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View Full Version : Mummy without mummy rot as a PC?



Adumbration
2008-01-15, 01:18 AM
What would the LA be then? Usually a mummy PC has 8 HD and 5 LA. How much would the LA be reduced if you took mummy rot out? It's basically useless for a mummy PC.

(Yes, it was the picture in Savage Species that did it. Now I want to play a mummy, some day.)

RTGoodman
2008-01-15, 01:37 AM
I'm not expert, but I think it might drop it to maybe LA +2 or +3 LA or so. Look what all you get:

-Pros: 8 HD and all that entails; +10 NA; natural attack; despair special ability; DR 5/--; undead traits (some are good, I guess); +14 Str, +4 Wis, +4 Cha.

-Cons: the bad parts of undead HD (which is most of them); reduced speed (20 feet base land speed); no Con, -4 Int; some bad undead traits; vulnerability to fire.


Still pretty good without the mummy rot, but not nearly as destructive. Especially since the big Str would put you in a natural position as a melee character, but the lack of a Con score (and therefore bonus HP) puts you behind. For a melee Cleric, though, seems like it could be pretty good, despite losing a billion spellcasting levels.

Adumbration
2008-01-15, 02:09 AM
They also get "Resistant to blows," which basically halves the damage from all physical attacks. Before administering damage reduction. In my opinion it compensates well for no constitution. The no constitution score thing is pretty much why I'd like to reduce the LA - the more hitdice per level, the better. :smallsmile:

Also, I simply love the fact that if the mummy is destroyed, it is possible to raise him as alive with a Resurrection or True Resurrection.

JackMage666
2008-01-15, 02:19 AM
Probably something more like 8 HD, +3 LA... They don't get casting for the HD, do they?

Adumbration
2008-01-15, 02:24 AM
Nope. Just what rtg said, plus simple weapon proficiency.

RandomFellow
2008-01-15, 02:27 AM
Mummy Rot isn't a 'combat power boost' but an 'extra damage post-combat if PCs failed save, requiring them to burn some resources'.

It shouldn't reduce the LA at all.

The Glyphstone
2008-01-15, 05:58 AM
Where does this "Resistant to Blows" ability come from?

Grynning
2008-01-15, 06:15 AM
You may want to pick up Libris Mortis for this. It has the various Undead presented as Savage Species style progressions, which, while not ideal, is preferable to the level-adjustment mechanics, and allows you to use them at lower levels.

The_Snark
2008-01-15, 06:17 AM
It's an ability mummies had in 3.0. Looks like they were a lot tougher back then...

Random is probably right. Mummy rot is of very little use to a player character; the only use is to inconvenience recurring enemies. Therefore, losing it shouldn't really get you anything.

If you dropped it, you could maybe reduce it to LA +4 rather than +5, simply because the mummy isn't a terribly strong monster for its LA, but keep in mind that's making the mummy better as a class, and make sure your DM is okay with that.

Adumbration
2008-01-15, 10:03 AM
Is Savage Species a 3.0 book? That's strange: I have it as a PDF and it says on the icon that it is a 3.5e book...

Anyway. By your logic the mummy rot should have no effect on LA. Do you think that the creators of mummy thought so?

"Yeah, and let's add a lethal magic disease to this creature."
"Yeah, sure. Uh, you think we should up the LA a bit?"
"Nah, it's not good enough ability to earn another point of LA."
"Yeah, you're probably right."

Somehow I doubt that. I think that the creators added the Mummy Rot to LA, simply to balance it out. Without Mummy Rot, there's no need for at least 1 more LA. Heck, in the Savage Species table of mummy progression, there's a whole single level without nothing else but getting the Mummy Rot ability at will.

daggaz
2008-01-15, 10:37 AM
If its just the fluffness you are going after, you should drop the gigantic strength bonus as well. Seriously, losing mummy rot and +14 to str outta drop your LA considerably. And anyways, that str bonus is just there to beef them up against a party of PC's really (yeah ok and in the old stories mummies are also incredibly strong, but...)

So bring it down to +2 str or something, and you are still pretty doing pretty good.

Idea Man
2008-01-15, 12:11 PM
If you decide to go with a no-mummy rot, lowered strength version, try the juju zombie template from the FR Unapprochable East suppliment, then wrap him up. All the goodness of a dessicated body, without the racial HD to struggle through.

