Cthulhu monster creations?

[imdahman]

Hey all, I'm running a delve for the first time ever and I was actually curious if anyone out there (fan or otherwise) had created a Cthulhu monster that could be transposed into the 4e world. It's a one-time delve and it'll be lvl 15 so I guess I'd be looking for an appropriate level for a lvl 15 group.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. I will continue to scour the interwebs for some stats I could use for a cthulhu

 

[Nytmare]

When you say a "Cthulhu monster" I'm assuming you don't mean a level 15 version of Mr. Cthulhu himself.

What kinds of stuff do you want it to do? Have you looked over the other monsters in the 15-18 realm with thoughts of simply reskinning one of them?

As a for instance, I could easily see taking an Adult Mirage Dragon, renaming it's abilities and calling it a Colour out of Space. Give it half HP, insubstantial, and a couple of flavorfull "create spawn" abilties and you're good to go.

Displacer Beast Nightmare as a standin for a Hound of Tindalos?

Slap flight on a Guulvorg and call it a Hunting Horror?

Use a Gibbering Abomination as a... Gibbering Abomination?

Remember that aberrant creatures ARE basically mythos creatures with a 4E brand on them.

 

[imdahman]

Actually, I've been looking in the MM and I actually feel the Moradant Hydra would work quite well. I'd probably use the lvl 18 as a final, solo brute monster for them. I'm curious though, it doesn't say specifically in this MM but it does ellude to the fact that each Head on the Hydra is an independant attack, and a dazed/stun actually makes the head useless (I'm assuming a save on the head's turn cancels this).

If that is how a hydra works, I think that'd be perfect for a Cthulhu (or as I'm nicknaming it a scion of Cthulhu - as in not the real deal, but essentially a minion of the final thing) and having each tentacle be a 'head' and able to make independent attacks.

Also, from the picture the Moradant Hydra has 6 heads - so I'm assuming six attacks and initiative rolls? It doesn't say specifically how many heads it should have so I'm once again going by the picture - can I change how many heads it has? lol.

 

[Nytmare]

I'm curious though, it doesn't say specifically in this MM but it does ellude to the fact that each Head on the Hydra is an independant attack, and a dazed/stun actually makes the head useless (I'm assuming a save on the head's turn cancels this).

If it uses its "Hydra Fury" at-will attack, it makes 6 separate basic attacks. (any combination of bites or acid spits) Every time the Mordant Hydra gets stunned or dazed, INSTEAD of being stunned or dazed, it makes one fewer attack when it uses "Hydra Fury" on the next round.

Also, from the picture the Moradant Hydra has 6 heads - so I'm assuming six attacks and initiative rolls? It doesn't say specifically how many heads it should have so I'm once again going by the picture - can I change how many heads it has? lol.

One initiative roll, and one attack that allows you to roll 6 times. Upping the number of heads (tentacles), or more importantly the number of attacks, would mean that it's a tougher creature and probably higher than 18th level. 50 tentacles, but only 6 attacks works just fine though. It's only window dressing.

Not to dissuade you from using the Hydra, but you might want to take a peek at the Aboleth Overseer and the Gibbering Abomination. Both are level 18 controllers that have an array of built in "sanity" attacks.

Also from the Lovecraftian end of things, there are the Star-spawn of Cthulhu. I'm not sure what you're envisioning for the Scion, or how married you are to the rest of the mythos, but there's something that might fit what you need.

 

[imdahman]

Ahh, I will definitely check them out. I'm not totally married to the mythos, to be honest I've only read it once, but I still think it's a cool monster (maybe that's the result of Hellboy more than anything else, lol).

Another question: How the heck does a head get cut off a hydra? What are the rules on that?

EDIT: Oh and another thing, when it says you can make a combination of basic attacks; that actually means it's standard; at-will bites and acid volleys? I thought I had to calculate basic attacks for it that were not the bite & acid volley...

 

[silverwhisper]

i'll confess, my immediate thought was to wonder why you weren't using mind flayers...i like your solution re: mordant hydra with different fluff text.

sadly, i don't have answers re: decapitation but did notice their absence in reading the entry myself.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Yeah, as per RAW there is no real way to "decapitate" a monster, so there is no mechanism for it with the hydra. You could create something like any critical hit that does more than X damage removes a head (I would suggest maybe half of bloodied, but suit yourself). Of course it is likely to weaken the monster a bit.

Reskinning monsters works well, and others have noted there are plenty of creatures that can easily gain a Cthulhuoid flavor. Creating monsters from whole cloth in 4e is REALLY easy though, so you may consider going that way as well. Probably best to at least compare them to what is in the MM once you have one built out though. The DMG monster construction rules seem to produce slightly tougher monsters than what are in the MM (especially solos).

Also I am pretty sure there was at least one other person on this list who was creating a whole set of mythos monsters. It was a while back and I get the impression he stopped working on it at some point, but I recall there were a bunch he'd done up.

 

[Nytmare]

EDIT: Oh and another thing, when it says you can make a combination of basic attacks; that actually means it's standard; at-will bites and acid volleys? I thought I had to calculate basic attacks for it that were not the bite & acid volley...

Yeah it has two "basic" attacks (you can tell they're basic because their icons have a little circle around them) and one non-basic attack which is composed of any combination of the other two.

As for head-cutting-offery, there's a level 17 hydra in the compendium that has an ability that lets it grown new heads every time an attack drops it another 200 HP. 800 hp - 6 attacks, 600 hp - 7 attacks, 400 - 8, and 200 - 9.

I think that an "every time the hydra gets critted, it gets one less attack on the following round, but one EXTRA attack from then on out" could be added without too much of a power shift.

I don't know if that's something you want to add to an avatar of Cthulhu though.

 

[imdahman]

Yeah, the thing is is says it can grow *2* new heads at every quarter HP milestone, so ie if it had 100hps, it grows 2 new heads at 75, 50 (bloodied), and 25.

personally to me, that sounds incredibly powerful... I mean for a melee character that HAD to be within reach of me I could potentially kill him/her in just one round because I made six basica attacks against him that all hit. I personally wouldn't do this though - that's a little bit crazy.

I'll have to see if any of the delve chars my players make have powers that stun or daze and if they have enough potentail there I'll let it be - otherwise maybe I'll make a house rule of rolls of 19-20 and you 'cut' off a head/tentacle... only to have 2 grow back at the HP milestones.

The encounter also says that failed attempts to close the portal result in monsters coming out of the portal... I'm actually envisioning those crawler-like things like in Cloverfield, haha. Of course nothing special to take out, but still a consideration. We'll see how they do against my made-up Cthulhu scion/aspect/avatar

EDIT: What also confuses me about the Hydra Fury attack power is that it doesn't address whether or not I can attack multiple people. for example; it says I can use any combination of bite or acid volley; so I initially roll on the nearest target to me and I hit with Hydra Fury - does that mean I can attack Everyone? Am I making an attack roll for every person I decide to attack? If I rolled against one person and succeeded with Hydra Fury I wouldn't want to focus fire on that one person because, well, I don't want to kill him in one round, lol.

I guess what i'm asking is: Is this Hydra Fury power really just one attack roll, (head count) damage rolls? And is it only against one person? If it can be against multiple people does that mean I'm rollilng attack rolls for each person I target?

 

[Nytmare]

Yeah, the thing is is says it can grow *2* new heads at every quarter HP milestone

Every 1/4 chunk of damage "severs or destroys one of it's heads", and THEN it grows two new ones.