Results 361 to 390 of 1039
-
2022-09-02, 01:35 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
- Location
- Germany
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
-
2022-09-02, 10:53 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2020
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
WHAT? Treant's a classic (and their cousins, the grumpy wizened elder and the oversized cactus person saguaro sentinel are way cute), volodni would be the best race ever were it not for the +2 LA, adu'ja's are fun, greenbound's a crazy strong template, shambling mounds with their whole "don't mind me, I'm just a playable heap of sapient plant matter punching stuff and trying to get hit by lightning" are made of awesome (I love them!) and then there's stuff like oaken defenders and twig blights and more! How can you say that?
Now I hate you both.
-
2022-09-02, 02:36 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2021
- Location
- France
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
Aren't you the one who forgot that Plants are not weak to fire a few months ago ?
But yeah, you can't ignore the type that brought us the great, often-copied, never matched, the shrieker fungus!
Edit: also, Thurbane, MM6 is missing Vanara, from the same place as Vaati (Mahasarpa campaign). And Spellsong Nightingale.Last edited by Beni-Kujaku; 2022-09-02 at 03:07 PM.
Resurrecting the Negative LA thread, comments and discussion are very welcome!
Do you want to build monstrous characters with reasonable LA? Join the Monster Mash! Currently, round XII: One-Punch Monster!!! Come judge single-strike entries!
Nice find! Have a cookie!
Searchable spreadsheet of 3.5 monsters by abilities, now with all online monsters
-
2022-09-02, 03:01 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2020
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
[GRUMPY.] I know I am (vulnerable to fire, that is). (Also, why do you have to have so good a memory? It's not fair!)
But yeah, you can't ignore the type that brought us the great, often-copied, never matched, the shrieker fungus!
Edit: also, Thurbane, MM6 is missing Vanara, from the same place as Vaati (Mahasarpa campaign)
-
2022-09-02, 03:08 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
- Location
- Germany
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
-
2022-09-02, 03:12 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2021
- Location
- France
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
Resurrecting the Negative LA thread, comments and discussion are very welcome!
Do you want to build monstrous characters with reasonable LA? Join the Monster Mash! Currently, round XII: One-Punch Monster!!! Come judge single-strike entries!
Nice find! Have a cookie!
Searchable spreadsheet of 3.5 monsters by abilities, now with all online monsters
-
2022-09-02, 03:22 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2020
-
2022-09-02, 03:49 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
- Location
- Terra Australis
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
- Medium Undead
- 5 RHD (d12 HD, poor BAB, good Will save, 4 skill points/"level")
- Speed 30 ft
- +5 natural AC
- 2 claws 1d4 plus entropic touch
- Entropic touch: Cha based fort save or take 1d4 Str and 1d4 Con drain. Affects most living creature types.
- DR 5/bludgeoning
- Darkvision 60 ft
- Immunity to cold
- Undead traits
- Str +6, Dex +6, Con --, Cha +2: net +14, on non-ability, no penalties.
- Small, but useful, skill list.
Basically medium humanoid in shape; no mention of speaking or not.
I dunno, I don't think these are as awful as most people have said. I mean, 5 RHD is bad, especially being poor BAB when you're likely to be a melee type. Maybe for a skillmonkey/stealth build?
If you go full BAB you can still hit +16 by ECL 20, and you go initiator, you can still get 9ths. I'd maybe go for a stealthy Swordsage build.
I'm going to vote +0, but only just barely.My winning competition entries: Kinvig Arrumskor | The Great Pumpkinhead | Wynfrith d'Acker
Torn-City - Massively multiplayer online browser based crime RPG
-
2022-09-03, 04:43 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2009
- Location
- In a castle under the sea
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
I would argue with several of those, especially the ones whose reason for being interesting revolves around mechanical strength. When you whittle it down to shambling mounds, treants, and treant variants that dilute the original treant's interesting-ness more than they add anything new...maybe oaken defenders if they had meaningful lore beyond "dryad bodyguards, have a life cycle," maybe adu'jas if I could find any decent information on them, but even if there were five whole interesting plant monsters, that's less than the other types. Most are just "boring monster, made of wood".
