Author Topic: [3.5]Improved monster classes: adapting creatures for player use-Taking Requests  (Read 392201 times)

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oslecamo

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Crystal Dragon


[spoiler]
HD:d12
Level BAB Fort Ref Will Feature
1+1 +2+0+2Crystal Dragon body, Brilliant Breath
2+2 +3+0+3Keen senses, Gem Blood
3+3 +3+1+3Blindsense 60 feets, Lesser Crystal Psionics
4+4 +4+1+4Wings, +1 Str
5+5 +4+1+4Advanced Crystal Psionics, +1 Con
6+6 +5+2+5Innocent Curiosity, +1 Cha
7+7 +5+2+5Growth, Tail Slap, +1 Str
8+8 +6+2+5Crystal Mind
9+9 +6+3+6Greater Crystal Psionics, +1 Con
10+10 +7+3+7Psionic Skin, +1 Cha
11+11 +7+3+7Gem Scales, +1 Str
12+12 +8+4+8Frightfull Presence, Growth, Crush
13+13 +8+4+8Planar Travel, +1 Con
14+14 +9+4+9Mind Lord, +1 Cha
15+15 +9+5+9Dazzling Brilliance
16+16 +10+5+10Crystal Mind, +1 Str
17+17 +10+5+10Crystal Redemption, +1 Con, +1 Cha
18+18 +11+6+11Take to the Air,+1 Str +1 Con
19+19 +11+6+11Ice Palace+1 Cha, +1 Str
20+20 +12+6+12Growth, Tail Sweep, Supreme Crystal Psionics, +1 Con, +1 Cha
2 Skill points+int per level, quadruple at 1st level. Class skills: Apraise, Bluff, Concentration, Climb, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Listen,  Knowledge(any), Search, Sense Motive, Spot, Psicraft.

Proficiencies: a Crystal Dragon is proficient with his own natural weapons and one melee slashing martial weapon of his choice.


Features:

Crystal Dragon Body: The Crystal Dragon loses all other racial bonuses, and gains Dragon traits, Air subtype, bite 1d8 damage, 2 claws attack for 1d6 damage each, 40 feet base speed and 5 feet burrow speed, medium size. The Crystal Dragon has wings, but they're too weak to do anything for now. His claws are capable of fine manipulation and can be used for somatic components of spellcasting or anything else a human hand could do. Crystal dragons in particular are renowed for loving to make snow sculptures when the material is available.

The Crystal Dragon also gets a natural armor bonus equal to his Con modifier. Whenever the Crystal Dragon grows one size category, his natural armor increases by a further 1. He's also immune to cold  and has no particular weakness.

Brilliant Breath:Cone 30 foot dealing 1d3 untyped damage/HD with DC ref of 10+1/2 HD+Con modifier for half every 1d4 turns. Creatures failing their saves are also blinded for 1d4 rounds. Cone increases by 5 feet with each extra HD the player takes from here.

Gem Blood:A Crystal Dragon receives powers known and powers per day as a Psion of 2/3 his level with the Telepath primary discipline, except he may choose to use Cha as his main manifesting stat instead of Int.

If he multiclasses as a psion, the casting stacks.

Dragon level Psion Manifesting
1-
21
32
42
53
64
74
85
96
106
117
128
138
149
1510
1610
1711
1812
1912
2013

If a dragon takes a manifesting prc, it may choose to advance his manifesting as that of a psion.

Keen senses:The Crystal Dragon sees four times as well as a human in shadowy illumination and twice as well in normal light. It also has darkvision  out to 120 feet.

Blindsense:
As the normal ability, range 60 feet.

Crystal Psionics: Starting at 3rd level, the Crystal dragon can use certain powers as PLAs with a manifester level equal to HD, and Cha to determine the DCs a certain number of times per day.

Lesser: At 3rd level Charm Person, Psionic, 1/day per 3 HD.

Advanced: At 5th level Disable, 1/day per 2 HD.

Greater: At 9th level Control Air 1/day per 2 HD.

Supreme: At 20th level Dominate, psionic, 1/day per 4 HD.


Ability score increase:
The Crystal Dragon ability scores increase by the shown amount.

Level Bonus gained
4+1 Str
5+1 Con
6+1 Cha
7+1 Str.
9+1 Con
10+1 Cha
11+1 Str
13+1 Con
14+1 Cha
16+1 Str
17+1 Con, +1 Cha
18+1 Str, +1 Con
19+1 Cha, +1 Str
20+1 Con

For a total of +6 Str, +6 Con, +5 Cha at 20th level.


Wings:
The Crystal Dragon becomes able to fly at the speed of 10 feets per HD, with poor maneuverability. The maneuverability doesn't increase naturaly, but players can take the Savage Species feat that increases it by two steps(stackable). Each wing can also be now used to deliver a natural atack dealing 1d4 damage.

Innocent Curiosity:Crystal Dragons are the friendliest of the gem dragons, and they are always curious about the world. At 6th level he gains a racial bonus on Diplomacy and Spot checks equal to 1/2 HD.

Growth:At 7th level the Crystal Dragon grows to large size.
                      At 12th level the Crystal Dragon grows to huge size.
                      At 20th level the Crystal Dragon grows to gargantuan size.

His AC, bonus to hit, base damage, grapple and skills change acordingly, but he doesn't get any ability score bonus or penalties.

Tail slap:The Crystal Dragon can now make a tail slap attack dealing 1d8 damage(already taking in acount large size).

Crystal Mind:
At 8th and 16th level the Crysta Dragon learns one power of a level he can manifest from the Telepathy discipline.

Psionic skin:At 10th level the Crystal Dragon gains SR equal to his HD+11. It may raise or lower it at any time as a free action.

Gem Scales: At 11th level the Crystal Dragon gains DR/magic equal to half his HD.

Crush:
Frightfull presence:
Planar Travel:At 13th level, the Crystal Dragon can travel to any of the elemental planes and back to the Material plane 1/day per 3 HD as a Plane Shift spell with CL equal to HD. Save DC 10+1/2HD+Cha mod.

Mind Lord: At 14th level the Crystal Dragon gains +2 Manifester level to manifest Telepathy discipline Powers, and such powers also cost 1 less power point to manifest, to a minimum of 1 power point.

Dazzling Brilliance: The Crystal Dragon's scales reflect light in a brilliant show. At 15th level all creatures whitin 5 feet per 2 HD are Dazzled whitout save as long as there's some kind of ambient light. A creature that spends at least 24 hours traveling with the crystal dragon gets used to the effect and becomes immune to it (but not to other sources of dazzling). Staying away more than 1 week from the crystal dragon also removes this immunity.

By spending 7 power points as as a move action, the Crystal Dragon may intensify the light coursing trough his body, forcing all whitin range to make a Reflex save with DC10+1/2HD+Con mod or be blinded for 1d4 rounds.

Crystal Redemption: For a Crystal Dragon, everybody deserves a chance at being good, and they're known for going as far as atempting to convert chromatic dragons. Sometimeves even with sucess.

At 17th level, creatures failing their saves against any [Telepathy] power from the  Crystal Dragon have one of their alignment axis (chosen at random) brought one step closer to the Crystal Dragon. If they become the same alignment as the Crystal Dragon, they automatically become friendly towards him.

Take to the Air: At 18th level the Crystal Dragon can fly upwards at full speed regardless of his maneuverability.

Ice Palace: Older Crystal dragons build incredible Ice palaces atop high, cold, mountain peaks where to rest and play, but those constructions can be used for more pratical purposes. At 19th level 1/day per 6 HD by spending a Planar Travel use the Crystal Dragon can bring one of his Ice Palaces to the battlefield. It fills a total volume up to a 20 feet cube per HD (all connected to each other), complete with detailed decorations and stuff like doors, windows, arcs and the like. It can be positioned over other creatures, but never completely locking them (mazes are ok). It can be positioned on the air, in which case it floats, having been summoned from the plane of air. It doesn't have a duration limit, but as nonmagic ice, it'll eventually melt outside a frigid enviroment.

Tail sweep:

Catty Nebulart

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Quote
Gem Blood:A Crystal Dragon receives powers known and powers per day as a Psion of 2/3 his level with the Telepath primary discipline, except he may choose to use Int as his main manifesting stat instead of Int.

Well I'm sure glad to have that option. (I guess it's supposed to be Cha.)

Also yay psionic dragons.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."


Thine Doom Be Had

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May I request the Shadow Dragon? It's a personal favorite of mine.
4e is a fine game.  It is not, however, the same type of game as 3.5.  For those of us who really liked the type of game 3.5 was, 4e just doesn't cut the mustard.  Yes, I tried playing it.  I was bored.  So was the rest of my gaming group.  I know there are people who love it... good for them.  But in the end, calling 4e a sequel of 3.5 is like calling checkers a sequel of chess.

JaronK

oslecamo

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Obsidian Dragon


[spoiler]
HD:d12
Level BAB Fort Ref Will Feature
1+1 +2+0+2Obsidian Dragon body, Brilliant Breath
2+2 +3+0+3Keen senses, Gem Blood
3+3 +3+1+3Blindsense 60 feets, Burrow, Lesser Obsidian Psionics
4+4 +4+1+4Wings
5+5 +4+1+4Advanced Obsidian Psionics, +1 Str
6+6 +5+2+5Haughty, +1 Con
7+7 +5+2+5Adept Obsidian Psionics, +1 Cha
8+8 +6+2+5Obsidian Mind, +1 Str
9+9 +6+3+6Growth, Tail Slap, +1 Con
10+10 +7+3+7Psionic Skin, +1 Cha
11+11 +7+3+7Gem Scales, +1 Str
12+12 +8+4+8Greater Obsidian Psionics
13+13 +8+4+8Planar Travel, +1 Con
14+14 +9+4+9Frightfull Presence, Growth, Crush, +1 Cha
15+15 +9+5+9Mind Store, +1 Str, +1 Con
16+16 +10+5+10Obsidian Mind, +1 Cha
17+17 +10+5+10Supreme Obsidian Psionics, +1 Str, +1 Con
18+18 +11+6+11Vicious Obsidian,+1 Cha
19+19 +11+6+11Firey Shift, +1 Str, +1 Con
20+20 +12+6+12 Obsidian Growth, +1 Str, +1 Con, +1 Cha
4 Skill points+int per level, quadruple at 1st level. Class skills: Apraise, Bluff, Craft(any), Concentration, Climb, Disguise, Listen,  Knowledge(any),  Psicraft, Search, Spot, Use Psionic Device

Proficiencies: a Obsidian Dragon is proficient with his own natural weapons and one melee slashing martial weapon of his choice.


