LA Assignment Thread X: New Year, New Management, Same Old Unplayable Monsters

[danielxcutter]

I'm kind of a fan of the boneyard as a creature concept, but I'm not sure the mechanics get there. The numbers aren't far off the expected (I "expect" ~+3.5 in ability boosts and +1 natural armor / level for a melee brute monster), but one melee attack is pretty bad for this level, even with the ability-damage rider effect. The skeleton summoning is kind of neat, but it's not very versatile. It grapples okay, and can grapple opponents to death (literally); but the 17 undead hit dice with poor BAB are a handicap for a grappler. It was the same problem with the hullathoin from Fiend Folio. In fact, the hullathoin and boneyard make for a very interesting comparison, because these two monsters are built with very similar premises, and have quite similar numbers. I think the hullathoin comes out on top, because it has a wider range of options, and its minionmancy is more diverse and more extensive; but the boneyard could probably hold its own in a one-on-one.

In the end, if the hullathoin couldn't make it to LA +0, I just don't think the boneyard has enough to get there either, so I'm voting LA -0 for the boneyard.

Incidentally, I have a remake of the boneyard ready, but I haven't posted it in my homebrew Bestiary thread yet, because I'm not totally satisfied with it, and I want to tinker some more. Maybe I'll get to that soon, now that we're covering it here.

To be fair, it only has one attack so it gets 1.5 Str on the bite and I think I remember hearing something about double PA bonuses in that case as well, although I could very well be wrong about that.

By "this level" I presume you mean the CR?

[Thurbane]

Incidentally it's easy to think that these things would be mindless or at least not that smart, but they actually have good mental stats. Not like they'd be much for social interaction for the most part, but they're not dumb brutes. Smart brutes, maybe, but still.

Yeah, I was actually quite surprised by those mental stats. This monster has "mindless brute" written all over it, from the description and fluff.

[AvatarVecna]

I don't particularly see a need for an asterisk. If we squint at existing asterisk reasons, we get two issues: one, there isn't a way in the rules to play it without immediately running into problems with the simple act of playing (like the dryad, who is hardlocked to a specific location), or there are abilities that are so powerful that them being allowed breaks campaigns while them being ignored gives up a ton of utility of the monster (anything that can grant wishes frequently enough, like efreeti). A number of monsters we've talked about so far have been the latter, where uncapped-spawning was maybe cool enough to warrant some more serious LA, but the loss of it significantly reduced the monster's appeal. The aura stuff on a few previous creatures was threatening to be the former, where it would take serious workarounds for certain common aspects of play to not be instantly rendered viable.

This bite attack isn't the former by any stretch of the imagination, and if we're being honest, it's nowhere near cool enough to count for the latter either. It's like assassins' death attack, but it can't be set-up in advance, it can't be set up from ranged, and you have to interact with the grappling rules. And Boneyard isn't good at grappling, they're just slightly better than a full BAB Medium character. But FoM doesn't care how big your bonus is, and frankly it's not even that big a bonus compared to the more serious beatstick monsters you'd be facing at lvl 17.

EDIT: Oh yeah, +0. Doesn't need an asterisk, substantially (theoretically infinitely) worse than 9th lvl casting. On the martial side...

Pros: Flight 60 (good), DR 10/-, Fast Healing 10, NA +20, big attributes across the board, undead immunities, physical ability damage on bite.

Cons: Slightly worse HP, muuuuch worse BAB. You have to either hardfocus the bite attack and hope that single attack per round is worthwhile, or you have to accept that your iteratives and damage will forever be behind. I think with the big mental attributes, and the fact that it can take feats, I could be happy-ish building this instead of a Fighter 17 but that's at least as much to do with how much I don't like building a Fighter 17.

[danielxcutter]

Yeah, one way or another I don't think that's worth an asterisk.

[Lapak]

I think I can be okay with a +0 on the Boneyard. The massive Strength bonus offsets the terrible BAB somewhat, the NA and DR and Fast Heal and Undead immunities offset the lack of CON somewhat, and the bone-eating abilities (while not amazing) are both very relevant even at high level - taking ~5 ability damage to three stats at the same time is a pretty substantial rider effect on attacks, and for once a creature whose primary ability relies on grappling has the size and strength to potentially do something with it.

