"Science Team believes the Metroids can be tamed..." [MONSTER]

[Proven_Paradox]

"...I believe Science Team has vapor for brains."

Metroid
Small Aberration
Hitdice: 3d8 + 6 (20 HP)
Speed Fly 50' (perfect) (10 squares)
Init +3 (Dex)
AC 20 (3 Dex, 1 Size, 6 Natural); touch 14; flat-footed 17
BAB +2; Grp +6 (3 BAB + 3 Str + 4 Improved Grapple - 4 size)
Attack Slam +7 (1d6 + 3, crit x2, Bludgeoning) or Bite +7 (1d4 + 3, crit x3, Piercing)
Full-Attack Slam +7 (1d6 + 3, crit x2, Bludgeoning) or Bite +7 (1d4 + 3, crit x3, Piercing)
Space/Reach 5'/5'
Special Attacks: Improved Grab, Pounce, Life Drain
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60', Ignore Damage, Freeze Solid
Saves Fort +3 (1 base + 2 Con) Ref +6 (3 base + 3 Dex) Will +4 (3 base + 1 Wis)
Abilities Str 16, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 4
Skills: Spot 8, Listen 4,
Feats: Improved Grapple
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary or Pod (3-5)
Challenge Rating: 4 (?)
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 4-5 HD (Small)
Level Adjustment: --

This creature is a bizarre sight, floating and bobbing through the air with no evident means of flight. Four large, light yellow claws or teeth--it's difficult to tell which--protrude from the bottom of the creature's green outer membrane. This membrane is translucent and clearly shows the creature's inner workings, masses of a blood red tissue bunching up in different locations throughout its roughly spherical body. Suddenly it notices you and lunges, the bottom first with sharp claws outstretched with a high pitched screech.

Metroids range from 1-2 feet in diameter, and weigh 10-30 lbs. They originated on the planet SR-388, but they have been spread from there since, often due to ambitions for weaponizing them or for using them to harvest energy.

Combat

When a Metroid senses another life-form, it will charge into combat quickly, seeking to drain the victim's life energy to sate it's unending hunger. It usually closes in on the nearest target as quickly as possible with a charge, sinking its teeth into the victim's skin and draining the life from them as quickly as possible.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a metroid must hit with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can drain the target's life.

Pounce (Ex): If a metroid charges a foe, it can make a full attack.

Life Drain (Ex): If a metroid begins a round grappling an opponent, it may drain 1d6 constitution from the victim. The metroid gains temporary hit points equal to (3 * constitution drained) that the metroid loses at a rate of 2 per hour.

Ignore Damage (Ex): A metroid ignores the first ten damage of any damage type other than cold damage.

Freeze Solid (Ex): If a metroid takes less than 10 cold damage from a single attack, it must make a fortitude save (DC = 10 + damage done) or be treated as if affected by a Slow spell (caster level 10) for one minute (10 rounds). If the metroid takes more than 10 damage, it must make a fortitude save (DC = 15 + half the damage done[round down]) or else be frozen solid. If it passes this save, it is treated as if affected by a Slow spell (caster level 10) for one minute (10 rounds). A metroid that is frozen solid cannot move, but stays suspended in the air at the exact position it was frozen in. While frozen solid, the metroid loses Ignore Damage and all natural armor. This effect lasts for two rounds, after which it is treated as if affected by a Slow spell (caster level 10) for one minute (10 rounds).

-----------

Okay, so this is my first monster homebrew. PEACH, naturally, and be brutally honest.

Inspired by Daedu's Battle Armor of Aran set (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36617) and, naturally, one of the most awesome consol game series around.

[ExHunterEmerald]

Oooooh, nice.
Now I want to make the Mail of the Mega Man. The buster would have to be a bracer that contains a wand, and when using a Magic Missile wand of any kind, it would never run out.

