Fiendish Hawk Nest (D&D 3.5 P.E.A.C.H.)

[AugustNights]

Fiendish Hawk Nest
How these curious plants come into existence is a matter of some debate. Some believe that these small warped plants are cultivated by both demons and devils in order to produce effective quick transports of small scout-like birds. Others think these "nests" are formerly natural plants that were infected by some sort of foul fungus from the lower planes. Popular belief is that these are simply a crude form of teleportation-device built using natural materials. Regardless of how they came into being, these sluggish plants have a large hallow bulb that seems to produce an endless supply of fiendish hawks.
Some who study such curiosities have mentioned rumors that even more powerful fiends can be summoned through similar more powerful plants.

Goal
Hello all, I'm working on a Diablo II based game, using the Diablarie and To Hell and Back books. I notice that they hand-waved the Blood-Hawk Nest Monster away as a fluff part of the blood-hawks, and I wanted to use the actual monsters. So I've whipped up these stat-blocks. I'm not so good with eyeballing Monster CR, so any help with that would be excellent.
In theory I'd like this monster to be as viable in this setting as any-other, so I'm making it generic D&D stats with no reference to the obscure Blizzard/WotC books.

(P.)E.A.C.H.(ing) appreciated

Fiendish Hawk Nest
Large Plant (Extraplanar, Evil)
Hit Dice: 4d8+24 (42 hp)
Speed: 5 ft. (1 square)
Initiative: -4
Armor Class: 11 (-1 size,-4 dex, +6 natural), touch 5, flat-footed 11
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+7
Standard Attack: —
Full-Attack: —
Space: 10 ft./—
Special Attacks: Conjure Fiendish Hawk
Special Qualities: Blindsight 15 ft., Mindless, Plant traits.
Saves: Fort +10, Ref -3, Will +2
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 3, Con 23, Int Ø, Wis 13, Cha 9
Skills: —
Feats: —
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary, Grove (2-5), or Orchard (6-12)
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: 1/10th coins; 50% goods; 50% items
Alignment: Always Neutral Evil
Advancement*: 5-7 HD (Large) 8-14 HD (Huge).
Level Adjustment —

Combat
A Fiendish Hawk Nest remains relatively dormant until a creature moves into it's range of Blindsight, where upon it begins conjuring fiendish hawks that attack with no regard to self-preservation.

Conjure Fiendish Hawk (Su)
Once per 1d4+1 rounds the Fiendish Hawk Nest may summon 1d3 fiendish (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/fiendishCreature.htm) hawks (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/hawk.htm) into being as a Standard Action. The Fiendish Hawk Nest may summon a total of 10 such hawks at any given time. These fiendish hawks remain for a total of 10 rounds. This supernatural ability otherwise functions as the Summon Monster II (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/summonMonsterII.htm) spell.

HD Advancement
As a Fiendish Hawk Nest gains Plant HD, the power of its Conjure Fiendish Hawk supernatural ability increases.
At 5 HD the Fiendish Hawk Nest summons Fiendish (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/fiendishCreature.htm) Eagles (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/eagle.htm).
At 8 HD the Fiendish Hawk Nest summons Fiendish (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/fiendishCreature.htm) Dire Bats (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/direBat.htm).
At 11 HD the Fiendish Hawk Nest summons Fiendish (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/fiendishCreature.htm) Giant Wasps (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/giantWasp.htm).

Notes
For a majority of this monster's stat-block I've used the Assassin Vine (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/assassinVine.htm) as a guide.
I notice some monster entries can lack attacks, but usually it's tiny animals such as as the toad (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/toad.htm).
I am shooting for no more than CR 2. If I need to reduce the Hit Dice or anything similar while maintaining the Summon Effect, that would be great.

Added in a summon progression for HD advancement, not sure if it matches with CR progression of Plant Type HD.

Altered wording from "calls" to "summons." Also reduced summon time from 10 minutes to 10 rounds.

