Souls of the Damned Roasting on an Open Fire
Quote Originally Posted by Disappointment
Spoiler: Author's note
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It's a hard entry to make. It started from random remembrance that banshee is an undead elf woman only. I went to the MMII and... No, not in the D&D 3.X. It's true in some other editions, but not this. But during my research I found the Keening Spirit template... It was a fixation. I wanted an entry with it, but... I didn't know what to make. It isn't banshee with her 26 HD, 17 CR and HD advancement, here classes were needed to be and... That was a problem. Yeah, it was easy to make Keening Spirit Drow Cleric 17, but... Keening Spirit would be overshadowed by class levels. I had a concept of Wu Jen with Body outside Body to spam with Keening, but I wasn't happy with such idea. I thought about Shadowcaster, Truenamer, Wilder, Dragonfire Adept - nothing fit. Yes, I at the very beginning found Lurking Terror, but it's only three levels (it could be good with banshee actually). I thought about a bunch of templates - she's a ghost, actually, if PCs kill her it'd not be a problem. I already told It was a fixation. I woke up and fell asleep thinking about this entry for about a full week. Don't like when such happens. I'm very happy that I came up with something interesting enough to suit me after all. And I hope you will like Disappointment, too.

"Disappointment!" - that's how mother always called her. "Tainted blood," - she added sometimes. Mother always told her it's her father's fault. He had dirty human among his ancestors. If she knew, she'd never... But what is done, is done and now she has an unfit daughter. Priestess of Lolth who can't cast spells... Such a disgrace...But even without spells she was a priestess, she channeled the Lolth's power and she was her daughter after all.

CE Evolved Undead Keening Spirit Karsite Drow Blasphemous Incantation Cleric 8/Drow Paragon 1/Defiant 12/Lurking Terror 3
Spoiler: Stats
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Abilities Initial Drow Karsite Keening Spirit ASI Evolved Undead Total
STR 8 -
DEX 13 2 1 16
CON 10 -2 2 -
INT 14 2 16
WIS 12 12
CHA 15 2 2 4 3 2 28

Spoiler: Build
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CR Lvl Class BAB Fort Reflex Will Skills Feats Class Features
2 1st Blasphemous Incantation Cleric 1 0 2 0 2 20: {+4} Bluff: 4; {+4} Hide: 4; {+4} Knowledge (arcana): 4; {+4} Knowledge (religion): 4; {+4} Spellcraft: 4; Magic in the Blood (1), Lightning Reflexes (B) Blasphemous incantation, domains (Trickery, Drow), DR 5/magic, SR (10+lvl, 11+lvl), magic draining attacks, spell healing, spellcasting inability, darkvision 120 ft., light blindness, SLA
3 2nd Drow Paragon 1 0 2 2 2 7: Bluff: 4; {+1} Hide: 5; {+1} Intimidate: 1; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 5; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 5; {+2} Spot: 2; Improved spell-like abilities
4 3rd Cleric 2 1 3 2 3 5: {+2} Bluff: 6; {+1} Hide: 6; Intimidate: 1; Knowledge (arcana): 5; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 6; {+1} Spellcraft: 6; Spot: 2; Sudden Ability Focus (3)
5 4th Cleric 3 2 3 3 3 5: {+1} Bluff: 7; {+1} Hide: 7; Intimidate: 1; Knowledge (arcana): 5; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 7; {+1} Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Spellcraft: 7; Spot: 2;
6 5th Cleric 4 3 4 3 4 5: {+1} Bluff: 8; {+1} Hide: 8; Intimidate: 1; Knowledge (arcana): 5; {+1} Knowledge (history): 1; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 8; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Spellcraft: 8; Spot: 2;
7 6th Cleric 5 3 4 3 4 5: {+1} Bluff: 9; {+1} Hide: 9; Intimidate: 1; Knowledge (arcana): 5; {+1} Knowledge (history): 2; Knowledge (religion): 8; {+1} Knowledge (the planes): 2; {+1} Spellcraft: 9; Spot: 2; Gift Of The Spider Queen (6)
8 7th Cleric 6 4 5 4 5 5: {+1} Bluff: 10; {+1} Hide: 10; Intimidate: 1; Knowledge (arcana): 5; {+1} Knowledge (history): 3; Knowledge (religion): 8; {+1} Knowledge (the planes): 3; {+1} Spellcraft: 10; Spot: 2;
9 8th Cleric 7 5 2 4 2 5: {+1} Bluff: 11; {+1} Hide: 11; Intimidate: 1; Knowledge (arcana): 5; {+1} Knowledge (history): 4; Knowledge (religion): 8; {+1} Knowledge (the planes): 4; {+1} Spellcraft: 11; Spot: 2;
10 9th Cleric 8 6 6 4 6 5: {+1} Bluff: 12; {+1} Hide: 12; Intimidate: 1; Knowledge (arcana): 5; {+1} Knowledge (history): 5; Knowledge (religion): 8; {+1} Knowledge (the planes): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 12; Spot: 2; Widen Supernatural Ability (9)
12 9th Keening Spirit 6 6 4 6 - Lightning Reflexes Blasphemous incantation, domains, destructive touch, fear aura, keening, manifestation, rejuvenation, SR (13+lvl), turn resistance, undead traits
13 10th Defiant 4 6 8 4 8 5: Bluff: 12; Hide: 12; {+4} Intimidate: 5; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 5; Knowledge (religion): 8; Knowledge (the planes): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 13; Spot: 2; Spell resistance (15+defiant lvl), divine resistance, divine damage immunity, divine cancellation, trades 3 levels of cleric
14 11th Defiant 6 7 9 5 9 5: Bluff: 12; Hide: 12; {+4} Intimidate: 9; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 5; Knowledge (religion): 8; Knowledge (the planes): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 14; Spot: 2; Aligned strike, divine prevention, trades 1 level of cleric
15 12th Defiant 8 8 9 5 9 5: Bluff: 12; Hide: 12; {+4} Intimidate: 13; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 5; Knowledge (religion): 8; Knowledge (the planes): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 15; Spot: 2; Ability Focus (Keening) (12) Nondetection, divine retribution, trades 1 level of cleric
16 13th Defiant 12 9 8 6 8 5: Bluff: 12; Hide: 12; {+4} Intimidate: 17; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 5; Knowledge (religion): 8; Knowledge (the planes): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 16; Spot: 2; Divine interference, divine disavowal, trades 3 levels of cleric
17 14th Lurking Terror 1 9 8 6 10 7: Bluff: 12; {+3} Hide: 15; Intimidate: 17; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 5; Knowledge (religion): 8; Knowledge (the planes): 5; Spellcraft: 16; {+4} Spot: 6; Deathly power
18 15th Lurking Terror 2 10 8 6 11 7: Bluff: 12; {+3} Hide: 18; Intimidate: 17; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 5; Knowledge (religion): 8; Knowledge (the planes): 5; Spellcraft: 16; {+4} Spot: 10; Reverberation (Keening) (15) Improved darkvision
19 16th Lurking Terror 3 11 9 7 11 7: Bluff: 12; {+2} Hide: 20; Intimidate: 17; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 5; Knowledge (religion): 8; Knowledge (the planes): 5; Spellcraft: 16; {+5} Spot: 15; Hide in plain sight
20 16th Evolved Undead 11 9 7 11 - Fast healing, SLA (cloudkill)


