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Jade_Tarem
2009-04-16, 04:48 PM
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

- Lewis Carroll

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Introduction

So yeah. I’m not dead, despite my lack of posting here for a long time.

I'd thought a long time about making a "guide" thread, about the thing I was best at (at least in my group). It seemed like a good idea - I know the rules, I have a lot of experience with monster characters, and people often seem genuinely confused about this or that. But then a whole bunch of guide threads sprang up and in a fit of vanity I decided that I didn't want to be seen as jumping on the bandwagon after the guides to wizards, monks, sorcerers, and the like were created. Also, I didn't know (and still don’t) if someone had done one already, and would make this superfluous.

And then, some time ago in a thread, someone said something along the lines of "The Savage Species Guide is unpopular because it's the DM's worst nightmare." This bothered me - not because he or she was wrong, but because I didn't have an answer for them. I got to thinking about why, and after seeing several mistakes of monster playing later, decided to make this thing anyway. If you find this silly or offensively obsolete or redundant somehow, well, no one is forcing you to read it. If you find yourself confused by the distinction between ECL and LA, or by the difference between Class Levels and Monstrous HD, or by the difference between types and subtypes, or if you wonder why all your friends hate you ever since you started playing that over-templated Mind Flayer, then this is the guide for you!

Note that it isn’t fully complete. I plan on adding a section on some ideas for integrating various creature types into a “regular” party, some ideas for monster parties, some RP monster hooks, and to finish up on the section about bad combinations and monster specifics. Also, due to size, I’m going to have to divide this into something like 4 posts. I hope that’s ok.

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Opening Notes

1. I will make comments on roleplaying. I will not tell you how to play your character, but rather, how you probably shouldn't. This is based on my experiences as both a Savage Race player and a DM. Do not take it personally. This guide is all in good fun!

1a. I will also make comments on the effectiveness and relative worth of the various monsters. I assure you that at the very least, I have seriously considered playing most of them or something like them and put thought into how to make it work. I have also actually played a large number of them, or have seen them played. That said, I am not the holy messiah of perfectly accurate knowledge, nor do I have every racial substitution in every splatbook memorized, and results in RPGs always vary anyway. I also tend to use rather florid language, figurative terms, and hyperbole in my descriptions and interpretations. Caveat lector, punks!

2. This is a 3.5 oriented guide.

3. I am not completely up to date on the errata, although in my experience not a whole lot has changed, other than polymorph. See note #1a.

4. The Savage Species Guide is not 3.5, but it can be transposed/translated with a 3.5 Monster Manual and a little effort. Please assume that that's what I'm doing, if I mention a bunch of stuff about a creature and none of it matches the SSG.

5. If you see some mistake, don’t hesitate to let me know. I’m pretty sure I have the mechanics and stuff down, and the rest is mostly opinions based on experience, but if you see something that’s definitely *wrong,* just say so and I’ll fix it.

6. As of 3.5, using the vorpal sword is no longer a good strategy for defeating the Jabberwock.

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"You ain't never had a friend like me!"

- The Genie, from Aladdin


Why play a monster?

You can certainly go through your entire roleplaying "career" without ever touching a monster character. There's certainly plenty to choose from among the base races: Human, Half-Orc, Half-Elf, three types of Halfling, four types of Gnome, four types of Dwarf, and 3,127,965.4999 sub-derivatives of Elf, to say nothing of the base races from other settings like Eberron or the wacky and fun-loving crystal and insect people in the psionics books. There are lots of minor templates that don’t really qualify as “monsters,” too. So why would you want to play a monster?

Well, it's different. Even with the variety posted above, all the core LA 0 races have remarkably similar characteristics. All are bipedal, all have relatively balanced stat adjustments (Exception: Whisper Gnome and Half-Orc, to name a couple), and all of them have all their other body parts in relatively familiar places, with the exception of the aforementioned psionic bug people. Inherent "magical aptitude" is limited to gnomes and their ability to talk to weasels and make farting noises at a distance once a day.

On the other hand, playing a monster gives you your pick of virtually everything in the Monster Manual 1 through 5 and many splatbooks besides, assuming you can make it work for your character - that "making it work" is challenging, but for many that challenge is half the fun. Like normal characters, monster characters can range from serious to silly - from Japhoseth the Mummy, out for revenge on his killers, to Flipster the Awakened Psionic Dolphin on his quest to the bottom of the ocean, because he was hired to find the king’s approval rating, and they're paying in mackerel. Holy mackerel, at that.

Now that I've alienated all potential readers with that God-awful pun, there's also a mechanical/roleplaying reason to play a monster: Sometimes a class feature just doesn't cut it for what you want to do with your character. Outside of polymorph cheese, which has taken a body blow since the heady days of Furbolg fighters, there's no real way to become a truly supernatural entity until you reach epic god-slaying levels. If you want something inherently mysterious and magical, you're sunk. Unless you play a monster.

Also, there is simply the expanded possibility list. There are, simply put, things that monsters can do that cannot be replicated by any class or PrC, even with the dozens of splatbooks out. If done correctly, these unique abilities can make for a dangerous character indeed.

The rule of cool also applies.

So now we know why we would want to play a monster, let's find out how...

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"Had you paid any attention to your harper's songs, you'd know your rights..."

- F'lar, from Dragonflight

Da Rulez

Ok. There's a system for creating and utilizing monster characters. It's a bad system, but it's there. That system is: the ECL system. The ECL system is actually fairly straightforward, but as usual WotC's wording of it is as clear as a giant steaming vat of ink. If you are perfectly clear on how the mechanics of it work, and would instead like to know how to make the actual concept work in a campaign without aggravating the players, the DM, or both, I would recommend that you skip down to the relevant sections below.

ECL stands for Equivalent Class/Character Level. It means: what level would a core-race character have to be to be equal in badassery to your monster? When you play a monster in a game, your ECL should be equal to everyone else’s level.

How do you figure out the ECL of your character? It goes like this:

Racial Hit Dice + Level Adjustment + Class Level = Equivalent Character Level.

It's simple addition. Got it? Good. We already know what Class Levels are, and now we know what ECL is, but what are Racial Hit Dice and Level Adjustment? It sounds self explanatory, but many are confused, and for good reason.

To start, everything has hit dice. There is no such thing as a 0 HD creature in 3.5. Everything has Hit Dice, everything has Hit Points, and with the exception of certain undead and the Tarrasque, everything dies permanently when its hit points or hit dice reach zero or negative 10, resurrection magic notwithstanding.

Hit Dice are a measure of how generally advanced a creature is compared to similar creatures. There are three kinds of Hit Dice: those gained by being of a certain race, those gained by being an advanced member of that race, and those gained from class levels. This frequently trips people up, especially since the books are somewhat sloppy about specifying which is which in a given character.

Racial Hit Dice: A base creature of any species has a base Racial HD. This HD can vary in both size and number. Size is based on creature type, number is based on the creature. Example: A dryad is a fey type creature, which has a d6 base hit die size. The dryad, specifically, has 4 racial hit dice, and so has 4 base hit dice of size d6, or 4d6 starting hp (most DMs use the averages in the book). Meanwhile, the pixie is also a fey (and so also has a d6 hit dice), but only has one base racial hit die, for a total of 1 hit die - which is also a d6, due to being a fey.

If we want to give that Dryad some class levels, then we add the class hit dice to the racial ones. So if this dryad starts taking ranger levels, we start adding 1 hit die of size d8 for every level of ranger it has. For the purposes of determining spell effects like sleep, its hit dice are both numbers combined. So a level 6 Ranger Dryad is a 10 HD creature, and has a higher ECL than that, since it has racial abilities and adjustments. While not overwhelmingly powerful, the Dryad is listed with a (-) for an LA because it was never intended initially to be played as a PC. More on that later...

Special Note: Any species that begins with just 1 racial hit die can sacrifice that hit die for the first hit die of a class. This is the case with, for example, every single base race - Humans, Dwarves, and the like all have a racial hit die, but you never see it in play because they sacrifice it for a class level. If you choose to do this, you lose the benefit of any Base Attack Bonus, Base Saving Throw Bonus, Base Skill Points, etc. that you would have gained from that hit die. Bonuses not dependent on hit dice still apply, though. Take Dwarves, for example. A dwarf paladin and a dwarf cleric don’t have the same HD size, despite being the same race – they sacrificed it for a class Hit Die, and because of that they don’t have any save bonuses from race – in fact, their base save bonuses will be completely different forevermore. However, they do both have darkvision and stonecunning, since those features are not reliant on Hit Dice.

Level Adjustment: This is the number of levels that you have to "lose" when making a monster character to compensate for powerful inherent abilities. Some creatures have an easier to calculate Level Adjustment (abbreviated LA) than others. Obviously, the easiest ones are those where the Level Adjustment is listed right there in the book. There is a method for calculating the LA of a (-) creature as well, but that gets hairy in a hurry, and is what causes most of the aggravation mentioned before. I'll cover manual calculation of LA in a bit.

Nota Bene, Mechanical Mistakes: There are some common mistakes made when calculating creature ECL. Don't make these errors or your party will hate you!

1. ECL without HD: Yes. A lot of the time players see a neat creature they want to be, deduct the LA from their level, and go to town. This is WRONG. Take a good look at the creature's Hit Dice. If the number of dice is greater than the level of the campaign, you can't play as that monster - it's too strong. If the Hit Dice fall under the level of the campaign, then check the LA. If adding the LA to the HD doesn't put you over, then you can at least consider using that monster in that campaign.

2. ECL without LA: More rare than number one, but it happens. Sometimes LA is simply... forgotten.

3. Screw ECL: It happens sometimes. A player simply picks a creature and starts adding levels, and ends up in an epic ECL and wonders why the DM (who also did ECL wrong) wants to kill him.

4. Just a *little* demon: If you decide to "progress" as a creature, you must finish the progression before you take class levels. Apparently every monster in DnD is incapable of learning anything until adulthood. The exception is Dragons, but we'll see why it's still a bad idea to work with dragons in this sense later on.

5. Templates in the void: Remember that templates have limits. For instance, spectral archons are a no-no. Check the requirements before you slap that sucker on.

6. My creation, my rules: Remember to check with your DM to see if a given creature is ok in his story. Don’t try to shove that mind flayer down his throat and say it’s his job to worry about how his Drow NPCs will react. If he bans it, it’s gone, no matter how RAW legal it is.

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Here a little slice,
There a little cut...

- Thernardier, from Les Miserables

A Series of Unfortunate Adjustments:

So now that you see what ECL and all the relevant stuff is about, you're ready to play your monster character. Thumbing through the Monster Manual, you locate the perfect creature - it has reasonably low HD, and some really neat special abilities, and the DM gave you his tentative permission that you could play it. You're all set!

And then you see that those bastards at WotC went and gave it (-) for an LA.

Don't panic. You can manually construct a monster character's level adjustment even if it has a (-) for LA. The process is... not pretty. And it needs both refinement and DM approval.



- Samus Aran's Suit, Metroid Prime

Minting a Monster

Let's go through the system by the adjusted RAW. By adjusted RAW, I mean that I will take into account that the value of fixed bonuses deteriorates with level, and compensate. As our example, we will be using the Hellcat (Bezekira) from the Monster Manual. Just for giggles, I will actually construct an ECL 20 Hellcat character before your very eyes! His name is Mufasa, and his full statblock is at the bottom of this section of the guide, and is constructed a bit at a time within.

Here we go.

1. You take a creature with an LA of (-). The first thing you look at is the Hit Dice, and you add those in to the ECL. It might also help to look at the creature's type and subtypes, to give you a better idea of what it is and what it can do - and how it’s perceived.

Our Hellcat is a Devil, which is of the type Outsider, and has the subtypes Evil, Extraplanar, and Lawful - what that means is that it's a Lawful Evil Outsider that doesn't spend much time hanging out on the Material Plane (if it did, it would be a Native Outsider). Outsiders have a d8 sized Hit die, and the Hellcat begins with 8 of those HD. So his basic HD is 8d8, and his ECL just went from 0 to 8.

Mufasa (Bezekira: Hellcat)
Large Outsider (Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful)
Racial Hit Dice: 8d8 + CON

2. Next you look at ability scores. Contrary to the belief of some, you do not yank them out of the book and use those. If you do, you are using the equivalent of point buy 12 - a rather under-powered ability set, wouldn’t you agree? You see, all of the monsters in the Monster Manuals are written out as though all of their base ability score rolls were 10 or 11. Everything above or below that is a modifier.

So what does this mean to you? It means that to determine a creature's base ability score adjustments, you look at the listed score, and then you subtract either 10 or 11, whichever one gives you an even number for an answer. That answer is the racial adjustment to that particular ability score.

Looking at the Hellcat, the ability scores listed are: Str 23, Dex 21, Con 17, Int 10, Wis 14, and Cha 10. Subtracting the appropriate number (10 or 11) from those numbers gives you a Hellcat's racial ability score adjustments: Str +12, Dex +10, Con +6, Int +0, Wis +4, and Cha +0.

Looks impressive, doesn't it? Especially compared to the Dwarf's +2 Con/-2 Cha. The thing is, now we have to pay for it. Unbalanced ability scores carry a price in levels. According to the Savage Species Guide, Table 2-7 in the DMG has the algorithm for balancing ability scores. As of 3.5, there is no table 2-7 in the DMG. Ha ha! Take that faithful D&D players!

The SSG recommends a +1 to your LA if your stats don't balance in the positive sense, and a -1 if they don't balance the other way. It recommends a bigger increase/decrease if they are particularly egregiously unbalanced or if the stat in question is STR or CON. This is part of the old WotC "What do you mean martial-melee isn't the power option?" philosophy - the same philosophy that gave you the fighter and half-orc that you know and cry yourself to sleep about today. So +4 to Int and Wis is worth a +1 to your LA, but +2 to Str alone is worth two levels of punishment. Really.

Virtually everyone agrees that this aspect of the rule is kind of stupid, and that it shouldn't be +2 just because the boosted score is Str instead of Int. That said, Mufasa's ability adjustments are still ridiculous.

So here we hit the first true snare in the monster creation process - and all we've looked at so far is creature type, hit dice, and ability rolls! Ultimately, how big an LA you feel you should deduct is between you and your DM. I highly recommend you test something before playing it. More on that later.

For now, I think that LA +2 for those collective naughty rolls is plenty, don't you? I'm going to use the Heroic Array for ability scores, so my base rolls are 18, 16, 14, 14, 12, and 10. I'm going to set up the rolls to go Str 14, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 10, and Cha 12. Is it optimal? Probably not, but I'm not trying to squeeze every last iota of worth out of this build, I'm just trying to do it right.

So the final ability scores for Mufasa are Str 26, Dex 26, Con 24, Int 14, Wis 14, and Cha 12. Mufasa's ECL has just jumped from 8 to 10.

Mufasa (Bezekira: Hellcat)
Large Outsider (Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful)
Racial Hit Dice: 8d8 + 56 (92 hp average)
Ability Scores: Str 26, Dex 26, Con 24, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 12.

3. I should have gone over this sooner, but you should really know how big the creature is by now. Larger creatures do not have a Level Adjustment just for being large - the adjustment is instead based on reach. Small sized creatures get a -1 per size category - because apparently being small is a terrible disadvantage. You know, because of all those terrible bonuses to hide and move silently and AC that you have to put up with. Seriously, though, the reasoning given in the SSG falls squarely into the (Melee = Power) delusion that WotC spent the better part of 3.5 development under - small creatures wield small weapons, and so therefore will never, ever be as good as their larger counterparts no matter what, because there's an enormous difference between 1d6 + 8d6 + 12 and 1d8 + 8d6 + 12. A whole level's worth of difference, in fact – even when your primary mode of attack is magic, which isn’t changed by creature size. Yeah, go ahead and insert a crack about the WotC playtesters here. They've earned it.

The Hellcat is a Large creature with no increase in reach. No level adjustment.

4. Now you have a creature with Hit Dice, a creature type and subtypes, and ability scores. The next thing you look at is Armor Class. A number of creatures have a natural armor bonus that is... impressive. Some have one that is almost negligible. Again, check with your DM, because no one likes to be playing a character a whole level lower because of a +1 natural armor bonus. Also remember that natural armor is a fixed bonus that deteriorates with level due to monster attack bonuses scaling in weird ways and the increased presence of AC-ignoring magic and natural armor-ignoring touch attacks.

The hellcat has a +7 natural armor bonus, which is worth +1 (it's +1 LA, + 1 more for every five after the first five). So actually, I'm still getting a decent deal here. It's not great, but it's ok. My DM may consider clearing away that +1, since it's a level 20 game, but we'll keep it for now. So Mufasa has +7 natural armor and his ECL is now 11.

