The Eldrazi Titans (because planeshift: Zendikar was too dismissive)

[Aniikinis]

Welp, I finally read through Planeshift: Zendikar hoping to be able to take some juicy goodies from 5e back to 3.5 with some basic homebrewing only to find out that most of the good things were just given a brief "you can use this statblock" instead of actually making new things. To be fair I understand why, for the most part anyways, but then I got to the end and was hoping for the three things I've been wishing for. ...Just to find out that they used the "use these to represent them! :smallwink:" treatment instead of actually giving good rules for them. This brought me to a level of rage I haven't felt in awhile so I decided to do their job for them (begrudgingly, anyways) and stat out the titans myself.

This and the next few posts will have the three eldrazi titans as well as the Eldrazi subtype I created to help make sense of this insanity.

The Eldrazi Subtype:
Eldrazi Subtype: An eldrazi possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).

Darkvision out to 60 feet and low-light vision.
Immune to ability damage and drain, poison, petrification, polymorph spells, and the charmed condition.
Immune to nonlethal, divine, and vile damage.
Resistance to Fire 10
+6 racial bonus on Intimidate checks and a +4 racial bonus on Survival checks.
Devour (Ex.): All eldrazi suck the very life from the world around them and use this as sustenance. Eldrazi constantly emit an aura of blight(as the spell blight, save that it is constant effect that targets everything within the area of effect.) This manifests in the various forms based on the brood but all have the same effect.

Eldrazi share all of these traits, but all eldrazi have others that are determined by their brood:
Brood of Emrakul:

Resistance to Electricity 10
At least one tentacle attack but may have other forms of natural attacks.
Many have a flight speed of 30 feet (Average)
The area affected by Devour (Ex.) takes the appearance of flesh.

Brood of Kozilek:

Resistance to Acid 10
A crown of obsidian plates that grant a deflection bonus equal to the Charisma modifier of the creature or grant a bonus to their natural attacks that pierces all DR
All-around Vision
The area affected by Devour (Ex.) takes the appearance of iridescent, geometric patters reminiscent of bismuth.

Brood of Ulamog:

Resistance to Cold 10
At least two arms that bifurcate at the elbow and grant either one slam attack or 2 claw attacks per arm.
Eldrazi of Ulamog’s brood lineage have no eyes; they are immune to the blinded condition and have blindsight to a range of 30 feet.
The area affected by Devour (Ex.) takes the appearance of chalk dust.

[Aniikinis]

http://media.wizards.com/2016/images/daily/c4rd4r7_RKjhNfODcm.jpg

http://pm1.narvii.com/6453/d4f8379f8f3a6f31228fbd427fe3a56085ea9e81_hq.jpg

https://orig00.deviantart.net/ee22/f/2016/254/a/5/a52a13df7c96e58061d44ef7f2e7b94f-dah8k89.jpg

That's no Eldritch moon...

Emrakul
Colossal Aberration (Eldrazi, Emrakul, Extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 100d8+1750 (2200)
Initiative: +18
Speed: 5 ft. land speed, 120 ft. fly speed (average)
Armor Class: 75 (+10 Dex, +28 Natural,+35 Deflection, -8 Size), 47 touch , 65 flat-footed
Base Attack/Grapple: +70/+141
Attack: Psychic Scream, Mental Lash, or Tentacle +113
Full Attack: 200 Tentacles +113
Damage: Tentacle (2d8, 19/x2+1d6 and/or Die (Fort Negates: DC 115))
Space/Reach: 30 ft./ft./120 ft. reach
Special Attacks: Psychic Scream, Mental Lash, The Promised End, The Aeon's Torn
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Spawn, Immune to ability damage and drain, poison, petrification, polymorph spells, the charmed condition, and nonlethal, divine, and vile damage, devour (ex.), resistance to electricity 10, gravitational lensing, eldritch moon, annihilator 6, spell-like abilities DR 12/-
Saves: Fort +56, Ref +56, Will +62
Abilities: Str 120 (+55), Dex 30 (+10), Con 45 (17), Int 54 (+22), Wis 54 (+22), Cha 80 (+35)
Skills: Autohypnosis +125, Balance +113, Bluff +138, Concentration +120, Decipher Script +125, Escape Artist +113, Intimidate +144, Knowledge(Arcana) +125, Knowledge(Dungeoneering) +125, Knowledge(Geography) +125, Knowledge(History) +125, Knowledge(Local) +125, Knowledge(Nature) +125, Knowledge(Religion) +125, Knowledge(The Planes) +125, Listen +125, Ride +113, Search +125, Sense Motive +125, Sleight of Hand +113, Spellcraft +125, Spot +125, Survival +129, Swim +158
Feats: Endurance, Diehard, Flyby Attack, Improved Flyby Attack, Mobility, Dodge, Multiattack, Improved Multiattack, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Ability Focus(Psychic Scream), Ability Focus (Mental Lash), Snatch, Combat Reflexes, Improved Combat Reflexes, Blind fight, Hover, Hostile Mind, Improved Critical, Weapon Focus (Tentacle), Devastating Critical (Tentacle), Improved Initiative, Superior Initiative, Combat Casting, Eschew Materials, Ignore Material Components, Eyes in the Back of Your Head, Wingover, Psionic Hole, Damage Reduction x4
Environment: Blind Eternities
Organization: Horde (Emrakul and 1 million random aberrations with the eldrazi subtype and the Brood of Emrakul)
Challenge Rating: 75
Treasure: None
Alignment: True Neutral

