Negative LA-Assignment : Resurrection, but no diamond here

[remetagross]

Oh yeah, I really like the Blackstone Gigant. The illustration is awesome and the monster as a whole is very evocative and flavorful. You have a clear mental picture of what is it very quickly...and this bunch of petrifying attacks is frightening.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Blackstone Gigant

「Then, Krishna took His most divine form, and Arjuna witnessed His arms and His mouths, in limitless quantities, and everything was fiery and immeasurable like the sun. All was magnificent, all-expanding, unlimited, and the whole universe, all humans, and all fire, water, air, and all demigods were in Krishna.
So Arjuna spoke, and he asked "O lord of lords, please tell me who You are and what Your mission is."
The Blessed Lord said: "I am Time [Become Death], destroyer of worlds. All deaths in this war and beyond are by my hand, and preordained by me. Now go, and fight, as you are but an instrument of the destiny I arranged."」

-adapted from the Bhagavad Gita, full chapter translation

In that chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna, one of Vishnu's avatars, under its Vishvarupa form (basically "universal form"), explains to prince Arjuna that there is no shame in fighting, for time eventually swallows everything, from lives to even worlds; and that there is no point in trying to escape one's destiny, as everything was already written by the gods at the beginning of the universe. But even more than that, Krishna shows that everything in creation is but an aspect of him, and that things who die only return to him to be reborn in another form in hinduism's cyclical timeline. In the end, death and life do not exist, only destiny and purpose matter.

And what better monster to represent this concept than the Blackstone Gigant, a giant multi-armed statue that "kills" people by changing them into statues, then bring them back to life to make them fight for it. The Vishvarupa imagery is complemented by bracelets on the Gigant's arms adorned with smaller arms, and a necklace with smaller heads to represent the infinite mouths of Krishna. The snake tail represents probably Shesha (Anantashesha, Adishesha), the world serpent, on which Vishnu likes to rest in his benevolent days (one of the very rare benevolent serpents in all of mythology btw). And it somehow has breasts. Don't ask me why, I don't know. I mean, Vishnu also has one female avatar, but she has nothing to do with petrification or even destruction. It may also be a reference to Kali, hindu goddess of destruction, who is known to wear human heads on her necklace, and also has pet snakes, but I much prefer the reference to the Vishvarupa.


Despite all the mythological implications of its shape and powers, the Blackstone Gigant is actually a pretty simple monster to run. High strength (+34), low-int (-4), flies (40ft perfect), and each of its slams requires a Fort save against petrification, and it can also animate its own statues as one of its attacks during a full attack. It's actually part of its charm. You immediately know what it's about, it's a big guardian statue, and you immediately know wha it does: it hits you and you turn into statues, but it's still a really strong monster that requires planning and attacking it head first is just risking an unnecessary TPK. It's great, both for a DM and a player. It's also one of the very best construct you can build as an artificer to have a mechanical fighter at higher levels. Speaking of which, what can a player do with this chassis if they chose to play it rather than build it?

Well, the Blackstone Gigant actually has really low stats, having no stat bonus apart from strength, and racial penalties of -4 Dex and Int, for a total of +26, and +27 natural armor. Of course, most of the Gigant's power comes from its four extremely good slams, dealing 4d8+Str, plus petrification, but the DC remains pretty low because of the absence of Cha bonus (but you can always increase your Cha with point-buy).
Apart from that, it has a strong Trample (remember, Trample uses Str for its DC, so it's basically forced damage), can animate statues (pretty useful if you can petrify big opponents, which may be hard since most large creatures have good Fort saves), and the regular high-level construct defensive package (resists all energies except sonic, has DR 15/Adamantine, 40ft flying, SR 0+HD (ouch)), and that's basically it.

The Blackstone Gigant will always be a barbarian, using Cha for rage, and gaining either Improved Grab or Pounce. Both are excellent. After the first few levels, any melee base or prestige class will be good. Maybe even simply fighter, but in general you can't go wrong with Warblade. You can note that since the Gigant has 6 arms and only 4 slams, it can also wield a two-handed weapon on top of it for maximum ownage. So, with all that in mind and the general catch-up mechanics of martial initiators, I think that it deserves 11 RHD, despite its awful stat total. Like Thog, the Blackstone Gigant already knows how to use its best stat in combat. Also, increasing its RHD to 32 improves a lot of its abilities. SR, petrification DC, BAB (hence grappling bonus), and Trample DC. In the end, ECL 17, or DLA-15 seems fair to let it have a few class levels but not trample over everyone at lower levels.

Oh yeah, I really like the Blackstone Gigant. The illustration is awesome and the monster as a whole is very evocative and flavorful. You have a clear mental picture of what is it very quickly...and this bunch of petrifying attacks is frightening.

Agree on all points. The picture does do a really good job of giving a feel of danger and "feralness" to the Gigant. Look at these arms, how they twist and turn so much that you can't even tell if they're supposed to be right or left arms, it's great (and a bit stressful)! It's too bad that it was never reprinted. The only other reference I got was, weirdly enough, a PsyWar power from XPH, the Blackstone Hammer, which gives a weapon the ability to petrify those it strikes. To continue on the same path, the next monster is even simpler and also has a good picture. Though it lacks in badassery, it makes up for it in creepiness, it's the Bloodthorn!

I also wonder, I tried to go into deeper analysis of the origin of mythological monsters lately. Do you like that or should I stick to monster abilities, and sometimes D&D-related real-world trivia?

