Deadly things in fine packages [MONSTERS] Please read and comment.

[Katasi]

Gyriac Beetle
Fine Aberration
HD: 2d8-2 (10)
Speed: 5 ft. (1 squares); Fly 20 ft. (good)
Init: +6
AC: 18; touch 14; flat-footed 12
(+8 Size, +6 Dex, +4 Natural )
BAB/Grp: +1/-15
Attack:Bite +1 (1)
Full-Attack: Bite: +1
Space/Reach: 1/2 ft./0
Special Attacks: Poison(Ex), Stinger Shot 2/day (Ex), Spell-Like Abilities
Special Qualities: Disappear (Ex), Spell Resistance +19, Psionic Resistance +9, See Invisibility, Greater Darkvision 60', Immunity to Fire and Poison, Light Sensitivity
Saves Fort -1 Ref +6 Will +4
Abilities: Str 1, Dex 22, Con 9, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 12
Skills: Hide +30, Bluff +5, Sense Motive +5, Spot +5
Feats: Improved Natural Armor
Environment: Caves
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: Standard gems
Alignment: Usually Neutral Evil
Advancement: -
Level Adjustment: You cannot, will not, and MAY NOT play a Gryiac character. (If your DM allows it LA +10)

Gryiacs speak Undercommon, Terran, Common, and Draconic but seldom do so.

Due to it's ability to get onto a person and even under their armor, a attack from a Gryiac is considered to be flat-footed and may be a touch attack (DM's decision)

Poison (Ex)
A Gryiac has both a poisonous bite and two poisonous stingers. A Gyriac's poison deals initial and secondary damage of 1d8 Con. The save DC is 10. The save DC is CON based

Stinger Shot
Twice a day a Gryiac can launch one of it's poisonous stingers, the stinger has a range increment of 5 feet and deals 1 point of damage on impact. A Gryiac's metabolism is able to replace both lost stingers if he Gyriac rests for 8 hours.

Spell-Like Abilities
Hold Monster 3/day, Charm 3/day, Blindness/Deafness 3/day

Disapear (Ex)
A Gyriac can use the Hide skill even while being observed. Doing so is a free-action that does not provoke an attack-of-opportunity. Their coloring as well as a tiny bit of shiftablity in their pigmentation allows them to blend easily into most natural surfaces nad most surfaces made of natural materials. They take a -6 to their hide check while flying.

Greater Darkvision
A Gryiac can see in utter darkness for 60 ft. This ability works even in magical darkness.

Light Sensitivity: Gyriac are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.

The Gyriac Beetle is well known as the bane of spelunkers everywhere. A beetle, totally unnoticable, until they attack. Even then most victims of a Gyriac never even see their killer. If someone where to capture one and look it it under a magnifying glass they would find it is an inconsequential looking insect, with two dark black patches located in line behind it's head. Gryiacs are fiercely territorial, and kill anything that comes into their territory, which can include up to a mile of caverns. This includes all other Gryiacs. The female Gryiac grows mature eggs once in her lifetime. After mating she kills her mate. She lays half her eggs in his territory, and half in hers before dying afterwards. The eggs are left to fend for themselves, not hard considering they are toxic to anyone who eats them. Their poison is equal to that of a hatched Gryiac. Gryiacs hatch full grown from their eggs. When the eggs hatch the newborn Gryiacs are seperated into two types. The normal Gryiacs stay and fight eachother for the territory until only one is left in each. The more gifted ones run off into the darkness and hide. These become Gryiac Mages or Killers (See Below). the average Gryiac lives for 80 years before mating and dying.


Gyriac Mage, 10th level Wizard
Fine Magical Beast
HD: 2d8-2+10d4-10 (20)
Speed: 5 ft. (1 squares); Fly 20 ft. (good)
Init:+8
AC: 20; touch 14; flat-footed 12
(+8 Size, +8 Dex, +4 Natural )
BAB/Grp: +6/+1 /-9
Attack:Bite +9 (1)
Full-Attack: Bite: +9/+4 (1/1)
Space/Reach: 1/2 ft./0
Special Attacks:Poison(Ex), Stinger Shot 2/day (Ex), Spell-Like Abilities
Special Qualities: Disappear (Ex), Spell Resistance +19, Psionic Resistance +9, See Invisibility, Greater Darkvision 60', Immunity to Fire and Poison, Light Sensitivity
Saves: Fort +2 Ref +11 Will +11
Abilities: Str 1, Dex 26, Con 9, Int 22, Wis 15, Cha 14
Skills: Hide +34, Bluff +17, Sense Motive +17, Spot +17, Knowledge: Arcana +20, Spellcraft +20, Decipher Script +20, Use Magic Device +17, Knowledge: Dungeoneering +14
Feats: Improved Natural Armor, Spell Penetration, Improved Counterspell, Silent Spell, Quicken Spell, Empower Spell, Spell Mastery (Magic Missile, Protection from Good, Dispel Magic, Darkness, Major Image, Fireball)
Environment: Caves
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 16
Treasure: Double gems, Half Magic Items
Alignment: Usually Neutral Evil
Advancement: By Character Class; Proffered Class: WIzard
Level Adjustment: You cannot, will not, and MAY NOT play a Gryiac character. (If your DM allows it LA +10)

