Counter-intuitive monsters

[Slife]

Because Fire isn't an applicable type for Damage Reduction. You could give it a weakness against fire (150% damage, or whathaveyou), but having DR 10/Fire doesn't fly.

A friend of mine pointed out that even though a Fire Giant is Immune to Fire, it can still drown in enough magma. Wierd.

-TRRW

Whoops. Wrote DR, was thinking regeneration.

 

[Brimshack]

I actually like the idea of a race of pale underground elves. I don't think there is anything wrong with dark skinned drow. And I don't expect monsters to be up on the latest in evolutionary theory. But it does suggest an interesting narrative in itself.

...actually, I think a lot of objections to this or that existing gaming monster, race, class, etc. would make better arguments in favor of something new. The problem with most of these objections is that they take for granted some law of nature or principle of logic, whereas in the game we regularly break these whenever we like. Once a premise is established then you start reapplying them to generate interesting details. And in the end, the objections to one or another monster would just make so much better arguments for a different combination of realistic and unrealistic premises.

 

[Arkhandus]

lots of stuff

So basically, your problem with them is, everything everywhere in any kind of world must be explainable by RW science, regardless of unrealistic forces present in said worlds?

Crazy wizards and alchemists produce freaks of nature all the time. And don't even get me started on Alienists, slaadi, or tanar'ri. There are all kinds of reasons and ways that stuff in D&D could and would produce absurdities that somehow, inexplicably, are able to reproduce or be replicated. Likely because they'd be created as servitors or amusements.

Sure, some are just outright stupid, but crazy people might create them anyway. Or crazy deities. No shortage of those around in the dark, inconceivable, oft-avoided corners of the multiverse.

When you can't explain a creature composed of pure, yet somehow living and solid, fire with science, you have to throw science out the window and accept the strangeness of a world where magic is real, people can be descended from dragons and not show any overt signs of it, and adventurers can get paid to spend lots of time murdering inhuman creatures for little reason at all and even the occasional human cultist, without suffering serious mental breakdowns, and instead being praised for it as heroes, not even being put on trial or questioned by authorities regarding the incomprehensibly tremendous number of corpses each adventurer leaves in their wake on a yearly basis, that should by rights have no means of being replaced quickly enough......

You really can't pull the "but-but-but science has to explain everything!" card out of the deck when you're talking about a world like that.

Just trying to make sure you're looking at things from the right perspective. This is D&D, not Star Trek, so there's no veneer of psuedo-science around.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

- I always thought they would make a great Superhero team (twins maybe)

One named Ace and the other named Gary, naturally.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Pleased to (kind of) meet you, Sir!

Just in case you were thinking PC was Gary Gygax, he's not. Gary does post here, though, under the screen name Col_Pladoh. Look for the "Ask Gary Gyax" thread on this very forum.

Here's the current one:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=171753&page=1&pp=40

 

[I'm A Banana]

Rust Monsters.

They touch you with a feather and your stuff rusts and then they eat your rusted stuff.

You'd think they'd get more nourishment from non-rusted metal, and that they'd have to do more than brush lightly against you. Or at least, that they'd BE ABLE to do more than brush lightly against you and wreck your stuff.

 

[Hussar]

Oh, hey, KM, beware the midden hitting the windmill when you make comments about the all mighty rust monster.

 

[QuaziquestGM]

The whole bit about cold subtype and fire subtype monsters.

They have (cold):
Cold immunity or resistance
Cold based breath weapon or extra cold damage with attack
fire vulnerablity.
Live in cold places.

See where I'm going with this?

If all of the monsters where you live have cold immunity, then what advantage is it to have a weapon that does cold damage? Frost wolves breathing ice on cold subtype caribou who are immune to cold?

Remorhaz are the only cold type monsters that that make sense. They have an heat attack that is actually useful agianst cold immune critters.

 

[jensun]

If that human was supremely strong? Sure. While I detest the high-lvl-characters-as-superheroes analogy, I can't see Superman losing a grapple to an elephant.

I prefer to think of them more along the lines of Hercules, CuCulian (sp?) and Lemunkainen and I can definately see Hercules wrestling an elephant to the ground.

For monsters which make no sense to me add my vote for monsters that are just traps. In particular the mimic. Its a monster that hunts by concealing itself as a chest in a dungeon. The only things it is likely to eat are PC's. Its entire ecology is based on a ready supply of adventurers. How does it survive when our heroes move on? Are there hordes of low level nps adventurers filing up to be eaten?

Also, Rust Monsters and anything else thats basicly an excuse for foolish DM's to rid PC's of gear they shouldnt have given in the first place.

 

[I'm A Banana]

If all of the monsters where you live have cold immunity, then what advantage is it to have a weapon that does cold damage? Frost wolves breathing ice on cold subtype caribou who are immune to cold?

This kind of bugs me, too. The environment is filled with cold-resistant critters, why would your main powerful hunting move use cold energy?