[BoVD] Busted CR, the Babau

[mmu1]

Re: Re: Hmm curious IDHTBIFOM

The paladin was closing his eyes to avoid the gaze of the demon, hence, no dex bonus.

And how on earth do your 6th level characters regularly hit AC 25? My party's main fighter has BAB +7, +3 strength, +1 focus, +1 enchantment. Add in +1 morale for the bard, and that comes to a +13 on the primary. That still only hits 45% of the time, which ain't too great. The ranger/barbarian can get to a +15 on the primary, but still, a main-line fighter hitting 50% of the time counts as difficult in my book.

Of course, most of the characters were using bows, and they aren't as optimized for ranged combat as they are for melee. Plus, several of the melee fighters had lost some strength early in the encounter.

As for our monk, well, he tried valiantly but just couldn't connect. His biggest contribution was providing a flanking bonus and being a cleave-enabler for the demon

I thhink being able to hit something 45-50% of the time counts as a pretty good chance of hitting in most people's books.

I ran a fairly high-powered, fighter-heavy party of seven 5th level characters against a couple of enemies with AC's of 26 and 29 (with Shield), respectively, and they did ok. By ok I mean that everyone lived (despite their crappy rolling), and they won the encounter.

 

[clockworkjoe]

1.) An AC of 25 is incredibly tough for 7th and 8th level characters. Add in 1/2 damage from slashing and piercing weapons, and the thing was very difficult to damage.

7th level fighter with 18 str, weapon focus, and +2 weapon = +14 to hit, need an 11 or better on a d20. Not the easiest monster to fight in this regard, but a prepared fighter type should be able to hit the thing.

2.) The strength-draining gaze is a killer. If characters look away, the demon just gets that much harder to hit, plus they are denied Dex bonus and the Babau has sneak attack.

Isn't there a spell that protects against gaze attacks?

3.) The acidic paste is nasty. It ate three of the party's weapons, including a magical sword, and they collectively burned through probably 40 or 50 arrows trying to bring it down.

True. Very true. Players at mid levels should depend more on enhancing weapons with spells than regular magical weapons.

4.) The monster can definitely dish out damage. Although the +3 Bloodfeeding dagger had something to do with that, with the recommended greataxe, the demon still would have been a fearsome foe.

Yup. But did they use magic circle vs evil? Protection vs evil? Dispel evil? Clerics have a lot of handy spells to own outsiders with.

And think of it this way. The next time you want to SCARE your players, you can simply make an advanced babau

 

[howandwhy99]

18 Con = +28hp
21 Str, Cha 16 for spell DC's
+14 Natural AC
Sneak Attack +2d6
DR 10/+1, SR 17
Cleave, Pwr Att
1d3 Str draining Gaze (DC 16)
8 'at will' spell-like abilities including: dispel magic, fly, telekinesis, and teleport w/o error.
2 1/day Spell-likes: polyself + wrack
summon other Babau 40%
7th lvl Rogue skill abilities (about the equivalent)
Protective Slime; by far the nastiest ability:
P & S deal only 1/2 damage
all wpns that hit the demon are dissolved, magic wpns get Ref 17,
all hand (monks) and grappling attackers take 1d6 acid dam /rd or /hit


This makes me think someone's been min/maxing with the monster tables again. I forget if gaze is a standard action, or not.

 

[hellbender]

It is a wonder any of us who played 1E ever escaped with our frail mental faculties intact considering we didn't have CRs back then.

hellbender

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Re: Re: Hmm curious IDHTBIFOM

Living Arcanis 32 point buy: Val Tensen Bbn 2/Ftr 1/Clr 2
Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 10.
Weapon Focus, Masterwork weapon
Val Bloodline Abilities: Strength, and Reluctant Warrior

Raging, Str 20, Raging and strength increased: str 22.
BAB +4, Str +6, Weapon Focus +1, masterwork weapon +1, morale (bard or Bless) +1=+13 to hit at 5th level. Only needs to roll a 12 to hit the thing.

(Val Bloodline powers aren't standard D&D, but give him his 4th level stat increase and a Bull's Strength instead (not unreasonable at 5th level) and he's probably str 24 for +14 to hit.)

Advance him one level and he hits on a 10. Give him a +2 weapon and it's a 9. Let the priest cast prayer and he's hitting AC 25 on an 8.

I'll admit this character is fairly optimized for bashing heads but I don't think he's an unreasonable example of what can be expected at his level.

Put me more in the "Amazed that 7th level fighters can't hit AC 25 and that 7th level paladins can fail fortitude saves" category than the "AC 25 is difficult to hit" category.

Really, the Protective slime is the nastiest ability this thing has. (It looks like a rather annoying mechanic too--I'd much prefer it if it used the hardness/hp mechanic for damaging weapons than a reflex save).

The paladin was closing his eyes to avoid the gaze of the demon, hence, no dex bonus.

And how on earth do your 6th level characters regularly hit AC 25? My party's main fighter has BAB +7, +3 strength, +1 focus, +1 enchantment. Add in +1 morale for the bard, and that comes to a +13 on the primary. That still only hits 45% of the time, which ain't too great. The ranger/barbarian can get to a +15 on the primary, but still, a main-line fighter hitting 50% of the time counts as difficult in my book.