D&D 3E/3.5 Creature Catalog 3.5 Overhaul Project

[BOZ]

-- It should be a disease attack, and toned down a lot. I suggest:

Disease (Ex): A creature hit by a fungus hulk claw attack must succeed on a DC 14 Fortitude save or be infected with a vile disease known as violet death. The incubation period is 1 minute, and the disease deals 1d6 points of Constition damage. The victim must make two successful Fortitude saving throws in a row to recover. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Or maybe:

Disease (Ex): Violet death - claw, Fortitude DC 14, incubation period 1 minute, damage 1d6 Con. The save DC is Constitution-based.

I prefer the second choice – no need to make this thing too complicated. Does the damage compound from multiple hits?

And I also don’t want to overlook the fact that it does extra damage to Plant creatures: “A vegetable or fungoid creature injured by a fungus hulk must make a successful saving throw vs. death magic after the melee or suffer ld10 additional points of damage.”

Fire resistance probably needs to be toned way down (compare to the Shambling Mound) to either 5 or 10 at most.

I agree. It’s 2 HD less – should we go with 5?

It has 9 skill ranks. Suggest it go to boosting Listen by a point.

fair enough. Or, we could give the “extra” point to Hide.

As far as feats, maybe Ability Focus (disease), Weapon Focus (claws) and .... something else?

I like those first two. not sure about the third feat either.

--Circumstance bonus? It's not spelled out that way.

perhaps not, but that’s essentially what it is, it’s a racial bonus but it only works in the right situation, as opposed to a blanket racial bonus that is always added (and therefore reflected in the stat block).

 

[Tzeentch]

pp. DMG292-293 isn't exactly clear, but logically it doesn't make a lot of sense that you could be infected multiple times with the same disease.

BTW for the extra plant damage maybe something like:

Plantbane (Ex): The claws of a fungus hulk are treated as plantbane weapons with an effective enhancement bonus of +2 against plants. Fungus hulk claws deal an addition 2d6 points of damage against plants.

 

[Krishnath]

That sounds reasonable to me.

 

[BOZ]

it's not the claws themselves that do more damage, but the disease methinks. or am i reading that wrong?

 

[Tzeentch]

it's not the claws themselves that do more damage, but the disease methinks. or am i reading that wrong?

-- Seems simpler to me to separate out the extra plant damage. My main thinking is that there is not the same game balance issue with lots of damage vs plants as there was for other types The original disease was so fast acting it might as well be instant heh
-- But you're right it might be a bit much. Maybe just double the ability damage against plants.

 

[BOZ]

ok, posting a working-version in the homebrews forum right here (at the bottom of the page, of course): http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63533

commentary and critique is, as always, appreciated. i have changed some of the values to (in my opinion, of course) better reflect the original version of the creature.

 

[Tzeentch]

ok, posting a working-version in the homebrews forum right here (at the bottom of the page, of course): http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63533

commentary and critique is, as always, appreciated. i have changed some of the values to (in my opinion, of course) better reflect the original version of the creature.

-- Looks good to me. About the only thing I think might be worth adding for their feat is Improved Natural Attack.
-- The bonus for hiding is unnamed, was that intentional or did you want it to be circumstance?

 

[Shade]

It looks good, BOZ.

 

[BOZ]

-- Looks good to me. About the only thing I think might be worth adding for their feat is Improved Natural Attack.

i think feats like that are mostly for improving already existing monsters. you could replicate it easily enough by altering the damage dice and no one would be any wiser. come up with a good argument why that would be a good feat to use, and i will add it.

-- The bonus for hiding is unnamed, was that intentional or did you want it to be circumstance?

it's worded the same way as the shambling mound - i figure that's good enough?

 

[Shade]

RE: Improved Natural Attack

According to the "Making Monsters" chapter of the MM, "In general, you can vary the power of a monster's attacks by moving up or down one or two lines on the table." Since 1d8 is the suggested claw damage for a Huge creature (two lines higher than the Medium dusanu), this is acceptable. Improved Natural Attack would be needed to increase the damage to 2d6.

A few monsters in the MM have it (tiger, tyrannosaurus), but I think they were given it mostly to justify having an unusual damage value for that type of attack for their size. For instance, the tyrannosaurus deals 3d6 with its bite, whereas the norm for a huge monster is 2d6, and the next step up would be 2d8, then 4d6. Since they wanted it to do 3d6, they probably figured the feat would justify it.

I do agree with BOZ that it is mostly for improving existing monsters.