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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Judou Ashita" data-source="post: 4450390" data-attributes="member: 59290">Hmmm... no, I haven't seen that movie. I do not have much knowledge in the way of bad movies, I'm afraid (well, not so afraid, but...). I am more knowledgeable in bad anime: I recently had the double misfortune of watching Gundam SEED Destiny and Mai-Otome. Man, are those two made of utter, epic FAIL or what? Gah, there I go, going off topic as usual...  Anyway, I said I was going to take some time for my next creature. Or, better say, convertion... For a change, it took a little less time than I anticipated...  (*Cheesy MegaMan Zero style WARNING sign appears*)  WARNINGWARNINGEPIC MONSTER AHEAD! Yes, guys, this is my very first epic-level critter, so I don't know how well I did. This was something I created as my PCs were nearing epic level themselves: yep, everyone... because soon, to herald their venture into the heights of power, my players will be taking on the Evil Elemental Princes of Earth, Ogremoch himself! About this creature, I tried to balance it against similar monsters in the Epic Level Handbook, but I'm not sure whether I did satisfyingly well. Considering how powerful epic-level PCs are, I tried not to pull any punches, but it's kinda hard for me to predict every move an epic party might pull off...So, everyone... let's give a round of applause to an oldie but goodie from the earlier versions of D&D!(*monster snorts*)So, everyone... let's give a round of applause to an oldie but goodie from the earlier versions of D&D!So, everyone... let's give a round of applause to an oldie but goodie from the earlier versions of D&D!Er, wait, I already said that! Gah... anyway, let's welcome back...From the 1st Edition's Immortal's Handbook... the Repeater! Repeater (Ditto Monster)This strange reptilian being measures a staggering 75 feet in length. Its enormous body is covered in thick plates of natural armor which shimmer an astounding, almost hypnotic pattern of iridescent colours, with eight legs the width of an ancient oak tree, each tipped with long golden claws. It has an elongated and almost crocodilian head which makes it look like a dragon, and its jaw are filled with razor-sharp pearly teeth, at least as long as a human hand. Four pairs of wings adorn its massive back, protruding between each pair of legs, and a short, stubby tail sweeps the ground behind it. It moves with unearthly grace and speed despite its immense size, and you can make out, albeit barely, some strange ripples in the space around it, as if space and time themselves bended to the monster's will. As it turns towards you, it snorts as if in mockery, and you immediately experience an alien feeling of deja vu...  Repeater CR 30Usually LN Colossal Magical Beast (Extraplanar, Lawful)Init +17; Senses Listen +64, Spot +64, darkvision 120 ft., low-light visionDefenseAC 54 (-8 size, +9 Dex, +33 natural, +1 haste, +9 deflection), touch 21, flat-footed 44hp 1'238 (55d10+935)Fort +46, Ref +40, Will +33Damage Reduction 20/chaotic and epic; SR 46 Resistances cold and fire 20; acid and sound 10 Immunities electricity, energy drain, paralysis, poison, time-based effects Special Qualities fast healing 20, reflective spell resistance, temporal grace, temporal nimblenessOffenseSpd 90 ft., fly 120 ft. (poor)Melee 6 claws +70 melee (3d8+21 / 19-20) and bite +70 melee (8d10+10 / 19-20 / +1d6) and tail +69 melee (8d6+10) plus claw +70 melee (3d8+21 / 19-20)Space 30 ft; Reach 20 ftSpecial Attacks Haste, snort, spell-like abilitiesTacticsBefore Combat A repeater only initiates combat if hungry, never failing to make use of spells such as blink or displacement to power itself up. It tries to swoop down on opponents from above or, if that isn't an option, to immediately charge in their midst, trusting its Superior Initiative and Dire Charge feats to gain an early advantage.During Combat Repeaters are mainly physical fighters, but will not shy away from using their spell-like abilities to confuse, divide and overwhelm their foes. They make liberal use of wall of stone to keep opponents apart from each other, and forcecage to stop dangerous flying opponents who can easily get around such difficulties. They usually only make use of their snort ability in rounds where they have not taken damage, hoping to force opponents to repeat the same actions and fail to inflict them significant harm. After buying themselves some time in this way, repeaters either trust their fast healing to heal their wounds, or resort to an heal spell. Morale A repeater will usually not fight to the death. After it has been reduced to about 200 hit points, it will try to escape via dimension door, teleport