What were the Pseudonaturals(Zoas) going to be like?

I'm guessing they were more than just creatures with the pseudonatural template?

Bootlebat said:

I'm guessing they were more than just creatures with the pseudonatural template?

Click to expand...

I had made my own Zoas a long time ago, they had a reflexive version of alter reality which they could use on every part of an action in addition to other abilities. They appeared, at least the one Solarius encountered, as a person with a slightly emaciated human face and body and a head that was about 90 ft wide and 100 feet tall.

Their faces were of roughly human proportions with their brains and skulls just being gigantic. I also made the one Solarius fought green with elf like ears and a light black beard with red and blue eyes. But the others she saw were different colored and had slightly different features, not all of them appeared humanoid but all appeared atrophied with massive heads.

They had pitifully weak physical stats but insanely high mental stats, but the thing that made them dangerous was their alter reality, called Alter Creation, had almost no limitations so they could just spam it and it would just rewrite reality around them. It could do any effect they so chose only limited to their or the DMs imagination.

They could do this as part of every type of action so as part of a standard, a move, a free, a swift and an immediate action. They could even use it as part of their 5 ft step. Basically they could use it offensively to create any effect they so desired and defensively to alter the situation in any way they please. I did this to mimic the idea that it was tied directly to their thoughts, not something they "do" so to speak but something they are.

In terms of power they were solid high demiurge level threats, capable of, if not checked, destabilizing the very universe of a Time Lord.

Their main weakness was someone sneaking up on them, they had little defenses, they had a high deflection ac due to their high Charisma but they only got spiritual growth levels of div abilities, which, at those levels is a massive disadvantage. They had low health, for their level, with very weak physical stats, roughly on par with a human.

That was another one of their weaknesses, they could change everything around them besides themselves, basically they were trapped in a perpetual schizophrenic loop of trying to prove intellectually that they exist, this forced them to always be in their true form.

They could make projections and "appear" as something else, but they were always just giant brain people floating usually in the far place or highly madness aligned areas of the pleroma in a constant existential argument desperately trying to prove to reality itself or more succinctly to themselves that they're valid and they exist.

Howdy Bootlebat buddy!

Bootlebat said:

I'm guessing they were more than just creatures with the pseudonatural template?

Click to expand...

Zoas were simply an alternate name for Pseudonaturals, in the same way we have Tanar'ri and Demons.

That said, I have a different use for the name in the 5E book and they are a bit more powerful.

Upper_Krust said:

Howdy Bootlebat buddy!



Zoas were simply an alternate name for Pseudonaturals, in the same way we have Tanar'ri and Demons.

That said, I have a different use for the name in the 5E book and they are a bit more powerful.

Click to expand...

Ah I see it now, I remember when I first designed the version of the Zoas I outlined above it was based off the line in the IH Bestiary about The Far Place being a realm of thoughts twisted until they become real, I always thought that's what the Zoas were, pure thought constantly writing itself upon creation with the pseudonaturals being sort of the product of that process.

Beefermatic said:

Ah I see it now, I remember when I first designed the version of the Zoas I outlined above it was based off the line in the IH Bestiary about The Far Place being a realm of thoughts twisted until they become real, I always thought that's what the Zoas were, pure thought constantly writing itself upon creation with the pseudonaturals being sort of the product of that process.

Click to expand...

Well certainly I left a lot open to interpretation.

The Far Realm is indeed the realm of thoughts (and dreams and nightmares) given form. Sometimes these exit the Far Realm and at that point are slightly less mutable to some degree. So for instance a Pseudonatural Troll may be constantly shifting and mutating in the Far Realm but once it leaves the Far Realm its form is likely a bit more fixed.

Similarly the more powerful "thoughts" and "intelligences" are not so easily malleable in the Far Realm.

From not having really 'used' the term Zoas in 3.5E to any great extent, I'm using them with a bit more purpose in 5E.

I meant more like what were the different races of Pseudonaturals you had planned like?

Bootlebat said:

I meant more like what were the different races of Pseudonaturals you had planned like?

Click to expand...

The term Pseudonatural is just for the core native monsters you are likely to meet - such as the Akishra and Cogent from the book. Obviously there would be many more inhabitants - I have a large number of ideas, some of which I will share in the upcoming 5E books. I have really fleshed out these dimensions a good bit more and have a lot of ideas to make them interesting and dangerous: special gods, special pantheons, spellcasters, golems and all sorts of factions and craziness. These places are not just static until PCs show up but have a good deal of different races, gods and factions competing for supremacy, technology and resources.