call of cthulu (PEACH)

[inuyasha]

I a while back statted up the godlike entity cthulu using the kaiju system posted on these boards by BHU a long time ago because i got bored
enjoy :smallbiggrin: now PEACH IT PLZ :tongue:
IA IA CTHULU FTAGN
Size/Type: colossal kaiju (chaotic, evil)
HD: 60d12 +1680
init: 5
speed: 30 fly 30
AC: 60
attack/grapple: 60
attack: 4 tentacles 4d6+25+1d8 wis (15-20) 2 slams 4d6 +25
special attacks: wis dmg, battle frenzy, improved crit (tentacles, not the feat see link), trample, frightful presence
special qualities: DR 30/epic, dark vision 120, SR 46, energy resistance 50 all types (not force), semi solid, absorb energy(fire), death throes 20d6 fire, invulnerability
saves: fort +60 ref +32 will +36
abilities: str 68 dex 12 con 66 int 10 wis 18 cha 46
skills: jump 64, spot 27, listen 27
feats: 3 extra tentacles, subtypes chaotic and evil, 2 extra slams, power attack, improved power attack, extra rage, cleave, great cleave, improved critical (tentacles), great strength X8
CR: 36
treasure: YOU KILLED CTHULU JUST SELL HIS FRIGGIN CORPSE, certificate of authenticity of corpse
alignment: chaotic evil
advancement: to what?
do I really need a description here?
combat: hes going to kill you
Death Throes (Su): When killed cthulu explodes doing fire damage. All creatures within 100 feet of cthulu must make a Reflex Save (DC= 66) or take 20d6 energy damage (+1d6 per 3 hit dice over 40). A successful Save halves this damage.
Absorb Energy (Su): If fire damage fails to penetrate cthulus energy resistance he may absorb it and grant herself a temporary ability. Its choices are:
1) The absorbed energy is added to your hit points as temporary hit points.
2)The Save DC's of your Special attacks are increased by +1 for every 10 points of energy damage done
3)Your to hit and damage rolls are increased by +1 for every 10 points of energy damage done
4)Your Deflection bonus to Armor class is increased by +1 for every 10 points of energy damage done
5)Your Saving Throws are increased by +1 for every 10 points of energy damage done
6) You may immediately use an ability such as wis dmg that can only be used so many times per round even if you just used it. You can do this once per attack you absorb and the attack must do at least 10 hp of amage.
7) You may use one spell like ability an extra time per day as long as you do it within the next 10 minutes. You can do this once per attack absorbed, as long as that attack does 10 hp of damage or more.
8)Extend the duration of a Special Attack like Energized Attack one round per 10 points of damage absorbed.
Invulnerability (Ex): cthulu has Invulnerability 20. Invulnerability works similar to Damage Reduction or Energy Resistance except you ignore the first x points of hit point damage (in this case 20) from all sources. This does not stack with Damage Reduction or Energy Resistance. If an attack could be stopped by either of these abilities use the higher of the two values. For example if you have Damage Reduction 30/Epic, and Invulnerability 20 and are hit with a sword attack, use the DR's higher value. But if the sword is Epic, and ignores Damage Reduction you may use your Invulnerability instead.
wis dmg: 1d8 wisdom fort. DC 58 every time this happens cthulu gains 5 HP
improved crit: tentacles have their crit range increased by 2
death throes: 20d6 fire damage ref DC 68
Battle Frenzy (Ex): once per fight as a 20th level barbarian he may rage. She might kill you while it does so
Trample (Ex): As a standard action during its turn cthulu may Trample a Gargantuan or smaller opponent. It does 4d12 plus the cthulu's Strength modifier. Victims can attempt a Reflex Save for Half Damage. DC is 10 + 1/2 Hit Dice + Strength modifier.

[Iamyourking]

Apologies for the necro-posting; but he requested commentary in the PEACH thread.

It isn't awful, but it is very sloppy and kind of pointless.

