Monsters by Demonu

Seeing how I am DMing a Pony Tales Adventure, I came up with a few monsters myself to use. So far I have:

1) Diamond Dog Soldier
HP: 25
PiP: 0
[+1] Paw Strike*: deal 1d6 damage to target creature
Trait: Frenzy
--> When a DDS becomes bloodied, increase its damage from 1d6 to 1d8
Tactics: DDS aren't very bright and attack random enemy creatures (roll a dice) The exception to this is that the first attack it makes when bloodied is against the one that caused it to become bloodied.

2) Diamond Dog Gem Tosser
HP: 25
PiP: 0
[+1] Paw Strike*: deal 1d6 damage to target creature
[+1] Gem Toss*: deal 1d6 damage to target creature and flip a coin. If heads, target creature is blinded (save ends)
Trait: Frenzy
--> When a DDGT becomes bloodied, increase its damage from 1d6 to 1d8. It can no longer use Gem Toss
Tactics: DDGT are a cut above DDS but that's not saying much. They attack enemy creatures at random (roll a dice) but do try to blind as many as possible. The exception to this is that the first attack it makes when bloodied is against the one that caused it to become bloodied.

3) Diamond Dog Boss
HP: 40
PiP: 0
[+2] Paw Strike: deal 1d8 damage to target creature
Traits:
- Frenzy
--> When a DDB becomes bloodied, increase its damage from 1d8 to 1d10
- Alpha Male (Free Action)
 Trigger: rolling a crit
--> remove all PiPs from the DDB. For every 2 PiPs removed, the DDB summons a DDGT. These DDGT behave and are the same as regular DDGT, except they are minions with 1HP. They take their turn right after the DDB.
- Lone Wolf
--> When a DDB is bloodied and the last remaining creature left, increase its damage from 1d10 to 1d12
Tactics: DDB are always accompanied by at least 2 DDS and 1 DDG. Its primarily attacks enemies that have been blinded by DDGT but otherwise attacks at random (roll a dice) The exception to this is that the first attack it makes when bloodied is against the one that caused it to become bloodied.

* Originally didn't cause PiP gain but I know there are talents being worked on that deal with enemy stats so I changed it.

4) Diamond Dog Don
HP: 80
PiP: 0
[+2] Paw Strike: deal 1d10 damage to target creature
[-6] An offer you can't refuse: target creature becomes dominated (save ends)
Traits:
- Frenzy
--> When a DDD becomes bloodied, increase its damage from 1d10 to 1d12
- Dirty Cheater
--> A DDD may make saving rolls at the start of its turn instead of at the end of it.
- Top Dog
  Trigger: dropping to 60, 40 or 20 HP
--> The DDD retreats from battle (he keeps all PiPs) and summons DDS and DDGT to do his dirty work for him. When all of them are defeated, the DDD joins the battle again. The henchdogs take the DDD's place in the initiative order.
  60 HP: 2 DDS and 1 DDGT
  40 HP: 3 DDS and 2 DDGT
  20 HP: 4 DDS and 3 DDGT
- Dirty Coward
--> When the last group of henchdogs are defeated, the DDD surrenders and the battle ends. He is now considered non-hostile (role play at DM's discretion)
Tactics: A DDD tries to avoid combat whenever possible, preferring diplomacy, haggling, bribing or downright cheating. However, when it thinks it's getting the short end of a deal, a DDD turns hostile and (threatens to) attack. A conversation with a DDD can be played out as a Skill Challenge.

5) Undead Pony
HP: 1 (minion)
PiP: 0
[+1] Bite: deal 2 damage to target creature
[-2] Infect: deal 2 damage to target creature. That creature is now suffering 1 ongoing damage. This can stack up to 3 ongoing damage. When a creature takes 3 ongoing damage from Infect, it has to make an immediate saving roll. Fail -> the creature is now dominated until the end of the encounter. (He has joined the herd... of zombie ponies)
Tactics: Being minions, Undead Ponies are best used in great numbers. They attack randomly and try to use Infect as much as possible.