To be typed...

To be typed...

Emrakul speaks Aklo.

COMBAT
Spell-like Abilities: At Will- Aberrate, Plane Shift, Expeditious Retreat, Dominate Monster, Dimensional Lock; 3/day- Baleful Polymorph; 2/day- Crushing Despair; 1/day- Animate City

Annihilator 6 (Ex): Whenever Emrakul attacks, if there are summoned creatures within the range of the attack, they must make a Will save (DC 45) or be banished back to their home plane. Each creature must roll the save until either six creatures have been banished or there are no longer any creatures to banish, whichever comes first.

Gravitational Lensing (Ex): Emrakul is unable to be targeted by spells with the fire, cold, electricity, negative, positive, acid, and sonic descriptors as well as spells with a casting time of less than a move action.

The Promised End (Ex): Emrakul may, as a standard action, give a dominated creature the ability to use Time Stop a single time. Emrakul must give up a use of Time Stop given by The Aeon's Torn.

The Aeon's Torn (Ex): Emrakul may use Time Stop once every 1d10+1 hours.

Eldritch Moon (/Ex): Emrakul's very presence warps the psyche and body of creatures. Each creature within 350 miles must make a will save (DC 15) every hour or become an aberration under the service of Emrakul. This DC is raised by +1 for every 25 miles closer to Emrakul. This is a polymorph effect.

Psychic Scream (Ex): As an attack action, Emrakul may unleash a powerful wave of energy that wracks the souls of all enemies. This acts as a breath weapon that deals 60d4 Sonic damage and 5d4 Wis, Cha, and Int damage with a range of 360 ft. and requires a Will save (DC 45) to avoid if you are an enemy to emrakul but that does not effect creatures on emrakul's side. This ability may only be used once ever 1d2 hours.

Mental Lash (Ex): As an attack action, Emrakul may target up to 200 creatures and force them to make a Will save (DC 28) or be under the effects of Energy Drain and Polar Ray, save that Polar Ray deals Electrical damage.

Devour (Ex.): All eldrazi suck the very life from the world around them and use this as sustenance. Eldrazi constantly emit an aura of blight(as the spell blight, save that it is constant effect that targets everything within the area of effect.) This manifests in the form of turing the very ground beneath Emrakul into what appears to be flesh.

[Aniikinis]

Reserved for Kozilek

[Aniikinis]

Reserved for Ulamog.

[nonsi]

.
For a long time now I've been puzzled about the purpose of creating such monstrosities.
Wouldn't it be simpler to just say "you're dead"? It's not like there's a big difference between +90 and +113, and no PC is gonna beat DC 115 ten times in a row (and that's not even the interesting stuff).

[Aniikinis]

I mainly have three reasons to do so, especially with the Eldrazi Titans.

1: It's fun. I love homebrewing creatures and races and for the longest time I've wanted to run a campaign with one or more of the titans as (an) end boss(es) or as the result of the PC's failing/completing their quest/mission/campaign/etc.

2: The inspiration is there, why not at least give it a shot? Sure it might come to be/accomplish nothing, but there is a certain satisfaction in knowing "I did this, I've created something that someone may use at some point in time. It might be long after I've withered away and become dust but there's always the chance."

3: It's good exercise. I find a certain feeling of accomplishment when I can look at a piece of fluff and come up with a mechanic to bring up to it. For example: the Eldrazi subtype, The Promised End and The Aeon's Torn abilities, a parasitic race I made a long time ago based off of the Neurax Worm from Plague Inc. and the Yeerks from Animorphs. None of these had actual established meanings beyond a certain design quality for cards, one off cards for a powerful creature, or basic ideas in a video game/book.

