buzzard
First Post
I the interest of grumbling, I have to ask the above question. I had my LG character get killed by a lousy saving throw against a Bodak over the weekend. Of course I was 400 short fo 8th, and thus lost 10000 exp from dying, so I am a touch bitter.
What is the point of this monster? It has a pretty wicked save or die effect, and little else. It's got some good defenses, and a crappy attack. However it also is CR 8. If a party of 4 8th level characters walk up to it, I suspect it will use a good bit more than the 25% of resources.
Lets look at the generic party:
1 fighter
1cleric
1 wizard
1 rogue
Two of the above have good fort saves. Thus they might have a +9(+6 base, +2 con, +1 item) or so on fort saves. Ok so they ony need a 6, and will save 75% of the time (unless, like me you roll poorly at the wrong time, I only needed a 5).
However the other two have weak fort saves. Base of 2, maybe a +2 stat, and a +1 item. Thus they need a 10 or better to save. 45% of the time they will die. This attack has no limits on use, it also does not specify any limitation on targets only range. Thus anything that wanders withing 30' must save every round.
Odds are, one of the lousy fort save folks will die the first round. You will probably lose at least one more PC before you finish it off. The cleric better roll well on his turn check since it's 9 HD, he won't be accomplishing much either.
This creature is just plain wrong. It's a pure crapshoot fight. Nothing you do has much of an effect, you just better roll well.
I can't really see the use for such a monster other than to screw players. I thought they had eliminated most of the save or die stuff on critters. I just found out the hard way that I was wrong.
buzzard
What is the point of this monster? It has a pretty wicked save or die effect, and little else. It's got some good defenses, and a crappy attack. However it also is CR 8. If a party of 4 8th level characters walk up to it, I suspect it will use a good bit more than the 25% of resources.
Lets look at the generic party:
1 fighter
1cleric
1 wizard
1 rogue
Two of the above have good fort saves. Thus they might have a +9(+6 base, +2 con, +1 item) or so on fort saves. Ok so they ony need a 6, and will save 75% of the time (unless, like me you roll poorly at the wrong time, I only needed a 5).
However the other two have weak fort saves. Base of 2, maybe a +2 stat, and a +1 item. Thus they need a 10 or better to save. 45% of the time they will die. This attack has no limits on use, it also does not specify any limitation on targets only range. Thus anything that wanders withing 30' must save every round.
Odds are, one of the lousy fort save folks will die the first round. You will probably lose at least one more PC before you finish it off. The cleric better roll well on his turn check since it's 9 HD, he won't be accomplishing much either.
This creature is just plain wrong. It's a pure crapshoot fight. Nothing you do has much of an effect, you just better roll well.
I can't really see the use for such a monster other than to screw players. I thought they had eliminated most of the save or die stuff on critters. I just found out the hard way that I was wrong.
buzzard
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