So you want to use this monster

[Noumenon]

In Magic: the Gathering, oni are worshiped by tribes of ogres. Religious ogres... that's something new. And one was imprisoned by 99 monks, but upon their death, it returned to the mortal world for vengeance.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

No love for tweaking elves yet?

*sigh*

Oni? I'd start with the Ecology of the Ogre Mage in Dragon #349 (RPGnet d20 RPG Game Index: Dragon #349)

Then, I'd add a bit more of the classic legend stuff, so they're a bit more demonic and secretive. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oni_(folklore))

They could function as the secret masters of certain societies- especially violently expansionist or opportunistic ones- much like Dragons were the secret rulers of DarkSun.

You could use them as minor demons/djin/fey/devas- perhaps summonable, but not necessarily controllable ones.

In a less omnipotent role, they could serve as arcane and cultured but brutal masters of the underworld...as in Guild Masters for Thieves & Assassins, or even heading certain mercenary troops.

Helpful?

 

[Rechan]

In Magic: the Gathering, oni are worshiped by tribes of ogres. Religious ogres... that's something new. And one was imprisoned by 99 monks, but upon their death, it returned to the mortal world for vengeance.

I'm not sure how that might mesh with the Golarion ogres - mutant imbred giants.

The second point does make me ponder. That the Oni's imprisonment was linked to the monks' lives - so it was a matter of slowing the thing down. Or, it may have been linked to the Order's existence - as long as the Order was alive (being practiced) and not dieing out... But as things are wont to do, being destroyed is pretty easy.

No love for tweaking elves yet?

Sorry. 3e mechanics have fell out of my head. The only thing I can think of is maybe Dimensional Door 1/day, as they step through one shadow to the next.

You could use them as minor demons/djin/fey/devas- perhaps summonable, but not necessarily controllable ones.

In a less omnipotent role, they could serve as arcane and cultured but brutal masters of the underworld...as in Guild Masters for Thieves & Assassins, or even heading certain mercenary troops.

Those are certainly possibilities. I was trything to think of both individual stories, and also just a place in the campaign world for them. I mean, the MM is full of shapechanging tricksters and magical masterminds (Rakshasa, Hags, Lamia fill the bill there), so it's a trick in finding where they Belong.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I was trything to think of both individual stories, and also just a place in the campaign world for them. I mean, the MM is full of shapechanging tricksters and magical masterminds (Rakshasa, Hags, Lamia fill the bill there), so it's a trick in finding where they Belong.

Well, instead of magical masterminds, use them more like an ancient race of hulking battle-sorcerers and beguilers, capricious oversized gnomes who love conflict and use their arcane abilities to sow death & destruction...or discord...among foes. Spell selection would overwhelmingly favor direct damage, illusion/enchantment, and buffs.

("Foes" being broadly defined as those the Oni hate, those the Oni are paid to hate (when they act as mercenaries) and those who happen to be in the field of vision of a bored Oni.)

The empires they once ruled have fallen and been forgotten, their power and their obelisks torn down by epic heroes of the past. Those who survived scattered all over the world, and they are on the verge disappearing like their monuments. Perhaps some of those races you mentioned even had a hand in ensuring their fall...

In this version, they're more like (watered-down) corporeal demons, Titans, Jotuns or even Goa'uld who walk the earth, remembering what they once had, bitter that they have lived to see that they no longer have it, and lashing out where they might.

 

[Rechan]

There are a bunch of different kinds now, what with Open Grave and MM2; soul eaters, spirit masters, eaters of men, powerful warriors...

But I definitely get that djinn/demon/fey vibe. Something along those lines, but different. Certainly no race, no empire, no collective; oni are natural loners.

Maybe entities of eternal desire for perfection. The best warrior, the best assassin, the best anything.

Although it does make me think of them perhaps bringers of Woe; cross their path, do something to slight them in any fashion possible, and they will go to the ends of the earth to dismantle and destroy everything you hold dear.

But with specific quirks. Perhaps each one has something specific that can kill it, or weaken it. Or they all are Compulsive (something) - traders, collectors, something of that nature; you can stop an Oni in his tracks and keep him busy for hours if you offer to haggle with him, or perhaps trade riddles, or something of that nature.

One quirk might be that they are eternal nomads; forced or compelled to never stay in the same place for overly long. Thus, they do not set up shop in a dungeon and become the masters there. Or more like supernatural tigers; territories that stretch the length of kingdoms, which they slowly drift in a circle year by year.

