Test of the Mind: Adapt or Die [3.5 Monster] (It is time to die, Batman!)

[BladeofOblivion]

The Reactor
Huge Construct
HD 20d10+30 (140 hp)
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares)
Init: -2
AC 28; touch 18; flat-footed 28
(-2 Dex, +10 Armor, +10 Deflection)
BAB +15/+10/+5; Grp +33
Attack Slam +25 (4d8+10, 20/x2)
Full-Attack 2 Slams +25/+20/+15 (4d8+10, 20/x2)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks Reactive Blast
Special Qualities Reactive Exterior, Elemental Absorption, Imperfect Immunity, Transmutation Reaction, Undetectable, Construct Traits
Saves Fort +6, Ref +4, Will +6
Abilities Str 30, Dex 6, Con -, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 10
Skills None
Feats None
Environment Any
Organization Solitary(Unique)
Challenge Rating 20
Treasure None
Alignment Neutral

Reactive Blast(Su): If the Reactor is damaged by a form of energy it is immune to, it may release a 50' radius burst of energy of the type used to attack it as an immediate action. This burst deals 10d6 damage of the applicable energy type to all living creatures in the area of effect, with a reflex save for Half Damage.

Transmutation Reaction(Ex): If The Reactor is the target of a spell from the school of Transmutation, it may, as a free action, change the spell's target to the caster. (Baleful Polymorph? You'll regret that...)

Reactive Exterior(Ex): The Reactor's armor is magically charged to transmute itself to the most appropriate form to defend against blows. The Reactor gains Damage Reduction 100/Special. In order to bypass this damage reduction, the weapon used to attack must be made out of the same material that the Reactor's body is currently formed from. The possible forms are Adamantine, Cold Iron, and Silver. If physical damage is successfully dealt to the Reactor while it is in Adamantine armor, the armor shifts to Silver. If physical damage is successfully dealt to the Reactor while it is in Silver armor, the armor shifts to Cold Iron. If physical damage is successfully dealt to the Reactor while it is in Cold Iron armor, the armor shifts to Adamantine. A character who can see the Reactor knows what metal he is currently made out of.

Imperfect Immunity(Ex): At any given moment, the Reactor is immune to four types of energy. Whenever the Reactor is dealt Elemental Damage, His immunities shift to cover the weakness, sacrificing another immunity to cover the element that just harmed it. If the Reactor is harmed by Fire Damage, it becomes immune to Fire, Sonic, Electricity, and Cold. If the Reactor is harmed by Acid Damage, it becomes immune to Acid, Fire, Sonic and Electricity. If the Reactor is harmed by Cold Damage, it becomes immune to Cold, Acid, Fire and Sonic. If the Reactor is harmed by Electricity Damage, it becomes immune to Electricity, Cold, Acid, and Fire. If the Reactor is harmed by Sonic Damage, it becomes immune to Sonic, Electricity, Cold, and Acid.

Elemental Absorption(Ex): If the Reactor is attacked by a form of damage that it is immune to, it instead gains the same amount of HP. If this would cause the Reactor to rise above his maximum HP, it gains the remainder as temporary hit points.

Undetectable(Su): The Reactor's unusual masking effect makes it undetectable by spells from the school of divination. There is no possible warning of the Reactor's attack unless it is sensed naturally.

The Reactor was created by a Rogue Wizard to destroy the rest of his former Guild. It killed him first, as his name had not been struck from the registry yet.

__________________________________________

I intended this as a way to mess with the Batman Wizard, while rewarding intelligently played blasters for their effort. Although a Conjurer could still win, it would be much harder than most opponents.

[DracoDei]

Needs a physical description, and while this sounds like a really fun monster, I don't think Batman actually has any more trouble with it than any other character type.

[Kinsmarck]

This reminds me a great deal of the Spherimorph boss from Final Fantasy X...only an armored construct instead of a blobby tuquoise goo with a walnut inside.

