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View Full Version : A feat, a spell and 2 monsters (3.5, PEACH)



Sereg
2009-06-21, 06:46 AM
Ok, I've homebrewed a couple of things for my entry in Afroakuma's villain competition. I've already got some much appreciated feedback on one of the feats, but to be certain that the rest is also of similar standard I'm reposting some of the rest here in order to obtain advice on what needs changing and how. Thank you in advance.

WOODLING COMPANION
"Only those who photosynthesise are truly one with nature"-Orhyndin, Restorer of the Forest Empire
You gain an animal companion with the woodling template.
Prerequisites: Able to acquire a new animal companion, minimum level requirement (see below).
Benefit: When choosing an animal companion, you may choose one with the woodling template. The woodling companion has all the normal abilities of a typical creature of its kind, as well as the characteristics of an animal companion determined by the druid or ranger’s level. Your effective druid level for this purpose is reduced by 4.

Foliage
Transmutation
Level: Druid 4
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One living creature
Duration: 10 minutes/level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless); see text
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

The target gains a green hue and leaves unfurl from its skin.

This is one of the spells developed by Orhyndin in his quest to become a plant.

When casting this spell, you cause the target to grow leaves and gain some plant traits. The target gains a +10 competence bonus on hide checks in areas where being covered with leaves would make one blend in (such as in a forest). They also gain immunity to sleep effects, paralysis, stunning and critical hits. However, they also gain vulnerability to fire and any armour check penalty that affects them increases by one for the duration of the effect.

Toxicitree
HUGE PLANT
HD 10d8 HD +100 (145 HP)
Speed 0 ft. (0 squares)
Init: -5
AC 10; touch 3; flat-footed 10 (-2 size, -5 Dex, +7 natural)
BAB +7; Grp +10
Attack -
Full-Attack -
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks Poison
Special Qualities Blind, blindsight 15 ft., DR 5/adamantine, mindlessness, non-abilities, plant traits, vulnerability to fire
Saves Fort +17 Ref - Will +3
Abilities Str 1, Dex -, Con 31, Int -, Wis 11, Cha 8
Skills -
Feats -
Environment Warm and temperate forests
Organization Solitary or grove (2-8)
Challenge Rating 7
Treasure None
Alignment Always neutral
Advancement 11-15 HD Huge; 16-30 HD Gargantuan
Level Adjustment –

You see a tree with dark green leaves and a thick trunk. It is heavy with swollen, ovoid purple fruit.

The toxicitree is a creation of Orhyndin. While it is incapable of moving, it makes a good trap and inconvenience due to its poisonous fruit burst.

Combat

The toxicitree only has one method of attack and therefore, that is all it will do. Whenever anyone is within its reach it will cause some of its fruit to explode, showering any individuals within reach with pulp and seeds. The pulp contains a contact poison described below.

Poison (ex): Any individuals that become covered with the pulp must make a fortitude save DC 25 or take 1d6 initial and secondary con damage. The difficulty class in constitution based.

Dart vine
LARGE PLANT
HD 4d8 +16 HD (34 HP)
Speed 0 ft. (0 squares)
Init: +2
AC 16; touch 10; flat-footed 15 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +6 natural)
BAB +3; Grp +2
Attack dart +2 ranged 1d6 crit x2 range increment 20 ft. + disease
Full-Attack +2 ranged 1d6 crit x2 range increment 20 ft. + disease
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks -
Special Qualities Blind, blindsight 15 ft., mindlessness, plant traits, vulnerability to fire
Saves Fort +8 Ref +2 Will +1
Abilities Str 1, Dex 13, Con 19, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 8
Skills -
Feats -
Environment Warm and temperate forests
Organization Solitary or patch (2-4)
Challenge Rating 3
Treasure none
Alignment Always neutral
Advancement 5-7 HD Large, 8-12 HD Huge
Level Adjustment –

You see a vine with a green stem. It has bright green leaves and yellow swellings at many of its tips. Most of these swellings have what appears to be a large black thorn growing from them.

The dart vine is another creation of Orhyndin. It fires its dart-like pods into trespassers. This gives its seedlings plenty of nutrition to grow.

Combat

The dart vine attacks by firing its dart-like pods as a ranged attack at any non-plant that comes within the area of its blindsight.

Disease (ex): Any individuals that are injured by the darts must make a fortitude save DC 16 or be infected by the seed of the dart vine. This is treated as a disease with an incubation period of 1 day that does 1d3 Dex and 1d3 Con damage per day and requires 3 successful saving throws in a row to recover from. Any individual reduced to 0 Con in this manner dies and a dart vine grows from his/her body.

EDIT: Lowered decrease in effective druid level from 5 to 4

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-06-21, 12:18 PM
Two things:

1) The feat's reductions to effective druid level should probably be variable; some creatures benefit greatly by increased NA and plant traits, and some gain very little from it.

2) The monsters should probably have a Strength score. Strength represents your ability to physically manipulate the environment in any way, so generally only incorporeal creatures have Str --, even if you can't move. In fact, since they're immobile, giving them a Str of 1 or 2 would actually be better than --, because Str -- has a +0 modifier and Str 1 has a -5, emphasizing the fact that they can't really do anything with it.

Sereg
2009-06-21, 10:57 PM
Thank you PairO'Dice Lost.

1) I kept it standard as the woodling template does not give a variable increase in chalenge rating or level adjustment, however, if you think that the decrease in effective druid level should be variable, I'll make it so. What do you think the decrease should be and under what conditions should it be different?

2) I thought that immobile monsters didn't have a strength score. What you say makes sense though especially with the dart vine. I'll change it.

EDIT: Changed

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-06-21, 11:27 PM
1) I kept it standard as the woodling template does not give a variable increase in chalenge rating or level adjustment, however, if you think that the decrease in effective druid level should be variable, I'll make it so. What do you think the decrease should be and under what conditions should it be different?

The woodling template gives a static adjustment because it deals with CR and LA; you'll notice, though, that animal companions have different effective level penalties even at the same CR--the brown bear is CR 4 and is at level - 6, but the Huge shark is CR 4 and is at level - 9. Obviously CR and animal companion power are not considered to be intrinsically linked, but rather what the animal companion can do is what determines that.

I don't think there can really be a hard-and-fast rule for "Animals with X, Y, and Z abilities are at level - 2, those with A and B are at level - 4." and so on. Instead, I'd take a look at the animal companions allowable and list the penalties for each; you could simply go by the existing level categories (making L-3 into L-4, L-9 into L-16, and so on). The penalty should probably vary from -0 (for the Large viper, who'll probably die just as fast with extra NA and crit immunity) to -4 for the Tyrannosaurus (who can really dish out the damage if he doesn't need to worry as much about taking hits).

Sereg
2009-06-22, 10:51 AM
All right, this is certainly becoming a lot more complicated than I initially expected but oh well. I don't have all the books so I'm probably going to miss some but I'll check to see what I can do.

I'm guessing that those with low AC and hp but high attack and damage would get a higher penalty to effective druid level and vice versa. Is this correct?

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-06-22, 12:16 PM
All right, this is certainly becoming a lot more complicated than I initially expected but oh well. I don't have all the books so I'm probably going to miss some but I'll check to see what I can do.

Again, you don't have to do any tweaking, but it would better line up with the existing system of judging companions on their worth. I doubt it would cause horrible imbalance to have a static penalty, but there's always a chance.


I'm guessing that those with low AC and hp but high attack and damage would get a higher penalty to effective druid level and vice versa. Is this correct?

Right. Giving a good offensive companion a defensive boost makes it much more useful, while giving a good defensive one a defensive boost doesn't really do as much.