I'm doing this as a labour of love to the Magic: the Gathering game and to the entire fluff of the Zendikar plane within it. Sure it might mean nothing but I absolutely love the worldbuilding they've done and the feel of an encroaching terror or threat can add atmosphere to the campaign and the world it is set in. To be honest I and most people probably won't ever use these massive creature we make, but they're always there and if we feel we need or can use them in a situation we almost certainly will.

Emrakul will probably be used in a form like the Eldritch Moon set: A cult summons her to the plane/world and she begins to cause absolute havok among the minds and bodies of those within the area, needing a group of powerful characters to fight her and seal her away/banish her from the plane (if at best from the other side of the world...) to save everyone that they can and to protect all that they love.

[khadgar567]

I agree with you about zendrikar but brewing elder evils from plane is kinda dont make sense. where is the aether forged or aether using magic items aka the pieces the players use when they fight nicol bollas to twart dooms day plot

[Aniikinis]

I agree with you about zendrikar but brewing elder evils from plane is kinda dont make sense. where is the aether forged or aether using magic items aka the pieces the players use when they fight nicol bollas to twart dooms day plot
Ehhh, I have to disagree with you there, there have been two cards for each of the Eldrazi titans so far which, along with the fluff in the stories, paints a vivid picture of their power and the almost insurmountable challenge they pose. Additionally, aether is really only found in that form on Kaladesh and there have not been Aetherborn in any block before/after the Kaladesh block(as of this post), plus Nicol Bolas should really just be a Tiamatic Dragon with a single head and like 2-4 Divine Ranks with the ability to use Plane Shift At-Will. I'm not quite sure what you're getting at here since just about every item in magic could be easily ported to DnD if you gave a narrow-ish definition of what each colour represented in terms of spell descriptors, schools, types, etc. (No one say anything about them being tied to alignment, you all know that's completely wrong and doesn't fit well at all. Even Wizards said it was a bad idea for the Ravnica blocks and gave contradicting alignments.)

Honestly, the whole "Fight Bolas and Do Other Stuff" thing that the last few blocks have done just sounds like a campaign in 3.5 to me with the Jasetice league being the PCs and Bolas being the BBED that their campaign was leading up to fight.

[khadgar567]

my magic the gattering knowledge is kinda bad hell i hate that game if i have power zendrikar and eberon fuses and we have the magi tech punk setting of D&D

[Aniikinis]

my magic the gattering knowledge is kinda bad hell i hate that game if i have power zendrikar and eberon fuses and we have the magi tech punk setting of D&D

...Please learn grammar you're making my head hurt... I've played magic since the Odyssey Block back in '01 and I've always loved the worldbuilding. Also, no we wouldn't have the magitek punk setting of D&D, we'd have WWI Era tech mixed with magic suddenly thrust into a fractured world filled with monsters, insanity, and literal eldritch abominations with the people's barely surviving the horrific genocide led by the three lovecraftian god-like beings that I am attempting to stat out. You're thinking of Eberron(Not!Europe after WWI) and Kaladesh(Not!Magic!India) merging together into one Shadowrun-esque game of G&G (Guilds and Grafts).

[khadgar567]

...Please learn grammar you're making my head hurt... I've played magic since the Odyssey Block back in '01 and I've always loved the worldbuilding. Also, no we wouldn't have the magitek punk setting of D&D, we'd have WWI Era tech mixed with magic suddenly thrust into a fractured world filled with monsters, insanity, and literal eldritch abominations with the people's barely surviving the horrific genocide led by the three lovecraftian god-like beings that I am attempting to stat out. You're thinking of Eberron(Not!Europe after WWI) and Kaladesh(Not!Magic!India) merging together into one Shadowrun-esque game of G&G (Guilds and Grafts).
says who your writing is kinda lile mine its hard to understand. and i was gonna say kaladesh and eberon as fusion not zendrikar. though its kinda good idea which never gone day view unless wizard does the impossible and brew the content we want

[Aniikinis]

though its kinda good idea which never gone day view unless wizard does the impossible and brew the content we want

Wizards honestly doesn't give a flying crap about us and just wants our money, they're never gonna do that and they're gonna leave it to us so... Yeah...

[Quarian Rex]

For a long time now I've been puzzled about the purpose of creating such monstrosities.
Wouldn't it be simpler to just say "you're dead"? It's not like there's a big difference between +90 and +113, and no PC is gonna beat DC 115 ten times in a row (and that's not even the interesting stuff).