6) Changeling Drone
HP: 1 (minion)
PiP: 0
[0] Syphon Love/Friendship: deal 1d6 damage to target creature and heal target ally for the same amount. Cannot target self or other minions.

7) Changeling Soldier
HP: 20
PiP: 0
[+1] Syphon Love/Friendship: deal 1d6 damage to target creature and heal self for the same amount. Cannot target other creatures to heal
[-2] Fiery Charge: deal 1d10 to target creature and flip a coin. On a succes, deal an additional 1d4 damage to said creature and it is dazed* The Changeling Soldier is dazed* after using this attack.
[0] Shapeshift - immediate reaction
--> Can only be triggered by a direct/primary attack made against the Changeling Soldier (doesn't trigger on aoe)
Shapeshift into the creature that attacked the Changeling Soldier. As long as the Changeling Soldier is shapeshifted, whenever it is attacked by a creature, said creature has to flip a coin. On a failure, the creature attacks the original instead. If the original attacks the shapeshifted Changeling Soldier, it doesn't have to flip a coin.
Traits:
- Morale Boost
--> When the Changeling Soldier rolls a crit of a d8 pr d10, it gains 1 PiP.

Changeling Swarm
HP: Variable. A swarm is composed of X changeling drones.
PiP: 0
[0] Zerg Rush: sacrifise X drones and deal Xd4 damage to target creature (X=<10)
special: wave attack --> X attacks, 1 result for damage
[+3] shapeshift: a number of drones shapeshift into copies of the party. The number of shapeshifted drones must be evenly divided and a multiple of the party (see soldier)
[-4] All Against One: select 1 target, then sacrifice all copies of said target and deal Xd10 damage to the selected target where X is the number of sacrificed copies.
Traits:
- Join the Swarm: at the start of the round, 1/4 of the original starting number of drones join the swarm.
- We are legion, we are one: a swarm cannot be affected by status effects.
Note: a swarm counts as 1 enemy. When it is dealt damage, sacrifice that much drones.

9) Giant Stone Snake
Name: Onyx (to avoid copyright infringement ^^)
HP: 50
PiP: 0
[+1] Rock Throw: deal 1d8 damage to target creature
[+3] Rock Polish: Onyx moves up 1 place in the initiative order
[-4] Rock Slide: deal 1d10 damage to target creature and each creature adjacent to it
[-10] Earthquake: deal 2d12 damage to every other creature and they each have to make a saving roll. Fail -> the creature is stunned for 1 turn (reflavoring of falling down and not being able to keep your balance, hence not being able to attack for 1 turn)
Traits:
- Rock Hard Defense: Onyx has Resist 3
- Slow Starter: Onyx automatically places last in the initiative order

Undead Template:
You can add this template to any creature design on this list. If so, its HP becomes 1 and its attacks have the following effect:
Infect - status effect
Whenever this creature damages its attack target, if that target has 0 Zombie Counters, that target has to make a saving throw. On a failure, said target gains 1 Zombie Counter. At the end of its turn, any creature with a Zombie Counter must make a saving roll. On a succes, get rid of 1 Zombie Counter and on a failure, gain 1 Zombie Counter. When a creature has 3 Zombie Counters, it must make an immediate saving roll. On a failure, it succumbs to the infection and loses its mind. It is now under the control of the GM and its attacks gain the above effect.
At the end of the creature's turn, it can make a saving throw to regain its senses and regain control of its actions (meaning it still has 3 Zombie Counters and is still in danger of losing control again)
Once 3 Zombie Counters have been obtained, they cannot get rid of by the above method. Heal checks can be made as a standard action to deal with the infection:
- 15+: remove 1 Zombie Counter from yourself or target ally
- 20+: Remove 2 Zombie Counters from yourself or target ally
- 25+: Remove 3 Zombie Counters from yourself of target ally
- nat20: Remove all Zombie Counters from yourself or target ally and become immune to the effects of infection for the rest of the battle
Note: While resembling Dominate, there's a difference between that and Zombified. In that zombies are stupid. While the idea of a zombie judo throwing or dominating another creature is hilarious in itself, it's not something a zombie would do. Perhaps only use [+] or [-1] combat talents without gaining/losing the PiPs. Find a middle ground. Don't be a dick.

