[3.5]Improved monster classes: adapting creatures for player use-taking requests!

[Hyudra]

Note the fast healing depends on environment, so that's another thing that changes from type to type.

You could then state that there's a general environment that grants a given type fast healing (ie. 'underground', 'hot areas', 'cold areas') and a token item they can hold to maintain fast healing outside of that area (something burning, a container of salt, an ice cube, a fan).

This would give them an option that ensures they aren't losing a major class feature when the campaign doesn't put them in their environment of choice.

[Starbuck_II]

You could give a list of SLA choices: and say 1 of which is useable 1/hr and 1 1/day (both must match elemental focus).

Example:
Air Mephit:
1/hr Blur + 1/day Gust of Wind

Dust mephit:
1/hr Blur + 1/day Wind Wall

Earth:
1/hr, Enlarge Person (but works on Mephits) + 1/day Soften Earth and stone.

Fire Mephit:
1/hr, Scorching ray + 1/day Metal Metal

Ice:
1/hr, magic Missile + 1/day Chill Metal

Magma Mephit:
1/hr, Lava form (highly overpowered) + 1/day Pyrotechnics.

Ooze:
1/hr, Acid Arrow, 1/day Stinking Cloud

Other than Magma Mephit, they are all 1st/2nd level spell for the 1/hr ability.

[Hyudra]

Mephit


Standard version, 3 level Mephit:

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HD:d8
{table]Level|Bab|Fort|Ref|Will|Feature
1|+ 0| +0|+ 0| + 0| Mephit body, Lesser Elemental, Breath Weapon
2|+ 1|+ 0|+ 0| + 0| Empyreal Form
3|+ 2|+ 1|+ 1| + 1| Elemental Acumen

[/table]
Skills: 6+int modifier, quadruple at 1st level. Class skills are Bluff (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Spot (Wis), Use Rope (Dex).

Proficiencies: None.

Features
Mephit Body: At 1st level the Mephit loses all other racial bonuses and adopts the Outsider type (primarily gaining Darkvision 60'). They are small creatures with a move speed of 30' and two natural claw attacks dealing 1d3+Str each. The Mephit gains natural armor equal to its Con bonus.

Lesser Elemental: At 1st level, the Mephit gains a subtype of the player's choice, and gains the appropriate bonuses for that subtype:

{table]Subtype|Gained Abilities
Air| Reflex save changed to 'Good', Any flying is of perfect maneuverability. Flight 30' (Perfect) at 5HD.
Cold| Reflex save changed to 'Good', Cold Resistance*, Fire Vulnerability*. Flight 30' (Average) at 5HD.
Earth| Fort save changed to 'Good', +2 str at 1st and 5th level. Flight 30' (Average) at 5HD.
Fire| Fort save changed to 'Good', Fire Resistance*, Cold Vulnerability*. Flight 30' (Average) at 5HD.
Water| Fort save changed to 'Good', Gains 30' swim speed, Flight 30' (Average) at 5HD.
[/table]

• Cold/Fire Resistance - The Mephit gains a resistance to the appropriate element equal to their HD x3. At 6HD, this becomes immunity to the respective element.
• Cold/Fire Vulnerability - The Mephit takes 50% extra damage whenever they take damage from the respective type.
• Flight - The Mephit may use her wings to gain a natural flight of 30' when it reaches 5HD. The speed of this flight increases by 10' at 6HD and every 2HD thereafter.

Elemental Exhalation: At 1st level the Mephit may expel an elemental breath weapon at her enemies. This varies depending on the nature of the Mephit, including straight damage-dealing breath, breath that hampers the enemy and breath that can knock them unconscious. The breath weapon deals damage appropriate to the Mephit's subtype (Fire for fire, Cold for Cold, Acid for water). Air and Earth type Mephits should choose piercing, bludgeoning or slashing - this choice is made once and applies to the breath weapon from that point on.

Once an Elemental Exhalation attack is made, there is a 1d4 round wait before it can be used again.

Pick one (This choice is permanent and applies to the Mephit's breath weapon thereafter):

• Damaging Breath - 15' cone. 1d8 damage of the appropriate type. Reflex save for half damage (DC is 10 + 1/2 HD + Con bonus). The damage increases by 1d8 every 4HD, and the range increases by 15' every 6HD.
• Irritating Breath - 10' cone. 1d4 damage of the appropriate type. Reflex save for half damage (DC is 10 + 1/2 HD + Con bonus). Living creatures that fail their saves suffer Irritation for 3 rounds, taking a -4 penalty to AC and a -2 penalty on attack rolls. Enemies that are immune to the damage type of the breath weapon ignore the effects of irritating breath. The damage increases by 1d4 every 4HD and the range increases by 10' every 6HD.
• Concussion Breath - 10' cone. Opponents must make a Fortitude save (DC is 10 + 1/2 HD + Con bonus) or be knocked unconscious. The range increases by 10' every 6HD.

Empyreal Defenses: At 2nd level, the Mephit gains DR/Magic and Fast Healing, each equal to half its HD. Fast Healing has a requirement: The Mephit must either be in an appropriate environment related to its subtype (pick one from the type-specific options in the table below) or holding a token (see below).

{table]Subtype|Environments
Air| Windy, arid, cloudy/misty.
Cold| Windy, cold temperature, ice/frost/snow covered surface.
Earth| Touching the ground, underground, unworked rocky terrain
Fire| Hot temperature, smoky, within 50' of an open flame.
Water| Damp/Wet ground, rain or other dripping water (such as from a cave roof), proximity to a body of water.[/table]

Tokens are generally items related to the Mephit's type, either directly or symbolically. To grant Fast Healing, tokens must be held in one hand (typically the off hand) and cannot be weapons or defensive objects such as shields. They might include fans, smoking braziers and packages of dust (air); ice cubes, diamonds and containers of cold water (cold); stones, packages of salt and glass (earth); torches, containers with glowing embers and obsidian (fire); or mud, slime, containers of water or damp cloth (Water).