This. I get what you're doing but it needs to be playable, not just a useless pile of huge numbers. Everything is just scaled too damn high. Ever thought about amending the Eldrazi subtype to sat that they have a HP multiplier of two or three times? That way you could build something epic that would take the entire party (or city, or nation...) to their limit and still might have them lose the war of attrition.

Remember that the key things to consider when designing something on this scale are it's action economy (can it do enough stuff in a round to keep up with a party) and scope (is it a big enough threat to a large enough area that it cannot easily be contained?). Just throwing on arbitrarily high numbers is no different that saying. "Rocks fall, everyone dies".

That said, I actually kinda like what you're doing here. If you scaled it back to a point where it is no longer meaningless I think you could really have something here.

[rferries]

I think crafting big monsters is fine - you're not ordering anyone to use them, after all :) It's an amusing hobby for one's self and if someone actually uses them for an epic-level campaign, so much the better.

I will say, as an old-school MTG player (who hasn't touched anything since Odyssey), I don't recognize the current game at all. Indestructible? Playable Planeswalkers? Bah humbug! :D

[nonsi]

This. I get what you're doing but it needs to be playable, not just a useless pile of huge numbers. Everything is just scaled too damn high. Ever thought about amending the Eldrazi subtype to sat that they have a HP multiplier of two or three times? That way you could build something epic that would take the entire party (or city, or nation...) to their limit and still might have them lose the war of attrition.

Remember that the key things to consider when designing something on this scale are it's action economy (can it do enough stuff in a round to keep up with a party) and scope (is it a big enough threat to a large enough area that it cannot easily be contained?). Just throwing on arbitrarily high numbers is no different that saying. "Rocks fall, everyone dies".

That said, I actually kinda like what you're doing here. If you scaled it back to a point where it is no longer meaningless I think you could really have something here.


Yes. It all leads to the bolded part.
If one spends time inventing something and makes others spend time reading it and thinking about it, then one should at the very least attempt to make it functional, so that maybe something good can come out of all that time and energy spent on it. Otherwise it's all a waste of people's time.

[Aniikinis]

If one spends time inventing something and makes others spend time reading it and thinking about it, then one should at the very least attempt to make it functional, so that maybe something good can come out of all that time and energy spent on it. Otherwise it's all a waste of people's time.

That's sort of the problem with the balance at epic level though. The balance at those levels are hit and miss for the most part, and at the level that I would send these at my players they would be well equipped to deal with the upcoming insanity ahead of them. To say that these monsters can't be functional is to somewhat also dismiss the Godly Duel type of campaign of Epic Adventure: Fighting and possibly replacing the gods themselves in battles and through puzzles by striking their weaknesses and going after them in ways that they would not have prepared for immediately. Plus, Emrakul herself is easily defeated through an epic-level banish spell or through the use of an instant death effect (albeit that the Save DC would have to almost ridiculously large.)

[Quarian Rex]

That's sort of the problem with the balance at epic level though. The balance at those levels are hit and miss for the most part, and at the level that I would send these at my players they would be well equipped to deal with the upcoming insanity ahead of them. To say that these monsters can't be functional is to somewhat also dismiss the Godly Duel type of campaign of Epic Adventure: Fighting and possibly replacing the gods themselves in battles and through puzzles by striking their weaknesses and going after them in ways that they would not have prepared for immediately. Plus, Emrakul herself is easily defeated through an epic-level banish spell or through the use of an instant death effect (albeit that the Save DC would have to almost ridiculously large.)

I hear ya, and that's why no one plays epic. It's a game of rocket tag and the only players are those who have epic spellcasting. It becomes yet another game of arbitrary number stacking.

I would ask you to consider re-balancing this for something that can be used in a normal campaign. That is not to say that it can't be epicly ridiculous, just that it shouldn't be hand-wavingly impossible. Here are some thoughts because criticism needs to be constructive...

- Currently your Eldrazi is too small. Look at those pictures, 30' by 30' doesn't do it justice. Create a new size category (Colossal+ to keep it simple) where you can put an arbitrary spacing (within mild reason, like 100' by 100' or somesuch). Having a monster take up the majority of one side of the battlemap (without fully being on the board) is a great way to let the players know that they are in the sh*t.

- Set up facings so that only 1/4 of its total attacks can be used within a cone facing outward from a given side and reduce the total number of attacks to 40-60 (10-15 attacks per side) so the DM doesn't have to give up on rolling attacks and declare the PCs dead because he's tired.

- Add a hp multiplier to the Eldrazi subtype so that you can get to an appropriate HP total without requiring an unusable number of HD. Try keeping the HD around the 25 mark to prevent things from scaling to stupidly.

