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kinem
2014-07-26, 04:49 PM
Mezzoloth (revised)

Medium Outsider (Evil, Extraplanar, Yugoloth)
Hit Dice: 10d8+50 (95 hp)
Initiative: +5
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 21 (+1 Dex, +8 natural, +2 heavy steel shield), touch 11, flat-footed 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +10/+13
Attack: Claw +13 melee (1d4+3) or +1 trident +15 melee (1d8+5/19–20) or +1 trident +13 ranged (1d8+4/19–20)
Full Attack: 3 claws +13 melee (1d4+3) or without shield 4 claws +13 melee (1d4+3)
or two-handed +1 trident +15/+10 melee (1d8+4/19–20) and claw +11 melee (1d4+3)
or +1 trident +15/+10 melee (1d8+4/19–20) and 2 claws +11 melee (1d4+3)
or without shield +1 trident +15/+10 melee (1d8+4/19–20) and 3 claws +11 melee (1d4+3)
or without shield two-handed +1 trident +15/+10 melee (1d8+5/19–20) and 2 claws +11 melee (1d4+3)
or +1 trident +13 ranged (1d8+4/19–20)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities, summon yugoloth, four-armed
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/good, glowing eyes, immunity to poison and acid, resistance to cold 10, fire 10, and electricity 10, spell resistance 22, telepathy 100 ft.
Saves: Fort +12, Ref +8, Will +7
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 12, Con 21, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 14
Skills: Concentration +18, Hide +14, Intimidate +15, Knowledge (the planes) +12, Listen +13, Move Silently +14, Spot +13
Feats: Improved Critical (trident), Improved Initiative, Multiattack [B], Power Attack, Weapon Focus (trident), Quicken Spell-like Ability [B] (true strike 3/day)
Environment: Any land and underground (Gehenna)
Organization: Solitary, squad (3–8), or platoon (10–18 plus 1 ultroloth)
Challenge Rating: 8
Treasure: Standard plus +1 trident
Alignment: Always neutral evil
Advancement: 11–18 HD (Medium); 19–24 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: +5

A mezzoloth looks like a human-sized insect with heavy chitin and four limbs tipped with sharp claws. When arrayed for battle, mezzoloths wield tridents and carry shields. A mezzoloth stands 7 feet tall and weighs 250 pounds.

Mezzoloths are the most common foot soldiers in the yugoloth armies. Most understand little beyond combat, but their skill in battle is fearsome. A few exceptional individuals hone their skills well beyond those typical of the race, and these often gain positions of leadership either among their own kind or elsewhere.

Mezzoloths speak Abyssal, Draconic, and Infernal.

COMBAT
Against other fiends or other creature normally immune to poison, they always use supernatural venom before using cloudkill, and then attack with lesser orbs of sound. Against creatures not likely to be immune to poison, their tactics are different: they don't use supernatural venom, just cast cloudkill, and then can charge in for melee. If the battle is going poorly, mezzoloths use greater teleport to make a getaway. Their tactics are similar in a large army battle. Squads of trident-wielding mezzoloths are the backbone of a yugoloth force. A mezzoloth’s natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are treated as evil-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Four-armed (Ex): A mezzoloth can simultaneously use each of its arms to make a claw attack, attack using a weapon, or hold a shield. Only one held weapon can make iterative attacks during a full attack.

Glowing eyes (Ex): A mezzoloth can cause its wide-set eyes to glow red as a free action. This gives it a +2 morale bonus on intimidate checks, but a -5 circumstance penalty on hide and spot checks, or -10 in very dark conditions. It sheds dim illumination in a 5' radius. It is rumored that the glowing eyes indicate anger, but actually this ability is completely under the mezzoloth's voluntary control.

Spell-Like Abilities: At will — darkness, produce flame, see invisibility, true strike;
2/day — cloudkill (DC 17), dispel magic, fear (DC 16), greater teleport (self plus 50 pounds of objects only), lesser orb of sound (+11 ranged touch, 5d6, 50' range, no SR), supernatural venom (see fiend-related new magic (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?361850-Fiend-related-new-magic-PEACH)).