Gryiac Mages speak Undercommon, Terran, Common, Infernal, and Draconic but seldom do so.

Due to it's ability to get onto a person and even under their armor, a bite attack from a Gryiac is considered to be flat-footed and may be a touch attack (DM's decision)

Poison (Ex)
A Gryiac has both a poisonous bite and two poisonous stingers. A Gyriac's poison deals initial and secondary damage of 1d8 Con. The save DC is 10. The save DC is CON based

Stinger Shot
Twice a day a Gryiac can launch one of it's poisonous stingers, the stinger has a range increment of 5 feet and deals 1 point of damage on impact. A Gryiac's metabolism is able to replace both lost stingers if he Gyriac rests for 8 hours.

Spell-Like Abilities
Hold Monster 3/day, Charm 3/day, Blindness/Deafness 3/day

Disapear (Ex)
A Gyriac can use the Hide skill even while being observed. Doing so is a free-action that does not provoke an attack-of-opportunity. Their coloring as well as a tiny bit of shiftablity in their pigmentation allows them to blend easily into most natural surfaces nad most surfaces made of natural materials. They take a -6 to their hide check while flying.

Greater Darkvision
A Gryiac can see in utter darkness for 60 ft. This ability works even in magical darkness.

Light Sensitivity: Gyriac are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.

A Gyriac Mage is, if that's possible, more deadly than a Gyriac. They are possibly the deadliest creatures to be found underground. They tend to plan their actions very carefully, and often create plots spanning nations or even entire planes. They can even be found quite alot outside of their natural cave homes, using their ability to cast and see in darkness to negate their problems with sunlight. The do not specialize, they prefer to be able to cast every spell they can find. Always preparing for any event, they get spell mastery for the spells they think might best help them escape from capture or captivity, should it ever come, unlikely as it is.

This is my first attempt at monsters, what do you all think? I'll do the Gyriac Killer tomorrow. It'll basically be made in a similar way to Gyriac Mage, only with slightly different stats, and Rogue and possibly assasin levels.

[EvilElitest]

Wow, that is kind of scary. One of my players is afraid of bugs, so you have just given them hell

But are they intellegent? Just a little confused. Are their mages able to commucate with human via spells ect.
from,
EE

[JackMage666]

Stupid slow server... See below.

[JackMage666]

It's a bit much... No real balance issues, but fluff wise, it's kinda eh...

CR is a bit really high. It seems more like a CR 4 or so. Yeah, they're good at hiding, but that does nothing against AoE spells, and they still need something to hide behind.

Their natural armor is way too high, though. I mean, unless it's shell is made of steel, in order to be fine it would need a mighty thin shell.

Lastly, the poison base DC is 14? That seems high, normally it's 10+Con mod, or 10+1/2 HD+Con mod.

[Katasi]

Wow, that is kind of scary. One of my players is afraid of bugs, so you have just given them hell

But are they intellegent? Just a little confused. Are their mages able to commucate with human via spells ect.
from,
EE

Yes, they are intellegent, though as for contact with humans, they'd need spells that can either pass the language barrier or the human needs to speak one of their languages, or they need to change from one of the normal languages taken by the species to common or something more commonly found like that. The prolly in the end will have one less language than I've given them now, but I haven't decided wether I want them to speak terran or undercommon as their "natural" language... or possibly give them a language of their own. So they are kinda restricted as far as language-dependant spells, since their languages are semi-rare. But I gave them lanaguages I figured they'd come accross often in their natural habitat. Though possibly dwarven would be better than draconic, though I figured draconic would fit in well with their semi-magical. I've already decided that these didn't happen on their own, I am debating wether they are the work of an evil god or a powerful evil wizard. So in answer, yes they are intelligent and can communitcate if they choose to, they just don't normally like talking.


