Post/Author/DateTime	Post
DrKultra 01-15-04, 07:22 PM	Runner Medium Aberration Hit dice: 4d8 (18 HP) Initiative: +5 Speed: 40 ft, Climb 40ft AC: 15 (+5 Dex) BAB/Grapple: +3/+3 Attacks: Bite +9 Full Attack: Bite +9, 2 Claws +4, Tail -1 Damage: Bite (1d8 20/*2), 2 Claws (1d6 20/*2), Tail (1d4 20/*2) Special Attacks: Pounce, Poisonous Tail, Acid Blood, Spider Climb Special Qualities: Acid resistance 10, Damage Resistance 5/Magic Scent, Blindsight 60ft Saves: Fort +1 (+1 Base) Ref +6 (+1 Base, +5 Dex) Will +5 (+4 Base, +1 Wis) Abilities: Str: 10 Dex: 20 Con: 10 Int: 5 Wis: 12 Cha: 10 Skills: Hide +8 (+5 Dex, +1 Rank, +2 Feat), Move Silently +8 (+5 Dex, +1 Rank, +2 Feat), Listen +2 (+1 Wis, +1 Rank), Jump +9 (+1 Rank, +8 Racial) Feats: Weapon Finesse (B), Weapon Focus (Bite), Shadow Challenge Rating: 7 Treasure: None Alignment: Always True Neutral Vicious Aliens that were found on a fallen spell jammer, thought to come from the Far Realm's. Their humanoid bodies, hide a ferocious animal that guides itself more by instinct that by intelligence. Their enloganted head's and arms are used as natural weapons along with the stinger in its tail. Combat The Xenomorph Runner mainly acts as a Scout for the hordes, and a fast attack creature. Running on four legs means it moves much faster, but it is not as powerful, and it's hide makes it very obvious. Pounce: On a charge in the first turn the Runner can make a full attack or Claw 4 times. Poisonous Tail: When the tail hits the enemy it injects a potent stunning poison. 1d3/1d3 round of Stunt primary and secondary, Fort save to resits DC 12 Acid Blood: When more than 1 point of damage is dealed to the Xenomorph, an enemy in an adjacent 5ft square must make a reflex save (DC 15) Or take 2d6 damage from the acidic blood. Spider Climb: The Xenomorph can climb any surface. Only a wall of force, or some other nonmaterial force can stop the creature from crawling. Skills: Runners receive a +8 Competence Bonus to Jump Skill because of their powerful legs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Drone Xenomorph Large Aberration Hit dice: 10d8+20 Initiative: +8 Speed: 50 ft, 40ft Climb AC: 14 (-1 size, +4 Dex, +1 natural) Attacks: Bite +12, 2 Claws +8, Tail +5 Damage: Bite 1d8+7, Claws 1d6+3, Tail 1d4+3 Special Attacks: Pounce, Poisonous Tail, Acid Blood, Spider Climb Special Qualities: Acid resistance 10, DR 10/Magic Saves: Fort +5, Ref +10, Will +8 Abilities: Str: 24 Dex: 16 Con: 14 Int: 5 Wis: 12 Cha: 10 Skills: Hide +13 Move Silently +13, Listen +4, Jump +18 Feats: Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (Bite, Claws), Multiattack Challenge Rating: 10 Treasure: None Alignment: Always True Neutral Vicious Aliens that were found on a fallen spell jammer, thought to come from the Far Realm's. Their humanoid bodies, hide a ferocious animal that guides itself more by instinct that by intelligence. Their enloganted head's and arms are used as natural weapons along with the stinger in its tail. Combat The Xenomorph Drone will crawl along walls, until it gets to the proper place for an ambush, then drops down and wreaks havoc. It is excellent at disguising itself as a stone structure of some kind, with its pitch black shell. Pounce: On a charge in the first turn the Runner can make a full attack or Claw 4 times. Poisonous Tail: When the tail hits the enemy it injects a potent stunning poison. 1d3/1d3 round of Stunt primary and secondary, Fort save to resits DC 16 Acid Blood: When more than 1 point of damage is dealed to the Xenomorph, an enemy in an adjacent 5ft square must make a reflex save (DC 15) Or take 2d6 damage from the acidic blood. Skills: Drones get a +8 to Hide, Move Silently and Jump from their genetic advantadges. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pretorian Huge Aberration Hit dice: 20d8+200 (290 HP) Initiative: +0 Speed: 40 ft AC: 30 (-2 size, +22 natural) Attacks: Bite +23, 2 Claws +21, Tail +19 Damage: Bite 4d6+10, Claws 3d6+5, Tail 2d6+5 Special Attacks: Poisonous Tail, Acid Blood, Scent, Blingsight 90ft. Special Qualities: Acid resistance 10, Damage Resistance 15/Magic, 10/- Saves: Fort +16, Ref +12, Will +13 Abilities: Str: 30 Dex: 11 Con: 30 Int: 5 Wis: 12 Cha: 11 Skills: Jump +28, Listen +19 Feats: Multiattack, Improved Natural attack (Bite, Claws, Tail), Improved Initiative, Power Attack. Challenge Rating: 18 Treasure: None Alignment: Always True Neutral Vicious Aliens that were found on a fallen spell jammer, thought to come from the Far Realm's. Their humanoid bodies, hide a ferocious animal that guides itself more by instinct that by intelligence. Their enloganted head's and arms are used as natural weapons along with the stinger in its tail. Combat The Xenomorph Praetorian is a murderous fiend of hell, massive and muscled, and capable of doing untold destruction. They are near immune to damage, strong as all hell, and capable of ripping even the strongest warriors apart in seconds. They are incapable of pouncing, and Spiderclimbing, because of their incredibly tough hide. They are still murderously powerful, though. Poisonous Tail: When the tail hits the enemy it injects a potent stunning poison. 1d3/1d3 round of Stunt primary and secondary, Fort save to resits DC 30 Acid Blood: When more than 1 point of damage is dealed to the Xenomorph, an enemy in an adjacent 5ft square must make a reflex save (DC 15) Or take 2d6 damage from the acidic blood. Skills: Praetorians get +8 to Jump and Listen skills because of their Hunter like nature. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What do you say?
