Um, why aren't the arrows hurting it? [MitP II]

[Angafirith]

A couple of years back, a few wizards got into a bar fight in a small Bison hunting town. They were thrown out of town and told never to return. Being quick to anger, they decided to get revenge on the village. They used their magic to capture a few Bison and experimented on them. The result was the Nyati: a Bison with tough hides, sharp horns, and the ability to sense people as they approached. They reintroduced them to the wild Bison populations. The town was gone within two months, because the danger in Bison hunting became too great.

Nyati hides deflect or impede most ranged weapons used against them. As the pain and danger involved in getting hit by arrows is low, they ignore (or perhaps do not even notice) most attacks of this nature. Unlike regular Bison, they are more willing to fight than flee, as their improved defenses and attacks make them formidable. Getting close to a Nyati is also difficult, as they can feel the vibrations in the ground from a good distance and prepare accordingly.


Nyati
Size/Type: Large Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 5d8+25 (47 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 45 ft. (9 squares)
Armor Class: 15 (-1 size, +6 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 15
Base Attack / Grapple: +3 / +13
Attack: Gore +8 melee (2d6+9)
Full Attack: Gore +8 melee (2d6+9)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities, trample 3d8+12
Special Qualities: DR 3/magic against ranged attacks, low-light vision, scent, SR 10, tremorsense 60ft.
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +4, Will +1
Abilities: Str 22, Dex 10, Con 20, Int 3, Wis 11, Cha 4
Skills: Listen +7, Spot +5
Feats: Alertness, Endurance, Improved Natural Attack (Gore) B
Environment: Temperate plains
Organization: Solitary or as part of a Bison herd (0-3 Nyati, which count as Bison for herd size.)
Challenge Rating: 5
Advancement: 6-7 HD (Large)

Spell-Like Abilities
Barkskin 3/day.

Skills: A Nyati gets a +10 racial bonus to Disguise when attempting to look like a normal Bison.

I was originally going to make this as an elephant, but realized that a CR over 7 would mean that I would be unlikely to use the thing. I'm aiming for CR5 on this one. If it falls short of that, I'll make the creature tougher. Even if the abilities alone don't do it, I'm hoping the synergy does it. To some extent, I'm worried that I made it too tough.

Being resistant to non-magical arrows means that you need to break out the expensive arrows, break out the spells, or get in close. If you try to get in close, it will know ahead of time and probably use its Barkskin to make it hard for you to hit. If you use magical arrows, it can move 90 feet for its trample, meaning that it can be mowed down fairly effectively. It has some SR, so this is also somewhat ineffective.

[jindra34]

you should replace the Dr/2 and with or

[Icewalker]

Huh, cool. I like it. DR2 seems a bit low for being said to be highly resistant to arrows. What does Barkskin give again? does it add a few DR? because I'd say about 4 is the point where people stop using non-magical weapons on it.

I like it, and it's quite different from your other beasts so far.

[Angafirith]

I'll move it to DR 3. The original idea was that basic ranged weapons (not composite) would be resisted fairly well, but it occurs to me that most adventurers that would fight the thing would have composite weapons by now. On the other hand, thematically, I think that most Bison hunters (those disadvantaged by the creatures) would not have these weapons. DR 3 will make things a bit tougher, but still allow adventurers to fight with ranged weapons if they have to.

This creature is different in that I wrote the fluff first, before working on the creature. Thus, all of the abilities it has are directly tied to the theme.

Does the CR seem about right?

[Icewalker]

Yeah, I'd say DR 3 sounds good, and CR 5 looks about right, but I'm not experience in measuring that.

[EvilElitest]

It wold be funny if it was immune to all arrows, magical or no
from,
EE

[Lord Iames Osari]

I would change the DR up to 5/bludgeoning or slashing, personally.

The Barkskin ability doesn't strike me as being quite right. Maybe give them alarm at will instead?

Also, since they can pass for buffalo, perhaps you should give them something like a +10 racial bonus on Disguise checks made to impersonate buffalo.

[Angafirith]

I think Tremorsense makes more sense than Alert, at least for flavor reasons. The idea is that Tremorsense gives the Nyati a natural way to find out that something is coming, rather than a magical way. The distance I set Tremorsense to means that only special classes (Barbarians, Monks) or mounted characters could really get to it before it buffs itself.

I picked Barkskin so that they can raise their AC for some period of time as soon as they feel something coming. A determined party could take them out, but it would be particularly frightening to any hunter. At the very least, I think it gives it the earth elemental feel that I wanted.

I'll add the disguise bonus to it.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Hm. Its SR is weak for it's CR. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but I would bump the SR up to at least 15, if not higher. As it is a 5th-level caster will overcome the SR 75% of the time.

