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2017-05-03, 08:01 AM (ISO 8601)
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2017-05-03, 08:34 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Mephit (1)
There's no less than 10 kinds of mephit in the MM alone, because adding lots of low-level extraplanars apparently had a higher priority than writing comprehensible abilities or fixing the CR of celestials. Yay. On account of their high number, I'll be covering them in parts.
All mephits are outsiders with 3 RHD, putting them somewhere near the imp and quasit in terms of chassis. I'll be comparing them to these fiends where needed.
Currently, all mephits have a cohort LA of +3. I don't expect any to stay there.
Air Mephit
Ability scores are good, overall, with a large bonus to dexterity and a smaller one to charisma. Their airheadedness is annoying, and sadly common to all mephits, but a 60 ft. perfect fly speed helps make up for that, as does DR 5/magic.
Their breath weapon is poor, though its relatively short recharge time and possible feat support mean it has at least some potential. 1/hour Blur is actually quite good for a SLA, and it doesn't decrease in power much at higher levels. However, Gust of Wind 1/day is forgettable.
Finally, there's their fast healing, which triggers incredibly easily. As long as there's air around, an air mephit can just fan itself to heal, which may not even require an action (ask your DM!).
IMO, all this places air mephits above equally-leveled characters, and adjustment is in order. +1 LA.
Dust Mephit
Dust mephits are similar to their airy cousins, except their flight is a bit slower, their breath weapon is smaller and sacrifices some damage for a debuff (worth it, IMO), and their Gust of Wind SLA gets replaced by a high-CL Wind Wall (a very welcome trade-off). Sadly, their fast healing only works in dry and dusty areas, making its activation much harder.
All in all, it seems to me like these are about on par with air mephits, and therefore deserve the same LA. +1 for dust mephits as well.
Earth Mephit
Together with gargoyles, these mephits are amongst the few earth creatures with fly speeds. Their stats are very nice for a melee character, especially with their 1/hour Enlarge Person (self only) SLA. Their other SLA, Soften Earth And Stone, has its uses, though it's very environment-dependent.
The breath weapon is identical to the air mephit's (that is, boring), but at least their fast healing should be reasonably easy to trigger.
+0 LA.Last edited by Inevitability; 2018-09-05 at 08:03 AM.
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2017-05-03, 09:57 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Please tell me they have text that gives exception to their enlarge person self only effect so that it works on non-humanoids.
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2017-05-03, 10:06 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Which is why I didn't dwell on it. It's an easy problem to explain around.
I like that idea, mostly because the image of someone casting the spell specifically for the opiates is hilarious.
Originally Posted by Inevitability
Unless there's some neat metabreath trickery, I don't see most of these being very useful in the long term. The debuff ones are potentially still useful, if you face enemies without good Reflex saves for whom AC and attack rolls are important. It's useful, but I don't see it being a dominant tool.
The most useful fast healing abilities are ones which can easily be used in combat (air mephits in general, and most others in the right campaign). But even without those, something like half of the mephits' fast-healing requirements aren't too tricky to work in between combats, meaning they should be able to return to each fight with full health without expending cleric spells or anything. Not a game-changer, but it's helpful.
Flight is flight. Some have it better than others.
Originally Posted by SRD
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2017-05-05, 09:19 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Mephit (2)
More mephits!
Fire Mephit
Low ability scores and a bad breath weapon with weak SLAs. At least they have a reasonably easy-to-trigger fast healing clause (ask your DM if a Continual Flame counts: RAW it probably should). Even so, I don't think this one deserves -0. Any who disagree should say so.
Ice Mephit
Breath weapon is an icy version of the dust mephit's. Slightly weaker in my opinion, though not enough to matter much. SLAs are pretty bad, and so is the fast healing clause (though the Chill Metal SLA can explicitly create ice from water, so that helps). AC is highest amongst all mephits, if that matters. Another +0 edging close to -0 LA.
Magma Mephit
What is it with fire-subtyped creatures and lower ability scores? It's the same with fire elementals.
