Go Back   EN World D&D / RPG News > General RPG Forums > General RPG Discussion

General RPG Discussion Discussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.

 
Share LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 24th May 2009, 04:58 AM   #1 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: New Paltz, NY
Posts: 9,027
Rechan Bugbear Strangler (Lvl 6)
So you want to use this monster

After the success of So that's why you like it, I wanted to try a similar idea.

Often I'm thumbing through possible monster or race, and I really like one. But I can't think of a way to work them into the game conceivably. I may just feel that the monster needs a flavor face-lift, because while I like the monster, the attached fluff is done to death. Or, like many say, the monster lacks any fluff/lore.

If you want suggestions for your monster or race

Propose a monster or race, and ask for suggestions using it in your game. When you pose a monster, ask for one of the following:

I need an encounter hook! This is where you just want to use the monster in a single encounter, or a string of them. You can't think of how to work it in. What monsters would this thing be working with? Or what could it be doing where the PCs would just stumble across it?

I need a story hook! When you want more than just an encounter, you want this monster to actually have a significant role in an adventure/ story. What kind of plots would this monster be cooking up? What is it doing in this dungeon over here? What kind of role does it serve in an adventure?

I need fluff! Sometimes stats are just not enough. You want to know where this thing comes from, or perhaps some legend or rumor your PCs hear about it over a campfire, so it feels more real in your world. Where does it come from? What role has it served in the world? What are its habits? Does any mundane thing ward it off or attract it?

I need reflavoring! When the fluff isn't enough. Or rather, when the fluff has been played out and you want something new. Maybe you want a place and history for this monster in your campaign world, or you want it to be more unique and intriguing. What other origins could this monster have? What new ways could it express its role? This option also works for races, if you want a facelift for that every day demi-human.

If you're responding to a monster post

Offer 3 of whatever the poster needs. For example, if the monster needs flavor, suggest an origin, a legend, and a factoid. These don't need to be long - two sentences perhaps, unless you're feeling creative.
__________________
Seeking players in the New York - New Paltz area.
Rechan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24th May 2009, 05:56 AM   #2 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Jack7's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,089
Jack7 Bugbear Strangler (Lvl 6)
In my setting I use Unique Monsters. There are almost no monster races, and monsters are created by accident, by accidental or intentional exposure to magic (called Elturgy) on Ghantik. The only real exceptions to this are demons who visit our world (Terra) - see World's Apart if you are interested in how the setting works.

But there is one monster I've always wanted to use in my setting (Terra-Ghantik) and I wanted to use it on both worlds, in the most interesting and unusual way possible. And that is a Ghost.

Ideally I'd like the Ghost to be the ghost of a Giant who had inhabited our world in ancient times. That giant encountered a "Scapegoat" - a sacrificial offering that had been chased into the desert and whose body became a home to and a sort of trap for a demon. (A scapegoat carried with it all of the curses and evil done by a people, as a sort of living housing for that evil, hence, it - a literal goat - became the scapegoat for the sins of that people.) Anyway the giant I mentioned, a Goliath-like figure of about 12 feet tall encounters the scapegoat then kills the scapegoat and eats it raw and dies as a result of absorbing the curses and evil of the scapegoat. The demon that is the embodiment of that evil comes to inhabit the "ghost of the dead giant" who cannot die properly, or be buried, or put at ease and he wanders the desert for thousands of years. A hungry, bitter, tormented, but ultimately powerless ghost that knows it is partially demon possessed, but cannot shake the demon or the curse of "scapegoat-death."

Over time it has tried dozens of different methods to die, or to possess the body of another, or to drive away the demon tied to itself. All to no avail. (It has also seen and learned a great deal of information and lore in that time, but cannot use it.) One day though it discovers the Weirding Road (a method by which it can travel to the world of Ghantik) and when it gets to Ghantik, thanks to the influence of Elturgy, it begins to transform.

I want the Ghost to retain many of its old and former Ghost powers from Earth, as well as to gain new ones, but I also want it to have entirely new powers that result form the interplay of Elturgy and the supernatural influences of its own nature.

I also want it to be unique, weird in the extreme, very frightening, and uncanny. I also want it to be able to do some things one might never associate with a Ghost. As a matter of fact they don't even know what a ghost is on ghantik and so would have know idea of what it really is, or where it came from, or how to combat it. (I want it to be unique enough that the players won't recognize it as a ghost either.)

