Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Patrick Draken-Korin 07-06-05, 06:35 PM	Encephalon Tree huge aberration (Psionic) Hit Dice: 20d8+120 (210 Hp) Initiative: +2 (Dex) Speed: 10ft, climb 10ft Armor Class: 29 (-2 size, +4 Dex, +17 Natural); touch 12; flatfooted 25 Base Attack/Grapple: +15/+32 (+36 when rooted) Attack: tentacle +24 Melee (2d4+9) Full Attack: 10 tentacles +24 Melee (2d4+9), bite +19 Melee (2d8+4) Space/Reach: 15ft/15ft Special Attacks: Constrict, Improved Grab, Mind Blast, Psionics Special Qualities: All-Around Vision, Amphibious, Blindsense 100ft, Darkvision 150ft, Dig-In Roots, Electricity Immunity, Immunities, Low-Light Vision, Regeneration 10, Scent, Spell Resistance 28, Telepathy 500ft, Tentacles Saves: Fort+13, Ref+12, Will+16 Abilities: Str 28, Dex 19, Con 22, Int 17, Wis 18, Cha 17 Skills: Climb +19, Concentration +25, Diplomacy +26, Intimidate +19, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +15, Listen +14, Search +12, Sense Motive +26, Spot +14 Feats: Alertness, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack Environment: Underground (usually with a large mind flayer colony) Organization: solitary, mind flayer colony (1-3, plus 5-500 mind flayers, plus 0-3 elder brains, plus 10-100 slaves), mind flayer city (1-10, plus 200-2000 mind flayers, plus 0-9 elder brains, merchant (1-10, plus 1-1000 allies) Challenge Rating: 16 Treasure: standard Alignment: always lawful, often good Advancement: 19-30 HD (huge), 31-56 HD (gargantuan) "It's hard to describe. It was a tree, a great big one, but it was growin' underground! and it's branches were strange, at first, all long and crooked with twisted bulges all along them. Then we realized that they were tentacles, and the bulges had faces. uggh" *shudder* "Anyway, we knew it was important, right? It had to be important. It was guarded by most of the tentacle-faces livin' there. Or so we thought, anyway. So we attacked, and eventually killed it. No I’m NOT gonna tell you about the fight" *shudder* "I lost some friends there. Most of the tentacle-faces ran off when it died, and we though we'd won the day. We were sure we'd killed thier master." *moan*, *violent shuddering* "But we'd been wrong. Dead wrong. It was thier primary food source. With it dead, that horde of tentacle faced freaks had nothing to eat except US. Our City. And none of us escaped." *wail*, *violent shudder*, *finally, the spirit disappears* [out of context comment] i always wanted to use a speak with dead spell for a creature description[/out of context comment] Encephalon trees are one of the various creatures that have thier creation attributed to mind flayers, as a single tree can feed a whole colony of mind flayers indefinitely. many Encephalon Tree's are part of a mind flayer colony, though many more live relatively peaceful lives never meeting illithids more than once a year. An encephalon tree appears to be a massive tree, usually rooted into the ground or wall of a cave beside or in an underground stream or lake. If not rooted near a stream (or other source of water), the tree is probably migrating to find such a location; though these trees can eat just about any form of organic matter, they can (and prefer to) subsist by simply filtering water. interestingly enough, an encephalon tree can subsist (without any problem) on any source of water, regardless of disease, poisons, or even total purity of the water, baffling many sages. The Encephalon tree has about two dozen tentacle-arms, though it can only apply a small number of them in combat at a given time. Along the tentacles (about every foot or so) there is a bulge that, upon closer inspection (DC 20 spot check), the has a face (with fully functional eyes, ears, and nose). An Encephalon tree's bulge-faces don't match the appearance of any other creature, though those that have watched cerebremorphisis may see certain resemblances. The face-bulges that an encephalon tree grows contain actual brains, that a mind flayer can extract for sustenance (though Encephalon trees are much better at grappling and can resist if they wish to). An encephalon tree can feed an number of illithids equal to quadruple it's HD every hour (that being the amount of time it takes for he brains within the bulge-faces to regenerate). A Mind flayer colony that has an Encephalon tree has no need to raid other creatures for food (though they would usually still raid for slaves). An illithid's extracting a brain from a encephalon tree only causes minor pain, and deals 1 nonlethal damage. Encephalon