Mufasa (Bezekira: Hellcat)
Large Outsider (Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful)
Racial Hit Dice: 8d8 + 56 (92 hp average)
Ability Scores: Str 26, Dex 26, Con 24, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 12.
AC: 24 (-1 size, +8 Dex, +7 Natural) Touch 17, Flat Footed 16

5. Alternative Transportation is the next thing you look at. The rules go something like this: A swim speed isn't worth a level adjustement except in an aquatic campaign, where it's +1. All other forms of alternative movement (Fly, Climb, and Burrow Speeds) are all worth +1. There used to be some rules concerning maneuverability and such, but they were errata'd into oblivion. If a creature is ludicrously fast, that may warrant a level adjustment as well. Note that this is an advantage that deteriorates with level due to increasing use of speed-boosting magic items and teleporting wizards.

Our Hellcat, Mufasa, has base move 40, and no funky means of transport. In a level 20 game, this isn't anything worth screaming about. No adjustment.

Mufasa (Bezekira: Hellcat)
Large Outsider (Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful)
Racial Hit Dice: 8d8 + 56 (92 hp average)
Speed: 40
Ability Scores: Str 26, Dex 26, Con 24, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 12.
AC: 24 (-1 size, +8 Dex, +7 Natural) Touch 17, Flat Footed 16

6. Natural Attacks are the next thing to be considered, and are actually relatively straightforward: If they're more badass (more attacks per round/damage) than something a standard class of equal ECL could produce with a martial weapon, then they're worth a +1. This also deteriorates with level due to increased presence of magic weapons and more powerful feats.

Our Hellcat has the natural attack of 2 claws +13 melee and they do 1d8 +6 damage each, plus a bite attack. A ranger, dual-wielding longswords, can easily reproduce this and more by level 11. I don't see a need for an adjustment.

Mufasa (Bezekira: Hellcat)
Large Outsider (Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful)
Racial Hit Dice: 8d8 + 56 (92 hp average)
Speed: 40
Ability Scores: Str 26, Dex 26, Con 24, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 12.
AC: 24 (-1 size, +8 Dex, +7 Natural) Touch 17, Flat Footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+20
Attack: Claw +16 melee (1d8 + 8)
Full Attack: 2 claws +16 melee (1d8 + 8) and 1 bite +11 melee (2d8 + 4)

7. You'll want to figure out your saves, of course. Fortunately, this is easier - there's usually not an adjustment for saves. Saves for monster characters are listed as either "good" or "bad" by save type - just like for character classes. For example, a Fighter's fortitude save is "good." A Rogue's will save is "bad."

Our Hellcat, being an outsider, has all “good” saves.

Mufasa (Bezekira: Hellcat)
Large Outsider (Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful)
Racial Hit Dice: 8d8 + 56 (92 hp average)
Speed: 40
Ability Scores: Str 26, Dex 26, Con 24, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 12.
AC: 24 (-1 size, +8 Dex, +7 Natural) Touch 17, Flat Footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+20
Attack: Claw +16 melee (1d8 + 8)
Full Attack: 2 claws +16 melee (1d8 + 8) and 1 bite +11 melee (2d8 + 4)
Saves: Fortitude +13, Reflex +14, Will +8


8. Skills and feats come next. Feats are granted by Hit Dice, but skills are usually left for character classes. That said, sometimes a monster has a racial bonus on skill checks. The rule presented by RAW is that if a monster has racial skill bonuses in more than three skills, then it gets a +1 LA; +1 LA can also be given to anything with two or more bonus feats. Also, any skills presented under the monster's statblock can pretty safely be considered class skills for advancement...

Our Hellcat has a racial bonus to Listen and Move Silently. The ECL remains at 11. The Hellcat listed has chosen three feats, those granted at the first, third, and sixth HD, but has no bonus feats. The feats in there aren't the ones I'd pick for making this a serious character, but I've already said I'm not aiming to optimize.

Mufasa (Bezekira: Hellcat)
Large Outsider (Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful)
Racial Hit Dice: 8d8 + 56 (92 hp average)
Speed: 40
Initiative: +12
Ability Scores: Str 26, Dex 26, Con 24, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 12.
AC: 24 (-1 size, +8 Dex, +7 Natural) Touch 17, Flat Footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+20
Attack: Claw +16 melee (1d8 + 8)
Full Attack: 2 claws +16 melee (1d8 + 8) and 1 bite +11 melee (2d8 + 4)
Saves: Fortitude +13, Reflex +14, Will +8
Skills: Balance +19, Climb +19, Hide +16, Jump +23, Listen +17, Move Silently +23, Spot +13, Swim +19
Feats: Dodge, Improved Initiative, Track


9. Special attacks and qualities are by far the most difficult to determine an LA for - If you're not careful they can make a monster completely unplayable in a hurry, and for no good reason. Our Hellcat has many such properties, both unique to it, and those shared by all fiendish creatures:

1. Improved Grab: Worth +1 LA by RAW

2. Pounce, Rake: Both together function as a single, unduplicatable attack. Worth +1 LA by RAW

3. DR 5/Good: Worth +1 or +2 by RAW, depending on preference. The guy who put this entry in the SSG gives the impression that he was dropping acid when he typed it in. Seriously, go read it.

4. Darkvision 60 Ft: Worth no level adjustment, otherwise Dwarves would be a Savage Species...

5. Invisible in Light: Another ability that can't be duplicated. +1 LA by RAW

6. Resistance to Fire 10: +1/2 LA, rounded up for +1 LA by RAW.

7. Scent: +1 LA by RAW.

8. SR 19. What they really mean is SR 11 + HD, but since it's by Racial HD this is a static number. In other words, taking fighter levels will not increase the Hellcat's SR. Oh, and +1 LA.

9. Telepathy 100 ft. At this level, it can be easily duplicated many times and then made permanent by a determined enough wizard. Not worth level adjustment.

So that was... +8 LA. Ouch, huh? That's an ECL 19 - there's only enough room for one class level! We'll be playing in an ECL 20 game with a creature with 9 hit dice. God forbid someone drops a holy word...

Well, it's not over yet. Remember: bonuses deteriorate with time. This includes the SR, the Fire Resistance, the DR, possibly the invisibility or scent and the Improved Grab. Oh, and the +7 Natural Armor probably goes too, at this level. These advantages simply become... trivial. So that brings us down from a total +11 LA to a +4, so we're back to ECL 12. Actually, Scent and Invisible in Light together probably warrant a +1 (They would be worth +1 each if the game wasn't ECL 20), so we're going with a +5 LA, or base ECL 13. This gives us 7 class levels to work with, for a total of 15 Hit Dice, which is somewhat more respectable. It's not great, but you're not going to die horribly with no save just because someone casts a spell with effects that scale inversely with the Hit Dice of the target.

Mufasa (Bezekira: Hellcat)
Large Outsider (Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful)
Racial Hit Dice: 8d8 + 56 (92 hp average)
Speed: 40
Initiative: +12
Ability Scores: Str 26, Dex 26, Con 24, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 12.
AC: 24 (-1 size, +8 Dex, +7 Natural) Touch 17, Flat Footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+20
Attack: Claw +16 melee (1d8 + 8)
Full Attack: 2 claws +16 melee (1d8 + 8) and 1 bite +11 melee (2d8 + 4)
Saves: Fortitude +13, Reflex +14, Will +8
Skills: Balance +19, Climb +19, Hide +16, Jump +23, Listen +17, Move Silently +23, Spot +13, Swim +19
Feats: Dodge, Improved Initiative, Track
Special Attacks: Improved Grab, Pounce, Rake 1d8+3
Special Qualities: DR 5/Good, Darkvision 60ft., invisible in light, fire resistance 10, scent, SR 19, telepathy 100 ft.


10. So now that you have all that sorted out, it's time to pick your class!

Yep. Step ten. We pick our class - usually this is where people start. This is, in fact, one of the downsides to playing a monster character. It's just plain more work - for the player, if the player is good at it, and for the DM if the player is not.

Now for the fun part. Many times, a monster character can qualify for prestige classes and such in a fraction of the time that a regular character can. There may be 3 kinds of hit dice and 31 flavors of elves, but there's only one kind of Base Attack Bonus, and prestige classes love to set BAB as the primary limiting prerequisite. They also do it with skill ranks, which is harder to accomplish, but hey, you can sometimes meet that too. Sometimes you'll get lucky, and the primary limiting factor is something like "must be able to use a divination of at least 3rd level," and then you go and play a monster that can do that, and can enter that prestige class for its first level.

On the other hand, spellcasting with a monster can be... kind of hard. Most of them don't come with any real spell progression, and those that do tend to come loaded down with a bunch of other features that drive the ECL up so high that playing them as a full caster isn't viable anymore.

This is probably one of those cases. I can see the build going two ways, orienting either on stealth or just plain melee brutality. If it's the former, I'll take levels in rogue and the appropriate prestige classes. If it's the latter, I'll likely go barbarian and try to see what I can do with those PrCs. Don't rule out Tome of Battle in your monster builds, though!

For our purposes, I've decided that he's stealthy enough as-is and that I'm going to go with melee. This was probably the less optimal choice - his continual invisibility means that I have a shot at making a monster that sneak attacks with every hit (in fact, I might be able to get up to 7d6 sneak attack in 7 levels if I went through enough splatbooks) - but it sounds like fun to just make a bruiser.

I want to make a frenzied berserker, but it looks like you have to be non-lawful.

Now, technically I can be non-lawful if I want to - your character's alignment does not have to match its subtypes. Note that even if I choose to be non-lawful, chaos-friendly spells that bash lawful creatures will still hit me as though I was lawful. Just be aware of that when you make your character. I need to come up with a good reason for it, though, if I'm going to flout 100,000 years of devilish tradition. I suppose being neutral evil will work, and simply note that somewhere along the path to becoming a berserker warrior he lost some of his obedience to authority. I probably need to work on that some more to make it believable in a lower-planes context, though. I'll talk about that more later.

To get into the Frenzied berserker prestige class, I need a Base Attack Bonus of +6, which I already have. I need four feats: Cleave, Power Attack, Destructive Rage, and Intimidating Rage.

Well, I'm going to have to revise my Hellcat, then. I need to take some of those HD feats and change them. I'm going to change Dodge and Track to Power Attack and Cleave. Actually, while I'm at it, I'm going to change Improved Initiative to Great Cleave. This is a purely combat-oriented decision, but then, this is a mostly combat-oriented monster. I also think I'm beginning to see how his backstory fits together. This changes his initial feats to include Cleave, Great Cleave, and Power attack, giving me two of the four feats I need to take levels in Frenzied Berserker.

But then, there are two more feats that I have to have. Even worse, they both have rage as a prerequisite, and can't be selected as fighter bonus feats - I'm going to have to take at least one level in barbarian to get this PrC.

But I don't have to take just barbarian levels. One is enough. In fact, I think I'll level dip 2 into Fighter for the bonus feats, and then take another level of Barbarian for the Uncanny Dodge and large Hit Die. Normally I would have gone into the PrC before the fourth level (so that I could get Deathless Rage before epic levels), but the sad fact is that I need 4 more HD in order to get the two "normal" feats I need. Your feat "counter" does not start over when you start taking class levels, so I need the 9 and 12 HD feats to fully qualify for the PrC. The two normal feats will, of course, be Intimidating Rage and Destructive Rage. For my fighter bonus feats I take Improved Bull Rush and then Shock Trooper. I can then take 3 levels of Frenzied Berserker, bringing my Hit Dice to 15 and giving me one more feat, which I use on Extra Rage, giving me 3 rage and 2 frenzy attempts per day, and pick up Diehard as a bonus feat and Supreme Cleave as a special attack.

And now, I provide you with the final ECL 20 character, sans items.

[I]Mufasa (Bezekira: Hellcat)

Size/Type: Large Outsider (Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful)
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Racial Hit Dice: 8d8 + 56 (92 hp average)
Level: Barbarian 2, Fighter 2, Frenzied Berserker 3
Total HD: 15 (8d8 + 5d12 + 2d10 + 105) (~200 hit points, average)
Speed: 50 (Base 40 + Barbarian's increased movement)
Initiative: +8 (Went down due to dropping Improved Init.)
Ability Scores: Str 26, Dex 26, Con 24, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 12.
AC: 24 (-1 size, +8 Dex, +7 Natural) Touch 17, Flat Footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +15/+27 (The addition of 7 levels of full BAB)
Attack: Claw +23 melee (1d8 + 8)
Full Attack: 2 claws +23 melee (1d8 + 8) and 1 bite +18 melee (2d8 + 4)
Saves: Fortitude +22, Reflex +14, Will +8
Skills: Balance +19, Climb +26, Hide +23, Jump +23, Listen +20, Move Silently +26, Spot +16, Swim +19
Feats: Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Intimidating Rage, Improved Bull Rush, Shock Trooper, Destructive Rage, Diehard, Extra Rage
Special Attacks: Improved Grab, Pounce, Rake 1d8+4, Rage, Frenzy, Supreme Cleave
Special Qualities: DR 5/Good, Darkvision 60ft., invisible in light, fire resistance 10, scent, SR 19, telepathy 100 ft., Uncanny Dodge, Fast Movement


And there you go. Mufasa can charge, and using shock trooper he can subtract a whopping 15 from his armor class to add to the damage of each attack of his full attack at the end of the charge, including the possible rake and the extra attack he gets while frezying and raging (which he might as well use to grab his target), which apparently stack with each other. He's invisible in daylight (but glows in the dark). He's pretty good at breaking objects. He's resistant to fire, telepathic, and retains Dexterity to AC when surprised. He can detect foes with scent and has DR 15/Good, and Darkvision, and has a base speed of 50, allowing for a 100 ft. charge of pure death. If you can hear him, he can kill you.

Granted, it's not the best build in existence, especially for a level 20 character, but it *is* somewhat impressive, considering that we haven't even added in items (like ability score enhancers and magical weaponry) yet. Since he got somewhat cheated on Reflex and Will saves (having taken just not quite enough levels in any one class to receive a class bonus to them) I would definitely pick up some custom gloves of Dexterity and a very powerful custom save-boosting item to avoid getting hammered with high level charms and similar attacks, although looking into one crazy powerful SR item to sink his money into might also be a good choice. Remember that items of things like armor and whatnot increase in price by 30%, and another 10% if the property is put on the wrong sort of item, since they have to be custom-fitted, and usually created on the spot. So while I can get a vest of resistance and gloves of dexterity, they'll cost 140% and 130% of the base cost, respectively.

For the backstory, I'm seeing something along the lines of a group of Hellcats trained as berserking warriors for this or that purpose, were sent into combat again and again and eventually all killed, save for Mufasa. He was disabled or incapacitated in the final mission to the Material Plane of the berserking Hellcats and was left for dead by the devil in charge, and has since recovered and is now confused as to what to do. He doesn't want to return to the lower planes (most creatures of any alignment don't) but doesn't have a clear purpose and has never been without leadership before. He has prowled around during the day, invisible, and occasionally taking things that he feels will make him stronger, eventually accumulating equipment equal to his WBL. He'll meet up with the other party members before the campaign begins, at night, and may try to convince them that he's a ghost if they don't know a great deal about devils (a long shot at level 20, but it may work) and then join their party if they can convince him that there's a benefit to him. He'll follow the party leader's orders surprisingly well until he enters a rage or frenzy, at which point he may go a little nuts - it was his training for berserking that eroded his absolute obedience to authority and gave him his neutral status, as his devil masters didn't want the berserker cats to stop for anything. He's relatively cold and unfeeling as a personality, and certainly is greedy and self-serving, but hundreds of years of absolute obedience to devil overlords gives him a respect of, or at least fear of, authority, so he can work in a unit like an adventuring party as long as there's a benefit for him in it. This changes in combat, where he enters a savage fury that is difficult for him to control (60% chance of failure to stop berserking when all enemies are dead!).

It can be filled in with salient details, but there's a basic backstory to explain why a Hellcat Frenzied Berserker would be wandering around the Prime Material and looking for high-powered adventurers to hook up with, and why he'd work with them despite being evil.

So there's our ECL 20 Monster Character. He's interesting enough to play, can contribute to any athletics, stealth, intimidation, or combat oriented encounter, and is open to most RP hooks. His unique property of invisibility makes him able to enter civilization without incident and pretend to be a wizard or a benevolent ghost, unless someone gets really lucky with a random detection effect. Honestly thinking it over, it might have been a good idea to put some cross class ranks in bluff for that purpose. On the other hand, if this campaign is level 20 then there may be a lot of planar travel, and so the folks involved will likely be more jaded than usual.

Of course, most games don’t start at level 20 – only you can decide how much of a setback you’re willing to take in Class Levels compared to the party to play your monster, and only the DM can decide what a fair ECL is for your monster in his campaign. Feel free to experiment, and remember that the extra effort can definitely produce worthwhile results!

Jade_Tarem
2009-04-16, 04:51 PM
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"Glad to do a friend a favor,
Costs me nothing to be nice.
But nothing gets you nothing -
Everything has got a little price!"