RhoxandRoll 01-16-04, 10:25 AM	The pretorian might be a bit higher than just 18. Some of the attacks and qualities have quite a bit of power to them. Of course, I have a CR ineptitude, also.
olshanski 01-16-04, 11:44 AM	I've decided to limit my commentary to your first creature, the "runner" A Dex 30 is a bit high for a medium abberation. I don't see any other creature even remotely comparable to it. Likewise, a medium creature with a 60 move is a bit heavy handed. This is just my opinion, and you can feel free to ignore it. But, putting aside these knee-jerk reactions: the following is a more rigorous application of the actual rules when compared with your creature. The AC should be 20 (+10 Dex) not (+9 Dex). You call the creature "Massive" yet it is medium size and doesn't appear to have higher than normal density. If it is in fact a high-density creature, it think it is more appropriate to have a high STR and natural armor instead of a high DEX. If you are going to call it "Massive", then I think it would be also be appropriate to give an example of its weight... such as It stands 5' tall and weighs 600 lbs. I think it would also be nice to say what it looks like (Such as "the creature looks like a lean and muscular humanoid with oversized joints, long clawed hands and feet, an elongated head and a long prehensile tail). Racial abilities typically provide +8 bonus to skill checks. (you've given it +15) When generating monster abilities for us to review, it would help if you'd parse out the skills, attack, and saves: IE: JUMP +22 (7 ranks, +15 racial) and HIDE +18 (8 ranks, +10 Dex) (which is impossible since a 4HD creature can have at most 7 ranks in a skill)... maybe I am missing where the Hide skill comes from. Saves: FORT +1 (+1 abberation), REF +11 (+1 Abberation, +10 Dex), WILL +5 (+4 abberation, +1 WIS) (note that will save should be +5 not +4) Rather than making up a special attack called "Spider Climb", it would be more standard to give it the spell like ability spider climb, or better yet, simply give it a movement of CLIMB 30. or something to that effect. Rather than making up a special attack called "Deadly Lunge", it would be more standard to give it the ability "Pounce" which does roughly the same thing and is already defined. The Poison tail can be simplified a little: Poison [ex] on a hit with the tail attack, the victim is subjected to poison: (Fort 13) stun for 1d3 rounds primary/secondary. Acid Blood: This should be clarified a bit. Which opponents are effected by acid blood? Whoever did the attack (such as a mage standing 100 ft. away using magic missile) or is it EVERYONE in a 5-foot or 10-foot radius? It also is standard for acid to do 2d6 damage instead of 1d6. You include a DR 5/+1. The standard in 3.5 is now DR 5/magic. As defined, Aberrations eat, sleep, and breathe. Since this creature has a climate of "Vacuum", I don't think Abberation is an appropriate type. Note that outsiders and magical beasts also need to breath... so you are going to have a hard time finding a creature that is native to vacuum without also having some unusual ability such as "iron body". The "devour skull" ability is a bit unusual. It it a SU or an EX? does it require an attack action? is it a free action? does it happen automatically as soon as the sting takes effect? Does it only work with its own sting? can one runner use this ability on a creature stunned by another runner's poison tail? Does it work on creatures that are stunned for other reasons besides the tail poison? Say it does a full attack on a creature using its "deadly lunge"... after its full attack, the defender rolls a save vs poison, assuming the tail hits... does the character also die? There are good reasons why coup-de-grace doesn't work on stunned creatures... what if one or two of these creatures were paired up with even a minor spellcasting creature: the 1st level color spray and the 2nd level Sound Burst will STUN creatures for 1 or more rounds if they fail a fortitude save, ------------------------------------------------------------- The "Hive Mind" is not detailed, although this could be from a non-core source that I am not familiar with. I am unaware of a Shadow feat in the Core books, so I cannot comment on it. -------------------------------------------------------------- Another thing to keep in mind when adding creatures: The spell Polymorph allows a mage to assume the form of other creatures, gaining their STR, DEX, and CON; as well as EX attacks and some other abilities. If you have a cleric who can stun people, and a mage taking the form of this creature (gaining incredible DEX, number of attacks, and perhaps your devour skull ability). This is one of the reasons that a 4HD aberration shouldn't have a 30 DEX.... it tends to throw other aspects of the game off. There are guidelines in the back of the MM that include appropriate skills for creatures based on their types, and guideline CR based on the creature HD.