First off, it's spelled Cthulhu; unless this is supposed to be some bargain-basement version of him.
Say what his actual Hit Points are, not just his Hit Dice.
Where is he getting +5 Initiative? He only has 12 Dexterity and no Improved Initiative.
Where does his AC come from and what are his Touch and Flat-footed ACs?
What's his grapple modifier?
Are the slams in addition to his tentacles or an alternative? Also, it should be seperated between regular attack and full attack. Third, you need to list his attack bonus. Finally, his Strength modifier is 29; where did you get 25 from?
Special Attacks and Qualities should be in alphabetical order.
Bhu's template doesn't say how many skill points Kaiju get, but I'm sure he should have more than 81. Even if its just 2+Intelligence modifier he should have 120.
Saves should be 61, 33, 36
Feats should be written as Extra Attack (Tentacle) x3, Subtype (Chaotic), and Subtype (Evil) and placed in alphabetical order. You should cite where you got Improved Power Attack, since it is neither Core nor Bhu's Kaiju template. Also, you couldn't think of anything better to spend feats on than Great Strength?
Treasure should be none in the statblock. You can include the levity in the Treasure section at the end of the entry.
What makes him incapable of Advancement? Normally that isn't included for individuals, but all of Bhu's sample Kaiju have it.
Where are his environment and organization?
Even though we all know who Cthulhu is, it is very unprofessional to not include a description. The same goes for the combat section.
All stat sections should be capitalized and bolded.
Put a line break between the statblock and description, another one between the description and Combat, a third one between Combat and the explanation of his special abilities, and an additional one between every ability.
Abilities should be capitalized and in alphabetical order.
Death Throes should deal 26d6 damage because of the extra Hit Dice he has over 40.
Instead of saying "4d12 plus the cthulu's Strength modifier" for Trample just say 4d12+29. Similarly, just say the save DC is 69.

Ultimately, I'm not entirely sure what you are trying to accomplish here: Bhu did all the work from a mechanical standpoint, leaving you to just pick out the choices you want, it isn't an original idea and you didn't even try to make it your own (Which is absolutely necessary when statting Cthulhu, since he is so well known), and it doesn't even represent Cthulhu very well. You have a Cthulhu that's only 64-128 feet tall, is only as intelligent as an average human, and can't even cause insanity except by attacking people with its tentacles; and in my mind that isn't a very good representation of Cthulhu.
Also, what do you hope to accomplish with this? Is it just to show off? Because if so it isn't very impressive to just use someone else's template and a concept that is very firmly ingrained in the minds of your audience. Is it intended for use in an actual game? Is it going to be part of a greater setting?

I give you credit for trying, but you really need to polish your work before throwing it up for everyone to see.

[Eldan]

It doesn't look much like Cthulhu to me. First of all, he has no swim speed (or swim skill) and he seems really slow, given that the real Cthulhu could keep up with a ship.

Second, he needs a unique ability to cause nightmares in people all over hte world.

The death throes is weird. Depending on your definition, he either can't really die (and it's pointless) or he was killed by a ship, which very much made it out intact. In any case, fire damage doesn't seem to fit.

He probably should have some sort of regeneration, too. And the ability to travel through space, given that he is the father of starspawn.

[Iamyourking]

He should probably start by fixing the mistakes that he made when trying to create a monster from someone else's template before he starts making it actually unique; although everything you said is certainly true.

[AttilaTheGeek]

Pretty much everything Iamyourking said. If you're going to make Great Cthulhu, that's awesome, but it seems like you're slapping big impressive numbers onto Bhu's template. This just seems really unprofessional.



treasure: YOU KILLED CTHULU JUST SELL HIS FRIGGIN CORPSE, certificate of authenticity of corpse
alignment: chaotic evil
advancement: to what?
do I really need a description here?
combat: hes going to kill you


The CR should go right at the top, not buried between feats and treasure. I had to read through the stats multiple times to find it. What tells you he's designed for CR 36? Did you compare his hit die, AC, saves, and so forth to other CR 36 monsters?

[Iamyourking]

The numbers and CR come straight from the template, and I assume he was going for the classic statblock style that puts CR near the bottom. It has a lot of problems, but don't go after him for ones that aren't problems to begin with.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I'm not the best judge of epic-level monsters, but apart from having piles of hit points, this looks pretty anemic for those levels-- all it can really do is full attack. Where's the alien visage that drives you insane to look at it? And for the love of god, why does he explode?

[inuyasha]

yea...I had a feeling that it kind of sucked :smallsigh: thanks for the honest peaching though

and I do have to admit I did do horribly on this :smallfrown:

[Debihuman]

There are official WotC stats for Cthulhu in the WotC's Call of Cthulhu book (it's 3.0 & based on the Chaosium game). He's listed as a deity and statted up using the rules from Deities and Demigods. It's long out of print. though you can probably still find some ridiculously overpriced second-hand copies.

Debby

[inuyasha]

yeah my DM (also my dad) has that but wont let me use it:smallyuk:

P.S. he actually thought these stats were kind of cool

[Iamyourking]

Seriously though, don't get discouraged. Everyone's first homebrew sucks (Mine was a prestige class for Thri-kreen and other multi-weapon fighters that eventually let them full attack with every weapon) and now you know what mistakes you've made. In the future, just remembering to properly format your work will go a long way.

[AttilaTheGeek]

The numbers and CR come straight from the template, and I assume he was going for the classic statblock style that puts CR near the bottom. It has a lot of problems, but don't go after him for ones that aren't problems to begin with.

Sorry about that.

