Cambion: Worst writeup ever?

[Squire James]

Shrug and use half-fiend template. Replace the wings with some minor plus somewhere else (say, +2 more natural armor). If the cambion wants to be sneaky, well, grant levels in a sneaky class. Why make things more complex than they need to be?

The fact they even wrote up the cambion seems strange to me... it was not like they were THAT well-defined in the older edition!

 

[Psion]

The fact they even wrote up the cambion seems strange to me... it was not like they were THAT well-defined in the older edition!

It was probably done because Rule-of-Three was an established Planescape character and a Cambion... so one of the authors felt it necessary. Though it really wasn't... we've been getting by with half-fiend for some time.

 

[Shazman]

I kind of like assassain being their favored class, but the odd numbered ability score modifiers and pathetically low charisma are pretty horrible. Another example of a decent idea ruined by incompetent execution. It happens a lot with WotC nowadays.

 

[BadMojo]

I kind of like assassain being their favored class, but the odd numbered ability score modifiers and pathetically low charisma are pretty horrible. Another example of a decent idea ruined by incompetent execution. It happens a lot with WotC nowadays.

The big problem with assassin as favored class is that the favored class can't be a prestige class or it's, well, pointless. Someone really should have had a good look at that write up before it hit print. It looks like the work of an author who really isn't very familiar with the D20 system and really could have used a "rules guy" to tidy things up.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Ick.

 

[Land Outcast]

It's fine, if by *fine* you mean that it wasn't supervised, is incoherent with the creature, lacks cohesion with the rules of the game, and is inconsistent with itself.

 

[Piratecat]

See, here's the weird thing. Both Wolfgang Baur and Gwendolyn Kestrel have their D&D design down cold. That stat block reads like it was done by someone new to the game, not a seasoned designer. I wonder if someone in editorial or a different department decided to write and insert it at the last minute?

 

[rom90125]

See, here's the weird thing. Both Wolfgang Baur and Gwendolyn Kestrel have their D&D design down cold. That stat block reads like it was done by someone new to the game, not a seasoned designer. I wonder if someone in editorial or a different department decided to write and insert it at the last minute?

QFT. I forwarded this thread to him with the hopes he can shed some light on how the Cambion got so screwed up.

 

[Monkey King]

QFT. I forwarded this thread to him with the hopes he can shed some light on how the Cambion got so screwed up.

The truth is, I screwed this up due to haste, and I had a misguided desire to fit in the cambion as a nod to Planescape. As best I can tell , it was a quick rip from 2e that I meant to develop and lost track of. Likewise, it was not noted or improved at the development and editorial levels.

I wrote Expedition to the Demonweb Pits under a very, very tight deadline, and worked very hard to deliver the best manuscript possible in the timeframe. That's a fact, rather than an excuse. Some sections had big notes on them that said "Fix this" -- most of those were, in fact, fixed. I knew that the project needed more time, so I organized an external playtest team. I forwarded all their suggestions and notes to the developer. This wasn't one of them.

The reality is, sometimes material is weaker than it should be. Sometimes no one catches a dud monster. My sincere apologies for the train wreck on this creature. Though it went through many hands, ultimately I'm the one who said "Let's redo the cambion!".

Looking back, I shoulda just used a half-fiend template.

 

[jgbrowning]

It's like the insomniac scribblings of a basement publisher in the early days of the OGL.

Yeah, it really is that bad. Ick.

joe b.