(Ultima 5) Statting Out the Shadowlords?

[AFGNCAAP]

A question for anyone familiar with the Ultima series of games... (Hong? Would you know anything about this?)

In Ultima 5, some of the feared foes in the game were the Shadowlords--3 ringwraith-like creatures that each represented the opposite of one of the three Principles (Truth, Love, Courage).

Apparently, they are undead creatures, and had the ability to have everyone in a certain area (usually an entire town) fall sway under the negative power they represented: The Shadowlord of Hate caused everyone in town to be hateful/hostile, the Shadowlord of Falsehood caused lying & theft, and the Shadowlord of Cowardice caused fear & timidness (IIRC).

Each Shadowlord was bound to a shard of a gemstone--if said gemstone was destroyed (by throwing it in the holy fire of the Principle the Shadowlord opposed), the Shadowlord was truly destroyed. Otherwise, a Shadowlord would return to unlife if it was ever "slain" (much like a lich & its phylactery).

My question is: can anyone familiar with the game help me/provide advice on how to stat out the Shadowlords? I'm not sure if they're wraiths, shadows, ghosts, liches, or what. Also, they have a pretty potent power in creating negative emotions/reactions for everyone within a town (literally thousands to tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people)--how could that be statted out?

I know Hong has an Ultima website for Ultima ala D&D, but I can't find the link for it (also, I'm not sure if the Shadowlords were statted out & appear on the site, either).

I'd appreciate any help/info/advice/comments/etc. you could provide.

 

[Welverin]

Hong's site is here, it's based on U4 though, so no Shadowlords.

 

[BOZ]

i remember that when they hit you they really messed you up - lots of damage with a single hit, if it wasn't even just instant death!

 

[AFGNCAAP]

i remember that when they hit you they really messed you up - lots of damage with a single hit, if it wasn't even just instant death!

That's right--in combat they really packed a punch; they also sort of drew you into their own little version of reality during a combat (instead of having a combat screen that reflected the area you were in, it was a unique, weird place--dunno if it'd be equivalent of being drawn into the Plane of Shadow, Ethereal Plane, or what.

However, I do recall that they could be affected by weapons (& thus weren't incorporeal), and had potent magical abilities.

 

[Creamsteak]

I'd use high level wizards or clerics turned liches. The genesis of a different combat area would probably be better suited to just a spell, rather than making it a special ability for a modified template/creature.

But, although I've played Ultima's 4 and 5, I've only "beat" 6.

 

[hong]

Yep, website is based on U4, so no Shadowlords. That said, there's a chance they might still show up (canon be damned), and even if not, I might do a U5 game at a later stage. This is the approach I'd use to statting them out:

1) Decide what level would be appropriate for you to end your campaign. Fighting the Shadowlords is sorta like the end point; it's difficult to conceive of anything in Britannia that would be more powerful than one of these.

2) Decide what are the main features you want them to have. In U5, they were tough melee combatants, but that wasn't their schtick; lots of other things were also tough. What made them dangerous was that they could draw your party into a funky, cell-like map where everyone was isolated; and they could dominate party members and make them fight each other.

Something to watch out for is that the power curve in any Ultima game is a lot less steep than in D&D. If you just used the powers that existed in the CRPGs, a 10th level D&D party could probably take down a shadowlord without too much trouble. That may or may not be what you want.

If I were to stat out a shadowlord, I would probably make it a CR 24-25 creature (say 40 HD or so), suitable as an end-boss encounter for a 20th level party (I like high-level games, but I'm not really into the epic stuff). It would have a domination gaze attack, plus the ability to teleport to and from whatever extradimensional/outer plane is your analogue of Hell. In D&D the latter ability would probably end up used more as a means of escape, rather than a way to drag the PCs around. I'd then round out the creature with any abilities that seem appropriate for a super-powerful evil being. The shadowlords in U5 are all identical, but you may want a bit more individuality: eg Cowardice gets lots of fear-inducing or buff-dispelling abilities; Falsehood gets illusions, charms and blink/displacement; Hatred gets barbarian rage and is a damage-dealing machine. Naturally they all get boom spells out the wazoo.

If you want to simulate the shadowlords' effect on a town, you could give it a massive-radius aura of fear (all creatures with < 5 HD are shaken, unless they save). This would explain why most people don't want to talk to you, because they're too scared. It would also explain why guards attack you on sight, because you're ostensibly wanted criminals. There are holes in this theory, but I wouldn't worry about it too much; U5 isn't exactly a paragon of consistency in terms of backstory.