[remetagross]

No, mate, the in-depth mythological analysis was really interesting. I mean, I sorta knew it was coming from Hindu mythology one way or another, what with all the multi-armed thingy and the general design of the creature. It's nice to know more than that, however.

I really like that it has a perfect flight speed, with a serviceable 40ft at that. It's 50k saved from not having to buy a Phœnix Cloak, which is too expensive for your ECL 11 WBL anyway.

I think I like your 11 RHD. This means at ECL 20, it has an initiator level of 14. Which means it's just shy of accessing 8th-level maneuvers, so no Raging Mongoose for a total of 10 attacks on a full-round attack. On the other hand, with Dancing Mongoose, it can still pull off 8 attacks. Which is what a martial initiator with Time Stand Still can basically do at the same ECL. So it checks out.

[Metastachydium]

Phœnix Cloak

A ligature! So pretty.

I also wonder, I tried to go into deeper analysis of the origin of mythological monsters lately. Do you like that

(I'll always appreciate it! Just remember that we are advised to err on the side of caution with arguably rules-compliant stuff.)

[remetagross]

Thanks, mate. I really appreciate my alt+0156 sweet little ligature. Here's one more for you: œ. There are a bunch in French.

I'm always having a hard time wrapping my head around how DLA works. Does DLA-15 mean my PC must find 15 class levels somewhere, and that I'm starting the game at ECL 32? (New ECL 17, +DLA 15).

[Metastachydium]

Thanks, mate. I really appreciate my alt+0156 sweet little ligature. Here's one more for you: œ. There are a bunch in French.

S-w-e-e-t.

I'm always having a hard time wrapping my head around how DLA works. Does DLA-15 mean my PC must find 15 class levels somewhere, and that I'm starting the game at ECL 32? (New ECL 17, +DLA 15).

Nope. It's DNLA. You subtract it from the HD, meaning the Gigant is ECL 17 with 32 HD, meaning it can take three levels before hitting epic.

[remetagross]

Okay...so, compared to the 11RHD situation, it's like I've got 6 more class levels in some sort of strange monster-only class, the collective benefits of these 6 levels being whatever statblock modifier is brought by the 15 additional RHDs.

Do I want to pay 6 class levels in exchange of 15 construct HDs? Hmm that seems a fairly poor trade, to be fair. These RHDs do suck a great deal. 4 class levels, OK maybe I would. No class features, but some skill points, some BAB and some save modifiers. And I'm not even sure.

I think DNLA -17 would better be in order.

[Metastachydium]

Well, the exact number of Construct HD that is still tolerable is somewhere in the ballpark of "1 or fewer", but even then: 32 HD at a pre-epic ECL is a big deal when one has nasty special attacks keyed to HD.

[remetagross]

Fair enough, but the difference between DNLA-15 and DNLA-17 as far as the save DC is concerned is only 1.

I don't know, it's hard to assess these high numbers in a meaningful way.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Fair enough, but the difference between DNLA-15 and DNLA-17 as far as the save DC is concerned is only 1.

I don't know, it's hard to assess these high numbers in a meaningful way.

I think there is something you misunderstood. In DNLA (Direct Negative Level Adjustment, written for example DLA-15 for "Direct Level Adjustment of negative fifteen"), you only reduce the ECL (the level at which you play) and not the number of RHD of the creature. For example, a Blackstone Gigant (DLA-15, so an ECL of RHD-15=32-15=17) with a single level of barbarian would be playable with a level 18 party, and would gain a second class level at the same time the rest of the party would reach level 19.
However, the DNLA Blackstone Gigant would retain its 32 racial hit dice. Its HP would be (32d10+60)+(1d12), (32d10+60 from the Gigant and 1d12+0 from barbarian), its BAB is 25 (24+1), its (Su) DC are based on its whole number of HD (26+mod), it has its full SR, its full saves, has 12 feats while the rest of the party only has 7, and counts as having 33 HD for the purpose of spells that care about that sort of things.

The point is, the difference between DLA-15 and DLA-17 isn't just a few numerical bonuses, or even a few RHD. It's the difference between being with a level 18 party as a Blackstone Gigant with one class level, and being with a level 18 party as a Blackstone Gigant with three class levels. Two full levels of class features. Actually, the difference in power level (at the same ECL) between DLA-15 and DLA-17 is bigger than the difference in power level between 9 RHD and 11 RHD. In the first case, you lose two class levels without gaining anything in return, while in the second case you lose two class levels, but gain two racial hit dice instead.

It's still pretty hard to estimate high-level power levels due to the extreme variation that starts to appear between unoptimized, slightly optimized, and highly optimized builds, but the difference is definitely NOT simply "one point of DC".

[remetagross]

Yeah OK, I understand it better now. Thanks Beni.

At any rate...thinking about initiator levels now. The Blackstone Gigant starts out with IL 16. A single level of any full initiator class is enough to allow it to take 9th-level maneuvers. Given the overall chassis of the creature, I think it should not access 9th-level maneuvers at the same moment everyone else does. Its statblock is worth at least a delay of 1 level before accessing those. In that regard, DNLA 17 would mean that bam, ECL 16 and the Blackstone Gigant gets Time Stands Still. DNLA 15 means that only happens at ECL 18, one level after everyone else. It's much more palatable to me. I'd even go on and argue that DNLA 14 would not be out of the question, so that the Blackstone Gigant is one full level of maneuvers behind everyone else. This still allows it to grab the 9th-level ones before ECL20.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Bloodthorn

It's very simple: in a survivalist campaign, the party walks through a wasteland, they are hungry, and suddenly they see a thorny bush with delicious looking fruits. They approach, but the bush attacks them, they kill it and eat the fruits. That's all. Lowest-hanging fruit monster, and it's not even that good at it since it can't move and immediately loses if a party member isn't grappled in the first round of combat. So how was it reprinted in four different editions!?