[BladeofOblivion]

Look again. It's immune to a bunch of things just for being a Construct, It rebounds Transmutation Spells, you can't foresee it and prepare spells just for it. Evocation and, to a lesser extent, Conjuration are the only schools effective for attacking it. The funniest part is that the wizard has no Idea that it has these abilities. A transmuter's first reaction is probably to throw a Disintegrate at them. For the average Wizard, Disintegrate HURTS.

[Zaydos]

Well it's immunity to divination might help as then a batman can't properly prepare for it in specific, but half of being a batman is simply having good general spells prepared, good buffs and BC, and a way to GTFO.

This does nothing to the later abilities. Actually a batman is probably the best thing to take it out because they're most likely to have the varied spells not to rely on just one type it is immune to. That and its insane level of DR makes melee completely useless unless they have a means to deal damage as adamantine, cold iron, and silver all at once. I've seen it... it took an arcane hierophant to pull it off (although I think it was a magic item and 2 druid spells so didn't need to be a wizard for that one) on his familiar-companion.

[erikun]

Solid Fog + Necropolitan could easily deal with this thing, although learning what orbs to throw in what order would take some doing. Such a caster would only need to deal with Imperfect Immunity/Elemental Absorption if they didn't know, and Undetectable. If anything, this kills melee the worst, especially as you can't use divination to figure out what is going on with the changing DR.

[BladeofOblivion]

Actually, the point was for it to adapt to whatever hit it. If they were dumb enough to ditch all of their Silver Weapons, for example...
I forgot to mention that you can tell what metal it is made out of. That should be obvious to a seasoned warrior, even in a fight.

It is also worth noting that Construct Traits make it pretty much immune to Enchantment, Necromancy, the Offensive parts of Illusion, and a large number of assorted spells. Divination is rather useless against it, and all offensive uses of Transmutation backfire. Summons are pretty much worthless for damage, so Conjuration is stunted. Obviously you can teleport away, but given the nature of plot, it will find you again. You can't Scry and Fry it, you can't even know in advance if it will attack. It's the perfect paranoia fuel for a Batman Wizard that's been causing problems. The ironic part is that a Blasting Wizard that knows what he's doing stands a better chance in a fight due to the fact that he has direct damage spells prepared. It is intended to be a unique creature, and easily qualifies as a puzzle boss.

If it matters, I got the Idea from the MM3 Skindancer, just more Awesome. And more Retributive.

[erikun]

Well the issue isn't that it is a specific problem for Batman Wizards as much as it is a problem for everyone. The Blaster Wizard is no better against it than Batman unless you know the Imperfect Immunity ability, and if you do, then Batman deals with it as well as Blaster. Melee can deal with it if you know Reactive Exterior, although Batman will be better at buffing the party than Blaster even then.

Ultimately, this is something that you will need forethought and foreknowledge to take down. Your Wizard will be able to prepare, and thus Blaster Wizard isn't really any better than Batman Wizard. If anything, this favors the Psion and Warmage the most, as you can choose what energy type to attack it with, and will most likely have a power on hand to deal with it. Well, it favors them once you know how to attack it anyways.

[BladeofOblivion]

Or Archmage for that matter. As I said, It's a Test of the Mind. You have to adapt your Tactics or Die. The Batman Wizard's weakness is that he/she tends to be rather arrogant unless the DM throws stuff like this their way all the time. On top of that, while a blaster wizard is more likely to be aware that there are things they don't know, a Batman has used his Divination and has no reason at all to believe that this is any more than an Advanced Golem. His first action: Probably not something effective.

EDIT: You know, It just occurred to me that my Runeblade Class would have little Difficulty with this. Fighting this thing off should be an EPIC RITE OF PASSAGE for them!

[erikun]

Actually, what am I thinking? This thing has no SR. Grab any force spell and smack it down. The Cleric's 2nd level spell, Spiritual Weapon, combined with some form of flight or invisibility is all you will need. Wizards have Bigby's spells plus Mordenkainen's Sword, unless they are specialists who gave up Evocation.