A Mephit generally carries the same type of token at all times, and takes 1d8 days to acclimatize if it adopts a token of a different type. The Mephit's nature sustains the objects indefinitely, so tokens don't require upkeep (lamps don't require oil, ice cubes don't melt, containers don't require refilling). Any token may still be deliberately (such as a sunder attack) or accidentally (dropped down a chasm, crushed in a trap) destroyed.

Elemental Acumen: At 3rd level, the Mephit can draw from her connections to the elements and the flows of energies to use a spell-like ability. Pick one of the spells from the list below. You may use that ability 1/hour for every 2 HD you have. For every 3HD you gain after 3rd level, you may pick another ability from the list. Abilities that specify a particular type of Mephit require that subtype. DMs are encouraged to allow or add other 2nd level spells to the list that thematically fit the type.

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• Magic Missile
• Blur
• Cloudburst (Air, Complete Divine)
• Fog Cloud (Air & Water)
• Sound Burst (Air & Water)
• Glitterdyst (Cold & Earth)
• Cold Fire (Cold, Dragon 312)
• Creeping Cold (Cold, Complete Divine)
• Burrow (Earth, Underdark)
• Enlarge Person (Earth, Self Only)
• Flame Blade (Fire)
• Scorching Ray (Fire)
• Pyrotechnics (Fire, May use self as source of flame)
• Melf's Acid Arrow (Water)
• Venomous Volley (Water, Dragon 330)

Once it reaches 5HD, the Mephit expands its repertoire of spell-like abilities with a powerful ability it may use once a day for every 3HD it has. For every 5HD you have after the 5th, you may select one additional power from the list. DMs are encouraged to allow or add other level 2 spells to the list that thematically fit the type.

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• Gust of Wind (Air)
• Wind Wall (Air)
• Leech Moisture - As the Salt Mephit ability in the SRD (Earth)
• Soften Earth & Stone (Earth)
• Chill Metal (Cold)
• Mirror Image (Cold)
• Heat Metal (Fire)
• Change Shape - As the Magma Mephit ability in the SRD (Fire)
• Boiling Rain - As the Steam Mephit ability in the SRD (Fire)
• Stinking Cloud (Water)
• Warp Wood (Water)

In addition, a Mephit who multiclasses into a druidic casting class (such as a Druid or Ranger) can count her Mephit levels as levels of that class for purposes of CL/ML and for the purposes of learning new spells/powers and obtaining new spell slots/power points. This would allow a fourth level Mephit acquiring a level of Druid to gain the spells known and spells per day that she would obtain from going from Druid4 to Druid5, but does not retroactively grant the spells known or spells-per-day that she would have obtained with the first four levels of Druid. Mephits cast non-SLA spells of their subtype at +2 caster level.

Alternate Mephit, 5 level with summon:

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HD:d8
{table]Level|Bab|Fort|Ref|Will|Feature
1|+ 0| +0|+ 0| + 0| Mephit body, Lesser Elemental, Breath Weapon
2|+ 1|+ 0|+ 0| + 0| Empyreal Defenses
3|+ 2|+ 1|+ 1| + 1| Elemental Acumen
4|+ 3|+ 1|+ 1| + 1| Fly, Summon Mephit
5|+ 3|+ 1|+ 1| + 1| Elemental Incarnate
[/table]
Skills: 6+int modifier, quadruple at 1st level. Class skills are Bluff (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Spot (Wis), Use Rope (Dex).

Proficiencies: None.

Features
Mephit Body: At 1st level the Mephit loses all other racial bonuses and adopts the Outsider type (primarily gaining Darkvision 60'). They are small creatures with a move speed of 30' and two natural claw attacks dealing 1d3+Str each. The Mephit gains natural armor equal to its Con bonus.

Lesser Elemental: At 1st level, the Mephit gains a subtype of the player's choice, and gains the appropriate bonuses for that subtype:

{table]Subtype|Gained Abilities
Air| Reflex save changed to 'Good', Any flying is of perfect maneuverability.
Cold| Reflex save changed to 'Good', Cold Resistance*, Fire Vulnerability*.
Earth| Fort save changed to 'Good', +2 str at 1st and 5th level.
Fire| Fort save changed to 'Good', Fire Resistance*, Cold Vulnerability*.
Water| Fort save changed to 'Good', Gains 30' swim speed.
[/table]

• Cold/Fire Resistance - The Mephit gains a resistance to the appropriate element equal to their HD x3. At 6HD, this becomes immunity to the respective element.
• Cold/Fire Vulnerability - The Mephit takes 50% extra damage whenever they take damage from the respective type.

Elemental Exhalation: At 1st level the Mephit may expel an elemental breath weapon at her enemies. This varies depending on the nature of the Mephit, including straight damage-dealing breath, breath that hampers the enemy and breath that can knock them unconscious. The breath weapon deals damage appropriate to the Mephit's subtype (Fire for fire, Cold for Cold, Acid for water). Air and Earth type Mephits should choose piercing, bludgeoning or slashing - this choice is made once and applies to the breath weapon from that point on.

Once an Elemental Exhalation attack is made, there is a 1d4 round wait before it can be used again.

Pick one (This choice is made once and applies to your breath weapon thereafter):

• Damaging Breath - 15' cone. 1d8 damage of the appropriate type. Reflex save for half damage (DC is 10 + 1/2 HD + Con bonus). The damage increases by 1d8 every 4HD, and the range increases by 15' every 6HD.
• Irritating Breath - 10' cone. 1d4 damage of the appropriate type. Reflex save for half damage (DC is 10 + 1/2 HD + Con bonus). Living creatures that fail their saves suffer Irritation for 3 rounds, taking a -4 penalty to AC and a -2 penalty on attack rolls. Enemies that are immune to the damage type of the breath weapon ignore the effects of irritating breath. The damage increases by 1d4 every 4HD and the range increases by 10' every 6HD.
• Concussion Breath - 10' cone. Opponents must make a Fortitude save (DC is 10 + 1/2 HD + Con bonus) or be knocked unconscious. The range increases by 10' every 6HD.

