Negative LA-Assignment : Resurrection, but no diamond here

[Beni-Kujaku]

AOA

·-/---/·- 01000001 01001111 01000001 ✌︎⚐︎✌︎


Just imagine Escher is actually an elder titan.

Oh, Juiblex, I'm having Will-o'-wisp flashbacks. Minus the interesting real-life lore.
The aoa (pronounced ah-oh-ah, not to be mistaken with Ao the Hidden One, pronounced hey-oh) are the counterpart to the Xeg-Yi and Xag-Ya energons of the Positive and Negative Energy Planes (and we don't talk about the Outer Plane energons from Planar Handbook). If the Xeg-Yi is the Yin and the Xag-Ya is the Yang, then the aoa is the Wuji, the absence of Yin and Yang, and by extension, the incarnation of nullification. When the other energons emit blasts of energies and are very hard to affect with physical weapons (being incorporeal), the aoa only reflect energy to the caster and are very hard to affect through magical means (being corporeal but having sky-high reflective spell resistance). It was an actually good concept, but the execution is really not the best.

The aoa come in two flavors: the Huge sphere and the Medium droplet. Both are Outsider (Extraplanar) and share a few traits, notably resistance 20 to all energies except acid, and especially reflective spell resistance: when a spell targetting the aoa fails to pierce its SR, it is instead bounced back to the caster. Better think twice before trying to Disintegrate, or to include it in your Slow spell. They are also immune to gaze attacks and reflect them as well. They can also eat magic by hitting things with their slam (Dispel Magic CL 7) and cannot hide since they reflect light (-6 to Hide checks).

aoa droplet, 3 RHD:
The smaller, "juvenile" version is actually very strong defensively for its number of RHDs. Its SR is an incredible 19+RHD, and the resistance to energies will protect it from most blasting. And if you thought it'd be easy to kill it with weapons, it has (perfect) flying 50ft, DR 5/magic (actually relevant at low level) and +8 Natural Armor, which is extremely good. It also has an extremely good stat distribution: -2 Str, +8 Dex, +6 Con, -6 Int, +4 Wis, +0 Cha, being specialized without completely tanking any one stat, except intelligence (which is compensated by the number of skill points of Outsiders and the decent skill list of Listen, Move Silently, Spot and Search). It's tanky, Dextrous and has good Wisdom. What, could we make a monk out of it? I mean, you could, but a monk with no item slot would be even more unbearable than the base thing.
One of the big arguments for it being -0 is that it has bad offense, but come on, that's why we have class levels! Ardent is an extremely obvious choice, especially if Practiced Manifester allows the droplet to choose higher-level powers, in which case a droplet with ardent levels is almost indistinguishable from a pure ardent with a much better chassis. You might even want to take one or two levels of monk and Talashatora to gain even more AC and the ability to Stunning Fist your opponents if you're out of PP. Also, since you're very difficult to affect with debilitating spells and you can use Dispel Magic at will, you will be the go-to "healer of nonstandard conditions" for the party at the end of each fight. You don't mind 1d8 nonlethal damage in exchange for removing this Blindness/Deafness, do you? Now, the true problem of the droplet is in fact the most obvious: it doesn't have hands, it can't speak, and it doesn't have item slots. There are a few ways to use your WBL without any slot (plus slotless items, of course, and single-use items like skull talismans than you could crush under you), but it's definitely not optimal. Still, every creature with more than 3 Int understands at least one language, and the Communication Mantle is there if you want to speak, and of course do not underestimate the importance of body language!

All in all, choosing this monster as your race will impact your whole campaign, and probably lead to some nice RP, but it has some very nice benefits to compensate for the lack of hand and speech. I am really reluctant to give it less than 2 RHD. Yes, its innate offense is lacking, but it makes great use of basically everything a manifester gives it, and it is an Outsider. If it starts blasting enemies, there is a good chance some of them will at least try casting a spell or two on it, and the amount of creatures with Gaze Attacks and no Knowledge (the Planes) is quite high indeed. I really think the best number is 3 RHD, DLA-0. I'm looking forward to people commenting on this one. I honestly think I may have given it +0 or even maybe +1 in the original thread.


aoa sphere, 15 RHD:
And now, the adult version. A CR 13 monstrosity, with its only notable difference with the droplet being that it is Huge, and that it has a new ability called Reflective Pulse. Basically, Greater Dispel 3/day, but dispelling magic items destroys them instead of disrupting them for a few rounds. Just use the "area dispel" version and you'll be fine. Its stats are marginally better than the droplet's, notably its Con, with a total of +2 Str, +8 Dex, +14 Con, -6 Int, +6 Wis, +0 Cha, +8 NA (compared to the droplet: +4 Str, +8 Con, +2 Wis). The Strength is actually one of the lowest in the whole game for Huge creatures. Hilariously, no Dex increase means that the total AC of the sphere is lower than the droplet's. Similarly, its SR is only 2 points higher than a droplet's, which for this thread means it has SR 10+RHD, which is... bad, compared to SR 19+RHD. At least it now has DR 10/magic. That's actually really bad... It doesn't even have a better skill list. Actually worse in melee combat than the black pudding, but decent utility and much better mobility and defense. Still extremely meh. It's only marginally better than the droplet if it's not in melee, and it's bad in melee. At least it has a lot of HPs. 4 RHD, DLA-6. The DNLA isn't higher only because of the good SR, and how overpowered Outsider RHD are.


Damn, that took longer than I expected. These very specialized but socially inept creatures aren't easy to rate, especially without having ever actually played one. But you know what, if you can't play one, play a thousand! Next time, we will review the aquatic oozes, including the Bloodbloaters, the only Ooze swarm in the game! See you !