I'm quite interested in seeing what the contestants who didn't make it past the map cut had in store for us with their monsters. Or even what those of us who didn't make it that far might have done.
Therefore, have a thread to put your monsters out there! Let's see what you've got!
Star Voter Season 9
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Ok. Well I'll bite if only because I'd like feedback and I think it's a cool creature.
This wiry bipedal creature's gray hide is marked with pustules and boils. It carries a large, parchment filled bottle in its clawed hands. Beneath its bulbous sulfur-yellow eyes and long, crooked nose it bears a pointed, toothy smile.
Thought Filcher CR 6
XP 2400
Chaotic Evil Medium Fey
Init +10; Senses Low-light Vision, Blind-sense 60ft (Sentient Creatures only); Perception +17
Aura Mania (30 ft., DC 17)
----- Defense -----
AC 18, touch 14, flat-footed 14 (+4 Dex, +4 Natural)
hp 65 (10d6+30)
Fort +7, Ref +11, Will +9
DR 10/cold iron; Immune sleep; SR 17;
----- Offense -----
Speed 30 ft.
Melee claws +8/+8 (1d4+3 plus forgetful touch)
Special Attacks thought torrent
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 10th; concentration +15)
Constant — detect magic, read magic
At will — invisibility, dispel magic, clairaudience/clairvoyance,
3/day — suggestion (DC 18), silence (DC 17)
----- Statistics -----
Str 14, Dex 18, Con 16, Int 20, Wis 14, Cha 14
Base Atk +5; CMB +7; CMD 23;
Feats Alertness, Combat Casting, Combat Reflexes, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative
Skills Acrobatics +17, Bluff +15, Disguise +15, Knowledge (Arcana)+15, Knowledge (History)+15, Knowledge (Nature)+18, Knowledge (Planes)+15, Perception +15, Sense Motive +15, Stealth +17, Use Magic Device +15
Languages Common, Sylvan, Draconic, Aklo, Elven, Gnome
SQ Change Shape (Human, Elf)
----- Ecology -----
Environment Any Urban
Organization Solitary or Cabal (2d4)
Treasure Standard
----- Special Abilities -----
Change Shape (Su) A thought filcher may take the form of a frail, elderly human or elf.
Forgetful Touch (Su) A thought filcher's claws often rend more than just flesh. Any creature struck by a thought filcher's claw attack must succeed a DC 17 Will save or take 1d4 Wisdom damage and lose it most recent memories as memory lapse. A successful save negates the memory lapse effect. This save is Charisma based.
Mania (Su) Any creature within a thought filcher's aura of mania can hear the telepathic chatter of the minds it has stolen. All creatures within the aura gain use of inspiration as the investigator class feature. This inspiration may only be used on Knowledge, Linguistics and Spellcraft checks, and is used reflexively on such checks unless the creature succeeds a DC 17 Will save. Any creature who uses the inspiration provided by a thought filcher's aura of mania, takes 1d4 Wisdom damage as it's mind slowly slips away. This save is Charisma based.
Steal Mind (Su) Any creature reduced to 0 Wisdom by either a Thought Filcher's forgetful touch or aura of mania has all of its memories completely stripped from it. This loss persists even if the creature later recovers from its Wisdom damage. Memories taken in such a manner can only be restored by the thought filcher releasing them, either willingly or upon its death; or by wish or miracle.
Thought Torrent (Su) A thought filcher may as a standard action shake its jar of thoughts and unleash them in a 30ft cone of chaotic mental energy, as lesser confusion(DC 17). This save is Charisma based.
Thought filchers are opportunistic, predatory fey who seek out and hunt, scholars, sages and mages. Originally created Shyka as research assistants, thought filchers have been found throughout time, seeking out mages and scholars on the cusp of breakthroughs, both aiding their manic research and stealing their knowledge.
Victims of a thought filcher often have no memory of their attack, and those who do remember often have trouble proving any wrongdoing or even capturing the creature. Thought filchers often pose as visiting professors or eccentric scholars always on the lookout out for good research assistants. They are patient creatures -- willing to wait months and even years for their victim's mind to slowly slip and their social support to dwindle before making their final move.
