Request a Homebrew: Thread 2!

[Just to Browse]

R 896

I need a unique high CR, colossal, gaseous, air sub-type, incorporeal monster to be what will be known as the Black Wind.

Are you sure you want a high-CR colossal creature? This just seems like a) A handwavey way to force players to go somewhere, or b) A handwavey way to show off how cool your world is. Neither of those require a high-CR colossal creature writeup.

My initial thought is to make a Voidwraith (Libris Mortis, p. 131, you can advance it to CR 11) with Daunting Presence (LiMo p.25) and Baleful Moan (LiMo p.24), and that one AoE Intimidate feat (I think that's a thing?) instead of its current feats, and ranks in intimidate instead of hide. The monster would use the fear effects as a litmus test--those who could resist would be worthwhile enough to eat, and everyone who runs away would just be funny. Then give switch the Con damage for Wisdom (like an allip, but it eats them at the end or whatever).

Playstyle would be 2 rounds moaning and intimidating, which is generally enough to put everyone into frightened or worse. It's incorporeal, so even the party paladin will probably see the logic in leaving.

[DrunkenMists]

H 897

• Change hit die to d8
• Change all instances of "Charisma" in the Smite and Indomitable Soul abilities to "Constitution". Keep in mind that Indomitable Soul still doesn't stack with Divine Grace.
• At level 10, instead of Die Hard, grant Medium Fortification.

C 897

Lower Hit Die; I was wondering whaaaa? until I read using Con mod for Smite/Soul. Kinda makes sense; in the long run; I can't see the loss of one level of HD making THAT much of a difference; but the con is just going to keep getting higher; least for the crusaders I play.
Eh; No stacking of Divine/Soul? I never play paladins. wouldn't never effect me. I never see the point of stacking for saves like that.
Removing a Near Pointless Ability for Living Contruct? I like it.

I won't say it's a Complete Racial Subsitution; but wow; quite in the right direction. Never woulda thought of changing a Ability Mod for a..ability. I think I can build something more around this. thanks!

[Just to Browse]

C 897

Lower Hit Die; I was wondering whaaaa? until I read using Con mod for Smite/Soul. Kinda makes sense; in the long run; I can't see the loss of one level of HD making THAT much of a difference; but the con is just going to keep getting higher; least for the crusaders I play.
Eh; No stacking of Divine/Soul? I never play paladins. wouldn't never effect me. I never see the point of stacking for saves like that.
Removing a Near Pointless Ability for Living Contruct? I like it.

I won't say it's a Complete Racial Subsitution; but wow; quite in the right direction. Never woulda thought of changing a Ability Mod for a..ability. I think I can build something more around this. thanks!

I tried to stick true to some of its stuff. Indomitable Soul previously called out that it didn't stack with Divine Grace, so I kept it there. I don't think burning three levels to get ~2 or less to all saves is worthwhile, but tradition.

That'll be my first attempt at racial sublevels! I hope it helped!

[LordotheMorning]

b) A handwavey way to show off how cool your world is.

I don't even understand what this is supposed to mean, but thanks for the suggestion.

[Debihuman]

I don't even understand what this is supposed to mean, but thanks for the suggestion.

C. 896

It means you don't actually need any stats as you are forcing players into a situation that they can't hope to defeat. By "handwaving" you just tell them that they fail at whatever task they are doing. You can say a wind comes out of the East and simply knocks them unconscious (no save) or you can say that unless they roll exceedingly high, they can't make their saves. Unless the CR matches the party strength, you are in fact making a Deus Ex Machina ruling so that you can have the outcome that YOU want. It doesn't matter what the party does. Generally, in the gaming community this is frowned upon. Yes, it gets the adventure rolling but it does so without PC input. This is why making monsters with high CRs isn't fun for most of us. It feels disingenuous.

Debby

[LordotheMorning]

C. 896

It means you don't actually need any stats as you are forcing players into a situation that they can't hope to defeat. By "handwaving" you just tell them that they fail at whatever task they are doing. You can say a wind comes out of the East and simply knocks them unconscious (no save) or you can say that unless they roll exceedingly high, they can't make their saves. Unless the CR matches the party strength, you are in fact making a Deus Ex Machina ruling so that you can have the outcome that YOU want. It doesn't matter what the party does. Generally, in the gaming community this is frowned upon. Yes, it gets the adventure rolling but it does so without PC input. This is why making monsters with high CRs isn't fun for most of us. It feels disingenuous.