Also seem like a natural "Adviser" role. Although that would get in the way of them being nomads.

The MM just says they like to gather riches and slaves, and display their wealth, but that really doesn't differentiate them from Rakshasa.

Nothing really codified yet.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Although it does make me think of them perhaps bringers of Woe; cross their path, do something to slight them in any fashion possible, and they will go to the ends of the earth to dismantle and destroy everything you hold dear.

But with specific quirks. Perhaps each one has something specific that can kill it, or weaken it. Or they all are Compulsive (something) - traders, collectors, something of that nature; you can stop an Oni in his tracks and keep him busy for hours if you offer to haggle with him, or perhaps trade riddles, or something of that nature.

OK, we're getting a bit of something they can work with.

Mortal analogues of the Furies; living Revenants; powerful and fearful...but mad.

Taboos/curses would work- and there are any number of them. Perhaps each Oni has his "truename" and his quirk in a great but rare tome...

Perhaps one particularly fierce one has the truename of "Rice Counter" and his quirk is that he must count any grains of rice strewn in his path, or lose his arcane abilities for a day.

Another might be "Moonweak" whose power waxes and wanes with the phases of the moon, weakest when it is full, strongest when it is absent from the night sky...

 

[Rechan]

OK, we're getting a bit of something they can work with.

Mortal analogues of the Furies; living Revenants; powerful and fearful...but mad.

Mm, not quite. The MM also points out that if they are insulted in some fashion, they will go to great lengths to plot elaborate vengeance. Something like that. I'm not clear whether it's an issue of Honor and Strict Manners (You have used the salad fork to eat your fish; this is a grave insult and I shall eat your children and destroy your life's work) or taking offense to someone's actual being (I shall punish you for your hubris or wickedness by unmaking you). Or they could be fickle (You have picked my pocket - I shall steal everything you come into possession of).

But I imagine this is not their true purpose, but more their quirk, like making a faerie mad at you. Basically: Oni write the book on holding grudges.

Although hmm. I'm still thinking of these as less a species, and more a supernatural result (I can't think of them as breeding). Sort of like how the Wendigo legend is related what happens when a man goes cannibal. Perhaps a cautionary tale of what happens when a person casts aside everything to pursue a single purpose; losing yourself in your calling and being consumed by it, resulting in the loss of your humanity and Wickedness/Other taking up residence in the emptiness you have left.

Alternatively, they could be the male version of hags. But Hags are the embodiment of Nature's Ugliness, and that would make Oni more fey and less whatever else.

Or one could just go back to the Djinn/Demon angle, filling the same role. Corrupters or holders of wicked irony. Or... something. I can't really decide on one idea. Bah.

Another might be "Moonweak" whose power waxes and wanes with the phases of the moon, weakest when it is full, strongest when it is absent from the night sky...

This is a cool idea for another monster, but I think it would be even more intriguing if it got more powerful as the moon waned. You could say it was linked to the Moon being a watchful eye in the night, and as its gaze looked elsewhere, the monster grew more bold. Or simply that the light of the moon is weakest, and thus the creature of darkness and night is the strongest.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

The following is a collection of my remembering and (more likely, misremembering) various bits of Oni lore from oriental adventures 3e (and d20 legend of the 5 rings).


Oni come into being out of an extreme desire...a sort of deal with a devil. They are wisps of negative emotions and raw, untapped power until given form.

What gives them form? The desires of a mortal, who gives the oni created a name (and an envisioned form and purpose). The name is the name of a real person who has control over it (almost always the mortal with the strong emotions...but rarely an oni is called on behalf of another...e.g. a brother calling an oni for his wronged sister may give the oni his sister's name).

The oni will seek, at first, to fulfil its purpose for the master. Over time, however, the purpose becomes all consuming. The vengeance Oni lives to revenge the tiniest slight (you cut me in line! VENGEANCE!). The betrayed lover oni will kill a man for even looking at any woman but his own wife...and so on. So it is that Oni quickly become consumed, each with its own particular type of extreme eccentricity. Their purpose utterly drives them to the point that the tiniest slight that negatively affects their purpose results in an extreme (and usually deadly) response.

The problem is that usually, the master, whose name the oni has been given, inevitably commits the sin that they so hated (fickle and imperfect as humans, but not oni, are). When the master is killed, the oni is free to concoct schemes, becoming proactive (the betrayed lover sets up a brothel and kills married johns) rather than reactive.

In any case, the oni's strength and capriciousness are also its undoing. They are so singleminded in their purpose that they are easily baited or discovered performing the same modus operandi again and again.