[elliott20]

for some reason, I always imagined that the metroid would have some minor psionic powers... I'm not sure why.

and no, magic missile shooter would not be good for this. Don't forget, you still have to AIM with your shooter. An MM wand makes it unnecessary.

You'd do better just to attach a quick action crossbow to your arm and have it all enchanted.

[Fascisticide]

I like it!
You should allow for more advancement, maybe up to huge size

[Holocron Coder]

Nice :) I was actually planning to make this myself very similarly. Although, I was honestly thinking immune to all but cold, with weakness to cold, as it is in the game (since NOTHING hurts them but ice (then missile combo)). I can actually see this being a "mochtroid" with the one immune being an actual metroid ;) but thats just my opinion.

Feel free to glance at my sig for Samus Aran's armor :)

[Merlin the Tuna]

DR 10/cold isn't a valid choice of DR. What you're suggesting is actually DR/-, with a bypass built in.

[Holocron Coder]

DR 10/cold isn't a valid choice of DR. What you're suggesting is actually DR/-, with a bypass built in.

Basically you can write DR 10/- and give them cold weakness (a la fire elemental, etc)

EDIT: I'm also remembering that a Metroid can't be removed once it grapples unless you use a bomb. 'Course, this may not work so well in DnD, but you can give them an ability that "locks" their jaws in place upon a grapple, causing a DC18 Str check or something to remove them.

[Fascisticide]

Why isn't DR 10/cold valid?

[Merlin the Tuna]

Why isn't DR 10/cold valid?It's not one of the listed types. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#damageReduction)

Basically, DR should be bypassable by a weapon if it's bypassable at all. So you end up with /piercing, /bludgeoning, /slashing from damage types, /magic and /epic from enhancement bonuses, /silver, /cold iron/, and /adamantine from material types, and /lawful, /chaotic, /good, and /evil from alignment. Now, the presence of the /[alignment] might suggest to you that /[element] should work, too, but remember that a Holy sword makes all of your damage bypass /good, not just a little d8. A Flaming sword, on the other hand, gives you 1d8 fire damage and leaves the rest of your weapon damage untyped -- so even when you have the right tool for the job (a flaming sword), you still aren't actually getting past the DR.

DR/- is a special case where this is no right tool for the job; it seems most appropriate here. The Freeze Solid condition removes this barrier. While I can't think of any precedent where a monster's DR can disappear like that, this seems the most sensible way of handling it.

[Holocron Coder]

Ah, just a note: Pounce seems somewhat useless, as their full attack is the same as their normal attack and they have nothing else that requires a full attack action :)

[Merlin the Tuna]

Also, the duration of the freezing is nonexistent. Rather than saying the Slow is Caster Level 10, it'd be simpler to just say "... as if affected by a Slow spell for 1 minute" and "be frozen solid for 1 minute." It might also make sense to have it be frozen for some time then slowed for a bit before recovering fully, but you'd need to trim the duration of both.

[Fascisticide]

If you give it DR 10/- and cold weakness, how does it work together? Does the weakness negate the DR against cold?

[Proven_Paradox]

Okay, first off thanks for all the comments.


You should allow for more advancement, maybe up to huge size

I plan to, but there's a point where they actually become a different type of metroid according to Prime. I think the hatchling in Super Metroid was a fluke of some sort, but I'll consider doing something like that.


Although, I was honestly thinking immune to all but cold, with weakness to cold, as it is in the game (since NOTHING hurts them but ice (then missile combo)).

That's just in the sidescrollers. In Metroid Prime (which I'm baseing this off of) you can kill them without freezing them. It just takes a hellova long time, and freezing them makes it about twice as fast. Hence, DR instead of immunities.


DR 10/cold isn't a valid choice of DR. What you're suggesting is actually DR/-, with a bypass built in.

It's a valid choice now. It means that it takes ten less damage from everything but cold. The fact that it's not a listed type really doesn't bother me. EVERYONE knows what it means when I type that, and just because Wizards never wrote it up doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to. That's what homebrew's all about, no?


