"I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you." - Batman, Batman Begins "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight "Yeah, I can fly." - Tony Stark, Iron Man
Inside my hands these petals browned;
dried up falling to the ground,
but it was already too late now.
I pushed my fingers through the earth,
returned this flower to the dirt;
so it could live, I walked away now."
Rise Against - "The Good Left Undone"
Dragon Claw
Lung Jua: petty demon
Frequency: Unique
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class:
Move: 24"
Hit Dice: 15 (120 hit points)
% in Lair: Nil
Treasure Type: Nil
No. of Attacks: 4/round
Damage/Attack: 1-6 (claws) or 1-8 (swords)
Special Attacks: Martial Arts, See below
Special Defenses: see below
Magic Resistance: 70%
Intelligence: Genius, but greedy
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Size: M
Psionic Ability: None
Lung Jua is a petty demon in the Celestial Bureaucracy. He is not a demon in the true gajin sense, but rather that is a description of his attitude to his work and others. He is petty, backbiting, evil, grumbling, grasping, lazy, and greedy. He, like others of his type, will work to a plan only if that plan is his, and benefits him directly. He works within the framework of the Celestial Bureaucracy, looking for loopholes in their rulings for him to exploit. He will try to obey the letter of the law if not its spirit.
When one such as Lung Jua receives any power (such as the petition to "test" the other martial arts colleges in this adventure), he will exploit it to its maximum level, pushing others around, giving orders, and generally making life miserable for everyone involved. Lung Jua's chief goal is the advancement of Lung Jua; everything and everyone else is secondary.
Lung Jua is a repulsive-looking spirit, fat and four-armed, with the head of a dragon, and scales marring most of his body. He stands about half a head shorter than a man, but can enlarge to 10 feet tall in combat if need be (though this is usually to scare the locals more than to be effective in combat).
Lung Jua's powers include:
shape change (three times a day);
instant regeneration (three times a day);
power word blind (once per day);
cloud trapeze (four times per day);
call;
teleport without error (four times per day);
withering palm (once per day);
true sight (four times per day);
metal to rust (four times per day);
dream vision (at will, but only at night);
exaction (once per week);
mental strength (four times per day).
All spell-like abilities are at 18th level mastery. Due to his petition, Lung Jua is immune to all spells involving charm or control of spirits.
In addition, Lung Jua is the master of the Dragon Claw style of combat, using powerful hooked swords to foul and break the opponent's weapons. The Dragon Claw swords have their own abilities. Whether Lung Jua created these swords or discovered them is unknown. Lung Jua carries the "master" set of Dragon Claw swords, from which all others are derived.
Dragon Claws
The Dragon Claws are an evil artifact that may or may not have a malicious will of their own. Their origin is unknown, though it is unlikely that a petty bureaucrat like Lung Jua could come up with them.
The Dragon Claws are a pair of hooked swords, golden in color and extremely sharp. They inflict 1-10 points of damage each and save versus crushing blow on a 2. The greatest power of the Dragon Claw swords is to produce two more swords, which are then linked back to the original swords and their owner. The holder of the original Dragon Claws can see what the holders of the lesser swords can see, direct their actions and, using the Dragon Claw school of fighting, pull hit points from other holders of lesser swords to heal wounds (the holder of the original swords can never lose hit points in this fashion). The lesser
swords only inflict 1-8 points of damage.
The demon Lung Jua is the holder of the original Dragon Claws. If slain, or if Lung Jua transfers his consciousness into his statue, the swords disappear, teleporting to a new
location (where they may be discovered yet again . . . ).
Originally appeared in OA5: Mad Monkey vs the Dragon Claw (1988)
"I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you." - Batman, Batman Begins "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight "Yeah, I can fly." - Tony Stark, Iron Man
Inside my hands these petals browned;
dried up falling to the ground,
but it was already too late now.
I pushed my fingers through the earth,
returned this flower to the dirt;
so it could live, I walked away now."
Rise Against - "The Good Left Undone"
"I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you." - Batman, Batman Begins "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight "Yeah, I can fly." - Tony Stark, Iron Man
Inside my hands these petals browned;
dried up falling to the ground,
but it was already too late now.
I pushed my fingers through the earth,
returned this flower to the dirt;
so it could live, I walked away now."
Rise Against - "The Good Left Undone"
So... we'll have to mess around with all of the SLAs, because most of those spells don't exist in 3e.
He should have crazy sundering powers for the Dragon Swords (like rend armor from the bebilith and/or the hook horror ability from MM2?)