Features:

Obsidian Dragon Body: The Obsidian Dragon loses all other racial bonuses, and gains Dragon traits, Fire subtype, bite 1d8 damage, 2 claws attack for 1d6 damage each, 40 feet base speed and a 20 feet swim speed, medium size. The Obsidian Dragon has wings, but they're too weak to do anything for now. His claws are capable of fine manipulation and can be used for somatic components of spellcasting or anything else a human hand could do.

The Obsidian Dragon also gets a natural armor bonus equal to his Con modifier. Whenever the Obsidian Dragon grows one size category, his natural armor increases by a further 1. The fire subtype makes it immune to Fire, but takes +50% damage from cold.

Pyro Breath:Cone 30 foot dealing 1d6 fire damage/HD with DC ref of 10+1/2 HD+Con modifier for half every 1d4 turns. Creatures failing their saves are also blinded for 1d4 rounds. Cone increases by 5 feet with each extra HD the player takes from here.

Gem Blood:A Obsidian Dragon receives powers known and powers per day as a Psion of 2/3 his level with the Shaper primary discipline, except he may choose to use Cha as his main manifesting stat instead of Int.

If he multiclasses as a psion, the casting stacks.

Dragon level Psion Manifesting
1-
21
32
42
53
64
74
85
96
106
117
128
138
149
1510
1610
1711
1812
1912
2013

If a dragon takes a manifesting prc, it may choose to advance his manifesting as that of a psion.

Keen senses:The Obsidian Dragon sees four times as well as a human in shadowy illumination and twice as well in normal light. It also has darkvision  out to 120 feet.

Blindsense:
As the normal ability, range 60 feet.

Burrow: Starting at 4th level, the Obsidian Dragon gains a Burrow speed equal to half his land speed.

Obsidian Psionics: Starting at 3rd level, the Obsidian Dragon can use certain powers as PLAs with a manifester level equal to HD, and Cha to determine the DCs a certain number of times per day.

Lesser: At 3rd level Biofeedback, 1/day per 3 HD.

Advanced: At 5th level Energy Ray (can only choose fire damage), 1/day per 2 HD.

Adept At 7th level Inertia Armor and Energy Stun (can only choose fire damage) 1/day per 2 HD.

Greater: At 12th level Wall of Ectoplasm and Energy Burst (can only choose fire damage) each 1/day per 3 HD.

Supreme: At 17th level Genegis, 1/day per 17 HD.


Ability score increase:
The Obsidian Dragon ability scores increase by the shown amount.


Level Bonus gained
5+1 Str
6+1 Con
7+1 Cha
8+1 Str
9+1 Con
10+1 Cha
11+1 Str
13+1 Con
14+1 Cha
15+1 Str, +1 Con
16+1 Cha
17+1 Str, +1 Con
18+1 Cha
19+1 Str, +1 Con
20+1 Str, +1 Con, +1 Cha

For a total of +7 Str, +7 Con, +6 Cha at 20th level.


Wings:
The Obsidian Dragon becomes able to fly at the speed of 10 feets per HD, with poor maneuverability. The maneuverability doesn't increase naturaly, but players can take the Savage Species feat that increases it by two steps(stackable). Each wing can also be now used to deliver a natural atack dealing 1d4 damage.

Haughty:Obsidian Dragons are the most vicious of the gem dragons,  anger easily, and like to toy with prey before finishing it off At 6th level he gains a racial bonus on Apraise and Bluff checks equal to 1/2 HD.

Growth:At 7th level the Obsidian Dragon grows to large size.
                      At 12th level the Obsidian Dragon grows to huge size.
                      At 20th level the Obsidian Dragon grows to gargantuan size.

His AC, bonus to hit, base damage, grapple and skills change acordingly, but he doesn't get any ability score bonus or penalties.

Tail slap:The Obsidian Dragon can now make a tail slap attack dealing 1d8 damage(already taking in acount large size).

Obsidian Mind:
At 8th and 16th level the Crysta Dragon learns one power of a level he can manifest from the Shaper discipline.

Psionic skin:At 10th level the Obsidian Dragon gains SR equal to his HD+11. It may raise or lower it at any time as a free action.

Gem Scales: At 11th level the Obsidian Dragon gains DR/magic equal to half his HD.

Crush:
Frightfull presence:
Planar Travel:At 13th level, the Obsidian Dragon can travel to any of the elemental planes and back to the Material plane 1/day per 3 HD as a Plane Shift spell with CL equal to HD. Save DC 10+1/2HD+Cha mod.

Shaping Lord: At 14th level the Obsidian Dragon gains +2 Manifester level to manifest Shaper discipline Powers, and such powers also cost 1 less power point to manifest, to a minimum of 1 power point.

Mind Store: This ability allows the Obsidian Dragon to materialize a storage obsidian stone 1/day containing the essence of the Obsidian Dragons living mind with 1 hour of meditation (no more than one such crystal at a time). Untill such time as the Obsidian Dragon perishes or wishes to, the storage crystal is utterly inert. If the Obsidian Dragon is slain at some later date (or wishes to transfer his mind if he feels cornered), his soul transfers into the storage obsidian, which begins to dimly glow. Upon transference, the Obsidian Dragon's phsyical remains (should they still exist) become inert matter and cannot thereafter be restored to life. The transfer from the slain body to the storage crystal works over any distance, physical or extradimensional.

Once the storage crystal is activated by the Obsidian Dragons physical body's demise or his will, the Obsidian Dragon then has the abilities of a psicrystal of the appropiate level, plus all the powers the Obsidian Dragon knew and the power points the Obsidian Dragon possessed when the mind store was used. The Obsidian Dragon now has 30 days to grow an organic body, after which time his sentience fades and his soul passes on if it hasn't entered a new body by that time frame.

To grow a body, the Obsidian Dragon must spend three days in uninterrupted solitude. The body's constituent parts are pulled as ectoplasm from the Astral Plane, and slowly molded and transformed into a living, breathing body that is an exact duplicate of his body, at the time the Obsidian Dragon used this ability (this however doesn't allow the Obsidian Dragon to recover any exp he may have lost in between). The obsidian breaks down and becomes part of the new organic body. If the growing body is struck for any amount of damage, it is destroyed and his soul passes on.

Vicious Obsidian : Just as obsidian forms exceptionally sharp cuting edges when it breaks, so does the Obsidian Dragon becomes more deadly as he's wounded.

At 18th level for each 25% of his max HP lost, the Obsidian Dragon's natural attacks deal damage as if he was one size larger and his Cha increases by 2. So for example an Obsidian Dragon between 50% and 25% max HP deals damage with his natural weapons as if they were one size category larger and his Cha increases by 4. Those bonus are lost as soon as the HP is recovered.

Firey Shift A favorite tactic of  older Obsidian Dragons is to grab an oponent and take them to a ride to the  Plane of Fire! As a immediate action whenever the Obsidian Dragon hits an oponent in melee he may spend one Plane Shift uses. If he does the hit oponent must suceed on a Will save with DC 10+1/2 HD+Cha mod  or be transported to the Plane of Fire or the Obsidian Dragon's personal plane from Genesis! If the oponent fails, the Obsidian Dragon may go along with the ride or stay behind.

Obsidian Growth: At 20th level, the Obsidian Dragon can now regrow his body from a storage obsidian as a fullround action instead of 3 days. In addition any equipment held on its previous body is instantly replicated on the new one on the same conditions, while the old ones turn into brittle obsidian with no value.


[/spoiler]

Comments:
[spoiler]
Obsidian Dragons are another gem dragon, because clearly the ones in the MM II weren't enough.

Well it likes to burn things and make them explode with psionics and then burn them some more. Tried to don't step up on the red dragon's toes too much doing the class as the obsidian dragon basically tries to be a red dragon.

Ended up focusing on more "bodily" abilities to make it more original, with Biofeedback, Inertia armor and Obsidian Store making it quite durable, if it has the time to buff up. Also the possiblity of turning into a psicrystal for almost a month at a time could be quite interesting.

So if you want to play a psionic dragon of greed and materialism, the obsidian dragon's for you!

[/spoiler]


oslecamo

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Mummy



[spoiler]
HD:d12
LevelBabFortRefWillFeature
1+ 0+0+0 + 2Mummy body, +1 Str
2+ 1+0+0 + 3Tomb Heritage, +1 Str
3+ 1+1+1 + 3Frighten, +1 Cha, +1 Wis, +1 Str
4+ 2+1+1 + 4Mummy Rot, Tomb Curse +1 Cha, +1 Wis, +1 Str
5+ 2+1+1 + 4Despair, +1 Cha, +1 Wis, +1 Str
Skills: 2+int modifier per level, no class skills.

Proficiencies:Simple weapons, and its own natural weapons.

Features:
Mummy body:a mummy loses all other racial modifiers and gains the following undead traits
[Spoiler]
* No Constitution score.
* Darkvision out to 60 feet.
* Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).
* Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, and death effects.
* Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability drain, or energy drain. Immune to damage to its physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution), as well as to fatigue and exhaustion effects.
* Heals naturaly.
* Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless).
* Uses its Charisma modifier for Concentration checks.
* Not at risk of death from massive damage, but when reduced to 0 hit points or less, it is immediately destroyed.
* Not affected by raise dead and reincarnate spells or abilities. Resurrection and true resurrection can affect undead creatures. These spells turn undead creatures back into the living creatures they were before becoming undead.