-
2022-09-03, 09:50 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2016
- Location
- Seoul
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
Ironglass roses are interesting. Also under-CRed but still interesting.
Cool elan Illithid Slayer by linkele.
Editor/co-writer of Magicae Est Potestas, a crossover between Artemis Fowl and Undertale. Ao3 FanFiction.net DeviantArt
We also have a TvTropes page!
Currently playing: Red Hand of Doom(campaign journal)Campaign still going on, but journal discontinued until further notice.
Extended sig here.
-
2022-09-04, 03:55 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2020
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
Greenbound's not just strong, you know and the likes of shambling mound are more delightfully quirky than just "dumb brute, hits hard".
treants, and treant variants that dilute the original treant's interesting-ness more than they add anything new...
maybe oaken defenders if they had meaningful lore beyond "dryad bodyguards, have a life cycle,"
maybe adu'jas if I could find any decent information on them,
but even if there were five whole interesting plant monsters,
that's less than the other types.
I have a certain fondness for the udoroot as well, I must admit (even though it's not taht good).
♣
Back on topic, I kind of want to give the elhoriad a +0 here (goodish stats, immunities, messing with STR and CON, no gear-related issues), but it's still kind of on the weak side.Last edited by Metastachydium; 2022-09-04 at 03:59 AM.
-
2022-09-04, 05:35 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2005
- Location
- Baator (aka Britain)
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
I'm on the fence here. If it had 4 HD, I think it would be a solid +0, but with 5 HD, it's low +0 at best. I think I'll err on the side of caution: -0 LA.
-
2022-09-04, 06:30 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2021
- Location
- France
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
Resurrecting the Negative LA thread, comments and discussion are very welcome!
Do you want to build monstrous characters with reasonable LA? Join the Monster Mash! Currently, round XII: One-Punch Monster!!! Come judge single-strike entries!
Nice find! Have a cookie!
Searchable spreadsheet of 3.5 monsters by abilities, now with all online monsters
-
2022-09-04, 10:53 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2010
- Location
- Kaeda
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
A fairly clear -0. I keep wanting to disagree with that, but then I remember that those are Undead RHD. This is a relatively strong -0, but it doesn't quite make the cut for the price you pay for it. Next up is the Ember Spawn.
That said, I have somewhere to be soon, so it'll be a while. In the meantime, I'd like to ask for some help finding the statistics for the Adult Ember Spawn. MM6 currently only has the Larval form, which references alternate stats for an Adult which don't appear in the same PDF.Kaedanis Pyran, tai faernae.
The LA Assignment Threads: Attempting to Make Monsters Playable Since 2016
My Homebrewer's Extended Signature
-
2022-09-04, 12:42 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2021
- Location
- France
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
These magazines were one-shots and as far as I know the monsters they depict weren't printed anywhere else. I have read the article a few times and searched on the internet a bit the first time I read this‚ and the adult form doesn't appear in it‚ or anywhere else on the web it seems. The whole life cycle was already a pretty clear asterisk (what with becoming a disease and dying if the guy makes the save‚ or losing your character for weeks if they don't)‚ this is just even more obvious.
Resurrecting the Negative LA thread, comments and discussion are very welcome!
Do you want to build monstrous characters with reasonable LA? Join the Monster Mash! Currently, round XII: One-Punch Monster!!! Come judge single-strike entries!
Nice find! Have a cookie!
Searchable spreadsheet of 3.5 monsters by abilities, now with all online monsters
-
2022-09-04, 01:01 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2010
- Location
- Kaeda
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
Oh well. Would have been interesting to see how different they are. Especially since the larvae are Fine. The adult apparently gets up to six inches, which brings it right to the border with Diminutive.
Anyway...Kaedanis Pyran, tai faernae.
