Immortals Handbook - Epic Bestiary (Epic Monster Discussion)

[Fieari]

Funny, I was going to say "gilla monster", but I guess adding an "odz" in the middle of that works too.

 

[ShadowNinja]

Now that you say it, it does ...kinda.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi all!

Okay I updated the Epic Bestiary pages with near complete monster lists for Vlumes 2 & 3.

What I want to know is, where am I coming up short? That is, which monster types are underrepresented, which monster types are over-represented. How many CR 100+ do you want to see? How many CR 1000+ do you want to see (I am only currently planning one such monster for each volume).

http://www.immortalshandbook.com/epicbestiaryvolume2.htm

Obviously Undead get a big slice of Volume 2 (primarily because the umbrals are technically undead).

http://www.immortalshandbook.com/epicbestiaryvolume3.htm

I'll add the monsters by type table for Volume 3 later tonight.

By the way I honestly think that 46 monsters will pretty much be the limit (within 96 pages, version 6 of the CR/EL system may need 30 pages or so). Although I may expand Volume 3 to 160 pages to fit in the Elementars and a few others, but I am not sure of that idea yet.

 

[Pssthpok]

Quick question, UK:

How (i.e. how many HD of what kind/what divinity template) would you rank Marvel Comic's Dark Phoenix in terms of your Kosmos?

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hiya mate!

Quick question, UK:

How (i.e. how many HD of what kind/what divinity template) would you rank Marvel Comic's Dark Phoenix in terms of your Kosmos?

I probably don't know enough about Dark Phoenix to comment. Although I know the Marvel Universe in general ery well, I stay well away from X-Men related stuff.

So unless someone can find me MSH RPG (FASERIP) stats for Dark Phoenix, I'd only be guessing shes in around Galactus in terms of power...?

 

[Fieari]

Granted, the Dark Phoenix does consume an entire star... I'm not sure Galactus can do that?

By the way. I've been thinking about how to stat out a particularly nasty monster from the "King's Blades" series by Dave Duncan, the Firefly, and thing that it would work well as a One Dimensional creature. For your 2-D critters, do you use it as a subtype?

I'm thinking the 1-D subtype might involve...

* Unable to be struct by piercing or slashing weapons
* Damages bludgeoning weapons that strike it
* Unable to be hit by rays (except on a nat 20?)

Anything else come to mind?

The Firefly, by the way, is an unkillable (in the books, but I'm not sure how it'd react to magical cold) fire elemental that exists as a single flying point that has a natural lifespan of just a few minutes/hours (it's noramlly created as the result of a spell anyway). Anything it touches catches fire instantly, even normally unflammable things like stone; and it can pass through anything as if it were insubstantial. It has animal intellegence only, but seeks after anything that moves.

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

Granted, the Dark Phoenix does consume an entire star... I'm not sure Galactus can do that?

By the way. I've been thinking about how to stat out a particularly nasty monster from the "King's Blades" series by Dave Duncan, the Firefly, and thing that it would work well as a One Dimensional creature. For your 2-D critters, do you use it as a subtype?

I'm thinking the 1-D subtype might involve...

* Unable to be struct by piercing or slashing weapons
* Damages bludgeoning weapons that strike it
* Unable to be hit by rays (except on a nat 20?)

Anything else come to mind?

The Firefly, by the way, is an unkillable (in the books, but I'm not sure how it'd react to magical cold) fire elemental that exists as a single flying point that has a natural lifespan of just a few minutes/hours (it's noramlly created as the result of a spell anyway). Anything it touches catches fire instantly, even normally unflammable things like stone; and it can pass through anything as if it were insubstantial. It has animal intellegence only, but seeks after anything that moves.

Sounds like some N-dimentional subtypes are in order.
Being a single point in space, it is akin to a singularity it sounds. No real volume/x mass. Without any real volume, it can't possibly have any surface area, and thus could not be struck by anything really. Perhaps unerring things could strike it, like Magic Missile. Rays, which I don't think have any "diameter" or "width" would have one helluva time hitting one specific point in space. (95% miss chance AND requires a natural 20)

Also, without any volume, could you really "damage" it? There isn't anything to damage.

Statistically, I would have to figure out the "size catagory" for a Planck length. (Anything smaller probably couldn't have any real impact on the universe, no matter how hot it was) and assign it the size bonus to the thing.

