Community Based Monster Classes VI

[Hyudra]

~Assail seems a bit off, as that it allows for the additional damage of a ranged weapon to be governed by the weapon’s damage die, but the additional damage of a melee weapon to be governed by a specifically increased set number. With the exotic weapon proficiency for a greatbow, it’s ranged damage is quite terrifyingly high compared to even that of a fullblade.

Ok, that's fair.

~ “The Storm Giant cannot add Surges to opponents who could not grant him experience.” I fail to understand the point of this line. Is this to prevent the level 20 Storm-giant from utterly tossing around goblin foes, or to prevent the level 5 storm giant from knocking the Tarrasque off its keester? It seems to me as if this is already protected by the Saving Throw mechanic.

It's a pre-emptive measure to prevent shenanigans like the storm giant from flinging bags of rats long distances, then blasting them for easy Thunder Steps.

~ Call the Thunder is cool, but its accessibility is quite high, even though it’s tricky to target, getting enemies to stand still isn’t too hard, and HDd8 damage every 1d4 (or less) rounds, is quite a bit.

I could lower it to HDd6, sure.

~Thundercloud Throne is both flavorful and functional, though you might specify that only the Storm Giant who created the throne may treat it as solid, in case there is another storm giant involved, unless awesome throne fights are encouraged.

Well, the entry does say "The Thundercloud Throne is such that only the Storm Giant treats it as solid" as opposed to "The Thundercloud Throne is such that only Storm Giants treat it as solid". This implies, though doesn't explicitly state, that it works for the Storm Giant that created it.

~Monsoon spirit: So… uh… it can never be grappled. I mean I know the ring exists, but this power is… uhm… very powerful.

This is true, but it's a part of the core monster, and I doubt many foes will be going out of their way to grapple the storm giant anyways.

~Unflinching is also an interesting ability, the recharge is for all smaller creatures, not each individually, yes?

I'll see about specifying. It blocks one attack from any creature, not all individual creatures.

~Thundersteps AoOs of doom ability seems very easily abusable.

But remember, you need to set it up. I generally see most battles ending fairly early, with a save or lose or a save or suck deciding things. A battle that's prolonged enough to set up a Thunder Step Flurry may well be decided already. If it's not, it makes for a potentially epic finish.

~ that seems like a bit much. Especially with the x5 multiplier on the charges… that gets high, quick. Horribly quick.

See response above this one. Also, I figure 2 lightning damage effects from the storm giant would equal the typical DC10 + 1/2 HD + Mod save. That, generally speaking, requires 2 rounds to set up and one to trigger. If you want a higher-than-base-DC, then you're facing ~4 rounds of actions to set it into motion. You can reduce this with Thunderstorm & iterative lightning attacks, but enemies can make saves to negate those iterative attacks, and in the end, your finishing blow may not connect.

And with a Storm Giant as a PC, the rest of the group may well have polished off whatever enemy you're fighting by the time you've set up and delivered your combo.

Rolling Thunder/Forked Lightning, yes, does give you a few extra surges, but by that point you're level 13, and you're on the brink of the point in the metagame where some monsters have enough HP that doing raw HP damage is becoming less feasible. Ultimately, the "I just turned you into carbonized ash" deathblow just keeps you in the game.

~Breath of Squalls, while using it as a swift action is cool, I think it’d be pretty cool if it could be used as a standard attack action, as in part of a full attack action. Just a thought.

Hrm. Might be better suited for the Air Elemental, that.

~Answer to my question about Thunderstroke: Thunderstorm, or yes. However Thunderstorm’s -5 to DC should probably read ‘cumulative -5 penalty’ as that penalties don’t normally stack.

Good call.

~ While “Rolling Thunder/Forked Lightning” is awesome, it makes some of the above abilities even more broken, however I think the problem lies in the exploitation of certain aspects of those abilities, and not in this one.

Ok. So I'm open to more feedback on this point. As I see it, you're having to build up sufficient charges to get any real oomph out of, say, Lightning Palm. That requires time/actions, and time/actions are a resource that I see as balancing the strength of the ability.

Worst case scenario, you've got a storm giant using Flurry of Blows or a ToB maneuver to get a lot of attacks in. This scenario, to me, is more or less okay, as you're sacrificing a fair bit in the way of maneuvers (or... haha... monk progression) for a sufficient progression in Storm Giant abilities. You're also having to go a little MAD statwise. Topping it off, you've got low BAB, so your iterative attacks aren't all that, either.

The Storm Giant is a hybrid, and as classes like the Duskblade (or, for the initial, less successful incarnation, the Hexblade) demonstrate - and as GorgonDantess mentioned earlier - you can't be mediocre at two things. That makes for a mediocre class. In the end, I don't think he's mediocre, and I don't feel he's overpowered, but I've worked on him on & off for a while now, so I can't be subjective.

Thanks for the feedback. much appreciated.

Changelog, Jan 23rd:

• Assail changed from "Melee does damage to adjacent equal to your slam damage (sans strength) and Ranged deals damage equal to the base weapon damage" to just using the slam.
• Call the Thunder damage changed from 1d8/HD to 1d6/HD.
• Unflinching wording clarified.
• Stressed that the penalty for iterative thunderstrokes under Thunderstorm is cumulative.