- To make up for the reduced number of attacks have all melee attacks affect a 5' AoE (check the to-hit once against everyone in the area) and do double damage to unattended objects. This way when attacking cities/crowds the carnage is exactly a devastating as you think it should be but delta force/adventuring parties don't have to die in one swipe (unless they're caught in a group hug).

- Lower the to-hit against small things. I'm talking something like -5 per size category starting at Colossal. Tweak it till it has about a +5 to 10 to hit medium characters. Commoners will mostly be wiped out in one hit (though some kids might be able to survive to become a plot hook), armored soldiers might have a 50% chance of not being squashed on the first hit and a fully decked out knight might be able to take a couple swipes. With 10 to 15 AoE hits coming down a round this has the effect you want without just saying 'the army's dead'. "What?!?", I hear you say, "That's insane, how is my eldritch horror supposed to show these pesky adventurers that they are nothing if he can't hit them?". That's because these attacks are just the Eldrazi swatting insects out of the way. When something draws its interest then...

- For every extra attack used on the same target you negate a size penalty (so 2 tentacles = +5 to hit, 3 tentacles = +10, etc.) but the attack only does one hit of damage (which for this guy is still going to be nuts). This lets hard targets (like the players) act as tanks (something that doesn't usually work very well in 3.P) because every extra tentacle used on them is an attack that isn't being used on someone else.

- The massive threatened area (120' or more) needs to be addressed. AoO are something to multiply the number of attacks in an area (justifying the lowered number of attacks) but would still follow the previous convention where multiple AoOs can be expended for a higher hit bonus. A lot of the combat is going to be happening away from the Eldrazi but it still needs to be engaging. Say that the tentacles can be attacked for one round after they make an attack as if they occupied the squares of their AoE. Each tentacle has 1/4 (or something like that, adjust to taste) of the Eldrazi's hp and half of all damage done to the tentacle is done to the main body as well. As tentacles are destroyed the Eldrazi can spend a full round action to change its facing, bringing a new set of tentacles to bear while simultaneously giving the party a small, well earned, breather. Fast healing (something you left out) would be applied to the body and tentacles separately so this is still no joke.

- For something like Eldritch Moon, draw those effects out. This is the sort of thing that can turn a campaign into a supernatural disaster movie instead of a hand-wave that says that the entire country has been annihilated before you can finish watching Lord of the Rings. If you're dealing with a radius of 350 miles then you can afford to start off "subtle". Say that it starts with a DC 5 made once per day. Not really a threat to the average adventurer but you will lose about 20% of the commoner population per day. That is an apocalypse that needs to be dealt with. For every 150 miles you are closer to the Eldrazi the DC goes up by 5 to a max of DC 15. Within 50 miles the save has to be made every hour. Escalating threat and coupled with a lowered movement rate of 20 (120 means this puppy can travel 96 miles a day, which is too damn much for an approaching apocalypse). MV 20 allows humans to outrun it so long as they're unburdened or don't hit difficult terrain.

- Stat up an actual template for the victims of Eldritch Moon (increasing the HD and such) and have them make Will saves (DC 15 or 20) every day or be forced to move to Emrakul at full speed, attacking anything in the way. Once within Emrakul's threatened range they must make another will save every round or be permanently dominated by the Eldrazi. Remove Dominate Monster from the normal spell-likes.


Those are some thoughts on how to turn this from an auto-death encounter (or worse, something that can be "easily defeated through an epic-level banish spell or through the use of an instant death effect") into a herald of its own apocalypse and changer of the setting while still leaving the potential of having a setting afterward.

Thoughts?

[Just to Browse]

I think the idea of this is actually pretty clever. I'd like to see a large set of accessible Eldrazi like Desolator Twin, Gravity Negator, Brood Butcher that a pre-epic party can beat on.

I'd prefer a less-direct translation of the cards, like just making Annihilator an SoD instead of putting a number on it. Makes Emrakul feel more like a monster and less like a gamepiece. I also recommend some Fast Healing / Regeneration thing (we saw this in one of the last EMN stories) and some kind of spellcasting in lieu of most of the SLAs

[rferries]

Agreed that it's more likely to see play if you reduce the stats, but just so long as it doesn't compromise your artistic vision.

Could you elaborate on Devour - does it still only affect plants (as blight)?

