D&D Homebrew - The Lamia Noble [Monster Prestige Class]

     Reaching heights of arcane power their lesser kin could never touch, the Lamia Nobles are terrifying masters of chaos and devastation!

    A monster redesign and monster prestige class for Dungeons & Dragons 3e/3.5; created by Aboleth Eye!  See my Lamia monster redesign-slash-homebrew monster class post for more information!
    As always, though this was made with D&D 3.5 edition in mind, with a few tweaks you can absolutely use this material with Pathfinder 1st edition! -- Aboleth Eye

Australian Water Python by David Clode on Unsplash

Author's Note

    Welcome to the second half of my recent Lamia fixation.  I won't repeat everything I said in the Lamia Monster Race post, but here is a brief introduction:

    Introduced in the 2007 super-module Expedition to the Demonweb Pits, the Lamia Noble are everything you expect a dangerous apocryphal monster to be!  Created by authors Wolfgang Bauer and Gwendolyn F.M Kestrel, the Lamia Noble are serpentine horrors that literally feed on the weakening will of their victims to fuel their arcane powers, ensnaring their victims in seductive servitude forevermore.  

    There was a lot of information in the Expedition book about Lamias that the original base monster entry in the 2003 Monster Manual was missing.  When I was going through the origins and canon explorations on the lamia, the Noble caste threw me for a loop.  With over 4 years of game development between the two books in question, the two were barely able to fit together.

    And so, like with any one of my fixations, I spent hours breaking down, chopping up and reassembling the components of the Lamia Noble into an achievable, epic-touching monster prestige class for Lamia. 

     Literally, you could hit all 13 levels of my Lamia monster class and (with the proper skill spending, alignment and completion of a high level quest) you could easily join this 7 level monster prestige class. You'd be level 20 at that point! I thought that was funny how that kinda turned out. Haha

    This entire project was inspired by a player in my own D&D group asking if they could play a Lamia.  And look at what I have wrought by that simple idea being planted in my mind!  I hope the Lamia Noble is a great read, and an inspiration to utilize these terrifying monsters in your own campaigns!

    And be sure to check out the Lamia monster racial breakdown and monster class post I put out alongside this one!

    For more information on Lamia Nobles and their unique history within Dungeons & Dragons, check out this 2016 EN World forum post by Echohawk.  The writer collected decades of lore and canon information regarding the Lamia and other related creatures.  It has been a fantastic resource for refining and adapting their lore. 

    -- Aboleth Eye

Origins & Physiology

    If you are familiar with Greek mythology, Renaissance paintings or both; the Dungeons & Dragons Lamia found in the 2003 Monster Manual are not what you expect.  In popular mythology and art, Lamia are not lion-like in form.  Instead, the Lamia of myth and pop culture is a serpentine seductress--a woman from the waist up, and a constricting basilisk from the waist down.

    The Lamia Noble are exactly what you are imagining in that regard.  Towering at least ten feet tall and twenty feet long, Nobles are enormous and snake-like.  They have similar humanoid traits to normal Lamia, except for their bodies being scaly and their eyes like snakes. Additionally, they obtain true shapechanging abilities to mark their status above the rest. They can freely switch between their serpent form and their lion form. However, their lion form is no longer furry and feline in appearance. Instead they're lion form is covered in serpent scales, with a long whip-like tail and reptilian claws.  They cannot hide they are ascended, but the pride of a Noble Lamia would never have then consider being gracious or subtle about their new majestic form. 

    Lamia nobles are powerful sorcerous spellcasters, and their forms are quite apart from their lesser kind.  Nobles are serpentine from the waist down instead of lion-like, and their eyes resemble that of snake's rather than big cats'. 

    The transformation into a paragon of their race has allowed Lamia to fully transform physically between several forms.  At the cost of their lion form become scaled and reptilian, the Noble can assume the form of a giant serpent-creature to mark their place among their kind.  Additionally, they become capable of assuming the form of any humanoid, rather than be limited to illusory spell-like abilities.

     What sets Nobles apart is their ability to charm the victims of their Wisdom drain.  While not as potent as a base lamia's, Nobles actually feed from the act of draining their victims now.  Their Wisdom drain becomes more concentrated, allowing them to bolster their sorcerous Charisma with a victim's mental energy before the victim becomes their charmed, mindless servant.

    The decadence and greed of their race is amplified to a greater extreme; lamia nobles truly believe they are the pinnacle of arcane and monstrous might.  They topple cities and temples to claim their treasures and denizens as their own.

