So you want to use this monster

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'll be durned Danny, but most of that is excellent. Really excellent.

I was laying in bed last night re-reading my Bible passages on the Scapegoat when it occurred to me that the demon name for the Giant Ghost might be the Scapeghost. Yeah, it's kind of a sappy name, but the irony would not be lost on either the demon or the spirit of the giant.

In context, its not a bad name at all.

However, because I'm a bit of a cut-up and a jester, my first thought was...sorry to say...
Space Ghost - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mostly in the context of the fictional talk-show he hosted... You know your players better than I- if you have anybody in the group who is a pop-culture clown, you might want to avoid that name.

But I'd also like the a really fine name for how others would perceive it, who might know nothing of its background but would only know how weird and frightening it seemed to them.

I'm also trying to think of a relic and/or an artifact (it doesn't have to be one from a gaming book, could be from myth, religion, or something you just thought of) that would be a suitable match to the thing that it might have gained control of over time.

Right off the bat, my first instinct would be to go with a Scarab of some kind.
Scarab artifact - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ancient Egypt: the Mythology - Scarab Beetle

Does it control the swarm (in which case, the swarm's possession of it lets it act freely)? Does it empower the creature?

The one thing I'm not gonna use is the implication you made of it killing and consuming others (if I read you right). I don't want it to be a killing machine, rather I want it to be a frightening, weird-creation machine. That is encountering it will temporarily "mutate or transform" the ones it encounters, in very bad and bizarre ways. But it won't result in immediate physical death so much as psychological and spiritual "staining and corruption." I can though see it inflicting long term diseases of the body, mind, and soul through extended exposure. And causing others to do things against their nature.

Instead of it being a mere killing machine, perhaps it is like the Sin-Eater as depicted in X-Files- a sentient "Death" Tarot card that transforms those it eats. It consumes you- yes, a painful and horrible experience- but it then excretes you as a living and transformed being.

After discovering this- most likely as those thought irrevocably dead start returning to their respective villages- the horror dies down and the creature becomes revered by some as the living incarnation of the will of a god whose portfolio includes the cycle of life and rebirth. Druids, perhaps?

Of course, given its link to the infernal, that might not be the whole truth...perhaps not everyone comes back. Perhaps some of those who return are demon-possessed.

Other than that I like all of your ideas.
Thanks for the links too by the way.

Thanks!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Ooo, good idea for a thread. I have a request. I want to use a classic shambling mound. The thing is, my players are very casual, and not familiar with many D&D icons. They won't recognize a shambling mound when they see one, so I need help flavoring it, describing it, and basically understanding it. How would you explain a shambling mound and its place in the world to somebody not familiar with one at all?

Particularly, I'm struggling with the lightning immunity/lightning healing thing, which might seem like a screw-you to my lightning-breathing Dragonborn player. Why is a plant immune to lightning? Anyone want to step up to the pseudoscience bat for that one?

Describing it: I think the visuals are somewhat obvious, for the most part. Since it is a pile of sentient plant & earth, perhaps its outer skin contains living local plant life. One that has spent a lot of time in swamps may have cattails growing out of it. One that has been near farms may have gourds and squash, or maybe fruit. One near the cultivated gardens of an estate may have roses growing out of it. Because of the moisture of its body, fungi like braken should be visible.

It should probably smell of rich, fresh-turned earth and compost, perhaps with a bit of bog or exposed riverbottom (IOW, wet, organic rot), mixed in with the plant life of the area- Pine? Flowers? Grass?.

It should sound like the whisper of the wind through a group of trees and tall grass.

Immunities: I'm familiar with both the Swamp Thing (DC) and Man-Thing (Marvel), but the only reasons I can think of for the lightning immunity are 1) electricity is what makes our nervous system work, so perhaps it was lightning that gave the creature its initial spark of life (like Frankenstein's monster- YMMV) and 2) a critter this inherently vulnerable needed a weakness of some kind. It is full of moisture, so the fire resistance makes sense.

Why they exist: There are all kinds of directions you can go here.

It could be that they are just another magical monster...perhaps originating in high/wild magic zones.

Perhaps they are the results of an Awaken gone awry...again, a wild magic zone makes a good reason for this to happen.

