By using the already fearsome Trollhound and subjecting it to even fouler experimentation the first Unkillable Trollhound was born.
The name comes from the fact that fire and acid no longer effected the creatures' regenerating abilities. As such there is no easy way to kill these beasts for good.
Not even Trolls like these abominations as there is no way to train them. They will bite the hand that feeds them, literally.
Nothing grosses them out. Witnesses tell of packs attacking zombies just for their completely rotten flesh or digging up buried corpses.
.
Basis for this creature is the Trollhound with the following changes.
- Gain fire and acid resistance 10.
- Regeneration no longer suppressed by fire or acid.
- Swap the feats Improved Initiative and Skill Focus for Endurance and Die Hard.
- Gains the following special abilities:
Undying: Unkillable Trollhounds never fall unconscious due to negative damage even if it exceeds their Con score. As long as a hound is below 0 hitpoints, it's regeneration speed doubles to 6.
Self-destructive Regeneration: Every 2 points of health regenerated counts as 1 hour without food.
Once an Unkillable Trollhound has gone 40 hours without food either from not eating for so long or through wounds regenerated in combat, it takes 1d6 non-lethal damage and begins to starve (no save). It continues to suffer 1d6 damage for each hour it is starving without a save.
Hunger driven: An Unkillable Trollhound does not get fatigued when taking non-lethal damage from starvation. As long as they are starving they get a +2 morale bonus on attack, CMB and damage rolls as the hunger drives them to the extreme.
Dismember: Instead of making a trip attack after a successful bite attack, they can instead attempt to rip off one of the victim's limbs. To do so they must succeed on a CMB with a -4 penalty that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Unkillable Trollhounds use this attack only when they are starving. So desperate are they for nourishment that they do not want to wait till their prey is dead.
After a successful dismemberment an Unkillable Trollhound will spend its entire next round devouring the torn off limb.
Notes: Too often players fall back on the simple hack and slay tactic to defeat enemies (even when offered more elegant methods). That's why I created this thing. While hacking to death also works here, due to the self-destructing part of the regeneration, other options yield results much quicker.
Clever players will find you can just bind the creature, drown it, capture it, starve it to death, petrify it, distract it with food (laced with poison?), etc...
There are still plenty of options, but it requires some thinking.
What would you say is the CR of this creature? I'd estimate around 5-6.
The 40 hours come from the starvation/thirst rules. I used thirst though since starvation is usually slower. 24 + Con + Endurance (rounded down to 40 for easier number handling).
I added the Dismemberment bit for flavor and so the Regeneration Spell has some use in this game ^^.
Before you comment on strength/usefulness/danger/unbalance etc... of this creature, please read the disclaimer in my profile. I covered many of the usual first responses there and I hate to have to repeat myself.
IF a creature's regeneration loses its weakness, regeneration reverts to fast healing.
It's not the tarrasque.
Limb-severing has largely been removed from the game (vorpal swords are about all that remain). No swords of sharpness left!
You have a creature the characters can't kill, that with a decent roll can rip off their arms and legs, and it gets tougher as they hack on it.
Ugh, to say the least.
I'm not going to venture CR because it strikes me as a DM vs PC creature, designed to punish them and show the DM's power.
==Aelryinth
Did you read the last sentence of the my post pointing you to my disclaimer? Because some of what your said is covered there.
Yes the tarrasque is the only monster with unblockable regeneration. However it is also a monster most players won't ever get to encounter.
I created this to make for an interesting battle that includes this 'feature' at a level that easier to achieve.
Also the tarrasque is immune to so many things you can hardly get creative in battling it.
Did you read the last sentence of the my post pointing you to my disclaimer? Because some of what your said is covered there.
Oh, you special, special snowflake, you!
Make the death through starvation/massive damage more playable. As it is, it's too convoluted in the heat of battle. Or not, you're the one who has to deal with it.
Dismemberment is just inexcusable b#$!*!+~.
Apropos of homebrew monsters.
Regenerate the seventh lvl cleric spell, and the way that comes to mind to regain lost limbs. Keep this in mind when making anything that removes limbs.