Empyreal Defenses: At 2nd level, the Mephit gains DR/Magic and Fast Healing, each equal to half its HD. Fast Healing has a requirement: The Mephit must either be in an appropriate environment related to its subtype (pick one from the type-specific options in the table below) or holding a token (see below).

{table]Subtype|Environments
Air| Windy, arid, cloudy/misty.
Cold| Windy, cold temperature, ice/frost/snow covered surface.
Earth| Touching the ground, underground, unworked rocky terrain
Fire| Hot temperature, smoky, within 50' of an open flame.
Water| Damp/Wet ground, rain or other dripping water (such as from a cave roof), proximity to a body of water.[/table]

Tokens are generally items related to the Mephit's type, either directly or symbolically. To grant Fast Healing, tokens must be held in one hand (typically the off hand) and cannot be weapons or defensive objects such as shields. They might include fans, smoking braziers and packages of dust (air); ice cubes, diamonds and containers of cold water (cold); stones, packages of salt and glass (earth); torches, containers with glowing embers and obsidian (fire); or mud, slime, containers of water or damp cloth (Water).

A Mephit generally carries the same type of token at all times, and takes 1d8 days to acclimatize if it adopts a token of a different type. The Mephit's nature sustains the objects indefinitely, so tokens don't require upkeep (lamps don't require oil, ice cubes don't melt, containers don't require refilling). Any token may still be deliberately (such as a sunder attack) or accidentally (dropped down a chasm, crushed in a trap) destroyed.

Elemental Acumen: At 3rd level, the Mephit can draw from her connections to the elements and the flows of energies to use a spell-like ability. Pick one of the spells from the list below. You may use that ability 1/hour for every 2 HD you have. For every 3HD you gain after 3rd level, you may pick another ability from the list. Abilities that specify a particular type of Mephit require that subtype. DMs are encouraged to allow or add other 2nd level spells to the list that thematically fit the type.

Spoiler

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• Magic Missile
• Blur
• Cloudburst (Air, Complete Divine)
• Fog Cloud (Air & Water)
• Sound Burst (Air & Water)
• Glitterdyst (Cold & Earth)
• Cold Fire (Cold, Dragon 312)
• Creeping Cold (Cold, Complete Divine)
• Burrow (Earth, Underdark)
• Enlarge Person (Earth, Self Only)
• Flame Blade (Fire)
• Scorching Ray (Fire)
• Pyrotechnics (Fire, May use self as source of flame)
• Melf's Acid Arrow (Water)
• Venomous Volley (Water, Dragon 330)

In addition, a Mephit who multiclasses for a druidic casting class (such as a Druid or Ranger) can count her Mephit levels as levels of that class for purposes of CL/ML and for the purposes of learning new spells/powers and obtaining new spell slots/power points. This would allow a fourth level Mephit acquiring a level of Druid to gain the spells known and spells per day that she would obtain from going from Druid4 to Druid5, but does not retroactively grant the spells known or spells-per-day that she would have obtained with the first four levels of Druid. Mephits cast non-SLA spells of their subtype at +2 caster level.

Fly: At 4th level the Mephit may fly at 30' (Average). Air-type mephits fly at perfect maneuverability. This fly speed increases by 10' every 2HD after 4th level.

Summon Mephit: At 4th level the Mephit may summon a companion. Summoning a Mephit is a full-round action that may be performed 1/day for every 4HD of the user. A Mephit with an elemental subtype matching that of the summoner is brought to the battlefield in an adjacent square, and remains for 1/round per HD of the summoner. Summoned Mephits cannot use their own summon abilities.

At 8HD, 1d4 Mephits are summoned.

Starting At 12HD, summoned Mephits are advanced by 1HD for every 4HD of the summoner.

At 16HD, 2d4 Mephits are summoned.

Elemental Incarnate: At 5th level, the Mephit expands its repertoire of spell-like abilities with a powerful ability it may use once a day for every 3HD it has. For every 5HD you have after the 5th, you may select one additional power from the list. DMs are encouraged to allow or add other level 2 spells to the list that thematically fit the type.

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• Gust of Wind (Air)
• Wind Wall (Air)
• Leech Moisture - As the Salt Mephit ability in the SRD (Earth)
• Soften Earth & Stone (Earth)
• Chill Metal (Cold)
• Mirror Image (Cold)
• Heat Metal (Fire)
• Change Shape - As the Magma Mephit ability in the SRD (Fire)
• Boiling Rain - As the Steam Mephit ability in the SRD (Fire)
• Stinking Cloud (Water)
• Warp Wood (Water)

Changelog:

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• June 11, 3:00pm - Added the summon mephit ability.
• June 11, 3:00pm - Made the range of the cone attack scale with HD.
• June 12, 10:27pm - Fixed the scaling of the breath weapon (from doubling every 6HD to flat 10/15' increase).
• June 18, 9:24pm - Added a 'standard' 3-level mephit class as mephits are CR3. Left the old one in there in case people wanted it.
• July 11th, 4:06pm - Specified the choice of breath weapon used is a permanent choice.

[UserShadow7989]

That is AWESOME, Hyudra! Thank you so much!

...since I feel like I should be constructive, you forgot the "[/list]" on the list for the Elemental Incarnate spell selection. I want so much to provide a constructive critique, but I can't find anything wrong with it. Nicely done.

[Hyudra]

Fixed the list tag.

In a bit (after lunch), I'll go and add the Mephit Summoning ability. My gut feeling is that the class feels just a teeny bit underpowered, and having a fellow mephit in tow should help that.

Edit: Done that.

Double Edit: Need more suggestions on SLAs to add to the list. I just counted it off and there's not enough abilities to pick by the time you reach 15th level.

[flabort]

So, just to recap, who's all working on what right now? What's being done currently, and what's waiting for someone to work on?

[demidracolich]

Um, the waiting list is on page one.

[Hyudra]

Currently working on the Fire Giant, and I've got the ogre written up but am holding onto it in case I want to use the special ability for one of the giants.