DrKultra 01-16-04, 08:14 PM	Edited it as to make more sense
olshanski_home 01-17-04, 10:23 AM	Things look much better. Thanks for updating! Runner looks very good. I think it might be between CR 5 and 6. I compared it to the gargantuan Centipede and Digester for HD, acid, and poison. To have a CR 6, you could perhaps even bump up the Runner's HD to 6d8. which would help its BAB and saves. This is just my opinion. If you want to go for CR7, It could perhaps be both stronger and have even more HD. I'd have the acid blood effect EVERYONE within 5 feet (for the runner), perhaps everyone within 10 feet for the Drone, and 15 feet for the praetorian. If these creatures thick skin, they can have a natural armor of +1 to +3. If they have an exoskeleton, they can have a natural armor of +4 to +7. If they have a shell, they can have a natural armor of 10-12 or more. I should have caught this the first time: Saving throws for monster attacks and abilities are always based on a formula: 10 + 1/2 HD + Ability Modifier. Things like poison and acid are usually based on CON, breath weapons based on Dex, and mental abilities like charm are usually based on Will or Cha. As it stands, the poison and blood should probably both have saves of 12. I might suggest giving the creature a 6 HD and a CON of 13, which would make its saving throws 14 vs both the sting and the acid blood. ------------------------------------------ The Drone: A fairly throrough examination. The drone, with its high strength, doesn't need Weapon Finesse. It should have 4 feats, and I think the multiattack and weapon focus are excellent. It didn't look like you included those feats in the creature attack bonus. You might consider the "improved natural attack" which would bump up the damage dice for all of its attacks (to 2d6+7, 1d8+3, 1d6+3) Or else give it the feat for bonus fortitude saves... you don't want a cleric or mage to have too easy of a time hitting them with magic that requires FORT saves. As it is, I believe the drones attacks are: Attack: Bite +13 (-1 Size, +6 base, +7 Strength, +1 Feat) (1d8+7)Full Attack: Bite +13 (1d8+7), 2 Claws +11 (1d6+3), Tail +8 (1d4+3 plus poison). The AC for the Drone should be 13 (-1 Size, +1 natural, +3 Dex) The Reflex save for the Drone should be +6 (+3 base, +3 Dex) The drone no longer needs spider climb SA Skills: Drone has 13 ranks to spend on skills. (due to bad INT). The INT would have to be 10 or higher to increase this number... 26 ranks with 10 IN, 39 ranks with 12 INT. It looks like you spent 14 ranks on the drone skills: Hide +13 (6 ranks, -4 Size, +8 Racial, +3 Dex), Move Silently +13(2 ranks, +8 Racial, +3 Dex), Listen +4 (3 ranks, +1 Wis), Jump +18 (3 ranks, +8 Racial, +7 Str) Skills: Drones get a +8 to Hide, Move Silently and Jump from their genetic advantadges. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Extra Opinion: If you want: A standard for increasing the size of the creature (as in increasing from Runner to Drone) would be +8 Str, +4 Con, -2 Dex, and +2 natural armor. I'd give the runner an exoskeleton, +6 natural armor, Since the drone has undergone a metamorphoses, I'd give it a shell (+10 natural armor) and perhaps give it an additional +2 Str. If your Runner were HD 6, STR 12, DEX 20, CON 13, then your Drone could be: HD 10, STR 22, DEX 18, CON 17 The save for the runner acid and poison would be 14 The save for the drone acid and poison would be 18 If the runner has 6HD, you could also give it another feat. If you made all of the suggestions, I think the Drone CR would be closer to 9... it is just slightly more of a threat than a destrachen... (in my opinion). If you gave the Drone an INT of 10, it would have 13 more skill points: (note that skills are always alphabetized) Hide +15 (8 ranks, -4 Size, +8 Racial, +3 Dex), Jump +21 (6 ranks, +8 Racial, +7 Str), Listen +5 (4 ranks, +1 Wis), Move Silently +15(4 ranks, +8 Racial, +3 Dex), Spot +5 (4 ranks, +1 Wis) With +21 Jump, and a speed of 50, and a running start, this thing jumps an average of 40 feet (basically 30 feet +the roll of d20). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just for flair, you might even want to give the drones a burrow speed (they could excrete acid to burrow through objects)... it would give them an advantage to setting up ambushes or circling behind creatures. Tremorsense could also be handy if they have heightened senses... that way they could fight invisible creatures and plan where to make thier ambush. Telepathy with others of their type could also help them with thier ambushes.