new sphinx

Jason_Kreuger · Apr 5, 2002

Here is a new sphinx I made. Please tell me if there are any errors.

Ophidiosphinx
Large magical beast
Hit Dice:8d10+16 (56 hp)
Initiative:+4 (improved initiative)
Speed: 30 feet, fly 40 feet (average)
AC:18 ( -1 size +3 dex +6 natural)
Attacks: bite +7, 2 claws +2
Damage: bite 2d6+2, claw 1d8+2
Face/reach: 5ft by 10 feet/5feet
Special attacks: Gaze poison
Special qualities: SR 10, damage reduction 10/+1, immunities, spell like effects
Saves: fort +8, reflex+9, will+7
Abilities: str 15, dex 16, con 14, int 16, wis 16, cha 17
Skills: diplomacy +11, intimidate +7, sense motive+5, spot +8
Feats: iron will, alertness, combat reflexes, weapon focus (bite), specialization (bite)
Climate/terrain: any warm land
Organization: solitary or retinue (1 Opidiosphinx + 1-3 ettins, hill giants or stone giants, or 1-20 orcs, orogs or ogres)
Challenge rating: 9
Alignment: always lawful evil
Advancement: 8-12 Large, 12-16 Huge

An ophidiosphinx is a cruel and cunning monster with an insatiable hunger for power. The first and formost goal of an ophidiosphynx is to rule over the intelligent creatures in the region it is in. It does this through trickery, extortion, terror and murder. Although ophidiosphynxes are usually to selfish and paranoid to work together, they somtimes controll groups of evil humanoids or giants.An ophidiosphinx has the body of a lion and the head of a giant snake connected to its body by a long prehensile neck.

Combat: An ophidiosphinx usually attepts to dominate or charm an attacker. If this fails they then fight to kill.

Spell like abilities (sp): at will charm person, descern lies, detect thoughts, charm monster.These are as cast by a 8th level sorceror.

Poison(ex): Bite, fortitude save (DC 16), damage 2d6 temporary con.

Gaze(su): every 1d4 rounds the ophidiosphinx may use its gaze attack. The target must make a will save (DC 17) or be dominated as through the spell. The abilities works on all types of creatures.

Skills: Ophidiosphinxes gain +8 bonus on all spot checks.

immunities(ex): ophidiosphinxes are immune to mind-affecting spells

karyant · Apr 5, 2002

Ophidiosphinx
Large magical beast
Hit Dice:8d10+16 (56 hp)
Initiative:+4 (improved initiative)
Speed: 30 feet, fly 40 feet (average)

Ok.

AC:19 (+3 dex +6 natural)

You forgot something here, because that this creature is Large the correct AC should be:
AC:18 (-1 Size, +3 Dex, +6 Natural)

Attacks: bite +15, 2 claws +10

Well, Ophidiosphinx has 8 HD so their BAB is 8 abd with strenght 15 a hit bonus +2. In this way, the attacks should be bite +7, 2 claws +2.

Damage: bite 2d6+2 and poison, claw 1d8+2

Ouch, this hurt, but something that you learn when you made more monster. The section Damage should be Damage: bite 2d6+2, claw 1d8+2. The poison should be describe in the special attacks section.

Face/reach: 5ft by 10 feet/5feet

Ok.

Special attacks: Gaze
Special qualities: SR 10, damage reduction 10/+1, immunities

Here should be describe poison and include spells:
Special attacks: Gaze, Poison
Special qualities: SR 10, damage reduction 10/+1, immunities, Spells

Saves: fort +8, reflex+5, will+12

The good saves of the magical beast are Fortitude and Reflex, in the 8 HD this creature has a base save as Fort+6, Reflex+6, +2 Will. Taken into account the atribute bonus and iron will the final save is:
Fort+8, Reflex+9, Will+7

Abilities: str 15, dex 16, con 14, int 16, wis 16, cha 17
Feats: iron will, alertness, combat reflexes

The feats for the magical beast are calculated as follow, in the first HD the creature gain feats as follow 1 + int bonus, to follwoing HD (+1/4 extra hit dice). So this creature gain a total of the 5 feats. In this way you can choose other 2 feats for this creature, i can suggest you get for this creature the feats, weapon focus(bite) and specialization(bite).

Climate/terrain: any warm land
Organization: solitary or retinue (1 Opidiosphinx + 1-3 ettins, hill giants or stone giants, or 1-20 orcs, orogs or ogres)
Challenge rating: 8
Alignment: always lawful evil
Advancement: 8-12 Large, 12-16 Huge

I think that the challange rating should be 9.

Poison(ex): Bite, fortitude save (DC 15), damage 2d6 temporary con.

Gaze(su): every 1d4 rounds the ophidiosphinx may use its gaze attack. The target must make a will save (DC 15) or be dominated as through the spell. The abilities works on all types of creatures.

The correct poison DC is 10 + HD/2 + con bonus =
10 + 4 + 3 = 16.
The correct gaze DC is 10 + HD/2 + cha bonus = 17

Skills: Ophidiosphinxes gain +8 bonus on all spot checks.

Where is the skills ? Well any way, to calculate the correct skill points is in the first leve 2xint score (+1/extra HD) with a total of the 37 skill points

Jason_Kreuger · Apr 5, 2002

I made the changes to it. Why do you think it should be CR9 though?

karyant · Apr 5, 2002

CR is something that hasn't exactly a rule, but have a few guidelines. First 56 hp/4.5/3 it's approximately 4.148, +1 for each important power that the creature has, for this creature: +1 for Gaze, +1 for poison, +1 spell like effects, +1 for immunities, +1 (SR 10, damage reduction 10/+1).
Other guideline, is to consider any AC > 20 CR +1 and AC > 30 CR +2. However, the creature's CR could be different, if the World is very different. For example, if in your campaign the magic is rare and has few magical itens, in this case damage reduction, would have it importance increased. On the other hand, the magic it's very common, would have the opposite effect. Of course, that is my oppinion, maybe someone has a different oppinion about CR guidelines.

Try to find in the internet some article, that help you to understand better the monster criation. The monster criation has several rules, for example, the magical beast has 1d10, BAB as fighter, Save: Fortitude and Reflex (Cleric similar), skill points: 2xInt score + (+1/+4 extra HD), Notes: Usually, Magical beast have Darkvision with a range of the 60 ft and low light vision.