[Zaydos]

Changing weapons in mid combat is a problem for melee characters though.

And yes I had an arcane hierophant whose familiar companion did damage as Silver, Cold Iron, and Adamantine at once. Other than that the only ways around it are still Conjuration based BC and direct damage spells (Force effects being choice here, either Manyjaws or Orb of Force, with some Melf's Unicorn Arrows thrown in as well).

I've seen a 17th level ultimate magus who could take it out before it took her out. And a 19th level arcane hierophant that would have no trouble with it even if he didn't know it was coming. His animal companion could charge, pounce, win.

Although I did figure out something better against it than a wizard. A warlock. Either using Flee the Seen or Fell Flight and Eldritch Spear they can kite it to death fairly easily.

Edit: Even if they gave up Evocation they can still get Orb of Force and Melf's Unicorn Arrows (spell based piercing damage which by RAW pierces any and all DR).

[BladeofOblivion]

Changing weapons in mid combat is a problem for melee characters though.
Not if they have Quick Draw. You're right though.

And yes I had an arcane hierophant whose familiar companion did damage as Silver, Cold Iron, and Adamantine at once. Other than that the only ways around it are still Conjuration based BC and direct damage spells (Force effects being choice here, either Manyjaws or Orb of Force, with some Melf's Unicorn Arrows thrown in as well).

I've seen a 17th level ultimate magus who could take it out before it took her out. And a 19th level arcane hierophant that would have no trouble with it even if he didn't know it was coming. His animal companion could charge, pounce, win.

I honestly don't know what to say to that.

Although I did figure out something better against it than a wizard. A warlock. Either using Flee the Scene or Fell Flight and Eldritch Spear they can kite it to death fairly easily.

Ah, Interesting. You have thought of a more effective tactic than abusing a Tier 1 Class. Using a Tier 4 Class, No Less! Heck, A warlock could just snipe it with a bunch of Eldritch Spears if he saw it coming. It doesn't have ranged attacks.

Edit: Even if they gave up Evocation they can still get Orb of Force and Melf's Unicorn Arrows (spell based piercing damage which by RAW pierces any and all DR).

Force Damage is broken anyway though. Magic missile is ok, but going higher than that is one of the things that gives Arcane Magic a bad name.


Responses in Bold.

On second thought, a Transmuter probably wouldn't bother with Disintegrate. He'd probably try to PAO it into a Mannequin or something. That would be awkward...

[erikun]

Quick Draw doesn't allow you to put the weapon away, though. The problem isn't bringing the weapon into play - it is taking your current weapon out of play, especially when you know you will need it later.

A Warlock with flight/blasting isn't that much different than a Wizard (or Sorcerer) with the same. You're more likely to find a Warlock capable of doing so than a Wizard with those specific spells prepared at any one time, though.

[Gorgondantess]

Step 1: lay down a grease spell.
Step 2: bombard with orbs of force, while your level 20 core melee class is easily doling out 200+ damage with each hit, or your level 20 initiator is ignoring the DR with mountain hammer. A buffer/battlefield control wizard would have no problem with this guy, and a batman would go to buffing/battlefield control because constructs are immune to so damn much and, hell, it might have magic immunity.
Also, shapechange still does the trick fine.

[Zaydos]

Quick draw only works for drawing weapons. Unless you carry enough for more than a round's worth of weapons it'll still be pretty tough. Especially if you aren't especially prepared for it and don't know its abilities before hand. This means you'll waste at least one attack during the fight and then have to start switching. Assuming a Shock Trooper + Leap Attack build you still might kill it with 3 hits... but then you're unlikely to have Quick Draw.

Although Gorgondantess is right about mountain hammer. A ToB character will make quick enough work out of this beastie because of its low AC, hp, and Attack bonus.

And my arcane hierophant example used low level spells and an 8,500 GP item (although I do think one of the spells was from Dragon Magazine). He actually could have done that from a (much) lower level as long as his Animal Companion remained powerful enough to survive the melee. Which with it's relatively low attack bonus (and why does it have iterative attacks with its natural weapons) wouldn't have been too hard several levels earlier.

