Evil Shepherders
Posted 12th July 2008 at 11:54 AM by Dog Moon
Updated 12th August 2008 at 10:24 AM by Dog Moon (Fiddling Around)
Updated 12th August 2008 at 10:24 AM by Dog Moon (Fiddling Around)
I hope that's how you spell Shepherd... no underlining in red, so it should be fine. ANYWAY, first Blog entry EVER and I figured we have them, so we might as well use them.
At ANY rate... As I enjoy creating miscellaneous monsters, I figured I would use my Blog to post these creatures instead of creating a thread, but if this doesn't work, I'll just go back to that. The first up is the Evil Shepherder, a creature which uses sheep for weapons. I do enjoy more than simply stats as well, so there should be an interesting [or so I hope] ecology/background miscellania stuff. Especially since anyone can just put together some random stats together and make a creature.
"Gather around children, for I have a story to tell you." The elderly man waited patiently for the half dozen or so - he couldn't really remember how to count well anymore and had anyone asked him, he would have proudly told you he had seventeen fingers and then angrily argue with you if you ever refuted his claim - to gather eagerly in front of him. Children of all ages enjoy stories and these children were no exception. "It's about a person I met once years ago. It was a chilly autumn day and I could see my breath clearly before me. The sun was beginning its descent towards the tips of the mountain to my left and I wasn't sure I would make it to the next village before nightfall. Odd, isn't it, that we would call it nightfall when it's the sun falling and the moon rising? Anyway, back then, my legs were sturdy and I could walk without the pain in my knees. I began to step up my pace, but it was only an hour later that I realized I had gone off track and had lost my original path. Still, I was on a path and though it wasn't the correct one, I felt it had to go somewhere.
"Indeed it did, I found out as the tops of the mountains attempted futiley to stab the poor sun. It led to a small plateau within the hilly countryside. Standing within this plateau were dozens of sheep milling about and pretty much acting exactly as sheep would. A couple looked up at me with glazed over eyes, but they were more interested in munching the grass beneath them than watching someone enter their territory. In the center of the sheep stood a small wooden cabin. Smoke gushed out of it, dark, ugly smoke. It was not the comfortable, inviting smoke of a fireplace. No, I knew something had gone wrong, and I hurried to help."
The old man took a deep breath, his eyes moving from child to child. They were enraptured, their attention fully on him. He kept back a smile as he continued his story. "I found an older man sitting upon the porch of his cabin upon a chair away from the windows and doors as best he could, an impossibility and he occasionally coughed when the smoke neared him too closely. He looked up at me as I approached and I dare say that while I saw an unsurprising sadness in his features, his lips were curled into a strange, evil smile, and his eyes gleamed in excitement as if a stranger was the only thing he looked forward to in life.
"'Howdy stranger,' he said to me. I greeted him back pleasantly, pausing a short distance away from the cabin, unsure of what to make of the man. He held something in his hand, a staff of sorts, I believed at the time, though I couldn't see it well enough. 'I'd offer you a place to stay,' he told me, 'But as you can tell, I'm lacking that very thing.' I told him that was fine. I offered him som food, and he gladly accepted. We ate and chatted about the weather until the sun had completely disappeared from the sky. The man stood and somehow, his staff caught the moonlight and I realized then that the staff he carried was made of shined bone. I stared in horror and took several steps back.
"I heard a noise behind me. I whirled around. I found myself staring into the black, beedy eyes of a sheep. Baaa, baaa. I began to calm down, but that's when the sheep exploded, spewing guts and gore all around me. Pieces of bone cut into my skin. I screamed and fled, unable to face the man as he began to cackle wildly. Baaa, baaa." The old man suddenly stopped. The children's eyes were as round as saucers, and their mouths hung open in anticipation and horror. They saw nothing but the old storyteller. He took a look around him as if for the first time noticing the sheep around them. "Oh no," he said in horror. The children's eyes followed his gaze and they scrambled to their feet as they saw the sheep like they had never seen sheep before. The old man grinned as he slammed his feet to the ground as he yelled out "Boom!" The children screamed as they imagined sheep exploding around them. The old man chuckled, but while the children recovered from his story of horror, his mind drifted back to his encounter with the crazy man and the exploding sheep.
