Creature Catalogue Overhaul Project Revisited

[Cleon]

Hey, that looks pretty good! 1d2 paragon wolves will work, also.

Updating the Wolf Lord Working Draft.

Next up are skills, I guess. We have 18 skills listed so far. First question is if we're happy with that list. I'm generally ok with it, though maybe we could tweak things like Diplomacy or Tumble depending on flavor and tactics. Any thoughts?

Taking the Lizard Lord as our basic example:

[LizLord] Skills Ranks: Climb 24, Concentration 20, Intimidate 40, Knowledge (nature) 20, Knowledge (the planes) 20, Hide 40, Listen 40, Move Silently 40, Sense Motive 36, Search 40, Spot 40, Swim 24, Survival 24, Tumble 32, Use Magic Device 40

I don't think we need the ranks in Climb and Swim, so would be OK moving those 48 ranks other skills - perhaps Diplomacy and Jump?

I considered lowering the ranks in Hide and Move Silently a bit, since wolves aren't as sneaky as lizards, but we gave the Hawk Lord max ranks in those skills and hawks are less sneaky than wolves, so I think we'd better leave them at 40 ranks for now (unless you fancy reworking the Hawk Lord with a lower Hide and Move Silently).

Canines are said to be able to "smell" moods and the like, so I'm thinking we should give him a maxed-out Sense Motive like the Hawk Lady had.

Putting that together would produce something like:

[WolfLord] Skills Ranks: Concentration 20, Diplomacy 20, Intimidate 40, Jump 24, Knowledge (nature) 20, Knowledge (the planes) 20, Hide 40, Listen 40, Move Silently 40, Sense Motive 40, Search 40, Spot 40, Survival 24, Tumble 32, Use Magic Device 40

 

[freyar]

I can agree with that.

The LizLord feats in red aren't bad, though we'll have to change the weapons around and replace at least one of the Imp Crits. Does that framework sound ok to you, or do you want to mess around with it more?

 

[Cleon]

I can agree with that.

The LizLord feats in red aren't bad, though we'll have to change the weapons around and replace at least one of the Imp Crits. Does that framework sound ok to you, or do you want to mess around with it more?

I'd like to add Track and Run as bonus feats, plus I think Improved Feint and Improved Trip seem appropriate - we can replace the two surplus Improved Criticals with those.

Putting that together would produce:

Feats: Cleave, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Dire Charge, Great Cleave, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Feint, Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Improved Trip, Mobilityᴮ, Multiattackᴮ, Power Attack, Runᴮ, Superior Expertise, Trackᴮ, Weapon Focus (dagger).

 

[Cleon]

[WolfLord] Skills Ranks: Concentration 20, Diplomacy 20, Intimidate 40, Jump 24, Knowledge (nature) 20, Knowledge (the planes) 20, Hide 40, Listen 40, Move Silently 40, Sense Motive 40, Search 40, Spot 40, Survival 24, Tumble 32, Use Magic Device 40

I never got around to adding those skills to Wolfie.

Updating the Wolf Lord Working Draft.

 

[freyar]

I can go along with those feats, too.

Equipment writes itself.

Do we need to discuss the racial bonus for those skills?

 

[Cleon]

I can go along with those feats, too.

Updating the Wolf Lord Working Draft.

Equipment writes itself.

Does it? I was assuming we'd have to talk about it a bit.

I was thinking we will follow the Lizard Lord's lead by giving him a weapon, an amulet of mighty fists and a powerful miscellaneous magical item.

Any ideas for the latter?

Do we need to discuss the racial bonus for those skills?

I was assuming we'd go for the "redded" +4 so included that in the Skill lines.

 

[freyar]

Hmm, I guess you're right, since the weapon probably isn't enough by itself. OK, if I count correctly, the LizLord has a +8 weapon. Depending on how you count the "venom" property, the Wolf Lord has a +8 or +9 weapon. So I'd probably make the miscellaneous item worth a bit less than the iron flask the Lizard Lord has. What about a ring of djinni calling? Also, did we ever decide on a "default" creature for the LizLord to carry around in that flask?

 

[Cleon]

Hmm, I guess you're right, since the weapon probably isn't enough by itself. OK, if I count correctly, the LizLord has a +8 weapon. Depending on how you count the "venom" property, the Wolf Lord has a +8 or +9 weapon.

A standard dagger of venom is a +1 weapon with an enchantment cost of 8000 gp, so the venom property is worth another +1.

That'd make wolf's fang roughly +8, except the venom property is more potent than the standard dagger of venom, so we could bump it up to +9.

We're using a 400,000 gp budget, so if we cost it as a +9 weapon (162,315 gp) and add a +4 amulet of mighty fists (96,000 gp) that leaves 141,685 for some miscellaneous items.

So I'd probably make the miscellaneous item worth a bit less than the iron flask the Lizard Lord has. What about a ring of djinni calling? Also, did we ever decide on a "default" creature for the LizLord to carry around in that flask?

A djinni isn't really powerful enough to be of much assistance to the Wolf Lord, so I'd skip the ring of djinni summoning.

He'd be better off with something that adds to his personal capabilities, like a ring of evasion (25,000 gp), ring of telekinesis (75,000 gp), gem of seeing (75,000 gp) or a ring of regeneration (90,000 gp).

Or we could give him a bit of versatility with a ring of three wishes or simply a scroll with some wish or limited wish spells on it. He's got such a high Use Magic Device skills he can easily use scrolls and other specialist magic items.

 

[freyar]

Yeah, that's more or less how I was estimating the dagger. I'm not sure we should count his special venom for the cost, though, since a PC will only get the standard venom as treasure. But this is an imprecise sicnece at best, so it doesn't really matter.

How about a ring of three wishes plus a ring of evasion? That's worth close to the right amount.

 

[Cleon]

Yeah, that's more or less how I was estimating the dagger. I'm not sure we should count his special venom for the cost, though, since a PC will only get the standard venom as treasure. But this is an imprecise sicnece at best, so it doesn't really matter.

How about a ring of three wishes plus a ring of evasion? That's worth close to the right amount.

Works for me!

We hand-waved away how the LizLord was using his amulet of mighty fists when in lizard form, so I assume we'll be doing the same with Wolfie's amulet and ring of evasion?

We could have them occupy different body slots that are a easier for an animal to wear - maybe bracers of mighty fists and a collar of evasion?

Let's put them in as standard items for now.

Updating the Wolf Lord Working Draft.