[BladeofOblivion]

Maybe I should give it an Intelligence score and make it take improved toughness a few times...

[Zaydos]

Assuming it took Improved Toughness 7 times...

It would still be mauled to death by the animal companion.

The arcane hierophant himself would have some trouble, he didn't prepare orb of force often enough. He also had an electricity theme so didn't prepare all types of energy damage (an intentional power limitation). Also primarily stuck to buffing the other PCs and defensive buffs. Could distract it long enough to allow an ally to fetch some non-magical weapons of various materials... that is ignoring his animal companion that he spent almost half his resources on.

The ultimate magus would not be able to do it alone, except that she still has dimension door to keep out of melee range and enough castings of "I hit your touch AC, you die" spells to take it out.

Warlock can still kite it.

Warblade can still beat it although it'll take longer (~8 rounds). It's low attack bonus still means it'll probably not hit.

The blaster Ardent could just nuke it still, would only take a little bit to figure out about its energy resistances and with dimension hop could still stay out of range.

The pure blaster bronze dragon themed sorcerer would be rather screwed against it. He was a cohort built around using lightning spells so anything immune to electricity kind of beat him bad.

The heal-bot cleric would lose miserably... because he's a heal-bot not meant for battle. Thankfully he wasn't there usually.

The dwarf cohort... lose. Unoptimized melee doesn't win much anyway.

The rust dragon cohort would... lose unless it was decreed vulnerable to rust.

The unoptimized Knight: would again lose rather hard.

The unoptimized ninja/shaman: would also lose rather hard.

And yes battles were long and drawn out affairs.

So no this really does a better job of beating melee down extra hard than stopping mages.

tl;dr: Adding hp makes it take longer for a character to kill, but a well prepared batman will still be able to beat it and then rest with Rope Trick or a well built blaster blast it. The problem isn't in its hp, but in that it really has no offense, or defense other than "I'm immune to direct damage and transmutation."

[PairO'Dice Lost]

One note: Undetectable as written doesn't do anything against contact other plane, augury, or other spells of that sort, since "What sorts of creatures will I face in the coming week?" and "Is lobbing an orb of force at the next construct I see a good idea?" and the like aren't detecting anything. Since it's those open-ended divinations that give a Batman wizard real time to prepare, that ability doesn't help much.

Also, what's to stop a God wizard (the team-buffing build rather than the crazy-prepared build) from simply turning the party beatstick into one of these or shapechanging into one himself?

[BladeofOblivion]

It's Unique. That's like using shapechange to transform into a 30th level fighter. You can't. Also, I like the god wizard. It's different from the Batman wizard in that it ensures that the entire party is participating. The Batman Wizard tends to Nova or use general Overkill and take all the Glory.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

It's Unique. That's like using shapechange to transform into a 30th level fighter. You can't.

It never says anything about being unique, so you might want to put that in there; "it was created by a rogue wizard" can easily mean its type was created, or it was the first of its kind, or whatever. Secondly...if it's unique, why the heck would the wizard do anything about it when he could simply avoid this singular creature? Try a spell, it backfires, try a second spell, it fails, notice it's not a threat in the slightest, leave or go around. If there were a bunch of them protecting the BBEG, sure you'd want to figure out how to take them out, but if there's only one he can just planar bind a bunch of beefy outsiders and have them beat it up.


Also, I like the god wizard. It's different from the Batman wizard in that it ensures that the entire party is participating. The Batman Wizard tends to Nova or use general Overkill and take all the Glory.

"Batman wizards" aren't glory-seeking nova-spamming wizards, they're wizards with a tool for every situation. Yes, that tool tends to be good battlefield control, but that tool can also be buffing party members, and it's almost never a nova, since that reduces preparedness for later encounters.

[BladeofOblivion]

I've seen 'em Nova. They just rope trick after so they can regain their spells. Anyway, the organization line says Solitary(Unique)