It's not great, but it would be playable as the melee component of a high-level party. It squeaks over the line for me, which shocks me for something melee-based with this many Undead HD.

Also, I'm realizing that if you can give it some ability to deal with spells for a round or two (maybe even just drop Silence on it), this thing could be a hilarious way to off a demi-lich. It's undead, so no soul-trapping or paralysis will stop it from slurping up an evil skull (and the grapple check is not going to be much of a contest either.)

[danielxcutter]

I think I can be okay with a +0 on the Boneyard. The massive Strength bonus offsets the terrible BAB somewhat, the NA and DR and Fast Heal and Undead immunities offset the lack of CON somewhat, and the bone-eating abilities (while not amazing) are both very relevant even at high level - taking ~5 ability damage to three stats at the same time is a pretty substantial rider effect on attacks, and for once a creature whose primary ability relies on grappling has the size and strength to potentially do something with it.

It's not great, but it would be playable as the melee component of a high-level party. It squeaks over the line for me, which shocks me for something melee-based with this many Undead HD.

The problems are a) many monsters have even more substantial numbers in that department and b) I'm not seeing any actual numbers to back up "can keep up in melee". Remember, martial initiators have access to maneuvers like Mountain Tombstone Attack, Feral Death Blow, and War Master's Charge, let alone Time Stands Still.

Also, I'm realizing that if you can give it some ability to deal with spells for a round or two (maybe even just drop Silence on it), this thing could be a hilarious way to off a demi-lich. It's undead, so no soul-trapping or paralysis will stop it from slurping up an evil skull (and the grapple check is not going to be much of a contest either.)

Aren't demiliches immune to virtually every spell that's SR: Yes? I suppose you could use the area version... still doesn't help with the phylactery, though. If we're talking about humiliating and surprisingly effective ways, of course... just trap it in an AMF. Demilich flight is (Su), so it literally won't be able to do anything without specifically preparing against that.

[liquidformat]

Ugh I really wish WotC actually gave it a concrete shape change ability rather than just toss it into the text and let us do what we want with it. The power of this creature swings wildly as to how much stock you put into the line 'a boneyard’s form is fluid in the sense that it can appear merely as a pile of bones, or as a serpent composed of bones, or some other form of its choice.' At the very least boneyard should be getting a decent hide bonus while it is a pile of bones, also can it move or do anything as said pile of bones? How much can it change its shape are we talking any creature you can imagine it can become, any monster in the game with bones is a valid choice? Something else?

If I am getting 'the form of my choice' I choose a monster with 12 hydra heads on a body similar to a Marilith but with, how about 20 arms? Yeah that sounds reasonable....

So the real question here is how much weight should be put into 'form of its choice' that theoretically gives freedom to having an infinite number of natural weapons. If I am allowed to change my form into anything that has bones I am choosing hydra to maximize my Bone subsumption ability and probably arms for doors and iteratives too.

I personally think that this thing is on the level of Formian Taskmaster and should probably have an asterisk because the way you decide to handle its 'fluid form' can have a massive swing on its power level. If we completely ignore the 'fluid form' ability as just fluff text I think boneyard is -0 and doesn't quite make it to par for 17 rhd since you are missing a lot of item slots, the ability to do things that require manipulators like open doors, undead are a crappy base for melee beat sticks, and this thing has no turn res which makes it extra squishy to enemy turning and rebuking which is a huge concern. From there it really depends on how much power and versatility you allow the form changing ability to have. I will go with -0* LA I can see an argument for +0* but I don't think it gets there.

Utter subsumption doesn't seem like an issue to me, its going to take three rounds minimum to use Utter subsumption which in and of itself is a long time to be focused on one enemy in combat. Most other builds even beat sticks at this level should be able to take one enemy out of play per round at this level of play. Furthermore, anyone with freedom of movement is not a valid target which is pretty common at this level. Also with boneyards crappy bab the only reason grappling is a valid option is one it has an ok str bonus/size and two Bone subsumption is helping you bump up from a ok grappler to good grappler.

