Wordfrog (Little beings of chaos with a bark worse than their bite) PEACH

[inuyasha]

Wordfrog

Size/Type:Small Outsider (Chaotic)
Hit Dice:2d8+2 (11 hp)
Initiative:3
Speed:20 ft (4 squares), swim 20ft, climb 20ft
Armor Class:16 (+1 size,+3 dex, +2 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple:+2/+1*
Attack:Bite +2 melee (1d4-1)
Full Attack:Bite +2 melee (1d4-1)
Space/Reach:5ft/5ft
Special Attacks:Flexible Body, Invocation of Dismay
Special Qualities:Darkvision 60ft, DR 5/magic, Fast healing 1
Saves:Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +2
Abilities: Str 8, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 6, Wis 8, Cha 4
Skills:Climb +12, Hide +12, Listen +4, Move Silently +8, Spot +4, Swim +12
Feats:Ability focus (Invocation of Dismay)
Environment:The plane of Limbo
Organization:Solitary, Pair (2), Party (3-5), Squadron (6-10), Army (11-20)
Challenge Rating:2
Treasure:Half standard
Alignment:Always Chaotic Neutral
Advancement:3-4 Small 5-6 Medium
Level Adjustment:-

*this is including the creature's +4 on grapple checks

Resting on the ground in a pile of rubble lies a small humanoid creature, chattering away in a sound resembling two metal spoons rubbing on a piece of stone, it then glares up, it's golden eyes set in pink, raw flesh on a froglike face, and in a strange manner it's seemingly small lips part to reveal a gaping maw, from which blasts a wave of mighty sound that scrambles your every thought.

Contrary to popular opinion, the Wordfrog is not a true relative of the slaad race, though it is born from the plane of Limbo. It's origin is a strange one, essentially the lords of chaos (the slaad lords) had their own "word" like the mighty words used by the celestials to create, and it's counterpart of black speech. This word caused erratic behavior in all who heard it, and the lords of chaos needed to seal it away. In doing this they decided to put a small portion of the word in each member of a small race of creatures, born for this purpose only. Now this race may invoke that power, though it isn't much, to temporarily cause strange behavior in mortals. This race is also extremely resilient, and their flesh regrows as it is damaged, with bright sparks filling the wounds and closing random small cuts, fixing bruises and dents, and fusing broken bones.

Wordfrogs speak their own language, which contains every possible sound in the universe except for coherent speech. This means that it can say the sounds of fire crackling to the sound of lions roaring, caltrops falling, pots bubbling, and the universe imploding all at once. Only Wordfrogs and the most ancient of chaotic outsiders may understand this, and usually what they hear is utterly appalling.

Combat:
Wordfrogs are adept at grappling and squirming all over people, so in large groups, some always stand back and use their confusing power, whereas a lot more just charge and grapple people while biting them

Flexible Body (Ex)
Because a Wordfrog's body can bend in odd ways with seemingly supernatural grace, they have a +4 racial bonus on grapple checks as they wrap around their opponent.

Invocation of dismay (Su)
As a standard action, 3 times a day the Wordfrog may invoke the tiny sliver of mighty chaotic power contained within it by shouting in an ancient tongue, creating a large 40ft. cone of energy. Anyone within other than Wordfrogs must make a will save (DC 14, con based) or become confused for 2 rounds. This is a sound based mind affecting ability, so unintelligent or deaf creatures are immune. A creature with an intelligence of 2 or less (but not mindless) is shaken instead of confused, as these creatures do not have brains capable of processing this strange and alien word.

Skills
As a creature with a climb and swim speed, the Wordfrog may take 10 on climb and swim speeds even when rushed or threatened, and it gains a +8 on all climb and swim checks.

[Debihuman]

Oh dear, I think I've pretty much sussed out why you aren't getting feedback.

It's kind of gross. If it is sitting in its own filth, why doesn't its bite cause filth fever?

The name is, well, unfortunately silly. It doesn't fit the creature, which suggests slime and filth. Also, slaadi aren't described as frog-like (see Monster Manual pg 228). I'm not seeing the connection here. It would make more sense if these were servitors of the slaadi.

Word Frog is an actual game by the way. See here: http://www.playrific.com/m/801/arcademics-skill-builders-word-frog. Just thought I'd mention it.

Outsiders generally list the Plane they originated from in Environment. The Plane of Limbo should be their environment.