Debby

C. 896

To be frank, I was getting at the notion that I don't think this is really the place for people to presume to judge other people's DMing. I came here to request a high CR monster, not to hear that you or someone else may think that my request is contrived. I certainly fail to see how something could be a hand-wave if I'm putting it on the random encounter table. Since it, apparently, is of concern despite the fact that it is off the topic of this thread, I'm not trying to chase them anywhere with it or force some scripted event. The design is such that if they venture to the location where it roams at lower levels and are extremely unlucky, they will meet this monster and likely have to flee. Stats are most certainly necessary because the players will likely be able to defeat it should they encounter it at higher levels.

People homebrew monsters all the time. If a colossal ghost doesn't interest you, don't tell me that I don't need it because of what you think my plans for it are, just don't take the request. I understand how one could get the wrong idea based on the wording of the initial request, but I don't really like being taken for "that DM".

[DracoDei]

R 896

I need a unique high CR, colossal, gaseous, air sub-type, incorporeal monster to be what will be known as the Black Wind. It's going to look kind of like this. If you're familiar with Wheel of Time, it should be somewhat similar to Machin Shin, but perhaps a little more manageable. It likes to either drain its victims of their souls or else drive them to insanity. This creature will haunt an extraplanar highway that was created by ancient predecessor races (a.k.a., The Ways). The players will have a very low chance of encountering this creature due to the size of the plane (1% per day or less), but when they finally do, it should scare the absolute piss out of them. It should be something powerful enough to have driven the predecessor races that constructed the highway to abandon it entirely.

Here's the catch: The party will likely encounter this creature before they can hope to defeat it. There needs to be a mechanic by which they can escape from it and not get TPK'd, but not something that would make them feel totally safe from it. Simply giving a low base speed won't work because then the players could simply outrun it every time they encounter it, completely eliminating the fear factor. Doing this sort of has me stumped. If it also stumps you, but you want to take a crack at designing the monster, feel free to go ahead anyway.

H/Q 896
HOW high do you want the CR?

Here is a VERY rough sketch of what I am thinking. I don't think that adding anything to it is going to be necessary, but the wording and a bit of the intended mechanics might need revision, and the math may not be right.
The Black Wind
Colossal Outsider (Air, Incorporeal)
HD 20d8+120 hp + 1d20x5 temporary hitpoints (210 hp + 52 temporary hitpoints)
Speed Fly 50 ft. (10 squares) [Perfect]
Init: +5 (+5 Dex)
AC 15+Dodge and Mobility Feats; touch 15+Dodge and Mobility Feats; flat-footed 10?+Mobility Feat?
(-8 size, +8 deflection, +5 Dexterity)
BAB +20; Grp +??
Attack Soul-Rending Touch +25 Melee Touch (Soul-Rending Presence, NO Critical)
Full-Attack Soul-Rending Touch +25 Melee Touch (Soul-Rending Presence, NO Critical)
Space 30 ft.; Reach 20 ft.
Special Attacks Soul-Rending Presence, Soul-Rending Touch.
Special Qualities Improved Slippery Mind, DR 15/Magic AND Cold-Iron, SR 27, Immune to Fear, Acid Resistance 20, Electricity Resistance 30, Fire Resistance 5, Cold Immunity, Sonic Immunity.
Saves Fort +17 Ref +17 Will +17
Abilities Str -, Dex 20, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 20, Cha 26
Skills Bluff +31, Hide +23, Intimidate +31, Knowledge(The Planes) +23, Listen +28, Spot +28, Survival +28, Tumble +28
Feats Ability Focus [Soul Rending Presence], Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Toughness, Mobility, Track (1 more feat I think)
Environment The Ways (The Astral Plane in standard games)
Organization Unique
Challenge Rating 17?
Treasure None
Alignment Neutral Evil
Advancement 20+ HD (Colossal)

