Anyone not using fiendish dire axiomatic half-celestial undead half-pixie owlbears?

[Gnarlo]

Ok, apparently in this thread, I was the one that misunderstood the gist of the thread and not the other repliers That in mind, I will start a new one instead of attempting to hijack the other.

So, what do you all do to present challenges to your players? Is there anyone out there who just uses tougher critters as the game goes along, or does everyone use the half-whosit templated-whassits as their "elite opponents"?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Depends. I pick my monsters for environment and allegorical significance to the plot. If there's no monster powerful enough of the right type, I'll template/class-up a weaker one to the point where it'll work. Otherwise, I'll probably just use it straight.

My 13th level characters needed a challenge from some bear....even Dire animals peter out around 7th....so slap the half-fiend template on there, awaken it and give it a ranger level or two....and now we've got a challenge, and a creature that fits the theme of an evil rage-filled monstrosity.

I usually don't include templated or classed creatures in random encounter tables, though. Unless they're planar ones, in which case a few halfs or ishes, aren't too much to ask.

 

[Nifft]

I prefer to give everything Rogue levels. Especially inanimate objects. "Somehow, the chair evades your Fireball!"

Right now my players are facing a plague of Goblin Were-Rats (mostly with Rogue levels, see above), their Hobgoblin masters (Fighter/Rogues so far), and some mysterious Demonic agents (Babau and Uridezu so far).

I guess "Were-Rat" counts as a template, but there's so many of the buggers that I treat it as a base critter now. Generally, I favor class levels over templates.

-- N

PS: I'm a huge fan of Templates. They make my life better, and my PC's lives briefer -- er, more exciting. However, I'm sure they get overused, and some people will be sick of them by now. I hope they realize it's not the mechanic, it's the over-use.

 

[Steverooo]

NO!

A half-fiendish pixie can't be any percent Bugbear! You can only be two half-anythings. After that, you're out of halves!

Even so, you hafta wonder just HOW such ridiculous creatures came to be... Are there fiends small enough to mate with Pixies? If so, I guess it's remotely possible one could be born, then become undead... Other such things as half-fiendish half-celestials are getting pretty ridiculouus, though.

Half-this/half-that, templated, 'nother-half base classes should so obviously be impossible... I wish GMs could see that!

 

[The Spectrum Rider]

I have to admit, I recently gave some brown bears wings (Winged Creature template from SS) so that they were more well matched to the party. Also because I liked the visual image (they were in the Shadow Bear Lake region - and then, look up, there's the shadows of bears!).

But I also think the mass of templates is making a mess out of some scenarios. DM's should think long and hard before they add them to a setting, because it's easy to lose the sense of wonder inspired by some legendary (in the literary/cultural, not template, sense) creatures when you act like they're no big deal, and need to have something else added to them, and added to them, and added to them....

Just for example, a recent article in Dragon - and I mean no insult to the writer, who did a fine job - built an organization around his character and his mount/companion, an air element pegasus with two ranks of fighter.

At first I just started processing through, in my mind, the mechanics implications of such a creature. But then it hit me - when, exactly, did a pegasus become boring? Aren't they magnificent, beautiful, fantastic creatures, famed in myth and story and art? Haven't we lost something, if a pegasus is just no big deal anymore?

This had a direct impact on me when I was designing a city on an elemental plane a few weeks later. My impulse was to have the city's ruler be an element-creature lillend, and her children half-elementals. Then I thought: why don't I just make her a lillend, and describe her in such a way as to indicate why I think lillends are really cool? Because they are - but that can get lost in the noise if you pile a lot of templates on top of them.

This doesn't apply in all cases, and I'll still use templates when they seem particularly appropriate to me. But these days I err on the side of caution.

The Spectrum Rider

 

[Gez]

I don't use templates a lot.

However, I use half-celestial and half-fiend for "divine agent" type creatures. Not necessarily hybrid offsprings, but nonetheless imbued with powers they would not have otherwise.

My players met a half-brass-dragon dragonne once.

 

[Tonguez]

my setting features a lot of 'spirits' (the religion is animistic) and I use templates to reflect this eg the gnomes of one island give sacrifices to a Fiendish dire giant eel. one of the big bads on another island was a Half-Para-elemental Ogre and the twin gods of Insanity and disease are Fiendish, plaguebearing, bloodstained, half-abberation Trolls.

I think my point is I use templates when creatures are suppose to be MORE than whats expected - near divine but not quite

 

[Buttercup]

Haven't needed any templates. Most of my monsters are orcs, goblins and the like, and slapping hit dice or class levels (fighter, rogue, cleric and sorcerer) on them has proved to be more than enough challenge, so far. I imagine that once the party gets around 9th or 10th level I'll have to ramp things up a bit.

 

[TiQuinn]

The groups that I've played with are pretty experienced players for the most part. Though some are good roleplayers, it's pretty tough to surprise them with a beholder, for example. They can roleplay the fact that their character has never seen a beholder before even though they have fought them before in other campaigns, but if you don't have a few new tricks up your sleeve, even the best players can feel a little bit of the old "Been there, done that". Templates and class levels, used sparingly, have helped keep players truly on their toes, IMO.

 

[Mirth]

my setting features a lot of 'spirits' (the religion is animistic) and I use templates to reflect this eg the gnomes of one island give sacrifices to a Fiendish dire giant eel. one of the big bads on another island was a Half-Para-elemental Ogre and the twin gods of Insanity and disease are Fiendish, plaguebearing, bloodstained, half-abberation Trolls.

I think my point is I use templates when creatures are suppose to be MORE than whats expected - near divine but not quite