Advancing Monsters...

[Fualkner Asiniti]

...Can anyone walk me throught this? I've always gotten confused. I'd like to advance a quasit to 9 HD. So, I'm kinda confused. I thought there was a thread for this, but I couldn't find it.

[Amiria]

Yes, The Vorpal Tribble made such a thread. You could send him a PM, maybe he knows where it is.

[Jasdoif]

Quasit's entry says it typically only advanced to 6HD. You can still advance it to 9, but odds are the CR is going to be off. That aside....


First, it's going from 3HD to 9HD. That gets to 4 and 8, so it gets two stat point increases (I advise against putting them in Int, to avoid making the process more difficult when we get to skill points). It also gets to 6 and 9, so it gets two feats.

Since the quasit's size isn't listed as increasing with HD, and because they look stealth-based, we won't increase size.

Outsiders have the good BAB progression and all good saves, so your 9HD quasit has BAB +9 and base saves of +6.

Outsiders get 8 + Int skill points for each hit die. Determining which skills are class and cross-class is a bit of a pain; I'd just pick 8 skills (Quasits have average Int) that have good modifiers, and increase them by one for each HD you add (so add 6)

A quasit's poison is Con-based, so its save DC is 10 + 1/2 hit dice + Con; plus a +2 racial bonus in this case. This ups the DC to...16+Con.

It's said that adding hit dice increases CR by +1 per two HD added, so that increases the quasit's CR to 5. (Consider this number only an estimate, though.)


That should be enough to get you started, I believe everything else (like grapple, natural weapon damage, etc.) is determined the same way it is for characters.

[Piggy Knowles]

Sure, monster advancement is pretty simple. The MM p291 walks you through it, but I'll go through the steps with you here as well.

Basically you're adding 6 HD to the Tiny creature the Quasit. First thing I always do is double check the "Advancement" column in its entry, which in this case lists 4-6 HD (Tiny). It doesn't list advancement beyond that, but we can always extrapolate. For convenience's sake, let's say the monster retains its tiny size no matter what.

Now look up Outsider on the table on page 290. This lists the BAB, HD, good saves, and skill points of Outsiders.

So, the Quasit gets full BAB, d8 HD, perfect saves, and max skill points. Let's go ahead and add those on. Don't forget that it also gets two additional feats, as well!

HD: 9d8
Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+0

Saves: Fort +6, Ref +9, Will +7

Skills: Allocate 48 more skill points where you will.

Feats: Improved Initiative, Weapon Finesse, (bonus feat), (bonus feat)

Let's assume the bonus feats are Ability Focus (Poison) and Weapon Focus (Claw). This'll raise the DC of its poison by 2 (don't forget, the Quasit's poison DC will also go up due to its increased hit die!)

So, its attack looks something like this:

Attack: Claw +15 melee (1d3-1 plus poison)
Full Attack: 2 claws +15 melee (1d3-1 plus poison) and bite +9 melee (1d4-1)

The new poison DC is 10 + 1/2 HD (4) + 2 racial bonus + 2 Ability Focus. If it had any Constitution bonus, the DC would be higher (save DC is Con based), but for now it's DC 18.

This is a good jumping point, you can probably extrapolate the rest from here. For the new CR, just look at the table on page 294, which says that the CR is +1 for every 2 HD added for Outsiders. So, your new Quasit is CR 5.

That's it! Easy as pie.

EDIT: Ninja'd. I make posts that are far too long.

[Fualkner Asiniti]

Hmm... okay you guys. Thanks. But, seeing how that quasit would be waaaaay too weak for my party, I'll advance something else. thanks though, It makes sence now.

[Draz74]

Hmm... okay you guys. Thanks. But, seeing how that quasit would be waaaaay too weak for my party, I'll advance something else. thanks though, It makes sence now.

You could advance it to 6 HD with Outsider hit dice, and then add some Fighter or Rogue levels to it after that ... ?