[3.5] DM Difficulty Levels - S'thili - Please Critique

[Brennan]

You can find all of their specs on this wiki: http://d20npcs.wikia.com/wiki/Category:S%27thili

What I'm more concerned with is the difficulty of the solo encounter monster I am pitting against my three third-level PC's. (Assisted by a DMPC of the same level.) She's called the S'thili Matron and is kind of like a giant ant-queen who spits acid and uses mental attacks. I'm somewhat worried about how she'll fare against a team of four level three characters, but I don't want her to slaughter anyone in one single hit. Basically, I want her to be able to knock a few PC's unconscious without killing them. (This is the first boss they'll be pitted against.)

My main concerns are her health/AC and damage. Does she have enough health and AC to survive a team of three PC's and a DMPC without being killed in two rounds? (The team consists of a human sorceress, elf cleric, human fighter, and orc barbarian/fighter. (He's level 4, the most difficult enemy in the last 'boss encounter' they were up against. He was assisted by a shaman and two lesser orc grunts and was level 3 at the time. I didn't allow him to use his rage ability, so he was defeated.))

I'm also worried about her damage. I want her to scare the crap out of my PC's and remind them that death is always around the corner, ready to stare them in the eyes, but I don't want them to get slaughtered on our third session. Any suggestions as to health/damage? Maybe some kind of acid AoE? I want to make this as good as possible for my PC's.

Also, could someone please explain the advancement and level advancement parts of the monster manual template? I'm not quite sure how they work. Thanks!

Name: S'thili Matron
Creature Type: Large Outsider
Hit Dice: 8d12+2+3 (50)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 20 (4 squares)
Armor Class: 18, Touch: 12, Flat-Footed: 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+5
Attack: Pincer+5 (1d6+4)
Full Attack: Double Pincer Smash+5 (1d12+4)
Space/Reach: 10ft (Can hit a target one square away, or a target in a diagonal square. Also threatens these areas.
Special Attacks: Acid Spit, Birth Skitterers, Mental Attack, Pincer Grip
Special Qualities: Blindsight, Blindsense
Saves: Fort. +6, Ref. +2, Will +4
Abilities: Str 18, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 12
Skills: Bluff: 4 (CHA) Sense Motive: 10 (WIS)
Feats: none
Environment: Underground, near underground water sources.
Organization: Singular, likely protected by other S'thili monstrosities.
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: S'thili matrons adore jewelry, and sometimes accrue a hord of various golden trinkets and will often place them in the nest where she sleeps. A matron mother loves her jewelry more than other worldy object, but will still attempt to run away if she has to decide between her life and her trinkets.
Alignment: Normally Neutral Evil, only concerned with the well being of its own species. In some cases, when S'thili Matrons are vying for political power through the infection and enthrallment of nobles, they can be considered Lawful Evil.
Advancement: ??
Level Adjustment: ??

Languages: S'thili Matrons speak no languages, but can telepathically communicate with any sentient organism.

The beast before you is a massive, intelligent form of the S'thili Parasite. It is to blame for all actions of nearby S'thili thralls and their infections. It stands on six long, dagger-edged insectiod legs at about 7' 8. Its main torso is roughly 3' 6 long with a huge 6' 4 egg sack, covered in S'thili young, hanging behind her, sporadically birthing live S'thili Skitterers. (See: S'thili Skitterer) It is of brown-black color and is covered by chitinous armor of a pure black substance. It bears no eyes, but has two antennae on its large, bulbous head.

Matron mothers stand at around 8 feet tall and 10 feet long, if you include their egg sack. They control the actions of their non-intelligent children much like the queen of ants. S'thili Matrons can use mental attack powers that require a Will save to avoid as well as powerful acid splashes that destroy cover and burn flesh. In addition to its special attacks, the S'thili Matrons can attempt to grab targets in its serraded pincers, or simply smash them under their weight.

Combat tactics: S'thili Matrons like to pin targets down into cover, which they then spray with their acid spit, dissolving the cover and burning the targets. When engaged in melee combat, the S'thili Matron is likely to pick an enemy up with her pincers and attempt to rip it in half, all the while using a Mind Blast power to keep her targets from being able to assist their endangered comrade. If it seems she is about to die, the Matron Mother will spew a clutch of 1d6 live S'thili Skitterers at her opponents and attempt to escape, usually via tunnels hidden under her cave.

