Author Topic: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)  (Read 45286 times)

Offline oslecamo

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Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« on: January 09, 2012, 11:32:29 PM »
Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)


Prerequisites:
To become a Monster of Legend, a creature must fulfill the following requirements:
-At least four levels in  monster classes.
-Any  type but humanoid (Monstrous humanoid is ok), undead, construct,  or swarm.
-Must have performed a deed worthy of legend.
-Cannot be a cohort/follower/similar. Being dominated/charmed/turned into an undead minion/similar makes you automatically lose your levels of Monster of Legend. The prc levels are recovered as soon as the effect is removed.

HD: D8

Level   BAB   Fort   Ref   Will    Special

1st   +0   +0   +0   +2   Body of Legend, Legendary Might, Legendary Skill, Legendary Prowess
2nd   +1   +0   +0   +3   Saga
Skill Points 4+Int mod per level.
Class Skills: As Base Creature

Proficiencies: Monsters of Legend do not gain any new proficiencies.

Class Features:

Body of Legend:  Unlike other monster classes, the creature's original racial traits are retained.  The Monster of Legend gains Outsider traits, if it did not already have them, with the augmented subtype if necessary.  Their native plane is the plane where they were born.

Legendary Might: The Monster of Legend has gone trough a lot, and this reflects on it's body. It may have any number of cosmetic changes or even special effects like body parts made of energy, as long as his original race is still recognizable. Those changes grant no mechanical benefit.

If they still weren't, the Monster of Legend's attacks count as it's own alignment for bypassing defenses. It's melee attacks can strike incorporeal opponents without trouble, and ignore half the DR of any target they strike. If the Monster of Legend already had any of those abilities, then it gains +1 to attack and damage rolls for every overlap.

Finally, a Monster of Legend is immune to polymorphing effects against its own will.

Legendary Skill:  Choose one of the following:
-Fast Healing equal to 1/2 the creature's HD. If the creature already had Fast Healing, increase it by 2 instead.
-Immunity to Mind-affecting
-Permanent Spell Turning effect, except that it reflects one spell level for 2 HD of the Monster of Legend, and automatically recharges at the start of the Monster of Legend's turn.

Alternately, pick two of the following (you can't pick the same option twice unless noticed otherwise):
-Immunity to one of the following:  acid, electricity, fire, cold, poison. Can be taken multiple times, each one choosing a diferent immunity.
-DR/material, with the material being iron, silver or adamantium, equal to 1/2 the Creature's HD.  If a Creature already has DR from other sources, increase it by +2.
-SR equal to 11+HD.  If a Creature already has SR from other sources, increase it by +4.
-Permanent See Invisibility. At 14 HD also works  as permanent True Seeing.
-Wings, allowing it to fly at twice its base land speed at average maneuverability.  If the creature already has wings, it grows an additional, matching pair, giving them additional flight speed of +5 feet per HD and one step of increased maneuverability

Legendary Prowess: At 1st and 2nd level, the Monster of Legend gains +1 to an ability score of it's choice.

Saga: at second level, pick a second option from Legendary skill, and an option from below.
(click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: September 12, 2017, 01:17:18 AM by oslecamo »

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #1 on: May 11, 2012, 04:36:17 PM »
Decided to expand the Saga options of the Monster of Legend. Updated with new ones, and will probably add some more in the near future. Special thanks to Bhu for collaborating in those!

Offline estradus

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2012, 08:25:37 PM »
Oh man, this was one of my favorite templates to mess around with when trying to make monsters that would actually be challenging for my players.... Is there any chance abilities along the lines of swallow whole or regeneration could be added as options? I just like those options for making fights interesting, and they do seem rather legenderiffic. Thanks for your time either way though, sir, and keep being amazing.

Offline bhu

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2012, 10:00:23 PM »
I can do up a few options for people to peruse if no one minds.

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2012, 05:38:16 PM »
By all means, go ahead!

Offline bhu

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2012, 11:21:31 PM »
we'll start with a few for fiends first:

Summoner (Sp) 3 times per day you can summon a Fiend whose CR is equal to (your CR -5).  This is the equivalent of a 9th level spell.  The Subtype of Fiend is the same as your own (i.e. Demons can summon Demons, Devils summon Devils, etc.)

Dark Power (Ex) You gain a Profane Bonus on Armor Class, Initiative Rolls, and Saving Throws equal to your Charisma Modifier.

Infernal Mage You may cast spells as a Sorcerer whose Level is equal to your Hit Dice.  Choose 1 spell from the Sorcerer spell list of each Level you can cast with the Chaos or  Evil descriptor.  You may cast each of them once per day.

Traveler You may cast Plane Shift and Planar Tolerance at will as a Sorcerer whose Level is equal to your Hit Dice.


Offline oslecamo

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #6 on: May 23, 2012, 03:16:16 PM »
I don't really want to tie options to any kind of monster. That's for what the Paragon is for. Legendary Monster is for those "Holy crap how did it do that?" moments.

So I'll just adapt those a little so they're more "generic". Added them to the bottom of the list, let me know how they are!

Offline bhu

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #7 on: June 16, 2012, 02:37:33 PM »
I got more coming life has just been stepping on me hard.  Back soon.