* Undead do not breathe, eat, or sleep.
[/spoiler]

The Mummy is a medium sized undead with one natural slam attacks dealing 1d6+1,5 str mod damage  and base speed 20. Any class levels it  takes have their HD increased to d12.

A mummy has a bonus to Nat armor equal to  its Str mod.

Since it has it's body covered in dry clothings, the mummy takes 50% more damage than normal from any fire source.

Ability increase:
a mummy gains +1 Str at all levels .
                       a mummy gains +1 Cha and +1 Wis at levels 3, 4 and 5.

For a total of +5 Str, +3 Wis and +3 Cha at 5th level.

Tomb Heritage: Mummies are bodies preserved trough elaborate entombing ceremonies, which makes it exceptionaly tough. At 2nd level the mummy has DR/- equal to half its HD.

In addition, the simple fact that the mummy exists means it was someone important during its life. Select one of the following

[spoiler]
Tomb King: the mummy was a powerful ruler, and thus can let out a clear commanding aura with a radius of 30 feet as a swift action for 1 round. Allies gain a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls while inside the aura, and enemies gain a -1 morale penalty to attack rolls for every 2 HD of the mummy. This bonus/penalty can't exceed the mummy's Cha bonus and doesn't affect the Tomb King itself. Since the mummy has already faced death and came back, undeads are also  vulnerable to the effects of this aura!

In addition if it multiclasses for an arcane/divine class it can count its mummy levels as levels of that class for purposes of CL and for the purposes of learning new spells and geting new spell slots. So for example, a mummy 3 who took 1 level of sorceror could choose to have CL 4, get 3 2nd level spell slots, 1 1st level spell slot, 1 2nd level spell known and 1 0th level spell known. It wouldn't get the spell knowns and spell slots of a sorceror 3 however.  He would get the familiar ability, but mummy levels wouldn't count for it.

Tomb Guard: the mummy was a powerful martial champion, having fought countless battles and reached great glory in combat, and thus was entombed with a powerful blade to keep fighting in the afterlife. The Tomb Guard becomes proficient with a martial weapon of its choice, and then picks a weapon it is proficient with. As a swift action, it can draw a +1 version of that weapon, a Tomb Blade from inside it's wrapings (or put it back inside its body). This cursed weapon cannot be disarmed and if sundered it reassembles itself on the Tomb Guard's hand on the next round. It can be further enchanted as a normal +1 weapon, and it keeps growing in power as the Tomb Guard recovers and exceeds the martial power it had in life.

[spoiler]
At 4 HD its critical threat and critical multiplier both increases by 1.

At 8 HD the mummy gains Cleave and Greater Cleave with attacks with the Tomb weapon. If it already had those feats, it can add either its Wis or Cha bonus (wichever's bigger) to attack and damage rolls.

At 12 HD critical threats from the Tomb weapon automatically ignore miss chances, ignoring such effects as Mirror Image.

At 16 HD the critical threat and critical multiplier are both increased by 1 again.

At 20 HD it ignores half of any enemy's DR.

[/spoiler]

In addition, mummy levels will stack with fighter levels for qualifying for feats, monk levels for calculating movement speed, unarmed damage and flurry of blows attack bonus (note: the Tomb King can pick unarmed attacks as its Tomb weapon).

[/spoiler]


Frighten:At third level as a standard action, the Mummy may look directly into an oponent whitin line of sight into the eyes. The target must make a Will save with DC 10+1/2HD+Cha mod or Str mod (whichever's higher) or be paralyzed with fear for 1d4 rounds. This can affect an oponent multiple times. At 10 HD this can affect enemies normally immune to it, but they gain a +5 bonus on their saves.

Mummy Rot (Su): At 4th level a mummy's slam attack and unarmed attack (and Tomb Blade if it's a Tomb Guard) inflict supernatural disease when they damage an oponent-Fortitude DC 10+1/2HD+Cha mod or Str mod, whicever's higher, incubation period 1 minute; damage 1d6 Con and 1d6 Cha. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Unlike normal diseases, mummy rot continues until the victim reaches Constitution 0 (and dies) or is treated as described below.

Mummy rot is a powerful curse, not a natural disease. A character attempting to cast any conjuration (healing) spell on a creature afflicted with mummy rot must succeed on a DC 15+HD caster level check, or the spell has no effect on the afflicted character.

To eliminate mummy rot, the curse must first be broken with break enchantment or remove curse (requiring a DC 15+HD caster level check for either spell), after which a caster level check is no longer necessary to cast healing spells on the victim, and the mummy rot can be magically cured as any normal disease.

An afflicted creature who dies of mummy rot shrivels away into sand and dust that blow away into nothing at the first wind.

At 10 HD mummy rot can affect even creatures normally immune to it.

Tomb Curse: Oponents currently incubating Mummy Rot take a -1 penalty to AC and saves against all the attacks of a mummy. At 8 HD and and every 4 HD thereafter, the penalty increases by an extra -1.

Despair (Su):


the_shadowmind

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Did you intend for the Obsidian Dragon to get Crytal Redemption :p?
The typo is also on the Crystal Dragon.
« Last Edit: October 21, 2011, 06:49:29 PM by the_shadowmind »

Libertad

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I'd like to request a Satyr class.  They're a monster that knows how to party. :)


Anomander

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Here are thoughts and suggestions for the monsters currently used in our campaign:

Troll
[spoiler]

Natural Attacks + Reckless Assault: This does not apply only to the troll, but I think any monster starting at ECL1 with more than two natural attacks is stronger than a class should be at that level (even though they do it even in Savage species). Main reason is that the usual level 1 PC will have a single attack per round while the Troll would have 3. If he charges, he actually gets 4 attacks plus something akin to a reverse Robilard's Gambit feat effect. Giving a potential 4+ attacks at level one might be too much.

Shrug it Off: This is similar to a self-only paladin's Lay on Hands except it gets (Con modifier) times that amount per day. Thematically, I think it should take a full round action to activate to put emphasis on the fact that the Troll is resting. This way the troll can recover a big chunk of HP while he isn't in danger but risks getting all the damage back if he does it in battle (since he cannot use a move action to run to safety) and somewhat compensates for the large amount of healing available.

Hunter Leap: Very cool. But you might want to specify that while the Troll can jump at his speed as if flying he cannot make turns in mid air (jumping up and going around a column twice or around corners in mid-air would be weird). There is also the question of which maneuverability the jump is using for its flight. Are there up and down maximum angles and is the up speed halved and down speed doubled?

Tear trough: Considering the only limit to the usage of this ability is the troll's max hit points (the claw doesnt bypass its renegeration, meaning nonlethal dmg it regens and can self-heal), and that DCs do not scale up in power as fast as damage does, I believe the "damage to save bonus" should be lower. 10 nonlethal damage is not much paid for a +10 to a save once per round that nearly guarantees success against a challenging CR. +1 to saving throws per 2 damage inflicted sounds a little more appropriate. More, getting a chance to reroll once per day is already a great thing. Trolls can do it once per round and get a bonus on top of it. This is too much, which is why I think the Troll should only be able to use Tear Through before rolling to get a bonus on his save. Granting a reroll is something that would work if there a big limit on how many times that ability can be used each day. Like 1/day.

Rend: Rend is a powerful ability that is usually granted at around level 8. It helps dish out extra damage almost equal to the two attacks that activates it and at low level creatures do not have much hit points so activating a rend would usually lead to a kill right away. More lethal considering the claws are the main natural weapons.

*I note that the Troll is not getting the superior darkvision (90ft) the original monster acquires.

[/spoiler]

Cheshire Cat
[spoiler]

Despite the lack of much in terms of class abilities, the Sorcerer is a powerful class. Cheshire Cat is a sorcerer that trades his familiar progression for:
-Hide in plain sight without the need for shadows (a wizard can See invisibility at 3rd level and a cleric can cast True Seeing at level 9, so unless the Cheshire Cat faces an opponent of a higher level than it is it won't ever have its invisibility challenged.)
-Invisibility that is progressively impossible to counter in any way.
-An amazing boost to its illusions and the ability to pierce mind affecting immunity while hiding.
That is a lot for three level already granting full casting progression.

After its three levels the Cheshire Cat is free to advance into more Sorcerer levels to get his familiar. The only thing a Cheshire Cat 3 / Sorcerer 17 would miss out of a level 20 sorcerer is 1 natural armor and one extra point of intelligence for his familiar.
He could otherwise enter a prestige class like most sorcerers do at the same level they would themselves without really losing anything.

Without more limits to the sorcerer spellcasting, I think Controled Invisibility should be removed outright. Partial Invisibility and Maddening Smile already offers a lot of long term power for only three levels.

*I note that it does not acquire the small cold iron DR typical to most feys in its entry. Though over three levels already packed with so much I guess its negligible. It could fit in if it replaced Controlled Invisibility or a reduction of sorcerer spellcasting of one level or two to compensate for everything else.

[/spoiler]

Tarrasque
[spoiler]

Assimilation allows the character to achieve perfect revenue out of any magical items the party finds. Nothing is sold at half price since everything is converted to its full value in gems.

Monstrosity offers a regeneration ability at level 2. Granted, once the nonlethal reaches the max hp the character is easy to kill since there is no need to find a source of a specific kind damage to finish him but its still a very good ability acquired a bit early.

Rush: I feel quadruple base land speed, even for one round, is way too much for second level. This one should scale in power rather than give everything at once. Maybe starting at double land speed.

Stomp: The ability is nice but somewhat far-fetched.
It can do it at level 8 as a move action... so technically it can do it twice per round (two move actions) and then only once per round at level 16.
There is also the wonder of how this ability works when used on fragile surfaces. If a tarrasque and its opponent are standing on a thin plank of wood. Does the plank shatters and they both fall or is the surface of the plank simply becoming difficult terrain?
Otherwise, getting the ability as a swift, nevermind a free action is already a lot - being able to do it during another's turn might be too much.

