[3.5 monster] Ooh, that stings!

[Peregrine]

I got Paizo's Misfit Monsters Redeemed for my birthday, and it got me thinking about flumphs. Just what is it about them that's so absurd? I think it must be the name; a flumph by any other name would be a jellyfish monster, and let's face it, jellyfish are actually kind of scary.

In fact (I said to my wife), a "cave jellyfish" would be a much more plausible and intimidating monster than most other "x creature in y environment" monsters, like, say, the cave moray eel (thank you Tome of Horrors). Imagine something that looks like a jellyfish, but sticks to the ceiling of a cave and dangles down a hard-to-see net of stinging tentacles. These tentacles catch you, sting you, and draw you in to its waiting maw...

Anyway, this was the result.
[hr]
Cnidariax
Large magical beast
Hit Dice: 12d10+36 (106 hp)
Speed: 5 ft. (1 square); climb 5 ft.
Initiative: +9
Armor Class: 18 (-1 size, +5 Dex, +4 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +12/+17
Attack: Tentacle +18 melee touch (poison and ensnare)
Full Attack: Tentacle +18 melee touch (poison and ensnare)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./40 ft.
Special Attacks: acid, collapse, drag, ensnare, poison, tentacles
Special Qualities: adhesive, blindness, damage reduction 10/slashing, immune to electricity, resistance to fire 5 and cold 5, transparent, tremorsense 60 ft.
Saves: Fort +11, Ref +13, Will +7
Abilities Str 13, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 5
Skills: Climb +13, Hide +14, Listen +11
Feats: Diehard, Endurance, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Weapon Focus (tentacle)
Environment: Underground
Organization: solitary or bloom (3-6)
Challenge Rating: 8
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 13-15 (Large); 16-25 (Huge); 26-30 (Gargantuan)

The cnidariax, or cave jellyfish, is thought to have been deliberately bred from unknown stock, possibly altering an animal with some manner of plant or ooze. It is unlikely that they have any relation to true jellyfish, which they only resemble in general form. It is much closer in complexity and intelligence to the higher vertebrates.

A cnidariax is a predatory creature, but being blind and slow-moving, it does not hunt or chase its food. It catches prey by adhering itself to the ceiling of a cave and allowing its tentacles to hang down. Any living creature that blunders into the tentacles is caught, ensnared, poisoned, and dragged up to the waiting cnidariax and its toothless, slavering maw, where it is digested... alive. Creatures that avoid walking into the trap are not safe either, as the cnidariax can detect movement and lash out with its tentacles. Should its prey continue to struggle, the cnidariax will sting it repeatedly until it is subdued.

The digestive acids of a cnidariax make short work of most meals. Any non-organic objects are discarded; however, the cnidariax does not merely allow them to accumulate on the cave floor beneath it, instead caching them in some out-of-sight location. It is thought that this behaviour may be an instinct that was bred into them, allowing their master to reap the spoils from the predations of his "pets".

The cnidariax is a very hardy creature, lending yet more weight to the theory of deliberate breeding. It is resistant to extremes of heat and cold, and can lie dormant for years on end, being awoken by its tremorsense or the sounds of life in its cavern. It lacks any sort of skeleton, and its flesh is soft to the touch, but extraordinarily resilient -- yielding and pliable, yet tough and hard to break or damage. Its organs are clearly visible inside, but they too are resistant to damage. It is often necessary to quite literally cut a cnidariax to pieces before it dies.

Acid (Ex): The acid of a cnidariax only affects organic materials, not stone or metal. It deals 1d8 points of damage per round to any creature being digested or caught in its collapse.

Adhesive (Ex): The body of a cnidariax secretes an adhesive that binds it strongly to stone surfaces. A cnidariax can traverse stone walls and even ceilings at its climb speed. It does not need to make a Climb check to avoid falling when struck for damage. A DC 23 Strength check can pull a cnidariax off of a stone surface, although the force must be applied to its body rather than to its tentacles, which would break away first. The save DC is Constitution-based and includes a +4 racial bonus.

Blindness: A cnidariax has immunity to gaze attacks, visual effects, illusions, and other attack forms that rely on sight.