I'd also like some interesting ideas on how to combat it (and maybe even put it down forever) as a giant, as a ghost, and as a demon possessing the ghost of the giant. And I'd like clerical magic or thaumaturgy involved in some way. There are also giants on Ghantik as a player race. I'd like this ghost to be connected to them in some way, or to be able to interact with them in a weird and dangerous way. I'll be open to any interesting suggestion about "this Ghost."

I'd also like a good name for this monster. Maybe a personal name, maybe just a "monster term." And some appropriate treasure or artifact associated with him.

I plan to include this monster in an on-going basis and in more than one plot/adventure line.
__________________
Tome and Tomb

Last edited by Jack7; 24th May 2009 at 06:09 AM..
Jack7 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24th May 2009, 07:03 AM   #3 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: New Paltz, NY
Posts: 9,027
Rechan Bugbear Strangler (Lvl 6)
It might be best if future requests are slightly less in depth and special. My general thinking is that the suggestions are just two-three sentences, unless the author wants to go further.

This way potential posters aren't scared away by the magnitude of the request.
__________________
Seeking players in the New York - New Paltz area.
Rechan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24th May 2009, 08:25 AM   #4 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Dannyalcatraz's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Planet Alcatraz & D/FW
Posts: 11,345
Dannyalcatraz Bugbear Strangler (Lvl 6)
I'll be your huckleberry...

First off, the human(oid) form of the scapegoat is known as a Sin-Eater.
Sin-eater - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Second, it might be interesting for the undead giant/demon to be consumed by bugs like the ones in The Bone Snatcher. They retained something of the awareness and minds of the creatures they ate. (The Bone Snatcher (2003))

Third, to add to the horror, check out the novelet "Adaptogenia" by Wayne Wightman, which appears in the June/July 2009 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine. As a mini-spoiler, the story revolves around insects that have learned to swarm in such a way as to mimic the forms of other creatures and objects with great accuracy...although they still have a telltale but slight hum from the beating of their myriad wings. (http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/current.htm)

Put these all together, the swarm consumes the giant/demon, effectively returning to scapegoat status, but the swarm not only retains the knowledge of the giant (and demon), but also the recollection of the physical forms of the people whose sins were consumed...which the hiveminded swarm can then mimic...

Imagine, then, being confronted by a buzzing, protean vision of yourself, telling you about your own sins, how you had them eaten...and how its going to eat you.

Because of its hivemind nature, to kill it, you need to kill every member of the swarm, including/especially the queen.

Because it is not truly undead, Turning and similar clerical powers will be less useful against it, if they work at all.

The more creatures it eats, the more knowledge- and shapes- it gains.

It can cast spells. It "learns" them by eating spellcasters it defeats. It cannot relearn spells- once a spell is cast, that "memory" is forever lost to the swarm. In a sense, it is like a living Ring of Spell Storing.

Name...how about Soul-swarm? Ghost-swarm? The Buzzing Doom? Buzzkill?

If you want something a bit more classical sounding..."Lord of the Flies?" or "Legion?"
__________________
IAAL...and an MBA. No, really!

My favorite thread: Campaign Ideas
Founder of Metal School
The 3.X Monk Database
The 3.X Martial Arcanist Database
The 3.X Aquatic Database
The 3.X Psionics Database
Publishers!: Proofread your products with PEOPLE- not just spellcheckers!

"Deathless" = "Undead," end of story

"I have the keys to Paradise, but I have too many legs!" -Jeff, from Coupling (BBC Series).

"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" -motto of the Possum Club, Red Green show.


4Ed is made of PEOPLE!

Last edited by Dannyalcatraz; 24th May 2009 at 09:45 AM..
Dannyalcatraz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24th May 2009, 03:30 PM   #5 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Jack7's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,089
Jack7 Bugbear Strangler (Lvl 6)
Quote:
I'll be your huckleberry...
I'll be durned Danny, but most of that is excellent. Really excellent.

I'll be thinking about how to use that Sin-Eater approach for awhile, as I see numerous possibilities. I'm familiar with the idea, but hadn't even considered it in this context, but it certainly makes a lot of sense.

Funny you should mention the insects because in Ghantik there is a form of magic called Eldarik. You might think of it as a cross between biological magic, and industrial magic. What it does is manipulates very small creatures, even down to the microbial level, to create and manufacture things that the "Eldarik user" can envision in his mind, but has no tool or technology to create.