Primal Roar: Taking a move action at first, it can also be done twice per round until it becomes a free action (though the word "still" suggests that it can only be used once before that, and like Stomp the intent suggests the ability can be used only once per turn from the beginning. Though there are little instances where there would be a point to roaring twice).
I think there should be no 'echo' or that it should only echo for one round. Seeing how a battle doesn't usually last more than 10 rounds and a Tarrasque has multiple uses of the ability, only using it once risks being enough to otherwise last the whole battle, every battle.
Also, the ability seems to be a no-save one. Unsure if it was intended. 100 foot per HD is also a a pretty bigass range and the way I read it makes it sound like it would also affect the Tarrasque itself if it flew somehow.

Reality bend: The only thing that really bugs me is the Planeshift SLA which bases its DC on Constitution. SLAs are always using Charisma for their DC and I don't see why this should be an exception. Though there is that mention at the top stating every Tarrasque abilities are by default Ex abilities. It mentions that Planeshift is a SLA rather than an ability that works like the spell, so I think that is an exception to the Tarrasque Ex abilities, and should therefor be based on Charisma like all SLA should.
Planeshift at level 7 is also a bit early. SLAs should be acquired at the same level a Wizard/Cleric would be able to cast it, at the earliest.

Devouring bite: Though its very good for the Tarrasque, the ability to ignore Freedom of Movement is something I don't think should exist. It would basically be a "hey, you're screwed if I catch you" card against anything with a low Str score. Freedom of Movement is a buff used to protect the weak against those kind of things and with it out there is little else. Perhaps it should instead make a dispel attempt against the effect so it doesn't become completely useless.

Doom: This is similar to the Frightful Presence of the dragons (and the ability the original tarrasque creature actually has), and as such it should be Charisma based for the same reasons. Basing every Tarrasque ability on Str or Con (which is increased at every level) is a little too convenient and, in cases like this one where the ability is based on influence, makes little sense.

Carapace: This one if fairly different from the original ability. Working only at a distance when the creature itself fights at melee but with a higher reflection percentage.

Counter: Sounds a little cheap. Kind of like a Robilard's Gambit without any penalty. A Tarrasque is of colossal size by the time it gets Counter and so its reach is pretty much 30ft, which means anyone afraid to go melee and get suckerpunched when they attack need to attack from 30ft away and thus be subject to all the Tarrasque defenses applying at that range.

Eruption: Its cool in concept but sounds a bit unclear. Just making sure I got it right: A column of lava. A radius of at least 95ft, 100ft high starting from the ground surface it came from and destroying any object or structure in its trajectory that cannot withstand lava immersion damage. Under that column is a hole of the same radius that goes all the way down to the earth's core. Someone in the middle of that column as it appears can succeed on a reflex save to instantly appear at the edge of the column no matter their movement speed. Once the eruption is over, the gap used by the lava to surface reforms itself?
I can see why it would be usable Con times per day but I think the DC should be Str based seeing how the effect is external (stomp on the ground) and doesn't come from the creature's body (like a poison or a breath attack).
It and SkyBreak are effectively level 9th spells and considering the Constituation bonuses gained at each level that makes a nasty amount of level 9 spell uses at 18/19. Enough to make a sorcerer blush. The uses per day should be lowered.

*I note that the tarrasque gets a lot of new very flavorful abilities like Destroyer/Prevail/Reality Bend/etc but misses a few characteristics of the original creature, such as immunity to fire, poison, disease, energy drain, and ability damage.

[/spoiler]

Wild Hunt
[spoiler]

Wilderness body/Adept Hunter: Almost every monster begins with an ability score modifier to natural armor or as a deflection bonus to AC, but this one has to wait until level 6. It is a little strange.

Hounds: The Wild Hunt eventually gets his own party. Why bother sharing his XP with other PCs?
Limiting it to a single pup would help and it should fall more along the lines of a ranger's animal companion since the Wild Hunt is a super ranger to begin with. Perhaps have it share some of its Wild Hunt class features instead of the abilities normally gained by animal companions. The hound should no be so significantly powerful itself and remain clearly inferior to the Wild Hunt.

Hunting Steed/Ascension: I do not suggest buffing the steed further than an increase in size considering the spell already advances in power as the caster level does. But perhaps when the Wild Hunt reaches about level 13 or so the phantom steed could be based out of the spell "Phantom Stag" [Spell Compendium] instead. I think it would fit the power curve better and provide the right flavor.

Hunting Cry: This ability influences the mental state of another, and should therefor have its DC based out of Charisma instead of Wisdom.

Ride the Storm: On top of the Control Weather effect, four uses of greater teleport (or planeshift) at level 12 is a bit much considering the original creature has neither and that greater teleport is wizard card gained at level 13.

Legendary Hunter: Ultimate destruction of a soul at level 14 is too harsh, especially considering True Resurrection itself is not even available at that level, so requiring a Miracle/Wish on top is a bit overkill. This ability should be gained at level 20.

Omen of Peril A bestow curse (at will) should be applied as a standard action instead of something happening automatically with a glance. At least.

Hunter Eye: The ability lost the flavor of looking through the moon at night. Possibly piercing even a mindblank is a nice touch but the check to do so is a joke. Increasing a spot skill check is WAY easier to do than increasing your HD or caster level. A more balanced and fair check would be in order, like an opposed caster level check.

Gather the Dead: It does what Legendary Hunter does, but at a more appropriate level and with at least a usage limit. But automatically making himself a small army like that, without any expense in XP or components, on top of it is something that feels a bit too strong, though at least it lasts only a single day, so its not so bad. Perhaps only requiring a True Resurrection at first (because this a fate given to a LOT of potential souls at once that the WH might not even have killed) and then requiring the Miracle/Wish on top at level 20 or 21.

Unerring Accuracy: It grants two +6 epic weapon abilities at level 18 to all his attacks with any ranged weapon. More than what is usually granted even at that level. Maybe too much?

Hunting Tools: And they keep getting better the next level. It gets everything within two levels instead of something increasingly better as it levels up.

Immortality: The immortality itself is somewhat redundant seeing how feys are all immortal to begin if not for a few exceptions... otherwise the wild hunt is now pretty much invincible. Especially given he can Greater Teleport/planeshift as a move action or summon his steed and escape at more than half a thousand feet per round.

God of Hunt: Now his every attacks can always hit pretty much anything, at any distance, maybe auto-kill them (even the undead, which suggests immunity to death effects doesn't protect against it) and make their resurrection a real pain. God of the hunt at level 22 indeed, and way more powerful that than epic character of that level should be.

*I note that the Wild Hunt doesn't have something that really looks like the Moonhunter ability of its original presentation. Though it gets many weapon boosts which are independent of whether the moon is there or not. Perhaps the electricity resistance should become an immunity at some point.
[/spoiler]

Xixecal
[spoiler]

Glaciar Skin: DR and SR at level 2 is a bit early. DR adamantine already is a bit early as well considering the odds of facing adamantine at level 2 are very, very low.
Getting alignment types to attacks is something that usually happens after level 6 but isn't as much of an issue. The alignment aspect of the DR should be Good *or* Lawful even though that isn't the case with the original creature. More on that later.

Rend: See the Troll. Same reasons.

Ancient Senses: The blindsense increments are too big. Because the creature is a PC rather than a TPK creature the increments should be of about 5 feet. At level 3 the range would be half as good a Scent, an inferior ability, and be more than enough to notice if something it cannot see is sneaking up close or where to attack invisible foes in melee.
It would scale well all the way to level 36 and convert into blindsight at some point.

Winter Companion: The only problem I have with this ability is that it basically grants a cohort (part animal companion) at level 3 instead of level 6 (as part of leadership) - not because of a power issue but mostly because of the risks in getting it early. A cohort being two levels under would be received at level 1, and thus be VERY vulnerable to a possible fatal 1-hit kill attack against the Xixecal's enemies. Losing the class feature for the next month might lead to not having it for the next two levels, depending on some campaigns.
Otherwise, there is the issue of gaining a new egg and thus a level 1 WD at, say, xixecal level 15. At what speed does the wyrmling levels up to return to its master's ECL-2?
I'll note that there is the minor problem of the befriendings of new WD possibly becoming a DM challenge, seeing how giving a PC solo fights it will most likely win every time the critter dies grants it XP the rest of the party doesn't get, and would need to find something to balance the scales.

Growth: Grow 5ft in space, gain 20ft in speed every four levels? Even a monk's speed doesn't progress that quickly. Very few monsters get a speed increase upon growing either.

Cold Magic: SLAs have their DC based on Charisma. Always.

Freezing Cold The only problem in this is that it happens EVERY hit. Invoking on the first attack of the round or only a few times per day or some other restrained activation method would be more appropriate. Starting with 3 attacks per full attack that makes a lot of potential saves to avoid being slowed for what might be at later levels the entire fight.

Winter Magic: It might as well grant Greater Dispel Magic to begin with seeing how it acquires it as soon as Dispel Magic's cap is reached.

Glaciar Endurace: Powerful immunities, early.

Wasting Cold: Now every attack slows and drains Con. It should be doing one or the other. The DC should be Charisma based as per the original creature and the Con drain should begin as Con damage then improve to Con drain. It shouldn't bypass Con damage/drain immunity seeing how those kinds of attacks are way too dangerous to bypass some form of surefire protection.
The reasoning behind this is that most of what is actually immune to Con damage by default does not even have a Con score. Getting such an immunity through items or magic demands a lot of money or at least an action in combat and a mid to high level spell slot that are hardly worth +5 to saves when every attacks demand a new saving throw.

I think 10 healing on top of regeneration and fast healing is a bit too much even though the original creature gains a proportional amount per Con drained.

Glaciar Magic: Removing the cap on Cone of Cold is kind of okay, but being able to add the Freezing Cold ability on top of it would be a bit much. It should otherwise get its DC changed to a Charisma based one seeing how it is part of a SLA and not the aftermath of some kind of melee maneuver.

Dire Snowstorm: Too strong in every way. It takes minimal action to conjure, spreads to epic dimensions that quickly surpasses the range of the Dire Winter epic spell itself, acts like an improved version of Dimensional Lock and deals automatic damage. A comparison of what this ability could be like is the Walker of the Waste [Sandstorm] abilities called "local drought" and "greater drought", which are essential a desert aura where the Xixecal's is an artic one and could be improved further as it gains levels.