Breath weapon is the now-familiar penalizing version, this time adjusted to deal fire damage. It's okay, I guess. SLAs are Pyrotechnics and a custom effect that allows the mephit to turn into a magma pool, both of which are pretty badly-written. Depending on how your DM reads it, it's either an incredible defense or inescapable trap. Finally, the fast healing clause, which is literally the fire mephit's, but better.
Another for the +0 LA pile, it seems.
Ooze Mephit
These guys have a swim speed in addition to usual mephit movement modes, as well as above-average strength and constitution. Breath weapon is an acidic penalizer, SLAs are Acid Arrow 1/hour and Stinking Cloud 1/day (which is decent enough). Fast Healing works only in wet or muddy environments: in a pinch a Create Water spell should do.
+0 LA.Creator of the LA-assignment thread.
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2017-05-05, 09:22 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Also, I'm considering bumping up the air and dust mephit to +1 LA on account of their comparatively strong abilities (having to go through nearly half a dozen sub-par mephits kind of put them in perspective). Do people agree?
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2017-05-05, 10:24 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Let's look at an air or dust mephit with a level in rogue and compare it to a 4th-level halfling rogue.
The mephits will have better Strength, Dexterity, and Charisma, but worse Intelligence. They would make better combatants and possibly better party faces (assuming we ignore the effects of racism), but losing two skill points per level would hurt their versatility, especially since they lose out on three levels of access to the rogue skill list. I'd still give the edge to mephits.
Mephits have a weak breath weapon, the rogue has an extra sneak attack die (and will get their next a level sooner). It's not hard to argue that these two abilities are roughly equivalent, each having different situations in which it's better or worse than the other, but the breath weapons (especially the air mephit's) scale poorly.
Next, defensive abilities. Mephits have +3 natural armor (and another +2 from superior Dexterity), making them hard to properly hit in the first place. They also have damage reduction 5/magic, which is good at this level but gets worse for a while (until DR/magic is replaced with various other DRs, I guess). Then there's fast healing; that improves durability impressively if you can consistently exploit it (far easier for air mephits than dust). On the other hand, the halfling gets evasion, uncanny dodge, trap sense and a bonus on saving throws. If it wasn't for the fast healing, I'd say that they are good against different threats but the mephits have a slight advantage; however, the air mephit has a strong advantage with its fast healing. Who needs a cleric when you can just fan yourself for a minute and fix yourself up?
Finally, miscellaneous racial abilities. Air and dust mephits have hourly blur and another daily ability (the dust mephit's probably being more useful than the air mephit's, unless it lost its fan). Mephit claws are about equivalent to daggers, except that you can't throw them and don't take two-weapon fighting penalties (and if you're disarmed, you have bigger problems). They can also try to summon a levelless buddy once each day with a 75% chance of failure, which seems pretty negligible. Also, mephits walk faster than halflings and fly naturally (air slightly faster than dust). The halfling gets a few useful skill bonuses, a bonus to thrown weapons, and some more support material.
The mephits have it better. I can see a +1 LA being applied.
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2017-05-05, 11:03 AM (ISO 8601)
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2017-05-05, 11:12 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Well, it's not like they'll get through to minor things any time soon, and I can't locate any notable order of the things being posted. And it's not like it's mentioned openly outside the first post of the first thread from well over a year ago.
Here's a quoted version of the first thread's first post, for reference:
As you can see, there is precisely one sentence, 9 words long, indicating that Inevitability wants to do all the posting themselves. And I only noticed it because I went back to look for such things because you brought it up.
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2017-05-05, 11:16 AM (ISO 8601)
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2017-05-05, 11:22 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
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2017-05-05, 11:29 AM (ISO 8601)
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2017-05-05, 11:50 AM (ISO 8601)
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2017-05-05, 11:52 AM (ISO 8601)
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2017-05-05, 01:01 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Holy cannoli, has it been a year already?