[InvisibleBison]

I'm not seeing any actual numbers to back up "can keep up in melee". Remember, martial initiators have access to maneuvers like Mountain Tombstone Attack, Feral Death Blow, and War Master's Charge, let alone Time Stands Still.

Ok, let's run some numbers.

A PC boneyard can be reasonably assumed to have a base Strength of 16, and a belt of giant strength +6, for a total Strength of 42. With its base bite, it's doing 2d8+24 damage; with a mouthpick greatsword, it's doing 4d6+25, and can make two attacks on a full attack.

An orc warblade is going to have 31 Strength (16 base + 4 racial + 5 levels + 6 enhancement). He's got a permanent enlarge person effect, and attacks for 3d6+16 with a +1 greatsword (he could have a more powerful weapon, but so could the boneyard). Alternatively, he can perform strikes; as a standard action he's got greater insightful strike, or as a full-round action he's got time stands still (he can only know one 9th level maneuver).

The warblade clearly has a higher maximum damage, but a lot of that is locked behind lower iteratives. How would the two compare to CR 17 enemies? The highest AC of a non-true dragon CR 17 creature in the Monster Manual is 29. The boneyard has an attack of +24 with its bite or +25/+20 with its mouthpick greatsword; the warblade has an attack bonus of +28/+23/+18/+13 and a Concentration bonus of at least +28. We can now compute the average damage:

	Standard action	Full-round action
Boneyard (bite)	26.4	26.4
Boneyard (mouthpick)	33.15	33.15
Warblade	100.7	129.85

In short, the warblade has way better damage, even before we consider how he's better equipped to use Power Atttack, or how higher levels of optimization favor the guy who can take prestige classes over the guy with 17 RHD. So I think the boneyard merits LA -0.

[danielxcutter]

Does upgrading the weapon to +5 favor the boneyard or the warblade? Also, not entirely sure about the permanent Enlarge Person thing. Is Mind Blank common enough at that level for mind-affecting buffs to not really be used? There are some nice undead-specific buffs, but I doubt they're good enough to tip the balance in the boneyard's favor.

[H_H_F_F]

I feel like saying +0, but I think that might just be bias from so many terrible ones in a row, so something that even approaches being capable at its own ECL seems enticing. Will have to think on that one.

[liquidformat]

Does upgrading the weapon to +5 favor the boneyard or the warblade? Also, not entirely sure about the permanent Enlarge Person thing. Is Mind Blank common enough at that level for mind-affecting buffs to not really be used? There are some nice undead-specific buffs, but I doubt they're good enough to tip the balance in the boneyard's favor.

It increases both proportionally which ends up favoring the warblade more... Boneyard is more defensively solid which means its main focus on equipment is first protecting itself from turning and two increasing its potential damage.

Invisible Bison's example actually makes Boneyard look worse than it actually is since its main way to damage/kill things is actually optimizing Bone subsumption and not raw damage. Doing 2-8 Con damage is going to do 34-136 hp damage and not many monsters have over 26 con so you are much better off focusing on optimizing that fortitude save and getting as many attacks off as possible. The best option is to pump Cha and take feats like ability focus, Martial Study (Flashing Sun) and getting weapon abilities like speed on its bite. Thayan Gladiator is probably its best choice for class, unfortunately it wouldn't get another bite attack until level 21.

[danielxcutter]

It increases both proportionally which ends up favoring the warblade more... Boneyard is more defensively solid which means its main focus on equipment is first protecting itself from turning and two increasing its potential damage.

Invisible Bison's example actually makes Boneyard look worse than it actually is since its main way to damage/kill things is actually optimizing Bone subsumption and not raw damage. Doing 2-8 Con damage is going to do 34-136 hp damage and not many monsters have over 26 con so you are much better off focusing on optimizing that fortitude save and getting as many attacks off as possible. The best option is to pump Cha and take feats like ability focus, Martial Study (Flashing Sun) and getting weapon abilities like speed on its bite. Thayan Gladiator is probably its best choice for class, unfortunately it wouldn't get another bite attack until level 21.

