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IF ANY OF MY PLAYERS HAPPEN TO SEE THIS THREAD, PLEASE STAY OUT!
Now, I’ve been using quite a number of monsters from the Bestiary in my campaign, and as I’ve already said on a couple of threads, I *love* this book so much that I more or less don’t use 3E MMs anymore. However, there are a few non-OGL critters that have not (yet) been replaced with good PF RPG alternatives; my campaign revolves heavily around my own adaptation of the ‘Age of Worms’, and all sorts of Far Realm critters are what I especially need. At the heart of everything, lurk one of my all-time favorites -- the Kaorti. So, I needed to convert the Kaorti to PF RPG, but they didn’t strike me -- mechanically -- as exciting villains per se; they have a cool backstory and a couple of abilities/weaknesses linked to it, but that’s all. In fact, unless you slap every Kaorti with a few character levels, they’re quite boring antagonists. What I actually wanted was a Kaorti wight.
First of all, I think PF RPG has clarified/unified monster mechanics a lot, and made most of them more exciting and balanced to run. Add in the new templates, and it’s more fun running monsters than it’s ever been. However, a host of variant monster abilities and way more templates are what I think would really up the game to a new level.
Let me elaborate. I’m not a huge fan of 4E monster mechanics, but what 4E monster design got “right” is that certain “thematic” abilities (for example, those related to horror, shadows and undeath) feel far more appropriate than in 3E. In fact, it allows you to play around with pretty much everything; this, while being the biggest strength in 4E monster design is also IMO its biggest flaw, because the rules and guidelines seem to be really shaky at best (“Just goggle it up in MMs or DDI and do some comparisons”). However, a Kaorti wight would really feel more “Far Realms undead thing” in 4E rules that it does in 3E/PF. Unless, naturally, you get around toying with the abilities; then again, neither 3E or PF RPG have solid rules on adding Su/Ex/Sp abilities to monsters, either. A good example of a inspiring monster design for PF RPG is the Graveknight by Darrin -- *that* is what I mean by having thematic abilities for monsters.
So here it is:
ADVANCED KAORTI NECROSAVANT WIGHT CR 5
NE Medium Undead
Init +3;Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +13
Aura withering aura (10 ft.)
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DEFENSE
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AC 19, touch 13, flat-footed 16 (+3 Dex, +6 natural)
hp 34 (4d8+16)
Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +7
DR 5/Good or Cold Iron; Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4; Immune undead traits
Weaknesses resurrection vulnerability
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OFFENSE
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee tendril +6 (1d4+4 plus 1d6 negative energy and 1 point strength bleed plus grab)
Special Attacks caustic spittle +6 ranged touch (1d6 acid damage and entangle, range 10 ft.), howl of madness, kinetic blast, soulshattering gaze
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STATISTICS
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Str 16, Dex 16, Con -, Int 15, Wis 17, Cha 19
Base Atk +3; CMB +6; CMD 19
Feats Blind-Fight, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Intimidate +11, Knowledge (Arcana) +9, Knowledge (planes) +9, Knowledge (religion) +9, Perception +13, Stealth +18; Racial modifiers +8 Stealth
Languages Aklo, Common, Undercommon
SQ Reaching Limbs, Veil of Shadows
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Soulshattering Gaze (Su) Every character within 30 feet radius of a kaorti necorosavant must save vs. Will DC 16 or become shaken (save ends). Shaken characters who fail their save take 1 point of Charisma and Wisdom damage. A living creature with either ability score reduced to 0 becomes completely insane (in addition to becoming unconscious). This is a mind-affecting effect. Blind creatures are immune to this effect.
Caustic Spittle (Ex) A kaorti necrosavant may make a ranged touch attack as a free action. As it spits, a stream of goo bursts out, entangling the target and then becoming tough and resilient upon exposure to air. An entangled creature takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls and a –4 penalty to Dexterity and must make a DC 15 Reflex save or be glued to the floor, unable to move. Even on a successful save, it can move only at half speed. This attack is treated as a splash weapon, and if the Kaorti misses, the square the attack hits becomes difficult terrain for 1 round. On the round following a direct hit, the target takes an additional 1d6 points of acid damage.