[TuggyNE]

How these curious living-plants come into existence is a matter of some debate. […] Others think these "nests" are formally natural plants that were infected by some sort of foul fungus from the lower planes. […] Regardless of how they came into being, these sluggish plants have a large hallow bulb that seems to produce an endless supply of fiendish hawks.

Struck through should be formerly, hollow. Not sure what you mean by the underlined phrase; all plants are living, even those that aren't creatures.

Stat block is fine.


Conjure Fiendish Hawk (Su)
Once per 1d4+1 rounds the Fiendish Hawk Nest may call 1d4-1 Fiendish Hawks into being as a Standard Action. The Fiendish Hawk Nest may call a total of no more than 10 total such hawks. These Fiendish Hawks remain for a total of 10 minutes. This otherwise functions as the Summon Monster I (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/summonMonsterI.htm) spell.

Two changes I'd make; one is to clarify that the cap on total hawks summoned is at any one time, not for all time. The other, less significant, is to call it the equivalent of SMIII (given the considerably higher power involved). Probably doesn't matter for almost any purposes, but one never knows.

CR is probably fine.

[AugustNights]

Add recommended changes.
Thanks tuggyne.

[Debihuman]

Advancement is weird. Should probably be 5-7 HD (Large) 8-14 HD (Huge). Any bigger and they just become a big target for ranged attacks and spells since they don't get any better at summoning fiendish hawks at higher HD.

The problem is that the plant itself is more of hazard while the real threat is the fiendish hawks it creates. The plant itself has no attacks and no defenses so killing it would be extremely easy. Avoiding the fiendish hawks is the only real concern.

Debby

[Doorhandle]

Advancement is weird. Should probably be 5-7 HD (Large) 8-14 HD (Huge). Any bigger and they just become a big target for ranged attacks and spells since they don't get any better at summoning fiendish hawks at higher HD.

The problem is that the plant itself is more of hazard while the real threat is the fiendish hawks it creates. The plant itself has no attacks and no defenses so killing it would be extremely easy. Avoiding the fiendish hawks is the only real concern.

Debby

That is much how it is in the games, however.
Maybe mention that the summons, too, become stronger past a certain amount of H.D?

[Debihuman]

The problem is that fiendish hawks are very low level monsters. Even a lot of them doesn't present a problem at higher levels. Scaling them with HD would be better, but an encounter with a 33 HD plant with no attacks other than a huge number of fiendish hawks is doomed to be a boring encounter. Do you really want to roll for 33 fiendish hawks ever?

If you don't scale the fiendish hawks, then a 33 HD plant with a few fiendish hawks makes it easy for the party to ignore the hawks altogether since the hawks don't do much damage and will probably fail to hit the party's fighter if the fighter has any decent armor. At low levels, the hawks are an actual threat; at higher levels, they're just a nuisance.

The plant is a one trick pony. Once the PCs can get around that, they'll win because the plant has nothing else. If the party can't figure it out, then the plant wins by winnowing down the PCs until they retreat or die. In either case, 50 rounds of combat or more is just freaking tedious.

Here is a fiendish hawk stats. The smite attack does +1 point of damage.

Fiendish Hawk
Tiny Magical Beast (Extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 1d8 (4 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), fly 60 ft. (average)
Armor Class: 17 (+2 size, +3 Dex, +2 natural), touch 15, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/–10
Attack: Talons +5 melee (1d4–2)
Full Attack: Talons +5 melee (1d4–2)
Space/Reach: 2-1/2 ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Smite Good 1/day
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, Darkvision 60 ft., Resistance to cold and fire 5, Spell resistance 6
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +2
Abilities: Str 6, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 3, Wis 14, Cha 6
Skills:Listen +4, Spot +16
Feats:Alertness, Weapon FinesseB
Environment: Temperate forests in an evil-aligned plane
Organization: Solitary or pair
Challenge Rating: 1/3
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always evil (any)
Advancement: —
Level Adjustment: —
These creatures are similar to eagles but slightly smaller: 1 to 2 feet long, with wingspans of 6 feet or less.