Combat:
The Black Wind moves across as many creatures as it can, minus one, which it will use its melee attack on. Regardless of its method of delivering it attacks using its Feed on the Soul subability of Soul-Rending Presence initially. If it believes the targets to be weak (having granted it only 5 or no hitpoints each in at least 2 separate attacks), and failing to cause it significant harm, then it will use its fear-inflicting ability to make a mark to spread the fear of it, stopping only when the creature becomes shaken by that ability. If a target grants it at least 10 hit-points in any use of its Soul-Rending Presence(Feed on the Soul), but it believes it can defeat them, it will enslave them, and burn out their sanity and bodies in the course of whatever tasks it can find for them. It rarely retreats from combat, because it does not wish any creature to get the idea it CAN be defeated. Rather it will move away stealthily from any creature it does not believe it can defeat and feign that it did not detect them.

Soul-Rending Presence (Su): Any creature that shares part or all of its space with the Black Wind for the first time during a given turn* is immediately subjected to The Black Wind's choice from the following effects. The choice is independent for each time each creature is effected. The save DCs for this ability (including all sub abilities) is normally 30, and is charisma based and includes the +2 bonus from Ability Focus.

1. Feed on the Soul: The target takes a number of negative levels equal to its total hitdice minus any negative levels it currently has and then divided by four. A fortitude save is allowed to halve the number of negative levels. In either case, round down, including to zero. Hitpoint penalties from this ability can not reduce a creature to less than 1 hitpoint. Temporary hitpoints granted to The Black Wind last as long as the matching negative levels or resulting level loss remains rather than 1 hour. Note that the victim's death ends such durations. Modify the normal rules for how negative levels change into level drain as follows: Any spell or effect that would normally remove one or more negative levels must succeed against a spell resistance equal to that of The Black Wind's (27 for the version shown here) to remove each negative level that it normally would. Roll separately for each negative level. If a character has any negative levels from this creature that persist for at least 24 hours then they are allowed a single saving throw against the same DC as that which inflicted the negative level(s) initially. If this saving throw is sucessful, a single negative level is removed. If it fails then there is no effect, unless it is failed for three or more days in a row, in which case a single negative level is converted into level loss. This process repeats every 24 hours until no more negative levels remain.
2. Seed of Fear(Ex): The victim must make a will save, or take a penalty of 1d4 to all future saves against fear. Track these penalties even on characters immune to fear. If the source of the immunity is a spell, then when the penalty exceeds the level of the spell, then that many points of the penalty are removed, and the spell is automatically dispelled. If the immunity is from a magic item, then a similar amount of the penalty is traded away to curse that item to remove that effect from the benefits it bestows (this curse may be dispelled as normal by Break Enchantment, Dispel Magic, Remove Curse, etc.). If the source of the immunity is a class ability, then the penalty is similarly traded away. The amount of the penalty necessary for this trade is three times the level that the character has in the class that grants immunity to fear. This removal of a class feature may be undone by Atonement(without XP cost), Greater Restoration, Heal, Limited Wish, Miracle, or Wish. Points of penalty are applied first to class abilities, then magic items, then spells, and finally as actual penalties to saves. A creature whose save against fear is less than zero due, in any part, to the effects of this penalty is shaken. Remove Fear removes a single point of this penalty per casting. Otherwise only Break Enchantment or stronger magic can remove any penalty (including that which is not having any effect due to an immunity). All effects of this ability are permanent except as noted. Note that this is NOT considered a Fear effect itself.

*If The Black Wind acts during a surprise round, then people who took damage during the surprise round do not also take damage during the first full round of combat as long as they neither enter its space their turn (moving from one part of its space to another does not count for this purpose), nor end their turn sharing part or all of its space.

If The Black Wind attempts to effect a creature that BOTH has 3 or less effective hitdice (IE actual hitdice minus any negative levels, regardless of source) AND a -1 or lower total modifier to fear saves, then the creature is instead affected as per Dominate Monster, without benefit of saving throw (spell resistance still applies). The Black Wind is incapable of voluntarily releasing such a creature, and each 24 hours of cumulative time (so not counting time spent protected by Protection From Evil, Mind Blank or similar) inflicts 1 point of drain to constitution, wisdom, and charisma due to the extreme stress of the terror that drives the creature.