Anyway, the monster itself is mechanically really bland. Large size, high physical stats (+10/+6/+8), low mental stats (no Int/+2/-8). 4 tendrils with Improved Grab and Blood Drain. Plant type, 3 points of natural armor, no movement speed.
A humanoid with these stats and these natural weapons would have been given +1 or maybe +0. A plant with no hand, no head and no mouth, that's a clear -0.
At least it seems much lighter than the Udoroot and should be able to be transported by the stronger members of the party. It still needs a way to communicate with the party, and doesn't have a crown chakra for Shedu Crown, nor the intelligence to go Psion (Telepath) and manifest Mindlink. But you're not paralyzed, so you can simply learn Drow Sign Language and ask another party member to invest two skill points in Speak Language. It's slightly bad for you because you already have so few skill points, but since you'll most probably be a full Swordsage anyway, it's not that much of a problem. Unarmed Swordsage all the way, baby! And you can learn Shadow Jaunt starting at level 3. Below that, back in the cart you go ^^.
The stats are still good enough that 1 RHD is too few, but having to use one's standard action to move is harsh, and your advancement is shoehorned into one single path. 2 RHD, DLA-0.

Nothing much to say here, I just find it hilarious that, except Charisma, the next monster only has +2 Str compared to the bloodthorn, but has 15 RHD. It's both a testament to how good the bloodthorn stats are, and how bad vermin tend to have it. See you next week for the Bonespear.

[remetagross]

What a bland monster indeed.

I don't like giving it only 1 RHD. Don't forget it comes attached with all the tasty plant immunities. The stats are decent, the large size is neat for a bruiser, and the four natural attacks come in very handy. The grapple modifier at ECL 1 is already +11, and a dip into Monk brings that to +15. Nothing can rival that right out of the MM. Blood Drain is way less crappy than usual given it stacks with itself, you've got a +4 to-hit bonus, and you've got four Blood Draining attacks.

If going Swordsage is the trick, then I think one should bump the RHD to 2. It grants you an initiator level anyway, compared to a RHD of 1. So I'd say DLA-0 for me.

[Metastachydium]

Interestingly enough, WotC of all things/people/sources deemed beautiful, beautiful Plant traits kind of not a really big deal. Volodnis got awy with a +2 official LA (as did Adu'jas, but that's DraMag content); Woodlings with a +3 (but that's probably because of the SLAs).

[Beni-Kujaku]

I don't like giving it only 1 RHD. Don't forget it comes attached with all the tasty plant immunities. The stats are decent, the large size is neat for a bruiser, and the four natural attacks come in very handy. Blood Drain is way less crappy than usual given it stacks with itself, you've got a +4 to-hit bonus, and you've got four Blood Draining attacks.

If going Swordsage is the trick, then I think one should bump the RHD to 2. It grants you an initiator level anyway, compared to a RHD of 1. So I'd say DLA-0 for me.

Those are good points. I usually consider Blood Drain a pretty bad ability, especially considering how it's generally on monsters that don't make that good grapplers. And in the bloodthorn's case, you have to hit with two tendrils to initiate a grapple, and requires a target of Medium or lower size, so it's pretty unwieldy. But being able to make multiple Blood Drains per turn makes it actually interesting, and could make a Swordsage/Psychic Warrior build extremely good. The point is, once you're grappling somebody with your tendrils, every successful grapple check allows you to Blood Drain. It's not only "every Improved Grab trigger", or even "every grapple check with a tendril attack". It's any grapple check, and grappling has that little rule that I call "squeeze that juice" where you can "Make an opposed grapple check in place of an attack.". The regular goal is to deal unarmed strike damage, but here you're actually only interested in the grapple check itself. An unarmed Swordsage Bloodthorn could make 1 unarmed attack and 4 tendril attacks into grapple checks to deal up to 5d4 Con damage. You don't even need Multiattack since there's no actual damage roll. Then Psychic Warrior is there to increase your size and grapple bonus against Large or larger opponents.
And yeah, Plant traits are good, immunity to poison is good early game, and immunity to mind-affecting is great in late-game.

Still no hands or Int, and Blood Drain is still hard to trigger, but I think I agree with 2 RHD, DLA-0, at least until someone else speaks up.

Interestingly enough, WotC of all things/people/sources deemed beautiful, beautiful Plant traits kind of not a really big deal. Volodnis got awy with a +2 official LA (as did Adu'jas, but that's DraMag content); Woodlings with a +3 (but that's probably because of the SLAs).

Yep, and in general gaining mind-affecting immunity seems a bit too easy, either with two feats, LA+2, or whatever madness they had when creating Necropolitan. I mean, I guess there had to be an accessible way to become Undead in the book of bad latin, but would it have killed them (hah!) to add an LA+1 on the template?

[Metastachydium]

Yep, and in general gaining mind-affecting immunity seems a bit too easy, either with two feats, LA+2, or whatever madness they had when creating Necropolitan. I mean, I guess there had to be an accessible way to become Undead in the book of bad latin, but would it have killed them (hah!) to add an LA+1 on the template?