COMBAT

Smite Good (Su): Once per day a fiendish hawk can make a normal melee attack to deal extra damage equal to its HD total against a single foe. Fiendish hawks combine both talons into a single attack.

Skills: Fiendish hawks have a +8 racial bonus on Spot checks.

Debby

[AugustNights]

Debihuman: Excellent Points, I have reduced HD advancement and provided a Summon Progression for HD advancement. Note certain on the CRs.

[Dracomortis]

If you have access to Monster Manual II, the dire hawk (base CR 2) would make a good replacement for the dire bat.

[Debihuman]

I would vote for Dire Hawk over Dire Bat. Then the progression would be Fiendish Hawk, Dire Hawk, Fiendish Dire Hawk. It's just a matter of adding the templates. Probably at 5th HD and 8th HD.

You forgot to note the caster level of the fiendish hawk nest for its summon ability. 10 minutes is far too long for the amount of time the summoned creatures stick around. I recommend reducing it to 10 rounds. Combat really shouldn't be lasting longer than 10 rounds. These should be summoned creatures not called creatures. There is a difference between the terms.


A calling spell transports a creature from another plane to the plane you are on. The spell grants the creature the one-time ability to return to its plane of origin, although the spell may limit the circumstances under which this is possible. Creatures who are called actually die when they are killed; they do not disappear and reform, as do those brought by a summoning spell (see below). The duration of a calling spell is instantaneous, which means that the called creature can’t be dispelled.

A summoning spell instantly brings a creature or object to a place you designate. When the spell ends or is dispelled, a summoned creature is instantly sent back to where it came from, but a summoned object is not sent back unless the spell description specifically indicates this. A summoned creature also goes away if it is killed or if its hit points drop to 0 or lower. It is not really dead. It takes 24 hours for the creature to reform, during which time it can’t be summoned again.

When the spell that summoned a creature ends and the creature disappears, all the spells it has cast expire. A summoned creature cannot use any innate summoning abilities it may have, and it refuses to cast any spells that would cost it XP, or to use any spell-like abilities that would cost XP if they were spells.

Your stat block is missing feats and skills. It looks as if the nest shouldn't have either, but the lines should indicate that. See my stat block as an example.

The dire hawk 3.5 (rather than MM 2 which is 3.0) appears in Races of the Wild page 189. That's the version that should be used.



Debby

[AugustNights]

Thanks for the follow-up critique, Debby. And thank you Dracomortis, for the input.

I've altered the wording to use "summon" rather than "call" and reduced the casting time from 10 minutes to 10 rounds.

Do you know why this srd left out the feat and skill entries for the assassin vine (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/assassinVine.htm)? Mistake, or is that the way it's written in the Monster Manual? Anyhow, I added the feats and skills with dashes following to the stat-block.

Caster level for a supernatural ability unless otherwise noted is equal to the HD of the monster. If the "otherwise functions" text following the description is confusing, I'll alter it.

Alternate summon suggestions might be used for individual games, but I prefer to keep my homebrew as widely accessible as possible. And thus use as few non-srd references as possible.

Thanks again.

[Dracomortis]

Do you know why this srd left out the feat and skill entries for the assassin vine (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/assassinVine.htm)? Mistake, or is that the way it's written in the Monster Manual? Anyhow, I added the feats and skills with dashes following to the stat-block.

Looking through the Monster Manual, it's actually quite inconsistent about whether mindless creatures have a Skill and/or Feat entry in their statblock. The assassin vine has neither, the skeleton (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/skeleton.htm) entries have a Feat section but no Skills, and oozes (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/ooze.htm), zombies (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/zombie.htm), and everything in the vermin chapter have both.

I'd say including both entries is still preferable, just so that it's clear that the creature actually has neither Skills nor Feats (as opposed to, say, those entries were just accidentally omitted).