The LA Assignment Threads: Attempting to Make Monsters Playable Since 2016
My Homebrewer's Extended Signature
-
2022-09-04, 01:13 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2021
- Location
- France
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
I don't think we would have lost much. The ember spawns are said to be "most dangerous to humanoids" when in larval form. So the adult is less dangerous than a monster whose powers can be summarized as "jumps‚ deals one damage as it enters your skin‚ then give you like 20 saves and a dozen chances for a DC 15 Heal check before actually doing anything‚ and even when it does‚ the only real effect is being blinded".
I suspect the adult would be "the same‚ but diminutive‚ 30ft flying speed‚ bite deals an additional 1d2 fire damage‚ no anesthetic‚ can lay eggs that hatch after a few weeks"Resurrecting the Negative LA thread, comments and discussion are very welcome!
Do you want to build monstrous characters with reasonable LA? Join the Monster Mash! Currently, round XII: One-Punch Monster!!! Come judge single-strike entries!
Nice find! Have a cookie!
Searchable spreadsheet of 3.5 monsters by abilities, now with all online monsters
-
2022-09-04, 03:16 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2010
- Location
- Kaeda
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
Size & Type: Fine Vermin
Space/Reach: 6"/0'
HD: 1/4
Speed: 30', Climb 5'
Ability Scores: Str -10, Dex +10, Con +0, Int -, Wis +0, Cha -2 - Net -2, two penalties
Natural Armor: 0
Natural Weapons: One Primary Bite (1 plus attach)
Skill List: Climb (+8 racial, uses Dex, Skill Mastery), Hide, Jump (+8 racial, uses Dex)
Body Shape: Larva
Speech (Languages): No
CR: 1
WotC LA: -
Our LA: +0* (Advancement to Adult stage)
First thing's first, we're asterisking the ability to advance to an Adult Ember Spawn. Partly because the statblock doesn't seem to exist, and partly because this would probably increase its HD, which we like to avoid. It's a shame too, because the adult seems to have wings and would probably be all-around better. That said, I'll be keeping the Flesh Burrow and Disease otherwise-unaltered since you could still use them, even if it would be a suicidally-bad idea to attempt it.
Immunity to fire is good to have, even with the standard cold vulnerability that comes with it. Improved Initiative is always nice as a bonus feat too. They can also pinpoint the location of any heat source, including warm-blooded creatures, within 60', even if the surrounding heat is larger. So a desert or a burning building won't hide anything from you. That said, an infestation of at least six Ember Spawns in a single host will chill their body to the point where you can't detect them this way. (I'm so sure that will be relevant...) Your mandibles excrete an anesthetic that numbs the pain of your bite, making the wounds you inflict undetectable to the victim except by sight. I can only imagine the sneaky shenanigans you could pull with that.
Notably, you have a built-in way to get around your lack of reach: Leaping Chomp. With a DC 20 Jump check, you can hurl yourself at a target within 5' and attempt your bite attack. It even becomes a ranged attack, meaning you use your far superior Dexterity for the attack roll. No attacks of opportunity, but it's still nice to have.
Whenever you hit something with your bite, regardless of whether it's in regular melee or your Leaping Chomp, you can automatically attach yourself to the target. So Improved Grab without a size limit and automatic success on the initial grapple check. And to compensate for your Fine size and abysmal Strength score on future rolls, you have a +20 racial bonus on grapple checks. There's got to be a few ways to abuse that. To be removed via grappling, you need to be pinned.
And now we come to the parts that we mostly don't care about. The bits that are essentially useless without the ability to advance to the Adult stage. For starters, if you begin your turn Attached to a creature, you can automatically burrow into their flesh, appearing as a lump in their skin. You get a +5 circumstance bonus to Hide while so burrowed. Oh yeah, and you have to shed your legs to do this.
Once inside, the victim must make a fortitude save (whose DC appears to be a flat 14, +1 for each other Ember Span inside them). And if they succeed, you die.
