Hey there!
For my campaign I just made up this monster - its supposed to look like a "Gengar" from pokemon - just dont ask why!
I want to know what CR this monster would have (I'm facing a 9?) and what you think about its abilities (especially the size changing one)
Gangar
NE Small fey
Init +10; Senses low-light vision; perception +XXX
Frightful presence (30 ft., DC19)
Defense
AC 26, touch 16, flat-footed 20 (+5 Dex, +1 Size, +10 Natural)
HP 102 (12d6 +60)
Fort +8, Ref +13, 10
DR 10/cold iron; SR 19
Offense
Speed 40 ft.
Melee Bite +8 (1d6 +1) plus Grab
or Slam (1d4 +1)
Special Attacks Growth, Massiv Charge, swallow whole (4d6 piercing damage, AC 15, 11 HP)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 12; Concentration +15)
At Will - Gaseous Form
3/day - Create Hungry Pit (DC 19), Phantasmal Web (DC 18), Deep Slumber (DC 16)
1/day - Quickened Mirror Image
Statistics
Str 12, Dex 20, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 16
Base Atk +6, CMB +6 (+10 grapple); CMD 21
Feats Toughness, Power Attack, Improved Bullrush, Awesome Blow, Improved Natural Attack (Bite), Improved Initiative
Skills Intimidate +18, Perception +17, Stealth +24
Special Abilities
Change Size (SU)
As swift action a Gangar can change its size up to huge. He gains +6 size Bonus to Strength, a -2 size penalty to Dexterity for each size category larger than small (up to +18/-6 when becoming huge)
Massiv Charge (EX)
When a Gangar changes its size while charging it gains an aditional attack bonus of +2 for each size category larger it gets. For example when changing its size from large to huge the Gangar gains +4 on his attackroll for this charge attack - 2 from charging, 2 more from massiv charge. It also can combine the awesome blow feat with a charge attack.
Skin Pin (EX)
After swallowing whole a foe the Gangar can decrease its size becoming no smaller than the size of the creature swallowed. When shrinking to the size of the swallowed creature that creature gains the pinned condition immediatly.
Noone?:(
Or should I post this in the advice section?
Some where around 8 or 9. It has some tough abilities, but not many hp
How does one escape from a skin pin? it looks like a swift action insta-kill.
Well, Du you maybe have suggestions how to make this more balanced? Strength-checks? Some kind of maneuver-check?
I would add maybe 4-8 HD and lower its ability scores a bit (-4 each except con)
Make the size change a one catagory per action and only +4 bonus to strength.
Remove massive charge. (I don't like it, if you do - keep it)
You could add a con-based "break out" DC 20 strength check to escape the skin pin as a full round action. Maybe automatically deal unarmed damage in the process for the swallow whole break out. Or maybe it should have a condition itself - pinned or grappled.
It's a difficult monster to evaluate, because it has four sizes with different reach and damage output.
It should be able to use both slam and bite as a full attack.
It's not a bad monster at all, it's really quite cool... just hard to rate.
My gut is thinking about an 8, but if you follow Don's suggestions, you could lower it to 6.
6 is too low for the huge version's damage output: 3d6+5, and 2d6+5, combined with the swallow whole - one round could be 9d6+10 = 41.5 average... that is too much for low level party. And they have no way to counter gaseous form.
I'd still say CR 8 or 9. The extra HD also give extra BAB/saves.
Okay, thank you so far, I might remove massive charge and I might add the break DC when pinned.
But I really want to keep the change size ability as it is.
I wanted it to have slam OR bite because of its awesome blow - I wanted it to keep the 1.5 str-mod. Actually Id be fine with just the bite, but I wanted it to be able to awesome blow his enemies and it couldnt do that with its bite.
I made this monster up for my party (ECL 8). As it jas to be a fey and almost every character has an AC of 24 and more I was afraid of it not being able to hit anyone - thats why I added the massiv charge ability. And stilll - while huge its to hit is not that great...