Unholy Toughts: Like the other SLAs. Though while I know Blasphemy is part of the original creature's repertoire, Word of Chaos isn't. And they are both acquired a bit early.

Regeneration: The Xixecal is a being of ice. The double damage from burning or fiery weapons part is relevant.

Ice Mountain Magic Temporal Stasis is new, but fits thematically. Both SLAs are acquired a level early, I feel.

Channel Winter: Quicken SLA at will at least once per round as long as you have SLA uses to cast. Bit too strong, and that makes a lot of saving throws to roll for being hit but a single time.

Ice Plates: Now DR = HD. This means that to inflict damage to the Xixecal in melee normally, one must wield an adamantine lawful good magical weapon. Too specific and gives the DM too narrow a range of enemies to throw at it for a fair chance to inflict decent damage. Enemies wielding such weapons would likely be lawful good themselves and thus be subject to both Blasphemy and Word of Chaos. Very troublesome.

Eternal Glaciar: And now the very specific weapon might miss.

Crushing Blow: Its like a save vs massive damage, but against a massive DC. Not many monsters get a Constitution score increase that scales at the same pace as the Xixecal's Strength score, and thus this ability is one-sided and bound to be activated pretty much all the time. The Xixecal's collection of Save or Lose abilities is getting too big.

Ice Break: Neat if not for the action economy in not requiring even a mere swift action to cleanse itself.

Apocalypse Magic: Though modified like Cone of Cold, it is based on the meteor swarm SLA of the Xixecal and should maybe have its DC based on Charisma as well.
Applying Freezing Cold seems very inappropriate considering they deal fire damage. Also, the way it is worded, it doesn't feel like shooting the meteors as ranged touch attacks is really a choice; if you hit there is no save, if you don't its like you didn't choose to shoot them as ranged attacks to start with. There is no penalty to using touch attacks.

Glaciar Wrath: Similar to the Tarrasque's Counter ability. Remove the reach range and add an immediate action. Its kinda foul.

Topling Mountain: I don't believe any size bigger than Colossal+ should exist. Especially not for a PC. Gaining more Swift actions makes the Xixecal own the action economy on top of everything else, and that is too much. Having many many uses for a swift action is not a reason to give a creature more of them. There is balance in choosing how to spend your actions in a round. Getting more actions just let you use everything without really choosing.

Glaciar Power: I think At-Will usage of abilities should be granted to each wave of new SLAs progressively rather than all at once at level 21. The xixecal only acquired meteor swarms a few levels ago and it can already spam them every round. Not that it should ever be allowed to. I also notice that it again breaks the cap on Greater Dispel Magic just in time.

Perfect Freeze: 1 minute is the whole fight. It should be activated and used within a single round. It otherwise leads to massive death cones of cold every round or something like that. Along with granting it a save or die aura that covers the planet.
Ignoring cold resistance effectively means everyone in the aura might die every round with multiple save or die saves being rolled each round and some being provoked just for trying to attack it. This is way past ridiculous.

Diamond Blizzard: Now attacking it still leads to a save or die, but the attack is now pointless as well. All that is left to do is try to run from it. This is not even suitable as an encounter for a group of PCs to face. Not unless they are three times its level and have access to some crazy abilities themselves. The xixecal is not even CR36 yet and the original monster is a puppy compared to it.

Wither Away: Why not? Its not like anything can get within 30ft of it and still be alive by the time they reach the beginning of their turn anyway. There is also the interesting notion of getting close on purpose and just running away until they die.

[/spoiler]

Genie, Kahayal
[spoiler]

Shadow Genie: Almost starting with immunity to cold without the penalties of the cold subtype feels too good. Perhaps beginning with a good cold resistance that scales quickly to immunity would be better.

Sight Eclipsed: How long does the Hide in Plain Sight lasts per activation until it becomes at-will (constant at that level would be better)?

Pass into Shadow: Level 6 is a bit early for planar travel. Though the choice of plane is specific and he's a native, so its not so bad.
The number of uses per day is not as generous as it is for other monster classes. At 6th level, the genie can only make one-way trips per day and has to wait a day to come back.

*Everything else seems fine.

[/spoiler]
« Last Edit: October 26, 2011, 04:14:15 PM by Anomander »

oslecamo

  • Grape ape
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  • Posts: 1940
Troll
[spoiler]
1-Kobolds get three natural weapons base. And kobolds are a race, not even a class. As for PCs, they're usually using a manufactured weapon, that will hit harder than any of the troll's natural ones. Also I don't see where you're geting 3 attacks on a charge, it doesn't have pounce. It can unleash 4 attacks on a fullattack, but will be drawing an Aoo.

2-Taking a standard action is already punitive enough, at least from what I saw of the troll player. You're spending a turn for healing when your oponent is still bashing you. And if you were already in melee, you can't really get away whitout drawing an Aoo.

3-Hunter leap is part of a charge. Charges are in a straight line and nothing on the ability contradicts that (you get to ignore difficult terrain and a hole in the ground, but you wouldn't be able to leap over a  large boulder that blocked movement for example).

4-Good point there, bonus and re-roll is too much, changed to just bonus and half the self-inflicted damage

5-Rend demands you to get a fullattack off and hit with both claws. Yes, when it does happen it can easily shred low level enemies, but then, a raging barbarian with a greatsword will also 1-hit kill pretty much anything at this level, and can do it in a charge as well.

As for the darkvision, I felt I really didn't fit the monster much, but did clairifed it gets the low-light vision it's suposed to get from being a giant

[/spoiler]

Chesire Cat
[spoiler]
1-Yes, one of the goals of this project is for the monster abilities to don't become irrelevant as they grow up.

2-It's not just sacrificing familiar progression, it's also locking itself into having around half his spells known being illusion spells, hands, and picking a race like human for extra feat and skill points.

3-And yes I left the DR out because it was more than filled with good abilies. However I'm a much more bigger fan of limiting spellcasting in some way than slowed caster progression, because if you're playing a magic being, you better have some magic at first level.

[/spoiler]

Tarrasque
[spoiler]
1-To be honest, the selling at half price thing always bugged me. If you get a random sword and you're specialized in axes, you sell the sword at half price and end up buying an inferior axe? What if you end up using the sword anyway? WBL always needs some DM hand to be kept in check.

2-Being hard to kill is the Tarrasque's main selling point. Thus it gets early regeneration.

3-Maybe. But so far besides your jumping trick, it really hasn't done much so far. Will keep an eye on that.

4-Clarified that's always just 1/round. Destruction of the battlefield is something really situational and could only be properly covered by a massive chart so up to the DM if he feels the ground should break or not. Also when you become able to use it as a free action, everything else is probably flying and/or able to ignore difficult terrain.

5-Clarified the roar is 1/round. Good point on echo only lasting 1 extra round, it kinda makes more sense that way, changed. Also yes it's suposed to be massive range because fliers can reach as high as they like. And yes it affects the Tarrasque itself because otherwise it would be unfair for the tarrasque to be on the air while everything else is forced to the ground.


6-MM monsters can afford themselves to have high scores in everything. Players cannot. Monster SLAs will always be based on something the player can afford. Also I'll admit it may be a bit early, but it's still unreliable transportation, so what's the worst that can happen?

7-Freedom of movement fully blocking grapple is something that should've never existed. And even if it catches the oponent, low str enemies usually have some kind of teleportation trick.

8-It's a huge bulging monster charging at you recklessly. That isn't charisma.

9-The tarrasque's main weakness it's its short range. If you try to keep away and pelt it with arrows, you better bring a lot of them.

10-Well that's the idea. The tarrasque's a melee monster that'll shred you if you get close, but try to kite it at range and you have to punch trough its carapace.

11-There's plenty of area effects that allow reflex saves to get out of the area in time regardless of movement speed. You can also imagine it as the creature being pushed away by the shockwave (or even surfing it if you're using rule of cool). Changed the eruption to Str based and yes, the lava solidifies to close the hole. Halved the number of uses of each since they're indeed its ultimate abilities and thus should get fewer uses.

I didn't give the tarrasque those immunities because it will already have godly Fort saves and I don't see why it should particularly be resistant to fire.

[/spoiler]

Wild Hunt
[spoiler]
1-It also gets a lo mor proficiencies than most other monsters as well as Bab.

2-Eeerr, the hounds don't get companion abilities, and they already get Wild Hunt abilities. Also it's not even like they have actual abilities, they're just HP chunks with a single attack per round. They hardly can make up for a party besides being meat shields.

3-All classes have to be playable using only net-available material, so Phantom Stag is out.

4-See the Tarrasque.

5-It also only works to move you to non-enclosed areas, so you can't exactly teleport to the throne room/treasure chamber like a wizard can, which is the main reason people dislike it. Anyway gretater port may be a little too much, so I changed it to regular port since you're also geting other cool effects with it.

6-Well, what's the worst that can happen here? It doesn't actualy help you kill the monsters. It's more of a flavor ability actually.

7-You're right, at-will bestow curse gaze was too much. Changed to limited duration and a standard action to initiate.

8-Moon depandant is just too situational. Changed it to be based on spot ranks (don't complain, casters usually boost their own CLs).

9-Remember that they get 2 ghost levels that count towards your control cap, so it can't get that many minions. Also again, ressurection-preventing is more of a flavor thing than anything else. How many enemies you meet you think will worry about that?

10-That's the kind of "epic" abilities that aren't that bad at this level. You're level 18, you should be geting to do extra badass stuff by now!

11-Remember that enanchment bonus don't stack, and by this level the Wild Hunt certainly already has better weapons from normal treasure. This is more of a "emergency" button, and also makes secondary weapons more viable, since I picture the Wild Hunt as wielding a wide variety of weaponry.

12-Immortality won't save him from disabling effects like temporal stasis and Flesh to Stone.