The microscopic creatures, though sometimes insects are used as well, then act like tiny "imagination robots" to build things through small bits of matter from the bottom up. (The better you are at Eldarik, the smaller the creatures you can control and communicate with, the more complex things you can build, and the very bets users can even build things molecule by molecule, meaning they don't have to melt or smelt material to use even extremely hard or difficult to use substances.) Sometimes the user can't even see the creatures being employed because they are microscopic, and the process takes a long, long time, but in this way the user can build complex things he imagines by controlling the small creatures. I know there is a way to fit in what you suggested with the insects to this form of magic. It just seems "natural."

I also really like the idea of the Protean Ghost who has such an immense store-house knowledge of accumulating sins that he automatically knows the sins of the person he is facing.

I also really like the idea of "turning" being far less effective. Because of the way things work in Ghantik I also though now see a means of combining Eldarik with supernatural means like "turning" to create a sort of effective "amalgamated" way of attack. As one possible means of how to fight the thing.

I was laying in bed last night re-reading my Bible passages on the Scapegoat when it occurred to me that the demon name for the Giant Ghost might be the Scapeghost. Yeah, it's kind of a sappy name, but the irony would not be lost on either the demon or the spirit of the giant. But I'd also like the a really fine name for how others would perceive it, who might know nothing of its background but would only know how weird and frightening it seemed to them.

I'm also trying to think of a relic and/or an artifact (it doesn't have to be one from a gaming book, could be from myth, religion, or something you just thought of) that would be a suitable match to the thing that it might have gained control of over time.

The one thing I'm not gonna use is the implication you made of it killing and consuming others (if I read you right). I don't want it to be a killing machine, rather I want it to be a frightening, weird-creation machine. That is encountering it will temporarily "mutate or transform" the ones it encounters, in very bad and bizarre ways. But it won't result in immediate physical death so much as psychological and spiritual "staining and corruption." I can though see it inflicting long term diseases of the body, mind, and soul through extended exposure. And causing others to do things against their nature.

Other than that I like all of your ideas.
Thanks for the links too by the way.

Quote:
This way potential posters aren't scared away by the magnitude of the request.
It's your thread of course, but I don't know Rech, Danny did pretty okay by my book. There's a lot of good imaginations on this board. I wouldn't sell em too short.
__________________
Tome and Tomb
Jack7 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24th May 2009, 03:49 PM   #6 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 181
Kinneus Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
Send a message via AIM to Kinneus
Ooo, good idea for a thread. I have a request. I want to use a classic shambling mound. The thing is, my players are very casual, and not familiar with many D&D icons. They won't recognize a shambling mound when they see one, so I need help flavoring it, describing it, and basically understanding it. How would you explain a shambling mound and its place in the world to somebody not familiar with one at all?

Particularly, I'm struggling with the lightning immunity/lightning healing thing, which might seem like a screw-you to my lightning-breathing Dragonborn player. Why is a plant immune to lightning? Anyone want to step up to the pseudoscience bat for that one?
Kinneus is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24th May 2009, 04:26 PM   #7 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Jack7's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,089
Jack7 Bugbear Strangler (Lvl 6)
Quote:
I have a request. I want to use a classic shambling mound. The thing is, my players are very casual, and not familiar with many D&D icons. They won't recognize a shambling mound when they see one, so I need help flavoring it, describing it, and basically understanding it. How would you explain a shambling mound and its place in the world to somebody not familiar with one at all?
You know, before I suggested the Ghost I was actually gonna suggest how could I make a really interesting Shambling Mound? I've never used one either but thought it would make a great Swamp Thing like creature for the wilderness and for somebody stuck in a seemingly endless bog or swamp. I wanted to make it interesting and unique too.

I think it's a good idea for a monster.

Gotta leave for church now, but I'll think on it a'bit.
Be interesting to see what others come up with too.
__________________
Tome and Tomb
Jack7 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24th May 2009, 05:51 PM   #8 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Hereticus's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Vermont
Posts: 385
Hereticus Kobold Slinger (Lvl 1)
I ask (not mandatory) all players to write a background for their characters, and in it they include many things that could be used as story hooks. I wasn't the first to do this, I copied the idea from a friend who used it as a DM.

One of my characters wanted to fight Ice Devils, so his background stated that a horde of Ice Devils destroyed his home city, and they continued to hunt down all the survivors.

