Vote up a new monster species

[Zale]

Hide and Move Silently Of course!
Knowledge(Nature) and Survival It's a plant. Come on!
Preform(Dance) Because.
Spot For seeing stuff. And stuff.

[137beth]

And voting is closed! The final results are:
Knowledge (arcane) 4
Bluff 6
Concentration 6
Diplomacy 3
Disguise 6
Escape 2
Gather Information 2
Hide 11
Intimidate 3
Listen 2
Move silently 14
Knowledge (nature) 10
Perform (dance) 6
Search 2
Sense Motive 9
Spellcraft 2
Spot 3
Survival 5
Use Magic Device 4

[Rafinius]

I don't want to disrupt anything but...you know that those are 106 skill points, right?

[RedWarrior0]

Hm... For a form, one possibility is a tree. A perfectly ordinary tree, like the spell Tree Shape. A second possibility is to change into a bunch of perfectly ordinary leaves, except for the fact that they jump up and attack you.(Edit: that should be it's normal form) A third, slightly creepy possibility, is taking the form of the last thing it killed by swarm damage, devouring its memories and shape and leaving behind a small amount of vegetable matter.

That's my 3 cp, anyway.

[Togath]

I'm going to go for having it be able to shapechange into any humanoid or monstrous humanoid, working as the doppelganger’s changeShape ability.

edit: also are we going to end up voting for it's base apearance at some point?

[TravelLog]

Top Picks (Hopefully gaining Extraordinary and Supernatural abilities in the bargain):
Dryad to lure in travelers.
Frost Giant for melee (and RP reasons, misleading a band of frost giants)
Treant
Winter Wolf for travel and being inconspicuous
Myconid King for utility spores (and RP reasons, having it control a colony)
Plague Brush for tanking
Sporebat, for flight.
Also, Barghest...well this is the least reasonable, but I've always wanted to see a monster with the Feed ability that was actually a viable, variable threat to a party, rather than being mostly a one trick pony.

Finally, my personal favorite: Obliviax, or memory moss, that can steal memories from intelligent creatures. With the shapechanger subtype, the possibilities for this are endless. It might kill a woodsman, then absorb his memories and believe that it is actually him, taking his form and resuming his life. I mean, the potential is limitless. Giving it memories could also make it more intelligent, teach it tactics, ascend beyond the normal limits of it's species... This is my main pick.

[zagan]

Hum, let's see.
First I'll say normal plant but they look frozen.
next an animate object shape (mostly losing the swarm subtype temporarly to better interact with the world)

[Qwertystop]

Normal (frozen-looking) plant
Pile of arbitrary vegetable debris (like the stuff you find on the ground in a forest)
Whirlwind of flying frozen fruit

[Maraxus1]

I like both the tree and the dryad idea and would like to add: Violet Fungus, Shambling Mound, any animal of equal or less HD and from it's habitat.

It should be an "Alternate Form" ability, or if it is a "Change Shape" ability, it should have a special clause that the strength increases due to the solid form.


So, we can create new homebrew stuff just for this creature?
Then I would like to add a New Template: Winter Creature.

And add to the Alternate form ability for the voting creature:

The ... can choose to apply the Winter Creature template to it's alternate forms. It can use the supernatural special attacks and qualities provided by this template. This is an exception to the rules that alternate form can not allow the creature to assume a form with a template and to the rule that it does not gain supernatural attacks or qualities of the new form.

Spoiler

Show

Winter Creature

Winter Creatures have a strong elemental influence from the elemental plane of Frost either through heritage or magical influence.


Creating A Winter Creature

"Winter" is an inherited template that can be added to any corporeal aberration, animal, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, plant, or vermin (referred to hereafter as the base creature).

A winter creature uses all the base creature's statistics and abilities except as noted here. Do not recalculate the creature's Hit Dice, base attack bonus, saves, or skill points if its type changes.

Size and Type:
Animals or vermin with this template become magical beasts, but otherwise the creature type is unchanged. Size is unchanged. Winter creatures encountered on the Material Plane have the extraplanar subtype.

Special Attacks:
A winter creature retains all the special attacks of the base creature and also gains the following special attacks:

Frost Fist (Su):
Once per day the creature can make a melee touch attack to deal 1d6 cold damage per three HD (maximum of 10d6).
The creature can also choose to enhance a regular melee attack with Frost Fist to do additional damage but in any case a missed attack uses up the use for the day.

Frost Breath (Su):
Once per day a winter creature of 5 HD or more can create a 15ft cone of cold, that deals 3d6 damage and allows a reflex save DC 12+constitution modifier for half damage.