Collapse (Ex): When slain, a cnidariax comes loose from any stone surface to which it was adhering, and falls on any creature that it had ensnared or that was standing beneath it. All such creatures are considered ensnared and continue to take acid damage for 2d4+2 rounds or until freed. If a creature underneath a collapsing cnidariax is too large to be ensnared by it, it still takes acid damage when the cnidariax collapses and again each round that it shares a space with the dead body (Reflex DC 17 for half damage each round; the save DC is Strength-based).

Drag (Ex): As a full-round action, a cnidariax may drag all ensnared creatures up to its body, where it begins to digest them. All dragged creatures take acid damage on the round they are dragged in and every round thereafter until they are freed. Note that being freed from a cnidariax may lead to falling damage. A cnidariax can raise and hold creatures weighing up to twice its heavy load (300 lb. for the specimen described here) at any one time.

Ensnare (Ex): The tentacles of a cnidariax wrap around any living creature that they strike. Any such creature that is at least one size category smaller than the cnidariax must make a DC 21 Reflex save. If this save succeeds, the creature is entangled but not caught, and may move out of the tentacles’ area on its turn, if it has enough movement to do so. (If it does not move out, it is automatically struck again the next round.) If the save fails, the creature is grappled and moved into a space directly beneath the cnidariax (provoking attacks of opportunity as normal). The cnidariax may use its drag ability to bring ensnared prey to its mouth on its next turn.

A cnidariax uses its Dexterity modifier instead of its Strength modifier on all grapple checks. In addition to escaping using a grapple or Escape Artist check, an ensnared creature may break itself free (or be freed by another creature) by making a DC 19 Strength check or dealing 6 points of damage to the tentacles. (The loss of a tentacle deals 3 points of damage to the cnidariax.) The Strength DC is Constitution-based.

Creatures too large to be ensnared are treated as automatically succeeding on their Reflex saves; that is, they are entangled but not grappled.

Poison (Ex): Any creature struck by the tentacles of a cnidariax is affected by a muscle-seizing toxin. A cnidariax can also inject one or more ensnared creatures with another dose of toxin as a move action. (Contact, Fortitude DC 19, initial and secondary damage 1d3 Dex. The save DC is Constitution-based.)

Tentacles (Ex): The tentacles of a cnidariax usually drape in a filmy, hard-to-see curtain stretching up to 40 ft. straight down. Any creature that walks into them is automatically struck; the cnidariax can also make a single tentacle attack per round to strike a creature that has not fallen into its trap. A struck creature is ensnared and poisoned.

The tentacles are extremely numerous and several work together to ensnare victims; however, they can be treated as a number of individual tentacles, one for each 10 hp that the cnidariax possesses normally (so 10 for the specimen described here). Each tentacle has 6 hit points and a break DC of 19. The break DC is Constitution-based. The loss of a tentacle deals half as much damage (3 hit points) to the cnidariax.

Transparent (Ex): A cnidariax is hard to see, even under ideal conditions, and it takes a DC 15 Spot check to notice one. Creatures who fail to notice a cnidariax and walk into its tentacles are automatically ensnared.

Tremorsense (Ex): A cnidariax has no sense of sight, but can automatically detect the location of any creature within 60 ft. that is in contact with the ground.

Skills: A cnidariax has a +4 racial bonus on Hide checks, due to its transparent quality. It has a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks and can always choose to take 10 on climb checks, even if rushed or threatened. It uses its Dexterity modifier instead of its Strength modifier for Climb checks.

[Debihuman]

I like the concept a lot.

Reach should be 10 ft. (40 ft. with tentacle).

I think of a jellyfish as a rather delicate creature so having a Con 16 seems a bit too high. Tome of Horrors (revised) and Misfit Monsters both indicate that the Flumph's Constitution is 11. Why is this one even tougher?

Full Attack should list the number of tentacles that the creature can attack with or you should note that the tentacles attack in unison as one attack. It's not clear from the text how this should work.

Debby

[Peregrine]

I like the concept a lot.

Thanks!

Reach should be 10 ft. (40 ft. with tentacle).

I was going to put this -- actually I was going to put 5 ft. (40 ft. with tentacle), since it's more like a Large (long) than a Large (tall) creature -- but I thought it might be redundant, since the cnidariax doesn't have any attacks whatsoever except its tentacles. I can't seem to find any precedent on this one way or the other... well, the shrieker comes close -- its size would dictate 5 ft. reach, but it has no attacks at all, and so it has 0 ft. reach.