Howl of Madness (Su) A kaorti necrosavant may unleash an unearthly, psychic howl that causes 2d6 points of sonic damage (60 ft. cone). All living creatures must save vs. Fort DC 16 or become deafened (save ends). A successful save halves this damage. All creatures must also save vs. Will DC 16 or become confused (save ends both). This is a mind-affecting effect. This ability recharges when the kaorti necrosavant first becomes bloodied.
Kinetic Blast (Su) A kaorti necrosavant may unleash a forceful blast of pure malice in a 30 ft. radius. All living creatures must save vs. Will DC 16 or become dazed for one round. In addition, the kaorti necrosavant may make a trip attempt as a free action versus every creature inside the area of effect, using its Charisma modifier instead of Strength modifier for this purpose (+7 vs. CMD).This is a mind-affecting and force effect. Recharge 15 or when first becomes bloodied.
Reaching Limbs (Ex) As a swift action, a kaorti necrosavant may increase or decrease the reach of its tendrils by 5 feet.
Veil of shadows (Ex) A kaorti necrosavant is constantly surrounded by shadowy, insubstantial tentacles that shield and blur its body. If it moves more than 5 feet on its turn, it gains 20% concealment for 1 round against ranged attacks. Any spell of 2nd or higher level with the Light description cancels this effect.
Withering Aura (Su) A kaorti necrosavant is surrounded by an aura of pure malice and death, and all living creatures within this aura take 1d6 negative energy damage per round on beginning of their turns. In addition, no living creature may benefit from magical healing within this aura. This aura also grants the kaorti necrosavant a point of Fast Healing for each living creature that is within the aura on the beginning of its turn.
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SOME DESIGN NOTES:
In the end, I took the wight stat block, and more or less ignored the 3E Kaorti altogether (I even dropped the resin armor, but kept ‘material plane vulnerability’ in allowing cold iron to penetrate DR). Instead, I came up with some “Far Realms-y” abilities I thought were appropriate for my concept, and tried comparing them to existing monsters. In 4E terms, my Advanced Kaorti Necrosavant Wight is a “solo controller” -- a monster who can hold its own against a group of PCs (even one that has several “melee” characters). Instead of draining Con or bestowing negative levels with slam attacks, it has a nasty aura and gaze attack. It can also unleash a psychic scream or a force wave that will confuse or knock down opponents. And yet it can spit acid that entangles opponents (the only “remnant” of their ability to produce resin).
There’s also something I liked in 4E that I wanted to playtest in PF RPG rules; namely, the “recharge” mechanic for certain abilities. Now, I could have just used ‘once/day’ whatever, but again I feel that I’m not sure how many times a certain HD monster should be able to use them (“Can I let this Fire-themed monster use Fireball on consecutive rounds, or will it result in nigh-instant TPK? What about its other abilities… do they throw it all off-balance?”). Also, if the creature “misses” with its best abilities, it’s often suddenly a very one-sided fight. The recharge mechanic bring a bit more tension to the table, as certain abilities may be recharged when something happens (e.g. when a monster the monster drops below half its HPs) or when the monster rolls the target number on D20 at the beginning of its turn. I don’t know how it will work in the end, but I want to try it.
Please note that ‘Necrosavant’ and ‘Soulshattering Gaze’ and other silly names are both a sarcastic joke and also a (very small) nod towards 4E. Since this experiment was inspired by 4E mechanics, I thought it would be appropriate in some sense.
What I want to know is that have I gone *completely* mad, or is this an exciting monster to run? Does it feel thematically appropriate for a “Far Realms-y” undead monster? Is my idea about trying the recharge mechanic a complete waste of time and energy? Also, I definitely want to hear opinions on whether it’s a good and balanced “solo” end boss encounter for 6th level PCs who have romped through a few fights before that, and probably not at full health -- despite having two healers in the party. Or is the CR totally off?