Ah, just a note: Pounce seems somewhat useless, as their full attack is the same as their normal attack and they have nothing else that requires a full attack action :)

Good call, but as I said, I plan on statting up more metroid type eventually, and for the most part that's going to start with copy/paste. All metroids are going to have pounce. For some reason I thought they couldn't make a bite attack after a charge (just slam) but in hindsight you're probably right.


Also, the duration of the freezing is nonexistent. Rather than saying the Slow is Caster Level 10, it'd be simpler to just say "... as if affected by a Slow spell for 1 minute" and "be frozen solid for 1 minute." It might also make sense to have it be frozen for some time then slowed for a bit before recovering fully, but you'd need to trim the duration of both.

Sounds good, I'll add that in...

[Jack_Simth]

If you give it DR 10/- and cold weakness, how does it work together? Does the weakness negate the DR against cold?

Actually, it's more that energy attacks bypass DR anyway....



DAMAGE REDUCTION

Some magic creatures have the supernatural ability to instantly heal damage from weapons or to ignore blows altogether as though they were invulnerable.
The numerical part of a creature’s damage reduction is the amount of hit points the creature ignores from normal attacks. Usually, a certain type of weapon can overcome this reduction. This information is separated from the damage reduction number by a slash. Damage reduction may be overcome by special materials, by magic weapons (any weapon with a +1 or higher enhancement bonus, not counting the enhancement from masterwork quality), certain types of weapons (such as slashing or bludgeoning), and weapons imbued with an alignment. If a dash follows the slash then the damage reduction is effective against any attack that does not ignore damage reduction.
Ammunition fired from a projectile weapon with an enhancement bonus of +1 or higher is treated as a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. Similarly, ammunition fired from a projectile weapon with an alignment gains the alignment of that projectile weapon (in addition to any alignment it may already have).
Whenever damage reduction completely negates the damage from an attack, it also negates most special effects that accompany the attack, such as injury type poison, a monk’s stunning, and injury type disease. Damage reduction does not negate[/u] touch attacks, energy damage dealt along with an attack, or energy drains. Nor does it affect poisons or diseases delivered by inhalation, ingestion, or contact.
Attacks that deal no damage because of the targetÂ’s damage reduction do not disrupt spells.
Spells, spell-like abilities, and energy attacks (even nonmagical fire) ignore damage reduction.
Sometimes damage reduction is instant healing. Sometimes damage reduction represents the creature’s tough hide or body,. In either case, characters can see that conventional attacks don’t work.
If a creature has damage reduction from more than one source, the two forms of damage reduction do not stack. Instead, the creature gets the benefit of the best damage reduction in a given situation.(Emphasis added)

[Proven_Paradox]

...Oh. Huh. I never knew that. Well then, I'll edit the creature to make it clearer what I mean.

[Maldraugedhen]

So metroids sap life force for themselves. So what would happen to a metroid on the Positive Energy Plane...?

[Gralamin]

So metroids sap life force for themselves. So what would happen to a metroid on the Positive Energy Plane...?

same thing as what happens to everyone else, Dies from awesome.

[Proven_Paradox]

Something I intended to ask about explicitly... Does this look like a CR 4 to you? I wasn't completely sure if that was the right way to set it or not.

[knightsaline]

so want to fight the queen of these things, that or the unofficial king, metroid prime. question, what happens if they touch Phazon? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phazon)

emerald, the mail of the megaman would be a legacy armor that allows the wearer to take abilities from other constructs built by the Wizard Wily.

now I want a lightning elemental bound to a small metal box that allows me to "jack in" to constructs.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phazon)

[Maldraugedhen]

so want to fight the queen of these things, that or the unofficial king, metroid prime. question, what happens if they touch Phazon?

That's the sort of thing I was thinking would happen on the Positive Energy Plane to all of these. They just get flooded with strange energies and turn nastier.

[Holocron Coder]

That's the sort of thing I was thinking would happen on the Positive Energy Plane to all of these. They just get flooded with strange energies and turn nastier.

