RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Excuse the subject line ;)
I've had lots of advice for starting my massive weekend group with the Champions Belt and now I'm looking to make the Froghemoth a fitting challenge for 4 level 11 characters and 4 level 12s.
The party is:
Barbarian 11
Cleric 12
Rogue 3/ Cleric 9
Druid 12
Wizard 5/ Guild Wizard of Waterdeep 7
Fighter 11
Hexblade 11
Cleric 11
Ideas so far:
Turin's advanced antagonist template - definitely!
A ranged weapon - maybe an Acid spittle like Khala (6d6 plus 1 negative level)
A few extra tentacles
Maybe an extra head, with each head having two or three tentacles to serve up food with. (And both spitting acid/ negative energy)
Fire shield style defences - negative energy or acid that damages anyone who hits the thing.
A grappling tongue like a chameleon.
Any ideas? I'm not sure how far to take it.
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Any ideas? I'm not sure how far to take it.
Wow. Eight characters. Man if you take it too far, someone will probably die.
I would suggest giving it max (plus?) hit points just so that it stays in the fight longer. For straight templates --
Half-Dragon (probably overdone)
Half-Troll (Fiend Folio)
Half-Farspawn -- for additional Ewwww (Lords of Madness)
Half-Fiend (probably overdone)
Horrid Animal (Eberron Campaign Setting) -- while not an animal, I don't really see why you couldn't apply the template in this case.
Monster of Legend (Monster Manual II)
Multi-Headed Creature (Savage Species)
Obah-Blessed Creature (Dungeon Magazine 136)
Phrenic Creature (Expanded Psionics Handbook)
Pseudonatural Creature (Complete Arcane or Lords of Madness)
Spell Warped Creature (Monster Manual III)
Any of the above I could see working fairly well. Of course the easiest would be to simply increase the amount of hit dice. Giving the creature an additional 10-15 HD will certainly give it more power.
As far as what you suggested --
Turin's ... -- not familiar with this.
Ranged weapon -- could be nice, but the reality is that it wastes a turn of the creature and how many will it actually affect? 2? Maybe 3? As the other 5 are wacking on it...
A few extra tentacles -- look at the Obah-Blessed Template.
Extra Head -- Look at the Multi-head template.
Fire shield style defense -- Either Loris can have a spell cast on the creature or you can give it some ability -- you could look at the ooze template from Savage Species for some ideas.
Grappling tongue -- Not sure why you would do this. It doesn't give the creature an additional attack and it takes away from its bite attack.
Hope this helps. (and good luck)
Dude, you forgot the Kaiju template! :P (Dragon #289, if you're interested.)
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My group fought it about three sessions ago -- only six of them but they were right about the same level as your guys' and had some NPC help.
The Pseudonatural template is what I gave him as not only does it fit my homebrew version better, but also because the pic in Dungeon magazine is horrible (2E Monstrous Annual 2 has a good pic), unless, of course, the froghemoth is from the Far Realm -- then it's a pretty good pic.
Anyway, this might not be good for your group if you're following the text. For my group, the Froghemoth was the latest summoned "Ebon Aspect" instead of whatever the text says -- it was quite fun. After 2 rounds of the fight a Free City Noble -- a huge sized Cloud Giant -- came to save the Free City. For effect, I had Far-Realm-Frog swallow him whole!
Oh, one more thing -- I made him bigger. To illustrate to the PCs its size I reminded them that colossal has a -8 AC -- my Froghemoth had a -12 AC!
-W. E. Ray
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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How soon do you need the creature and what CR are you looking for?
Next Friday (16th) and I guess about CR 16 or 17 would be reasonably challenging. With, say 28-30HD - making the beast Gargantuan too. You fancy tweaking him? Or is it a her? (imagines lipstick on that mouth and shudders)
How soon do you need the creature and what CR are you looking for?Next Friday (16th) and I guess about CR 16 or 17 would be reasonably challenging. With, say 28-30HD - making the beast Gargantuan too. You fancy tweaking him? Or is it a her? (imagines lipstick on that mouth and shudders)
You can use more then one template as well which is pretty effective. That said you should probably advance it quite a bit. An added template gives some bonuses but it needs hps and the basics as well.
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The creature is from S3-'Expedition to the Barrier Peaks', right?
So why not have it come out wearing an anti-grav harness, with a pair of blaster rifles, wazzing grenades at them?
