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Golden-Esque
2011-04-17, 11:29 AM
The Gradual Life and Death Override System. It was my greatest invention ever, born completely out of necessity. My daughter, Gene, she was dying. There was nothing else I could do for her. Not now. Perhaps if I had better equipment, better contacts, more time; perhaps then I wouldn't have been reduced to such a desperate measure. But I had none of those things.

What I did have was the power of Alchemical Science. My prowess is renowned. If anyone was qualified to save my daughter's life, I was. I gave Gene every pain killer Alchemy could offer her as I carefully removed her brain and tied it in to my latest creation's mainframe. I waited countless hours for the results, for the synopsis leylines to take hold. And it worked.

But not like I had hoped. The chemicals in the brain's vat; they were producing untold effects. I had wanted them to preserve my daughter; preserve her beautiful mind, her memories. It looked like this would not be the case ....


"And believe me I am still alive.
I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
I feel FANTASTIC and I'm still alive.
While you're dying I'll be still alive.
And when you're dead I will be still alive."

http://images.wikia.com/half-life/en/images/3/33/Glados_concept2.jpg

I'm working on a dungeon based off of the Canadian movie, Cube, and Portal for my players. I'm going to call it "Fun with Science!" :) Of course, there's only one homicidal AI that could have possibly be qualified to be the dungeon's antagonist, and for that, I took an Alchemical Golem and altered its stats to form the Gradual Life and Death Override System. I present this monster in PDF format for you, Mad Scientists of the Playground, to P.E.A.C.H.. Enjoy!

And remember ... the cake is a lie.

Gradual Life and Death Override System (https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxkdW1wYnVja2V0ZG5kfGd4OjQ2 ZGI2MzhlZDUzNGI0ZDk)

Updates:

1. GLaDOS and her limbs are now covered in Adamantine plates. In addition to providing an actual source for her Damage Reduction, the plates grant GLaDOs a +8 armor bonus to AC (increasing her AC to 29) and her limbs a +6 armor bonus to AC (increasing their AC to 26). Also, GLaDOS and her limbs's damage reduction can no longer be overcome by bludgeoning weapons.

2. GLaDOS remembered that she gets feats for her Construct hit dice! She now has the following feats in addition to her previous ones: Extra Discovery (precise bombs), Iron Will, Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Skill Focus (bluff), and Toughness.

3. GLaDOS's sonic bombs are a bit more deadly now. Their damage has been increased to 8d4 points of damage.

4. GLaDOS learned how to use the Blur extract. Talk about fun ... with Science!

arguskos
2011-04-17, 11:30 AM
Broken link is broken.

Golden-Esque
2011-04-17, 11:36 AM
Broken link is broken.

Just noticed that myself and fixed it.

Kamai
2011-04-17, 03:27 PM
First Thoughts:
1. Her AC seems very low for not having any ways to move compared say to the iron golem. The iron Golem is meant to be in melee, but at the same time, Glados will be forced into melee. Alternatively, she might want blur as one or two of her second level extracts.

2. The concussive bomb should be changed to 8d4, to make it scale with the rest of her bombs, or given a much nastier effect, like stun for 1d4 rounds direct 1 splash [Fort negates]. I know what you have there is the alchemist's concussive bomb, but it's just not that big of a deal for her main attack.

3. It seems weird that immovable makes her immune to steal, disarm, and sunder.

4. You're also missing all of your construct feats. The no feat restriction on a normal construct is because it's mindless.

5. At 13 hp, the limbs are going to go down extremely quickly, leaving her with just the thrown bombs, that will provoke AoO against her low AC.

Edit: 6. If these are the alchemist bombs, you're forgetting to add her Intelligence modifier to their damage.

I'd want to test it to make sure, but I'm not sure if this would make a high stakes challenge against a level 8-9 party.

Golden-Esque
2011-04-17, 03:49 PM
1. Her AC seems very low for not having any ways to move compared say to the iron golem. The iron Golem is meant to be in melee, but at the same time, Glados will be forced into melee. Alternatively, she might want blur as one or two of her second level extracts.

She needs to have some way of actually beating her. Plus she does have Damage Reduction 10 in addition to being immune to most types of magic, which is very nasty.


2. The concussive bomb should be changed to 8d4, to make it scale with the rest of her bombs, or given a much nastier effect, like stun for 1d4 rounds direct 1 splash [Fort negates]. I know what you have there is the alchemist's concussive bomb, but it's just not that big of a deal for her main attack.

I was thinking about scaling up Concussive Bomb, but that does leave Explosive Bomb being a tad underwhelming as well. What do you think of that?


3. It seems weird that immovable makes her immune to steal, disarm, and sunder.

I thought about Steal, and her body doesn't have anything you could steal or disarm her of in the first place, so it seemed silly to make a clause for the Steal maneuver. Sunder I hadn't thought of, but since she has no weapons to sunder, I'm not sure how sunder would effect her. Suggestions are welcome.


4. You're also missing all of your construct feats. The no feat restriction on a normal construct is because it's mindless.

True, I hadn't thought about the feats for levels of Construct.


5. At 13 hp, the limbs are going to go down extremely quickly, leaving her with just the thrown bombs, that will provoke AoO against her low AC. The limbs possess GLaDOS's damage reduction, as per the line that states they inherit GLaDOS's statistics. I agree that they could use more hit points, though. Perhaps I'll bump them up to 1/5 of GLaDOS's HP (about 26 hp each).


