Ideas for a Ghoul Monk Cleric NPC

I need to replace a villain in DCC #48 "Vale of the Indus." I tried to figure out what the authors were trying to bring across and couldn't, so now I want to make a ghoul monk cleric with some actual focus who does something cool. I always think creativity works better when you have restrictions to start with, so I'd rather tweak the existing ghoul monk cleric than make a brand new villain.

Here are the parameters:

• It's an Indian-flavored adventure and the villain is a monk who was reincarnated as a ghoul after dying in the afterlife with evil in his heart.
• There are monk weapons in niches all over the encounter area.
• His allies include zombified monks and a six-armed shield guardian that he loses partial control of if the PCs have completed certain subquests.
• In the adventure he has more cleric levels (4) than monk levels (2), but I am more interested in seeing if a monk can be an interesting opponent.
• His spells as given in the adventure were:
  1st –
  bane, cause fear, command, death watch, disguise
  self*, protection from good (CL 5);
  2nd –
  death knell (CL 5), desecrate* (CL 5), eagle’s splendor, silence.
  
  I am sure there are better ones. I always thought it would be cool to have an inflict spell charged to get extra damage with your first monk attack.
• His default possessions are: Bracers of armor +2, toga of Charisma +2 (as cloak), wooden sandals of striding and springing (as boots), potion of invisibility (CL 3).

Can you make him feel "ghouly"? Can you make him feel "monky"? Can you give him a couple cleric spells that would be just perfect for a ghoul or a monk?

Well, the first thing I'd suggest is that you take a look at the Monk Database (see my sig).

The next thing I'd do is change his class from Cleric/Monk to Shaman (OA, with 3.5 update from Dragon #318)/Monk or mixing Monk with one of the Incarnum or Psionic classes. The 3.5 update gives the Shaman more monk-esque unarmed strikes that would stack with the monk's own. Heck, you could even go 100% updated Shaman, thereby boosting his spellpower.

If you don't want to go that route, here are some easy things to do:

1) Dip into Shiba Protector. You'll get to apply the PC's Wis bonus to Att & damage in addition to AC.

2) If you want to boost his FoB weapon damage, there are 2 routes: take one of the feats that adds a weapon to his "Monk Weapon" list or take levels in Shou Disciple- a PrCl that eventually can FoB with any weapon. Monks who can FoB with a reach weapon can be very nasty indeed.

3) The Ring the Golden Bell feat from DCv1 lets a Monk use his unarmed strike at range...and any effects that would be delivered by a touch attack would be delivered that way. I would assume that extends even to the Ghoul's paralysis attack. As I recall, its range isn't that great, and it runs off of Stun attempts, but with taking Extra Stunning, this could get ugly fast.

Noumenon said:

I need to replace a villain in DCC #48 "Vale of the Indus." I tried to figure out what the authors were trying to bring across and couldn't, so now I want to make a ghoul monk cleric with some actual focus who does something cool. I always think creativity works better when you have restrictions to start with, so I'd rather tweak the existing ghoul monk cleric than make a brand new villain.

Here are the parameters:

• It's an Indian-flavored adventure and the villain is a monk who was reincarnated as a ghoul after dying in the afterlife with evil in his heart.

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Reincarnated into an undead? Hmm... that doesn't sound quite right. How about he tried to cheat in the reincarnation by going undead or he got cursed/blessed into this form.

Are you aware of the free Mahasarpa web enhancement for Oriental Adventures? It overlays an indian flavour to the oriental classes and provides some background and guidelines. Just google it.

• There are monk weapons in niches all over the encounter area.
• His allies include zombified monks and a six-armed shield guardian that he loses partial control of if the PCs have completed certain subquests.
• In the adventure he has more cleric levels (4) than monk levels (2), but I am more interested in seeing if a monk can be an interesting opponent.
• His spells as given in the adventure were:
  1st – bane, cause fear, command, death watch, disguise
  self*, protection from good (CL 5);
  2nd – death knell (CL 5), desecrate* (CL 5), eagle’s splendor, silence.
  
  I am sure there are better ones. I always thought it would be cool to have an inflict spell charged to get extra damage with your first monk attack.
• His default possessions are: Bracers of armor +2, toga of Charisma +2 (as cloak), wooden sandals of striding and springing (as boots), potion of invisibility (CL 3).

Can you make him feel "ghouly"? Can you make him feel "monky"? Can you give him a couple cleric spells that would be just perfect for a ghoul or a monk?

Click to expand...

Think about changing the Cha bonus to a wisdom one to boost the Monk AC. Make the items all made from bone or even more grisly from other body parts.

