Author Topic: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus  (Read 144089 times)

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ksbsnowowl

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #900 on: September 26, 2011, 06:14:46 PM »
Q 274: Are there any rules for increasing the special attacks of a monster who advances by Hit Dice?

Specifically I'm looking at a Winter Wolf's breath weapon.  I know that advancing in HD will increase the save DC by one for every two HD the winter wolf gains, but is there no way to increase the damage?  Sort of like a Dragon's breath weapon, I guess.

The best I could find was this entry from the "improving monsters" section of the SRD:
Quote

So, just eye-ball it?
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Ithamar

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #901 on: September 26, 2011, 06:20:25 PM »
So long as you don't increase the damage too far out of line, you could probably not bother bumping up the CR for a little extra damage.  Look at a Dragonborn of Bahamut's breath weapon progression.  Gains +1d8 for every 3 (or 4?) HD the creature gains, and since it can be slapped on a NPC or whatever with no real change in CR... *shrug*
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ksbsnowowl

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #902 on: September 26, 2011, 06:53:41 PM »
So long as you don't increase the damage too far out of line, you could probably not bother bumping up the CR for a little extra damage.  Look at a Dragonborn of Bahamut's breath weapon progression.  Gains +1d8 for every 3 (or 4?) HD the creature gains, and since it can be slapped on a NPC or whatever with no real change in CR... *shrug*
Excellent point.  I think it's +1d8 per 3 HD (I vaguely recall it capping at 6d8 at 18th level).

The winter wolf is 4d6 at 6 HD, and it is listed as advancing to 18 HD.

At the 18-19 HD mark many of the dragons are doing 12d4, 10d8, 10d6, 10d10 (though the white dragon is only Large and doing 6d6 at CR 10).

So I figure another d6 every 4 HD should be fine; that way it maxes out at 7d6 with a Huge 18 HD winter wolf.  +1d6 every 3 HD would work too, maxing at 8d6.
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muhammed

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #903 on: September 26, 2011, 08:21:12 PM »
Q275: Can the Wardings of a Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil be dispelled with a dispel magic or greater dispel magic?

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #904 on: September 26, 2011, 09:15:10 PM »
Q 276: Are there any creatures which have Bless Water as an SLA?
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juton

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #905 on: September 26, 2011, 10:48:54 PM »
Q 277

The feat Active Shield Defense on page 71 of the PHB2 lets you make attacks of opportunity without penalty while fighting defensively. I was under the impression that you could use Active Shield Defense to negate the penalty from combat expertise as well, is there anyway that can work by RAW or am I mistaken?

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #906 on: September 27, 2011, 02:48:49 AM »
Q 260: How fast should an army move overland?  According to the overland movement table, a party of Dwarves on foot should be able to cover 16 miles in an 8-hour day.  But when you've got an army, there are logistical issues that slow them down.  In the Red Hand of Doom adventure, the Goblin Horde takes 28 days to travel 100 miles on a highway (even taking out the 3 days they battle to take over towns... 25 days to go 100 miles...) that's a bit on the ridiculous side.  Sadly Heroes of Battle has nothing on the subject.

So, you think an army of Dwarves could pull off 12 miles in a day, day after day?
a goblin horde has far more logistical problems than a Dwarven army. Goblins are naturally chaotic, while dwarves are naturally lawful. A dwarven army could travel far more efficiently than a goblin horde. 12 per day sounds good, assuming no significant problems arise.
Good point on the law vs chaos aspect.  I hadn't thought of that, and it alters my question somewhat (I used dwarves because they move at the same rate as Tanarukk, which is what my army is actually composed of).  So, an army of CE tanarukk with troll and winter wolf support... you think 12 miles per day would be too much?

The tanarukk travel fairly lightly (no battle gear other than gauntlets and a battle axe), and most of their needs would be met by raiding villages along the way, I'd imagine (including eating the inhabitants).  They also have some intelligent, but also chaotic leadership (half-fiend trolls and ice trolls), and they can mechanically pull off a 10-hour forced march every day (especially since I give all of them the Healing Flames feat).  And the leadership is quite driven to get them where they are going on time.

A260 As a great man said "an army marches on it's stomach".

Logistics is what slows them down more than anything.

I realize that you said they'd eat villagers and pillage for food. Is there a village to be hit every day? How much time out of the day will it take them to pillage?

To move an army effectively and speedily pre-position supplies and control the weather. With that 12-15 miles a day is a good average for a chaotic army (to move an army must break camp, gather the logistic train, form up and then march - then set up camp, distribute food and material from the train, repeat the next day).

A chaotic army would have the extra care of keeping non disciplined troops in line for the march.
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Mooncrow

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #907 on: September 27, 2011, 03:58:35 AM »
Q275: Can the Wardings of a Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil be dispelled with a dispel magic or greater dispel magic?

A275 - the veils "duplicate the layers of a Prismatic Wall" and under Prismatic Wall - "Dispel Magic and Greater Dispel Magic cannot dispel the wall or anything beyond it", so no.  (aside from a Violet Veil, which is specifically countered by Dispel Magic)  Mordenkainen's Disjunction or a rod of cancellation work though.

q273 What are the ways for an artificer to be able to cast infusions through his homonculi?

A273 Improved Homunculus (Magic of Eberron p49) using the Store Infusion improvement allows it to store one infusion of 3rd level or lower.

A Packmate homunculus can't cast infusions, but it can attack with flasks and administer potions.  Those are the only ways that come to mind.
« Last Edit: September 27, 2011, 04:15:38 AM by Mooncrow »

kevin_video

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #908 on: September 27, 2011, 06:12:20 AM »
Q 278 Hypothetically, if you could have an ooze as an animal companion at 10th level, what would you choose? A gelatinous ooze, or a gray ooze. Why?

