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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other The Creeper: Minecraft PTSD in DnD Form!



Aniikinis
2017-08-09, 09:36 AM
Creeper
Medium Abberation
Hit Dice: 6d8 +1 (28)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 20 feet
Armor Class: 15 (+3 dex, +2 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +4 / +4
Attack: Slam +4 melee
Full Attack: Slam +4 melee
Damage: Slam 1d4 bludgeoning
Space/Reach: 5 ft./ 5 ft.
Special Attacks: Explosive Retribution
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +7, Will +8
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 6, Wis 14, Cha 4
Skills: Move Silently +13, Hide +13, Spot +6
Feats: Ability Focus(Explosive Retribution)
Environment: Any, but mainly found underground
Organization: Solitary, Group (2-8), or Horde (10 - 400)
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Chaotic Evil
Level Adjustment: N/A
Advancement: 7-10 (medium), 11-15 (large), 16-25 (huge)

You hear the creature before you see it, a soft hissing noise emanating from the darkness behind you. As the being gets closer the hissing gets higher and louder and soon enough it enters your field of view. At first you believe it's a human, but it's all wrong. It's about human height with mottled green flesh that seems to shift and slide over itself as it moves towards you slowly on four insectile legs covered in the same flesh, its' face forever frozen in a hateful grimace, and a small light beginning to seep from the creature's empty eye sockets and mouth.

Hateful and aggressive, creepers are a highly destructive monstrosity found within the bowels of the world. Covered in loose-fitting green scales most adventurers believe them to be a carnivorous underground plant at first. Few meet them and live to tell the tale, due to their explosive ability and the fact that they have been known to cause cave-ins with said ability dooming even the survivors to starvation and/or dehydration.

COMBAT

Explosive Retribution (Ex): The creeper can only activate this ability if it is within 10 feet of an enemy. The creeper combusts and must make a Fort save (DC 23) or immediately die. When the creeper activates this ability it causes a blinding flash of light to emanate from its' body before two effects happen, both effects never affect the creeper under any circumstances. The first effect is that of a fireball spell (CL 16) that also effects the surroundings if they weren't able to be effected before, and the second is a Maw of Chaos spell (CL 25,Will partial DC 17 (10 + Spell Level 9 + Int Bonus)). Both effects are centered on the creeper.

Skills: Creepers get a +6 racial bonus to hide and move silently and a +3 racial bonus to spot

Durzan
2017-08-09, 09:43 AM
Interesting.

You should adjust the fireball so it scales according to the creeper's HD as well. Also, increase its speed to at least 20 ft.

Aniikinis
2017-08-09, 09:57 AM
You should adjust the fireball so it scales according to the creeper's HD as well. Also, increase its speed to at least 20 ft.

Hmm, good point. And I'm an idiot and forgot to allocate the skill points. Any particular reason for the scaling fireball? I think the Maw of Chaos spell effect would be able to clean up most enemies afterwards

ShiningStarling
2017-08-09, 04:33 PM
Couple small nitpicks:
They should be Plant type, as per some blog post with Notch (couldn't find it, but I'm a huge MC nerd, I remember it from the days of old)
They seem like... not too faithful to the original? I would do something like, give them even less hitpoints, a weakness to Bull Rush and Trip, and take away the slam attack... also giving it a chance to survive is weird, I would take away the Solitary possibility, so they're always faced in groups, so you never just have to worry about a one and done problem.

Other than that, interesting concept, and as a D&D monster it works (probably not as CR 15 though)

Aniikinis
2017-08-10, 08:14 AM
Couple small nitpicks:
They should be Plant type, as per some blog post with Notch (couldn't find it, but I'm a huge MC nerd, I remember it from the days of old)
They seem like... not too faithful to the original? I would do something like, give them even less hit points, a weakness to Bull Rush and Trip, and take away the slam attack... also giving it a chance to survive is weird, I would take away the Solitary possibility, so they're always faced in groups, so you never just have to worry about a one and done problem.

Other than that, interesting concept, and as a D&D monster it works (probably not as CR 15 though)

For the plant typing: all that was said, that I could find, was that he said that they would feel like dry leaves, which I dealt with through the rough, loose, scaly skin. Nothing about what they actually are, just what they felt like. And I have found no conclusive evidence that they could be plant creatures, a creature mutated through some reason, or simply a nature spirit. So I took a byway, making them aberrations (creatures that don't necessarily fit neatly in another type), until I found enough conclusive evidence to change that typing.

