ok, going to need links to both if i'm going to do that...
Yellow Musk Creepers are real?
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Zombie Ants
The Ruins trailer
(As teenager horror movies go it was actually pretty good. Plants that slowly infected and grew through you. Could vibrate to mimic sounds, such as one of the victim's cell phone ring tone :smallwink: )
I'd also suggest Midworld by Alan Dean Foster.
Ok, think what might grow in the lower planes, or what kind of horrible growths can spread from the Far Realm. Also decided I'd allow deathless/undead plants, so added it to the rules.
Here are some to maybe give you ideas:
Carnage Apple
Cobblecap
Cranny Creeper
Deathcap Myconid
Dewmoss
Tilinikan
Trlleeltrlaa
Queen of Ten Thousand Roots (Greater Deity)
Considering what I've been doing in THIS thread ( http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169861 ), I'm tempted expand on that in this next contest...any plant-themed Metallica songs...?
Dang it you killed the idea I had for this contest Vorpal. Back to the drawing board.
If you all are so dissappointed that the contest isn`t what you wanted, you could always make another contest. There will be no disaster if there will be 2 monster creation contests at the same time. I personelly plan to make a plant creature and hopefully win this contest, and if there will be another contest I might try to win it too.
Actually, now I am thinking of making a plant horror that lives on the plane that the Xenosera class had. Were there any plants there? Maybe a fungus or a protozoan would work.
Now I really want to make a life sized malaria virus that split itself and infected victims with malaria, breaking apart their blood cells and then using their corpses as spawning grounds for more life sized malaria. Can I? :smallbiggrin:
Ooh, the contest I've been waiting for since last Halloween! I'm gonna get my idea for this one statted up if it kills me!
OK, I have probably just about everything except the feats done for the Bloodsplitter. Just one question, VT; because of how Malaria works, it is practically impossible to treat it with mundane methods. Because of this, healers cannot replace the host's fortitude save with their heal check unless they use a Medicinal Leech. Is that OK with you? It is your homebrew after all.
My first entry into one of these contests...The Doom Moss isn't quite finished yet, but I thought I'd post it now, at least to get some help on determining its CR.
Posted my Pumpkin King... I'm kind of worried that Enthrall might be a bit too wordy and complicated, and the CR is most definitely off, but I'm pretty happy on it, considered I just typed it up in... 45 minutes?
I can't help you there (although I think there are CR calculators that you can find, IIRC), but I don't think you need to actually list the DC for the Infect ability as (10+1/2 HD+Constitution modifier+2). In most cases, simply saying that it is constitution based, and just listing the DC is enough for most people. If you did it because of the random +2, which might throw people off, you could list it at the bottom of the ability description, but as it is right now, that is not really how WotC does their DCs and really break up the flow of the reading, at least for me. Otherwise, great creation. :smallbiggrin:
As for the Thornshade. Why is the DC on consumptive florification so high? Normally it is 10+1/2 HD+Ability modifier, but none of your ability modifiers add up to 29, and 29 is a pretty high DC. Consider; If, for instance, a rogue (pure rogue in this case, since I don't want to have to deal with multiclass saves) were attacked by this. Your average rogue 16 has a base fortitude save of +5. He likely has a Constitution of 20, at the highest, for +10. He doesn't make the save except on a 19 or 20. Now, consider, if you will, a fighter, who actively wants to have a high Fortitude save. His base is +10 at that level, with a Constitution of 26. His total save is +18. He fails his save roughly half of every time he is affected. And considering how good ability drain can be, making it all but impossible to heal without magic, that is probably too high.
Otherwise, it is an interesting monster, and the fluff is awesome. :smallbiggrin:
Ok, who wants a critique, and public or private?
Critique
SpoilerOk, first off that is a whole friggin' lot of HD and Str/Con for a lil medium creature.Quote:
Hit Dice: 16d8+112 (184 hp)
Abilities Str 26, Dex 15, Con 24, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 6
I can see it as it is a creation of Orsa, so its hideously strong, but if so I'd suggest linking to the plane and explaining a little more in the flavor text. Not looking for a nod to my stuff, just think it could use some explanation on how it came to be such a buff daisy.
Armor Class: 24 (+2 dex, +12 natural) is standard.Quote:
Armor Class: 24 (10[Base]+2[Dex]+12[Nat])
The first would be 1d6+12, and the next 2d6+6.Quote:
Full Attack: 2 Slams +20 (1d6+4) and Bite +20 (2d6+8)
Primary attacks, even if more than one, use full strength mod unless specially modified. Such modifications are usually only present if #1. It's an herbivore or non-combatant creature and then it does half damage, or #2. the creature only has one attack, and then the damage is 1 1/2 mod.
Base saves are Fort +10, Ref +5, Will +5Quote:
Saves: Fort +16, Ref +6, Will +6
Con mod is +7, Ref +2, and Wis +2.