Q 279 When you get a stronger animal companion at a higher level, do you start adding the +1 HD at that level, or do you backtrack a number of levels to catch up?
« Last Edit: September 27, 2011, 06:33:01 AM by kevin_video »
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Devilen

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #909 on: September 27, 2011, 08:29:16 AM »
Q 267: Are there any spells that can hide structures?  Something akin to Hallucinatory Terrain, but that will hide the ruins of a tower, etc?

Mirage Arcana (PHB) works ... its specificly stated to work as a stronger Hallucinatory Terrain

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #910 on: September 27, 2011, 08:31:37 AM »
Q258 Is there any prestige class somewhere which is the Divine version of Ultimate Magus? (divine prepared/Divine spontanous)

bump ... anyone?

and if not ... where on the forum would you suggest trying to build it with UM as a baseline

Littha

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #911 on: September 27, 2011, 08:36:55 AM »
Q258 Is there any prestige class somewhere which is the Divine version of Ultimate Magus? (divine prepared/Divine spontanous)

bump ... anyone?

and if not ... where on the forum would you suggest trying to build it with UM as a baseline

I am afraid you will need homebrew for this unfortunately.

weenog

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #912 on: September 27, 2011, 08:51:30 AM »
Q258 Is there any prestige class somewhere which is the Divine version of Ultimate Magus? (divine prepared/Divine spontanous)

bump ... anyone?

and if not ... where on the forum would you suggest trying to build it with UM as a baseline

I am afraid you will need homebrew for this unfortunately.

One can add divine spells to arcane caster spell lists in certain ways which keep them divine spells.  Can it be done the other way around, turning a spontaneous and a prepared divine caster technically also arcane casters, and then just use Ultimate Magus for it?
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Mooncrow

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #913 on: September 27, 2011, 10:03:15 AM »
Q 278 Hypothetically, if you could have an ooze as an animal companion at 10th level, what would you choose? A gelatinous ooze, or a gray ooze. Why?

Q 279 When you get a stronger animal companion at a higher level, do you start adding the +1 HD at that level, or do you backtrack a number of levels to catch up?

A278 Hypothetically, if I were forced to take an ooze, I would probably go with the grey, mostly for ease of transport.  Other than that, it's probably a tossup between the paralysis attack of the gelatinous and the overall better combat stats of the grey (Seriously though, I would probably go without a companion before taking one of those; that's just a personal thing though)

A279 You subtract the animal's modifier from your level and then apply the appropriate modifiers from the level chart.  So if, for example, you were 9th level and took a Brown Bear as a companion (-6 modifier) you would add all of the bonuses from the 3rd-5th level line. 

ksbsnowowl

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #914 on: September 27, 2011, 01:27:15 PM »
Q 280: I'm sure there's not much that will fit my needs, but I figure it can't hurt to ask.
I'm looking to give a flying "demon" (a Nycoloth) a spell-like or supernatural ability to deal an area of effect attack, a fireball or something like that.  Roughly CR 10 - 12.

I'm reworking Red Hand of Doom to be demon-based, rather than dragon-based, and I'm hoping to find a way to make a heavy flying combatant that can wreak some breath-weapon-like havoc, much like a Large Red Dragon, but without anything draconic.

The only possibility I can come up with is Dragonborn of Bahamut, but that doesn't work thematically or alignment-wise.  Though I could hand-waive it, I suppose.
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kevin_video

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #915 on: September 27, 2011, 01:51:09 PM »
A279 You subtract the animal's modifier from your level and then apply the appropriate modifiers from the level chart.  So if, for example, you were 9th level and took a Brown Bear as a companion (-6 modifier) you would add all of the bonuses from the 3rd-5th level line. 
Would you still gain the Link/share spells ability from 1st-2nd?
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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #916 on: September 27, 2011, 02:02:45 PM »
Q 280: I'm sure there's not much that will fit my needs, but I figure it can't hurt to ask.
I'm looking to give a flying "demon" (a Nycoloth) a spell-like or supernatural ability to deal an area of effect attack, a fireball or something like that.  Roughly CR 10 - 12.

I'm reworking Red Hand of Doom to be demon-based, rather than dragon-based, and I'm hoping to find a way to make a heavy flying combatant that can wreak some breath-weapon-like havoc, much like a Large Red Dragon, but without anything draconic.

The only possibility I can come up with is Dragonborn of Bahamut, but that doesn't work thematically or alignment-wise.  Though I could hand-waive it, I suppose.

You can get a single use breath weapon from the Half-dragon template. Also, if you advance it to 14 HD, you can add Phrenic template and get a 1/day Energy Current. Then, if you can somehow increase the amount of times it can be used (Magic in the blood template?), you could almost make it work like a breath weapon...

Mooncrow

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #917 on: September 27, 2011, 02:11:12 PM »
A279 You subtract the animal's modifier from your level and then apply the appropriate modifiers from the level chart.  So if, for example, you were 9th level and took a Brown Bear as a companion (-6 modifier) you would add all of the bonuses from the 3rd-5th level line. 
Would you still gain the Link/share spells ability from 1st-2nd?

Yes. 

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #918 on: September 27, 2011, 06:14:03 PM »
Q281: Does a Goliath Half-Dragon get wings?

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Re: Simple Q&A 28: Revenge of the Monktopus
« Reply #919 on: September 27, 2011, 06:31:11 PM »
Not without a very compliant DM.
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