"One-trick monsters" needed

[SalterisSolaris]

I am currently designing a short module for a L11+ party. There will be two sections to the adventure. During the first part, players will able to gather information (under severe time pressure). The more information they manage to gain in that stage, the better they will be able to prepare for the second part. Which is meant to have several situations that are supposedly easy with the right tools/spells/skills, but can be tricky when faced unprepared.

In that context, I am looking for one or two nice nasty monsters to throw their way, which also follow that sort of pattern.

"Something with Petrification" was one of my first ideas... but what else? Inspirations welcome. :smallbiggrin:

<edit> Also, definitely don't be shy with the challenge rating. These PCs aren't exactly what you'd call "fragile". :smallamused:

[Troacctid]

Shadow Creature template on a Warlock with Darkness and either Devil's Sight or At Home in the Deep. Total concealment to prevent single-target attacks and abilities, evasion to prevent AoE damage. A Daylight spell shuts it down.

[Hiro Quester]

Rust monsters. Nasty (and costly) when unprepared, but easy to prepare for.

[Inevitability]

A bunch of halflings with Aboleth Mucus.

[ATHATH]

A Beholder or a Living Spell, maybe?

[ComaVision]

Drowned (MMIII) are a CR 8 undead with an aura of drowning that can mess up a party pretty good. Have two of those and then some other high health zombie types to slow down the group and it should do the trick.

[InvisibleBison]

Hydras are a good "puzzle monster" - fairly easy if you've got the right tools, quite tough otherwise. Maybe add a template to give it resistance to either fire or acid, which gives your PCs something more to learn in the first part of the scenario.

[Nibbens]

If you're not afraid of PF stuff, I've got one for you.

The colour out of space (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/oozes/colour-out-of-space) is an amazing creature that can plague entire communities without anyone within the community knowing what's going on. Yet the PCs encounter everyone in that town as "strange" until they start to feel the effects themselves.

It also definitely fits the "under time pressure" as the people they try to save are turning into ash randomly, becoming violent, and being fed upon by an unknown source, seemingly randomly and at will - even in front of the PCs without them being able to see it if you're careful.

[ATHATH]

Mogaru, a kaiju from Pathfinder, is a reference to Godzilla, and has a similar power level. However, it can be easily defeated by most Bards (or a spellcaster that has access to skill roll-buffing spells) because it has a Vulnerability to Song, which allows people to control it (as the Suggestion spell) by making a successful Perform check.

[ATHATH]

If you're not afraid of PF stuff, I've got one for you.

The colour out of space (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/oozes/colour-out-of-space) is an amazing creature that can plague entire communities without anyone within the community knowing what's going on. Yet the PCs encounter everyone in that town as "strange" until they start to feel the effects themselves.

It also definitely fits the "under time pressure" as the people they try to save are turning into ash randomly, becoming violent, and being fed upon by an unknown source, seemingly randomly and at will - even in front of the PCs without them being able to see it if you're careful.
The main problem that I see with the Color Out of Space is that many of its victims will roll at least one natural 20 on their rolls to escape and tell the world about the eldritch abomination that's killing people in the town that they were in. Sure, the authorities may not believe the first reporter, but what about the second and the third?

[daremetoidareyo]

Today I discovered the corpse golem from heroes of horror. Dude can steal other peoples skill ranks. By chopping off their relevant body parts. Unlike most constructs, he's got an int score.

But yesterday, in preparation for the possible chance of skydiving dwarfs, I discovered the hivenest monster template in the dungeonscape book. Anyone hit by the construct to which the vermin swarm is attached takes swarm damage...

So the question becomes, which insect swarm to use?
fortunately I began working on a vermin handbook, because I wanted know how much vermin wildshape really sucked when you have access to every book. And I discovered the draconomicons' Hoard scarab, which does 2d4 constitution damage...

Did I mention that the corpse golem can get flurry of blows by killing a monk and attaching his hands to himself?

God forbid he kills attaches a truenamers tongue to his face...

...Actually, it wouldn't make a difference.

Start the encounter with a small pile of gold coins on the floor, half of which are hoard scarabs. Let the PCs deal with that issue, and then, a bit later, introduce this disgusting shambling mound of flesh.

Depending on the PCs reaction, decide where to go with it.

Imagine if the corpse golem didn't want the bug infestation! Imagine that he is on a mission to loot the dungeon for the remains of the world's most potent artificer to get those sweet, sweet, UMD ranks. During his quest, he got infected by bugs, and he can't get rid of them. He already gots a bunch of knowledge history ranks from a Legacy Champion who was a little too uppity. So he knows that the artificers crypt is down here somewhere...

Or, the PCs just unilaterally attack, at which case go full flurry on them, (+7/+7/+2) forcing DC14 reflex saves or taking 2d4 constitution damage. At this level, that is like a 5-10% chance of it working per hit.

[Janthkin]

There's always the Prismatic Wall/Sphere.

I'm always a big fan of illusions & monsters that look like one thing, but are actually something else. Hags (all types) play nicely into this theme.

