3.x Low-CR Monsters with Reduce Person

[VariSami]

So, I am planning this 2-session sub-adventure within my ongoing campaign since one player cannot attend the next few sessions. Last session, one of their characters died and another went unconscious so I am having them face the dead character's patron evil spirit she had imprisoned. The unconscious character inhabits a representation of their father who is quite plot-relevant.

Anyway, the point is to face each of the evil spirit's aspects. They are helped by the aspect which was borne of its servitude to the character, manifested as a Ghostly Visage on her. The rest are an awakened ogre skeleton with listen and move silently in a dark area where light is reduced in intensity by one step ('the Chestsitter') and a Urdark with reduced HD alongside halfling warrior skeletons ('the Choker of Infants'). Once the others have been defeated, its core can be uncovered: a Vasuthant (MM3 182). The Vasuthant is pretty perfect for this but it can only grab creatures its size or smaller. Increasing the size has its own problems, so I was wondering if there might be some (thematically appropriate) pre-generated creatures with Reduce Person at an appropriate CR. The characters are basically level 3. If not, I suppose I will just include some environmental hazard which can cause the effect.

Thank you in advance.

[Darrin]

Kaorti (Fiend Folio) have reduce person as an SLA 1/day. CR is 1, but... I'm not sure I'd send any more than two against a level-3 party.

Actually... Kobold Sorcerer 1 with a wand of reduce person could be interesting.

[VariSami]

Kaorti (Fiend Folio) have reduce person as an SLA 1/day. CR is 1, but... I'm not sure I'd send any more than two against a level-3 party.

Oh, that is a great find. I can certainly see why you would recommend that since Color Spray is obviously extremely strong. However, the stakes of this sub-adventure are not life or death; one character is already dead and the other is there only as a representation. If they fail, there will likely be consequences for the living but the main sufferer will be the character who already died. Plus, there will be rewards for success, and those are the main motivator.

Thematically, a Kaorti definitely fits better than any more 'D&D-y' opponent since the campaign takes place in a very thematically infused setting which does not play by the same meta-narrative as official D&D settings. While the kobold (or what have you) could be refitted, the wand would be harder to justify.

Thank you.