How overpowered are Kythons?

[Rainbownaga]

I was thinking of using kythons (broodlings in particular) in a game I dm, but I've never used them before and looking at their stats they look like walking TPK's

The broodlings have virtual immunity to any of the three main energy types, armor class 18 (meaning even second level fighter-types are going to have a less than 50-50 chance of hitting them) and a poison with a decent dc and a heap of constitution damage.

While I'm sure a second level party should be able to handle one of the things, it feels like cheating them to only give the xp of a cr 1 monster. Similarly, my google searches suggest that the more powerful forms may also be brokenly under cr'd.

So what would you suggest? a blanket +1 cr? More? or am i missing something.

[Abd al-Azrad]

Broodlings are reasonably tough CR 1's, but unless the party fighter suffers a string of pathetic attack rolls, it's not really going to take a ridiculous amount of effort to kill. Compare:

They do greatsword base damage with almost no Str,
They have 18 AC,
They sit around, what, 15HP?

A first-level fighter, who is also a CR 1:
Can do greatsword damage, probably with higher Str,
Can have 18 AC (it's not cheap, though),
Can have between 10-13HP easily.

The broodling does have some advantages, like its poison, or its (almost negligible) tail damage, and probably has some better saves. But I honestly doubt it's much more of a melee threat than a first-level warrior class. Of course, the higher-level ones are pretty ridiculous, but that's another discussion.

[Xenogears]

Broodlings are reasonably tough CR 1's, but unless the party fighter suffers a string of pathetic attack rolls, it's not really going to take a ridiculous amount of effort to kill. Compare:

They do greatsword base damage with almost no Str,
They have 18 AC,
They sit around, what, 15HP?

A first-level fighter, who is also a CR 1:
Can do greatsword damage, probably with higher Str,
Can have 18 AC (it's not cheap, though),
Can have between 10-13HP easily.

The broodling does have some advantages, like its poison, or its (almost negligible) tail damage, and probably has some better saves. But I honestly doubt it's much more of a melee threat than a first-level warrior class. Of course, the higher-level ones are pretty ridiculous, but that's another discussion.

Make the first level fighter a warforged with adamentine body and he has 18 AC, extra con, and has DR2/adamentine. That would be a much harder CR1 challenge.

[Redrat2k6]

I don't know anything about Kythons, but if they do not have immunity to mind affecting a level 1 wizard should still be able to pwn them with a well placed sleep, color spray or cause fear.

Or the wizard could summon a monster behind it for a nice +2 to hit, and allow for some rogue sneak attacks.

It really shouldn't be that hard for a first level party.

[Rainbownaga]

Thanks for the responses.

I guess I was mostly just spooked by the constitution damage, but I guess at level 2 con and hp damage are roughly equivalent and one hit incapacitation or kills aren't especially rare either.

Incidentally they only have 11 hp and color spray won't work on them because they don't have eyes.

[urkthegurk]

I found kython broodlings to be pretty fun. They do a lot of damage, but they die real quick. Its nice, actually, to have the PCs show concern when fighting CR1 monsters. The things might loose, but it will take some party resources.

The one thing I've found is that they become deadlier in larger groups, against slightly higher level PCs. Since they're immune to what, acid and fire and electricity is it? I don't remember. But area attacks become less effective, and by the time the players figure it out, they might have taken a lot of damage. Which is pretty okay, most of the time, its just not something you want to pul just before the Boss Fight.

just think of them as walking greatswords.