Perhaps they are the quasi-sentient living remains of a nature deity's avatar, left over from a manifestation on the plane that ended long ago.

Or- in a FRPG version of the Gaia hypothesis, they are the world's equivalent to our white blood cells, scouring the planet of harmful things... ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis )

They could be living planty analogues of our unmanned space probes, sent from another Prime Material (or other) Plane dominated by a race who use advanced biotech or magitech instead of/in addition to more conventional magic.

They could be like the Driders- individuals who offended some power who then cursed them to wander the world as virtually mindless wandering plants.

There are also other vegetative villains out there you could draw inspiration from, like:

the Body Snatchers
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers),

the Thing
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_from_Another_World and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(film))

Triffids
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triffid)

or cosmic carnivorous weeds like the Krynoids from Dr. Who
(http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Krynoid)

 

[Rechan]

This... is a bump.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

This... is a bump.

What kind of campaign do you want to use it in?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It just occurred to me that I have one that could stand a little work: Elves.

I'm designing a campaign in which- among other races- there are 3 races of Elf: Sylvaiinen (basically elves with the woodling template), Svartolaiinen (some sort of fusion of Drow and Shadar-Kai), and Asteraiinen (based on the Celadrin, Glimmerfolk and elements from When the Sky Falls)

In this campaign, Elves are a kind of Fey.

Fey Type
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typessubtypes.htm

A fey is a creature with supernatural abilities and connections to nature or to some other force or place. Fey are usually human-shaped.
Features

A fey has the following features.

* 6-sided Hit Dice.
* Base attack bonus equal to ½ total Hit Dice (as wizard).
* Good Reflex and Will saves.
* Skill points equal to (6 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with quadruple skill points for the first Hit Die.

Traits

A fey possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).

* Low-light vision.
* Proficient with all simple weapons and any weapons mentioned in its entry.
* Proficient with whatever type of armor (light, medium, or heavy) that it is described as wearing, as well as all lighter types. Fey not indicated as wearing armor are not proficient with armor. Fey are proficient with shields if they are proficient with any form of armor.
* Fey eat, sleep, and breathe.

I'm using Arcana Unearthed/Evolved style racial class levels (with full class type advancement- HD, BAB, Saves, etc.), so creatures that would normally have a LA would instead have the equivalent number of racial levels the PC could opt to take. IOW, a race w/+2LA would have 2 Racial levels, one with a +4LA would have 4 Racial levels, and so forth.

In this case, many features of those racial class levels would be governed by the fact they are Fey (see above).

Designing the Sylvaiinen was easy- as stated, I essentially applied the Woodling template and seasoned it up a bit. They came to be courtesy of a powerful ritual that melded their essence with woody plants. Their bark-like skin and ability to photosynthesize allowed them to survive the apocalypse, but just barely. Before things began to improve, they had to find shelter in the settlements of the Inheritors (psionic Dwarves- last of their kind- whose brains now reside in mechanical bodies).

Weapons are as for standard elves, favored classes Druid, Rgr, Scout (maybe Greenbond if I use it). For purposes of affinity with magic items, they are Elf & Fey blooded.

The Svartolaiinen and Asteraiinen present more of a problem.

Asteraiinen are secretive about their origins- they are either from the future, the stars or from somewhere else...nobody knows for sure but them. What IS known is that they are almost like albinos in appearance, they have an innate ability to manipulate light, and their hatred for Illithids eclipses all of their other concerns.

Weapons are as for standard elves, favored class is Sorc. For purposes of affinity with magic items, they are Elf & Fey blooded.

The problem- besides the SLA: Light 1/day (at lvl 1), and Breathless (at level 3), what kinds of powers should these +3LA "star elves" actually have?

Svartolaiinen, on the other hand, survived the apocalypse due to their subterranean lifestyle, and represent one of the few civilizations that remained relatively intact.

They are Drow without the Spider fixation, and Shadar-Kai without the masochism.

Weapons are open, favored class is Sorc. For purposes of affinity with magic items, they are Elf & Fey blooded.

The problem- (of course) What kinds of powers should these +3LA "dark elves" actually have? Darkvision- perhaps even so good as to be effective even in magical darkness- is a given, and some kind of affinity to shadow would seem to be in order, but how? Shadow jumping as per the Shadowdancer might work, as might some kind of invisibility or intangibility in any low light condition. But which, and at what level?