[inuyasha]

Seriously though, don't get discouraged. Everyone's first homebrew sucks (Mine was a prestige class for Thri-kreen and other multi-weapon fighters that eventually let them full attack with every weapon) and now you know what mistakes you've made. In the future, just remembering to properly format your work will go a long way.

yea this was actually a while ago and my homebrew has gotten a little better since then, I actually have made a prestige class. Maybe I should post that sometime soon :smallbiggrin:

[Debihuman]

Since I was called out on another thread for not being helpful enough, let's walk through what you did to see if you could have made it better. To help, here's a link to Bhu's Kaiju Template. http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7205910&postcount=968


Cthulhu

Name needs to be spelled correctly.

Colossal Kaiju (chaotic, evil)

Type and Subtype formatted

Hit Dice: 50d12 +1400 (2000 hp)

Kaiju have d12 and maximum hit points. The template limits BAB and HD to 50 so you need to correct that.

Initiative: +9 (+5 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative Feat)

He should have the Improved Initiative Feat as you did not give him enough feats (more on that later)

Speed: 30 ft., Fly 30 ft. (Average), Swim 60 ft.

Cthulhu should have a swim speed. Fly speed needs a maneuverability.

Armor Class: 33 (+40 Natural,-8 size, +1 Dex), Touch -7, Flat-footed 22.

Kaiju have a +40 natural AC.

Base Attack/Grapple: +50/+94

BAB is 50 as per Kaiju Template. Grapple is BAB + Str modifier + special size modifier (50 +28 +16).

Attack: Tentacle + 72 melee (4d6+29/18-20 plus 1d8 wisdom)

Melee attack is BAB + Str mod + size mod + weapon focus feat (50 + 29 -8 +1).

His critical hits are improved by 2 for his tentacles from augmented criticals special ability.

He also gets a +1 bonus to attack from Weapon Focus (Claws) and Weapon Focus (Tentacle)

You only list the single primary attack here

Full Attack: 4 tentacles +72 melee (4d6+29/18-20 plus 1d8 wisdom) and 2 slams +72 melee (4d6+14)

Secondary attacks are at a -5 penalty and use 1/2 Strength modifier. Multiattack feat can reduce the penalty it to -2 and Improved Multiattack can remove the penalty altogether. Since Cthulhu needs more feats, let's give him both Multiattack and Improved Multiattack.

His critical hits for his tentacles are improved by 2.

As mentioned earlier he gains +1 to attack from Weapon Focus (claw) and Weapon Focus (tentacle)
You do not list special attacks here; they belong under Special Abilities.

Special Attacks: Augmented criticals, battle frenzy, frightful presence, trample.

These are listed alphabetically. Kaiju get 3 special attacks in addition to frightful presence and trample so Cthulhu needs one more.

Special Qualities; Absorb Energy (Fire), DR 30/epic, Darkvision 120 ft.,Death Throes (20d6 Fire), Energy Resistance 50 to Acid, Cold, Fire, Electricity and Sonic, Immunity to Mind Influencing Effects, Invulnerability, Overnight Healing, Semi Solid, SR 46

Most of these come from the template. It is missing at least one from the template. You added more than the template allows, which is fine since Cthulhu is a unique creature.

Saves: Fort +55. Ref +32, Will +31

Base saves for all Kaiju are 27. See template and then you apply modifiers.

Abilities: Str 68, Dex 12, Con 66, Int 10, Wis 18, Cha 46

Skills: jump 64, spot 27, listen 27

Cthulhu has 106 skill points to use. He can have no more ranks than his HD +3 in any skill so max is 53.

A Kaiju's skill points are equal to (2+Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with Quadruple points for the first Hit Die. Choose up to any 8 skills as your Kaiju's class skills. I recommend he has at least 6 skills. He should have Knowledge (The Planes) at least. Since we are giving him a Swim speed

He has 50 HD and so gets 49x2 and 1x2x4

Since Cthulhu should be able to swim and having swim speed gives him a racial modifier of +8 that should be noted.

Feats: Cleave, Great Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Deflect Arrows, Diehard, Dire Charge (Epic), Dodge, Endurance, Hover, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Improved Multiattack, Improved Unarmed Strike, Multiattack, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (Claws), Weapon Focus (Tentacle),

All Kaiju have 17 feats. I've list 17 that I think are appropriate.

Note: Cthulhu never needs to unarmed strikes so that feat is solely needed as it is the prerequisite for Deflect Arrows.

Note: Cthulhu cannot have improved critical feat with his tentacles since he already has the augmented critical special ability and they do not stack.

Environment: Any

This was missing

Organization: Solitary (Unique)

This was missing

Challenge Rating: 36

I think this is okay.

Treasure: None

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Advancement: --

Level Adjustment:--

You don't get to play Cthulhu as a PC.

Debby