Seastars with high AC - 5e idea?

[Cleon]

Okay - tweaked the wording of giant basket star (yeah can see the rationale) - so now published here

It needs a line gap and/or an emspace indent before Tree of Sticky Death and maybe a line gap before the "(Original monster designed by Casimir Liber and Cleon on the Creature Catalog Monster Homebrews forum)" credit.

Other then those formatting hiccups it's good to go.

EDIT: Oh, and I've also updated the Giant Basket Star to match the tweaked "that are" wording.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Aargh - I hate the formatting! hang on - if I look at this the gap looks bigger than the para break above it...?

 

[Cleon]

Aargh - I hate the formatting! hang on - if I look at this the gap looks bigger than the para break above it...?

That'll do.

Just release that and I'll add our Basket case to the 5E Index.

Well, unless D&D Beyond buggers the formatting up somewhere else as it's prone to do occasionally!

 

[Casimir Liber]

Common Starfish have an interesting method of predation.

First the sea star grab its prey with an arm and wrap its arms and body around it, cracking open the victim's shell (starfish arms move very slowly but very powerfully, they are literally hydraulically powered).

The sea star then everts its cardiac stomach from its mouth and either engulfs their prey entirely or stick their stomach inside the prey's cracked-open shell. It then flood their everted stomach with digestive enzymes to break down their meal. The resulting meat slushie is sucked into the starfish's internal pyloric stomach and guts to be digested.

So sea stars use external digestion and are able to eat prey too large for them to swallow whole. The cardiac portion of the stomach of most starfish can dissolve a meal piecemeal if it's too large to engulf in one piece. (There are some primitive species that can only handle smaller prey they can swallow whole, but I'll assume our Monster Version isn't one of them.)

So I was thinking the Actions would be:

1. An Arms attack that restrains and does bludgeoning damage.
   
   
2. A Engulf attack that does continuous acid damage plus bludgeoning damage to a restrained creature, maybe with advantage to hit a rigid armoured opponents (giant clams, crabs, guys in plate armour et cetera) as Sea Stars specialize in cracking open such creature's hard exteriors.

I mused about giving it Multiattack so it make an Arms attack for crushing plus an Engulf attack for the acid digestion but decided it made more sense if the Engulf just included bludgeoning damage to reflect that the starfish is continuing to pry open its meal with its arms.

I like these - an "arms" attack - doing something like 10 (2d4 + 5) bludgeoning damage
engulf attack - maybe it auto-hits and enemy has to make DX roll to evade? (easy way to ignore AC)

 

[Casimir Liber]

That'll do.

Just release that and I'll add our Basket case to the 5E Index.

Well, unless D&D Beyond buggers the formatting up somewhere else as it's prone to do occasionally!

it is released as you can see it

 

[Cleon]

it is released as you can see it

Well I would if I had a link to it!

I can only see the old version without the gaps.

 

[Casimir Liber]

ok here

 

[Cleon]

I like these - an "arms" attack - doing something like 10 (2d4 + 5) bludgeoning damage

Maybe a little lower? Its Engulf attack would be the main damage dealer, the Arms are just the set up for it.

Might have to play around with the numbers a tad to be Challenge Appropriate.

engulf attack - maybe it auto-hits and enemy has to make DX roll to evade? (easy way to ignore AC)

I prefer using an attack roll. The Engulf would only work against restrained targets so having them dodge out of the way with a DEX save would feel weird.

Once it hits with an Engulf I think the acid damage would be continuous as long as the target's restrained but it'll need to make additional attack rolls to do more bludgeoning damage based on the precedent of Constrict attacks (i.e. the Giant Constrictor Snake).

So, something like:

Arms. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 10 ft. [?], one target. Hit: 10 (2d4 + 5) [?] bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 17). Until this grapple ends, the creature is restrained, and the sea star can't grapple another target.

Engulf #1. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit but target must be restrained, with Advantage against creatures with rigid shells (giant crabs and insects, humanoids in plate or banded armor, etc.), reach 5 ft., one restrained target. Hit: 10 (2d4 + 5) bludgeoning damage [?] plus 7 (2d6) acid damage [?]. Once an Engulf hits, if the sea star misses with a subsequent Engulf attack it still does 7 (2d6) acid damage [?] to the target as long as the target is restrained.

Engulf #2. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit but target must be restrained, with Advantage against creatures with rigid shells (giant crabs and insects, humanoids in plate or banded armor, etc.), reach 5 ft., one restrained target. Hit: 10 (2d4 + 5) bludgeoning damage [?] plus 7 (2d6) acid damage [?]. Once an Engulf hits, the sea star automatically hits with subsequent Engulf attacks as long as the target is restrained.​

I'll need to run it through the CR calculator to check if those damage figures are reasonable. Will want to tweak them up or down if it comes out under or over Challenge 1.

I prefer the Engulf #1 over #2.

EDIT: The CR Calculator says it's Challenge 1.

 

[Cleon]

ok here

That looks OK.

Updated the Completed Fifth Edition Creatures Index.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Ok so I like Engulf #1 too. So CR 1 with damages outlined above?