I note that your creation doesn't have immunity to mind-affecting, only charm effects. Time to make the unholy Lovercraftian abomination dance (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/irresistibleDance.htm)! :D

[Aniikinis]

I would ask you to consider re-balancing this for something that can be used in a normal campaign. That is not to say that it can't be epicly ridiculous, just that it shouldn't be hand-wavingly impossible. Here are some thoughts because criticism needs to be constructive...
Very understandable, I'd love to hear your ideas.


- Currently your Eldrazi is too small. Look at those pictures, 30' by 30' doesn't do it justice. Create a new size category (Colossal+ to keep it simple) where you can put an arbitrary spacing (within mild reason, like 100' by 100' or somesuch). Having a monster take up the majority of one side of the battlemap (without fully being on the board) is a great way to let the players know that they are in the sh*t.
Yeah, I was tempted to do that but I wasn't sure if I should.


- Set up facings so that only 1/4 of its total attacks can be used within a cone facing outward from a given side and reduce the total number of attacks to 40-60 (10-15 attacks per side) so the DM doesn't have to give up on rolling attacks and declare the PCs dead because he's tired.
Alright that seems reasonable.


- Add a hp multiplier to the Eldrazi subtype so that you can get to an appropriate HP total without requiring an unusable number of HD. Try keeping the HD around the 25 mark to prevent things from scaling to stupidly.
Again, very reasonable. Yeah, it's fairly obvious that the system was not tested (and if so, then not well...) beyond the 25-30 HD range.


- To make up for the reduced number of attacks have all melee attacks affect a 5' AoE (check the to-hit once against everyone in the area) and do double damage to unattended objects. This way when attacking cities/crowds the carnage is exactly a devastating as you think it should be but delta force/adventuring parties don't have to die in one swipe (unless they're caught in a group hug).
Will definitely be using this.


- Lower the to-hit against small things. I'm talking something like -5 per size category starting at Colossal. Tweak it till it has about a +5 to 10 to hit medium characters. Commoners will mostly be wiped out in one hit (though some kids might be able to survive to become a plot hook), armored soldiers might have a 50% chance of not being squashed on the first hit and a fully decked out knight might be able to take a couple swipes. With 10 to 15 AoE hits coming down a round this has the effect you want without just saying 'the army's dead'. "What?!?", I hear you say, "That's insane, how is my eldritch horror supposed to show these pesky adventurers that they are nothing if he can't hit them?". That's because these attacks are just the Eldrazi swatting insects out of the way. When something draws its interest then...
That certainly helps to tone down the insanity of epic numbers and I have a very good feeling that I'd enjoy seeing an adventurer with "I survived a direct hit by a tentacle from the eldritch horror that destroyed my city" as the backstory of an Aberration Hunter ranger.


- For every extra attack used on the same target you negate a size penalty (so 2 tentacles = +5 to hit, 3 tentacles = +10, etc.) but the attack only does one hit of damage (which for this guy is still going to be nuts). This lets hard targets (like the players) act as tanks (something that doesn't usually work very well in 3.P) because every extra tentacle used on them is an attack that isn't being used on someone else.
Will be using this, without a doubt.


- The massive threatened area (120' or more) needs to be addressed. AoO are something to multiply the number of attacks in an area (justifying the lowered number of attacks) but would still follow the previous convention where multiple AoOs can be expended for a higher hit bonus. A lot of the combat is going to be happening away from the Eldrazi but it still needs to be engaging. Say that the tentacles can be attacked for one round after they make an attack as if they occupied the squares of their AoE. Each tentacle has 1/4 (or something like that, adjust to taste) of the Eldrazi's hp and half of all damage done to the tentacle is done to the main body as well. As tentacles are destroyed the Eldrazi can spend a full round action to change its facing, bringing a new set of tentacles to bear while simultaneously giving the party a small, well earned, breather. Fast healing (something you left out) would be applied to the body and tentacles separately so this is still no joke.
You make a very good point here, and I will definitely add this.


- For something like Eldritch Moon, draw those effects out. This is the sort of thing that can turn a campaign into a supernatural disaster movie instead of a hand-wave that says that the entire country has been annihilated before you can finish watching Lord of the Rings. If you're dealing with a radius of 350 miles then you can afford to start off "subtle". Say that it starts with a DC 5 made once per day. Not really a threat to the average adventurer but you will lose about 20% of the commoner population per day. That is an apocalypse that needs to be dealt with. For every 150 miles you are closer to the Eldrazi the DC goes up by 5 to a max of DC 15. Within 50 miles the save has to be made every hour. Escalating threat and coupled with a lowered movement rate of 20 (120 means this puppy can travel 96 miles a day, which is too damn much for an approaching apocalypse). MV 20 allows humans to outrun it so long as they're unburdened or don't hit difficult terrain.
Very good points here and I'll be adding/modifying things to apply this as well.


