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TelteWaywalker
2011-07-11, 08:05 PM
Zasha
These horrifying sentient constructs were once made by an alien race to do battle with an enemy that they themselves could not fight. But as the war between the two races raged something happened on the battlefield, their war machines began to think for themselves and developed a hive mind of their own. But toward the end of the war when their makers thought they had won the war, their creations turned on them, revealing that they masters had no more control over their actions. In one night, the Zasha slaughtered their makers in one fell sweep.

Zasha Traits
Body Blades (Ex): Spikes and blades cover a zasha’s body. When another creature attacks it with handheld or natural weapons, the attacker takes slashing and piercing damage based on size in chart. Incorporeal creatures and creatures using weapons with exceptional reach, such as longspears, do not take this damage. In addition, a zasha deals piercing and slashing damage to a grabbed opponent with each successful grapple check.

Size Damage
Small 1d6
Medium 1d8
Large 1d10
Huge 1d12
Damage Reduction (Ex): All zasha have damage reduction, each one has DR=1/2 creature's HD/—.
Hive Mind (Ex): All zasha within 180 feet of each other are in constant communication. If one is aware of a particular danger, they all are. If one in a group is not flat-footed, none of them are. No zasha in a group is considered flanked unless all of them are.
Immunity to Electricity (Ex): A zasha is immune to electricity.
Keen Scents (Ex): A zasha can notice creatures by scent in 180-foot radius.
Metal Body (Ex): Beneath its skin, a zasha is largely composed of metal. It counts as a ferrous creature for the purpose of rusting grasp and other spells that have special effects on metal.
Resistances (Ex): A zasha has resistance 10 to acid, cold and fire.
Skills: All zasha have a +4 racial bonus to Hide and Move Silently, they also have a +10 racial to Balance, Climb, Jump, Listen, Spot, and Tumble. All zasha can use Tumble as though trained even if they possess no ranks in the skill.


Zasha Scout
Small Construct
Hit Dice: 4d10+10 (32 hp)
Initiative: +11
Speed: 100 ft. (20 squares), fly 140 ft. (perfect)
AC: 29(+1 size, +11 Dex, +7 natural), touch 22, flat-footed 18
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+3
Attack: Claw +15 melee (3d6+4)
Full Attack: 2 claws +15 melee (3d6+4)
Space/Reach: 5ft./5ft.
Special Attacks: Body Blades 1d6
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., construct traits, DR 2/-, hive mind, immunity (electricity), keen scent, low-light vision, metal body, resistance (acid 10, cold 10, fire 10)
Saves: Fort +1, Ref +12, Will +5
Abilities: Str 19, Dex 32, Con -, Int 4, Wis 19, Cha 6
Skills: Balance +21, Climb +14, Hide +22, Jump +22, Listen +17, Move Silently +19, Spot +16, Tumble +21
Feats: Alertness, Weapon Finesse
Environment: Any
Organization: Team (2-4), or crew (7-18)
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always lawful evil
Advancement: -
Level Adjustment: -

Zasha Shooter
Medium Construct
Hit Dice: 6d10+20 (53 hp)
Initiative: +9
Speed: 80ft. (16 squares)
AC: 30 (+9 Dex, +11 natural)
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+10
Attack: Claw +13 melee (3d6+6) or spike +13 ranged (2d6+6)
Full Attack: 2 claws +13 melee (3d6+6) and bite +8 melee (1d8+3); or 2 spikes ranged (2d6+6)
Space/Reach: 5ft./5ft.
Special Attacks: Body Blades 1d8, spikes
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., construct traits, DR 3/-, hive mind, immunity (electricity), keen scent, low-light vision, metal body, resistance (acid 10, cold 10, fire 10)
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +11, Will +5
Abilities: Str 23, Dex 28, Con -, Int 4, Wis 17, Cha 6
Skills: Balance +19, Climb +16, Hide +16, Jump +16, Listen +16, Move Silently +16, Spot +13, Tumble +19
Feats: Point Blank Shot, Percise Shot, Weapon Finesse
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary, Team (2-4), or Troop (6-11)
Challenge Rating: 7
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Lawful Evil
Advancement: -
Level Adjustment: -
Combat
Spikes (Ex): When a zasha shooter raises the frill of plates on its back, its pines also stand erect. With a snap, the creature can loose one spike as a standard action or a volley of two as a full-round action (make an attack roll for each spike). This attack has a range of 100 feet with no range increment. If loosing a volley of spikes against two targets, the targets must be within 30 feet of each other.