- Thernardier, Les Miserables

The Special Directory

So the Hellcat example worked out ok, but it didn't cover everything available to Monsters in general. The Savage Species Guide does, but instead of just copying it here, I'm going to copy it and point out the parts that probably need changing, along with a recommendation. Again, this is based entirely on my experiences with this stuff. Also, unlike the SSG, my list of LA adjustments is all in one place, and not hidden in pieces Metroid-style all across the *&%@ing book.

The master list of level adjustments starts here, beginning with:

Natural Qualities

Unbalanced Ability Scores: Relates to an outdated table by RAW. Score adjustments that total to greater than 0 warrant a +1 LA, unless they're badly unbalanced enough to require more, or happen to relate to STR or CON. The opposite applies for negative score totals. Recommended: Take out the part about STR and CON, and make sure that the LA difference diminishes with level. +8 to all physical stats is worth a couple of levels below level 8 or so. Not so much at level 20.

Special Note 1: A constitution score of (-) is not a lower-than-average ability score for the purposes of level adjustment. Any creature with a (-) for con tends to have a wide variety of immunities to all the various things that require a constitution modifier and a fortitude save (and thus, a good constitution score) in the first place. The exception is hit point damage - no con means no con bonus to hit points, and the rare fortitude save that does affect these creatures tends to hammer them due to the severe penalty to their fortitude saving throw. It all kinda balances out in the end, although for various reasons most of the creatures with a (-) for con tend to have positive level adjustments anyway.

Special Note 2: A strength or dexterity score of (-) means that the monster cannot move. Period. This can make for a difficult character to play, because you have to be carted around everywhere unless you have some magical means of transport.

Special Note 3: Any mental stat of (-) means that your character cannot think, and is therefore completely unplayable. You can make a character with a mental score of (-) a playable character with a real mental stat by applying the awakened template to it, which will give it mental stats. Note that any creature with an intelligence of less than 3 has only an animal intelligence and can only engage in unsophisticated mental activities requiring little to no thought, such as eating, sleeping, mating, and politics. These creatures must also be awakened before being played as a character.

Size: Small creatures get a -1 adjustment per size category down. The reverse is not true. Recommend: Delete this rule. Only bad things will come of it. Mostly it's used to justify hard-to-hit and powerfully magical caster characters, as well as rogue types. If the player is playing a character this small, it's because they've already factored the size advantage into the build. This does not mean that Halflings and Gnomes need an LA, however.

Natural Armor Bonus: +1 LA, +1 more at +10 AC bonus and every +5 thereafter. Recommend: Just be sure that the adjustment reduces with level.

Speed: +1 LA for fly, climb, or burrow speeds. No LA for swim speed unless the campaign is aquatic. Recommend: I would remove the level adjustment for climb speed after level 13 or so. Burrow and Fly, however, remain quite good even at high levels, and are still worth a level adjustment.

Natural Weapons: +1 LA if it's better than something a melee class of the same ECL could possibly produce with a one-handed martial weapon. Recommend: Keep as-is. The same tactics that allow for a character to boost their base-race's melee build also work for monster characters, and frequently work better, keeping this +1 LA viable even at high levels.

Reach: +1 LA for every 5 ft. of reach beyond 5 ft. Recommend: This is probably worth the +1 LA at lower levels, but at level 15 and up you have casters dropping Nuke From Orbit range spells all over the place - if that's not worth a +1 LA then this shouldn't be either.

Special Note 4: Equipment - If you see in a monster entry that a monster always wields a specific kind of weapon, too bad. You don't get that weapon for free if you play that monster - it comes out of your WBL like any other weapon. So if you play an Astral Deva, you don't get a free magic mace. Exceptions include anything that specifically says that the weapon can be created by or is always with that monster, such as a Trumpet Archon's curious trumpet-blade thing, or a Balor's special sword. A good way to check if the weapon comes with the monster or not is to see if a level adjustment is given for it. If the monster has a level adjustment for the weapon they wield (like a Trumpet Archon) then they get the weapon for free. If not, then you have to buy it. The same thing goes for treasure - you don't, as a dragon, come equipped with a horde beyond WBL, even if dragons do have quadruple standard treasure under their entry in the Monster Manual.

Special Attacks and Qualities

Ability Score Damage: +1 LA, +2 if the targeted ability is constitution. Recommend: Keep as-is unless there are going to be a lot of undead or whatnot in the campaign - don't stiff your player by making him pay the full price for an ability that won't be all that useful most of the time. This is one of the few cases where discriminating based on ability score type makes sense - losing dex or int sucks, but losing con kills. "But Jade, losing all of any ability score basically kills the monster, since it becomes helpless and can be coup de graced! Haven't you ever read TLN's guide?" The trick is to realize that enemies usually aren't drained to death - the intermediate benefit to the party is what separates con damage from any other stat. Yes, all stat loss really hurts, but only one stat loss reduces the monster's hit points, fortitude save, and concentration checks all at once, and that's con drain. As the enemy loses dex, it becomes easier to hit, both with spells and attacks. As the enemy loses int, it becomes dumber, which hurts arcane spellcasters a lot but not really anyone else in the middle of battle. As it loses wisdom, it becomes more susceptible to charms. As it loses cha, it becomes uglier and meaner - almost a moot point since you're killing it anyway. As it loses strength, it becomes somewhat less of a threat. As it loses constitution, it drops hit points, and becomes more susceptible to save or die spells, poisons (including poisons and special effects that drain con - the effect is self-reinforcing! The more you nail your opponent with con draining effects, the more likely you are to drain constitution, which isn't true for the other stats, except maybe dexterity), diseases, gasses, and the like. Things with low constitution, like spellcasters, can easily be drained to death in ways not possible through hit point damage - and the loss of hit points makes it far easier to kill all around.

Blindsight: +1 LA. Recommend: Keep as is, even at high levels. The effect is essentially radar that operates through walls.

Poison: Same as Ability Score Damage.

Scent: Same as Blindsight, although a little more finicky. Can produce better or worse results than Blindsight depending on the wind conditions, but works out about the same.

Spell-like Abilites: +1 LA if the ability exceeds what a character of that ECL can do. +1 LA if any spell-like ability is at-will. Recommend: Nix the second part. At level 15, do you really think that a lantern archon's aura of menace is worth an entire level? A DC 12ish fear effect? Really? I didn't think so.

Spellcasting Ability: +1 LA if the ability exceeds what a character of that ECL can do. +1 LA if the monster's caster level exceeds its hit dice. Recommend: Keep as-is.

Spell Resistance: +1 LA, regardless of amount. Recommend: At level 12, for a wizard to fail to hit an SR of 11 requires a caster level check roll of -2. Is that worth a level? Is it really? I would say +1 LA for an SR that can actually induce a positive failure chance in a spellcaster of the monster's ECL. +2 if the failure chance is 50% or more. Remember that SR must be actively lowered to recieve buff spells - this is a weakening factor that people always forget about.

Resistance to Energy: +1/2 per energy type, rounded up. +1 if the type of resistance is greater than 20. Recommend: Reduce the adjustment with level. Resistance 30 to fire and electricity is definitely worth two levels under level 9 or 10. At level 18, though, you have dragons hammering out breath weapon attacks for 15d12 and the like, and Res 30 just isn't going to cut it like it used to.

Immunities: Tend to count as Resistance greater than 20 for energy types. Immunty to a very specific and rarely seen attack, such as petrification, has no LA. Immunity to a broad range of attacks, such as "Slashing weapons" or "Negative Energy Attacks" can be +1 or +2 LA depending on how relevant a given immunity is. Immunity to negative energy attacks is probably not very useful in a campaign where the party is fighting off an incursion of barbarians. Immunity to negative energy is highly desirable in a campaign centered on the undead.

Breath Weapon: +1 LA, +1 more if the energy type is sonic, +1 more if the area is especially huge, and +1 more if the damage is really high. Recommend: This special attack tends to scale with level and can be used many times per day, so a +1 LA seems fair even at high levels. The additional plusses to LA seem like a good idea as well, although the one for area could probably be dropped at high levels. The other two are selected for efficacy reasons: most things don't have a resistance to sonic, and if you are dealing more damage than a character with a blast spell can do at your ECL, then you are automatically the superior blaster in the party, since you can do more damage, more often, over a wider area, and to a larger variety of creatures. Theoretically this could go as high as +4 LA (Making breath weapon the most expensive single ability in the game!), but if it's that high then what you have is a very high-damage, wide-dispersal sonic attack that will probably be your best move, which can be used every 1d4 rounds - or even more frequently, with feats.

Constrict: +1 LA. +2 LA if the damage is higher than normal weapons. Recommend: Keep as-is. Constrict is merely a way to make the retarded grappling rules even more ridiculous, and it definitely gets more powerful with higher levels, so a +1 or +2 LA makes sense.

Damage Reduction: The SSG says it's worth a +1 LA. Then it spits out this priceless jewel:


Damage Reduction that is effective against weapons with a magical property other than an enhancement bonus is worth a +2 level adjustment.

Um, what? Last time I checked, the number of critters out there sporting a DR that was effective against everything but a weapon with a random magical property could be counted on the fingers of one hand. There's DR/-, DR/alignment, DR/magic, DR/alchemical metal, and DR/weapon damage type. But DR/weapon with magical properties but no enhancement? Name more than three of those off the top of your head and I'll show you someone who's been playing this game far too much, lately. The only thing I can think of that even fits that category by inclusion is DR/-, which is certainly worth the +2 LA if the reduction amount isn't insignificant. DR/alignment might qualify, but you could make a strong case against it. Recommend: LA +1 for any kind of DR under DR 6, but +2 LA if the game is low level. LA +2 for any significant DR/alignment or DR/-. Scale down with level unless the DR scales up with level. Assign no level adjustment for DR/magic past ECL 10 - the DR becomes almost useless after that point.

Of course, the writer could have meant that the DR in question worked against weapons with a magical property other than an enhancement bonus AND against weapons with an enhancement bonus, but we’ll never know…

Fast Healing: +1 LA for every 3 points healed per round. Recommend: Reduce the LA with level, but not too much. Even fast healing 3 is pretty good in the hands of a smart player.

Fear: +1 LA. Recommend: Eliminate the level adjustment in any campaign with creatures predominantly immune to fear. Eliminate the adjustment after level 8 or so anyway.

Frightful Presence: See Fear, unless it's a really good frightful presence.

Gaze: +1 LA. Recommend: Use your better judgment. A gaze attack that sets people on fire, afflicts them with a random disease, and curses them with the Cassandra complex is worth more than a gaze attack that causes mild intestinal discomfort and may be dangerous to women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant.

Regeneration: +2 LA, at least. Recommend: This power is highly dangerous, to both the fun of the party and the DM's campaign. Regeneration is one of those powers that make a character virtually unkillable, and as such players tend to exploit it far more easily than almost anything else. Note that it is also exceptionally easy to "armor" the primary weaknesses that are associated with Regeneration - half red-dragon trolls with rings of acid resistance 40 come to mind.

Energy Drain: The dire lycanthropic version of negative energy attacks. This sucker tends to drain levels, and as such is definitely worth +2 LA.

Improved Grab: +1 LA. Recommend: Keep it as-is. Take away at high levels if the character isn't a grappler.

Psionics: +2 LA. Recommend: I'm not sure why any inherent psionic ability is worth +2 to LA. "Can you psionically scratch the center of your back? Well that's certainly worth 2 levels!" Um, no. Use your head on this one. If you have a psionics/magic transparency, then it probably shouldn't be worth too much unless it's a really good inherent psionic ability, or set of abilities. If not, then it may be worth more because fewer things will have resistances to psionics.

Ray: +1 LA. Recommend: The only difference between a ray and any other spell like ability is that a ray can crit on a natural 20, since there’s an attack roll. Does this seem like it's worth a level to you? If the ray is really good, then it might be, but otherwise I would follow the rules for normal spell like abilities, and not penalize the player because their special attack goes in a straight line. Note that rays frequently are better than other spells (several of them deny the target a save, for instance), so stay alert.

Sonic Attack: +2 LA. Recommend: Crap, seriously? 2 levels for any sonic attack? Again, use your head. This one depends on the sonic attack. I would say it's worth +1 just because virtually nothing has immunity to sonic, but +2 LA seems harsh at any level.

Swallow Whole: +2 LA. Recommend: In my experience as DM, swallow whole does a moderate amount of damage to the target players, and then the players cut their way out, doing almost as much damage as was done to them, if not more. +2 seems harsh, but +1 LA across the spectrum seems ok. If the monster is really, really strong, or if for some reason it would be exceptionally difficult for the character to get out, go back to +2.

Trample: +2 LA. Recommend: Why? Trample attacks are almost universally worse than the standard ones for the same monster. I suppose it’s the fact that trample is a physical melee AOE, which does have its perks. Fortunately, this doesn't come up much with PC monsters - most monsters with trample simply have too many hit dice to be played.

Turn Resistance: +1 if the Turn Res is higher than +5. Recommend: Keep as-is.

Wish: +3 LA. Recommend: Technically a special ability, but wish is extra special. Remember that a racially-granted wish, unlike the wish spell, has no material component or xp cost, and as such can make for a powerful trump card indeed, even if it's a once-a-year thing. Of course, if you're a DM who subscribes to the "NO DECENTLY GOOD WISH SHALL EVER BE GRANTED! IF YOU DARE WISH FOR ANYTHING THAT COULDN'T BE PRODUCED BY A LEVEL 15 CLERIC I WILL TWIST YOUR WISH SO BADLY THAT YOUR NEXT WISH WILL BE FOR AN END TO YOUR SUFFERING! RAWR!!!" school of thought, then wish probably shouldn't be worth so much. Or, y'know, anything at all. Sorry, but this is a pet peeve of mine - wish shouldn't be used to break the game, but it also shouldn't be a level 9 spell if you can't have anything that couldn't be gained through monetary expenditure or normal spellcasting, which is what a lot of DMs seem to think makes for a "fair" wish. Kinda defeats the point, you know?

Types and Subtypes

Construct, Elemental, Plant: +1 LA. These come with a slew of immunities and few regrets.

Undead: +2 LA. Definitely balanced - it's almost easier to list what undead are not immune to than what doesn't hurt them. Their specific weaknessses keep them from going overboard, though.

Incorporeal: +2 LA, stacks with Undead's LA. Also a very powerful subtype - incorporeal creatures are usually (but not always - look at the Joystealer from the MM4) undead, and so share all of those immunities, plus a complete immunity to nonmagical attacks, as well as a 50% miss chance against any other kind of attack, save for force effects, ghost touch weapons, and [Metamagic: Transdimensional] spells.

Awakened: +2 LA. This is a template used to give mental ability scores to a creature that lacks them, such as an animal or construct. Roll 3d6 three times and add the results, in order, to the mental stats of the given creature. That awakens it and makes it available for play, and may make for very high wisdom or charisma, if you're lucky.

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"Sometimes the simplest plan is best..."

- Xellos, Slayers Next

You're doing it wrong.

There are a number of common builds based on various monsters that look oh-so-cool on the surface, but in fact turn out to kind of suck. They are as follows:

Dragons in general. – Have you ever played a CRPG where there was a recurring villain toward the beginning, and the villain was cool looking and had lots of sweet moves and was really powerful, and then you beat him and he joined your party and you found out that he couldn’t do any of the really cool stuff when he was on *your* side?

That’s Dragon PCs for you.

There was an argument on the forums on this a while back, and while I didn’t expect it to end with everyone agreeing on one viewpoint and going out for coffee or tea later, I had the distinct impression that those who upheld that Dragon PCs were fine, and not underpowered at all, didn’t fully understand the ECL system’s effects on Dragons. They cited the Dragon’s spell resistance, spellcasting prowess, powerful flight, large size, impressive attributes, giant saving throws, and devastating breath weapon as reasons why it should have a huge ECL. Those are reasons why Dragons shouldn’t be playable at all, perhaps, but they don’t qualify as reasons for a giant level adjustment with no compensation for Hit Dice – the Dragon doesn’t *get* these wonderful features until long after the base races can duplicate them with spells and special abilities – and do it better! It is mathematically provable that a by-the-book Dragon will be worse at whatever he’s doing than a multiclassed fighter/sorcerer thing of the same ECL played as a base race. You can’t even *play* a dragon until the double digits in ECL, and the HD and other gaps are enormous. Only through using your age to power yourself up (due to the dragon’s weird extra-leveling system, see the section below for the Dragon Age Trick) can allow you to keep up with the rest of your group – and then you’ll overshoot them rapidly if your DM isn’t careful, as an age category upgrade is worth several levels. Not good.

There is an alternative system in the Draconomicon that allows for the taking of a bunch of class levels while your Dragon is in puberty purgatory, but it doesn’t let you play as Mnementh or the main character of Dragonheart, so I kinda wonder what the point was of making Dragons playable at all?