I remember that story being told to me when I was a young child. I had been terrified at the time, but we all had been. In time, I came to stop believing in strange monsters such as the Evil Shepherder. In time, I came to realize just how true these stories truly were. I have seen sheep mowed down by the dozens, slaughtered by marauders, but there is nothing that compares to the vileness of watching a sheep explode with Necrotic energy in a nearby burst. Unfortunately until the sheep explodes, there is nothing to distinguish one ready to explode and one that just feels like eating grass. Cut it, kill it, feed it, whatever, it will always look and act the same until the Shepherder himself decides that the sheep should do something differently, like explode.
I saw this once, a rare encounter during my travels. Only with the help of my guide Arana Il'Yatava and my bodyguard Gensavi Rectavu were we able to fend them off. The Shepherder came off innocently and none of us realized the danger immediately. Sheep were crossing the road and we were forced to take a break. An occasional sheep wandered near us before passing by and only because this occurred several times did we relax our guard, until a nearby one abruptly exploded. Let me tell you, there's little in the world less pleasant than having the exploded remains of sheep fly towards you and cover you with the Necrotic stench. What's worse is that the Shepherder apparently kept several pouches of guts nearby because as we were attempting to avoid the sheep, he began hurling entrails and organs at us. Arana struck the Shepherder down with what appeared to be a lucky shot, but we quickly left the sheep afterwards. Fortunately, I had a handy Ritual I was able to cast which removed the horrid stench from our persons. We circled the herd and continue our way.
Now, I have talked with my colleagues after returning from my travels. Some only believe these beings to be nothing more than scary stories. Others, however, believe these to be only a minor selection of the Shepherders in existence. Worse yet, they believe that sheep are not the only animals which can be found in the presence of these crazy people, but any basic, generally stupid, animal which can be found in packs. One of the teachers believes that the Rat Enthusiast down the block is one. He refuses to go anywhere near that street in fear that a rat will catch him offguard and explode. I do not know if this is true or not, but I will most assuredly find out somehow.
-From the notes of Ra'Uf Jafar, Historian and Cataloguer
Stats! It's what I do.
________________________________________
Evil Shephard Level 3 Solo Elite
Medium natural humanoid Exp: 750
Initiative: 3 Sense Perception +1
AC: 19 Fortitude: 15 Reflex: 17 Will: 18
HP: 184; Bloodied: 92
Saving Throws +5
Speed 6
Action points: 2
Sheep Bone Staff (standard; at-will)
+8 vs. AC; 1d6 + 2 damage
Necrotic Sheep Blood (standard; at-will)
5; +8 vs. AC; 1d6 + 2 Necrotic damage
Exploding Sheep (immediate reaction; when an enemy moves within 1 square of sheep that is located within 5 squares of the Evil Shephard; recharge 4,5,6)
Burst 1; +5 vs. Ref; 2d10 + 3 Necrotic damage
Wall of Sheep (move; at-will)
Can move up to 3 sheep each 1 square
Alignment Evil Languages Common
Str: 15 (+3) Dex: 15 (+3) Wis: 12 (+2)
Con: 14 (+3) Int: 11 (+1) Cha: 17 (+4)
________________________________________
Note: For ease of use, treat Sheep as Giant Rats, in case they become targets of attacks [a dead sheep cannot explode].
Optional: What I did spur of the moment when running this creature was to halve the damage of explosion and make it so it was an Immediate Reaction without the recharge. When I ran it, the rats hurt at first, but the threat sort of lessened quickly because the number of rats decreased due to explosions and the characters targeting them specifically to make them explode on their own].
Alternate: It might be an interesting thing to try, which I did not, but instead of having 3 sheep moving 1 square each, having 3 'points' of movement to use among all the sheep, meaning 1 sheep moving 3, 1 sheep 2 and a second sheep 1, etc. to give a little more surprise factor.
At ANY rate... As I enjoy creating miscellaneous monsters, I figured I would use my Blog to post these creatures instead of creating a thread, but if this doesn't work, I'll just go back to that. The first up is the Evil Shepherder, a creature which uses sheep for weapons. I do enjoy more than simply stats as well, so there should be an interesting [or so I hope] ecology/background miscellania stuff. Especially since anyone can just put together some random stats together and make a creature.
"Gather around children, for I have a story to tell you." The elderly man waited patiently for the half dozen or so - he couldn't really remember how to count well anymore and had anyone asked him, he would have proudly told you he had seventeen fingers and then angrily argue with you if you ever refuted his claim - to gather eagerly in front of him. Children of all ages enjoy stories and these children were no exception. "It's about a person I met once years ago. It was a chilly autumn day and I could see my breath clearly before me. The sun was beginning its descent towards the tips of the mountain to my left and I wasn't sure I would make it to the next village before nightfall. Odd, isn't it, that we would call it nightfall when it's the sun falling and the moon rising? Anyway, back then, my legs were sturdy and I could walk without the pain in my knees. I began to step up my pace, but it was only an hour later that I realized I had gone off track and had lost my original path. Still, I was on a path and though it wasn't the correct one, I felt it had to go somewhere.
