Toben the Many? o.O'

[Hazgarn]

Actually, Toben would be a great source for sewing delightful misinformation into a campaign. His entry makes mention of Alanik Ray foiling "long term plans" of his. Imagine him seeding rumors and maneuvering people in one domain while he's gleefully enjoying himself by watching past plans come to fruition elsewhere. Like an endless cycle of constantly boiling mischief in his efforts to keep himself perpetually entertained.

That long-lived rivalry between two dark lords that's suddenly promising to come to a bloody climax? That's another one of Toben's jokes. It just hasn't gotten to its punchline yet...

[Trike]

It's in English, but none of it makes sense. Van Richten wasn't a real person in Ravenloft? Where'd that come from? Is this a personal canon thing?

Definitely a joke. I liked Peter Cushing too much to drop Van Richten as a character. But the more I think about the original idea, the more I like it. A fake character created as propaganda by a Darklord becomes a beacon of hope for hundreds of imitators! As if Batman was a fake. But now your domain was full of imitation Batmen that want to defeat evil.

[alhoon]

Actually, Toben would be a great source for sewing delightful misinformation into a campaign. His entry makes mention of Alanik Ray foiling "long term plans" of his. Imagine him seeding rumors and maneuvering people in one domain while he's gleefully enjoying himself by watching past plans come to fruition elsewhere. Like an endless cycle of constantly boiling mischief in his efforts to keep himself perpetually entertained.

Well, IMO Toben could have some long term joke plans, but not Long Term as in Azalin's long term plans or other undead plans. IMO, "long term" for Toben would be 2 weeks or something. Personal preference.

That long-lived rivalry between two dark lords that's suddenly promising to come to a bloody climax? That's another one of Toben's jokes. It just hasn't gotten to its punchline yet...

Meh... too similar to GCaller.

[Zilfer]

"Look.... I'm learning!" (as regular zombies suddenly can open doors)


Can't remember if this was covered but what happens if you try to "raise" someone who's infected with Toben? Or can he be "exorcised?"

[Hazgarn]

Remove disease will reduce a Toben zombie to a normal corpse. Presumably they can then be raised normally. Or as normal as raising can be in Ravenloft.

[Hazgarn]

Well, IMO Toben could have some long term joke plans, but not Long Term as in Azalin's long term plans or other undead plans. IMO, "long term" for Toben would be 2 weeks or something. Personal preference.

Individual dramatic decisions differ, naturally, though the book does say this:

Lately, Toben has been fighting the Great Detective Alanik Ray. Because Alanik himself is long-lived, he has been able to pierce some of Toben's long ranged plans.

Which makes it sound a lot longer than a few weeks. You could easily run him as having a short attention span, but the entry talks about Toben's boredom, and how "all he has is time". He may just see the elaborate set up to a prank as worthwhile in the ultimate goal of keeping himself entertained.

Meh... too similar to GCaller.

I'm not at all familiar with the Caller, but what I've heard seems to suggest that his plots have some kind of actual purpose behind them. However elaborate and large scale Toben's schemes would be, in the end it would really boil down to him doing it purely for shits and giggles.

[alhoon]

Well, while many of GC's plans have an ultimate goal, since he's chaotic and wants to spread misery, he has IMO "sideplans" that just destroy lives and innocense.

[Zilfer]

A remove disease eh? well then. Good to know incase i see a bunch of corpses smiling at me.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

There's a difference between having an agenda and having plans, IMO. The GC has an agenda -- an over-arching goal he's been working towards -- while Toben is just out to screw around with people for kicks. That doesn't mean he can't engineer some of those kicks to unfold over the long term; it just means he's not progressing towards any specific purpose, and if one of his endeavors is blocked, it's not actually a drawback, merely a "rats, that know-it-all elf blew the punch line..." moment.

[Zilfer]

"Well don't loose your head over it!" *drum ta ta tis!*

xD

Now this is probably obvious but is there a possibility of him infecting already undead creatures? Or if an Undead creature dies can he poses it and "bring it back" for a second go?

[High Priest Mikhal]

"Well don't loose your head over it!" *drum ta ta tis!*

xD

Now this is probably obvious but is there a possibility of him infecting already undead creatures? Or if an Undead creature dies can he poses it and "bring it back" for a second go?

No to both. He can take over vacant corpses, once, and that's it.

As for the remove disease thing, I know that works on Spawn of Kyuss but I can't remember if it works on Toben zombies (I'll check it out later tonight).

[alhoon]

It does. It's in his description.

[Zilfer]

but i mean once teh undead dies, technically it's vacant again right?

say Joe turns into a zombie, and then you kill joe's zombie. Now can toben 'reanimate' him again?

[A G Thing]

but i mean once teh undead dies, technically it's vacant again right?

say Joe turns into a zombie, and then you kill joe's zombie. Now can toben 'reanimate' him again?

Usually the body is compromised or made incapable of being animated as such after being animated once so and then damaged to that point. I mean as DM you could change that but I think it is a standard rule for most undead. Any body got a line on this?

[HuManBing]

In 2nd ed. and 3rd ed. the usual DnD line was "alive until killed, then undead until killed again". After which the bodies are usually considered unusable.

Then again, this has always been open to interpretation - so much so that groups of players in my games have made it a constant safety measure to mutilate all the bodies by hacking them to pieces, ensuring they can't effectively rise again as undead.

I'd say it's DM's fiat. We're already talking about something so far removed from actual fact and science, you may as well pick whatever works best for your campaign setting and handwave any outliers.