How do Temauhti-tecuani's ability scores add up? Based on guidelines for applying the elite array to a standard stat block, I'm guessing he should have ability more like 32, 14, 25 or 26, 2, 17, 8 -- very similar to his printed 32, 16, 26, 2, 16, 8, but it's annoying me.
(I'm fearful for my party's chances against Temauhti-tecuani, so am considering dropping his stats back to somewhere between his current ones and those of a standard tyrannosaurus, so am trying to "reverse-engineer" him. (I'm still of two minds as to whether or not I want to do this.) Right now, lowering his hit dice to 21 and removing his Improved Toughness feat should do nicely.)
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How do Temauhti-tecuani's ability scores add up? Based on guidelines for applying the elite array to a standard stat block, I'm guessing he should have ability more like 32, 14, 25 or 26, 2, 17, 8 -- very similar to his printed 32, 16, 26, 2, 16, 8, but it's annoying me.
(I'm fearful for my party's chances against Temauhti-tecuani, so am considering dropping his stats back to somewhere between his current ones and those of a standard tyrannosaurus, so am trying to "reverse-engineer" him. (I'm still of two minds as to whether or not I want to do this.) Right now, lowering his hit dice to 21 and removing his Improved Toughness feat should do nicely.)
Temauhti-Tecuani's an elite tyrannosaurus. As a t-rex, his base stat bonuses work out to be:
Str +18
Dex +2
Con +10
Int –8
Wis +4
Cha +0
His base stats, using the elite array:
Str 13
Dex 14
Con 15
Int 10
Wis 12
Cha 8
After the ability mods are applied, we have
Str 31
Dex 16
Con 25
Int 2
Wis 16
Cha 8
Finally, we give him his two +1 bonses for hitting 20 HD and then again for 24 HD. Those go into his Str and Con, giving him the stats he has in the adventure.
That said... never underestimate the capabilities of a group of PCs. Temauhti's only one foe; he'll need to split his attacks against all of your PCs AND the pesky phanatons. Furthermore, he's really got no real defense against foes who can maintain a ranged superiority (either by being out in the water, flying, or just being faster than him). A character who stands toe-to-toe with him and doesn't have freedom of movement up is probably hosed, sure, but that's not really the smartest way to fight a tyranosaurus.
Furthermore, he's really got no real defense against foes who can maintain a ranged superiority (either by being out in the water, flying, or just being faster than him). A character who stands toe-to-toe with him and doesn't have freedom of movement up is probably hosed, sure, but that's not really the smartest way to fight a tyranosaurus.
Old T-T the T-Rex nearly killed one of our characters in what had to be one of the funniest tactical errors of our entire campaign. We had a flying Factotum who was thinking just along these lines -- I'll stay just out of range in the air, pepper him with aerial offense while he gets harried by the phanatons and other characters, and we'll never get scratched by one of the Infamous Seven. Then he made the mistake of stopping in the air just 10' above the beastie's reach.
...turns out that a critter with a strength of 32 can make a DC 20 standing jump pretty handily. Did we mention that the factotum, thinking he was safely out of range, hadn't bothered to cast FoM?
One bite, grab, and swallow whole later, and the whole group was suddenly racing to close so that we could finish the dino off before our friend was digested. This led to another PC being swallowed before all was said and done, and I think we would have been more horrified if we all weren't laughing so hard. ;)
Fortunately, we all lived, and the jump-bite-grab maneuver became known as "the August Simons" in honor of the factotum. Man, I wish I could have seen the looks on our faces.
[Detailed explanation of stat breakdown.]
That said... never underestimate the capabilities of a group of PCs. Temauhti's only one foe; he'll need to split his attacks against all of your PCs AND the pesky phanatons. Furthermore, he's really got no real defense against foes who can maintain a ranged superiority (either by being out in the water, flying, or just being faster than him). A character who stands toe-to-toe with him and doesn't have freedom of movement up is probably hosed, sure, but that's not really the smartest way to fight a tyranosaurus.
Thanks much. I'm not sure why I couldn't figure that out for myself. Is there a standard way animals get their 10s and 11s distributed, or is it just kind of "however it works"? (By the way, those stats you gave work out to 2 11s and 4 10s, if I'm doing my math right.)
Re underestimating my PCs: Due to various decisions they've made, they don't have freedom of movement, any flying, or any way to outrun him. (The only "major" spellcaster is a sorceress 8/fighter 1; this is the first thing they've chosen to do after arriving at Farshore.) I'm sort of expecting them to try to wrangle some poison from a treeleg spider or something, coat a bunch of daggers, strap them to a [strike]goat[/strike] dimetrodon, and stake it out for him to eat. We'll see if it works; his saves are pretty beefy.
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Thanks much. I'm not sure why I couldn't figure that out for myself. Is there a standard way animals get their 10s and 11s distributed, or is it just kind of "however it works"? (By the way, those stats you gave work out to 2 11s and 4 10s, if I'm doing my math right.)
In theory, all the monsters in the 3.5 world are built with three 10s and three 11s before their racial modifiers are applied... but in practice, I'm not sure anyone really uses that method when designing monsters. They just get their ability scores assigned the right stats for the job, according to their CR and expected role and all that. When I need to give a monster the elite array, I generally just give them a +5, +4, +3, +2 and a -2 to their raw stats and don't worry about whether or not they had too many 11s. The game's hearty enough to absorb that level of minutiae.
