This is a thread for abusing templates, racial hit dice and class levels to create monsters which have power far above their challenge rating, so that the DM can say "Sorry, i just did it according to the rules, if you have to make new chars, thats probably just bad luck."
First nice thing springing to my eye is, that by adding just 1 class level, the CR increses only by 1, but in addition to the class abilities the monster gains +4,+4,+2,+2,+0,-2 ability score, close to an advanced template for free.
Second advantage is, that 1 level allows the monster to get scale mail and shield boosting AC by 7.
All for just 1 cr more sounds nice, probably very useful for a lot of monsters.
I'll start with a advanced medusa level 2 antipaladin:
Init +9; Senses all-around vision, darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +18
DEFENSE
AC 23, touch 15, flat-footed 18 ( +5 Dex, +5 natural,+3 mwk studded leather, no check penalty)
hp 129 (8d10+56+17+1d10+7)
Fort +18, Ref +17, Will +18
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee Greatsword +13/+8 (2d6+9/19–20), snake bite +8 (1d4+3 plus poison DC21) (power attack already applied)
Ranged mwk longbow +15/+10 (1d8/×3) (no money for composite with str)
Special Attacks petrifying gaze (DC 22)
STATISTICS
Str 18, Dex 21, Con 24, Int 14, Wis 17, Cha 23
Base Atk +14; CMB +14; CMD 29
Feats Improved Initiative, Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Finesse, Ability Focus (Gaze), Power Attack
Skills Bluff +16, Disguise +16, Intimidate +19, Perception +18, Stealth +18; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception
Languages Common, +2
Think its ok, probably can resist all spells. AC is not that good, but medusa gets miss chance from averting eyes(which people should do) and her miserable attack can be adjusted against one poor player to +19/+13 with 2 dam more. When all avert eyes she can sneak close to smite target. Guess lev 10 party will not last through 4 of them without rest.
According to table for CR http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/monster-creation i have:
HP CR 10
AC CR 9
Attack CR9-10
Dam CR 10
Ability DC CR 14
Saves CR 15
You turn, modify monster according to rules to crush party.
Don't know where I first saw this (might have been here).
Half-Fiendish Snake trick. (This is for D&D 3.5)
Take a constrictor snake. Advance it to 19 HD. Max his Hide skill (and take as many feat that gives bonuses to hide as possible). Give-it the Half-Fiend template.
That should bring your half-fiendish advanced constrictor to CR 10, a legit encounter for a party of six 9th level adventurers (according to L-G guidelines)
Have your half-fiendish advanced constrictor ambush the party. Given his hide check, it should win the surprise round. Have it cast Blasphemy on the party during the surprise round. Since the party is at least 10 HD lower than the constrictor's caster level, they all die without a save.
Fortunately(or unfortunately for nasty GMs) pathfinder modified the rules for changing CR when adding hit dice. So you can no longer get a 19 HD constrictor with CR 10. A 14 HD is already CR 10:
An interesting thread. Educational too. All these years I've been missing the adjustment to ability scores for adding PC class levels. I have a certain Imp rogue I need to go make nastier for a future encounter.
I would like to point out that on the template for how much any class affects CR, monks are considered not key to stack with any monsters. But, they give good saves, defensive abilities like deflect arrows and evasion, an increase on many natural attack dice, and bonus feats. My personal favorite is 5 levels on a large earth elemental for a devestating CR8 monster. 3 levels makes him much easier to run though, lacking ki points and with 1 fewer attacks.
