Colossal Animated Object Modifications

[Afgncaap5]

I'm working on a few challenges, one of which involves the players being shrunk down and fighting a large trunk (which to their new perspective would likely be about the size of an oblong barn.) I'm not sure exactly what CR I'm working with, though I'm guessing something around 12, if not lower. Do these modifications suggest CR 12-ish to you?

-I'm treating the material of the trunk as being "magically treated bronzewood" using the rules for magically treated walls in the DMG. This would give it a hardness of 16. The book doesn't suggest that stronger materials bump the CR, though I could see that being a reasonable assumption.

-It has a number of legs, so it's a fast creature and could take advantage of the Trample ability.

-A perfectly square trunk of this size doesn't seem... likely. I'm toying with the idea of giving it the dimensions of 20x40, which would make it larger than a gargantuan creature's suggested size, but smaller than a colossal creature's suggested size. Does that still seem big enough, or should I just go with the standard 30x30? (Part of me even wants to change the creature's AC based on which side of it the players are on, in a kind of "broad side of the barn" vs. "narrow side of the barn" sense, but that might be a bit much.)

-Being a trunk, it seems reasonable to also give it a Bite attack, possibly with Improved Grab and an option for a modified version of Swallow Whole. I might remove the Slam attack entirely in favor of this (the damage would be the same for a creature of that size, after all). Swallowed players wouldn't be subject to digestion, but would have to make either a Reflex or Tumble check every round to keep themselves from being jostled around by interior gears and sliding panels (and the basic movement of the creature) and taking minimal bludgeoning damage. However, if the box decides to stop fighting creatures outside itself (or if it manages to swallow everybody), it can take a full round action to violently shake itself and deal damage to everyone inside it as if on a Trample attack. Players would have more room to carve themselves out than with a regular Swallow Whole attack so could use things other than light weapons, but if they use non-magical or bludgeoning weapons they still have to deal with the hardness when cutting through the interior walls.

(As a side note: another DM and I could never quite figure out for ourselves if the damage dealt while escaping a creature should count against its hit-point total. It feels like it'd make more sense than usual with a construct, but I'm still not sure if the rules ever said one way or the other.)

Those abilities might be a stopping point. However, at the risk of overcomplicating the creature, I'm also considering putting seven gems that can all be activated at once, each launching a single maximized and empowered magic missile (each one dealing seven damage.) This probably isn't necessary, and might make it too clunky, but as seven has turned into something of an arc number it might be a fun one-time attack near the start of the fight.

So, with all that in mind, do you think I'm still somewhere in the CR 10-12 range, or will I need to bump its numbers a bit?

[Phelix-Mu]

Points:

- Go ahead and make it colossal. Creatures rarely take up 100% of their space. Extra HD will make it a bit more of a threat, the reach will help, and so forth. For my part, I usually ballpark everything at 90% max hp; if this is supposed to be a hard/memorable encounter, just give it max.

- Colossal animated objects are already CR10, but probably a weak CR10 (melee-based, single enemy encounter...weak).

- DR 16/- plus a slew of irregular energy-damage implications, hardness 16 should not be underestimated. Make sure you know how hardness interacts with damage from energy-based spells, as the rules on that are not exactly clear-cut. Unless the party has easy access to sonic damage, they are likely going to really hate that hardness.

- Crack open Draconomicon. The best way to make a melee tough creature tough to fight is the right suite of feats. To do this, it needs to not be mindless. There are ways to awaken constructs, and if this is some kind of unique creature, just make it intelligent. Even Int 1 will suffice.

I suggest Large and In Charge, combo'd with Combat Reflexes. This might require giving it the elite array to make it's Dex non-trivial, but if you want to raise its AC, raising its Dex is among the best ways to do so.

- If you really want to screw the characters, give it Stamp from Savage Species. It knocks the characters down, when they stand up, AoO, when it hits with an AoO, it pushes the character back and they can't move any further during the round. That might be overkill, but it will be more affective than trample (which is generally not terribly effective against pcs).

Anyway, I'd also advise going ahead with the magic missile thing. Unless the party is pretty low-op, actually killing all of them will likely require more than just one hard-hitting giant box.

As to CR, max HP is probably +1, and elite array is +1. Making it Intelligent so it can get feats is probably worth another +1 or +2, making the final CR13 or 14. Make it 14 if it really kicks their you-know-what.

[Afgncaap5]

Very nice suggestions, thanks! CR 13 should be fine (I really need to get Savage Species in PDF form, I can never find the book when I need it. Thank goodness for dnd tools.)

I also looked up the Pathfinder version of this, and that actually addresses some issues a bit (such as hardness.) I won't be using Pathfinder rules, but the Construction Points thing makes it easier to mentally frame just what I'm building.