This played out at lower levels with Ice Mephits or Ice Abashi being more frequent in random encounters, or following the party. The other party members had similar situations.

As the character and party grew stronger, the encounters would also get tougher.

The DM also rewarded us with a bonus feat for choosing an enemy. I liked the idea, so I stole it.
__________________
"Democracy must be something more than two gnolls and an elf voting on what to have for dinner."
Hereticus is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24th May 2009, 06:11 PM   #9 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Rockville, MD, USA
Posts: 2,677
fba827 Orc Berserker (Lvl 4)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kinneus View Post
Ooo, good idea for a thread. I have a request. I want to use a classic shambling mound. The thing is, my players are very casual, and not familiar with many D&D icons. They won't recognize a shambling mound when they see one, so I need help flavoring it, describing it, and basically understanding it. How would you explain a shambling mound and its place in the world to somebody not familiar with one at all?

Particularly, I'm struggling with the lightning immunity/lightning healing thing, which might seem like a screw-you to my lightning-breathing Dragonborn player. Why is a plant immune to lightning? Anyone want to step up to the pseudoscience bat for that one?
In previous editions, I believe shambling mounds were represented more as sentient mounds of vegetative compost (a large blob mass with vine-like tentacles as part of the mass). In the more recent pictures, it has a slightly more humanoid look. I only mention this in case a pile of compost fits in easier for you than a vaguely humanoid plant creature. But in either case, it essentially is a blob-like plant.

As for the lightning, it all can be explained by its creation process.
Maybe when it is created, it is struck by lightning (either natural, or magical. and either by chance or on purpose). And now it is lightning that courses through it, like blood, to give it life.

When the PCs see the creature, perhaps add in the description that there seems to be a cackle of electric energy, like electrical impulses in a brain, when it gets up and starts moving towards them. Or perhaps a part of its body mass is just sheathed in sparks of electrical energy currents.



A related side note:
In a recent game session (because I like shambling mound but could not fit it as it was), I used the stats, but reskinned it as a shadow-blob-like creature, I had also changed it's lightning-related properties to cold-related... To go along with the one shambler, I had several vine horrors that I also reskinned as shadow creatures as well (I also adjusted the level for the party). So at the start of combat, the reskinned shambler "created" the reskinned-vine horrors. It actually got quite a reaction from one player in particular as the shadows around them started to spring to life (the vine horrors) - of course, a lot of that was all from the fluff and build up, not the stats themselves..
__________________
If you're bored and like to follow links provided by random strangers, check out my ENWorld Blog http://www.enworld.org/forum/blogs/fba827/
It will have campaign logs and random thoughts...
fba827 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24th May 2009, 06:19 PM   #10 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Noumenon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 558
Noumenon Hobgoblin Soldier (Lvl 3)
I have to mention this site as an aid for building an encounter around each monster. It doesn't have much for pixies, though, and I can't see them being very fun to fight what with the perma-invis and all those damage reductions. How would you use them?
Noumenon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24th May 2009, 11:13 PM   #11 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Dannyalcatraz's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Planet Alcatraz & D/FW
Posts: 11,345
Dannyalcatraz Bugbear Strangler (Lvl 6)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack7 View Post
I'll be durned Danny, but most of that is excellent. Really excellent.

Quote:
I was laying in bed last night re-reading my Bible passages on the Scapegoat when it occurred to me that the demon name for the Giant Ghost might be the Scapeghost. Yeah, it's kind of a sappy name, but the irony would not be lost on either the demon or the spirit of the giant.
In context, its not a bad name at all.

However, because I'm a bit of a cut-up and a jester, my first thought was...sorry to say...
Space Ghost - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mostly in the context of the fictional talk-show he hosted... You know your players better than I- if you have anybody in the group who is a pop-culture clown, you might want to avoid that name.

But I'd also like the a really fine name for how others would perceive it, who might know nothing of its background but would only know how weird and frightening it seemed to them.

Quote:
I'm also trying to think of a relic and/or an artifact (it doesn't have to be one from a gaming book, could be from myth, religion, or something you just thought of) that would be a suitable match to the thing that it might have gained control of over time.
Right off the bat, my first instinct would be to go with a Scarab of some kind.
Scarab artifact - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ancient Egypt: the Mythology - Scarab Beetle

Does it control the swarm (in which case, the swarm's possession of it lets it act freely)? Does it empower the creature?

