James Jacobs/Wolfgang:
To kick things off here, I have a couple of questions about Shoggoths.
(1) I see mention made in the 'typical physical characteristics', that the Golarion version of a Shoggoth presented here '...is capable of secreting a thick, viscous, semi-opaque, sticky slime that further enchances its ability to ctach and devour its prey...' but I see no mention of any bonus feat or racial bonus to grapple checks in the stat block. Is this an accidental omission? Should it have better grappling abilities than those listed?
The shoggoth has a racial bonus on grapple checks. It is listed in the Improved Grab special ability description and included in the grapple modifier listed in the stat block.
(2) According to the information on page 27, either attempting to gain control of the Shoggoth or successfully controlling it (via use of the Shoggoth Stone) are both Chaotic Evil acts, even though the Shoggoth's given alignment is CN. Is this because the Shoggoth Stone is a Chaotic Evil item (which I do not find mentioned), or for some other reason? Is attempting to control a Shoggoth by other means a Chaotic Evil act?
While the shoggoth itself is not necessarily evil (being a nearly mindless predator, its hard to classify it as evil) the power that sent it to Golarion is most certainly evil. Attempting to manipulate the portion of its power contained within the shoggoth stone requires you to expose yourself somewhat to his evil, alien intelligence. That's why its a chaotic evil act. By using the artifact, you expose yourself to its taint, and its impossible to completely shield yourself.
Attempting to control the shoggoth by means other than the artifact would not necessarily be an evil act, it would depend on what you were using it for.
As a comment, I was slightly surprised to see what appeared to be teeth/fangs in the artwork, given the Shoggoth's listed creature type, although I realise that these might not actually have any solidity to them, being more decorative(?) than functional.
Unfortunately, mythical monsters don't always fit snugly into the D&D ruleset. In this case, we felt that the overall monster was closer to an ooze than an aberration (possessing, as it does, the formless body and the engulf abilities), although you could make a convincing case for both. Besides, who says oozes can't have teeth?
Many thanks for the response, Jeremy. :)
Would it be possible for you to please clarify what the 'slam' damage for a Shoggoth (mentioned in the 'Engulf' special ability) totals? I can find tentacles, but no 'slam' damage, in the attacks section.
Hmm. The slam damage refers to its tentacle attack. It should really read "tentacle damage." And "tentacle attack" instead of "slam attack." In any case, the damage is 4d6+14
I've checked this forum, and couldn't find a consolidated thread for questions for this module, so it seemed a good idea to me to follow the example of tdewitt 274's highly successful Pathfinder threads, and to start one for J3.
Hey, just wanted to throw out a "Thanks". I haven't been posting to the boards as much as I used to and just found this thread, but I wanted to make sure that everyone knows that this kind of effort is appreciated!
What are the languages known for the Derhii?