*Dazed: status effect
A creature that is dazed cannot use any damaging combat talents. You can roll for save ends against dazed at the start of your turn rather than at the end of it. Dazed ends at the end of your turn.

EDIT: Disregard Dazed now that's made into an official mechanic.

10) Black Knight
Hp: 250
Pips: 0
[+3] Sword Slash - Standard Attack
Deal 1d20+1d12 damage against target creature
[-6] Giant Cleave - Standard Attack
Deal 3d12 damage against target creature and all adjecent creatures
[-2] Duel - Minor Utility
The Black Knight and target creature engage each other in a duel. Both participant choose a Standard Attack (Sword Slash for the BK) and roll for damage. Whoever wins the duel may take an immediate free turn after this one. Duel cannot be used on consecutive turns.
Traits
- Parry: Whenever the BK is dealt damage from a single target attack, roll a d20. If the result is divisable by 3, prevent that damage.
Special (can trigger on any dice)
- Dual Wield: The BK pulls out another sword and may use a second attack each turn until the end of the encounter. This special can only be activated once
- Cross Counter: Until the end of the encounter, whenever the BK succesfully parries an attack, he may deal an equel amount of damage to the creature that attacked him. This special can only be activated once.
- Sword Play: Deal 2d12 damage to target creature. If Dual Wield has been activated, the BK can deal an additional 2d12 damage to another target creature.

11) Knight and Princess
A. Knight
Hp: 200
Pips: 0
[+2] Sword Slash - Standard Attack
Deal 1d20+1d10 damage against target creature
[-3] Shield Bash - Standard Attack
Deal 2d10 to target creature and flip a coin. If heads, said creature is stunned. If tails, said creature is dazed.
Traits
- Parry: Whenever the Knight is dealt damage from a single target attack, roll a d20. If the result is divisable by 3, prevent that damage.
- Knight in Shining Armour: Whenever the Princess is targeted by an enemy's attack, redirect said attack to the Knight.
Special (can trigger on every dice)
- Sword and Shield Combo: Until the end of the encounter, the Knight may use a second attack each turn. This special can only be activated once.
- Cross Counter: Until the end of the encounter, whenever the Knight succesfully parries an attack, he may deal an equel amount of damage to the creature that attacked him. This special can only be activated once.
- Petrifying Strike: Deal 2d12 damage to target creature. Said creature is petrified for 1 turn (cannot take actions nor roll any dice) This special attack always hits the designated target.

B. Princess
Hp: 50
Pips: 0
[+1] Cure - Standard Utility
Target creature regains 10% of their Hp.
[-2] Cura - Standard Utility
Target creature regains 20% of their Hp.
[-3] Curaga - Standard Utility
Target Creature regains 30% of their Hp.
Traits
- Love Conquers All: When the Knight is defeated, the Princess transforms into a dragon. The Princess loses the above combat talents and gains the following:
Dragon
Hp: 50
Pips: 0
[0] Flame Pillar
Deal 3d12 damage to all enemies.
Traits
- Dragon Scales: The Dragon has 5 resist.
- Fire Eating: On its turn, the Dragon can consume X Baby Flame Dragons to increase Dragon Scales' resistance with X. Dragon Scales resists back to 5 whenever Dragon Mother is triggered. Fire Eating cannot be used on the same turn that Dragon Mother is triggered. *
Special (d12)
- Dragon Mother: Destroy all Baby Flame Dragons, then roll a d8 and summon that many Baby Flame Dragons.
Baby Flame Dragon
Hp: minion
[0] Fireball - Standard Attack
Deal 4 damage to target creature
Trait
- Hive Mind: All Baby Flame Dragons attack together. This is considered a single attack. Baby Dragons can select up to 2 target creatures, in which case the damage is split evenly between those.
- Ethereal Body: A Baby Flame Dragon cannot have save ends/status effects placed on it.