Seriously, if Gravetouched Ghoul was the cheapest and easiest way to go Undead, all would still be more than fine so far as I'm concerned.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Bonespear

And we have another round of "basically an animal, but with more legs". Tonight, the 12-legged grasshopper, the Bonespear! Wait a minute, no, that's 2nd edition lore. In the 3.5 entry, it says that they anchor themselves with their 6 feet to rocks. Okay, so now it's just a regular insect. But the art only shows 4 feet! How does this thing keep losing legs, somebody help it before it becomes a kython slaymaster!

The bonespear is basically pest from Acheron. On the Material Plane, ants eat your picnic. On Acheron, bonespears eat your family. Different planes, different stakes, same result. The result being some devils hunting and killing most bonespears on sight.

Bonespears hunt using their horns. They can extend them like a chameleon tongue, skewer their prey, inject some poison so that it stands still then drag it back to its maw. It's a good poison (2d4 Dex or Str/same), being pierced by the horns gives cumulative penalties to all rolls, and the bonespear can use a ranged Bull Rush to drag the creature back to it. The problem? If it shoots its horns and they miss, it has to take a full-round action to reel them in before shooting them again. Also, anyone can remove a horn with a full-round action, dealing 2d8 to the prey but leaving you needing to use a full-round action of your own. And finally, anyone can sever the nerves connecting the bonespear and its horns with any slashing weapon dealing 15 damage (like, for example, any big animal's attack, or a sword attack). And in that case, you're as f**ked as an Udoroot without its crowns, because your horns do not grown back. It's Regeneration or nothing. The bonespear has one gimmick that is natively use-impaired and can stop working altogether if your opponent does something out of your power. It's an understatement to say that you won't use your horns in every fight. Apart from it what do we have:
- 15 RHD Large reachless Vermin. Hahaha, no.
- +12 Str, +6 Dex, +8 Con, no Int, +2 Wis, +0 Cha. That's aggressively bad, and doesn't really point to a specific career.
- 15 NA, SR 8+HD, fire and sonic resistance 10, Fast healing 5. Not too bad, though I would have appreciated some DR.
- 40ft movement speed, 2 ranged horns with attach, drag and poison, and 1 secondary bite. Mouthpick is obviously the way to go.

It's actually a bit sad. The offense is even worse than the Bloodthorn's. At least the defense is much better, and it can move on its own. Warblade? Barbarian? Cleric? Do what you want, but you'll be a melee fighter anyway. I think it would be a bit too strong with 4 RHD, where creatures cannot sever its horns, but it may be a bit weak at 5 RHD. I'll be conservative and say 5 RHD, DLA-7.


Next time, another monster that doesn't know how many legs it wants to have, it's the Canomorph Hell Hound, also known as Haraknin!

[loky1109]

Bonespear

And we have another round of "basically an animal, but with more legs". Tonight, the 12-legged grasshopper, the Bonespear! Wait a minute, no, that's 2nd edition lore. In the 3.5 entry, it says that they anchor themselves with their 6 feet to rocks. Okay, so now it's just a regular insect. But the art only shows 4 feet! How does this thing keep losing legs, somebody help it before it becomes a kython slaymaster!

The bonespear is basically pest from Acheron. On the Material Plane, ants eat your picnic. On Acheron, bonespears eat your family. Different planes, different stakes, same result. The result being some devils hunting and killing most bonespears on sight.

Bonespears hunt using their horns. They can extend them like a chameleon tongue, skewer their prey, inject some poison so that it stands still then drag it back to its maw. It's a good poison (2d4 Dex or Str/same), being pierced by the horns gives cumulative penalties to all rolls, and the bonespear can use a ranged Bull Rush to drag the creature back to it. The problem? If it shoots its horns and they miss, it has to take a full-round action to reel them in before shooting them again. Also, anyone can remove a horn with a full-round action, dealing 2d8 to the prey but leaving you needing to use a full-round action of your own. And finally, anyone can sever the nerves connecting the bonespear and its horns with any slashing weapon dealing 15 damage (like, for example, any big animal's attack, or a sword attack). And in that case, you're as f**ked as an Udoroot without its crowns, because your horns do not grown back. Its Regeneration or nothing. The bonespear has one gimmick that doesn't work that is natively use-impaired and can stop working altogether if your opponent does something out of your power. It's an understatement to say that you won't use your horns in every fight. Apart from it what do we have:
- 15 RHD Large reachless Vermin. Hahaha, no.
- +12 Str, +6 Dex, +8 Con, no Int, +2 Wis, +0 Cha. That's aggressively bad, and doesn't really point to a specific career.
- 15 NA, SR 8+HD, fire and sonic resistance 10, Fast healing 5. Not too bad, though I would have appreciated some DR.
- 40ft movement speed, 2 ranged horns with attach, drag and poison, and 1 secondary bite. Mouthpick is obviously the way to go.

It's actually a bit sad. The offense is even worse than the Bloodthorn's. At least the defense is much better, and it can move on its own. Warblade? Barbarian? Cleric? Do what you want, but you'll be a melee fighter anyway. I think it would be a bit too strong with 4 RHD, where creatures cannot sever its horns, but it may be a bit weak at 5 RHD. I'll be conservative and say 5 RHD, DLA-7.


Next time, another monster that doesn't know how many legs it wants to have, it's the Canomorph Hell Hound, also known as Haraknin!

I really thought about Bonespear for Sun round, but couldn't manage other round limitations.

