I was reading through the Stormwrack web enhancement and it got me to thinking about kopru. For those who don't know, kopru are an amphibious monster originally introduced in X1: The Isle of Dread. They have tentacled faces and use dominate monster to control their enemies, which include everything that isn't a kopru. According to the STAP preview they will be making a critical appearance on the Isle of Dread, which is cool because other than dinosaurs they were the signature monster of the original Isle. They were reintroduced for 3.0 in MMII and for 3.5 in the Stormwrack web enhancement.
My question has to to with a kopru's type. They are monstrous humanoids. It sure seems like they would be abberations. They are fairly alien, use mental dominations and they've got tentacles. Isn't it a pretty ironclad rule in 3.5 that if it's got tentacles, tendrils, psuedopods, etc... then it's a abberation?
I do notice that monstrous humanoids are generally better than abberations, as they have full BAB and two good saves. Is that the reason?
Mr. Jacobs, you were one of the authors of Lords of Madness (great book!) so perhaps you have some special insight into abberations? Any reason you know of why kopru are monstrous humanoids? Is it to keep them seperate from mind flayers, whom they somewhat resemble?
I'm really curious about this one myself. In addition to all the traits you mention (which qualified the illithid for the aberration type), they don't even have a pair of legs like the mind flayer!
Really strange choice, IMO.
(In any event, I'm definitely making a change for my Mystara campaigns to the aberration type.)
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If I were designing the kopru, I would have certainly made them aberrations. I would have also given them the amphibious subtype. At least we can change that easilly enough in Savage Tide (the amphibious part, not the monstrous humanoid part).
Monster Manual II came out early in the 3.0 days, where things like monster types weren't as nailed down. When you look at the two most similar monsters to kopru (aboleths and mind flayers), it seems obvious that aberration is a better choice, but certainly not the only choice. And certainly not the worst case of "Why isn't that monster an aberration?" That award goes to the roper.
And certainly not the worst case of "Why isn't that monster an aberration?" That award goes to the roper.
Wow! I never noticed the Roper is classed as a "Magical Beast" before. Yeesh!
I think it's a near-tie with the Ormyrr (also from MMII), which is another creature I never noted the type for until today. (Though the Roper does have a slight edge in the race, I'll concede.)
Well I may just change them to aberrations, then. It will weaken them a bit, but not too much. Thanks, James.
I had never noticed that about ropers, either. They do seem like an abberation.
Well I may just change them to aberrations, then. It will weaken them a bit, but not too much.
I just did it myself a little earlier. It lowers their Reflex save and their BAB a little, but these aren't really intended to be melee fighters anyway (IMO). They should rely on their minions more than their own physicality.
Another change that I made (in that vein), was to replace the Skill Focus (Escape Artist) feat that the 3.5 revision gave it, and give it Ability Focus (dominate person) for an additional +2 DC to its dominate ability.
(Still debating tweaking it a bit more, as the original version wasn't particularly noted for its strength, and a high charisma seems more kopru-like. I may swap those two scores, in which case I'd drop the Ability Focus, since it would have a +2 from Cha and a +4 would put it IMO above the CR6 category- it would easily dominate everyone in the party- and give it some other feat instead. Not sure what, though.)