Stooger

**Basic Description** *Stooger is a gnoll warlock/cleric of Yeenoghu. *He is brutish, arrogant, and demanding. *He runs a thieves' guild called [The Sons of Yeenoghu](../../../settings/faerun/people/organizations/the-sons-of-yeenoghu.html). *He runs his guild like a wolf pack; a strict hierarchy based on relative physical strength keeps him at the top. *He is old, for a gnoll, and escaped slave. He hates pretty much everyone and everything outside his guild. *He has subdued a rival guild of orcs, and folded several of their number into his guild. They are the lowest rung of the guild, treated as slaves. The same goes for a number of ogres and minotaurs. *He has never met his match in physical combat, not to mention the massive magical advantage he wields over anyone short of an archmage or high priest. **Relations with other guilds** *He feels that Mahmed and his Errant Spades are beneath him, and should follow his lead. *He is willing to comply with the demand of the Tharchioness for the briefest of times, until he runs out of patience--especially if he isn't the leader. *He wants to subdue all rival guilds, and be the top dog. However... *He is oddly servile to [Victus Tarkasian](./victus-tarkasian.html) of [The Night Eyes](../the-night-eyes.html). He treats him with a grudging respect; it almost seems the man has a calming effect on his otherwise untameable temper. *He wants to impress Aurora and take her as a mate. He figures a show of his eminent manliness will do the trick. He has a chivalrous streak when it comes to her; he has even learned a bastardized form of Elvish and a few love poems. *Odd, how much he yields to the will of Tarkasian, and how smitten he is by Aurora. How odd. **Approach to combat** *He's the biggest badass on the battlefield, and no one says otherwise. He sets out to prove it, every fight. *He isn't stupid, of course. He sends in undead and guild minions first, to buy him time to cast buffing spells. *Even if he's ambushing someone, and already had all his buffing spells up, he still sends in the minions first, because he likes to make an entrance. *If he's fighting a cleric of any god besides Yeenoghu, he will attack that cleric to the exclusion of all other targets. Yeenoghu demands the complete destruction of heathens. *He offers subdued clerics one final chance at redemption by joining the faith of Yeenoghu; if they don't take the offer, they get their brain smashed.

Character Sheet

Medium Humanoid (Gnoll) ;Abilities: Str 22, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 16 ;Levels: Cleric 3 Warlock 1 Eldritch Disciple 10 ;Hit Dice: 13d8+1d6+56 ;Hit Points: 123 ;Initiative: +1 ;Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares) ;Armor Class: 29 (+1 Dex, +1 natural, +11 armor, +6 shield), touch 17, flat-footed 22 ;Base Attack: +10 ;Attacks: Flail +18/+13, 3d4+7 +1d6 fire +1d6 electricity +1d6 acid, 19/x2. (+1d10 of each energy on a critical hit).
Touch +14, grapple +14, damage 1d6+4 lethal. ;Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. ;Special Attacks: Rebuke Undead 10/day, Eldritch Blast 1d6 ;Special Qualities: Darkvision 120 ft, Gifts of the Divine Patron, Eldritch Spellweave (see below). ;Saves: Fort +12, Ref +5, Will +13 ;Skills: Concentration +21, Knowledge (Religion) +15, Knowledge (The Planes) +12, Spellcraft +15. ;Feats: Extra Turning, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Three-Headed Flail), Weapon Focus (Three-Headed Flail), True Believer, Leadership. ;Spells: Casts as 12th-level Cleric Domains: Demonic, Fury Prepared Spells: 6th-level: Planar Binding, Heal, Blade Barrier. Channels Mass Inflict Moderate Wounds*. DC 19. 5th-level: Shout, Righteous Might, Break Enchantment, Spell Resistance. Channels Mass Inflict Light Wounds*. DC 18. 4th-level: Dimensional Anchor, Divine Power, Cure Critical Wounds, Death Ward. Channels Inflict Critical Wounds*. DC 17. 3rd-level: Demon Wings, Deeper Darkness, Dispel Magic, Invisibility Purge, Magic Vestment (x2). Channels Inflict Serious Wounds*. DC 16. 2nd-level: Demoncall*, Lesser Rejuvenation*, Bear's Endurance, Owl's Wisdom, Eagle's Splendor, Resist Energy, Shatter. Channels Inflict Moderate Wounds*. Channels Inflict Moderate Wounds*. DC 15. 1st-level: True Strike, Divine Favor, Shield of Faith, Command, Doom, Sanctuary, Remove Fear. Channels Inflict Light Wounds*. DC 14. Casts as 11th-level Warlock Invocations Known: Greater Invocations: Vitriolic Blast. DC 19. Lesser Invocations: Flee the Scene, Walk Unseen, Charm, Voracious Dispelling. DC 17. Least Invocations: Spider Walk, Baleful Utterance, Beguiling Influence, Leaps and Bounds. DC 15. ;Possessions: Scale mail, heavy shield, Three Bloody Deaths (see below) ;Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Special Abilities

Gifts of the Divine Patron

Granted by the Eldritch Disciple class, these abilities can be invoked as swift actions by expending one rebuke undead attempt. *Damage Reduction: Grants DR 5/cold iron for 5 rounds. *Wild Frenzy: Gain +2 bonus to melee attacks and damage, +24 temporary hit points for 5 rounds. (Repeated use: hit/dmg bonus doesn't stack, temp hp do.) *Fiendish Resistance: Grant ER 20 (fire and acid) for 5 rounds. *Fearful Gaze: Render one target within 30 feet shaken for 5 rounds, Will DC 23 negates.

