Homebrew DesignRoll up your sleeves and get working: there's lots of homebrewin' to be done! Post your custom creation for critiques or review those of your peers.
That's right all you homebrewers out there, I have a challenge for you. I made a discovery recently. If you look at the basic land-dwelling animals by challenge rating, the pecking order looks like this:
The poor donkey can be picked on by almost everything. A lizard could take it out. Even a rat could give it trouble! The only thing a donkey could easily defeat is a toad! (a bat could just fly away)
I feel sorry for this poor woebegone beast, so this is my challenge to you, if this is the right place and manner to set it: Create for me the best, baddest, meanest, kick-arsingest donkey Dungeons and Dragons can make. Make me a donkey to send all other animals quivering at its hooves. A donkey whose mere mention will send shivers down the spines of holy men at their shrines, whose horrid braying voice will send hardened adventurers crying to their mummies...
Make me The Donkey of Donkeys.
If you can think of something you want, I'll even offer a prize. A Concrete Donkey would be appropriate... Or maybe the Golden Ass.
I was thinking templates, etc. It would be nice if it were recognisably donkeyish, and if it had some trace of actual donkeyness in it. But whatever's going. Maybe I'll refine it a tad when I see what's on offer...
edit: By the way, I hope I'm not stepping on your metaphorical toes here, VT?
Best to take a look at the mule and downgrade it a mite (though not by much). That would seem to be in the right ballpark. Or maybe the pony could serve as a starting point.
I had never noticed how feeble the donkey was. Gosh.
I was thinking templates, etc. It would be nice if it were recognisably donkeyish, and if it had some trace of actual donkeyness in it. But whatever's going. Maybe I'll refine it a tad when I see what's on offer...
Oh, it'll be based on donkeyness all right, no worries
Quote:
edit: By the way, I hope I'm not stepping on your metaphorical toes here, VT?
I was thinking of your monster competitions. And I look forward to seeing your ass
Oh, if anyone fancied having a go at a less extreme version, I'd be interested to see one where all the classic donkey traits (stubbornness, kick, bite, smell, etc) were exaggerated. Of course, I'm guessing there'll be something like that in others, but I mean more to the extent of a simple exaggerated donkey than a whole new beast.
I'm still not sure whether you want a super monster donkey or a realistic one, but if it is the former:
(EDIT: Ninja'd Ah, seems you want an exaggerated realistic one, then. Oh, well...)
Donkey of Doom
Size/Type: Huge Animal Hit Dice: 13d8+65 (123 hp) Initiative: +2 Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares) Armor Class: 16 (-2 size, +8 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 16 Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+27 Attack: Hoof +19 melee (2d6+10) Full Attack: Slam +19 melee (2d6+10) and 2 hoofs +18 melee (2d6+10) Space/Reach: 15 ft./10 ft. Special Attacks: Trample 2d8+15 Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent Saves: Fort +13, Ref +10, Will +6 Abilities: Str 30, Dex 14, Con 20, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6 Skills: Balance +7, Listen +12, Spot +8 Feats: Alertness, Endurance, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Listen), Run Environment: Temperate plains Organization: Solitary Challenge Rating: 10 Advancement: 13-24 HD (Huge) Level Adjustment: —
Somewhat more powerful than an elephant.
EDIT 2: since no one else has yet submitted a monster-donkey, I'm adding a couple of traits:
Smell [Ex]
Creatures within 20 ft. of a Donkey of Doom must pass a Fortitude save with DC (10 + ˝ the DoD's HD) or become Sickened. This condition lasts for 1d4 turns.
Stubbornness [Ex]
The DoD gains a +4 morale bonus to all mind control effects.
Type: Large magical beast HD: 5d8+15 (37) Initiative: +1 Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares) Aromor Class: 14 (+1Dex -1Size +4Natural) Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d4+3) Full Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d4+3) and (2)Hoof -1 (1d3+2) Space/Reach: 10ft/5ft Special Attacks: Smite Good 1/day Special Qualities: Low-Light Vision, Scent, Dark Vision 60 ft, DR -5/magic, Energy Resistance 5 cold and fire Saves: Fort +9, Ref +5, Will +7 Abilies: Str 14, Dex 13, Con 16, Int 3, Wis 12, Cha 6 Skills: Balance +4, Listen +5, Spot +4 Feats: Iron Will (B), Endurance, Great Fortatude Enviroment: Any evil plane Organization: Solitary Challenge Rating: 3 Advancement: 6-7 HD (Large) Level Adjustment: —
I like big mules and I cannot lie, those other donkeys can't deny...
Bad Ass
Medium Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 5d10+20 HD (47 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 15 (+1 dex, +4 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+8
Attack: Bite +8 melee (1d3+3) or Hoof +8 melee (1d4+3)
Full Attack: Bite +8 melee (1d3+3) and 2 hooves +3 melee (1d4+3)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Bray
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., hardy, low-light vision, rebel soul, scent, shall not be moved, tenacious strength
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +5, Will +10
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 13, Con 19, Int 3, Wis 11, Cha 8
Skills: Balance +5, Listen +4, Spot +4
Feats: Endurance(B), Iron Will, Steadfast Determination
Environment: Temperate desert or plains
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Chaotic Neutral
Advancement: 6-9 HD (Medium)
Level Adjustment: -
This appears much like a normal donkey, though of somewhat greater size and musculature, and teeth of excessive length. What truly makes it differ from it's brethren however is it eyes there is a spark of intelligence there and it seems to bear an expression of ferocious rebellion.