    Beware a Lamia Noble at the height of their power.  Just as cruel and conniving as their lesser kind, they are devastating arcane spellcasters and often lead great hosts of thralls and monsters in cult-like reverence to themselves.  Often, lesser lamia fall in line behind a Noble's schemes, scavenging spoils and power in the wake of the greater paragon's great machinations.

Lamia Noble Prestige Class

    By tapping into their sorcerous abilities and sacrificing their flesh and soul, a mundane lamia may ascend into a terrifying paragon of their kind.   As lamia nobles are born and never made, a lamia who seeks to ascend beyond their caste and be recognized by their Abyssal masters must make terrible sacrifices.

    First, the aspiring Noble must learn of the ancient ritual of ascension.  This requires study of either the arcane forces of the Material Plane or of ancient pacts made by lamia-kind with the Demon Princes of the Abyss.  Once they acquire the requisite knowledge of the ascension ritual, they must them prove themselves in acquiring the necessary component that will unlock their transformation.

    An aspiring Lamia Noble undertakes a great challenge.  Those with arcane knowledge learn in their studies that by devouring the flesh and blood of their most hated racial enemy—the Naga—they acquire the aberration’s serpentine traits and scales.  

    However, those with planar interests typically seek to gain the attention of a powerful demonic outsider.  They typically form cults in worship to one of the powerful denizens of the Lower Planes, such as mariliths or Demon Princes like Graz’zt, and they attempt to summon one of their powerful demonic servants.  The lamia ritually swears their allegiance to the summoned outsider’s master, and in return the demon willingly gives them their blood to imbibe.  Finishing this ritual by consuming demon blood forms a pact with the Lamia’s ascension tied to a great planar entity, which painfully unlocks the latent traits of their noble caste over several days of transformation.

    Regardless of how the lamia completes the necessary ritual, the transformation into the Noble caste is extremely painful.  Mind shattering even.  

    Their body sheds fur and skin to form hard, serpentine scales.  

    Their cat-like eyes burn out from the inside and warp into glowing, serpent-like slits.  

    Their veins boil their organs alive, including the brain; and the pain is so excruciating that by the end the Noble has barely come back from the brink of madness.  

    But in exchange for days of this self-inflicted torture, the Lamia Noble has tapped into the arcane energy flowing through their own blood and evolved into a tyrannical, powerful paragon of their kind!  

Lamia Noble from Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (2007)

Prerequisites:

• Race: Lamia only
• Alignment: must be chaotic evil
• Skills: Knowledge (arcana or the planes) 5 ranks
• Special: For a Lamia to begin the ascension process they must conduct one of two specific rituals and suffer its ill effects:
• Either they must consume the entire body of a naga they have personally slain, or they drink the blood of a powerful chaotic evil outsider willingly given to them.  The imbibing of such forbidden flesh and blood is extremely taxing to a body and spirit of the lamia.  
• After imbibing the ritual flesh and blood, over one week the lamia is wracked with pain as their body sheds fur and muscle, becoming scaled and more mutable for shapeshifting.  The lamia is considered helpless for the first day and exhausted for the remaining six days of the transformation.  
• Their spirit is also wracked by the ritual; by the final day the lamia’s Wisdom score is permanently lowered by 4 (minimum Wisdom 3).

Class Details

Hit Dice: d4

Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Disguise, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (history), Knowledge (the planes), Listen, Move Silently, Spot

    Skill Points per Level: 2 + Intelligence modifier

Table: the Lamia Noble Class

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Class Features	Spellcasting
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Serpentine Transformation, Constrict (2d6), Skilled Paragon	+1 level of spellcasting class
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Charisma bonus +2, Improved Grab	+1 level of spellcasting class
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3	Alternate Form, Constrict (3d6),  DR 2/silver and magic	--
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Charisma bonus +4, Mind Squeeze	+1 level of spellcasting class
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4	DR 5/silver and magic, Potent Drain (1)	+1 level of spellcasting class
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Charisma bonus +6, Constrict (4d6),	--
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5	DR 10/silver and magic, Mind Squeeze (charm)	+1 level of spellcasting class

Class Features

Proficiencies: A Lamia Noble is proficient with its natural attacks, daggers, longspears and shortbows (including composite shortbows).  They not proficient with armor or shields.

Serpentine Transformation (Ex): A Lamia Noble’s lower half becomes permanently scaled as part of the transformation into the leading noble caste.  The lamia permanently becomes capable of changing into a higher, serpentine form at-will.  They permanently gain the shapechanger subtype.

    As a full-round action, a Lamia Noble can turn its lower legs into a serpentine tail.  While in serpent form, a Lamia Noble’s base land speed decreases to 30 feet and they gain a tail slap natural attack that inflicts 2d8 + Strength modifier in bludgeoning damage.  The reach for this tail slap attack is 10 feet.  Additionally, on a successful grapple check in serpent form, a Lamia Noble can inflict a special Constrict natural weapon attack (see below).

