alsih2o said:
We need better references. This hobby is the greatest, but it is so poorly organized as to hinder fun.
I have a Druid in my party who is fond of Call Lightning. It would be fun and interesting to throw a monster or two at her that is immune to electrical effects. It is her first campaign and a lot of things players tend to meta-game around are all new to her.
So, the easy solution is to look in the monster index under Electrical Immunity, right?
Wrong. There isn't one. I have no way I have found of choosing amongst the Electrically Immune baddies or Flying baddies or Immune to Mind Control baddies.
Within the taxonomical system we have (Outsider, Monstrous Humanoid, Undead Against Hit Dice And CR) shouldn't there be some way to look up monsters with specific powers or immunities?
I can always come to ENWorld and ask
but it seems that someone in the industry, perhaps someone who wants my ENnies vote next year (?), would put together a powers based index of all the critters they can. Does anyone else here think this product would be amongst their first buys?
EDIT: Thinking on this more- Do you think that the inherent popularity and usefulness of such a product would encourage publishers to make more Open Content Monsters?
A Magical Society: Beast Builder will do much of what you're looking for. Every SA/SQ from the SRD (excepting psionic or epic) is listed in the book along with all the SA/SQs from
Monster Geographica: Underground. That means there's 600 SA/SQs in the book.
Excerpt below to show you what I mean. The formatting is better in the book, I'm not going to italicize everything again!
) You'll have to do your own cross-referencing to find the flying baddies that use electrical attacks, but without a computer program (which I'm incapable of doing) MS:BB should serve most needs.
Excerpt from A Magical Society: Beast Builder
Special Attacks, Special Qualities, and Conditions
Welcome to the Special Attacks, Special Qualities, and Conditions Chapter in Beast Builder! Here we’ve compiled every special attack or quality from every creature in the SRD (except psionic creatures) and Monster Geographica: Underground. Except for a few very common like darkvision, low-light vision, each SA/SQ lists a source monster, making published comparables easier to find when you’re creating your own monster. Simply run down this alphabetical listing to the SA/SQ you want your creature to have, and all of the SRD and Monster Geographica: Underground monsters that share the ability are listed for you. Also, at the end of this section you’ll find a listing of all the various conditions these special attacks or qualities may inflict upon your hapless PCs. Perusing this list should also help get the creative juices flowing as well.
A few points of interest on the terminology used in this chapter:
—Some SA/SQs have been neutered and broken down to component parts to demonstrate a useful guideline for using the SA/SQ with creatures more or less powerful than the source listed. For example, the SA death throes (from the source monster balor) has been broken down to an effect based upon the HD of the creature possessing the ability as opposed to simply relisting the balor’s massive effects. This allows GMs to use the ability with creatures of much less puissance.
—Some SA/SQs have variables, such as damage reduction, poison, and spell resistance, which are non-standard. In other words, these SA/SQs are not based upon the typical formula of 1/2HD + Ability modifier. In these circumstances, every creature has their amount listed in parenthesis after their name in the source list. This should help give a better understanding between existing creatures’ CR and expected levels of power in variable traits which are not rigidly defined according to HD and ability.
—Some SA/SQs will have multiple varieties (like entangle, create spawn, madness, and vulnerability to sunlight). Some have supernatural and extraordinary versions, while others just use the same name even though the effects are different. All versions are listed here with their source/sources.
—Some SA/SQs have variables in them such as 1d4 x 1/4 HD. These should be read as the ability doing 1d4 points of damage per every 4 HD of the creature possessing the ability.
—Creatures with variable SA/SQs always do the minimum damage listed. For example, if a 3HD creature had an ability that does 1d4 x 1/4 HD, it would still do 1d4 damage.
—Some entries contain “creatures of the same species are immune” to a particular SA/SQ. This means that any additional monsters with the same name (for example, two androsphinxes) are immune to the effects of that ability. Some entries contain “creatures of the same family are immune” to a particular SA/SQ. This means that any additional monsters within the same family (for example, sprites) are immune to the effects of that ability. Creatures of the same species are also immune as they are a sub-set of family.
—Every entry with a source is listed in this manner: Source: [source name]-monster name. If there are multiple sources they are listed thusly: Source: [source name]-monster name, monster name; Source: [source name]-monster name. Sources used in this list are the SRD and Monster Geographica: Underground. All total, almost 600 creatures’ (from over twenty different monster books) SA/SQs are included in this Chapter.
—Only creatures with complete entries are included in this chapter. Templates are discussed in the template section.
— The most commonly shared SA/SQs among creatures from the SRD are: Immunities (25%), Damage Reduction (24%), Spell-Like Abilities (23%), Improved Grab (18%), Spell Resistance (15%), Poison (13%), Resistances (12%), Breath Weapon (8%), Constrict (8%), Summon (8%), Vulnerabilities (8%), Telepathy (7%), Fast Healing (6%), and Blindsight (4%).
Hopefully, all of this compiled material should prove an invaluable resource in your Beast Building endeavors. Otherwise, I’ve really wasted a lot of time…
(Here's the immunity entry since you mentioned it.)
Immunity to Special Attacks (Ex): A creature with this special quality ignores all damage or effects of the indicated type each time it takes damage of that kind (commonly acid, cold, critical hits, electricity, fire, petrification, poison, or sonic). It doesn’t matter whether the damage has a mundane or magical source.