* Drop this last part if you want to make the Dragon even more threatening.

Let me know what you think of these and I'll update this thread once I got more monsters/enemies my group encounter.

Well, right off the bat I can tell that you DM on a regular basis, and infer that you have a fair bit of experience in home brewing monsters (mainly from the lack of glaring balance issues). I love these ones, and I'd consider using the diamond dogs for my quest should they ever encounter them. I like the flavour that you gave the Don. We just need the leader of the zombie ponies. Maybe some necropony or something. And Ony- I mean Giant Stone Snake, yeah that thing, it's pretty awesome. Not much in the way of critique from me

As for moves being made that deal with enemy stat's, those things are hard to balance. Mainly because there are far more elaborate guidelines for creating player combat talents than there are for creating monsters. But, yeah I see your point in making the moves +pips.

Edit: Wait a sec, does Giant Stone Snake (Onyx) hurt itself with Earthquake? I imagine it should hit every other combatant.

Thanks, I appreciate the commentary. And please, feel free to use any design you want in your own adventure.

Well, the Undead Ponies are the bulk of the current Big Bad henchlings so he can be considered their boss. I do intend to later include other creatures of the "existing creature + Undead template" formula but I'm still working on that.

Ah yes, it should be "every other creature". Let me just edit that real quick.

My only real concern is that all the DDs except the Don have no [-] abilities to use their PiPs on. In a system like this, I'd be compelled to come up with some kind of negative ability, even if it was only a weak -1. Otherwise, I'd be afraid the fights might get too stale.

Maybe if the top dogs had some way to take PiPs from the grunts - possibly by dealing a certain amount of damage to the grunts first? The ability could be called "Bullying" maybe. Then give the leaders some kind of ability to make them more threatening. The Don's already got the Dominate ability, but I'd say the Lieutenant type could use a slight buff.

I really like Onyx's Slow Start though, and the Zombie Ponies look good and dangerous, especially if you have the party encounter them in large numbers (which is what you'd expect with zombies).

XandZero2 wrote:My only real concern is that all the DDs except the Don have no [-] abilities to use their PiPs on. In a system like this, I'd be compelled to come up with some kind of negative ability, even if it was only a weak -1. Otherwise, I'd be afraid the fights might get too stale.

Maybe if the top dogs had some way to take PiPs from the grunts - possibly by dealing a certain amount of damage to the grunts first? The ability could be called "Bullying" maybe. Then give the leaders some kind of ability to make them more threatening. The Don's already got the Dominate ability, but I'd say the Lieutenant type could use a slight buff.

I really like Onyx's Slow Start though, and the Zombie Ponies look good and dangerous, especially if you have the party encounter them in large numbers (which is what you'd expect with zombies).

The Diamond Dog Boss has one. It's the trait called Alpha Male that removes all his PiPs and gives him extra troops. So the DDB has 2 combat styles: either a bit stronger than average in group or a force on his own. Incidentally, a DDB has 2 buffs that trigger instead of 1 and a prequisite for a DDB is that he's always accompanied by at least 2 DDS and 1 DDGT. Nothing stops you from throwing a DDB with 3 DDS and 3 DDGT at the players or even 3 DDB with their subsequent posse.

The reason why the DDS and the DDGT have no [-X] abilities is because originally, their attacks were all [+0] because I figured basic soldiers don't need an extra attack aside from a basic one. I only made it [+1] because I know there are combat talents being developed that deal with enemy stats and at least one of those deals with how much PiPs an enemy has. The [+1] change is purely so that said attack wouldn't be useless when used on a DDS or DDGT.

I forgot the Boss had that crit effect. Yeah, that ability is pretty cool.

Well, I for one am very glad we didn't end up fighting the Giant Stone Snake. I think you did a great job of building up to its big reveal. Very atmospheric.

So here's this Giant Enemy Crab that Pony Team Bravo fought the other day.

