What's a 15th level Githyanki to do...?

[Three_Haligonians]

...besides run away from home I mean.


For those who don't know, most Githyanki sources mention that once a member of the race reaches 16th level, they are taken by their "benevolent" Lich-Queen and destroyed - their essence goes to fuel her unlife/magic power/battery... whatever.

This puts a funny cap on the race as adversaries, since once the party reaches high-level play - there can't be any Githyanki to fight, they are all dead.

My Epic game is going to be running across the Githyanki soon (one of the newest members is a runaway herself) and so I was wondering... what kind of things can I do to help keep the CR up to an appropriate level. There are some things I have so far:

Numbers: I can send more than a few Githyanki enemies at once. However, it eventually becomes impractical to throw battalion after battalion at the PCs.
Dragons: The race does have a special "deal" with red dragons so warriors on dragon mounts, and even older/stronger dragons can come into play. However, this kind of cheapens dragons as an enemy (I think anyway, there are other opinions on how "special" dragon fights should be).
Gear: I can give various Githyanki way more treasure than their level would normally call for in order to help pump them up. The problem here is that it gives the party way more treasure than normal and throws the wealth per level thing off. I could also use things like grafts/symbiotes and other such "non-equipment" but.. what kinds are there?
Templates: A good one to be sure, but what would acceptable ones be? Also, I don't really want to make feral pseudo half-fiend/dragon/elemental githyanki of legend vampires just to push their CR count up.

I know I could just toss that piece of fluff out the window if I wanted, or even make special cases (things like X years of pledged service to the queen will let one advance a few more levels) and I might do that yet.. I guess I am asking for a brainstorm for all the possibilities since I am probably going to be using them all.

So, how can we tweak some Githyanki?

J from Three Haligonians

 

[Warren Okuma]

Tactics, builds, and common sense.
1) Druids in 3.5 DnD should have augmented summoning and a dire wolf companion is the way to go. Remember dire wolves has a free action trip. Hit them when they stand. And trees don't get crits because they are plant subtype when shifted. There are a few more summoning feats in Eberron. Then again an optimized wildshape fighting druid is the other option. Both should in wildshape should be wearing a monk's belt. Plus buff your critters animal growth etc... Plus a thief who takes shots when they are on the ground.
2) When in combat, concentrate fire.
3) Spiked chain build.
4) Mercenaries and demons. (Very important)
5) Practice Scry buff and fry.
6) Buff, buff, buff your stuff...
7) Leap attack + Pounce.
8) Bag of holding/portable hole combo once with an Unseen Servant
9) Obscuring Mist and creatures with both Blindsight and Reach.
10) Chance to seal in stone every enemy by the means of transmute rock to mud to rock. If you have two druids... Druid 1: Rock to mud. Druid 2: No, mud to rock.
11) Evard's Black Tentacles + Solid Fog + Acid Fog + Cloudkill
12) Anti-Life Shell + spell barrage + undead bodyguards
13) Sorcerer/Wiz Builds: If you want to do damage, take the most abusive spell out there (scorching ray is good, or sound lance), and be really rude with it, Take arcane thesis (spell of choice) and Rapid metamagic and a few good metamagic feats like empower, twin and so on (maximize is ok, but not as good as those two) If you do scorching ray, take Searing heat from sandstorm to get around fire resistance.

If you go this route you can do massive damage with a scorching ray.

Of course you want a few (read 2 or 3) other attack spells in cast your opponent wisely gives themselves spell immunity-scorching ray, or gets in a globe of protection. But you only need 3-4 attack spells at any time. I would go with Magic Missile, Scorching ray, Chain Lightning, and take the dragon breath feat to allow some nice elemental damage of a type other than fire.

 

[wingsandsword]

I'd say raise the level cap for Githyanki, after all character levels are not exactly something that characters automatically know, and the reason the lich-queen Vlaakith slays her followers like that is to ensure that none are powerful enough to challenge her, so just make Vlaakith even higher level, and for a multi-millennia old lich, you can believably pile on levels all you want.

The idea that Githyanki max out at 15th level comes from when 15th level was very big and very high level, and many PC's would never be able to be much higher level no matter how much they adventured. Remember, in 1e some classes like Monk and Assassin even had hard upper caps of how high a level they could progress. Druids stopped at 14th level (with only one of those in the world), Monks stopped at 17th (with only one of those in the world), and Assassins stopped at 15th level (again, only one of those). In a game where 14th or 15th level means you're quite possibly the best in the world in your character class, a 15th level Githyanki is still a menace.

So, just scale it up, Githyanki get eaten when they get towards the normal tops of mortal accomplishment, to the point where a semi-divine lich queen would begin to fear their strength, in 3.x you aren't there at 15th level.

 

[HellHound]

Or play through the module in Dungeon #100. That module gets rid of the Githyanki level cap.

 

[Wild Gazebo]

Scrap the cap.

or

Use the Lichqueen's secret-ultra-super-epic-strike-force of ubergiths...that she manages to completly dominate rather than deplete?

 

[SteelDraco]

Undead githyanki. After all, she did kill them with a level-draining effect. Find a wight template or something similar, and go to town. They are loyal to their creator, after all. Maybe the Lich-Queen takes a portion of whatever life force they drain into herself, thus making all the most powerful githyanki both slaves to her will, and feeding appendages.

 

[Warren Okuma]

Undead githyanki. After all, she did kill them with a level-draining effect. Find a wight template or something similar, and go to town. They are loyal to their creator, after all. Maybe the Lich-Queen takes a portion of whatever life force they drain into herself, thus making all the most powerful githyanki both slaves to her will, and feeding appendages.

Very nice.

Nah, keep the cap. This will challenge your skill as a DM. Use the above tactics and you will challenge your PC's if they get sloppy...

 

[questing gm]

I believe in Dungeon #100, on the Polyhedron side there was a template for undead githyanki (warrior & warlock) that has been devoured by Vlaakith.

 

[Nifft]

Put all his skill ranks in Profession (Lawyer) or Craft (Will).

Because he knows it's coming.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Savage Wombat]

Undead githyanki. After all, she did kill them with a level-draining effect. Find a wight template or something similar, and go to town. They are loyal to their creator, after all. Maybe the Lich-Queen takes a portion of whatever life force they drain into herself, thus making all the most powerful githyanki both slaves to her will, and feeding appendages.

Undead githyanki are called Tl'a'ikith. The word means "sword spirits". They are invisible spirits animating the sword they held in life. They guard treasure vaults, dragon egg chambers, and other important locations. They don't, however, communicate with other githyanki in any fashion. They have the full abilities they had in life, but are now invisible spirit-creatures.

SteelDraco may wonder why I happen to know this off-hand.