Given the metroid's tendency to mutate when introduced to anything even mildly out of the ordinary (read: phazon, beta waves, ing parasite), I'd be very afraid of a metroid on the positive or negative planes (read: ZOMG Metroid of Doom)

[Jothki]

Given the metroid's tendency to mutate when introduced to anything even mildly out of the ordinary (read: phazon, beta waves, ing parasite), I'd be very afraid of a metroid on the positive or negative planes (read: ZOMG Metroid of Doom)

Well, mutating when exposed to traces of phazon or an ing parasite isn't terribly unusual.

[Leush]

Ooo!! A metroid! Excellent. I love the idea! Prepare to be criticised!

Metroids, as far as I was aware, don't just drain life energy, but simply energy, so perhaps level drain may/or may not be more appropriate.

2ndly I think they don't really have a slam attack as such.

3rdly, for the bombs being good for removing them, I'd say that you should give it some sort of: Is blasted back by force damage, and must make a concentration check or something to maintain grapple.

4thly being a fan of the old metroid games, I would say that anything which is killed by the life drain attack should be disintigrated. Also, going off the hatchling in Metroid II, they should have an ability to disintigrate non-living matter and hence make tunnels...

5thly, it could (or maybe the mutations) need to have some hibernation ability that lets it sleep without being damaged for hundreds of years, like the ones on the game boy games which you could shoot and shoot and shoot until you actually got close enough to wake them.

But it is pretty accurate as I see it.

[anphorus]

I plan to, but there's a point where they actually become a different type of metroid according to Prime. I think the hatchling in Super Metroid was a fluke of some sort, but I'll consider doing something like that.

Yeah, Beta and Delta Metroids are bird like things, and an Omega Metroid is like a cross between a T-Rex and a spider. With Wings. Can't remember what the Metroid Queen look like. I think the hatchiling was on the brink of forming a cocoon to become a Beta Metroid. The metroids in Prime were actually pretty small compared to all the other games.

The X parasites would certainly be an... interesting foe too.

[Fascisticide]

I see that my knowledge of metroids is very limited... I only played the first one and super metroid

Anyway. I don't think you should limit yourself to how metroids work in the game. In a video game, options are limited. You have a finite number of possible weapons and moves you can do. In d&d you can do much more. So you should not limit what will be possible to do against metroids in d&d to what is possible in the video game.
Like, maybe bombs are the only way to get rid of them in the video game, but in d&d there are probably many spells that would be as useful

[Holocron Coder]

Yeah, Beta and Delta Metroids are bird like things, and an Omega Metroid is like a cross between a T-Rex and a spider. With Wings....

o.O wings? None of them had wings... (link instead of image, as it is rather large Metroid Lifecycle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Backround2.jpg))

Although the "height" can't be taken into account correctly. the left-side measurements are wrong, but the scale is about right. If samus is 6m tall, I'll eat my laptop.

[Fascisticide]

And I thought metroids were only the floating medusa things, and that the brain-t-rex boss from super metroid had nothing to do with the rest of the game...

I really prefer the medusa form, it's much more alien, as it doesn't have a defined symetrical structure like most animals on earth... that is has 2 legs, 2 arms, a tail, a head with 2 eyes make it worse
Those who designed these forms of metroids are such uncreative anthropocentrists!

[Holocron Coder]

I... think I agree with you :) I much prefer the Metroid Prime series version of metroids. The "another raptor" look is boring. I can see the first 2 forms after the well-known metroid. But as mutations, prob not as parts of a lifecycle...

[Closet_Skeleton]

Great, the Metroid Timeline looks really messed up...

I had Metroid II for gameboy (non-colour). Never finished it. I'm not sure how much the Beta and Gamma matter. You never fight a single alpha metroid in II (only one you meet transforms just after you see it, the levels are littered with discarded shells though) but from what I've seen of Prime you only fight Alphas.