Anyhow, not only has the OP made abundantly clear that he doesn't want other people doing LAs in this thread, it would also be a huge mess if we started doing multiple monsters at the same time or jumping around in the Monster Manual. When and how this was communicated isn't important now that we've all read these posts.
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2017-05-05, 01:06 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Alright, I'll delete the offending post. It's been given a full quote, anyway, so it'll largely just be a matter of saving page space now.
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2017-05-05, 04:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Spoiler: Collectible nice thingsMy incarnate/crusader. A self-healing crowd-control melee build (ECL 8).
My Ruby Knight Vindicator barsader. A party-buffing melee build (ECL 14).
Doctor Despair's and my all-natural approach to necromancy.
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2017-05-06, 02:38 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Last edited by Inevitability; 2017-05-06 at 02:40 AM.
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2017-05-06, 03:06 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Mephit (3)
Has it actually been over a year already? When I first started I must admit I was a bit nervous about heading out in such uncharted waters, but this thread has really been picking up steam since then.
But enough talking: let's see if these mephits are worth their salt!
Salt Mephit
Salt mephits, like their earthy cousins, are slow fliers but possess a fair amount of muscle to make up for it. Their breath weapon is identical to the dust mephit's, and fast healing is similar to theirs but without the ability to function in dusty environments.
The 1/day SLA is the underwhelming ability to suck moisture out of living creatures that will be bad at first and useless after. This is fully compensated by the hourly SLA, though. Glitterdust is great and will always be great, and three rounds of it are typically enough to win any fight.
+1 LA, but reasonably close to +0.
Steam Mephit
Again we note how fire creatures get the short end of the stick: steam mephits have the same low ability scores as the fire and magma versions.
Their SLAs are Blur and weak blasting. Their fast healing functions in boiling water or warm and humid areas. The breath weapon is the fire penalty version.
+0 LA.
Water Mephit
Last of all, the water mephit. These, too, can swim. Their breath weapon is a cone of non-penalizing acid (unlike the ooze mephit's cone of penalizing acid), their SLAs are Stinking Cloud 1/day and Acid Arrow 1/hour (woooo, 4d4 damage that isn't even applied all at once). Fast Healing functions in rain or when the mephit is up to its waist in water.
Stinking cloud is really the only thing this one's got going for itself over other mephits (and even then, ooze's just plain better). +0 LA.
Coming next: merfolk.Last edited by Inevitability; 2017-05-06 at 03:08 AM.
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2017-05-06, 03:43 AM (ISO 8601)
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2017-05-06, 04:39 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
1. They can.
2. I assume people don't pick creatures to play that are completely nonfunctional in the campaign they'll be used in (half-minotaur wizards, and all that). If someone plays a merfolk, they're either going to have a way to move efficiently on dry land, or the campaign will be largely aquatic: anything else is an unwise decision I'm not responsible for.Creator of the LA-assignment thread.
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2017-05-06, 05:00 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Princess Celestia's Homebrew Corner
Old classes, new classes, and more!
Thanks to AsteriskAmp for the avatar!
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2017-05-06, 05:01 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Creator of the LA-assignment thread.
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2017-05-06, 05:39 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Well, I'm still technically right! (solars are listed as angels, and animals/vermin are in separate chapters from "1. Monsters A to Z", so it's still "monster [sections] in alphabetical order")
You'd think merfolk would receive some support in Stormwrack, but I couldn't find anything, except stats for those crossbows they're mentioned using.Spoiler: Collectible nice thingsMy incarnate/crusader. A self-healing crowd-control melee build (ECL 8).
My Ruby Knight Vindicator barsader. A party-buffing melee build (ECL 14).
Doctor Despair's and my all-natural approach to necromancy.
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2017-05-06, 01:17 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
I want a play a whale prince and call him Charles!
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2017-05-06, 02:10 PM (ISO 8601)
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2017-05-06, 02:11 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
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2017-05-06, 02:30 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
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2017-05-06, 02:32 PM (ISO 8601)
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2017-05-06, 02:37 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The LA-assignment thread II: Where The Em Dash Doesn't Exist
Avatar by TinyMushroom.