Monster Revisions

[Upper_Krust]

Hey all!

I like the idea of the Dark LeShay, although I don't really see where Elemental LeShay is coming from? Also surely Dark LeShay is little more (judging from your example) than an alignment change, rather than something that needs a full stat write up?

As to the Black Ethergaunt, where in the blue blazes does 34 Hit Dice come from? Ethergaunts are one of those monsters that have the potential to be a cool concept, but for a number of design reasons simply are not. I don't fathom the significance of the colour scheme. None of the different colours have unique powers. They all wield the same weapons. Theres no correlation behind their assignment of Hit Dice. Badly designed and badly illustrated...the latter statement somewhat ironic coming from me, but nonetheless accurate!

Nevertheless I fail to see where this nonsense of 34 Hit Dice springs from!? If indeed these are meant to be conversions using the IH books as a basis, then all Ethergaunts would have 3 Hit Dice. Since they are all Medium-sized Aberrations.

If I was redesigning EthergauntsI'd probably have them as some sort of half-aberration/half-undead beings who were once an army of beings from the Far Realm who became possessed by spirits of the undead. I'd change them so that Black Ethergaunts were low Hit Dice (6), Grey were inbetween (11 HD) and the white were the leaders (16 HD). Then give them different coloured magical masks representing different class castes (Red = Warrior, Yellow = Cleric, Green = Rogue), each could have a special power/significance. Their great leaders (21 HD) would be invisible except for their masks (Blue = Wizard).

...or something like that.

 

[dante58701]

Nah....that would ruin them. The color scheme is based upon a deck of cards (whether conciously based or subconciously based) - think Alice in Wonderland. Plus I dont exactly agree that all aberrations would be limited by size to a certain number of hit dice. Aberrations are inherently "unnatural". So by the way you have worded things, they very well should be able to exceed normal hit dice in the same manner fey do (as should anything with inherent supernatural abilities).

And they aren't undead, theyre infused with etheric energies and have not had need for powerful physical bodies for many an age (everything in the ether floats). They were originally designed to be quite bizarre and totally mindboggling in their design...incomprehensible to game designers as a whole. That was part of their fun. I would classify them as higher dimensional beings.

As for 34 Hit Dice. I simply chose to increase their Hit Dice, rather than rob them of their spellcasting abilities, which were quite fearsome. Going from 17th level wizard to 6th level wizard would not have made sense at all. And further dropping them from their original 16 HD to 3 HD would have been incredibly lame.

Another option would have been Hit Dice 1,2,3 + Wizard Levels. But that would still rob them of their spellcasting and strip them of numerous advantages. I did consider changing their type to outsider with aberration subtype, but what would be the point, it would make them too powerful.

 

[Omeganian]

What would be the proper revision from the Slayer's Guide's Land Giants? I think the CR a mountain sized creature should be well above the tens.

 

[Kalitharus]

Mountain Giants

In both 1st Ed. AD+D and D+D there were Mountain Giants, who often worked as mercenaries for elite armies. In 1st Ed. D+D they had anywhere from 12 to 20 HD and hit for 5d10 dmg. In AD+D they had 14 HD and hit for 4d10 dmg.

The stench of Mountain Giants could be smelled several hundred feet downwind.

 

[Omeganian]

I am talking about mountain SIZED giants.

 

[zarquin]

I am talking about mountain SIZED giants.

Take the mountin giant from MM2 and apply the teratoid template from the Epic Bestiary to it twice, and that should give you a giant about a mile high. And remember to give it the things that go with that increased HD, like ability score improves every time HD is divisible by 4, feats every time HD is divisible by 3, BAB, saves and skills of probably 2+int ever HD improvement. Should give it about 900 additional HD, so an additional 300 feats, 225 ability score points, ~2700 skill points, +675 BAB, +450 to all saves, etc... and a CR like 700.

But I'd say after looking at the land giant as it was written in the slayer's guide a CR of 90 is WAAY to high for what they wrote. Because it's incapable of hitting incorporeal creatures or swarms of fine or diminuative creatures and has no DR, Fast healing, or Regen. So a like 20th druid or mage could just tear through the thing.

 

[Omeganian]

Well, that's my question; what would a properly balanced Mega Tiny giant look like?

 

[zarquin]

Well, that's my question; what would a properly balanced Mega Tiny giant look like?

Uhh... Mega-Tiny would be the size of CONTINENTS, Macro-medium is the size of mountains. And it would have probably 900-2000HD and every thing that goes with having that many HD. Probably nothing else special, since it's just a REALLY REALLY large humanoid.

 

[dante58701]

I wouldn't give it too many Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma based skills. I tend to think that those should be reserved for physical skills since it needs to compensate for it's enormous bulk. Plus, bigger should never necessarily mean smarter or "more knowing". It'd be as if a human were enlarged to the size of a mountain. Heh...just imagine the armpit forests or worse...the southern jungle and the snake of doom. Or even worse, the lower pit of stench. People could explore and live on a giant that big. Imagine battling macrobe dust mites. And gods forbid the giant be female, the grande tetons and the bloody pit of screams.

 

[zarquin]

Really, any of the Mega-class and higher creatures don't really have meaning from a stat perspective. Because by this point you've got the 6000 str which lets you do effectively infinite damage, and so it just boils down to who hits first. And unless the creatures have any divine powers, things like Transtemporal will make the fight instantly over with thier loss.

Because the Sidereals and such are below CR 1000, and once you can slaughter them, anything that doesn't have divine powers isn't going to pose TOO much of a problem, regardless of how big, how many HP, or what AC it has. Even Pun-pun has a CR of only like 24k and he is immune to all damage, has fast healing equal to twice his HP, and never takes normal damage, ohh... and has an arbitraily high reach that can extend past planar boundaries. The mega-tiny giant would be like 50k+ CR, which clearly doesn't make any sense.