Immortals Handbook Epic Bestiary (now available)

[Eversius]

I think the listing for damage reduction for a Wyrmling Nexus Dragon is a little wacky.

 

[jmucchiello]

Well I presume you don't mean the 'work of fiction' line, and are refering to the line about making copies? If so I'll remove that line and do another incarnation (Version 1.2) tonight. I'm going to have to update the license anyway, can't have that hanging.

No, no. It's the "by virtue of being in the SRD or some other OGC source" in you OGC declaration. I don't think it passes the "clear designation" required by the OGL since I have to read all other OGC sources to know if something is OGC or not. But there are several other Publishers who use that phrasing and they haven't been sued by WotC yet. As I said it was esoteric.

I'd certainly prefer to work with an established publisher rather than have to do everything myself, as you have noted I'm not one hundred percent up to scratch on the legal side of things, and the online aspect has been a learning process in truth.

Damn, wish I'd offered. Especially since you've already acquired artwork and layout. Wouldn't have been much for me to do except a quick edit and make corrections to the legal stuff. Though I haven't done print yet, I do have a project (in production nearly as long as the IH) with another writer that I will have printed.

 

[Alzrius]

Lastly, as jmucchiello has intimated, it looks like I should update the d20 license, so while I am doing that I may as well fix the errata, so if you find anymore by tonight let me know.

A few things on that note. One, it'd be nice if the templates had level adjustments listed for the template entry itself. That is, tell us how much of a level adjustment the entire Amidah template is, not just Alabaster's ECL, for example.

I'll also reiterate my desire that you use the blank (save for the dedication) second page as a way to input more text. It's largely wasted space now when you could be telling us more about Alabaster and his swords.

Alabaster is able to have his natural weapons (and have his melee weapons) strike as epic for purposes of overcoming damage reduction...how?

Nimrod has the Evil subtype. I can't see what's granting that to him.

The Flaga template itself should mention in the "Size and Type" line that it adds the Extraplanar subtype also, and that the creature is now a native of (one of) the Upper Planes (though I wonder if "Upper Planes" is WotC IP also). It should also say that it grants the Augmented subtype.

Alabaster is listed as being a "Medium Undead (Undead)". Needless to say, the Undead subtype is superfluous. Ditto for Nimrod.

The adult titanium dragon above Table D-27 still has a Special Quality called Adamantite Traits.

Syzygy's alignment can be listed as "Chaotic Neutral" instead of "always chaotic neutral" since there's only one of him. Ditto for Belias ("Chaotic Evil"),

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey guys!

Regarding the hit dice I've got a question: The Half-Dragon Template mentions the following line: "Increase base creature’s racial HD by one die size, to a maximum of d12." With your rules, would this maximum be abolished, so the hierarchy gets expanded to d12->d20->d100->d1000->d10000 etc.?

The maximum for a half-dragon would still be d12 though.

Hey U_K!

Hiya mate!

Of course not and, ironically, as long as the mistakes are obvious enough they have no substantive import.

Nevertheless I hate mistakes.

Many folks will clamor that these "overpowered" critters have no practical value because they are overpowered. I tend to disagree. For one thing you have littered the work with general ideas about how to include these things in lower-powered campaigns.

Net, net, I'm not sure you can go too powerful unless you can't explain why the hell the thing exists in the first place. Seeing that you have that covered I say fire away.

Of course, I'm also sympathetic to the fact that the neutronium golem's entry came at the sacrifice of some likely less powerful and arguably more useful entry. But it seems as though everyone has taken to it rather well.

The Neutronium Golem is an exercise in stretching the imaginations of what people thought was possible with d20.

If you only give people monsters up to CR 66, then many people will see that as a parameter/threshold of power. I remember reading threads over in wizards epic forums where people believed that the only being more powerful than the Great Wyrm Prismatic Dragon was GOD.

I'd been meaning to needle you about that one for some time. Well done I must say. I might slap on the Paragon and Dire templates to approximate our buddy from another genre.

Or you could just give him lots of levels (about 100 maybe).

I will admit to being puzzled by the alignment previously. I just failed to mention it.

How I missed that I'll never know.