[frogglesmash]

Keepers (Fiend Folio) can instantly trade places with their Body Switch ability, if the players aren't aware of it they may be confused as to why there foes seem to be constantly regaining all their hit points.

Jovocs (a type of demon from MMII) have an aoe damage reflection ability, this means that while they're not particularly strong, an uninformed party with a high damage output could easily TPK itself with one attack.

[EugeneVoid]

You can build an ubercharger-lite on some high strength Monster and have rock outcrops that can be destroyed and spread across squares for a swift action or part of an attack action for a Medium-High strength check that creates difficult terrain.

Though by level 11, the PCs will probably have tons of tools to shut one of these down easily.

[Janthkin]

Jovocs (a type of demon from MMII) have an aoe damage reflection ability, this means that while they're not particularly strong, an uninformed party with a high damage output could easily TPK itself with one attack.There're also the critters with the shared HP pool, though I'm blanking on the name. A large group of those is an unpleasant surprise, particularly if the party tends towards single-target attacks (however strong).

[Aleolus]

Bleakborn. I think from Libris Mortis, they are a type of undead that are actually somewhat counter-intuitive. Their aura deals cold damage (while healing the Bleakborn based on the amount of total damage their aura deals to all nearby targets), and a couple of other abilities they have deal cold damage as well. But, you need to avoid hitting them with fire, as that actually makes them stronger

[Bobby Baratheon]

I'm a big fan of the Half-Golem and feral templates. IIRC, half-golem can be applied to monstrous humanoids, humanoids, magical beasts, giants and animals. It would be interesting to see what a squad of half iron golem cloud giants could do - construct immunities plus obscene strength. Nothing too crazy about them other than the magical immunities and such granted by half-golem. If you were really mean, you could back them up with a few spellcasters and a couple of spruced up sneaky auxiliaries (marrulurks come to mind, for whatever reason).

Actually, a better idea occurs to me. Jazz up some Phase Spiders (who are technically eligible) and terrorize the PCs while they fight something big, stupid and distracting. Like a half-golem purple worm! Which is an incredible silly mental image, but still.

[Thurbane]

How about a mob of Ghaele Eladrin Zombies (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=7824922&postcount=1)? Have them created by someone with the Destruction Retribution feat.

Every time one if destroyed, it'll blow up in a 10 foot radius blast of negative energy (10d6) which heals the other zombies.


"Something with Petrification" was one of my first ideas... but what else? Inspirations welcome. :smallbiggrin:

Medusa Hexblade riding a Spellwarped Gorgon? The Medusa lowers the party saves, and then her and the Gorgon unleash with the petrification effects. If you want to be extra nasty, throw the Tainted Raver template on the Medusa, to boost her Cha and save DCs.

http://40.media.tumblr.com/d8d0b18a796c1f114c7598125190db9f/tumblr_mtnssuBxVV1r3sy6wo1_500.jpg

[ksbsnowowl]

3.0 Rakshasa's: A blessed bolt killed them outright.

The aforementioned shadow creature is a good one: Daylight shuts it down.

Rust monsters can be waylaid with nails and coins.

Cursts (template from the back of Monsters of Faerun & Lost Empires of Faerun) are auto-destroyed if subjected to a Remove Curse spell (but it must succeed on the caster level check, as is typical for Remove Curse).

Darkenbeast (Monsters of Faerun): Sunbeam ends the spell that creates the creature from a normal animal.

Will-O'-Wisp: Magic Missile is one of the few spells it isn't immune to (the other is Maze).

Malaugrym (Monsters of Faerun): They take maximum damage from silver weapons, and they can't heal that damage without magic.

[Randomguy]

Rust monsters. Nasty (and costly) when unprepared, but easy to prepare for.

Rust dragons are also a thing. Less iconic, though.

Aboleths could work: They've got a boatload of illusions that could mess people up pretty badly if they don't know what to look for. An especially nasty trick would be veiling something fire immune, like an iron golem, to look like a troll. Or veiling a rust monster to look like anything else.

[Inevitability]

Medusa Hexblade riding a Spellwarped Gorgon? The Medusa lowers the party saves, and then her and the Gorgon unleash with the petrification effects. If you want to be extra nasty, throw the Tainted Raver template on the Medusa, to boost her Cha and save DCs.

http://40.media.tumblr.com/d8d0b18a796c1f114c7598125190db9f/tumblr_mtnssuBxVV1r3sy6wo1_500.jpg

Don't forget a three-level-dip in Paladin of Tyranny, for charisma to saves and to get a no-action, party-wide saving throw penalty. Alignment fits, stats match up, really, you've got no reason not to do it.

[ATHATH]

If you want to go the Illusion route, I suggest choosing a Glamer.

If one of these monsters is going to be a boss fight, I recommend using the Two Orcs Method (http://theangrygm.com/return-of-the-son-of-the-dd-boss-fight-now-in-5e/) of creating it, which conveniently allows you to use monsters that too levelled too lowly for your party. I also suggest using the variant in the comments section of that article, which has each of the boss's hp pools roll initiative separately.