Soul Rending Touch (Su): This melee touch attack causes the creature to be effected by Soul-Rending Presence as if they were inside the cloud for that instant. Note that this does not allow Soul-Rending Presence to effect a creature more often than it would normally be able to, it merely substitutes for the requirement that the creature share part or all of its space with The Black Wind. This attack is incapable of critical hits.

Improved Slippery Mind (Ex): If The Black Wind is affected by an enchantment and fails its saving throw, 1 round later it can attempt its saving throw again. If it fails such a saving throw as well, the spell’s effects continue normally, but it may retry once every hour afterwords.

[LordotheMorning]

H/Q 896
HOW high do you want the CR?

Here is a VERY rough sketch of what I am thinking. I don't think that adding anything to it is going to be necessary, but the wording and a bit of the intended mechanics might need revision, and the math may not be right.

C 896

This is a fantastic starting point. It's just about right-on with the thematic I intended. I probably should have specified the CR earlier. I'd say CR 20 would be about right. 17 at the lowest. Which probably means it might need a little more HP. I'll let you be the judge.

Couple of clarifying questions/points:

-If Seed of Fear reduces a target to shaken, they remain permanently shaken until they receive the aid of remove fear or break enchantment?

-Is it intended to start combat already having temp hp? This might be a bit of an issue, because The Ways are known to very few people, the few people being those who stumble upon the various entry points across the continent, and so the Black Wind would be somewhat starved for victims. Do victims who suffer level loss permanently provide temp hp to it?

-I like your approach to avoiding a TPK if encountered at low levels. It wants to be feared, so it let's some of it's victims live after properly terrifying them in order to spread it's infamy, is that correct? That would also open up an opportunity for me to spread the idea of the Black Wind into the culture of the setting. Maybe it'd pop up as a ghost story some point down the line. The only problem is that the threshold for enslavement may be too low. The ways the numbers are set now, if the party encounters this creature anywhere from level 5 or higher it will go for the throat. They way it's set up, doesn't it also effectively mean that the Black Wind would assume that a character who makes his save and has Mettle is too weak because it didn't give it any temp hp?

-The hide check is likely not going to see use. The creature's presence in the ways changes the color of the sky. The Ways normally have a twilit sky full of moons and stars, but when the Black Wind approaches it drowns everything in black/off-purple clouds.

-The Black Wind has no actual ability to create fear other than intimidate or be draining their save to 0?



To give you a few more details (if you want them. If not, excuse the Wall of Text) on the locale in which the encounter would take place, when/if the party stumbles upon an entry gate, they will likely see the use of The Ways as a manner of quick travel (the setting is low magic, and as such they will not have access to teleport for a long time). They would also likely be aware from either knowledge checks or heiroglyphs found at gateways that something terrible drove the ancient peoples to abandon use of them (but they won't necessarily know whether or not it still exists and lives within). Every day they spend in the ways, I will roll d%, and on a 00, they will encounter the Black Wind. The Ways are made up of a series of pathways formed by countless floating stepping stones suspended over an abyss. Thus, when the Black Wind comes the odds are they will be in transit on one of the roads, essentially a 5-foot-wide line that might not even allow for use of the run action due to the nature of the path. The only directions to flee would be forwards or backwards. They would also have the option of leaping from the path in hopes that the abyss below would be less dangerous than the Black Wind, and if they did so it would likely end up with the party being stuck on either Limbo or the Astral Plane and having to work their way back to the Material Plane.

If that gives you any ideas or makes you want to change anything, feel free to do so. If not, that's fine too.

[Debihuman]

C. 896

To be frank, I was getting at the notion that I don't think this is really the place for people to presume to judge other people's DMing. I came here to request a high CR monster, not to hear that you or someone else may think that my request is contrived. I certainly fail to see how something could be a hand-wave if I'm putting it on the random encounter table. Since it, apparently, is of concern despite the fact that it is off the topic of this thread, I'm not trying to chase them anywhere with it or force some scripted event. The design is such that if they venture to the location where it roams at lower levels and are extremely unlucky, they will meet this monster and likely have to flee. Stats are most certainly necessary because the players will likely be able to defeat it should they encounter it at higher levels.

People homebrew monsters all the time. If a colossal ghost doesn't interest you, don't tell me that I don't need it because of what you think my plans for it are, just don't take the request. I understand how one could get the wrong idea based on the wording of the initial request, but I don't really like being taken for "that DM".