- Stat up an actual template for the victims of Eldritch Moon (increasing the HD and such) and have them make Will saves (DC 15 or 20) every day or be forced to move to Emrakul at full speed, attacking anything in the way. Once within Emrakul's threatened range they must make another will save every round or be permanently dominated by the Eldrazi. Remove Dominate Monster from the normal spell-likes.
This is a very good idea and I will definitely create a template to do this as well.


I'd prefer a less-direct translation of the cards, like just making Annihilator an SoD instead of putting a number on it. Makes Emrakul feel more like a monster and less like a game piece. I also recommend some Fast Healing / Regeneration thing (we saw this in one of the last EMN stories) and some kind of spellcasting in lieu of most of the SLAs
Yeah, I understand, I'll work up a new mechanic for annihilator (probably will make it an SoD). I was thinking giving it regen/fast healing would be overkill, but to be fair this is an Elder Evil. And, yeah, I really should give Wizard spellcasting (probably level 20) in place of those.


Could you elaborate on Devour - does it still only affect plants (as blight)?
I thought I did elaborate on it but apparently that was only in my notes because I forgot to type it out... :smallredface: But, to put it simply, no. It affects all non-creature plant life within range as well as the very ground beneath it, however it does not affect creatures.


I note that your creation doesn't have immunity to mind-affecting, only charm effects. Time to make the unholy Lovercraftian abomination dance (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/irresistibleDance.htm)! :D
Just gonna point out, that's the reason why I didn't put mind-affecting in there. The image of a giant, world-eating jellyfish monster tap(swish? :smallwink:) dancing with a top hat the size of Africa and a cane the size of the empire state building held in a quadrillion tentacles was too good to resist.

[Holya]

If you have access to dragonmech a 3.5e splatbook they may have the sizes you want. After all I think this is about as large as a city mech in all honesty.

[selunesmom]

Thanks on behalf of my DM. We're doing a beyond epic level, ridiculously high powered game (lowest PC attributes in the party are in the mid 80's) and eldritch monstrosities for our BBEG to use as minions are helpful.

Emrakul and company will be more of a fight than Cthulu, Dagon and a few others were.

[noob]

The current titan is not that much threatening for a CR 75 thing.
if the epic party survived against regular epic monsters such as the gibbering orb it probably means that the adventurers already got impossible to disjunct immunity to the following things: death effects,transmutation,mind effecting,poison,implosion,elemental damage and a bunch of other things I forgot.(or got a way to reroll all the ones and to have crazy saves and immunity to elemental damage but it is harder to get that than to get all the immunities I mentioned(go immortal now!))
Yes the gibbering orb makes your elzadri titan look like a kitten.
And people who can beat a gibbering orb can probably beat your titan.(but people who can beat a gibbering orb are not just people who got 27 levels: It is probably people who got 27 levels and became necropolitans and found ways to somehow get extra immunities)

[Aniikinis]

Thanks on behalf of my DM. We're doing a beyond epic level, ridiculously high powered game (lowest PC attributes in the party are in the mid 80's) and eldritch monstrosities for our BBEG to use as minions are helpful.

Emrakul and company will be more of a fight than Cthulu, Dagon and a few others were.

Sorry to say that it's going to be a little while before I can continue on with these. I was a little too ambitious and I'm going to design more creatures before I continue with this project. I don't feel like I'm completely ready to undertake this (not to mention that over 90% of the work done on the project so far was when I was half-asleep...). Sorry for getting your hopes up, at least for the time being.


The current titan is not that much threatening for a CR 75 thing.
if the epic party survived against regular epic monsters such as the gibbering orb it probably means that the adventurers already got impossible to disjunct immunity to the following things: death effects,transmutation,mind effecting,poison,implosion,elemental damage and a bunch of other things I forgot.(or got a way to reroll all the ones and to have crazy saves and immunity to elemental damage but it is harder to get that than to get all the immunities I mentioned(go immortal now!))
Yes the gibbering orb makes your elzadri titan look like a kitten.
And people who can beat a gibbering orb can probably beat your titan.(but people who can beat a gibbering orb are not just people who got 27 levels: It is probably people who got 27 levels and became necropolitans and found ways to somehow get extra immunities)

Yeah, fully aware of that. My mind was stuck on the CR and I just put a random number down to call it good. Because I don't have good decision making skills when I get off of work.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