I'm kind of stalled on the fire giant though. I have a sense of what I want to do with the cloud & storm giants, but I've had trouble doing the mechanics for the ability I had conceptualized for the Fire giant.

Basically, at 2nd and 5/6th levels, I've had giants gain combat abilities that really emphasize the giant flavor. Crushing people against walls, flinging them 30 feet away, or destroying the surroundings and creating clouds of debris. The inspiration is largely from the Hulk, and stuff he does as a matter of course.

For the fire giant, I'd been planning to do a sort of improvised weapon. Uproot a tree and smack someone with it, tear a stalactite out of the ceiling and stab someone, heft a giant stone pillar, etc. In implementation, though, it hasn't really worked out. It's hard to keep balanced, it's heavily dependent on battlefield features and it is difficult to balance mechanically.

So I'm alternating between trying to make it work and trying to think of something else that doesn't overlap too much with the ideas I had for other giants.

[SurlySeraph]

These are great. Would anyone be interested in making one for Kolyaruts?

[Mystic Muse]

Pyroclastic dragon From Draconomicon



class

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Pyroclastic dragon

Native to the plane of Gehenna, Pyroclastic dragons are akin to rumbling thunder, Rolling lightning, Crashing earthquakes and erupting volcanoes. They can be subtle if they wish but when they decide to let loose their fury is unmatched.
HD d12
{TABLE]Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Feature
1 | +1 | +2|+0 |+2 |Pyroclastic Body, Arcane blood
2| +2| +3|+0 |+3 | Keen senses, Fire/Sonic Breath
3| +3| +3|+1| +3| Blindsense 60 feet, Strength +1, Constitution +1
4| +4| +4| +1|+4 | Wings, Pyroclastic Dragon SLAs, +1 Charisma
5| +5| +4| +1| +4| Burrow/Climb, Pyroclastic diet, Growth Tail Slap
6| +6| +5|+2 |+5 | Pyroclastic dragon SLAs, +1 Charisma
7| +7| +5| +2| +5| See No Evil, +1 strength, +1 Constitution
8| +8| +6| +2| +6| Improved Sunder, Pyroclastic dragon SLAs +1 Charisma
9| +9| +6|+3 |+6| , +1 Strength, +1 Constitution
10| +10| +7|+3 |+7 | Burrow/climb, Pyroclastic dragon SLAs, +1 Charisma
11| +11| +7| +3|+7 | Pyroclastic Scales
12| +12| +8| +4|+8 |Growth,frightful presence, +1 Strength, +1 Constitution,
13| +13| +8| +4| +8| Hear No Evil, Gehenna Sunder.
14| +14 | +9| +4| +9| Pyroclastic dragon SLAs +1 Charisma
15| +15 | +9| +5| +9| +1 Strength, +1 Constitution
16| +16 | +10| +5| +10| Pyroclastic dragon SLAs, +1 Charisma
17| +17| +10| +5| +10|+1 Strength, +1 Constitution
18| +18| +11| +6| +11|Disintegrating breath, Pyroclastic dragon SLAs, Growth.
[/table]

2 Skill points+int per level, quadruple at 1st level. Class skills: Concentration, climb, jump, spot, listen, appraise, bluff, intimidate, Knowledge(any), spellcraft.


Proficiencies: a Pyroclastic dragon isn't proficient with any armor or weapons, besides his own natural weapons

Pyroclastic BodyThe Pyroclastic dragon loses all other racial bonuses, and gains Dragon traits, Bite 1d8 damage, 2 claws for 1d6 damage each, a 40 foot base land speed and medium size. The Pyroclastic dragon has wings but they're too weak to do anything for now. His claws are capable of fine manipulation and can be used for anything a human hand could do.

The Pyroclastic dragon also gets a natural armor bonus equal to his Constitution modifier. Whenever the Pyroclastic dragon grows one size category, his natural armor increases by a further 1.

The Pyroclastic dragon has resistance to Sonic damage equal to its total hit dice. In addition to this, The Pyroclastic dragon has complete immunity to mundane fire and resistance to magical fire equal to its total hit dice.

Arcane Blood:A Pyroclastic dragon receives spells known and spells per day as a bard of same level, but he casts as a sorcerer and takes his spells known from the sorcerer/wizard spell list.

If it multiclasses as a bard it's spellcasting increases as a bard.
If it multiclasses as a sorcerer it counts as already having sorcerer casting depending on it's dragon level, as shown on the following table.

{table]Dragon level | Virtual sorcerer casting
1|-
2|1
3|2
4|3
5|4
6|5
7|6
8|6
9|7
10|8
11|8
12|9
13|10
14|10
15|11
16|12
17|12
18|13
[/table]

So for example a dragon 2 who takes a level of sorceror would count as already having 1 level of sorceror and gains the spell slots and spell knowns that a sorceror gains when leveling from level 1 to 2, but not the spell slots and spell knowns from the 1st level of sorceror. He would get the familiar ability, but dragon levels wouldn't count for it.

A dragon 18 who takes a level of sorceror would count as having 14 levels of sorceror(13+1) and gain the spell slots and spell knowns that a sorceror gains when leveling from level 13 to 14, but not the spell slots and spell knowns that a sorceror gets from level 1 to 13, He would get the familiar ability, but dragon levels wouldn't count for it.

His Caster level remains equal to his full HD when multiclassing to sorceror.

If a dragon takes a casting prc, it may choose to advance his casting as that of a sorceror. So a dragon 10/loremaster 10 would cast as a 18th level sorceror (he would still receive spell slots and spells knowns from a bard 10 from the first 10 dragon levels and then the spell slots and spell knowns from a sorceror 11-18 for the loremaster levels)

Keen Senses: At second level, the Pyroclastic dragon's senses become far stronger. The Pyroclastic dragon sees four times as well as a human in shadowy illumination and twice as well in normal light. It also has darkvision out to 120 feet

Pyroclastic Breath: At second level the Pyroclastic dragon gains a breath weapon. The breath weapon is a 30 foot cone dealing 1d6 damage/HD, half fire and half sonic damage, with a reflex save DC of 10+1/2 HD+Constitution modifier for half an takes 1d4 rounds to recharge. The cone increases by 5 feet for every extra hit die the dragon gains.