    While in serpent form, a Lamia Noble loses their natural claw attacks, their base land speed decreases to 30 feet, and they lose any benefits from having more than two legs (such as resisting bull rush attempts).  

    The Lamia Noble may change at-will between serpent or lion form as long as they wish.  Changing forms is a full-round action that provokes an attack of opportunity.  Among lower caste lamias or their natural enemy of the naga, a Lamia Noble makes its status known by being in serpent form.  If slain or magically forced out of a current form, their body now always assumes serpent form instead of returning to lion form.

Constrict (Ex): On a successful grapple check in serpent form, a Lamia Noble deals 2d6 + 1 ½ their Strength modifier in bludgeoning damage.  On a successful Constrict attack, they may automatically use their Wisdom drain ability on the grappled target. 

    The damage dice of their serpent form’s Constrict attack increases at every other level; for example, 3d6 at 3rd level, and 4d6 at 5th level.

Skilled Paragon: At first level, the Lamia Noble’s racial bonus to Bluff and Hide checks increases to +8.

Sorcerer Spellcasting: At every level except for 3rd and 6th, a Lamia Noble gains arcane spellcasting as if they acquired a level in sorcerer.  They do not gain any additional benefits of the sorcerer class, such as acquiring a familiar.

For sorcerer spells known, Lamia Nobles prioritize evocation and touch-based necromancy spells to attack enemies from afar and weaken others in their grasp.

Charisma Bonus (Ex): At 2nd level, a Lamia Noble gains a +2 increase to their Charisma score.  This bonus rises to +4 at 4th level, and to +6 at 6th level.

Improved Grab (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a Lamia Noble can attempt to start a grapple check as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity.  To use this ability, they must either hit with a tail slap attack in serpent form, or hit with both claw attacks in lion form. 

    While in serpent form, if it wins the grapple check it establishes a hold and can automatically inflict Constrict damage.  In both forms, if a noble succeeds on grapple check they may automatically use their Wisdom Drain on the grappled victim on top of any constrict damage inflicted.

Alternate Form (Su): At 3rd level, the Lamia Noble no longer needs innate racial charms to mimic their prey.  The Noble permanently loses their alter self racial spell-like ability; and in exchange gains the ability to assume the form of a single Medium size humanoid at-will as a full-round action.  Changing back to either their lion or serpent form also requires a full-round action.  The humanoid form is always the same, and it resembles a non-monstrous version of their upper body’s humanoid traits. 

    While in humanoid form, their Strength and Dexterity scores are reduced by their change in size (Strength lowered by 8, Dexterity increased by 2).  Their size bonuses change to their new Medium humanoid size, and they lose their Claws and Constrict natural attacks.  

    In humanoid form their natural armor bonus to AC decreases to +3 and their base land speed becomes 30 feet.  They additionally lose any benefits from having four legs, such with as resisting bull rushes.

    The noble retains their Constitution score, mental ability scores, skill ranks, racial skill bonuses, spell-like abilities, spellcasting, damage reduction and Wisdom Drain ability in humanoid form.  

    When using its Alternate Form ability, the Lamia Noble gains an additional +10 circumstance bonus on Disguise checks.  

    A change in form cannot be dispelled, but a Lamia noble reverts to its natural serpent form when killed.  A true seeing spell or ability reveals its natural serpent form.  

Damage Reduction (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, a Lamia Noble’s scaled body gains Damage Reduction 2, bypassed only by physical damage sources that are both silver and magic.  

    This bonus increases to DR 5/ at 5th level, and to DR 10/ at 7th level.

Mind Squeeze (Su): At 4th level, while grappling a creature in serpent form, the Will DC to negate the Lamia Noble’s racial Wisdom Drain ability is increased by +4 due to the constriction.

    Additionally, starting at 7th level, if a creature’s Wisdom is reduced to 3 from a Lamia Noble’s Wisdom Drain ability, the creature becomes automatically charmed towards them with no saving throw (as charm monster).  Effective caster level 12th.

Potent Drain (Su): The Lamia Noble’s Wisdom Drain ability is reduced to 1 on a successful melee touch attack or each successful Constrict grapple check.  In exchange, the Lamia Noble receives a +1 temporary enhancement bonus to its Charisma score for each point of Wisdom drained from creatures.  

    The temporary Charisma bonuses stack (up to maximum +10), and every hour after the last successful Wisdom drain attack their temporary Charisma bonus is reduced by 1 (minimum +0 and their normal Charisma bonus).