Tweak This Kobold! (My players, stay out)

[moritheil]

Again, if you're taking part in the Invasion of Mori, please do not read this.

Kobold That Walks, 10th-Level Sorcerer
Size/Type: Small Aberration (Augmented Humanoid)
Hit Dice: 10d8+10 (50 hp)
Initiative: +6 (+4 II)
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 41 (+1 size, +2 Dex, +4 force armor, +4 shield, +20 insight), touch 33, flat-footed 39
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+0
Attack: Melee touch +5 (engulf)
Full Attack: Melee touch +5 (engulf)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities, engulf, frightful presence
Special Qualities: Blindsight 300 ft., SR 23, discorporate, immunities
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +7
Abilities: Str 8, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 16
Skills: Know (arcana) +13, Spellcraft +13
Feats: Empower Spell, Improved Initiative, Improved Toughness, Silent Spell
Environment: Temperate forests
Challenge Rating: 13
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually lawful evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: Yeah right


Spell-Like Abilities

1/day—animal growth (vermin), animal messenger (vermin), animal shapes (vermin), animal trance (vermin), colossal vermin (as giant vermin, but it can increase the creature’s size from Large to Gargantuan and from Huge to Colossal), creeping doom, giant vermin, summon swarm (vermin), summon vermin (as summon nature’s ally, except it summons 10 HD of vermin per level), and vermin plague (as insect plague). Caster level 20th; save DC 13 + spell level. The save DCs are Charisma-based.

Engulf (Ex)
A worm that walks can choose to engulf an opponent who is no more than one size category larger than itself. The worm attempts to embrace its victim, and with a successful melee touch attack, the victim is immediately swallowed up and surrounded by a mass of vermin, taking 100 points of damage. A victim who spends a full-round action can break free of the embrace and move up to half its speed away from the worm if desired, but can do nothing else. Otherwise, each round a victim remains embraced, it takes another 100 points of damage. Constructs are immune to this attack.

Spells
The worm that walks can cast any spells it could cast when a living character. It also gains several related abilities.

Frightful Presence (Su)
When a worm that walks engulfs a victim, witnesses must make a Will save (DC 10 + ½ the worm’s HD + the worm’s Cha modifier). Those who make the save are shaken. Those who fail by 5 or fewer points are frightened. Those who fail by 6 to 10 points are panicked. Those who fail by 11 or more points are cowering. All these conditions last for 1d4 rounds. Those who have seen a worm use this attack before gain a +5 bonus on their saving throws. The victim of the worm’s engulf attack has a -5 penalty on his or her saving throw.

Discorporate (Ex)
If gravely threatened, a worm can discorporate as a free action, simply falling into a pile of individual vermin that slither quickly away. So long as any of the component vermin survive, they can breed and create a new body to house the wizard’s intelligence and personality. Discorporating is a dangerous tactic, because once separated, the vermin are treated no differently than other vermin. Also, the worm stands a good chance of losing all its equipment. However, discorporation almost assures that at least one maggot (if not dozens) will manage to crawl away, and so provide for the worm’s continued existence.

Immunities (Ex)
A worm that walks has no discernable anatomy, so it is not subject to critical hits or flanking.

Typical Sorcerer Spells Known (6/7/7/7/5/3; save DC 13 + spell level)

0—detect magic, mage hand, message, no light, read magic, resistance, touch of fatigue;
1st—disguise self, mage armor, magic missile, shield, true strike;
2nd—acid arrow, bear’s endurance, eagle's splendor, scorching ray;
3rd—fireball, haste, vampiric touch;
4th—evard's tentacles, improved invisibility;
5th—baleful polymorph

Combat routines:
0 - cast shield (force armor is already up), haste, and/or improved invisibility
1 - evard's tentacles
2 - empowered fireball
3 - vampiric touch or engulf.

 

[javcs]

Swap a level one for true strike. Exchange lesser geas for either a wall spell, greater invisibility, dimension door, bestow curse, or phantasmal killer.
Consider giving him some wands or scrolls of other handy spells (or metamagic spells), or some other gear.

Could also give him the half-fiend template for some more truly irritating abilities. Applied before Worm that Walks.

More help could be given if you explained what exactly you wanted this meagre kobold to do.

 

[moritheil]

Upon further thought, disguise self and mirror image are probably much better than silent image and invisibility. If focusing on closing with the enemy, suggestion can be swapped for vampiric touch. Let's see how it looks after those changes.

This kobold is merely a nice surprise for an EL 17 adventuring party. At 100 damage with an engulf, it can kill if the characters get too cocky, but it's unlikely to TPK - it will run out of hit points fast. Perhaps the concept is better expressed as a Wilder . . .


Addendum: It doesn't really seem that mirror image is all that great if improved invisibility is used. Any suggestions? Also, to take full advantage of the discoporation ability, any loot should probably be spent on the most expensive charisma-boosting tome possible.

 

[javcs]

It's got decent AC, though, which'll help it last.

For Mirror Image, you could use Eagle's Splendor, blur, or see invisibility.

I still think that applying either the Half-Dragon or Half-fiend templates before WtW would be useful, makes him a slight bit more dangerous and longer lasting, you could also give him a level of fighter for the bonus feat (Weapon Finesse, probably) the hit die and BAB.

What good is the charm person gonna do? If it's not going to be that useful pick up true strike(which is always handy).

 

[moritheil]

The charm person is more of a concession to the concept that this creature is not always wandering around devouring or destroying things. It doesn't have to be there.

See invisibility is probably redundant with blindsight 300', and blur doesn't stack with the effects of being invisible, but eagle's splendor might be nice.

True strike is nice coupled with melee touch engulf, but uses an action to cast, which seems questionable when another evard's tentacles or empowered fireball could be cast instead. In other words, it just does not seem action-efficient. Still, it tops charm person here.

Oh, and thanks for your great input!

 

[javcs]

Well, since he's invisible, he can afford to take an action to cast true strike as long as he has moved since his last spell .. he could charge in and engulf .. that's an interesting mental image there.

Always happy to help mess with PCs.

They'll probably be cocky, at 17th, a single kobold doesn't appear that threatening, especially since he's got disguise self to make him look like a normal kobold.

Let us know how he does .. I'm gonna bet that he takes at least one PC with him.

He could do evard's tentacles, followed by the fireball, true strike, then charge + engulf on someone outside of tentacles (if any), if nobody's outside, he could probably loose a scorching ray or acid arrow on someone who's pretty messed up, or loose another fireball or two.
Plus, with the party tied up in the tentacles, he could summon a vermin swarm - those WtW spell-likes have gotta be good for something, he can summon vermin to pull in more support as well. Remember the WtW spell-likes, in the right situation, especially if he knows the party is coming, he can cast some of his defensive spells ahead of time, and perhaps use a summon spell-like.

 

[moritheil]

He's not actually alone; he's part of a mercenary group and has kobold warrior subordinates. The entire group is groaning at having to deal with kobolds at their level.

 

[javcs]

Well, sucks to be them, then.
I salute you sir, for making ECL 17 PCs go against kobolds .. it'll look that much worse on their resumes when they lose a party member to a kobold. That kind of cruelty takes practice .. I've gotta find something crappier than a kobold and do that.

 

[moritheil]

Huh, now I'm really not sure about something: if he engulfs while still invisible, does the party need to make saves vs. fear? It might actually be to a party member's detriment to have see invisible or true sight up!

 

[javcs]

By the RAW, I think so.
It's gotta be unnerving to see one of your friends get swallowed by something invisible.
Might even up the save DC because of that.