On the HP: You have a point there, however point for point doesn't really transfer well from minecraft to D&D 3.5. The average longsword in 3.5 does 1d8 damage (average 4), while the Java version of minecraft does 6 damage straight and the Console/Mobile versions deal 7 damage straight (Iron Sword for reference). This is without a strength bonus. The minecraft bow is far too variable to be a good measuring stick, but the highest damage that can be consistently done is 9 points of damage. I can see having the creeper being able to be 2/3 shot with a bow or 4 hit killed in minecraft as the game was originally meant to be a single player exploration and survival game. However, with the average 3.5 party being at least 4-5 people as the official scenarios and dungeons were originally designed for, the creeper can easily be killed in a few initiative passes without it even being able to act. Sidenote: The official HP of the minecraft creeper is 20, the average HP of the creeper I 'brewed up was 8 points more.

I don't really understand the reasoning for a weakness to Trip, creepers have always been quadrupedal, but I can understand why they would be weak to a bull rush attack. A pillar of meat on four legs wouldn't really be the best at stability while being shoved. The slam attack was really an afterthought and I wasn't really all that in love with the idea, but it does give a slight amount of variability to the creeper's attacks. the creeper is a wise, yet very dim, creature, and the idea of killing itself off might not be the best idea at every slight provocation.

The reason for it being able to survive is fairly idiotic and deviates from canon by a far bit, I will readily admit, but I like the idea of a creeper surviving at least one use of the Explosive Retribution ability and realizing the absolute devastation it can wrought, along with just how close to death that ability caused it to be. Possibly this could lead to said creeper trying to learn how and why it is able to do such insane things, even though it may not be able to comprehend it in precise terms. Shamelessly made an NPC creeper with this idea but never used it, stole an item that allowed it to telepathically speak with others and forced a wizard to raise its' Intelligence score so that it could figure out what made it's' kind "tick".

Also the reason for the Solitary grouping is that sometimes in minecraft you run into a lone creeper that spawned nearby instead of multiple in one location. Plus, they have above animal level intelligence which means that they can plan to some extent which is only added to by their above average wisdom scores. Who's to say that a group wouldn't send one to check out a weird sound that was heard and to either destroy the source if it was dangerous or to report back that it was nothing?

And yeah I was kinda spitballing at the CR when I made the stat block, mainly for the extreme TPK effect should it activate Explosive Retribution: A Caster Level 16 Fireball spell (DC 11 Reflex Save) that deals 10d6 Fire damage followed up afterwards with a Caster Level 25 Maw of Chaos spell (DC 17 Partial Will Save) that deals 25 points of force damage each round (half on save) and causes all activities that requires concentration (such as casting a spell or using a spell-like ability) to require a Concentration check (DC 25 + spell level) to succeed for 25 rounds.

ShiningStarling
2017-08-11, 05:13 PM
Figured out why I thought they were plants, saw a comparison online that showed they share a lot of similarities with peat moss (which are dead plants crushed under wetness and pressure, that when exposed to heat can combust or explode, could be some kind of plant-undead? could be fun).

To clarify, when I said "faithful to the original", I didn't mean that the numbers should be exactly the same, merely that it seemed like their behaviors would be different.

The hit points are probably fine, I could definitely see it getting one-rounded, so that was my bad.

While single creepers are able to be found, I just didn't think it would be as good for D&D's game design, as opposed to Minecraft's. In Minecraft, you encounter a creeper, and if it blows up, you have then learned what it does, and even if you died, your stuff is recoverable, or you can re-acquire stuff, as the life-death cycle of Minecraft isn't so much D&D's revolving door as it is an express elevator. In D&D however, if you see a creeper, many people's first instincts would be to murder it. The threat is dealt with quickly, and the group has no idea what it does, because they cindered it. So when they encounter 4 next time, they'll think them pushovers, and then get TPK'd by the one they missed, and they could feel cheated at that point. I just thought that you need at least 2 in any given encounter, one to blow up to show the players what these creatures do, and another for target practice, to test its defenses.

For surviving the blast and the slam attack, sure, go for it. It's flavorful and amusing, and that is the goal after all. :smallsmile:

For the Bull Rush and Trip, that was an homage to Knockback weapons being the best for fighting creepers, I included trip because they seem to be top-heavy creatures, and because a lot more players trip than bull rush.

