evilbob
Adventurer
I need some assistance tweaking this creature, as well as setting its CR. I'm shooting for about a CR 12ish, give or take a couple. I believe I have a pretty solid idea, but I'd like some help with a couple of specific points. The creature's stats are as follows:
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War blimps are giant, shelled, blob-looking, mountainous creatures that slowly move across the land and use their tentacles to scoop up almost anything and bring it to their giant, gaping mouths on the underside of their bodies.
Flying Eyes: War blimps are constantly surrounded by 4 invisible, tiny, flying eyes (stats below). These literally are their eyes, and they use them to see and to maintain their invisibility. The eyes always go immediately after the war blimp in initiative order. 1/day, a war blimp can spit out four new eyes from its mouth as a full round action. Any existing eyes die when this happens. The first action always taken by 4 new eyes is to move, and then use a standard action (together) to generate greater invisibility on the war blimp.
Dependent Sight: A war blimp is completely blind without its flying eyes. This makes it immune to vision-based attacks. With at least one eye, a war blimp can see very well: it cannot be flanked, has darkvision to 60', and can see invisibility as the spell at will.
Dependent Invisibility: When 3 or 4 eyes are within 100' of the war blimp and functional, they can generate as a swift action each round greater invisibility, as the spell, on the war blimp. When 1 or 2 eyes are near, they can generate as a standard action each round invisibility as the spell. When no eyes are alive or near, the war blimp is completely visible.
Improved Grab (clarified; gotten from Snatch feat): To use this ability, a war blimp must hit a creature at least two sizes smaller than itself with its tendril attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can picks up the opponent and try to swallow it in the following round with another opposed grapple check. Conversely, it may drop a creature it has snatched as a free action or use a standard action to fling it aside. A flung creature travels 1d6 × 10 feet, and takes 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet traveled or falling damage, whichever is greater.
Swallow Whole: A war blimp can try to swallow a grabbed opponent of up to two sizes smaller by making a successful grapple check. The swallowed creature takes 2d8+8 points of bludgeoning damage and 1d6+8 points of acid damage per round from the war blimp's gizzard. A swallowed creature can cut its way out by using a light slashing or piercing weapon to deal 25 points of damage to the gizzard (AC 15). Once the creature exits, muscular action closes the hole; another swallowed opponent must cut its own way out. A war blimp's gizzard can hold 2 large, 8 Medium, 32 Small, or 128 Tiny or smaller opponents.
Regeneration: War blimps take normal damage from cold.
Heavy Flyer: The maximum altitude a war blimp can achieve is 100' off the ground. War blimps are unable to take a charge action or move more than twice their speed in any given round.
Tentacles: A war blimp's tentacles may be sundered (+8 total bonus to sunder check). Each tentacle has 33 HP and the same DR as the blimp. A war blimp can regrow a sundered tentacle in 2d4 rounds, although cold damage applied to the stump (touch attack to affected area) will keep it from growing until the war blimp receives either natural or magical healing.
Flying Eye (tiny aberration)
HP: 13
Speed: 40 fly (perfect)
AC: 25 (2 size, 3 dex, 10 natural)
Special Qualities: immune to fire, see invisibility, darkvision 60', constant invisibility (can resume as a free action on their turn), assist war blimp (as listed under "flying eyes" above)
Skills: hide +7 (+27 while moving invisibly), spot +16
Tactics: War blimps usually move along or hover about 20' off the ground, using their tentacles to smash or grab anything it can eat (which is anything). Their invisible eyes try to stay near so that it can see below it and strong winds cannot disperse them too badly, but also try to stay high and out of sight if possible to avoid detection. A war blimp avoids touching down at all costs, as it has no land movement capability, and cannot move things into its mouth (located underneath the creature) when on the ground. It doesn't even like to fly lower than 10' high, and will often give up on creatures that dive into holes or are otherwise lower than its reach. Otherwise, a war blimp tends to have simple tactics: it will try to grab and swallow several creatures first, and use awesome blow to keep any additional threats away as it retreats when full. If it loses 3 or more eyes, it will generate new ones, but if it has already generated eyes and starts to lose more - or if it is heavily damaged, or if it loses 4 or more of its tentacles and is not regenerating new ones - it will begin to run. It tends to fly up as high as it can first, then away from the things hurting it. It knows that it is slow and not a good runner, so it tends to get out before things get too serious.