13-I must ask you in how many epic games have you been. I'll admit I'm no specialist on them, but I've played over 20th level, and by then players usually have stacked multiple prcs and will be able to pull out some pretty crazy stuff.

More importantly, everybody worth their salt will have their saves boosted to the sky between cloaks of resistance, spells, paladin dips and whatnot, or being monsters with butloads of HD on top of massive stats, so even with the DC being Dex based, most enemies should still be able to shrugg it off in anything but a 1 by now.


[/spoiler]

Xixecal
[spoiler]
1-It's still just DR 1 by then, so even if nobody has the right weapon, it hardly makes a diference.

2-Same counter arguments.

3-It's an abomination, one of their key traits being massive blindsight/telepathy ranges.

4-Clarified wyrmling growth, no gaining exp from befriending a dragon whetever you win or lose. And yes, it's suposed to be a companion you care about instead of an easily-replaceable minion you use to set up traps. Send it into danger at your own risk.

5-Yes, the Xixecal's suposed to have a pretty good movement speed.

6-This! Is! Homebrew!

7-Well, a caster by then could Slow multiple targets, and wouldn't even need to hit them in melee. A dragonfire adept could do it whitout even allowing a save.

8-Meh, tradition of mine by now, as well as all other monsters with dispel SLA so far. :p

9-Abomination traits, gained little by little. I would expect you to like that since you insisted on that kinda of idea early on.

10-Even if it's drain, even if it's in every hit, it's still just 1 point at a time. Your oponent will die of regular damage much before being drained to 0. But I'll agree 10 HP may be too much, changed it to 5 HP.

11-A Xixecal player can't really afford to pump Charisma unlike the original monster.

12-Dire winter isn't that hot cold. It's automatic minimal damage, and dimensional-lock mostly screws casters, noncasters really won't be bothered by it.

13-I felt like Word of Chaos felt well in.

14-Clarified right at the start of the class, it has Cold subtype and takes extra damage from fire, the usual.

15-Like the others before, they're purely offensive and aren't super-utility stuff.

16-You still need to hit them first. The Xixecal may be fast, but can't fly, and even with invsibility by now is taking a massive penalty to hide from size alone.

17-Power attack. Sneak attack. Stone dragon maneuvers. Transmuting weapons. Attacks that don't care about DR to begin with.

18-Still only a 1/5 chance.

19-And most of them are Fort-based. Even with the DCs being based on Str, enemies on this level should have an excellent chance of passing them. An adult red dragon (CR 5) for example gets +18 on Fort saves base, so if the Xixecal had 16 starting Str,  +17 from being monster, that's a +11 modifier, DC 29, the red dragon passes it half the time despite being two levels lower. Now you could find extra Str buffs for the Xixecal, but the red dragon would also certainly have some gear and defensive spells of its own.

20-If it needed a swift action, then it would be useless against imobilizing effects.

21-Touch attacks need a target. Sometimes you just want to blast an area. Also the Xixecal has it, and I found the idea of the living glaciar liking to throw massive balls of fire too amusing to keep out.

22-It's 19th level, there's really not much fairness around.

23-Check the original Xixecal, it has a freaking 50/50 face/reach. I expect a player wanting to play a Xixecal to expect to at least be bigger than everything else by epic levels. Also the Xixecal still can't use all its abilities with just two swift actions.

24-This is epic levels now. All bets are off. Things are suposed to be geting crazy by now.

And for the record, 1 mile/5 HD is hardly covering the whole planet. A big city perhaps.


[/spoiler]

Genie, Kahayal
[spoiler]
1-The genie doesn't have much going for it at 1st level, that's why I give it the cold immunity.

2-It's a hide check, it has no duration.

3-Yes, that's the idea. Geting pretty early, but just 1 use per day and only to 1 plane.

[/spoiler]

Anomander

  • Monkey bussiness
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  • Posts: 9
  • A vision shall be my bridge.
Troll
[spoiler]
Quote
1-Kobolds get three natural weapons base. And kobolds are a race, not even a class. As for PCs, they're usually using a manufactured weapon, that will hit harder than any of the troll's natural ones. Also I don't see where you're geting 3 attacks on a charge, it doesn't have pounce. It can unleash 4 attacks on a fullattack, but will be drawing an Aoo.
The kobold isn't really a good example, in part because its a variant and because the design notes explain why they could be granted to that one race. IE: The troll does not start with -4 Str.
Manifactured weapons only give a die advantage when their real power is behind the STR modifier. Two claws with full STR and a bite with half of it.
Str score of 20 means 3d4+12 vs a greatsword's 2d6+7. On three chances to deal any damage instead of one. It could also pick a longsword and use a claw and a bite instead.
Reckless Assault allows it to deal two attacks in a charge and a potential 3rd if the AoO misses. But I meant Full Attack Action. It gets something in ways better than Pounce in Overrun but that's not an issue.

Quote
2-Taking a standard action is already punitive enough, at least from what I saw of the troll player. You're spending a turn for healing when your oponent is still bashing you. And if you were already in melee, you can't really get away whitout drawing an Aoo.
Indeed. Though drawing an AoO shouldn't be something it would be particularly afraid of considering it triggers automatically if he drops to 0 (should be a daily limit on that, by the way, or the Troll can avoid death CON mod times per day). There are clever ways around those issues but I am mostly pointing at the ability by comparing it to Lay on Hands or the Monk's Wholeness of body. This is a lot of healing. When it gets its regeneration it will heal both its nonlethal and lethal damage. Using it in battle should be more penalizing.

Quote
3-Hunter leap is part of a charge. Charges are in a straight line and nothing on the ability contradicts that (you get to ignore difficult terrain and a hole in the ground, but you wouldn't be able to leap over a large boulder that blocked movement for example).
You're right, but there are ways to make turns during a charge (items, skill trick, maneuvers...) that would be weird if applied during a jump.
You already ignore holes and difficult terrain while jumping until you land on them. The text states it can jump up to its speed as if flying, which makes it sound like it can ignore jump height distance, and thus get over boulders or reach a bird 30ft up in the sky.

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5-Rend demands you to get a fullattack off and hit with both claws. Yes, when it does happen it can easily shred low level enemies, but then, a raging barbarian with a greatsword will also 1-hit kill pretty much anything at this level, and can do it in a charge as well.
Assuming they both have a Str score of 20, at third level a raging barbarian can still only do one attack per round. Average of 17 damage if the attack lands (not counting feats like power attack the troll could also get).
A 3rd level rogue with average HP and at least 14 in Con (19 hp) would still be standing. Fullround attack from a 3rd level troll would deal an average of 7 damage per claw (x3 claw attacks) and 4 damage from the bite. If but two of those 3 claw attacks hit, the average damage would be 28, including the Rend. If everything hits: 39. Either way; dead rogue.
I'll note that a troll has the opportunity to make 2 claw attacks whenever he charges, courtesy of Reckless Assault and can thus trigger a Rend without a fullattack action.
Barbarian can rage once per day. Troll can do that all day.
[/spoiler]

Cheshire Cat
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1-Yes, one of the goals of this project is for the monster abilities to don't become irrelevant as they grow up.
I don't see how Hide in Plain Sight becomes irrelevant at higher levels. Rogues even get it a level 10.
Unbeatable invisibility is also something that shouldn't exist considering there should be a counter for the DM to use against everything. A sorcerer usually tries to avoid melee combat, so the distance needed to see it shouldn't ever come into play if the cat is remotely smart.

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2-It's not just sacrificing familiar progression, it's also locking itself into having around half his spells known being illusion spells, hands, and picking a race like human for extra feat and skill points.
The point was that is isn't really sacrificing anything as far as the familiar is concerned. It gets Cat Skills, more skill points than a Sorcerer and a wider class skill selection, and the hands are well taken care of with a certain Innocent Form feat, instead of spending it in Eschew Materials, which it is given (though Alter Self could take care of that too; its a sorcerer). The limit on spellcasting isn't such a bother considering everything illusions (shadow conjuration/evocation) and enchantments can do. Its abilities give it so much synergy with those two schools that it probably would abide to that limit even if it wasn't there.

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3-And yes I left the DR out because it was more than filled with good abilies. However I'm a much more bigger fan of limiting spellcasting in some way than slowed caster progression, because if you're playing a magic being, you better have some magic at first level.
I perfectly agree. In this instance though I feel the cat is simply getting way too much for only 3 levels. Cheshire cat taking 2 sorcerer levels before entering a Prc would lose nothing over any core race taking 5 levels of sorcerer before prestige.
Perhaps allowing the cat to see its class abilities improve if it takes Sorcerer levels (instead of improving automatically upon reaching a specific HD) and be denied the familiar would be a good compromise.
[/spoiler]

Tarrasque
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3-Maybe. But so far besides your jumping trick, it really hasn't done much so far. Will keep an eye on that.
In our specific situation, indeed. A tarrasque facing wizards using long range spells will appreciate quadruple land speed this early a tad too much though.
Its more about how they scale in power. (almost) Everything can be useful in the right context.

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6-MM monsters can afford themselves to have high scores in everything. Players cannot. Monster SLAs will always be based on something the player can afford. Also I'll admit it may be a bit early, but it's still unreliable transportation, so what's the worst that can happen?
The problem is not about whether or not a player can afford it. Its just the rule. SLA abilities use Charisma.
Changing that is leading to free Min/Maxing. A player wishing to be good with its SLA could increase its charisma the way a cleric decides to get a good Cha score for Turn uses. There are more uses to charisma than just SLAs, and to be honest a Tarrasque can certainly afford a high charisma score with the great gains in Str and Con it receives anyway.
There is a limit to how something can just be good at everything it can do, which is why many classes offer many options a player might want to specialize in (even though the Tarrasque itself as little to gain from it).