Also... I would not make them intelligent. Its more a flavor choice, but creepers in the game don't try to hide, or even wait for you to not be looking, before they try to 'splode you. They just see a warm body and go for it. They don't try to target structures, or chests, the way other griefing mobs in games work (i.e. Krampus from Don't Starve). Your call, and the NPC does sound fun, the just don't seem intelligent.

Also, just side note, might want to give them a racial bonus to Hide and Move Silently. It looks like you did, but I don't see it mentioned in the abilities section.

Aniikinis
2017-08-12, 08:24 AM
Figured out why I thought they were plants, saw a comparison online that showed they share a lot of similarities with peat moss (which are dead plants crushed under wetness and pressure, that when exposed to heat can combust or explode, could be some kind of plant-undead? could be fun).

That was be very amusing and yeah I can see that, but from what I can tell there's no Word of God on what they really are so I'm sticking with Aberration for the time being.



To clarify, when I said "faithful to the original", I didn't mean that the numbers should be exactly the same, merely that it seemed like their behaviors would be different.

Ahh, okay. I'll explain my reasons further down in the post.



While single creepers are able to be found, I just didn't think it would be as good for D&D's game design, as opposed to Minecraft's. In Minecraft, you encounter a creeper, and if it blows up, you have then learned what it does, and even if you died, your stuff is recoverable, or you can re-acquire stuff, as the life-death cycle of Minecraft isn't so much D&D's revolving door as it is an express elevator. In D&D however, if you see a creeper, many people's first instincts would be to murder it. The threat is dealt with quickly, and the group has no idea what it does, because they cindered it. So when they encounter 4 next time, they'll think them pushovers, and then get TPK'd by the one they missed, and they could feel cheated at that point. I just thought that you need at least 2 in any given encounter, one to blow up to show the players what these creatures do, and another for target practice, to test its defenses.

While that is very true, you could also simply set up a showcase of what they can do by having a group of them attack a village and let the players watch the devastation that is caused by them exploding. That way they know the dangers without having to feel cheated if they see only a few later on and maybe running into the scenario you described. Plus, with how they look if any of the players have ever played/watched/know anything about minecraft, they're gonna know immediately not to get close to the walking stick of meat.



For the Bull Rush and Trip, that was an homage to Knockback weapons being the best for fighting creepers, I included trip because they seem to be top-heavy creatures, and because a lot more players trip than bull rush.

Okay I get where you were going with that but quadrupeds as a whole are a lot more stable than their bipedal brethren. Most can shift their weight to their other feet when one is messed with, but since they are top heavy I didn't think giving them a bonus vs. trip and bull rush was a good idea.



Also... I would not make them intelligent. It's more a flavor choice, but creepers in the game don't try to hide, or even wait for you to not be looking, before they try to 'splode you. They just see a warm body and go for it. They don't try to target structures, or chests, the way other griefing mobs in games work (i.e. Krampus from Don't Starve). Your call, and the NPC does sound fun, the just don't seem intelligent.

I was mainly basing the intelligence off of some of the ways that they've acted for a few updates now. They still follow the Mob AI that almost all hostile mobs do, but for a few updates now if they're travelling in a group or attacking the player and one is about to blow up, the others will scatter to safety in order to not be in the blast radius. I made them somewhat intelligent simply because they can be used more effectively in the hands of the DM within a narrative structure than a computer that is plotting loads of other variables and in a sandbox game with a baseline narrative. They're still much dumber than your average person but are more intune with nature and the way things are within their environment and hunting grounds, as well as choosing not to stay within the blast radius of their allies when they're going nuclear.



Also, just side note, might want to give them a racial bonus to Hide and Move Silently. It looks like you did, but I don't see it mentioned in the abilities section.
Yeah I did, I should've noted it but I forgot.

Debihuman
2017-08-15, 08:09 AM
That CR is ridiculously high. PCs at that level can easily kill it with ranged weapons easy-peasy. CR is about 5. It is as one trick pony.

Debby

Aniikinis
2017-08-15, 08:10 AM
That CR is ridiculously high. PCs at that level can easily kill it with ranged weapons easy-peasy. CR is about 5. It is as one trick pony.

Debby

Good point, editing now.