#17
Knight Otu said:
For the tongue, we do have a few core monsters whose natural weapons can be sundered.
BOZ said:
true... but they are a bit different from this text. I mean, the hardness thing is definitely different.
Knight Otu said:
I don't really see the issue about tongue being different from other sunderable natural weapons.
it's quite different. Here is how it would look, compared to the original below:
An opponent can attack an THING's tongue with a sunder attempt as if it were a weapon. An THING's tongue has 4 hit points. (
this sentence needed? - If an THING is currently grappling a target with the tongue that is being attacked, it usually uses another limb to make its attack of opportunity against the opponent making the sunder attempt.) Severing an THING's tongue deals 4 points of damage to the creature. The creature's tongue does not grow back naturally, but can be restored with a spell such as heal or regenerate.
The long barbed tongues of the THING can be struck as a weapon and are treated as having a hardness of 0 and 4 hit points. A severed tongue results in the loss of 4 hit points and will not grow back without magical healing such as a heal or regenerate spell.
See, the previous paragraph makes no mention of hardness.
Knight Otu said:
The thing about the eyes might be a SQ.
maybe, maybe not... basically, it's just the one-half cover thing that needs a resolution.
The amphibian eyes of the THING allow them to lie submerged beneath water and lash out with their tongues at targets on land with no penalty, but opponents trying to hit them do so at a disadvantage, reflected in a one-half cover bonus to the THING.
#18
BOZ said:
is there any part of this that is reflected in the rules?: "The loss of a bone renders the limb useless. The victim suffers a - 4 circumstance penalty to his effective Strength and Dexterity scores in appropriate situations, such as combat. His movement is reduced by 75% if a leg is affected. If an arm is affected, the victim faces a 50% spell failure chance for any spell with a somatic component."
Knight Otu said:
For simplicity - maybe make the victim nauseated and/or sickened?
yeah, but this is a permanent effect. I was wondering if there were any rules in the books for missing limbs. Nauseated would be very detrimental for only missing a limb, and I don't know that permanently sickened makes that much sense either. If there is no current analog to these modifiers, I'll just use them straight as-is.
Bone Theft (Su): When a THING scores a successful critical hit with any of its natural attacks, it can magically absorb a bone from one of the victim's arms or legs (determined randomly). The victim must succeed on a DC 13 Fortitude save or lose the bone, rendering that limb useless. The loss of a bone is permanent, but it can be restored with a regenerate spell. The save DC is Constitution-based.
For each bone a THING steals, its natural armor increases by +1 for 24 hours, the stolen bone material forming a bony plating and spurs on the THING's body. This change occurs 1d4 rounds after the attack, and cannot raise the THING's natural armor bonus over +5. A creature that loses a bone from this attack cannot be affected again for 24 hours.
BOZ said:
Bone Theft (Su): Upon a successful critical hit with any of its attacks, a THING can magically absorb a bone from one of its victim's arms or legs (determine randomly which appendage is affected). A Fortitude save (DC 14) resists this bone theft. The loss of a bone renders the limb useless. The victim suffers a - 4 circumstance penalty to his effective Strength and Dexterity scores in appropriate situations, such as combat. His movement is reduced by 75% if a leg is affected. If an arm is affected, the victim faces a 50% spell failure chance for any spell with a somatic component. The bone is permanently lost, but powerful magic such as regenerate can restore the victim's limb. For each bone stolen, the THINGs natural AC bonus increases from its base 0 by +1 (to a maximum of+5) after 1d4 rounds, as the stolen bone forms new bony plating and spurs on the THINGs body. No victim can be affected by bone theft more than once per day, and the THING loses 1 point of this natural bonus per day.
#19
FYI, the first stat block was the male, and the second was the female.
Knight Otu said:
Erm, I don't understand those attaxks for the first one either. All I can tell is that it does have no secondary natural attacks, so multiattack is worthless for it.
true on both counts. I went and looked up the original creature and found that there are three variants - and apparently, the only difference between the three is how much damage the tentacles do. There is the "cropping", "sickle", and "hatchet" variation, all of which apparently do slashing damage but at different rates.
Knight Otu said:
Feat possibilities for each:
Flyby attack, Hover, Wingover (not female), Power Attack, Combat Reflexes (not female), Improved Critical (weapon)...
cool. That gives me:
Male: Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Flyby Attack, Improved Critical (tentacle slash), Wingover
Female: Flyby Attack, Hover, Improved Critical (tentacle), Multiattack, Power Attack
The females need a couple more, how about Iron Will and Cleave? Or Improved Initiative
More new ones:
#20
check these abilities:
Drain Spell (Su): If a THING makes a successful grapple attack against a spellcast-ing opponent, beginning on the following round it may temporarily drain 1 prepared spell or spell slot per round until either the opponent breaks free or all his spells or spell slots have been drained. The spell or spell slot returns as normal the next day.
Flight (Ex): THING can fly for a number of hours equal to half of their Constitution ability score.
Shatter (Sp): Once per day, a THING may move its wings so rapidly it creates a sonic burst of energy capable of shattering flasks, vials, and other brittle objects up to five pounds. This functions as per the spell shatter used as an area attack as cast by a 5th-level cleric.