[remetagross]

This monster is incredibly crappy. I'm okay with your figures. Might want to get the DNLA down to -8 maybe. i really hate that you'll then have to go out of your way to find a way to grab regeneration. Troll-blooded at first level? Yikes for the implications.

[Beni-Kujaku]

This monster is incredibly crappy. I'm okay with your figures. Might want to get the DNLA down to -8 maybe. i really hate that you'll then have to go out of your way to find a way to grab regeneration. Troll-blooded at first level? Yikes for the implications.

Reducing DNLA even more means allowing a creature with BAB+11 and up to +17 to hit in an ECL 7 environment. Not even counting the various feats and defenses, this is really strong. Remember that even a creature with only one natural attack can go Monk or Unarmed Swordsage and use unarmed attacks with full strength bonus, or use a Mouthpick weapon. I don't think I will reduce it to -8.

Also, even though Troll-Blooded is probably out (it's a regional feat so 1st level only with Toughness as a prereq, so only humans can take it with their bonus feat), I just found out about the Dukar hand coral from Champions of Valor. It's basically an extremely slow Regeneration for 2,600 gp. Doubles your healing from resting a night, and your limbs grow back in 2d8 days. Still very bad to lose a horn, but at least you'll be able to use them with no fear to be crippled for the rest of the campaign. If this item is available, I'm actually considering increasing its RHD from 5 to 6 (probably not, but it's still much better).

[Beni-Kujaku]

Canomorph Haraknin

You know those three dog fiend monsters that nobody likes or even remembers? Yeah, you know, the hell hound, shadow mastiff and vorr! Well, we made three monsters that are exactly the same, but they can change into humanoids now! No, it doesn't change their abilities. No, they don't have any original lore or ability. Look, I just thought they were cool and I wanted to put class levels on them, is that so wrong? It just didn't feel right having barbarian levels on what is essentially a dog, and having a barbarian that changes into a dog felt much better. I'm doing what I can and two of our creatives just quit while most of the editors and writers are busy for the conversion to 3.5, so we're in a bit of a pickle to fill the Fiend Folio, please just let me have those.

Seriously, why do we even have those, they take so much space for basically no interest. Oh yeah, and their names don't mean anything, they're just gibberish that start with the same letters as the base dogs. And the hell hound was already one of the most mind-numbingly basic monster. For the haraknin's rating, just read here. The haraknin can morph into a human (-10ft movement speed, but can wield weapons), but on the other hand it uses the 3.0 hell hound stats (so it doesn't have +1d6 on its bite, and its breath weapon is even more pitiful). Same rating as the hell hound, 2 RHD, DLA-1.

Wow that was underwhelming. The three last monsters were some of the worst of the book. At least this one had the decency to not exist in other editions. Next time... *siiiiigh* the Caryatid Column. No, not next time. Let's do it now, while I'm still slightly in the mood.

Caryatid Column

Yay, an animated object! At least it has decent stats, built-in magic weapons, and a defensive ability, but basically your turn in combat will be the same as a non-initiator martial: charge and attack, or full attack if you're already in melee. The apparently sole inspiration for the monster is the caryatid. Basically, architectural columns sculpted to resemble women, named after the myth of women of Caryae brought to slavery, but without any proven historical link between the two. Also, it has a sword.

- Medium Construct, 6 RHD
- +10 Str, +6 Dex, _ Con, -4 Int, -10 Wis, -10 Cha, +9 natural armor
- Comes with a +2 bastard sword. And if any other weapon touches the column, it is destroyed unless it makes a Con-based save.
- Hardness 8. Oooh, that's good.

Better stats than a Medium animated object, lesser reach than a Huge animated object, but better stats and that weapon destroying thing. Let's go with the same rating. 4 RHD, DLA-1

And four bad monsters in a row, new record! The worst of them is definitely the Haraknin though. Fortunately, next time we'll review a monster that, if it was not that popular in-game, at least became a meme simply for its appearance! Prepare for the elder grub, the neotenic vermin, the Century Worm!

[Dualight]

That weapon destroying ability sounds like it would be prone to backfiring. Not only do you risk destroying loot whenever you get hit, but you also struggle to replace your weapon. (That said, I do not have access to the exact text of the ability, so this particular problem only arises if it is something that you cannot selectively suppress.)

[remetagross]

What happens if the Caryatid loses the bastard sword? Does it grow back, or something? Else, it's bound to use unarmed strikes as soon as the weapon gets lost, destroyed or stolen, for the issue underlined by Dualight.

Its defensive abilities aren't too shabby, actually. Construct immunities, lots of DR through hardness, nice NA bonus. However, its Will saving throw is going to be absolutely abysmal, and since it's going to use Cha for Concentration checks, it can't even use Moment of Perfect Mind...yikes.

[Beni-Kujaku]

That weapon destroying ability sounds like it would be prone to backfiring. Not only do you risk destroying loot whenever you get hit, but you also struggle to replace your weapon. (That said, I do not have access to the exact text of the ability, so this particular problem only arises if it is something that you cannot selectively suppress.)

Yeah, I have worded it wrong. I should have said "If any other weapon strikes it, it is destroyed". It only works against weapons specifically wielded by other creatures. Which doesn't mean that the ability cannot be problematic, there's always the chance that a foe shatters their enchanted weapon on the caryatid column, but at least it's not much of a problem to replace your magic weapon.