I think of a jellyfish as a rather delicate creature so having a Con 16 seems a bit too high. Tome of Horrors (revised) and Misfit Monsters both indicate that the Flumph's Constitution is 11. Why is this one even tougher?

Because it's not really a jellyfish. I realise now that I didn't put a description of its form in the post (yet), but here's what I have in mind. Its body is a gelatinous mass, somewhat like a jellyfish or an ooze, though with distinct and developed organs. However, its gelatinous nature is in fact a strength rather than a weakness; its flesh yields and deforms rather than suffering injury from most weapons. It's pliable, but very tough. (I did include the part about it being very resilient and how that lends weight to the "deliberate breeding" theory.)

Full Attack should list the number of tentacles that the creature can attack with or you should note that the tentacles attack in unison as one attack. It's not clear from the text how this should work.

The full attack line is correct: it gets exactly one attack. This is also noted under the Tentacles section: "...the cnidariax can also make a single tentacle attack per round..." If you like, I can clarify that it's not all of its tentacles swinging as one; it's just capable of only swinging one (cluster of) tentacles each round.

[Icedaemon]

I like it. If I were making stats for something like it, it would probably have lower HD and con, since seeing how one of these can survive repeated sword attacks is difficult, as well as int 1 as it does not seem smarter than a slug, but that's my fluff-oriented thinking.

[Peregrine]

I like it. If I were making stats for something like it, it would probably have lower HD and con, since seeing how one of these can survive repeated sword attacks is difficult, as well as int 1 as it does not seem smarter than a slug, but that's my fluff-oriented thinking.

Nitpick: a slug would be Int --. Your fluff-oriented thinking is at odds with mine -- which says to me that I need to improve the writeup somewhat to get everyone on the same page. This thing looks like a brainless blob of jelly, but it has the mind and the anatomy (albeit warped) of an animal.

I'm going to be throwing a few of these at my players tomorrow, and I hope to play up the fact that it looks like a jellyfish, when in fact it's not mindless and not immune to sneak attacks (which means two of their favourite weapons are in play, but they may very well not realise that).

Sword attacks are indeed its weakness (DR/slashing), but yes, it still has a lot of hit points. Fluff aside, I think that's appropriate for its target CR; whether I'm right will come down to playtesting. Again, that's coming tomorrow. I shall endeavour to give a report here when the session's over.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Sword attacks are indeed its weakness (DR/slashing), but yes, it still has a lot of hit points.

I see nothing about DR/Slashing. Even control-F'ed it. Did you froget?

[Peregrine]

I see nothing about DR/Slashing. Even control-F'ed it. Did you froget?

...

Yes. Yes I did.

I write up my monster stats in the new (post-MMIV) stat block format, but the preferred layout here has always (to my knowledge) been the original format. And I forgot to move DR down to the Special Qualities line when I translated it over.

Lemme just go fix that... done. I also added in its tremorsense, which I also forgot.

Now to the playtest report.

Three cnidariax* and a roper lurked in a cave, waiting for my level 13 party to come past. The roper failed a fort save and got disintegrated early, though thanks to earlier fights, that was the sorcerer's last 6th-level slot. So the three cnidariax were left to fight the party by themselves.

They actually lasted quite a while, thanks to their many hit points and their fire resistance. (It was low enough that I decided the party couldn't tell that they were losing 5 points of brimstone blast and fireball damage. I did, however, tell them that the alchemist's fire didn't seem to bother it; but they figured it might have just been because it had a lot of hit points.) The high attack bonus (on a touch attack, no less) also helped them get in many hits.

However, they weren't able to do much. Only two characters ever failed the Fort save against poison. A group of level 8 characters would find it more challenging (a good save at that level might be a +9 or +10); but a combination of good luck and 13th-level saves meant my players were much better off. The damage was also very low; I didn't want to make it too high, but I think I went too far the other way.

The PCs weren't so lucky with their Reflex saves, but once entangled, they were always promptly cut free. That was largely my fault -- I ruled that, like the roper, the cnidariax doesn't immediately drag a victim up to its space in the same round in which it ensnares them. The party was bunched in quite close (it being a cave and all), so someone was always around to sever the tentacles.