I statted him up before in annother thread, so I will repost my block from there:
CR8 Earth Elemental Monk:
lvl 5 monk large earth elemental CR7.5
str 28 (24 +4)
dex 10 (8 +2)
con 20 (17+2+1)
int 6 (6)
wis 15 (11+4)
cha 9 (11-2)
AC: 22 (10 Natural -1 size +3 monk)
HP 132 (8d10+5d8+65) 44+23+65
F 15 (4+5+6) R 8 (4+2+0+2) W 12 (4+6+2) +2 enchantment
DR5/-, elemental immunities
Speed: 30, 30 burrow, earthglide
space: 10 feet
Darkvision 60 ft, Tremorsense 60 ft
Attacks: 2 slams +20(+8+3+9) 2d6+9 (17 2d6+15 w/PA) (+1 attack and damage if both target and you are on the ground from Earth Mastery)
Flurry of Blows: 21/21/16/11 2d6+9 (17/17/11/7 2d6+17 w/ PA)
Unarmed Strike: 21/16/11 2d6+9 (17/12/7 2d6+15 w/ PA)
Stunning Fist 7 times per day, DC 18
10 ft reach
Special Attack: Earth Mastery
Special Defenses: Evasion, slowfall 20 ft, purity of body, still mind
He has tremorsense and can burrow, so he can hide under the ground and come up wherever he wants to attack anyone. They will not know which square he is in every round, so the damage dealers will have to deal with readied actions. He has DR and enough HP and AC that he survive for a decent ammount of time. Evasion and good saves overall give him protection from casters, with added elemental immunites. His damage is high, so the PCs will need to stay out of his full attack or they will spend a lot of time healing. He also has a great disable attack of grappling the opponent and then moving them into the earth.
Note, I could make him nastier by getting rid or Greater Grapple, Improved Grapple, and weapon focus in favor dodge, mobility, and spring attack so he ends every turn in the ground safely out of reach. That may actually be nicer though, since it would drastically reduce his damage.
Later I also posted this about him:
He can technically attack from 5 feet under the ground, taking the 50% miss chance but able to identify the square thanks to tremor sense. He can also move to just under the surface and get partial cover while still being able to see. It was designed for a EPL of 5, so full attack isn't that big a deal. Against a standard fighter, power attacking with a THS, you are looking at 2d6+15 damage (22 str, +2 weapon, -5 for DR), so he lasts 5 rounds of him if every attack hits without a crit. At +14, he is looking at slightly more than half of his attacks hitting. Other PCs will not be nearly as affecive, since it is not evil, immune to sneak attack, has decent saves, is immune to most combat manuevers, and can bring that fighter to critical in 1 round, forcing his allies to adjust tactics. Since I haven't distributed his wealth, I would probably give the elemental some potions to heal with, so he can retreat and come back unexpectedly, and perhaps some AC increasing items to get better than a 22.
I like adding the young and advanced templates to the same creature. It really works out well for ghosts. For a net of +0 CR, you get +8 dex, +4 cha, size bonuses, etc.
I would like to point out that on the template for how much any class affects CR, monks are considered not key to stack with any monsters. But, they give good saves, defensive abilities like deflect arrows and evasion, an increase on many natural attack dice, and bonus feats.
Monk does not increase damage with natural weapons and you cannot flurry with natural weapons. You seem to be aware of this in the example you took though, just wanted to specify it if you've somehow missed it.
I would like to point out that on the template for how much any class affects CR, monks are considered not key to stack with any monsters.
I think this is a bit problematic. Rules say:
"While adding a class level to a monster that stacks with its existing abilities and role generally adds 1 to its CR for each level taken, adding classes that do not stack is more complicated.
Table: Monsters with Class Levels gives general guidelines regarding which core classes add directly to a monster's abilities based on its role. Classes that are marked “key” generally add 1 to a creature's CR for each level added. Classes marked with a “—” increase a creature's CR by 1 for every 2 class levels added until the number of levels added are equal to (or exceed) the creature's original CR, at which point they are treated as “key” levels (adding 1 to the creature's CR for each level added)."
The table and the written rules are contradicting, because what fits with the role often is not what fits with its strengths.
Take the medusa above, normal medusa deals a whopping 2d6 or 3d4+poison per combat round. Her main strength is gaze, so a special. According to table no class would be key. But with a normal medusa chars just close eyes and hack her to pieces, because they dont mind, if the medusa scores some easy hits. So adding a dps class, although it is no key, is exactly what the medusa needs, because closing eyes then starts to be a very bad idea. Which effectively strengthens her main ability, the gaze.(the alternative is of course rogue, which makes closing eyes plain stupid, but i like the save boost a antipaladin medusa gets, when upping her gaze ability - in 3.5 there was prstige class giving both, making medusa f*~&ing deadly)
Therefore im uncertain, whether to the rules it should be counted as key levels (the medusa gets a huge attack and defense boost, especially saves) or as non-key, because table list it that way.
As we are in the "boost monster" thread are, can monster feats be changed without CR effect?
