Dear oh dear, what was it? The hunt, the blood, or the horrible dream? [Monster]

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Moon Presence

https://i.imgur.com/olFyn7G.png
Art belongs to b4dly-dr4wn on deviantart

This horrifying creature is beyond mortal anatomy, seemingly held together mostly with bone and bloody sinew. It's torso is long and thin, mostly composed of an elongated spine and exposed mess of ribs. It's limbs are long and bony, but end in twisted claws the size of a man's body. It's head is an oblong bulb with two assymetrial gaping holes, and surrounded by a crown of tentacles that wave in the wind. From it's backside are four twisted tails that branch off into more tails and wicked barbs. It floats like a deific entity until it lands, with clouds of blood arising from the groud in it's wake.

CR 23 - XP 819,200
CN Huge outsider (chaos)
Init +11; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +44, detect law, true seeing

DEFENSE
AC 36, touch 15, flat-footed 29 (+7 Dex, +21 Natural, -2 size)
hp 585 (30d10+420)
Fort +30, Ref +19, Will +30
DR 20/silver and law; Immune bleeding, cold, gaze attacks, mind-affecting, paralysis, petrification; Resist acid 10, elec 10

OFFENSE
Speed 60 ft.
Melee 2 Claws +48 (2d6+18), 6 tentacles +48 (1d8+18), 4 tails +46 (2d8+9)
Space 15 ft., Reach 15 ft.(20 ft. with tails)
Special Attacks absorb essence, blood clouds, blood curse, blood moon orb, gaze of the moon, pounce
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th)
Constant - detect law, tongues, true seeing
At will - detect thoughts (DC 22), fly, suggestion (DC 23)
3/day - confusion (DC 24)
1/day - interplanetary teleport, plane shift

STATISTICS
Str 47, Dex 25, Con 37, Int 30, Wis 32, Cha 30
Base Atk +30; CMB +50 (+52 bull rush, grapple); CMD 67 (69 vs. bull rush, grapple)
Feats Ability Focus (gaze of the moon), Awesome Blow, Greater Vital Strike, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Grapple, Improved Initiative, Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Vital Strike, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Lucid Dreamer, Multiattack, Power Attack, Toughness, Vital Strike
Skills Acrobatics +51, Bluff +43, Climb +41, Craft (flesh) +28, Escape Artist +40, Fly +30, Heal +39, Intimidate +43, Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering, geography, history, nature, planes, religion) +43, Perception +44, Sense Motive +34, Stealth +12, Spellcraft +43
Languages Aklo; tongues

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Absorb Essence (Su) When the Moon Presence has successfully grappled a foe, it may attempt to absorb their essence by pressing it's malformed face against the target. In order to do so, it must succeed on another combat maneuver check as a standard action on an already grappled foe. If the second check is successful, the Moon Presence draws in the will of their target, which does 2d4 Dex drain, and 1d6 Con damage. It also affects the target with a dominate effect with this ability. The victim can attempt a Will save (DC 35) to reduce the Dex and Con damage both to 1, and negate the dominate effect. This is a mind-affecting effect, and the save DC is Charisma-based.

Blood Clouds (Su) The Moon Presence is capable of summoning clouds of harrowing eldritch blood, tainted with an old curse. In any round that it makes an attack against an enemy, it can use a swift action to summon these blood clouds in a 30 ft. radius spread from itself. These clouds persist for 1 round and on the Moon Presence's next turn burst and deal 20d6 damage to anyone caught inside the blood clouds. Anyone caught in the cloud when it bursts can make a DC 38 Reflex save to reduce this damage by half. The save DC is Constitution-based. Additionally, anyone caught inside this cloud when it bursts is affected by the blood curse ability(see below). Once used this ability cannot be used for 1d3 rounds.

Blood Curse (Su) The Moon Presence is an inherent force of cosmic terror, and the arbiter of man's connection to the old blood. Anyone affected by the Moon Presence's blood clouds, blood moon orb, or gaze of the moon is also affected by the blood curse. When subject to this ability, a victim is allowed a DC 35 Will save to negate it, but if failed the victim is unable to be affected by any kind of magic that heals hit point or ability damage for 2d4 rounds. Other healing abilities, such as regeneration or physical surgery are unaffected by this ability. The blood curse can be removed with a successful casting of a remove curse spell or similar ability. This is a curse-based necromantic ability, and the save DC for this ability is Charisma-based.

Blood Moon Orb (Su) As a standard action, the Moon Presence can summon a pale ball of light above it's head, and with it summon forth a blood-cursed rain. All creature within 30 ft. of the Moon Presence during this ability must make a DC 35 Will save or take 1d3 damage to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution, and be affected by the blood curse ability(see above). The save DC for this ability is Charisma-based. Once used this ability cannot be used for 1d4 rounds.

Gaze of the Moon (Su) By clutching it's face and releasing eldritch energy, the Moon Presence can cause anyone looking upon it to be affected by a debilitating surge of power. This ability is activated as a standard action and lasts until the Moon Presence's next turn. Anyone who fails to avoid the gaze is affected by a spell-like effect similar to the harm spell, with a caster level of 20th and a save DC of 37. Unlike the normal harm spell, it affects creatures normally healed by negative energy to take damage as though they were living, as this is not actually negative energy but the unknowable eldritch energy of the Moon Presence. Anyone who fails the avoid the gaze is also affected by the blood curse ability(see above). The save DC for this ability is Charisma-based and includes a bonus from the Ability Focus feat, already figured into it's stat block. Once used this ability cannot be used for 1d4 rounds.