A bad ass cannot speak any language but it's own advanced version of donkey, but it understands common or whatever the common language of the area happens to be.
Combat
A bad ass is easily provoked, tending to merely stand perfectly still and ignore and aggravate its opponent. If damaged or seriously threatened however it lets loose with a horrible bray followed flying hooves.
Bray (Su): As part of a standard action a bad ass can let out a tremendous cry. All creatures within 100 feet must succeed on a DC 16 will save or take a –2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks from the irritating racket. Those attempting to cast a spell must succeed on a DC 20 Concentration stack. A bad ass' bray counters and dispels Silence. A bad ass cannot use its bite attack while braying. This is a sonic, mind-affecting effect. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Hardy (Ex): A bad ass is immune to exhaustion. Anything that would make it exhausted instead makes it fatigued.
Rebel Soul (Ex):
A bad ass gains a +4 bonus to save against mind-affecting effects.
Shall Not Be Moved (Su): One that tries to force along a bad ass find out that they can become almost impossible to move. As an immediate action the bad ass can stand fast against any creature attempting to physically move it. They must succeed on an opposed Strength check, and the bad ass gains a +20 bonus on the check. The bad ass can’t voluntarily move to a new location while using this ability.
While unmoving it cannot apply it's Dexterity bonus to Armor Class; however, while using this ability it gains damage reduction 15/-.
The bad ass cannot physically attack or perform any other large-scale movements (it can make small scale movements, such as breathing, turning its head, moving its eyes, braying and so on). Powers with the teleportation descriptor, or any telekinetic effect, manifested on the bad ass automatically fail.
Tenacious Strength (Ex): A bad ass is considered to have a Strength of 30 (+10 modifier) for the purpose of it's Carrying and Dragging Capacity. While carrying from 346 lbs. to 2,400 lbs., or dragging 1,726 lbs. to 12,000 lbs. it can only move at it's base speed and cannot run.
The normal carrying capacity for a bad ass while not using Tenacious Strength is as follows:
A light load for a bad ass is up to 112 pounds; a medium load, 115–229 pounds; and a heavy load, 231–345 pounds. A bad ass can drag 1725 pounds. While moving these loads, even a heavy one or dragging, the bad ass does not take a reduction in speed and can even run.
Skills: Bad Ass' have a +4 racial bonus on Balance checks.
Last edited by The Vorpal Tribble : 10-08-2007 at 06:45 PM.
The Ikea Donkey! and best of all, it's only CR 7! Win! After all, who has desintegrate or earthquake at that level? You can pull out soften earth and stone, but I doubt anyone prepaired it that many times. Invincible donkey.
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The Ishka wiki. Check it out people, it's a cool little city.
My memorial spoiler. Please give a moment of silence for those who have died.
Maybe apply the "Awakened" template... I'd say that ought to give it Favored Class: Aristocrat.
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The High Priestess's daughter has returned, but clouds are on the horizon.
When death strikes in the Seat of Stars, will the Border hold?
Elsabeth's path is set, for she is the Chosen of the Goddess;
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You know, I was ready to make two creatures to put here, but my hopes have been dashed. I was going to make some sort of Advanced Half-Blue Dragon Donkey (to naturally face off against a Half-Red Dragon Elephant), but it turns out that you can't even advance a Donkey. Or, I guess you could, but the SRD says "Advancement: --."
So, instead, I decided that I'd make an Ass Clown by taking an awakened Donkey and giving it Bard levels (and maybe something like Master of Masks or some other clown-esque PrC), but it looks to me like Donkeys have a whopping -6 Charisma!
And so now I've got to come up with other colloquial phrases and try to find some way to make one of them into a paragon of donkeyness. Of course, if anyone else wants to make either of the above ideas, they're free for you to do - I give up on them.
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The Playgrounder Formerly Known as rtg0922
Well, he's neither an animal nor unintelligent, so I don't think you can apply it.
Can't apply the template, or can't apply Aristocrat?
__________________ Chosen of Harrekh is now available for the Kindle! Search Amazon or link through my blog to find it.
The High Priestess's daughter has returned, but clouds are on the horizon.
When death strikes in the Seat of Stars, will the Border hold?
Elsabeth's path is set, for she is the Chosen of the Goddess;
Chosen of Harrekh.
Can't apply the template, or can't apply Aristocrat?
Meant the former, but possibly also the latter
Quote:
Bad Ass. a Prattchet reference?
No... an ass is the original name of the donkey. This is a really stubborn, epitome of evil donkey-kind, so it's 'bad'. This is of course a pun on the slang of someone being really tough, which the donkey also is.
I like big mules and I cannot lie, you other burros can't deny. That when a donkey walks in with an itsy bitty saddle and a silver bridle in their face, they get rode...
...but that beast you got, yeah it so ornery...
Last edited by The Vorpal Tribble : 10-08-2007 at 06:56 PM.
No... an ass is the original name of the donkey. This is a really stubborn, epitome of evil donkey-kind, so it's 'bad'. This is of course a pun on the slang of someone being really tough, which the donkey also is.
If memory serves, the town was also named after a Donkey.