[Monsters] Mutant Rats!

[Dralnu]

Full album (http://imgur.com/a/CX6lS)

Here are some of the new monsters that will be appearing in an upcoming 1-shot adventure module I'm working on.

A crazed alchemist calling himself "The Rat King" has created a small army of mutated rats to suit his needs. As the adventurers explore his lair, they will discover a way to control the rats themselves, which opens up alternative ways to defeat some of the encounters.

For example:

- Rat-Bear-Pigs can safely navigate the PCs through a room filled with deadly gas spores with their sensitive noses.
- Squeeker-Rats can deafen nearby creatures, negating the echolocation of a pack of darkmantles and leaving them blind.
- Spider-Rats can enter a tiny tunnel in the ceiling and open a locked door on the other side.

I've playtested the adventure with these monsters and can say they're quite fun! My favorite are the explodey-rats :)

[M Placeholder]

I like these, all worthy beasts

Some thoughts
- For the Dragon Rat, perhaps change its type to Dragon, and have green ones, black ones (with skull like faces), and other chromatic ones. Maybe even have Metallic ones.

The attack bonus seems a bit off - the Explodey and the and Spider both use their Dex to hit (as far as I can tell),
while the others use values that I cannot work out. Any reason?

Overall, pretty good.

[Dralnu]

I did an update to them:

- Rat-Bear-Pig is based off a Brown Bear, which has +5 attack bonus even though it should have +6 I think, I dunno
- I changed the Dragon-Rat to Blue for the line attack. Yeah, I should do all of them. It's not a dragon because it's pretty much the half-dragon template to a rat, and that doesn't change its creature type. Also it should have +4 to hit but doesn't, again dunno.
- Fixed the Spider-Rat's attack bonus.
- Tweaked the Squeaker-Rat. Lowered the radius of Big Squeak and stuff.
- Explodey-Rat does more damage.
- Added darkvision to the rats that didn't have it.


Descriptions:

Dragon-Rats: Giant rats imbued with dragon's blood, dragon-rats sport the colored scales and physical prowess of their draconic heritage but none of the cunning. They have a compulsion to hoard shiny objects, which they carry up to their nests on their tiny but surprisingly flight-capable wings.
Explodey-Rats: These poor creatures are living vessels of highly unstable acidic substances sloshing inside their bloated bodies. The acids glow bright green and emit dim light through the rat's transparent skin. They have been created with one goal in their brain: to slam into intruders and explode!
Nibbles, Awakened Rat: Considered to be the most intelligent and cunning of all the rats in his litter, Nibbles was awakened by the Rat King to be his second in command. However, the Rat King has been neglecting Nibbles for the past few months, and Nibbles really wants some cheese and attention.
Rat-Bear-Pigs: This strange creature has the body of a brown bear, the head and tail of a rat, and the snout and tusks of a boar. The Rat King uses these hybrids to carry supplies around his lair and their sensitive snouts can navigate through the fungus patch safely.
Spider-Rat: These rats have eight eyes, eight legs, and a maw filled with needle-like poisonous teeth. If that wasn't nasty enough, they have a habit of leaping on to their victim's faces to suffocate and bite them to death.

[Darksidebro]

Full album (http://imgur.com/a/CX6lS)

Here are some of the new monsters that will be appearing in an upcoming 1-shot adventure module I'm working on.

A crazed alchemist calling himself "The Rat King" has created a small army of mutated rats to suit his needs. As the adventurers explore his lair, they will discover a way to control the rats themselves, which opens up alternative ways to defeat some of the encounters.

For example:

- Rat-Bear-Pigs can safely navigate the PCs through a room filled with deadly gas spores with their sensitive noses.
- Squeeker-Rats can deafen nearby creatures, negating the echolocation of a pack of darkmantles and leaving them blind.
- Spider-Rats can enter a tiny tunnel in the ceiling and open a locked door on the other side.

I've playtested the adventure with these monsters and can say they're quite fun! My favorite are the explodey-rats :)

Hey Dralnu, hope I'm not too late to chime in.

First off I'd like to say that I'm psyched you're writing a new adventure! I've used everything you've made public so far and both I and my players love it. (Currently in the middle of Army of the Damned)

As for Rat enemies, I had a thought - What if the Rat King tried to create a naturally more intelligent Rat, but ended up making an unstable Psychic Rat instead?

My thought was that randomly (5-6 on a D6? 4 on a D4?) these Rats would emit a psychic scream that damaged all nearby enemies, even other rats. It'd be interesting to see the roll get triggered everytime they're dealt damage in combat.

This may lead to some interesting tactics if you were to put a few into groups of different kinds of Rats, like attacking with ranged weapons to weaken nearby rats. Or even set off chain reactions with other Psychic Rats.

Just a thought, anyway. They may be too similar to the Exploding Rats.

[Dralnu]

Hey Dralnu, hope I'm not too late to chime in.

First off I'd like to say that I'm psyched you're writing a new adventure! I've used everything you've made public so far and both I and my players love it. (Currently in the middle of Army of the Damned)

I'm glad you're enjoying it! I've learned a lot from making that adventure.



As for Rat enemies, I had a thought - What if the Rat King tried to create a naturally more intelligent Rat, but ended up making an unstable Psychic Rat instead?

My thought was that randomly (5-6 on a D6? 4 on a D4?) these Rats would emit a psychic scream that damaged all nearby enemies, even other rats. It'd be interesting to see the roll get triggered everytime they're dealt damage in combat.

This may lead to some interesting tactics if you were to put a few into groups of different kinds of Rats, like attacking with ranged weapons to weaken nearby rats. Or even set off chain reactions with other Psychic Rats.

Just a thought, anyway. They may be too similar to the Exploding Rats.

I had an idea for a psychic rat, just a rat with a huge exposed brain, but I don't know what its niche would be. I'd rather avoid AOE since three of the rats already have that.

I think for a psychic rat, some sort of mind control would be cool. Or telekenisis. Maybe they have the catapult spell and can toss objects around, or other rats.

The best is if the rat can be worked into a puzzle somehow like most of the others. If it can be used to overcome an obstacle when controlled by a PC then I'll add it instantly.

[M Placeholder]

I'm glad you're enjoying it! I've learned a lot from making that adventure.

I had an idea for a psychic rat, just a rat with a huge exposed brain, but I don't know what its niche would be. I'd rather avoid AOE since three of the rats already have that.

I think for a psychic rat, some sort of mind control would be cool. Or telekenisis. Maybe they have the catapult spell and can toss objects around, or other rats.

The best is if the rat can be worked into a puzzle somehow like most of the others. If it can be used to overcome an obstacle when controlled by a PC then I'll add it instantly.

Psychic rats have been around for a long time (http://www.lomion.de/cmm/cranirat.php), and having vermin that can make you head turn into nice meaty chunks that have to be scraped off the floor never gets old.