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[Let's Read MORE] Monster Manual II (1983)
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Edit: I also love the fact that Savage Species, which really opened this can of worms, also included rituals to change race/add templates. It's kind of a sanity check: yeah, there's no other way that's really ever mating.
Edit2: THAT'S WHAT 3E WAS! The developers were just trying to raise a monster they could ride to get Knights of the Round.
you don't become a Legend by being spawned of a Legend
known throughout the land for its various exploits was how it became Legendary
and was sittin' on the body of a manticore
i think people would have heard of you
he's right
also, in the process of researching this, I came across something worse: the type pyramid.
In case you screwed up so badly you can't figure out if it's supposed to be an insect or a devil, this tells you which magical in-game classification applies. Apparently you can't have robots from other worlds.
Edit:
"shit, come see dumbo, with an ECL so bad he can't wipe his own ass."
I like how this is one of the few forums where I can say that and not get pounced on.
SoogaGames Blog
Yessssssss.
they didn't stat out the Egghemoth!
how am i to have my adventurers tackle their poisonous, gelatinous embryos of doom?
my immersions
Feeding off a diet of flies (giant)
all sitting on dire lillypads.
Today's Korred is found in the 4th edition Manual of the Planes. I guess all of you who still have priapisms over Planescape (or who weren't so attached to Planescape and are instead overly enamored with the Great Wheel) and can't reconcile this with the current cosmology can... I don't know. Do whatever it is you people do.
According to ye manual, Korreds are nasty little things who consider mortals to be entertainment for their dark sense of humor and practical joking. The Korred on page 136 of the Manual of the Planes comes in two varieties. A Cudgeleer (soldier 8) and a Dancecaller (controller 10, leader). Yes, really. Anyway:
- Hit stuff with their cudgels. They love cudgels. Soldiers can mark, controllers can slide (!).
- Dancing! Korred dancing makes for quite an attack. Both korreds have a dance that fits their role.
- They have plenty of options for shifting, which can be quite frustrating for your melee folks.
- A dancecaller with a group of cudgeleers and another fey skirmisher or two to control could make for a pretty nasty encounter in the high heroic levels.
I think the idea of the Korred has been kept quite intact through the years. The mythical creature would apparently lure humans into their dances... and usually this didn't work out too well for the humans, who would dance themselves to death before the little pranksters disappeared at dawn. Apparently they also liked haulting rocks around and made stone circles.SAVE VS. SPELLS OR DANCE YOURSELVES!
Man, that haircut never goes out of style. Korreds circa 1983:
- They ALWAYS carry cudgels and large pouches containing hair, shears, and other items. Hair?
- Cudgeling also never goes out of style. Bonk bonk. However, they're also incredibly strong for their size and can throw some heavy-ass boulders at you. Also they may attack with their SHEARS!
- Can turn their hair into animated ropes and entagle you in them... save vs. paralysis or you're trapped by them. Okay.
- Can cast a lot of druidy/clericy type earth and rock oriented spells at will. Oh, and teleport!
- May laugh 3 times a day. Apparently this laugh is really overpowering... if you are within 6 feet of them and don't roll your charisma or higher on a 1d20 you'll be stunned for 1-4 rounds. This... is an odd mechanic.
- And now is time for dancing! "Each week the korredds have a holiday when they dance and play music. Those who interrupt the dance must save vs. spells or dance themselves, losing 1-4 ht points per round until they are dead, restrained, or the korreds flee." Festive! Man that would be the worst TPK ever.
Ye olde Korred is even more frustrating than the new ones. And at 6 hit dice, it'd be frustrating you at a bit lower levels than the current iteration. I like it. Unless I had to fight a group of them. In that case, I would hate it.But why the fuck do they have pouches full of shears and hair? I can only assume that they like to prank you by cutting all your hair off in your sleep. Which is awesome.
The Korred continues the pattern of having some really cool fluff and a few nice special abilities, but still being trapped in that horrible 1st ed statblock.
What's next, shoe?
SoogaGames Blog
SoogaGames Blog
% in lair is the worst stat ever.
% with french curls would be more useful.
that is the greatest image of a hybrid form wereshark i have ever seen
do they sell those as minis?
it makes me want to convince a DM that I am playing a sharkataur (same stats as minotaur of course)
or a sharkforged
http://www.wargamersheadquarters.com/product/wereshark.html
SoogaGames Blog
SoogaGames Blog
Could one possibly push this monster category any further? We find horrible proof of this on page 82.
Apparently our lycanthropic friends were missing entries in aquatic dungeon tables. On the previous page there was the "Seawolf". Which is a lycanthrope that essentially has two hybrid forms... one is part wolf and part seal, the other form part wolf and part man. Wait... two hybrid forms but no human or animal form? How is that even a Lycanthrope? It's not even a were-anything. No, no. We need us a goddamn Wereshark. Man, that would be so sweet. The idea of a Wereshark is awesome. It conjures up images such as this one:
That's the promise of a wereshark there. This awesome beast looks ready to kick sand in your eyes, steal your girl, and then probably chomp both of you down. Such a beast would even be a worth opponent to a Dinosaur Warlock. However, in Monster Manual II we find...
I'm disappointed based upon the illustration alone. Reading on we find that...
- Pretty damn good hit dice and standard lycanthrope defenses... you can't even scratch 'em without silver or magic. Nothing too special about their attacks though, they just bite the shit out of you for 5-20. Which could be either 5d4 or 3d6+2.
- Humans affected with wereshark lycanthropy (man how the fuck would you contract that?) can transform into their shark-self at will. But only in the dark. Perhaps this is kind of an easy monster to deal with... you can just shine some light on him and watch him drown?
- A wereshark's human form is virtually indistiguishable from a normal human, except for being "large, cruel, muscular and domineering". So... basically they're massive jocks. "Popped Collars" may have been left off the list.
- Solitary, and often they prey on other sharks. However, when you find their lair there are always 2-5 sharks there. Apparently weresharks exhibit either complicated relationships, or poor editing, or both.
- They actually have treasure, though! They have a human form, and they like to spend money when they assume it, I suppose. To like... buy polo shirts and flip-flops maybe. The treasure may even perhaps be a considerable trove, such as a Type F (!)
Well, wereshark... you're still a disappointment. But at least you have some cool stuff we can take after we kill you.ONLY ONE CAN RULE THE WATER.
SoogaGames Blog
I'm voting for the Ralph Nader option: ixixachitl. What, you say? Vampiric manta-rays, I say.
MYCONID
and myconids are actually pretty cool
but... are the 4th edition myconids cooler?
we shall see
fixed
to make it more of a conundrum for players
show them the picture
"LOOK AT IT! LOOK AT IT! IS THIS THE FACE OF A MONSTER?"
because seriously
who the hell could raise their sword against the pound puppies?
no john
you are the monsters
i think elven cats and/or dogs are in MMII
also anything dragonlance ever was awful
all of it
i will throw any baby out with the bathwater just to be rid of kender and all of their bullshit
bullshit that i had to endure in the small-sized PC's that followed from them
beyond redemption
forever
I don't think I've seen cute monsters done well elsewhere.
SoogaGames Blog
Should have been put exclusively in Spelljammer (where they make more sense) but I still liked them!
SoogaGames Blog