Netbook: The Book of Forbidden Lore

[Philosopher]

I just discovered this (from a link in another thread). This is fabulous! I thought it deserved a bump, so others who missed it have a chance to check out these monsters.

 

[Nikmal]

The Eye Tyrant at CR 13 is almost laughable though. The save DC's of the rays are at 17... they should be much higher then they are currently set at. Any group would be able to buff well beyond those DC's and all they would need is a 1 to fail the effects then effectively nullifying the Eye tyrants ray attacks. They should at least be about 24 or 25 DC by the time it is up to THAT CR.

An Eye Tyrant is supposed to be one of the most deadly creatures at it's CR level and yet most people/groups would not even balk at this one in the book.

Sorry it is my opinion as well as the group I play with in testing this out on them.

 

[Kaisoku]

While I love the effort done here, I'm forced to agree with Nikmal that it's not really on par as a "CR 13" in ability.
The thing is.. as I recall, it was always like this, so as a direct translation, it's not really off.

There was all this hype about the creature, they were written as some terrifying thing, but when it came down to it... unless they had spellcaster levels, they were fairly weak in practice.
That anti-magic sounds scary.. until you pit a group of 4 players against it and watch them tear through it's weak defenses.

__________

If I were to rewrite this creature for Pathfinder, I'd probably follow the PRD rules on making monsters, and up some of the defenses and mental stats a bit to make it last a bit longer in combat and actually land some of those rays (the sheer number of them means it doesn't need to be maxed out, but at least within range of level appropriate).
I don't have a problem with my Eye Tyrants being a bit more charismatic... a Glabrezu has 20 Charisma for crying out loud, and it's CR 13. 20s in mental stats are not taboo at this level.

 

[Gorbacz]

I'd pretty much echo what Nikmal says. The monsters are straight conversion, without addressing some of the major issues they had in 3.5.

3.5 Beholder is laughably weak for its CR. Same with Slaadi - Red Slaad with 52 HP ? That's half a round of damage dealing from a well prepared party. The Mind Flayer has even worse a problem, his 44 HP at CR 8 is far too little.

The PF Bestiary fixed many of such "borked" 3.5 monsters (Roper, Rakshasa, Ogre Mage). Perhaps we could sit down and repair the 3.5 non-SRD monsters as well.

 

[Kaisoku]

Well, in the Monster Creation section of the PRD, a CR 13 Aberration "should" have about 19 HD. Lower HD (and thus low hitpoints, etc) should be balanced by higher saves and AC.
The "eye tyrant" has low everything.

Honestly, I wonder how much can be fixed by just following that HD <-> CR chart.

For example:
A 19 HD Eye Tyrant would have hitpoints, saves, and attack rolls all within the norms for a CR 13, and his eye saves would bump up to DC 20 (21 if you put ability score boosts into Charisma), which is also right in line with the CR.

Seems to work fairly well in this example...

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

What .pdf are you talking about? It doesn't exist! There are no clandestinely converted monsters to be found here or anywhere else!

 

[Nookie]

What .pdf are you talking about? It doesn't exist! There are no clandestinely converted monsters to be found here or anywhere else!

If this book were to exist i would have to give this thread a bump.

 

[sir_arles]

Thanks a lot for this =D

 

[TarionzCousin]

The knowledge inside in forbidden; none are allowed to glimpse these lost secrets.

I shudder to think what will happen to you when the High Order of Zoologists hears of this.

 

[Cheezmo Miner]

Thanks so much for sharing. Great work!