Giant Enemy Crab
HP: variable (either by size or amount of players, 80 to 120)
PiPs: 0
[+2] Pincer Smash: deal 1d10 damage to target creature
[-3] ViceGrip: deal 1d12 damage to target creature and he/she has to make a saving roll. On a failure, said creature is stunned during its next turn.
Traits:
- Twin Pincers
--> The GEB can make 2 attacks during its turn
- Shell
--> The GEB has resist 3
- Froth at the mouth
--> When the GEB becomes bloodied, it can no longer be stunned
- Hit Its Weak Point
--> When the GEB gets hit by a critical attack, it loses Shell and gains For Massive Damage until the start of its next turn
- For Massive Damage
--> All attacks made againt the GEB deal maximum damage. Dice rolls are still made to see if the PC can trigger his/her special move.

It's still something of a rough first draft and the group didn't have much problem with it. Maybe I'm going too soft on them...

if you feel the crab is too weak give it another attack or two.

tygerburningbright wrote:if you feel the crab is too weak give it another attack or two.

Still has to be a somewhat fair fight. Having the GEB have 4 attacks for no apparent reason just seems odd. There has to be a reasoning the build of a monster.

Well, that and the fact that the group told me not to have it sprout bubbles at them...

We did win that fight a bit to easily... I'll agree with yea there. Maybe it needs a third "super" attack that it can only do once per turn or something? Personally I think it would've been funny if it DID do a powerful bubble attack on us that'd have at lest made us worry about winning, but make it hard for it to get to use or can only use once per fight?

Edit: On second thought. Maybe give the Crab just have another trait or modify the Twin Pincers trait to refex real world crabs, (IE: having a bigger claw and a small claw?) where it's first attack has an attack buff and it's second being slightly weaker, that'd lead to Role Playing flavor where you talk about how it's first attack is with it's bigger claw and therefore stronger and it's little claw is weaker. Personally I think I sorta thought the crab did have such a trait when we fought when you made such comments on the crab's skills.

Or maybe give the crab a gun.

Regarding the "shell", you never actually mentioned it has resist 3, or reduced our damage. Did you keep it a secret (as in reduced less from its HP without us knowing), or didn't apply it since GH was missing? Or did my first crit completely negate that trait for the entire battle?

Also, why are you calling it "GEB"?

I can see that "Gun" thing working already...

Everyone get's a shockwave and sees a big flash, this attack would clearly cause blind for the whole party and could stun the whole party... Nothing else... and it'd be a supwer attack. That'd be cool.

If this is a solo mosnter as it seems to be, it requires special design. The way the combat system works, Solo monsters have to be designed specially in order for them to actually be a challenge to a group. Here's why.

1) Solo monsters are supposed to be one big monster that is as threatening as many smaller monsters. This means that if an enemy puts a status effect on a solo monster, like blind, it's like applying that effect to a whole army of lesser enemies at once. This makes status effects massively more effective.

2) Interrupts that stop the enemy from attacking become ridiculous. Stunning Heron's Hoof goes from an expensive but powerful, "get out of death free card" to just skipping the enemy's turn entirely. A group that took nothing but Stunning Heron's Hoof or similar interrupts has a solid chance of knocking any classically designed solo monster down without even taking damage. If you don't account for these powers, players WILL destroy your solo monster with them. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, the system is built to reward players for intelligent play and bringing the right tools into battle. This means you should usually expect your players to do everything in their power to make life miserable for your monster. Let it happen, but give the monster a chance to fight back. There's a difference between a strategy being, "super-effective" and thus giving the players a great chance of victory against an otherwise overpowered foe (attack the weak point for massive damage!) and a strategy just making the combat lose all tension, becoming irrelevant.

3) A solo monster can become boring if it doesn't function in a climactic way, since it's the only monster on the battlefield. Here's a great article on designing such exciting battles. This works best for bosses, but any solo monster can benefit from these insights.


With these three points in mind, here are some tips for addressing the first 2. The third is covered extensively by the article, so I won't bother going into it here.


1 - Status Effects
Single-Target status effects become many times more powerful are way too good against solo monsters. Traditionally, there are three main ways you can deal with this.