If the creature has fire or cold immunity, it has a vulnerability to the opposite elemental type. Fire is vulnerable to cold, and cold vulnerable to fire. This means it takes 150% damage from the opposing element, regardless of whether a saving throw is allowed, or if the save is a success or failure.
Since an immunity completely negates the damage from a particular energy attack, those attacks do not disrupt a spell.
If a creature is immune to transformation, no mortal magic can permanently affect or fix its form. Effects such as polymorphing or petrification force the creature into a new shape, but at the start of its next turn it immediately returns to any of its available forms as a free action.
Some creatures are not only immune to a particular energy type, but it is beneficial to them, be that through a healing effect or through gaining bonus statistics for a limited duration or some other effect. Such information is listed in each individual creature’s description.
Source: SRD-Astral Deva (acid, cold, petrification), Planetar (acid, cold, petrification), Solar (acid, cold, petrification), Lantern Archon (electricity, petrification), Hound Archon (electricity, petrification), Trumpet Archon (electricity, petrification), Juvenile Arrowhawk (acid, electricity, poison), Adult Arrowhawk (acid, electricity, poison), Elder Arrowhawk (acid, electricity, poison), Avoral (electricity, petrification), Azer (fire), Behir (electricity), Bodak (electricity), Chaos Beast (critical hits, transformation), Delver (acid), Babau (electricity, poison), Balor (electricity, fire, poison), Dretch (electricity, poison), Glabrezu (electricity, poison), Hezrou (electricity, poison), Marilith (electricity, poison), Nalfeshnee (electricity, poison), Quasit (poison), Succubus (electricity, poison), Vrock (electricity, poison), Destrachan (gaze, visual effects of illusions, other sight-based effects), Barbed Devil (fire, poison), Bearded Devil (fire, poison), Bone Devil (fire, poison), Chain Devil (cold), Erinyes (fire, poison), Horned Devils (fire, poison), Ice Devil (fire, poison), Imp (poison), Lemure (fire/ poison), Pit Fiend (fire, poison), Digester (acid), Doppelganger (sleep, charm effects), True Dragons (sleep, paralysis), Black Dragon (acid), Blue Dragon (electricity), Green Dragon (acid), Red Dragon (fire), White Dragon (cold), Brass Dragon (fire), Bronze Dragon (electricity), Copper Dragon (acid), Gold Dragon (fire), Dragon Turtle (fire, sleep, paralysis), Duergar (paralysis, phantasms, poison), Fire Elemental (fire), Formian Worker (poison, petrification, cold), Formian Warrior (poison, petrification, cold), Formian Taskmaster (poison, petrification, cold), Formian Myrmarch (poison, petrification, cold), Formian Queen (poison, petrification, cold), Frost Worm (cold), Djinni (acid), Efreeti (fire), Ghaele (electricity, petrification), Fire Giant (fire), Frost Giant (cold), Storm Giant (electricity), Grimlock (gaze attacks, visual effects of illusions, other sight-based effects), Hellhound (fire), Nessian Warhound (fire), Cryohydra (cold), Pyrohydra (fire), Leonal (electricity, petrification), Lillend (poison), Magmin (fire), Fire Mephit (fire), Ice Mephit (cold), Magma Mephit (fire), Steam Mephit (fire), Mimic (acid), Dark Naga (poison), Night Hag (fire, cold, charm, sleep, fear), Nightcrawler (cold), Nightwalker (cold), Nightwing (cold), Gelatinous Cube (electricity), Gray Ooze (cold, fire), Pseudodragon (sleep, paralysis), Rast,(fire), Ravid (fire), Roper (electricity), Flamebrother Salamander (fire), Average Salamander (fire), Noble Salamander (fire), Shambling Mound (electricity), Shocker Lizard (electricity), Tarrasque (fire, poison, disease, energy drain, ability damage), Thoqqua (fire), Juvenile Tojanida (acid, cold), Adult Tojanida (acid, cold), Elder Tojanida (acid, cold), Unicorn (poison, charm, compulsion), Winter Wolf (cold), Wyvern (sleep, paralysis), Minor Xorn (cold, fire) Average Xorn (cold, fire), Elder Xorn (cold, fire), Yrthak (gaze, visual effects of illusions, other sight-based effects);
Source: Monster Geographica Underground-Amohaji (paralysis, sleep), Banded Spider (disease, poison), Banded Spider Mother (disease, poison), Basidirond (cold-causes slow, but no damage), Bedlam (chaos effects, transformation), Blind Maw (sonic effects requiring hearing the caster), Bone Sovereign (cold), Cinder Wight (fire), Cone Ooze (sonic), Death Watch Beetle (death effects), Deviant Mimics (all types) (acid), Flosid (fire, electricity), Furnace Golem (fire), Horach (mind-affecting effects), Hypnogrub (cold), Jellyhive (acid, paralysis), Magma Worm (fire), Morph (polymorph), Ossecap (sleep, mind-affecting effects), Pallemon (mind-affecting effects, sleep, paralysis, stun), Pseudoslab (cold, fire), Quickener (death effects, disease, poison, paralysis, sleep, stun), Snailfolk (bludgeoning attacks), Soulless One (cold), Straga (poison), Undead Ooze (cold), Void Monster (acid, disease, mind-affecting effects, paralysis, poison, polymorph, sleep, stun), Wailhaunt (acid, electricity, sonic).
I think it's going to be a great book and am looking forward to finally getting it out.
joe b.
