Changeling Dreaming Villian Creation

Anyone interested in helping me create one of the major villians for my Changeling game? I need somewhere to bounce ideas off of. If people are interested in helping me create basically a new race post here and we'll start tossing ideas back ideas. People critical of rules and lameness are much needed to make sure I don't screw this up.

thanks!

Scott~

what is the intent of the villain? is it going to be a major social challenge? a major physical impediment? do you want it to be more magical? I need to know more specifics in order to help you. what is the story arc you are planning to add the villain to? I am more than willing to help out, but I do need more info.

No worries. Details I got. I just wanted to check and see if anyone was even interested first.

Ok. here is the scoop. I have done some pretty MASSIVE re-writes to the history and back story of Changeling for my game. On the surface it is going to run like a core game but as the PC's explore the world they will learn some very startling differences. One of the major examples is the existence of this particular bad guy/bad race.

In my game there are three great forces. Formorians who are madness/bedlam incarnate. There are the Tuatha De Dannan who are Dreaming Incarnate/shape and purpose in the dream. And there is my own special creation. The Dahutan who are Banality Incarnate. Mages call them Stais or Pattern creatures. Werewolves call them Weaver creatures. They are absolute death to a changeling. So it's similar to the Weaver/Wild/Wyrm triad but a little different as the Tuatha represent balance instead of an acutal third force.

What to the Dahutan do? They kill dreams and dreamers of course. They make the world predictable. How? Well, aside from all the things you might think of they like to find Changelings going through Chrysilss and make it a horrible experence so they become Dauntain instead of Changelings. Nice huh?

Now here are some of the creation questions. Since in my world they are the force behind Dauntain they can obviously use any/all Dauntain Agendas and power them with banality.
But... should they have a physical form or should they have to possess people? Admittedly I am on a Supernatural (the WB TV show) kick right now so I kinda want to pattern them off of Demons but I am not married to the idea. If they do have a physical form what would it look like? Geodesic dome? Humanoid? Totally freaking alien? This is not something the PC's are going to directly confront any time soon. These things are story ending battles not random encounters. For random violence they have a very new/weak dauntain and a few weaver/pattern spiders to fight.

So, what should it look like? What if any racial bonuses should it have (either it can take a physical form or it can posess one. either way it can interact and should have some stock/template bonuses)? Since they are pure Banailty can hitting them with a Chimeric Weapon cause damage? Seems like it might damage both. The whole matter/anti-matter reaction kinda thing. But it might be possible. Maybe? Dunno. I have the general idea for what they are but not sure what to do with actual stats?

Thoughts?

S~

silverdawn wrote:
What to the Dahutan do? They kill dreams and dreamers of course. They make the world predictable. How? Well, aside from all the things you might think of they like to find Changelings going through Chrysilss and make it a horrible experence so they become Dauntain instead of Changelings. Nice huh?

so they are like a vampire, sort of, they suck the inspiration rather than blood. are you making any changes to the Dauntain or are they the same? some changes to the Dauntain might be in order.

But... should they have a physical form or should they have to possess people?

I like the idea of possessing people, maybe they can only posses people of a certain level of banality.

If they do have a physical form what would it look like? Geodesic dome? Humanoid? Totally freaking alien? This is not something the PC's are going to directly confront any time soon.

honestly I like the spectral nature. that way you can kill the possessed but not the entity it self. allowing for recurring villains that the players can kill. there should probably be a limited number of them. also it sounds like they should be more plot device than actual villains, they should have broad vaguely defined powers, and use minions and cats' paws rather than direct confrontation. if they have to have a physical body, it should be bland, kind of men in blackish. they don't stand out, they are boring, they dull the world around them. just a thought.

What if any racial bonuses should it have (either it can take a physical form or it can posses one. either way it can interact and should have some stock/template bonuses)? Since they are pure Banality can hitting them with a Chimeric Weapon cause damage? Seems like it might damage both. The whole matter/anti-matter reaction kinda thing. But it might be possible. Maybe? Dunno. I have the general idea for what they are but not sure what to do with actual stats?

Thoughts?

S~

I think they should be very vaguely defined, and the powers should be somewhat non direct. think corrupting rather than direct fighting. they should(in my opinion) be a background reason for the things that happen, if the players look deeper they can find them, but if they don't they can still fight the minions of the beasts and have a good time, and still thwart the evil plot. they should be a linking force for a specific type of bad guys. it would be interesting if the Dauntain didn't all even know about the larger spirits. only the very highest powered Dauntain would know.

I like all these suggestions!

I am not going to make many more changes to Dauntain themselves. They still are twisted dark changelings that went way wrong. The big change is that you don't become a Dauntain just because you had a bad Chrysalis. That might just make you a sick twisted bastard of a Fae. Dauntain are only created when a Dahutan specifically acts to mess with a Changeling during that time. Which is part of the reason Dauntain are fairly rare (but in the story, they are getting more and more frequent). The only other change I am likely to make is to the Dauntain 'race' template. Meh. Dauntain are twisted fae. They don't get their own races. They do however get a different set of racial modifiers. Not sure what yet. I'll have to think on that.

I also really like the idea of them having to posess people. There is a delicious irony in that a creature that is pattern and stasis incarnate does not have a physical form of its own... That makes me smile.

I also love the idea that the Dauntain don't even know the Dahutun exist. Oh that is good!

I'll let you know how it goes when they make their first cameo in the next game.