It's a bit much... No real balance issues, but fluff wise, it's kinda eh...

CR is a bit really high. It seems more like a CR 4 or so. Yeah, they're good at hiding, but that does nothing against AoE spells, and they still need something to hide behind.

Their natural armor is way too high, though. I mean, unless it's shell is made of steel, in order to be fine it would need a mighty thin shell.

Lastly, the poison base DC is 14? That seems high, normally it's 10+Con mod, or 10+1/2 HD+Con mod.

They are definatly higher than CR 4. I used Vorpal Tribble's method of determining CR as a base, plus a little freehand. As for their fluff, please give some leeway on that, it was written after roughly 24 hours awake, lol. I'm going to work on improving it, [B]alot[/B.]. A note on their hidding, their disappear ability is something like a mix between camoflague and hide in plain sight (see the ranger class for descriptions of both.) basically they don't need to hide behind anything cause they can blend in with most surfaces. I have decided though that they should take a -6 on the check while flying though. Also notably and intentionally they are immune to one of the first good AoE spells that become availibe, fireball.

Thinking about it the shell is a bit to hard. [Though specifically speaking these thigns have both and exoskeleton AND a shell, both of which provide Natural Armor.] I'm thinking +1 natural armor, beetles naturally are much tougher to squish than most insects.

I didn't know for sure how poison DCs where done, thank you I think I'll go with the second option. (The poison really isn't meant to be hard for fighter type s to avoid, it's mostly meant to take casters down and take them down quick, preferably in the first or second round of combat by using stinger shot. This gets rid of area of effect spells. Then they just land ON the fighter and start bitting and spelling away.)

I think I may have something wrong with their touch AC, does the size modifier work into it at all,or not? If so I think they both need to be icrease, if not then just the mag's does [since has has an extra +1 to his DEX, if I'm not getting confused.]

[Psionic Dog]

I suppose the CR should be more than 4, but only because tradition methods of killing stuff won't work on this thing. In fact, I'd give a 2nd level fighter 50/50 odds or better of killing a normal if the fighter knew what was coming. (Great fortitude + blind fight + big weapon. Fighter attacks his own square until he hits. 2 hits = dead Gyriac.)

In fact, a L7 Barbarian is invulnerable to basic Gyriacs. The beetles may die hard, but they don't deal enough damage to or have enough health to be more than CR 5. No, make that CR 6, because any class levels will instantly make this thing better.

The L10 Wizard Gyriac is a challenge, but an ECL 16 party should still best it the same way: locate, then melee/smash. Keep everyone alive until then.

Also, the LA should be higher. No monster has ECL equal to or less than the CR. A LA+6 might work, but I would recomend an LA+8 or even +10LA in the spirit of "Do not let anyone play this"

Otherwise I like the concept of a little tough critter that's hard to find.

[Katasi]

I suppose the CR should be more than 4, but only because tradition methods of killing stuff won't work on this thing. In fact, I'd give a 2nd level fighter 50/50 odds or better of killing a normal if the fighter knew what was coming. (Great fortitude + blind fight + big weapon. Fighter attacks his own square until he hits. 2 hits = dead Gyriac.)

In fact, a L7 Barbarian is invulnerable to basic Gyriacs. The beetles may die hard, but they don't deal enough damage to or have enough health to be more than CR 5. No, make that CR 6, because any class levels will instantly make this thing better.

The L10 Wizard Gyriac is a challenge, but an ECL 16 party should still best it the same way: locate, then melee/smash. Keep everyone alive until then.

Also, the LA should be higher. No monster has ECL equal to or less than the CR. A LA+6 might work, but I would recomend an LA+8 or even +10LA in the spirit of "Do not let anyone play this"

Otherwise I like the concept of a little tough critter that's hard to find.

Hmm, true, I was just guestimating at the LA so thank you, I agree, LA 10 sounds much nicer. I suppose you're right, CR 6 and 16 sound about right. though technically I think it should be 6 and 17 [the one uses the elite array, the other doesn't].

I'm debating about changing their poison a bit, or givin gthem a second type for their stinger shot. The new poison I'm thinking about would drain magical energy in a target. I'm debating about having it do say 1d12 levels of damage to magical energy as initial and secondary damage [i.e.it drains an amount of spell levels eqqual to the roll.] or just having it cut spellcasting completely on a failed save, sort of a personal antimagic field injected into the target. Or combining one of the options and 1d8 CON damage as secondary damage. What do people think? Or is it better to leave it as is?