Powerful Monsters

Many of the newer polymorph spells don't even come close to the core spells (and even some of the core spells, such as plant shape, are kinda weak in comparison to the others) in terms of available options. Last I checked, there were even size categories in some of those spells where little to no options were available at all!

None of that is something a Bestiary would or should address. Ultimate Wilderness does have some more support for shapechanging stuff (the new class there is the shifter, after all), so maybe that book will have something of interest to you. Not the topic of this thread though. Shapechanging and polymorph is one of the more easily rules-abused elements of the game, though, in part of the long tradition it has had in previous editions that allowed players to cast multiple spells as chokers, for example. There's a reason, in other words, that it's not as powerful an option as you want it to be.

Every book is a player option book. :P

That's an stance that doesn't sit well with me, frankly, but whatever.

Luthorne wrote:

Wannabe Demon Lord wrote:

What is a fen mauler?

The descendents of sasquatches driven to dark pacts and sinister rituals, resulting in a malevolent creature wreathed in darkness who can ritualistically harvest parts from their victims to gain a portion of their power.

Edit: Ninja-ed, but I like my answer more, so I guess I'll leave it!

So Jeepers Creepers without the creepy director?

Never seen that film, so can't speak there, but I think it's an interestingly creepy monster, at least.

BMovieMonster wrote:

Luthorne wrote:

Wannabe Demon Lord wrote:

What is a fen mauler?

The descendents of sasquatches driven to dark pacts and sinister rituals, resulting in a malevolent creature wreathed in darkness who can ritualistically harvest parts from their victims to gain a portion of their power.

Edit: Ninja-ed, but I like my answer more, so I guess I'll leave it!

So Jeepers Creepers without the creepy director?

Never seen that film, so can't speak there, but I think it's an interestingly creepy monster, at least.

VERY different from the Jeepers Creepers monster.

The fen mauler is based on a specific category of cryptid—the idea of a violent bigfoot-like creature that's aggressive and dangerous rather than reclusive and shy. In certain cryptozoological circles, this category is known as the "mystery mauler."

"The Legend of Boggy Creek" is a great movie to check out for this type of bigfoot menace and the horror it brings.

Eric Hinkle wrote:

Can some kind person provide a few names of the high-CR monstrous humanoids?

The monstrous humanoids from lowest to highest CR are:

** spoiler omitted **

The Shifty Mongoose wrote:

Just how big is Ouroborous? Bouncing across the landscape, over houses, or just big enough to land on your shoulders and violently compress?

It's Colossal, roughly 50 feet in diameter, and weighs 260 lbs. So more the former than the latter.

Thanks for that list, Luthorne!

The description of the Fen Mauler sounds a lot like the classic 'Killer Bigfoot' as found in movies and 'real' stories like the Great Oklahoma Bigfoot-Choctaw War, Green Eyes at Chickamuaga, or almost any of the stories in the surprisingly skeptical 'believer' book When Bigfoot Attacks.

But the Saurian and the Rawhead, what are they like?

Luthorne wrote:

BMovieMonster wrote:

Luthorne wrote:

Wannabe Demon Lord wrote:

What is a fen mauler?

The descendents of sasquatches driven to dark pacts and sinister rituals, resulting in a malevolent creature wreathed in darkness who can ritualistically harvest parts from their victims to gain a portion of their power.

Edit: Ninja-ed, but I like my answer more, so I guess I'll leave it!

So Jeepers Creepers without the creepy director?

Never seen that film, so can't speak there, but I think it's an interestingly creepy monster, at least.

VERY different from the Jeepers Creepers monster.

The fen mauler is based on a specific category of cryptid—the idea of a violent bigfoot-like creature that's aggressive and dangerous rather than reclusive and shy. In certain cryptozoological circles, this category is known as the "mystery mauler."

"The Legend of Boggy Creek" is a great movie to check out for this type of bigfoot menace and the horror it brings.

So more the semi-supernatural Hairy Biped rather than the more 'natural' Bigfoot?

Luthorne wrote:

Eric Hinkle wrote:

Can some kind person provide a few names of the high-CR monstrous humanoids?

The monstrous humanoids from lowest to highest CR are:

** spoiler omitted **

The Shifty Mongoose wrote:

Just how big is Ouroborous? Bouncing across the landscape, over houses, or just big enough to land on your shoulders and violently compress?

It's Colossal, roughly 50 feet in diameter, and weighs 260 lbs. So more the former than the latter.

Thanks for that list, Luthorne!

The description of the Fen Mauler sounds a lot like the classic 'Killer Bigfoot' as found in movies and 'real' stories like the Great Oklahoma Bigfoot-Choctaw War, Green Eyes at Chickamuaga, or almost any of the stories in the surprisingly skeptical 'believer' book When Bigfoot Attacks.

But the Saurian and the Rawhead, what are they like?

