Negative LA-Assignment : Resurrection, but no diamond here

[GreatWyrmGold]

Spoiler: Assorted Comments

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Lots of assorted comments.

(Seriously, there is very little that reaches these speeds, and even less at this maneuverability; air elementals have, afaik, the second best non-epic flight speed behind the ghaele)

You didn't specify maneuverability with that last statement, so I feel obliged to point out that some very fast dragons aren't technically Epic. They tend to have bad maneuverability, though.

You could still go Shadow Thief without much problem.

If we're talking about the same Shadow Thief...why? I see a prestige class which gives some small skill bonuses, a Leadership score boost, and progression of a couple basic rogue abilities. It doesn't look terrible, but I'm not seeing the appeal.

Now that that's out of the way, let's get on the interesting part...[Shrieker classes]

I'm not overly familiar with the class, but it seems like Dragonfire Adept would also be a functional choice for the shrieker. Breath weapons don't require attack rolls, and some of the invocations are handy. Particularly notable is the lesser invocation humanoid shape, which lets you perform such incredible feats as moving under your own power as early as 6th level.

...utterly ridiculous slam attacks (1d6. That is as much as just unarmed attack.)

Yeah, it's not great, but it's literally just a giant unarmed attack.

Anyway, see you next time, for "what if Shenzi decided to take up arms against Mufasa", the gnoll!

Greater Stone, 42 RHD: I'm sorry, what? Why give it 42 RHD if it was to give it basically the same stats as the stone? Why not even increase the Damage Reduction, or make it /Epic?

It's literally just a stone golem with the normal monster advancement rules applied. Except without the every-4-HD ability score increase.

Did you know that Gray Renders have a tendency to just choose people or animals leaving in their surroundings, than act as guardian angels for them, feeding them, and protecting them from harm? Even if they aren't accepted by their "pets" and even if the adopted creatures attack them out of fear, they will continue to protect them from afar and never strike back. Truly, the Lennie Small (Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck) of Dungeons and Dragons. Must protect!

I love it, this is great. I kinda want to play a gray render just to roleplay a monstrous Lennie Small in a party of murderhobos.

Rant on translating the word "hag" in other languages

Translation is fascinating, yet underappreciated.

What happens if a non-flying creature is captivated by a harpy that is flying?

I feel like the answer to that is the same as "What happens if a non-swimming creature is captivated by a siren that is on an island?", and except without the drowning.

(It's even dumber! How is it even dumber?)

I suspect the elite array was involved at some point.

I never understood why WotC made the kraken a highly intelligent monster, capable of cruelty and enslaving other creatures, having a whole society under the sea, instead of the litteral animal that it is in all the folklores it appears in. The guy can even speak common, for Boccob's sake! I don't know, is that a reference to "Octopi are the most likely species to succeed to humans as rulers of the Earth"? Wasn't that already what the Illithids are for?

I'd say it's probably because there aren't any other classic monsters to apply the "terrifying undersea mastermind" niche to, but then I remembered aboleths exist.

What is it with creatures that are very different in D&D than in their myths? Harpies, Krakens, Lamia, what is it going to be next, a chimera with the snake head not on its tail? Oh, wait...

1. Actually, it's a dragon head. YMMV on whether that's worse or not.
2. I think ye olde D&D writers wanted the clout of recognizable monster names, but didn't find the monsters attached very compelling for some reason. Or they wanted to put their own spin on them?