I can see where he was going with the spells and i think they are quite ghouly, i.e. necromantic already. Desecrate is very powerful if they meet him in his sanctum. (Note: Describe the unholy trappings of the surroundings!)

Cast desecrate beforehand to boost the sanctum which probably contains an altar so double bonuses. Maybe rule the the zombies have been created after a descration so more hps.

Note: All undead have darkvision, so make the lighting sparse and use appropriate modifiers. Then let the NPCs turn out the ligth completely. When the lights go out in combat with a ghoul and zombies it gets truly frightening! Read up on Darkness environmental effects and the blinded condition.

As a first action turn off the lights and direct the undead and the construct to attack. Then cast more spells.

Cast bane and protection from good when combat starts.

Cause fear in a combat or skilltype guy. (Cast bane first!)

If/when the PCs cast light drink invisibilty potion. (read up on invisibility conditions) Let zombies attack the light source.

Command is tricky. Use it to make the fighter drop his weapon. Then order the zombies to grapple him. Or use it to make the lightbearer drop the lantern and let a zombie extinguish it. (Use it before casting silence)

Death watch combines with death knell to see who to easily finish off. This drops the invisibility so think about it carefully.

Cast silence in combat with casters and for eerie athmosphere. If combined with the invisibility potion he's pretty much undetectable now.

Eagles splendor and the cloak to control the undead and to resist turning/wresting away of control.

Use claw attacks from behind to paralyze if neccessary.

Attack the light sources! Describe the grisly look of the monsters only half seen in the dim lightings. The cold dead feel of the undead when they grapple you, the disgusting sounds when the ghoul munches on a paralyzed victim and mad whisperings of the necromantic monk when he uses death knell.


They forgot the cantrips/orizons though. I suggest:
0- guidance x X, resistance, detect magic (to buff and to detect the toys)

I compeltely forgot to figure in the monk levels. Which feats does the monk/cleric have currently? I'm betting on stunning fist and combat reflexes. Monk and ghoul don't mix well imho. Flurry of Blows and Improved Unarmed Strike are kind of superfluous as he gets a better attack routine from being a ghoul and Stunning Fist is overshadowed by the ghoul paralysis which hits with every claw attack and not once a day.

Also I'm not sure how natural attacks and FoB mix. Apparently there was a WotC articel on this somewhere.

So maybe you want to go for full (3.5) shaman 5 instead and focus on the ghoulishness.

Or for a more monky flavour, use the manueverabilty after buffing. Combat reflexes are good, more claw attacks and chances for paralysis. But deflect arrows might be good too. Evasion is great of course. I advice you read Ten Steps to Your Broken Monk and perhaps more of the D&D wiki article on monks for general monk advice.

I'm not quite sure why he has not got any ghoul minions too.

Extra Stunning would still be of use if you intend to use the powers/Feats that are based off of burning Stun attempts, of which Ring the Golden Bell is but one. As I recall, there are several that are in Oriental Adventures as well.

I knew I knew of a way to make your NPC both creepier and possibly, just possibly, more effective...if you have lots of feats.

Add these feats:

1) Aberration Feat: Aberration Blood (LoM p178)
2) Aberration Feat: Inhuman Reach [adds +5reach] (LoM p 180)
3) Vile Feat: Willing Deformity (HoH p125)
4) Vile feat: Deformity [Tall] gives your PC the natural reach of a PC one size larger (HoH p 121)

and your NPC Ghoul/Monk will have at least +10' of reach he wouldn't normally have, allowing him to get more AoOs and attack- hopefully paralyzing- more PCs.

Bonus: the extra long arms will evoke memories of Street Fighter's Dhalsim...an Indian martial artist with strechy limbs.

Hey, this thread is really taking off! Thanks to dannyalcatraz for putting it in his sig.

Are you aware of the free Mahasarpa web enhancement for Oriental Adventures?

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No, in fact because Danny talked about the Dragon updating OA to 3.5 I thought the original 1985 version was the only one. However, after looking at the supplement, I don't see anything about monks in there (I'm sure there is, but it's mostly about races and kingdoms).

Bonus: the extra long arms will evoke memories of Street Fighter's Dhalsim...an Indian martial artist with strechy limbs.

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I really like that! As a coincidence, I went looking for some Indian-looking tiger-barbarians online to use for tokens in the adventure, and I found Dhalsim's headshot and decided to use it for the main guy (Dhalsim has a little skull necklace anyway, so it's cool...) My only question now is if I give him Dhalsim face and Dhalsim ability if it will be cheesy. I think an extra 5-foot reach will be plenty since my group isn't very into the weird splatbook feats. (I should have put that in my long list of specifications; on the other hand, I was almost at the point of house ruling monks to make them better, so these feats are a good way not to have to.)