[ExHunterEmerald]

o.O wings? None of them had wings... (link instead of image, as it is rather large Metroid Lifecycle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Backround2.jpg))

Although the "height" can't be taken into account correctly. the left-side measurements are wrong, but the scale is about right. If samus is 6m tall, I'll eat my laptop.
...uh...hope you're hungry.
IIRC, she's fairly tall, and the suit only makes her taller.

[Icewalker]

I've always loved the game, and I think this is quite good. The later forms of em can look a lot different than that one you linked to Daedu, as in either Metroid Zero Mission or Metroid Fusion (I forget which) where it is a big raptor thing except with more spiky crazyness all over it and lots of kill-rific-ness.

I think it may actually be less than CR 4, that seems a bit high, considering that all it can really do is rapidly drain your life and disintigrate your body, but with it's low grapple checks it can't really do that too well either.

[Maldraugedhen]

I think they meant 'feet' for that scale, but went, 'hmm, we want this to sound more likely in the far future, so we need metric. Just erase the 'ft' and put 'm', it's roughly the same!':smallannoyed:

[Jade_Tarem]

...uh...hope you're hungry.
IIRC, she's fairly tall, and the suit only makes her taller.

Yes, but 6 meters turns into, roughly, 18 feet. Samus is human with a little chozo blood or some such, and is considred within normal size for one. The only way she ever gets to 18 feet is when she touches a super mushroom in the Super Smash Brothers games.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Hmm... http://www.metroidguide.com/html/metroid.htm Implies that Metroids can only go into their later stages when they're on their Homeworld.

[ExHunterEmerald]

Yes, but 6 meters turns into, roughly, 18 feet. Samus is human with a little chozo blood or some such, and is considred within normal size for one. The only way she ever gets to 18 feet is when she touches a super mushroom in the Super Smash Brothers games.

Whoop. I spaced on the meters/feet thing.

[Rumda]

Hmm... http://www.metroidguide.com/html/metroid.htm Implies that Metroids can only go into their later stages when they're on their Homeworld.
which implies it could be a mutation based caused by some form of radiation found on SR388, maybe they have different life cycles depending on the type of radiation they are exposed to...

[Holocron Coder]

Whoop. I spaced on the meters/feet thing.

Good thing ;) Yeah, I noted the 6m = ~18ft thing and said "bull****"

:)

Yeah, it seems generally assumed that Metroids are highly adaptive and thus you'd only see that picture on their normal homeworld or one exactly like it (it may also depend on their diet, since the ones on their homeworld generally would be dining on X-Parasite).

Hence the existence of "Tallon Metroids" and such.

[Proven_Paradox]

O_O

Go away for a couple of hours, and... Anyway!


Metroids, as far as I was aware, don't just drain life energy, but simply energy, so perhaps level drain may/or may not be more appropriate.

I had considered that, but I like constitution drain a bit better for metroids. I think level drain would be a bit too strong, and I'm aiming for a CR 3-4 critter. Perhaps level drain will show up higher metroids.


2ndly I think they don't really have a slam attack as such.

I very clearly remember getting rammed a few times in MPII.


3rdly, for the bombs being good for removing them, I'd say that you should give it some sort of: Is blasted back by force damage, and must make a concentration check or something to maintain grapple.

Certain aspects of the game aren't going to translate well to DnD, and this is one of them. I think it should remain opposed grapple checks simple because what you suggest means a magic missile dislodges them. That seems a bit too easy to me.


4thly being a fan of the old metroid games, I would say that anything which is killed by the life drain attack should be disintigrated. Also, going off the hatchling in Metroid II, they should have an ability to disintigrate non-living matter and hence make tunnels...

The tunnel-making qualties, as far as I could tell, have only been exhibited by the hatchling, and only on a very specific type of metal. I won't be putting that in. The disintigrating effect I had in mind being for higher metroid forms, as in Prime the pirates that god absorbed by released metroids just fell over, dead. However, no one go absorbed by anything higher than a standard metroid, so I figure the hatchling's disintigrating powers came with age.


