Salamanders and Giants and Gnolls (Oh My!)

Sorry for lack of updates. Life has been hectic lately and the amount of time I've had to put my brain in modding mode for any length of time has been limited.

After tearing my hair out, trying to figure out why my protos kept crashing ToEE, I discovered there is no Weapon Specialization (Light Crossbow) in ToEE. Attempting to give that feat to any NPC results in a CTD when the game tries to load the protos. That's a weird oversight on Troika's part and took me way too much time to figure out. I have no idea how to add extra feats, so I just gave the NPC in question Rapid Reload instead.

I've been tinkering with the Ettin and discovered the only way to get them to function like they're supposed to is to make a specific set of "Ettin clubs" for them. They won't dual-wield without Two-Weapon Fighting, but TWF doesn't cover their dual-wielding ability. Monster Superior TWF almost does (it still halves the strength bonus on the secondary weapon) but they won't dual-wield with just that, and combining them both leads to the bonuses from both feats stacking, meaning their on-hand attacks are two higher than they should be and their off-hand attacks are 6 higher than they should be. So that's no good. (They end up attacking at +14/+9/+18/+13 instead of +12/+7/+12/+7. Big difference. Leaving them with just TWF and ITWF nets attacks of +10/+5/+10/+5 which is no good either.)

What I want to do is make a pair of Ettin clubs, one for the on-hand and one for the off, that eliminate the dual-wielding penalties through appropriate bonuses. I'll use their existing weapons as a base, but since they're also used by Hill Giants, I can't tinker with them directly. Anyone know of two protos.tab numbers I can use?

ETA: On further reflection, my other option would be to up their Strength 4 points. That would increase their overall damage and to hit bonuses to where they should be, but their on-hand attacks would hit harder than they should and their off-hand attacks would be weaker than they should. It would also make them harder to trip. It's definitely an easier way to implement it, though.

 

what I would do is give the etins TWF and then make the clubs, a good number for you to start at is 4501, then give the weapons a to hit bonus of 4 (I thinks thats right or is it 2) to make the twf penalty go away ( -4 to hit cos of twf add +4 to hit bonus = 0, + strenght) - and as its only going to be the etins that use these clubs only they will get the benifits.

 

Yeah, I just realized the strength method isn't going to work because the ettin uses two clubs, so he's got a -4 to each attack, rather than -2 for a light offhand weapon. I'll make the Ettin clubs 4501 and 4502.

ETA:New clubs work like a charm. Very hurty. He killed the fighter of my 6th-level test party before I could bring him down. I reduced his hit die to the 10d8 listed in the monster manual from the 15d8 in the protos, but that +4 to hit and +3 to off-hand damage makes up for it. If he had those extra HPs, he probably would have dropped someone else too before he went down, which is way too much for a CR 6 creature.

ION, Terjon is now a Cleric 10/Paladin 3/Fighter 7. I also tweaked his inventory a bit. Replaced his Ring of Invisibility with a ring of prot+3, gave him a shield+5, chainmail+3 and swapped his mace+1 for a rod of smiting. He now has weapon focus, weapon spec and Improved crit with a light mace. It's pretty brutal.

I removed Calmert's bonus HP and swapped his mace+1 for the holy mace+1 he sells. (It's also still in his store. I figure anyone willing to attack him isn't likely to buy it and it would be silly for him to have it and not use it to defend himself. Someone could conceivably buy it from him and then kill him for a second one, but I doubt they'll bother.)

Jaroo is now a Druid 12/Fighter 4 to make all his feats legal. I also traded his ring of invisibility (what is with all these high-level NPCs with rings of invisibilty that they never use?) for a ring of prot+3 and traded out his padded armor for some dragonhide plate.

I spent a lot of time tinkering with the Eye of the Deep. It's not in any of my 3.5 books, so I used a beholder as a base, took into account its claws, kept most of the special abilities Troika had given it (but swapped the useless Daze ability for Hold Person and replaced Phantasmal Killer with Slay Living.), added Improved Uncanny Dodge to reflect the non-flankability of Beholderkin, got rid of its wizard levels and after all was said and done, decided it was a CR 10 creature. I also had to tinker with the strategy.tab to account for the swapped spells.

EATA: There is an NPC named Elistaria with some wierdness going on as far as special abilities and such. Anyone know what this NPC is about?

 

Okay, thanks.

I'm working on the female bugbears now.

So am I the only one who has a problem with the absolute brokeness of the Masterwork Greatcleaver? I was pretty sure one of the Co8 mods toned it down into something resembling a balanced weapon, but it seems to be back to its ridiculously powerful self again.

Also, a sign of when you've been modding for too long? When you find shouting "Farm dog!" to yourself in an overly excited tone of voice to be incredibly amusing.

 

Oooh...the cleaver. Everyone's favorite WMD. Might I suggest that you do fix it, but keep an awesome one in the game that can be consoled in or something? That way, those who can't live without it can get one if they wish.