#21
this all came from the queen of a bee people. I haven't really read over it yet, but have a look at it:
Create Wax (Su): A THING queen is a mystical bottleneck through which harvested magic residue is converted into THING wax, which can be used raw to build hives or further enchanted by the queen with special qualities. If she makes a Concentration skill check (DC 30 - her Constitution modifier), she can pull residue collected by her workers into the Material Plane, channeling it into a receptacle. Each round that she does this, she may pull through 5 cubic feet of the substance. However, there is a physical strain that takes its toll on her when doing so, inflicting 1 d4 points of damage each round she uses this ability. For more information on THING wax, see below.
Enchant Wax (Su): Once per day, a queen may enchant a batch of wax equal to or less than 1 cubic foot per Constitution modifier point she has with one special quality; see below. Enchanting a batch requires 1 hour. This ability may only be used on a single batch up to a maximum of two times, conferring upon it just two special qualities and no more.
Harvest Residue (Su): A THING may harvest the magic residue that has built up around any living creature that gives its consent; the subject can negate the Harvest Residue process at will at any time during the process. To harvest a creature's residue, the THING must make a successful Will check (DC 23) each hour for a number of hours equal to the other creature's primary spellcasting ability modifier plus its total spellcasting levels. At the end of that time, the creature's residue has been entirely removed. The harvester's Will check successes don't need to be consecutive, but each failure increases the harvest time by one hour. Non-spellcasting creatures have significantly less residue to harvest, and so the duration required to remove it is equal to their Wisdom modifier, with a minimum of one hour for those with a zero or negative rating. A creature undergoing the harvest slips into unconsciousness for the duration of the process. Harvested residue is automatically channeled back to the THING hive.
A side effect of having one's residue harvested results in the spellcaster being able to cast spells at 1 level higher than his current level for a number of days equal to his primary spellcasting ability score modifier, with a minimum of 1 day. It takes harvested spell-casters a number of months equal to 12 -their spellcaster level, to a minimum of one month, to accumulate enough residue to undergo another harvest. Non-spellcasters require a period of one year between harvests. A THING may not harvest from said creatures before this accumulation time is up.
NEW MAGICAL MATERIAL. THING WAX
Only THING queens produce this strange, tan substance. It is made of magic residue, a substance every living creature accumulates but which only the THING know how to harvest and, more importantly, utilize. When freshly channeled by a queen onto the Material Plane, the wax is soft, warm, and doughy. Over the course of an hour it hardens. Whatever shape it is in when this happens is the shape it will keep until destroyed. Most commonly, raw THING wax is used as a construction material for the bee people's cities. Non-enchanted wax used lor walls and doors has a hardness of 10, 20 hp per inch of thickness, a break DC of 25 +1 per 3 inches of thickness, and a Climb DC of 20. THING wax can be made into weapons and armor, if one is so inclined, though the overall quality is negligible at best; they don't usually survive their first encounter with combat.
One notable feature of the wax is that THING queens can augment it in such a way that it becomes enchanted with up to two special qualities. The qualities known to be regularly used in THING hive construction are listed below.
Cold Immunity: The material is immune to cold damage, but fire attacks do double damage. At night, the material gives off a bluish glow. If later enchanted with Fire Immunity, this quality is lost.
Defensive: The material gains SR 12, a break DC +10, hardness +10, and hp +100. If
later enchanted with the Offensive quality, this quality is lost.
Fire Immunity: The material is immune to fire damage, but cold attacks do double damage. At night the material gives off a yellow glow. If later enchanted with Cold Immunity, this quality is lost.
Magic Immunity: The material gains SR 18 and an absolute immunity to one school of magic: abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion. necromancy, or transmutation. If the material also contains the Defensive quality, then this SR takes precedence. If later enchanted with the Spell Turning quality, then this quality is lost.
Offensive: This material attacks an enemy type specified during the enchantment process. When said enemy type comes within 10 feet of the material, it takes damage as per the spell inflict serious wounds: the Will save DC is 13 + the queen's Constitution modifier for half damage. If later enchanted with the Defensive quality, this one is lost.
Spell Turning: The material gains the permanent quality to turn magic back at its source, similarly to the spell of the same name. During a 1-hour period, the material may reflect up to 12 spell levels, after which time it resets itself. If later enchanted with the Magic Immunity quality, this quality is lost.
Toxic: The material's surface maintains a constant layer of contact poison (DC 17! with an initial damage of Id4 temporary Strength and secondary damage of 1 d4 temporary Constitution.
Wind Wall: The material has a barrier of wind flowing over a single surface, no matter what shape that surface takes. It functions like the spell wind wall with the exception that it doesn't need to be vertical; "up" for horizontal surfaces is away from the surface itself, whichever direction it faces; thus intruders are usually thrown away from the hive. The windy barrier is permanently in effect.
Wax so enchanted must be revitalized once per week with fresh, mundane wax - a task usually reserved for worker drones. If revitalization is missed even once, then the enchanted wax permanently loses all of its special qualities. Also, if a batch of enchanted wax loses half its hit points in damage, its special qualities are lost. As such, the enchanted form of the wax isn't often found outside THING hive cities.
it definitely needs reworking on some aspects though.