On a failure, you are from then on considered a disease (including the ability to be rid of you with disease-removing magic, implicitly though not explicitly killing you in the process). You feed and incubate for one hour, after which the host must make another save each day, taking 1 point of Con and Cha damage and 1d2 nonlethal cold damage. Taking cold damage like this fatigues them until it's healed. The cold damage also doesn't heal naturally unless the host is either bundled up warmly or near a heat source. Two successful saves in a row, you die. If someone makes a DC15 Heal check on the host, you die. If you're cut out with a slashing weapon (a successful attack against you, for which you have 20% concealment), you die.
After surviving inside your host for a week, you assume pupa form. The Con and Cha damage stops, but not the nonlethal cold damage. You can no longer be killed by a Heal check or by being physically cut out, and the host's fortitude DC increases by five. Three weeks later, you have grown into an Adult Ember Spawn, emerging from one of the host's eye sockets (or elsewhere if they have none). This deals 1 Con damage (which creatures immune to crits are immune to), 1d6 untyped damage, and blinds the eye you came out through.
Honestly, these things are a bit better than I expected them to be. So small, yet with 30' movement speed, a way around 0' reach, and a lot of potential for being a sneaky little bastard. And being a 1-RHD creature is always nice.Last edited by Debatra; 2022-09-21 at 07:58 PM.
Kaedanis Pyran, tai faernae.
The LA Assignment Threads: Attempting to Make Monsters Playable Since 2016
My Homebrewer's Extended Signature
-
2022-09-04, 04:06 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2020
- Location
- Jerusalem
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
These could make for hilarious Binder (Zagan) grapplers. You'd turn the -16 fir fine size to a +4 for being virtually large, and you'd keep the +20 racial bonus.
Pretty good stuff overall. Can someone remind me what's our policy regarding the benefits of being mindless?Screaming defiance with the last breath
It would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.
My judgments and medals!
The Iron Chef Optimization spreadsheet!
Song, Sword, and Sorcery: my 5E homebrew half-caster bard (Version 2.0!)
-
2022-09-04, 04:27 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2010
- Location
- Kaeda
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
Like with animal intelligence, we just assume some non-specific way to get to at least three Int.
Kaedanis Pyran, tai faernae.
The LA Assignment Threads: Attempting to Make Monsters Playable Since 2016
My Homebrewer's Extended Signature
-
2022-09-04, 11:09 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2009
- Location
- In a castle under the sea
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
It's a shame most of the information about these things is lost, because they sound neat. I'm a sucker for monsters with interestingly complicated life cycles, and this sounds like a xenomorph crossed with a trematode ( the archetypical interestingly complicated life cycle). Of course, the Ecology segment makes it sound like the adults are more dragonfly-ish—the larva did everything interesting the critter's gonna do, the adult is just there to mate, lay eggs, and die. Which is a disappointing waste of a facehugger, if you ask me.
Life cycle nerd aside, it probably wouldn't be much fun to play. Aside from a Dexterity of 20 and a +20 racial bonus on Grapple checks, it doesn't have anything. There are some niche builds which can use it, but I feel like you'd get a better grappler from a race with thumbs, item slots, or at minimum a natural attack that doesn't basically kill you.
-0. You can't make this a PC without stripping it of everything that makes it interesting.
-
2022-09-05, 01:37 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2021
- Location
- France
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
That's not true. As written‚ Flesh Burrow is not optional. If you begin your turn attached‚ you automatically burrow. That makes the creature's bite attack useless and suicidal by itself‚ and Zagan-based grappling no less hilarious but much more dangerous to yourself (except as a Totemist with improved Grab I guess). Still‚ you are a Fine creature with no RHD and decent movement. 20 Dex and Fine mean the equivalent of +13 to touch AC‚ and a potential Wisdom based manifester will absolutely love it. Does this outvalue the inability to speak and use items? I guess you could make something out of it. LA+0 for me.
Resurrecting the Negative LA thread, comments and discussion are very welcome!