"Indeed it did, I found out as the tops of the mountains attempted futiley to stab the poor sun. It led to a small plateau within the hilly countryside. Standing within this plateau were dozens of sheep milling about and pretty much acting exactly as sheep would. A couple looked up at me with glazed over eyes, but they were more interested in munching the grass beneath them than watching someone enter their territory. In the center of the sheep stood a small wooden cabin. Smoke gushed out of it, dark, ugly smoke. It was not the comfortable, inviting smoke of a fireplace. No, I knew something had gone wrong, and I hurried to help."
The old man took a deep breath, his eyes moving from child to child. They were enraptured, their attention fully on him. He kept back a smile as he continued his story. "I found an older man sitting upon the porch of his cabin upon a chair away from the windows and doors as best he could, an impossibility and he occasionally coughed when the smoke neared him too closely. He looked up at me as I approached and I dare say that while I saw an unsurprising sadness in his features, his lips were curled into a strange, evil smile, and his eyes gleamed in excitement as if a stranger was the only thing he looked forward to in life.
"'Howdy stranger,' he said to me. I greeted him back pleasantly, pausing a short distance away from the cabin, unsure of what to make of the man. He held something in his hand, a staff of sorts, I believed at the time, though I couldn't see it well enough. 'I'd offer you a place to stay,' he told me, 'But as you can tell, I'm lacking that very thing.' I told him that was fine. I offered him som food, and he gladly accepted. We ate and chatted about the weather until the sun had completely disappeared from the sky. The man stood and somehow, his staff caught the moonlight and I realized then that the staff he carried was made of shined bone. I stared in horror and took several steps back.
"I heard a noise behind me. I whirled around. I found myself staring into the black, beedy eyes of a sheep. Baaa, baaa. I began to calm down, but that's when the sheep exploded, spewing guts and gore all around me. Pieces of bone cut into my skin. I screamed and fled, unable to face the man as he began to cackle wildly. Baaa, baaa." The old man suddenly stopped. The children's eyes were as round as saucers, and their mouths hung open in anticipation and horror. They saw nothing but the old storyteller. He took a look around him as if for the first time noticing the sheep around them. "Oh no," he said in horror. The children's eyes followed his gaze and they scrambled to their feet as they saw the sheep like they had never seen sheep before. The old man grinned as he slammed his feet to the ground as he yelled out "Boom!" The children screamed as they imagined sheep exploding around them. The old man chuckled, but while the children recovered from his story of horror, his mind drifted back to his encounter with the crazy man and the exploding sheep.
I remember that story being told to me when I was a young child. I had been terrified at the time, but we all had been. In time, I came to stop believing in strange monsters such as the Evil Shepherder. In time, I came to realize just how true these stories truly were. I have seen sheep mowed down by the dozens, slaughtered by marauders, but there is nothing that compares to the vileness of watching a sheep explode with Necrotic energy in a nearby burst. Unfortunately until the sheep explodes, there is nothing to distinguish one ready to explode and one that just feels like eating grass. Cut it, kill it, feed it, whatever, it will always look and act the same until the Shepherder himself decides that the sheep should do something differently, like explode.
I saw this once, a rare encounter during my travels. Only with the help of my guide Arana Il'Yatava and my bodyguard Gensavi Rectavu were we able to fend them off. The Shepherder came off innocently and none of us realized the danger immediately. Sheep were crossing the road and we were forced to take a break. An occasional sheep wandered near us before passing by and only because this occurred several times did we relax our guard, until a nearby one abruptly exploded. Let me tell you, there's little in the world less pleasant than having the exploded remains of sheep fly towards you and cover you with the Necrotic stench. What's worse is that the Shepherder apparently kept several pouches of guts nearby because as we were attempting to avoid the sheep, he began hurling entrails and organs at us. Arana struck the Shepherder down with what appeared to be a lucky shot, but we quickly left the sheep afterwards. Fortunately, I had a handy Ritual I was able to cast which removed the horrid stench from our persons. We circled the herd and continue our way.
