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COMPETITION: Design an Epic Monster
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<blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 4038261" data-attributes="member: 8461"><p>Thanks! Ironically, I would have posted this several days ago, but I was trying to make Kliga (from the second adventure idea) for the sample monster. However, advancing her according to the rules in <em>Ascension</em>, and making sure to add Intermediate deity-level abilities (since a 72 HD advanced Outsider would have a +14 divine bonus; stronger than a normal Intermediate deity, but not at the level of a Greater god), and then applying the half-void dragon template on top of that was taking me way too long to do. In the end, using a half-epic dragon template on a monster that didn't need to be advanced to receive it (e.g. a gloom) was much simpler.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>What age was the polychromatic? If your group was able to overcome it at any age older than young adult (CR 44), then Garistus might not be a sufficient challenge for them. Of course, if he's going after them when they're alone, and at less than optimal readiness, he might be more of a fight than they're expecting (especially if you decide to give him backup <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious :]" data-shortname=":]" /> ).</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I was pleased with the idea, particularly since I've seen dragons in other mediums use this idea, but I had a moment's panic when I realized that cometary dragons don't have wings! Luckily, I managed to dance around that little hurdle. Whew!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I didn't have the option of using the Multi-Headed template (from <em>Savage Species</em>) because it's closed content, and would have violated the rules of this competition.</p><p></p><p>That said, I did think of giving the half-adamic dragons multiple heads, but discarded that idea quickly. I wasn't entirely sure what the benefits should look like for that (bonuses to various senses? Multiple actions per round, maybe?), and that uncertainty increased when I thought about trying to make the number of heads be a factor in what benefits it applied. Throw in the part about void dragons having no heads at all, and that seemed like more trouble than it was worth.</p><p></p><p>I also wanted the template to show a clear step-progression, in terms of power, between the epic, adamic, and nehaschimic half-dragons. Each is more clearly powerful than the preceding type in terms of what this template offers (only the Adaptation power doesn't have a lesser equivalent for the half-epic dragons). As such, giving such a special power to the half-adamics, without having an even greater power for the half-nehaschimics, didn't feel right. While I could have tried giving the latter half-dragons some lesser version of the extra-dimensional power (since that seems to be the most thematic to nehaschimic dragons), that seemed to be a bit much.</p><p></p><p>All in all, it just seemed easier to eliminate the multi-headed aspect from the half-adamic dragons altogether (particularly since those who want to can easily use the aforementioned Multi-Headed template to add that aspect back in). I originally had planned to insert a line saying something to the effect of such creatures having only one head because their offspring take more after their non-draconic parent (since the dragons themselves are such esoteric beings, meaning the more "earthly" parent sets the body type), with the largest physiological change being the addition of wings (hence why they have special powers). Unfortunately, I couldn't work that line in there (though saying it here now is probably close enough <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ).</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It was a pleasure to have such great materials to work with. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alzrius, post: 4038261, member: 8461"] Thanks! Ironically, I would have posted this several days ago, but I was trying to make Kliga (from the second adventure idea) for the sample monster. However, advancing her according to the rules in [i]Ascension[/i], and making sure to add Intermediate deity-level abilities (since a 72 HD advanced Outsider would have a +14 divine bonus; stronger than a normal Intermediate deity, but not at the level of a Greater god), and then applying the half-void dragon template on top of that was taking me way too long to do. In the end, using a half-epic dragon template on a monster that didn't need to be advanced to receive it (e.g. a gloom) was much simpler. What age was the polychromatic? If your group was able to overcome it at any age older than young adult (CR 44), then Garistus might not be a sufficient challenge for them. Of course, if he's going after them when they're alone, and at less than optimal readiness, he might be more of a fight than they're expecting (especially if you decide to give him backup :] ). I was pleased with the idea, particularly since I've seen dragons in other mediums use this idea, but I had a moment's panic when I realized that cometary dragons don't have wings! Luckily, I managed to dance around that little hurdle. Whew! I didn't have the option of using the Multi-Headed template (from [i]Savage Species[/i]) because it's closed content, and would have violated the rules of this competition. That said, I did think of giving the half-adamic dragons multiple heads, but discarded that idea quickly. I wasn't entirely sure what the benefits should look like for that (bonuses to various senses? Multiple actions per round, maybe?), and that uncertainty increased when I thought about trying to make the number of heads be a factor in what benefits it applied. Throw in the part about void dragons having no heads at all, and that seemed like more trouble than it was worth. I also wanted the template to show a clear step-progression, in terms of power, between the epic, adamic, and nehaschimic half-dragons. Each is more clearly powerful than the preceding type in terms of what this template offers (only the Adaptation power doesn't have a lesser equivalent for the half-epic dragons). As such, giving such a special power to the half-adamics, without having an even greater power for the half-nehaschimics, didn't feel right. While I could have tried giving the latter half-dragons some lesser version of the extra-dimensional power (since that seems to be the most thematic to nehaschimic dragons), that seemed to be a bit much. All in all, it just seemed easier to eliminate the multi-headed aspect from the half-adamic dragons altogether (particularly since those who want to can easily use the aforementioned Multi-Headed template to add that aspect back in). I originally had planned to insert a line saying something to the effect of such creatures having only one head because their offspring take more after their non-draconic parent (since the dragons themselves are such esoteric beings, meaning the more "earthly" parent sets the body type), with the largest physiological change being the addition of wings (hence why they have special powers). Unfortunately, I couldn't work that line in there (though saying it here now is probably close enough ;) ). It was a pleasure to have such great materials to work with. :D [/QUOTE]
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