Pounce (Ex) Whenever the Moon Presence makes a charge attack, it can make a full attack action.

[Amechra]

What, nothing about having to fight some old fart in a wheelchair?

...

OK, OK, it looks good.

[aimlessPolymath]

I'm basically unqualified to comment on monster balance due to lack of experience, but some thoughts:
-Lack of flight?
-The Vital Strike chain feels like it should get it's own line in the attacks list for comparison, or possibly be changed out for something else. Greater Grapple missing?
-Blood Curse feels like it has a strangely low duration for something described as a "curse", and feels like a place to inject some extra flavor. Perhaps drinking the blood of the Moon Presence cures the curse, which otherwise lasts indefinitely? I'm not super clear on Bloodborne flavor.

Numerically, comparing to the Pathfinder Bestiary (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E2-s8weiulPoBQjdI05LBzOUToyoZIdSsLKxHAvf8F8/edit#gid=3), this has:
-Below-average AC by four points
-Will saving throw is way way higher than normal, by 10 points (probably OK given flavor though), but otherwise is around good.
-Saving throw DCs I'm uncertain about, except to note that the DCs on the spell-like abilities are way way lower than on the supernatural abilities.
-Attack bonus far above the median, by 13 points(!). Power Attack fodder indeed, especially since this doesn't really suffer from iterative attack penalties. Combined with the number of attacks, this deals out a heck of a ton of damage, almost guaranteed- assuming a +10 bonus from Power Attack, we have
-2 claws deal an average of 35 damage each
-6 tentacles deal an average of 32 damage each
-4 tails deal an average of 28 damage each
That's around 270 damage per round, which is far more than pretty much anything I can think of. Is this intentional?

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

What, nothing about having to fight some old fart in a wheelchair?

...

OK, OK, it looks good.

Don't get me started! I'm working on him and Lady Maria. Making a fusion character with class levels/unique monster is proving only slightly more difficult than expected.


I'm basically unqualified to comment on monster balance due to lack of experience, but some thoughts:
-Lack of flight?
-The Vital Strike chain feels like it should get it's own line in the attacks list for comparison, or possibly be changed out for something else. Greater Grapple missing?
-Blood Curse feels like it has a strangely low duration for something described as a "curse", and feels like a place to inject some extra flavor. Perhaps drinking the blood of the Moon Presence cures the curse, which otherwise lasts indefinitely? I'm not super clear on Bloodborne flavor.

Numerically, comparing to the Pathfinder Bestiary (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E2-s8weiulPoBQjdI05LBzOUToyoZIdSsLKxHAvf8F8/edit#gid=3), this has:
-Below-average AC by four points
-Will saving throw is way way higher than normal, by 10 points (probably OK given flavor though), but otherwise is around good.
-Saving throw DCs I'm uncertain about, except to note that the DCs on the spell-like abilities are way way lower than on the supernatural abilities.
-Attack bonus far above the median, by 13 points(!). Power Attack fodder indeed, especially since this doesn't really suffer from iterative attack penalties. Combined with the number of attacks, this deals out a heck of a ton of damage, almost guaranteed- assuming a +10 bonus from Power Attack, we have
-2 claws deal an average of 35 damage each
-6 tentacles deal an average of 32 damage each
-4 tails deal an average of 28 damage each
That's around 270 damage per round, which is far more than pretty much anything I can think of. Is this intentional?

It has flight only as an at-will spell-like ability, which does not warrant a place in the stat block other than that it's usable.
The Vital Strike feat chain traditionally wouldn't be reflected in the stat block as it's own attack. Usually it's up to GMs using it to understand what it's capable of. That being said I can see why it could be included, for the sake of being user friendly. I might work on that.
The source material is what the ability is based on, which is already a really harsh ability. Even at higher levels, a lack of healing spells is REALLY crippling, and given the fact that most of this creature's attacks inflict it upon a large group of people, even it's short duration can absolutely kill a group of high level adventurers.
All the stats were designed to be the way they are in regards to the average for creatures of it's CR. I wanted to reflect that though it was entirely easy to lay an attack on it, it was going to take a LOT of hits to bring it down. Magic as well, hence the high saves.
As for attack and damage output, well, the source material would demand it. It can get hit easily and often for a CR 23 creature, but if you're close enough to hit it, it's close enough to hit you. And it will hit you. Bloodborne is an extremely unforgiving game, and this is the ultimate in unforgiving monsters. I also wanted it's brutal melee capability to be balanced out by the fact that it doesn't have any real ranged attacks.

Edit: Forgot a point you brought up. As far as saving throws for SLAs versus abilities, the SLAs are always based on the spell level they emulate. Abilities are based on the formula of 10+1/2 HD+Cha/Con modifier (at least in this instance, others are based on other ability scores. Since he has 30 HD, it's basically a saving throw for a 15th level spell DC.

[The Tygre]

Truly, only Krimm Blackleaf could be trusted to bring the holy writ of the Great Ones to this lowly forum.