Emrakul
1) Lacks spell resistance so it (relatively) easily dies to spells. Most dangerous spells aren't targeted in any case.
2) Its strongest abilities are [Ex] so anyone immune to non-magical harm - such as all incorporeal creatures and wizards turned into incorporeal creatures - will ignore them.
3) Its good options are too limited. Why Time Stop every few hours, for example? At its level, Timestop several times per round is expected.
4) Emrakul never struck me as someone relying on physical harm. Instead of giving the tentacles instant-death, give them a harmful reality-warping effect. I.e. creatures struck must make their save or suffer a harmful Wish of Emrakul's choice. That could be anything, from permanent curses, to being warped into another creature type, to being turned to stone, feebleminded, mind-controlled, to being sent to another plane of existence.
5) Is vulnerable to mundane damage. PCs can find ways to nuke targets with tens of thousands of damage per round, as long as it's relatively mundane damage. So give it immunity to such attacks to avoid the Squirrel incident - i.e. that Emrakul could die to an enemy that has summoned enough squirrels.

[JoshuaZ]

To be clear about Annihilator, a creature keeps trying to make the save from the same attack, so if say the creature is the only summoned creature it just keeps rolling until it fails? That seems a bit unfun, maybe let a creature be able to stop if makes save three saves?

Also, it seems weird that Emrakul isn't psionic given that it has "Psychic Scream", "Mental Lash" and ranks in Autohypnosis. Granted it has the Psionic Hole feat. But the Eldrazi are supposed to be weird and other-wordly, so I think it might make sense to make it psionic despite having Psionic Hole (and explicitly say that it does so) and then give it a few psionic bonus feats. Psionic Fist and and Psionic Meditation would be obvious ones. Just a thought.

[Aniikinis]

1) Lacks spell resistance so it (relatively) easily dies to spells. Most dangerous spells aren't targeted in any case.
2) Its strongest abilities are [Ex] so anyone immune to non-magical harm - such as all incorporeal creatures and wizards turned into incorporeal creatures - will ignore them.
3) Its good options are too limited. Why Time Stop every few hours, for example? At its level, Timestop several times per round is expected.
4) Emrakul never struck me as someone relying on physical harm. Instead of giving the tentacles instant-death, give them a harmful reality-warping effect. I.e. creatures struck must make their save or suffer a harmful Wish of Emrakul's choice. That could be anything, from permanent curses, to being warped into another creature type, to being turned to stone, feebleminded, mind-controlled, to being sent to another plane of existence.
5) Is vulnerable to mundane damage. PCs can find ways to nuke targets with tens of thousands of damage per round, as long as it's relatively mundane damage. So give it immunity to such attacks to avoid the Squirrel incident - i.e. that Emrakul could die to an enemy that has summoned enough squirrels.


To be clear about Annihilator, a creature keeps trying to make the save from the same attack, so if say the creature is the only summoned creature it just keeps rolling until it fails? That seems a bit unfun, maybe let a creature be able to stop if makes save three saves?

Also, it seems weird that Emrakul isn't psionic given that it has "Psychic Scream", "Mental Lash" and ranks in Autohypnosis. Granted it has the Psionic Hole feat. But the Eldrazi are supposed to be weird and other-wordly, so I think it might make sense to make it psionic despite having Psionic Hole (and explicitly say that it does so) and then give it a few psionic bonus feats. Psionic Fist and and Psionic Meditation would be obvious ones. Just a thought.

I'll definitely take these into consideration, along with the other bits of advice, when I return to continue on this project.

[JoshuaZ]

I really strongly agree with Belial's points. I'm going to make a few minor additional suggestions:

Rend the Veil(ex): All of Emrakul's natural attacks and (ex) abilities are treated as effecting incorporeal creatures as if they were corporeal.

Also given that the Eldrazi are supposed to be consuming the world in some way I'd suggest adding to Annihilator something like "For every creature banished this way, Emrakul gains 1d6 temporary hit points with an additional 1 hit point for every hit die the banished being had. These temporary hit points last 1 hour and stack with each other but not with other sources of temporary hit points.

Also, since it appears that it is going in the final version to be pretty heavily casting reliant I suggest:

Whenever Emrakul either banishes or destroys a summoned being (whether through its Annihilator ability or through other means such as a natural attack), Emrakul may recover a spell slot or prepared spell of level strictly lower than the level of the effect that summoned the being.

[noob]

give it immunity to such attacks to avoid the Squirrel incident - i.e. that Emrakul could die to an enemy that has summoned enough squirrels.

Well in magic the gathering you can kill Emrakul with 15 squirrels that got banding.
I do not see why would you decide that in dnd 3.5 somehow Emrakul would get squirrel proof.