I have an idea of how I'm going to spice up my 5E game

[Death]

So I watched John Carpenter's the Thing again recently, and I wondered how a high fantasy world would react to such beings. Would a Thing be able to assimilate a beholder? If so, could it still use the Beholders powers? Am I the most cruel GM ever for even suggesting such a thing?

I need your opinions Bannanachair, Xenos, Dex, @lego, @nolongerthan20charas, Duck14, God Bebi Satan, LeBlunder, Meenun

It'd be fun would it not? 'Hey, which one of the party members is a horrifying creature that can grow eight arms and can infect people just by accidentally touching.'

[Deleted]

I mean, realistically, what you're purposing is a mass of human flesh that can continually expand by devouring/absorbing people.
No matter how you go about this, I don't imagine such a creature would be able to use the powers of whoever it devours.
Like, can you imagine a giant blob of flesh flipping around and doing sword tricks?
Humorous, yes. Realistic, no.
Personally, I think the best way of implementing something like this would be to make it something like a mindless force. Like a plague, going from village to village devouring people and expanding, through either a need to eat or a desire to grow larger. It could be a background threat for awhile, only being mentioned in tavern conversation and the like, until the group eventually encounters it through some means or another, in which case they see just how grotesque and massive it;s gotten, and go off to find a way to destroy it, likely through some sort of druid sorcery, or white magic, or something along those lines.

That aside, it's be an interesting concept if you can find a way to make it work.

[Bannanachair]

LNG257, we need your opinion as well.

[Bannanachair]

Also, I haven't seen The Thing (I've heard of it, though). I'll go watch it, I guess.

[Death]

May 13, 2017 8:29:58 GMT -4 @lego said:

I mean, realistically, what you're purposing is a mass of human flesh that can continually expand by devouring/absorbing people.
No matter how you go about this, I don't imagine such a creature would be able to use the powers of whoever it devours.
Like, can you imagine a giant blob of flesh flipping around and doing sword tricks?
Humorous, yes. Realistic, no.
Personally, I think the best way of implementing something like this would be to make it something like a mindless force. Like a plague, going from village to village devouring people and expanding, through either a need to eat or a desire to grow larger. It could be a background threat for awhile, only being mentioned in tavern conversation and the like, until the group eventually encounters it through some means or another, in which case they see just how grotesque and massive it;s gotten, and go off to find a way to destroy it, likely through some sort of druid sorcery, or white magic, or something along those lines.

That aside, it's be an interesting concept if you can find a way to make it work.

Thing is, John Carpenter did explain there were two ways of getting infected. Being completely assimilated, or having you DNA tainted with the alien's DNA. The first way means that the original person is completely assimilated- with the thing knowing their memories and shit like that. This means the creature knows what it is, and thus has the self preservation to not try and expose itself. The second is where your blood is tainted. You don't know you're the thing, but it is slowly assimilating you, and you will not know until the moment the transformation happens and you'll be taken on a terrifying ride as your body betrays you and kills your friends. This is suggested to be what happens in the infamous blood test scene, where the individual does not know they are the thing and thus aren't reluctant about giving their blood to have it tested because they believe that they are not the thing. Of course when it is figured out they are the thing they transform in and extremely gory way- but I think the second way is even more terrifying. I'd rather be dead and not have to deal with it rather than have my body betray me.

The reason I think, the thing doesn't use weapons in the movies is because it doesn't need to, the weapons it has already are deadly enough and all human weaponry bar fire and acid are completely useless against it. I'd assume if it could it'd probably try to assimilate that warlock with all the fire magic first so it doesn't have to deal with it, but I'd agree the creature itself probably wouldn't be able to use fire or acid magic as it is detrimental to it's own survival instinct.

EDIT: The Thing was also said repeatedly to be hyper intelligent, as one, it managed to make a space ship out of helicopter parts, and two, it shows a cunning that is more than just animal. Sabotaging the blood samples, tearing up clothes (clothes get ripped to shreds during the assimilation process) to seed doubt among the crew and have them pointing fingers at the wrong people, and managing to actually act like a person. That's what makes the thing so dangerous, and it was predicted that if the thing got to even one civilised city the human race would be assimilated completely within 27,000 hours (3 years).