Blindsense: At third level the dragon gains Blindsense as the normal ability, range 60 feet.


Wings: At 4th level The Pyroclastic dragon becomes able to fly at the speed of 10 feet per HD, with poor maneuverability. The maneuverability doesn't increase naturally, but players can take the Savage Species feat that increases it by two steps(stackable). Each wing can also be now used to deliver a natural attack dealing 1d4 damage.

Pyroclastic dragon SLAs: At 4th level the Pyroclastic dragon can cast Pyrotechnics and Sound burst 1/day for each HD, At 6th level he can cast Produce Flame and Shatter 1/day for every 2 HD, at 8th level he can cast Shout and Wall Of Fire 1/day for every 3 HD, at 10th he can cast Wall of Stone 1/day for every 4 HD, at 14th he can cast Fire Storm for every 5 HD, at 16th he can cast Power Word Stun and Incendiary Cloud for every 6 HD and at 18th he can cast Meteor Swarm 1/day for every 7 HD.


Burrow/Climb: At 5th level the player gets the choice between a base burrow speed of 40 feet and a base climb speed of 40 feet. The player gets the other speed at tenth level.

Pyroclastic Diet: at 5th level, although it prefers meat, the dragon is capable of subsisting completely on rocks and minerals. They are the only known creature capable of eating mud pies.



Growth:At 5th level the Dragon grows to large size. At 12th he grows to huge and at 18th he grows to Gargantuan. His AC, bonus to hit, base damage, grapple and skills change accordingly, but he doesn't get any ability score bonus or penalties.


See No Evil - The Pyroclastic Dragon is used to dwelling amid exploding geysers of magma. At 7th level, the middling effects of spells such as Pyrotechnics and Glitterdust can simply be shrugged off. The Pyroclastic Dragon is immune to the Blind status effect. It is still affected normally by lighting conditions and darkness.

Improved Sunder at 8th level the Pyroclastic dragon gains the Improved Sunder feat even if he does not meet the prerequisites.


Tail Slap:At ninth level The Pyroclastic dragon can now make a tail slap attack dealing 1d8 damage(already taking in account large size).


Pyroclastic Scales. at 11th level The Pyroclastic dragon gains SR equal to his HD+11 and gains DR/magic equal to half his HD.

Hear No Evil - Having spent hundreds of years in Gehenna, hearing the constantly exploding volcanoes the souls screaming and moaning in despair, the Pyroclastic Dragon is practiced in ignoring what it does not wish to hear. At 13th level it may treat itself as being under the effects of a silence spell when such would be beneficial to it. This is an extraordinary effect and is not suppressed by an anti-magic field.


Gehenna Sunder: At 13th level, In addition to the improved sunder feat, When attempting to sunder an item (Or construct) the Dragon's weapons count as having a shatter effect upon them. The caster level for the effect is equal to the Dragon's caster level.

Frightfull Presence: at 15th level the dragon gains frigthful presence.The ability takes effect automatically whenever the dragon attacks, charges, or flies overhead. Enemies within a radius of 30 feet × half the dragon's level are subject to the effect if they have fewer HD than the dragon. A potentially affected creature that succeeds on a Will save (DC 10 + ½ dragon’s HD + dragon’s Cha modifier) remains immune to that dragon’s frightful presence for 24 hours. On a failure, creatures with 4 or less HD become panicked for 4d6 rounds and those with 5 or more HD become shaken for 4d6 rounds. Dragons ignore the frightful presence of other dragons.


Disintegrate Breath: At 18th level the pyroclastic dragon gains a disintegrating line breath weapon, in addition to the Sonic/Fire breath. The range is 30 feet +5 feet for every hit dice the dragon has. Creatures and objects hit by the breath must make a save equal to 10+half the dragon's hit dice+ the Constitution modifier or be disintegrated as per the disintegrate spell.

[Hyudra]

Hey Kyuub.

To start off, the class gets a lot easier to visualize when you've put together the table with BAB, saves & abilities listed. As many of your abilities don't list what level they appear at, it's a little hard to judge.

Now, just going down the list of issues that need fixing:

• Quote my post and extract the table code from above (now removed) so that's there. Copy other submissions as far as where & when you list HD size (before the table), skills (just after), proficiencies and abilities (after that).
• Your formatting is awkward. Be sure to have abilities with...
  
  Italicized ability name: Ability text that starts by stating when an ability is granted.
• Please, please, please, if you're going to submit a creature that's not in the SRD, state the source so people can look it up for reference.
• Lose the picture of the dog. It's annoying. I recommend having the actual picture underneath the name of the creature so it's easy to spot the posts with creatures in them. Spoilering the image makes it easy to skip your submission since it's just words and spoiler text in a page of words and spoiler text (even signatures have spoilers). If your image is too large, use imgshack or tinypic or photobucket to reupload it to the web and resize it in the process.
• As it stands, it's strictly weaker than the Red Dragon. He gets less abilities and those abilities he gets (such as growth) come slower. No SLAs, so he's generally smaller, weaker and less versatile. You could perhaps condense it into fewer levels (rather than a 20 level progression). Since you didn't source the material you're drawing from (and as I'm not going to search for it), I can't really make suggestions on ability placements.
• Disintegrating ray can be a capstone ability. Other classes get more SoDs faster, and disintegrating ray can be an incentive to play the weaker cousin of the red dragon. If you feel it's unbalanced, add a drawback or extend the number of rounds between uses.
• Ability score increases, as I see them, are primarily a way to offset intrinsic weaknesses in a class and to highlight essential strengths. Again, I don't have your source for the pyroclastic dragon, so I'm not sure what its ability scores are like or what flavor it has.

[Mystic Muse]

Okay. I made some of the changes you suggested.

I wasn't sure what to do with the ability score increases or the SLAs. That's why he currently doesn't have any.

[Hyudra]

Ok, for SLA's... the Draconomicon entry does state the Pyroclastic dragon obtains some. You can find them on the table on page 184.