As a baseline, lets compare to petrify, The Basilisk (CR 5) and Cockatrice (CR 3) both cause this effect well before the party has it's own Stone to Flesh spell (Wiz 6). The key is it very hard to be petrified (1d4 dex damage per hit, personification @ 0 dex or DC 15 fort save against an iconic monster) and relatively easy fixes exist other than the lvl 6 spell (blood bathing or DC 12 fort saves).
To wrap things up, dismemberment is the domain of high CR monsters.
|
Dismember. At least make it more like swallow whole, and be after maintaining a grapple. Maybe only do it if the target is bleeding too, as the hunger over comes them. I would also change ripping off a limb to ripping a chunk flesh and just give penalties similar to the critical line of feats.
But i think you want it to be as you wrote it. Of course if a limb is ripped off why isn't there a save or die due to massive bleeding? should it also throw them into a frenzy and all jump and kill the crippled player? even if they quickly decide to run away it sounds like the hounds will just follow them forever. At Cr 5 that could be against a level 2 party...at least the TPK will be fast.
Oh, you special, special snowflake, you!
I am simply tired of repeating myself every time I post here. I am open for suggestions on what would be a better way to avoid the problem. Copy/paste the disclaimer into the thread?
Make the death through starvation/massive damage more playable. As it is, it's too convoluted in the heat of battle. Or not, you're the one who has to deal with it.
There probably is an easier way to calculate it, however I couldn't think of something better/ more elegant. Again I am open for suggestions.
As a baseline, lets compare to petrify, The Basilisk (CR 5) and Cockatrice (CR 3) both cause this effect well before the party has it's own Stone to Flesh spell (Wiz 6). The key is it very hard to be petrified (1d4 dex damage per hit, personification @ 0 dex or DC 15 fort save against an iconic monster) and relatively easy fixes exist other than the lvl 6 spell (blood bathing or DC 12 fort saves).
Those are good examples. I think making the effect similar to petrification with damage to a stat that has to be reduced to 0 before the limb finally goes off would make it more usable (Str much likely as it is harder to rip off the hand of a really muscular guy than the hand of a skinny weakling)
Dismember. At least make it more like swallow whole, and be after maintaining a grapple. Maybe only do it if the target is bleeding too, as the hunger over comes them. I would also change ripping off a limb to ripping a chunk flesh and just give penalties similar to the critical line of feats.
But i think you want it to be as you wrote it. Of course if a limb is ripped off why isn't there a save or die due to massive bleeding? should it also throw them into a frenzy and all jump and kill the crippled player? even if they quickly decide to run away it sounds like the hounds will just follow them forever. At Cr 5 that could be against a level 2 party...at least the TPK will be fast.
I like your idea too. It does not have to be a limb. Having a chunk of you torn out (resulting in a stat penalty) can also be shocking enough for the players, which is the flavor this creature.
I have pondered the bleeding too as loosing a limb is a major danger to one's life. However I did not have a good idea back then. A previous poster however has given me one.Using high CR enemies against low level groups always carries the risk of a quick death. At higher levels the players have more buffer against occasional spikes of damage (such as critical hits) and can handle a CR+3 encounter more easily. I don't think I would use this against a level 2 group.
Trying again with the new suggestions I got.
Basis for this creature is the Trollhound with the following changes.
- Gain fire and acid resistance 10.
- Regeneration no longer suppressed by fire or acid.
- Swap the feats Improved Initiative and Skill Focus for Endurance and Die Hard.
- Trollhounds lose the trip special ability.
- Gains the following special abilities:
Undying: Unkillable Trollhounds never fall unconscious due to negative damage even if it exceeds their Con score. As long as a hound is below 0 hitpoints, it's regeneration speed doubles to 6. The GM can describe the creature in this state to be horribly disfigured (like a zombie). For some reason it simply won't stop moving though.
Self-destructive Regeneration:When a trollhound is below its maximum hitpoints for longer than 1 minute, it begins to starve and takes 1d6 non-lethal damage each round it stays below maximum hitpoints. Once this damage reaches its maximum hitpoints, regeneration stops and it dies if its current hitpoints are below -Con.
Any at least fist sized chunk of flesh eaten while it is starving will remove the non-lethal damage.