A) The Target is Immune
You're fighting through an rpg game, killing a bunch of weak monsters in quick skirmishes, and suddenly you run into the boss of the area. It's big, it's terrifying. Now it's time to pull out all the stops. You cast, "demi" on it - which will cut its health down by 25% automatically.

Text pops up over the boss. "Immune" it says.

Okay... Blind it!

"Immune."

Try turning it to stone.

"Immune"

Now pull out the big guns. Cast the extremely expensive "Death" spell. The one that uses 5x the MP of your second most powerful attacks. You never use this in normal combat, because the damage on your normal spells are enough to destroy the weak creatures running around without a problem. But now, the spell's finally useful - as it has a high chance of instantly killing an enemy.

"Immune"

GAH!

So yes, making an enemy immune to all these effects works. However, it's also extremely frustrating and unsatisfying for the players. I don't recommend this option.


B) Pay to Play
Instead of making the target immune to the status effect you fear, try just making it able to get rid of such effects at a cost. Try giving it a free action ability that lets it pay health in order to make a saving throw or perhaps automatically remove the condition. That way dropping the status effect on the creature still hurts it, but it can get rid of anything that would stop it from functioning. Make sure the health cost is significant enough that it will only use it on truly crippling effects (like stunned or blind) and not just on every status effect a player might ever drop on it. This functions similarly to immune, but is much more satisfying to play against. You can even just up the solo monster's health with the idea that some of it will go into paying to remove such status effects - giving you the same combat effectiveness as the "Immune" option without frustrating players nearly as much. This is a very good approach to take. And of course, you can have it consume other resources - like minons - instead of just using health to pay for such status removal. Letting the monster consume a minion to remove a status effect is particularly interesting, as it gives the players a sub-goal in combat to make sure its minions die first - so they can cripple the target with conditions.

C) It's GAHDZIRRA!!!
The third option is to just make the solo monster so frickin' badass that the only way you stand a CHANCE is to keep conditions on it. Double the monster's damage or give it twice the number of attacks it would normally have and the players need to keep it blind just to keep it playing fair. This is a fine tightrope to walk, because if players don't play correctly the monster will just destroy them and they might get frustrated, feeling you threw an unfair monster at them. To combat this, make sure their skill checks or helpful NPCs informed them of how terrifying this monster is ahead of time, NPCs perhaps warning them to stay away from it. Players will often forge ahead anyway, and if they're warned it's going to be nuts they'll feel less frustrated - because they were warned ahead of time. Also, if the players don't come up with the idea of status effects on their own - make sure you reinforce how effective they are. Either with an NPC's suggestion to make sure the monster is crippled while fighting it - or simply by giving them a great description about how frustrated the monster gets once they finally drop a status effect on it in combat. So yes, this is a dangerous one - but a potentially rewarding one too.

Changing between using B and C, sometimes combining the two as well (a less powerful Gahdzira in exchange for a Pay to Play ability) works well. You can even start off using Immune, so long as you give the players a way to crack the shell. For example, the enemy might be immune to save-ends effects until one of its allies is taken down. Either way, employing these methods will go a long way to helping balance your solo monster's threat level.


2 - Interrupts
These are both more annoying than status effects and often easier to deal with. In fact, the main worry when constructing a solo monster is making sure that you don't go overboard and make a player's reflect ability irrelevant. No defensive interrupt is a perfect defense. Stunning Heron's Hoof requires dealing damage to the user, as does Misdirection. You can deal with both these defensive interrupts by having the enemy simply slap status effects on the target, even ongoing damage (as the status effect is what deals damage to the player - not the creature in question - they can't use the defensive interrupt to reflect it on the enemy). You can also foil Misdirection by giving your monsters multi-attacks. Let the enemy make 4 attacks immediately against the same target, each dealing only 25% damage of what a single attack would, and Misdirection can only reflect one of them at a time.