To clarify: *Your* Dragon, unless you come to some kind of consensus with the DM that involves acid testing the SSG rather than a character concept, will be limited to the first one or two age categories and the WBL. It will not be a gargantuan, city-terrorizing creature of legends that demands treasure and virgins in vast quantities: it will be a cute, chubby lil’ lizardy thing with stubby wings and beady eyes that smells faintly of sulfur and can be bribed with raw mackerel and lullabies. Age trick it up, or be prepared to hide in the back.

Note: At high levels, it is possible through the aforementioned age trick to make a respectable Dragon. Tread carefully, as it tends to tick of DMs and players who like to slap down other people’s characters.

Elementals, unless done very carefully: Don't get me wrong; you can make a mechanically sound elemental. There is, however, a problem with the elementals - A general -4 to int hurts all four of the "classic" varieties, and is added to a -2 to dex in the Earth Elemental. What's more, all of them have a progression of 13 or 14 levels to slog through, poor skill points, mediocre saves, an inability to be raised, and at the end of it, you're 5 or 6 HD behind everyone else! It's tough to make up for that - LA buyback will get you a little bit of help here - and the only thing you have going for you is the elemental immunity, or durability, and the special attacks that your favorite elemental has to offer.

There are specific problems with these Elementals as well, though:

Earth - The second best of the group - the Earth Elemental has a wonderful bonus to AC in the form of HE'S MADE OF STONE, which translates to something like a second suit of Full Plate, if you're willing to go for it. This, combined with the Earth Glide "superburrow" ability actually gives your Elemental a fair amount of maneuverability and protection. But don't get to cocky - in addition to losing int, you've had a bite taken out of your dexterity, too, in favor of a bump to strength - and of course, you might have the AC and Brawn of a fighter, but your HD leave something to be desired.

Fire - A watered down (Har!) earth elemental - only the fantastic natural armor bonus and earth glide ability have been replaced with the ability to set things on fire, and the ability to set things on fire, respectively. While I know that there is a tiny pyromaniac hiding in the soul of every DnD player, I also know that there are times when one does not want a flamethrower spewing napalm out of every pore of their body. It gets even better when you consider such lovely prospects as an aquatic adventure, attempting to pull the king's daughter to safety, or buying items in a building with a thatched roof.

Wind - The best of the bunch, with Earth a close second. 100ft. Fly speed and perfect maneuverability (actually, since that's from the SSG, the perfect maneuverability probably hurt it - check with your DM to see if the LA can be reduced), along with Whirlwind - possibly the best special attack of the Elementals - combined with air mastery and a bonus to dexterity means that your Air elemental may be able to make up for your puny hit point total with the use of ranged attacks. Of course, these don't come standard so you'll have to find one for yourself and use it, and punctuate it with bursts of Whirlwind when anyone comes close. It might be tempting to try to make a rogue of it, but unfortunately your lousy int and skill points will probably cripple any kind of rogue but a simple thug.

Water - Urgh. Essentially, this is the Air Elemental of Aquatic campaigns. 90ft. swim speed is impressive, but you're ultimately going to end up like Max from the Centurions cartoon - with the writers constantly square pegging aquatic bad guys into the round hole of the plot so that poor Max could have someone to fight. You'll suffer a -4 to hit and damage when on land, or if your opponent is on land, which pretty much precludes a combat build. Since we've already ruled out casters and rogues due to the penalties to caster levels and int, this leaves your Water Elemental high and dry.

Heart! - "GO PLANET!" "When your powers combine, *I* am -" Wait, where was I?

Oh right, viable builds! As before, your Air and Earth elementals can make for a couple of decent sneaky fighter types, but there's also a way to create a caster/elemental if you're willing to wait for level 15. The capstone ability on the Elemental Savant prestige class will allow you to transform your previously base-race caster into an Elemental for virtually no cost. The only drawback is the loss of two caster levels (so you'll be behind your caster friends), but you will suddenly pick up all of the fun moves, traits, and immunities of the elemental of your choice. You can still be resurrected, and the prestige class gives you a boost to your casting to try to make up for the loss of caster levels. It doesn't give you hit dice or saves, but it does confer creature Type. All told, it can give you an interesting eldrich warrior build, and without any SSG nonsense.


Most Angels and Archons at high levels.
Most Demons and Devils at high levels.
Half-____ templates at low levels.
Virtually anything with an elemental subtype.
Some fey.
Some aberrations.
Some giants.
Most plants.
Rakshasa.

This is a still-incomplete section. I’ll get around to finishing it kinda soon, I hope, but school is a big demand on my time right now.

You can see why when I go over monsters in the Monsters by the Numbers section.

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"What they did to me was monstrous!"

"And they created a monster!"

- V and Evey from V for Vendetta

You're still doing it wrong.

It is possible to swing about the other way, and create a game-breaking combo that seems cool on the surface, but in fact sucks - for everyone else. In fact, the whole point of this guide is to help you avoid this kind of thing, really. This list is somewhat more detailed than the previous one. These nasty tactics are listed in order of how effective they are at ruining an otherwise good campaign.


Here we go:


Minor Ritual: Ritual of Association

"Good Grief, even your name just stands for your inability to make a balanced character!"

- Complains of Names, Goblins, talking to Minmax the fighter

Why is it bad? - This is a ritual that is not inherently bad, and can actually be used to rebalance an underpowered monster through magical means, but it requires careful monitoring.

What this does is it gives a character a subtype or creature type not associated with that creature - in name only. An example would be a human undergoing this ritual to gain the fire subtype. None of his major stats change at all, and his appearance changes a little bit, giving him +5 to disguise himself as a fire subtype creature. However, he is now considered a creature with the fire subtype for the purposes of spells and magic items that interact with fire creatures in a special way. For instance, if there's a magic sword that only works for fire type creatures, he can use it to its full potential.

The problem, or solution depending on how you look at it, arises when monster characters start taking weird subtypes and types to gain access to permanent spell enhancements, and then going through the ritual again to lose those types, such that they retain the benefit of the permanent buff spell but not the weakness to offensive spells that target those creatures. For instance, a treant could take the humanoid type to gain access to a permanent enlarge person, then lose it so that he isn't susceptible to hold person spells. Now he's bigger, and a plant that is immune to humanoid-targeting spells, and if this jumps him out ahead of the rest of the group, power-wise, then he's doing it wrong.

For the DM: If a monster character uses this to cover up a glaring weakness that's hurting him more than it should, or to catch up, stat-wise, to a normal character, then you should probably just let him do it. If he starts going nuts with this ritual, and doing things such as using it to polymorph cheese his way into next week, then you may want to consider upping the cost, or simply stating that previous spell effects will be suppressed if he loses the type that made them work.


Dragon Age Trick

"Actually, the dragon was a young adult..."

- Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick

Interesting note concerning character age: The player usually gets to pick. Interesting note about dragons: Power scales with age far more than experience. A dragon who spends a hundred years adventuring is far, far less powerful (unless he manages to accrue 17 wizard levels in that time) than a dragon who spends a thousand years sitting on his scaly behind, tallying up his treasure horde value, which also gets bigger the older he gets (by RAW).

Why is it bad? - Now, ECL for Dragons is determined by age. In fact, Dragons really get the short end of the stick as far as ECL goes. They start out strong at low levels, or at least at levels wherein they can be played, and then fall short in terms of class levels very quickly. Age ranges (in years) are established to better separate a "young" dragon from a "juvenile," and such.

But you can pick your age in years, within your ECL. So one amusing trick, which is legal by RAW and guaranteed to piss off your DM (or your opponent if your game is a PvP with no moderating DM), is to set your age to the maximum available year, and then the maximum month and day within that year. You're within your ECL at character creation, but then you "age category up" almost immediately within the campaign. This category jump is actually much better than any conventional level up, as it frequently confers special abilities, as well as a large boost in Hit Dice, armor, and ability scores.

Fixing it is as simple as denying the player his pick of age. But think carefully before you do - a dragon one or even two age categories higher than he should be may actually be balanced at higher levels with the rest of the group, because in general, players playing true dragon characters are doing it wrong.

An extreme example of this usually involves a more powerful dragon type, such as red, and a perfect ECL alignment with the party, such that he can level up into a new ECL bracket and age category up at the same time due to his chronological age, thus doubling the effect and throwing biology and physics out the window.


Overtemplating

"Have some of column A,
Try ALL of column B...

- The Genie, from Aladdin

Why is it bad? - A common mistake among starry-eyed new monster players. Stacking a succession of templates upon an otherwise mundane monster can lead only to grief, either through a character with a lot of special abilities but no resilience due to low HD, or else through a character with too many HD dependent abilities, or else he actually succeeds at finding a killer combo and completely blows past the rest of the group. He may also look for "technically correct" template applications that make no sense at all. Half-Celestial Succubus? Anyone want to explain that one to me? While powerful characters can be well roleplayed, the fact is that anyone succumbing to the siren's call of template stacking is likely to become increasingly munchkiny. Stop it if you can. Remember this battle cry, which is a useful warning sign as it almost always heralds overtemplating when used by a monster player: "But you *said* X was allowed!" The common battle cry of one who tries this tactic and fails: "Man, monster characters suck."

They do not. You're doing it wrong.

As a DM, you can fix this by requiring a complete rundown of the character to be played before you grant any permissions regarding books or templates. Really, anything that you would do to thwart a normal munchkin before he gets out of hand still applies here.

An extreme example of this would be a Half-Celestial, Half Dragon Phoelarch - it possesses amazingly high stats, some great defenses, and all of 7 Hit Dice at ECL 18. Bad Idea - if someone drops a Blasphemy you are toast, because you're doing it wrong.


Rules Lawyering + Savage Species

"Is this one of those Khee'bler 100 percent taxes?"

"Oh no, nothing like that. This is more like 56 individual taxes between 3 and 20 percent. Each."

"See, this is why my people are revolting."

- Drizz'l and Thief, from 8-Bit Theater

No one likes a rules lawyer, really. We all do it to varying degrees from time to time - the perfect roleplayer is every bit as fictional as the Oberoni GM. The problem is that you can run into some serious issues from a hard-bitten veteran rules lawyer when it comes to Savage Species Characters.

Why is it bad? - Aside from the obvious, a rules lawyer is going to exploit the flaws in the system for all he can. Be on the lookout for a player trying to impose his interpretations of the LA system on you. Any player insisting on his -1 to LA for being small sized, for example. Any player that attempts to inisist on the accumulation of bonuses and immunities based on both the ECL system and logic (shudder) while avoiding penalties in the same manner, at the same time, is likely going down this road. Any player that wants to play a whisper gnome probably has this in mind. Any player that wants to play a variant of elf that you've never heard of before is probably going down this road. Any player that found a way to put four templates on a character without any level adjustment is almost certainly going down this path. Be vigilant!

I... have a confession to make. For the longest time, I had a desire to play a lantern archon character, but couldn't figure out how to make it work. They have no bodies for crying out loud! So, I thought about it and thought about it, and finally it hit me - Sorcerer, and with the Eschew Materials and Surrogate Spellcasting feats. It was brilliant! I'd be able to cast arcane spells without needing hands - ever.

This was during my group's "munchkin" phase, if there is such a thing - several players repeatedly tried to outdo one another in terms of characters, and this was part of that.

So I ended up taking a look at the lantern archon, and going through the manual LA construction process for a level 15 game where the DM said I could try to make one. I managed to come out with an LA zero, by basically strong arming the DM (and the other savage species player) into accepting my view of the Level Adjustment rules.

-1 to LA for Small Size.
-1 to LA for Lack of Anatomy
-3 to LA for Heavy Strength Penalty (-10 STR, in fact)

+1 to LA for Flight
+1 to LA for Damage Reduction
+1 to LA for Teleport without Error
+1 to LA for Immunities
+1 to LA for at-will abilites

Argued that Permanent Magic Circle Against Evil, Aura of Menace, Light Rays, and Tongues were not worth LA because they could be duplicated easily at level 15. And of course, I sacrificed the single racial Hit Die.

Note that this is all technically correct - right down to the really stupid rules. But I vigorously maintained that this was perfectly sound and acceptable - even going so far as to note that I had sacrificed two feat slots just for the ability to cast spells.

And maybe if I had stopped there, it would have been fine, but during the game, I was able to get away with all kinds of fun things by the dubious process of catgirl genocide. How did poisons affect my system if I don't have a body? How could I even be grappled? Immobilized? As a ball of light, I was wearing a cloak, an amulet, a belt, and a circlet, which was probably a little silly.

And of course, my perfectly legal character was completely game-breakingly retarded powerful due to the nature of teleport without error, among other things. You'd be surprised what you can do with infinite teleports. Oh yes, and I was playing a level 15 full caster, let's not forget that. I think I had levels in archmage, too.

To any future Savage Species players - don't do this. Please. It seems so cool, but it's not. It's just stupid. You're doing it wrong.

Immortality

"The combo is perfect, I'm telling you. As long as I move back fifteen feet every-"

- The late Spiked Chain Attack-of-Opportunity Build Half Ogre Fighter, from Order of the Stick

So there are quite a number of things that monsters can do that normal classes cannot - no, not even the spellcasters, excluding a certain ritual below. Among these include rather powerful special defenses and recovery abilities.

Why is this a problem? - The addition of templates, possibly more than one (see above) to an otherwise tough monster can make a normally rather badass monster character completely unkillable. This also applies to other things such as weird variant rules that your player uses and "forgets" to tell you about, and things like racial substitution levels - anything that a player sees that he can take by RAW that makes for a wicked sick combo without any real penalty. Throw in a few class levels, and this kind of monster character may just be unstoppable. Two easy examples show you how:

1. Half Black Dragon, Half Iron Golem Troll, wearing a Rust Gauntlet, Soulfire Armor, and a Mind Blanking Item, with the diehard feat.

To begin – yes, I realize that there’s more than two halves of a character there. It’s still legal.

Take a wild guess at how you kill this thing. Go on. Guess. Can't use spells - no, not even the mighty orb spells can kill it like with normal golems. Can't use normal, physical hit point damage. Can't use fire. Can't use acid. Can't use cold. Can't use sonic. Electricity just slows it down. Can't knock it out. Can't use poison. Can't use rust attacks. Can't use alternative mind control - or psionics if this game has a transparency. Hell, you can't even use taint. Void damage, one of my favorite standbys, doesn't work either. It *can* fly, by the way, and has a breath weapon, too. You can kinda slow it down for a bit with Wall of Force or Forcecage, but the tradtional combos that take advantage of the creature's immobilization don't work in this case. It’s an expensive proposition, both in terms of levels and equipment (especially if you want to make the equipment too hard to break), but it can be done at sub-epic levels.

You're basically limited to Sphere of Annihilation, a minor artifact, or epic spellcasting. Good luck.

2. Shambling Mound Barbarian Frenzied Berserker, wielding a shocking weapon, soulfire armor and something granting freedom of movement.

And here we see a fun infinity combo. This baby reaches level 4 of the Frenzied Berserker prestige class (available at ECL 19 - earlier if LA buyback is used), enters Deathless Frenzy, and then, every so often, it hits itself with its shocking weapon, thus taking some damage, but adding 1d4 to its constitution score, which adds a like number of rounds to its frenzy, and of course, it can *easily* gain more hit points than it loses if it hits itself 1-handed without power attacking or anything. So what you end up with is a creature that can't be killed with hit point damage during a frenzy, and can frenzy forever. You can't use ability score damage, level drain, or save-or-die spells to kill it (soulfire armor). You can't immobilize it in any way (freedom of movement). You can't stop it with charms or mind control (it's a plant). Grappling is out of the question (again, freedom of movement). You can slow it down for a while with indirect effects like Forcecage or Wall of Force - but trying the old cloudkill combo won't have any effect (soulfire armor).

The very most you can do to try to kill it is to sunder his +5 or more equivalent armor - not an easy task, made even harder if it also happens to be adamantine, which also applies to his weapon - as well as any other items he's carrying, and then try to beat him after that. Oh, and even that doesn't work if he coughs up the extra cash for those items to be made from that invincible crystal stuff from Frostburn or whatever it was. Very, very abusive indeed.

Even worse, should you actually allow such a character into a game, then you, as a DM will know any specific, tiny weaknesses that the character may have, or the exact progression of 13 steps needed to make him vulnerable again. And while one enemy may be a heavy researcher who comes to the fight crazy prepared and ready to take him on, they can't all be like that - and any other kind of opponent isn't a threat at all, no matter how good, because he doesn't know how to kill this player. So your only other option is to use epic magic, but if you're going to do that then you've just lost the game, because non-epic characters are going to have a hard time beating epic ones. In other words, this is the Dire Bear of the old "one player in the group is more powerful than the others problem" - you have to up the difficulty alot, or else find a way to split the party. Look, just don't fall into this trap, it'll ruin your game.

The only time these kinds of combos are fun and allowable are in epic level games. No, really. My friends and I played a level 25 gestalt game where everything was allowed. There were 7 of us (not including the DM), and each of us found a unique way to make themselves immortal to anything but deific abilities. We then had a godslaying campaign that, while short, was quite fun. Note that we were all evenly broken though - no one unit stood out.