[Xenos]

Would a Thing be able to assimilate a beholder? If so, could it still use the Beholders powers?

I would think the Thing would be more along the lines of a mimic. Where as in most instances, mimics are able to shapeshift into mediocre things like chests.
But you give a mimic ability to turn into a person, that's pretty terrifying. 

First off, I think if we're going to implement thing, it needs restrictions.

I don't think the Thing would have the ability to assimilate things much larger than it, like Dragons and giants, unless it has a large enough mass.

You could place it deep down in a dungeon where this creature has devoured basically any sort of biological mass down there, and was large enough to assimilate an Ogre who decided to take residence in the caves.

I'm agreeing with Lego on behalf of his idea that it should be like that of a plague.

And I don't think it should be intelligent either, but I believe it acts on its primal instinct. To devour and multiply.

I completely agree that it if can kill a human, or a hero, it'd gain full function and knowledge over it.

However, when it does so, I believe the Thing needs to take over its motor skills, its ability for communication, and so on, which I think should take a little over a week depending on the size of it. 

Otherwise, using a Flesh Mimic sounds pretty fun to me.

[Death]

Hm, I'm wondering if it would count as a kind of undead. It having several vulnerabilities would outdo it's overpowered nature. I believe in disguise form it should have heaps of bonuses to deception, persuasion, stealth checks, etc- but while in it's transformed stage it is considerably stronger than everything. Guns are shown to have no effect on it, so a resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from non-magic weapons would make it a considerable threat at lower levels in it's monster form. I believe the danger it would pose at higher level is that it can look like and act completely like a normal humanoid if it has had the time to assimilate it- and being able to infect people when they least expect it is, kind of how even against high level characters mimics can still be threatening at least in the first round if it has surprise. It's like, in the movie, when they figure out one of them is an imitation and they have a flamethrower, the thing goes down really easy comparatively to most other movie monsters and if you want to play them as effective and scary monsters you need to make sure they can stay hidden until the characters least expect it, because when the Thing catches the characters in the film off guard it usually is able to take out at least one or two of them.

I also looked at the troll, with it's 'unless you kill it with fire or acid it'll get back up again' thing- this might suit the Thing as well, thought it can simply launch a bit of itself off so that that small piece will continue to survive.

[Deleted]

May 13, 2017 9:17:16 GMT -4 Death said:

May 13, 2017 8:29:58 GMT -4 @lego said:

I mean, realistically, what you're purposing is a mass of human flesh that can continually expand by devouring/absorbing people.
No matter how you go about this, I don't imagine such a creature would be able to use the powers of whoever it devours.
Like, can you imagine a giant blob of flesh flipping around and doing sword tricks?
Humorous, yes. Realistic, no.
Personally, I think the best way of implementing something like this would be to make it something like a mindless force. Like a plague, going from village to village devouring people and expanding, through either a need to eat or a desire to grow larger. It could be a background threat for awhile, only being mentioned in tavern conversation and the like, until the group eventually encounters it through some means or another, in which case they see just how grotesque and massive it;s gotten, and go off to find a way to destroy it, likely through some sort of druid sorcery, or white magic, or something along those lines.

That aside, it's be an interesting concept if you can find a way to make it work.

Thing is, John Carpenter did explain there were two ways of getting infected. Being completely assimilated, or having you DNA tainted with the alien's DNA. The first way means that the original person is completely assimilated- with the thing knowing their memories and shit like that. This means the creature knows what it is, and thus has the self preservation to not try and expose itself. The second is where your blood is tainted. You don't know you're the thing, but it is slowly assimilating you, and you will not know until the moment the transformation happens and you'll be taken on a terrifying ride as your body betrays you and kills your friends. This is suggested to be what happens in the infamous blood test scene, where the individual does not know they are the thing and thus aren't reluctant about giving their blood to have it tested because they believe that they are not the thing. Of course when it is figured out they are the thing they transform in and extremely gory way- but I think the second way is even more terrifying. I'd rather be dead and not have to deal with it rather than have my body betray me.