Eldritch Spellweave

The Eldritch Disciple can use eldritch essence invocations to modify cleric spells which have a range of targeted or touch that deals damage. This increases the casting time of the cleric spell to one full round. An example use: *Mass Inflict Moderate Wounds modified by Vitriolic Blast would inflict the normal 6d8+24 negative energy damage to targets inside a 30 ft circle, and would also ignore spell resistance and cause targets to suffer an additional 2d6 acid damage each round thereafter for 2 rounds.

Non-standard Spells

Spells denoted with an asterisk (*) are not in the SRD, or their descriptions differ from the SRD:

Inflict Light Wounds: Touch spell; inflicts 1d8+5 negative energy damage, Will save for half damage.
Inflict Moderate Wounds: Touch spell; inflicts 2d8+20 negative energy damage, Will save for half damage.
Inflict Serious Wounds: Touch spell; inflicts 3d8+36 negative energy damage, Will save for half damage.
Inflict Critical Wounds: Touch spell; inflicts 4d8+48 negative energy damage, Will save for half damage.
Mass Inflict Light Wounds: Mass targeted spell (12 targets within 30-ft. diameter circle); inflicts 5d8+12 negative energy damage, Will save for half damage.
Mass Inflict Moderate Wounds: Mass targeted spell (12 targets within 30-ft. diameter circle); inflicts 6d8+24 negative energy damage, Will save for half damage.
Demoncall: Grants +10 profane bonus on one Knowledge (arcana, the planes, or religion) check.
Demon Wings: Grants a fly speed equal to your base land speed for 10 minutes per level.

Tactics

Long-duration Spells

Stooger casts these spells prior to any dangerous activity, such as a dungeon crawl or a meeting with a rival. They can be assumed to be active in such situations, and thus all of their effects are factored into the stastics above, though the spells themselves are still listed in the "spells" block.

Magic Vestment: increases armor bonus of worn armor and shield by +3. (Two separate enchantments of 3rd-level).

Short-duration Spells

Stooger casts these spells prior to an important battle. He always casts in the order given, unless there is a good reason not to. He casts as many as he can before combat begins, assuming the fight is important enough to warrant all of them. When he begins a fight, he always has all of these spells cast. However, if he is surprised, he will have none of them cast. If a fight occurs randomly, he will cast as many as possible during preparatory rounds.

The effects of these spells are not factored into the statistics block above.

#Divine Favor: Grants +4 to base attack, +6 to Strength, and +12 temporary hit points. The total adjustment is +7 to hit and +3 to damage. Also, the increased base attack grants another iterative attack. #Righteous Might: He becomes large, gaining +4 to Strength and Constitution, which grants +2 to hit and damage and +12 hit points (not to mention +1 to Fort saves), and increases the damage dice of his flail from 3d4 to 3d6. #Divine Favor: Grants a +3 luck bonus to melee attacks and damage.

Note: with all three of the above spells, his attack pattern changes to: Full attack: +30/+25/+20, 3d6+15 +1d6 fire +1d6 electricity +1d6 acid, 19/x2. (+1d10 of each energy type on a critical hit)

Conditional

He will cast these short-duration spells when the situation calls for it.

#Death Ward: Makes him immune to death spells, energy drain, ability damage and drain. #Spell Resistance: Grants SR 26. #Owl's Wisdom: Grants +2 to save DC's against Cleric spells. #Eagle's Splendor: Grants +2 to save DC's against Warlock invocations, and increases Gift of the Divine Patron durations by 2 rounds.

General Tactical Approach

He is a fighter, first and foremost. He wants to get into melee and smash heads, though he wants to be fully buffed.
If he doesn't get enough buffs before combat, and can't buy enough time to fully buff by sacrificing undead minions, he will use his many warlock invocations to flee the scene, leaving the undead to do as much damage as possible to the interloper.
He uses inflict spells only when highly efficient. A large group of people warrants a single Mass Inflict Moderate Wounds with a Vitriolic Blast applied to it. An individual rarely warrants a touch inflict spell, because he can usually do more damage with his flail, and prefers to.
All non-buffing spells are for special circumstances only. Why shatter a sword when you can sunder it? He uses spells like Blade Barrier more for effect than for damage, though the spell's crowd control potential is nice, too.
He heals himself only if he thinks it will give him a second chance. Usually only Heal will do that, and only if the enemies aren't doing more damage per round than he can heal. Otherwise, he'll just run away.

Possessions

Three Bloody Deaths: This three-headed flail (exotic weapon) acts as a +1 flaming, shocking, corroding weapon. In the hands of a worshipper of Yeenoghu with the True Believer feat, or a cleric who sacrifices a 5th-level divine spell, it becomes a +3 flaming burst, shocking burst, acidic burst three-headed flail of impact. (Stats figured in above).

Controlled Undead

As an evil cleric, Stooger can and often does raise the dead and bind them into his service. He is usually encountered with several undead servitors: *2 ghasts *3 ghouls

Leadership

Stooger is the leader of The Sons of Yeenoghu, and has all of their resources at his disposal.