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someonelse812 05-27-07, 02:29 PM

I'm double posting this in the monster area and the DMs area since its relevant to both. PEACH I’m designing an encounter in the spirit of Gulliver’s travels. I found some stats of tiny brownies online but I didn’t like them very much, so I created my own build. These are mostly based off the brownies from the movie willow, except that I gave them some spell like abilities. I took a look at the grig and the pixie and compared their spell like abilities to the druid spell list, then I choose a few things that I thought would fit the brownie, more for flavor than for actual combat usage. The first purpose of this post is that I would like some feedback on my brownie build. What should their CR and LA be? Right now I’m working on the assumption of a CR2 and LA4. The second purpose is a question of tactics and the mechanics of combat. The players handbook, page 149 says “25 diminutive creatures … can fit into a single (5ft) square.” According to the Monster Manual page 237 a swarm is considered a “single creature with a space of 10 feet” so logically a swarm of diminutive creatures that takes up 10 feet, or 4 5ft squares, should contain 100 diminutive creatures, yet the monster manual goes on to say that a swarm of non flying diminutive creatures is made up of 1,500. this would assume they are crawling all over each other, which they are not. So my question is, when there is a 10ft area full of little brownies pointing their little arrows at you are there 100 little arrows or 1,500 little arrows? it really does make a difference when each one individually attacks at +10 and deals 1 hit point each. I don’t want to have to roll that many attack rolls so I want to use swarm rules for them but I also don’t want to have 1,500 in a 10ft area. This is my work in progress so far… Brownie (Diminutive Fey) Ability modifiers –8 Str, +10 Dex, +2 Con, +2 Int, +2 Wis, +2 Cha, DR5/Slashing or Piercing – these little brownies can taking a licking and keep on ticking. feats Brownies get Dodge and mobility as racial bonus feats Skills – (6+int)x3 In addition to their size bonus brownies have a +5 to hide and move silently in the forest. They also have a +4 to climb trees and other structures made of wood, their tiny fingers and toes have ways of finding footing in the grain of any wood. Spell like abilities: at will; craft sleep arrows, continuous: endure elements, 1/day; entangle, calm animals, charm animals, detect animals or plants, good berry, pass without trace, HD 0 They have no natural hit dice, instead they get hit points from their constitution modifier, those with low Con have 0 hit points but are not considered staggered, just weak. Favored class: Barbarian, Ranger or Druid Speed 10ft, scent 10ft, non-elite ability scores, brownies have the same racial weapon proficiencies as elves. Base attack, Fort, Ref & Will +0; +0/+2/+2 Size: diminutive 25 brownies can occupy one five foot square. Description: Brownie Size/Type: (Diminutive Fey) Class / Levels Hit Dice: HD 0 Hit Points: 2 Initiative: +5 Speed: 10ft, Armor Class: AC19 (+4 Size, +5 Dex) Base Attack: +0 Grapple -17 Attack: Masterwork Longbow with Sleep Arrows, 60ft +10, 1 dmg & will DC15 or sleep (Cl 6th) (+4 size) Special Attacks: Sleep Arrows Special qualities DR5/Slashing, scent 10ft, Spell like abilities: at will; craft sleep arrows, continuous: endure elements, 1/day; entangle, calm animals, charm animals, detect animals or plants, good berry, pass without trace, Saves: F. 0 + 2 = 2 R. 2 + 5 = 7 W. 2 + 1 = 3 Abilities: Str 1.-5 Dex 21.5 Con 14.2 Int 12.1 Wis 13.1 Cha 10.0 Skills: 21 (4/2) I dont know what his class skills should be. In addition to their size bonus brownies have a +5 to hide and move silently in the forest. They also have a +4 to climb trees and other structures made of wood, their tiny fingers and toes have ways of finding footing in the grain of any wood. Feats: Brownies get Dodge and mobility as racial bonus feats Lv1 feat - Weapon Focus Longbow, Languages: Sylvan, with their +1 Int modifier they learn to speak common. Technically they don’t apply for mob or swarm rules. this is the quick & dirty brownie swarm Description: Brownie Size/Type: (Diminutive Fey) Class / Levels Hit Dice: HD 0 Hit Points: How do you determine the hit points of a swarm? Initiative: Speed: 10ft, Armor Class: AC19 Base Attack: +0 Grapple - Attack: Masterwork Longbow with Sleep Arrows, 60ft Always hits and deals 1d4 Dmg per 5 brownies & will DC15 + dmg dealt or sleep (Cl 6th) Special Attacks: Sleep Arrows Special qualities DR5/Slashing or piercing, scent 10ft, Spell like abilities: at will; craft sleep arrows, continuous: endure elements, 1/day; entangle, calm animals, charm animals, detect animals or plants, good berry, pass without trace, Saves: F. 0 + 2 = 2 R. 2 + 5 = 7 W. 2 + 1 = 3 the encounter: The PCs go to investigate rumors that a local shop keeper has been acting strange, he just sits behind the counter and stares off into space. He wont sell anyone anything, in fact some young hooligans have cleared out his entire inventory, he didn’t say anything except “have a nice day”. The sign in the window (hanging 6 feet off the ground) says its open and the door is unlocked. When someone enters the shop, the shop keeper says in a very high pitched voice “hello sorry we are closed goodbye” upon interacting with him the PCs can take a DC15 sense motive to notice that something is going on here. his mouth hardly moved when he spoke, he eyes seem to be staring off into space and his voice seems unnaturally high, he also seems to be wearing makeup. Spot DC12 to see through the disguise, then a knowledge religion DC10 to recognize a zombie. The PCs can speak with the “shop keeper”, he has a very high pitched voice and he talks very fast. He seems to be neurotic and paranoid. he wants above all else for the PCs to leave, but he refuses to take any kind of physical action, in fact he hardly moves his mouth when he talks and never makes any kind of facial expression, just a blank stare. The brownies robbed some low level adventurers and got a map from them. the map told of an ancient wizards laboratory full of ancient treasures that was hidden under the dirt floor of the basement of this little shop. The brownies brought a cleric who could use a scroll to animate the shop keeper and command it to sit as a dummy to ward off anyone who would bother them. then one of the brownies was assigned to sit in the zombie's mouth to act as a guard. The rest of the brownies are in the basement excavating the floor to try to enter this ancient treasure trove. After the PCs deal with the brownies they can explore the dungeon. if anyone has comments or suggestions I would love to hear them. I realise I'm kind of reinventing a wheel that has been done many times before, I'm just trying to give it a distinct flavor and make an memorable and challenging encounter that will also be good for quite a few laughs (just picture the little 6 inch men from Willow, but chaotic neutral instead of chaotic good and with a few spell like abilities).