Pyrotechnics, Produce Flame, Shatter and Sound Burst are 2nd level spells. A good rule of thumb for SLAs is a character level of twice the spell level, so 4th level would be a good time to start introducing these. You can bend this rule, of course, for those classes that don't have a lot else besides the SLAs (and lack versatility besides).

You could delay the ones that come later, so perhaps fill in the empty sixth level with Produce Flame and Shatter.

Shout and Wall of Fire are 4th level spells, so they can go at 8th level. Perhaps you could bump Growth down to 7th. Wall of Stone is a 5th level spell, so it can be introduced at 10th level.

As a 7th level spell, Fire Storm would be a 14th level SLA. As 8th level spells, Incendiary Cloud and Power Word Stun would be 16th level SLAs. As a 9th level spell, Meteor Swarm would be 18th level.

Easy enough. You then set it up so the number of uses scale appropriately with HD. Lower level abilities can scale a bit faster than high level ones (since it doesn't matter too much if a Pyroclastic Dragon is using Pyrotechnics every round at 20th level).

Once you've put all that together, you look at where the class is lacking; where it has dead levels, or where it can't do its job. A melee creature that can't melee efficiently gets some Str. A creature lacking durability due to equipment restrictions or other drawbacks might get Con or Dex. A caster monster who has less versatility or raw power than an equivalent level caster gets some mental stats. Creatures that exemplify certain traits (like an appealing succubus) also get some token bonuses.

I'm of the opinion that the red dragon is a poor class to model off of for the stat gains, as it's a little too good at both melee and having caster abilities. Not that you can fault the OP, as it's one of the original monsters. Oslecamo isn't around to debate the point or tweak the class, so I'd just recommend going easy on the stats for now, and inserting them only where necessary.

Edit - Add the [/table] tag to the end of your table. It's not displaying.

[Mystic Muse]

Okay, made the changes and trying to make the table work. I have no experience with tables.

EDIT: got it. Editing the table now.

Double edit: Yeah, too many dead levels. changing stuff

[Hyudra]

For disintegrating breath (which is outside the spoiler tags btw), allow it to be used on objects. A potential for horrific destruction is fitting for a gehenna-dwelling dragon.

[Mystic Muse]

Okay, I made it able to affect objects and put it in the spoiler tags.

suggestions for the frequency of the SLAs? And what do you think of the stat gains and points you get the stat gains?

[demidracolich]

Why fire and force resistance, in the draconomicon it had fire or sonic immunity. I know the wording is ambigious but at least give it sonic resistance instead of force. Also its breath was half fire and half sonic.

[Mystic Muse]

Why fire and force resistance, in the draconomicon it had fire or sonic immunity. I know the wording is ambigious but at least give it sonic resistance instead of force. Also its breath was half fire and half sonic.

Whoops. I meant for it to be sonic. thanks for pointing that out. And the breath is half fire and half sonic.

It actually had fire and Sonic immunity in Draconomicon but it didn't have any vulnerability so I downgraded it to two resistances.

[demidracolich]

Never mind about the breath. Also I remembered it having a 50% chance of having each immunity but the wording is ambigious and I don't really understand what that means.

[Hyudra]

There's really nothing that demands it be a 20 level class. Since the highest level ability demands level 18, you can drop the last 2 levels. This makes it easier to compress what you have into the class...

• Dropping Growth from level 14 to level 13 (or up to 15) to make progression more fluid.
• Merging Arcane Skin and Iron Scales into one ability (Pyroclastic Scale?)
• Dropping some of the stat gains (So level 18 could grant disintegrating ray and SLAs, but no cha)

Besides that, for clarity, I'd suggest:

• Abilities should state when they become available in the description. People shouldn't have to keep double checking the table while browsing the abilities.
• There should be an ability stating that you get ability score increases, and what the total gain is for taking all levels in the class.
• Ability score increases are kind of boring. Perhaps the Pyroclastic Dragon could get some thematic abilities fitting for a dragon incarnate of Gehenna.

[demidracolich]

Also after all this time, I don't think Iron Scales is a very good ability anyways because DR 5/magic at level 11 is meh.

[Mystic Muse]

[*]There should be an ability stating that you get ability score increases, and what the total gain is for taking all levels in the class.[*]Ability score increases are kind of boring. Perhaps the Pyroclastic Dragon could get some thematic abilities fitting for a dragon incarnate of Gehenna.[/list]

1. What should I call that ability?
2. No clue what to do here. Maybe some of his natural weapons turn to adamantine?

I also agree with Demidracolich. Would DR/magic equal to total HD be that bad? DR magic is probably the easiest DR to overcome.

[Hyudra]

True that. It's better for a PC than a monster, but it's not fantastic.

[Mystic Muse]

Okay, changed a few things as per the suggestions. Still not sure about what the frequency of the SLAs should be. Anybody wanna help?

[Oslecamo]

True that. It's better for a PC than a monster, but it's not fantastic.

It's actualy pretty good. Allows you to laugh at mooks and even against enemies of your level 1/2 HD still blocks a decent amount of damage, in particular those who rely in multiple attacks.

Sure other monsters get harder to bypass DR, but the dragons get two good saves, highest HD, spellcasting, breath weapon, high ability scores and other goodies on top. Huge DR on top of that feels like overkill to me.

Plus I don't want to go back to 3.0 where everything had obscene DR levels to the point that if you didn't have the right weapon hiting the monster would be a waste of time.

DR isn't suposed to completely stop any enemy who doesn't have a weapon incapable of bypassing it. It's suposed to just soften up the blows.

Now I'll take my leave again. I noticed the other classes done, good work overall, but I don't have time for proper reviews right now. Just wanted to clarify the DR thingy.

Okay, changed a few things as per the suggestions. Still not sure about what the frequency of the SLAs should be. Anybody wanna help?

Weak SLAs should be 1/day per HD, and then I usualy increase by a factor of one. 1/day per 2HD for the next SLA, 1/day per 3HD for the next in line, etc.