Spoiler: CR 1 - 10
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Disappointment is just drow cleric without spells for now. She has Blasphemous Incantation for debuff (with Sudden Ability Focus and Widen Supernatural Ability), several ways to utilize her racial SLAs and her Karsite anti-magic abilities, but nothing dangerous enough for her CR. PC maybe meet her somewhere, maybe she was third drow in fifth row in some encounter. It's good for her, she has some ways to extraction.

Spoiler: CR 12
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Disappointment died. Maybe even killed by PC. As a ghost returned to her mother and what did she get? New reproaches: "You couldn’t even die normally! Infamy!" Of course mother didn't resurrect her and no one of Lolth's priestesses will. When she realized that, Disappointment let out a wail, she rejected her previous faith and vowed to destroy all who called themselves "gods." To make this she decided to destroy the substrate on which they parasitize - their worshipers. The first target was to be Lolth.

Disappointment became Keening Spirit and ex-cleric. She acquired her main weapon - the Wail. Yes, it's one per day, but she could apply Sudden Ability Focus and Widen Supernatural Ability to it instead of lost Blasphemous Incantation. Also she has rejuvenation - the best defensive ability in the game if somebody askes me. And fear aura, don't forget fear aura!

Spoiler: CR 13 - 16
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Disappointment got a level of Defiant four times. And thanks to unique prestige class mechanics also trade all her levels of ex-cleric for another eight levels of Defiant for twelve levels total. Trading levels in four steps gave Disappointment 432 hp of healing instead of 108 and six times per day +4 enhancement bonus to stats instead of three. And of course full basket of Defiant's goodies: Charisma to saves, another (fourth) source of SR, Nondetection, various anti-divine abilities and immunities.

Spoiler: CR 17 - 20
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Improving undead abilities via special prestige class and template. Keening's total DC is 36 now, 38 with enhanced Charisma. Plus Cloudkill should reduce Constitution and decrease Fortitude save. Also Disappointment acquired HipS (total Hide modifier is +31 - Keening Spirit got +8 to Hide, Listen, Spot and Search in PGtF Web Enhancement) and fast healing - both are good for her.


Spoiler: Karsite Drow?
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Yes, Karsite Drow. Let's look at "Quick and Easy Karsites" sidebar (Tome of Magic, p. 84):
If humans aren’t prevalent in your campaign (or if including a subrace of humans doesn’t appeal to you), consider giving karsite abilities to half-elves or half-orcs, or even an elf or orc who has a half-elf or half-orc (and thus a Karsus-blooded human) in his family tree.
Also about CR calculation. Both Drow and Karsite has this wording:
Challenge Rating: Drow with levels in NPC classes have a CR equal to their character level. Drow with levels in PC classes have a CR equal to their character level +1.
Challenge Rating: The CR of a karsite with levels in an NPC class equals his character level. The CR of a karsite with levels in a PC class equals his character level +1.
Okay, I see, Disappointment has levels in PC classes and has CR equal to her character level +1. I got this first time, you haven't need repeat twice.
Jokes aside. My point is it isn't +1 CR from one template and +1 CR from another, it's hard calculation rule CR=Char Level+1 and if I get such rule twice it will not turn into CR=Char Level+2 or into New CR=Old CR+1.



Spoiler: Books
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Type Name Book Page
Race Drow Monster Manual 103
Template Karsite Tome of Magic 84
Template Keening Spirit City of The Spider Queen 126
Template Evolved Undead Libris Mortis - The Book of Undead 99
Class Cleric Players Handbook 30
Class Drow Paragon Unearthed Arcana 32
Prestige Class Defiant Planar Handbook 44
Prestige Class Lurking Terror Libris Mortis - The Book of Undead 54
Class variant Blasphemous Incantation Exemplars of Evil 20
Feat Magic in the Blood Player's Guide to Faerûn 40
Feat Lightning Reflexes Players Handbook 97
Feat Sudden Ability Focus Tome of Magic 74
Feat Gift Of The Spider Queen Drow of the Underdark 50
Feat Widen Supernatural Ability Tome of Magic 75
Feat Ability Focus Monster Manual 303
Feat Reverberation Savage Species 39