Stat out a Halo Scarab in D&D

[Lord_Butters_I]

I have a chalenge for anyone good with D&D/d20 modern rules: Make a Scarab (from the Halo video games)

Out of boredom and an upcomming D&D ravenloft campaign where the DM is letting me play a military research scientist from an alternate reality earth in the year 2632, Not from the Halo universe, but from one akin to it (the same level of technology). I want to make a Scarab.

DM allows anything from 3e D&D (no 4e please, or is it not out yet? I don't keep up with this stuff anymore) and d20 modern/future. Custom content allowed, but make sure it fits and is stated fully.

Scarab design from Halo 3 rather than Halo 2, using rules for mecha unless you've got a better idea. I find the d20 modern SRD to be extremely helpful in this extent. I will give a cookie to whoever creates the best D&D Scarab. I can find links to helpful sites if anyone needs info.

[osyluth]

having i hate miko in your signature is not smart: th miko fan club will spend all their time saying i hate you on any threads you post

[Lord_Butters_I]

having i hate miko in your signature is not smart: th miko fan club will spend all their time saying i hate you on any threads you post

I'm just stick of the constant Miko threads on the OotS board.

[Kusanagi Hayate]

Boredom ensues. I'm not too great with the rules, but I know what the Scarab is, so here's a start for someone else to pick up later.

DnD's not my specialty. If this was HERO System, I'd have this down, but either way.

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Type-47 Ultra Heavy Assault Platform Scarab

Size: Colossal (or bigger, if possible. This thing is well over five times the size of a main battle tank, which can fit six people)

The Scarab has many parts, so I'll deal with each one seperately.

Legs (x4):
HP: 100
Damage Reduction 20/explosives
AC: 17
Attack: Stomp, 15d6, +10 Attack Bonus.

Special abilities
Cannot be brought below 0 HP
Fast Healing 10 once at 0 HP

When the legs lose all HP, they collapse, exposing the cargo hold of the Scarab to the enemy. Regeneration begins quickly, and once the leg's full health is restored, the leg rises back up at full strength.

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Front-Mounted Cannon

HP: 50
Damage Reduction 10/explosives
AC: 19
Attack: Plasma Stream, takes 1 round to charge, fires for one round, cannot fire again for 1d8 rounds. +17 AB, 10d6 damage. Beam-type attack.

Special abilities
The cannon cannot be completely destroyed thanks to its heavy armor. However, once its HP is burned down, it loses its attack bonus, making it very hard to aim accurately.

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Top-Mounted Cannon

HP: 45
Damage Reduction 10/explosives
AC: 21
Attack: Plasma Repeater. Cannot fire again for 1d4 rounds. +14 AB, does 4d6 x 4 damage. Damage resistance is counted versus each seperate attack. Beam type attack.

Special abilities
Unlike the front-mounted cannon, this cannon, when it is destroyed, is physically blown into scrap and rendered useless.

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Plasma Turrets (x4)

"HP": 40
AC: 26
Damage: 2d8 x 3 damage. Damage resistance is counted versus each seperate attack. Relies upon user's AB.

Acts as a weapon which cannot be moved unless HP is brought to 0, at which point it is detached from its attachment point.

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Rear Armor

HP: 200, Damage Resistance 15
AC: 25
Attack: None

Special abilities: If destroyed, the core is exposed from the back, allowing for someone to bypass taking out the legs and simply fire directly into the core. However, the core is around 150 feet in the air, so short of having flying capabilities, no one can fire up and into the core.

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Core

HP:
Shield, 60, Damage Reduction 5/plasma weapons
Actual core, 30.
AC: 13
Attack: None.

Special abilities
When core is destroyed, Scarab will detonate within 1d4 rounds. All persons on the Scarab, upon detonation, immediately take 20d6 of damage.

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Right now, I'd like some requests for a CR for this thing. If anyone knows Halo, this is how you fight it, at least from the ground.

First procedure involves taking out the legs. The best way to do this is to focus all fire on a single leg. Anything short of a rocket launcher or a spartan laser (a high-powered, anti-vehicular laser cannon) will do nothing but scratch paint. Once a leg has sustained enough damage, it loses support, causing the entire Scarab to "kneel" to the ground and begin repairs on the crippled leg. At this point, the player should leap into the cargo hold in the back (distance is 5 feet, so this shouldn't be a problem). A Scarab's crew tends to be widespread, but generally no greater than ten visible on the deck. One must fight their way through the crew and the plasma turrets still left, go onto the front of the battle mech, then walk around the edge to the core in its back. At this point, one fires into the core. A few seconds' constant fire will destroy the core, causing a chain reaction which destroys the Scarab. Other than destroying the core or orbital bombardment, a Scarab cannot be destroyed permanently.

