Creatures I submitted for Tome of Horrors II

[BOZ]

Hi! As you may or may not know, I submitted several monsters for the Tome of Horrors II, and only the Warden Jack and Riptide Horror made it into the final print of the book. Now, I don’t want to give up on the remaining creatures… I want to rewrite and improve them to increase their chances of seeing publication, should a Tome of Horrors III (or some other book down the line) become open for submissions.

So, help me make these things better! Throw in some suggestions on improvements – what we can lose, add, or fix to make them more unique, and universally appealing and useful.

I want to start with the Creatures-By-Poll monster #2 – some of you were around when we worked on that one originally. You can find our original version here: http://www.blacksway.net/cc/show.php?cc_id=125

Now, I don’t normally do this, but I want to alter this creature quite a bit. For one thing, I think this monster was way too complicated – I expressed my reservations at the time, but since this was a group project I let it go. Now, I want to take more direct control over this one and mold it a bit. Several of its SA’s and SQ’s need to go or be made more simple. For one thing, I think we can combine the aura of plant growth and a more simplified version of the noxious growths into one single power. I’m not sure if I want to keep the incorporeal and possession powers. I might want to remove the summon plant creatures power also, but I’ll decide that later.

Another thing I want to do is change the creature type: in the time since we wrote this creature, the game has changed so that we now have the Extraplanar subtype to explain how non-Outsiders can come from the Outer planes. Well, I want to make the Hellseed a Plant (Extraplanar). I think that makes a whole lot more sense than to try to call it a plant-like Outsider. See for yourself; here is an altered stat block for 3.5:


Hellseed
Large Plant (Extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 12d8+48 (102 hp)
Initiative: +5
Speed: 10 ft (2 squares), burrow 30 ft, climb 20 ft
Armor Class: 25 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +15 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 24
Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+11
Attack: Slam +6 melee (1d6-2)
Full Attack: 2 slams +6 melee (1d6-2)
Space/Reach: 5 ft/10 ft
Special Attacks: Aura of plant growth, spell-like abilities, noxious growths, decomposition, incorporeal, possession, spells, summon plant creatures, death throes
Special Qualities: plant traits, plane shift, rootlets, regeneration 5, spell resistance 19, fire resistance 20, damage reduction 10/slashing and (magic or good), immune to disease, cold vulnerability, low-light vision
Saves: Fort +12, Ref +5, Will +9
Abilities: Str 7, Dex 13, Con 19, Int 18, Wis 20, Cha 17
Skills: Climb +11, Concentration +17, Hide +14, Intimidate +16, Knowledge (nature) +17, Knowledge (the planes) +17, Listen +20, Move Silently +14, Spellcraft +17, Spot +20, Survival +19 (90 ranks total)
Feats: Alertness, Combat Casting, Improved Initiative, Spell Penetration (plus 1 more)

Environment: Any evil Outer plane?
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: X
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral evil
Advancement: 13-24 HD (Large); 25-36 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: ---

 

[Knight Otu]

Sniff. There goes the name druidaemon.

Certainly combine Aura of Plant Growth and Noxious Growths into one ability.

As we're no longer looking at an Outsider, dropping the summons seems to be err, natural. Maybe also the plane shift ability.

If we drop incorporeality and possession, we might also drop rootlets.

Cold Vulnerability might be turned into the standard +50% damage vulnerability normally does.

 

[BOZ]

Sniff. There goes the name druidaemon.

who says?

and i think the plane shift is necessary for its "lone wanderer of the planes" image.

 

[Knight Otu]

who says?

Well, I figured, with it no longer being an outsider...

and i think the plane shift is necessary for its "lone wanderer of the planes" image.

There's always portals. Of course, plane shift isn't on the "must delete" list.

How's that for a combined Aura of Plant Growth/Noxious Growths?

Aura of Noxious Growths (Su): This power causes all normal plant life within the creature’s aura radius to grow, as the spell of the same name. This power is fiendish in nature, and causes plants to pulsate and warp, and become deadly to most creatures. Once per round, as a free action, it can duplicate a spell of 2nd or lower level that simulates growth of plants (such as entangle), as long as the effect manifests within the aura. Alternatively, the hellseed can take a standard action to duplicate a spell of 3rd (4th?) level, or a full action to duplicate a spell of 5th (6th?) level. If the hellseed spends more than one week in the same area, the plants in that area grow thorns and become poisonous, and slowly transform into minor fiendish plant creatures. Fey, animals, beasts, magical beasts, and plant-based creatures that remain in this area must succeed at a Will save (DC 19) every day, or they turn evil and malignant (these creatures become Fiendish Creatures as per MM p ???, until this effect is broken).

 

[BOZ]

Ugh… need more free time in my day! I’ll look back into this guy soon…

knight, send me at e-mail at kbozman74 @ aol.com

 

[Knight Otu]

I just realized we might want to at least rewrite the Plane Shift ability. Currently, it reads:

Plane Shift (Sp): A hellseed can enter any of the elemental planes, the Astral plane, or the Material plane. This ability transports the hellseed and up to six other creatures, provided they all link hands with the hellseed. It is otherwise similar to the spell of the same name.

I'd change it to read:

Plane Shift (Sp): A hellseed can enter any of the transitive planes, its home plane, or the Material plane. This ability transports the hellseed and up to six other creatures, provided they all link hands with the hellseed. It is otherwise similar to the spell of the same name.

 

[BOZ]

good idea.

 

[BOZ]

i'm actualy thinking that maybe we can keep the rootlets, but they would be used when the creature is at rest rather than incorporeal.

 

[Knight Otu]

i'm actualy thinking that maybe we can keep the rootlets, but they would be used when the creature is at rest rather than incorporeal.

Something like that?

Rootlets (Su): The hellseed’s body has the ability to extend the influence of its powers using a series of root-like organs. When the hellseed is at rest, its body takes roots and extends the range of its magical aura at a rate of one mile per hour, to a maximum range of 10 miles. When the hellseed moves its body again, the rootlets retract instantly.

Judging from your previous post, you like the rewrite of the Planeshift ability?

 

[BOZ]

yes. and i'm taking a break from the computer to watch Kill Bill I, but if i feel like coming back later today or tomorrow, the hellseed is one creature i want to spend some time on.