If you're a DM, it's your job to watch out for this kind of thing. If you're a player, it's your job to try to stay away from this kind of thing. This kind of infinity stuff makes for a fun technical exercise, but it has no place in any kind of campaign ever. Interesting characters have a personality, a history, strengths, and weaknesses. The kinds of characters I listed might have a personality and strengths, but you can't really come up with a good history to explain a cyborg bastard child of a dragon and a troll, or a heavily armed berserker plant. And of course, you have no weaknesses - so what you're playing is half a character. You're doing it wrong.

The extreme example of this kind of abuse? Everyone's favorite kobold! I listed the tactic below as even worse, but really it's because the thing listed below allows for anyone to be PunPun, ultimately.


Major Ritual: Wish

"POWER!! ABSOLUTE POWER!!!!"

- Emporer Palpatine, Star Wars, Episode III

Why is it bad? - Good heavens, where do I begin? Remember when I said that the ECL system needed serious work? Well, this particular feature needs to be taken out back and shot. It could be considered the advanced version of Polymorph abuse. It is, at its very core, a method for completely opting out of the ECL system and engaging in the Screw ECL fault that I mentioned earlier - only legally. Yep. The standard variant is that of an untwistable wish (think about that for a minute) turning your character from whatever he was previously (human, for instance) into a monster - any monster! This allows you to not only take on 100% broken forms, such as Titan or some such, but also allows you to keep all previous class levels and mental statistics gained in this fashion. A Treant, who happens to be a level 16 monk? This (normally) ECL 32 build is now playable in an ECL 16 context or less! Titan Warblade? Perfectly legal. Solar Ranger? Can you imagine ("Make 16 fortitude saves for me.")? God forbid that a Sorcerer character decides to turn into a Rakshasa - those caster progression levels stack (unlike with most monsters, where you simply get multiple sorcerer casting progressions - the Rakshasa is a special case where the caster progressions do, in fact, stack), and so he can easily start researching epic spells when the rest of the party is diddling around at level 14. Worse still, the extra Hit Dice could theoretically give you access to other epic feats, and, well, you get the picture. And those are just combos that come up off the top of my head without even trying. Worst of all, the person undergoing the ritual doesn't have to be the one casting the wish. You can't turn into the Tarrasque with it, but you can turn into PunPun, so you actually can make a Tarrasque player character if you want - non epic and everything!

There is a variant that bases % success on a spellcraft check, but ultimately there are enough ways to boost it, even in a temporary sense, that finding a wizard to do the deed and paying him the requisite sum of gold will work out nearly 100% of the time even at mid levels - especially in Faerun or any other high-magic setting.

It's nearly impossible not to find an extreme example of this sort of abuse. The process is an abusive one, and to not abuse it is a gross underutilization of its power. It's mostly just one big broken rule. If you use it, you're doing it wrong.

As a DM, you can fix it by:

1. Banning. I highly recommend this, as it just eliminates this kind of cheese right off the bat. In extremely high-powered epic level games, you could probably put it back in without much difference, but until then, not a chance.

2. Stating that there are no wizards that can cast level 9 spells. I don't recommend this, as you have just confided two things to the party: that they will be the most powerful people in the world at level 17, and that at level 17 they have permission to do it themselves. Even if it wasn't your intent, that's what you just implied, and if you intend to have really powerful opponents around at the end of the game, or if you don't intend to let them wish themselves into demigodhood, then you're going to wind up with frustrated players.

3. Ban wish.

4. Write your own system, or attach a heavy XP cost, or something. This would require careful balancing like any other houserule, and may not be worth the effort.


Special Note: Anything that you can convince/trick the DM into letting you play is fine and acceptable in a Tomb of Horrors game. Anything. Serves the DM right for running ToH in the first place.

Jade_Tarem
2009-04-16, 04:53 PM
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"PHENOMENAL, COSMIC POWER! Itty-bitty living space."

- The Genie, Aladdin

Normal Life and Roleplay, for a Monster

As we have very clearly established by now, monster characters are different. Very different. Sometimes obviously different, if you catch my meaning. So obviously, they'll be treated differently most of the time than normal characters.

"But Jade," you ask, "how could you know how *my* DM will treat a monster character?"

I don't. But theoretically, the DM is going to be operating a world in which the vast majority of the inhabitants are core races of some form or another. He may be running a game in which dwarves, humans, and elves have been living in harmony for centuries and thus are all treated exactly the same. He may run a game in which dwarves and elves have been at war frequently and view each other with suspicion, and where humans have been trying to keep those pesky gnomes off their lawns for decades. In either case, chances are that any creature that walks into ye olde pawne shoppe with jet-black scales, ten-inch long claws, and eyes made out of green fire - evil green fire, at that - will be treated somewhat differently than Auria Wintergate, human wizard for hire. Anything less is going to erode suspension of disbelief - which is fine for a lighthearted game, but not so much for more serious roleplaying events.

So, likely responses come in several different varieties.

There are 5 kinds of general responses to monster characters.


"Whoa, what made you?"

"Alcohol, and lots of it. Now you see why I spend my time hiding in barrels."

Link and that weird chicken-man critter, from the VG Cats parody of Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess

1. What in space are you? - Some creatures can manage to look truly bizzare without being outright threatening. People may get edgy around such characters, but are unlikely to attack on sight, and may be willing to trade/negotiate/board such a creature like any other adventurer. Don't get too cozy, however - attracting attention has its drawbacks when you run into too-curious mages and planar entities, or anything else that is more interested in learning your secrets than in your personal well-being. Examples include most elementals, unless they pose a threat, as well as Pseudodragons, Eladrin, Guardinals, many Magical Beasts, some Constructs, most Plants, and Metallic Dragons.


"Huttlings grow up to be hutts."

- Elscol Loro, from Star Wars X-Wing: The Bacta War

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust... Aaaahhhhhmmmeeeeennn."

- Paladin Alexander Anderson, from Hellsing OVA

2. Kill it for points! - Some creatures have the misfortune of belonging to groups that are traditionally seen as evil and destructive, or else lucrative to kill, without being particularly dangerous or spiteful themselves - or maybe they are dangerous and spiteful, but have the misfortune of looking dangerous and spiteful, while their core-race counterparts have to be caught in the act of doing dangerous and spiteful things before they get persecuted. So unfair. These can be dangerous to play as, since people tend to be pragmatic and opportunistic by nature and will certainly take the chance to take down one of your species for treasure and to avoid having to deal with you as an adult, or in a group. Examples include Drow, Savage Humanoids, Goblinoids, young Chromatic Dragons, Rakshasa, Ogres, and any other traditionally fantastic and evil creature that can be killed at a young age, but becomes powerful later, or can be killed as a solo unit, but becomes powerful in groups.


"The wacky thing about those bad guys is that you can’t count on them to be obvious. They forget to wax their mustaches and goatees, leave their horns at home, send their black hats to the dry cleaners. They’re funny like that."

- Harry Dresden, White Night

3. You're a what? - Some creatures can hide their true nature, pretending to be a core race - for a while. Eventually, though, something - a special dietary need, a failure in an illusion spell, a weird racial priority - will give them away as a monster, and usually a very unpopular one, at that. Expect to be subject to Grab up your pitchforks and torches! Examples include, but are not limited to, Liches, Vampires, Rakshasa, Lycanthropes of all kinds, Succubi, and Dopplegangers.


"Grab up your pitchforks and torches! It's a great, big, stupid, ugly Ogre!"

- Shrek, from Shrek

"For makin’ that many copies of yourself, and for bein' *that* ugly, I am placing you under arrest!"

- Agent J, from Men in Black 2

4. Grab up your pitchforks and torches! - Some monsters are just too plain ugly to live, or to be given a chance to explain themselves to any group of civilized types. Often they are, in fact, exceedingly dangerous and should be killed on sight, and if you happen to be the one exception out of thousands of wicked critters, then too bad. Examples include virtually all Aberrations and Undead that don't fall under the You're a what? category. If you have bones of humanoid skeletons clearly showing on your person, you probably fit into this group. If you smell like roadkill, you probably fit into this group. If you drip nasty fluids all over the place on a regular basis, you probably fit into this group. If your idea of a tasty meal is human cerebral tissue or the blood of virgins, you probably fit into this group. If you are held together by nothing but unspeakably evil magic... do I need to go on?

Special Note: More than anything, creatures that fall into the category of Grab up your pitchforks and torches! are those that are the most likely to be unplayable despite having an ECL low enough to be mechanically viable. As a DM, do not be afraid to say no to such a creature for no other reason than that you don't want to deal with it in-game from a roleplaying standpoint. If someone wants to play a creature forged of adamantine, dragon’s blood, and the souls of the damned, they can wait until there's a campaign that can deal with them.


"Before we go any further, can I just say that I find women with wings particularly attractive?"

- Spirit of Roy Greenhilt, from Order of the Stick

5. He smells like cookies. - Of course, not all first impressions are bad. Angels, Archons, and even Eladrin and various "noble" beasts can be easily recognized as avatars of wonderfulness and awesome. Evil cults or whatnot may dislike you, but if your DM’s campaign world is primarily made out of evil cults then you may want to consider playing a character with more hit dice. Examples include, as mentioned, Archons, Angels, Eladrin, some Magical Beasts, some Plants, Metallic Dragons, and some Constructs. Succubi, Rakshasa, Erinyes, and other tricky evil critters can pose as this kind of creature for a while during the process of You're a what?.

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"I'm the psychological warfare expert, and I say she can't."

"I’m three times your mass, and can take your head off in a single bite, and I say she can."

"..."

- Sharr Latt, a human, and Voort “Piggy” saBinring, a mentally enhanced Gamorrean, from Star Wars: Rebel Dream

Monsters by the Numbers

So now that we see some things that you don't want to do with monsters, it's time to take a look at what's available out there. This may seem excessive, but the SSG's recommendations are old and a little off base sometimes - they don't cover new creatures and sometimes miss important facts about the old ones, because again, all the creatures are examined as though they're going to be played in a "certain way," and we all know that the players of DnD sometimes want to play things in a way that is not the "certain way," thus stunning the WotC developers into giving us 4e as an act of bitter revenge ("What the hell were you thinking when you made that batman wizard? Wizards only exist to kill things with fire. Jeez, do we have to spell it out for you?").

Note that I do not own the specific splatbooks to any one kind of monster (like the Draconomicon or Libris Mortis), nor do I own the BoVD, MM2, or MM5. For those of you who want to play things from those books, I must direct you to the teachings of the great dwarven philosopher, Urahn Iarone. I may add in those monsters later if I ever come by any of those books, and if I don't receive an overwhelming wave of ridicule for posting this guide in the first place.

The listing is divided by creature types, and then switches to major subtypes. Templates are covered under the major type that they convert a base creature into (e.g. Ghosts are covered under Undead, Half-Celestials are covered under Outsider, etc). Some of this information can be found in the back of the monster manual, or the SSG, but then you miss out on any fun updates or editorializing. Besides, I've compiled a complete list for something like 5 or 6 different books here.

Opening Note: For my convenience, I have taken a leaf from the SSG's book and skipped monsters that are more or less completely unplayable. I do, however, have a much narrower idea of what is unplayable than the WotC folks, and at least have the decency to explain why a given monster is unplayable. Unplayable monsters are unplayable for one or both of two reasons - either their ECL is too high for a non-epic game, or their Grab up your pitchforks and torches! (From now on abbreviated as GUYPAT) factor is too high for anything but the most bizarre or liberally open games.

Types - Type is a major classification that your character fits into. There may be many different species under a type, but they will all have several things in common, like HD size and Skill Point totals, as well as various special properties, and the monsters of that type will conform to fit that general mold.

Those Java or C# programmers out there can view Types as Parent Classes from an Object Oriented Language, with the various Monsters as Child Classes, Templates as Templates, and Subtypes as Interfaces. The Java/C# analogy is particularly appropriate due to the fact that the monsters of DnD follow a strict single inheritance policy - while there are monsters with as many as five or six Subtypes, and while Type can change due to the application of a Template mid-game, there are no monsters that have more than one Type at the same time.


Aberration Type

Aberrations are, well, aliens. Anything too wierd to fit into another category, really - aberrations are the monters that are easiest to call monstrous. They tend to be slimy, scary, and have lots of spooky abilities that mess with your head, or turn you to jelly, or spray an antimagic cone over a region, or cause you to speak in only in ASCII standard binary code for the letters and numbers you want to express.

In general, Aberrations have the following properties:

Monster Manual Says:
- d8 base Hit Dice
- 3/4 BAB
- Good Will saves
- Skill points = (2 + Int bonus) x (HD + 3), Minimum 1 point per HD
- Darkvision 60 ft.
- Proficient with natural weapons, or any weapons it is described as wielding
- Proficient with any armor it is described as wearing - if proficient with any armor then they are proficient with shields, too.
- Aberrations eat, sleep, and breathe

My Notes:
- Tend to be subject to Grab up your pitchforks and torches!
- Usually require careful handling to be made viable as characters.
- Aberrations have the most variations in body type, sizes, themes, and powers after Constructs. They can be creepy, twisted experiments of magic/science gone wrong, extradimensional horrors come to this world for any number of reasons, or simply something weird with a completely unknown origin and purpose. They definitely win the award for the most mysterious and freaky creature Type.

Aboleth (MM1) - a nasty psionic sea creature, with the aquatic subtype, and all of the advantages and penalties thereunto. At 7 HD, chances are you'll never see this thing as a PC in a game under level 12. Note that the aboleth possesses several nifty special attacks, two of which are useful to you as a player: Enslave and the Psionic at-will powers, and two of which are there to be an annoyance to the party if they encounter the aboleth as an opponent.

Despite the existence of Aboleth mages, you still have to take the surrogate spellcasting feat to cast spells. Life isn't fair, and neither is DnD.

Recommend for play? - Only in a high-power aquatic game, and only if you can find a way to keep the warrior/magic/psionic split in its abilities viable. The good news is that in such a game, you probably don't have any real roleplay restrictions, although you are likely to be seen as something of a bully - monsters with Dominate as a special ability tend to have that reputation, possibly subjecting you to the Kill it for points! roleplaying reaction.

Feats and equipment can be whatever you want them to be, as long as you pick carefully.

Ethereal Filcher (MM1) - A freaky looking thing that technically dwells on the Material Plane, but has nearly free access to the overlapping Ethereal plane. A hobbyist from WotC has since done you the favor of creating a fairly balanced progression (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fc/20060224a) for the Ethereal Filcher, akin to a hybrid Rogue/Monk - The Ethereal Filcher's progression takes up 5 levels, and you end up with 5 HD at the end of it, along with wizard saves, the Filcher's stat adjustments, and its signature move.

Recommend For Play? - Sure. This thing even works out alright in low-mid level games for a sneaky warrior... thing. You can make a rogue or ninja out of it if you have some levels to put into it. The Filcher is almost certain to be subject to What in space are you? if this is a high-magic game with semi-jaded citizens, although rural communities may decide that it would be safer to kill you on sight.

Do bear in mind that anyone who succeeds on their Knowledge: Dungeoneering check will know about your species' reputation for stealing things, earning you an extra helping of mistrust. Also keep in mind that your nonhumanoid body shape will cause equipment like armor to cost extra.

Mind Flayer (MM1) - I have a bit of a beef with Mind Flayers. You see, th-
SYSTEM WARNING: INCOMING RANT

Where to begin? Mind Flayers are the favored sons of the Wizards of the Coast monster creator guys. They appear in the Monster Manual as an intelligent but hideous and very, very evil opponent that the PCs will hate enough to feel good about killing, and if it had stopped there they would be one of my favorite monsters - but seriously, enough extra source material has gone out for the Mind Flayers that they could easily be called the Elves of the Underdark - WotC wants you to like them a little too much. They want you to play as one. They want you to play as one real bad.

Now that's quite an assertion, isn't it? But let's look at some of the tools Mind Flayers get to work with:

- A special grappling attack that has, after enough (possibly as few as two or three) completed grapple checks, a 100% chance of killing any character with a working brain without save or SR. They also come equipped standard with Improved Grab, just because.

- Psionic powers. Now, normally psionics tend to be pretty balanced, and when employed as part of a monster's attacks exceptionally so. But a lot of people have the misconception that psionics is the worst, most broken thing that happened to DnD since Candles of Invocation. Mind Flayers are part of the root cause of this, because those who do not play psionic characters or understand the system very well have their first encounter with psionics as part of a Mind Flayer attack, and as Mind Flayers were built before psionics was well established (I think, correct me if I’m wrong), psionics was given as the God-mode force behind their abilities - something that gave the Mind Flayers mystical powers well in advance of what their HD would normally allow. Just look at the power rundown here: Charm Monster, Levitate, Plane Shift, Suggestion, and Detect Thoughts. You will note that those are, in fact, all spells, and work like spells, except that spell resistance and bonuses against spell effects don't apply (depending on DM preference). Mind Flayers are presented as the ideal mind-raping aliens, and psionics is how they do it.

