Veng the Manipulator
Veng the Manipulator is one of the most hideous enemies to mankind the world has ever known. His unique combination of Psionic abilities and magic items allow him to sneak into his victims dreams, and modify and direct the dreams, as well as 'adjust memories'. Over the years, he has 'programmed' an insidious network of totally devoted followers. Using his natural ability of 'Wisdom Drain', he has created an army of willing slaves.
Special Equipment:
Veng is in posession of a number of potent artifacts that have allowed him to expand his invisible empire. A mirror that allows him to open a gate to nearly anywhere provides him and his enclave of lamia a smooth and secret corridor that flows with riches and fresh victims. A magic ring allows him to change his form at will, and a magic helm provides him with mental protection. A long time ago, he mentally enslaved one of the greater Githyanki nobles, the kind armed with +5 plate armor and yes, the +5 Vorpal Sword, which the Githyanki tirelessly seek to regain. Veng had a special helm made for 'Spaz', the name given to this once proud noble. Veng can change his form into a small snake that fits comfortably and well-protected inside this helm, and thus rides around on the head of Spaz, while meanwhile able to use all his Psionic powers. Spaz himself is a latent Psionic, and can 'Control Energy', which enables him to neutralize all kinds of energy, fire, and lightning based attacks.
Appearance:
Veng only travels outside his domain while within the protective helm of Spaz, and thus is normally not visible. While in his domain, he prefers his natural form of Lamia Noble, and enjoys the company of his loyal enclave of Lamia Nobles and normal Lamia, whom he provides for very well! Very well indeed!
Background:
Veng survived the viscious childhood that all Lamia Nobles must endure, his natural mental advantages helping him carve out a place in Lamia society. Being evil and hated everywhere, Lamia in turn hate everything and everyone else, and seek only to possess and control everything. They disdain blood, and instead drain it from their victims and consume the flesh, preferably human. Thus as Vengs powers grew and developed, his list of atrocities has grown too far to document. He has captured and drained the wisdom from several 11th level mages, who toil for him in his laboratory. One such mage, 'Stumpy', had his legs removed so he could ride in a special backpack and be carried around by Spaz. Thus, Spaz can manuever somewhat in combat situations and Stumpy can cast spells at Veng's command. With the 3 of them working together, they are nearly unstoppable.
Roleplaying Notes:
Veng lives with his enclave in an underground system of caverns beneath a remote desert region. The area is protected from scrying by a permanent shield set up by Veng's powerful psionics. To attempt to penetrate this area would be suicide, as it is populated with many loyal, programmed, and wisdom-drained servants of all kinds, races, and classes. Closer to the inner sanctum, Veng's personal guards, complete with their on-touch, no-save Wisdom Drain ability, allow Veng and his cohorts to feel quite safe and secure. Veng went on a difficult quest to aquire the Mirror of Gating, but once he had possession of it, his power, influence, and evil has spread like a deadly, silent wildfire.
Veng is about a 16th level Psionicist by now, and has mastered all the psionic abilities related to Mental Control and Manipulation, i.e. Mass/Domination, Mental Surgery, etc. He has been shown some favor, if not tolerance, by the old Chaos God Hecate.
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? Responses (11)
How very D&D.
1. The background seems sparse, and, suffice to say, boring. He just grew up normal (for a Lamia). We have no idea how he got all these powers, including his special Wisdom Drain. We have no idea at all who his parents were, or how he started his empire. He's your basic evil genius- very black and white. He hates everything. No personality at all.
2. Could you provide us examples of what a Lamia and a Githyanki are? Lamias are mythical creatures- there are varying definitions about those. And people who haven't played D&D will have trouble defining exactly what a Githyanki is.
Auxiliary Issue (No points deducted): This isn't specifically a criticism, but I sometimes have difficulty really getting a feel for what the character(s) can actually do. You provide D&D names for their powers, but I'm not familiar with these terms and find myself a bit confused.
Overall...
This is a tough one. I want to vote 2.5, because it isn't bad, but I can't, so I just voted 3.
3/5.
Good points: A nice well written post. Good communication and description.
Bad Points:
There is nothing to stop him from taking over the world. He is unfindable, unreachable, and suitable to be a supervillian (fighting colorful cape clad heroes) given his power level.
Also, he is just Evil for Evil's sake. (Though there is some attempt to explain that he came from an EVIL society). This comes across as boring.
What are his real goals? He wants a secret empire to what purpose?
At this point, the PCs can do nothing but try to deflect his plots. Of course, they can't stay on their guard 24 hours a day... because you never know who is going to become a mind controlled assassin... including themselves.
A munchkin's dream - a psionic warrior mage serpent githyanki whatever... ack. And I though learning to pronounce stuff like 'phosphoenolpyruvatecarboxykinase' was tough.
