Post-game to collaboratively design a new monster: Morrusant

[Eloi]

Looked at it - very nice. Immediately bumped up my perception of the Scout's 7 HD CR.. a Scout would abuse a Troll (CR 5) but be about even versus an Annis Hag (CR 6), so I'm thinking CR 6. The Queen actually looks like it would really put a serious gouge into a Marilith it could sneak up on, and scare it a good deal. Good work!

That Daze for the Queen.. I kind of went the other way, thinking that the Queen was a source of inspiration and mental stimuli.

--Charmed, dominated, and otherwise compelled creatures would get an extra saving throw at a cumulative +1 for every round they are in the vicinity of the Queen (Twice Medium range, so within 500 feet), to throw off their bondage and regain their freedom. Creatures who escape their charmed or dominated condition cannot be again charmed, dominated, or otherwise compelled for 24 hours after the Queen frees them.

That seemed to work pretty well with the idea of a raiding style, where the Queen breaks the chains of Domination that Formians are notorious for, and slaves can escape to safety.

The Daze as it is seems just wrong - any one of the Scouts can handle a 6 HD creature. As for getting anywhere near the Queen.. a sane 6 HD creature wants nothing to do with those odds.

Is this looking like a good creature that PCs might find scrapping with a few Evil creatures, or get ambushed by, one night in the desert? ("mostly CG" doesn't mean all CG. )

 

[runtime]

Thanks for your feedback. Your input has made a great impact on this creature creation!

1. Do you think a CR 17 queen is too tough to hang out with CR 7 scouts? Imagine an adventure into a morrusant hive. (I know I am thinking about writing one!) If the players are fighting lots of scouts, I imagine they are a party of 4 level 6-7 characters. When they stumble upon the queen, will they have any chance to beat her? Maybe we should weaken the queen (especially if she is more of big lump, like the formian queen who can't even move, than a warrior queen?) and possibly the scouts, so the workers, scouts, and queen are more closely matched in difficulty?

2. I see your point about the queen's Telepathic Daze. Since Daze Monster affects 6 HD creatures, it does seem more appropriate for 7 HD scouts. Since the Telepathic Daze can be spontaneously "cast" an unlimited number of times, maybe we should make it more difficult to use by making it a full-round action instead of standard action?

3. If morrusants raid formian hives, maybe morrusants can gain a Favored Enemy (Formian) or Favored Enemy (Lawful Outsider) special ability?

4. I'm having second thoughts about the CG alignment. These guys are tough 'n' ugly. Since most people play good or neutral characters, they wouldn't have much opportunity to battle them if they are good. Maybe we can make the CN. How well would a chaotic hive work together? Reduce the hive size because a nomadic (??) hive of 1000 chaotic critters would be hard to keep together. And a chaotic hive might have difficulty growing to 1000 morrusants.

5. Do you see any features or attributes of the morrusant that we might we to remove, in order to streamline or simplify? I'm a minimalist and I wonder if we can distill the same morrusant essence into a creature that is simpler but just as effective. Less is more!

 

[catdragon]

I once ran an adventure where the final encounter was with a "queen" giant wasp, she was immobile and simply lay there, attended by her elite wasp guards. I upped her Con sky high and lowered her Dex into the single digits. That gave her hit points in the 500s. Additionally this queen was a high-level sorcerer (which also helped her hps). Anyhow, being a sorcerer, she had access to the polymorph spell. So when the queened needed to move about she would polymorph herself into a drow (which changed her Con) but she was now mobile.

It was an interesting encounter, which never broke down into battle, surprisingly since the group of players love to min-max battles.

But what my point is, is a immobile opponent is more than helpless, especially against area-effect spells.

 

[Eloi]

Thanks for your feedback. Your input has made a great impact on this creature creation!

1. Do you think a CR 17 queen is too tough to hang out with CR 7 scouts? Imagine an adventure into a morrusant hive. (I know I am thinking about writing one!) If the players are fighting lots of scouts, I imagine they are a party of 4 level 6-7 characters. When they stumble upon the queen, will they have any chance to beat her? Maybe we should weaken the queen (especially if she is more of big lump, like the formian queen who can't even move, than a warrior queen?) and possibly the scouts, so the workers, scouts, and queen are more closely matched in difficulty?

2. I see your point about the queen's Telepathic Daze. Since Daze Monster affects 6 HD creatures, it does seem more appropriate for 7 HD scouts. Since the Telepathic Daze can be spontaneously "cast" an unlimited number of times, maybe we should make it more difficult to use by making it a full-round action instead of standard action?

3. If morrusants raid formian hives, maybe morrusants can gain a Favored Enemy (Formian) or Favored Enemy (Lawful Outsider) special ability?

4. I'm having second thoughts about the CG alignment. These guys are tough 'n' ugly. Since most people play good or neutral characters, they wouldn't have much opportunity to battle them if they are good. Maybe we can make the CN. How well would a chaotic hive work together? Reduce the hive size because a nomadic (??) hive of 1000 chaotic critters would be hard to keep together. And a chaotic hive might have difficulty growing to 1000 morrusants.