Quote:
The one thing I'm not gonna use is the implication you made of it killing and consuming others (if I read you right). I don't want it to be a killing machine, rather I want it to be a frightening, weird-creation machine. That is encountering it will temporarily "mutate or transform" the ones it encounters, in very bad and bizarre ways. But it won't result in immediate physical death so much as psychological and spiritual "staining and corruption." I can though see it inflicting long term diseases of the body, mind, and soul through extended exposure. And causing others to do things against their nature.
Instead of it being a mere killing machine, perhaps it is like the Sin-Eater as depicted in X-Files- a sentient "Death" Tarot card that transforms those it eats. It consumes you- yes, a painful and horrible experience- but it then excretes you as a living and transformed being.

After discovering this- most likely as those thought irrevocably dead start returning to their respective villages- the horror dies down and the creature becomes revered by some as the living incarnation of the will of a god whose portfolio includes the cycle of life and rebirth. Druids, perhaps?

Of course, given its link to the infernal, that might not be the whole truth...perhaps not everyone comes back. Perhaps some of those who return are demon-possessed.
Quote:
Other than that I like all of your ideas.
Thanks for the links too by the way.
Thanks!
__________________
IAAL...and an MBA. No, really!

My favorite thread: Campaign Ideas
Founder of Metal School
The 3.X Monk Database
The 3.X Martial Arcanist Database
The 3.X Aquatic Database
The 3.X Psionics Database
Publishers!: Proofread your products with PEOPLE- not just spellcheckers!

"Deathless" = "Undead," end of story

"I have the keys to Paradise, but I have too many legs!" -Jeff, from Coupling (BBC Series).

"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" -motto of the Possum Club, Red Green show.


4Ed is made of PEOPLE!
Dannyalcatraz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24th May 2009, 11:29 PM   #12 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Dannyalcatraz's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Planet Alcatraz & D/FW
Posts: 11,345
Dannyalcatraz Bugbear Strangler (Lvl 6)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kinneus View Post
Ooo, good idea for a thread. I have a request. I want to use a classic shambling mound. The thing is, my players are very casual, and not familiar with many D&D icons. They won't recognize a shambling mound when they see one, so I need help flavoring it, describing it, and basically understanding it. How would you explain a shambling mound and its place in the world to somebody not familiar with one at all?

Particularly, I'm struggling with the lightning immunity/lightning healing thing, which might seem like a screw-you to my lightning-breathing Dragonborn player. Why is a plant immune to lightning? Anyone want to step up to the pseudoscience bat for that one?
Describing it: I think the visuals are somewhat obvious, for the most part. Since it is a pile of sentient plant & earth, perhaps its outer skin contains living local plant life. One that has spent a lot of time in swamps may have cattails growing out of it. One that has been near farms may have gourds and squash, or maybe fruit. One near the cultivated gardens of an estate may have roses growing out of it. Because of the moisture of its body, fungi like braken should be visible.

It should probably smell of rich, fresh-turned earth and compost, perhaps with a bit of bog or exposed riverbottom (IOW, wet, organic rot), mixed in with the plant life of the area- Pine? Flowers? Grass?.

It should sound like the whisper of the wind through a group of trees and tall grass.

Immunities: I'm familiar with both the Swamp Thing (DC) and Man-Thing (Marvel), but the only reasons I can think of for the lightning immunity are 1) electricity is what makes our nervous system work, so perhaps it was lightning that gave the creature its initial spark of life (like Frankenstein's monster- YMMV) and 2) a critter this inherently vulnerable needed a weakness of some kind. It is full of moisture, so the fire resistance makes sense.

Why they exist: There are all kinds of directions you can go here.

It could be that they are just another magical monster...perhaps originating in high/wild magic zones.

Perhaps they are the results of an Awaken gone awry...again, a wild magic zone makes a good reason for this to happen.

Perhaps they are the quasi-sentient living remains of a nature deity's avatar, left over from a manifestation on the plane that ended long ago.

Or- in a FRPG version of the Gaia hypothesis, they are the world's equivalent to our white blood cells, scouring the planet of harmful things... ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis )

They could be living planty analogues of our unmanned space probes, sent from another Prime Material (or other) Plane dominated by a race who use advanced biotech or magitech instead of/in addition to more conventional magic.

They could be like the Driders- individuals who offended some power who then cursed them to wander the world as virtually mindless wandering plants.