Hunger driven: An Unkillable Trollhound does not get fatigued when taking non-lethal damage from starvation. As long as they are starving they get a +2 morale bonus on attack, CMB and damage rolls as the hunger drives them to the extreme.
Dismember:When an Unkillable Trollhound becomes hungry it gets especially fierce and cruel in battle. It tries to eat its enemies while they are alive.
When a hound hits with it's bite attack it automatically tries to latch onto the victim (with a successful CMB). Both creatures are now in a grapple.
Roll a 1d6. 1-2 means it latched onto the leg, 3-5 means torso, 6 means hand/arm. Each round it can maintain the grapple (it does not pin) it deals its bite damage to the victim, as well as 1d4 points of Str damage. This damage only effects Strength checks done with the affected limb (attacks for hand/arm, lifting and carrying capacity for torso, movement related checks for leg).
Should Strength be reduced to 0 the limb is ripped off and the victim suffers 1d6 bleed damage (DC 15 heal to stop).
A severed limb can be sewed back on with a DC 25 Heal check (character must have a healer's kit) if it has not been eaten. After that the Strength damage can be healed normally to restore functionality.
|
|
I like it, it has been toned down a lot but it's undying ability makes a grapple very dangerous. Even if you don't plan on giving the hounds an ally, a pairing with anything that also does str damage can be devastating. And of course, a few levels later when they encounter a huge version of this that does a lot more str damage, they should be afraid.
Also thanks for reading my post in a helpful way. I thought i had edited it to sound better.
No prob. And yes. A more powerful version of this would be very frightening for even high level adventurers. As it should be.
Well alternative from "I make a full attack and hit it for 43 damage"
Ideas I hope the players get:
I try to grapple it so my friend can tie it down.
I bullrush it into the river and drown it there.
Creative use of spells other than doing damage.
|
I'm more amused on how the GM will handle the dominate monster/send their unkillable pet into combat combo :-)
Or simaculrims of the monster.
That's the great thing about 'gimmick' monsters that require very special means to deal with them (like oozes or incorporeal undead or swarms or constructs) is that once they appear, it's *inevitable* that a PC is going to find a way to charm / compel / bribe / control such a creature, and then it's a race for the GM to come up with an excuse for why every subsequent encounter just conveniently happens to have that one special means of defeating it, lest his creation trivialize the rest of his campaign...
Such things are not only 'encounters,' but also, to the craft player, opportunities. Once the genie is out of the bottle, it's free wishes for everyone.
Coming up with built in restrictions, like having an unkillable creature only be unkillable in the ruined temple it guards (like a ghost, unkillable but bound to an area), or being unable to abide the touch of sunlight, turning to stone for the entire day, is a great way to allow a GM to use such a beastie for a single encounter, without the players being able to make extensive future use of it (so that the sunlight-petrifying version becomes hard to carry around, and usable only out of sunlight, allowing the GM to arrange encounters during the day during which the unkillable minion can't be called up).
From this thread I've got an idea about unkillable troll half-red dragon barbarian 2/oracle of stone 1 with immunity to fire and acid resistance 10, feats endurance & die hard as a personal rival to one of my players (Kingmaker campaign, and I like every player to have a personal rival), but thinking of such monster dominated by PCs make me shudder, and target player character is a wizard too, so...
The way I plan to use it is to introduce them to the creature while they have an advantage so they can get to know it in a low risk scenario.
Then they get to fight it on even terms, hopefully applying what they learned.
And if my players can take advantage of the situation (by mind controlling the creature for example), good for them. It will be interesting to see them trying to keep this thing fed ^^
This thing is quite flavorful and it's brokenness adds to the flavour quite well.
What I would add: Heal check DCs to determine, the thing would normally already be dead and Monster Lore DCs. Thiose should be quite easy. Otherwise you risk the group mauling this thing for ever, not realizing how it works.
Are you totally against adding a weakness to it's regeneration? Maybe something less common, like can't regenerate on Holy Ground or Holy Water?
Or add another weakness in form of a fear of something or a weakness to a certain type of spell.
If not maybe make it's starving more drastically. Maybe like an exhaustion or fatigue effect(rebuilding your limbs takes a lot of energy).