Edit: 6. If these are the alchemist bombs, you're forgetting to add her Intelligence modifier to their damage.

The bombs listed use the Alchemical Golem's rules for throwing bombs instead of the Alchemist's. Since the Alchemical Golem has an unlimited number of bombs per day, it seemed like a fair trade-off to not grant them that rule.


I'd want to test it to make sure, but I'm not sure if this would make a high stakes challenge against a level 8-9 party.

Hrm, that's about where I'd want to place it too. Do you think the CR 12 is warranted? Or should it be lower? What changes would you make to boost it?

Golden-Esque
2011-04-17, 04:14 PM
Updates to GLaDOS:

1. GLaDOS and her limbs are now covered in Adamantine plates. In addition to providing an actual source for her Damage Reduction, the plates grant GLaDOs a +8 armor bonus to AC (increasing her AC to 29) and her limbs a +6 armor bonus to AC (increasing their AC to 26). Also, GLaDOS and her limbs's damage reduction can no longer be overcome by bludgeoning weapons.

2. GLaDOS remembered that she gets feats for her Construct hit dice! She now has the following feats in addition to her previous ones: Extra Discovery (precise bombs), Iron Will, Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Skill Focus (bluff), and Toughness.

3. GLaDOS's sonic bombs are a bit more deadly now. Their damage has been increased to 8d4 points of damage.

4. GLaDOS learned how to use the Blur extract. Talk about fun ... with Science!

Kamai
2011-04-17, 05:09 PM
She needs to have some way of actually beating her. Plus she does have Damage Reduction 10 in addition to being immune to most types of magic, which is very nasty.

29 AC looks just about right given sensible numbers for to-hit.




I was thinking about scaling up Concussive Bomb, but that does leave Explosive Bomb being a tad underwhelming as well. What do you think of that?

The interesting part of explosive bomb from the alchemist that you forgot is the double splash radius. A 20-ft radius of fire might do the trick.


I thought about Steal, and her body doesn't have anything you could steal or disarm her of in the first place, so it seemed silly to make a clause for the Steal maneuver. Sunder I hadn't thought of, but since she has no weapons to sunder, I'm not sure how sunder would effect her. Suggestions are welcome.

My first thought was getting at the bombs, but I don't know if that makes sense for how you intend it to be made. Also, why can't Glados theoretically be grappled?


The bombs listed use the Alchemical Golem's rules for throwing bombs instead of the Alchemist's. Since the Alchemical Golem has an unlimited number of bombs per day, it seemed like a fair trade-off to not grant them that rule.

On that note, you don't have how much splash damage is listed, nor do you have a reference to the alchemical golem. I had assumed that she borrowed this ability from the alchemist's bombs and modified it. I guess too, that the bombs hit harder than the alchemist's already, and basically auto-hit anyone who isn't using miss chance.


The limbs possess GLaDOS's damage reduction, as per the line that states they inherit GLaDOS's statistics. I agree that they could use more hit points, though. Perhaps I'll bump them up to 1/5 of GLaDOS's HP (about 26 hp each).

This looks like a good change.


Hrm, that's about where I'd want to place it too. Do you think the CR 12 is warranted? Or should it be lower? What changes would you make to boost it?

A look at page 291 of the Beastiary gives some sensible numbers. Glados averages 28 damage with a bomb, and each arm averages 22 damage. This seems like it throws damage off the chart except for the drawback of the arm's low hp. The Bomb DCs are extremely high, and it's saves are rather low [and are probably off because of the alchemist levels]. The limbs will either tear a melee person to shreds, or just cry as an archer picks them off. The immunity to magic is a pain for the casters, as long as some of the splatbook spells [like the orbs, and sonic versions of fireball and lightning bolt] don't exist.

In general, I would tone down the limbs. Either make them much less accurate or less damaging. Give Glados herself some more defenses, maybe by having Blur as an extract, or by her mists acting as an aura of slow [sleep gas] [though this isn't as necessary now because of the change to her AC]. Force her to choose between limb shredding or 2 thrown bombs or maybe 2 limbs and 1 bomb, and the aura of slow should make the later part of the fight less painful when she won't be able to attack without taking attacks of opportunity, while still making her rather beatable (and making rogues cry less). If there are archers, or the orbs exist in your game, she'll probably need favorable terrain or better defenses to be an actual CR 12.

Golden-Esque
2011-04-17, 09:01 PM
Update:
Found an error in calculating GLaDOS's hp. It has been reduced to 127, which in turn lowers her limb's HP to 25.

Found an error in calculating GLaDOS's saving throws. It has been corrected, and her saves are as follows: Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +11.

Found an error in calculating GLaDOS's bomb DC. They are now correctly listed as DC 27. Yeah, you're still screwed.

Clarified that a save against Concussive bomb halves the damage taken.

GLaDOS gained the Rapid Fire extraordinary ability. She can now forgo any actions made by one of her limbs in order to throw an additional bomb on her turn.

Fixed some leftover formatting errors on the GLaDOS limbs. Strength has been correctly reset to 27 (it originally had a +8 as if it were Huge). The limb's melee attack to hit, to damage, and CMB/CMD have been updated to reflect this. In addition, the limb's damage has been reduced to d8 to reflect the fact that the limb is not a Huge creature.

Next on my list, I'm working on the special abilities in her room that GLaDOS can activate. GLaDOS fights the enemy party in a specifically designed room. She can now forgo her limbs actions or her own actions to activate the powers of the combat chamber, as described in her entry (which should be soon). You can see the brainstorming ideas on the current file.