There are also other vegetative villains out there you could draw inspiration from, like:

the Body Snatchers
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasio...Body_Snatchers),

the Thing
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thi..._Another_World and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(film))

Triffids
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triffid)

or cosmic carnivorous weeds like the Krynoids from Dr. Who
(http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Krynoid)
__________________
IAAL...and an MBA. No, really!

My favorite thread: Campaign Ideas
Founder of Metal School
The 3.X Monk Database
The 3.X Martial Arcanist Database
The 3.X Aquatic Database
The 3.X Psionics Database
Publishers!: Proofread your products with PEOPLE- not just spellcheckers!

"Deathless" = "Undead," end of story

"I have the keys to Paradise, but I have too many legs!" -Jeff, from Coupling (BBC Series).

"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" -motto of the Possum Club, Red Green show.


4Ed is made of PEOPLE!

Last edited by Dannyalcatraz; 25th May 2009 at 10:36 AM..
Dannyalcatraz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25th May 2009, 08:11 PM   #13 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: New Paltz, NY
Posts: 9,027
Rechan Bugbear Strangler (Lvl 6)
This... is a bump.
__________________
Seeking players in the New York - New Paltz area.
Rechan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26th May 2009, 03:04 AM   #14 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Dannyalcatraz's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Planet Alcatraz & D/FW
Posts: 11,345
Dannyalcatraz Bugbear Strangler (Lvl 6)
Quote:
This... is a bump.
What kind of campaign do you want to use it in?
__________________
IAAL...and an MBA. No, really!

My favorite thread: Campaign Ideas
Founder of Metal School
The 3.X Monk Database
The 3.X Martial Arcanist Database
The 3.X Aquatic Database
The 3.X Psionics Database
Publishers!: Proofread your products with PEOPLE- not just spellcheckers!

"Deathless" = "Undead," end of story

"I have the keys to Paradise, but I have too many legs!" -Jeff, from Coupling (BBC Series).

"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" -motto of the Possum Club, Red Green show.


4Ed is made of PEOPLE!
Dannyalcatraz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26th May 2009, 07:30 AM   #15 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Dannyalcatraz's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Planet Alcatraz & D/FW
Posts: 11,345
Dannyalcatraz Bugbear Strangler (Lvl 6)
It just occurred to me that I have one that could stand a little work: Elves.

I'm designing a campaign in which- among other races- there are 3 races of Elf: Sylvaiinen (basically elves with the woodling template), Svartolaiinen (some sort of fusion of Drow and Shadar-Kai), and Asteraiinen (based on the Celadrin, Glimmerfolk and elements from When the Sky Falls)

In this campaign, Elves are a kind of Fey.

Quote:
Fey Type
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typessubtypes.htm

A fey is a creature with supernatural abilities and connections to nature or to some other force or place. Fey are usually human-shaped.
Features

A fey has the following features.

* 6-sided Hit Dice.
* Base attack bonus equal to ½ total Hit Dice (as wizard).
* Good Reflex and Will saves.
* Skill points equal to (6 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with quadruple skill points for the first Hit Die.

Traits

A fey possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).

* Low-light vision.
* Proficient with all simple weapons and any weapons mentioned in its entry.
* Proficient with whatever type of armor (light, medium, or heavy) that it is described as wearing, as well as all lighter types. Fey not indicated as wearing armor are not proficient with armor. Fey are proficient with shields if they are proficient with any form of armor.
* Fey eat, sleep, and breathe.
I'm using Arcana Unearthed/Evolved style racial class levels (with full class type advancement- HD, BAB, Saves, etc.), so creatures that would normally have a LA would instead have the equivalent number of racial levels the PC could opt to take. IOW, a race w/+2LA would have 2 Racial levels, one with a +4LA would have 4 Racial levels, and so forth.

In this case, many features of those racial class levels would be governed by the fact they are Fey (see above).

Designing the Sylvaiinen was easy- as stated, I essentially applied the Woodling template and seasoned it up a bit. They came to be courtesy of a powerful ritual that melded their essence with woody plants. Their bark-like skin and ability to photosynthesize allowed them to survive the apocalypse, but just barely. Before things began to improve, they had to find shelter in the settlements of the Inheritors (psionic Dwarves- last of their kind- whose brains now reside in mechanical bodies).

Weapons are as for standard elves, favored classes Druid, Rgr, Scout (maybe Greenbond if I use it). For purposes of affinity with magic items, they are Elf & Fey blooded.