What do you mean "another"? Natural attacks don't get iteratives, I thought that was fairly common knowledge.

Also monster fort saves tend to be high. And your to-hit is going to be pretty bad too. Plus, what are you going to do if the monster's immune to ability damage?

[InvisibleBison]

Invisible Bison's example actually makes Boneyard look worse than it actually is since its main way to damage/kill things is actually optimizing Bone subsumption and not raw damage. Doing 2-8 Con damage is going to do 34-136 hp damage and not many monsters have over 26 con so you are much better off focusing on optimizing that fortitude save and getting as many attacks off as possible.

I agree that I should have included Bone Subsumption in my analysis; I had intended to edit in a section after eating lunch, but events have overtaken me. I'm not sure about your numbers though - most CR 17 enemies won't have 34 HD. Those in the Monster Manual range from 16 to 22 HD. Still, it might be enough to tip the boneyard to +0.

[liquidformat]

What do you mean "another"? Natural attacks don't get iteratives, I thought that was fairly common knowledge.

Also monster fort saves tend to be high. And your to-hit is going to be pretty bad too. Plus, what are you going to do if the monster's immune to ability damage?

You should really take a look at Thayan Gladiator, getting more iteratives of natural attacks is kind of its schtick. Also if you can get speed on your Bite attack, and/or use Flashing Sun you can also get extra bite attacks in a round. Form my understanding Flashing Sun and Speed do stack.

A lot of the things you are doing to optimize your bite and fort save are also going to optimize hp damage as a secondary affect. But this is also why I voted on -0* with this thing you don't have a lot of places to go and a lot of your options take time...

I agree that I should have included Bone Subsumption in my analysis; I had intended to edit in a section after eating lunch, but events have overtaken me. I'm not sure about your numbers though - most CR 17 enemies won't have 34 HD. Those in the Monster Manual range from 16 to 22 HD. Still, it might be enough to tip the boneyard to +0.

1hp/level per point of con damage, min 2 con damage on failed save so 34hp for a 17hd monster...

[Debatra]

Plus, what are you going to do if the monster's immune to ability damage?

Same thing a rogue does when he comes across something immune to sneak attacks. Or an enchanter against immunity to mind-affecting. Not every ability is going to work on everything you come across.

1hp/level per point of con damage, min 2 con damage on failed save so 34hp for a 17hd monster...

Only half that calculation actually. Remember only every second point of ability damage is enough to reduce a creature's bonus (though most things tend to have even-numbered scores, so that first point of damage will usually matter).

[liquidformat]

Only half that calculation actually. Remember only every second point of ability damage is enough to reduce a creature's bonus (though most things tend to have even-numbered scores, so that first point of damage will usually matter).

Oh darn you are right, so 17-68hp damage on failed save on a 17 hd enemy.

Still I think the 'fluid form' is the big issue with boneyard.

[Blue Jay]

To be fair, it only has one attack so it gets 1.5 Str on the bite and I think I remember hearing something about double PA bonuses in that case as well, although I could very well be wrong about that.

I actually don't know that. I've always just kind of assumed that the "1.5 x Str" meant "counts as two-handed."

By "this level" I presume you mean the CR?

Oh, I was referring to ECL.

[Lapak]

Oh darn you are right, so 17-68hp damage on failed save on a 17 hd enemy.

Still I think the 'fluid form' is the big issue with boneyard.

And also a hit of 1-4 points of AC, and for melee- or ranged-based enemies a loss of 1-4 on their to-hit. It's a good all-around debuff. It's high enough in ability damage terms to bring an unlucky bruiser's DEX or a non-bruiser's STR into dangerously low territory. Roughly a two-shot kill for most dragons, for example, but that would require pumping the save DC. I'm not saying it's a strong +0, but it feels like enough to keep it out of the basement to me.

(And yes, the flexibility-or-lack-thereof of Fluid Form makes a pretty substantial difference.)

[InvisibleBison]

Ok, based on the strength of bone subsumption I'm changing my vote to LA +0.