Acid Spit: A S'thili Matron can spit a torrent of corrosive acid from her mouth three times a day. When this acid hits any non-magical barrier such as stone or metal, it immediately dissolves through it and strikes the target behind cover. A target struck with the acid of a Matron Mother takes 1d10+2 damage. To avoid such an attack, the target must make a Reflex save, DC 15. If they succeed, they avoid all damage and roll five feet (one square) either to the relative right or left, facing the Matron.

Birth Skitterers: A S'thili Matron can give birth to 1d6 S'thili Skitterers once per encounter. Upon birth, the skitterers roll initiative and join the battle. (See S'thili Skitterer)

Mental Attack: A Matron Mother can mentally assault all engaged targets twice per encounter as a free action. Those effected must roll DC 10 Will saves, or be paralyzed for 2 rounds. Matron Mothers cannot use this ability more than once every three rounds.

Pincer Grip: S'thili Matrons can grab a target within melee range with its pincers, causing 1d10 damage per round as a move action. If the affected target succeeds in a grapple check against the matron, she will do no damage to the affected target for that round. If the affected target succeeds in grapple checks two rounds in a row, they escape the S'thili Matron's grip and can return to battle. Allies of the affected target can assist him if they deal over 10 damage during their round, causing the Matron Mother to have a -2 to her grapple check for the next round.

[Volthawk]

You know there's a Homebrew Forum, right?

[Greenish]

If this is the first boss you pit them against, trying to balance it so you'll "knock a few of the PCs unconscious" when you only have 3 PCs might be trying to shave it too close.

On the other news, there is a homebrew forum.

[Edit]: Damn kobold ninjas. :smallcool:

[Brennan]

Oops. Well, this is actually more of a question as to how difficult I should make a monster. I'm not posting the homebrew or anything, so I didn't figure I should post it in the homebrew forum. There- I changed the title of the thread to make it less bent toward homebrew and more bent toward DM critique. If it is still an issue, the thread can be moved.

[SpikeFightwicky]

Going by the numbers in the stat block, there are a few errors going by RAW (hit points, Base Attack, etc...) I can go through it and fix them for you if you want (I love number crunching monsters).

As for your questions regarding Advancement and Level Adjustment:

RE: Advancement: This is an arbitrary entry where you put in how much racial hit dice you can add to the monster to create a "bigger/better than average" version. For example, if you put in 'Advancement: 9-14 HD (Large), 15-22 HD (Huge)', that means that if you want to make the monster stronger by adding racial hit dice, if you add +1 to +6 hit dice, the monster stays large sized. If you add +7 to +14 hit dice, the monster's size would change to Huge. This is following advancement rules in the monster section of the SRD (or MM). If this seems at all complicated, I can probably explain it better.

RE: Level Adjustment: This entry is only if you intend to allow the creature to be played as a PC. If you intend to only use the creature as an NPC encounter, then leave the Level Adjustment field blank (-).

As for monster power, as is, it doesn't quite stand up to other CR 5s. The stats and DCs of its abilities are sub par. Following typical monster creation numbers (following DC, HP, BaB, etc... formulae), the numbers seem a bit better. As I said above, I can rework the numbers for you (and show how I did it) to make the creature RAW compatible.

[sonofzeal]

Too weak. A +5 attack bonus is poor at best, a DC 10 Will save is pretty much a joke, and its defences aren't really all that impressive. The one issue is Acid Spit - as written, it's a near-automatic "nya ha you have no armor or weapon any more". Not fun, or fair. I'd have it merely do damage to the object, rather than instantly eat through anything nonmagical ever.

[Brennan]

As I said above, I can rework the numbers for you (and show how I did it) to make the creature RAW compatible.

Would you? It'd be a huge help. This is my first custom monster, and having someone do that would really help me understand just what goes into creating a monster.


Too weak. A +5 attack bonus is poor at best, a DC 10 Will save is pretty much a joke, and its defences aren't really all that impressive. The one issue is Acid Spit - as written, it's a near-automatic "nya ha you have no armor or weapon any more". Not fun, or fair. I'd have it merely do damage to the object, rather than instantly eat through anything nonmagical ever.