Feel free to post ANY sort of feedback; constructive critique is always appreciated, and I don’t mind negative opinions either! :)
Well, there seems to be some 4th ed mechanics in there, 15 or bloodied.
Could you perhaps pathfinderize those for us so that it works better.
I think bloodied is like half hp, and by that 15, I guess you're possibly referring to HP, or is it a save.
Using the Monster Creation guide in the Core book, we notice that you're critter is rather weak in certain respects for a CR 5 creature however, he is rather strong in other aspects due to his abilities, which although I'm not great balance wise. I believe makes him a good placement at CR 5.
What was your question again?
So many text walls.
I like it, but I don't see it as a end boss kind of thing for a 6th level party. Critical factors here include the 34 HP and 19 AC. Even with DR 5, the poor fellow very nearly goes down in a single round to a pair of charging fighters. He's got a lot of very cool special attacks, but I honestly doubt he'll get the chance to put them to relevant use unless you're setting him up in a heavily unbalanced strategic situation.
As for those special attacks:
Soul shattering gaze works like a hybrid gaze attack/frightful presence. I'd take a look at the universal monster rules and pick one of them to go with, rather than riding the line.
Caustic spittle could probably be broken down into tanglefoot bag+flask of acid. That would give characters a reasonable escape method, which is otherwise absent from your rules.
Kinetic blast seems misnamed, since it doesn't do damage and requires a will save, rather than fortitude.
Reaching Limbs is unnecessary - natural attacks can generally just be given a reach, and they work at any range within it.
His melee attack is potent, but seems almost irrelevant. +6 to hit a level 6 character? You'll be lucky to land a single blow on the party before they've dished out the hurt.
Anyway, the overall concept and collection of abilities is cool, but the creature just doesn't have the HD to support the breadth and power of said abilities. Give it another 2 or 4 HD and all those area-of-effect abilities will last long enough to be relevant, and he might be able to land a shot on a party member or two before going down.
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Well, there seems to be some 4th ed mechanics in there, 15 or bloodied.
Could you perhaps pathfinderize those for us so that it works better.
I think bloodied is like half hp, and by that 15, I guess you're possibly referring to HP, or is it a save.
[Sorry about this reply taking time... we had a game weekend, and you know how it goes! :)]
The recharge value is actually the DC, or target number, for recharging the power, and a monster gets to roll for each such ability at the beginning of its turn. In 4E, the numbers range from 3 to 6 on 1d6 (most often a 4E monster recharges a power with 5 or 6), but I wanted to try it on D20 because I think it is more elegant.
The "when it first becomes bloodied" part refers, indeed, to monster dropping to half its HPs (and the recharge only triggers once -- when this happens the first time -- so that no monster could hurt and heal itself in order to abuse this).
Now, the idea behind this recharge mechanic is pretty simple: to eliminate the "it can use this ability once per 1dX rounds" and "it can use this ability/spell yet X/times today" sort of bookkeeping from the GM. I have enough to remember/jot down as is, and I hate that I have to write down 'This dragon's next breath happens after 3 rounds, and the demon gets to use its Dominate Person twice more today...etcetera' (I always forget this stuff if I *don't* write it down, so I have to do it). In 4E you'd just roll once for each rechargeable power (starting with the "most likely to use" type of ability) to see if the monster can use it.
I also absolutely *HATE* the "all targets are blinded/deafened/stunned/paralyzed for XdY" rounds, and funnily enough, this issue came up on saturday. We had a huge orc fight, and one of the PCs used his Blinding shield on two consecutive rounds (it blinds for 1d4 rounds); some of the twenty or so orcs failed the first save and were blinded for 3 rounds, and about half of them failed the second save and were blinded for 1 round. And that was just one group of them; I had a couple of other groups to run, and I should have remembered which of them were free to act on which round. Needless to say, it was just easier to say "Look, guys, maybe they all should be blinded for 2 rounds, okay? Because it's a bit of a pain to remember which ones failed the first save and which ones the second, and even if we use some sort of markers or notes on the minis, it's still extra effort for little gain". And that's what we did. Note that this is the very reason I wanted to try the "Save ends" 4E mechanic in PF RPG (some of the Kaorti's abilities don't have a duration, but rather you save on each round to see if you shake off the effect -- just like you do with 'Hold Person').