C. 896 Point taken. However, within the limited scope of what you asked, I feel my response to your question was justified. You could also a Living Whirlwind from WotC's site (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ls/20061026a)

Living Whirlwind

In large battles, various "crowd control" spells are very useful for clearing paths to specific foes, opening up lines of escape for allied troops, holding back enemy forces to allow your soldiers to regroup, and so on. One of the more interesting choices for high-level divine casters is the whirlwind spell, as it can affect a large number of opponents, can be programmed to act on its own while you perform other tasks, and can even be used to carry yourself or others if you're willing to damage the "passengers." Though there are few living whirlwinds in the Mournland, all of them are very powerful and greatly feared. They move erratically, and because of their speed and powers they have been known to hurtle through a group and carry off one or more people, depositing them (or their corpses) miles away. The living spell presented here was formed from a whirlwind spell with caster level 16.

Variant: You can create interesting and deadly variants by assuming the living spell is based on multiple spells. Add solid fog and the PCs have a much harder time escaping (increase CR by +2). Add incendiary cloud and the living spell is a firestorm (CR +4). Cloudkill (CR +2), lightning bolt (CR +1), and enervation (CR +2) are all good ways to make the creature less predictable and more of a threat.

This swirling mass of air carries the fragments of several corpses, some fleshy and some not. The pieces spin at maddening speed.

Living Whirlwind CR 16
N Huge Ooze
Init +2; Senses blindsight 60 ft.; Listen +2, Spot +2

AC 18, touch 18, flat-footed 16
(-2 size, +8 deflection, +2 Dex)
hp 152 (16 HD); DR 10/magic
Immune critical hits, flanking, gaze attacks, mind-affecting effects, paralysis, poison, polymorph, sleep, and effects that rely on sight
SR 26
Fort +17, Ref +15, Will +15

Speed 60 ft. (12 squares)
Melee slam +14 (1d8+6 plus whirlwind)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Base Atk +12; Grp +24
Special Atk whirlwind, engulf

Abilities Str 18, Dex 15, Con 18, Int --, Wis 15, Cha 18

Whirlwind (Su): A creature hit by a living whirlwind or engulfed by it is affected by the whirlwind spell.

Engulf (Ex): A living whirlwind can flow around a Huge or smaller creature as a standard action. It cannot make a slam attack during a round in which it engulfs. The living spell merely has to move over the opponents, affecting as many as it can cover. Opponents can make attacks of opportunity against the living spell, but if they do so they are not entitled to a saving throw against the engulf attack. Those who do not attempt attacks of opportunity must succeed at a DC 22 Reflex save or be engulfed; on a success they are pushed back or aside (opponent's choice) as the spell moves forward. Engulfed creatures are subject to the full normal effect of the whirlwind spell each round on the living spell's turn, and are considered to be grappled. (Unlike the whirlwind spell, a creature trapped within a living whirlwind can attempt grapple checks to escape.)

Debby

[Just to Browse]

C. 896

To be frank, I was getting at the notion that I don't think this is really the place for people to presume to judge other people's DMing. /snip/

C 896

That wasn't quite the point I was trying to get across. Debi does communicate my opinion well, but I'm willing to put aside my sheer hate of higher-than-you-are-CR monsters to write something up in the name of homebrew.

My reason for listing (b) was because, if you actually are just adding something to scare the players (and aren't really planning on making it a plot point), the Black Wind could much more easily be a trap, and that would save me the time of writing attributes and grapple modifiers and would save you the time of sifting through a textblock of anticaster abilities so that the beast is actually CR 20 or what have you.

If this thing is supposed to come up once and isn't plot centric, it's much easier to just have it be a moving trap that has a long range burst frighten, a medium range burst stat drain, and a short range 2 negative levels per round. It can be defeated by dealing it [insert large amount here] damage in one round and you treat it as an incorporeal creature. That way no one is scratching their head to come up with feats and hit dice for something that might not even show up in the whole campaign (since it's on a single location's RET), and that way you don't have to track dodge bonus to AC, damage reduction elements, and how much stat drain it can take.