The reason I think, the thing doesn't use weapons in the movies is because it doesn't need to, the weapons it has already are deadly enough and all human weaponry bar fire and acid are completely useless against it. I'd assume if it could it'd probably try to assimilate that warlock with all the fire magic first so it doesn't have to deal with it, but I'd agree the creature itself probably wouldn't be able to use fire or acid magic as it is detrimental to it's own survival instinct.

EDIT: The Thing was also said repeatedly to be hyper intelligent, as one, it managed to make a space ship out of helicopter parts, and two, it shows a cunning that is more than just animal. Sabotaging the blood samples, tearing up clothes (clothes get ripped to shreds during the assimilation process) to seed doubt among the crew and have them pointing fingers at the wrong people, and managing to actually act like a person. That's what makes the thing so dangerous, and it was predicted that if the thing got to even one civilised city the human race would be assimilated completely within 27,000 hours (3 years).

Ah
Truthfully I haven't seen The Thing, so I was just running off of assumption 
It would be an interesting concept to run with, but it depends on how you want to run with it.

[Death]

May 13, 2017 10:49:26 GMT -4 @lego said:

May 13, 2017 9:17:16 GMT -4 Death said:

Thing is, John Carpenter did explain there were two ways of getting infected. Being completely assimilated, or having you DNA tainted with the alien's DNA. The first way means that the original person is completely assimilated- with the thing knowing their memories and shit like that. This means the creature knows what it is, and thus has the self preservation to not try and expose itself. The second is where your blood is tainted. You don't know you're the thing, but it is slowly assimilating you, and you will not know until the moment the transformation happens and you'll be taken on a terrifying ride as your body betrays you and kills your friends. This is suggested to be what happens in the infamous blood test scene, where the individual does not know they are the thing and thus aren't reluctant about giving their blood to have it tested because they believe that they are not the thing. Of course when it is figured out they are the thing they transform in and extremely gory way- but I think the second way is even more terrifying. I'd rather be dead and not have to deal with it rather than have my body betray me.

The reason I think, the thing doesn't use weapons in the movies is because it doesn't need to, the weapons it has already are deadly enough and all human weaponry bar fire and acid are completely useless against it. I'd assume if it could it'd probably try to assimilate that warlock with all the fire magic first so it doesn't have to deal with it, but I'd agree the creature itself probably wouldn't be able to use fire or acid magic as it is detrimental to it's own survival instinct.

EDIT: The Thing was also said repeatedly to be hyper intelligent, as one, it managed to make a space ship out of helicopter parts, and two, it shows a cunning that is more than just animal. Sabotaging the blood samples, tearing up clothes (clothes get ripped to shreds during the assimilation process) to seed doubt among the crew and have them pointing fingers at the wrong people, and managing to actually act like a person. That's what makes the thing so dangerous, and it was predicted that if the thing got to even one civilised city the human race would be assimilated completely within 27,000 hours (3 years).

Ah
Truthfully I haven't seen The Thing, so I was just running off of assumption 
It would be an interesting concept to run with, but it depends on how you want to run with it.

I'm wondering how one would roleplay something which can perfectly imitate a creature and it's personality but only has the ability to spread itself and destroy anything that gets in it's way.

[Deleted]

May 13, 2017 18:01:03 GMT -4 Death said:

May 13, 2017 10:49:26 GMT -4 @lego said:

Ah
Truthfully I haven't seen The Thing, so I was just running off of assumption 
It would be an interesting concept to run with, but it depends on how you want to run with it.

I'm wondering how one would roleplay something which can perfectly imitate a creature and it's personality but only has the ability to spread itself and destroy anything that gets in it's way.

As the DM or the player?

[Duck14]

May 13, 2017 18:01:03 GMT -4 Death said:

May 13, 2017 10:49:26 GMT -4 @lego said:

Ah
Truthfully I haven't seen The Thing, so I was just running off of assumption 
It would be an interesting concept to run with, but it depends on how you want to run with it.