Only, y'know, not. Really, this is just Rule of Cool running at full force, and while you could argue that everything in DnD is subject to the Rule of Cool, Mind Flayers are the epitome, and cliché, of it. They are 8 HD creatures with one of each kind of theoretical mental assault, and they can plane shift, too.

- Mind Blast - another Will Save or Die effect, essentially, because you become stunned and helpless and then insta-killed.

And then there are the splatbooks. Good gravy you wouldn't believe some of what they get in the splatbooks. A player of mine played one of the juicier variants on illithid once in a game, and I've simply banned Mind Flayer characters since. But yeah, they've got it arranged such that MFs are able to flow seamlessly into any kind of role, and smoothly work their way through the ECL system. The LA buyback system is favorable to them, and enough variants exist that you can have divine Mind Flayers, arcane Mind Flayers, Mind Flayers that are paragons of psionic Tae Kwon Do, and of course, Mind Flayers that can kill you with their brain - only more so.

Not to mention the retarded fluff that runs rampant and multiplies all the time, like an infestation of diseased, slimy rabbits. You can have good Mind Flayers ("I still eat the brains of the innocent, but I don't enjoy it, I promise!"). You can have Mind Flayers from any kind of plane. The original Mind Flayers are from outer space, in the future, where they've conquered the universe, and they've come back in time to LOL at the puny primes, knowing that no matter what we do, they win, establishing them once and for all as the Mary Sue race among all the other monsters (what, you didn't think it was Dragons, did you?). In addition to being too damn sexy for weaknesses or faults, they're also too sexy for sex. They have no gender and reproduce asexually through extremely (http://www.nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=060831) dubious (http://www.nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=080823) means (http://www.nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=080906). Except, of course, for that one female Mind Flayer (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CanonDisContinuity) from the BoED who loves peace, joy, stuffed animals, art, music, chocolate, long walks on the beach, and of course, the brains of small children. Knowing that, it's difficult to imagine how the heck we have Half-Illithids, (A real template!) but here DnD breaks from tradition and actually explains it at length. It is every (http://www.nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=060323) bit (http://www.nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=060321) as bad as you think. (http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=74)

And of course, the mechanics for the Half-Illithid Savant, or whatever it's called, are even more atrocious. Apparently they can absorb the best power of any creature whose brain they eat and use it forevermore, reminiscent of blue magic, Highlander, or - if you're a Heroes fan like my former roommate - Sylar. How this made it past the WotC playtesters I have no idea - unless it's deliberate. Why they would give this ability to an illithid derivative as a player character and not do a better job with Dragons, as in Dungeons and freaking Dragons, I have no idea. Well, I do, but it involves what the ESRB once referred to as Suggestive Themes, and so I’m not going to go any further into it.

Illithids also get their very own artifact. It's a long, hard rod with a ton of tentacles coming out one end that allows you to bind and dominate people (Remember: Suggestive Themes). This, combined with the other items, prestige classes, templates, and special moves designed for Mind Flayers makes me begin to wish I'd never heard of them. Fortunately, some measures have been made to contain their influence. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0032.html) I have yet to look at the Lords of Madness splatbook, but I can only assume that it contains wall-to-wall Kung Fu Psiocryomagi-Martial Force-of-Nature Lolcat Crystal Space Geisha Rogue Wave-Particle Theory Reality-Warping Time-Travelling Lifestream-Humping Quarter-Godchild Quarter-Sigilspawn Half-Illithid Savants. They can kill you before, during, and after you're born, at the same time. As a free action.

Don't play as a Mind Flayer.

If you’re really set as playing as one, however, keep in mind that you are almost certainly a bad guy, from a race of bad guys that cares not one little bit about the free will of other species. If you have some sort of reason for joining with a regular adventuring party, it needs to be a *darn* good one.


Animal Type

Animal Type creatures are, well, anything that isn't human or machine and happens to exist in the "real world." They include badgers, beavers, horses, etc. Note that they do not include rodents, insects, arachnids, or any other vermin - Vermin is it's own Type.

You will never play an Animal character. Why? Because one of the qualifiers for being an Animal is that you have an int score of 1 or 2, making it unplayable. Yes, you can awaken a wolf, or something, and play as that creature, but when you do your Type changes to Magical Beast. Coincidentally, this is one of a couple of reasons why 3.5 druids cannot have awakened Animals as an animal companion - there are no awakened animals.


Construct Type

Construct is a wide-ranging creature Type that covers anything nonliving that was created by mortals and can move around and act without being directly controlled. Basically, it's any machine, magical or otherwise, with any level of Artificial Intelligence. That said, most Constructs qualify as mindless by DnD standards, and have to be Awakened in order to be played as characters. All Constructs come standard with the following:

The Monster Manual Says:
- d10 HD
- 3/4 BAB
- No good saving throws
- (2 + Int Modifier) x (3 + HD) Skill Points. Note that the Construct must have an int score before it can have skill points.
- No constitution score.
- Low Light Vision and Darkvision 60ft.
- Immunity to all mind-affecting effects
- Immunity to all poison, sleep, disease, paralysis, stunning, and nonlethal damage. Maliciously clever DMs will note that a Construct can still carry a disease just like a dirty kitchen counter - they just aren't affected by it.
- Immunity to Necromancy effects, and anything that seems remotely related to Necromancy effects, including ability score damage, ability score drain, death effects, fatigue, exhaustion, and for good measure: any effect requiring a Fortitude Save, unless that effect also works on objects, or is harmless.
- Constructs are granted bonus hit points based on size. They get 10 bonus hit points for being small, and another ten for every size category that they are larger than that.
- Constructs do not eat, sleep, or breathe.
- Constructs do not heal damage on their own without fast healing (which still works for Constructs, btw). They can regain hit points through the use of certain skills, as well as spells in various splatbooks such as the whole Repair line introduced in Eberron. Constructs are not allowed to have Regeneration as a special ability.
- Constructs cannot be raised from the dead. Actually, they can, due to (again) spells in splatbooks, but Raise Dead, Resurrection, and True Res do not have any effect on Constructs.

My Notes:
- There is more variation in the abilities, sizes, body shapes, appearances, and handling of Constructs than any other Type of creature. Due to this, Construct characters could be subject to any of the five roleplaying effects. Constructs are frequently the subjects of curiosity rather than outright hostility in high magic campaigns where constructs are common. People just don't feel threatened when they're interacting with a creature that's under another creature's control - until they find out that you're independant. This may cause any number of interesting reactions, depending on what kind of construct you are.
- Constructs tend to be (but are not always) extremely durable characters. Their list of immunities is every bit as long as the undead's, and they don't have some the undead weaknesses. This makes construct characters disproportionately hard to kill for their HD or even ECL, which can be hard for a DM to handle.

That said, let's take a look at some constructs:

Aleax (BoED - The Aleax is a divine assassin sent to kill your character for ticking off a particular deity. The deity makes this assassin in your image, and the assassin is exactly the same as your character in every way except that it's a Construct and has a host of extremely powerful abilities that you don't, such as Shapechange and Singular Enemy. In fact, it is those abilities that make it unplayable - especially Singular Enemy, since that would make a player invincible to all but one creature.

Animated Object (MM1) - Probably the most basic construct, an animated object is... well... an animated... object. It's something moving and talking that shouldn't be. They come in all shapes and sizes - and the size determines stuff like HD and attacks. As a mindless Construct, Animated Objects have to be Awakened (+2 LA, remember) to be played as player characters.

Recommend for play? - While a small enough animated object doesn't pose much of an ECL challenge, and while construct traits granted at such a low ECL makes for a very mechanically sound character (You could even make a viable caster if you roll well on your Awaken) I would only recommend an animated object for a very silly game. Page 13 of the Monster Manual tries to make that candlestick look all scary, but the only thing that runs through my mind when I look at it is this. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov4tE7XRTUA)

Of course, some animated objects are more sinister than others. (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/6/6/)

Outsider Type

Outsiders are creatures that typically dwell on other planes, and are considered normal on those plains, but really exotic on the Prime Material. The exception is "native" outsiders, which are creatures that spend all their time on the Material Plane but have all the physical features of a kind of Outsider. The distinction only becomes important for various spell and alchemical effects.

Angel - Angel is a Composite Subtype, and it is described under Subtypes, below.

Achaierai (MM1) - A large, four legged, flightless bird-like outsider. Why the hell this thing was created and established as a core monster I have no idea. It has a HD of 6 and a challenge rating of 5, but doesn't live on the material plane, which almost completely precludes the possibility of it showing up to challenge the party at a level low enough where it would be a threat. The only use I could see for it is if the party just really wants poultry products on the Infernal Battlefield of Acheron. Achaierai McNuggets, I can see it now... "Outsider: the otherworldly white meat."

Recommend for play? - It is... actually a fairly mechanically sound choice. It has an ECL of about 10, and 6 hit dice, so you won't fall too far behind the party HP wise. It has some defense against magic, good ability scores, a sound multi-attack, and a fast movement speed. Do remember that any DM worth his salt will subject you to the What in space are you? effect (mentioned earlier) for being a creature that looks like a parakeet, an ostrich, a strider from Half Life 2, and an ogre had a wild night together and produced a single baby.

Feats should probably focus on Melee Combat, unless you're aiming for some kind of eldritch warrior build. Equipment will be a problem - you're large sized and oddly shaped, so you'll be paying extra.

Undead

Undead are the deceased bodies, spirits, bodily systems, or souls of things that were once alive, brought to life through negative energy, either deliberately or through an accident of random magic in the area, coupled with horrific events, or possibly taint. As far as random evil happenings go, you can never go wrong with taint.

Due to the high number of immunities and resistances most undead seem to possess, there are relatively few strategies for fighting them, and most of those are limited to specific divine magics, specific spells, and the good old-fashioned zombie-chopping fire-and-axes hoedown.

As an intelligent undead who knows this, you can take steps to armor yourself against the general tactics that have to be used against you, compensating for the deficiencies in HD that your level will inevitably bring. I highly recommend you check out the Libris Mortis if you plan to make an Undead character, as there are a number of nifty feats (and undead) in there to help you out with that.

Allip (MM1) - A man-sized undead puff of smoke that says things so stupid that you literally get dumber just by being nearby or touching it. Cannot be played - the GUYPAT factor is far too high.

Bodak (MM1) - A man-sized an nearly man-shaped being that looks like some kind of martian. Bodaks are generally considered pure evil and are known for a nasty gaze attack.

Recommend For Play? - Maybe. The Bodak has 9 HD, but close examination reveals that the LA is probably not too steep for a mid to high level game. Undead adds +2 LA, of course, and the Death Gaze adds another +1. The AC boost is probably canceled out by the Bodak's weakness against sunlight. I'll leave the haggling over the elemental resistances and the ability scores up to you and your DM.

So we have an approximately ECL 12 creature with 9 HD and a DC 15 Death Gaze attack - not bad. It wouldn't be unreasonable for a Bodak to mosey around the battlefield (and I do mean mosey - the Bodak's base speed is 20) gazing at frail-looking (read also: spellcasting) enemies every round and waiting for them to get an unlucky roll and bite it. You will almost certainly be confronted with GUYPAT, but not to an insurmountable degree - your human-ish shape and passable common make a disguise (probably something involving a heavy cloak) possible.

As for roleplay... it mentions that most Bodaks are the remains of people destroyed by pure evil - you could be out for revenge, profit, etc. and see joining in on and adventure as a means to an end. A little work with a DM should get you into a campaign. Remember that you're an Extraplanar creature. I'm not sure why, but you are.

Devourer (MM1) - a great big slug living in the desert sands that waits for creatures to fall into its mouth, and then digests them slowly, over a thousand years... wait, that's the Sarlacc. My bad. The Devourer is an ogreish undead that wanders around, looking for people to eat so that it can use them for fuel for its abilites. It then uses these abilites to find... more... people to eat. A vicious circle if ever there was one, perpetrated by a butt-ugly monster to boot. With 12HD, a spell deflection mechanism, undead traits, a level drain attack, +15 natural armor, and spell resistance, this creature can't be played due to ECL limitations. And even if it can't be played due to ECL, the GUYPAT factor is through the roof for this nightmarish creature.

Ghost [Template] (MM1) - The spectral remains of an intelligent being who isn't quite ready to go gentle into that good night. Ghosts run the gamut of alignments, but their abilites remain roughly the same. There are a few restrictions on what can become a ghost. The creature becoming a ghost must be a aberration, animal, dragon, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, or plant, and must have had a Charisma greater than or equal to 6 in life. Ghosts are incorporeal, and have all of the physical abilites that they did in life, although they only affect the ethereal plane. They carry ethereal copies of all of their old equipment, although the weapons won't work if they aren't Ghost Touch. Also, a Ghost retains all of the spellcasting abilities it had in life, which operate properly when the ghost is manifested.

Ghosts are among the select group of undead that are particularly hard to kill, due to their Turn Resistance almost compensating for their 5 missing HD, and their Rejuvination ability. They also come complete with any number of potential quest hooks involving unfinished business from when they lived.

Recommend For Play? - Yes - ghosts can make a particularly durable eldrich build, an incorporeal theif, or a spooky warrior, if properly outfitted (ghost touch weapons). Since you're carrying all of your equipment from your previous life, none of it will cost extra. You have all sorts of advantageous maneuvering options in combat, such as sinking into floors and walls to avoid AOOs or entrapment, and the special abilites that they tote around aren't useless either. Also, a good charisma will provide an extra layer of defenses in the form of a deflection modifier to AC, and if you're packing a high charisma, you might as well go ghost paladin or sorcerer to synergize properly, getting either good saves or high spell DCs out of it. It's definitely worth looking into.

Lich [Template] (MM1) - Lich is another undead template usually associated with spellcasters - especially since the requirement for the creation of a phylactery is a CL 11 - and best known for their phylactery, a magic item that hides the Lich's soul. As long as the phylactery is intact, the Lich cannot truly die and keeps coming back, no matter how thoroughly its body was destroyed. The effect isn't immediate, requiring 1d10 days, but the fact is that the Lich is effectively an immortal being as long as the phylactery is guarded cleverly enough.

Recommend For Play? - The Lich has a Level Adjustment of +4, although Turn Resistance means that you won't be instantly owned if someone comes along with a Turn/Rebuke check. The purist would argue that since the creation of a phylacter requires CL 11, a player must be level 15 to play a Lich, and I'm inclined to agree. Characters with an immortality clause are very difficult to work with, since a number of challenges and dangers can be shrugged off. Even worse, players are always coming up with innovative ways to armor or hide their phylacteries - I've seen methods available for putting them in orbit inside a box of force, for crying out loud! So think carefully before allowing one in your game, or playing one, for that matter.

Mechanically, there's no real reason not to become a lich, other than the delay in your caster level progression. The added durability of being an undead that can't be destroyed in the regular sense of the word is a big boost to your character. As Fizban pointed out, the process of becoming a lich will jump a player out ahead of the party, so it might be a good idea to make him "work it off" as the rest of the party levels up to compensate.

Mohrg (MM1) - A souped-up skeleton with a giant, cartiligenous tube hanging around in the empty spaces of its belly and ribcage, which can shoot out and attack people. Truly a nightmare to behold. Cannot be played - the GUYPAT factor is too high.

In Soviet Russia, Esophagus strangles you!

Mummy [Template?] (MM1) - The bandage wrapped, organless undead that has gone through the mummification process. Mummies are actually a template (made one in the SSG), although some changes have been made in 3.5, most notably that the Natural armor bonus was bumped from +8 to +10, and that the 'Resistant to Blows" special ability was replaced by DR 5/-.

Recommend for Play - The basic mummy from the PHB has 8 HD, but the mummified template from the SSG seems to apply to anything. I'll leave it up to your DM what to decide about that (whether or not its a template or a creature), although if you decide to go with the "Mummy as Template" approach, remember to evaluate your base saving throws, BAB, etc to match the drop in Hit Dice.

The mummy isn't a bad undead. It carries the undead immunities and perks, a functioning humanoid body that can be easily disguised, if necessary, and a decent fear effect - and a powerful curse/disease combo move that can waste enemies that get away from you. While Mummy Rot is more of a tool that the DM uses to give players a hard time, you can use this on recurring villians to help your party out by making sure that Baron von Evilpants doesn't get up so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the morning after he escapes from his collapsing fortress.

Fire is a problem, though. You're already low on hit points due to reduced HD and a lack of constitution, and taking double damage when that Red Dragon gets trigger happy is a good way to get wasted - unlike Liches and Ghosts, you don't come back from destruction, either. Fortunately, your natural abilites allow you to slip easily into the role of bruiser rogue or monk, both of which provide evasion at low levels. And of course, there are many ways to protect yourself from fire with magic. Use your head, and don't be caught unawares by magmins, and you should be fine.