But maybe you have some suggestions for me how to make it still a challenging enemiy while not getting too crazy with its grapple-stuff
How about a burrow speed, those are always a pain :D
Bla, I just came up with bullettes some sessions ago:P
These are the stats for huge size:
________________________
NE Huge fey
Init +10; Senses low-light vision; perception +17
Frightful presence (30 ft., DC19)
Defense
AC 20, touch 10, flat-footed 20 (+2 Dex,-2 Size, +10 Natural)
HP 102 (12d6 +60)
Fort +8, Ref +10, Wil +10
DR 10/cold iron; SR 19
Offense
Speed 40 ft.
Melee Bite +16 (2d8 +10) plus Grab
and 2 Slams +16 (1d8 +10)
Special Attacks Growth, Massiv Charge, swallow whole (4d6 piercing damage, AC 15, 11 HP)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 12; Concentration +15)
At Will - Gaseous Form
3/day - Create Hungry Pit (DC 19), Phantasmal Web (DC 18), Deep Slumber (DC 16)
1/day - Quickened Mirror Image
Statistics
Str 30 (+10), Dex 14 (+2) Con 18, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 16
Base Atk +6, CMB +18 (+22 grapple); CMD 30
Feats Toughness, Power Attack, Improved Bullrush, Awesome Blow, Improved Natural Attack (Bite), Improved Initiative
Skills Intimidate +18, Perception +17, Stealth +24
Special Abilities
Change Size (SU)
As swift action a Gangar can change its size up to huge. He gains +6 size Bonus to Strength, a -2 size penalty to Dexterity for each size category larger than small (up to +18/-6 when becoming huge)
Massiv Charge (EX)
When a Gangar changes its size while charging it gains an aditional attack bonus of +2 for each size category larger it gets. For example when changing its size from large to huge the Gangar gains +4 on his attackroll for this charge attack - 2 from charging, 2 more from massiv charge.
Skin Pin (EX)
After swallowing whole a foe the Gangar can decrease its size becoming no smaller than the size of the creature swallowed. When shrinking to the size of the swallowed creature that creature gains the pinned condition immediatly. It can attempt a DC 20 strength-check as full-round action to break free.
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Still not sure how to deal with those slam attack and whether to keep the awesome blow stuff....
Careful little bump:S
Suggestions on how to decrease damage but keep the to-hit?
I dont want to change its type to something else, so the BAB sucks:(
Meow
I have a universal monster ability for just such cases:
Prowess: creature gains full BAB for racial HD.
I use it for martial specimens of monsters that don't have full BAB.
Okay, yesterday I threw 3 of those at my party (all of them level 8, Lion Shaman Druid, Support-Bard, Shieldbash-Ranger and a bladebound str-magus).
Äthe fight was reallly, really great! It was intense and had lots of ups and downs - the hungry-pit-SLA and the quickened mirror image were really helpful to keep the fight exciting. They were great at denying full attack by decreasing to small size after their own fullattack and awesome blow came in handy to throw the magus into on of those hungry pits. They once skin pinned the Bard and the Magis, but the magus got free by a great str-check and the bard was released when the gangar used gaseous form. It was kinda difficult to hit the party as their AC was pretty high, but it was still good enough to get two of them to less then 20 hitpoints.
I did lower the swallow whole damage to 2d6 and that was a good thing to do. I also realized that some characters can be really screwed by hungry pit but gladly my party had some nice idea to counter that.
The damage reduction appeared to be really strong defensive wise as the party relied on lots of small atacks and did not have anyone THFing. In theEnd the damage of the ranger and the magus was just too much for the gangars and once getting full attacked my gangars dropped pretty fast.
Still, the fight was just incredibly cool and was really based on tactics, me and my groud enjoyed it a lot, even though it was incredibly long for a pathfinder battle (8-9 rds).
Thanks so far for all the answers, I will definitly use those gangars more often from now on, especially because they just fit iin my campaign perfectly!
nice! Did you update the stats? As I could see something like this being annoying to my party and I'd love to use it..>:)