However, such defensive interrupts are very smart to use against solo monsters - and thus they should be effective at times. I tend to give my solo monsters ways to drop status effects on the enemies or multi-attacks (sometimes both, try dropping vulnerability 2 on a player then making 4 small attacks... Vulnerability triggers for each one of them) so it can bypass those defensive interrupts - but also some big [-x] ability that deals a huge chunk of damage in one blow... Something that is AWESOME for them to reflect on the monster or interrupt with a stun. This means players get to pull the trigger on their defensive interrupts at the perfect moment, very satisfying, while still being under threat the rest of the time.


3 - The Article
The article linked above is great. Definitely recommend checking it out.


Final Thoughts
Even with all these ways to make solo monsters work, I tend to stay away from them in my campaigns. They make the multi-target attacks of players much less effective and because they need to be built with with the above 3 criteria in mind - it often doesn't feel like a normal fight. Which is great for boss battles, but not so great for intermediary encounters. Even in big conflicts, when I use Solo monsters I usually have them summon minions as well to fight the players with - the minions usually providing the enemy with a bonus (+1 damage for each minion on the field) or resource (solo monster can sacrifice a minion to deal massive damage, regain life, save against a condition - etc) so the players have an incentive to kill them; adding additional layers of strategy onto the battlefield. Another thing I do with my Solo monsters is usually give them 2 turns in combat. They usually roll initiative twice and act on both those turns, which makes the enemy feel more dynamic and more terrifying - as well as splitting up its damage into more manageable chunks that give the players time to heal eachother. If an enemy deals 30 damage in one attack, the player will drop immediately most of the time. If an enemy deals 15 damage on each attack, but goes twice a round, players will have a chance between its turns to heal eachother. This also lets you show off more of the monsters abilities, which is great. Players should get a chance to learn how the monster fights and then have time to fight back, so giving it more rounds is a good way to manage it. Once they see its big energy attack, they'll be able to take tactical countermeasure the next time around.


And... That's solo monsters folks. Hopefully this helps you with your crab.

How about if you give the crab some way of hitting the whole party or at least threaten more than one character at a time, or even just some sort of Claw-reposte that it can do whenever it takes damage. Or even add a trait that if wasn't damaged for a turn it gets some sort of buff. I guess it depends on how you want the party to tackle it, do you want them to be hesitant on attacking it? Or should they be constantly hammering it, or should they build up some giant attack and hit it for a lot of damage on the fourth turn or something? Because as it is now, a prepared party could probably sit back and mitigate almost all the damage it does for quite a few turns.

I guess what I mean to say is that flavour is probably the biggest factor here. What do you want the party to take away from this battle, how do you want them to remember it?

SilentBelle wrote:I guess what I mean to say is that flavour is probably the biggest factor here. What do you want the party to take away from this battle, how do you want them to remember it?

Whatever he wanted us to come away from that fighting thinking wasn't what we did, cause all we did think about that fight was "Judo Throw is OP"...

Also the more I think about it, WHY where we able to throw a giant crab that's back is ment to be the size of an island? I mean wouldn't that be a monster a bit outside of one's wight class to throw?

What about "summoner" bosses? Technically, they count as a solo boss due to starting alone, but then create a bunch of adds that distract (or the party musn't ignore). Those are good counters for "status affect spam", as regardless of the boss being disabled, ignoring the adds leads to trouble.

I don't think the party will take anything away from it because the session's main highlight was the introduction of a new party member.

As it stands, leave it as it is. Perhaps I can reuse or salvage some design ideas from it for a later encounter but I'm not going to waste more time on something that has already passed. Better to focus on future encounters

Zarhon wrote:What about "summoner" bosses? Technically, they count as a solo boss due to starting alone, but then create a bunch of adds that distract (or the party musn't ignore). Those are good counters for "status affect spam", as regardless of the boss being disabled, ignoring the adds leads to trouble.

Clearly you need to take a closer look at the Diamond Dog Boss and the Diamond Dog Don.

Whatever he wanted us to come away from that fighting thinking wasn't what we did, cause all we did think about that fight was "Judo Throw is OP"...

