Custom Monsters

[Maken]

For the game I'll be running I'll be making my own monsters, using the 3.5e rules. What I mostly want to know if there's any rules I should try to avoid or any I should make use of more? If anyone's got any custom monsters with their own specail rules I'd really like to hear them.

I'm mostly on the look out for new and interesting ways to ki- test... test my players. (Hope this is the right place to post this)

 

One of the idea's I was tossing around was a cultist who had a powerful, but limited ability to stop time. The idea being the players would think he's teleporting around, rather than just freezing everything and moving out of the way. But getting the balance right is a bit tricky, so I'd like to hear your opinions.

Another thing I made was just a simple dragon golem, made out of like forges with a molten core. The basic idea being that it swallows people whole, and if they die they get dropped into the core.

Then I just have a bunch of weak cultists, each with a weird power. Any idea’s for one off powers would be nice (For some reason my favourite so far is the cultist with sped up blood who gets +3 to all his rolls, but takes double damage... so he like explodes when you hit him, heh)

[idilippy]

I won't try to help you with mechanics and balance, since you will surely have dozens of people better able to crunch numbers with you commenting on this. I'll just say that when designing monsters and enemies an ability that is cool or interesting is better than sticking directly to the rules. If you want the cultist to have the limited ability to stop time then do it, perhaps limiting his ability to act to just a few seconds so that he can't just walk up and stab your characters in the face, or else just make sure that while he is out of time he can't interact with anything in time, just move and affect himself.

[Maken]

Yeah I thought about that, but the trouble with that is it would be no different from teleporting really... If he couldn't affect anything how would anyone realise he can stop time?

As for the mechanics behind it I was thinking perhaps he can use as a free action every 3 rounds or something. Any better ideas? As I'm not too fond of that. For context it’s likely he’ll have some other guys with him, so his power doesn’t need to be too over the top.

[RonarsCorruption]

Well, working in the field of time-stop it's not so much time changing as it is moving super-fast. My suggestion is:

As an immediate action (one you can take on someone else's turn) he can make a move action, but then can only take a move action when his actual turn comes up. They might catch on when he keeps jumping out of the way of everything.

I like the idea of the explosive cultist, and if you combine that with other things, like acidic blood that does damage if it hits the player (like counterattacks) you could get a really nice effect.

[idilippy]

Well, if you want him to be able to interact with the world look at the time stop spell, a 9th level spell, and remember that that is a spell not available until 17th level for a wizard. Also remember that that spell still doesn't let you affect any creatures with weapons or spells or let the caster manipulate an item held or carried by another creature. Giving someone the ability to affect his environment while the entire party is frozen would be beyond powerful, especially if he/she could do it more than once a day. RC's idea is a good one that has limits and a drawback, so would be useful and interesting in a villain without being pretty much an invincible ability.

[Maken]

Yeah Ronars, that sounds alot better. I think it should work much better now. Thanks.

Also, what's like the worst thing an undead can run into, that's not a paladin or cleric? Undead do really well against creatures that use mind attacks(Or at least tend to), but what sort of creatures and abilities just ruin their day?

[Makenshi]

Originally Posted by Maken

Also, what's like the worst thing an undead can run into, that's not a paladin or cleric? Undead do really well against creatures that use mind attacks(Or at least tend to), but what sort of creatures and abilities just ruin their day?

Disintegrate or, to a lesser extent, anything else that forces a fort save but still affects objects. The advice most give to undead PCs (or undead NPCs you want to keep alive against spellcasters) is to find a way to buff their fortitude saving throw (as well as their hp, though most undead have DR to help with that).

~MTWC

[chaosaccountant]

Anyone who can stop time and still affect things is only a full-round action from killing a PC. Coup de grace is a nasty way to go. Even standard actions effectively leave the opponent with -5 dex modifier, which can be really nasty really quickly.
How would they meet these cultists? A fight to the death isn't really the best way to showcase these kinds of abilities. Strange things work better if they've got a little while to sink in, and have to be dealt with more than once.
There is a PrC called the Zerth Cenobite (Com Psi) that gives time-based abilities to psi monks. Roughly, it gives

• 1/day free actions (type of action depends on level) because of moving faster than time. No bonus to attack with those actions though.
• 1/day reroll due to changing the past.
• 1/day move into the future WIS rounds (disappear and reappear).
• 1 or 2/day floating +2 bonus.
• 1/day literally punch you into next week (well, next minute).
• 1/day bigger floating bonus (from seeing the future).
• 1/day total invulnerability for 1 round.

It worth asking what level you're pitching these at. A reasonable 'special power' at tenth level would be a TPK at third and not noticed at 17th (at which point you might as well give them time stop as a spell-like ability). It's also worth asking what else the cultist can do. Time-stop is great for a spellcaster who drops back into time fully buffed and with a delayed-blast fire-ball ready to go off in your face. For a non-caster it's not much more than a chance to position themselves next to the squishy-est party member (which, as you said, is little more than a teleport).
The dragon-forge-golem sounds a lot like an Ironwyrm Golem with a swallow whole ability - shouldn't be too hard to balance.
As for the undead question, beyond what's already been said, and 'any spellcaster with a pile of undead-controlling abilities', it really depends on what's being fought. A zombie mountain giant is a very different fight from a spectre.

[RonarsCorruption]

In a similar vein to disintegrate, Gravecrawlers are devastating to otherundead creatures (ironically, they're undead themselves). It's because their fort saving throw specifically affects once-living things, too. Which means undead have to make moderately high fort saves every round, or effectively die instantly. Best, it has a burrow speed and doesn't leave a tunnel, so the PCs have to try really hard to find and eliminate it.

other dangerous things that might get in the way of an undead PC - holy water (say, dripping from the ceiling), an area lit up by the consecrate spell, repel undead, or an area that naturally has something that your particular undead is weak against (bells, mirrors, etc).