What if I just lowered its CR and made it a Solo encounter with a CR of three or so? It's difficult making something powerful when you know it's just going to destroy a three-person party. :(

Also, I might have phrased its acid attack poorly. I meant for it to damage cover, not armor. The fight will be in a cave with many pillars and stalactites, so the idea was to keep the PC's moving from cover to cover as to avoid the acid spit while they approach the matron in the far end of the cave.

EDIT: Also, the armor class is a bit low because of the low amounts of attack bonus my PC's have. They're abnormally bad at hitting things for a team of their level, so I figured I would give her a low AC, but high health. I'm thinking I will increase the health to 65, to further that idea.

... Wow, this really does belong in homebrew. I wonder if anyone could move it?

[Sairyu]

It'd help if we knew what the characters were capable of.

HP: Can't say much here without seeing the characters. 50 seems like an okay number.
AC: For a 'boss' type creature, you want the fighter hitting about half the time with his highest to-hit. 18 AC looks about right for that, that is, if the fighter has about ~+8 (+3BAB +~3STR +1MW +1 Focus?) to hit.

Well, lets try to break down how the fight might go... maybe.

R0: Pre-buffs go here (I have no clue what, bless for the PCs maybe?)
R1: Mental attack right off the bat to cover her while she births skitterers (assuming it's a full round action). DC10 at lv3 means that one of the 4 characters is probably going to fail the save (a roll of <=5 is probably a failure). If the skitterers get to go on the round the spawn, they'll, according to their flavor text, go swarm the lady sorceress. The fighters are going to have a ridiculously hard time trying to hit these guys with AoOs (+5 dex +4 size).
R2: Close in and pincer grab the paralyzed fool. If she can get to the cleric/mage, preferably the cleric since the skitterers should be dealing with the mage, then that instead. With 18 AC and 50HP she should be able to tank an AoO from the fighters if she needs to pass by. If she can't get into grabbing range, then an acid spit targeting whoever is easiest to hit (anyone paralyzed).
R3: Acid spit on the grapple-d person. Paralysis wears off. If things are going poorly, the sorceress is down and she's grappled and acid-sprayed the cleric.
R4: Another screech and... something something.

I dunno... With 18INT, she should probably be using items, but I'm not sure what you'd give her. She should also be trying to get the drop on the PCs.

The encounter's gonna go horribly for her if the screech doesn't actually get anyone and she's going to need the skitterers asap to knock down the PCs action advantage (4 to 1 no thank you and even 3 to 1 is not very good).

Edit: You should probably give a range on acid spit. Maybe 60' with no range increment, or 30' with 1 range increment (max 60'). If you want them dodging around cover trying to close distance, then somewhere between 90' and 150' would work nicely, somewhere out of range of a charge. Broken terrain works nicely to stop that, though, if you don't want to give it a very long-range attack.

[SpikeFightwicky]

Would you? It'd be a huge help. This is my first custom monster, and having someone do that would really help me understand just what goes into creating a monster.

No problem! I may use some terms you're not familiar with, so bear with me. I'll only quote the lines of the stat block that could use some help. Think of the monster as a 'Character' that has 'levels' in a 'creature type' (outsider in this case). I see this as more a RAW issue than a hombebrew one (learning the Monster creation/advancement rules), so it should still fit into the main RPG thread. WARNING! Long post ahead!:


Hit Dice: 8d12+2+3 (50)

As an Outsider creature (SRD Link (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/resources/systems/pennpaper/dnd35/soveliorsage/monsterTypes.html#outsider), the Matron gets d8 hit points per racial hit die. Also, the creature's CON mod is added to each hit dice just like a PC. With a 16 CON (+3 modifier), the hit points are 8d8 + 24 (or, 60 HP). If you're not sure how I got this number, let me know.


Armor Class: 18, Touch: 12, Flat-Footed: 16

The Flat-Footed armor class is a touch too high. The monster has a +6 natural armor bonus as shown, so flat-footed armor class is (10 + 6 natural armor - 1 size penalty) 15. It looks like the only difference was the size modifier.


Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+5

Going by that same SRD entry, it shows that Outsiders get +1 Base Attack Bonus (BaB) per hit dice. Since the Matron has 8 racial hit dice (8d8), it gets +8 BaB. For the Grapple modifier, the number is (BaB + 4 STR mod + 4 Size Modifier for being large sized) +16.


Attack: Pincer+5 (1d6+4)

With the new BaB of +8, the pincer attack bonus should be (+8 BaB +4 STR bonus -1 Size) +11. This is more respectable for a CR 5 monster.


Full Attack: Double Pincer Smash+5 (1d12+4)

As with the Attack entry, this gets updated to a +11 bonus to hit. Usually*, monsters that have 2 sets of natural weapons (pincers in this case) get one attack with each.

*You could have a full be '2 pincers +11 melee (1d6+4). This means it gets 2 attacks if it can take a full attack action.
OR
If you want to keep the Double Pincer Smash attack, it would be easier to have it deal twice the damage dice, and STR x 1.5 damage (for using a '2 handed' attack). This would give 'Double Pincer Smash +11 (2d6+6).
OR
You could keep the damage at 1d12+4, though this isn't 'optimal' damage for a CR 5 creature (trolls get 2 claw attacks at 1d6+6 damage each, plus a bite attack!). This gets to keep the +11 bonus to hit, though.


Space/Reach: 10ft (Can hit a target one square away, or a target in a diagonal square. Also threatens these areas.

Reach is givent as a ft. rating just like Space. In this case, it sounds like you want it to be able to hit targets in adjacent squares. Since adjacent squares are 5 ft. away, the Space/Reach rating would be 10ft./5ft. This means it takes up 10 ft. of area, and can attack enemies 5 ft. away.


Saves: Fort. +6, Ref. +2, Will +4

Going back to the SRD entry mentioned above, it shows that Outsider saving throws are: Good Fortitude, Reflex, and Will saves. This is exactly the same as a Monk. The formula for 'Good' saving throws is (Hit Dice / 2) + 2. So in the case of the Matron, it has 8 hit dice. That gives (8/2 + 2) +6 as its base saving throws. As usual, this is modified by the CON, DEX and WIS modifiers of its stats. The Con mod is +3, Dex is +3 and Wis is +2. Add them all up, and the creatures saving throws are:
Saves: Fort. +9, Ref. +9, Will +8
Much better!


Skills: Bluff: 4 (CHA) Sense Motive: 10 (WIS)

Skills are a bit of a grey area for monsters. The SRD states that Outsiders get (8 + INT modifier) skill points per hit die. So this creature gets 12 skills per level (and like a PC making a regular character, 4x the skill points at its first racial hit dice). However, skills are also entirely up to you. The Matron can max out 12 skills at its current stats, but it doesn't really have to (it's inferred by RAW). So if you want to give it some skills, go ahead! Since it has 8 racial hit dice, you have 8 'levels' worth of skill points to allocate (and max ranks, just like a PC, are 'Level/Hit Dice + 3').


Feats: none

Monsters get feats just like PCs do. 1 at its first hit dice, and 1 at 3rd level and every third level afterwards. As written, you can give the creature up to 3 feats. However, the monster has to meet all requirements, just like a player, for non-bonus feats. You can pick any regular feat a PC could pick, plus any monster feats that apply. (List of Monster Feats (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/resources/systems/pennpaper/dnd35/soveliorsage/monsterFeats.html)


Alignment: Normally Neutral Evil, only concerned with the well being of its own species. In some cases, when S'thili Matrons are vying for political power through the infection and enthrallment of nobles, they can be considered Lawful Evil.

The alignment line normally just states the alignment only. You can choose to put in fluff in the creature description if you want to clean up the stat line. In that case, it would read 'Alignment: Usually Neutral Evil, Sometimes Lawful Evil'. If you're prefer to keep the descriptions here, there's no problem with that.


Advancement: ??
Level Adjustment: ??

I assume you don't intend to let your players play a Matron, so you can put '-' into the Level Adjustment line. For advancement, I'll use my suggestion from my above post. This is all arbitrary, and only useful if you ever want to 'power up' the creature. If you don't really intend on doing that, you could leave the field blank. Using my suggestion, it would read:
Advancement: 9-14 HD (Large), 15-22 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: -

I'll move onto the abilities in my next post.

