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Marlissa
For other uses of the word Succubus, see Succubus (disambiguation).
In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Marlissa is a Succubus Bard. Marlissa is the creation of the game author Robert Wiese.
The following article is taken from the original source of this work at the Wizards.com site in the External Links below.
The Succubus Bard
Wandering the earth to tempt mortals, Marlissa relishes her duty and enthusiastically performs it. Abnormally beautiful, she adds bardic abilities to her quite formidable natural ones. She spends almost all her time in cities, where mortals live close together and are generally more susceptible to her.
While Marlissa relishes the life energy upon which she feeds, her real purpose is to sway mortal men to evil acts . . . and from there, to a pattern of evil until their souls finally belong to her masters in the Abyss. Thus, she uses her charm powers and stunning looks for these ends first. If a potential victim resists too effectively, she uses her energy drain ability to steal a few levels and moves on to someone more easily tempted. Though capable of fighting quite well herself, Marlissa prefers to charm one or more tough-looking males and use them as her personal escort and guards. She thus wears her rapier mostly for show as part of her role.
Design Notes
Here we offer three versions of Marlissa, for varied Challenge Ratings. Her possessions at 1st level are more valuable than usual for a starting character, but the ring of mind shielding is essential to protecting her secret from nosy adventurers with detection spells. In her more advanced incarnations she owns magic items of a value appropriate for an NPC of those levels.
At CR 16, Marlissa has a 12th-level follower (a cohort) who is devoted to her and her protection. This being is not under any magical compulsion; he is just simply and utterly loyal to her. At the DM's discretion, Marlissa may also have a number of underling followers whom she will set upon any attacking party while she escapes. She moves around frequently and can change her appearance at will, so she does not worry about the negative consequences of any survivors talking. See page 45 of the Dungeon Master's Guide for her followers' levels, using her Leadership score of 19. The specifics of her cohort are left to you, and you should work this follower (possibly as a recurring NPC whose master or employer has remained hidden so far) into your campaign or adventure.