trees are actually rarely evil; being a creature that exists primarily to feed others requires a low quantity of selfishness. In fact, many good encephalon trees are willing to live within mind flayer colonies so that the illithids harm fewer people. Lone encephalon trees are still more likely to be neutral than evil, and many hold a territory for the purpose of a trading post, a bank, or a library. These merchant-trees are often guarded by powerful allies or followed by weak would-be thieves. Finally, there are a few colonies of good mind flayers, lead by one or more powerful encephalon trees (usually paladins or clerics of a good deity). An encephalon tree is about 20ft tall and weighs at least 2,000 pounds (though the leaders of good mind flayer colonies are all at least 50ft tall, weighing some 10,000 pounds). Encephalon trees speak aquan, common, and undercommon, as well as at least 4 other languages. Of course, an encephalon tree can also communicate telepathically, and do so most of the time. Combat Encephalon Trees are fearsome foes, as their great reach combined with their superior senses. They are hard to surprise and are hard to fight at close range. Finally encephalon tree's almost always have allies or servants(whether mind flayers or other creatures). An encephalon tree usually alerts it's allies as soon as it recognizes enemies, and then attack with it's tentacles if the enemy is in reach, or psionics otherwise. Whenever possible an encephalon tree that is part of an (evil) mind flayer colony will kill it's opponents rather than subdue them and force them into a life of slavery. Otherwise, Encephalon trees tend to keep fallen opponents alive (though they will kill traitors without hesitation). All-Around Vision (ex): an encephalon tree gains a +4 bonus on all spot and search checks, and they can't be flanked. Amphibious (ex): though an encephalon tree needs to breath, it can breath water as easily as air. Blindsense (su): an encephalon tree's blindsense ability only allows it to find living creatures; non-living creatures and inanimate objects are undetectable to this ability. Constrict (ex): an encephalon tree can deal 2d4+7 damage with a successful grapple check. An encephalon tree can grapple an opponent with multiple tentacles, dealing damage with each one. An encephalon tree can attack a creature with it's tentacles while the creature is grappled. Dig-In Roots (ex): an encephalon tree can take a full-round action to dig itself into the ground (this doesn't work if the ground is made of metal, or anything with a hardness greater than 10). When rooted, an encephalon tree gains a +4 bonus on all grapple checks and it can't be bull-rushed, tripped, or otherwise moved from it's position (include the ground's weight for spells and other effects). Immunities (ex): encephalon trees are immune to all poisons, diseases, and any drugs, as well as alcohol. Encephalon trees are immune to all mind-affecting effects. Improved Grab (ex): an encephalon tree that hits with a tentacle attack can make a grapple check as a free action, without provoking an attack of opportunity. If an encephalon tree successfully grapples it's target, it can deal constrict damage the nex round. An encephalon tree can grapple a creature with the tentacle that initiated the grapple with a -10 penalty on it's grapple check. If an encephalon tree is grappling a creature with a single tentacle it takes a -2 penalty on all attack rolls and a -2 penalty to AC against attacks made by the encephalon tree that is grappling it. An encephalon tree can grapple a number of creatures equal to it's HD, when each is grappled with a single tentacle. Mind Blast (sp): this psionic attack is a 120ft cone. Any creature within the cone must make a DC 22 will save or be stunned for 5d6 rounds. Some encephalon trees never use this ability (evil illithids might capture and enslave the victims, or it might hit allies), while on the other hand other trees use the ability frequently (evil illithids automatically extract the creature's brain, this aid in taking creature alive, a quick end to disputes, that doesn't directly harm the targets). The save DC is charisma based. Psionics (sp): at will- detect thoughts (DC 15), detect undead, expeditious retreat (self only), grease, mage hand, solid fog, unseen servant (can only manifest 1 at a time) Regeneration (ex): cold damage does normal damage to encephalon trees. an encephalon tree that loses a tentacle will regenerate it in 2d4 minutes, or the severed tentacle can be