Enhanced Monsters Description Options

[aigleborgne]

Monsters will be closed to P&P, somewhere between 2nd and 3rd edition.
I will release a first version in july or august.

Optional component "Constitution affects monsters hit points"
Monsters will follow fighter table to gain hit points bonus based on their constitution (up to level 9)
It's not a P&P rule but it is very logical to me.
Let's compare 2 creatures:
- a level 8 cleric with 16 constitution : 80 hp
- a level 8 polar bear with 19 constitution : 72 hp (64 + 8 according to P&P)
A mighty polar bear has less hit points than a cleric! With this component, it would have 104 hp

Below major changes for each monsters: (if only minor changes, won't be listed here)
APR : attack per round

Ankheg
Weaker than ingame. Bioware used their special ability "Acidic Enzymes" as a normal ranged attack. In P&P, they can use it once per day in a desperate situation !
- Reduced APR from 2 to 1 as in P&P
- Acidic Enzymes change to a spell, can be used once per day
- Grab : a melee hit success will entangle target, something described in P&P (ankheg try to attract its victim in the underground)

Banshee
- Horrific Appearance : fear nearby foes, cast every 6 rounds.

Lesser Basilisk
- Petrification is now a spell, so it can also attack

Greater Basilisk
- Petrification is now a spell, so it can also attack
- Foul Breath : kill anyone around its mouth if they fail to save, cast every round
- Strong stats : beware if you install "Constitution affects monsters hit points", it adds 54 hp, making them very powerful !

Bears
- Faster (same speed as humans)
- Strong strength and constitution
- Hug attack (15% on every attack, damage depends on bear type)
- Grizzly (not found in P&P) is between Cave bear and Mountain/Polar bear
- Only Black Bears have non magical paws

This post has been edited by aigleborgne: Jun 18 2011, 01:26 PM

[aigleborgne]

Cats (greater)
- Faster (some are really fast like Cheetah)
- Better strength and constitution and very high dexterity (usually 19)
- Both attack : paws and bite
- They can all hide in shadows and move silently, it fits their hunting nature (in P&P, it is mentioned they can stealth)
- They are all immune to backstab as cats are almost never surprised (suprised on 1 over a d20 roll)
- Rake attack (15% to attack with both rear claws on each paws attack, damage depends on cat)

As in all my script, I cannot really made a perfect P&P attack cycle (ie: 2 paws and one bite each round).
So each time they attack, they will choose between paws (65%) and bite (35%)
Bite is usually 3 times the damage so it makes a difference. Previously, when a monster has different attack, the best one was chosen.
So a lion had 3 attack per round, all doing 1-12 damage (bite). Now, it will be 3 paws attacks (1-4) and sometimes 3 bite attacks.

This post has been edited by aigleborgne: Jun 10 2011, 06:53 AM

[aigleborgne]

Helmed Horror : more dangerous than before, I'll eventually lower its level (9 to 7-8)
- 18/60 strength
- Infravision
- Can see invisible creatures
- Equiped with a magical 2d6 great sword (that can't be dispell). I wasn't able to make it looks like a flame blade (as P&P pictures)
- Immune to magic missile and 3 wizard spells (fireball, lightning bolt, melf acid arrow)


Battle Horror : very dangerous now, I'll eventually lower its level (9 to 7-8)
- 21 strength
- Infravision
- Can see invisible creatures
- Equiped with a magical 2d6 great sword (that can't be dispell). I wasn't able to make it looks like a flame blade (as P&P pictures)
- Immune to magic missile and 3 wizard spells (fireball, lightning bolt, melf acid arrow)
- No longer immune to ranged attack
- Cast magic missile every 3 rounds at caster level 3 (2 missiles)

Doom Guard : should be about the same as before, maybe a little weaker
- 17 strength
- Equiped with a magical 1d8 axe
- No longer immune to ranged attack
- 50% resist fire and cold

[aigleborgne]

Carrion Crawler, Crypt Crawler, Mutated Crawler : not many changes beside APR. They are still very easy to kill but now they are more dangerous in melee due to their double APR
- 8 APR
- P&P combat behavior : hold every target before killing them one by one

Death Knight (aka Demon Knight) : tougher due to a better script (as all spellcasters will) and very close to P&P
- a bit less powerful characteristics (althrough a few are better)
- aura of fear
- power word (blind, stun, or kill) once per day
- symbol (fear or pain) once per day
- 20 dice fireball once per day
- 2 dispel magic per day
- can't be turned
- at will : detect invisibility, wall of ice
- spell turning : 55% to autocast spell turning each round, 9 spell levels, one round duration. this is something closed to P&P

This post has been edited by aigleborgne: Oct 15 2011, 09:01 AM

[aigleborgne]

Dogs : many minor changes

Moon Dog : was already closed to P&P, but I improved them a bit more

Hell Hound : same than Moon Dog, few tweaks

This post has been edited by aigleborgne: Jul 2 2011, 09:57 AM

[aigleborgne]

Doppleganger : less powerful
- Reduced APR from 2 to 1 as in P&P
- Reduced thac0 from 9 to 17 (ridiculous older number for a 4 hit dice monster)
- Immunity to sleep and charm
- Can see invisible creatures

Greater Doppleganger : less powerful. I didnt remove their spells, even if they didnt exist in P&P. If I did, they would be very easy to kill and don't worth their 4000xp. They have some telepathy powers that I can't translate into the game, so...
- Reduced APR from 4 to 2 as in P&P
- Reduced thac0 from 7 to 11
- Immunity to sleep, charm, and hold
- Can see invisible creatures

[aigleborgne]

Dryad, Hamadryad : Slightly stronger, I gave them P&P spells, so with a good script, they will be more dangerous, through still very easy to kill.

Elemental : There are a lot of elementals, about 100! Characteristics were already closed to P&P, so I made them consistent (which was a huge work). On top of that, I mix them with 3rd edition. Globally, lesser and medium are more or less the same (except for immunities), but greater (16 and 24 hd) are stronger. It will also affect Fire and Earth elemental transformation.
- Elemental traits (immunity to stun, sleep, ...)
- Immune to critical hits
- Damage now depends on HD (as in 3rd edition)
- Strength, constitution, and dexterity from 3rd make Earth elemental very strong. In fact, now Earth elementals are better damage dealer but they are twice as slow
- Whirlwind : cast every 3 rounds (every rounds previously), but no save for damage (2D8) as there are none in P&P. I put 3 rounds because normally, it should be different (one full round to change into a whirlwind...)

This post has been edited by aigleborgne: Oct 5 2011, 04:54 PM

[aigleborgne]

Aerial Servant :
- Elemental traits (immunity to stun, sleep, ...)
- Immune to critical hits
- Strangle attack (hold target for 2 rounds if less than 16 hit dice. no save for strength less than 18, random roll for strength between and 18 and 18/99 as in P&P)
- Permanent invisibility with non-detection

Air Aspect (in Durlag Tower) : it is now a 12HD Air Elemental. Whirlwind is enough to make it more powerful than previously.

[aigleborgne]

Fire Salamander : Slightly better
- Remove breathe fireball from Avenger Salamander form.
- Add 30% to inflict 2d6 damage piercing damage (nail attack) + 1d6 fire damage
- Elemental traits

Frost Salamander : Slightly better
- Remove cold damage bonus on spear
- Intense cold : each round, nearby foes recieve 1d8 cold damage

Ettercap : minor changes
- 1 APR (down from 3). It does 2d3 damage + 1d8 and poison. Normally, it should be 2 x 1d3 + 1 x 1d8 poison, but script can't really do that, so I used this setup. Either all attacks hit, either none do. I did this because Ettercap should bite once each round and so has a chance to poison its victim. Without this change and bad luck, it can attack 5+ rounds without using bite. This is due to a bug (AttackReeavaluate doesnt always work as it should). Because poison attack is essential, I think it is better this way.

This post has been edited by aigleborgne: Oct 8 2011, 02:18 PM

[aigleborgne]

Ghoul : like for all undead, they all have proper immunities (critical hit and all found in ring95). please note that most undead are not immune to cold (only skeletons and death knight). Not many changes for ghouls beside immunities

Ghast : slightly stronger
- Carrion Stench : previously an effect in weapon, it is now autocast every round, and save vs poison instead of breath.
- Fast speed : in P&P, they are faster than humans. This change alone made them stronger as it is now difficult to hit & run

Greater Ghast : stronger (found in Durlag's tower but named Greater ghoul)
- Renamed to Greater Ghast as they are more closer to ghast than ghoul.
- 8HD (vs 4HD for a normal ghast)
- 18 strength (vs 17 for a normal ghast)

Ghoul Lord : a few changes I only add his special abilitiy Reek of Evil (was existing but not accurate and maybe not even used)

Gibberling : very minor changes

Gnoll, Flind : minor changes
- Disarm (for Flind) : save vs wand or drop weapon on ground

Hobgoblin : weaker
- Reduced APR from 2 to 1 as in P&P
- Adjust thac0. Like most creatures, they initially had a better thac0 that they should. It bothers me to see a 3HD hobgoblin with 14 thac0

This post has been edited by aigleborgne: Oct 10 2011, 07:59 AM

[aigleborgne]

This topic is halted, I will release an updated readme with a detailed list of changes. Of course, it takes quite some time to make it