Also, I hope this helps you...it's from 1st Edition, so AC is gonna be goofy. I'm sure you'll get it right, though.

 

For now I've just removed it from the Female Bugbear's inventory. If people want a cleaver, they can either console it or *shudder* marry Fruella.

Huh. That's a whole lot weaker than the one Troika put in the game. I'll see what else I can dig up. As it stands, what I cobbled together is pretty much a beholder-lite. (I say lite since it can't do the beholder trick of zapping you with 3 different nasty rays and then bite in the same round, while keeping its anti-magic ray pointed at your mage. This thing can only do one effect a round and doesn't have the antimagic ray.) I don't want to make them too weak, because they are in the water node and the whole point of this is to try to make things rules compliant without making things easier.

That's what I meant by weirdness. Fire resistance and bonus HD with no CR increase. Since she's part of DH, I'll just leave her alone, unless you really want me to take a crack at her. But that's why I asked. NPCs I recognize as being part of the normal game, I'm tweaking where necessary, but as soon as something I'm not familiar with pops up I want to check before changing anything.

 

I'll take a look, Ted.

I found a 3rd edition conversion of a bunch of critters from the ToEE module that aren't in any of my books. I think the guy who did them was a little too literal-minded with some of it (Lots of "This and this bad stuff happens and you don't get a save, ever" and "This creature only takes 1 point of damage from melee attacks, period" elements in there, which 3.0 and 3.5 did their best to get rid of) but it gives me a decent starting point.

Went back and updated the Crystal Ooze based on those stats. It now has a paralizing poison in addition to it's 4d4 points of acid damage, DR 10/- (Most appropriate conversion of the afforementioned "only 1 point of damage per hit" stupidity I could think of.) and Immunity to Fire, Cold and Acid. Still fairly easy to take out, but not the pushovers they were before.

 

Who hasn't seen this scenario before? The party encounters a group of bugbears. Weapons are drawn. One of the bugbears lets loose with a blood-curdling scream, his muscles tensing and rippling, the fury coming off him in palpable waves. The party braces itself for the inevitable attack, when the bugbear suddenly pulls out a vial and sips daintily from it. His muscles incredibly grow larger still. The party unleashes everything they have at the raging bugbear, but it stays on its feet. Suddenly it's muscles shrink back down as the potion wears off. The party thank their good luck, but brace for what will still be a crushing attack. The bugbear reaches into its pack and sips from another vial, this time healing some of its wounds. The party renews their attack and the bugbear goes down without ever once swinging his weapon.

Basically, the Bull's Strength potions the bugbears have are a problem. Frequently, the bugbear will drink the potion, and then it will wear off before it even gets to go. Worse, you've got a raging bugbear surrounded by his enemies, and instead putting some serious hurt on them, he drinks a potion that will give him +2 to hit and damage next round, if he lives that long and if it lasts that long.

I'd like to do one of two things: remove the Bull's Strength potions from the Bugbears' inventories so they don't use them or, figure out how to fix their AI so they don't drink them. (Ideally, they'd only drink them when it would be useful, but I don't think the ToEE is smart enough to do that.)

If the potions actually had a more than 1 round duration, it wouldn't be so bad, but as it stands the bugbears with the potions are effectively just standing around waiting to be killed.

What does everyone think?

 

Those potions have always lasted longer than one round for the bugbears in my games.

Oh, and I vote for leaving the cleaver as is. In Co8 4.0.0 it has already been flagged as no_loot for all but two of the female bugbears in the game. The third available one is on Fruella. I don't think this needs to be fixed.

 

My advice is to up the duration of the potions to something more in keeping with the rules. 1 round sucks. It ought to be more like turns worth of duration...and I mean the old 1st Edition turns. Potions not otherwise limited lasted for a LONG time...4 + 1-4 turns, with each turn being 10 minutes in length. Good for an hour or so.

 

In 3.5, it's supposed to last 1 minute/level. The potions seems like they only last 1 round per level. I'd have to double-check to be sure. But I know on numerous occaisions I've seen bugbears chug potions of Bull's Strength only to have them run out before they can use them. Even if it could last longer, a lot of times chugging that potion is the last thing a bugbear ever does.

It just irks my D&D-nerd sensibilities. It's in complete defiance of the rules and I just don't understand why it even exists in the game in the first place. People complain about the game being too easy. Having uber weapons like the cleaver and Fragrach/Scather certainly doesn't help. I'll go with what ever the group wants, though.

Unrelated, I wish there was a way to make certain monster abilities automatic. Having monsters like Umber Hulks and Basalisks having to use their gaze attacks as spells and waste an action rather than something that just happens weakens them considerably. Even some kind of retributive action to represent the character having to look at the creature to strike would be better than what happens now.

I realize either of those options would take some serious dll hacking, so I know it's not in the realm of possibility at the moment. Just lamenting the effectiveness of some of the monsters.