The Svartolaiinen and Asteraiinen present more of a problem.

Asteraiinen are secretive about their origins- they are either from the future, the stars or from somewhere else...nobody knows for sure but them. What IS known is that they are almost like albinos in appearance, they have an innate ability to manipulate light, and their hatred for Illithids eclipses all of their other concerns.

Weapons are as for standard elves, favored class is Sorc. For purposes of affinity with magic items, they are Elf & Fey blooded.

The problem- besides the SLA: Light 1/day (at lvl 1), and Breathless (at level 3), what kinds of powers should these +3LA "star elves" actually have?

Svartolaiinen, on the other hand, survived the apocalypse due to their subterranean lifestyle, and represent one of the few civilizations that remained relatively intact.

They are Drow without the Spider fixation, and Shadar-Kai without the masochism.

Weapons are open, favored class is Sorc. For purposes of affinity with magic items, they are Elf & Fey blooded.

The problem- (of course) What kinds of powers should these +3LA "dark elves" actually have? Darkvision- perhaps even so good as to be effective even in magical darkness- is a given, and some kind of affinity to shadow would seem to be in order, but how? Shadow jumping as per the Shadowdancer might work, as might some kind of invisibility or intangibility in any low light condition. But which, and at what level?
__________________
IAAL...and an MBA. No, really!

My favorite thread: Campaign Ideas
Founder of Metal School
The 3.X Monk Database
The 3.X Martial Arcanist Database
The 3.X Aquatic Database
The 3.X Psionics Database
Publishers!: Proofread your products with PEOPLE- not just spellcheckers!

"Deathless" = "Undead," end of story

"I have the keys to Paradise, but I have too many legs!" -Jeff, from Coupling (BBC Series).

"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" -motto of the Possum Club, Red Green show.


4Ed is made of PEOPLE!

Last edited by Dannyalcatraz; 26th May 2009 at 06:18 PM..
Dannyalcatraz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26th May 2009, 07:53 AM   #16 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Rockville, MD, USA
Posts: 2,677
fba827 Orc Berserker (Lvl 4)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rechan View Post
This... is a bump.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dannyalcatraz
What kind of campaign do you want to use it in?
Bump Level 1 Minion
Tiny aberration Exp: 25
Initiative +1 Senses Perception +3; darkvision
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a bump
AC 15; Fortitude 13; Reflex 13; Will 14
Speed 1 fly 10 (hover)
Thread Infiltration (standard action; at-will) * Implement
+4 vs Reflex, targets only threads; no damage. Target is appended by Bump droppings and then slide target to top of forum.
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common, basic leet speak
Skills History +6, Intimidate +8
Str 10 (+0) Dex 13 (+1) Wis 8 (-1)
Con 12 (+1) Int 8 (-1) Cha 16 (+3)
Equipment Implement (Keyboard)

Ecology: Bumps are generally quiet and introverts that prefer to find their way to threads that have been seemingly abandoned by forum posters. As such, it is near impossible to know what one looks like in person as all that is ever seen is their droppings in the forums. Some scholars theorize that the Bumps are infact invisible demons, while others argue that they simply scurry away faster than the mortal eye can see.

They are seemingly random in their choice of threads to investigate - for some threads never see a single bump, while others show evidence of many bump droppings.

Bumps are mysterious and never seen, but their droppings can be seen littering the landscape in an almost mischievous and playful manner.

Possible plot hooks:
Crying Bump!: A group of townsfolk hire the PCs to assist an old man at the edge of town. This old man claims to have seen a bump while he was out tending to his sheep! He now goes around town, pestering all he can see, with tales of his bump sighting. In fact, he believes he has seen this bump every night for the past several nights. The villagers dismiss him as senile, for who has ever seen a bump? But they can not ignore his incessant annoyance on the topic. As such, the villagers want the PCs to investigate whatever the old man thought he saw so that he will shut up about it once and for all. Could he actually be the first mortal to have seen a bump in person? Or is there something else lurking about and leaving bump droppings?
Bump in the Night: A child, sound asleep, is awoken by what he believes is a bump in the closet ...


(sorry, I had to make that up once I saw danny's above post we now return you to the thread)


This will seem like a thread derail topic but it's not ... Back in 2002 (? give or take a year) there was a thread on here. Where every post took the next monster (alphabetically) from the 3e monster manual and made a short plot hook/scenario for each. Sure, a couple got repeated due to stealth ninja posting while others typed.. but it had some great ideas. If I can find my link to that, I'll post it here since lots of it was fluff and is edition independent. That might give some ideas to people on here too.
__________________
If you're bored and like to follow links provided by random strangers, check out my ENWorld Blog http://www.enworld.org/forum/blog.php?u=807
It will have campaign logs and random thoughts...