[Agrippa]

R. 897

While the Vile Shaft (ugh, that's a name to remember) discipline as all fine and good I was talking more along the lines of this when I said Abyssal Archery. Think of marksmanship augmented by netherworldly powers and necromantic might.

[TuggyNE]

R898: A weapon special ability, or special material, that works like the starmetal in OOTS. Or, y'know, a pointer to an existing writeup?

[inuyasha]

R898: A weapon special ability, or special material, that works like the starmetal in OOTS. Or, y'know, a pointer to an existing writeup?

C898
the starmetal is adamantine isnt it?

[Just to Browse]

C898
the starmetal is adamantine isnt it?

C898

Nope.

"Starmetal" is basically the cost component of a +5 weapon of undead bane.

[TuggyNE]

"Starmetal" is basically the cost component of a +5 weapon of undead bane.

C898: Except that it can activate sometimes when not fighting undead, such as against Sabine in Cliffport. But not always! For that matter, does it even always trigger against undead?

[Debihuman]

H. 898 Make a variant starmetal (see Complete Arcane pg. 141) that does an extra 1d6 points of damage to Undead instead of to Outsiders. Cost: +6,000 gp. It is equal to adamantine in all purposes, including overcoming damage reduction or granting damage reductin when used in armor construction.

This has a higher price than standard starmetal because it is even rarer than standard starmetal and Undead are generally more common than Outsiders.

Debby

[ngilop]

R 899

make an archery combat style that is equal to this dual wielding combat style, in terms of power.

the Ranger, upon a successful attack with both his main and off-hand weapon, gains a bonus attack with his main hand weapon at a -5 penalty, this attack deals an addition 2d4 + 1 damage per ranger level. This extra attack does not occur on Attacks of Opportunity.

[Steward]

R. 897

While the Vile Shaft (ugh, that's a name to remember) discipline as all fine and good I was talking more along the lines of this when I said Abyssal Archery. Think of marksmanship augmented by netherworldly powers and necromantic might.

C. 897

Do you want a base class, prestige class, item, or something else?

[gurgleflep]

R900

My request is this: keep up your good work, homebrewers! You all do a great job at what you do

[Agrippa]

C. 897

Do you want a base class, prestige class, item, or something else?

I'd like a marital discipline for netherworldly/necromantic archers. That's all.

[Courier6]

R 899

make an archery combat style that is equal to this dual wielding combat style, in terms of power.

the Ranger, upon a successful attack with both his main and off-hand weapon, gains a bonus attack with his main hand weapon at a -5 penalty, this attack deals an addition 2d4 + 1 damage per ranger level. This extra attack does not occur on Attacks of Opportunity.

C. 899 Can the ranger get this attack multiple times per round and apply precision damage? if so allow the ranger to apply Dex modifier (if positive) to ranged damage, stacking with any other damage increases (composite bow, crossbow sniper).

EDIT: edited for clarity.

[AzureNightshade]

R 901

I'm looking for a half-elf/half-Firre Eladrin playable race for 3.5
a halfling/Firre version would be cool too

in the +1-+2 level adjustment range

I'd like it to be the elf/halfling version of the Azerblood.
Obviously Outsider.
Produce Flame Spell like.
Hair can turn into fire.

the Firre are in Book of Exalted Deeds on page 169.

Thank you in advance!

[LOTRfan]

C 901

You may want to look at the Celadrin race, a type of planetouched descended from the mixing of Eladrin and Elvish blood. It's in a Dragon magazine, don't remember which one.
EDIT: You mentioned Azerbloods, which are from the same article, so I take it you saw the Celadrin and didn't like it. Sorry, I should not be allowed on the internet at this time of night.

[DracoDei]

C 896

C 896

This is a fantastic starting point. It's just about right-on with the thematic I intended. I probably should have specified the CR earlier. I'd say CR 20 would be about right. 17 at the lowest. Which probably means it might need a little more HP. I'll let you be the judge.

I can up the Con, yes.

Couple of clarifying questions/points:

-If Seed of Fear reduces a target to shaken, they remain permanently shaken until they receive the aid of remove fear or break enchantment?

A sufficient amount of Remove Fear will do the job, yes. Has to raise their save above -1.
Break Enchantment will do the job in a single casting.

