or without the possessed PC, to return later in the campaign

My party still has alot of time before they reach a level where this monster would be interesting...
#5
AbdulAlhazred
Jun 05, 2009 16:23:24 Well, given its nature, it could be interesting at almost any level. With a low level wizard it can only do so much. It can give him access to some extra powers to choose from (like basically an expanded spell book) plus whatever other info it wants to divvy out. It probably won't give them a map to some area they can't possibly survive in if its current "plan A" is to ride along with its current owner and corrupt him to its purposes. Of course that could change if it say decided the current owner is not suitable...

As the characters level up it can continue to give the owner more and better spells to use, access to some rituals, etc. Whatever it needs to do in order to get what it wants.

Theoretically it could ride along with the party all the way up to epic tier, all the while engineering its master plan in subtle ways. The players may not even figure it out until the penultimate moment of the campaign when its evil machinations finally become obvious and they discover that the BBEG has been tagging along with them all this time!

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 ikkitulakubidiii Jun 01, 2009 13:33:51	So I had an idea for a monster, which could also become the crux of a campaign. It would be the loot, plot hook, guide, weapon, and boss all in one. I might not be the first person to come up with this idea. I can see it being used as a main quest, side-quest, or even a parallel ongoing one. These are just some ideas that I had and wanted some reaction to; I haven’t worked out any of the math or stats required as of yet. The notion is to have a possessed spell book. In my notes I jokingly called it a "paper liche", although it’s not too far off. The idea is that a mage bound his soul into his spell book, gaining himself immortality. The major abilities of the book are PC possession (expanding the book’s power), and spell memorization (he has access to, but not the ability to cast, every written spell it’s encountered). The book itself provides the party's mage strong powers, and also can give the party messages by manifesting pages of text at convenient times. The book itself is a large leather bound tome reinforced with metal in the spine and corners, and has a manacle extending from it and a lock keeping it closed. It is indistinguishable from a normal magical book until the party discovers its true nature, or it must move to further it’s purposes; at that point it can levitate and use mage hand, and all the spells it has written within it. I had the idea that it would also absorb the levels of mages that is possesses, becoming more powerful over time. So basically the snag goes: party raids a dungeon, bypasses traps and guardians and finds the spell book, either hidden away or being used by an evil wizard. The party's mage is overjoyed at finding such a great artifact, imbuing him with several buffs and abilities. The book itself can snag the party two ways: one, it features a treasure map or other plot hook, or two, it reveals itself to be an intelligent entity, seemingly benevolent, and then guides the party in its own interest (to gain more knowledge or a better host). During the course of the quest, the wizard becomes more and more enthralled with it. Although it has a finite number of pages, the book itself can manifest words, effectively becoming infinitely long. Every day the owner must test vs. possession (X vs will). When he fails, he puts on the manacle and carries the book always, saying that it's too valuable to take out of his sight, among other weird behaviors. So after this the quest just continues as normal, until: a) a more powerful wizard comes along or b) the book's goal is within reach. At this point the book could turn on the party, with the possessed mage charmed onto his side. Another possibility would be that if the party encountered a higher level wizard, the book may forcibly try to control him, and on a success dominates his mind; the more powerful wizard (with the unknown help from the spell book) defeats the party, and takes the book, becoming the BBEG the party has to defeat in the long term. The book could even remain covert after they defeat the BBEG, continuing its parasitic lifestyle and dropping more plot snags later in the campaign.
#2 yellowdingo Jun 04, 2009 9:55:26	So I had an idea for a monster, which could also become the crux of a campaign. It would be the loot, plot hook, guide, weapon, and boss all in one. I might not be the first person to come up with this idea. I can see it being used as a main quest, side-quest, or even a parallel ongoing one. These are just some ideas that I had and wanted some reaction to; I haven’t worked out any of the math or stats required as of yet. The notion is to have a possessed spell book. In my notes I jokingly called it a "paper liche", although it’s not too far off. The idea is that a mage bound his soul into his spell book, gaining himself immortality. The major abilities of the book are PC possession (expanding the book’s power), and spell memorization (he has access to, but not the