And if you want an alternate picture, scroll down the page in THIS LINK.
Off-topic: I adore this post's subject title. With the appropriate artwork attached, it would make for a fine T-shirt back in the early 90's.
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Ok, I have statted up a few for now. I will try and get more later (I like doing this kind of stuff).
Simply advancing the Froghemoth to 30 HD (by the RAW) automatically makes it a CR 16 creature. I probably don't fully agree with that though. The Froghemoth is a difficult creature to give an accurate CR to. He has an incredibly poor AC, but his to hit and damage potential is pretty astronomical. Basically, it probably won't last more than two rounds -- on the other hand, if it does, at least one character will probably be dead.
You can see what I have done so far --> here. I still have a few more that I want to do, but hope that helps for now.
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... though I didn't see the spell-like abilities, are you not allowed to reproduce them?
I can include them, but they are not valid by RAW. They only get the spell-like abilities if they have at least a 3 Intelligence. The Froghemoth has a 1 Int. It could get all the spell-like abilities --
blur 3/day
touch of idiocy 1/day
stinking cloud 1/day
blink 3/day
greater invisibility 1/day
telekinesis 1/day
ethereal jaunt 3/day
scintillating pattern 1/day
summon monster IX 1/day (psuedonatural creatures only)
implosion 1/day
Hope that helps.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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I'd had a peek in my friends book yesterday and vaguely remembered them. Thanks for letting me know about the Int thing - I was curious, not critical :)
Would it be awfully unfair to give it some Int? I mean, it's only 2 points...
greater invisibility "Mmmmmm"
telekinesis "Come here, pesky mage!"
ethereal jaunt - that's just nasty!
scintillating pattern - it'll only take out one, but stunned for 1d4 rounds is instant swallow.
summon monster IX 1/day (psuedonatural creatures only) Holy moly! Can you say "Gargantuan Fiendish Pseudonatural Monstrous Scorpion?"
implosion - I might not use this one, but imagine the chaos if I did!
"Waves of energy emanate from the beast's bizarre eyestalks and the air around you seems to vibrate. Appalled, you realise that it's you that's vibrating, resonating ..."
POP!
Splash!
"Even as you wipe bits of your friend from your face you feel yourself starting to resonate too..."
And so on :)
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Would it be awfully unfair to give it some Int? I mean, it's only 2 points...
Here are my thoughts on it...
Int 3 is still pretty stupid. Many of these spells (I feel) still need a fair amount of intelligence to really use. If this creature was captured it probably would summon monster every chance it got to try and get out of its cage. I would limit it to one or two. Greater invisibility would be rather powerful and you could argue it was fairly instinctual as well. Scintillating pattern -- maybe. Most of the others I probably wouldn't use. Also, keep in mind that if you use a spell-like ability, it is one round that you don't get to use your other 8 attacks.
I created a Spellwarped Froghemoth as well -- same link. Both the Spellwarped and the Half-Farspawn will really put a crimp in a spell-caster's day -- 40 or 41 SR -- probably not making that roll very often at 12th level.
Stinking cloud makes sense, too. Just adapt it as you would a sculpted spell, to change it to a 40' cone emanating from the froghemoth's mouth. Nauseatingly bad breath in an enormous carnivore? Definitely!
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Now to admire the other three beasties!
Ok, I've done up 7 "beasties" now --> here.
I also fixed a few things -- Half-Farspawn have a cap of 25 on SR. There were a few other minor things as well. The monster of legend is pretty sweet. Combining that with the half-farspawn is bordering on the insane. :)
When you play it out see how it goes. My group (technically) killed it before it even had a turn. That felt pretty anti-climactic. So suddenly it had twice as many hit points as it was supposed to have. Managed to swallow one character before they killed it shortly thereafter -- it made a boring fight much more interesting. See how it goes and if it is really going easy on the characters, give the creature a lot more hit points. I feel the creature should be able to stick it out for at least two to three rounds of combat.
Have fun and hope these stat blocks help.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Great stuff! The spellwarped is pretty funny too - I've never seen that one before. The big question now is which one to use.
And I was thinking of stinking cloud this morning too - just didn't want to waste a standard action on it. As a breath weapon it's great! Thanks, matey!
Five days to F-Day :)
The mention of a Half-Farspawn template in a book suddenly got me rather excited ... I shall have to procure that gem for future use... mwahhahahah!!