MitD VIII: Everything we know about MITD (but were afraid Tarrasque)

[littlebum2002]

Its a candidate we've already got listed, but I've found a new version of it I've never seen before that solves a significant problem with it. Not the best candidate I've seen, but also not the worst. And its been ages since I posted one, so with no further ado, I present: the Goristro. Its a 3.0 version so needs a little updating, but the link is here http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules....rticle&sid=110

I know what you're thinking. "Its a huge demon with the SLA's of a Dretch. How exactly is that a good candidate?" Glad you asked. You'll see in just a sec. Onto the 7 tests:

1. Escape Scene - Right off the bat we get to the reason I'm presenting this guy. SLA - Teleport without Error, usable once/day crucially omitting the almost always present caveat of "self plus 50 lbs". Score!

2. Tower Scene - 35 STR, plus it auto-sunders any items struck doing extra damage directly to items and as a result is particularly adept at destroying structures. One could argue this might apply to the tower walls. On the downside, its defenses are kinda mediocre. DR25/+2 turns into 25/magic, I believe, which is underwhelming. It does have Fast Healing and ~210 hp, but its still not great.

3. Circus Act - Eh, not great. Its not as iconically infernal as a pit fiend, and is described as a hulking demon having ursoid and bovine characteristics. Also, it can create a 60' radius Gloom effect, but I have no idea what that means. 5 CHR makes it weird someone would consider it beautiful. So, not terrible but not good either.

4. Demons aren't an impossible category.

5. Stat block dates from 10/2001, so its old enough.

6. Its awfully big, but not bigger than Huge. While most are over 20' tall (and some are as tall as 40'), its only "most". Its entirely possible MitD is a short one.

7. Its vulnerable to mind-affecting effects

Other Pros and Cons:
Pros
- As an infernal would be familiar with the Astral Plane
- CR22 (though that seems unreasonably high to me. Personally, I'd put it at more like 16ish)
- Unclear how it communicates, though one speaking Common would probably be surprising
- Not very dexterous (10 DEX)

Cons
- Always Chaotic Evil
- Dumb as a stump, 7 INT, 7 WIS isn't really a good fit for someone to learn Go very quickly
- "Obeys orders with a single minded devotion that would make a hierarch modron envious" which doesn't really sound like MitD

All true. Unfortunately, while that version picks up the stomp and better defenses, it loses the Teleport. And in Fiendish Codex, Tanar'ri traits don't even include the self + 50 lb version of teleport. It reminds me of the Klurichir, in that you can *perfectly* match the MitD's abilities by cherry picking abilities between two versions of it, but neither version can get over the hump on its own. I spent a lot of time trying to find a third version that combined the two, but to no avail.

I think it's certainly closer than most of the other FBS entries. I mean the main problem with the Goristo is that it can't teleport. Fix that and then you're left with only the size issue, which is the same issue given for 2 FBS creatures.

Goristros are demons; it's not surprising the Qarr "knew a guy who was like [MitD] once!" Since most goristro are 20 feet tall, it would also make sense for Qarr to comment on MitD's height.

Would you mind giving the comic number for these 2 quotes by Qarr? I don't remember them.