A bit of plot needs some mechanical assistance - (Ex) Ability Specialists Needed!

[Mctanish]

Hey guys - before I get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thanks to EN World ahead of time. I use this website as a resource all the time, and it's really helped me a lot - this is the first time I'm making a post, because I'm genuinely stumped as to what I could use to maximize my villainous plot featuring Extraordinary Abilities.

You see, my villain is a powerful Psion, and intends to utilise a True Mind Switch power on an NPC close to the players - a powerful individual, to whom the body and extraordinary abilities in it are vastly desirable, even for the psion to give up his original form. At least, this is my idea - in theory. I don't mind if he switches with somebody not particularly affiliated with the PCs for powerful abilities, but that's exactly what he needs - a motive and a payoff.

I've been slugging through some of the rulebooks and it dawns on me there's a ridiculously large amount of content and only one me, so I turn to you guys to lend me a hand. I'm looking for creatures/classes/maguffins with some -really- potent Extraordinary Abilities the psion will happily swap bodies to get a hold of in order to further fuel his efforts to conquer the world. The rarer the creature with these powers, the better - if a psion could take control of the only 'X' remaining creature with 'Y' powers, then it makes it all the more interesting. Kind of like if there was only one Ancient Wyrm left in existance, and the psion managed to steal it's body and harness the power of the last of the dragons. You know, that kind of epic stuff!

I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of ideas you guys come up with - I only could think of the most generic stuff!

Thanks in Advance,

Mctanish

EDIT: Forgot to mention (Sorry!) - the edition I'm running this in is D&D 3.5. Figured it might be important before people's contributions became ruined by my lack-of-version-information!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

First, welcome to ENWorld!

Second....unfortunately, I don't know of a list of (Ex) abilities to help winnow down the possibilities.

However, I can tell you that most feats fall into that category.

In addition, I know that Spell Resistance, Blindsight, Blindsense, Turn Resistance, most Poisons, Scent, Regeneration, Frightful Presence, Evasion/Improved Evasion, Fast Healing, some Flight and some Energy Resistances are all (Ex) abilities.

 

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

Depends on how the NPC is built. Anything a factotum could grab would be something to check.

 

[Mctanish]

The NPC can be designed to fit however you guys think could work best for the initial idea, besides the exception of needing access to True Mind Switch in one way or another.

Also - what's a factotum? I'm seeing references to a dungeonscape class from searching about it, but I don't know first hand.

 

[Jack Simth]

Hey guys - before I get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thanks to EN World ahead of time. I use this website as a resource all the time, and it's really helped me a lot - this is the first time I'm making a post, because I'm genuinely stumped as to what I could use to maximize my villainous plot featuring Extraordinary Abilities.

You see, my villain is a powerful Psion, and intends to utilise a True Mind Switch power on an NPC close to the players - a powerful individual, to whom the body and extraordinary abilities in it are vastly desirable, even for the psion to give up his original form. At least, this is my idea - in theory. I don't mind if he switches with somebody not particularly affiliated with the PCs for powerful abilities, but that's exactly what he needs - a motive and a payoff.

I've been slugging through some of the rulebooks and it dawns on me there's a ridiculously large amount of content and only one me, so I turn to you guys to lend me a hand. I'm looking for creatures/classes/maguffins with some -really- potent Extraordinary Abilities the psion will happily swap bodies to get a hold of in order to further fuel his efforts to conquer the world. The rarer the creature with these powers, the better - if a psion could take control of the only 'X' remaining creature with 'Y' powers, then it makes it all the more interesting. Kind of like if there was only one Ancient Wyrm left in existance, and the psion managed to steal it's body and harness the power of the last of the dragons. You know, that kind of epic stuff!

I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of ideas you guys come up with - I only could think of the most generic stuff!

Thanks in Advance,

Mctanish

EDIT: Forgot to mention (Sorry!) - the edition I'm running this in is D&D 3.5. Figured it might be important before people's contributions became ruined by my lack-of-version-information!

True Mind Switch is a 3.5 exclusive; 3.0 just used the regular Mind Switch, followed by the slaying of the old body.

I've actually looked at this somewhat. The question really becomes "how non-humanoid is the Psion willing to be?"

If we take, say, a human Psion ... he loses NOTHING except the use of one or two particularly sub-optimal feats (well... he also loses 10,000 xp, and anything tied to his face...) if he steals someone else's skin. He gains the victim's Strength and Dex, and half of the vic's Con score (Fort saves and Concentration mod, but not HP). Depending on the NPC's stat distribution, that's enough - I can totally see a Psion that's worried about his age swapping with a healthy young peasant, a guard captain, or similar (high strength, Dex, or Con - but most importantly: Young).

If the Psion's willing to be noticably non-human? There's a lot of outsiders that make for interesting choices (alignment-based regeneration? Yes please, Mr. Planetar / Solar / Horned Devil / Ice Devil / Pit Fiend, I'll steal YOUR skin), although that does have some odd consequences (can't be raised normally anymore). The Planetar has another bonus: As the Planetar is a shapeshifter (even if it is Su), there's either a big reveal (when the planetar loses, and the shapeshifting collapses) or the BBEG looks human (stuck in the planetar's last shape).