[liquidformat]

Ok, based on the strength of bone subsumption I'm changing my vote to LA +0.

So looking at the CR 16-18 monsters in MM I am seeing 23 (excluding golems since all constructs are immune) the average Fort save mod for them is 18 (18.5 but we round down).

Let's take the your example above with a boneyard with base Strength of 16, and a belt of giant strength +6, Necklace of Natural Weapons +5 speed for a total Strength of 42 (29 bab)and base charisma 14 +6 Cloak of Charisma, ability focus feat 28 (DC 29)

So we have a 95% chance of hitting against that 29 AC with a 50% chance of the enemy failing the fort save, so we have 47.5% chance of doing ability damage to an enemy per attack. At level 17 having a +6 belt of giant's strength, + 6 Cloak of charisma, Necklace of Natural Weapons +5 of speed plus a couple other items focused on turn res seems reasonable. So with two attacks in a round you have ~48% chance of activating Bone subsumption, its slightly lower than that because I was just looking at chances of hitting 43 with 4d20 but what you need to hit is 2 or greater on the first and third and 10 or less on the second and fourth which is a bit more complex calculation... either way that is a pretty decent strategy for boneyard and you can expect to hit your enemy with Bone subsumption once in the first two rounds and from their your chance of hitting go exponentially up each round. In general you should be able to kill one enemy every 3-4 rounds which is still worse than a warblade which is able to kill an enemy every 1.5 rounds. So I still don't think you quite hit +0 but again its pretty close.

[Morphic tide]

I'll be voting LA +0 because people are making a solid argument that its offensive capabilities are useful as compared to an Initiator of the same level, while it gets an insane +20 AC. It is very, very trivial to end up with Protection From Non-Touch Attack Rolls at that point. From there, you can pick up 16 "character" Dex without much issue for another +3, put on a +5 Mithral Brestplate for another +10, get a +5 Defending Necklace of Natural Attacks to be able to turtle some more, Combat Expertise can offer another +5, and we're already talking about being able to spike from AC 33, already on par with a freaking Solar which is supposed to be 10 CR higher, to inflicting a 40% miss chance on aforementioned Solar's first attack with AC 43 as a character supposedly six levels too low to fight it alone. And having almost 50% damage reduction to those Greatsword swings.

So yeah. Very easy to gear up to just ignore enemies trying to hit you, and being Huge yourself to start with makes a lot of Grappling options far more useful... Provided the last 3 pre-Epic levels are enough to access them, anyways. Which essentially creates a routine of removing one enemy from the fight instantly and taking another two rounds to kill them, against the Initiator's expectation of killing one outright every one or two rounds. Funnily enough, that DR fairly accurately makes up for raw HP losses... And since you're immune to Critical Hits as an Undead, that risk factor's already gone. Basically, unless the DM unveils a PC-grade Ubercharger or sicks a Stone Dragon master on you, you should hold up quite well in almost all conditions as a beatstick, funnily enough with a possibility of going Rogue of all things with that Intelligence modifier.

[AvatarVecna]

Same thing a rogue does when he comes across something immune to sneak attacks.

Right, deal half damage anyway because Trap Sense is garbage so you gave it up for a class feature that lets you not lose 90% effectiveness against 40% of enemies just by virtue of their creature type. Or you made use of spells/items giving full immunity bypass.

...wait, I don't think the Boneyard can actually do that, making this a bad comparison.

[Blue Jay]

Guys, I mentioned the hullathoin from Fiend Folio upthread. That monster has a similar stat array (though its mental stats are lower), a solid array of 5 natural attacks (2 of which have enhanced reach), a couple Strength-damage options, some grapple-based ability damage, and some undead minionmancy (including Rebuke), plus Blindsight and Scent, with 1 fewer hit die and no undead hunger handicap. That monster got a LA -0* from us, and people were very skeptical of its potential as a grappler. I'm not really sure that the boneyard will outperform the hullathoin as a grappler, even with its save-or-die grapple-based attack; and its minionmancy is more narrowly focused and restricted than the hullathoin's; and it has a narrower range of passive special qualities; so I'm not sure I'm seeing why the boneyard should get a higher LA than the hullathoin.