Oh, and another irony, the quality of the work is such that you have created additional demand for forthcoming products. While this is good for you in both the artistic and hopefully financial sense, it is likely to result in additional pressure to complete all projects by your loyal albeit enthusiastic (rabid) fan base.

I hope you're ready for the push dude.

Well I'll be looking to turnover new products in a matter of weeks not months.

I think the listing for damage reduction for a Wyrmling Nexus Dragon is a little wacky.

You're not wrong, flippin heck that needs attention.

No, no. It's the "by virtue of being in the SRD or some other OGC source" in you OGC declaration. I don't think it passes the "clear designation" required by the OGL since I have to read all other OGC sources to know if something is OGC or not. But there are several other Publishers who use that phrasing and they haven't been sued by WotC yet. As I said it was esoteric.

Why would that impede you from wanting to purchase it though?

Damn, wish I'd offered.

Well, like I said, I was just wanting to have one product out there, to have something to show for myself and then, talk to publishers about future products.

Especially since you've already acquired artwork and layout.

Well I didn't 'acquire' it as much as I...did it all myself.

Wouldn't have been much for me to do except a quick edit and make corrections to the legal stuff.

Regarding legal stuff, would you mind if I emailed/private messaged you to double-check I have 6.0 sorted properly this time.

Though I haven't done print yet, I do have a project (in production nearly as long as the IH) with another writer that I will have printed.

Good luck with that.

A few things on that note. One, it'd be nice if the templates had level adjustments listed for the template entry itself. That is, tell us how much of a level adjustment the entire Amidah template is, not just Alabaster's ECL, for example.

Okay, I'll sort that out.

I'll also reiterate my desire that you use the blank (save for the dedication) second page as a way to input more text. It's largely wasted space now when you could be telling us more about Alabaster and his swords.

Thats meant to represent the inside cover, so that when people print it out, the majority of the double-page monster entries are on facing pages.

I'm not sure what I could put on the inside cover. I can't really expand Alabasters entry onto it without making a dog's dinner of the layout.

Alabaster is able to have his natural weapons (and have his melee weapons) strike as epic for purposes of overcoming damage reduction...how?

Nimrod has the Evil subtype. I can't see what's granting that to him.

Oops.

The Flaga template itself should mention in the "Size and Type" line that it adds the Extraplanar subtype also, and that the creature is now a native of (one of) the Upper Planes (though I wonder if "Upper Planes" is WotC IP also). It should also say that it grants the Augmented subtype.

Indeed.

Alabaster is listed as being a "Medium Undead (Undead)". Needless to say, the Undead subtype is superfluous. Ditto for Nimrod.

Okay.

The adult titanium dragon above Table D-27 still has a Special Quality called Adamantite Traits.

Sorted.

Syzygy's alignment can be listed as "Chaotic Neutral" instead of "always chaotic neutral" since there's only one of him. Ditto for Belias ("Chaotic Evil"),

Thanks a million dude!

 

[Pssthpok]

Hey, UK. Superb work. The build-your-own golem section is my favorite.

 

[Anabstercorian]

I'm going to try to use your dragon-building guidelines to create the Transuranic Dragons. Highly radioactive, surprisingly sedate, very, very dense, and disconcertingly loud shouters.

 

[Alzrius]

Thats meant to represent the inside cover, so that when people print it out, the majority of the double-page monster entries are on facing pages.


I'm not sure what I could put on the inside cover.

I can understand where you're coming from, but that strikes me as somewhat unnecessary. People who print out the Bestiary will use the double-sided layout for the pages, yes, but no one will include the cover with that print job. That's because colored pages are usually done separately due to ink reasons, and likewise, many PDF-to-print jobs do the cover separately anyway on a thicker surface.

Simply put, people will know to manually print the cover separately, as a single-sided page, and that, not the (almost) blank page you have there, is the inside cover.

I can't really expand Alabasters entry onto it without making a dog's dinner of the layout.

Anything extra would be much appreciated. Keep in mind that while you have all the info in your head and on any notes you've made, we've got only what's in the Bestiary. If you don't expand the info on Alabaster, then that's all that we will ever get to see.

