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Message: <blockquote data-quote="paradox42" data-source="post: 3350957" data-attributes="member: 29746">Loarsraol!Since these are Slaad Lords, I refuse to go in order when talking about them! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> And you can't make me!But to the point...This monster is brilliant. Truly, astoundingly a work of art. Two thumbs up, 5 stars. Bravo!A quick tally shows that he has several abilities usable at will which can tie parties up in knots even outside of combat. Demand, I'm looking squarely at you, and Mirage Arcana and Persistent Image can make any potential battlefield into a nightmare for any party not equipped with True Seeing all-around. If the Lord of Paradox can somehow manage to time his use of his mind effects (like the aforementioned Demand) during the one time of day when the party is not protected by the constant Mind Blanks they'd be fools not to use against him, then so much the better! One failed save against "You don't need that Mind Blank today. Really. Pretend you have it and just move on." and That's All Folks. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Then there's his Tenacious Polymorph Any Object SLA. That's not a commonly-used combat spell, but it can have truly nasty uses if done correctly- one of my now-Epic PCs used it on several occasions to turn enemies into dolls or other innocuous objects, and in Loarsraol's case the effect isn't even dispellable once in place (well, technically it is for a few rounds, but it comes back so the dispel is effectively wasted). I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that by the rules as written, this would allow him to duplicate the effects of the infamous Girdle of Femininity/Masculinity, which would be a Permanent duration effect and by also being Tenacious, non-dispellable. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" />Perhaps more importantly, he has Disjunction- one of the famous "nuclear options" of D&D- which means that no buff is safe from him, nor are many magic items. With his Wishes (and note that since it's an SLA he doesn't need to pay XP for it), he can potentially get anything the DM wants him to have- personally I'd let him use this to mimic the automatic-buff-removal effect of Disjunction on one target, no questions asked, but that's me.More important still- he has powers that make him a threat comparable to truly Epic parties. For starters, he's immune to flanking. This immediately cuts off the most common source of Sneak Attacks, and the other most common source at high levels- invisibility- is easily solved by using his at-will True Seeing buff. More interestingly, he's got an ability to Feeblemind a victim by touch that gets around Mind Blank. This alone is a killer for low-Will-save members of the PC party, a category which typically includes exactly the sort of characters who'd be up in melee with Loarsraol anyway.Finally, and by far the most important, Loarsraol gets to take two actions in every single round thanks to having two heads. His ability to make extra skill checks and Will saves is really just gravy, compared to this. I said it before, and I'll say it again: in high-level and Epic games, actions are the most important commodity. Loarsraol has a surplus. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" />Best of all, every single one of these powers is in keeping with his concept as an entity, and the way his body is structured. They are powerful, but not the least bit cheesy in the sense of "Obviously the DM threw these in just to screw the party."That said, there are three problems I can see with his design. First, his AC is probably too low- certainly it's low for a CR 27 creature (even FC1 Demogorgon, at a mere CR 23, has AC 43), and it's actually the exact same number given to Baseraxs, who is of significantly lower CR than Loarsraol even by your own original estimates. Second- SR 26?!? For a CR 27 monster? I admit that a monster having lower SR than his own CR- which would mean that even casters below his CR could never fail SR checks against him- is paradoxical, but please can we raise this? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> At least get it as high as 40! Give the poor Slaad Lord a break from the enemy spellcasters. And third, he has that great Quintessence ability- as well as the Epic Spellcasting feat- but he has no actual caster levels or Epic spells to use it with. As I pointed out above, per the rules his Wish SLA does not require him to use XP to power it, so the Quintessence is useless for that- and since he doesn't have integrated Sorcerer or Wizard levels, he doesn't get to cast it as an actual spell either. This means that it would normally be used to power Epic spells, but since he hasn't got any Epic spells to use, that sort of makes it useless. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Other things I didn't mention: the Aura of Chaos is a great effect for him, very much in keeping with what the entity represents. I consider it largely combat-neutral, unless he gets something like an Epic spell to call up an army of non-unique slaadi; certainly the Globe of Invulnerability effect is nice, but by the low-Epic levels most casters don't rely on hitting the enemy with low-level effects anyway (particularly not "big bads" like Loarsraol would be) so it's not likely to be much of a factor. The slaads he's capable of summoning with his Summon Slaadi ability should be pushovers to any party of a level capable of fighting Loarsraol credibly, so whether or not they're protected by the Aura of Chaos they won't be a huge factor in the fight.All in all, this is definitely a credible CR 27 creature, and a very very cool one besides. This beastie, or something very much like him, is almost certain to make a showing in one or both of my games in the future. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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