Hello everyone! I was trying to advance some monster I need for the game I will DM in a month and I encountered two problems.
1) Suppose I want to advance a Brown Bear (Animal) by adding 4 HD. This creature should now gain an ability score increase: if I put this in Int, the creature should now become a Magical Beasts, cause no animal can have an Intelligence score of 3 or more. Should i change Bab, Saves, ecc to adjust the creature for his new type?
2) Suppose I want to add the Vampire Template to a Dryad (Fey). What table should I look at, if i want to advance that Dryad (Fey) by adding HD, the Undead or the Fey one?
Thank you in advance
1. If the type changes, the racial hit dice should be adjusted. However, there is not a clear process for what happens if an animal has its Int augmented above 3 (I believe animal companions have specific rules)
2. I haven't found an advancement table that depends on type. The vampire template only affects the size of the hit die, so everything except HP is based on fey type HD. Also, your players might not like DR/magic and cold iron and silver.
Thank you for your answer.
The creatures above are just examples,so there's no reason to worry about DR.
The DR wouldn't combine anyway. It would have two different kinds.
I'd add the HD first and then change the type to undead, though some templates might go about that differently, like Skeleton(I think).
In general I'd also say non-companion animals couldn't advance INT just by leveling up.
I agree with you, but i didnt find this in the rules. I was asking cause there may be an in-game reason for this to happen, and I needed to know how to advanced them, but neither The Sideromancer not I found a table or a specific rule.
You're the GM, so it's pretty much up to you. Just be sure to tweak the CR if your changes make the creature a sufficiently higher threat.
Teeeeechnically, no *base* animal can have an int above 2. This is NOT to say that HD bumps, or even the [/url=https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/3rd-party-feats/kobold-press/general-feats-3rd-party-kobold-press/clever-critter]Clever Critter[/url] feat, changes their type. It's still an animal, because it hasn't been *magically* augmented, and the Racial HD rules have no specifications that this happens. The base animal's race (Brown Bear) is still an Animal, and it hasn't undergone an effect that expressly changes it's type, like being Awakened, so by RAW, it's still an animal.
Now, if you're LOOKING to change it to a magical beast, Awaken it FIRST (This spell actually expressly calls out that it doesn't work on animals with a 3+ int, which means that, technically, this Paizo Core Rulebook spell actually establishes that an animal that gains a point if int does NOT, in fact, get made into a Magical beast).
I should also point out that JUST making a bear smarter and adding HP doesn't make it a significant threat. My party can take out a Winter Wolf just as fast as a regular wolf. One round. If you're going to make the bear a more credible threat, add Natural Armor, add Dex (for AC, especially Touch AC), add bonuses to it's natural attacks (either crank up it's natural attack's dice a couple notches, or add Str to up the base damage.) Most of these can be accomplished even in PFS, without too much flack, though if you're looking to make your own monster out of a bear, you probably aren't playing PFS. So here's one more horrifying idea:
Change out one of the existing feats for Clever Critter, I'd suggest Run, or just add one racial HD for the extra feat (5HD means that when it hits 6, it gets a feat). Why? Because once even an animal has a 3+ int, you can start doing something TRULY horrifying with it. Add class levels. Make it a Bearbarian, or a Bear Knuckle Fighter (Sorry, had to toss in some puns.)
Why is this horrifying? A lone, random bear is a meh to even first level adventurers. A lone bear, in plate armor, with class levels to augment it's claws or it's bite (you get two claws I always suggest upping those before a single bite), with a grudge for some reason, and able to think tactically? That is a horrifying concept to anyone who doesn't know what's going on. Especially if you give it a way to bring other bears in as back up.
The reason I stated it as DR/magic and CI and silver is because of how the overlap region performs.
Suppose our base fey had DR 5/cold iron. We end up with DR5/ cold iron and DR 10/ magic and silver overlapping. Effectively, this is the same as DR 10/silver and magic and DR 5/silver and magic and cold iron overlapping because at least one source is applying to those 5 points unless all three are bypassed. If we had DR 10/CI, we wouldn't need any overlap and could use a single combined source (since the values are the same).
Adding HD is a headache. Most people just add the Advanced Template or similar if they want a tougher version of the same monster.
The Sideromancer wrote: The reason I stated it as DR/magic and CI and silver is because of how the overlap region performs.
Suppose our base fey had DR 5/cold iron. We end up with DR5/ cold iron and DR 10/ magic and silver overlapping. Effectively, this is the same as DR 10/silver and magic and DR 5/silver and magic and cold iron overlapping because at least one source is applying to those 5 points unless all three are bypassed. If we had DR 10/CI, we wouldn't need any overlap and could use a single combined source (since the values are the same).
Adding overlapping DRs is ALWAYS a good idea, even if one of them is lower. DR 15/Magic, DR 15/Sliver, DR 5/Adamantine is mean... but, hey, you've got murder hobos. There's only a couple of ways you could bypass all of those at once, and that's as a monk. The problem, of course, is that when your murder hobo does a full volley of attacks and the critter doesn't bleed, the party goes, "OK, Mr Wizard, do your thing!" and out pops a lightning bolt.
But you bring up a valid point. Adding DR and Energy Resistances, especially to stuff you know your party uses a lot (if your sorc only uses electrical spells, you better believe the first thing I'm adding is Electrical Resistance 15), will boost the threat incredibly fast. A DR 5? Even most first level characters can bypass that with overwhelming force. Bump that to 10? Crossbows are out. So are non-composite bows. So are most TWFs, since they tend to use lighter weapons. 15? Even your barbarian is going to start struggling.
Another fun one to do is make the bear... an animated object. Give it hardness. (unless your party is known for their Adamantine weapons.) My party fought a Stone Idol, and that was a little hellacious.
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