3.5 Monster Manual Issues

[WayneLigon]

Yeah. The rakshasa now has SR 27 (20 + HD). Which also equals 20 + CR 7.
Therefore, a 7th-level caster can pierce its SR only on a 20. Good enough for me...

Well, to heck with that. That immunity is what made them so freakin' dangerous to begin with. They were great for dealing with spellcasters.

And the wererat change makes for a large change to an article I submitted. Sigh. I guess I'll have to deal with the revision (ok, no 'guess' about it) if I want to write things for publication, but stuff like this is making it harder and harder to bother.

 

[SeRiAlExPeRiMeNtS]

Something I noticed. The balor's listed Strength is 35. This makes sense, since all demons have very high strength, which tends to get higher as the demon's CR increases. But all of the damage is listed as if the Strength was 25. What gives?

Well, the attack of the balor is +33 with the long sword, let´s see +20 BAB, +1 weapon focus, +1 enhancemet boun and -1 because of the size. total +21, so the his str must be 35 (+12 bonus).

The damage them must be 2d6+13 +1 vorpal long sword, 1d4+7 +1d6 fire +1 flaming whip or 1d10+12 slams.

 

[Darkness]

Well, to heck with that. That immunity is what made them so freakin' dangerous to begin with. They were great for dealing with spellcasters.

Right, when I first saw the change I was disappointed as well.

I've now pondered it for a while, though, and have come to the conclusion that a SR so high that a spellcaster supposed to deal with the rakshasa's CR needing a 20 to pierce the SR is quite sufficient.

Really, if you want a rakshasa to challenge - say- a 15th-level party, just give it 8 more levels in sorcerer (and/or appropriate prestige classes) to bring its CR to 15.
This will also increase its SR from 27 to 35, requiring the casters to roll a 20 to pierce it (modified by spell power, Increased Spell Penetration, and similar stuff, of course).

 

[Silver Griffon]

Personally I think the Lycanthrope rules are great now. I had a brand new weretigress character who was an ECL8 Rogue4 (ECL based solely on the DMG since the DM did not have SS). In human form she was way too weak to be wandering around with 8th level adventurers. Low hit points, few feats, and she didn't have very good skills because she had to pump up that Control Shape skill and she only had the points of a 4th level character to begin with. Even so, she failed both attempts to assume hybrid form before being taken out in three rounds by a small group of barbarian types. On the other hand, the weretigress form would have been better in combat than the party fighter!
There was one snag during conversion: The new rules would have put her at an ECL 12 (6HD +Rogue4 +2 ECL). My DM was obliging though and let me make her up as a wereleopard instead since nobody had ever seen her change shpe anyway. She is now an ECL 8 wereleopardess Rogue3 (3HD +Rogue3 +2 ECL). It took all of 10 minutes to create the wereleopard template with the new rules. Now I am able to hold my own with the rest of the party regardless of which form I am in (without overshadowing the fighter when in hybrid form). I have 1 list of feats and skills (based on 6HD now), 1 HP total to keep track of, and I can actually succeed when trying to hide in human form. Cool!

 

[UrathDM]

Re: Re: 3.5 Monster Manual Issues

Note that wererats are now CE instead of LE.

That depends on where you look . The Wererat stat blocks (p.173) say "Always Lawful Evil", while the summary table of "Common Lycanthropes" (p.178) says "Chaotic Evil".

[Edit: Somehow, I managed to originally type Werewolf for Wererat.]

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

Re: Re: Re: 3.5 Monster Manual Issues

Hmmm. This could spell the end of wererat thieves' guilds...

The RPG police are going to kick in your door and slap you around if your wererats aren't up to code?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

The rakshasha is CR 10, not 7. A 10th-level spellcaster needs to roll a 17 (the same an 8th-level spellcaster needs to hurt a mind flayer). It's unlikely a 10th-level wizard would have Greater Spell Penetration, however.

 

[Darkness]

Rakshasa

Ah, yes; CR 10 it is. Hm. I guess confused it with its HD, for some reason...
So a spellcaster of the same level as the rakshasa's CR has a 20% chance of overcoming its SR (17+). Hm. Oh, well - it's still not a bad value, and probably more fun for spellcasting PCs, I suppose...

Anyway - thank you.

 

[Synicism]

Re: Re: 3.5 Monster Manual Issues

Originally posted by Pbartender Because they followed the example of Races of Faerun, not Savage Species. As stated above, all the Lycanthropes have the same ECL, but you have to add in the HD of the appropriate animal to the character's levels. A werewolf, for example, will have two 'levels' of Animal.

Wow. And I thought only White Wolf actively torpedoed any notion of internal consistency.

 

[seankreynolds]

Re: Re: Re: 3.5 Monster Manual Issues

That depends on where you look . The Werewolf stat blocks (p.173) say "Always Lawful Evil", while the summary table of "Common Lycanthropes" (p.178) says "Chaotic Evil".

Clever.