[AvatarVecna]

Okay, so being a bit less facetious, I did say that focusing the ability damage would be the route to go - your actual damage just can't keep up with an equal-level martial, but 2d4 damage to Str/Dex/Con once per round is nothing to sneeze at. However, it's a bit more limited than usual since it only affects creatures with skeletons. Let's do a quick rundown:

Aberration: Works on a minority, doesn't work on the majority.

Animal: Works on the majority, doesn't work on a minority.

Construct: Doesn't work on any, by virtue of ability damage immunity.

Dragon: Works on basically all, with the immune being weird edge cases (goo dragons or something like that).

Elemental: Works on basically none, with the non-immune being weird edge cases (idk maybe there's a bone elemental).

Fey: Unclear, but I'm going to lean towards "works on basically all". There's probably a debate to be had about fey physiology, which ones are made of up nature in some fashion rather than more normal flesh and blood and bone like humans, but by default I'd assume they're built the same, just more magical.

Giant: Works on basically all, with the immune being weird edge cases.

Humanoid: Works on basically all, with the immune being weird edge cases.

Magical Beast: Works on majority, doesn't work on a minority.

Monstrous Humanoid: Works on basically all, with the immune being weird edge cases.

Ooze: Works on basically none, with the non-immune being weird edge cases (although the closest thing we have to a bone ooze is the Boneyard itself AFAICT, even if it's not a real ooze).

Outsider: Unclear, but I'm going to lean towards "works on basically all". There's probably a debate to be had about outsider physiology, which ones are made of up pure planar magic in some fashion rather than more normal flesh and blood and bone like humans, but by default I'd assume they're built the same, just more magical.

Plant: Works on basically none, with the non-immune being weird edge cases.

Undead: Works on none, by virtue of immunity to physical ability damage, unless you think that the line about how undead still need to make a save indicates that designer intent was that this specific ability bypasses the specific undead immunity to physical ability damage if the undead in question has a skeletal system. If you read it that way, then it works on basically all, with the immune being weird edge cases.

Vermin: Unclear. Bugs don't have a bones the way humans do, but they do tend to have an exoskeleton. If that counts, Works on basically all. If it doesn't, works on basically none.

Special mention: Incorporeal subtype, unclear if that changes the state of your skeletal system or just makes your skeleton too ethereal to be affected on the material plane by default. Mostly irrelevant, since the majority of incorporeal targets will be undead anyway, but worth thinking about.

[Blue Jay]

There is a bone ooze in Monster Manual 2, and it has basically the same "extract your bones from your body" save-or-die attack as the boneyard.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Oh right, they have impenetrable DR(aside from bypassing it entirely, which isn't unheard of but not terribly common either unless your DM frequently uses ToB)...

Worth pointing out that all DR is "pierced" by several types of damage, including most spells and all energy damage.

If I am getting 'the form of my choice' I choose a monster with 12 hydra heads on a body similar to a Marilith but with, how about 20 arms? Yeah that sounds reasonable....

So the real question here is how much weight should be put into 'form of its choice' that theoretically gives freedom to having an infinite number of natural weapons. If I am allowed to change my form into anything that has bones I am choosing hydra to maximize my Bone subsumption ability and probably arms for doors and iteratives too.

I think this is the first time anyone's proposed that a monster needs an asterisk because its flavor text is overpowered.

Jokes aside, nothing in the monster's stat block, description, or rules indicates that its fluid form affects its statistics. Be a 20-armed 12-headed hydralith, you still only get one bite attack. Frak, "fluid form" isn't even a special quality—it's a paraphrasing of its physical description.

However, unlike a skeleton or similar monster, a boneyard’s form is fluid in the sense that it can appear merely as a pile of bones, or as a serpent composed of bones, or some other form of its choice.

...In short, the warblade has way better damage, even before we consider how he's better equipped to use Power Atttack, or how higher levels of optimization favor the guy who can take prestige classes over the guy with 17 RHD. So I think the boneyard merits LA -0.