Combat reflexes are good, more claw attacks and chances for paralysis.

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That's great because it really lets him shine in both ways. He can flurry of blows on his turn, looking like a monk; and he can paralyze on your turn, looking like a ghoul and making him very hard to catch or maneuver around. That will make the rogue's Tumble ability quite useful and hopefully make up for the lack of sneak attack. (I would drop a wand in the adventure with Disrupt Undead or something, but my group absolutely refuses to use Use Magic Device despite my lowering the DCs by about 10.)

The next thing I'd do is change his class from Cleric/Monk to Shaman (OA, with 3.5 update from Dragon #318)/Monk or mixing Monk with one of the Incarnum or Psionic classes.

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After playing 3.5 out of the SRD for so long I have not got used to the idea that if I want to play with more abilities I need to actually buy some books. I am getting used to the idea since 4E isn't online and I had to go to Barnes and Noble to see the rules for a familiar. Anyway, I don't know what a shaman does (sounds like it has spells) so I can't tell whether this is looking into. I did bootleg Dragon 318 but you can't tell from that.

Make the items all made from bone or even more grisly from other body parts.

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OK... little contest here... what is the best way to make a nunchaku from body parts... or other things a ghoul would use as a nunchaku, like his own leg? I have a feeling there is a perfect answer to this that I can't think of. What would he use as shuriken, too?

Death watch combines with death knell to see who to easily finish off. This drops the invisibility so think about it carefully.

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Seems like "prone and fell over" is a good enough clue... I don't get the point of deathwatch (except to have it on all the time and identify disguised constructs). I'm just not sure I'm that much of a killer DM with death knell. He is the boss though... and they do get a Will save.

Ooh... I just realized that a Dhalsim type reach monk is totally ideal for delivering touch spells like death knell. That is so awesome! This is really coming together. Do you guys think I should use both sets of feats for a 15-foot reach, or is 10 feet enough?

I am finally thinking the PCs are going to need the help of the guardian to beat this guy! When I first saw him I thought he was going down in 3 rounds.

Attack the light sources! Describe the grisly look of the monsters only half seen in the dim lightings. The cold dead feel of the undead when they grapple you, the disgusting sounds when the ghoul munches on a paralyzed victim and mad whisperings of the necromantic monk when he uses death knell.

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I think I might save this whole dark/undead/horror thing for its own separate encounter. Copy-n-pasted. You are getting XP, as is everybody for your good ideas. So happy EnWorld came back up before I ran the session!

OK... little contest here... what is the best way to make a nunchaku from body parts... or other things a ghoul would use as a nunchaku, like his own leg? I have a feeling there is a perfect answer to this that I can't think of. What would he use as shuriken, too?

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Ghoulish Nunchaku? A pair of thighbones attached either with lots of sinew or rawhide. In addition, the binding could be threaded through some vertebrae. In addition, a single thighbone could be modified to become a tonfa or sharpened to make the spike of a jitte or sai. And in a world with magical creatures, perhaps he could find something with bony tentacles to make nunchaku.

Shuriken? Sharpened ribs or fingerbones, possibly bound or coated with metal for weight (to improve range and impact). Despite being called "throwing stars" in the West, shuriken came in a variety of shapes, including simple dart-like weapons, sometimes also called "throwing irons."

In addition, you might consider looking up the longstaff- an extra-long staff that provides Reach. Its in CompAdv, as I recall, and may even be usable as a monk weapon without the use of additional feats.
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BTW, I had a vision of this guy attacking from a ledge above the party...a ledge obscured by darkness, possibly of magical origin.

The thought of its fists or feet snapping out of the darkness to strike the unsuspecting...it's almost spiderlike.

BTW, I had a vision of this guy attacking from a ledge above the party...a ledge obscured by darkness, possibly of magical origin.

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My image is him meditating in a bizarre yoga position, like a pushup with his legs straight out to the side or something. The party comes in behind him and he doesn't drop his meditative pose -- he just turns his head 180 degrees and looks at them. Gets across the stretchiness, monkiness, and ghouliness.

You ever see Bruce Lee's Game of Death with Kareem Abdul Jabbar?

When first encountered, Kareem is seated, silent and immobile. Bruce charges him, and Kareem lashes out with a single kick to Lee's chest, sending him backward with a torso-sized footprint on his fighting togs.