-Is it intended to start combat already having temp hp? This might be a bit of an issue, because The Ways are known to very few people, the few people being those who stumble upon the various entry points across the continent, and so the Black Wind would be somewhat starved for victims. Do victims who suffer level loss permanently provide temp hp to it?

Given the way it intentionally allows some to survive, yes.
Reduce the temporary hitpoints as necessary to mesh with your setting.

-I like your approach to avoiding a TPK if encountered at low levels. It wants to be feared, so it let's some of it's victims live after properly terrifying them in order to spread it's infamy, is that correct?

That and temp. hitpoints I think.

That would also open up an opportunity for me to spread the idea of the Black Wind into the culture of the setting. Maybe it'd pop up as a ghost story some point down the line. The only problem is that the threshold for enslavement may be too low. The ways the numbers are set now, if the party encounters this creature anywhere from level 5 or higher it will go for the throat.

I don't think you specified that either.
*Goes to look*
They would have to be at least 8th level to grant it MORE than 5 hitpoints on a failed save. If they are 16th level or above, it gets 10 hitpoints (from 2 negative levels) even on a successful save for half. Remember, you round DOWN, including to zero.

They way it's set up, doesn't it also effectively mean that the Black Wind would assume that a character who makes his save and has Mettle is too weak because it didn't give it any temp hp?

Correct, provided they don't manage to injure it significantly.

-The hide check is likely not going to see use. The creature's presence in the ways changes the color of the sky. The Ways normally have a twilit sky full of moons and stars, but when the Black Wind approaches it drowns everything in black/off-purple clouds.

Well, exchange those skill points for something else... what would you suggest, or should the INT be decreased? Also, just because you know it is the area doesn't mean you know exactly where it is...

-The Black Wind has no actual ability to create fear other than intimidate or be draining their save to 0?

Correct.

To give you a few more details (if you want them. If not, excuse the Wall of Text) on the locale in which the encounter would take place, when/if the party stumbles upon an entry gate, they will likely see the use of The Ways as a manner of quick travel (the setting is low magic, and as such they will not have access to teleport for a long time). They would also likely be aware from either knowledge checks or heiroglyphs found at gateways that something terrible drove the ancient peoples to abandon use of them (but they won't necessarily know whether or not it still exists and lives within). Every day they spend in the ways, I will roll d%, and on a 00, they will encounter the Black Wind.

How many days will a usual trip be?

The Ways are made up of a series of pathways formed by countless floating stepping stones suspended over an abyss. Thus, when the Black Wind comes the odds are they will be in transit on one of the roads, essentially a 5-foot-wide line that might not even allow for use of the run action due to the nature of the path.

Wouldn't that be a balance check if it is just that it is narrow? Or is it some other effect?

The only directions to flee would be forwards or backwards. They would also have the option of leaping from the path in hopes that the abyss below would be less dangerous than the Black Wind, and if they did so it would likely end up with the party being stuck on either Limbo or the Astral Plane and having to work their way back to the Material Plane.

I see. Well, you know your players better than me. How likely are they to jump off? Seems like the sort of thing that PCs might do in a battle against an overpowering foe that they don't KNOW will leave them alive. Of course, many players HATE running from a battle and will not even consider it. Seems important that they know IC that it sometimes leaves its victims alive. Or would you consider "merely" being level drained to be the appropriate reward for successful research.

If that gives you any ideas or makes you want to change anything, feel free to do so. If not, that's fine too.

My energy levels fluxuate a lot. I might or might not revise the creature beyond any given point. Others should feel free to pick up where I leave off, especially if I don't reply within a week of your last comment to me.

I'll go give it Improved Toughness and bump up the Con by 4 points... I hope that isn't overkill. This thing already requires ghost touch cold-iron weapons to hit with full effectiveness. Then again, its AC begs for at least a little power attack.

[AzureNightshade]

C 901

You may want to look at the Celadrin race, a type of planetouched descended from the mixing of Eladrin and Elvish blood. It's in a Dragon magazine, don't remember which one.
EDIT: You mentioned Azerbloods, which are from the same article, so I take it you saw the Celadrin and didn't like it. Sorry, I should not be allowed on the internet at this time of night.

