Reason Stealer MM2 Devour Mind Ability Question

[hirojinbrodie]

So I am wishing to run an ooze focused campaign and so I have been collecting together a list of them. The reason stealer gave me pause because of its devour mind ability, as it allows it to have access to a wide range of abilities from combat mechanics to spells to just simple intelligence. So I'm curious how this would impact its CR of 5 or if this ability is just supposed to be self contained within its CR's scope.

[Inevitability]

If a monster has an ability as part of its default self, then its CR reflects this.

Then again, WotC's CRs (especially those from MM2) are notoriously unbalanced, so exercise caution. Ask yourself: 'does this seem appropriate for a CR 5 monster?'.

[SangoProduction]

If a monster has an ability as part of its default self, then its CR reflects this.

Then again, WotC's CRs (especially those from MM2) are notoriously unbalanced, so exercise caution. Ask yourself: 'does this seem appropriate for a CR 5 monster?'.

OR better yet, "can my party actually handle this monster?"

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Dire_Stirge
Then again, WotC's CRs (especially those from MM2) are notoriously unbalanced, so exercise caution. Ask yourself: 'does this seem appropriate for a CR 5 monster?'.

Wasn't there some project to recalculate the CRs for everything in MM2? Did that come up with a different CR for the reason stealer?

[Inevitability]

Wasn't there some project to recalculate the CRs for everything in MM2? Did that come up with a different CR for the reason stealer?

There was (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?187046-That-s-ONLY-CR-9-Let-s-Read-The-Monster-Manual-II), but it only made it to the gambol.

[Kelb_Panthera]

If anything, 5 is probably high unless it's already consumed something. If it's devoured something interesting (lucky ambush maybe?) then it might go beyond 5 but devour mind doesn't actually impact it's combat ability unless it manages to fell one of the party.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Kelb_Panthera
If it's devoured something interesting (lucky ambush maybe?) then it might go beyond 5 but devour mind doesn't actually impact it's combat ability unless it manages to fell one of the party.

This part is a little confusing to me. According to the last couple sentences of Devour Mind, if the reason stealer absorbs a second mind within 24 hours, it can choose “the higher of the two” for skills, BAB, etc. But the wording isn’t clear whether it has to choose the whole package, one mind or the other, or if it can cherry-pick higher values from each mind as available. (I.e. taking a higher Fort save from a barbarian and a higher Dex save from a rogue.)

Also not clear (to me anyway) is whether, if it takes down two arcane spellcasters in a row, it can use both sets of prepared spells or if it loses the first set in favor of the second. The last sentence of Devour Mind seems to suggest it could use both sets together, but this isn’t spelled out clearly.

[Kelb_Panthera]

This part is a little confusing to me. According to the last couple sentences of Devour Mind, if the reason stealer absorbs a second mind within 24 hours, it can choose “the higher of the two” for skills, BAB, etc. But the wording isn’t clear whether it has to choose the whole package, one mind or the other, or if it can cherry-pick higher values from each mind as available. (I.e. taking a higher Fort save from a barbarian and a higher Dex save from a rogue.)

Also not clear (to me anyway) is whether, if it takes down two arcane spellcasters in a row, it can use both sets of prepared spells or if it loses the first set in favor of the second. The last sentence of Devour Mind seems to suggest it could use both sets together, but this isn’t spelled out clearly.

If it didn't let you mix and match, it would simply say that the new mind overwrites the old unless the reason stealer decides to keep the old. There would be no reason to go into the lengthy description of taking the better values for this and that.

The ability has enormous potential but it's saddled on such a crap starting package that it's highly unlikely to make any serious headway into being truly powerful, especially given the 1 day timer on the absorbed abilities.