4e Fan Creations and House RulesWorking on variant powers? Statting up a PC race or your version of a monster? Creating or converting an adventure? Put it here!
Carrion Crawler Larvae: Spit paralyzing goo.
Mid-high Heroic tier oozes. Swarms of stingy things.
Solo monsters.
A power that I like: Take a look at the Mimic's adhesive ability:
Quote:
Adhesive (Ex)
A mimic exudes a thick slime that acts as a powerful adhesive, holding fast any creatures or items that touch it. An adhesive-covered mimic automatically grapples any creature it hits with its slam attack. Opponents so grappled cannot get free while the mimic is alive without removing the adhesive first.
A weapon that strikes an adhesive-coated mimic is stuck fast unless the wielder succeeds on a DC 16 Reflex save. A successful DC 16 Strength check is needed to pry it off.
I like this, something that when the defender or striker engages it, they can't get out of it. It makes a lot of sense employed by a soldier - holding the line by sticking people.
You don't have to use adhesive goo, either; a body made of say, thorny branches, or ropey tendrils that just grab at anything that comes inside of it.
Last edited by Rechan; 29th March 2008 at 06:44 AM..
Wonder how they're doing swarms. I'll do a solo soon... but I'll admit that the design of the game looks a bit worse for solo monsters. It's harder to get the right give and take and avoid the upper rounds from dragging a little.
Ketrys could you do the Charnel Hound as a solo (I imagine you could put the minions in with the math, to lower the normal level of the solo).
I don't have the MM on me for it, but if you don't know about the Charnel Hound it is essentially a large undead dog (say about... 2-3 meters high) made entirely of corpses. It has lots of fear affects and such. One idea I thought of with them for 4e is after they are defeated the corpses become undead themselves (minions).
Cool mini... and I get to make an oxymoron and a horrible movie joke? All kinds of win (or loss, depending on your perspective)
I'll check out the charnel hound, but I'm trying to tread new ground more than redo old stuff so... we'll see. I did a quick look for good looking 'pile of corpse' minis, but didn't see one. Cause, I mean, I don't know what a charnel hound does, but a solo that was a pile of corpses that tossed out minion corpses every time you'd done X damage to it, and that kinda trampled over creatures as it fought... maybe got some immediate action attacks from corpses in it? That sounds pretty cool to me, so I'd be all for making that.
Hey Keterys, D'you have any personal guidelines for how many powers (and of what kinds) that you give monsters of a certain type or level? I've kind of been winging it.
Also, would you mind checking out the monsters I've posted on VB's thread and let me know what you think? Thanks.
In general, you want to keep your list pretty small. 2-4 abilities, plus 1-2 for elite, 1-4 for solo. In some cases, race ends up pushing that up - like all kobolds get shifty and trap sense - but I've still been giving each kobold enough to make it distinct.
Even a dragon, however, will likely only have 3 or 4 melee options, breath, fear... then like 2 or so extra specials.
Less is more in a lot of cases. Easy to run for the DM, but unique. I'll look at the other thread later, sure.
I figured a whole thread complaining about monsters that marked deserved a monster that marked.
Almost did the dwarf tonight, but I waffled a little on whether to make him an elite or solo and how much stuff to add beyond what you had (cause, hey, I gotta do _some_ work , and my rule is generally if I don't have a monster done within 15 mins to move on to something else for the evening. So, probably tomorrow since it's mostly done.
Last edited by keterys; 31st March 2008 at 09:07 AM..
What is that, I can see it's a Hordes Trollblood... but what's it got, a rock?
I use Trollbloods for an amphibious race of swamp-dwellers called Gulluggs. If Keterys doesn't mind I'll take a stab at stats for that one. Actually, there's no reason we both can't do a version of the same fig, see how diferent we can make it. Give me a few days, though. I've got a busy day tomorrow.
I don't have search functionaltiy so i thought I would ask it here. Somewhere was a thread where they were working out the formulae that would help you derive hit points for monsters. As I want to take a shot at some monster design of my own I would like to find that thread. Love your work Keterys I will definitely be using some of yours as both monsters in my campaign and inspirations for my own creations.
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