[Brennan]

@Sairyu

Good point, on the INT bonuses. I'm thinking it would probably play out a bit like that, but I'd most likely have her using her acid on the covered PC's to force them to move. I'm thinking of having her enter the battlefield from her webs on the ceiling on the far end of the room. From there, she'd spawn a S'thili Lasher or Vanguard. (Lasher I've created flavor and stats for on the wiki, Vanguard has yet to be created.) From there, she'd start spitting acid to keep the PC's pinned under their cover, thus helping her minions kill the PC's. Once her minions die, she actually begins using her main abilities, such as the mental attack once PC's get too close to her and the grapple when she sees the strongest, armored character. (The fighter.) Upon her nearing death, she'll try to flee and at the same time spew her Skitterers. (Spewing being a standard action. Probably should put that in the notes.) Spewing will provoke an attack of opportunity, and so will her movement, so it is likely she would be slain right there as she turns to escape.


WARNING! Long post ahead!

Thank you so much for explaining this to me! This should really help me in the future when creating the S'thili Matriarch that will be created by an evil organization, then go out of control. It'd likely be the final boss of the campaign, and would essentially be a Colossal version of the S'thili Matron with some special attacks designed mainly to freak players out. (Super Acid Spray destroying a castle and killing everyone inside, or something like that.)

[Sairyu]

Erg, I edited my post after you replied.


The encounter's gonna go horribly for her if the screech doesn't actually get anyone and she's going to need the skitterers asap to knock down the PCs action advantage (4 to 1 no thank you and even 3 to 1 is not very good).

Edit: You should probably give a range on acid spit. Maybe 60' with no range increment, or 30' with 1 range increment (max 60'). If you want them dodging around cover trying to close distance, then somewhere between 90' and 150' would work nicely, somewhere out of range of a charge. Broken terrain works nicely to stop that, though, if you don't want to give it a very long-range attack.

A lasher would even it out a bit more, but as an intelligent monster, she'll probably want to start by taking out the sorceress and cleric with grapple/skitterers. If she can do that, all of a sudden it's a 1-1 action economy and looking very bad for the PCs, and if screech gets a fighter or the cleric (just grapple the fighter instead), she's pretty much set to win.

Since her powers are per-encounter, it's a good idea to just nova out. She can always fall back and re-engage later on with her full set of powers back anyways. Maybe change it to per-day to avoid this?

If you're going to scale up, you probably scale up screech as well. Make it a CHA or INT (it is psionic) based save, so DC11 or 14 respectively so you can keep it relevant when you turn it into a big fat monster later on.

Edit: You can scale acid spray (standard?) up too so that it functions as a ranged touch attack based on HD (1d10 per 2-4HD with a range of, say, 60'+5ft/2HD). The number of uses could also scale up, say 3+CHA mod/day.

[SpikeFightwicky]

Sairyu did a pretty good analysis! Some good information there.

The rules/formula for the DC of any special ability on any creature is (10 + 1/2 Hit Dice + Con/Cha modifier). In general, the creature's Con modifier is typically used for 'physical' special abilities (Poisons, breath weapons, gazes, acid bursts) and its Cha modifier is typically used for mind affecting or debilitating attacks (Mind Control, ability drains, etc...). So in the Matron's case, 'physical' abilities will have a save DC of (10 + 4 {half of its 8 hit dice} + 3 Con mod) 18, and 'mind affecting/debuffing' abilities will have a DC of (10 + 4 {half of its 8 hit dice} + 1 Cha mod). Damage on special attacks is entirely arbitrary, and doesn't usually follow a formula.


Acid Spit: A S'thili Matron can spit a torrent of corrosive acid from her mouth three times a day. When this acid hits any non-magical barrier such as stone or metal, it immediately dissolves through it and strikes the target behind cover. A target struck with the acid of a Matron Mother takes 1d10+2 damage. To avoid such an attack, the target must make a Reflex save, DC 15. If they succeed, they avoid all damage and roll five feet (one square) either to the relative right or left, facing the Matron.

