so the description of his purple rubberiness says that he is 'wielding a staff of red hot metal'. what is this exactly? am i missing something or was it changed? a rod of metamagic is listed under his gear. but that doesn't sound like the staff he's wielding...?
Interesting.. my original manuscript said rod of white hot metal. Not sure how that one got changed. Suffice to say, it is refering to the metamagic rod.
Jason Bulmahn
Managing Editor of Dragon
HoHR Author
probly just to match the uterrly awesome art for zyrxog (my favorite illithid pic ever), which has a red-hot staff.
And here I thought that the post was going to be something about giving Zyrxog some sort of servants in black and white outfits... or maybe I just need some sleep.
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so the description of his purple rubberiness says that he is 'wielding a staff of red hot metal'. what is this exactly? am i missing something or was it changed? a rod of metamagic is listed under his gear. but that doesn't sound like the staff he's wielding...?
I took the text and adapted it to fit Zyrxog's keen intellect and durability. In effect, the "red-hot" look of the staff should be Zyrxog's intentional attempt to mislead adversaries to his potential abilities.
The "red-glowing" was part of the visual ambiance of the staff, as per the Zyrxog artwork, as there aren't any facts about this effect as written. In my mind the lattice "cage" that surrounded the lesser metamagic rod was made of an alloy normally found on illithid nautoloid spelljamming ships (I had devised an spelljamming-based backstory for Zyrxog in the off chance the PCs wanted to explore Zyrxog's thrall network further). This alloy glows red, like "red-hot metal", in the presence of "strong" magical auras. In this case the rod the metal was binding at the end of Zyrxog's staff is the source of strong magic. When Zyrxog used the rod on his lightning bolt against my PCs, it flashed brightly before the spell was delivered. The PCs were shocked when it was a lightning bolt rather than a fireball. If time allowed a resist elements, fire may have been cast and wasted against the wrong energy type, exactly what an intelligent and durable illithid would want an adversary to do...
Interesting.. my original manuscript said rod of white hot metal. Not sure how that one got changed. Suffice to say, it is refering to the metamagic rod.
Jason Bulmahn
Managing Editor of Dragon
HoHR Author
Thanks, Jason. just wondering, but it does inspire me to curse the rod with a heat metal (as the druid spell) effect every time it is used. the fire resistance in the room protects Zed and it kind of goes with all the other cursed items in his collection. mwu-ha-ha!!
p.s. Renshaw- Z already made the party Hexblade his poolboy. mwu-ha-ha-HA!!
Hi, Jason,
While you're here and on this topic, can you explain Zyrxog's CR? The Monster Manual says a base mind flayer is CR 8 and a mind flayer with 9 levels of sorcerer is CR 17. That suggests that a mind flayer with 7 levels of sorcerer would be CR15; why did you assign CR11 instead?
Mary
Creative Director
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Hi, Jason,
While you're here and on this topic, can you explain Zyrxog's CR? The Monster Manual says a base mind flayer is CR 8 and a mind flayer with 9 levels of sorcerer is CR 17. That suggests that a mind flayer with 7 levels of sorcerer would be CR15; why did you assign CR11 instead?
Mary
I can handle that one.
Basically, the Monster Manual CR for the mind flayer sorcerer is wrong.
Sorcerer levels are not associated levels for a mind flayer; see page 294 of the Monster Manual. Basically, a mind flayer that takes levels in sorcerer isn't really enhancing its power until it starts casting higher level spells. +1d4 hit points and a few first level spells are pretty useless to a monster that can mind blast, in other words, but +9d4 hit points and the ability to cast wall of force is not.
The Monster Manual mind flayer sorcerer should be CR should be a CR 13 creatrue (treat its sorcerer levels as a 0.5 CR increase until its sorcerer levels = its racial HD, and then any additional sorcerer levels are 1 for 1 to the mind flayer's CR).
As for the red-hot staff; that was changed in editing to match the illustration. It's a case of D&D stealing words from us, in effect. The illustration was too cool to change, so we decided to change the description a little. In any event, the "staff" in the illustration is in fact his lesser empower metamagic rod.
Readers looking for a legitimate error in Zyrxog's stat block need look no further than the save DC for his mind blast. A mind blast's DC is supposed to be 14 + Cha bonus, since it's a spell-like ability, not a supernatural ability (and therefore Zyrxog's HD don't matter). His mind blast should have a save DC of 20, not DC 23.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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Readers looking for a legitimate error in Zyrxog's stat block need look no further than the save DC for his mind blast. A mind blast's DC is supposed to be 14 + Cha bonus, since it's a spell-like ability, not a supernatural ability (and therefore Zyrxog's HD don't matter). His mind blast should have a save DC of 20, not DC 23.
And remember (because I care about Dungeon getting stat blocks right :) ) - racial abilities are not affected by class level HD. So even if it were an EX or SU ability, the DC would still be based off 14 (half the mind flayer's racial HD).
Wouldn't a similar argument apply to its SR? SR 32 is very high for a creature meant to fight an 8th level party: they cannot affect it at all unless someone has Greater Spell Penetration, and then only on a 20. If the sorcerer levels are giving it SR at one for one, perhaps they are worth more than you think. Or is this an error as well?
Mary
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Creative Director
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The high SR is correct. Mind flayers are one of the few monsters in the game who have an SR that scales upward as they gain Hit Dice or class levels. They've always had high SR, to the point where they're almost immune to magic. This is by design, to force players into taking them on with different tactics. There's still plenty a spellcaster can do against mind flayers, they just have to be more creative. Use spells to buff the party members (fly and haste are particularly handy there, as is spell immunity used to get immunity to mind blasts). Summon monsters to attack him. Or use spells like glitterdust, Melf's acid arror, and grease that don't allow spell resistance in the first place.