His size increase should either actually change his fighting prowess (enlarge like an efreet? righteous might?) or be reflected by a very high racial bonus to Intimidate checks.
shape change (three times a day);
power word blind (once per day);
teleport without error (four times per day);
true sight (four times per day);
For some of the others, how about:
instant regeneration (three times a day); = heal?
withering palm (once per day); = give him the quivering palm monk ability, or something akin to wither limb?
metal to rust (four times per day); = rusting grasp?
These are a bit more challenging:
dream vision (at will, but only at night); dream?
cloud trapeze (four times per day); = wind walk?
call; = summon monster IX (one specific creature)?
exaction (once per week); = greater planar binding/gate?
mental strength (four times per day) = mind blank?
"I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you." - Batman, Batman Begins "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight "Yeah, I can fly." - Tony Stark, Iron Man
Inside my hands these petals browned;
dried up falling to the ground,
but it was already too late now.
I pushed my fingers through the earth,
returned this flower to the dirt;
so it could live, I walked away now."
Rise Against - "The Good Left Undone"
I say lump call and extraction into gate 1/day. Withering palm could be quivering palm ala a monk, but we could give him a touch attack that does Str or Con drain as an SLA that gets its own entry and isn't really a spell, like a mind flayer's mind blast.
Dream vision seems more like vision than dream (presumably he's receiving visions, not sending them). The rest of your replacements seem logical to me.
a dangerous touch attack that, if successful, causes the target to dehydrate and wither (2d10 points of desiccation damage). In addition, each successful tentacle attack drains 1 point of Strength, 1 point of Dexterity, and 1 point of Constitution. This is permanent ability drain and may only be reversed by spells such as restoration and greater restoration
Quote:
metal to rust (four times per day); = rusting grasp?
like the rust monster sure.
Quote:
dream vision (at will, but only at night); dream?
yes as per the spell add in time that it can be used.
Quote:
cloud trapeze (four times per day); = wind walk?
yes
[/quote]
call; = summon monster IX (one specific creature)?
[/quote]
Summon 3 9th level LE monks with the fiendish template?
Quote:
exaction (once per week); = greater planar binding/gate?
Gate
Quote:
mental strength (four times per day) = mind blank?
I'll summarize all that once I get the Homebrews going. In order to do that, we'll need ability scores.
Int is Genius, so that would normally be 17-18. But since he's epic, that can easily be higher. Since he seems monklike, I'm thinking high Dex and Wis. Cha should be high due to his reliance on SLAs. Str and Con don't need to be super-high.
Looking at other 26 HD outsiders, his ability scores should add up to around 150-180. So maybe Str 25, Dex 31, Con 23, Int 24, Wis 30, Cha 27?
"I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you." - Batman, Batman Begins "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight "Yeah, I can fly." - Tony Stark, Iron Man
Inside my hands these petals browned;
dried up falling to the ground,
but it was already too late now.
I pushed my fingers through the earth,
returned this flower to the dirt;
so it could live, I walked away now."
Rise Against - "The Good Left Undone"
I'll summarize all that once I get the Homebrews going. In order to do that, we'll need ability scores.
Int is Genius, so that would normally be 17-18. But since he's epic, that can easily be higher. Since he seems monklike, I'm thinking high Dex and Wis. Cha should be high due to his reliance on SLAs. Str and Con don't need to be super-high.
Looking at other 26 HD outsiders, his ability scores should add up to around 150-180. So maybe Str 25, Dex 31, Con 23, Int 24, Wis 30, Cha 27?
STR 25
Dex 31
Con 26
Int 20
Wis 30
Chat 29
He's a tough lil bastard, so lets push his STR down a touch, up his Con some and reduce that Int. He's smart but not uber gneius. He's crafty more than anything and likes to play games and trick folks but can kick ass when it comes to it.
CR 15 range might work. Those summon abilities will be nasty. I still say we change his alignment to LE.
"I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you." - Batman, Batman Begins "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight "Yeah, I can fly." - Tony Stark, Iron Man
Inside my hands these petals browned;
dried up falling to the ground,
but it was already too late now.
I pushed my fingers through the earth,
returned this flower to the dirt;
so it could live, I walked away now."
Rise Against - "The Good Left Undone"
I agree with Leopold about the alignment. He really reads like LE, and he's not a true demon.
Fair enough. You have a majority.
Quote:
Originally Posted by freyar
I think I'll wait to comment on the abilities till they're in homebrews.
Some of them are in there.
What monk abilities should he possess? AC bonus seems like a good choice. Maybe evasion?
We need to decide the powers of the Dragon Claws. As a 26-HD outsider, he's going to be CR 21-22. Compared to other unique outsiders of that CR with weapons, total plusses will be in the +7 to +8 range. Since the Dragon Claws are a pair, +4 each? We'll give 'em special sunder powers, of course. Make 'em katanas, since they deal 1d10 and are of asian flavor?