5. Do you see any features or attributes of the morrusant that we might we to remove, in order to streamline or simplify? I'm a minimalist and I wonder if we can distill the same morrusant essence into a creature that is simpler but just as effective. Less is more!

Thank you. I'll go down the list now:

1. I think the Queen (who I have temporarily pegged at CR 17 because I'm presuming we're still adding & changing what she is) is, at any given time, concealed underground, making little larvae more Morrusantlike / digging out a new concealed base/supply depot/outpost / travelling to a new location, screened by troops, along a scouted route. About once every two weeks, she's directly involved in a hit on a slaver convoy / making a surprise visit wherever she pleases. There's a very good chance that she's known as a trader in some ports, with large, hulking, massive guards with no detectable sense of humor, always interested in hearing about upcoming caravans she might join - always with a good deal for people with good information. The chances of the Queen actually being where the players are - pretty low.

2. You really like the Daze? (I must seem really thick, here; are you talking about a warm fuzzy "Why would I want to hurt anyone? The Queen is so cool.. Morrusants are cool.. Wow.." pacification kind of effect?) How about a +12 to Charisma-based skill checks made by the Queen, (Short range pheremone-based effect)? That would enormously mellow out potential attackers. The idea of a Morrusant Queen wanting anything to do with actually putting creatures into a mental stun (and Reducing their Freedom, eek).. I just shy away from it as being wrong.

3. Those both sound right up our alley, as abilities purchasable as a Feat option. Also not ruling out the potential of acquiring Anarchic template (pg. 108-109, Planar Handbook) as a racial trait that frequently manifests during the metamorphosis between 6 HD/7 HD. Your thoughts? I looked at it, it looks almost ideal to apply.

4. Reducing the Good aspect seems ok to me - Morrusant hives that have really gotten mauled might have a pretty bad attitude towards non-Morrusants (especially if they've been lied to or played as fools/cannon fodder by humanoids). Some might be Chaotic Good, some Chaotic Neutral, and possibly a few Chaotic with heavy Evil tendencies- other Morrusant Hive Queens might be in the process of bringing in the right nutrients to change the Evil Queens back, maybe a Bard or two, whereas the becoming-Evil Queen might be in the mood for a suicidal assault on an Evil stronghold if not swayed soon. The song of the Queen is a very clear example of the mood of the Hive - if you are near the Queen, and find yourself singing, "We're right, we're free, we'll fight, you'll see! No-oooh, We're not going to take it! No! We ain't gonna take it!" then someone is gearing up for war.

5. We could trim off my efforts to make the Morrusant playable as a PC with level-by-level modifications - stat blocks are cleaner that way. A CR 7 Scout and 32 CR 2 rank-and-file Morrusants is a CR 8 encounter - we could set that as a set (Ambush Team) encounter, with some treasure worn/ used by the Scout. That makes things tidier. Do we have an aspiring artist that wants to try drawing a Morrusant? The more clearly we can see it in our mind's eye, the simpler the creature wrangling is.

 

[Eloi]

We've already talked about giving the Morrusant telepathy (for communication), and if you want to go further in that direction, the Queen could be a natural Psion (telepath). In the Expanded Psionics Handbook, p. 96, there is a Telepath 4 ability, Psionic Dominate, that isn't limited in level as to what creatures it can affect. If you're looking for a way to allow the Queen to turn a party around about-face and march them out, without killing them, this'll do the trick.

I do hope that is what you might like, as far as shutting an inquisitive person down that has the misfortune of stumbling across the Queen during a slave-liberation raid - take them over with a mix of pheremones and psi, give them a "sniffing", maybe plant a Suggestion to invest in a little pot of honey in case they ever cross paths again.. that sort of thing.

If your party has a Paladin that keeps a little sack of honey lumps for his charger to keep its spirits up, there is some non-zero chance that Morrusants might choose to talk rather than ambush - nothing wrong with a little honey.

 

[Eloi]

With Telepathy, it becomes enormously easier to keep a hive's activities coordinated - instead of a formless mob of 2000 individuals, consider 60 Ambush Teams of 33 each, which themselves are capable of independent deployment and being put to useful employ as a guard group, a scout element, whatever comes to hand. If there is a Thri-Kreen or Dromite settlement in the area, a Team may be on maneuvers in the area just to keep an antennae on things and report changes. Or they may be on friendly terms with that settlement, and available to aid on short notice.

I know it may not seem fair to think of picking on two or three Thri-kreen, and running into an Ambush Team coming the other way as the party attempts to get gone (before the rest of the settlement comes out to play), but predators (and ambitious Team leaders) do a lot of that opportunistic hunting. Imagine if the party, moseying into the settlement, witnesses the events: Fourteen Formians fleeing, dragging a few of their wounded, getting out to the second sand dune, and straight into an ambush. Pow.

