Converting World of Greyhawk monsters

[freyar]

If we're already increasing the threat range with Augmented Critical, isn't Imp Crit kind of a waste of a feat? I mean, we can just change Augmented Crit. I view Imp Crit (and Imp Nat Attack, etc) as ways for DMs to customize monsters, not as good feats for "standard" monster design.

 

[Cleon]

If we're already increasing the threat range with Augmented Critical, isn't Imp Crit kind of a waste of a feat? I mean, we can just change Augmented Crit. I view Imp Crit (and Imp Nat Attack, etc) as ways for DMs to customize monsters, not as good feats for "standard" monster design.

Yes, I was thinking of giving it something other than Improved Critical if we decide on an augmented critical special attack, possibly Great Cleave (just because you rarely see it, probably because it's of limited utility) or, more practically, Improved Sunder.

Speaking of sundering, I'm thinking its metal teeth may give a limited ability to bypass hardness, but not as good as an adamantine weapon - say, ignoring hardness less than 10, so it can chomp through spear shafts like candy canes and chew through rock?

 

[freyar]

Ignoring hardness, maybe. Let's see what the others think.

 

[Cleon]

Okay now, let's rough out some stats for this beauty:

Quickbiter
Large Magical Beast (Extraplanar?)
Hit Dice: 10d10+40 (95 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares) ?
Armor Class: 18 (–1 size, +2 Dex, +7 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +10/+20
Attack: Bite +15 melee (2d6+9/19-20×3) ?
Full Attack: Bite +15 melee (2d6+9/19-20×3) ?
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Augmented critical, penetrating bite, severing bite?
Special Qualities: All-Around Vision, darkvision 60 ft., damage resistance 10/magic?, immune to fear, low-light vision
Saves: Fort +11, Ref +9, Will +4
Abilities: Str 22, Dex 15, Con 18, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 9
Skills: Jump, Hide, Listen, Spot ?
Feats: Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Improved Sunder, Power Attack ?
Environment: ?
Organization: ?
Challenge Rating: ?
Treasure: ?
Alignment: Usually neutral evil ?
Advancement: 11–17 HD (Large); 18–30 HD (Huge)? [just to be different]
Level Adjustment: —

A strange creature built like an upright lizard; at the end of its tail is a cluster of inhuman eyes and where its head should be is a large mouth with numerous rows of sharp metal teeth.

A typical quickbiter stands 8 feet tall and is 14 feet long from nose to tail, it weighs about 700 pounds. ?

Combat
Quickbiters prefer to attack from ambush, leaping out to bite as many opponents as it can reach. They are bloodthirsty combatants, often fighting to the death. ?

All-Around Vision (Ex): Quickbiters can not be flanked. These creatures can turn around with startling speed, and the eyes on the end of its tail allow them to see in all directions simultaneously. ?

Augmented Critical (Ex): A quickbiter's bite attack threatens a critical on a roll of 19-20 and does triple damage if the critical is confirmed. ?

Penetrating Bite (Ex): The bite of a quickbiter can slice through soft metal or stone, ignoring hardness less than 10. ?

Severing Bite (Ex): ?

Skills
Racial bonus to Hide and Spot?

 

[GrayLinnorm]

Given its limited intelligence, I'd go with always, rather than often, for alignment.

 

[Cleon]

Given its limited intelligence, I'd go with always, rather than often, for alignment.

Hmm, I see your point.

For some reason I was thinking it was Int 6 when I typed that, which made the notion of a variable alignment more plausible. Easy to modify it.

I'll split the difference and make it "usually neutral evil", there are a few low Intelligence (Int 2-3) monsters that are "usually neutral" (e.g. Frost Worm, Gray Render, Grick, Hydra, Rast in the SRD).

 

[Shade]

Lookin' good! The BAB is off, though (magical beasts have BAB equal to HD).

Added to Homebrews.

Here's the fenris wolf's "sever limb" mechanic...

Augmented Critical (Ex): The Fenris wolf's bite threatens a critical hit on a natural attack roll of 18–20, dealing triple damage on a successful critical hit. Additionally, the victim must succeed on a DC 76 Fortitude save or lose a hand or foot (Fenris wolf's choice) A victim who loses a foot falls prone and has its land speed reduced to 5 feet. A severed hand make it impossible for the subject to use objects or cast spells with somatic components. The save DC is Strength-based.