Generally poor combatants, thought filchers rely on their special abilities and invisibility to avoid and escape confrontation.
This seems like a fun creature. Its abilities tie in well with the description and what you want it to do. I particularly like the idea of it assisting researchers with its aura of mania, all the while sucking its mind away. All up, I think it's a pretty good monster. I don't think I'd have voted for it, but I would have felt bad about that.
I'd have thought that giving it constant detect thoughts might be a good option, and maybe a better theme than constant read magic, detect magic and blindsight against sentient creatures.
Take a look at amnesia. Since you can, you might as well utilise pre-built rules for steal mind.
Perhaps an ability focus or two?
I'm a little split on thought torrent. I'd like it to be a little stronger I think, but then you've got to deal with at will confusion.
I'm not sure if it's intentional, but saving against forgetful touch as it is doesn't negate the wisdom damage. With a name like forgetful touch, I'd expect it to be able to just touch things as well. Standard action touch attack to use it?
Did you mean two claw attacks? Also, because it has more than one natural attack it doesn't get +1/2 its strength on attack and damage rolls.
Well, since there's not much activity on this, here's a monster I did. And it's actually a serious one, which is something of a change for me. It's probably also too long.
The air feels unnaturally dry around this large, sickly-yellow semi-transparent blob, the desiccated remains of prior victims littering the room.
Mummy Ooze CR9
XP 6,400
N Large Ooze
Init -5; Senses Blindsight 60 ft.; Perception -5
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DEFENCE
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AC 4 touch 4 flat-footed 4 (-1 size, -5 dex)
HP 131 (15d8+60)
Fort +9, Ref +0, Will +0
Resist Fire 10, Acid 10; Immune mind-affecting effects, ooze traits, slashing and piercing damage
Weaknesses Water Vulnerability
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OFFENCE
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Speed 20 ft.
Melee slam +17 (1d6+6 plus fluid absorption and grab)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special attacks Engulf (DC 21)
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STATISTICS
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Str 18, Dex 1, Con 18, Int -, Wis 1, Cha 1
Base atk +11; CMB +15 (+19 to grapple); CMD 11 (cannot be tripped)
SQ Mitosis
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ECOLOGY
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Environment underground or any desert
Organisation solitary
Treasure incidental
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Fluid Absorption (Ex) A mummy ooze absorbs fluid from living creatures rapidly. A creature hit, grappled or engulfed by the mummy ooze must make a DC 21 fortitude save or take 4d6 nonlethal damage, 1d6 constitution damage and begin dying of thirst. This damage cannot be healed until the creature rehydrates itself. The save DC is constitution based.
The mummy ooze gains temporary hit points equal to the five times amount of constitution damage dealt. These temporary hit points last indefinitely, but decrease at the rate of 1 per day.
Mitosis (Ex) A mummy ooze that gains at least 50 temporary hit points from its fluid absorption ability immediately splits, creating a new and fully functional mummy ooze at full hit points and losing all temporary hit points.
Engulf (Ex) A mummy ooze may engulf large or smaller creatures in its path as a standard action. It cannot make slam attacks during a round in which it engulfs. The mummy ooze merely has to move over the opponents, affecting as many as it can cover. Opponents can make attacks of opportunity against the mummy ooze, but if they do so they are not entitled to a saving throw. Those who do not attempt attacks of opportunity can attempt a DC 21 Reflex save to avoid being engulfed—on a success, they are pushed back or aside (opponent’s choice) as the mummy ooze moves forward. Engulfed creatures are subject to the mummy ooze’s fluid absorption ability, gain the pinned condition, are in danger of suffocating, and are trapped within its body until they are no longer pinned. The save DC is Strength-based.
Water Vulnerability (Ex) Mummy oozes are rapidly diluted in contact with water, destroying their structure. Each gallon of water applied to a mummy ooze deals 1d6 damage to it. Partial submersion deals 5d6 damage per round, and complete submersion destroys it in 1d3 rounds.