As a side note for DMs, never send your party against a mummy not in its funeral wrappings. They'll cry foul faster than you can blink. :smalltongue: Boy, it sure was a funny fight, though.

"Since when do zombies get a fear aura?!"
"Hey it's moving pretty fast!"
"OW!! This thing hits hard!"
"Whaddya mean 'roll Fort'?!?"

RandomFellow
2008-01-15, 12:39 PM
Is Savage Species a 3.0 book? That's strange: I have it as a PDF and it says on the icon that it is a 3.5e book...

Anyway. By your logic the mummy rot should have no effect on LA. Do you think that the creators of mummy thought so?

"Yeah, and let's add a lethal magic disease to this creature."
"Yeah, sure. Uh, you think we should up the LA a bit?"
"Nah, it's not good enough ability to earn another point of LA."
"Yeah, you're probably right."

Somehow I doubt that. I think that the creators added the Mummy Rot to LA, simply to balance it out. Without Mummy Rot, there's no need for at least 1 more LA. Heck, in the Savage Species table of mummy progression, there's a whole single level without nothing else but getting the Mummy Rot ability at will.

Mummy Rot is part of the CR. If they treated it as part of the LA they are even worse than the guy who made the Shining Blade of Heironus. A class that is so bad, even the CharOp people can't find a way to make it usable without weakening the character.

However, most likely, it was simply to fill in a 'dead' level they needed to put into the mummy. WotC designers prefer to give something in as many levels as possible to make something look 'nice' even if it is not mechanically sound.

Your free to disagree but a lethal disease that comes into effect AFTER THE FIGHT is of little value to a PC unless your using it to kill recurring BBEGs before their time. In which case, the DM will most likely have the good sense to have the disease removed (either via item purchase or fudging the fort save).

Adumbration
2008-01-15, 01:24 PM
Here's how the mummy rot progresses at mummy's monster class:

5th level: Mummy rot 1/day, +2 Cha. No hitdice, no skillpoint progression.
8th level: Mummy rot 3/day, skill points and hitdice.
12th level: Mummy rot at will, hitdice, but no skill points.

Well I'll be damned. (Pun intended.) I was wrong about the dead level: it gets hitdice after all. Still, if mummy rot is taken away, it would leave 2 levels with absolutely nothing special about them, which is kinda sad.

What draws me mostly towards mummies is the roleplaying potential they have. Spending hundreds of years locked in a coffin with nothing else to do but pound on the door? Fun with chaotic neutral/good! And before that, getting ritually punished by forgotten desert god? It's hunting season of gods!

Waking the party arcane caster in the morning with your ugly visage inches away from his face, unbreathing? Priceless! :smallbiggrin:

I also kinda like the crunch of the unstoppable killing machine (WITHOUT the wrappings). Resistant to blows, +10 natural armor AND damage resistance 5/-? Yes, please!

The only fly in the soup is the Mummy rot, which is kinda obsolete with PCs and annoying for DMs. Why not get rid of it for a slightly kinder monster class progression?

The_Snark
2008-01-15, 03:09 PM
Savage Species was written shortly before 3.5 was, so it uses some of 3.5's concepts—all monsters gain feats every 3 levels, for example, instead of the 3.0 system of varying how many feats monsters got based on type.

But it still has a lot of 3.0 elements, especially the monster stats. All the damage reduction provided for the monster classes is DR/+1, which is a 3.0 feature they got rid of. The SS Rakshasa class has spell immunity and is killed instantly by blessed crossbow bolts rather than just having very high spell resistance and damage reduction/piercing and good like the updated version has. Modern succubi don't get Desecrate and Unholy Blight, astral devas are Medium now, rather than Large, and the mummy no longer gets Resistant to Blows. Savage Species is definitely not fully 3.5.

Libris Mortis has an updated, 3.5 version of the mummy class, I think.

RandomFellow
2008-01-15, 03:13 PM
It does, it is also 13 levels long.

Adumbration
2008-01-15, 03:16 PM
All right, I'll definitely have to check that up.

RandomFellow
2008-01-15, 03:19 PM
All right, I'll definitely have to check that up.

Just fyi, mummy rot is now stacked with other abilities on every level of that Monster Class. So dumping it, and you still get +2 Wis or /something/ in that 'special things' column.