No argument, the warblade has better damage. But if you're playing a boneyard, you're going to use its most distinctive abilities, specifically grappling and utter subsumption, which don't neatly compare to anything the warblade does. Sure, the warblade can do more damage in one action than the boneyard can in three rounds, but the boneyard can also auto-kill anything in those three rounds.

Also monster fort saves tend to be high. And your to-hit is going to be pretty bad too. Plus, what are you going to do if the monster's immune to ability damage?

Fort saves and ability damage immunity don't do crap against utter subsumption. Your only defense is to not get pinned (or win that last grapple check, but if that was an option you probably wouldn't be pinned).

[PoeticallyPsyco]

If I'm remembering my grapple rules correctly, you can replace any attack with a grapple check. Throw an Improved Unarmed Strike on the Boneyard (and probably Scorpion's Grasp and Snap Kick) and you're going from killing one enemy after 3 turns to one enemy at the start of your second turn, and then presumably one per turn after that. That's respectable. Throw on multiple heads and (Greater) Multigrab, and you start killing up to one enemy per head per turn. (Only bite attacks work for this, sadly, unless you're getting Improved Grab on other limbs somehow).

I think that the Boneyard's fluid form is worth an *. How that's interpreted causes the Boneyard's potential to fluctuate so wildly that it's impossible to rate it otherwise. How do you give a single rating to a monster that could be killing one enemy per turn (only serpent form) or 12 enemies per turn, plus damage from other limbs/unarmed strikes (hydra+ form) depending on interpretation?

Regardless, I think Totemist is the obvious choice for a progression path. Just two levels gives you an extra two bite attacks (Threefold Mask of the Chimera bound to Totem Chakra), roughly tripling your effectiveness in combat. Girallon Arms and Kraken Mantle* for bonuses to grappling are just icing on the cake.


* Getting the grapple bonuses from Kraken Mantle would require an Open Chakra feat, and the Boneyard can't meet the Con requirement without a houserule to Undead Meldshaping.

[GreatWyrmGold]

If I'm remembering my grapple rules correctly, you can replace any attack with a grapple check...

I just checked the grappling rules, and I think this can work, just in a different sequence than you're describing.

A boneyard had a +8 BAB, for one iterative attack. It uses its first attack to initiate a grapple, using normal grappling rules instead of Improved Grab. If successful, its second attack can be replaced with a pin attack.
Having a third iterative would only give the boneyard an extra attempt to grapple/pin, because Utter Subsumption specifies that it can be used by "a boneyard that begins a turn with a victim still pinned" (emphasis mine). On the other hand, a third iterative attack means it probably gets three shots to beat the opponent's grapple check.

Still, that's better than I thought before checking the rules—I thought you needed to start the turn grappling before you could pin.

[Morphic tide]

Right, deal half damage anyway because Trap Sense is garbage so you gave it up for a class feature that lets you not lose 90% effectiveness against 40% of enemies just by virtue of their creature type. Or you made use of spells/items giving full immunity bypass.

...wait, I don't think the Boneyard can actually do that, making this a bad comparison.

No, it's a solid comparison if you aren't splatbook diving to remove your weaknesses. Just because a Rogue has the option to do trivially so because somebody at some point in WotC decided to shut off their counters doesn't mean it's legitimately expected. This is why I almost always talk in terms of basic SRD gear when coming up with comparison points, because that is a normal assumption to make and expected gameplay mechanics.

...also I'm pretty sure I missed the base 10 AC. So the thing trivially reaches AC 53 to be a tough job for a goddamn Solar swinging at it in exchange for -5 to-hit and not getting Enhancement bonus from its weapon. The core defenses on this thing are insane.

[danielxcutter]

Not dying does very little on its own since the enemies can just go around you and stab the wizard. It’s why Incarnates aren’t that high-tier.

Also now that I think of it some of the default immunities in this edition are weird. Rogue without Sneak Attack is an Expert with better weapon proficiencies. Ignoring the LA of this thing for now, I don’t think that’s exactly good gameplay design. Enchanters at least can cast spells from the schools they didn’t bar...