Are two heads >really< better than one?

[Saern]

All right- what's with all the ettins? Is it some inside joke or something? It seems like half of all template use ettins as their base creature! Okay, maybe not that many, but ettins are featured more than seems reasonable as a sample creature for a template. Spellwarped ettin (MM3), hooded pupil ettin (Libris Mortis), and in Dungeon 127, a template with, guess what, an ettin as the sample creature! Ettin skeletons are also featured in the MMI just know there are more out there, but even those three make ettins second only to humans (which hardly count since they are the blank slates of D&D and thus perfect for templates) in frequency of being used as sample monsters for new templates. Why?

[Lich-Loved]

My guess is that ettins (rated CR6) are one of the "basic" monsters for lower mid-level adventurers. They are all around tougher than ogres while remaining simple, unadorned with special abilities and easy to run. Adding a template to an ettin gives a nice basis to build upon while providing a solid mid-level challenge after the template is applied. Using an ogre, orc or human would probably create a creature that is too low level for the type of monster the designers envisioned even if these humanoids could theoretically gain the template. Using a first level human would do little to really showcase the template; who is going to read about a spellwarped commoner and think "Wow, what a good monster!"? Apply the template to an ettin, however, and it showcases the template's additions nicely and creates a creature that even mid-level adventurerers would respect. Savy DMs will see the possibilities in such an enhancement and think about using the creature as shown or applying it to a like monster. The same effect could be gained with trolls or other lower end mid-level beasties of course, but their special abilities already make the creature harder to run and may obfuscate the additions the template is making. For example, a zombie spellstiched grell sounds intriguing, but statting one up as an example of the template(s) is probably not the best way to showcase the template, which is of course the point of the example in the first place.

Or, I could be wrong...

[Sebastian]

I think there's an templated ettin in Savage Species too.

Also, Saern, this college thing isn't working for me. You don't post enough anymore.

[swirler]

hmm
one question I have had is the obsession with Demogorgon?
sure he has the baboon heads but no red butts
is it the hermaphroditic thing? (I didn't know that until I read it on a wiki)

[Jim the Troll]

Only if it's a two-headed Troll

[drunken_nomad]

I put an ettin-wight in Dungeon #97 because it was cool!

[Heathansson]

Thessalettin???

[damnitall22]

That sounds fun. Especially if I can make some Thessalettin saddle bags after I slice it up.

[Tom Baumbach]

damnitall22 wrote:

That sounds fun. Especially if I can make some Thessalettin saddle bags after I slice it up.

Thessalettin Saddlebags

Price (Item Level): 1,500 gp(3rd)
Caster Level: 5th
Aura: Faint; (DC 17) transmutation
Activation: --
Weight: 10lbs

These mangy scale and hide bags cover your mount in primitive-looking saddlebags. Each pouch is adorned with tufts of stringy hair.

While wearing thessalettin saddlebags, your mount is protected from redundancy attacks such as the Twin Spell and Repeat Spell metamagic feats. You gain the benefits of this protection while riding your mount. The saddle bags fit a creature of medium or large size.

Any items placed in thessalettin saddlebags are reproduced as with the excessive duplication of stuff spell. Should a set of thessalettin saddlebags ever be placed in another set of thessalettin saddlebags, you win D&D.

[Hierophantasm]

Tom Baumbach wrote:

Thessalettin Saddlebags

Price (Item Level): 1,500 gp(3rd)
Caster Level: 5th
Aura: Faint; (DC 17) transmutation
Activation: --
Weight: 10lbs

These mangy scale and hide bags cover your mount in primitive-looking saddlebags. Each pouch is adorned with tufts of stringy hair.

While wearing thessalettin saddlebags, your mount is protected from redundancy attacks such as the Twin Spell and Repeat Spell metamagic feats. You gain the benefits of this protection while riding your mount. The saddle bags fit a creature of medium or large size.

Any items placed in thessalettin saddlebags are reproduced as with the excessive duplication of stuff spell. Should a set of thessalettin saddlebags ever be placed in another set of thessalettin saddlebags, you win D&D.

Brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.

[Saern]

Sebastian wrote:

Also, Saern, this college thing isn't working for me. You don't post enough anymore.

College in general isn't the problem; Calculus in general is. I'll tell my professor that some guy I only know from online for his logical and cantankerous, yet humorous, arguments has voiced disapproval with the workload she assigns, which prevent me from contributing to a messageboard dedicated to D&D, the King of all Nerdery. I'm sure that will change her mind.

EDIT- Eureka! Ettins are the answer! I'll polymorph into one so I can post and do Calculus at the same time!

Changes into an ettin, failing to take into account the horrendous Intelligence penalty, thus forgetting how to un-ettinize, fails Calculus, and eats his keyboard thinking it was a sausage.

[MaxSlasher26]

Tom Baumbach wrote:

damnitall22 wrote:

That sounds fun. Especially if I can make some Thessalettin saddle bags after I slice it up.

Thessalettin Saddlebags

Price (Item Level): 1,500 gp(3rd)
Caster Level: 5th
Aura: Faint; (DC 17) transmutation
Activation: --
Weight: 10lbs

These mangy scale and hide bags cover your mount in primitive-looking saddlebags. Each pouch is adorned with tufts of stringy hair.

While wearing thessalettin saddlebags, your mount is protected from redundancy attacks such as the Twin Spell and Repeat Spell metamagic feats. You gain the benefits of this protection while riding your mount. The saddle bags fit a creature of medium or large size.

Any items placed in thessalettin saddlebags are reproduced as with the excessive duplication of stuff spell. Should a set of thessalettin saddlebags ever be placed in another set of thessalettin saddlebags, you win D&D.

So for 3000 gold or an exceptionally high ability in the field of pick pocketing, I can win D&D?

[Half-Saern ettin]

Blargagh!

[Heathansson]

fx=16x. What's the f prime, ettin head?
(I would've gotten tougher, but I don't know how to put in a "squared.")

[Half-Saern ettin]

Eats the function. Blargagahrghgir! Burp!

[Rhavin]

Heathansson wrote:

fx=16x. What's the f prime, ettin head?

(I would've gotten tougher, but I don't know how to put in a "squared.")

x^2

or if you want to root something x^(1/2)

=) irrelevant I know but I felt I needed to chime in.

Saern I sympathize Im taking calc right now for college credits (senior in highschool) and it is shooting my GPA in the face.

[Saern]

I'm not that worried about my GPA. I just don't like the class. :)

Oh, and that's 16, dog-breath (or 32 with the square). Try something just a bit challenging, like a combo quotient and chain rule. :)

[Rhavin]

32x with the square, the exponent drops down a place, in this case from x^2 to x^1.

[Half-Saern ettin]

Rhavin wrote:

32x with the square, the exponent drops down a place, in this case from x^2 to x^1.

Bphalgrka! Kills and eats Calculus. All of it.