Cerebral Inferno [MitP]

[pyrefiend]

This is my first real attempt at making a monster. I'm trying to qualify for MitP here, so don't forget to cast your vote in your post. Any and all input is welcome!

Cerebral Inferno
Large Elemental (Fire, Chaotic, Psionic)
Hit Dice: 7d6+21 (45hp)
Initiative: +10
Speed: Fly 40 ft. (perfect)
Armor Class: 15 (-1 size, +6 Dex), touch 15, flat-footed 9
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+7
Attack: Slam +6 melee (1d8+7 and 1d8 fire)
Full Attack: 2 Slams +6 melee (1d8+7 and 1d8 fire)
Space/Reach: 10ft/5ft
Special Attacks: Telepathy, Creative Soul, Deceptive Aura, Mindfire Blast, Death Throes
Special Qualities: Elemental Traits, immunity to fire, vulnerability to cold, resistance to acid 10, resistance to electricity and sonic 5.
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +13, Will +6
Abilities: Str 14, Dex 22, Con 16, Int 20, Wis 6, Cha 18
Skills: Appraise +10, Bluff +16, Diplomacy +16, Forgery +15, Intimidate +14, Knowledge (all) +7. Jump +3
Feats: Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Ability Focus (Rays of Deception)
Environment: Any Land or Underground
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 7
Treasure: Standard except double gems
Alignment: Always Chaotic Evil
Advancement: 8-12 HD (huge) 13-17 (gargantuan)
Level Adjustment: -
As you walk into the chamber you feel a very strong, presence. It is as if all of a sudden your horizons have expanded greatly- your mind seems afire with a new sense of imagination. You barely notice a flickering blue glow ahead until it is upon you. What leaps in front of you seems to be a living blaze of blue fire. It would seem like a brilliant blue fire elemental, if its flickering pattern weren’t even more chaotic than that of a raging flame.

A Cerebral Inferno is the physical manifestation of the corruption of chaos, imagination, and creativity. Because of their astounding rareness, few actually know the origin of these creatures, but a few learned scholars have unearthed that that the elementals themselves are the spiritual remains of ancient psion Ailo Veoviiv. None know why Ailo’s long-forgotten death would spawn these bizarre creatures. However, their outward appearance and personality hold some clues. Cerebral Infernos are exceptionally intelligent and charismatic, and the enjoy spreading ruin and chaos in any way they can. In combat, they frequently attempt to turn their foes against each other or incapacitate them so it may pin them down with it’s Mindfire Blast.

Telepathy- A Cerebral Inferno can communicate with any living, non-mindless creature within 100ft as a free action. The subject need not be willing for the Inferno to speak to it.

Creative Soul- Any creature that comes within 15ft. of a Cerebral Inferno or is contacted through the Inferno's telepathy catches a glimpse of it's unfathomably creative mind. Such creatures must make a will save (DC 14+1 per round in contact). Success on the save indicates that the target creature withholds the creative energy with less drawbacks. The effects of a successfull will save are a +2 bonus to Intelligence and Intelligence based skill checks and a -2 penalty to wisdom and a -4 wisdom based skills. Failure relults in the same bonuses, but a -4 to wisdom and automatic failure on wisdom-based skill checks. Success by 5 or more renders only bonuses and failure by 5 or more renders all the worst penalties.

Deceptive Aura- As a standard action, a Cerebral Inferno can focus psionic energy around a foe in order to decieve them. This manipulation of psionic chaos requires a ranged touch attack to succeed, and is treated as a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity. Any time a Cerebral Inferno uses its Deceptive Aura, it manifests 1d4 psionic effects, each of which has a random result on it's target. No manifestations can target the same opponent. It must succeed on a ranged touch attack to strike each target, and the subject is usually entitled to a Will saving throw to resist the effect. A roll of 1d6 determines the effect of each mainfestation:

{table]Roll|Effect
1| Target is psionic charmed, as the power. this effect is treated as being augmented, using five power points. (Will 21)
2| Target is brain locked, as the power. This effect is treated as being augmented, using five power points. (Will 19)
3| Target is affected as if by a crisis of breath power. This effect is effective only against animals, humanoids, fey, magical beasts, and monstrous humanoids. (Will 20)
4| Target is affected as if by a false sensory input power. The Cerebral Inferno chooses what false images the target sees. (Will 19)
5| Target is affected by an ego whip power. The power is augmented by 4 power points, thus dealing 2d4 Cha damage. (Will 21)
6| Target is affected by a cloud mind power. (Will 19)
[/table]

Mindfire Blast- A Cerebral Inferno can fire a blast of azure fiery psychic energy as a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity. The Cerebral Inferno must succeed on a ranged touch attack to strike its target. If The blast hits, it deals 2d8 mind-affecting damage and 2d8 fire damage. The target of this ability may attempt a saving throw (Will 17) to negate the mind-affecting damage.

Death Throes- A Cerebral Inferno detonates in a blast of psionic energy and fire when defeated. When a Cerebral Inferno is destroyed, it explodes, dealing 3d6 fire and 3d6 mind-affecting damage to all opponents within 30 ft of it. A DC 20 Reflex save halves the fire damage and a DC 20 Will save halves the mind-affecting damage.