If monster feats are "genetic" fixed abilities, they cannot be changed. But feats as far as i understand are learned abilities (a polymorphing or wild shaping char doesnt get the feats of the creature except proficiency with natural attacks.), therefore my medusa could be improved by selecting feats fitting her changed tactic. E.g. weapon focus, dodge, toughness or ability focus poison.
BTW, where is the 2400 gold in gear of the monk earth elemental?
A lev 6 young rogue medusa (CR 9 = 7 medusa + 3 6 lev rogue using table -1 young):
LE Small monstrous humanoid
Init +6; Senses all-around vision, darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +16
DEFENSE
AC 22(26), touch 17, flat-footed 15(19) ( +6 Dex, +1 natural +1 size +4 chain shirt +4 shield spell)
hp 130 (8d10+24+11+5d8+15+14 toughness)
Fort +10, Ref +18, Will +14
Evasion, uncanny dodge, trap sense +2
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee dagger +19, +17/+17/+12/+12 (1d3-3=1/19–20), snake bite +11 (1d4 plus poison)
Ranged mwk crossbos, light +18 (1d8/×3), dagger +17/+17/+12/+12 (1d3-3=1/19-20) range 4 sq.
Special Attacks petrifying gaze, sneak attack +3d6 +3 bleed
STATISTICS
Str 6, Dex 23, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 20
Base Atk +12; CMB +9; CMD 24
Feats (4 from medusa, 3 from rogue lev, "3" from rogue talents) ability focus gaze, Two weapon fighting, improved two weapon fighting, great fortitude, quick draw, improved great fortitude, toughness, Weapon Finesse, bleeding attack, weapon focus dagger (last 3 from rogue talents)
Skills Bluff +19, Disguise +19, Intimidate +22, Perception +23, Stealth +27, acrobatics +15, use magic device +14, sense motive +14; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception
Languages Common
SPECIAL ABILITIES
All-Around Vision (Ex)
A medusa's snake-hair allows her to see in all directions. Medusas gain a +4 racial bonus to Perception checks and cannot be flanked.
Petrifying Gaze (Su)
Turn to stone permanently, 30 feet, Fortitude DC 21 negates. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Poison (Ex)
Bite—injury; save Fort DC 17; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Str; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Gear: mithril chain shirt (+4 ac, -0 armor check,+6 max dex), 20 dagger, cloak of resistance +1 , light crossbow
carying capacity is only 20, but small items and mithril chain shirt for small weighs 6.25, so 20 should be enough (reason i didnt dumb str to 4, then only 13 lbs carrying)
A real killer, sneaks in or charges in, anyone closing eyes gets 4-5 sneak attacks with 3d6 damage each(medusa accepts AOOs from eye averting fighter to sneak damage eye closing low fort wizard). Those looking at medusa will quickly succumb to gaze, even if their fort is good(at lev 9 +6 from class, +3 from con and +2 from items gives a 45% failure chance). If all avert eyes medusa uses stealth with guranteed success to change to better position if need.
Anyone thinking a lev 9 party can beat this?
edit:
just realized, there is edit button
i forgot to add cloak of resistance to saves and there is money for wand of shield, which should be used while stealthing in the midth of eye averting party.
Only weakness is the "terrible" +10 fort. Maybe drop dodge (as shield spell helps) and select improved great fortitude.
replaced dodge with great fortitude and applied toughness effect
BTW, where is the 2400 gold in gear of the monk earth elemental?
I statted the thing up quick a while ago in a thread about no CR appropriate single monster in an open room being a significant. I threw that guy out there to show what a CR8 could do against a party of level 5. His only major weakness is ranged offense, but his defenses encourage non-casters to close. His abilities range from CR8 to CR16 when compared to the table, and the CR16 is potential damage output and 8 being AC, reflex save, and stunning fist. If I had to put a CR on him, it would be at least 10. His AC and Ref save is a little low for that, but those are both offset by the fact that he will almost always have partial cover by sinking into the earth, and stunning fist is really an unnessary afterthought. Honestly, the thing does not need the gear. I would outfit it with a couple disposables like potions of healing, perhaps a potion of mage armor, and maybe something big and non-standard like a brooch of shielding.
In the end, I agree that the table should not be used more than a very general guidline. The last rule of the monster creation/adjustment rules matters alot: compare the monster vs the table to make sure it is not out of whack. Same with custom magic items.
