Succubus NPC

[neogod22]

Ya'll keep talking like he's gonna have his party fight this thing the first time they encounter it.

The OP keeps saying he doesn't intend for that to happen. IE: they won't even know it's a monster to fight until later.

Why worry about what CR it is? Beyond that, it sounds like he's going to use the Succubus stat block, and just describe it as something else.

This is an RPG. The DM may not intend for the fight to happen, but the players might force it to happen. Remember, D&D is a player driven game.

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[Coroc]

In my current campaign with the four players being Level 5 one of the Nemesis Sub bosses who gave them a hard time already is a custom succubus. Played right, her charming ability and her kiss of death are fatal for a Party at that Level.

(Charm a Player, charm the city watch, charm the one in charge, charm essential npcs, shapechange etc. )

For your Kids just describe the Thing as a demon looking like a beatiful woman and leave out the Latex and Whip stuff. They will be far more convinced that the victim is charmed by someone beautiful than by an old hag.

And no one will kiss a slaad and expect it morphing into a princess ...

 

[Jer]

I could modify her, but sexual predatory behaviour is key to describing Succubus.

Since you have said that you're a new DM, you may not have thought about this, but you can always reskin a monster to be something else. You keep the stats but change the descriptors on them.

For example - if you like the idea of using rakshasa, the creature could be a "minor rakshasha" - a very weak version of the type, or perhaps a regular rakshasa that has for some reason been cursed and is at substantially lower power, forcing it to remain hidden from it's enemies. So going that route, I would modify the succubus as:

Shapechanger - no need to change this, rakshasa are classic shapeshifters
Claw attack - no need to change this either - rakshasa also have a claw attack in their demon forms

The remaining attacks are not part of the typical "rakshasa" toolkit, but rakshasa's typically have spellcasting ability and succubi don't. So you can think of them as the only "spells" it can use in its weakened state, or you can just think of them as psychic powers that are unique to this particular rakshasa (and possibly why it's been cursed in the first place):

Charm - mechanically you don't need to change this. Descriptively, this might be a bit more "look into my eyes, you are in my power" Bela Lugosi Dracula than how I'd run it with a succubus for adult players, but the mechanics are sound.
Draining Kiss - here's the one that you need to change - but again only descriptively. Instead of a kiss, the rakshasa just needs to touch a creature that it has charmed and pummels them with a psychic attack. The mechanical effects are the same since there's nothing about them that screams "succubus".
Etherealness - Rakshasas can plane shift, but in its weakened state it can only reach the Ethereal and back - no real need to change this one beyond that.
Telepathy/Telepathic Bond - Not really a rakshasa thing, but I'd personally keep it. It fits with the Bela Lugosi version of Charm and I'd handwave a justification for it - maybe that this particular rakshasa is unique (though to be honest, I make each of my rakshasa unique anyway when I use them, so it wouldn't be an issue for me). You could drop it entirely if there isn't a plot reason that the creature requires it.


And with that you've got a monster that mechanically is still the same creature in the adventure but fits the story you want to tell better. If you don't like rakshasa, it could easily be a special kind of shapeshifting vampire, an alien cthuloid monster in disguise, a powerful "master doppelganger", or something else entirely.

Reskinning creatures is a really powerful tool in the DM's toolkit.

 

[Sunseeker]

This is an RPG. The DM may not intend for the fight to happen, but the players might force it to happen. Remember, D&D is a player driven game.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

The DM in this case is playing with kids. Yeah, the kids might do something crazy but I suspect the DM will play a significant role in keeping them on track.

 

[ScrubbWizard]

Since you have said that you're a new DM, you may not have thought about this, but you can always reskin a monster to be something else. You keep the stats but change the descriptors on them.

For example - if you like the idea of using rakshasa, the creature could be a "minor rakshasha" - a very weak version of the type, or perhaps a regular rakshasa that has for some reason been cursed and is at substantially lower power, forcing it to remain hidden from it's enemies. So going that route, I would modify the succubus as:

Shapechanger - no need to change this, rakshasa are classic shapeshifters
Claw attack - no need to change this either - rakshasa also have a claw attack in their demon forms

The remaining attacks are not part of the typical "rakshasa" toolkit, but rakshasa's typically have spellcasting ability and succubi don't. So you can think of them as the only "spells" it can use in its weakened state, or you can just think of them as psychic powers that are unique to this particular rakshasa (and possibly why it's been cursed in the first place):

Charm - mechanically you don't need to change this. Descriptively, this might be a bit more "look into my eyes, you are in my power" Bela Lugosi Dracula than how I'd run it with a succubus for adult players, but the mechanics are sound.
Draining Kiss - here's the one that you need to change - but again only descriptively. Instead of a kiss, the rakshasa just needs to touch a creature that it has charmed and pummels them with a psychic attack. The mechanical effects are the same since there's nothing about them that screams "succubus".
Etherealness - Rakshasas can plane shift, but in its weakened state it can only reach the Ethereal and back - no real need to change this one beyond that.
Telepathy/Telepathic Bond - Not really a rakshasa thing, but I'd personally keep it. It fits with the Bela Lugosi version of Charm and I'd handwave a justification for it - maybe that this particular rakshasa is unique (though to be honest, I make each of my rakshasa unique anyway when I use them, so it wouldn't be an issue for me). You could drop it entirely if there isn't a plot reason that the creature requires it.


And with that you've got a monster that mechanically is still the same creature in the adventure but fits the story you want to tell better. If you don't like rakshasa, it could easily be a special kind of shapeshifting vampire, an alien cthuloid monster in disguise, a powerful "master doppelganger", or something else entirely.

Reskinning creatures is a really powerful tool in the DM's toolkit.

Ok now I get it. I like this, actually.