Now, I have talked with my colleagues after returning from my travels. Some only believe these beings to be nothing more than scary stories. Others, however, believe these to be only a minor selection of the Shepherders in existence. Worse yet, they believe that sheep are not the only animals which can be found in the presence of these crazy people, but any basic, generally stupid, animal which can be found in packs. One of the teachers believes that the Rat Enthusiast down the block is one. He refuses to go anywhere near that street in fear that a rat will catch him offguard and explode. I do not know if this is true or not, but I will most assuredly find out somehow.
-From the notes of Ra'Uf Jafar, Historian and Cataloguer
Stats! It's what I do.
________________________________________
Evil Shephard Level 3 Solo Elite
Medium natural humanoid Exp: 750
Initiative: 3 Sense Perception +1
AC: 19 Fortitude: 15 Reflex: 17 Will: 18
HP: 184; Bloodied: 92
Saving Throws +5
Speed 6
Action points: 2
Sheep Bone Staff (standard; at-will)
+8 vs. AC; 1d6 + 2 damage
Necrotic Sheep Blood (standard; at-will)
5; +8 vs. AC; 1d6 + 2 Necrotic damage
Exploding Sheep (immediate reaction; when an enemy moves within 1 square of sheep that is located within 5 squares of the Evil Shephard; recharge 4,5,6)
Burst 1; +5 vs. Ref; 2d10 + 3 Necrotic damage
Wall of Sheep (move; at-will)
Can move up to 3 sheep each 1 square
Alignment Evil Languages Common
Str: 15 (+3) Dex: 15 (+3) Wis: 12 (+2)
Con: 14 (+3) Int: 11 (+1) Cha: 17 (+4)
________________________________________
Note: For ease of use, treat Sheep as Giant Rats, in case they become targets of attacks [a dead sheep cannot explode].
Optional: What I did spur of the moment when running this creature was to halve the damage of explosion and make it so it was an Immediate Reaction without the recharge. When I ran it, the rats hurt at first, but the threat sort of lessened quickly because the number of rats decreased due to explosions and the characters targeting them specifically to make them explode on their own].
Alternate: It might be an interesting thing to try, which I did not, but instead of having 3 sheep moving 1 square each, having 3 'points' of movement to use among all the sheep, meaning 1 sheep moving 3, 1 sheep 2 and a second sheep 1, etc. to give a little more surprise factor.
Total Comments 7
Comments
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Nice blog Dog Moon. I like the backstory provided. I'm not into the 4E scene, but I do appreciate the work you put into your monster creations.
Exactly how hard would it be to backwards engineer this for 3E?Posted 13th July 2008 at 11:33 AM by Reveille
Updated 13th July 2008 at 11:44 AM by Reveille (can't freakin' spell.) -
I'm not sure how difficult it would be exactly to convert them backwards. I plan to soon start converting some of my older creations FORWARD, and I have a feeling that as soon as I've started doing that, I'll have a better guess as to how to go backwards.
I cannot imagine it would be too difficult though. 3HD Monstrous Humanoid, probably. If you use the same ability scores, that would give you most of the basic stats. All you would need to go from there is to figure out how to deal with the attacks, feats, and skills. Oh, and equipment.
Attacks:
Staff [As normal attack for 3x, nothing special here].
Sheep Blood [Ranged touch attack, 30', 1d6 + 3; I choose + Dex because it's being thrown, but Cha might almost be better and in 3x, would definitely go with adding Charisma to damage, since Cha seemed to modify holiness and unholiness, IMO]
Explosive Sheep [Maybe a little more tricky. Would PROBABLY say, whenever a PC steps within 5' of a sheep, the sheep explodes in a 5' radius. 3d6 unholy damage. Ref DC 14 [1/2 HD, rounded down + Cha mod] for half damage.
Moving Sheep [Well, in 3x, they have their own movement speed, so this ability would probably just be ignored].
Feats: Probably give him Weapon Focus Sheep Blood and Ability Focus [Explosive Sheep]
Skills: Knowledge Nature and Spot, probably. I THINK Monstrous Humanoids only get 2 skills, iirc.
Equipment: Staff, Leather Armor. Miscellaneous junk.
This is just a general process, I'm sure if I thought about it longer, I could completely stat it out, but what I said should probably be a pretty good start.Posted 13th July 2008 at 12:09 PM by Dog Moon -
Dog Moon, are 4e Ability Scores the same as 3e Ability Scores? What about other aspects of 4e monster design? In your opinion, would 4e levels really correspond with 3e hit dice? How would you convert "at will" abilities?
