#banishing these gnomes to the side-blog

[mothmanwarble]

A few Hidden People doodles from a larger page solely dedicated to Hidden People doodles. I’ve been having fun experimenting with how I wanna draw them!

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Throne of Night Theory Builds Part 5: The Drow Demon Binder of Book 4

Continuing the posts of wondering what the builds of certain encounters would be for this AP, here’s a drow queen that has at least two demons under her command.

Like the other post, this uses only OGL material. I had discussed things with the Paizo legal team (it was suggested I do so and it’s good that I did), and to do this without any legal issues from their side, I would have to abide by the same rules that Gary did. I’m okay with that. However, Kickstarter is out of their jurisdiction so they couldn’t comment on anything further regarding that. I’m still being careful of what information I’m sharing (despite it being six years later and most of the public now has access to the updates anyhow).

Also, I didn’t note this in the last one, but any monsters that don’t change stats and are directly part of the encounters, I’ll just link them directly. Summons don’t count though as that can change from GM to GM. Tactics can be ignored if the NPCs have gained information about the party and this would cause them to act differently.

For space reasons, cropping the encounter build.

Again, all images shared here were done by the forever fantastic and amazingly talented Michael D. Clarke, aka SpiralMagus.

EDIT: Cleaned up the stats and fixed the broken link.

Book 4 discussed entering the drow city, for whatever reason that may be. It could finally be time for revenge for the drow siblings or maybe the dwarves wish to finally avenge the svirfneblin back in Book 1. Either way, the party enters here, take on an arena with spider riders and confront drow royalty that looks exactly like a dark elf version of a marilith. Both of these I’ve done previously, and have linked to those blog posts.

The situation here is that the party encounters the queen after they witness what looks to be some kind of civil war between drow families. One side are all regular drow surrounded by darkness, while the other is surrounded by flames and winged demons. My assumption is that you side with one of the two warring factions.

Ignoring that one or two of the encounters might include drow troops, I’m jumping straight to the main course. In Way of the Wicked, this same spot was a CR 18 encounter. Unfortunately, the picture doesn’t tell the entire story because no matter how I try, I can’t balance it that high without adding in a fourth party that’s not in the picture.

Meet Queen Alyarra Aleanmtor. Her name literally means “Legendary Queen of the noble line of the Abyss.” I used this generator. She’s described as a merciless monarch who wants to rule over everything, and wants to destroy the empire the party is trying to create.

Thinking about the drow side of the AP, I thought it’d also be interesting if she was also the antagonist that was responsible for their mother’s death and their banishment. It’d be a great story beat if that was the case so they could finally get their revenge on her. If this wasn’t the case in the original story, then it definitely should be now.

The best part of this build is I even got to use a feat from Fire Mountain Games Book 5 (which I’ll attach a link to it). I’m assuming that he would have used at least something from his previous publication. It’d be too sad to have made those feats, class archetypes, items, and spells only to have them appear once. This all takes place in the same universe, after all.

Don’t forget to add the +2 hp/HD for any and all demons the queen summons with summoning spells. As well, as the extra +1 for Superior Summoning and bonus to stats for Augmented Summoning (which grants even more hp) or all creatures summoned.

QUEEN ALYARRA ALEANMTOR OF HOUSE UNDORIEL   (CR 16; 76,800 XP) Female blasphemous covenant drow noble conjurer (teleportation) 16 CE Medium humanoid (elf) Init +8; Senses darkvision 120 ft., see invisibility; Perception +3 DEFENSE AC 19, touch 15, flat-footed 15 (+4 armor, +1 deflection, +4 dodge) hp 110 (16d6+52) Fort +6, Ref +9, Will +11; +2 vs. enchantments, +2 vs. continuing effects Immune sleep; Resist fire 30; SR 27 Weakness light blindness OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee mwk staff +8 (1d6–1) Arcane School Spell-Like Abilities (CL 16th; concentration +22)   10/day—shift   At will—dimensional steps (480 feet/day) Conjurer Spells Prepared (CL 16th; concentration +22)   8th—maze, quickened wall of fire, summon monster VIII   7th—caustic eruption (R-DC 25), quickened fireball (R-DC 24), quickened haste, reach mass bull's strength, summon monster VII (usually shadow demons)   6th—conjure black pudding, globe of invulnerability, greater dispel magic, planar ally (already cast; hezrou), quickened acid arrow   5th—acidic spray (R-DC 23), cone of cold (R-DC 22), hungry pit (R-DC 23), reach greater invisibility, wall of force, whip of centipedes   4th—acid pit (R-DC 22), black tentacles, greater invisibility, solid fog, touch of slime (F-DC 22), wall of ice   3rd—displacement, fireball (R-DC 20), mad monkeys, rain of frogs, slow (W-DC 20), stinking cloud (F-DC 21), twilight knife   2nd—acid arrow, create pit (R-DC 20), glitterdust (W-DC 20), mirror image, see invisibility (already cast), resist energy, web (R-DC 20)   1st—grease (DC 19), heightened awareness, magic missile (2), mudball (DC R-19), shield, vanish   0 (at will)—mending, message, read magic, resistance Opposition Schools enchantment, necromancy Spell-Like Abilities (CL 16th; concentration +19)   Constant—detect magic   At will—dancing lights, deeper darkness, faerie fire, feather fall, levitate   1/day—divine favor, dispel magic, suggestion (DC 16) Hedge Wizard Cloak Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st)   At will—acid splash, prestidigitation   1/day—mage armor, unseen servant TACTICS Before Combat Queen Alyarra casts mage armor from her cloak, then heightened awareness, resist energy (fire), and see invisibility. If there’s time, she casts greater false life from her scroll. During Combat On the first few rounds, Queen Alyarra casts mass hold person and quickened fireball, before dropping them into a pit spell or hitting them with black tentacles. Afterwards, she summons as many allies to the front lines as possible while her demon bodyguards protect her and attack anyone who gets too close. Queen Alyarra starts with summon monster VIII, calling greater fire elementals, surrounding as many targets as she can and using a quickened wall of fire to trap as many creatures with the elementals. Anyone heavily armored becomes the target of her maze spell, with healers being a prime candidate. Arcane casters have the best chance of inhibiting her summons and countering her spells, so she targets them with quickened acid arrow and mudball, hoping to blind them, then using globe of invulnerability to make them ineffective against her.