Here's a good candidate for those metal teeth and "penetrating bite"...

Adamantine Bite (Ex): A xaren's bite attack counts as adamantine for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction and hardness.

 

[freyar]

I'm still not sure about ignoring hardness. I'm just not getting that from the original text. I think we can probably adapt the Fenris wolf critical, though.

 

[Cleon]

Lookin' good! The BAB is off, though (magical beasts have BAB equal to HD).

Yes I know, I copied and pasted from a 10HD Animal and forgot to change it. You'll notice that the melee +15 attack is correct for a magical beast with its stats.

Gah! The beastie I copied from was Huge and I forgot to change a couple of other things. Like the size adj in its AC, which should be -1 not -2, and the grapple check is too high.

I'll edit the post to correct it.

OK, I've dropped the size penalty to -1 and the natural armour to +7, that way it's still AC18.

Added to Homebrews.

Here's the fenris wolf's "sever limb" mechanic...

Augmented Critical (Ex): The Fenris wolf's bite threatens a critical hit on a natural attack roll of 18–20, dealing triple damage on a successful critical hit. Additionally, the victim must succeed on a DC 76 Fortitude save or lose a hand or foot (Fenris wolf's choice) A victim who loses a foot falls prone and has its land speed reduced to 5 feet. A severed hand make it impossible for the subject to use objects or cast spells with somatic components. The save DC is Strength-based.

The basic design's alright, but I'd apply a few changes:

1. Make it a Supernatural power (since it's like a magical sword of sharpness)
2. Make the limb selection random (1=left leg, 2=right leg, 3=left arm, 4=right arm)
3. Maybe make it Charisma-based or Dexterity-based so it has a lower DC.
   If it's Str-based an advanced Quickbiter will be slicing limbs off left, right and centre. E.g. an 18HD Huge Quickbiter with Str 30, Dex 13, Cha 9 and Improved Critical (bite) would threaten a crit on 15-20 and have a DC 29 to avoid severing if the SA is Str-based. One with Dex-based Severing Bite would have DC20, Cha-based would be DC18.

Which do you prefer?

Oh, and is there any special reason you went for 18-20 threat instead of 19-20? The former may be what the Fenris Wolf uses, but the Quickbiter is a bit lower in the monster league!

Here's a good candidate for those metal teeth and "penetrating bite"...

Adamantine Bite (Ex): A xaren's bite attack counts as adamantine for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction and hardness.

That's the basic idea, I used something similar with the Rockdrill Snake over on my Lumbercritters thread. I was thinking something a bit less than piercing hardness up to 20 though.

 

[Shade]

I'll edit the post to correct it.

I'll do likewise in Homebrews.

The basic design's alright, but I'd apply a few changes:

1. Make it a Supernatural power (since it's like a magical sword of sharpness)
2. Make the limb selection random (1=left leg, 2=right leg, 3=left arm, 4=right arm)
3. Maybe make it Charisma-based or Dexterity-based so it has a lower DC.
   If it's Str-based an advanced Quickbiter will be slicing limbs off left, right and centre. E.g. an 18HD Huge Quickbiter with Str 30, Dex 13, Cha 9 and Improved Critical (bite) would threaten a crit on 15-20 and have a DC 29 to avoid severing if the SA is Str-based. One with Dex-based Severing Bite would have DC20, Cha-based would be DC18.

I can get on board with Supernatural and random, but it should stick to Strength-based. Sure, the save DC is high, but critical hits aren't too difficult to divert at mid-levels (fortification armor immediately leaps to mind).

Oh, and is there any special reason you went for 18-20 threat instead of 19-20? The former may be what the Fenris Wolf uses, but the Quickbiter is a bit lower in the monster league!

18-20/x3 is standard for augmented critical.

I'm still not sure about ignoring hardness. I'm just not getting that from the original text.

The "metal teeth" leaves room for such an ability.

That's the basic idea, I used something similar with the Rockdrill Snake over on my Lumbercritters thread. I was thinking something a bit less than piercing hardness up to 20 though.

Maybe 10?