What happens if the Caryatid loses the bastard sword? Does it grow back, or something? Else, it's bound to use unarmed strikes as soon as the weapon gets lost, destroyed or stolen, for the issue underlined by Dualight.
However, its Will saving throw is going to be absolutely abysmal, and since it's going to use Cha for Concentration checks, it can't even use Moment of Perfect Mind...yikes.

It's interesting that the bastard sword isn't actually a weapon. It's a part of the column when it is sculpted, and it's the enchantment of the Construct that turns it into an actual sword. Which means if it ever leaves the column's hand, it turns into a useless rod of rock. It can be picked up and regains its abilities, but it's very hard to further enchant since it's nonmagical unless the column continually has its hands on it. Also, if it's broken or lost, there's no way to get it back, but at least it's harder to lose than an actual weapon. Since it's initially a part of it, the caryatid column can make it merge back into it like with Absorb Weapon, leaving only the outline of the weapon on the sculpture.

[remetagross]

Hmm I'm sure there are tricks to pull off when a weapon is actually part of your body...it should count as a natural attack, technically?

[Beni-Kujaku]

Hmm I'm sure there are tricks to pull off when a weapon is actually part of your body...it should count as a natural attack, technically?

Not really, no. It is picked up and can explicitly be used with one or two hands, functioning exactly like a regular sword and not like a natural weapon. And when it melds with the column, it cannot be used at all until it is drawn, at which point it works like a manufactured weapon again.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Century Worm

I'd like to start with one of the greatest quotes of our time, by the great Zaq:

The century worm has forty HD.

It has 40 HD.

That’s as many as four tens.

And that’s terrible.

Thank you Zaq. And now, on to the picture!

Spoiler: You all know it, but for the new guys, there's the picture that moves crowds:

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Place your bets everybody: blissful obliviousness, Freudian repressed impulse, or the century worm artist simply lost a bet to a friend and had to design it this way. Whatever the reason, we now have a big penis-looking worm in our Fiend Folio.

The century worm's only unique trait (apart from its... unique artwork) is its life cycle. After mating, regular worms keep the fecunded eggs in the skin of their ****ellum (the "foreskin" in the century worm picture. Wait, that word is censored by the website. Assume the first four letters in braille are ⠉⠇⠊⠞), then the ****ellum slowly slides off the body and forms a cocoon, out of which crawl a few dozens baby worms. However, century worms are ovoviviparous instead. They swallow their fecunded eggs, and keep their babies in their stomach after the eggs hatch. The whole body of the century worm is one giant incubator. When it eats a big enough creature, the worms in its stomach start munching on the victim, until it dies. At that point, one of the baby worms sticks itself to the corpse's spine and the century worm spits the whole package out. The baby feeds on the corpse, slowly growing from Tiny until, after one hundred years, it reaches its adult, Gargantuan size.

There is something weird with this method. And I'm not talking about how dozens of worms can survive in a big worm's stomach, or how only one is seemingly chosen to inhabit the body while they're all trying to eat its heart. No, I'm talking about the fact that the worm takes 20 years to grow each size category, and is said to inhabit the body until it has reach the same size. So for a human, the worm feeds on a single corpse for 40 years. Without even talking about the food quantity, the body would have rotten away in a few months. This also links to "Bodies currently serving as incubators for century worm larvae cannot be returned to life by any means.". This is a very weird sentence. In general, things that prevent resurection still allow True Res, or sometimes Wish+True Res when the soul is consumed. In extreme cases, where the soul is destroyed, no "mortal magic can bring the dead back" (like with the barghest). But here, even gods couldn't resurrect it? And why? The worm doesn't eat the soul, or anything else, it just feeds on the body. Cutting a hand and casting Resurrection should work, or True Resurrection at worst, if the body is entirely eaten. There's something amiss here.
The only thing I could imagine is that the larva somehow keeps the body alive, and able to somehow still nourish itself. Not like a zombie, more like a corpse remaining mouth wide open and with a digestive system still orking, feeding on soil and the insects entering the body. This fits with the fact that century worm larvae thrive in their parent's stomach due to their "life-giving nutrient bile". Maybe they just require a functioning stomach, and make it so that their "home" has it.
This explains both how they can survive so long inside a body, why the body cannot be resurrected (It's not really dead, only kept barely alive by the larva and immediately dies without the larva's influence), and even why it is killed by remove disease. It's actually a parasite on a living creature, that immediately kills the subject when it leaves it.

If you want, for some reason, to stat the larvae, it's pretty doable, considering we know each of their numbers of HP and we can reverse engineer the stats using the size increases modifiers:

In all cases: Vermin type, one bite attack with Improved Grab and Swallow Whole, Keening (1/rd as a free action, 50ft radius save-or-deafened, no 24h immunity. Weird, weak, and unfriendly), Wriggling Progeny (larvae in the stomach, dealing 1d8 Con per round to swallowed opponents, Fort negates), Resistance 20 to acid, 30ft speed, 20ft burrow, 10ft swim, 120ft tremorsense, Int _, Wis 11, Cha 2.
Tiny (0-20 years): Str 2, Dex 15, Con 8, +16 NA, 6 HD
Small (20-40 years): Str 6, Dex 13, Con 8, +16 NA, 29 HD
Medium (40-60 years): Str 11, Dex 11, Con 10, +16 NA, 40 HD
Large (60-80 years): Str 19, Dex 9, Con 14, +18 NA, 40 HD
Huge (80-100 years): Str 27, Dex 7, Con 18, +21 NA, 40 HD
Gargantuan (100+ years, the actual statblock): Str 35, Dex 7, Con 22, +25 NA, 40 HD.