Also the more I think about it, WHY where we able to throw a giant crab that's back is ment to be the size of an island? I mean wouldn't that be a monster a bit outside of one's wight class to throw?

Combat is played out as a JRPG in a turn based system and isn't realistic at all. Take a look at Final Fantasy where Sabin Figaro can suplex a moving train back on the rails.

Demonu wrote:Combat is played out as a JRPG in a turn based system and isn't realistic at all. Take a look at Final Fantasy where Sabin Figaro can suplex a moving train back on the rails.

Hey! Sabin had the badass points to do that train suplex! XD

Edit: Still I think it should've at lest shouldn't be able to be removed form play by Judo Throw... That was a not fun for anyone.

Xel Unknown wrote:

Demonu wrote:Combat is played out as a JRPG in a turn based system and isn't realistic at all. Take a look at Final Fantasy where Sabin Figaro can suplex a moving train back on the rails.

Hey! Sabin had the badass points to do that train suplex! XD

Edit: Still I think it should've at lest shouldn't be able to be removed form play by Judo Throw... That was a not fun for anyone.

That's taking away the core mechanics of Judo Throw. Remember the Judo Throw removes the target from combat, damage is optional. This means you can Judo Throw allies out of combat for protection or the like.

And even if I did make monsters throw-resistant, my major problem with Judo Throw still stands that it's 3d12 damage for [-6] as almost everyone will use it merely for damage dealing.

Well, in my opinion, judo throw is essentially a one-target, specialized version of frostfall, so nerfing it's damage isn't really fair when compared to that talent.

By comparison:

Judo Throw
- Costs 6 PiPs.
- Hits one target.
- Ejects, protecting from everything and allowing risk-free PiP gain, for both monsters and allies at zero risk or downside.
- 3d12 damage, allowing 3 chances for a special move.

Frostfall
- Costs 7 PiPs
- Hits up to three targets.
- Allows for up to 4d12 damage total (2d12 on main target, 1d12 on adjacent), allowing up to four special move chances.
- Stuns the main target for one round without a chance to save. Any number of allies can attack them during this time.

I see what Demonu means with it's "ally support" ability, though: There's hardly any incentive to use on an ally: ending the fight sooner with huge damage is a lot beneficial in the long run AND it allows specials to trigger.

Perhaps it could be made that using the ability to eject an enemy/ally without damaging them costs only -3 or -4 PiPs? It would make sense, as you only throw them hard enough to eject them, but not hurt them, so it's less tiring, whilst throwing them to hurt stuff makes you more tired.

Alternately, the skill could be set to do no damage, costing 3 PiPs, but you can add up to 3d12 damage, at an extra cost of +1 PiP for each d12 damage.

You bring up very good points dude... I've got less bad feelings for Judo Throw now. Still wasn't fun with a solo monster when he was out of play and stuff.

Xel Unknown wrote:You bring up very good points dude... I've got less bad feelings for Judo Throw now. Still wasn't fun with a solo monster when he was out of play and stuff.

Yeah, Judo Throw has some issues but the main one is probably in party vs one battle that it slows everything down, especially if people are setting up a combo or something.

I'll keep that in mind.

Demonu wrote:

Xel Unknown wrote:You bring up very good points dude... I've got less bad feelings for Judo Throw now. Still wasn't fun with a solo monster when he was out of play and stuff.

Yeah, Judo Throw has some issues but the main one is probably in party vs one battle that it slows everything down, especially if people are setting up a combo or something.

I'll keep that in mind.

Hmm, wouldn't it actually allow a better, team-wide combo? Assuming, of course, the judo throw is announced beforehand (Remind me to do that in the future. It should make for a lot more interesting fights).

Player announces judo before his turn is up -> others then rack up some PiPs for bigger abilities, support each other, use "next round boosters" etc -> when the bad guy returns, they combo him together with powerful abilities.

Similar thing with stuns, really, only you get a bit of "prep time".

It's more the "BUT I WANTED TO HIT IT THIS TURN!" line of thinking that anoided me the most...