Jade_Tarem
2009-04-16, 04:54 PM
"So here is a riddle to guess if you can,
Sing the Bells of Notre Dame:
'Who is the monster and who is the man?'"

- Clopin, from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Monsters by the Numbers (Cont.)

Subtypes - Subtypes generally carry a theme with them, and are usually associated with a Creature Type - but they don't have to always apply to the same Type of creature. For instance, Fire Elementals carry the Fire Subtype, but so do Azers and Red Dragons. That's three creature Types (Elemental, Outsider, and Dragon) with the same Subtype. You can also apply multiple Subtypes to one creature, such as the Hellcat listed earlier - it has the Subtypes of Evil, Lawful, and Extraplanar.

As mentioned a second ago, creatures with the same Subtype tend to have a common theme - Fire Subtype creatures will be firey, Lawful Subtype creatures will be lawful, and Extraplanar creatures will be denizens of other planes. It's very self-explanatory, really, but you can often get a better idea of what a creature does by looking at the Subtypes than by looking at the Type or the Name.

Subtypes are not all fluff - far from it. A Subtype is a special status from which you can never escape, at least not without the SSG ritual that lets you mess with your Subtypes (isn't DnD great?). Your character doesn't have to conform to its Subtypes precisely in terms of behavior, but since the Subtypes carry physical significance you may find yourself on the wrong end of a Subtype-specific or Alignment-specific ability without warning. If you have a Neutral Good Archon, for instance, you still suffer the full effects of Dictum. Even though you are not a chaotic person, you are a Chaotic creature. Likewise, an Azer can still be turned by a cleric with the Water domain even if he wields all cold weapons and his long-term goal is to usher in a new ice age.

With that covered, you'll note that I have been listing subtypes all along. However, there are some Subtypes which are more like Composite Subtypes - a classification of monster more specific than a normal Subtype, with creatures that have more in commmon - frequently Composite Subtype creatures all have the same regular Subtypes. Also, creatures within Composite Subtypes are almost always of the same major Type. I list all subtypes here, with a note as to whether they are normal or composite Subtypes - composite Subtypes have creatures listed under them, normal ones do not, since I’ve already been over the creatures that do not belong to Composite Subtypes.

Air Subtype

Air is the first of four elemental subtypes - it is the subtype of every creature that lives on or has an elemental connection to the elemental plane of Air (or the "Air Plane," get it? Please don't hurt me). Air Creatures almost always have a fly speed and usually have perfect maneuverability.

Angel Subtype (Composite)

Angel is a subtype of Outsider, and is almost always packaged with the Extraplanar and Good subtypes. Angels are the high-powered "good" monsters (and are paragons of law) that show up to fight evil things, or perhaps give "Eigen quests" to the players. All angels have the following goodies:

The Monster Manual Says:
- Darkvision 60 ft. and Low Light Vision.
- Immunity to acid, cold, and petrification.
- Resistance to fire 10 and electricity 10.
- +4 Racial bonus on saves vs. poisoin.
- Protective Aura - This move is simply a combination of Lesser Globe of Invulnerability, Magic Circle Against Evil, Shield, and Greater Resistance. The move is... quite powerful.
- Tongues.

My Notes:
- Angels tend to be subject to the He smells like cookies roleplaying effect.
- Angels tend to be very good at lower levels following the progression, but require a lot more thought to remain decent and relevant at higher levels.
- Angels are a "powered up" version of archons, and in fact there are only a few Angels in the entire game - not even the BoED has an additional Angel, although the Fiend Folio does, or so I've been informed. While this is good for the Angels, it's bad for you - only one Angel, the Astral Deva, is playable at non-epic levels unless you and your DM spend some quality time working out how to level up a Planetar or Solar. In some settings, Astral Deva, Planetar, and Solar are all stages in the same being's life, with the entity "upgrading" as it becomes more of an asset to the heavenly forces.

Let's take a look at some angels from the various books:

Astral Deva (MM1) - The classic angel - the one in DnD that most closely resembles the traditional western conceptualization of a heavenly being. They look like people, only prettier, glowing with inner light, and have long, feathery, pretty wings. This "bad" boy comes equipped with all of the standard angelic abilities, as well as proficiency with simple weapons, twelve hit dice, good saves across the board, a special stun attack, Improved Uncanny Dodge, a slew of useful and powerful spell like abilities - holy word and holy aura at will cannot be ignored - +15 Natural Armor, fantastic ability score bonuses to every stat, and last but not least, a whopping 30 Spell Resistance. To top it all off, most will qualify for the He smells like cookies. roleplaying effect, unless entering a predominantly evil area.

Recommend for play? - Sadly, our friendly Astral Deva has a +8 LA, meaning that you cannot add a single class level to him until epic levels. LA buyback may be able to get you a couple of class levels, which you should proabably put into paladin - you're probably lawful good anyway, and if you can get to the paladin's Divine Grace feature, it will boost your saving throws to acceptable levels for an ECL 20 game, due to your insane charisma score. There are some roleplaying restrictions on the Astral Deva as well - most DMs will very closely scrutinize angelic characters that aren't pursing the goals of peace, justice, and the heavenly way, as it always gives off this vibe of trying to get away with something. That said, taking away a bunch of the special features and playing a fallen Astral Deva has some merit, too... but you'll need to discuss that sort of thing with your DM. Take care not to fall into rules lawyering.

There is a progression for playing an Astral Deva from level 1 to level 20 listed in the SSG. It's pretty accurate, even in 3.5, as long as you take care to translate some of the Deva Powers, such as from Invisibility Sphere to Invisibility. The Astral Deva excels at low levels - for the first five it gains one hit die per ECL, has full BAB and good saves, has rogue skill points, and by level 5 it has a ton of useful abilities, as well as bonuses to Strength, Charisma, and Constitution. Oh, and a permanent fly speed, let's not forget that. The d8 hit die is something of a bummer, but it seems to be modeled on a cleric, so that makes sense.

Then it begins to slow down - at ECL 10 it's down 3 hit dice, although its defenses and available abilities still put it above most melee classes - especially if you can figure out a way to give it some real armor. The odd thing is that the SR is scaled as 10+ECL, rather than 11+HD like most creatures, giving the Astral Deva a relevant SR no matter what the ECL is.

At the high levels, you'll need some impressive equipment indeed to make up for the lack of hit dice. It can be done - in fact, you'll probably still be better than most melee type characters - but you'll have problems against HD related special effects, especially those with no saving throw. SR can come to your rescue here - a 50% spell failure (which is what 10+ECL SR is, unless the enemy caster has a caster level in excess of his ECL, or spell penetration) chance against casters of your ECL is a big boost - but walking around with 8 fewer HD than everyone else is a risky business in any campaign.

Feats should probably focus first on fixing your equipment problem - mainly that you aren't proficient with any equipment beyond simple weapons. If LA buyback is available and you're starting at a high level, you can avoid wasting the feats and just put your first level in Paladin, or something. After that, the Astral Deva is a character that can make use of various Monstrous Feats, such as Flyby Attack, or more traditional feats for divine or martial characters.

Planetar (MM1) - A bigger, better, shinier Angel. Cannot be played - the ECL is too high.

Solar (MM1) - the biggest, best, and shiniest Angel. Cannot be played - the HD alone is too high, so the ECL definitely is.

Aquatic Subtype

Aquatic Subtype creatures alays have swim speeds (and so can move through water without swim checks). All Aquatic creatures can breathe underwater - and cannot breathe air unless they're listed as being amphibious. Be sure to check when making an Aquatic creature character: you don't want your awesome hero to choke to death in the first minutes of the campaign.

Archon Subtype (Composite)

Archons are kind of like Angels, but not as powerful - to the point where a great many more of them are actually playable characters. Archons, unlike the Angels, tend to be built around a theme, often an object such as sword, trumpet, lantern, throne, etc., and this provides wide variations concerning their forms, appearances, and special moves. They do have a number of things in common, though:

The Monster Manual Says:
- Darkvision 60ft.
- Low Light Vision
- Aura of Menace - A debuff effect that activates when an Archon goes hostile. It almost always takes the form of a 20ft. aura, although its effectiveness varies from one Archon to another. A Will Save is required to protect you from a -2 on attacks, AC, and saves for 24 hours.
- Immunity to Electricity and Petrification
- +4 racial bonus vs. poison
- Magic Circle vs. Evil - always active on any Archon, with CL = HD. The adjustment from the spell is not included in any stat block within the books - you have to remember to apply it yourself.
- Teleport w/o Error - essentially an at-will Greater Teleport, but with no ability to transport others and a reduced luggage capacity.
- Tongues, as the spell, operates on all Archons at all times.

My Notes:
- Archons, despite a somewhat freakish appearance, can also be subject to the He smells like cookies roleplaying effect. Conversely, a bizzare enough appearance may provoke a What in space are you?
- Archons tend to be tough, although not as much as their Angel counterparts. Their immunity to electricity is quite a bonus, and their constant Magic Circle vs. Evil means that they cannot be touched by evil summoned monsters nor are they subject to mind affecting abilites generated by evil things.
- They rely on their thematic abilities extensively, and if you're not careful to work that in you're going to end up with an underpowered character sometimes. The point is: don't ignore your trumpet if you play a Trumpet Archon, find a way to make it work with or for your build.
- Archons are highly mobile, as most of them can fly and all of them can Greater Teleport like it's going out of style. Allow me to make something clear - this can be a major headache to DMs. Consider carefully before playing an Archon, and consult with your DM, becuase he may plan to strand you someplace as a challenge which will quickly be ruined if you get to make infinite trips back to town from the middle of the deepest dungeon on earth. A similar situation can arise with Tongues if the DM wanted a communication challenge. Do not spring these abilites as a surprise on your DM.

With that said, let's take a look at the Heavenly Host:


Hound Archon (MM1) - For those of you wondering what it would be like if Scooby Doo took Paladin levels and lost the stupid voice, the Hound Archon is your answer. He's a regular Scruff McGruff with a large sword, a tough defense, and some shapeshifting capability. He's ECL 11 and ready to take a bite out of crime!

At least, I hope he takes a bite out of crime, because he comes in with just over 1/2 the HD of the rest of the party (and only a racial +2 to Con!), and if crime takes a bite out of him there won't be anything left but a nasty stain on the cobblestones. The Hound Archon is touted as the prime example of a monster character among those who claim that monster characters are all underpowered - they're wrong in general, but quite right about the Hound Archon.

His Aura of Menace has a surprisingly high base DC, but his natural attacks, shapeshifted form, sad SR, and upped defenses are shielding a critically low HP total, and they don't really cut it compared to what he could have gained for five levels in a normal class. Like all Archons, Hound Archons can teleport around at will, but that won't save you when that Dragon gets trigger happy with his breath weapon all of a sudden. There *is* a cut-and-dried progression in the SSG, but he doesn't really get any better at low levels. Play a Hound Archon if you're looking for something good-aligned with a bit of animal flair, but don't expect to keep up with the rest of the party completely without one heck of a good build.

Lantern Archon (MM1) - A cute little ball of light. The Lantern Archons are most typically portrayed as messengers and guides of a holy bent - similar to Navi from Ocarina of Time, but a lot less annoying. I've already shown you my Lantern Archon example, but let's try to take a look at what a balanced version of this thing looks like.

WotC did not give Lantern Archons a level adjustment, although they certainly could have. Lantern Archons would be what the Savage species guide considers a "difficult" character - they have no hands, no legs, no discernable anatomy of any sort, and a whopping huge strength penalty. That pretty much precludes any sort of martial or physical-skill oriented build.

That leaves spellcasting. But even there we have problems with material components and, more importantly, somatic components. It is considered difficult to cast spells with no hands. The good news is, Lantern Archons do have a functional voice. Fortunately, the use of two feats (ouch) can overcome these disadvantages - the first is Eschew Materials, from the PHB. The second is one from the SSG called Surrogate Spellcasting - essentially it lets you cast spells with somatic components dispite a lack of hands, as long as you have something else to cast it with.

"But Jade," you say, "LOL, dude, the Lantern Archon is just a ball of light. What is it going to cast with?" I thought about this, and you could come up with any number of things - that it's bobbing in the air, or changing shape somewhat. Note that you still suffer penalites to spellcasting while grappled and cannot cast while immobilized. Surrogate Spellcasting does not preclude the necessity of somatic components, it merely allows you to get around a lack of opposable thumbs.

So that fixes the anatomy problems. But now we have a new issue - Lantern Archons have an Int penalty. Well, there goes wizard - but then, you couldn't carry a spellbook anyway. So that leaves druid, cleric, and sorcerer for class options, and it is there that I suggest you look - probably into cleric (not CoDzilla) or Sorcerer, since Druid will likely mess you up completely.

Special Note: You'll have a difficult time casting spells with expensive material components even with the Eschew Materials feat - EM only gets you out of having to use things like Bat Guano, it doesn't fill in for 10,000gp worth of diamond dust or a large ruby.

Then it's up to you to decide just how much you want to be a ball of light. You see, Lantern Archons are still subject to all sorts of interesting things, such as poison and critical hits, that you think they would be immune to, being a creature made entirely out of holy photons. So talk it over with your DM and see if he thinks you should be granted the extra immunities, and then figure out the appropriate level adjustment. Remember that you'll get some help here from your lousy stats (-1 or -2 LA, depending...) and that you can swap your first HD (and the appropriate modifiers to hp, saves, and such) for your first class level, and you'll have a maneuverable, difficult to kill sorcerer/cleric in no time. "Hey! Listen!"

Owl Archon (BoED) - A, erm, giant, celestial... owl. It's nine feet tall, packs an assortment of physical and magical special attacks, and shoots lasers from its eyes that turn you to stone. You can tell that WotC might not have been entirely serious when they were writing for the BoED - but then, you can figure that out from the introduction.

It has an ECL of 18, due to HD and all those neat abilities. It's a fun character in theory, and mobile, but won't be able to fill any party roles, other than flying mount for the ranger - it relies too much on movement to be a tank, can't wield weapons very well, can't be a full caster of any sort, and lacks the class skill distribution to be a skill oriented character. It may, however, be subject to the he smells like cookies effect.

Sword Archon (BoED) - I have to admit, I was a little disappointed when I saw what the Sword Archon really was. The name had gotten my hopes up. I don't know what, precisely, I was expecting (something more along the lines of the Throne Archon, actually), but I'm sure it had to be better than a half naked man held aloft by pink butterfly wings, hair, pecs, and loincloth flapping in the breeze, with flaming swords for hands. Once I made it past the fabulous first impression made by his picture, I found out that the mechanics weren't any better. They tend towards flash and show over actual hitting power or efficacy.

And for this they ask for ECL 20. His primary ability is to turn his arms into +2 holy flaming longswords - nice, but at level 20 I can make him obsolete with a wizard, an empty sack, and a few hours to go raiding dragon hordes. He also gets a special dive attack and some spell like abilities - nothing as good as his Astral Deva counterpart.

Throne Archon (BoED) - A very powerful archon, that unfortunately sports an ECL of 24. There may be a way to work out a progression with your DM, and if you can I highly recommend that you do. The throne archon packs a slew of special abilites geared towards stomping evil, including a nice gaze attack, decent aura of menace, good stats and saves, and better swordsmanship than the sword archon. Their main weakness is a lack of hit dice, but they can last due to their excellent saves and ridiculous SR and AC.

Trumpet Archon (MM1) - A messenger/herald type archonic entity. Somewhat similar to the Astral Deva - but with more emphasis on ranged spellcasting. The trumpet archon is, like all archons, highly mobile, and comes with some interesting special moves, including an Aura of Menace with a fairly high DC (18 + Cha mod), divine spellcasting as a 14th level cleric, the ability to spam detect evil, continual flame, and message, and last but not least, the eponymous trumpet, which can function both as an infinitely renewable AOE paralysis attack but a +4 greatsword as well.

Like the Astral Deva, the Trumpet Archon is an ECL 20 character, with a decent breakdown in the SSG. Unlike the Astral Deva, what you do will need to focus on enhancing your role as a support caster and special effects character, rather than as any kind of frontline warrior.

Warden Archon (BoED) - An interesting creature of ECL 15. WotC decided to combine a Polar Bear with an Archon and see what happens. What they came up with is a great big bipedal bruiser, with Scent, Rend, Spell Like abilities, Archon Traits, and a completely foolproof ability wherein they instantly know the precise alignment of everyone around them.

This more than anything makes them pretty disruptive to a campaign. Remember to check with your DM before you play a character with heightened mobility or senses.

Augmented Subtype

The Augmented Subtype is a Subtype often assigned to creatures that have had their major Type changed - either through an applied template or some kind of transmutation. In short, it's the only way that you combine features of two major Types - as an Augmented X will have the features of X but the traits of Y, where X is its old type and Y is its new type. Note that the creature only counts as Y for the purposes of spells and such.