without error or simply using its superior speed to outrun opposition. Before escaping, it uses its snort ability one last time to hopefully throw off opponents and keep them from pursuing, or uses time stop if the situation is desperate enough to call for it - a rare occurrance indeed. StatisticsStr 52, Dex 29, Con 44, Int 23, Wis 32, Cha 28 Base Atk +55; Grp +92Feats Ability Focus (snort), Cleave, Flyby Attack, Great Cleave, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Critical (claw), Improved Initiative, Improved Multiattack, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Multiattack, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (bite), Weapon Focus (claw)Epic Feats Devastating Critical (bite), Dire Charge, Epic Will, Overwhelming Critical (bite), Superior InitiativeSkills Climb +56, Concentration +76, Intimidate +57, Knowledge (arcana) +51, Knowledge (the planes) +56, Listen +64, Sense Motive +56, Spot +64, Survival +60, Swim +46Languages Common, Draconic, Celestial, Infernal, Abyssal, Sylvan, telepathy 300 ft.EcologyEnvironment Concordant Domain of the Outlands, Plane of TimeOrganization SolitaryTreasure Double standardAdvancement 56-100 HD (Colossal)Level Adjustment— Special Abilities Immunity to Time-Based Attacks (Ex): A repeater cannot be affected in any way by attacks based on the manipulation of time (including, but not limited to, magical aging, a slow or temporal stasis spell, or a phane abomination's chronal blast).Haste (Su): A repeater constantly acts under the effects of an haste spell (caster level 30th), whose benefits have already been calculated in the above characteristics. This effect can be dispelled, but the repeater can restore it as a free action at the beginning of the next round.Reflective Spell Resistance (Su): Any spell, whether arcane or divine, that is targetted on the repeater and fails to beat the creature's spell resistance by more than 5 points is reflected back upon the caster. The caster is still allowed a saving throw with the same DC of the original spell. Snort (Su): Perhaps the most well-known, as well as the most feared, ability of the repeater is the ability it takes its name from. A repeater can snort once every 1d4+1 rounds as an immediate action and at the end of a designated round, creating a loud noise like a rumbling thunder that disrupts the very flow of time and space on an infinitesimal scale, and causing an alien sense of entrapment in every non-repeater within a radius of 150 feet. All potentially affected creatures must make a Will save (DC 48). If successful, the creature is simply shaken for 1d4+1 rounds because of the backlash from the time-space energies being warped. If failed, the victim is forced to repeat in the next round the very same actions it performed in the round at the end of which the repeater snorted. He or she must take the same movement actions, even if they would bring him (or her) to obvious danger or expose him/her to an attack of opportunity. The same attack actions must be done, even if there are no targets within reach: the victim simply hacks away at thin air, without being able to control his/her movements. If the victim had cast a spell in the previous round, he or she must cast the same spell (if possible) or another spell of the same level. Failing that, the victim simply loses the round.Clearly, the repeater is under no such restriction, and may freely act from the whole duration of the effect. It istinctively senses which creatures have succumbed to his entrapment ability, and targets them with preference to other targets. Against such creatures, a repeater enjoys a +10 circumstance bonus on attack rolls and saving throws, and is not subject to eventual miss chances. This effect lasts for 5 rounds, at the end of every one of which the victim is entitled another saving throw (with the same DC) to throw off the effect. Once a repeater has snorted, it must wait 1d4+1 rounds before doing it again. In case of a still-entrapped victim who fails another save against the snort ability, the duration stacks with each failed save. The save DC is Charisma-abased, and includes a +2 from Ability Focus.Spell-like Abilities (Sp): At will - blink, death ward, dimension door, displacement, greater dispelling, plane shift, slow, true seeing, wall of stone; 3/day - dimensional lock, disintegrate, forcecage, heal, meteor swarm, teleport without error, temporal stasis; 1/day - hellball. Caster level 30th. Save DC 19 + spell level. The save DC is Charisma-based. Temporal Grace (Su): A repeater's control over the flow of time around itself allow it to use time itself to protect its body. A repeater has a deflective bonus to its AC equal to its Charisma modifier (usually +9).Temporal Nimbleness (Ex): A repeater moves through time and space in a different manner than most other creatures. If a time stop spell is cast, a repeater is not "frozen in time" like the rest of the world apart from the arcanist himself, and may freely act, attack and use any of its special abilities, skills and feats until the spell expires. Many a planar traveller swears to have seen fellow planewalking wizards simply torn apart in front of their eyes, in less than one second, when they tried to use time stop in order to have time to prepare themselves.   --------- The repeater, also known as 'ditto monster' among the most seasoned of planar travellers, is an unusual, tremendously powerful reptilian creature whose powers are somehow connected with the flow of time. They roams blasted heaths and endless plains in the most remote regions of the Concordant Domain of the Outlands, and can also be found in the mysterious Plane of Time (see Tome of Horrors 2 for details), patrolling their territories in search of prey and strange phenomena that will satisfy their curiosity. A repeater is about 75 feet long and 15 feet wide, with a dinosaur-like body covered in multicolored scales and several pairs of leathery wings sprouting from its massive back. EcologyRepeaters are predators through and through. They do not require much food to survive, despite their immense size, but they seem to secretly enjoy testing themselves against other powerful beasts, such as brachiuruses, sirrushes and tayellahs (see Epic Level Handbook for details), and will prioritize such formidable prey rather than throwing themselves at weaker opponents. Strangely enough, though, it seems that a repeater's favored prey are the more powerful aspects of deities and cosmic entities, regardless of alignment. They seem to relish the taste of their flesh, and savour it for as long as possible. Therefore, they are almost universally hated by the servants of such entities, who do their best to thwart them (and, if possible, kill them) every chance they get. Anyway, a hungry repeater will not be picky about its food, and will gladly attack and eat any planar traveller and creature it comes across.Thanks to its incredible physical strength, time-based abilities and immunities, not to mention their dreaded snort ability, repeaters are usually at the pinnacle of the food chain in their region. However, they are not without enemies. The same sirrushes who they gladly hunt have been known to gather in packs for the express purpouse of taking down a repeater (because of their suspected relation to true dragons), and even titans have been known to organize ditto monster hunting squads from time to time. A titan who can boast a ditto monster kill commands great respect among his peers, especially since such hunts are rarely successful.A repeater's life spans entire eons, and they may very well be immortal barring death in combat. Habitat and SocietySolitary creatures, repeaters are for the most part shrouded in mystery. Very little is known of their relationships with other creatures of the multiverse, other than their enmity with direct servitors of divinity. They seem to be content with living their day-to-day routine of wandering around their planes of origin, eating and gathering planar knowledge for their unknown motives. They have often been rumored as being related to true dragons, but both dragons and repeaters have denied such claims. AlignmentRepeaters seem to believe in some overachieving "order" of the multiverse, and see themselves as a part of that grand scheme of things, leading to a lawful alignment. Usually, repeaters don't care much for morality. They simply concentrate on surviving and discovering more about the multiverse, although their personalities are forged by their own experiences, and are therefore quite varied for creatures of law. Good or evil-aligned repeaters are known to have existed, but the majority of them is morally neutral. TreasureMuch like dragons, repeater covet treasure, especially valuing ancient, elaborate jewels forged in some remote part of the multiverse, and polished gems. Furthermore, they are capable of using some magic items, as far as their shape allows them to, and treasure magic items that can be used by dragons as well. They keep double the usual treasure for a creature of their CR, most often in a deep cave protected by some eldritch singularity such as flux ooze.    ----------  And there you go! First epic monster! I apologize if the somewhat goofy tone with which I introduced this new post annoyed anyone... I am the kind of guy who tries to be as upbeat as possible! Well then, send your comments! I am eager to know if I did a good job of it... And see you next time! (Edited 6-9-2008)</blockquote>

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