Chaneque CR?

[Boci]

Just saw one of pathfinder's new monsters, the Chaneque. I like fey and this looks really fun, but also very hard to balance, and I just want to check I am understanding everything right, as its existence as both a mythic and non-mythic monster with identical c/m ratings is a bit puzzling at first.

The monster is here for reference: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/mon...s/fey/chaneque

The two things it misses as a non-mythic encounter seem is mythic surge (not that great), and weapon finesse, with turns its attack from +5 to +0. I am missing something? Lack of weapon finesse is a big loss, but I am not convinced what is left is a CR 1 encounter.

Lets look at how it goes:

Set up
Chaneque is hiding in the trees, 25ft above the ground. Taking a 10 on stealth means the total check is 29 (10+17 (skill modifier) + 2 (distance penalty), a.k.a., party is eating surprise a round.

Surprise round
Chaneque throws its special skull bomb. It wants a low AC target with a weak will save, so anyone in light armour is the most likely choice. Bad luck if they are a magis or something, but chances are its a rogue. +5 vs. flatfooted AC is probably going to be a hit, dealing 1d4+3 damage and forcing a DC: 14 will save, or the target is dominated (as per dominate person) by whoever holds the skull, which is lying on the floor.

1st round
Initiative is rolled, at +3 for the Chaneque, so probably going last but probably not going first. It has 15 AC (14 touch), 19 hitpoints though and decent saves, so it will probably survive until its turn, where it drops down and picks up the skull. At this point a 4 man party has lost 25% of its manpower, and possibly 50% is the new will save is failed and the dominated party member attacks and ties down a second one. Whilst inaccurate, the Chaneque's attacks hit for 1d3+3 damage, which isn't bad and this is not sounding like a CR: 1 encounter. Not TPK worthy (especially since the Chaneque would rather screw with the party than kill them, unless there is a fey amongst them), but hardly a giant frog.

Basically something feels wrong, and I'm not if its because of the mythic aspect, or because its a single gimmick monster, which is the only way you can have a CR 1 creature with a dominate humanoid affect. I think the mechanics for that are reasonably balanced, with the skull needing to be thrown and then picked up, especially since it gives a chance for savvy players to spot hat something is going on (and evil players to screw each other over, if that is the sort of game you are running).

However, I think the problem is the designers tried too hard to give the monster something to do when its gimmick failed, when really "being useless and dying" is, IMO at least, a perfectly valid result of such a scenario, and I especially don't see why they needed to "cheat" with the monster to do this (it has 6 extra HP from nowhere and deals damage off of dex instead of strength with no ability that says so).

Furthermore the instructions on how to use the Chaneque against a non-mythic PCs could be better worded...or worded at all. Seriously, it never even said "remove the mythic surge ability and mythic feat", I just assumed it was common sense (once I realized weapon finesse was a mythic feat, and not a bonus feat, as that minute m doesn't exactly demand attention. I'm surprised I noticed on my second read through). So in addition to the above problem of feeling the need to beef up a gimmick monster, the Bestiary 4 should probably have included a "Using this monster again Non-mythic PCs" heading, followed by a list of changes, or maybe a higher CR and a more reliable gimmick.

What do you think of this monster?

[Fax Celestis]

You're missing the fear SLA. It's not cause fear, so it's actually worthwhile.

An invisible cone of terror causes each living creature in the area to become panicked unless it succeeds on a Will save. If cornered, a panicked creature begins cowering. If the Will save succeeds, the creature is shaken for 1 round.

DC 13 at CR 1 means ~50% of the time it succeeds (a little less for Will-strong characters like clerics and druids, a little more for Will-weak characters like fighters). A paladin's Aura of Courage isn't online yet either. Caster level of 5 means that a failure makes the victim run screaming from combat for five rounds (so 4x move speed for 5 rounds).

A panicked creature must drop anything it holds and flee at top speed from the source of its fear, as well as any other dangers it encounters, along a random path. It can't take any other actions. In addition, the creature takes a –2 penalty on all saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. If cornered, a panicked creature cowers and does not attack, typically using the total defense action in combat. A panicked creature can use special abilities, including spells, to flee; indeed, the creature must use such means if they are the only way to escape.

In a party of four, then, that means statistically at least one person is going to fail and be completely removed from combat.

A chaneque can do this three times, and can also use its fear aura (also DC 13) to fear-stack on those who make their saves.

[Boci]

Well spotted. So what is its CR then? High (and rather fragile) 2? I don't think its enough to be a 3...

[Fax Celestis]

I think fragile CR 2 is good.

I would not want to meet a couple of these in a dark wooded area. Can you imagine if they got the surprise round and four of them hammered you with fear at the same time?

Also I kind of want to advance one of these for a tribal chieftain type monster.