Edit: A successfull Knowledge(Dungeoneering) reveals:
DC 17 - aberration type, with aberration traits
DC 22 - it has an incredibly tough hide, and fire doesn't seem to bother it; it can also see deceptively well
DC 27 - cold seems to keep it from regenerating, and adamantine weapons pierce its hide
DC 32 - the invisibillity of the creature seems to be related to several tiny, invisible eyes flying around it
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I like the thing, but the main issue I'm worried about is the damage output. Currently, it can (and probably will, thanks to a high AR and being invisible) do an average of 90 damage a round, not to mention also swallow an entire group of 4 normal PCs in round 2. And that's without making at least one really intelligent feat choice: improved natural attack (instead of iron will). That jumps the average damage up another 21. And all of this is still after I reduced the full-round tentacle attacks to +1/2 str, instead of +str like it probably should be.
However, it also has massive weaknesses: a single character with a decent movement, see invisibility, and a ranged weapon can pretty much take the thing out by himself. Spells also hit it very hard, especially (cold) evocations. It's so big that even a fighter has a good chance to spot its location while invisible, and anything that supresses invisibility for more than 1 round negates its only real "trick." And the thing tends to run relatively easily, negating the need to completely kill it. (And it doesn't have nor could it benefit from combat reflexes.)
I put my guess of 14 CR on there just to get it started, but I'm still not sure if that's right. It's hard for me to evaluate it because my party are all about ECL 10, but there are 9 of them and they have no problem chewing through EL 12s with ease, and could probably take this creature as-is without issue (two have see invisibility 24 hrs/day, and three more do an average of ~100 damage/round against low AC opponents - even with DR 10 and the thing being 20' off the ground, two of the characters will still do an avg. of 80 damage/round if they can see it, since they can reach that far when enlarged). But a party of 4 average schmoes? No idea what they would need.
Suggestions on toning it down and/or changing the CR?
Edit again: Fixed some of the language; clarified some abilities.
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Code:
War Blimp (working title)
Size/Type: Gargantuan Aberration
Hit Dice: 12d8+132+12 (198 hp)
Initiative: -1
Speed: fly 30 ft. (poor, can hover)
Armor Class: 16 (-1 Dex, -4 size, +21 natural), touch 5, flat-footed 16
BAB/Grapple: +9/+37
Attack: tentacle +21 (9+16-4) melee 2d6+16
Full Attack: 6 x tentacle +21 melee 2d6+8
Space/Reach: 20 ft./20 ft.
Special Attacks: swallow whole
Special Qualities: immune to fire and poison, DR 10 / adamantine, dependent sight, dependent invisibility, regeneration 5, heavy flyer, flying eyes
Saves: Fort +19, Ref +3, Will +11
Abilities: Str 42, Dex 8, Con 32, Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 7
Skills: Hide -13 (+7 while moving invisibily), Spot +16 (through eyes)
Feats: hover, snatch, awesome blow, iron will, improved toughness
Environment: (fire-based outer plane)
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 14?
Treasure: Standard (found inside creature's gullet)
Alignment: Usually neutralFlying Eyes: War blimps are constantly surrounded by 4 invisible, tiny, flying eyes (stats below). These literally are their eyes, and they use them to see and to maintain their invisibility. The eyes always go immediately after the war blimp in initiative order. 1/day, a war blimp can spit out four new eyes from its mouth as a full round action. Any existing eyes die when this happens. The first action always taken by 4 new eyes is to move, and then use a standard action (together) to generate greater invisibility on the war blimp.
Dependent Sight: A war blimp is completely blind without its flying eyes. This makes it immune to vision-based attacks. With at least one eye, a war blimp can see very well: it cannot be flanked, has darkvision to 60', and can see invisibility as the spell at will.
Dependent Invisibility: When 3 or 4 eyes are within 100' of the war blimp and functional, they can generate as a swift action each round greater invisibility, as the spell, on the war blimp. When 1 or 2 eyes are near, they can generate as a standard action each round invisibility as the spell. When no eyes are alive or near, the war blimp is completely visible.
Improved Grab (clarified; gotten from Snatch feat): To use this ability, a war blimp must hit a creature at least two sizes smaller than itself with its tendril attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can picks up the opponent and try to swallow it in the following round with another opposed grapple check. Conversely, it may drop a creature it has snatched as a free action or use a standard action to fling it aside. A flung creature travels 1d6 × 10 feet, and takes 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet traveled or falling damage, whichever is greater.