[Angafirith]

It is somewhat intentional. It's higher than a normal Bison, after all. I've never played a spellcaster, but it seems to me that a 25% failure rate is quite annoying when compared to a 0% failure rate.

[Matthew]

I am in two minds about this. Are you just statting out Pokemon for D&D?

[Zherog]

Some feedback; note that I haven't read the feedback from others, so as to avoid being influenced by their opinions.


Special Attacks: Trample 3d8+12, Barkskin 3/day as CL 4

List these in alphabetical order; only the first one on the line should be capitalized. "Barkskin" should be italicized. Don't list caster level here (there should be an entry below the stat block for this, and that's where you list the caster level). I'd also set the caster level equal to the creature's Hit Dice.


Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent, SR 10, DR 3/Melee or Magic, Tremorsense 60ft.

Alphabetical here as well. Also, there's no such thing as "DR X/Melee." My suggestion: give it a constant protection from arrows ability. That'll give you the same effect (only magical arrows can harm it), without having to invent new rules.


Skills: Listen +7, Spot +5, Special (Below)

Remove "Special (below)" from this line. You need to have a "Skills:" line at the end of all the text. That's where you detail the +10 Disguise bonus.


Feats: Alertness, Endurance, Improved Natural Attack (Gore)

You have too many feats, and you do not qualify for Improved Natural Attack. Easy solution, though - just make INA a bonus feat.


A Nyati gets a +10 racial bonus to Disguise when attempting to look like a normal Bison.

As mentioned above, this goes on the end - and while it's there now, you have other stuff you need to add. :) It'll look like:


Skills: A nyati gains a +10 racial bonus on Disguise checks to appear as a bison.

Above that skills block, you need to discuss the Spell-Like ability the creature has. If you like the protection from arrows thing, just make it an SLA that can be used at will.

Interesting critter.

[Angafirith]

It's lucky that I realized I hadn't made sure the changes I made here were not on the wiki. I would have missed many of these posts otherwise.


I am in two minds about this. Are you just statting out Pokemon for D&D?
No.

Mostly, I just like the idea of elemental animals. My next location in my campaign will be a forest, and I was a little put out by the lack of selection. Almost anything I came across needed large numbers or low CR creatures. I wanted a little bit of variety.

While my first homebrew attempt was a Pikachu ripoff, the more recent creatures are not supposed to be Pokémon ripoffs. The Thunder Rat thing was more practice than anything else.


List these in alphabetical order; only the first one on the line should be capitalized. "Barkskin" should be italicized. Don't list caster level here (there should be an entry below the stat block for this, and that's where you list the caster level). I'd also set the caster level equal to the creature's Hit Dice.
[...]
Alphabetical here as well. Also, there's no such thing as "DR X/Melee." My suggestion: give it a constant protection from arrows ability. That'll give you the same effect (only magical arrows can harm it), without having to invent new rules.
I think most of this is formatting. I went ahead and did that, though I'm not sure why it's a big deal. I formatted the spell-like ability a little different than you said, but I think it's also a valid way of doing it.

I'll take out all reference to CL, since it's supposed to be assumed that it's equal to the Hit dice anyway. I probably originally did it for balance, but 40 minutes is probably not too different from 50 minutes in the scheme of things. When I wrote it, I may have misread barkskin and thought that CL 5 would give an extra +1, but that's not the case.

I think that almost anyone will understand what I mean with the DR. I'm going to change that to "DR #/magic against ranged attacks" to make it more clear. Referencing the spell will probably only make people have to pull out another book, and I'd take just as much room to explain that it's less DR than the spell anyway.


Remove "Special (below)" from this line. You need to have a "Skills:" line at the end of all the text. That's where you detail the +10 Disguise bonus.
Done. I think it's formatting again, but it's probably better to be more inline with the MM format.


You have too many feats, and you do not qualify for Improved Natural Attack. Easy solution, though - just make INA a bonus feat.
Whoops, I thought I already had.

[I_Got_This_Name]

Actually, I'd say that you should just take off INA and give it the damage you want it to have by default.

Also, I'd reccomend giving it DR 3/-, with a "see below" note; keep the SQ line short. This covers the 3/melee exactly as you want it, and makes adventurers with magic bows still have trouble with it.

[DracoDei]

I think providing maximium clarity, especially in something that determines so much of why the GM would pick it instead of any other monster as early as possible in the stats is more important than keeping the SQ line short. Just what my personal language arts instincts tell me.

[Zherog]

I use this phrase a lot lately, but...

Rule of Thumb: The SA and SQ lines contain the name of the ability, and the description of the ability (if needed) appear in text under the stat block).

[DragonTounge]

I'd bump up the SR. A 5th level caster could break through the resistance fairly easily.