Summon Yugoloth (Ex): Once per day, a mezzoloth can attempt to summon another mezzoloth with a 40% chance of success.

Advancement: Increase SR by 1 for each class level, and by 1 for every 2 racial HD above 10.

kinem
2014-07-26, 04:54 PM
Design notes:

Compared to the MM3 version, I made it more capable of doing its main job: fighting other fiends.

Glowing eyes is a pet peeve of mine, but I managed to incorporate it in a way that isn't totally stupid. It has to be voluntary, because of the penalties to hide and spot; and it has to impose those penalties, because glowing eyes.

If it has four arms, it ought to be able to use 'em.

MrNobody
2014-07-28, 05:04 AM
I really liked how you improved the Mezzoloth, especially on the "four arms" side. You also did a great work making explicit every combination of attacks that he can make.

Since you said you wanted to make it better in fighting other fiends, you could consider adding a special ability that can help the mezzoloth overcome their damage reduction, like their claws being considered good aligned (Hypocritical claws???) on purpose of overcoming DR.
Another idea i had in this regard, given the fact that yugoloths fights in both sides of the Blood war, you could use an adaptative ability like "every time a mezzoloth hits and damages with his claws attack an outsider with the "evil" subtype, all his claw become attuned to that creature physical form and can automatically overcome its DR" giving the mezzoloth maybe a swift or move action to dismiss a particular attuning so he can harmonize to another enemy.

kinem
2014-07-28, 05:44 PM
Thanks.

True strike was supposed to help it overcome DR, though I realized it needed some improvement, so I just gave it Quicken SLA (true strike) as a bonus feat, and increased its Int to get skill points to put into Concentration.

I don't think they should bypass DR X/good; that should be a rare and prestigious ability. My Currumpo (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?362020-Currumpo-PEACH) can bypass DR, which helps make that fiend more prestigious :)

MrNobody
2014-07-28, 06:02 PM
Mmm i see your point about the "prestigious ability" but i don’t really think that true Strike will help with damage reduction Since it improves the attack roll, not the damage roll. Maybe you could use a quickened magic fang or a similar spell that enhance damage, that’s what i think you need. The claws of your monster have an average of 5 point of damage and the problem.is that even imps and quasits have 5 points of DR.

Debihuman
2014-07-28, 06:35 PM
Oooh shiny! I really like how did these. Kudos on giving it the attack options and giving it multiweapon feat was a good idea. Like the marilith, this creature needs this line:

Feats: In combination with its natural abilities, a mezzoloth’s Multiweapon Fighting feat allows it to attack with all its arms at no penalty. It should probably gain this from having four arms but you have no text on that ability.

That means it doesn't take any penalties for using a weapon and a shield. And it can use a shield bash in conjunction with the attacks listed as a secondary weapon.

Also, you forgot the word "heavy" in the AC line regarding the shield. That matters because it can use the shield to bash and that affects the damage the shield can do in a bash. Shields are either light or heavy in 3.5. Note the official errata for this includes the following:
Page 201: Yugoloth, Mezzoloth
Changes to the stat block for the mezzoloth:
Armor Class: 21 (+1 Dex, +8 natural, +2 heavy steel shield), touch 11, flat-footed 20
Skills: Hide +12, Move Silently +12

I always think it's a shame they didn't include the shield bash as a viable attack.

BTW, damage bonus in trident's attack line should be +4 not +5.


Shield Bash Attacks
You can bash an opponent with a light shield or heavy shield, using it as an off-hand weapon. See Table: Weapons for the damage dealt by a shield bash. Used this way, a shield is a martial bludgeoning weapon. For the purpose of penalties on attack rolls, treat a heavy shield as a one-handed weapon and a light shield as a light weapon. If you use your shield as a weapon, you lose its AC bonus until your next action (usually until the next round). An enhancement bonus on a shield does not improve the effectiveness of a shield bash made with it, but the shield can be made into a magic weapon in its own right.