Mummy Oozes gain their name from their ability to rapidly absorb the fluids from a living creature, desiccating them with horrifying speed. They love moisture and are drawn to whatever fluids they can find. Ironically, this can sometimes result in their destruction; their spongelike nature causes them to absorb fluids at such a rapid rate that if they fall into a body of water they grow so quickly that they explode. Thus, most mummy oozes are found in dry locales or in other regions where there is little chance of self-destruction.
In ancient Osirion, mummy oozes were sometimes utilised to mummify bodies more quickly, utilising an extract of the ooze or by deliberately feeding the ooze the body. Use of this practice was frowned upon, as not only did the mummy ooze population reach dangerous heights because of it, but the desiccated bodies were especially vulnerable to reanimation. A creature that has had its fluids completely drained by a mummy ooze may be turned into a mummy with use of the animate dead spell and rare herbs and oils worth 800 gp.
Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
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The mummy ooze gains temporary hit points equal to the five times amount of constitution damage dealt.
The mummy ooze gains temporary hit points equal to five times the amount of constitution damage dealt.
Nit picked :-)
Also, don't specifically mention the bodies in the opening line... there may be no bodies around it at all.
The initial monster description should concern the physical appearance of the creature only, it should assume no action or setting details as this forces the GM to place the monster in very specific ways.
By mentioning strewn bodies in the description, you are the creature to be placed at the end of a battle in which it was victorious or having stumbled upon the remains of such a battle.
If placed in the former way, the GM is hard pressed to have the creature encountered undamaged, and if the latter way, the GM may need to explain the dessication of the bodies occurred after their death and not as a result of this creature. As you can see, by having this in the creature description, I am losing elements of surprise in planning my encounters and have to account for clues I might not want to give the players.
My other concern with the creature is - as a CR 9 creature, party members will have at least 50 hit points each on average, which means that you are almost guaranteed to trigger Mitosis and generate a second creature in 4-5 rounds... average of 4d6 is around 14, so round 4 things get nasty real quick as we pass the 50 mark with average rolls only.
If it duplicates a new fully health spawn which the pc's cannot kill in four/five rounds, then with this new creature and the pc's unable to kill the first in a reasonable time frame, it will very unlikely they can finish the first and then the second before another is spawned! The PC's will get overwhelmed by a continually repeating healthy summon which they couldn't kill when they had all their resources available to them!
Then if you add to that attempt to kill the creature in 4 rounds, lets say you get to round 3 and it hits and rolls a higher than average of 4d6 - say 16, then we now have to battle through temporary hit points gained of an additional (5 x 16) 80! - so we now have a creature that was close to dying is now effectively close to full health and in one or two rounds will likely spawn a second fully healthy creature.
For me, I feel this creature has an inherent design flaw that can accelerate an encounter into a no-win situation for the PC's if not defeated within 4-5 rounds - a tight time-scale for any planned encounter utilizing a "solo" creature.
I would restrict the "duplicate" spawn to not being able to spawn its own duplicates until it has existed for a period of at least 24 hours, and/or have it arrive with half the current health the spawning creature currently possesses (and retain the no temporary hit points). As currently written, it feels too powerful - but that's just my gut feeling, so I may be wrong.
I think its the combination of full health spawn and temporary hit point refresh every successful absorption - two hits in successive rounds effectively negates most or all of the damage inflicted in the first round of those two rounds. It would be like trying to keep the ocean at bay when the tide is coming in.
Okay, obviously I need to work on my initial descriptions. And also proofread better. That's good to know.
The temporary hit points are gained based off the constitution damage and not the non-lethal. That's 5 x 1d6 or 15 on average each round, assuming it hits and the target fails its save. Basically that means it needs 3 rounds on average to split, assuming takes no damage.
That probably deals with most of your concerns (especially now it doesn't split every round). I'd personally be fairly surprised if Mitosis ever got a chance to activate, even against lower level PCs.
You do, however, raise a point I'd considered with Mitosis. Taking what you've said into consideration, I think I would adapt it so that the 'duplicate' gains the young simple template and either loses Mitosis or starts with the original's temporary HP.