Special Qualities
A winter creature retains all the special qualities of the base creature and also gains the following:

Darkvision out to 60 feet.
Damage reduction (see table).
Resistance to cold (see table).

{table=head]Hit Dice|Resistance to Cold|Damage Reduction
1-4|10|—
5-8|15|5/magic
9-12|20|5/magic
13 or more|25|10/magic[/table]

If the base creature already has one or more of these special qualities, use the better value.

If a winter creature gains damage reduction, its natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Abilities:
Same as the base creature, but Intelligence is at least 3.

Environment:
Any, although cold climate is obviously preferred.

Challenge Rating
HD 4 or less, as base creature; HD 5 or more, as base creature +1.

Alignment
Usually as base creature.

Level Adjustment
Same as the base creature +1.

[Veklim]

I'm really liking the leaves on a plant thing, so much so that perhaps you could run variatons on a theme.
Lichen covering rocks, algae on a lake, moss on a building, etc. You could even try scales on a basilisk, or feathers on an owlbear. Would certainly make for an interesting fight when the dead basilisk gets back up and it's very skin spontaneously bursts into a swarm of tiny shapes.
I also like the idea of using the shape of the last creature it killed, so perhaps it shouldn't have a 'normal' form other than just a loose swarm, it can camouflage itself almost anywhere, but can only use one solid form at a time.

Alternatively, it could know a certain number of forms, learnt by killing a creature of that type. If it wants to know a new one, it has to drop an existing one from the list to do so.

[Rafinius]

I would like to add two things.
First every individual swarmling should be able to take the shape of any kind of small plant (not plant-monsters, just things like grass and flowers) and be able to become a leave of a bigger plant. It would not get the traits of that plant however. So no becoming a poisonous plant and flying into the enemies mouth.
Second, the swarm as a whole should be able to transform into any plant-creature that has a HD/CR lower than its own. This would not count in fungus-creatures, even if they are treated as plants by the game mechanics.

[dethkruzer]

Now seeing as I forgot my books, I'll have to work by memory here.

First of all, seconding Dryad, Myconid and Shambling Mound

Second, I believe there was a kind of golem made of Ice in Frostbite, can't remember the name. Another one would be the ability to mimic humanoid shape.

And lastly I agree on either this Winter creature template, or then the Ice Para-elemental creature that was in either Manual of the Planes, or that other book related to the planes.

[Arcran]

Could it be able to shift into anything, but not gain their abilities?

[137beth]

Hey guys, my power went out for 2 days, so I'm a bit behind on the list. Let me just answer a couple questions:

edit: also are we going to end up voting for it's base apearance at some point?

Yes. When I was designing this process, I had to decide whether to do crunch and then fluff, or fluff and then crunch. I thought that if we did fluff and THEN crunch, then this thread would be more or less a monster-idea competition thread. Yes, normally when designing a monster, I like to start with fluff, but for a voting thread, it is easier to start with crunch. Once we decide on the powers, it will be a lot easier to decide on the appearance, and on other fluff. So in short, yes, in but not for a few more phases.

Could it be able to shift into anything, but not gain their abilities?

I think that would be more of an illusion that a shapechange. It could get something like that as a SLA, but that would be decided in the SA phase, not now.

[Strormer]

I'm going to second the idea of having it shift into any normal plant of the same size or smaller and also I'd love to have it shift into a Thorn (MM3 172). Still, I think its resting state should remain the swarm. Just to prevent it from turning into grass and then sleeping. It could only be killed with a Gnomish lawnmower.

Edit: Added bold to my suggestions and location of the Thorn.

[137beth]

New monster, specifically for an alternate form, but could be used as a normal monster:

White Wyrmling Dragon Swarm
Tiny Dragon (Cold, Swarm)
18d12+18 HD (135 hp)
Speed 45 ft.; Fly 110 ft. (average); Burrow 30 ft.; Swim 45 ft.
Init: +0
AC 14 (+2 size, +2 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 14
BAB +15; Grp -
Attack Swarm (4d6)
Full-Attack Swarm (4d6)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks:Breath Weapon
Special Qualities:Immunity to cold, vulnerability to fire, swarm traits, half damage from slashing and piercing, Icewalking
Saves Fort +10 Ref +8 Will +8
Abilities Str 11, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 6, Wis 11, Cha 6
Skills:Hide +21, Move Silently +21, Swim +8
Feats: Ability Focus (breath weapon), Flyby Attack, Wingover, Lightning Reflexes, Improved Natural Attack, Iron Will
Environment:Any Cold region
Organization Swarm
Challenge Rating: 11
Treasure :Triple Standard
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement 16-20 HD
Level Adjustment-
Combat:
Breath Weapon (Su):
As the breath weapon of a white wyrmling, except as noted:
It can be made as a move-equivalent action, and does not need to "recharge". Rather than a cone, the breathe weapon covers a 20-foot radius sphere, centered on the center of the swarm (i.e., it extends 15 feet past the edge of the swarm's space in all directions). Additionally, the DC is adjusted to match its hit-dice.
Icewalking (Ex)
This ability works like the spider climb spell, but the surfaces the dragon climbs must be icy. It is always in effect.