Re underestimating my PCs: Due to various decisions they've made, they don't have freedom of movement, any flying, or any way to outrun him. (The only "major" spellcaster is a sorceress 8/fighter 1; this is the first thing they've chosen to do after arriving at Farshore.) I'm sort of expecting them to try to wrangle some poison from a treeleg spider or something, coat a bunch of daggers, strap them to a [strike]goat[/strike] dimetrodon, and stake it out for him to eat. We'll see if it works; his saves are pretty beefy.
This is a great case of the individual GM knowing his group better than the editors and designers. When we build adventures, we assume a baseline; that means that by 7th level, most groups will have access to some speed (be it via haste or expeditious retreat or barbarian levels or monk levels), ranged attacks, flight, freedom of movement. Some encounters are designed to be tougher if some of these assumptions aren't there, if only to give those characters who DO have these types of abilities a moment to show off their powers. In a case like yours where they won't really have much recourse to escaping an enraged dinosaur, you have to adjust if you think it's appropriate. BUT: It sounds like your players are already starting to approach the problem creatively and smartly with their poison dimetrodons!
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Old T-T the T-Rex nearly killed one of our characters in what had to be one of the funniest tactical errors of our entire campaign. We had a flying Factotum who was thinking just along these lines -- I'll stay just out of range in the air, pepper him with aerial offense while he gets harried by the phanatons and other characters, and we'll never get scratched by one of the Infamous Seven. Then he made the mistake of stopping in the air just 10' above the beastie's reach.
...turns out that a critter with a strength of 32 can make a DC 20 standing jump pretty handily. Did we mention that the factotum, thinking he was safely out of range, hadn't bothered to cast FoM?
One bite, grab, and swallow whole later, and the whole group was suddenly racing to close so that we could finish the dino off before our friend was digested. This led to another PC being swallowed before all was said and done, and I think we would have been more horrified if we all weren't laughing so hard. ;)
Fortunately, we all lived, and the jump-bite-grab maneuver became known as "the August Simons" in honor of the factotum. Man, I wish I could have seen the looks on our faces.
That's pretty awesome. I approve! Reminds me a little from a cool scene in the book version of Jurassic Park, where they attempt to escape the Tyrannosaurus by jumping on a raft and rowing away. That's how they found out that a tyrannosaurus can swim!
Also reminds me of a situation in a game I was in, where another player got swallowed and we all knew he lacked the strength to escape before he died. My character jumped up into the dinosaur's mouth, took the damage, let herself get swallowed, then next round as the first guy went to negatives inside the dinosaur, I grabbed him and dimension doored out of it with my cape of the montebank. Good times.
ANYway, yeah. From battles with dinosaurs, many great stories are born!
all that being said, that t-Rex is awfully vulnerable to mind-affecting spells, illusions and things that require a Will save.
The poor thing got hit repeatedly with fear effects from my players, which really turned the fight into an absurdity (they had a pretty bad case of the pale frights going into melee after the beach T-Rex, and this one being even bigger...), with TT running here and there, and being peppered with arrows and spells.
And, IIRC there was an incident in the "glories" thread, were a group slew him outright by dropping his Int to "0" (using "mindfrost" IIRC ).
Of all the (statted out) legendaries, TT is the most lop-sided in his capabilities. Which makes him a pushover if one goes looking for and hitting those weak spots.
Ray of stupidity from Spell Compendium is the ultimate animal slayer, ranged touch, no save, will pretty much bring any animal creature down in one shot.
All of the powerful monsters were one shot dead creatures in my campaign. I ended up adding Fiendish to almost every major animal just so they had SR to overcome so they might have a couple of rounds before they were knocked out...
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Ray of stupidity from Spell Compendium is the ultimate animal slayer, ranged touch, no save, will pretty much bring any animal creature down in one shot.
All of the powerful monsters were one shot dead creatures in my campaign. I ended up adding Fiendish to almost every major animal just so they had SR to overcome so they might have a couple of rounds before they were knocked out...
Yeah... ray of stupidity is aptly named. An excellent example of a spell with a broken element that makes it into something completely other than what it was intended to be. The spell shouldn't be able to reduce a creature's intelligence lower than 1, honestly; that way it returns to being what it should be: A spell to stupid up smart folk, rather than a spell to take out stupid folk.
The spell's not named "ray of knock out the stupid" after all.
BUT: It sounds like your players are already starting to approach the problem creatively and smartly with their poison dimetrodons!
Turns out that they waited until he fell asleep, cast hide from animals, and gave him a quick coup de grace. It's difficult to make a DC 50+ Fort save, even for T-T.
he made the mistake of stopping in the air just 10' above the beastie's reach.
...turns out that a critter with a strength of 32 can make a DC 20 standing jump pretty handily.
Er... the DC for a 10' standing long jump is 20, but the DC for a standing high jump is 80.
... not that I would let that get in the way of a good time (... for T-T ;).
Shhhh...the idea of the T-Rex making a standing jump 10 feet and snagging a player in its mouth is one of the coolest things I've read in awhile.
Turns out that they waited until he fell asleep, cast hide from animals, and gave him a quick coup de grace. It's difficult to make a DC 50+ Fort save, even for T-T.
In my game, that tactic would also net you about, mmmmm I dunno.... 0 xp. :p
Turns out that they waited until he fell asleep, cast hide from animals, and gave him a quick coup de grace. It's difficult to make a DC 50+ Fort save, even for T-T.In my game, that tactic would also net you about, mmmmm I dunno.... 0 xp. :p
Personally, I'm awarding them full XP. I like to encourage creative thinking in my game, not discourage it (by penalizing XP). And if they'd played it as a straight-up fight, this encounter would have killed at least one, possibly two of them, which isn't exactly the point. But YMMV, as ever.