There is a truckload of stories about giant monsters carrying 500+ troups, siege weapons and even fortresses.
What would you suggest to me for such a creature for an army ?
in the Ad&d Darksun setting box they had an intro adventure where the PCs were imprisoned in a massive, hollowed out, beatle that was almost a walking fortress. basically they animated the beatle carcass, hollowed it out, and built rooms and halls within it. it was pretty neat.
I'll take a look at your suggestions guys, thanks !
In the meantime, what would be suitable for this monster if I were to use Pathfinder materials ?
Aren't there rules in the Beastiary for adding size levels to monsters? You could simply bump something up to colossal size.
Also, though they will be for 3.0, Dragon magazine #289 has rules for creating Kaiju (Godzilla-style) monsters.
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Aren't there rules in the Beastiary for adding size levels to monsters? You could simply bump something up to colossal size.
I say purple worm. You can adjust it to be a millipede like variant so that it crawls on the ground or you can do the hollowed out undead version suggested before. They have +22 or something natural armor so they would easily be a natural fortress.
Also it could be like a land submarine where the undead version retains its burrowing speed and they have a blind tremorsense using pilot.
Finally, you could just make up a monster. Give it fortress stats and say it moves at X.
The Roc has a listed wingspan of 80 feet, I believe. You could start running down one wing and it would take you 3 turns to reach the tip of the other.
Other than that, you're really just looking at the Strength scores to determine the max load. Throw some muleback cords on that beast of burden and Roc out!
The Roc has a listed wingspan of 80 feet, I believe. You could start running down one wing and it would take you 3 turns to reach the tip of the other.
Other than that, you're really just looking at the Strength scores to determine the max load. Throw some muleback cords on that beast of burden and Roc out!
80 ft.
30 ft. movement x4 run = 120 ft.
Only 6 seconds to launch yourself into the wild blue yonder.
On topic, I believe Upper Krust's epic work has already been mentioned. It provides size categories above Colossal.
The Roc has a listed wingspan of 80 feet, I believe. You could start running down one wing and it would take you 3 turns to reach the tip of the other.
Other than that, you're really just looking at the Strength scores to determine the max load. Throw some muleback cords on that beast of burden and Roc out!
This or Giant wyverns (preferably with the half dragon template too). I generally just have my "carrier" monster carry a platform to load all the passengers in.
I would go for a construct personally, something nice and large with many gears and crushing feet. Or, something we caused with undead and the abused Leadership feet was a barge carried on the backs of an undead legion.
Or...
Mobile Siege "Construct"
Build your base and for its bottom use either "legs" or "wheels". Each of these appendages is made animate using "animate object", and since each appendage is smaller than the whole you can avoid the requirement of being level 32 to animate a Colossal object. Each appendage is made permanent and operated at a core drive chamber.
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An Armaggedon Beetle or Zaratan would be the ideal critters, I imagine. (One's a beyond-Colossal Beetle, the other a giant sea turtle large enough to be mistaken for an island, until it submerges.)
It would be easy enough to assume the possible existence of a landbound Zaratan tortoise, in addition to, or instead of, the traditional sea turtle.
Any sort of Colossal+ insect that is animated as an undead is going to have beaucoup extra room inside for passengers, etc. I vaguely remember rules for how many critters of different size categories particular creatures could use their Swallow Whole ability on, and a hollowed out insect carapace would probably count as a size class larger (or just double the numbers for something that is already colossal, although even then, a Colossal exoskeleton might only comfortably hold sixteen or so medium soldiers, so you might want to just handwave that it's ridonkulously large, like the beetle whose carapace now makes up a sizable chunk of the capital of Osirion).
Note that the shape of the critter will determine the usefulness. A hollowed out ginormous centipede is going to be much more like a long tunnel / barracks on the inside, while a giant beetle or spider might have a nice largish chamber.
The Bestiary II has the Mu Spore, a 100 ft. Long, from tentacle to tentacle. I could see it carrying a whole mess of plant monsters across the country side, and dumping them on some unsuspecting city.
Why do I suddenly recall the living ship from Farscape?
Or if you want something new and exciting advance one of these bad boys!
Gun Metal Dragon, Wyrmling -- CR 5
XP 1,600
N Small Construct
Init +2; Senses dragon senses; Perception +7
DEFENSE
AC 19, touch 13, flat-footed 17 (+2 Dex, +6 natural, +1 size)
hp 37 (6d8+10)
Fort +5, Ref +7, Will +6
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (average)
Melee bite +8(1d6+3), 2 claws +8 (1d4+3)
Range Chest Cannon +7 (2d8)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks 12 gauge Breath, Chest Cannon, Shoulder Mortars
STATISTICS
Str 16, Dex 14, Con -, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8
Base Atk +4; CMB +8; CMD 18 (22 vs. trip)
Feats Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Power Attack
Skills Fly +12, Perception +7
Languages Common
SQ Construct Hardness 5, Fast Healing 2, Draconic Build
SPECIAL ABILITIES
12 Gauge Breath(Ex)
This breath weapon is a cone with a Reflex save for half DC equal to 10 + 1/2 HD + dragon "age" category. Damage is 2d6 base, and counts as magic, adamantine, bludgeoning and piercing. The breath weapon may be used once every 1d4 rounds. The cone size is the same as a true dragon's breath weapon of the same size.
Chest Cannon(Ex)
This is a ranged attack that deals 2d8 base damage and requires a standard action to use. It counts as magic, adamantine, bludgeoning and piercing damage. Feats can be used in conjunction with this attack. The range increment is the same as the line type breath weapon of a true dragon of the same size. The chest cannon can be used once every 1d4 rounds.
Shoulder Mortars(Ex)
This attack functions as a splash weapon with a range increment equal to half of the line type breath weapon of a true dragon of the same size. The base damage for this attack is 2d4, and the splash deals the same damage as the initial target takes. The damage from this attack is magic, adamantine, bludgeoning and piercing. For each size category increase in the gunmetal dragon the splash damage range increases by one square (so a medium gunmetal dragon has a 10 foot splash radius while a large has a 15 foot splash radius etc). The shoulder mortars can fire two shots at the same time once every 1d4 rounds.
Draconic Build(EX)
Gunmetal dragons are built in "age categories" like a true dragon. Advancing a gunmetal dragon must put it into a new age category and it gains all the benefits of such increases just as if it was a true dragon including stat increases (except for consitution increases), feats, new natural attacks, etc. The 12 gauge breath, chest cannon, and shoulder mortars all increase as if they were the gunmetal dragons breath weapon. The gunmetal dragon gains 3 points of hardness each time it increases in size, and its fast healing increases by 2 per each age category it has. In addition each size category gives bonus HP just as it does for a normal construct. Gunmetal dragons do not grow -- the age categories are simply used as a means to describe the power level of any given gunmetal dragon in much the same way as a ship's abilities are defined by its classification (dreadnought, frigate, cruiser, battleship, etc).
"Running" was a poor choice of words on my part. Sometimes I forget how tight game language is.
My point, though, is that it's a freaking huge bird.