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Has anyone else noticed the disconnect between the Steel Predators lore section and the actual monster stats? It mentions consuming magic items and leaving behind residuum when destroyed, even though the stat block doesn't? It's almost as if the author got steel predator and rust monster confused...
Steel predators eat your stuff after they kill you. No need for a mechanic to prevent players from being boned if the character is already dead.
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Originally Posted by avin
I hear you. But when I saw that Cartoon Network art for Maw of Acamar I decided there is no way I'm using it.
Yeah, its ilo doesn't look like what i want in a D&D book.
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Originally Posted by DreadPirateMurphy
6) Bullywugs "turn any swamp they inhabit into a dismal echo of the land it once was." I'm guessing that a dismal echo of a swamp would be really dismal.
Don't forget some folks see swamps as beautiful wetlands to be protected from being turned into something productive. In a fantasy world, it isn't unreasonable for swamps have a similar idealized beauty which the bullywugs set about to ruin.
Well, it is the common misconception that all wetlands are terrible places only populated with man eating crocodiles, and deadly mosquitoes that has allowed the rampant destruction all wetlands which are not only one of the most biologically diverse biomes on the planet but also provide important services to humans such as flood control and water purification.
Well, it is the common misconception that all wetlands are terrible places only populated with man eating crocodiles, and deadly mosquitoes that has allowed the rampant destruction all wetlands which are not only one of the most biologically diverse biomes on the planet but also provide important services to humans such as flood control and water purification.
I hear you. But when I saw that Cartoon Network art for Maw of Acamar I decided there is no way I'm using it.
I have literally no idea what you're talking about.
__________________ Christopher Adams - Sydney, Australia
Religion must remain an outlet for people who say to themselves, "I am not the kind of person I want to be." It must never sink into an assemblage of the self-satisfied.
The new monster defense profiles don't even make it on the list? When i got to flip through a friend's MM2, I made a survey of monster defenses. I find the result... welcoming
__________________ "In Life's name and for Its sake, I advise you I am here on the business of the Powers That Be! Your actions toward me, and through me, toward Them, will determine the continuation or revocation of your present status. Be warned by me and desist!" --Wizards at War, Diane Duane
You know what else has quills? Manticore. No one makes jokes about manticore tailspikes being thrown around.
How could you complain about something seeming to "not fit" on a manticore? The thing looks like a kit bash based on what was left over in the bottom of the mini box. (Yes, I know it is based on mythology -- that doesn't make it not silly.)
It would be like saying that the placement of the eyes in relation to the beak on an owlbear is a little off. The creating insane wizard would be like, "Oh, forgive me for making my half-mammal/half-bird abomination slightly disproportionate!" Then he would throw fireballs.
Dwarves with quills are a little different -- more like elves with tentacles instead of fingers. Duergar are now like tentacelves.
__________________ Baby Marcus is here, 11/17/09 at 8:57pm!
Fine, swamps are happy places where hoards of people go to vacation every summer, unlike those cesspits called beaches that are filled with trash and sharks and irate mutant sea bass, and the sharks have fricken' lasers on their heads.
Hoards of children will now say things like, "but I want to ride on the 'gator" and, "but mom, salting the leeches is the best part!"
__________________ Baby Marcus is here, 11/17/09 at 8:57pm!
Having a "human insane noble" as a monster entry is just weird to me. If you're going to feature an insane noble, it should be an NPC with some thought put into him. Again, just my opinion.
Eh, to each his own... I almost never make NPCs with the actual NPC creation rules in the DMG. I just make a monster and give it a power that the NPC would likely have, so the "insane noble" works well for me.
However, what's with the anxious baby-sitting? Why do WotC assume players can't take the fact that their precious Firebrand +3 loses a little (essentially turning into a Firebrand +2) by going through the digestive system of a rustie?
Isn't that the whole point of adding in a Rust Monster? To see the players (not characters) panicking, fleeing or going out of their way to defeat the critter without having to enter melee?
Note that Rust Monsters haven't lost their teeth, here; if the item is something that's particularly valuable to a PC, then it's likely that it's something above their level, given out in a treasure parcel. If that's the case, then after retrieving its residuumized remains, they won't be able to reconstitute it with an Enchant Magic Item ritual.
WotC has neatly figured out a way of irretrievably (until the party levels up, at least) destroying the PC's cherished loot without actually throwing off the wealth-by-level curve.
Also an unfortunate aspect - no matter whether you have the Residium or not, you still have to perform a ritual to make it useable again. Which might be tough in the middle of the dungeon when you were trying to stop the evil cultists..
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The "you get full residue unless you actually fed the item to the monster to abuse this rule, in which case you only get the standard one fifth" rule is a kludge pure and simple.
Atleast they could have bothered to come up with a semi-believable explanation why Rust Monster poop is less valuable in captivity than when it gets to eat the stuff you don't want it to.
But would it kill the PCs to have their stuff lose a point of plus (five levels)? No, it wouldn't. And it would keep up the RMs reputation.
(And, incidentally, it would solve the "I can't enchant stuff above my level" problem; because it's rather unlikely for an adventurer to carry around a level+6 item.)
Well, it is the common misconception that all wetlands are terrible places only populated with man eating crocodiles, and deadly mosquitoes that has allowed the rampant destruction all wetlands which are not only one of the most biologically diverse biomes on the planet but also provide important services to humans such as flood control and water purification.
Uh... no. No, not at all.
I guarantee you that nobody misconcieves wetlands up here in the upper midwest as being crocodile infested and they never have.
Fine, swamps are happy places where hoards of people go to vacation every summer, unlike those cesspits called beaches that are filled with trash and sharks and irate mutant sea bass, and the sharks have fricken' lasers on their heads.
Hoards of children will now say things like, "but I want to ride on the 'gator" and, "but mom, salting the leeches is the best part!"
[joke over head]*vroom* Swamp Thing *vroom*[/joke over head]
to be protected from being turned into something productive. In a fantasy world, it isn't unreasonable for swamps have a similar idealized beauty which the bullywugs set about to ruin.
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