A quick run through the math showed this is ~111 size catagories below medium.

For damage, perhaps because of it's high density/pressure/magical fiery-ness, it would deal fire damage of a size catagory of the "reverse" of its size. (Ex, if it was 80 sizes under medium, have it deal fire damage as something 80 sizes over medium would deal with a melee attack)

So how about this for 1D foes:
Selective Swarm traits. (Immune to weapon damage, though not the elemental "Splash" effects of those weapons.) Will generally have total concealment (Unless you have good spot) Only affected by Area-Attacks. (Though it is immune to area attacks that don't completely fill it's square; Such as a blade barrier spell, but not a Fireball)
The AC and attack modifier for being so small is roughly +5,192,296,858,534,827,628,530,496,329,220,100. It gets you.
LA: +??? / CR + ??? (It has alot of advantages, and a humongus AC/attack bonus, however, intermolecular forces should be able to grapple you quite easily)

2 and 3 Dimentional foes are covered already.

Foes with higher dimentions could just have appropo divine abilities. Ex 4-Dimensional (3+time) beings could have 7th sense, or Celerity or something.
And you could mix and match for added confusion! A 2 dimentional being composed of the 1st dimention and the 4th (time) dimention...

 

[historian]

So unless someone can find me MSH RPG (FASERIP) stats for Dark Phoenix, I'd only be guessing shes in around Galactus in terms of power...?

Ask and ye shall receive. Here are the official stats for the Dark Pheonix:

F 30
A 40
S 30
E 100
R 10
I 20
P 1000

Health 200
Karma 1030

Total 1230

She could create force fields up to Class 1000 and fire mental bolts of up to Unearthly intensity.

Personally, I wouldn't treat these statistics as absolute truth. MSH RPG was a great product but one thing the authors tended to do was change characters, sometimes significantly, with each new write up (through character updates and modules).

It is, however, the only official rendition of Dark Phoenix that I am aware of (unlike Galactus or Thor for example).

I kind of like the idea of the Phoenix Force in its primordial form being akin to a First One. Of course, I don't think all of that power could manifest through Jean Grey.

 

[Fieari]

For AC and Attack, that'd be far more easily represented by the "Supreme Weapon Focus" and "Undimensional" abilities... This'll make calculating CR much easier. 1 Transdimensional Ability, 1 Omnific ability. Now, that doesn't mean the firefly is a timelord (heck, it has a natural lifespan and then fizzles out!) but it will help with calculations.

A -204 to grapple is pretty severe, but don't forget that requires a touch attack first (and the base dex for a Femto Small creature is 112; on top of the miss chance) and furthermore, with the firefly at any rate, anything that touches it is burned. So I'm not worried there.

*continues working on some prelim stats*

Hm. I wonder if I really should deal reverse size category damage for the fire damage. That means 20971520d10. Nasty. Granted, the point of it in the books was to stay well out of the way, avoiding it until it dies of old age... one touch being instant death... but still. That seems a bit much. The book was dealing with mortals after all... granted, mortals with epic-level martial prowess, but still mortals...

Hrm.

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

For AC and Attack, that'd be far more easily represented by the "Supreme Weapon Focus" and "Undimensional" abilities... This'll make calculating CR much easier. 1 Transdimensional Ability, 1 Omnific ability. Now, that doesn't mean the firefly is a timelord (heck, it has a natural lifespan and then fizzles out!) but it will help with calculations.

A -204 to grapple is pretty severe, but don't forget that requires a touch attack first (and the base dex for a Femto Small creature is 112; on top of the miss chance) and furthermore, with the firefly at any rate, anything that touches it is burned. So I'm not worried there.

*continues working on some prelim stats*

You posted while I was editing my post due to bad math. It would be much smaller than I said. (More than twice as small, I divided by 8 when I should have divided by 2)

I didn't want to go with Undimentional, because that means Everything has a 5% chance to miss. (It still has a single dimention, so I didn't want to give it an in-appropriate power either)
And yes, it would be easier to go with "It hits, and You miss" powers, but since there are ways to cancel those out, I wanted it to have just plain big numbers so you could measure the mortal skill (read: Totally impossible) needed to acomplish such tasks as striking a singularity.

Wait till U_K details Entities and Anomalies. Those classifications sound quite appropriate for this thing.