 

[Set]

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?

Oni - the villagers of Town X used to hold rituals every spring to keep the Oni's away, and part of the ritual was leaving offerings out for good spirits to protect them. There was a local Oni, something of a loner among it's kind, who would come at night and take the offerings, and return to it's home in the hills, where everyone knew to never go. The year has been lean, and the new village headman, appointed by the local governor, has cancelled the festival. Even more ill-advisedly, he has also ordered the villagers to begin cutting wood from the forbidden hills, where everyone knows it is not safe to cut down trees. The Oni is deeply angered by this 'betrayal,' as it was convinced that it had an 'understanding' with the villagers (misunderstanding the nature of the 'offerings' which it thought were tribute!). It is not the brightest sort, and marches straight into town, and when the new headman comes out to confront the brute with a half-dozen shaky spearmen, the peasant militia breaks ranks and the Oni smacks the newly appointed headman over the head with it's club, killing the pretentious upstart instantly.

Now the Oni sits in the center of town, wearing the headman's robes as a scarf (they didn't fit over his body) and demanding *daily* tribute from the terrified villagers. Perhaps somewhat unusually for it's enormous size and bright red coloration, the Oni is a master of stealth, having spent many years unseen in the forests (perhaps magical stealth?) and also claims the power to curse those who displease it (either it does have such a power, or other 'debuffing' effects like Ray of Enfeeblement or Touch of Fatigue or, most likely, based on Oni lore, Contagion or Blight or even lower level storm summoning spells or tremor-inducing magics or something). It claims all sorts of things, such as the power to affect the weather, and the villagers are afraid that even if they kill it (somehow!), the clouds will run away and the rivers will be befouled and their sons will sicken and wither! (For the Oni has claimed all these things and more!) Even standard Ogre Magi powers could serve such an Oni well (cone of cold to blight farmland at night, invisibility and polymorph to explain it's incredible stealth, etc.).

The heroes must not only remove the threat of the demanding Oni, who is devouring so much 'tribute' that he's beggaring the village, but also deal with the local governor, who is outraged that the 'rebellious villagers' have refused to pay their taxes and is sending tax men and soldiers to 'teach them a lesson.' And if that's not enough of a complication? The villagers will hide and protect the Oni, because they fear his promised curses of plague and famine if he is harmed!

 

[Set]

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?

Shambling Mound -

1) Make it a literal Man-Thing/Swamp Thing riff. A man was murdered and his body buried in the swamp. The Shambling Mound rose from that section of swamp, with some strange residue of the man's spirit (like the 'echo' that remains and can be contacted via Speak with Dead, the dead guy's actual soul is gone to wherever). It has images of a wife and a home, which it tries to contact in it's vaguely mindless way, and only succeeds in causing a panic in town.

The people who killed the original man used a lightning spell to finish him off just as he thought he was escaping into the swamp, being evil cultists (Adepts? Druids? Sorcerers? Wizards?). The Shambling Mound will recognize them, and is hunting them down. They killed the man because they were trying to get him to join their cult, and they consist of prominent townsfolk, who are now seeing signs that the creature is following them, watching their homes, etc. These fine upstanding citizens of the town need the adventurers to save them from the beast (one of them has already been killed, as it burst into his home and went berserk), preferably before their secret brotherhood is exposed...

Note that the Shambling Mound is still going to be a threat, even if the cult is exposed and scattered to the four winds (or planted six feet under), as it's not a revenant, it's just a destructive rotting plant monster that has some residual memories from the rotting remains of a dead man contained within it.

2) Hobgoblins were building a fort in the wilderlands on the other side of the woods from a human community. They cut down a druid's sacred grove (killing the druid and his brown bear companion in the process) along with a pair of dryads. The rotting remains of the dryad's trees, along with the body of the druid and his bear, came to unwholesome life after a thunderstorm three nights later, and the Hobgoblin woodcutters were brutally repaid in kind. The Hobgoblins have abandoned their attempt to build a fort here, but the Shambling Mound is still prowling around, and has no particular ability to tell a hobgoblin from a human from an elf. If it's humanoid and around the right size, the Shambling Mound will shuffle forward and attack.

Unlike a traditional Shambling Mound (or the one above), this one *does* have a touch of revenant to it, and if the bodies of the dryads and druid are found and buried with any sort of respect, the creature will shamble forth, shedding leaves and twigs and compost as it moves, until it's last leaves fall upon the new graves.

Maybe a new Dryad tree will sprout from that spot, a year later.