Creatures By Poll - Monster #3 Discussion

[BOZ]

OK folks, sorry about the slow start. It’s a combination of the holiday, and working on other things. It seems that when I work on conversions, I can’t keep my mind straight for the CBP, and vice-versa. But, anyway, if you haven’t completely lost interest, here we go. this is the really long part, where we hammer the nails in the right places and build this sucker from the ground up. This is the original post we’re basing the monster on:

Short version:
This creature lies dormant as a trap, and steals attributes from an unsuspecting adventurer to temporarily increase its capabilities, rebuilding itself as a hideous mockery of its victim. Eventually, it collapses back into the dormant trap form.

Long version:
This alien aberration (“AA”) has all the appearances of an ooze in its dormant state, but is highly intelligent, and can sense things at a molecular level. It prefers to soak into loamy forest floors or beneath fine rubble in caverns. When a creature makes accidental contact with the AA, it will immediately drain mental power (minor temp. dam. INT, WIS & CHA) from the victim (Concentration check for each) and inflict minor hit pt. damage collecting tissue samples. If the victim has appropriate intelligence and mobility, the AA will rapidly regenerate tissue based on the victim, and burst from its hiding place within 10 rounds as a huge quivering, cancerous mass of the victim's limbs and sensory organs, many of them wildly out of proportion, and all in odd locations.

Wizard and sorcerer victims will produce a monster of 8 HD and a limited and random selection of the victims spells (material components waived due to the AA's expertise on molecular structure) all cast as 8th level spellcaster; Druid victims produce a 9 HD creature, also with random spells; and all other classes of victim produce a 10 HD creature with no extra spells.

The AA will have certain basic supernatural abilities no matter what type is generated.


We voted for the “short version” above, but we’ll use whatever elements from the “long version” that we can agree on. I would say that it has base 8 HD, but absorbing certain types of victims will allow it to effect a temporary increase?

the results of the two polls for the creatures attributes and powers gave the following results, in the order listed:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31783
Highly magical (spell-like abilities, supernatural abilities, resistances - including SR)
High intellect (intelligence, wisdom, charisma)
Toughness (constitution, natural armor, damage reduction, regeneration)
Mobility (dexterity, speed, flight, climbing, burrowing and swimming)
Physically powerful (strength, damage dice)

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31786
Energy/ability drain
Spell-Like Abilities/Spells/Psionics
Poison
Fear attack/frightful presence
Ray, sonic, or gaze attacks


I’ve come up with an initial, basic stat block, as follows:

Huge Aberration
Hit Dice: 8d8+ ( hp)
Initiative: + (Dex)
Speed: 20 ft
AC: 1 (-2 size, Dex, + natural)
Attacks: 2 slams + melee
Damage: Slam 1d6
Face/Reach: 5 ft by 5 ft/10 ft
Special Attacks:
Special Qualities:
Saves: Fort +, Ref +, Will +
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 14, Con 15, Int 18, Wis 20, Cha 19
Skills: Spot +
Feats:

Climate/Terrain: Temperate
Organization: S
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: N
Alignment: Always chaotic neutral
Advancement: 9-16 HD (Huge); 17-24 HD (Gargantuan)


Generate some ideas: what climate/terrain does this creature inhabit? It’s probably home in underground regions, but does it live anywhere else?
What sort of organizational patterns does it follow? I’d say they’re probably solitary, but not necessarily.
Does it keep treasure? If so, is it more or less than standard, or about right on?

I’ve figured it’s probably got to be amorphous and have blindsight. After looking at the two polls that go along with this part, what other powers would you think these things should need?


Comments from Geocorona, who came up with the idea for this monster:
“It should probably have a few innate qualities regardless of its stolen attributes... Either of the leading choices (intellect and magical abilities) would be in line with it having conscious control over what kind of creature it chose to borrow characteristics from. I would imagine it would be too smart to think being as weak as an ant would be a good idea. It might think having antlike mandibles might be handy, though. Or after the initial probe attack, it might decide it doesn't want to be like the creature it sampled, and go back to being dormant.
The fearsomeness factor won't depend too much on what it tries to duplicate, since it will always be a huge and grotesque version. Frightful presence would make sense in that regard. Imagine seeing a huge deformed version of your friend who just got whammied come bursting out of the ground.
If it does drain abilities as a side effect of its info-gathering, I wasn't thinking it would be any permanent loss--I was thinking the real damage would come from being a huge intelligent brute with stolen spells, combat skills, and knowledge about the party.”

 

[Krishnath]

Hmm... let's see...

Frightful Presence is almost a must. I think a DC of 19 (10 base + 4 (HD/2) + 4 (Cha)) would be sufficient.

SR: Give the creature a SR of 25, to prevent a fast kill by mages.

DR: The creature needs to have good damage reduction 15/+2 should suffice.

