Cool creatures to charm/dominate and become the party pet

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by vendur, Jul 17, 2014.

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  1. vendur

    vendur Member

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    Anyone know of any interesting/cool ones I missed or haven't seen yet? Almost every creature in the game can be a barb/warrior/ranger/rogue. Only seen one that can become a monk -- hobgoblins. Nothing can be a paladin/cleric since they are all non worshipers.

    Here are some interesting ones I've seen. i figured I'd write up a quick list to save someone else time whose interested in having fun with such a party pet.

    Hydra:
    The good -- has 5 basic attacks at full attack bonus, and it can also be equipped with items.
    The bad -- if equipped with a weapon it will lose those extra attacks and this monster moves quite slow and attacks slow.



    Will'o wisp
    The good -- has very high natural armor and supernatural attack and can become a wizard.
    the bad -- moves very slow, can't equip items

    Umberhulk
    The good -- can become a wizard or sorc, has very good all around stats and natural armor. gets 3 natural attacks.
    The bad -- loses his bonus attacks when equipping weapons, moves pretty slow.

    Jackalwares

    Good -- have great dex and physical stats in general.
    The bad -- start with 5 levels in rouge, could be good or bad depending on how you look at it.

    Lamia
    The good -- has a very cool character and even cooler portrait. Has good well rounded stats. Can be wizard or sorc.

    The bad -- has decent base will saves and magic resistance so keeping it charmed/dominated could be a problem.

    Ettin
    the good -- has great combat stats, around the same as oges, slightly lower than giants. come with a ton of two weapon fighting feats. can also become a sorcerer and starts at level 1 , unlike giants and many ogres.

    The bad -- Lack int to pick up combat expertise and later feats. Moves a bit slow.

    Ogres/giants/trolls
    The good -- great combat stats, giants being a bit stronger/tougher. Trolls being the weakest but regenrate damage.
    The bad -- lack in int like ettin. you can already get scorp and/or oolgrhist if you want.


    Carrion crawler:
    The good -- has a whopping 9(!) basic attacks, and it is only the only monster I've seen that can become a druid.

    The bad -- attacks horrifically slow and moves even slower. Like molasses in winter slow. Cannot equip items. Also has natural weapon that will always do non lethal damage. Even if you made it to a rogue for sneak attacks (9 sneak attacks sounds pretty good at full attack bonus, eh?). And no switching it to druid and getting wildshape will not keep the 9 base attacks and it will still move fairly slow(but faster at least).


    Noble salamander:
    The good -- they have phenomenal all around stats and can be a wizard/sorc/bard, and good one's at that . It also gets a base BAB of something like +15.

    the bad -- the AI doesn't work well when charmed, which is a pain, since dominate is very buggy. It also has very high racial bonus to will checks (like +10) Most likely would be most effective as a physical attacker and might even out perform giants with that huge base BAB. While having perhaps the most potential that I've looked at so far, the will bonuses and bad charm AI make it hands off.

    I forget the name of the dog cleric things on the 3rd level. But they can't keep on as a cleric and already have like 6-7 levels in cleric. Also have magic resistance and good will saves. Overall not worth the effort.
     
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2014
  2. Daryk

    Daryk Veteran Member

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    I think you're referring to the Leucrotta.
     
  3. marc1967

    marc1967 Established Member

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    Heh, I've never actually dominated a non-humanoid long enough to level them up. I usually just charm them and let them go after the time expires. I never knew you could level up the Umber Hulk as an sorcerer, that's funny.
     
  4. sonofliberty

    sonofliberty Established Member

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    I usually use them in the combat where I charm/dominate them, then I kill them. Never thought of keeping any dominated villains, too worried about them turning on me.
     
  5. vendur

    vendur Member

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    Ya, dominate breaks very easily it seems. It can break sometimes by just being attacked by the enemy and will break if any magic is cast on it, that includes your own magic even "good" spells. Which makes using dominate kind of a pain. On the plus side, you get to fully control the enemy so it bypasses the often times terrible AI.

    Charm only breaks if you attack the charmed enemy with physical or magical type of attack. Also, if you pick up the extend feat, you will have an easier time transporting your "charmee". And unlike dominate,charmed enemies don't take any of the party exp. Which could be good or bad depending on what you are doing of course.

    My evil playthroughs almost always have some kind of subjugated pet of this nature.
     
  6. edmortimer

    edmortimer Occupy Wall Street

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    Do you know that if you let Dominated beings die (i.e. get killed in battle), and then resurrect them, they will be permanent members of your party -- no need for more dominations . . . unless that's what floats your boat ;)

    Oh, and Smigmal Redhand is good one to have in your party, yo!
     
  7. vendur

    vendur Member

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    Ya, but that's an obvious bug. having to juggle dominate/charm is actually the price you pay as a trade off for a powerful creature. There's another problem with that bug, too. You will forever be stuck with that enemy in your party unless you remove/delete them in some way(meaing it will always be sucking your exp too), and the monsters in the game preclude you from interacting with 98% of the town NPCs for quests, shops and whatnot.
     
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