Collosal Mantis Shrimp


Homebrew and House Rules

Silver Crusade

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Built with the Herolab monster builder.

This lobster like creature lumbers towards you, its rainbow colours shining in the soft light
Collosal Mantis Shrimp Cr 9
XP 6,400

N Huge vermin
Init +2; Senses all-around vision, darkvision 60 ft., see in darkness; Perception +0

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Defense
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AC 24, touch 10, flat-footed 22 (+2 Dex, -2 size, +14 natural)
hp 115 (11d8+55)
Fort +12, Ref +5, Will +3
Defensive Abilities hardness 4

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Offense
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Speed 40 ft., swim 50 ft.
Melee 2 claws (piercing only) +14 (4d6+8)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.

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Statistics
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Str 26, Dex 14, Con 20, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +8; CMB +18; CMD 30 (can't be tripped)
Skills Swim +16

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Special Abilities
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All-Around Vision You can see in all directions and cannot be flanked.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Hardness 4 Subtract Hardness from damage done.
Swimming (50 feet) You have a Swim speed.
Armour Piercing (Ex) Mantis Shrimp's claw attacks move so quickly that they hit aim for touch AC.

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Scarab Sages

See this thread for earlier work on this topic.

In general, I'd definately give it true seeing, but see the thread for some awesome suggestions.

Contributor

The monster isn't sized in the Colossal category, so calling it a Colossal Mantis Shrimp is a misnomer. This is why Pathfinder monsters typically use the additive "giant" when describing massive versions of mundane creatures, as "giant" does not have any size category assumptions and monsters of the giant subtype always have their subtype second (hill + giant, rune + giant, etc.).

Creatures that aren't constructs don't typically have hardness, they have damage reduction instead.

I don't find that giving a mundane animal the ability to see through magical effects (aka supernatural darkness via see in darkness) is very believable. Instead, I would give it a racial bonus on Perception checks, scent, and the ability to see invisibility as an extraordinary ability.

Additionally, I would give it Vital Strike and the ability to deal precision damage of some kind when using Vital Strike. I like the idea of allowing its attacks to resolve against the target's touch AC when using Vital Strike. Perhaps allowing it to ignore up to 5 points of damage reduction when using Vital Strike as well would be in order. Make it function like the Fighter's Penetrating Strike feat.

Scarab Sages

I don't know about just boosting it's mundane senses. Seeing 16 different kinds of light (including, it's theorized, circularly polarized light) is pretty magical to me. True seeing and See in Darkness replicate this pretty nicely, I feel. It also wouldn't help it against someone using plain old stealth, which is a good weakness to balance that set of powers out and explain how they can be caught.


Alexander Augunas wrote:


I don't find that giving a mundane animal the ability to see through magical effects (aka supernatural darkness via see in darkness) is very believable. Instead, I would give it a racial bonus on Perception checks, scent, and the ability to see invisibility as an extraordinary

You've confused me, here. You start by saying giving a mundane the ability to see through magical effects isn't believable to you, and in the next sentence, suggest giving a mundane the ability to see through a magical effect.

Dark Archive

Shouldn't the two attacks be Slam/blunt damage attacks? The Mantis Shrimp has two appendages that snap and bash things. Maybe also give it some kind of stun affect or sunder effect on armor or shields?

I was already planning to stat these bad boys up (super-sized) for my Gamma World game - fascinating little critter.

Contributor

Da'ath wrote:
Alexander Augunas wrote:


I don't find that giving a mundane animal the ability to see through magical effects (aka supernatural darkness via see in darkness) is very believable. Instead, I would give it a racial bonus on Perception checks, scent, and the ability to see invisibility as an extraordinary
You've confused me, here. You start by saying giving a mundane the ability to see through magical effects isn't believable to you, and in the next sentence, suggest giving a mundane the ability to see through a magical effect.

Invisibility is usually a magical effect, but it isn't always a magical effect (see the Mythic trickster path ability, Vanishing Step for an example).

You are right, it is a little bit of an awkward juxtaposition on my part, though. I meant that I thought seeing through things like illusions or supernatural darkness was too much for a mundane animal. Seeing through invisibility is a little more in line with my tastes, especific if mantis shrimp can see in infrared light (heat vision)


Auxmaulous wrote:

Shouldn't the two attacks be Slam/blunt damage attacks? The Mantis Shrimp has two appendages that snap and bash things. Maybe also give it some kind of stun affect or sunder effect on armor or shields?

I was already planning to stat these bad boys up (super-sized) for my Gamma World game - fascinating little critter.

There's also mantis shrimp that impale.

Dark Archive

TarkXT wrote:
Auxmaulous wrote:

Shouldn't the two attacks be Slam/blunt damage attacks? The Mantis Shrimp has two appendages that snap and bash things. Maybe also give it some kind of stun affect or sunder effect on armor or shields?

I was already planning to stat these bad boys up (super-sized) for my Gamma World game - fascinating little critter.

There's also mantis shrimp that impale.

That's right - well if he's stating that one it still should have an impale power or at least a grab.

Link

Dark Archive

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Kaiju mantis shrimp 'swim' through space and use their stellar-heat-igniting 'death punch' to turn planetoids into brief-lived stars, whose flare of light attract other kaiju mantis shrimps to mate.

If one lands on an inhabited planet of larger size, the resultant firestorm is rarely large enough to destroy more than a small kingdom, but that's still pretty catastrophic for the inhabitants of said kingdom...


Alexander Augunas wrote:

Invisibility is usually a magical effect, but it isn't always a magical effect (see the Mythic trickster path ability, Vanishing Step for an example).

You are right, it is a little bit of an awkward juxtaposition on my part, though. I meant that I thought seeing through things like illusions or supernatural darkness was too much for a mundane animal. Seeing through invisibility is a little more in line with my tastes, especific if mantis shrimp can see in infrared light (heat vision)

That makes sense, thanks for the clarification. Personally, I don't have an issue with true sight for it, but now I can understand with and to an extent agree with your position.

Frankly, I find the concept of "magical darkness" just as silly as I found the concept of magical fire in earlier editions. I honestly feel it should be removed just like they did with magical fire.


I just statted up Medium-sized giant mantis shrimp here, both the 'smasher' and the 'spearer' varieties.

The smasher shrimp punch so fast that they create shockwaves that can stun enemies, and the spearer shrimp get the 'rend' special attack.

I gave them a toned down version of true seeing, since the real true seeing lets you see the true forms of polymorphed creatures and peer into the ethereal plane, neither of which seems quite mantis-shrimpy to me.

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