Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Create-a-Critter #3: Prison Pill Occupants

Just recently came up with a location concept for a campaign world of mine. The plane involved is essentially a big empty pit that fiends use as a dumping ground. The specific location this post deals with is a prison shaped like a giant capped-off carbon nanotube, like a big hexagon-coated headache medicine floating in a particularly empty bit of void. Now, for the theme behind the occupants:

You know the comic book scenario where a superpowered villain gets a pardon in exchange for using his powers for some corrupt government purpose? This prison is for that sort of thing: All the occupants have exotic powers, and the prison is designed to hold them until the owners need one of them, about once every couple centuries or so.

Needless to say, most of the ones that haven't been put in some form of stasis are in a foul mood. Most are of the "Outsider" type, and more or less immortal, others are constructs, and a few mortals, who are typically held in stasis. The exotic powers, well, that's up to your imagination, but if you need help thinking of something, try perusing one of the various alternate magic systems out there.

Additional critters I could use some ideas for: The constructs that serve as the guards and warden, as well as the owners of the place.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The guardians should clearly be spider-like thingies, formed spontaneously out of the web-patterned material of the prison.

Anonymous said...

Well, either as guards or occupants, don't foget your traditionally "long-lived" races: an ancient elf wizard, an antediluvian dwarf, or that classic of near-immortal beings, the dragon.

The Lich is another archtypal "can't kill him, won't die of old age" sort of bad guy, and comes in three flavors. (arcane, divine, and the elusive Psionic) If you have the sourcebook, Warlocks make good liches as well, or so I'm told.

You didn't mention levels or CR. The LeShay from the ELH also get into that "ancient, ageless" category. The Hagunemnon (Protean) is potentially the sort of thing you'd lock up, and make use of from time to time, and it's available in a much lower CR variety in the Phasm. (Base CR 7, advances up to CR 15, and/or can have class levels) Also in the things-that-can-look-like-other-things category is the Unbodied (CR 5, in the Psionics section of the SRD, advances by class) that can have as many levels of Telepath as you want to add.

Lastly, don't forget that sometimes people in prison are safer inside than out. A high-level Alienist might find the option of imprisonment far more desirable than being hauled off by Far Realms nasties. A Half-Illithid Githyanki Pyschic Warrior would pretty reliably be hunted by the mind flayers, the githyanki and the githizeri; inside a prison cell is defintely safer.

I could see a Babau demon (or the assassin demon from MMII) with 10 levels of Shadowdancer locked up. I could also see a rogue Eladrin locked up for violations; an advanced Bralani with 10 levels of Dervish clocks in at CR 16. I could see Fallen Angels being locked up... imagine a Hound Archon Blackguard!

For pure novelty, you can use a variant of the "pink dragon": an older Red (or White) Dragon with the Half Dragon template for the opposite color; immune to fire & cold, plus a lovely shade of mauve. (Works well with Noble Salamanders as well) A similar thematic oddity occurs if you apply the half-celestial/half-fiend template to a fiend/celestial.