PEACH!

[TravelLog]

Will you update the list of ideas on page one, so newcomers can see the options?

Also, I like the White Wyrmling swarm, it could definitely work.

[Veklim]

The white wyrmling swarm is a nice concept, although I would have made the breath weapon a 15ft radius effect, on account of it being from a swarm (i.e. lots of tiny breath weapons in multiple directions).
This does go a long way towards explaining how dragons survive infancy though!

[137beth]

New vote is up!

[Rafinius]

It seems you forgot Plant creature. I am pretty sure more than one person suggested it. If any plant was supposed to cover this, then my opinion is that plant creature and normal non-creature plants should be voted on separately.
I also believe you forgot frozen life plants, frozen plant matter (or more specifically frozen fruits I think), Thorn and Tree Shape (of which the last can of course just be added as a spell-like ability later on). Sorry that its again me who points out what you forgot .

Now to my votes. First I vote on Plant Creature, normal plants and frozen plants, if you add them.
From the already availlible things I take 1,3,7,10,21,22,23*

EDIT: Just saw it was ordinary plant and not any plant. Now I feel stupid... Ah well, Any Plant Creature is still missing.

EDIT2: For greater overseability I re-add all votes as numbers.
*1,3,7,10,21,22,23,24

[TravelLog]

2, 4, 7-14, 21, 22, 23

Sporebat is from the Fiend Folio, Obliviax is from MMII (as "Memory Moss", CR 5).

[Maraxus1]

I stay to my suggestions, mostly:

7. Dryad
9. Treant
16.Violet Fungus
17.Shambling Mound
18. Any animal
22. Winter Creature Template

[The Underlord]

I vote
1. ice golem
2. frost giant
3. treant
4. Ice Para-elemental

[137beth]

It seems you forgot Plant creature. I am pretty sure more than one person suggested it. If any plant was supposed to cover this, then my opinion is that plant creature and normal non-creature plants should be voted on separately.
I also believe you forgot frozen life plants, frozen plant matter (or more specifically frozen fruits I think), Thorn and Tree Shape (of which the last can of course just be added as a spell-like ability later on). Sorry that its again me who points out what you forgot .

Now to my votes. First I vote on Plant Creature, normal plants and frozen plants, if you add them.
From the already availible things I take 1,3,7,10,21,22,23

EDIT: Just saw it was ordinary plant and not any plant. Now I feel stupid... Ah well, Any Plant Creature is still missing.

No problem, I need SOMEONE to notice my mistakes
Transforming into any normal plant covers frozen plants and tree, I did not forget them.
Frozen flying fruit was previously on the list as "no stats available". Because that I specified that stats must exist in order for this to be useable in-game, I removed it.
I added "any plant creature."
As for Thorn, what book is it in?

2, 4, 7-14, 21, 22, 23

Sporebat is from the Fiend Folio, Obliviax is from MMII (as "Memory Moss", CR 5).

Okay, I don't have ready access to FF, but sporebat is still okay (what CR is it, though?)
As for memory moss/obliviax, are you sure it is MM2? I have checked both the table of contents and "list of monsters by CR", as well as the list of monsters by type, and don't see memory moss or obliviax.

[Eledragon]

1,4,8,10,21. icy,icy, shapechanger.

[TravelLog]

Here is the Sporebat (CR 10):
details
Here too

Obliviax/Memory Moss, I was wrong on this. For 3.X it's from Dragon Magazine, it was in MMII in 2E.
Link for specifics of where to find it

My recommendation is just download the PDFs for any sources you don't have (for any monster or thing here, not just these). Sorry for the mix up!

[Togath]

I vote for #4, #5, #6, and #18.

edit: also thorn is from mm3

[Howler Dagger]

1, 4, 9, 24

[Veklim]

2, 3, 4, 18, 19, 24, 25

[zagan]

Okay, hum:

3: Ordinary Plant
7: Dryad
15: Animated Object