Do you want to build monstrous characters with reasonable LA? Join the Monster Mash! Currently, round XII: One-Punch Monster!!! Come judge single-strike entries!
Nice find! Have a cookie!
Searchable spreadsheet of 3.5 monsters by abilities, now with all online monsters
-
2022-09-05, 04:45 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2010
- Location
- Kaeda
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
We've been consistently treating those "the creature automatically does X" and similarly-worded abilities as optional up to this point unless it's clear that it's mandatory. Otherwise a lot of monsters' preferred tactics would be mandatory since they're mentioned in the relevant abilities' descriptions.
Kaedanis Pyran, tai faernae.
The LA Assignment Threads: Attempting to Make Monsters Playable Since 2016
My Homebrewer's Extended Signature
-
2022-09-05, 09:52 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2015
- Location
- Paris
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
They're fun little critters. The fact they only get 1 RHD is neat, and vermins have immunity to mind-affecting effects as an added perk. I'll go with LA+0.
VC XV, The horsemen are drawing nearer: The Alien and the Omen (part 1 and part 2).
VC XVI, Burn baby burn:Nero
VC XVIII, This is Heresy! Torquemada
VC XX, Elder Evil: Henry Bowyer
And a repository of deliciously absurd sentences produced by maddened optimisers in my extended signature
-
2022-09-05, 10:52 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2019
- Location
- Bear mountains! (Alps)
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
Does it have 1 RHD, or would it be supplanted by class HD at 1st level like it happens for humanoids?
If it has "0RHD" by virtue of that 1/4HD the combination of size and racial bonuses and ability modifiers are enough for a +1 to me, otherwise +0Last edited by ciopo; 2022-09-05 at 10:54 AM.
-
2022-09-05, 11:24 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2020
- Location
- Moscow
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
I think about LA +1.
Last edited by loky1109; 2022-09-05 at 05:03 PM.
If you could make anything and everything welcome to the Zinc Saucier XLV: Figaro
My competition's medals.
Spoiler: For purposes of clarity1109 is September, 11 - my birthday.
-
2022-09-05, 11:55 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2020
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
Vermins only have that beacuse they are Mindless. Once they gain an INT scre, the immunity should arguably go away.
♣
I'm thoroughly confused, I have to say. Yes, fine size is cool, yes it's a funny monster and yes, it has some ludicrous numbers, but it will struggle to put on any gear, use any weapon with any degree of efficacy, cast spells (no language, no chance it can use material components, might have issues with somatic ones). Alright, it grapples stuff. So far so good(ish; grappling's, well, grappling). And then what?
For now, I'll put a -0 here.Last edited by Metastachydium; 2022-09-05 at 11:57 AM.
-
2022-09-05, 12:09 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2020
- Location
- Jerusalem
- Gender
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
Screaming defiance with the last breath
It would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.
My judgments and medals!
The Iron Chef Optimization spreadsheet!
Song, Sword, and Sorcery: my 5E homebrew half-caster bard (Version 2.0!)
-
2022-09-05, 12:19 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2020
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
What about a celestial shrieker?
Nonverbal spell feat could take care of any language issue, if there is one.
It's doable, and I can see it being worth it for fine size.a formtwo forms that have none of the drawbacks associated with being a decidedly non-humanoid fine creature.
This ember larva something is literally worse for every purpose other than grappling which it has precious little to do with. I don't see the appeal, let alone the +1s.
-
2022-09-05, 01:29 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2013
Re: The LA Assignment Thread XII: the LA-bors of Heracles
I was hoping to find a recording of the live session this were created in, but no such luck. I imagine the Adult might still only have 1 RHD (but a full one, not 1/4 as-is here).
I'm on the fence between -0 and +0, since most of the fun stuff is non-PC (and un-statted) and the rest difficult to use effectively, but I'm sure there's something that could be done. I do like the 60' Heat Sense and +20 Grapple, but the lack of hands, item slots, and speech push this towards -0 for me.Last edited by Ripptor; 2022-09-05 at 01:30 PM.