So, the rawhead is this terrifying seven foot tall entity with claws except for their index fingers which are long boneless tentacles that can walk on air, ripping away at both flesh and your mind, and if you're helpless it can deal a lot of damage and rip your skeleton out of your body, creating a new kind of intelligent undead called a bloody bones that can jump between reflections or lurk inside of them, and the rawhead is also aware of what direction each is in and what their general condition is. Overall, they're pretty nasty entities, and probably one of my favorites.

Saurians are twenty foot tall dinosaur men who consider themselves protectors of dinosaurs and other prehistoric life, and will kick your ass to defend them. They're big, beefy, good at befriending dinosaurs, can walk on air, have a nasty roar, and some miscellaneous spell-like abilities, including meteor swarm 1/day. So, I guess, revenge of the dinosaurs in general.

Is CR 25 going to be the lowest CR for printed Kaiju or could there be lower? I know a GM could just take a lower CR colossal monster, widen its space and reach, and just apply the subtype, but I was just wondering. I've always liked the idea of having a mid level party fight a CR 20 or lower kaiju, since it is easier to actually run the encounter.

What's the Ouroboros creature type again?

What's the Ouroboros creature type again?

It's a magical beast with the extraplanar subtype, native to the Astral Plane.

Magical Snek.

The Gold Sovereign wrote:

What's the Ouroboros creature type again?

It's a magical beast with the extraplanar subtype, native to the Astral Plane.

Which explains why there's absolutely nothing else in the Astral Plane.

The Gold Sovereign wrote:

What's the Ouroboros creature type again?

It's a magical beast with the extraplanar subtype, native to the Astral Plane.

Thanks... O.O'

*surprised that this... thing... nightmare... isn't an aberration*

Luthorne wrote:

The Gold Sovereign wrote:

What's the Ouroboros creature type again?

It's a magical beast with the extraplanar subtype, native to the Astral Plane.

Thanks... O.O'

*surprised that this... thing... nightmare... isn't an aberration*

It's not an Aberration... by the Astral Plane's standards.

You don't want to see an Astral Plane Aberration.

Luthorne wrote:

The Gold Sovereign wrote:

What's the Ouroboros creature type again?

It's a magical beast with the extraplanar subtype, native to the Astral Plane.

Which explains why there's absolutely nothing else in the Astral Plane.

Well, there are astral leviathans and the shulsaga, both native to the plane. Additionally, we know that astradaemons are regularly found there. Outside of the Bestiaries, the Occult Bestiary has the psychoplasmic creature template, and in the Monster Summoner's Handbook, the ember weaver is noted to be present on the astral plane, though like the astradaemon, it is presumably a visitor, from the Boneyard rather than Abaddon.

The mental imagery of astradaemons getting devoured by an ourobros, or even a knot of them (yes, amusingly, this is the actual term for a group of ouroboroses) is certainly amusing, though...

Is CR 25 going to be the lowest CR for printed Kaiju or could there be lower? I know a GM could just take a lower CR colossal monster, widen its space and reach, and just apply the subtype, but I was just wondering. I've always liked the idea of having a mid level party fight a CR 20 or lower kaiju, since it is easier to actually run the encounter.

That would be my preference, yes. I specifically set up Yarthoon to show the "least powerful" a kaiju can be. Whether or not that translates to future kaiju, we'll wait and see I guess.

I hope not, I like my Kaiju being at least CR26.

Well, Yarthoon is the example of the least powerful, while Varklops is the one of the most powerful. Fair and useful enough.

Before the preview and the comments from the subscribers, I was also expecting a rather Ghidora-like Varklops, but he is pretty much different from the dragon like kaiju. It does incorporate some traits from King Ghidora, but Lord Varklops sure is impressive by itself.

Varklops does a decent job of being a readily identifiable homage without venturing into lawsuit territory.

Varklops does a decent job of being a readily identifiable homage without venturing into lawsuit territory.

Much like Mogaru!

Eric Hinkle wrote:

But the Saurian and the Rawhead, what are they like?

So, the rawhead is this terrifying seven foot tall entity with claws except for their index fingers which are long boneless tentacles that can walk on air, ripping away at both flesh and your mind, and if you're helpless it can deal a lot of damage and rip your skeleton out of your body, creating a new kind of intelligent undead called a bloody bones that can jump between reflections or lurk inside of them, and the rawhead is also aware of what direction each is in and what their general condition is. Overall, they're pretty nasty entities, and probably one of my favorites.

Saurians are twenty foot tall dinosaur men who consider themselves protectors of dinosaurs and other prehistoric life, and will kick your ass to defend them. They're big, beefy, good at befriending dinosaurs, can walk on air, have a nasty roar, and some miscellaneous spell-like abilities, including meteor swarm 1/day. So, I guess, revenge of the dinosaurs in general.

Yikes. Those two sound impressively nasty.

I suppose the Saurians are either evil or neutral? They sound like they'd work well in either the Mwangi Expanse or that one Darklands realm overrun with dinosaurs and advanced troglodytes/Xulgath.

Oh yeah... Old Raw Head Bloody Bones. Takes me right back to my childhood!