Offline Anomander

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #8 on: June 23, 2012, 10:48:33 AM »
Perhaps there might as well be a psionic and martial equivalent to Faith prophet and Natural mage.
Maybe something that grants 1/day powers of the same descriptor or discipline and something that grants 1/encounter maneuvers of the same school.

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #9 on: June 24, 2012, 03:51:46 PM »
Sounds good. You write down a detailed version. :p

Offline littha

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #10 on: June 25, 2012, 07:36:42 AM »
Why does pact summoner run off your CR rather than HD? You generally wouldn't know what CR a player character is.

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #11 on: June 25, 2012, 07:55:16 AM »
Where's the problem? The CR rules can also be applied to a character, as if they were an NPC. Assuming no exotic races with LA, level=CR.

If I had made it based into HD, it would be biased towards goody-two-shoes, as a lot of celestials are under-HD for their CR, while devils/demons/inevitables/slaad and whatnot have the same or more HD than CR.

Offline littha

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #12 on: June 25, 2012, 08:29:24 AM »
A player characters CR is directly related to their HD anyway. I am referring to
Quote
CR is equal to (your CR -5).
This bit.

Just word it
Quote
CR is equal to (your HD -5).
and it is functionally identical but does not refer to a stat specifically used for NPCs.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2012, 08:33:58 AM by littha »

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #13 on: June 25, 2012, 10:27:36 AM »
Hmmm, good idea, changed it.

Offline Anomander

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #14 on: June 25, 2012, 12:11:56 PM »
Overmind: You may manifest as a Psion whose Level is equal to your Hit Dice. Choose 2 powers from a single psionic discipline (clairsentience, metacreativity...)  of each level you can manifest.  You may manifest each of them only once per day.
Should the creature take levels in a manifesting class, it may elect to have its Creature of Legend levels stack for the purposes of determining ML and powers per day. This does not apply retroactively.

Gifted for War: You may manifest as a martial adept whose Level is equal to your Hit Dice. Pick one martial discipline and choose 2 maneuvers of each level that you can initiate with at least one of the descriptors. You may initiate each of them only once per encounter and cannot recover the,.
Should the creature take levels in a martial class, it may elect to have its Creature of Legend and Monster class levels grant full IL for that class only.


I think that part should be added to Natural Mage:
Should the creature take levels in an arcane casting class, it may elect to have its Creature of Legend levels stack for the purposes of determining CL and spells per day.  This does not apply retroactively.

Natural Mage and Overmind could have their Monster Class levels stack as well when multiclassing but it wouldn't work well without noting that Monster class levels that already give an arcane/psionic progression would not stack as well.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2012, 08:03:31 PM by Anomander »

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #15 on: June 25, 2012, 05:25:01 PM »
Reduced both to just 1 power/maneuver per level, because psionic powers are overall much more versatile than spells, and because the maneuvers get to be spammed every ecounter. Also cleaned up a bit.

Added the part to natural mage.

Offline littha

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #16 on: July 14, 2012, 03:54:01 AM »
RAW the overmind saga does not work as you manifest as a psion but have no PP to spend. Probably best to give each power as a 1/day psi like ability if you want it to work like spellcasting otherwise you need a pp pool and there is usually nothing stopping a psion manifesting the same 1st level power 17 times rather than a 9th level power.

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #17 on: July 14, 2012, 07:07:42 AM »
Nice try littha, but it works. You simply manifest them whitout paying the points or being able to spend extra points.

If I made them PLAs, then it would be straight superior to the other options, because even a simple 1st level power  like astral construct scales all the way to a 9th level power when it becomes a PLA.

Offline littha

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #18 on: July 14, 2012, 09:23:56 AM »
You need wording to support that then because that is not manifesting as a psion of your HD. That and with no augmentation a lot of the powers will be absolutely worthless, especially compared to the magic versions of this ability. The sorcerer version could cast fireball from a 3rd level slot and have it deal 10d6 damage but without augmentations the psion is stuck at 1d6 no matter their level.

Alternate wording:

Overmind:
Choose two descriptors or one psionic discipline. You may choose one power of each level to manifest once per day, the power is manifested without augmentations or pp expenditure. You may not manifest a power whose level is more than 1/2 your HD and you are treated as a psion of your HD for all purposes relating to this ability.

Other alternative:
Grant slots of pp, 1,3...17 and allow any power to be put in each. Astral construct is equal to a 9th level power when you spend 17pp on it so why not allow a choice of which level you could take it at. Wording on this would be rather more complicated but you basically just have to make it clear that augmented versions of lower level powers can be taken in a higher level slot. This is a lot closer to the magic version balance wise (still weaker, your 3rd level slot does 3d6 damage rather than 10d6 but at least its closer).
« Last Edit: July 14, 2012, 09:35:56 AM by littha »

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Monster of Legend (Prestige/Template Monster Class)
« Reply #19 on: July 14, 2012, 10:58:20 AM »
Except again, this is psionics. No hands or mouth or anything required. Completely tied up and dismembered while in a Silence area? The Overmind doesn't give a single damn and can use its powers anyway. Sure, your blasting won't be that famous, but Fireball with Natural Mage wasn't that famous either.

Anyway, your first sugestion does sound clearer so added it, thanks!