What I should have done was have them immediately dragged into a square directly beneath the cnidariax, and then dragged up to it next round. That would have made the cnidariax's extraordinary reach more useful, and also scattered the party quite effectively.

The Spot DC to see its tentacle trap was also trivial for 13th-level characters, but since I found that the cnidariax would have worked best (against groups, anyway) if it had actively snared creatures and dragged them to it, that wasn't such a big deal.

On the bright side, the collapse ability was a perfect finish to the fight. And tremorsense made the absurd hiding skill of the party scout pretty much irrelevant.

All in all, the cnidariax were an unusual and, I think, enjoyable encounter, but they failed in their primary task, which was to soften up the PCs for the next fight by reducing Dex scores. (The roper, in its oh-so-brief appearance, did a lot more, reducing one character to just 1 point of Str.)

* I've decided that's the plural form as well as the singular. "Cnidariaces" just doesn't work for me.

[Debihuman]

Magical Beasts normally have darkvision 60 ft and low-light vision. You should mention whether it has those traits or not. I'm guessing not but you should specifically mention it since those are Type traits.

DR ?/slashing. It's not yet in the stat block.

Debby

[Peregrine]

Magical Beasts normally have darkvision 60 ft and low-light vision. You should mention whether it has those traits or not. I'm guessing not but you should specifically mention it since those are Type traits.

DR ?/slashing. It's not yet in the stat block.

Debby

*facepalm* Can I blame the flu that I'm enduring at the moment?

Okay, I'll go fix that. And I'll also go and re-add the explicit mention of its blindness that I somehow skipped.

[Lady Moreta]

I feel like offering a critique of the encounter from a player's perspective... and since y'know I'm one of the players in this group, I can (I'm also Peregrine's wife and I was most annoyed at myself for not picking up on the cave jellyfish thing earlier, especially since we'd only had the conversation the day before the game!)

The roper failed a fort save and got disintegrated early, though thanks to earlier fights, that was the sorcerer's last 6th-level slot. So the three cnidariax were left to fight the party by themselves.

Well, yes it did, but it was rather funny

The high attack bonus (on a touch attack, no less) also helped them get in many hits.

I thought this was good, they even managed to hit the party warlock who has ridiculously high AC - it actually made him be careful for once. He deliberately backed off to be out of their reach... although I'm not sure he actually was out of reach now that I think about it, since one of them reached about 20-30ft to grab my character...

However, they weren't able to do much. Only two characters ever failed the Fort save against poison. A group of level 8 characters would find it more challenging (a good save at that level might be a +9 or +10); but a combination of good luck and 13th-level saves meant my players were much better off. The damage was also very low; I didn't want to make it too high, but I think I went too far the other way.

I would just like to point out that my character's fort save is only 6

Do you mean tentacle damage or full damage? Cause I remember it hurt when the stupid thing fell on me...

What I should have done was have them immediately dragged into a square directly beneath the cnidariax, and then dragged up to it next round. That would have made the cnidariax's extraordinary reach more useful, and also scattered the party quite effectively.

I agree with this... I think it would have made them much more intimidating and probably would have made us much more cautious. They were a neat fight, but not particularly threatening. If there had been more of a chance of someone getting eaten, especially once they got lifted up and someone had to fly up to slice them out, then we would have been much more careful in going forwards and might not have done so at all, depending on damage dealt. And then certain other events might have turned out differently

On the bright side, the collapse ability was a perfect finish to the fight.

Gee, thanks darling The amusement he's talking about is when one of the silly things fell on my character, dealing a nice amount of acid damage until another player pulled her out.

All in all, the cnidariax were an unusual and, I think, enjoyable encounter, but they failed in their primary task, which was to soften up the PCs for the next fight by reducing Dex scores. (The roper, in its oh-so-brief appearance, did a lot more, reducing one character to just 1 point of Str.)

Eh, I had fun and I dunno that the roper really did that much good, since that damage got healed pretty much straight away.

I think they both did and didn't soften us up. In the obvious sense, they weren't the big threat that they might have been, so we weren't physically softened, but I do think that they made us complacent and a bit blase, which did work for the next fight because you wiped the floor with us. I think if the cindy- you know what I'm just gonna keep calling them cave jellyfish. If they'd been a harder fight I think we would have been much more careful going forwards and would possibly have just stayed where we were for the time being...

Either way I thought they were nifty - and I love you