So end saves are Fort +17, Ref +6, Will +6
First, thing this gets 6 feats via 16th level.Quote:
Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple, Multiattack, Improved Multiattack, Improved Natural Attack
Second, Improved Natural Attack is a dead feat. At first making you decide what its attack is. That feat is only for adding to creatures you've advanced so they are tougher than others of their kind.
Standard DC for disease is 10 + 1/2 HD + Con mod, which would make this one 25.Quote:
Infect the Blood: If the Bloodsplitter deals damage with their bite attack, and the opponent has a constitution score, they must make a fortitude save (DC 19) or become infected with the Bloodburst disease.
Also need to add the clause: 'The save DC is Constitution-based.'
If it can do that I'd suggest giving it Amphibious Traits so it can breathe water, even if it can't swim well.Quote:
Skills: The Bloodsplitter gains a +5 bonus to all swim checks in order to swim in the mucus-like plane of Orsa.
Body of SlimeQuote:
The Bloodsplitters are actually made of many tiny different fungal beings that work in harmony. Reveals the Slime Body quality.
Also, no advancement? I'm thinking this thing could, with enough HD, get to colossal. Would also explain it looking so large in the sample pic :smallwink:
Anyways, I like the concept. Its not a complex creature, but then it doesn't have to be. Might also add in perhaps the ability to meld with others of its kind to become a big one to fight off greater threads.
It looks like its missing a few things, like the actual disease, so I'll just hold off for final judgment until it's fully complete.
Response
Spoiler
I do understand that the MM does recommend that the HD, Strength and Constitution be set based on size, but that honestly doesn't make very much sense here. The Bloodsplitter is hundreds of millions of tiny creatures. I think it does not stretch the mind to consider that they are stronger and better able to take wounds than normal creatures.
I thought I did explicitly link them. Well, I will add that in, then.
Really? That seems like it would be confusing and annoying for first time players, though. Huh.
This is probably my fault for mixing up the order, but the bite is the primary attack. The Slams don't take the -5 because it has Multiattack and Improved Multiattack.
I'll admit to the +17, but 2+5=7, not 6.
It is the bite attack. And nowhere in the feat does it mention anything of that sort, and that honestly makes no sense whatsoever from just a fluff standpoint, let alone a mechanical one. And even if it did, I don't really care. The Bloodsplitter qualifies, and it makes sense for them.
Shoot, thanks for reminding me. :smallbiggrin:
Good idea.
Hehe, thanks.
Well, considering that the picture has no frame of reference whatsoever, I don't know how one would see it as "large". Still, I think some advancement is in order.
I like this idea better than the advancement, now that I think of it.
Um, no, the disease is just under the lore. Do you want me to accentuate it or something, in order to make it easier to see?
In which case you have to specify in the feats section.
He was simply saying that it's kind of silly to give it to a homebrew creature, when you can just decide the damage anyway. Why waste the feat to up the damage a step when you could just say the damage is a step higher than normal? Doesn't stop me from personally using it as a filler feat when I can't think of anything else, though.Quote:
And nowhere in the feat does it mention anything of that sort, and that honestly makes no sense whatsoever from just a fluff standpoint, let alone a mechanical one. And even if it did, I don't really care. The Bloodsplitter qualifies, and it makes sense for them.
Which I have done.
Why would one follow the guidelines for Strength and Constitution for size, but not natural attacks? :smallconfused:
Still, it's an OK filler feat, which is what its true purpose is. Even now, when I did give it a new feat for the one I missed, that feat doesn't feel very "true" to the monster. Oh well.
Critique
Spoiler
Would be 49.5, and then you just round down to 49.Quote:
Hit Dice: 9d8+9 (50 HP)
+11 meleeQuote:
Attack: Tentacle +11 (1d8+5)
Full Attack: 4 Tentacles +11 (1d8+5)
That'd probably just be 'Temperate Plains'Quote:
Environment: Farms
Suggested: First, the Pumpkin King must make a successful grapple attempt against its target.Quote:
First, the Pumpkin King must grapple the creature.
Suggested: The creature targeted by this ability may make a Will save (DC 18), taking a -2 penalty to the save.Quote:
The creature targeted by this ability may make a will save (DC 18), though it gets a -2 penalty to the save.
Suggested: The save DC is Charisma-based and the Pumpkin King has a +2 racial bonus to it, which is increased by 1 for every creature already enthralled.Quote:
The save DC is charisma based and the Pumpkin King has a +2 racial bonus to it, which increased by 1 for every creature already enthralled.
If the victim fails its save, it is resurrected to full HD without level loss, and is conscious again. It is affected as if it had been dying, as follows. If the creature was dying, it is healed to half its maximum HP...Quote:
If the creature fails the save, the creature is conscious again.
If, as I assume, it must keep a hold on the creature, I'd make sure that that stipulation was explained.Quote:
The Pumpkin King loses one tentacle attack for every creature it has enthralled...