In following rounds, she turns invisible and buffs her allies with her quickened haste, reach bull’s strength and reach greater invisibility, before using levitate to survey the battleground. Using her wall spells to control the fight, Queen Alyarra traps opponents and summons shadow demons with summon monster VII, or frogs and monkeys, to battle those within her created barriers. If anyone turns invisible, she hits them with faerie fire or glitterdust. Queen Alyarra never stays in one place for too long, utilizing her shift ability as best as she can.

If forced into melee combat, she casts displacement, and mirror image, then divine favor, and summons a twilight knife and whip of centipedes to attack the would-be attackers. Morale Queen Alyarra does not fear death thanks to her aegis of recovery and countless summoned minions. If the aegis is used to keep her alive, she calls her summons to protect her. Her pride does not allow her to leave the battle, and fights to the death. Base Statistics Without greater false life and heightened awareness, Queen Alyarra’s stats are hp 90; Senses Perception +1; Skills all Knowledge skills are 2 lower. STATISTICS Str 8, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 24, Wis 12, Cha 16 Base Atk +8; CMB +7; CMD 26 Feats Augment Summoning, Contract Master (FMG #5), Craft StaffB, Improved Initiative, Quicken SpellB, Reach SpellB, Spell Focus (conjuration), Scribe ScrollB, Spell Penetration, Superior Summoning, True Name (greater planar binding [nalfeshnee], planar binding [glabrezu]) Skills Appraise +17, Diplomacy +19, Fly +11, Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering, history, local, nature, nobility, religion) +22, Knowledge (planes) +27, Linguistics +15, Sense Motive +17, Spellcraft +20 Languages Aboleth, Abyssal, Aklo, Common, Draconic, Drow Sign Language, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Skis'raal, Terran, Undercommon SQ arcane bond (staff), compression (belt), summoner’s charm (8 rounds) Combat Gear scroll of greater false life, scroll of mass hold person, acid (2); Other Gear ring of protection +1 (signet ring), Aleanmtor Crown (acts as a headband of vast intelligence +4 [Diplomacy, Sense Motive]), aegis of recovery, belt of the weasel, cloak of the hedge wizard (conjuration), jaunt boots, spellguard bracers, staff of speaking (bonded object), ring of counterspells, spell component pouch, traveling spell book (contains all prepared spells plus all Core cantrips, scorching ray, whip of spiders, and fly) SPECIAL ABILITIES Blasphemous Covenant (Ex) Since their twisted beginnings, the drow have consorted with demons. Some drow have strong ties with these creatures and may call upon ancient and obscene associations to sway demonic cooperation. Drow with this racial trait gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks made against unbound creatures with the demon subtype. Furthermore, demons conjured with any summon spell gain +2 hit points per Hit Die. Lastly, the cost of bribes or offerings for any planar ally spell cast by these drow to summon a demon is reduced by 20%. This racial trait replaces keen senses and poison use.

--name means “legendary queen of the noble line of the abyss”

UL'GUTH XELGRARITH   (CR 14; XP 38,400) Nalfeshnee

VOROK BASTROR    (CR 13; XP 25,600) Glabrezu

TOZZAN    (CR 11; XP 12,800) Hezrou

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And that’ll do it at this time. If I come up with anything else that needs stats, I’ll probably do another one of these. We’ll see though.

These are my own designs for how I thought things would go, and can be changed or ignored entirely. It was just something I wanted to do for myself. The itch has been scratched for the time being.