A Cerebral Inferno’s natural attacks are treated as chaotic-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Cerebral Infernos speak Ignan, Common, Elven, Dwarven, Auron, and Abyssal.

[DracoDei]

Remaining neutral for the moment on this one so far as voting is concerned.

It ALWAYS seems to be a corruption of the ideals you mentioned if it is constantly focused on destroying things.

How did you come up with the non-fire slam damage amount? Seems a small die for the size and a large modifier strenght respectively.

[pyrefiend]

Yes, I suppose something utterly devoted to chaos and destruction would be chaotic evil
I also fixed the slam attack, thanks for the input.

[Rama_Lei]

This is sexy..I love it.

[deadfalcon]

I like it, It seems balanced to me, and i can't see any errors in the writeing out. but I'm affriad there is something holding my back from giving you a yes, so for now I will say that you most likely have my vote.

Keep up the good work guys

[pyrefiend]

I like it, It seems balanced to me, and i can't see any errors in the writeing out. but I'm affriad there is something holding my back from giving you a yes, so for now I will say that you most likely have my vote.

Thanks, I agree there's something it's missing right now. I almost want to give it some other special attack, but I'm not sure what... maybe something to show its connection to imagination and creativity, since it doesn't have anything like that now.

[Poppatomus]

This seems like a really cool monster, I just don't know enough about psionics to really contribute or critique. I would say one of the most interesting parts of the fluff is the seemingly positive effect on the mind of those near it. Perhaps there's a way to incorporate that into the monster itself? Is that what you mean by its connection to creativity?

Could it have some sort of aura effect? First thing that springs to my mind would be to set a DC for a will save or some such measure that gives you a creativity bonus of some kind if you pass, while failing it causes you to go mad or has some other negative effect. Then ahve the DC increase every round. Again, just the first thing that popped into my head and obviously needs to be fleshed out.

also

{table]Roll|Effect
1| Target is psionic charmed, as the power. this effect is treated as being augmented, using five power points. (Will 21)
2| Target is brain locked, as the power. This effect is treated as being augmented, using five power points. (Will 19)
3| Target is affected as if by a crisis of breath power. This effect is effective only against animals, humanoids, fey, magical beasts, and monstrous humanoids. (Will 20)
4| Target is affected as if by a false sensory input power. The Cerebral Inferno chooses what false images the target sees. (Will 19)
5| Target is affected by an ego whip power. The power is augmented by 4 power points, thus dealing 2d4 Cha damage. (Will 21)
6| Target is affected by a cloud mind power. (Will 19)
[/table]

If you want to use a table, rather than just normal text, you can quote this and copy and past that section into the original post.

[Icewalker]

Huh, interesting. I like it, although I have no idea what any of those psionic powers do. I need to look into those. I'll give it a yes.

[pyrefiend]

Thanks a lot for both the idea and the chart, Poppatomus! I added a new special ability, creative soul, but I'm not sure that it's balanced.

Thanks also to Icewaker for the support and MitP vote.

[Poppatomus]

Happy I could be of some assistance. I like what you've done with that idea, different than where I was heading but It fits the monster much better. Oh, and I see that in my above post i forgot:
MitP vote: Yes

[Hefty Lefty]

This sounds great, even though I don't like psionics. If I did, however, I'd use this guy. What it do, what it do. I give it a YES, my brotha.

[pyrefiend]

I mentioned this before, I'm not sure how creative soul would affect the CR of this monster, if at all. So I still need some feedback there. Thanks for the help and advice overall.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Hmmm. You seem to have neglected to submit this to the main thread. Unfortunately, this means that it will not be added to the index until the next update period, and given my erratic access to the internet...

[pyrefiend]

Hmmm. You seem to have neglected to submit this to the main thread. Unfortunately, this means that it will not be added to the index until the next update period, and given my erratic access to the internet...

Oops, my mistake. It's there now, in the main thread. I don't mind this not being in the index for a while.

[aaron_the_cow]

I don't realy get why its chaotic evil...oh well...
you could have it were it can "burn" somones mind to fule there ciriosity/imaginatioin (so it has 3 minds thinking at once intead of 2)

MiTP: YES

[DragonTounge]

Awsome monster! Seems balanced. I'll give it the ol' MitP Vote: Yes

[Torpedo Ted]

Great monster Pyrefiend! I like the whole psionics theme, rather than magic. You've done Ailo proud.

I like this guy because he is a good variant on the elemantal. It would be a lot more exciting to use this, rather than just a fire elemantal in a campain.
On the note of elementals, you might be able to make something along the lines of a air, water, and earth monsters. Maybe 2 could be magic based, and 2 could be psionics based. Just a thought...

My MitP vote: YES

[Matthew]

Willpower Save seems kind of high for an Elemental. I think you may have got the entry confused; they don't get Good Willpower Saves, they get either Good Fortitude Saves or Reflex Saves, depending on type.

Bluff and Diplomacy should be 10(14), not 10(16), I think.

Interesting what you have done with Knowledge, taking all ten and investing 2 Points in each 2(7), but I think you have calculated Jump 1(3) wrong. You appear to be one over.

Otherwise, good work.

[Ceres]

I love random tables, I really do. Also, the flavour is great, and from my knowledge it is an original and unique idea. So I vote yes

Good job!

[Lord Iames Osari]

I'll give you a yes. Me likey psionics.