The Reflex save of this ability should be DC 18. Another way to do this ability would be to make it a ranged touch attack, but that's a whole other can of worms.


Birth Skitterers: A S'thili Matron can give birth to 1d6 S'thili Skitterers once per encounter. Upon birth, the skitterers roll initiative and join the battle. (See S'thili Skitterer)

What kind of action does this ability take to use? (Free, Attack, Move, etc...)


Mental Attack: A Matron Mother can mentally assault all engaged targets twice per encounter as a free action. Those effected must roll DC 10 Will saves, or be paralyzed for 2 rounds. Matron Mothers cannot use this ability more than once every three rounds.

By 'Engaged', do you mean enemies in melee combat with her? Reminds me of Warmachine wording :smallsmile: The DC for the ability should be DC 15. From a balance point of view, maybe changing this to 'Stunned' or 'Dazed' would be better. Paralyzed opponents are easy pickings for Coup de Grace! Unless that's the intention.


Pincer Grip: S'thili Matrons can grab a target within melee range with its pincers, causing 1d10 damage per round as a move action. If the affected target succeeds in a grapple check against the matron, she will do no damage to the affected target for that round. If the affected target succeeds in grapple checks two rounds in a row, they escape the S'thili Matron's grip and can return to battle. Allies of the affected target can assist him if they deal over 10 damage during their round, causing the Matron Mother to have a -2 to her grapple check for the next round.

This kind of ability is usually covered under the 'Improved Grab' and 'Constrict' special abilities. Look up the Choker in the Monster Manual (or SRD (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/resources/systems/pennpaper/dnd35/soveliorsage/monstersBtoC.html#choker)) for an example. In this case, constrict damage is 1d10. Though grapple + constrict is a deadly combo. That's one way of wording the ability (though it may not be your intention).

[Sairyu]

The rules/formula for the DC of any special ability on any creature is (10 + 1/2 Hit Dice + Con/Cha modifier). In general, the creature's Con modifier is typically used for 'physical' special abilities (Poisons, breath weapons, gazes, acid bursts) and its Cha modifier is typically used for mind affecting or debilitating attacks (Mind Control, ability drains, etc...). So in the Matron's case, 'physical' abilities will have a save DC of (10 + 4 {half of its 8 hit dice} + 3 Con mod) 18, and 'mind affecting/debuffing' abilities will have a DC of (10 + 4 {half of its 8 hit dice} + 1 Cha mod). Damage on special attacks is entirely arbitrary, and doesn't usually follow a formula.

Really? I've always done those things as if they were spells (10 or 15+ability modifier+size/age/DM fiat modifier). I guess I've been doing it wrong :"(

You're right though. I wouldn't use a DC15 ability against a 3rd level party with 2 fighter types. If it was a 1 round daze then yeah, that would be totally fine, but a 2 round paralysis is just gunning for a TPK.

[Brennan]

What kind of action does this ability take to use? (Free, Attack, Move, etc...)
It'd be an attack action.



By 'Engaged', do you mean enemies in melee combat with her?
Yes, though I might change it so it affects everyone within 30 feet of her.


You're right though. I wouldn't use a DC15 ability against a 3rd level party with 2 fighter types. If it was a 1 round daze then yeah, that would be totally fine, but a 2 round paralysis is just gunning for a TPK.

I've decided to change it from 2 round paralysis to a 1 round stun. All I wanted the screech to do was stop the players from helping each other out of the grapple.

[Sairyu]

Well. The beastie should be okay to take on your gaming group (it doesn't seem as though they're horribly optimized). It's got a few nasty abilities, though nothing incredibly horrible, and if you can net a PC or two with grab/screech then they'll be in for a tough fight. You don't actually need the vanguard if you start by spawning skitterlings, but if you want to keep that option open (and not ruin the sorceress' day - "Oh God! They're falling from the ceiling, get them off!") then yeah, throw him in.

You might actually need to knock its HP down at some point if too many PCs get incapacitated, but as long as you don't show the PCs its HP, you'll be fine.

Good luck with your encounter. :")

Edit: The EL is pretty much 5 (I wouldn't bump it up to 6 even with the inclusion of the vanguard, 'cuz a 6th level party will tear through this), so it should work out. I'm a bit interested to see how this plays out, but I'm guessing you play face to face at a table?