I have no interest in 4e, yet I'm interested in converting 4e critters into 3e critters without having to learn too much about 4e design.Posted 14th July 2008 at 10:02 AM by Knightfall
Updated 14th July 2008 at 10:10 AM by Knightfall - The ability scores seem close enough to me during my brief glancing over things. I've only made like two creatures so far so I'm only beginning to understand the process, but from my little experience, ability scores seem close enough that you could port those over perfectly and simply add or subtract a couple if it fits your idea a little better.
As for HD and levels, I think the low levels probably work fine to be equal, but higher levels might need to be watched a little more. 3e and 4e both have levels 21+ be epic, so I would think that they should be close enough to assume that for conversions' sake, levels = HD.
Abilities could become slightly tricky. The main at will abilities in 4e I've noticed are basic attacks which would become the staple attack of the 3e version. As with the Shepherd man, the 4e at-will staff attack becomes the basic weapon attack of 3e. However, for other abilities, it might be slightly trickier. Encounter abilities, refresh abilities, etc, how do you put these into 3e? What I did for the Shepherder was lower the damage, but have the refreshing ability instead occur under a certain set of circumstances [becoming too close to a sheep]. I think these would have to be watched more closely to make sure it isn't way too powerful for the level of the creature.
I'll post back here, Knightfall, when I'm working on converting my monsters to 4e and maybe I'll be able to give you a little better insight into the process. Please let me know if my thoughts helped you out or not. A lot of what I said is generalities, I know, but as I'm beginning my joyful task of monster creation, I should be able to put out more specifics shortly.
Posted 15th July 2008 at 07:24 AM by Dog Moon -
How about including abilities in 3rd edition which a villain can use at-will or only once/twice during a battle?
Myself when wanting monsters in 3rd I looked through the book for some examples of HP and base attack and saves and wrote in powers I wanted based on equal attacks.Posted 15th July 2008 at 03:42 PM by Ginnel - What I think I'm gonna do for the 3x fans is basically point out a creature that I think would work and tell you how to modify it. Basically, that's frequently what I would do anyway, but as I'm sort of staying away from 3x, I don't want to go all-out. Will update this entry in the next day or so. Please stay tuned.Posted 18th July 2008 at 06:29 PM by Dog Moon
- Huh, can you believe your Blog can only be 10,000 characters long and cannot contain more than 4 smilies? Weird...
Anyway, here's a little of what I was thinking for 3rd edition. Please let me know if it's enough, if I gave you way more information than you need, or if you desire the entire statblock. [no offense, but I'll probably never post the entire statblock. If someone else decides to take my stuff and post the statblock, I would certainly not complain.
]
For 3rd Edition: If I were to create this creature for 3rd Edition, I would probably take the Satyr as a base creature. [For some reason, while thinking about this, I almost see this creature as a sort of Evil - malicious - Fey creature, and you can never have too many Fey] I would then add +2 Dex and Cha [If you really wanted, +4 total Cha]. I wouldn't necessarily increase the Con score, but I always like to add extra hit points to my creatures, especially solo creatures. 4e would suggest x4 for Solo creatures, but I would probably stick to about x2.
Remove the Pipe Ability cause it makes no sense with the Evil Sheep Exploder, unless the Pipe is made of sheep bones, but Perform would cover that. Also remove the Headbutt.
Skills: [7 of them] Hide, Kn Geography, Kn Nature, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, Survival [I KEEP wanting to put Wilderness Lore instead of Survival, can you believe that?]
Feats: [2 feats]: Ability Focus Exploding Sheep and Weapon Focus Sheep Blood.
The rest of the statblock is simply flavor. Looks about right, IMO. Abilities done below. Actually, thinking on it, Explosive Sheep could just about be a template that is put on the Sheep by a Crazy Sheep Herder so that whenever an enemy nears within 5', it explodes. They would also have a clause that if an enemy approaches within 30', they must automatically attack it [where it then explodes] unless countered by the Sheep Herder who put the template on it. The explosion would probably deal about 2d6+1d6 damage per two levels, so you can put them on more fun animals.
For MORE fun [cause you can never have too much], try putting these abilities on a Frost Giant who has a herd of like Mammoths or something, just cause it would freak me the heck out to see a herd of mammoths where one of them charges me and what the heck does it do? It freaking explodes! [On larger, more dangerous animals that can actually do anything, maybe exploding upon death would be a better idea].Posted 20th July 2008 at 11:51 AM by Dog Moon
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