Nah it's ok I thought the Celadrin where wind based and came from Bralanis for some reason, but another take on it, maybe a more powerful version or a halfling version would be really cool to see.

I consider most planetouched to be a like +.5 level adjustment in anycase due to their outsider type being valued so high, like the lesser planetouched being a LA0 just by removing the outsider type, what would a +1 look like if that weren't there. I'm not describing very clearly as I'm pretty tired sorry.

[Qwertystop]

C 896

This is a fantastic starting point. It's just about right-on with the thematic I intended. I probably should have specified the CR earlier. I'd say CR 20 would be about right. 17 at the lowest. Which probably means it might need a little more HP. I'll let you be the judge.

Couple of clarifying questions/points:

-If Seed of Fear reduces a target to shaken, they remain permanently shaken until they receive the aid of remove fear or break enchantment?

-Is it intended to start combat already having temp hp? This might be a bit of an issue, because The Ways are known to very few people, the few people being those who stumble upon the various entry points across the continent, and so the Black Wind would be somewhat starved for victims. Do victims who suffer level loss permanently provide temp hp to it?

-I like your approach to avoiding a TPK if encountered at low levels. It wants to be feared, so it let's some of it's victims live after properly terrifying them in order to spread it's infamy, is that correct? That would also open up an opportunity for me to spread the idea of the Black Wind into the culture of the setting. Maybe it'd pop up as a ghost story some point down the line. The only problem is that the threshold for enslavement may be too low. The ways the numbers are set now, if the party encounters this creature anywhere from level 5 or higher it will go for the throat. They way it's set up, doesn't it also effectively mean that the Black Wind would assume that a character who makes his save and has Mettle is too weak because it didn't give it any temp hp?

-The hide check is likely not going to see use. The creature's presence in the ways changes the color of the sky. The Ways normally have a twilit sky full of moons and stars, but when the Black Wind approaches it drowns everything in black/off-purple clouds.

-The Black Wind has no actual ability to create fear other than intimidate or be draining their save to 0?



To give you a few more details (if you want them. If not, excuse the Wall of Text) on the locale in which the encounter would take place, when/if the party stumbles upon an entry gate, they will likely see the use of The Ways as a manner of quick travel (the setting is low magic, and as such they will not have access to teleport for a long time). They would also likely be aware from either knowledge checks or heiroglyphs found at gateways that something terrible drove the ancient peoples to abandon use of them (but they won't necessarily know whether or not it still exists and lives within). Every day they spend in the ways, I will roll d%, and on a 00, they will encounter the Black Wind. The Ways are made up of a series of pathways formed by countless floating stepping stones suspended over an abyss. Thus, when the Black Wind comes the odds are they will be in transit on one of the roads, essentially a 5-foot-wide line that might not even allow for use of the run action due to the nature of the path. The only directions to flee would be forwards or backwards. They would also have the option of leaping from the path in hopes that the abyss below would be less dangerous than the Black Wind, and if they did so it would likely end up with the party being stuck on either Limbo or the Astral Plane and having to work their way back to the Material Plane.

If that gives you any ideas or makes you want to change anything, feel free to do so. If not, that's fine too.

This for an altered Wheel of Time? Machin Shin was basically a plot device there.

[Magnet Tech]

Would any of you happen to have any ideas for a homebrew that allows you to make Mega Man/X in Pathfinder? Been trying to do that for a while, but it always winds up looking either ludicrously OP or just plain ineffective. Granted, I generally build them around using Androids, which could be why it always turns out wrong.

[Xaotiq1]

Would any of you happen to have any ideas for a homebrew that allows you to make Mega Man/X in Pathfinder? Been trying to do that for a while, but it always winds up looking either ludicrously OP or just plain ineffective. Granted, I generally build them around using Androids, which could be why it always turns out wrong.

http://community.wizards.com/go/thre...6658#338456658

[Magnet Tech]

http://community.wizards.com/go/thre...6658#338456658

I was thinking more along the lines of an actual 1-20 level class based around arm busters and copying powers, but that is pretty cool.

[DracoDei]

I was thinking more along the lines of an actual 1-20 level class based around arm busters and copying powers, but that is pretty cool.

This is a PrC and may be 3.0/3.5, but other than that it might be what you are looking for.

Cybernetic Gunner