20 Interesting Things from Monster Manual 2

[DreadPirateMurphy]

I just had a thought.

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.

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

No idea. It must be a swamp thing.

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!"

 

[Rechan]

How could you complain about something seeming to "not fit" on a manticore?

Perhaps I should say "is silly"?

It would be like saying that the placement of the eyes in relation to the beak on an owlbear is a little off.

A lack of symmetry is a sign of disease/deformity; that offness would have been bred out of owlbears. The offness would have been offset.

Dwarves with quills are a little different -- more like elves with tentacles instead of fingers. Duergar are now like tentacelves.

I can dig that. Also, I think I saw an Anime with those.

 

[Scribble]

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.

 

[NMcCoy]

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.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

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..

 

[CapnZapp]

Yeah but... well, consider me less impressed.

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.)

Cheers,
Zapp

 

[alleynbard]

Dwarves with quills are a little different -- more like elves with tentacles instead of fingers.

I think you might be on to something there. Brilliant!

 

[Desdichado]

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.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

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]