RangerWickett
Legend
End of the world. World crumbling.
Want to get to fallen moon. Just before they get there, cracks apart, must cross somehow. Dragon might come help, some roleplay. Monster on its way.
How does monster fight? Disjunction beam. Can eat PCs. But shouldn't right away. Let's raise the bar.
Figure out its pattern. It doesn't just chew hit points. It has to be hurt X amount in lifebar 1 before lifebar 2 is available. For this, what can trigger that? Turns from black beast to red beast, exposing its true form.
Swipe a foe, create antimatter copy. Now it's party vs. one evil clone, but still a danger. PC gets negative level. PCs hate negative levels. They take them very seriously.
If it gets hit with more than X amount of spell power, it triggers its disjunction beam. But that strips away its physical body for Y rounds. Ooh, good.
The red body is smaller, slower, exhausted from the blast. It has to land on a floating island. You've got two rounds. It gets hurt, next action is to the land. Next action is regaining body, island crumbling away. Third action it's back to fighting, as the island shatters.
Because magic is life, and life is its antithesis. If it gets too much life, it must expunge it. So disjunction plus damage.
What can fighters and rogues do to make it trigger its weakness? Really, hitting it should destroy your weapons. Mages weaken it and open it up, warriors chop it up? Hm. But it's got flesh in the air, not on the ground? But I want warriors to chop it up.
Maybe its body is made of matter it destroys, which protects the soft squishy middle. So anyone can hit the middle. Sure, that makes sense.
Claws and teeth are biggest threat. Beam can't hit near rock. Vesican layout of earth to moon. Ooh, music from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is playing. I like.
Make it so 3 rounds to knock down barrier. 20 spell levels? Too fast, you can do that in 1 round with two casters and quickened. Make it 30 spell levels, so that's at least 2 rounds, positive energy should count too. Equal to spell of 1/2 highest HD that would be affected.
OK, so...
Stage 1 - run to moon, talk
Stage 2 - moon breaks away, dragon, cross over, monster swoops by with slashing tail, grapple with tail, bite? It doesn't like the moon rocks, and there are places to hide. Its normal beam doesn't reach the rock, so staying close you're safe, but it can shatter with roar? Don't go into the air with it, or it'll screw you up. Establish early that it doesn't like the rocks, so they'll know not to go up.
Stage 3 - once you reach moon, battle continues. Here it strafes with claws and tail, and if monster is hurt it lands, then shatters ground into many pieces.
Stage 4 - now we fly around shattered floating islands, and it needs a new development to its attacks. Ground is unstable, but flying is dangerous, because he can shoot lesser beam and dispel it, and you fall to your death. Or maybe it just suppresses Flight's boon, not removes it. Good. Eventually it gets knocked down in hp, and now it begins to burn through its body, making it more dangerous, but more vulnerable at all times
Stage 5 - climax. Still floating islands, but now it can smash them together, or grab them and hurl them.
So . . .
Disjunction beam once it takes 30 spell levels, but then it is exposed and weak.
Claws create clone. Tail dispels, grapples, and can pull up to mouth for bite. Bite just does a hell of a lot of damage.
Can hurl objects like Vorax-Hul, but only later.
Roar shakes land, does damage.
Needs wingover, but not hover. Hover's boring. Monster won't go near moon rocks. How to show that? Or is that even a good idea?
Vanishes when it dies, and then a nice fiat lux. Sounds fair enough.
The key should do something to it. Or does it just let you get out?
Want to get to fallen moon. Just before they get there, cracks apart, must cross somehow. Dragon might come help, some roleplay. Monster on its way.
How does monster fight? Disjunction beam. Can eat PCs. But shouldn't right away. Let's raise the bar.
Figure out its pattern. It doesn't just chew hit points. It has to be hurt X amount in lifebar 1 before lifebar 2 is available. For this, what can trigger that? Turns from black beast to red beast, exposing its true form.
Swipe a foe, create antimatter copy. Now it's party vs. one evil clone, but still a danger. PC gets negative level. PCs hate negative levels. They take them very seriously.
If it gets hit with more than X amount of spell power, it triggers its disjunction beam. But that strips away its physical body for Y rounds. Ooh, good.
The red body is smaller, slower, exhausted from the blast. It has to land on a floating island. You've got two rounds. It gets hurt, next action is to the land. Next action is regaining body, island crumbling away. Third action it's back to fighting, as the island shatters.
Because magic is life, and life is its antithesis. If it gets too much life, it must expunge it. So disjunction plus damage.
What can fighters and rogues do to make it trigger its weakness? Really, hitting it should destroy your weapons. Mages weaken it and open it up, warriors chop it up? Hm. But it's got flesh in the air, not on the ground? But I want warriors to chop it up.
Maybe its body is made of matter it destroys, which protects the soft squishy middle. So anyone can hit the middle. Sure, that makes sense.
Claws and teeth are biggest threat. Beam can't hit near rock. Vesican layout of earth to moon. Ooh, music from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is playing. I like.
Make it so 3 rounds to knock down barrier. 20 spell levels? Too fast, you can do that in 1 round with two casters and quickened. Make it 30 spell levels, so that's at least 2 rounds, positive energy should count too. Equal to spell of 1/2 highest HD that would be affected.
OK, so...
Stage 1 - run to moon, talk
Stage 2 - moon breaks away, dragon, cross over, monster swoops by with slashing tail, grapple with tail, bite? It doesn't like the moon rocks, and there are places to hide. Its normal beam doesn't reach the rock, so staying close you're safe, but it can shatter with roar? Don't go into the air with it, or it'll screw you up. Establish early that it doesn't like the rocks, so they'll know not to go up.
Stage 3 - once you reach moon, battle continues. Here it strafes with claws and tail, and if monster is hurt it lands, then shatters ground into many pieces.
Stage 4 - now we fly around shattered floating islands, and it needs a new development to its attacks. Ground is unstable, but flying is dangerous, because he can shoot lesser beam and dispel it, and you fall to your death. Or maybe it just suppresses Flight's boon, not removes it. Good. Eventually it gets knocked down in hp, and now it begins to burn through its body, making it more dangerous, but more vulnerable at all times
Stage 5 - climax. Still floating islands, but now it can smash them together, or grab them and hurl them.
So . . .
Disjunction beam once it takes 30 spell levels, but then it is exposed and weak.
Claws create clone. Tail dispels, grapples, and can pull up to mouth for bite. Bite just does a hell of a lot of damage.
Can hurl objects like Vorax-Hul, but only later.
Roar shakes land, does damage.
Needs wingover, but not hover. Hover's boring. Monster won't go near moon rocks. How to show that? Or is that even a good idea?
Vanishes when it dies, and then a nice fiat lux. Sounds fair enough.
The key should do something to it. Or does it just let you get out?
