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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
    
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 01 Mar 2013 : 18:25:03
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Larloch and Szass Tam, yes. Fairly cookie-cutter stuff, when all is said and done.
The other two go in interesting directions. At the end of the day, though, they were all human once.
The Shades have some sort of lichdom attached to them. If I were to put it into 4e lingo, the heroic tier are your standard fodder (MM) shades. I think of these guys as 'half dead'. The paragon tier are like three-quarters dead. I would expect some sort of vampire-like abilities (not necessarily the same as a vampire - I am thinking power-level wise). the final tier should be 100% dead, like telemont and the Princes (there is a scene in RotAW where someone see them as they truly are - little more then eyes and a couple of organs floating in the air).
So you'd have something like a wight (the basic shade), then a at paragoon level something like a vamp/lesser lich, and at epic level you have something like an ancient dead/demi-lich thing (swathed in shadows to conceal its true form).
So Shades qualify as 'out-of-the-box'... even though they too were once human. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 01 Mar 2013 18:26:37 |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
    
Australia
31799 Posts |
Posted - 02 Mar 2013 : 01:49:14
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quote: Originally posted by Markustay
The paragon tier are like three-quarters dead. I would expect some sort of vampire-like abilities (not necessarily the same as a vampire - I am thinking power-level wise).
Very interesting.
How would you specifically define these vampire-like abilities, Markus? |
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Dennis
Great Reader
    
9933 Posts |
Posted - 02 Mar 2013 : 14:44:51
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quote: Originally posted by Markustay
The Shades have some sort of lichdom attached to them. If I were to put it into 4e lingo, the heroic tier are your standard fodder (MM) shades. I think of these guys as 'half dead'. The paragon tier are like three-quarters dead. I would expect some sort of vampire-like abilities (not necessarily the same as a vampire - I am thinking power-level wise). the final tier should be 100% dead, like telemont and the Princes (there is a scene in RotAW where someone see them as they truly are - little more then eyes and a couple of organs floating in the air).
There's a big difference, though: the "vessel" that holds their "soul." Shades' bodies would deteriorate eventually, albeit slowly, probably three millenniums at most. On the hand, the liches' bones are eternal; they wouldn't crumble to dusts so long as the layers and layers of spells that hold them together remain active. |
Every beginning has an end. |
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Quale
Master of Realmslore
   
1757 Posts |
Posted - 02 Mar 2013 : 17:33:02
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Liches crumble into demiliches
Weird liches I'd like to see: dhampir (half), arcane (space-lich), spellweaver (Jergal's high priests), kaorti (from Imaskar), sharn (from a universe that fell to entropy or to the elder elemental evil), vaati (void duke). |
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