Looking for some help with a scary necromancer power.

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

goujoe_the_bumpkin

Dec 23, 2009 3:34:33		Alright, I'm looking for a bit of help in creating a power for a necromancer villain I intend to use in an upcoming adventure. I'd like the power to be relatively balanced while still being nice and scary. The flavor for the power would be, in a nutshell, the target's skin rips from their body and spawns a Forsaken Shell (Open Grave pg 148). >:D

I'm thinking the power would be against either a single target or a small burst (perhaps more then one power, one on a single target an one on a burst 1), it would obviously do a crap ton of damage while spawning said baddie(s), and it would make a good amount of sense to have it do an additional effect such as dazed, stunned, prone, weakened, etc, or some combination of effects as the victim would be in such horrendous agony. One situation where I plan to use it is an encounter with the villain, and said villain uses it on a few of his own minions before fleeing leaving the party to fight either just the Shells if it kills the minions, or their skinless zombified corpses as well for the party to fight.

Anyone want to suggest a way to implement this power to be at least somewhat balanced while being intimidating as all hell?
#2

pluisjen

Dec 23, 2009 6:12:14 		If it is used on monsters, then make it a cinematic effect instead of giving it an actual power description. It's just a part of the encounter design. (You can just say the bad guy uses his Action Point to rip his minions apart for the summon, and then attacks them, or tries to get away)

If you want to use it on a player, make it a high-damage power with a powerful status effect that summons another creature, but account for that creature in the XP used to build the encounter and make the attack do half damage on a miss and spawn the creature regardless.

That way, the monster won't lose an action (his attack is powerful enough to warrant the standard action use) and the encounter won't be too difficult (because you already paid the XP for the summon) and your players will be scared shitless.