Zasha Slasher
Large Construct
Hit Dice: 8d10+30 (74 hp)
Initiative: +8
Speed: 80 (16 squares)
AC: 33 (-1 size, +8 Dex, +16 natural)
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+20
Attack: Claw +16 melee (4d6+10/19-20 plus 2d4 acid)
Full Attack: 2 claws +16 melee (4d6+10/19-20 plus 2d4 acid) and bite +10 melee (2d6+5 plus 2d4 acid)
Space/Reach: 10ft./10ft.
Special Attacks: Body blades 1d10, rake 3d6+5/19-20 plus 2d4 acid
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., construct traits, DR 4/-, hive mind, immunity (electricity), keen scent, low-light vision, metal body, resistance (acid 10, cold 10, fire 10)
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +10, Will +5
Abilities: Str 31, Dex 26, Con-, Int 4, Wis 17, Cha 6
Skills: Balance +18, Climb +20, Hide +16, Jump +20, Listen +16, Move Silently +16, Spot +13, Tumble +18
Feats: Improved Critical (claws), Power Attack, Weapon Focus (claws)
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary, Team (2-4) or platoon (1 plus 7-18 scouts and 6-11 shooters)
Challenge Rating: 9
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Lawful Evil
Advancement: -
Level Adjustment: -

Grongore
2011-07-12, 08:42 PM
i really like the concept behind them, but for the purpose of it id either suggest heightening hit dice and keeping them for later encounters or lowering ac for if you want to use them right off the bat. also id say base it more around the slasher as a prime melee minion and shooter as its main company, maybe larger forms for higher ranks and such

Debihuman
2011-07-13, 04:32 PM
Hate these. Unfortunately it suffers from TPK design. Too few HD, too low CR, and too many abilities that put it in Epic land. Really, you think 100 feet for speed and 32 Dex is appropriate for a 4 HD creature? Because if that's where your head is at, you might as well not bother statting up creatures at all and just have the PCs always miss and your creature always succeed.

Hive mind doesn't even work with construct. See Book of Vile Darkness It only works with vermin and animals. Int can be no more than 2 and it needs 20 creatures to take effect.

Debby

TelteWaywalker
2011-07-14, 12:41 AM
Please take into consideration that these are just a test run.

Shamusman
2011-07-14, 02:02 AM
{Scrubbed}

Although i do agree with the first comment AC needs to come down a bit to be used at suggested levels

DracoDei
2011-07-14, 02:37 AM
If you don't want feedback for improving a given piece of homebrew, I suggest you put P.O.P. (Please Only Praise) in the thread title. Or at least W.I.P. for "Work In Progress" (although you still might get some feedback in that case).

Debihuman
2011-07-14, 04:00 PM
Let's go through this together so that it can be made into a playable creature that more people will want to play and so that you can challenge your players without overly frustrating them.

Conversely if you play in a game where all the PCs are over-the-top themselves, it makes sense to throw this sort of thing their way. However, since you didn't mention whether these were just for your own homebrewed game and not meant for a more typical game, it is hard to critique these.

If you don't want outside criticism just say so and I'll butt out. However, posting in a public forum will usually result in some commentary whether you desire it or not.

First, they have body blades. This was actually a darn good feature. Perhaps the amount of damage should vary depending on the size of the construct. Taking 1d8 from a Medium creature would scale down to 1d6 for a Small zasha or scale up to 1d10 for a Large zasha. This gives the creatures a bit more individuality.

Enlarged Attacks is actually a wasted feature. As a creature designer, you decide how much damage an attack makes. If this were part of a template, it would make sense since the base creature would do less damage but this is the base creature so it isn't necessary.

