Seastars with high AC - 5e idea?

[Cleon]

Yeah they sound good. I think teh same base AC s fine (think mucus and odd basket-y bits making it much harder to get a clean hit on it

So Armour Class 15? Works for me.

Updating the Giant Basket Star with Actions.

That looks like they're done mechanically, so it's just the Description to do.

 

[Casimir Liber]

You forgot (?):

Bite. Can only attack grappled targets. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit , reach 5 ft., one target. Hit 16 (3d6+6) piercing damage.

 

[Cleon]

You forgot (?):

Bite. Can only attack grappled targets. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit , reach 5 ft., one target. Hit 16 (3d6+6) piercing damage.

Dang it, I forgot the Bite.

We'd amended the average damage up to 30 though:

If it's Challenge 5 and we only give it one damaging attack, we'll need the bite to do something like 30 odd damage right? So, say 15 (2d8+6) slashing plus 15 (2d8+6) bludgeoning.

…yes, that comes out to CR 5 according to the 5e.tools calculator:

Challenge Rating: 5
Offensive CR: 6
Defensive CR: 4
Proficiency Bonus: +3
Effective HP: 145 (10d20+40)
Effective AC: 13
Average Damage Per Round: 30
Effective Attack Bonus: +9
Experience Points: 1,800

Updating the Giant Basket Star with Bite.

 

[Casimir Liber]

My bad - updated now


Bite. Can only attack grappled targets. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit , reach 5 ft., one target. Hit 15 (2d8+6) slashing damage plus 15 (2d8+6) bludgeoning damage.

 

[Cleon]

My bad - updated now


Bite. Can only attack grappled targets. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit , reach 5 ft., one target. Hit 15 (2d8+6) slashing damage plus 15 (2d8+6) bludgeoning damage.

Just noticed there's a stray space before a comma - the "to hit , reach" should be "to hit, reach" - and it's missing a colon after "Hit", so I've corrected the Giant Basket Star to:

Bite. Can only attack grappled targets. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8+6) slashing damage plus 15 (2d8+6) bludgeoning damage.

 

[Casimir Liber]

done

 

[Cleon]

done

So Description?

 

[Casimir Liber]

Yeah sure:
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Giant basket stars are gigantic gorgonocephalids related to sea stars and similar starfish. A basket star has a disc-shaped body from which radiate five long intricately multibranched arms. The body is sharply demarcated from from the arms and contains the five-jawed mouth. The body and arms are covered in a meshed chitin-like material with a pattern akin to chainmail, rendering the creature's hide tough and harder to damage.

Giant basket stars are active marine predators that lie in wait to snare any prey smaller than themselves. The tentacles secrete a sticky mucus to assist with ensaring victims.

 

[Cleon]

Yeah sure:
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Giant basket stars are gigantic gorgonocephalids related to sea stars and similar starfish. A basket star has a disc-shaped body from which radiate five long intricately multibranched arms. The body is sharply demarcated from from the arms and contains the five-jawed mouth. The body and arms are covered in a meshed chitin-like material with a pattern akin to chainmail, rendering the creature's hide tough and harder to damage.

Giant basket stars are active marine predators that lie in wait to snare any prey smaller than themselves. The tentacles secrete a sticky mucus to assist with ensaring victims.

Hmm, it's a bit lacking in pizzazz methinks.

Also, as discussed with the brittle star it isn't chitin:

The armor's calcified not chitinous. Chemically it's the same as an oyster's shell not a beetle's carapace.

Come to think of it, the proper adjective is calcareous not calcified. The latter means "transformed into limey/chalky material" while the former is "composed in limey/chalky material."

How about:

Basket stars, or Gorgonocephalids, are starfish closely related to brittle stars. They have five arms which branch many times into hundreds of thin appendages, so the animal resembles a radiating bush or flower with a disc-shaped body buried at the center. Normal basket stars grow up to a couple of feet across, but giant basket star are monstrously big with arm baskets spanning 100 feet or so and bodies about 20 feet across. Like most echinoderms, they have an external skeleton of small calcareous plates that mesh together, this bony armor gives a giant basket star hide as tough as chainmail.
 Regular basket stars are mainly filter feeders but may also grab tiny animals (fish, crustaceans, etc.) who wander into their arms. When filter-feeding, a basket star rhythmically flexes its arms to sweep food from the water and towards the five-jawed mouth at the center of the beast.
 A Gorgonocephalid's arms can only handle active prey much smaller than itself: the biggest normal basket stars reach up to 2¼ ft. across but can only catch miniscule animals about an inch in length. A giant basket star, however, is so enormous it can manage creatures the size of a horse.
 A basket star's limbs have a thin coating of mucus to trap plankton and other edible detritus. If a snared creature resists capture, the arms exudes more mucus to entangle the victim in adhesive slime. Basket stars sometimes hold cocooned prey to eat later, often waiting until nightfall to feed under the cover of darkness.

Tree of Sticky Death. While normal basket stars are primarily filter feeders the giant basket star is a more active predator. A giant basket star is an ambush hunter. It waits atop a rocky seamount or at the edge of a kelp forest pretending to be part of the local vegetation, then reaches out its arms to snatch at creatures that swim or walk within reach. Giant basket stars will only pursue a meal if they sense it is large and immobile, such as the carcass of a whale. Otherwise they normally only move to find a better perch for catching prey or to retreat from danger.

 

[Casimir Liber]

I was really tired - that looks much better. Typo "bristle stars".