[Mystic Muse]

Okay, I gave the SLAs the frequency Oslecamo suggested.

What's everybody think of the class now?

Also, I said the second statement you quoted Oslecamo, not Hyudra.

[AustontheGreat1]

Okay, I gave the SLAs the frequency Oslecamo suggested.

What's everybody think of the class now?

Also, I said the second statement you quoted Oslecamo, not Hyudra.

What does pyroclastic scales do?

[Mystic Muse]

What does pyroclastic scales do?

SR= to HD+11 and DR magic equal to half of HD.

[Hyudra]

Fire Giant

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HD:d8
{TABLE]Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Feature
1| +0 | +2| +0| +0| Fire Giant body, Powerful Build, Str+1, Con+1
2| +1| +3| +0| +0| Burning Hatred, Swat, Str+1, Con+1
3| +2| +3| +1| +1| Ignition, Ironclad, Str+1, Con+1
4| +3| +4| +1| +1| Growth, Throw Stone, Catch, Str+1, Con+1
5| +3| +4| +1| +1| Trample, Too Hot to Handle, Str+1, Con+1
6| +4| +5| +2| +2| Stomp, Str+1, Con+1
7| +5| +5| +2| +2| Extinguish Life, Str+1, Con+1
8| +6| +6| +2| +2| Smackdown, Str+1, Con+1
9| +6| +6| +3| +3| Tower of Iron, Str+1, Con+1
10| +7| +7| +3| +3| Unquenchable Ire, Str+1, Con+1
[/TABLE]
Skills: 2+int modifier per level, quadruple at first level. Class skills are Climb, Craft (Any one), Jump, Listen and Spot.

Proficiencies: All simple and martial weapons and his own natural weapons, plus light, medium and heavy armor.

Features:
Fire Giant body: The Fire Giant loses all other racial bonuses, and gains giant traits (mainly low light vision), a base speed of 30 feet, two natural slam attacks doing 1d4+Str each and a +1 racial bonus on thrown rocks. Lastly, he gains natural armor equal to his Con bonus.

Ability score increase: a Fire Giant gains +1 Str and +1 Con for each level in this class. By tenth level, a Fire Giant has +10 Str and +10 Con.

Powerful Build: At first level, a Fire Giant gains Powerful Build. The physical stature of Giants lets them function in many ways as if they were one size category larger. Whenever the Giant is subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts), the Giant is treated as one size larger if doing so is advantageous to him. A Giant is also considered to be one size larger when determining whether a creature’s special attacks based on size (such as improved grab or swallow whole) can affect him. A Giant can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty. However, his space and reach remain those of a creature of his actual size. The benefits of this racial trait stack with the effects of powers, abilities, and spells that change the subject’s size category.

Burning Hatred: At second level, the Fire Giant gains a resistance to fire equal to double his HD, but takes 1 extra damage for every HD whenever he takes cold damage. The Fire Giant is comfortable in hot climates and ignores any penalties or damage from smoke and ambient heat. As such, a Fire Giant can see through smoke with little difficulty and is not bothered by oppressively hot temperatures (such as around a forge or magma) or handling hot materials.
At 8HD, the Fire Giant is instead immune to fire and is vulnerable to cold.

Swat: At second level, the Fire Giant may turn his strength to knocking enemies around rather than simply harming them. A Swat is a standard-action, touch based attack delivered with the Giant's slam attack. Enemies take standard slam damage, but the Fire Giant does not add his Str to damage. Instead, enemies are knocked 5' in the direction of the giant's choice (excepting movement into the Giant's occupied area), plus 5' for every size category the giant has over them. Increase the distance increment by 5' for every 5HD of the Giant.

Enemies who are knocked into obstacles must make a balance test (DC is 10 + the damage dealt + the Giant's Str modifier) or fall prone. If an enemy is knocked into another enemy's square, both foes must make balance tests.

Flying enemies must pass the same balance test or lose flying for 1 round per size category the Giant has over them.

Ignition: At third level, the Fire Giant may set a single melee weapon or 1d6 boulders ablaze with a move action and an appropriate material (such as alcohol, oil or alchemist's fire) on hand (either on his person or in reach). The weapon remains aflame for a number of rounds equal to the Giant's HD.

Weapons set aflame in this manner will set struck enemies and flammable objects ablaze. Foes and objects burn for 1d6 damage a round, for a number of rounds equal to ½ the Giant's HD, rounded down, or until someone dedicates a full-round action to extinguishing them. Foes extinguishing themselves will remove the flames before taking damage.

At 5HD, add the Fire Giant's Cha bonus to the damage done each round.

At 11HD, the Fire Giant's attunement to elemental fire sustains any fires he sets indefinitely, and neither the weapon nor the targets will cease burning until they are sheathed or extinguished with a full round action, respectively. This effect only persists so long as the Fire Giant is present and conscious.

At 15HD, the Fire Giant may ignite weapons or ammunition in his reach as an immediate action.

Ironclad: At third level, the Fire Giant has grown so used to his own armor that it is like a second skin. Halve any arcane spell failure and armor check penalties for armor worn. Further, the Fire Giant suffers no movement penalties for heavier armor and is not troubled by sleeping in it.

Growth: At fourth level, the Fire Giant finishes growing to large size but loses Powerful Build. His AC, bonus to hit, slam damage, grapple and skills change accordingly, but he doesn't get any ability score bonus or penalties. His base movement speed increases by 10' (This movement boost occurs again at 12HD and 20HD, as the giant increases in size again).

The Giant continues to grow throughout his life:
At 8HD, the Fire Giant reacquires Powerful Build, granting partial benefits of Huge size.
At 12HD, the Fire Giant grows to Huge size and loses Powerful Build.
At 16HD, the Fire Giant reacquires Powerful Build, granting partial benefits of Gargantuan size.
At 20HD, the Fire Giant grows to Gargantuan size and loses Powerful Build.