Example: A wizard's familiar is a Magical Beast with the Augmented Animal Subtype. It has the traits of a Magical Beast, but the features of an Animal. It counts as a Magical Beast for the purposes of spells and effects that only affect certain creature Types.

Baatezu Subtype (Composite)

Baatezu, better know as Devils, are the lawful evil outsider bad guys - the kind who are always tempting mortals and trying to steal souls and such.

The Monster Manual Says Devils Have:
- Immunity to fire and poison
- Resistance to acid 10 and cold 10
- An enhanced form of Darkvision that sees through normal and magical darkness
- An ability to summon other devils
- Telepathy

My Notes:
- Most Devils are pretty powerful, there's no question of that. However, the ones that don't fall into the You're a what? category of reaction tend to be attacked on sight. So you've got a problem right there. In addition, there's the whole issue with suspension of disbelief if you're going to aid a good aligned party - especially one with a paladin. While you can create a story that involves secretly working toward your own ends, eventually your friends will find out and be pretty unhappy. Just be sure that you realize that your work is not done right when you finish making your character.

Also, if you're going to make a rogue member of the Baatezu who is ashamed of his race's deeds, be sure you come up with a decent twist. No one likes a Drizz't clone.

That said, let's take a look at the Infernal Legion:

hamishspence
2009-04-16, 05:12 PM
Very nice. Though on Angels- Fiend Folio has two extra types of Deva, which, by extrapolation, must be Angels- the Monadic Deva and the Movanic Deva.

Like Savage Species, its a Late 3.0 book- the skill system is beginning to change, as are monster abilities and types. Which can be recognized by the fact that the 3.5 WOTC free online update to Fiend Folio changes damage reduction, but nothing else.

EDIT:
also- Savage Species templates reviews might be nice- which are underpowered, overpowered, and bang on. Feral has a reputation as slightly overpowered, for example.

Jade_Tarem
2009-04-16, 05:19 PM
Thanks for the heads up. I'll fix that line...

MeklorIlavator
2009-04-16, 06:10 PM
Note that , as of last time I checked, there were as many sub-races of Dwarves as there are of elves. In fact, there might have been more. I realize it's a joke, but I think it's just good to know.

Really, I think you should mention the Anthropomorphic animals. I hear about them the most, and they seem to have alot of brokenness attached.

Ernir
2009-04-16, 07:05 PM
I just want to say "good job", and that your post in this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/archive/index.php/index.php/t-69456.html) helped me before, too. :smallsmile:

Thurbane
2009-04-16, 09:18 PM
Nice guide indeed. I'll add some suggestions when I'm back at my books. :smallsmile:

Might it be worth a section on Awakened beings - animals, plants, undead, constructs etc? A lot of questions get asked about them as well...

monty
2009-04-16, 10:34 PM
Good job. I'm sure I'll refer to this if I ever DM that monstrous campaign I wanted to try.

However, it might be nice to have a section detailing how to make monster classes for playing at lower levels, unless you think Savage Species already covered it adequately.

Stephen_E
2009-04-16, 10:35 PM
I like what you've done so far.

Stephen E

Ponce
2009-04-17, 12:22 AM
Very nice. If you are taking requests as you said in the other thread, I'd like to see some information on the mummy, and maybe something on the lich as well (though thats not in SS).

VirOath
2009-04-17, 03:30 AM
I must say, it's an amazing list. Quite cool, good work.

Oslecamo
2009-04-17, 04:11 AM
Really, I think you should mention the Anthropomorphic animals. I hear about them the most, and they seem to have alot of brokenness attached.

Not at all, because they're completely useless to wizards due to int penalties! And since wizards are in the higher power scale, antropomorphic animals actually help everyboy else! They're great for crazy melee builds!

Jade_Tarem:Considering your paranoia with high level gameplay, why don't you just tell players that want to play monsters at high levels to use polymorph/shapechange and get done with it? Heck, did you know racial spellcasting was ruled as an extraordinary ability? So mr.fighter gets shapechanged into a solar and he can now cast as well as the cleric! Everybody becomes equally broken, so the game still stays balanced! Well of course the DM will get an headache, but hey, time to unleash those steel dragons on the players.:smalltongue:

bosssmiley
2009-04-17, 05:50 AM
"Ug! Jade Tarem wield mighty gaming mojo. We give him brontosaur ribs and heads of enemies. Him heap big savage gamer."

Trans: Top stuff Jade Tarem. I salute your work.

That said I'll still probably just eyeball (and veto as needed) monster PCs IMG.

Tengu_temp
2009-04-17, 07:10 AM
An enjoyable read. The Monsters By Numbers list seems to be incomplete, though, so I'm looking forward to seeing it when it's finished.

Starbuck_II
2009-04-17, 09:15 AM
Don't forget Eldarin Subtype:
I like the Coure from BoED:

While Lantern Archons can be a "Hey Listen!"

Coure are made for it. They have actual bodies but can turn into a ball of light when they choose.
Stupidly, they are given +5 LA (what was WorC smoking?)

It gives all their melee attacks the ability to attack as incorporeal touch. But even with that since they have penalties to strength shouldn't be that high.

zagan
2009-04-17, 09:35 AM
Really great work man, it's very impressive.

If I found a DM that let me use a monster character I will use your guide.

Zaq
2009-04-17, 10:31 AM
Good job! This was a fun read. I have a (possibly irrational) hatred of all things level-adjusted, but this was still enjoyable.

One minor nitpick: It's "Phenomenal cosmic power," not "Great cosmic power."

BobVosh
2009-04-17, 05:01 PM
almost tl;dr.

Glad I didn't, great read. Good Job.

Fizban
2009-04-17, 06:55 PM
"GREAT, COSMIC POWER! Itty-bitty living space."

Phenomenal. Phenomenal Cosmic Power. Maybe the Genie said great back in the cave, but phenomenal at the end wins.

Not a bad guide, though I was expecting more for the book itself than savage play in general. I'd note another analogy for special abilities: they're the class abilities granted by your racial hit dice instead of the class abilities granted by your class hit dice. Lots of abilities are a bit more powerful than that a warrant some LA above the racial HD, but most races with a few racial HD really don't need an LA on top of it.

As for Wish, if you're allowing free LA at that level, I don't see what's wrong with allowing someone to wish for equivalent abilities. Wishing to be a solar isn't as bad as wishing to be a solar and then failing your check for racial hit dice so you keep gaining levels at your original rate is the really broken way to do it, but wishing for wings or similar by itself barely makes up for the 5,000xp cost.

Assuming infinite time, I would have gone over all monsters at least in passing, because the GUYTAP isn't going to stop a lot of people and it's fun to build them even if you can't play them, so you want some idea of "balance".

Jade_Tarem
2009-04-17, 07:48 PM
Not a bad guide, though I was expecting more for the book itself than savage play in general. I'd note another analogy for special abilities: they're the class abilities granted by your racial hit dice instead of the class abilities granted by your class hit dice. Lots of abilities are a bit more powerful than that a warrant some LA above the racial HD, but most races with a few racial HD really don't need an LA on top of it.

As for Wish, if you're allowing free LA at that level, I don't see what's wrong with allowing someone to wish for equivalent abilities. Wishing to be a solar isn't as bad as wishing to be a solar and then failing your check for racial hit dice so you keep gaining levels at your original rate is the really broken way to do it, but wishing for wings or similar by itself barely makes up for the 5,000xp cost.

Assuming infinite time, I would have gone over all monsters at least in passing, because the GUYTAP isn't going to stop a lot of people and it's fun to build them even if you can't play them, so you want some idea of "balance".

That is another way of looking at special abilities, true.

As for Wish... I'm not really sure what you mean. I'm not allowing free LA (nor am I sure what that phrase means) and "that level" is actually around level 13 or so - certainly a high level game, but not bordering on epic by any stretch of the imagination. What's more, it's very difficult to pick and choose which aspects of the creature you get - the version without the spellcraft check just changes you, with no real chance to mess up any part of it, and the version with the spellcraft checks has it all determined randomly - up to the point where the mage casting the spell is so powerful that he succeeds every time. While the *player* knows which aspect he's rolling for, the wizard doesn't. I'm not sure I'd ditch the HD anyway - they can come in handy, both in terms of hit points, immunities to HD based spells, powering up HD based abilities, and last but not least, securing epic spell slots. If you just go ahead and take the Hit Dice, you end up with a slightly suboptimal epic build in a level 13 game - which will almost certainly be more powerful than a massively overpowered level 13 build.

On top of that, I'm aware that 5000xp is a steep price to pay just for a pair of wings - that was actually the flip side of my point. Either the major ritual is broken or it's very underutilized.

Maybe I missed something in what you're saying. I'm just having a hard time seeing how the ability to convert your character into any creature in the Monster Manual without paying anything more than 5000xp could be considered anything other than Game Breakingly Retarded.

Edit: Looking at what you posted again, it occurred to me that your point might have been that Major Ritual: Wish could be used in ways that are not broken, if the player shows the kind of restraint and maturity that we normally associate with Ghandi. If that's true, then I see your point, but my personal experiences tend to run towards the mechanic being abused more than a red-headed stepchild in a Dickens novel.

And yeah, I would love to go over every single monster too, but I don't have that kind of time - it's why I'm updating a bit every day.

Updated: Added Elementals to the You're doing it wrong section. I'll try to cover Vampires, Mummies, Liches, and Anthropomorphic Animals (I'll have to look that last one up - I've been kind of out of touch for a bit) in the Monsters by the Numbers list, next time.

wadledo
2009-04-17, 10:36 PM
I heartily approve of this!

Also, for aberrations, how do you feel about the Ethereal Filcher racial class (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fc/20060224a)?

mostlyharmful
2009-04-18, 05:20 AM
May I suggest an addition to the 'You're doing it wrong section', a link to a thought experiment a few months back. The Emerald Legion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101587&highlight=emerald+legion) silly but very effective at proving the point

PS. Nice work, keep up the good stuff.

Stephen_E
2009-04-18, 08:44 AM
Edit: Looking at what you posted again, it occurred to me that your point might have been that Major Ritual: Wish could be used in ways that are not broken, if the player shows the kind of restraint and maturity that we normally associate with Ghandi. If that's true, then I see your point, but my personal experiences tend to run towards the mechanic being abused more than a red-headed stepchild in a Dickens novel.


I think I could use Wish in ways you probably consider broken and I wouldn't claim to having the restraint or maturity of Ghandi. On the otherhand I am considered rather weird and the one thing I love more than my strengths is my weaknesses. As my DM in a vampire game noted "you've added a bunch of flaws to your character for free:smallconfused:"

Stephen E

Virgo
2009-04-18, 09:55 AM
I like the guide, but I'm looking even more forward to the completion of the "Monsters by the Numbers" baatezu/devil section. Keep up the good work!

Fizban
2009-04-18, 08:03 PM
That is another way of looking at special abilities, true.

As for Wish... I'm not really sure what you mean. I'm not allowing free LA (nor am I sure what that phrase means) and "that level" is actually around level 13 or so - certainly a high level game, but not bordering on epic by any stretch of the imagination. What's more, it's very difficult to pick and choose which aspects of the creature you get - the version without the spellcraft check just changes you, with no real chance to mess up any part of it, and the version with the spellcraft checks has it all determined randomly - up to the point where the mage casting the spell is so powerful that he succeeds every time. While the *player* knows which aspect he's rolling for, the wizard doesn't. I'm not sure I'd ditch the HD anyway - they can come in handy, both in terms of hit points, immunities to HD based spells, powering up HD based abilities, and last but not least, securing epic spell slots. If you just go ahead and take the Hit Dice, you end up with a slightly suboptimal epic build in a level 13 game - which will almost certainly be more powerful than a massively overpowered level 13 build.

On top of that, I'm aware that 5000xp is a steep price to pay just for a pair of wings - that was actually the flip side of my point. Either the major ritual is broken or it's very underutilized.

Maybe I missed something in what you're saying. I'm just having a hard time seeing how the ability to convert your character into any creature in the Monster Manual without paying anything more than 5000xp could be considered anything other than Game Breakingly Retarded.

Edit: Looking at what you posted again, it occurred to me that your point might have been that Major Ritual: Wish could be used in ways that are not broken, if the player shows the kind of restraint and maturity that we normally associate with Ghandi. If that's true, then I see your point, but my personal experiences tend to run towards the mechanic being abused more than a red-headed stepchild in a Dickens novel.

And yeah, I would love to go over every single monster too, but I don't have that kind of time - it's why I'm updating a bit every day.

Updated: Added Elementals to the You're doing it wrong section. I'll try to cover Vampires, Mummies, Liches, and Anthropomorphic Animals (I'll have to look that last one up - I've been kind of out of touch for a bit) in the Monsters by the Numbers list, next time.

When I say free LA I'm referring to the LA buyoff rules. At level 18 for example, you can have bought off up to LA +3, so wishing for abilities in line with that shouldn't be a problem. Also, it occurs to me: whatever happened to race changes bumping up your level automatically? I thought the default rule (say in cases of reincarnation) was that if you somehow gained racial hit dice or LA you'd have to work it off. So if you got reincarnated as a lizardfolk, you'd be paying off your new LA debt for the next 3 levels worth of xp. It doesn't change that gaining that much power at once would end the game, but for lower LAs it should still be fine if you don't want to give them away for free.

Jade_Tarem
2009-04-19, 01:46 AM
Hi,

Added some stuff to the guide - Ethereal Filchers, and all of the Undead in the MM1 from A through M, including the requested Liches and Mummies. I also fixed the Genie's quote to say Phenomenal. I didn't get around to Anthropomorphic Animals, though, sorry.

Also, Nohwl pointed out that a number of antimagic field combos will kill my creature in the invinciblity section of you're doing it wrong. I can only recommend a permanent Prismatic Sphere, and write what I did to him - There are very few *true* infinity combos in DnD. Something can always come along to disrupt your fun, hence reductio ad Punpun. My point with that section was that these monsters are extremely difficult to kill, and the method for killing them can only be enacted by special kinds of well-prepared casters, and a few other things, like wish, gate, miracle, etc. High end magic will usually trump things in the end, but those beasties will soak up nearly everything that a reasonable campaign - even a high-power campaign - can throw at them and laugh it off.

@ Fizban - ah... yes. I agree, except where the player makes such a significant jump in power that it accounts for 30 levels instead of 3 - and remember that LA buyback doesn't give free levels, it just lowers your official ECL so that you gain XP faster. If you buy back a level at ECL 13, you don't gain a new level in a class or progression, you simply become ECL 12, with one less point of LA being the change. You're right that Major Ritual: Wish can be used responsibly, but so can Candles of Invocation. There are no governors in place on the ritual other than the DM, and *that* is why it gets first prize in the list of bad monster creation tactics.

@ mostlyharmful - I read the link you posted. I found it pretty amusing, and will probably add it to the guide.

@ wadledo - It looked dandy to me. The Filcher loses five levels worth of intriguing class abilites for an ever-recharging Ethereal Jaunt battery. This might trip the DM up a bit, but it could work. The primary problems would be equipment and social interaction.

It does work especially well with monks, rogues, and monk rogues, as you can disappear to the ethereal plane, approach, hide, transit to the material plane, attack (flurry or sneak attack), vanish the next round, recover (potion or wand), reappear, attack, repeat ad enectum. Something to think about.

@ Oslecamo - I'm not exceptionally paranoid about high level games. In fact, I enjoy the occasional breakout from the level 5-9 doldrums that my gaming group tends to fall into. However, most monsters tend to come with a number of hit dice, and unless you're willing to work out a progression with your DM (which *is* a viable option), you're going to have to start playing that monster at a fairly high level.

Fizban
2009-04-19, 03:48 AM
I also fixed the Genie's quote to say Phenomenal.
Much better :smallwink:

@ Fizban - ah... yes. I agree, except where the player makes such a significant jump in power that it accounts for 30 levels instead of 3 - and remember that LA buyback doesn't give free levels, it just lowers your official ECL so that you gain XP faster. If you buy back a level at ECL 13, you don't gain a new level in a class or progression, you simply become ECL 12, with one less point of LA being the change. You're right that Major Ritual: Wish can be used responsibly, but so can Candles of Invocation. There are no governors in place on the ritual other than the DM, and *that* is why it gets first prize in the list of bad monster creation tactics.
I haven't actually done the math, but since the xp system is supposed to be self correcting, I assume that within a few levels the gap will be meaningless and the LA would become basically free. Once you're within one encounter's worth of xp from the rest of the party you'll be leveling up at the exact same time anyway, but if it doesn't actually correct that much then I'll stand corrected.

As for wish, of course I agree that without moderation that way is ridiculously broken, but if you can include personal opinions then why not suggestions on what you think is reasonable? You have for other stuff, so if you have a wish method adjudication you think is good then you should post it.

Another possibility: have the wish cost 5,000xp + the total xp cost of buying off the adjustment. Since they're skipping the levels of self correction they would have had they're actually paying at least a bit more than that.