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2008-11-17, 09:52 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
- Gender
Help Me Balance Some Monsterous PCs
Once upon a time I ran a campaign in which all the players played monsters. Now I used the level adjustments and whatnot, but eventually I let the players do some stuff that made a couple of players far stronger than the others. That was my bad.
The players have expressed interest in continuing the campaign after I had had a break and some time to think, and I'm finally ready to run it again. This time, however, I would like to do a better job of balancing the party.
The two characters who are especially powerful are the vampire and the mind flayer. I have taken some time to try and balance them out without making them take those annoying monstrous hit die.
Please give me suggestions on how to improve the balance of the following and feel free to point out huge completely incorrect things.
LA +4 VAMPIRE
(original template here: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/vampire.htm)
Type: Changes to Undead.
Abilities: +4 STR, +4 DEX, +4 CHA
Special Attacks:
-Blood Drain (as vampire template)
-Create Spawn: (as vampire template)(Keep in mind that this one will be less powerful than normal as the nature of the campaign will make it difficult to find beings who can be turned into vampires.)
Special Qualities:
-Fast Healing: (see: vampire template)
-Gaseous Form: (see: vampire template)
-Resistance 10 VS Cold and Electricity
Level Adjustment: +4
Am I way off on the level adjustment? Would you do anything differently?
LA +4 MINDFLAYER
Type: Abberation
Abilities: +5 INT, +2 WIS, +2 CHA
Base Speed: 30 ft.
Natural Attacks: Tentacle (1d4 damage)
Bonus Feats: Improved Grab
SPECIAL ATTACKS:
Mind Blast: 30 ft. cone. All creatures in area must make a will save (DC 10+ 1/2 MindFlayer's HD+ CHA modifier) or be stunned for 3d4 rounds. This is a mind-affecting ability usable 1/day/CHA modifier.
SPECIAL QUALITIES:
Telepathy: Can "speak" telepathically with any creature it is aware of within 100 ft. This one-way only. The other creature cannot return speech telepathically.
PSI-LIKE ABILITIES:
Detect Thoughts: As the spell 1/day/CHA modifier. Caster level equal to HD.
Level Adjustment: +4
I was even more iffy about this one than the vampire. If I need to lose something, some of the ability score adjustments would be the first things to go. Detect Thoughts is dropable too, and I could lose Improved Grab and the Tentacle attack if necessary (thus restricting the player to brain eating outside of combat only.)Last edited by StoryKeeper; 2008-11-17 at 10:51 PM.
Some Stuff I've tried brewing:
SpoilerDark Mind- Evil split personality template
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75765
Eldritch ghost- Warlock/Ninja PrC
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...eldritch+ghost
Student of the Fox- Class based on kitsune
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77615
78% of DM's started their first campaign in a tavern. If you're one of the 22% that didn't, copy and paste this into your signature.
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2008-11-17, 10:24 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2006
- Location
Re: Help Me Balance Some Monsterous PCs
This never is an exact science, but I would agree that the Mindflayer is too powerful. Take away some of the ability score, because it is the most likely to cause abuse and because the other abilities add some of the distinctive flavor to being a mindflayer that the player is really looking for.
Create Spawn is kind of an iffy ability, because you never know whether a PC will ignore it or spam it.Homebrew Magic Items you might enjoy:
Coins Tokens of Fortune
Extra Spicy Peppers
Also, its time to think about Yeth Hounds in a whole new way
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2008-11-17, 10:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
- Gender
Re: Help Me Balance Some Monsterous PCs
I lowered the flayer ability scores. As for create spawn, I have spoken with the player about combining it with the Leadership feat (i.e. his undead minions use up his follower slots or something similar.) I don't want to take it away completely if I can avoid it because it's very flavorful and (in my opinion) one of the coolest things about vampires. What about making it impossible for his spawn to make more spawn even if they're full-fledged vampires? That way he can't have a huge number of minions, but can still make a small force for himself.
Some Stuff I've tried brewing:
SpoilerDark Mind- Evil split personality template
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75765
Eldritch ghost- Warlock/Ninja PrC
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...eldritch+ghost
Student of the Fox- Class based on kitsune
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77615
78% of DM's started their first campaign in a tavern. If you're one of the 22% that didn't, copy and paste this into your signature.