Throw Stone: At fourth level, the Fire Giant may begin throwing boulders or other large objects. A giant of at least Large size can hurl rocks weighing 40 to 50 pounds each (Small objects) up to 600 feet. A Huge giant can hurl rocks of 60 to 80 pounds (Medium objects). A Gargantuan giant can hurl rocks of 90 to 120 pounds (large objects). Inanimate objects of similar size and heft may be substituted, but you lose the racial bonus to attack rolls and have half the range.

Catch: At fourth level, a giant that would normally be hit by a rock can make a Reflex save to catch it as a free action. The DC is 15 for a Small rock, 20 for a Medium one, and 25 for a Large one. (If the projectile provides a magical bonus on attack rolls, the DC increases by that amount.) The giant must be ready for and aware of the attack in order to make a rock catching attempt.

Trample: At fifth level, as a full-round action, The Giant can move up to twice his speed and literally run over any opponents at least one size category smaller than itself. The Giant merely has to move over the opponents in its path; any creature whose space is completely covered by the Giant’s space is subject to the trample attack. If a target’s space is larger than 5 feet, it is only considered trampled if the Giant moves over all the squares it occupies.

A trample attack deals bludgeoning damage (the Giant’s slam damage + 1½ times his Str modifier).

Trampled opponents can attempt attacks of opportunity, but these take a -4 penalty. If they do not make attacks of opportunity, trampled opponents can attempt Reflex saves to take half damage.

The save DC against the Giant’s trample attack is 10 + ½ Giant's HD + Giant’s Str modifier. The Giant can only deal trampling damage to each target once per round, no matter how many times its movement takes it over a target creature.

Too Hot to Handle: At fifth level, the Fire Giant can will his opponents to burn. Opponents with fire resistance lose a number of points in their resistance equal to the Fire Giant's HD when in the Giant's threatened area. Against opponents who are immune to fire, a number of points of damage equal to ½ the Giant's HD + his Cha bonus still passes through.

Stomp: At sixth level, the Fire Giant may bring his spiked iron cleats down on hapless foes within his reach, grinding fallen enemies beneath his boots. The Fire Giant must make an opposed strength check against the opponent, with both the Giant and the target adding their respective size bonuses/penalties as found in the grapple rules.

Foes failing the roll take standard slam damage and suffer 1d6 Con damage as bones are shattered by the impact. Prone or helpless foes suffer twice the damage (both standard and Con) and cannot make their opposed Strength checks.

At 8HD, the Giant may elect to affect a 10' square with his Stomp. If any opponent in the space succeeds their strength check, the stomp fails.

At 16HD, the Giant may affect a 15' square. Again, if any opponent within the space succeeds their opposed strength check, the stomp fails.

Extinguish Life: At seventh level, the Fire Giant is well versed in ending the lives of lesser creatures. For the purposes of melee or boulder attacks delivered by the Fire Giant, subtract the Fire Giant's HD from a given creature's Massive Damage threshold (Default 50). Thus, on taking damage from a seventh level Fire Giant, enemies would have to save against massive damage if they took 43 or more damage from a single attack.

Further, add ½ the Fire Giant's Str bonus to the DC of the fortitude save.

Smackdown: At eighth level, the Fire Giant can do more when swatting opponents. These expanded options are:

• The Fire Giant can deliver the Swat effect with thrown boulders.
• The Fire Giant can use Swat to dismount a rider from their steed. If the touch attack connects, the rider must make a ride check (DC is 10 + ½ Fire Giant's HD + Fire Giant Str Bonus) or be struck from the saddle.
• The Fire Giant can swat multiple opponents at once. The Fire Giant takes a -2 penalty on attacks for each intended target after the first.

Tower of Iron: At ninth level, the Fire Giant can opt to rely on his great mass and endurance to take the brunt of any blows. Tower of Iron is a stance, and on adopting it, the Fire Giant trades away AC for damage reduction. Halve the Giant's bonus from any armor or shields, rounding down (+2 full plate would be 8+2 divided by two for a total of 5). The Fire Giant takes a penalty to AC equal to this number, but gains DR equal to 1/2 his HD (rounded down) plus this number. While in this stance, the Fire Giant cannot be knocked prone or moved from his position without his consent, and gains a +2 bonus to Fortitude and Reflex saves. Adopting the Tower of Iron stance is a swift action.

Unquenchable Ire: At tenth level, the Fire Giant does not fall when he reaches 0 hp. He continues to fight, losing 1 hp at the end of each round, until his total of negative HP equals his Con score, at which point he falls in battle and is unconscious and dying as normal. During the initial period of fighting below 0 hp, if the Giant defeats an opponent (or a collection of opponents) with enough of a CR to grant him standard experience, he is restored to 1hp.

Comments:

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I stalled in the Fire Giant for a long time as my first idea for a level 2 ability involved improvised weapons, and it didn't work out mechanically. While Fire Giants are the fiery counterpart to their cold-based kin, they don't have the same metamystical background and ties to existing mythologies. As such, I kept them more grounded in reality, insofar as such exists in D&D. In the end, I kept it a 6 level class (even though the monster manual fire giants have more CR than frost giants, which I wrote up as a 7-level).

Fire Giants are warriors, and while Swat and Stomp may seem less glitzy than Demolish, Fling and Smash, any D&D player is liable to agree that a touch-based attack that pushes enemies away coupled with reach and a large threatened area makes for a pretty vicious combatant. To build on the warrior feel, I emphasized the heavy armor proficiency with an ability reducing the penalties for said armor. (This also ties into the idea of fire giants as really big dwarves - as dwarves have a similar ability).

Too Hot To Handle is there primarily because fire is the most resisted element (with almost twice the creatures having fire resistance/immunity as compared any other type, I've heard). I wanted to promote the fire flavor while not disadvantaging the Fire Giant.

Changelog:

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• Changed the Fire Giant from a 6 level class to a 10 level class. Introduced abilities Smackdown, Extinguish Life, Tower of Iron and Unquenchable Ire.

[Oslecamo]

I'll have to temporaly stop posting in Gitp for the next weeks in order to properly focus on finals but I'll be back eventualy.

Untill then keep up the good work here people.