Here's a suggestion, with creature with an intelligence score of 3 or higher it gets int-bonuses. For creatures below 3 int, it gains a bonus to wisdom. Basically dumb creatures just let it be more aware.Quote:
...though it gains a +2 enhancement bonus to its Intelligence score and its regeneration, fast healing, and natural armor all improve by one.
In fact, I'd say if it had two or more creatures enthralled it'd have all-around vision.
Might also say that they all act on the Pumpkin King's initiative as if they were the same creature.
All in all, I was intrigued by this fellow, especially the specialized enthrall of it taking them over and using them as meat puppets. That picture though is too amusing to be scary :smallwink:
Spoiler
Possibly, though so are most slime molds. And jellyfish for that matter. It's fine though, just unusual.Quote:
I do understand that the MM does recommend that the HD, Strength and Constitution be set based on size, but that honestly doesn't make very much sense here. The Bloodsplitter is hundreds of millions of tiny creatures. I think it does not stretch the mind to consider that they are stronger and better able to take wounds than normal creatures.
*spreads hands*Quote:
Really? That seems like it would be confusing and annoying for first time players, though. Huh.
Just the standard, for better or worse.
Wasn't saying the secondary attack should takes -5, just that secondary attack 'damage' is halved.Quote:
This is probably my fault for mixing up the order, but the bite is the primary attack. The Slams don't take the -5 because it has Multiattack and Improved Multiattack.
Err, chalk that up to brain fart/miss-typeQuote:
I'll admit to the +17, but 2+5=7, not 6.
It may qualify, but what is the feat improving from? It naturally has that attack.Quote:
It is the bite attack. And nowhere in the feat does it mention anything of that sort, and that honestly makes no sense whatsoever from just a fluff standpoint, let alone a mechanical one. And even if it did, I don't really care. The Bloodsplitter qualifies, and it makes sense for them.
It makes sense from a mechanical and fluff standpoint that if you advance a creature 4 HD it is growing larger in size to some degree.
If you want it in there that's fine, and there is no rule saying it can't be, it's just, as I said, a dead feat.
Somehow passed right over the bloodburst spoiler. Maybe stick that spoiler up under the disease.Quote:
Um, no, the disease is just under the lore. Do you want me to accentuate it or something, in order to make it easier to see?
That's a pretty nasty disease, and I like it.
SpoilerI guess.
Still. Well, I guess I could change it, but that is the format I have been using for a while now.
It is. And it was before. Probably just a misunderstanding because I put the bite after the slams.
No problem. :smallwink:
Happens to the best of us.
Taking the feat doesn't give the attack. It improves it. And honestly, as I mentioned to the Dark Fiddler, it is mostly a filler feat because I couldn't find any better, more thematic ones.
Ok.
And yeah, I was trying my best to make it similar to Malaria, which is not a fun illness. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to perfectly mirror Malaria, mostly because Malaria also has a dormant state in which it does not actually start the cycle, and people can live their entire lives with Malaria, without any of the symptoms, but if that Malaria is transmitted again via mosquito, the next victim can get the viral Malaria, and no one has any idea of how it works. But that would have been incredibly complicated, so I simply made it deadly and not fun at all.
Curse rounding down, I liked that even 50 HP. :smallfrown:
Thanks. Like I said, the idea struck me just a tiny bit too late for last year's competition, so I was really excited for this year's. I was actually scared it was too similar to something done already, because it just seemed like an obvious idea.Quote:
All in all, I was intrigued by this fellow, especially the specialized enthrall of it taking them over and using them as meat puppets. That picture though is too amusing to be scary :smallwink:
And hey, it's not my fault there's no better pictures of Pumpking, the King of Ghosts, and that he's kind of the perfect fit for the monster. :smalltongue:
Weapon Focus, perhaps? It may only be a +1 to attack rolls, but those are harder to randomly justify than higher damage.Quote:
Originally Posted by unosarta
Oooh! Oooh! Me next, me next! *violent arm-shaking*
A critique by Vorpal Tribble! My inner fanboy is having a wild party!
EDIT:
@DCs: Eh, I want to keep it the way it is. I find parentheses easy to skip over, personally.
Miscellaneous: I find it humorous that I was kept from finishing the Doom Moss by playing DnD. I also find it humorous that it has the same abbreviation as Dungeon Master.
Also, I have no idea on the remaining four feats to give the Origin Patch, and I don't want to just give it a bunch of Toughness, or something.
A really, really weak feat. And having it seems to imply that the Bloodsplitter has focused its ability with that weapon, giving it greater understanding and ability, which seems really not thematic considering that they are practically mindless walking fungal flesh consuming monstrosities. Why would they train with their slams, when they would need to be busy eating everything in sight in order to get the energy required to feed all of the mini-fungi.
That was really what was so hard about it. I need a feat that seems like something they wouldn't actively have to train for, and one that would be acquired naturally, which almost no feat actually is, barring the monster feats, which is why I chose Improved Natural Attack.