This makes a difference to the damage it can do with a shield bash. Tridents are two-handed weapons so you don't really have to mention it in the attack lines. To simplify what attacks can be made as FULL attacks here is how it looks. Attack options can always include using the shield defensively but they're generally not noted in the Full Attack line. It cannot use its shield when attacking with all four claws and when attacking with trident and 2 claws. It would need a 5th claw!

Full attack: 4 claws +13 melee (1d4+3) or 3 claws +13 melee (1d4+3) and shield bash +8 melee (1d6+1) or +1 Trident +15/+10 melee (1d8+4/19–20) and 2 claws +13 melee (1d4+3) or +1 Trident +15/+10 melee (1d8+4/19–20) and claw +13 melee (1d4+3) and shield bash +8 melee (1d6+1) or +1 trident +13 ranged (1d8+4/19–20)

BTW the DC in magic items are this: Magic items produce spells or spell-like effects. For a saving throw against a spell or spell-like effect from a magic item, the DC is 10 + the level of the spell or effect + the ability modifier of the minimum ability score needed to cast that level of spell. The minimum ability to cast a spell is 10+ spell level.

Debby

kinem
2014-07-29, 11:22 PM
MrNobody: With Power Attack, improving the attack roll is effectively the same as improving the damage roll. First soften up the enemy with the ranged attacks. For the first 3 rounds of melee, use quickened true strike, and then alternate between casting it and attacking. Power attack for -10 to hit, so you have a net gain of +10 to hit with TS, for a first attack of +25 melee, 1d8+25 damage with a two-handed grip. Against DR 10/good, that's 1d8+15 damage. The second attack with the trident will be at +0 melee, but if by chance it hits, that's another dose of the same. The claw is +3 melee, 1d4+13 (- 10 for DR) = 1d4+3. It feels ... grittier than just bypassing DR :) If the mezzoloth's own DR can't keep in in the fight that long, it's probably just overmatched.

Debi: Thanks. Good idea on the feat, I did that.

Shield bashes are not frequently used and I don't think it's worth putting that in the stat block. A DM can figure it out if need be.

A trident sounds like a big, heavy weapon, but actually it's a one-handed weapon. It can still be used in a two-handed grip, and when it is, it's 1d8 +5 damage (1.5 x Str bonus = +4.5 rounded to +4, +1 magic).

Debihuman
2014-07-30, 01:06 AM
From the picture and text in MM 3, it looks like the mezzoloths wield them two handed. And I missed this part of the rules as well: "If a one-handed weapon is wielded with two hands during melee combat, add 1½ times the character’s Strength bonus to damage rolls."

Back to the drawing board. I would keep them using a trident with 2 hands rather than allowing them to attack with 4 tridents!
Debby

kinem
2014-07-30, 10:46 AM
On second thought allowing them to attack with all hands at no penalty was too strong, so I took it out.

Debihuman
2014-07-30, 12:16 PM
Claws as secondary natural weapons now are at +8 melee to attack since they don't benefit from multiweapon. It would need multiattack to get +11. It's only using one weapon but this gives it the option to use a shield bash, buts its claws are always secondary attacks when using a manufactured weapon. It still takes a penalty for shield bashing but at -2 for trident and -6 for shield instead of -6 for trident and -10 for shield.

Full Attack: 4 claws +13 melee (1d4+3), or two-handed +1 trident +15/+10 melee (1d8+5/19–20) and 2 claws +8 melee (1d4+1), or one-handed +1 trident +13/+8 melee (1d8+4/19–20) and 3 claws +8 melee (1d4+1), or 3 claws + 13 melee (1d4+3) [with shield], or two-handed +1 trident +15/+10 melee (1d8+5/19-20) and claw +8 melee (1d4+1) [with shield], or one-handed +1 trident +13/+8 melee (1d8+4/19-20) and 2 claws +8 melee (1d4+1) [with shield] or +1 trident +13 ranged (1d8+4/19–20)

Debby

kinem
2014-07-30, 05:09 PM
In that case it is Multiattack that it should have, so I changed it to that. Thanks.