Using the Monster Creation guide in the Core book, we notice that you're critter is rather weak in certain respects for a CR 5 creature however, he is rather strong in other aspects due to his abilities, which although I'm not great balance wise. I believe makes him a good placement at CR 5.
What was your question again?
So many text walls.
You're absolutely correct; it's likely a bit too "squishy" for a group of melee-orientated PCs. On the other hand, I expect it to (temporarily) take out one or two PCs on the first couple of rounds. And the PCs have slogged through several encounters by the time they get to the Kaorti Necrosavant, so they're likely to be out of healing and "buffs".
I guess I'm excited to see how it plays out, and whether it's a balanced monster or something they breeze through with Channeling and good saves.
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I like it, but I don't see it as a end boss kind of thing for a 6th level party. Critical factors here include the 34 HP and 19 AC. Even with DR 5, the poor fellow very nearly goes down in a single round to a pair of charging fighters. He's got a lot of very cool special attacks, but I honestly doubt he'll get the chance to put them to relevant use unless you're setting him up in a heavily unbalanced strategic situation.
Well, the room *does* have a lot of difficult terrain that hampers movement. Also, I suspect that at least two PCs (out of four) will become confused and shaken on the first round. In addition to this, it is the "boss fight" encounter of a pretty tough dungeon complex, so I suspect the PCs won't be in top shape when they meet the Kaorti. Furthermore, there will be one more combat on the way out (although the PCs can rest before it should they choose to). All in all I assume this combat will be a lot tougher than it looks, and the Kaorti's relatively low AC and HPs (and it *does* have Fast Healing equal to the number of PCs in its aura) won't be a deal-breaker.
As for those special attacks:
Soul shattering gaze works like a hybrid gaze attack/frightful presence. I'd take a look at the universal monster rules and pick one of them to go with, rather than riding the line.
That's what I would normally do, but "riding the line" is exactly what I want to playtest here, i.e. how would "4e-ish" mechanics work in PF RPG. :)
Caustic spittle could probably be broken down into tanglefoot bag+flask of acid. That would give characters a reasonable escape method, which is otherwise absent from your rules.
Hmmm... I thought I did? That is, I more or less copy-pasted the description from tanglefoot bag, and made very few alterations to it (basically, adding the bit about difficult terrain and 1d6 acid damage on the following round).
Kinetic blast seems misnamed, since it doesn't do damage and requires a will save, rather than fortitude.
That is absolutely true; maybe I should rename it to 'Force Blast'? Originally it was a free bull rush + some sonic damage to everyone.
Reaching Limbs is unnecessary - natural attacks can generally just be given a reach, and they work at any range within it.
Good catch! I totally missed it; then again, I probably keep it (as a free action) just for flavor reasons.
His melee attack is potent, but seems almost irrelevant. +6 to hit a level 6 character? You'll be lucky to land a single blow on the party before they've dished out the hurt.
Yeah, this is not a melee guy -- basically this is an advanced wight, and as such only a CR 4. I have to point out, though, that only one of the PCs has 20+ armor class (I'm pretty stingy with AC-boosting magical items).
Anyway, the overall concept and collection of abilities is cool, but the creature just doesn't have the HD to support the breadth and power of said abilities. Give it another 2 or 4 HD and all those area-of-effect abilities will last long enough to be relevant, and he might be able to land a shot on a party member or two before going down.
That's something I have to consider... I could always just add the resin armor for +4 armor bonus, or drop the advanced template and simply add 4 HD to it.
Anyway, good points there! :)