Kioran
2007-08-27, 03:30 PM
Hi!
In my Core campaign, IŽve run into a problem of sorts: Most of my favorite encounters (humanoid NPCs with class levels) are totally slaughtered, repeatedly and easily through the application of TashaŽs hideous laughter and other Will Save-or-dies. While this, in and of itself, is not much of a problem, IŽd like to use some Encounters the Gray-elf Bat-man twinkie wonŽt steamroll in one go.
Apart from some options (like giant Spiders), especially Undead have called my attention to them: Our ranger has them as favored enemies, plus, they can be quite fearsome and creepy if used correctly.
Now I like my challenges to be difficult to size up initially, at least without some serious analysis of the situation, mainly to prevent metagaming. So I thought about simply advancing Skeletons and Zombies. However, they seem to be the only monsters who are not meant to be advanced in any way.
Why is that so? Does it make sense to you? And what would you do? I figured 3 HD/CR for Skellies and 4 HD/CR for zombies, but then, that might be a little off. As for improvement: allthough they get no Feats, iŽd like to improve their natural Armor as is theyŽd taken all their Feats in "Improve natural armor" to toughen them up. Do you think it would unbalance gameplay?
In my Core campaign, IŽve run into a problem of sorts: Most of my favorite encounters (humanoid NPCs with class levels) are totally slaughtered, repeatedly and easily through the application of TashaŽs hideous laughter and other Will Save-or-dies. While this, in and of itself, is not much of a problem, IŽd like to use some Encounters the Gray-elf Bat-man twinkie wonŽt steamroll in one go.
Apart from some options (like giant Spiders), especially Undead have called my attention to them: Our ranger has them as favored enemies, plus, they can be quite fearsome and creepy if used correctly.
Now I like my challenges to be difficult to size up initially, at least without some serious analysis of the situation, mainly to prevent metagaming. So I thought about simply advancing Skeletons and Zombies. However, they seem to be the only monsters who are not meant to be advanced in any way.
Why is that so? Does it make sense to you? And what would you do? I figured 3 HD/CR for Skellies and 4 HD/CR for zombies, but then, that might be a little off. As for improvement: allthough they get no Feats, iŽd like to improve their natural Armor as is theyŽd taken all their Feats in "Improve natural armor" to toughen them up. Do you think it would unbalance gameplay?