Spelljammer Converting Spelljammer creatures

[Arnwyn]

<looks up Epic Prowess>

Yeah, I like the idea of giving DR over more attack bonuses.

 

[freyar]

Damage Reduction and Fast Healing feats are a bit of a waste of feat space, as we can just give as much of those as we like to the base monster. Unless of course you're saying that a normal gammaroid doesn't have those SQs and only the sample does. But still. I always like Stand Still as an option. Penetrate Damage Reduction is also ok. Power Critical, too. Do you guys like any of those options?

 

[Cleon]

Damage Reduction and Fast Healing feats are a bit of a waste of feat space, as we can just give as much of those as we like to the base monster. Unless of course you're saying that a normal gammaroid doesn't have those SQs and only the sample does. But still. I always like Stand Still as an option. Penetrate Damage Reduction is also ok. Power Critical, too. Do you guys like any of those options?

Yeah, I'd thought about that issue before listing those feats but it didn't bother me that much. There are plenty of feats that can also be emulated by racial abilities, after all.

Stand Still would be OK, but Power Critical seems of little use since (a) with an attack of +125 it's not very likely to miss a critical confirm roll in the first place and (b) we'd have to give it Weapon Focus instead of Epic Prowess to meet the prereqs.

Penetrate Damage Reduction seems a bit inappropriate thematically. It doesn't routinely attack creatures with particular DRs, does it? Gammaroids like to eat gossamers, not golems.

Oh dang, I just remembered I was thinking we have to keep Weapon Focus (bite) as it's a prereq for Overwhelming Critical (bite).

My preferred solution to that would be swapping the Overwhelming Critical for something else since I'm not much in favour of it, but if you want to keep it we'll need to swap something else for Weapon Focus - Fast Healing, Great Cleave or one of the Damage Reductions would be my favourites.

Unless of course you're saying that a normal gammaroid doesn't have those SQs and only the sample does.

Well yes, giving it Feats that grant it those abilities does mean that a gammaroid without those feats wouldn't have those SQs.

 

[Arnwyn]

I'm not married to Overwhelming Critical.

<looks up Stand Still>
That's not a bad feat.

<looks up Power Critical>
That one seems redundant (as noted, with +125 to attack, that thing is going to hit every time).

While I agree in theory that giving it fast healing and DR feats could be a waste since it can be given in the base stats, it seems to me that there is almost a bit of a struggle to find feats for it (it has a LOT of feats, after all). I think they're easy to ignore for other options if we're having a hard time with coming up with feats, but...

Penetrate Damage Reduction is okay to imply that it's 'really powerful' - but I think you'd have to pretty much pick all the different possible materials to follow that line of reasoning. How many is that? Silver, cold iron, adamantine...? (The feat says "special material", so I think that rules out 'good' and/or 'evil', etc.) If we're desperate for feats, we could go in that direction, but otherwise I agree with Cleon.

This:
Feats: Cleave, Damage Reduction (×5), Diehard, Dire Charge, Endurance, Epic Endurance, Epic Fortitude, Epic Prowess, Epic Reflexes, Epic Will, Fast Healing, Flyby Attack, Great Cleave, Great Fortitude, Hover, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Critical (claw), Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Improved Multiattack, Improved Overrun, Improved Sunder, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Multiattack, Power Attack, Snatch, Superior Initiative, Wingover

less Overwhelming Critical gives us 33. Add Stand Still?

Without the DRs and Fast Healing, we'd have another 6 available (yeesh... another six?!) but then have to add DR 15/- and fast healing 3 to the base stats.

 

[freyar]

Just ... too ... many ... feats!

Seriously, the real problem is that the SRD doesn't really have many epic feats suitable for monsters. I always feel that some of the rage-based feats would work for a monster of this sort, but a gammaroid obviously doesn't have the rage class feature.

I still feel like Overwhelming and Devastating Critical make some sense, but I agree the math is a bit difficult.

How about we give it Stand Still and drop one Fast Healing feat to make way for Penetrate Damage Reduction (cold iron)?

 

[Cleon]

How about we give it Stand Still and drop one Fast Healing feat to make way for Penetrate Damage Reduction (cold iron)?

It's only got one Fast Healing in the latest draft, your proposal would mean it has NO Fast Healing. I'd prefer the Gammaroid to have a few points of fast healing, so it recovers hit points fast enough the creature isn't easy to "nickel and dime" to death with hit and run attacks separated by spell replenishment.

Plus why pick cold iron for the DR penetration? I don't recall their being any Spelljammer creatures with that material.

The only Spelljammer creatures I can think of offhand with DR/material are golems (e.g. Furnace, Radiant & Sentinel Golems), and they all have adamantine as their material. A Gammaroid doesn't eat golems or I doubt it interacts with them very often, so I doubt it would develop Damage Penetration against them.

I'd rather just add Stand Still and call it a day.

 

[freyar]

Eh, could have dropped a Damage Reduction feat instead. But ultimately I don't mind much either way. The real issue is the difficulty finding inspiring feats for a monster like this.

Tactics next?

 

[Cleon]

Eh, could have dropped a Damage Reduction feat instead. But ultimately I don't mind much either way. The real issue is the difficulty finding inspiring feats for a monster like this.

Yes, there are few feats appropriate for a "basic brute" with under average Dex and Int.

I thought about giving it Perfect Health, but with a +65 Fort save it already ignores poisons with DC 25 or less and there's no mention of disease immunity in the original.

Tactics next?

So, does that mean we are going ahead with:

Feats: Cleave, Damage Reduction (×5), Diehard, Dire Charge, Endurance, Epic Endurance, Epic Fortitude, Epic Prowess, Epic Reflexes, Epic Will, Fast Healing, Flyby Attack, Great Cleave, Great Fortitude, Hover, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Critical (claw), Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Improved Multiattack, Improved Overrun, Improved Sunder, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Multiattack, Power Attack, Snatch, Stand Still, Superior Initiative, Wingover

For tactics, how about:

An attacking gammaroid likes to use its Ramming attack, especially against numerous opponents smaller than itself. If it faces a substantial foe, such as a truly Colossal monster or massive spelljamming ship, it strikes with both claws and bite with a Dire charge or full attack, usually adding at least 25 [?] points of Power Attack to its attacks.

 

[freyar]

That'll all work for me.

 

[Cleon]

That'll all work for me.

Updating the Gammaroid Working Draft.

How's about this for the rest:

A turtle of almost inconceivable size, with a head the size of a fortress and a body as big as an island. Its shell resembles an ancient asteroid pitted with meteor craters. The creature's sharp-edged, hook-tipped beak and massive claws suggest it is a predator.

Gammaroids are enormous space-going turtles that appear to be distant relatives of the giant snapping turtle. These voracious beasts prey on other spaceborn lifeforms, with their favorite food being gossamer nobles. Gammaroids tend to ignore humanoid-scale creatures and spelljamming vessels, but a particularly hungry one may try to smash a ship apart to devour its occupants.

A resting gammaroid is hard to distinguish from an asteroid. Many victims who wandered close to one only realize their mistake when the gammeroid's head shoots out of its shell and seizes them in its jaws.

Female gammaroids visit planets to spawn. They seek out volcanic areas and burrow miles underground until they find a suitable pocket of magma, where they lay a clutch of two to eight eggs. The eggs take up to five decades to hatch. The newborn hatchlings tunnel upwards, devouring any subterranean creature they happen upon, until they reach the surface and fly into space.