 

[fba827]

This... is a bump.

What kind of campaign do you want to use it in?

Bump Level 1 Minion
Tiny aberration Exp: 25
Initiative +1 Senses Perception +3; darkvision
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a bump
AC 15; Fortitude 13; Reflex 13; Will 14
Speed 1 fly 10 (hover)
Thread Infiltration (standard action; at-will) * Implement
+4 vs Reflex, targets only threads; no damage. Target is appended by Bump droppings and then slide target to top of forum.
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common, basic leet speak
Skills History +6, Intimidate +8
Str 10 (+0) Dex 13 (+1) Wis 8 (-1)
Con 12 (+1) Int 8 (-1) Cha 16 (+3)
Equipment Implement (Keyboard)

Ecology: Bumps are generally quiet and introverts that prefer to find their way to threads that have been seemingly abandoned by forum posters. As such, it is near impossible to know what one looks like in person as all that is ever seen is their droppings in the forums. Some scholars theorize that the Bumps are infact invisible demons, while others argue that they simply scurry away faster than the mortal eye can see.

They are seemingly random in their choice of threads to investigate - for some threads never see a single bump, while others show evidence of many bump droppings.

Bumps are mysterious and never seen, but their droppings can be seen littering the landscape in an almost mischievous and playful manner.

Possible plot hooks:
Crying Bump!: A group of townsfolk hire the PCs to assist an old man at the edge of town. This old man claims to have seen a bump while he was out tending to his sheep! He now goes around town, pestering all he can see, with tales of his bump sighting. In fact, he believes he has seen this bump every night for the past several nights. The villagers dismiss him as senile, for who has ever seen a bump? But they can not ignore his incessant annoyance on the topic. As such, the villagers want the PCs to investigate whatever the old man thought he saw so that he will shut up about it once and for all. Could he actually be the first mortal to have seen a bump in person? Or is there something else lurking about and leaving bump droppings?
Bump in the Night: A child, sound asleep, is awoken by what he believes is a bump in the closet ...


(sorry, I had to make that up once I saw danny's above post we now return you to the thread)


This will seem like a thread derail topic but it's not ... Back in 2002 (? give or take a year) there was a thread on here. Where every post took the next monster (alphabetically) from the 3e monster manual and made a short plot hook/scenario for each. Sure, a couple got repeated due to stealth ninja posting while others typed.. but it had some great ideas. If I can find my link to that, I'll post it here since lots of it was fluff and is edition independent. That might give some ideas to people on here too.

 

[SiderisAnon]

Shambling Mound

Local alchemist lives in an old tower. Privy and drains from lab dump out into a compost heap. Tower and compost heap are struck by lightning. Compost heap gets up and wreaks havoc.

If the party knows the creation, then the lightning making it heal would be logical. Additionally, they will expect things to be a bit odd, since who knows what chemicals ended up in that compost heap?

Reward the players with some potions from the alchemist.

Instant sidetrek adventure.

 

[Noumenon]

I suggest pairing the bump with a log. Tactical suggestions: it sits there like a bump on a log.

every post took the next monster (alphabetically) from the 3e monster manual and made a short plot hook/scenario for each.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...t-collection-round-round-monster-tactics.html . And of course the site I linked to before, I don't know if you can submit to it but its story-centric approach would make SiderisAnon's shambling mound sidequest a perfect fit. If he's still doing it, submissions were at monsters_a-z@cox.net .

 

[MortalPlague]

I love shambling mounds. I find a great image for the lightning immunity / healing is the idea of a swamp with several grassy hillocks in a lightning storm, the bolts raining down and striking these soggy, gnarled piles and they flail with energy in some unholy celebration, being struck again and again.

As for plots, my favorite shambling mound plot involves a rare flower that grows only on top of truly ancient shambling mounds... it makes for an intriguing quest objective.

 

[Rechan]

I started this thread with one monster in mind: Oni.

I really like them, and find them intriguing. Thing is, I can't think of a proper story for them. Some sort of plot that feels... Onish. What sorta plots/stories would suit an Oni?