re-attached instantly, as a free action if the encephalon tree has at least 4 tentacles remaining (it's a full round action otherwise). Telepathy (su): an encephalon tree can use it's "detect thoughts" psionic ability through it's telepathy, and doing so, automatically skips to the third round (if the creature failed it's will save). whether or not the creature fails it's will save it doesn't know that the encephalon tree attempted to read it's mind. Tentacles (ex): an encephalon tree has a number of tentacle equal to it's HD, though it can only attack with 10 of them in a round. Tentacles can be severed if the attacker makes a sunder attack against one (AC 28 or 24 if used for grappling, each tentacle has an amount of hit points equal to the creature's full hit points divided by the number of HD; same as a hydra and it's heads). Losing a tentacle damages the body an amount equal to half the tentacles hit points (this is nonlethal damage). Tentacles can be severed by nonlethal damage (both the body and all tentacles regenerate every round though, making this difficult). Skills: an encephalon tree's many ears grant it a +4 bonus on all listen checks. An encephalon tree's climb speed grant it a +8 bonus on climb checks, and allow it to take 10 on all climb checks even if rushed or threatened. An encephalon tree is a natural politician and gains a +4 bonus on all diplomacy, intimidate and sense motive checks. Encephalon Trees as Characters Many encephalon trees take levels of either monk or cleric. Encephalon trees are eminently suited for melee combat and touch spells. Encephalon clerics can choose 3 of the following domains; cavern (player's guide to faerun), law, mind (psionics handbook), mentalism (player's guide to faerun), strength, water ------------------------- okay. how do ya like it? note, that though i did try to make a balanced monster, the main purpose for this creature was to create a support for illithid communities so you could have a reasonable excuse for good mind flayers... HEY, WHO THREW THAT?
turalisj 07-06-05, 06:44 PM	230 hp, 15 regeneration, 28 spell resistance... dude, that thing could take on the tarrasque and probobly win. i'd suggest that you give it a CR around 20. it's very powerful. but if you'd like, i have a 15th level character that i could playtest it with.
Patrick Draken-Korin 07-06-05, 10:07 PM	okay i changed it; 1) drop Con by 2 (reduce hit points by 20, drop concentration by 1 but who cares). 2) drop regeneration from 15 to 10 (i meant it to be 10 in the first place, i've no idea how that happened). 3) raised it's CR by 2 (meant to do that too, but forgot to while translating the idea onto the computer) 4) raised it's natural armor by 2 (to match the increase in CR). 5) cut Cleave and Great Cleave from the feat list (replaced with Alertness and Lightning Reflexes) note that the whole point of the creature isn't combat. that's why i fumbled (nat 1). play test this one (PLEASE) and give feedback. oh, and i left the SR where it was because with the new CR it was about even. and don't forget this is a kill ya quick if you get close. at a distance it isn't that impressive. take on the tarrasque, yes. win? NO- less regeneration than the tarrasque, fewer hit points, weaker AC (the tarrasque couldn't miss, except for an automiss), much weaker attack bonus (though it would still hit the tarrasque on a roll of 11-20, that a 50% chance). the tarrasque has DR 15/epic (which this ain't- it could do up to to 3 damage to the tarrasque per attack (wow that's 15 for 5 hits at MAXIMUM DAMAGE, but wait regeneration. nevermind). then there is the amount of daamge that the tarrasque would do; bite (35 damage with a 15% chance for triple damage) plus 2 horns (13-14 damage with 5% chance for double damage) plus 2 claws (14-15 damage with 5% chance for double damage) plus a tail slap (20-21 damage with 5% chance to deal double damage) for a total of 82-85 damage every round (and missing is a likely as rolling a critical hit). the tarrasque could even easily resist the mind blast attack, the encephalon tree's only ranged attack. the tarrasque would've mopped the floor with this thing. EASILY. 4 rounds of full attack. maybe 5 (if the tarrasque rolled baddly). finally, the encephalon tree isn't made to challenge the PC's (though go ahead). it's made to feed illithids. actually, as the italic description points out, it's probably a bad idea to hunt them (as in unsafe, illogical, AND evil), at least in general (that being the rare evil one where it's only unsafe and illogical).