5thly, it could (or maybe the mutations) need to have some hibernation ability that lets it sleep without being damaged for hundreds of years, like the ones on the game boy games which you could shoot and shoot and shoot until you actually got close enough to wake them.

I always figured that was because of the cucoons rather than the metroid's hibernation.


And I thought metroids were only the floating medusa things, and that the brain-t-rex boss from super metroid had nothing to do with the rest of the game...

That was Mother Brain, the leader of the space pirates that were trying to tame the metroids (see my flavor text). Samus's mission in both the original Metroid and Super Metroid was take out all the metroids, then take out Mother Brain.


I think it may actually be less than CR 4, that seems a bit high, considering that all it can really do is rapidly drain your life and disintigrate your body, but with it's low grapple checks it can't really do that too well either.

See, it can't do it too well to the party's fighter. But think about it when it lunges down from above and lands on the wizard's head... At level 4, that wizard would be dead in two or three rounds--four tops unless you were rolling badly--unless they pumped their constitution. That damage reduction is not easy to get by, and at those levels that means the meleers aren't going to be able to hurt is hardly at all unless they power attack like mad. If they do that I feel bad for the wizard who's about to get decapitated.

But you think it should come down to 3? You're the only person here who's actually addressed that, so I'll think about it. I would really like to get more opinions on the thing's CR though, hint hint.

[Holocron Coder]

As for CR, I'd stick to 4. The DR and the Con drain are pretty hefty. And like you said, this is a arcane caster killer.

[Icewalker]

Yeah, I forgot about the DR. that'll do it, keep 4. I think there should probably be a way to get it off someone without killing it though. Maybe if someone is trying to pull it off the person gets a bonus on their grapple check to escape.

[Proven_Paradox]

Again, staying on until it gets hit with a power bomb does not translate well to DnD. They're just opposed grapple checks untill someone gets the metroid off.

There are rules for multiple people in a grapple, right? Just use those for the fighter pulling the thing off the wizard. If the rules don't cover that, I can add something to the monster description to deal with it.

[anphorus]

Wow. Where did I get the "wings" thing from? My memory is like Swiss cheese nowadays.

If I remember right, you fight only Alphas and "Fusion metroids" (sort of like conjoined twin Metroids) in Prime.

Metroids do just absorb different kinds of energy, but they are capable of absorbing a kind of vital force too if I recall. There might be other ways to hurt the metroids other than with cold. It seems probable that cold temperatures hurt Metroids because it saps the heat energy from their bodies.



Yeah, it seems generally assumed that Metroids are highly adaptive and thus you'd only see that picture on their normal homeworld or one exactly like it (it may also depend on their diet, since the ones on their homeworld generally would be dining on X-Parasite).

I think the diet of X Parasites is more likely, since an Omega was the final boss in Fusion, good call.

[Holocron Coder]

In Prime, you fight Metroids, Tallon Metroids (basically the same, except they hatch from cocoons and are smaller), Hunter Metroids, and Fission Metroids (who take damage from everything, then split into 2 other metroids that have 1 weakness, may be anything).

In Prime II: Echoes, you fight Metroids and Darkling Metroids. I believe that's it, though. It's more about the Ing than the Metroids.

[knightsaline]

No one should ever, EVER stat up the X parasites. the battle would be the x parasite flying into you and altering your DNA

[Maldraugedhen]

I think 'X host' would just be a template. Makes things mindless, maybe cold weakness (for most), that sort of thing.

[martyboy74]

I think 'X host' would just be a template. Makes things mindless, maybe cold weakness (for most), that sort of thing.
...why would it have cold weakness? Some of the X parasites actually adapt to carry a sub-zero temperature in an attempt to defeat samus!

[Holocron Coder]

Yeah, X-Parasites don't have the cold weakness. That's a Metroid problem :)