If the party needs help getting into a Giant Bee hive, I could see them bumping into a Team of Morrusants who are sizing up the same hive - a chance for teamwork, if Diplomacy is allowed to happen. (I see them as always having a desire to watch the local Honey supply)

Each Strike Team can pretty much support itself on maneuvers if some of its members are detached to their duties (forage team, hunting team, scouts, water carriers) - gives the PCs a chance to meet a single Morrusant and find out it's *intelligent* and can communicate if you slow down and think clearly about what you're saying. (Some PCs will shiver just *thinking* about having mental communication with "a bug" - heh, with a low Charisma, you'll get along fine with that bug. )

Give the PCs a chance to "take the thorn out of the Lion's paw", and rescue a beaten-up Morrusant from a couple Lions or pack of Hyenas. That is, if they're heroic folks. There's always a meager chance that a runty (only a foot and a half tall) Morrusant has emerged recently from the nursery and might make a (cute?) interesting Familiar or, er, "Animal Companion" for a brave rescuer. [If someone has Improved Familiar, that is.. CR 2, like a Pseudodragon]. And oh, the adventure hooks that present themselves if a party has proven trustworthy to the Morrusants..

Maybe one of the PCs is a Dromite and knows the protocols for requesting a conference with any Morrusants in the area - kind of useful to know, in later life. Maybe a crazed Gnome will rig up a "thumper" or some such, and the Morrusants will show up and ask him to shush, there's a Bulette somewhere around here..

And at least with only 33 of them in one place at a time, the party has some kind of chance for survival when the Barbarian decides "surely they are here for me to smash!" With their move of only 20', the party can escape from them.. for now.

Mmm. Is it too late to add a little 5' Burrow to our friends? So much better for digging out a lair and for ambushing (instant hole in the sand, ambush when the foe is close). Climb is staggeringly useful indoors, not so good in the open desert, except for getting into and out of the pits that you cause while Burrowing.. just asking.

 

[runtime]

1. I don't have the Planar Handbook. Can you describe the Anarchic template?

2. I added 5' burrow, like you suggested.

3. I think the morrusant is pretty complete. My creative and copyediting powers are waning. You have a lot of good ideas for setting and story tie-ins that you could add to the description of Morrusant Society or Combat. If you'd like to edit the "official" text, please feel free to post any updates you like. I'd like to keep the "official" description in one document, instead of spread across many posts within this thread.

4. If anyone actually playtests the morrusant in their own campaign, I'd love to hear about it! Please email CHRIS AT POTAMUS DOT ORG. Which features worked well? Which were too powerful? Which were not useful (and can be removed to streamline the morrusant)? Any suggestions for additional background story?

chris

 

[Eloi]

The Anarchic template, as per the Planar Handbook, pg. 108-109.

1. I don't have the Planar Handbook. Can you describe the Anarchic template?

chris

Ok, here we go, trimming a little:

"Anarchic" is an inherited template that can be added to any ... of non-Lawful alignment.
An anarchic creature uses all the base creature's statistics and abilities, except as noted here. Do not recalculate the creature's HD, BAB, saves, or skill points if its type changes.

Size and Type: Animals or vermin with this template become magical beasts, but otherwise the creature type is unchanged. Size is unchanged. Anarchic creatures encountered on the Material Plane have the extraplanar subtype.

Special Attacks: An anarchic creature retains all the special attacks of the base creature and also gains the following attack: Smite Law (Su) - once a day, an anarchic creature can make a normal attack to do extra damage equal to its HD (maximum 20 points) against a lawful opponent.

Special Qualities: An anarchic creature retains all the special qualities of the base creature and also gains the following special qualities [If the base creature already has one or more of these special qualities, use the better value.] :

- Darkvision out to 60 feet

- Damage reduction as table (1-3 HD, nothing; 4-7 HD, 1 Fast Healing; 8-11 HD, 3 Fast Healing; 12+ HD, 5 Fast Healing, Damage Reduction 5/magic)

** note that this leaves the Morrusant at 7 HD unchanged, as his 2 Regeneration is superior to 1 Fast Healing. **

- Resistance to acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5, fire 5, and sonic 5

- Immunity to polymorph and petrification

- Fast Healing as table

** unchanged at 7 HD **

- If an anarchic creature gains damage reduction, its natural weapons are counted as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Abilities: Same as the base creature, but Intelligence is at least 3.

Environment: Any land and underground.

Challenge Rating: Up to 3 HD, same as base creature; 4-7 HD, same as base creature +1; 8 or more HD, same as base creature +2.

** Bumps our 7 HD Scout up to CR 7,would do nothing to our little CR 2 rank and file, bumps the Queen up to CR 19. She's probably worth it, too. **

Alignment: Always chaotic (any).

Level Adjustment: +5


This gives us a little "punch" to Morrusant attacks on those Lawful hardcases, the Formians.
The template doesn't add a huge amount, but the wording of the template sounded just like what we have - an augmented Vermin. Seeing as how two of the big guns, the Darkvision and the Fast Healing, are already duplicated or bettered by the Morrusant before looking at the Anarchic template, this template would really just add color.

Which brings us back around to "Simple is good", so this template is nonessential. But you did ask.

 

[Corsair]

Another observation regarding the regeneration:

Normally in DnD, silver hurts lawful things, cold iron hurts chaotic things. (See: Devils, demons, fey as quick examples) This may want to be considered.