Lords of Madness Stuff (Update: Some folks have it!)

[Nightfall]

*might do it*

I could use more XP anyway.

 

[Knight Otu]

That's fine. It just leaves room for a second book of aberrations, focusing on the less organized critters. WotC could call it Scions of Madness, or something.

(Now, to find a freelancer interested in working on it... )

With the number of aberrations mentioned in the various threads as "missing" from the book, Lords of Madness could become a series in its own right.

 

[Gez]

Kaorti are outsiders.

They are? Dang, I really should stop going to the WotC boards*. In one of the LoM threads over there, someone was complaining about the lack of kaorti, and thus upon reading it I thought "yes, they fit the title "lords of madness" alright, not a bad idea". . .

* Or at least assume that what the posters there say is always erroneous somehow.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There hasn't been any other monster series book announced for 2005, has there been? I sure hope they don't give up the ghost yet -- there's still a lot more types to do, and while everyone hasn't loved every monster book equally, the overall quality of the line has been the best of any 3.5 supplement series.

 

[DMH]

I like the fleshwarper, but I think it is a tad overpowered. The biomancer that was posted to the front page a couple weeks ago: http://www.wakinglands.com/htm_files/the_prestige_classes_page.htm is better (but doesn't use the graft system at all since that is not OGC).

Sadly I can find the address of the site where someone converted the Merlane's spells- they were and are the best at warping life and I wish they had converted that kit into a PrC instead of creating a new one.

Edit, they are here: http://www.thievesguild.cc/

You just have to look for the teratism I, II and III and Lusus Naturae for the important spells in their rather long list.

There hasn't been any other monster series book announced for 2005, has there been?

I think they are doing them once per year (or close to it). I am guessing that outsiders are next, though I am hoping for elementals, giants or plants (in that order) are next.

 

[Felon]

Alas... there just wasn't enough room in the book to give the same amount of love to all the aberrations. I, for one, would have loved to do a chapter on the avolakia or the cloaker or the ixitxachitl or even the ettercap, but there were only a half dozen chapters to go around. We decided to focus on the empire-building and mind-controlling aberrations as a result, which helped to thin the ranks a bit.

Well, I for one would have really loved to see the avolakia get the spotlight. They certainly have the mental attributes to be deemed an empire-building race, and they are infiltrators mind-conrollers. Plus, they're just so damn evil and interesting. A race of shapeshifting creatures that use undead as servants, protectors, and livestock.

James, any chance you might do something with them elsewhere, like in a Dragon article? They have tremendous potential and have never been covered extensively in another product (unlike, say, the grell or neogi). And even more importantly, they really need a major re-write to be truly effective opponents. Casting vampiric touch and enervation a few times a day doesn't really provide the amount of offense a CR 10 critter deserves. And, oddly enough, despite masters of undead they have no special abilities that actually allow them to control undead. Add to that a perfectly lousy illustration in MMII, and there's all the reason in the world to give these critters some attention.

EDIT--Come to think of it, the avolakia's original appearance was in a Dragon article--specifically, the October that came out a month after 3e's release. It was one of the first 3e monsters to be seen outside of the Monster Manual. All that time, and no attention. It oughtta be a crime.

 

[James Jacobs]

Kaorti are outsiders.

I wrote up the kaorti for Fiend Folio, and now not a single day doesn't go by that doesn't see me wishing I'd made them aberrations. Oh well... too late now!

 

[James Jacobs]

James, any chance you might do something with them elsewhere, like in a Dragon article?

I'd say the chances of the avolakia getting a little love (eew) in the pages of Dungeon and maybe even in Dragon at some point between today and this time today 14 months from now are close to 100% likely.

As for them controlling undead... they can automatically control any undead they create with animate dead. I've always envisioned avolakia clerics as being rather common, though, so any avolakia society will certainly have some of them handy to control other undead. I'm not sure what interest they'd have in undead more powerful than zombies, though, except as special courses during the avolakia equivalent of Thanksgiving. In which case they don't need to be able to controll them as much as they just need to be able to put them in a box or an oven.

And for the record, I much prefered the illo that Dragon ran over the MM II illo. Although I much prefer the illo that Wayne did of the ulgurstasta for the Fiend Folio over the one in that same Dragon article.

 

[Psion]

I wrote up the kaorti for Fiend Folio, and now not a single day doesn't go by that doesn't see me wishing I'd made them aberrations. Oh well... too late now!

Sounds like errata to me.

 

[James Jacobs]

Sounds like errata to me.

Meh... I guess I'm actually cool with them as outsiders. They get better attacks and saves and skills as outsiders. And they are from another plane, so technically outsider works fine.

It's just that they work and play with aberrations, so they just feel like they should be aberrations.

Too bad you can't multitype like you can multiclass...