What is the asterisk on grapple for? It should link with a notation and doesn't. BTW, racial bonuses should be expressed in even numbers; this should be +4. At this CR, +5 is too high anyway. Flexible Body should probably be a separate ability from Improved Grab. Improved grab does not grant racial bonuses to grapple.

Note too that improved grab only works on creatures that are smaller than it. See below where I italicized the relevant text.


Improved Grab
If a creature with this special attack hits with a melee weapon (usually a claw or bite attack), it deals normal damage and attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. No initial touch attack is required.

Unless otherwise noted, improved grab works only against opponents at least one size category smaller than the creature. The creature has the option to conduct the grapple normally, or simply use the part of its body it used in the improved grab to hold the opponent. If it chooses to do the latter, it takes a -20 penalty on grapple checks, but is not considered grappled itself; the creature does not lose its Dexterity bonus to AC, still threatens an area, and can use its remaining attacks against other opponents.

A successful hold does not deal any extra damage unless the creature also has the constrict special attack. If the creature does not constrict, each successful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals the damage indicated for the attack that established the hold. Otherwise, it deals constriction damage as well (the amount is given in the creature’s descriptive text).

When a creature gets a hold after an improved grab attack, it pulls the opponent into its space. This act does not provoke attacks of opportunity. It can even move (possibly carrying away the opponent), provided it can drag the opponent’s weight.

From a design perspective, these abilities don't really tell me why this is a "wordfrog." Does it talk? What language does it speak? It can understand a language even if it can't talk.

Advancement is all messed up. This is supposed to be an average member of its kind. Normally creatures only advance twice. Lose the Large and Huge advancement, esp. since this would not be very challenging.

"Wordshout" has a name that doesn't fit the ability. Its power is neither sound based (comes from chaotic power), nor involves any language. Also, putting two nouns together does not make for a good ability name, especially since the name doesn't reflect what it does. Shout is a standard spell. This has nothing to do with it. Normally, sound-based abilities affect anyone within hearing range. Making this a cone attack isn't intuitive.

Organization is goofy. By the way, a group of frogs is called an army; maybe you could do something with that.

Treasure should be half standard. These are intelligent creatures. Even if they don't know the actual value of stuff, they would know that stuff has value.

Climb and Swim should be +11 (ranks +5, +8 bonus, -2 Str).

I get the feeling that you found the name first and then tried to make critter to fit that name. Unfortunately, this doesn't succeed at that. I think for a true "wordfrog" you would need more language-based abilities.

Debby

[inuyasha]

OK, thank's Debby! I'm going to make a few edits, one will be in the fluff description because I didn't actually mean for it to be too filthy.
As for the froglike thing, here are older pictures of the Slaad that I'm fond of, so it's what I think of when I think slaad
http://wiki.aerie.ru/images/2/22/Slaadi_FF_ADnD1.png

The organization thing is being changed to different terminology.

As for why it's called a wordfrog, I wanted to have a grubby little brute that's not very powerful except that it can invoke a small amount of something resembling darkspeech from the book of vile darkness and whatever it's book of exalted deeds counterpart is (I was never too impressed with BoED), where it can cause temporary dismay and sow chaos.

I probably should put more sound based powers on it, any ideas?

Swim and Climb are at the correct numbers, it has a strength of 8, not 6.

And I did add some strange fluff about their "language" last night, I think I should add some sort of ability to reflect that...

Changes have been made, so let me know of anything else :smile:

[Debihuman]

Thanks for being a good sport. I really hate to give out a bad review because I don't want to come across harshly (and I know I can be blunt).

Yeah, the old slaadi did have a frog-like look. I miss the dog-like kobolds too. :smallfrown:

It's coming together much better now.
Fixed up the wording a bit:
Contrary to popular opinion, a wordfrog is not a true relative of the slaadi race, though it is born from the Plane of Limbo. Its origin is a strange one. The Lords of Chaos (the slaadi lords) had their own "word" similar to the Words of Creation and Black Speech. This "word" caused erratic behavior in all who heard it; and the Lords of Chaos needed to seal it away. In doing this, they decided to reserve a small portion of the word in each member of a small race of creatures, born specifically for this purpose. Now, this race of wordfrogs may invoke a bit of that power to temporarily cause strange behavior in other living creatures.

Wordfrogs are also extremely resilient; their flesh regrows as it is damaged, with bright sparks filling the wounds and closing random small cuts, fixing bruises and dents, and fusing broken bones.

You really should add a physical description too. What do these look like? I grok* the intro but it is nice to be able to read a description to the players.

BTW, I love what you did with their speech and Invocation works much better.

Debby
*it's from Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein.