Min/Max Boards

A relatively minor monster (it's a super-aggressive hawk that wants to eat your flesh! Oooooooo) made somewhat notable by the fact that it received an associated Soulmeld in the Magic of Incarnuum sourcebook. Weirdly, the ability that the Soulmeld focused on was an ability that the base monster didn't have unless you advanced it. They only got Ferocity if it had 2 or more HD, but the base monster only had 1. I toned it down here so it could get it at level one, and extended it a bit as well.

Interestingly, they had a few interesting things in their fluff that weren't incorporated into the monster itself, specifically a taste for human flesh and a tendency to fly into a blind fury during battle. I wasn't sure how to incorporate those into one level properly, so I direct you to the next post for the second half of this project.

-No Constitution Score
-Low-light vision
-Darkvision out to 60 feet
-Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects)
-Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromancy effects.
-Cannot heal damage naturally
-Not subject to critical hits, non-lethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, and energy drain.
-Immunity to any effect that requires a fortitude save (Unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless)
-Not at risk of death from massive damage. Destroyed if reduced to 0 hit points, but can be "repaired" if destroyed by spending 24 hours of work and 500 GP of materials per HD.
-Cannot be raised or resurrected unless by a wish, miracle, or true resurrection
-Constructs do not eat, sleep, or breathe.

Ah, the Bogun - a Construct that requires no gold, a mere 25 XP, and a level 1 spell to animate, but also requires that you be 7th level and either have a scroll of Control Plants or be able to cast it, despite that being a level 8 spell. I've liked the idea of it as a "small cheap druid minion" ever since I first saw it in the MM2 that I checked out from the library when being introduced to the world of D&D (they had the PHB and DMG, but not the MM1, oddly). That being said, its animation requirements are wildly inconsistent, since a level 8 spell means that it's going to be end-game stuff at minimum, at which point the week of work can be spent making minions who are significantly better than a 2HD Bogun.

But I digress. I tried to expand on it a bit, since pretty much the only thing it had was a Nettle natural attack and a poison. The nettles were expanded in versatility a little, so you can limpet onto larger creatures and slowly deal damage to them. I also added a capstone of minor druid spells, trying to fit in with the theme of "small druid magic", and hopefully giving it some more versatility. I also gave it traits of the Plant-type that weren't already covered by being a Construct, partly as a flavor thing, and partly because I think having a little construct minion that's made of living plants is kinda cool. I wanted to have a capstone based around infusing it and giving it abilities based around higher level Druid spells, but I couldn't think of a good way to do that, or balance it properly.

Anyway, this is my next offering. Feel free to rip it apart.

Stronger Than You Expected: Is your beam just not big or strong enough for you to vaporize your enemies? Worry not, because now it is! Increase the damage die of your Attached Laser by one size. At 10 HD the you add your HD to the damage, and at 20 HD the damage die increases again. In addition, you can ignore fire resistance equal to your HD. At 15 HD, you can ignore fire immunity as well, but the damage you deal is halved.

I Have A Second Mode: When you're fighting Fire Elementals, regular lasers just don't work. That's why you can now shoot freezing lasers! Select two of Cold, Electricity, Acid, Force, or Sonic. Whenever you use your Attached Laser, you can choose to deal either fire or an energy type you've selected. If you deal Sonic or Force damage, then the damage die is one size lower. At 10, 15, and 20 HD, you can select an additional damage type.

Dance For Me: Sometimes one laser at a time just doesn't cut it, and so you've modified your implant to be able to be able to fire even faster. You can use your Attached Laser to attack twice in a round. At the 10 HD, if you target the same enemy with multiple attacks from your Attached Laser in a round, they take a cumulative -1 penalty to AC against your Attached Laser attacks for each attack that hits them (this penalty resets at the end of your turn). At the 15 HD, you can attack with your Attached Laser three times in a round, and at the 20 HD there is no limit to the number of times you can attack in a round with your Attached Laser. In addition, at the 20 HD, the cumulative penalty becomes -2.

I Will Reach Out And Touch You: The fools think they are too far away for you to hit, but little do they know that they are still within the murder sphere! The range of your Attached Laser doubles. At the 10 HD and 15 HD, the range doubles again. At the 20 HD, your range becomes as far as you can see, but you have an effective range increment of 400 ft. (so you take a -2 penalty to your attack roll for each increment beyond this).

Burn For Me: Your laser is really, really hot and when you hit things with it, they burst into pretty flames. When you hit someone with your Attached Laser, they must make a Reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2 your HD + your levels in this class) or be set on fire, taking damage equal to twice the number of dice you roll for your Attached Laser damage at the start of their turns. Every turn when they take this damage, they can make another Reflex check put themselves out (although this does not negate the damage they just took). At 10 HD, the damage becomes three times the number of damage dice you roll for your Attached Laser. At the 15 HD, you can ignite creatures even if you miss them with the attack, but they have a +5 circumstance bonus to the initial saving throw. At the 20 HD, if you hit a creature that is already on fire with your Attached Laser, they take additional fire damage equal to the number of dice you roll for your Attached Laser, and they cannot make a saving throw against the fire on their next turn. If your Attached Laser does a different type of damage because of I Have A Second Mode, then the damage from this ability because the damage type your Attached Laser did.

Laser Light Show: Only being able to laser one person at a time is so last design cycle. Through a complex system of mirrors, you can split your laser and share the pain! When you use your Attached Laser, you can attack multiple targets, but you must split up the damage dice as evenly as possible between the targets, all the targets must be in range, and you take a penalty to the attack rolls equal to twice the number of targets you attack, and you cannot use this ability if you are making iterative attacks with your Attached Laser. (For instance, a Drider 6/Laser-Equipped Creature 3 would have 4d6 damage for their Attached Laser. If they chose to attack 2 targets, each target would take 2d6 damage, and each attack would take a -4 penalty to the attack roll. However, they could not choose to have one target take 1d6 damage and another take 3d6 damage) At 10 HD, the attack penalty is halved to become equal to the number of targets being attacked. At 15 HD, you gain two extra dice of damage when attacking multiple targets, but only if you're attacking 3 or more targets. At 20 HD, you take no penalty to attack rolls for attacking multiple targets, and can use this ability when making an iterative attack with your Attached Laser.

I blame this comment. Is this balanced? Are the options all about equally good? I have no idea, I was just having fun when I wrote this. Why does the creature have to have all the levels of a monster class? Well, you don't see any baby sharks with laser beams, do you? (Well, I haven't.)