[OneWinged4ngel]

The Scarab has like a -11 or worse to hit. Those things are harmless on LEGENDARY. And boring, too. Like the part where you actually just have to PARK a mongoose under one and let your NPC partner shoot (really inaccurately) at it for a while until it goes down.

Also: HP is an abstraction, and D&D has more than one way to kill a beast (including colossal ones that could seriously crush a scarab bare-handed). All this stuff about exactingly repeating the process that you used to kill them in Halo seems as unnecessary as requiring a special maneuver to force a sword into the open mouth of a minotaur when adapting the God of War minotaur.

If you *do* intend to treat it as a sort of "moving environment" though, with a core that you win when you get to it, there's really no need to give it monster stats.

[Citizen Joe]

A friend of mine and I were playing Halo 3 on that level where there was a bunch of tanks and Gauss warthogs and some other stuff... we managed to be so uncoordinated that we wasted all the good ammo and ended up having to melee the legs until it fell.

[triforcel]

Not having played Halo, I can't be sure, but this Scarab sounds a lot like an ATAT Walker from Star Wars. You should be able to find stats for one of those somewhere and then adapt them a little to suit your purposes.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Why wait under the Scarab with on a Mongoose? A real man rides the elevator up the crane and JUMPS onto the thing, killing everyone on board with their SPARTAN FARTS alone.

As for stating a Scarab... I would find the stats for a scarab, (or perhaps an Ether Scarab), then apply the Titanic template, followed by one of the construct templates such as Effigy or Elder Eidolon. Then give him disintegrate rays, and a giant glowing weak spot that you can attack for MASSIVE DAMAGE.

[Citizen Joe]

There's a level (in co-op) where two scarabs drop in and you're close to two flying vehicles... forgot what they are called. But I like to fly right at the scarab, jump out mid air, land on it, run around and blow the thing up. If I aim the flying vehicle right, I can even get back into it afterwards to go after the second one.

[Lord_Butters_I]

I don't just jump onto it, I launch a mongoose onto it. But that's becide the point.

I like the stats, but replicating the Halo 3 method of attack is unnessary.

[OneWinged4ngel]

I like the stats, but replicating the Halo 3 method of attack is unnessary.

Indeed. Combat in D&D is an abstraction. Do you really think that you killed that Colossal Enemy Crab by poking its foot with a sword? No, you obviously did something totally cinematic with the great powers of description, like flipping it over on its back and attacking its weak point for Massive Damage. (Well, okay, that might be a bit too historically accurate for many group's tastes...)

[Superglucose]

Why wait under the Scarab with on a Mongoose? A real man rides the elevator up the crane and JUMPS onto the thing, killing everyone on board with their SPARTAN FARTS alone.

Before my friend and I discovered those elevators we spent forever trying to shoot off those legs. Then I discovered the elevator, and we finished that in about fifteen minutes.

[CockroachTeaParty]

I'm discovering new, interesting ways to kill scarabs all the time. The second one you fight in the desert, for instance, can be taken down by grabbing a grav lift from the bunkery thing, placing it near the edge on top, and driving a warthog off the ramp, boosting off the grav lift, and landing on the scarab. If it's close enough you can also just jump on the grav lift and land on the scarab as well. Wee!

[Lord_Butters_I]

I almost never go for the boring "shoot the legs" method. On the storm I launch a mongoose onto it, on the Ark I jump with a gravity lift, and on the Covanant I air lift myself via a Hornet and take it out like that. I tried to get a co-op game together where we killed the scarabs simultaneously so I could get a screenshot, but something always went wrong...

[Arthur Eld]

I disagree with anyone who disputes the Scarab's awesomeness.

I'm not much good at statting, but here goes. I chose to make the Scarab one animal as a whole, rather than stat out individual parts.

Scarab
Colossal Construct
32d12+256 HD, 464 HP
Initiative +0
Speed 40 ft
AC 30 (-8 Size, +0 Dex, +28 Natural)
Attack: Stomp +22, 20d6.
Full Attack: 4 Stomps +22, 20d6.
Special:
Plasma Beam: 40 ft. Line, 10d8.
Anyone inside the line takes 10d8 Fire/Electricity Damage, Reflex Half. Reflex DC 25. The Reflex DC is Dexterity based.

Power Core: Anyone gaining access to the shielded power core of the scarab can attack it. They hit automatically.
50 HP
DR 10/-.

[why123]

There's a level (in co-op) where two scarabs drop in and you're close to two flying vehicles... forgot what they are called. But I like to fly right at the scarab, jump out mid air, land on it, run around and blow the thing up. If I aim the flying vehicle right, I can even get back into it afterwards to go after the second one.