I find it interesting that they went out of their way to give it a constant 40 RHD starting at size Medium (which, incidentally, would make the Medium version a completely terrible monster in all possible ways, with no stats, no arms, one natural attack, only natural armor to protect it, and 40 RHD.).
Anyway, we're here to rate the Gargantuan version. And there's awfully little here. Besides the deafening keen which will slightly inconvenience spellcasters, the worm can only bite and swallow things. At least the strength is decent, the natural armor is good, and a Gargantuan grappler is good. I guess 7 RHD would be good for pure combat capabilities, but I really don't recommand playing this thing. It will be boring. And if you want even more boring, you can get even fewer class levels to start with 40 RHD! Let's go with, what, DLA-26? Such a bad monster for CR 19...


Next time, we'll review the sixteen-legged spider, the chwidencha (how can not even spiders escape the "animals but with more legs" curse?)! But before that, the original thread had the chronotyryn (the sorcerer bird with two sets of actions per round), where EIGHT of the 31 votes were +0 with the main reason being that "a level 17 wizard can shapechange into it". Can I say that I find this reasoning extremely flawed? With this reasoning, no monster with 17 to 25 RHD and spells can ever have a positive LA, no matter how strong they are. This is basically the reason why I do not consider Polymorph, Shapechange, Phylactery of Change, or Wild Shape in this thread. Saying that it is possible for a class to become as powerful as a monster by copying it does not make the monster less powerful. It just makes the means by which you copy the monster an outlier in the power of the class and, in 3.5 where there are enough monsters that basically any ability could be accessed this way, an actual threat to the full balance of the game.

[Metastachydium]

Place your bets everybody: blissful obliviousness, Freudian repressed impulse, or the century worm artist simply lost a bet to a friend and had to design it this way.

What makes it truly horrible is that the image is a very exact match for the description the text gives. IT WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO LOOK LIKE THIS!

I find it interesting that they went out of their way to give it a constant 40 RHD starting at size Medium (which, incidentally, would make the Medium version a completely terrible monster in all possible ways, with no stats, no arms, one natural attack, only natural armor to protect it, and 40 RHD.).

And the only surprising thing is that they didn't actually and explicitly do it and provide those stats.

Anyway, we're here to rate the Gargantuan version. And there's awfully little here.

Now, now. The Century Worm has its uses. Okay, one use. And yes, it's kind of boring, BUT in The Thunder Below, one of the

Spoiler: THE THUNDER BELOW!!

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suggestions the authors give of what Ubothar might be is a 120 HD Century Worm with templates, "unique" extra abilities and ****. Incidentally, since I'm of limited sanity, I actually took the time to take all their suggestions and mesh them together into a statblock. Enjoy (?):

Ubothar (Paragon Half-Fiend Half-Amethyst Dragon Advanced Thirty-Headed Century Worm with Two Added Abilities)
It's big, it's purple.

Size/Type: Colossal Outsider [Native]
Hit Dice: 178d12+10324 (12460 hp)
Initiative: +15
Speed: 90 feet (18 squares), fly 120 feet (average), burrow 60 feet, swim 30 feet
Armour Class: 105 (-8 size, +15 Dex, +12 insight, +12 luck, +64 natural), touch 41, flat-footed 90
Base Attack/Grapple: +133/+179
Attack: Bite +180 melee (6d6+50)
Full Attack: 30 bites +180 melee (6d6+50) and 2 claws +180 melee (3d6+35)
Space/Reach: 30'/25'
Special Attacks: Breath weapon, improved grab, keening, smite good, spell-like abilities, swallow whole, wriggling progeny
Special Qualities: Darkvision 90', DR 10/epic, fast healing 30, hardness 20, immunity to paralysis, poison and sleep, low-light vision, resistence to acid 20, resistence to cold, fire and electricity 10, SR 107, tremorsense 120'
Saves: Fort +147, Ref +84, Will +77
Abilities: Str 70, Dex 40, Con 103, Int –, Wis 26, Cha 27
Skills: Listen +76, Search +63, Spot +76, Swim +48
Feats: Improved Multiattack^B
Alignment: Look, it's mindless
Environment: Some Village
Organization: Unique
Challenge Rating: 82
Advancement: –
Level Adjustment: –

Combat
It kills stuff.

Breath Weapon (Su)
30×60' line of force (6d8; DC 158 Reflex half).

Improved Grab (Ex)
On all bites.

Keening (Ex)
Free action once per round. Causes deafness. DC 158 Fortitude negates.

Spell-Like Abilities
V. Half-Fiend list.

Wriggling Progeny (Ex)
1d8 Con per round while swallowed. DC 158 Fortitude negates.

Skills
+8 to Swim; can always take 10 on Swim checks. +58 on Listen, Search and Spot.

Next time, we'll review the sixteen-legged spider, the chwidencha (how can not even spiders escape the "animals but with more legs" curse?)!

But hey, at least it's pretty bad!

But before that, the original thread had the chronotyryn (the sorcerer bird with two sets of actions per round), where EIGHT of the 31 votes were +0 with the main reason being that "a level 17 wizard can shapechange into it". Can I say that I find this reasoning extremely flawed? With this reasoning, no monster with 17 to 25 RHD and spells can ever have a positive LA, no matter how strong they are. This is basically the reason why I do not consider Polymorph, Shapechange, Phylactery of Change, or Wild Shape in this thread. Saying that it is possible for a class to become as powerful as a monster by copying it does not make the monster less powerful. It just makes the means by which you copy the monster an outlier in the power of the class and, in 3.5 where there are enough monsters that basically any ability could be accessed this way, an actual threat to the full balance of the game.