Last edited by fba827; 26th May 2009 at 09:50 AM.. Reason: formatting
fba827 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26th May 2009, 09:23 AM   #17 (permalink)
Still Exploring
 
SiderisAnon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Posts: 276
SiderisAnon Hobgoblin Soldier (Lvl 3)
Shambling Mound

Local alchemist lives in an old tower. Privy and drains from lab dump out into a compost heap. Tower and compost heap are struck by lightning. Compost heap gets up and wreaks havoc.

If the party knows the creation, then the lightning making it heal would be logical. Additionally, they will expect things to be a bit odd, since who knows what chemicals ended up in that compost heap?

Reward the players with some potions from the alchemist.

Instant sidetrek adventure.
__________________
"It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. If they had talked to the rabbit, they would have figured that out."" --Prophet2b
SiderisAnon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26th May 2009, 09:57 AM   #18 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Noumenon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 558
Noumenon Hobgoblin Soldier (Lvl 3)
I suggest pairing the bump with a log. Tactical suggestions: it sits there like a bump on a log.

Quote:
every post took the next monster (alphabetically) from the 3e monster manual and made a short plot hook/scenario for each.
[3.5/3.0] Collaborative Effort: Collection of Round-by-Round Monster Tactics . And of course the site I linked to before, I don't know if you can submit to it but its story-centric approach would make SiderisAnon's shambling mound sidequest a perfect fit. If he's still doing it, submissions were at monsters_a-z@cox.net .
Noumenon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26th May 2009, 12:41 PM   #19 (permalink)
Registered User
 
MortalPlague's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 269
MortalPlague Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
I love shambling mounds. I find a great image for the lightning immunity / healing is the idea of a swamp with several grassy hillocks in a lightning storm, the bolts raining down and striking these soggy, gnarled piles and they flail with energy in some unholy celebration, being struck again and again.

As for plots, my favorite shambling mound plot involves a rare flower that grows only on top of truly ancient shambling mounds... it makes for an intriguing quest objective.
__________________
4th Ed Chars Fallen:
Spoiler:
Gavin Ward - Male Human Warlord 1 - The party started a bar fight. The fellow who escaped brought his bandit buddies back and they killed Gavin (and nearly three other party members). He bled out while lying on the floor.

4th Ed Kills:
Spoiler:
Cornell Butterworth - Male Human Wizard 1 - Knocked unconscious by a kobold dragonshield the fighter ignored, then done in by the kobold wyrmpriest's acid breath.
Lithia - Female Elven Ranger 11 - Contracted mummy rot, which eventually did her in.
Brendan Stetlan - Male Human Fighter 4 - Knocked unconscious in combat, then thrown to the wolves.
Vindicator Mindartis Valenae - Eladrin Paladin 5 - Dropped by a githzerai monk (L6 elite), and killed when the rogue threw him off the balcony to try and get his body to safety.
Vongar - Male Dwarf Paladin 1 - Fell in battle after defeating Irontooth, but not his bodyguard.
Straef - Male Elf Ranger 1 - Fell in battle to Irontooth's Wyrmpriest.

Also 6 miscellaneous game day kills.
MortalPlague is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29th May 2009, 05:37 AM   #20 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: New Paltz, NY
Posts: 9,027
Rechan Bugbear Strangler (Lvl 6)
I started this thread with one monster in mind: Oni.

I really like them, and find them intriguing. Thing is, I can't think of a proper story for them. Some sort of plot that feels... Onish. What sorta plots/stories would suit an Oni?
__________________
Seeking players in the New York - New Paltz area.
Rechan is offline   Reply With Quote


Bookmarks

Tags
monster

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


And yet another word from our sponsors
Visit Our Sponsors
Visit Our Sponsors... Again
Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.0.1

All times are GMT +1. The time now is 09:04 PM.


Site Contents © 2008 ENWorld
PHP Ajax Multimedia Web Framework © 2008 Digital Media Graphix
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.0 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2009, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.2.0

"Vault Data" powered by VaultWiki v2.5.1.
Copyright © 2008 - 2009, Cracked Egg Studios.