ability to cast, every written spell it’s encountered). The book itself provides the party's mage strong powers, and also can give the party messages by manifesting pages of text at convenient times. The book itself is a large leather bound tome reinforced with metal in the spine and corners, and has a manacle extending from it and a lock keeping it closed. It is indistinguishable from a normal magical book until the party discovers its true nature, or it must move to further it’s purposes; at that point it can levitate and use mage hand, and all the spells it has written within it. I had the idea that it would also absorb the levels of mages that is possesses, becoming more powerful over time. So basically the snag goes: party raids a dungeon, bypasses traps and guardians and finds the spell book, either hidden away or being used by an evil wizard. The party's mage is overjoyed at finding such a great artifact, imbuing him with several buffs and abilities. The book itself can snag the party two ways: one, it features a treasure map or other plot hook, or two, it reveals itself to be an intelligent entity, seemingly benevolent, and then guides the party in its own interest (to gain more knowledge or a better host). During the course of the quest, the wizard becomes more and more enthralled with it. Although it has a finite number of pages, the book itself can manifest words, effectively becoming infinitely long. Every day the owner must test vs. possession (X vs will). When he fails, he puts on the manacle and carries the book always, saying that it's too valuable to take out of his sight, among other weird behaviors. So after this the quest just continues as normal, until: a) a more powerful wizard comes along or b) the book's goal is within reach. At this point the book could turn on the party, with the possessed mage charmed onto his side. Another possibility would be that if the party encountered a higher level wizard, the book may forcibly try to control him, and on a success dominates his mind; the more powerful wizard (with the unknown help from the spell book) defeats the party, and takes the book, becoming the BBEG the party has to defeat in the long term. The book could even remain covert after they defeat the BBEG, continuing its parasitic lifestyle and dropping more plot snags later in the campaign. Its a very old D&D Critter refered to as a Possession. OD&D Stats Possession (undead) AC: Variable HD: 7-9 Move: 30' #Appearing: 1 Save as: Cleric L9 Treasure Type: Variable Int: 9 Alignment: Chaotic It can use the Magical abilities of that which it Posesses. It can Animate the Object which it takes possession of, and can possess Living Targets. If turned, it becomes a grey shadowy cloud in the shape of the last object it possessed. If turned in this form, it is automatically destroyed.
#3 falcongk81 Jun 04, 2009 10:02:13	It certainly sounds like it has lots of merit. Of course, if the PCs discover its nature earlier than anticipated by some clever observations, you probably ought to be prepared with a backup BBEG, because if you pull some fast ones to keep them from being able to destroy it, they'll feel railroaded. I think it sounds like a perfectly interesting BBEG.
#4 ikkitulakubidiii Jun 05, 2009 12:21:05	I'm not overly concerned with them discovering it's true nature. It may even be likely that they discover sentience within the book, but to determine with certainty that it is malevolent should be much harder. If the PC's jump the gun they could be destroying a vital plot element! When they decide to fight it, the party will have to deal with 2 opponents; the possessed party member and the book itself. So unless it's a large party the defecting player should swing combat significantly. The mage would get buffs from wielding the book, and my intentions were to have the book be no combat slouch either; IMHO it should have a reasonable AC and HP due to it's size, metal reinforcement and flight (bobbing and dodging blows). It could also potentially flee, with or without the possessed PC, to return later in the campaign My party still has alot of time before they reach a level where this monster would be interesting...
#5 AbdulAlhazred Jun 05, 2009 16:23:24	Well, given its nature, it could be interesting at almost any level. With a low level wizard it can only do so much. It can give him access to some extra powers to choose from (like basically an expanded spell book) plus whatever other info it wants to divvy out. It probably won't give them a map to some area they can't possibly survive in if its current "plan A" is to ride along with its current owner and corrupt him to its purposes. Of course that could change if it say decided the current owner is not suitable... As the characters level up it can continue to give the owner more and better spells to use, access to some rituals, etc. Whatever it needs to do in order to get what it wants. Theoretically it could ride along with the party all the way up to epic tier, all the while engineering its master plan in subtle ways. The players may not even figure it out until the penultimate moment of the campaign when its evil machinations finally become obvious and they discover that the BBEG has been tagging along with them all this time!