Rules/Crunch of Eyros

domino said:

That's a heck of a monster. The AC is a bit too low for what I think it should be at that CR, but again, the Damage Reduction and Hit Points should make up for that.

That said, he's got a tail the size of a school bus. Would there be any way to use that as an attack, instead of the bite maybe?

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Hmmm...Improved Combat Expertise (no limit!) should make up for AC deficits. I agree that a Tail Slap or possibly Tail Sweep attack like a Dragon makes sense. Since his bite already does 1.5x Strength bonus to damage, I think I'll give the Tail Slap just 1x Strength bonus.

And we have finally gone Hot in the Rules of Eyros Thread guys! (yeah I know, I know, the normal thread almost has 300 posts now, and we only have 100 but still) Way to go to everyone for all your hard work so far.

As far as Vil's AC, the real secret to playing him strategically as the DM is that his AC can vary by up to 37 from round to round. Thus, he can play one of two tricks on the party. Trick one: He doesn't raise his AC at all on round 1, and when even little Jimmy the peasant hits him, the party gets cocky and goes full Power Attack on round 2, when he raises it up and everything misses (and as a side note, if he selects his Dodge target wisely, the Power Attack isn't going to be hurting *him* anyway so much as another enemy on the other side [see Elusive Target feat]). The other way is to scare the players with his maxed out 57 AC on round 1 so that they do something crazy like cast True Strike (and of course they wouldn't dare Power attack at this point), and then he can lower the AC so he can Power Attack *them*. Switch around and always keep them guessing

I don't know that elusive target makes sense. I mean, to be able to do that, he'd need to be a lot smaller. It doesn't really matter how elusive he is, opponents on opposite sides of him are still about ten feet away from each other.

Improved Expertise, on the other hand, is a nasty evil horrible trick, and I love it.

On a related note, how does a 50HD Solar sound for Conquers Twice? Too much, you think?

Finally, in keeping with the worship idea. What about Legion Standards? When held, they give a +1 morale bonus to attack and saves, but if they fall, a minus 1 morale penalty to the same? And if you go out of the aura's range, you don't get the bonus, and use your normal stats?

domino said:

Finally, in keeping with the worship idea. What about Legion Standards? When held, they give a +1 morale bonus to attack and saves, but if they fall, a minus 1 morale penalty to the same? And if you go out of the aura's range, you don't get the bonus, and use your normal stats?

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That's basically what I was thinking. I think in the case of the standard, the aura should be less fixed - as long as the legion is around it, they get the benefit, even if they are spread out in a long line or something. I want it to do something cool with the standard bearers, as well, perhaps giving any legionnaire within 5 feet of the standard the ability to take an attack meant for the bearer.

Yeah. But I was thinking of the aura just to make sure that you won't have a legion just lock their standard up in the fortress, and stay safe and secure in the knowledge that it's fine.

domino said:

Yeah. But I was thinking of the aura just to make sure that you won't have a legion just lock their standard up in the fortress, and stay safe and secure in the knowledge that it's fine.

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Right, sorry I didn't communicate that very well. The standard has to be with the legion for them to be in the aura, but what I meant was that the aura shouldn't be a 100' radius circle, but more amorphous. Does that make more sense?

Gotcha. Yeah, that would be difficult to do though. Maybe make it so that the commander can alter the shape of the aura to match whatever formation the unit is in. (akin to the sculpt spell feat). Thus, you can move the formation around, but if a soldier panics and bolts, he is out of formation, and thus out of the range of the aura.

