Vampire Bestiary - Now Available (feedback, errata in this thread)

[Khisanth the Ancient]

Ok, now that I've read the rest...

Boss Monster/Solo Resilience ... are these intended for ALL solos, or are 'bosses' meant to be a subset of solos?

Not every 'Weak Spot' entry specifically says it negates Solo Resilience - the uktena's doesn't. Should it?

Uktena = AWESOME. Love to see the uktena/ulunsuti myth used.

Wendigos... the different sizes are cool, so are King Kong references with the 'wall' etc.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey Khisanth mate!

Ok, now that I've read the rest...

Boss Monster/Solo Resilience ... are these intended for ALL solos, or are 'bosses' meant to be a subset of solos?

Solo Resilience and Boss Monster Traits are meant for all Solo Monsters.

With 'Boss Monster' I could have called the trait Solo Monster but its already a solo monster so it seems a bit confusing.

Not every 'Weak Spot' entry specifically says it negates Solo Resilience - the uktena's doesn't. Should it?

No. My thinking around weak spots is that they can induce (specific) negative conditions (poking a giant monster in the eye might blind it for instance) but they don't give carte blanche to all conditions and automatically trump Solo Resilience.

With the Uktena, because its sort of a 'free' weak spot (in that you don't really have to risk anything to attack it) that it shouldn't have an accompanying negative condition.

Uktena = AWESOME. Love to see the uktena/ulunsuti myth used.

Glad you liked it. I may take another look at the Ulun Suti artifact - I think that could be tightened up a bit maybe.

Wendigos... the different sizes are cool,

I'm just surprised no one did this before. The legend of the wendigo states that the more it eats the bigger it gets - which is why its always hungry.

so are King Kong references with the 'wall' etc.

Easter Eggs hidden all over.

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

Solo Resilience and Boss Monster Traits are meant for all Solo Monsters.

With 'Boss Monster' I could have called the trait Solo Monster but its already a solo monster so it seems a bit confusing.

So... no solo monsters with a normal action budget, then? That makes the elite -> solo jump awfully big, but I do see why...

With the Uktena, because its sort of a 'free' weak spot (in that you don't really have to risk anything to attack it) that it shouldn't have an accompanying negative condition.

Ok, but then why does 'Solo Resilience' say "see Weak Spot" then?

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey Khisanth mate!

So... no solo monsters with a normal action budget, then? That makes the elite -> solo jump awfully big, but I do see why...

I wouldn't necessarily say I'll always treat Solo Monsters in that way. There are alternative approaches.

The problem with normal action budgets is that you really need to over-inflate the damage or give it one of those standard actions which gives it multiple attacks (which in effect mimic what I'm doing except that you reduce the variety of actions, movement, initiative break-up and so forth).

The secondary problem of giving it a standard action comprising of multiple attacks is that it really restricts what that monster will do - because it will always have to use that multiple attack to be damage relevant. So it becomes too predictable.

As regards Elite's I may make a few tweaks. Like maybe an additional standard action when bloodied, or greater damage when bloodied. Or maybe just overall greater damage (which S'mon seems to swear by for Elites).

Ok, but then why does 'Solo Resilience' say "see Weak Spot" then?

Either I had in mind to add a condition and forgot or its a copy/paste error.

 

[Deinos]

Damn! I had lots of ideas for how to convert these guys to 3e, then I just now realized nearly all my favorite rules are NOT open content, and thus can't be incorporated... stupid legality getting in my way!

EDIT:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/oracle/mysteries/paizo---oracle-mysteries/juju

In light of the fact that basically 99.9% of the good stuff of 3e is sealed behind closed gaming stuff, its probably better to do it for PF after all. This may be useful as far as witch doctory stuff is concerned.

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

On page 50 in the 'Wights Entry Overview' the Marsh Wight is listed as Level 6 Soldier, but in its entry on page 51 it's Level 7 Controller.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Thanks for that Khisanth mate.

I actually noticed a few mistakes myself when reading over in London (someone printed it out).

In the update (as well as the errata and maps) I'll probably have to expand each encounter from the adventure into a full page (2/3rds text, 1/3rd map).

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

Also, under "Monsters by Level & Role" the page numbers are incorrect (seem to be 2 pages too low).

Why do the encounters need expanding?

 

[Upper_Krust]

Also, under "Monsters by Level & Role" the page numbers are incorrect (seem to be 2 pages too low).

Thanks amigo.

Why do the encounters need expanding?

Well...initially the 'Adventure-y' bit was going to be a glorified "Adventure Ideas" section (like the Epic Bestiary crossed with 4E Monster Manual Encounters).

However, when I came to write out the Encounter Lists, I decided to put a bit more effort into it and fleshed out locations and a reason to link the encounters.

But after I did that, I realised that 4E encounters (at least the ones I had written) were really terrain specific and that not having maps for each encounter meant people were not going to get the best out of it (I especially like trying to challenge PCs with weaker monsters by giving those enemies terrain advantages and stuff like that).

Then I read the Pathfinder Beginner Box (GM portion) I saw they were basically doing what I wanted and keeping it to within a page per encounter. Originally I was hoping to get 3 encounters on one page and then the 3 maps on the other. But logically it made more sense to just put each encounter on its own page.

So to answer your question, the encounters don't need expanding...I just want to do it because I hate the idea of not doing something to the best of my ability.

The offshoot of that is I may have to put the price up on the Vampire Bestiary when I get it all sorted because the page count will be notably bigger. Although anyone who bought it already will get the revision as a free download naturally.

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

Who or what is Chthon? A Wendigo primordial?

Wendigo Leviathans, Mega-size … sounds cool... what book are the Mega-size rules planned to be in?