All he's missing now is ... style. A reason to exist. A motivation. Playability. Background. Background. Background.
What he does not need is a +5 Vorpal Sword of Ultimate Killing and Shooting Lightning out of Several Orifices. He does not need to be immune to all energy attacks and everything. He does not need to make me *yawn*...
Where was I? Yes, we all can make up a super powerful bad guy who keeps Cthulu as a lap dog and eats candized archangels for breakfast.
With a fraction of the power and some spark of imagination, he might be a nice character? This way? At leastyou will draw a lot of replies, like many of the less-than-perfect posts do.
1/5
How does a Lamia Noble look like?Just curious.
Well - some sorces make it look like a lion centraur, while others depict it as a serpent with a human head... though this overlaps with the DnD Yuan-Ti... confusing, right?
And yes, add a halo of evil, because all Lamia are evil for evil's sake.
Evil!
Evil for evils sake?Boy,their race must be really messed up.Evn orcs aren't evil for evil's sake.
We can all sing this one:
'Anything you can Uber, I can Uber better,
I can Uber anything better than you!
No you can't!
Yes I can!'
D&D Lamia are like part stinky horse and part human I believe. Wondering why such a powerful and evil creature would want to be a snake so much? No vanity for the uber-evildoer I guess. So, what is this evil ones special weakness? Why doesn't he control the world yet? Who could stop him? I could make that up but then I would just be Uber-ing his nemisis. Something holds this guy in check. Let us know what that is and it will be much more interesting. As far as D&D psionics go, why doesn't he just Schism and use his Dual Ray feat and hit opponents with Disintegrate 3 times per round? That would be Uber! (Oh! maybe I just hit on his Nemisis special ability!)
Hi guys, thanks for the feedback.
Veng could not be possible with any recent rules sets. He is the result of I think the first spin of AD&D, just before Spelljammer came out.
My buddies and I, back in 1990, had a campaign going and we liked uber characters. We had a varient system of our own design hammered out for psionic points and mana points. Mechanically, it worked great, and we could do uber-things within the realms of the books we liked, i.e. Manual of the Planes, Deities and Demigods.
Veng was held in check mostly by TIME. It took uber-hours of questing to obtain those items - the building blocks needed to build a secret, mentally adjusted empire. It was all just getting going when, basically, our group disbanded and characters retired. That was 1992.
I haven't had an purely RPG session since - I went to PC games, and recently pretty much got suddenly bored with all of them! Whoa... And for the last year I have picked up Warhammer and am heavy into it.
Veng had no interest in taking over the world! He realized, in his world at least, that there were many deities being served by many factions everywhere. It seemed that deities had 'pet' countries or cities, and might intervene, or at least send an uber-champion, to deal with interference.
No. No nononononoooooo. Veng saw the True Path for him was to slither, un-noticed, into a position of total security. He loved his kind, in his own evil way, and took mates among them, and was content to satisfy their whims. He did not want to risk the comfort and safety of his enclave. They had it all now, thanks to him. Their main occupation was to make sport of the victims Veng would bring in through the mirror, and to make more Lamia Nobles. (Monster Manual, old one. They are dark elf on top, big snake below the waist. They have the natural ability to appear human at will. They have a no-save wisdom drain ability on touch.) If any of his enclave got out-of-line, he would shape-change, sneak into their dreams, and make some adjustments to their memories. He truly loved them and cared for them - ask any one them - they would say he was the greatest thing since sliced human!
So the True Path for Veng was in a different direction. He needed to research, research, research. That takes time, and he figured with all his alchemy extensions, he only had about another 60 years tops. His goal is secure a way to become immortal. There is some way for him to shed his corporeal shell and ascend into some kind of psionic demigod. And he will find it, and have fun along the way. Ultimately, he fancies himself as the God of Manipulation. Gods forbid!
Veng's most challenging adventures involve him and Spaz hunting down 11th level mages to be taken and wisdom drained and enslaved to work in his alchemy labs. For some reasons (I forget the exact details), 11th level was vital because the mages had no instant get-aways (usually) and they had access to a spell that could obtain information - a key and arcane spell that could give clues to obtain more artifacts and more clues to his ascention.
I can't recommend anyone try to incorporate Veng into a game but he sure makes for some interesting conversation! :)
For example, how do you REALLY know that Veng has not ALREADY taken over the world?!?!?! Muhuhahahahahaaaaa
~mArK
*sad grin* No. Veng is only interesting as the answer to the question: 'How far can I stretch the rules?'
He does NOThave any personality, and would make a poor appearance in a novel. Now, I could think up a character in GURPS who was able to make 132 melee attacks per round, or to cause armor-ignoring damage without fear of retaliation, and that over large areas... for a meager 150 points, mind you! We're not showing off here who can make the most uber bad guy, we try to provide interesting personalities to incorporate into our games.