[Brennan]

Thank you all very much! This information will be invaluable in creating the optimal boss-fight experience for my fledgling PC's. :) I'm going to optimize the Lasher, Bloater, and Vanguard so that they are correct like the composite form you've helped me optimize the Matron into.

Thanks again, and if you have any other words of advice, I'd love to hear them.
-Brennan

[Brennan]

The EL is pretty much 5 (I wouldn't bump it up to 6 even with the inclusion of the vanguard, 'cuz a 6th level party will tear through this), so it should work out. I'm a bit interested to see how this plays out, but I'm guessing you play face to face at a table?

We do, but we keep journals and accurate retellings of all events immediately after we finish our once-a-week game session on our DeviantGroup page, found here: http://crimson-veil.deviantart.com/

I will be sure to put a play-by-play of the boss encounter there, just for you.

EDIT: Oops, double post. :smallredface:

[Sairyu]

Ah. Cool. Thanks.

[Zom B]

Also keep in mind that adds (additional combatants) crank up the challenge rating.

Depending on the CR of the skitterers, the total CR of the matron here at CR5 plus 1d6 skitterers would be:

Skitterers are each CR1/10, 1/8, or 1/6:
{table=head]Number of Skitterers|Total CR
1|5
2|5
3|5
4|5
5|5
6|5
[/table]
Skitterers are each CR1/4:
{table=head]Number of Skitterers|Total CR
1|5
2|5
3|5
4|5
5|6
6|6
[/table]
Skitterers are each CR1/3:
{table=head]Number of Skitterers|Total CR
1|5
2|5
3|5
4|6
5|6
6|6
[/table]
Skitterers are each CR1/2:
{table=head]Number of Skitterers|Total CR
1|5
2|5
3|6
4|6
5|6
6|6
[/table]
Skitterers are each CR1:
{table=head]Number of Skitterers|Total CR
1|5
2|6
3|6
4|7
5|7
6|7
[/table]
Skitterers are each CR2:
{table=head]Number of Skitterers|Total CR
1|6
2|7
3|7
4|8
5|8
6|8
[/table]
Skitterers are each CR3:
{table=head]Number of Skitterers|Total CR
1|6
2|7
3|8
4|8
5|9
6|9
[/table]
Skitterers are each CR4:
{table=head]Number of Skitterers|Total CR
1|7
2|8
3|8
4|9
5|9
6|10
[/table]
Skitterers are each CR5:
{table=head]Number of Skitterers|Total CR
1|5
2|7
3|8
4|9
5|10
6|10
[/table]

[Brennan]

They are all CR 1/2. Thank you for that, though. Now I'll know how much Exp to give the party. :)

[faceroll]

Is the name of the creature supposed to sound like someone with a lisp saying "silly"?

[Kylarra]

Is the name of the creature supposed to sound like someone with a lisp saying "silly"?If it wasn't, it will be now.

[Brennan]

It is pronounced:

See-thill-ee

See as in, "I see you!"
Thill as in, it rhymes with fill.
Ee as in, the letter "E".

I hope this clears up any misconceptions. XD

[faceroll]

Well that's so sthilly.

[SpikeFightwicky]

Really? I've always done those things as if they were spells (10 or 15+ability modifier+size/age/DM fiat modifier). I guess I've been doing it wrong :"(

You're right though. I wouldn't use a DC15 ability against a 3rd level party with 2 fighter types. If it was a 1 round daze then yeah, that would be totally fine, but a 2 round paralysis is just gunning for a TPK.

Yup, the relevant SRD section would be this one (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/resources/systems/pennpaper/dnd35/soveliorsage/monsters.html#special-attacks-and-special-qualities). It says 'relevant ability modifier', but about 80-90% of all monsters that have an ability with a DC uses either the Con or Cha mod. If the monter's casting spells though, it uses the usual '10 + Spell Level + Ability Mod'. Some monsters have a 'Fiat Modifier' in the later Monster Manuals, usually in form of a racial modifier (it'll say something like: The save DC for this ability is 17, which includes a +2 racial bonus).


@Brennan: Glad I could help! Best of luck to you in the encounter.