Help with a New Race/Creature

[The Amazing Dingo]

Good day all! Thanks for stopping in because your help is greatly appreciated.

A quick set up: I'm going to take over DMing a game for a friend of mine who had DMed it from 1st to 10th level. He had set up his own world and took it a long way but we were forced to stop for a few years due to personal reasons. Now, we're ready to get things started again and since he wanted to run a character some, I offered to DM.

The over-all meta-plot was that the PCs was classic. We were slowly uncovering the truth about the BBEGs from an ancient time that were threatening to rule take over the world while working behind the scenes...the normal type of thing. Now, I discover that he never truly had the creatures really statted out. I'd like to change that.

The idea for the creatures are to be something on lines of Neutral Evil creature with relations on the levels with demons, devils, and yugoloths (in fact, they had dealt with these creatures in the past). Over the campaign, I remember them split into three seperate types - shapeshifters, ones who could merge/possess another creature, and actual creatures.

To handle this, I'm thinking that originally they were solid creatures but time (and various plot/magical elements) has broken some of them down into either bodiless or amorphic creatures. To this end, I wanted to make it somewhat easier on me and work backwards from the bodiless and amorphic creatures to the actual creature. I was pondering simply taking an existing creature template (or two) and modifying it to give it its own flavor and then applying it to existing creatures to achieve the shapeshifters and possessers.

Any ideas on this, whether it be the process (perhaps it is better to work the opposite way) or ideas on templates or creatures to use?

Should you be kind enough to suggest a creature outside the MM's, I might ask for a brief description of the beastie since my resources are rather limited (though I am more then willing and able to buy a book to obtain a template or monster).

Thanks in advance!

 

[Whisper72]

Well... here are a few thoughts to make life simple...

As for the shapeshifters, simply use the Doppleganger, as long as the PC's never met doppleganer's before, or if they did, that there is a reasonable explenation why this was done by these creatures.

For the incorporeal monsters, try the ghost template, apply it to an unusual base creature. Do away with the whole undeadness of the template

For the 'real' creatures, use the vampire template for powers etc, but do away with the whole undead stuff (essentially, leave away most of the undead related weaknesses, same as above), and apply to the same creature as the ghost template.

Presto! Now all you need to do is choose a 'cool' base creature.... I do not know what would work for your campaign, maybe some saurial type creature??

 

[The Amazing Dingo]

Thank you Whisper. I looked at the Ghost template today and that would work very well. I also checked out the Fiend of Possession in the Fiend Folio and thought that those abilities would be perfect too, so I'm gonna slap those on some creature and see what I get..now to find just the right creature.

As for the Doppleganger, I couldn't access the SRD the other day so was unsure of what their stats, abilities, etc. were (it had crossed my mind as a possibility though). Seeing it, I think it would work. I want to add a bit of spice to it though and perhaps give it a more amorphic quality...isn't there an ooze-template out there someplace?