Drain: The creature should (temporarily) drain 1d4 Int, 1d4 Wis, 1d4 Cha and 1d4 Hp, the save DC for this should be the same as for the frightful presence. Spellcasters affected by this creature lose 2d6 randomly choosen spell slots, and the creature copies 1d4 random spells from that spellcaster, distributing the spellslots evenly among the copied spells. The creature gains a temporary bonus HD for each creature it drains, these bonus HD should dissapear after one hour.

The above of course, are just suggestions.

 

[Knight Otu]

Frightful Presence is almost a must. I think a DC of 19 (10 base + 4 (HD/2) + 4 (Cha)) would be sufficient.

By my calculations, this should be 18.

Other than that, I mostly agree with Krishnath.

 

[Geocorona]

The creature gains a temporary bonus HD for each creature it drains, these bonus HD should dissapear after one hour.

We might need something simpler to determine HD.

Maybe a standard generated monster for each basic victim class (mage, cleric/druid, rogue, fighter) could come with the description.

Should this guy be able to convert clerical spells into his own spell-like ability, or should clerics be immune to spell drain?

 

[Knight Otu]

Should this guy be able to convert clerical spells into his own spell-like ability, or should clerics be immune to spell drain?

I'd say yes.

Maybe we could do this critter as some sort of template?

 

[Krishnath]

Knight: DOH! I mean to write 18, not 19.

Geo: I thought that was simple enough. Mayby you would try to make a simpler version that still allows for only *one* statblock? As for the spells/spell-like abilities, the definition should be between those that memorize spells (such as wizards, clerics, and druids), and those that cast spells spontaneously (such as Bards and Sorcerers.) I appologize if I did not make that clear in my earlier post.

 

[BOZ]

hey all, sorry i left this thing drift off without a response for so long. december is a real busy month, and it's been hard to keep my head on everything that's floating around in my mind. i'm going to take a look at this critter today, and make some comments later this afternoon.

 

[Krishnath]

Sounds like a plan.

 

[BOZ]

Ok, guess I lied again.

Hmm, gave it some thought… so, according to Krish’s suggestions, we will give it Frightful Presence, SR, and DR as suggested.

For the Drain attack, how is that administered? Maybe by a slam or other physical attack? The two slam attacks above were an accidental holdover from a previous monster entry that I copied the matrix from – it does NOT have to have 2 slams for physical attacks. Maybe the drain is caused by a touch, or maybe the victim must touch the monster? Maybe it is done by spitting gobs of goo, or by tentacles/pseudopods?

I’ll agree that krish’s suggested effects of the drain do need to be simplified a bit. Let me ask some questions. Does this creature’s attack kill its victim or merely incapacitate? Should there be some sort of drain every round of contact, or does it just happen once? If say, a hold is maintained, would it drain the victim dry? Maybe when it reaches 0 in Int, Wis, Cha, or HP.

Or does it really need to drain life while draining the mentality? I imagine a victim turned into a vegetable rather than killed.

As for the spells draining, that too is a good idea, but there’s a lot of die rolling there (not like the nightmare from the hellseed though, heh). Maybe the drain attack just steals random spells individually, which the creature can use, instead of the awkward mechanic of spell slots.

I like the HD theft as he suggested. 1 per successfully drained victim, simple enough. But maybe there should be a limit to that – I mean, this thing could take out 100 rats with ease, and no one would want to face it with that many HD. Maybe there should be a limit on HD gained per hour. Or maybe a limit on how many HD the victim needs to have to grant that temporary HD.


Also, we need to figure out how the abilities and forms of other creatures get added onto the monster. Do the Int, Wis, and Cha get added onto its base (yikes!)? does it steal memories? Does it take Str, Dex, and Con at all? Does it take skills and feats? Special attacks and qualities? As it’s not a true Shapechanger, I don’t think it should get access to everything a creature has, but we need to think about what it can take. Is anything (besides constructs and undead) that is immune to this attack?


Do we want any spell-like abilities for this thing? If so, then no more than you can count on your hand, as it already gets plenty from theft. How about some other supernatural abilities?

PS, should it have Blindsight, tremorsense, or both?

 

[Knight Otu]

For the Drain attack, how is that administered? Maybe by a slam or other physical attack?

Slam sounds good - this is after all the attack that it uses to sample it's victim, right? I'd say physical contact is neccessary for that.

I like the HD theft as he suggested. 1 per successfully drained victim, simple enough. But maybe there should be a limit to that – I mean, this thing could take out 100 rats with ease, and no one would want to face it with that many HD. Maybe there should be a limit on HD gained per hour. Or maybe a limit on how many HD the victim needs to have to grant that temporary HD.

Maybe it should be something like "Only creatures with nine or more HD grant a temporary HD when drained."

Also, we need to figure out how the abilities and forms of other creatures get added onto the monster. Do the Int, Wis, and Cha get added onto its base (yikes!)?

Maybe 1/3 of those abilities get added?

Is anything (besides constructs and undead) that is immune to this attack?

Incorporeal, I'd say.

PS, should it have Blindsight, tremorsense, or both?

Tremorsense seems fitting.