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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 2139108" data-attributes="member: 9626">Okay, here's what I've got for you this week.  For now, just an epic vermin monster you might like.  It's not too complicated, it won't grapple or eat anyone, and it should be sufficiently nasty without that Far Realms vibe, but it hints at greater forces at work.  Later tonight or possibly tomorrow, I'll have one of the Hrdad for you.  This one will be the "muscle" of the group; it's an advanced Mezzoloth with fighter levels and a template from an old dungeon article.  And I'll probably come up with a good elven fey or humanoid for you by next weekend, if not during next weekend.  Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the gith to really help you make a new version of them.  But the next time you need a big, epic, apocalyptic monster, let me know.  I've been eager to try some new creature types from a recent game idea as D&D monsters.ConsumerLarge VerminHit Dice: 33d8+429 (577 hp) Initiative: +7 (+7 Dex)Speed: 70 ft. (10 squares)AC: 36 (-1 Size, +7 Dex, +20 natural armor) touch 16, flat-footed 29Base Attack/Grapple: +24/+42Attack: Bite +38 melee (3d8+14 and Desperate Power)Full Attack: Bite +38 melee (3d8+14 and Desperate Power,) 2 Claws +33 (2d8+7)Space/Reach: 5 feet/5 feetSpecial Attacks: Desperate Power, Trample, Devastating BiteSpecial Qualities: Battle Fortitude, Darkvision 120 ft., Tremorsense 120 ft., Vermin Traits, Cold and Fire resistance 15, DR 10/epicSaves: Fort +31, Ref +18, Will +11Abilities: Str 38, Dex 25, Con 37, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 2Climate/Terrain: Any LandOrganization: solitary, colony (1-6) or swarm (2d12) Challenge Rating: 23Treasure: NoneAlignment: Always NeutralAdvancement: 34-45 HD (Large,) 46-66 (Huge)Consumers are the termites of civilization itself.  Some unknown force often sends them to planes where some sort of devastation has occurred, leaving ruined cities and few survivors.  The Consumers are instinctively drawn to these places of ruin, where they seek to remove the last traces of that culture.  Everything from debris to ruined buildings to the remaining living creatures in the area are consumed by the creatures, leaving nothing left but a few perfectly-preserved but completely empty buildings assuming any of them remained standing and undamaged in the initial cataclysm.Consumers have the bodies of giant beetles but a pair of claws similar to a mantis.  Their chitin armor has a sheen and hardness that resembles steel, which sometimes causes them to be mistaken for constructs.  Their most notable feature, however, are their mouths.  Instead of teeth or an insect-like set of mandibles, Consumer mouths consist of dozens of blades that whirl around in a circle at speeds so fast the human eye can’t pick it up.  These blades cut through even the hardest of meals with ease.  Once a meal has been thoroughly liquefied, a series of invisible pores near the mouth absorb the remains to sustain the Consumer.  Consumers are able to eat nearly anything, including organic matter, stones, and metal, to survive.  When all the food in a ruined area is consumed, they go into hibernation, letting them wait indefinitely for intruders to enter their home or until another area near their ruins is attacked and nearly destroyed, causing the entire hive to migrate to this new home and consume anything left.Combat: Despite their power, Consumers are simplistic fighters.  They have enough sense to target living or moving food sources first, and anything that actually is capable of damaging them has first priority, but they otherwise don’t rely on complicated tactics.  They prefer to use their magical enhancements to guarantee that eventually, they’ll be able to destroy and consume their prey.  The natural attacks of the Consumer bypass epic and adamantine damage reduction.Desperate Power (Su): Powerful as the Consumers are when they first attack their prey, they only get more powerful with time.  Every time a Consumer is successfully gets a target with its bite attack, it absorbs the bitten material for an instant energy boost.  It channels some of this power into its own muscles.  As a result, the Strength of a Consumer increases by two every time it takes damage!  This affects its to hit and damage as well as skill and ability checks.  This increase stacks with itself until a Consumer’s strength score is double its original value.  However, one hour after the first attack is made, the Consumer’s systems will finally reject this increased muscle mass, causing it to instant revert to normal and preventing this ability from being used again until the Consumer rests for at least an hour. Battle Fortitude (Su): Like Desperate Power, this ability makes the Consumer increasingly powerful over the course of a battle, though mercifully this power usually balances out and gets negated over the course of a battle.  Whenever a Consumer is hit in battle, it absorbs part of the energy used to harm it and channels it into rapid production of its chitin armor.  It gains an additional +1 to its natural armor every time it is struck, increasing its AC respectively.  However, the Consumer can’t keep this fragile additional armor maintained while improving its other systems.  As a result, whenever it successfully hits with a bite attack and activates its Desperate Power ability, it loses 5 points of this gained AC (or all of the AC if it had 5 or less points of a bonus at this point.)Trample (Ex): As a full-round action, a Consumer can move up to twice its speed and literally run over any opponents at least one size category smaller than itself.  The creature merely has to move over the opponents in its path; any creature whose space is completely covered by the trampling creature’s space is subject to the trample attack.  A trample attack does bludgeoning damage equal to 2d6+21.  Trampled opponents can make attacks of opportunity, but at a –4 penalty.  If they do not make attacks of opportunity, they can attempt a Reflex save for half damage.  The DC is 40 and Strength-based.Devastating Bite (Ex): The unusual teeth of the Consumer are designed to bite through and rip apart anything.  It ignores hardness when attacking objects.</blockquote>

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