I'm wondering how one would roleplay something which can perfectly imitate a creature and it's personality but only has the ability to spread itself and destroy anything that gets in it's way.

I guess that depends on whether it could speak or communicate in some manner. If it can imitate any and every creature perfectly then it has the potential to know every language without to much hassle which in some instances is highly valuable. That said, its intentions would be to devour everything that blocks its way so it's probably more likely to take an aggressive approach to matters rather than a diplomatic one. 

[LeBlunder]

My question is if it can spilt apart and disguise as multiple beings with each. If it can, would it act as a kind of hive mind or would each one be able to act on its own? Would they be able to coordinate together or would some split off to assimilate another group of adventurers?

[Dex]

Just watch as this idea quickly gets overpowered and a total party kill happens.

[Duck14]

May 14, 2017 1:42:36 GMT -4 Dex said:

Just watch as this idea quickly gets overpowered and a total party kill happens.

It's the DM's job to moderate that sort of thing. Besides being overpowered is not necessarily a bad thing especially if the party come across it early on and then come back to it later when they're more powerful.

[Deleted]

May 13, 2017 18:02:48 GMT -4 @lego said:

May 13, 2017 18:01:03 GMT -4 Death said:

I'm wondering how one would roleplay something which can perfectly imitate a creature and it's personality but only has the ability to spread itself and destroy anything that gets in it's way.

As the DM or the player?

So I'm just gonna say fuck it and assume you meant as the DM.
I think the best way of working with the scenario is to make it mystery-esc.

For display purposes, we put The Thing in a village. It arrives as a traveler, looking for a hot meal and a place to rest its head. The Thing, upon being let in, begins the process of assimilating the village. Taking on each of their forms one by one. This then begs the question, what happens when The Thing assumes a new form? Unless The Thing can multiply and be several different people, (in which case he'd basically be invincible and there'd be no real way a party could deal with it outside of torching the whole village), then his last form would basically cease to exist after the thing assumes a new one, which then leads to "disappearances" in the village, and causing a sort of unlikely mystery, with the party exploring every misty forest in the area, but turning up no ogres or necromancers. All through-out, you, the DM, would drop subtle hints about the existence of the thing, and his identity. Perhaps a brief handshake would lead to a slight feeling of drain, or in the shadows you'd see him assume another form.

This all assumes, of course, that the Thing you place in to your world is intelligent, and can't assimilate with a touch, for the purpose of fairness. Now, if both those things are true, your best bet would be to put the party underground with a few NPCs, wherein the encounter the thing, and get taken over one by one. NPCs first, of course.

[Death]

May 14, 2017 2:02:04 GMT -4 @lego said:

May 13, 2017 18:02:48 GMT -4 @lego said:

As the DM or the player?

So I'm just gonna say fuck it and assume you meant as the DM.
I think the best way of working with the scenario is to make it mystery-esc.

For display purposes, we put The Thing in a village. It arrives as a traveler, looking for a hot meal and a place to rest its head. The Thing, upon being let in, begins the process of assimilating the village. Taking on each of their forms one by one. This then begs the question, what happens when The Thing assumes a new form? Unless The Thing can multiply and be several different people, (in which case he'd basically be invincible and there'd be no real way a party could deal with it outside of torching the whole village), then his last form would basically cease to exist after the thing assumes a new one, which then leads to "disappearances" in the village, and causing a sort of unlikely mystery, with the party exploring every misty forest in the area, but turning up no ogres or necromancers. All through-out, you, the DM, would drop subtle hints about the existence of the thing, and his identity. Perhaps a brief handshake would lead to a slight feeling of drain, or in the shadows you'd see him assume another form.

This all assumes, of course, that the Thing you place in to your world is intelligent, and can't assimilate with a touch, for the purpose of fairness. Now, if both those things are true, your best bet would be to put the party underground with a few NPCs, wherein the encounter the thing, and get taken over one by one. NPCs first, of course.

Yeah, this sounds interesting. Could use it for a spooky halloween one shot alternate universe where most of them die to the Thing with like one survivor.