Conquers Twice
Huge Outsider

Hit Dice: 40d8+280 (440 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares), fly 150 ft. (good)
Armor Class: 48 (–2 size, +3 Dex, +24 natural +13 armor), touch 11, flat-footed 45
Base Attack/Grapple: +38/55
Attack: +5 dancing greatsword +59 melee (3d6+20/17–20) or +2 composite longbow (+5 Str bonus) +46 ranged (2d6+7/x3 plus slaying) or slam +45 melee (2d8+15)
Full Attack: +5 dancing greatsword +59/+54/+49/+44 melee (3d6+20/17–20) or +2 composite longbow (+5 Str bonus) +46/+41/+36/+31/ ranged (2d6+7/x3 plus slaying) or slam +30 melee (2d8+15)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities, spells
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 15/epic and evil, darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, immunity to acid, cold, and petrification, protective aura, regeneration 15, resistance to electricity 10 and fire 10, spell resistance 35, tongues
Saves: Fort +33 (+37 against poison), Ref +27, Will +32
Abilities: Str 41, Dex 16, Con 28, Int 23, Wis 27, Cha 28
Skills: Concentration +52, Craft or Knowledge (any five) +39, Diplomacy +52, Escape Artist +35, Hide +25, Listen +51, Move Silently +23, Search +49, Sense Motive +51, Spellcraft +49, Spot +51, Survival +24 (+26 following tracks), Use Rope +21 (+23 with bindings)
Feats: Cleave, Dodge, Great Cleave, Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Mobility, Power Attack, Track, Point Blank Shot, Far Shot, Distant Shot, Improved Critical (Greatsword), Weapon Focus (Greatsword)
Environment: Any good-aligned plane
Organization: Solitary or pair
Challenge Rating: 34
Treasure: No coins; double goods; standard items
Alignment: Lawful good
Organization: Unique

Extra Equipment : +5 Heavy Fortification Mithril Full Plate Armor

Solars are puissant champions of good. Only the most powerful fiends approach their power. Even more fearsome than their +5 dancing greatswords are their +2 composite longbows that create any sort of slaying arrow when drawn.

A solar’s natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are treated as good-aligned and epic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Regeneration (Ex): A solar takes normal damage from epic evil-aligned weapons, and from spells or effects with the evil descriptor.

Spell-Like Abilities: Caster level 20th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.


At will - aid, animate objects, commune, continual flame, dimensional anchor, greater dispel magic, holy smite (DC 21), imprisonment (DC 26), invisibility (self only), lesser restoration (DC 19), polymorph (self only) power word stun, remove curse (DC 20), remove disease (DC 20), remove fearresist energy, summon monster VII, speak with dead (DC 20), waves of fatigue (DC 18);

3/day - blade barrier (DC 23), earthquake (DC 25), heal (DC 23), mass charm monster (DC 25), permanency, resurrection, waves of exhaustion;

1/day - greater restoration (DC 24), power word blind, power word kill, power word stun, prismatic spray (DC 24), wish.

The following abilities are always active on a solar’s person, as the spells (caster level 20th): detect evil, detect snares and pits, discern lies (DC 21), see invisibility, true seeing. They can be dispelled, but the solar can reactivate them as a free action.

Spells: Solars can cast divine spells as 20th-level clerics. A solar has access to two of the following domains: Air, Destruction, Good, Law, or War (plus any others from its deity). The save DCs are Wisdom-based.

But I'm not sure about the Aura. Maybe some sort of aura of courage, similar to a Paladin's Aura of Courage? I personally, think that whereas Evil takes things away, Good should be providing things to others. Like a bonus to saves, or attack, or morale, etc.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that although you definitely followed the MM rules for advancement to the letter, that CR 34 is too high for CT. Level 30ish characters will eat him for breakfast and spit him out, even without the ELH, because his SR isn't high enough to stop them from instakilling him (or since his touch AC sucks, they could easily take him out with, say, a twinned, maximised Polar Ray and a quickened, twinned, maximised Polar Ray, in one round. Then again, in one of my campaigns, a level 17 wizard NPC who I *thought* was committing suicide attacked the grief-stricken (CR 23) Solar that was once his wife with the goal of putting her out of her misery. More suicidal yet was the fact that his first action was to cast that BoED spell on her that made her take half damage from all attacks and take no pain. But then he won on the second or third round (can't remember which, and if it was third, she only staved off death with Heal). Maybe we could advance him less and make him less high level, since anything in the 30s should probably be epicified to keep it alive against an equivalent party.