One other thing I wanted to ask about. What is the reason behind Sandalphon's Androgyne Ray? It has no mechanical effect, and I'm not grokking the thematic reason for it (beyond, maybe, it has something to do with fallen cherubim becoming female).

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey guys!

By the way I was able to update the website earlier, I added a shop page and a page for third-party creations (where I added Fieari's monster links). I also fixed all the Bestiary preview pictures.

Hey, UK. Superb work. The build-your-own golem section is my favorite.

Thanks Pssthpok mate!

I think it sorts out all the basics and its very quick and simple to follow.

I'm going to try to use your dragon-building guidelines to create the Transuranic Dragons. Highly radioactive, surprisingly sedate, very, very dense, and disconcertingly loud shouters.

Sounds cool - it could have Atomic Breath based upon the Kiloton spell.

I can understand where you're coming from, but that strikes me as somewhat unnecessary. People who print out the Bestiary will use the double-sided layout for the pages, yes, but no one will include the cover with that print job. That's because colored pages are usually done separately due to ink reasons, and likewise, many PDF-to-print jobs do the cover separately anyway on a thicker surface.

Simply put, people will know to manually print the cover separately, as a single-sided page, and that, not the (almost) blank page you have there, is the inside cover.

I'm sure many will do it like that but not necessarily all.

The book is 96 pages +1 page cover +1 page inside cover. If I was going to post anything on the inside cover, it would have to be something totally generic as far as I can see.

Anything extra would be much appreciated. Keep in mind that while you have all the info in your head and on any notes you've made, we've got only what's in the Bestiary. If you don't expand the info on Alabaster, then that's all that we will ever get to see.

Don't worry about that I have other plans for Alabaster, thats why I singled him out as Product Identity.

One other thing I wanted to ask about. What is the reason behind Sandalphon's Androgyne Ray? It has no mechanical effect, and I'm not grokking the thematic reason for it (beyond, maybe, it has something to do with fallen cherubim becoming female).

Someone else asked me this recently, the reason for it was that in my studies of Sandalphon himself, one of the powers attributed to him was the ability to change someones sex. So I was just trying to adhere to the occult information as closely as possible. So if he fought Demogorgon, he could zap him and change him to Demogorgana.

This tied in perfectly with a Divine Power I had called Androgyne Ray. I then toyed with the idea of similar powers for the Cherubim (Beam of Balance*) and Seraphim (Ray of Redemption). The Seraphim were also meant to have one unique power tying them to the seven virtues (but time and space restraints kept it out).

*Which got cut, though may end up on Metatron.

 

[Alzrius]

And just because the template seemed so appropriate for the creature, synergy-wise, I also have an Atata Banshee: http://d20npcs.wikicities.com/wiki/Atata_Banshee_CR_31

You may want to note that one of the changes you made was that normally, the Atata template can only be added to a creature with a Constitution score.

EDIT: Also, U_K, I notice that you seem to have split references between "Far Realm" and "Far Place". I've found roughly an equal number of each by doing a word search. Seems a tad confusing. Since I think you have a somewhat-credible case for using the "Far Realm" (in my opinion, which in all honesty isn't worth much), you may just want to go with that. Either way though, two names for one place does seem a bit too much.

Also, U_K, a number of creatures (such as cometary dragons, cogents, etc.) seem to be space-dwellers. However, their creature type (Outsider, Aberration, etc.) states that they need to breathe. How do they survive there then?

Don't worry about that I have other plans for Alabaster, thats why I singled him out as Product Identity.

Woot! I can't wait! Does anyone just imagine him walking into a room and hearing Rhapsody's "When Demons Awake" start playing? I know I do.

 

[Anabstercorian]

Whilst producing the transuranic dragon, the Gold Within Gold Dragon, I was forced to come up with a new mechanic for its scales...

Omnipresent gaze attacks function as normal gaze attacks, save that creatures within range must attempt a saving throw during their turn AND on the gazing creatures turn, and the gazer may not actively attempt to use its gaze as an attack action. Such effects are appropriate for gaze attacks who either do not require eye contact to activate, only being seen, or beings with so many eyes that there is no real difference between seeing the gazer and making eye contact with it.

What do you think?