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7-Freedom of movement fully blocking grapple is something that should've never existed. And even if it catches the oponent, low str enemies usually have some kind of teleportation trick.
It ticks me a little too but there has to be something at least giving a significant bonus. At least its a spell, and those can be dispelled or ignored if the grappler is within an AMF. Its probably on almost every spell lists for a reason. A PC grappler could be helped by the party's caster if he dispelled it. Grappling is not really a problem for DM encounters since he chooses what the PC fights anyhow. Teleportations can sure screw a grapple but they have their own counter; not every casting classes can teleport and not every low Str characters are casters (rogue-types/dex-based damage warriors/most swordsages/etc).
Otherwise, Freedom of Movement could instead grant a bonus of +20 on grapple checks against monsters with a similar anti-FoM ability. It supposed to help significantly after all.

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8-It's a huge bulging monster charging at you recklessly. That isn't charisma.
So is the Frightful Presence of a dragon. Yet its still Charisma based. Its imposing a Fear effect. The fact the thing is huge and very dangerous and coming straight for you is already reason enough to instill the logical idea of escape if you do not have the ability to fight it like any other massive monsters. Looking like an avatar of destruction being the reason the fear is imposed seems like a charisma based effect as well.

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9-The tarrasque's main weakness it's its short range. If you try to keep away and pelt it with arrows, you better bring a lot of them.
I meant to say that Carapace had received a big nerf since the original ability worked at any distance. I'll note that Carapace offers no protection against arrows, seeing how arrows aren't rays, lines, cones or a magic missile spell. But neither did the original ability. Rush is meant to counter the range issue.
Otherwise, although the class itself does not offer any kind of ranged damage until Eruption, nothing stops a player to build the character to be able to handle ranged combat, or to assimilate items that will help it do so.

10-Well that's the idea. The tarrasque's a melee monster that'll shred you if you get close, but try to kite it at range and you have to punch trough its carapace.
I think the big Str gains already help it achieve that status without a cheap counter trick, but that's just me. A player could always just pick the Robilard's Gambit or Karmic Strike feats if being even more dangerous to attack in melee was desired.

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I didn't give the tarrasque those immunities because it will already have godly Fort saves and I don't see why it should particularly be resistant to fire.
1-Being hard to kill is the Tarrasque's main selling point.
I'll note that energy drain usually does not grant a save. Same goes with some ability damage, and I reckon some requiring Will saves.
There is the Fort/half saves that wouldn't be negated without Mettle as well. I don't know why it would be immune to fire either, but for some reason the original monster is.
Kind of how Devils are all immune to fire by default or how Demons are all immune to electricity, for some reason.
[/spoiler]

Wild Hunt
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2-Eeerr, the hounds don't get companion abilities, and they already get Wild Hunt abilities. Also it's not even like they have actual abilities, they're just HP chunks with a single attack per round. They hardly can make up for a party besides being meat shields.
I meant that the hound should work like an animal companion does for a ranger, progressing in power at a similar speed. Although they'd work like animal companions they'd acquire some wild hunt abilities instead of the powers gained by animal companions.
They are also more than just chunks of HP.
-Their BAB, large size and massive Str scores makes them great grapplers. (notice how they inflict Dimensional Anchor as well while doing so)
-Their single attack deals great damage via skirmish, high STR and the Wild Hunt's own Wis modifier.
-Their high hp, dex, con, SR, DR and immunities make great tanks out of them.
-Their high racial bonus to Hide and Move makes them great sneaks.
Its like having a few tanky rogue/scouts to bother his enemies in melee while he slaughters them at range. And they don't turn on you thanks to focused mind.
A normal animal companion doesn't even compare, and he gets a bunch of them to boot.

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3-All classes have to be playable using only net-available material, so Phantom Stag is out.
Alright. I mostly wanted to point out that the Phantom Steed spell already improves as the Wild Hunt rises in levels, and cannot become useless at higher levels.

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6-Well, what's the worst that can happen here? It doesn't actualy help you kill the monsters. It's more of a flavor ability actually.
Put yourself in a DM's shoes. Two examples:
-The DM's favorite lich BBEG get killed and because of that ability he cannot have it return 3 chapters later for a big showdown.
-The DM sends a Wild Hunt against a ECL14 party. Wild Hunt gets a crit and kills Gandalf. Gandalf's player now has no choice but to roll another character because there is fat chances that his companions will be willing to pay 25,025gp for the True Resurrection component, go through all the trouble of finding a near epic Cleric wiling to help and spend xp for a Miracle. Or spend even more money for a Wish scroll. Now the DM feels like a dick.

It will likely end in grief.

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8-Moon depandant is just too situational. Changed it to be based on spot ranks (don't complain, casters usually boost their own CLs).
You're right. Limiting it to see only in non-enclosed areas might be more thematic without being too situational. There would be synergy with the ability to throw a storm at his found targets and appear nearby to pursue the hunt.
I won't complain. I suggested a more balanced opposed check and that definitively is one.

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9-Remember that they get 2 ghost levels that count towards your control cap, so it can't get that many minions. Also again, ressurection-preventing is more of a flavor thing than anything else. How many enemies you meet you think will worry about that?
Oh, its fine. I just didn't really like the ability because its such a huge table turner that can be activated with only a single round (compare to the 1 hour casting time of Create Undead). I don't like the anti-rez property for the same reason as #6 except it can be done even if the Wild Hunt isn't the one doing the killing blow.
Since it takes a single round to activate and requires no expensive components or anything like that, pretty silly things could be achieved. Example:
Party faces a Wild Hunt +4 treants encounter. Each hounds dash at every party member and initiate a grapple, the treants move to help them maintain the grapples while the Wild Hunt shoots at them. 2 rounds later one of the pups rolls a crit and kills Gandalf, the only caster in the group able to cast Freedom of Movement (uh-oh). Wild Hunt uses Gather the Dead and now Gandalf is in his team, along with recovering one of the treants the party managed to kill.

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10-That's the kind of "epic" abilities that aren't that bad at this level. You're level 18, you should be geting to do extra badass stuff by now!
Those abilities are just worth around a million gp that won't be increasing the worth of his bow's abilities further. I think that falls under high epic level badass, actually. Like level 30.

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11-Remember that enanchment bonus don't stack, and by this level the Wild Hunt certainly already has better weapons from normal treasure. This is more of a "emergency" button, and also makes secondary weapons more viable, since I picture the Wild Hunt as wielding a wide variety of weaponry.
I remember. But enhancement bonuses are hardly an issue. What you mention is exactly the problem: they get better weapons at that level.
You]re probably are aware that when you enchant a weapon with a special ability, the cost of further enhancements increases drastically.
As written, this ability would allow a Wild Hunt to draw his +1 Speed Unholy Anarchic Flaming Burst (+10 weapon) composite bow and enchant it with additional abilities on the need, like Brilliant Energy against living foes. BAM. The bow bypasses the radical price increase of adding abilities past +10 and is now an epic bow (plus the epic weapon ability it already gets from Perfect Hunter). The worth of such a bow's combined abilities goes from 200k to 8 millions, at level 19. A level 36 character could afford one if he spent about everything on it.

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12-Immortality won't save him from disabling effects like temporal stasis and Flesh to Stone.
But not everything else. Which is a massive load of things. His pets could always kill him to save him but I don't think having an Achilles' Heel justifies this ability. Which the original monster didn't have either.

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13-I must ask you in how many epic games have you been. I'll admit I'm no specialist on them, but I've played over 20th level, and by then players usually have stacked multiple prcs and will be able to pull out some pretty crazy stuff.
More importantly, everybody worth their salt will have their saves boosted to the sky between cloaks of resistance, spells, paladin dips and whatnot, or being monsters with butloads of HD on top of massive stats, so even with the DC being Dex based, most enemies should still be able to shrugg it off in anything but a 1 by now.
If you must, about 4 or so, not counting those that failed to launch properly. Reached level 35 and 40 in two of them. To make Epic level manageable a DM must be very strict because a game is easily broken at that level.
I am somewhat familiar with what can be achieved at that level and what would be considered a normal amount of power with and without uber optimization and cheese.

As to massive saves. Taking a look at the epic monster encounters and I fail to see really impressive save modifiers until the very high CRs. If a DM has to optimize every monster it throws at its players just to have them survive their abilities for two rounds, the players are doing him a great disservice. A DM can use disjunction, AMF or dead magic areas to take care of ridiculous numbers for a while.
Speaking of which, specifying when a class ability is SU or EX would be a good idea.
It wouldn't be such a problem if it was something else than free instant death every attack.
And even then, an archer can manage a pretty impressive number of arrow shots per turn, so a LOT of saving throws. Even against godly saves, everything rolls a 1 eventually. People with godly saves are attacked by some sort of improved Vorpal effect that works against everything and destroys their soul. Those who don't have such saves just die.
[/spoiler]

Xixecal
[spoiler]
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1-It's still just DR 1 by then, so even if nobody has the right weapon, it hardly makes a diference.
Tell that to the barbarian who gets it at level 7. Don't forget the SR that is always good at an equal level CR. I remember the barbarian players I played with being pretty happy to get it.

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3-It's an abomination, one of their key traits being massive blindsight/telepathy ranges.
Its also a PC, and thus has a PC's power curve to follow. Its not an encounter meant to solo an entire party on his own anymore.

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5-Yes, the Xixecal's suposed to have a pretty good movement speed.
See #3. Its all about balance. It already begins with a good movement speed and gets Haste to improve it further. Note that even the monk's massive movement speed is mostly an enhancement one that doesn't stack with Haste.

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6-This! Is! Homebrew!
And this is a bad excuse to illegitimate min/maxed power. It is also unfit to be played as a PC among other characters that aren't Xixecals. Even the original Xixecal deals with its SLA with Cha. There are many other options for this: increasing Str, Con and Cha in turn instead of only Str and Con; the choice of not giving it SLAs at all since it doesn't have the big Cha increases to use them better than anyone else and give it something else instead, among other things.
If the class is meant to fall into a whole different power curve then there is no need to change anything.

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7-Well, a caster by then could Slow multiple targets, and wouldn't even need to hit them in melee. A dragonfire adept could do it whitout even allowing a save.
And would need to spend a standard action, a spell slot, use a DC that doesn't scale with his HD and a single attempt at slowing. A dragonfire adept's slows doesn't deal damage and they hardly lasts as long. Xixecal can force a saving throw each attack every round all day and more than once with a full attack.