Swallow Whole: A war blimp can try to swallow a grabbed opponent of up to two sizes smaller by making a successful grapple check. The swallowed creature takes 2d8+8 points of bludgeoning damage and 1d6+8 points of acid damage per round from the war blimp's gizzard. A swallowed creature can cut its way out by using a light slashing or piercing weapon to deal 25 points of damage to the gizzard (AC 15). Once the creature exits, muscular action closes the hole; another swallowed opponent must cut its own way out. A war blimp's gizzard can hold 2 large, 8 Medium, 32 Small, or 128 Tiny or smaller opponents.
Regeneration: War blimps take normal damage from cold.
Heavy Flyer: The maximum altitude a war blimp can achieve is 100' off the ground. War blimps are unable to take a charge action or move more than twice their speed in any given round.
Tentacles: A war blimp's tentacles may be sundered (+8 total bonus to sunder check). Each tentacle has 33 HP and the same DR as the blimp. A war blimp can regrow a sundered tentacle in 2d4 rounds, although cold damage applied to the stump (touch attack to affected area) will keep it from growing until the war blimp receives either natural or magical healing.
Flying Eye (tiny aberration)
HP: 13
Speed: 40 fly (perfect)
AC: 25 (2 size, 3 dex, 10 natural)
Special Qualities: immune to fire, see invisibility, darkvision 60', constant invisibility (can resume as a free action on their turn), assist war blimp (as listed under "flying eyes" above)
Skills: hide +7 (+27 while moving invisibly), spot +16
Tactics: War blimps usually move along or hover about 20' off the ground, using their tentacles to smash or grab anything it can eat (which is anything). Their invisible eyes try to stay near so that it can see below it and strong winds cannot disperse them too badly, but also try to stay high and out of sight if possible to avoid detection. A war blimp avoids touching down at all costs, as it has no land movement capability, and cannot move things into its mouth (located underneath the creature) when on the ground. It doesn't even like to fly lower than 10' high, and will often give up on creatures that dive into holes or are otherwise lower than its reach. Otherwise, a war blimp tends to have simple tactics: it will try to grab and swallow several creatures first, and use awesome blow to keep any additional threats away as it retreats when full. If it loses 3 or more eyes, it will generate new ones, but if it has already generated eyes and starts to lose more - or if it is heavily damaged, or if it loses 4 or more of its tentacles and is not regenerating new ones - it will begin to run. It tends to fly up as high as it can first, then away from the things hurting it. It knows that it is slow and not a good runner, so it tends to get out before things get too serious.
Edit: A successfull Knowledge(Dungeoneering) reveals:
DC 17 - aberration type, with aberration traits
DC 22 - it has an incredibly tough hide, and fire doesn't seem to bother it; it can also see deceptively well
DC 27 - cold seems to keep it from regenerating, and adamantine weapons pierce its hide
DC 32 - the invisibillity of the creature seems to be related to several tiny, invisible eyes flying around it
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I like the thing, but the main issue I'm worried about is the damage output. Currently, it can (and probably will, thanks to a high AR and being invisible) do an average of 90 damage a round, not to mention also swallow an entire group of 4 normal PCs in round 2. And that's without making at least one really intelligent feat choice: improved natural attack (instead of iron will). That jumps the average damage up another 21. And all of this is still after I reduced the full-round tentacle attacks to +1/2 str, instead of +str like it probably should be.
However, it also has massive weaknesses: a single character with a decent movement, see invisibility, and a ranged weapon can pretty much take the thing out by himself. Spells also hit it very hard, especially (cold) evocations. It's so big that even a fighter has a good chance to spot its location while invisible, and anything that supresses invisibility for more than 1 round negates its only real "trick." And the thing tends to run relatively easily, negating the need to completely kill it. (And it doesn't have nor could it benefit from combat reflexes.)
I put my guess of 14 CR on there just to get it started, but I'm still not sure if that's right. It's hard for me to evaluate it because my party are all about ECL 10, but there are 9 of them and they have no problem chewing through EL 12s with ease, and could probably take this creature as-is without issue (two have see invisibility 24 hrs/day, and three more do an average of ~100 damage/round against low AC opponents - even with DR 10 and the thing being 20' off the ground, two of the characters will still do an avg. of 80 damage/round if they can see it, since they can reach that far when enlarged). But a party of 4 average schmoes? No idea what they would need.
Suggestions on toning it down and/or changing the CR?
Edit again: Fixed some of the language; clarified some abilities.
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and two, it's different from several other regeneration creatures and therefore harder to just "guess." But at the same time, cold damage is something any party should have access to without much trouble, so it's not too hard to get. It also reflects the fire-based nature of the creature, and it seemed reasonable to think cold damage would "seal" a sundered stump as well as fire on other creatures.