That said, you still need to look at how much damage an attack yields versus the party level. The small scout does 3d6+4 points of damage per claw. That averages to 14 points of damage per hit per claw. A 6th level fighter (with 18 Con) has 6d10+24 hit points or an average of 57 hit points. It's nasty but at CR 6 it isn't impossible. Since it only attacks with its claws and has no bite, this isn't as over-the-top as it could be.

Hardness is really problematic. Only objects have Hardness in D&D. Creatures have Damage Reduction. DR 10/- is the equivalent of Hardness. The problem with ignoring the first 10 points of damage is that most 6th level attackers will only have +2 weapons and those aren't tough enough to overcome the damage in most cases. Let's give give our stout fighter 18 Str which gives him a +4 damage to go with that magic longsword. His damage is 1d6+6. On average he'll dole out 9 points of damage which is completely negated by the creatures defense.

I'd recommend dropping this to DR = to 1/2 creature's HD/—. The Scout would have DR 2/—, the Shooter would have DR 3/— and the Slasher would have DR 4/—. This still negates some of the damage a weapon does, but doesn't make it impossible to hit. A battle in which every attack misses isn't much fun. As a DM you want to challenge your players not frustrate them so they think you are just a killer DM.

Hivemind is from Book of Vile Darkness pg 34. Hive Mind is what the formorians have. The two are not the same and I misunderstood initially which was which, forgetting the formorians have it. As is, Hive Mind is not a problem. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Keen Scent is likewise not a problem, though it seems strange for a Construct to have it.

Metal Body is a good feature. It make it an interesting creature.

Resistances make it difficult to defeat considering that the creatures have such few HD. I'd recommend scaling it to equal to their HD rather than a flat 10 to all. Again, this keeps the creatures from becoming repetitive.

While I can appreciate giving it Sprint, with a base speed of 80 feet or more, it will probably never need it. It can outrun any horse! Giving it 800 feet to charge is just excessive. Unless it is outdoors, it is unlikely to have that kind of space. Where are these likely to be found?

I really don't understand your creatures' ability scores. Normally, creatures have abilities that coincide with their HD. The more HD the more you can increase those abilities. Compare this to a CR 6 dragon (a reasonably powerful creature in D&D and one which is a good benchmark to test against a new creature).

A Young Black dragon has a CR 6 and the following stats: Str 17, Con 10, Dex 15, Int 12, Wis 13 and Cha 12. This gives it the following racial modifiers: +7 Str, no modifier to Con, +4 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Wis and +2 Con for a grand total of +17 modifiers.

Your creature has the following stats: Str 19, Dex 32, Con -, Int 4, Wis 19, Cha 6. My only real complaint is the Dex is far too high. Your creature has the following racial adjustments: +8 Str, + 22 Dex, no modifier to Con, -6 Int, +8 Wis and -4 Cha for a grand total of + 28 racial modifiers. This is more than 1˝ times the modifier the dragon has.

Considering the PCs will have nowhere near that many modifiers, it is cause for concern. Adjusting the creatures' abilities will also result in adjusting the creatures' skills.

I really recommend you spend a little more time creating a creature whose skills challenge but don't overwhelm the PCs it will face.

Debby

TelteWaywalker
2011-07-15, 01:10 AM
Ok, thank you for breaking down what you see as a problem with them, I will be working on making them more reasonable. But most of the reason they are the way they are is cause in most of my personal campaigns I have players have max hp, cause they like to fight monsters that are a lot hard to kill. But to make things easier I will work on changing these here, agreed?

TelteWaywalker
2011-07-15, 06:21 AM
Ok, I did some of the changes you suggested, but some I did not cause I need to sleep. But other then that are they looking more reasonable? And would you have any suggestions on an variations of them?

Debihuman
2011-07-19, 08:38 AM
These are looking a lot better. I probably wouldn't use them as is, but considering your players have max hit points, they should work for you.

Debby

TelteWaywalker
2011-08-01, 06:28 AM
Ended up also working with the body blades ability, to make it seem more reasonable. Next is tweaking the resistances. And maybe making more of these creatures.