Little Eight John's punk demise was a recurring favorite out of The People Could Fly.

Luthorne wrote:

Eric Hinkle wrote:

But the Saurian and the Rawhead, what are they like?

So, the rawhead is this terrifying seven foot tall entity with claws except for their index fingers which are long boneless tentacles that can walk on air, ripping away at both flesh and your mind, and if you're helpless it can deal a lot of damage and rip your skeleton out of your body, creating a new kind of intelligent undead called a bloody bones that can jump between reflections or lurk inside of them, and the rawhead is also aware of what direction each is in and what their general condition is. Overall, they're pretty nasty entities, and probably one of my favorites.

Saurians are twenty foot tall dinosaur men who consider themselves protectors of dinosaurs and other prehistoric life, and will kick your ass to defend them. They're big, beefy, good at befriending dinosaurs, can walk on air, have a nasty roar, and some miscellaneous spell-like abilities, including meteor swarm 1/day. So, I guess, revenge of the dinosaurs in general.

Yikes. Those two sound impressively nasty.

I suppose the Saurians are either evil or neutral? They sound like they'd work well in either the Mwangi Expanse or that one Darklands realm overrun with dinosaurs and advanced troglodytes/Xulgath.

Saurians are true neutral in alignment. In general they're inclined to be respectful of life, though given their ferocious protection of primal animals, it's easy enough to set up conflicts with them...

I specifically set up Yarthoon to show the "least powerful" a kaiju can be. Whether or not that translates to future kaiju, we'll wait and see I guess.

Haha. I first read that as "Yoon" and imagined a Kaiju-sized Yoon bringing fiery death upon all of the tiny ant people below! lol.

The Gold Sovereign wrote:

*surprised that this... thing... nightmare... isn't an aberration*

It's not an Aberration... by the Astral Plane's standards.

You don't want to see an Astral Plane Aberration.

Well, now I do.

The Fen Mauler sounds like THe Genoskwa from the most recent Dresden Files novel. Though, my bestiary 6 is still in transit, so it may be a few more days until I get to see it, myself.

Plus that book featured a Rawhead AND the wild hunt. I'm all kinds of excited for this book. And not just because of the Dresden Files references.

Rysky wrote:

The Gold Sovereign wrote:

*surprised that this... thing... nightmare... isn't an aberration*

It's not an Aberration... by the Astral Plane's standards.

You don't want to see an Astral Plane Aberration.

Well, now I do.

Hmm, yeah, me too now.

Eric Hinkle wrote:

Can some kind person provide a few names of the high-CR monstrous humanoids?

The monstrous humanoids from lowest to highest CR are:

** spoiler omitted **

The Shifty Mongoose wrote:

Just how big is Ouroborous? Bouncing across the landscape, over houses, or just big enough to land on your shoulders and violently compress?

It's Colossal, roughly 50 feet in diameter, and weighs 260 lbs. So more the former than the latter.

OK, let me get this straight, we have a 50 ft in diameter ( I am assuming that is diameter of the circle when it grabs it's own tail, not the diameter of the body itself, otherwise this is even crazier) snake that weighs 260 lbs?!? Is it assumed to be made of pixie dust? 50 ft in diameter is 157 + overlap long!

tons*

Not pounds.

tons*

Not pounds.

Whoops, my bad. This is correct, it weighs 260 tons.

Ah, I like magical balloon snek monster.

Ah, I like magical balloon snek monster.

Those sort of things tend to be very vulnerable to rapiers and stilettos though. Or any other weapon shaped like a big needle...

That problem is solved by having a LOT of magical balloon snek monsters.

If you have magical balloon snek monsters, then you likely also have at least one giant clown inflating them. I know which I'd perceive as the bigger threat.

If you have magical balloon snek monsters, then you likely also have at least one giant clown inflating them. I know which I'd perceive as the bigger threat.

...anyone seen Cosmo?

Sir RicHunt Attenwampi wrote:

If you have magical balloon snek monsters, then you likely also have at least one giant clown inflating them. I know which I'd perceive as the bigger threat.

...anyone seen Cosmo?

By then it's too late.

Actually, there is a massive sea worm in the Bestiary that sort of fits the "balloon monster" niche: the Atuikakura. It's weird and nasty and relatively high CR.

EDIT: Got to love real-life folklore monsters, this one from Japan!

Heh.

How do kaiju react towards kaiju-sized great old ones? Will Varklops vs. Cthulhu be a possibility?

If you can transport Varklops to R'lyeh, sure? Cthulhu would have no incentive to seek the fight.

How do kaiju react towards kaiju-sized great old ones? Will Varklops vs. Cthulhu be a possibility?

I'm close to sure that Varklops ir bigger than Cthulhu, as this is what Kaijus are all about. The kaiju space and reach are usually above 50 ft. while Cthulhu's are 40 ft. Mogaru space and reach are 60 ft.

Will Varklops vs. Cthulhu be a possibility?

Mmmmmmmmmaybe.