Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Feathercircle" data-source="post: 1777173" data-attributes="member: 11266"><a href="http://www.zetallis.com/ag/t/tonberry.jpg" target="_blank">Tonberry</a> <a href="http://www.ffcompendium.com/EspMon/marlboro10.jpg" target="_blank">Malboro/Morbol</a> Err, are we thinking of the same monsters here, Mithral?  I really don't see how anyone familiar with tonberries/ master tonberries as plants- They're the little fishtailed lizardy-looking guys.  Despite the name, they aren't related to berries in any way.  FF11 classifies them in the "beastmen" family, along with orcs and sahagin...  I suppose that would imply Monstrous Humanoid, though I'm almost inclined to suggest Aberration.Malboros or, if you prefer, Morbols, are the ones classified as members of the Plant family in most Final Fantasy games- which leads me to think you actually ARE familiar with the tonberries, but accidentally transposed the names.  FF11 confirms your attribution of all-around vision to the Malboro, and also seems to imply Low-Light vision for the Tonberry.  The fact that they carry those little lanterns everywhere means they probably don't have darkvision.As to abilities, they vary from game to game.  Tonberries, as a general rule, have VERY high HP- far more than you'd expect from something that barely comes up to your character's waist.  They've usually got some kind of karmic attack, and their knife attack is usually lethal.  They walk VERY slowly, though- it's pretty much ALWAYS possible to survive a tonberry encounter just by running away.  They're almost invariably encountered in some kind of cavernous or subterranean area.The problem with trying to quantify the difference between Tonberries and Master Tonberries is that aforementioned variation.  In FF7, the only the master tonberry has Everybody's Grudge/Karma, while in FFX, even the basic tonberry can use it- and some games have only one kind of tonberry.  I think it'd be easiest to just use the Karma-casting variety as our tonberry, since it's the archetype. They're tool-users and in some games, even talk to your characters, so they should probably have Intelligence somewhere around human average, at least.  And despite FFX-2's use of the word "vicious", I've never percieved them as particularly malevolent creatures- their role as avengers of the slain leads me to imagine them as having more of a Lawful Neutral ethos than anything else- thoroughly dedicated to their own strange sense of justice, but not generally seeking to harm those who they consider "innocent".  YMMV, though.Other odds and ends about tonberrys:*"Mysterious being living in dungeons.  Walks slowly towards the enemy and kills with Chef's Knife"- FF8 Scan info*Most games have them resistant to most status effects.*FF7's tonberries absorb gravity magic, and FF9's are weak against cold- no other tonberries have any elemental weaknesses or resistance.*"The king of the Tonberries.  Appears to seek revenge for all defeated Tonberries." -FF8 Scan info*Nonstandard tonberry attacks: Cry In the Night (a magic attack)-(Oversouled mega tonberry, FFX-2... triple the uberness!), Firaga (OS'd mega tonberry, FFX-2), Flare (OS'd mega tonberry again), Sleep (Oversouled tonberry, FFX), Bio (OS'd tonberry), Fira (OS'd tonberry), Junk (tonberry king, FF8), Voodoo (all FFX tonberries)*"A [monster] that roams about by the light of its lantern.  Don't be fooled by its tranquil demeanor.  It's a vicious and persistant attacker."- FFX-2 Scan info*"Advances closer four times.  Defeat it before then, or..."- FFX Scan info*FF8's Tonberry King and FFX-2's Mega Tonberries are MUCH larger than the normal varieties- and much taller than your characters.Malboros are a bit more standard.  They're all plants whenever the game bothers to assign them a "type" beyond just simply "malboro", they've all got the status-afflicting Bad Breath, they're all huge, and they've all got those little eye tendrils all over.  Many of them have a nasty bite attack, and/or vomit up their own acidic digestive juices.  They move by pulling themselves around on tentacle-roots, and are surprisingly fast at it.  They're always immune to poison, and usually immune to most other status attacks as well.  They don't seem particularly intelligent. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to their appearances, as they've been found at locations ranging from glacial mountains to temperate plains to the afterlife.  There's powered up Great Malboros, but they don't so much do anything all that different from their lesser kin as just do it better.Other odds and ends about morbols:*FF9's malboros sometimes FLOAT.  Maybe it's their internal gasses?*"Uses Bad Breath, which causes all status abnormalities.  Be ready with status defenses before fighting."- FF8 Scan info*Status's inflicted by Bad Breath vary from game to game, but have included: poison, darkness, confuse, berserk, slow, silence, sleep, gradual petrify, curse, and mini*Non-standard morbol attacks: Eerie Soundwave (FF8), Virus Tentacle (FF9), Osmose (FF9), Drain (FF9), Frozen Beam (FF7), Halitosis (Oversouled Malboro, FFX-2), Ingest (curative) Items (all Oversouled morbol types), Staccatto (Great Malboro, FFX-2)*FF8's Malboro's are weak against both fire and cold and X-2's are immune to fire- the others have no elemental afilliation*"The most despised [monster] in Spira, this [monster] oozes with poisonous sludge.  Its shape alone is enough to warrant such loathing, but its Bad Breath puts it over the top."- FFX-2 Scan infoAnd that's the basics.</blockquote>

Verification