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The Necrophidius is presented in Bestiary 2 and has appeared rather infamously in some Adventure Paths and Pathfinder Adventure modules.
The essence of the Necrophidius is that it is termed to be a "CR3" construct. As any GM who has run this monster will tell you, it is not a CR3. Its CR is underestimated considerably. It is a CR4 at least - and might even be a CR5 given that its Dance of Death is an area effect at-will ability and saving once against it does not prevent you from having to save again in the next 24 hour period.
The chief problems with the Necrophidius are as follows:
1 - It is constructed out of bone and initially appears to be an undead Naga of some kind, such that the party can spend a few precious rounds in the beginning of the combat attacking it as if it were an undead, instead of attacking it like the construct it is. This is okay, in and of itself. It becomes critically important when the delay in doing an optimal attack results in the Necrophidius performing another Dance of Death to nuke the party into a stupor as a consequence of misinterpreting the true nature of the foe.
2- Special Abilities. The Necrophidius has two abilities which make it exceptionally nasty for a low level party. They are:
Dance of Death (Ex) A Necrophidius can entrance opponents by swaying back and forth as a full-round action. All creatures within 30 feet who can see the Necrophidius when it uses its dance of death must succeed on a DC 15 Will save or be dazed for 2d4 rounds. This is a mind-affecting effect. The save DC is Constitution-based and includes a +4 racial bonus.
Paralysis (Su) Any living creature that is bitten by a Necrophidius must succeed on a DC 13 Fortitude save or be paralyzed for 1d4 rounds. The save DC is Constitution-based and includes a +2 racial bonus..
The Dance of Death is far and away the most powerful ability the Necrophidius has. It effects all creatures within 30 feet, can be performed multiple times in the same combat, and a failed save takes the dazed victim entirely out of the fight. At 2d4 rounds' duration, that's a LONG TIME in Pathfinder combat. Worse, the DC is Will 15. For a low level party of 1st-2nd level adventurers, that's odds on to take out half the party with the opening dance.
So here's the thing that annoys me most concerning this creature. Why is the save DC 15 for the Dance of Death ability? It's sure as hell isn't supposed to be. The save is "Constitution based" and includes a "+4 racial bonus". Oh really? What "racial bonus" would that be, pray tell?
I'm looking through the so-called bonuses of a construct and I don't see this "+4 racial bonus" anywhere. A construct has no Con score at all. So where is this mystery "racial bonus" coming from? Where in Bestiary 2 is that "racial bonus" located?
Seems to me, I've been looking for this "racial bonus" for a good long while. For the very good reason that it doesn't appear to exist.
Am I wrong, or is this monster flat-out WRONG in its DCs, and the DC for both the Dance of Death and its Paralysis bite should each be DC 11? (DC = 10 + 1/2 of hit dice of creature)
That would certainly cut down on the lethality of the creature and bring it back to a CR3.
Seems to me this creature is NOT a CR3 and this DC 15 is the primary reason why.
So come on in Paizo devs. Show me where in the nether regions of some developer's nether regions this "+4 racial bonus" may be found? Is this an imputation of a "racial bonus" based on the additional 20 hit points a medium construct receives? If so, why would the "+4 racial bonus" be halved when also applied to the paralyzing bite?
Where is this "racial bonus" to be found?
Racial bonuses to specific abilities are almost never listed alone in a creature's statblock; they're usually only found in the relevant ability or skill. So, the fact that it says "and includes a +4 racial bonus" is all the creature needs.
Racial bonuses aren't based on anything other than the creator or developer feeling the creature should have a greater bonus to a skill or ability than it would naturally get.
Racial bonuses are a feature of a certain race. They do not have to come "from anywhere". Most races, for example, have racial bonuses to their ability scores, or they would all have 11,11,11,10,10,10 abilit scores. Some creatures have racial bonuses to certain skills. Some have racial bonuses to the DCs of some of their abilities (for another example, check the Giant Centipede's poison ability). That is simply how that individual race is defined.
Well then, that was tidied up quite fast.
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Well, not really. *ahem* I kinda knew that. :)
Principally the answer leads to the obvious follow-up observation: if a racial bonus is simply "designer fiat" and has no justification crunch-wise in the rest of the game's mechanics, the inevitable conclusion which flows with something like the Necrophidius is this:
the reason the CR does not make sense is because the "racial bonus" is inherently arbitrary and capricious. The resulting CR is, accordingly, too low by reason of the designer's human error.
The "lesser Necrophidius" in Curse of the Crimson Throne had a DC11 Will save. The Pathfinderized version of the monster in The Tome of Horrors Complete is a DC 12 Will save - in both cases the CR for the monster is CR 2.
(The original necrophidius hails from the Fiend Folio in 1E days.)
Basically, it becomes a case of "That damn crab (Monstrous Crab)".
Right, because someone forgot the rules on grab and constrict, that thing does 2d8+18 points of damage on a hit, which will kill most third level characters.
Calculation seems right to me. The part where it says "This includes a racial bonus" THAT is where it comes from. Its so specific that putting it anywhere else is a waste of text. These bonuses are mentioned in the section on creating and altering monsters. They are indeed arbitrary methods of adjusting the DC so that they can be altered without also bumping up the other things dependent on that ability score. Incidently thats also a go reason why there are so many CHA based abilitys. Most monsters don't use it for anything else.
'cuse con- gives a mod of +0, the DCs check out.
This really won't do. We need racial bonuses to be replaced with cultural bonuses, circumstance by context and then we also need gender bonuses and discourse bonuses.
Seriously, though, it does feel very odd adding a racial bonus to a construct made from bones. Even assuming those bones come from specific creatures.
But, hey, they are quite deadly enough. Even the lesser necrophidiuses killed a party member in my campaign.
Gender bonus sounds so much better than having a sex bonus. =)
No, I am not implying that. I am implying that there might in a fantasy setting be such a creature that for some ability, there might not be a perfect match. I know it's heresy.