"I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you." - Batman, Batman Begins "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight "Yeah, I can fly." - Tony Stark, Iron Man
Inside my hands these petals browned;
dried up falling to the ground,
but it was already too late now.
I pushed my fingers through the earth,
returned this flower to the dirt;
so it could live, I walked away now."
Rise Against - "The Good Left Undone"
What monk abilities should he possess? AC bonus seems like a good choice. Maybe evasion?
evasion, two weapon fighting, improved two weapon fighting, improved disarm, monks' AC bonus from wisdom. Whatever gives him the ability to wield 4 weapons at once.
Quote:
We need to decide the powers of the Dragon Claws. As a 26-HD outsider, he's going to be CR 21-22. Compared to other unique outsiders of that CR with weapons, total plusses will be in the +7 to +8 range. Since the Dragon Claws are a pair, +4 each? We'll give 'em special sunder powers, of course. Make 'em katanas, since they deal 1d10 and are of asian flavor?
Give him the ability to have perfect two-weapon fighting, like a marilith. Give him Improved Sunder. Make the dragon claws adamantine. I agree with giving him evasion and Wis to AC. Instant regeneration could be a heal spell, or it could be something like Siragle's profane fury, like Leopold suggested. I'd make the regeneration in that case fast healing, and I'd boost the value to 15.
Oh, and if we're making his Dex that good, we should allow him to Finesse those dragon claws.
I'm not quite sure what we've decided on this guy so far, but I agree with the perfect two weapon fighting and improved sunder and the monk ability suggestions. However, based on the following, why are we giving the Dragon Claws special sundering powers?
Quote:
Dragon Claws
The Dragon Claws are an evil artifact that may or may not have a malicious will of their own. Their origin is unknown, though it is unlikely that a petty bureaucrat like Lung Jua could come up with them.
The Dragon Claws are a pair of hooked swords, golden in color and extremely sharp. They inflict 1-10 points of damage each and save versus crushing blow on a 2. The greatest power of the Dragon Claw swords is to produce two more swords, which are then linked back to the original swords and their owner. The holder of the original Dragon Claws can see what the holders of the lesser swords can see, direct their actions and, using the Dragon Claw school of fighting, pull hit points from other holders of lesser swords to heal wounds (the holder of the original swords can never lose hit points in this fashion). The lesser swords only inflict 1-8 points of damage.
The demon Lung Jua is the holder of the original Dragon Claws. If slain, or if Lung Jua transfers his consciousness into his statue, the swords disappear, teleporting to a new
location (where they may be discovered yet again . . . ).
My bold there. I'd say that these should be +3 wounding adamantine katanas (or maybe +4 keen adamantine) with the appropriate special powers. Bumpting the damage up from the usual 1d8 to 1d10 is probably worth a bit, so these would be then each about half as expensive as a +8 weapon before adding their special duplication property.
Psst. Katanas are already 1d10 weapons, being masterwork bastard swords.
Also, the line about sundering is:
"In addition, Lung Jua is the master of the Dragon Claw style of combat, using powerful hooked swords to foul and break the opponent's weapons."
Ah, I didn't see katanas in the SRD, so I didn't realize that. The price is even better, then, since the duplication ability is probably worth quite a lot.
Yeah, I saw the line about sundering, but that reads much more to be something Lung Jua does rather than a property of the weapons, especially since the weapon write-up doesn't mention it.
If we want to give him the ability to use Weapon Finesse with the Dragon Claws, we'll need to note somewhere that he treats them as light weapons.
"Sundering" doesn't appear to be a magic property in the SRD (although there is a psionic property, but I'm not sure that is appropriate, since it only grants the Improved Sunder feat, which Lung Jua should possess himself).
Reading the text, I can see arguments for either Lung Jua or the Dragon Claws (or both) having the ability to sunder other weapons well.
I'd imagine the "hooked" nature of the blades would grant a +2 bonus on disarm checks like most hooked weapons.
How about we go with +4 keen adamantine katanas, like freyar suggested. The adamantine will already help with the sundering. We can give Lung Jua Improved Sunder and Epic Sunder, making him more than proficient at destroying weapons.
"I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you." - Batman, Batman Begins "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight "Yeah, I can fly." - Tony Stark, Iron Man
Inside my hands these petals browned;
dried up falling to the ground,
but it was already too late now.
I pushed my fingers through the earth,
returned this flower to the dirt;
so it could live, I walked away now."
Rise Against - "The Good Left Undone"
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