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8-Meh, tradition of mine by now, as well as all other monsters with dispel SLA so far.
Haha. Its fine. I just meant that you should call it Greater Dispel Magic to begin with to avoid redundancy.

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9-Abomination traits, gained little by little. I would expect you to like that since you insisted on that kinda of idea early on.
Oh, I don't mind them! I'm just saying that it acquires them fairly early.

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10-Even if it's drain, even if it's in every hit, it's still just 1 point at a time. Your oponent will die of regular damage much before being drained to 0. But I'll agree 10 HP may be too much, changed it to 5 HP.
I agree. They will die of regular damage before that happens because every 2 Con points lost reduces the hp of the target by an amount equal to its HD. Along with making its fort saves worse against all its save-or-die effects.

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11-A Xixecal player can't really afford to pump Charisma unlike the original monster.
As said in the Tarrasque entry, with all the gains in Str and Con a Xixecal can certainly afford a decent Charisma score if it wanted to do great in those class abilities or simply ignore them to focus on brawling melee damage. The Xixecal has a wide array of ways it can act in battle and choosing what it wants to be best at is a form of balance.

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12-Dire winter isn't that hot cold. It's automatic minimal damage, and dimensional-lock mostly screws casters, noncasters really won't be bothered by it.
Dimensional Lock is also a level 8 spell with a small and static area of effect. The range of dire winter is HUGE. You also made a deal out of casters using nasty teleportation tricks to avoid grapples. And casters are the foes to really watch out for, especially with a vulnerability to fire.

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14-Clarified right at the start of the class, it has Cold subtype and takes extra damage from fire, the usual.
Yes. 50% more. This is double damage now.

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15-Like the others before, they're purely offensive and aren't super-utility stuff.
I fail to see why it being a save-or-lose SLA is a justification to acquiring it early.

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16-You still need to hit them first. The Xixecal may be fast, but can't fly, and even with invsibility by now is taking a massive penalty to hide from size alone.
The question of "will it miss" doesn't dismiss the result. High Str and many attacks in a fullround action has good odds to accomplish this, either way.
Flight is easy to get with the many ways it can be acquired. Potion, magic items, spell from your party's caster, graft, you name it.

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17-Power attack. Sneak attack. Stone dragon maneuvers. Transmuting weapons. Attacks that don't care about DR to begin with.
Power attack decreases the odds of hitting the thing along with dealing additional damage that would had gone into its HP instead of being wasted in the DR; same for Sneak Attacks.
Stone dragon maneuvers are one-hit attacks. Melee damage is fearsome when its given in full attacks.
Transmuting wastes a round to adapt and does not bypass the regeneration. It also still falls into the issue of 'very specific weapons' being needed but a fair option otherwise.
Most non-casting monster encounters care about DR very much.

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18-Still only a 1/5 chance.
I know its not huge advantage on its own until it gets ridiculous at the later levels. Its kind of like Concealment, but special senses and Blind-Fight doesn't help you against it.
The problem is that there should be a way to bypass it other than looking for some rare means to acquire the Xixecal's size. There should always be some way to fight past a monster's defenses otherwise they become abilities not meant to be used by players and receiving a big LA to discourage playing it, if any.

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19-And most of them are Fort-based. Even with the DCs being based on Str, enemies on this level should have an excellent chance of passing them. An adult red dragon (CR 5) for example gets +18 on Fort saves base, so if the Xixecal had 16 starting Str,  +17 from being monster, that's a +11 modifier, DC 29, the red dragon passes it half the time despite being two levels lower. Now you could find extra Str buffs for the Xixecal, but the red dragon would also certainly have some gear and defensive spells of its own.
I must say that dying half the time against a creature's constant barrage of save-or-die abilities is not something it will have the opportunity to do very often.

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20-If it needed a swift action, then it would be useless against imobilizing effects.
Immobilizing effects do not prevent mental actions. If Iron Heart Surge, one of the most broken maneuvers there is, can afford a standard action for the awesomeness of cleansing oneself from a status effect. I don't see why this ability cannot.

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21-Touch attacks need a target. Sometimes you just want to blast an area. Also the Xixecal has it, and I found the idea of the living glaciar liking to throw massive balls of fire too amusing to keep out.
I didn't say it should be removed. You can in fact make touch attacks in empty spaces with 50% chance of hitting if something is actually there and you beat the touch AC.
The issue was not in that it granted a touch attack either either; its that you have no penalty for choosing to use a touch attack. You get two chances to deal full damage including one without a save or you deal half damage on the second attempt with a successful save. If you just want to blast an area, aiming it at someone that might not get a save seems like a no brainer.

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22-It's 19th level, there's really not much fairness around.
Only if the DM has no control over his campaign and over his players and/or has no balls.

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23-Check the original Xixecal, it has a freaking 50/50 face/reach. I expect a player wanting to play a Xixecal to expect to at least be bigger than everything else by epic levels. Also the Xixecal still can't use all its abilities with just two swift actions.
Indeed, but its size modifiers aren't changing past Colossal. Only the space reach should be improved, to respect the original creature. Else, one virtual size bigger, at most, just to make a point.
Sill, gaining more Swift actions allows the Xixecal to own the action economy on top of everything else, and that is too much. Having many many uses for a swift action is not a reason to give a creature more of them. Giving anything more actions leads to an unfair lever of power.

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24-This is epic levels now. All bets are off. Things are suposed to be geting crazy by now.
Yes. But not that kind of crazy. See #22.

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And for the record, 1 mile/5 HD is hardly covering the whole planet. A big city perhaps.
I wasn't being literal. Its an aura of death affecting a very very large surface. No epic spells can achieve something similar and be cast at level 26. Hardly at even double that level.

I didn't bother commenting the rest of the abilities after those since it was escalating the beyond insanely powerful ladder and should be self-explanatory.
[/spoiler]

Genie, Kahayal
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2-It's a hide check, it has no duration.
Okay. Just wanted to make sure. You make a new hide check every time you move, so having a duration would maybe had been too good at that level.
[/spoiler]
« Last Edit: October 28, 2011, 03:16:55 AM by Anomander »

b100d_arrowz

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I wasn't being literal. Its an aura of death affecting a very very large surface. No epic spells can achieve something similar and be cast at level 26. Hardly at even double that level.
At level 21 as a wizard you can have every stat be arbitrarily high forever, have permanent emanations miles wide dealing arbitrarily high amounts of every type of damage, be immune to spells and damage forever, etc. Once you hit epic shit just gets silly naturally  :love Before epic is where you need to be concerned about balancing issues. And to be fair iirc these things aren't meant to be balanced towards barbarians and the like, more towards the sorcerer end of the power scale in non epic levels.


Back to your regularly scheduled debate now  :D
I'm delirious from lack of sleep, but am sustained by the power of the Gatling Gun!

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Prime32

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Request: Gray Shiver (Dragon 343).

It's a CR9 monster, the result of a spider making its home in the skull of a destroyed lich and inheriting some of its power and all of its ego.
My work
The tier system in a nutshell:
[spoiler]Tier 6: A cartographer.
Tier 5: An expert cartographer or a decent marksman.
Tier 4: An expert marksman.
Tier 3: An expert marksman, cartographer and chef who can tie strong knots and is trained in hostage negotiation or a marksman so good he can shoot down every bullet fired by a minigun while armed with a rusted single-shot pistol that veers to the left.
Tier 2: Someone with teleportation, mind control, time manipulation, intangibility, the ability to turn into an exact duplicate of anything, or the ability to see into the future with perfect accuracy.
Tier 1: Someone with teleportation, mind control, time manipulation, intangibility, the ability to turn into an exact duplicate of anything and the ability to see into the future with perfect accuracy.[/spoiler]

Anomander

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At level 21 as a wizard you can have every stat be arbitrarily high forever, have permanent emanations miles wide dealing arbitrarily high amounts of every type of damage, be immune to spells and damage forever, etc. Once you hit epic shit just gets silly naturally   Before epic is where you need to be concerned about balancing issues. And to be fair iirc these things aren't meant to be balanced towards barbarians and the like, more towards the sorcerer end of the power scale in non epic levels.
What can be done at epic levels goes as silly as a DM lets it be. What can be done by the cheesiest wizards is not a standard to be applied to everything epic.
Unless you want your game to end early.

I already compared the Cheshire Cat to a sorcerer.

b100d_arrowz

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What can be done at epic levels goes as silly as a DM lets it be. What can be done by the cheesiest wizards is not a standard to be applied to everything epic.
Unless you want your game to end early.
Depends on how sneaky your players are, I've had an epic campaign where nothign cheesy happened... mainly because the players were too interested in random things, like improved death attack, or being a half celestial half fiend monk who could get his AC to unhittable totals but do nothing else... and an epic healer  :bigeye. And then there was the campaign where we won it before it started because the DM said do whatever you want I dont care ... us  :evillaugh him :hide
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78% of DM's started their first campaign in a tavern. If you're one of the 22% that didn't, copy and paste this into your signature.

Anomander

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I bet.
But then again, if someone is ready to seriously DM an epic campaign, with all the work that entails, and with players you do not personally know - he better have a solid knowledge and understanding of what is actually going on just with a look or two at a player's character sheet.

Holding the DM's rule 0, such sneaks could, and should, see their characters die very fast as a lesson.
Unless the campaign was started just so people could screw around. Of course.

Littha

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Holding the DM's rule 0, such sneaks could, and should, see their characters die very fast as a lesson.

Never kill a character just because they did something you didn't expect, especially if it is fully rules legal and you checked their character sheet before the game started (Which should happen every time you have a new character)

Killing characters off for playing within the rules is such a dick move I struggle to find words to express it.

Catty Nebulart

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Killing characters off for playing within the rules is such a dick move I struggle to find words to express it.

Counterpoint: The fifth level kobold player summons a Sarruhk. At this point, as the DM, for the good of the game I have no problem with having the Sarruhk slip it's bindings and do something horrible to the PC.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."