Yeah. "Hm. Birdy's a gish, better than virtually all Tier 3 classes, out of the box and before feat selections. Also probably better than most Tier 2 stuff, actually. Since Birdy has Sorcerer casting, and at level 18 a Sorcerer can learn Shapechange, we should probably compare Birdy to a Sorcerer gish build that doesn't even get Shapechange on the 18th because of losing caster levels, and conclude that ECL 17 is actually fine." I just really don't get it.

[Beni-Kujaku]

What makes it truly horrible is that the image is a very exact match for the description the text gives. IT WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO LOOK LIKE THIS!

Sometimes, I admire humanity's creativity and advances in both knowledge and applied science. Right now, is not one of those times.

Now, now. The Century Worm has its uses. Okay, one use. And yes, it's kind of boring, BUT in The Thunder Below, one of the

Spoiler: THE THUNDER BELOW!!

Show

suggestions the authors give of what Ubothar might be is a 120 HD Century Worm with templates, "unique" extra abilities and ****. Incidentally, since I'm of limited sanity, I actually took the time to take all their suggestions and mesh them together into a statblock. Enjoy (?):

Ubothar (Paragon Half-Fiend Half-Amethyst Dragon Advanced Thirty-Headed Century Worm with Two Added Abilities)
It's big, it's purple.

Size/Type: Colossal Outsider [Native]
Hit Dice: 178d12+10324 (12460 hp)
Initiative: +15
Speed: 90 feet (18 squares), fly 120 feet (average), burrow 60 feet, swim 30 feet
Armour Class: 105 (-8 size, +15 Dex, +12 insight, +12 luck, +64 natural), touch 41, flat-footed 90
Base Attack/Grapple: +133/+179
Attack: Bite +180 melee (6d6+50)
Full Attack: 30 bites +180 melee (6d6+50) and 2 claws +180 melee (3d6+35)
Space/Reach: 30'/25'
Special Attacks: Breath weapon, improved grab, keening, smite good, spell-like abilities, swallow whole, wriggling progeny
Special Qualities: Darkvision 90', DR 10/epic, fast healing 30, hardness 20, immunity to paralysis, poison and sleep, low-light vision, resistence to acid 20, resistence to cold, fire and electricity 10, SR 107, tremorsense 120'
Saves: Fort +147, Ref +84, Will +77
Abilities: Str 70, Dex 40, Con 103, Int –, Wis 26, Cha 27
Skills: Listen +76, Search +63, Spot +76, Swim +48
Feats: Improved Multiattack^B
Alignment: Look, it's mindless
Environment: Some Village
Organization: Unique
Challenge Rating: 82
Advancement: –
Level Adjustment: –

Combat
It kills stuff.

Breath Weapon (Su)
30×60' line of force (6d8; DC 158 Reflex half).

Improved Grab (Ex)
On all bites.

Keening (Ex)
Free action once per round. Causes deafness. DC 158 Fortitude negates.

Spell-Like Abilities
V. Half-Fiend list.

Wriggling Progeny (Ex)
1d8 Con per round while swallowed. DC 158 Fortitude negates.

Skills
+8 to Swim; can always take 10 on Swim checks. +58 on Listen, Search and Spot.

Ubothar, because you can be a CR 80 Elder Evil and still have a 1/day breath weapon dealing 27 damage. It's kind of hilarious in a mundane way that the author was so unsure of what to make their Elder Evil look like that they just proposed anything above CR 28, to the point of juxtaposing "Corpse Tearer Linnorm" and "Half-Fiend Mountain Giant". The century worm is just the objectively worst choice of the bunch, because of its mindlessness and lack of abilities.

Yeah. "Hm. Birdy's a gish, better than virtually all Tier 3 classes, out of the box and before feat selections. Also probably better than most Tier 2 stuff, actually. Since Birdy has Sorcerer casting, and at level 18 a Sorcerer can learn Shapechange, we should probably compare Birdy to a Sorcerer gish build that doesn't even get Shapechange on the 18th because of losing caster levels, and conclude that ECL 17 is actually fine." I just really don't get it.

I think one of the hurdles in these threads is that you have to compare how much you can optimize a monster compared to a PHB race. In general, having racial hit dice, on top of increasing your ECL with no feature, are an opportunity cost, preventing you from multiclassing or taking a Prestige Class. In the case of the chronotyryn, however, since the monster can only be compared (and already very favorably) to a specific build with 9 to 10 levels of a specific prestige class (swiftblade) and two feat taxes, the chronotyryn is actually more customizable by comparison. It's the same thing as true dragons. Even with all their RHD, they can choose a sovereign archetype, have racial feats and spells, can go Xorvintaal...

[Metastachydium]

Ubothar, because you can be a CR 80 Elder Evil and still have a 1/day breath weapon dealing 27 damage. (…) The century worm is just the objectively worst choice of the bunch, because of its mindlessness and lack of abilities.

…which is why I went with it, naturally. There's something hilarious in those measly breath weapons and how it can't even fix them with that one feat because it doesn't get feats.

It's the same thing as true dragons. Even with all their RHD, they can choose a sovereign archetype, have racial feats and spells, can go Xorvintaal...

And let's face it, Dragon HD is already better than the bottom two Tiers on its very own.