| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Firhyanda |
Posted - 25 Jan 2006 : 19:59:59
Greetings
Description: You hear it long before you see it the low rumble of stone rolling over stone echoing through the sewer passages. It’s a single perfect five foot diameter sphere of smoke black translucent obsidian. Arcane ruins and glyphs dance across its surface in glowing gold, blue and silver as a jolt of electricity leaps from its surface toward you.
History: Stone Sewer Spheres are five foot in diameter and were created long ago after the metal mage of Waterdeep had an unfortunate incident in which a sewer pipe backed up and caused his lab to flood with sewage. Arch mage or not there is not a soul alive who wants to go there. He created twelve of these spheres to keep Waterdeep sewers clear of debris and flowing smoothly over the years several of these have been destroyed by adventures thieves or the plumber’s guild but nine still roam the sewers freely. A Stone Sewer Spheres moves at 70 and runes at 210 bashing through any blockage in the sewers with its slam attack kinetic energy and weight. It should be noted that a Stone Sewer sphere will never attack unless it has been attacked first and that they are seldom seen as they often travel completely under sewage. The plumber’s guild refers to these spheres as gutter balls.
Stone Sewer Sphere , Animated Object, Medium Construct2/Sor1: CR 3; Medium Construct ; HD 2d10(Construct) , 1d4(Sorcerer) ; hp 35; Init +2; Spd 30 +40=70; AC:16 (Flatfooted:14 Touch:12); Atk +2 base melee, +3 base ranged; +2 (1d6+1, Slam); SA: Blind (Ex) , Constrict (Ex) ; SQ: Hardness (Ex) 8, Improved Speed (Ex), Racial Traits: Construct, Low-light Vision (Ex), Immunity: Critical hits (Ex), Cannot be Raised or Resurrected, Immunity: Necromancy (Ex), Immunity: Paralysis (Ex), Immunity: Ability Drain (Ex), Immunity: Stun (Ex), Immunity: Exhaustion (Ex), Immunity: Death Effects (Ex), No Natural Healing (Ex), Immunity: Fatigue (Ex), Darkvision (Ex): 60 ft., Immunity: Ability Damage (Ex), Immunity: Fortitude Save-Based Attacks (Ex), Immunity: Nonlethal Damage (Ex), Immunity: Poison (Ex), Immunity: Mind-Affecting Attacks (Ex), Immunity: Disease (Ex), Immunity: Death from Massive Damage (Ex), Immunity: Energy Drain (Ex), Immunity: Sleep Effects (Ex); AL N; SV Fort +0, Ref +2, Will +3; STR 12, DEX 14, CON --, INT --, WIS 12, CHA 12.
Skills: Concentration +4, Listen +3, Spellcraft +4, Spot +3.
Feats: Alertness, Combat Casting, Simple Weapon Proficiency.
Spells Known (Sor 5/4): 0 – Electric Jolt, Flare, Open/Close, Touch of Fatigue; 1st -- Ray of Enfeeblement, Shocking Grasp.
Hardness (Ex): An animated object has the same hardness it had before it was animated (see Table 9–9 and Table 9–11, page 166 of the Player’s Handbook, for the hardness of some common substances and objects). Stone Sewer Spheres have a hardness of 8.
Improved Speed (Ex): The base land speed given in the statistics block assume that an animated object lurches, rocks, or slithers along. Objects with two legs (statues, ladders) or a similar shape that allows faster movement have a +10 foot bonus to speed. Objects with multiple legs (tables, chairs) have a +20 foot bonus to speed. Wheeled objects have a +40 foot bonus to speed.
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| 3 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Arivia |
Posted - 25 Jan 2006 : 22:12:40
quote:
Originally posted by Firhyanda
Greetings
Thanks so much for the most excellent and constructive criticism you are of coarse absolutely correct in every assertion you have made. I guess I get sloppy when I am on a creative binder. My thought was to add the character level in sourcerer to give it the ability to cast a few low level spells I realize it completely illegal by raw but it makes for a monster that’s a bit more fun. As for the format of the data that would be my e-tools fault with the exception of the speed line, I broke it out that way so my bad. Thanks agene.
If you're looking to give it a few spell-like abilities, see Adding Special Abilities on page 294 of the MM. |
| Firhyanda |
Posted - 25 Jan 2006 : 22:03:28
Greetings
Thanks so much for the most excellent and constructive criticism you are of coarse absolutely correct in every assertion you have made. I guess I get sloppy when I am on a creative binder. My thought was to add the character level in sourcerer to give it the ability to cast a few low level spells I realize it completely illegal by raw but it makes for a monster that’s a bit more fun. As for the format of the data that would be my e-tools fault with the exception of the speed line, I broke it out that way so my bad. Thanks agene. |
| Arivia |
Posted - 25 Jan 2006 : 20:36:33
quote:
Originally posted by Firhyanda
stat block
So many errors, even ignoring the templating issues. One by one:
quote:
Stone Sewer Sphere , Animated Object, Medium Construct2/Sor1
Animated objects can't advance by class level. Actually, they can't advance, period. Templating nitpicks: You don't include animated object here, and construct HD don't appear in the class section of a NPC stat block. Rewrite this line as: Stone Sewer Sphere, Medium animated object Sor1
quote:
CR 3
If you somehow give it sorcerer levels, they're non-associated; it should have a CR of 2.5, technically.
quote:
HD 2d10(Construct) , 1d4(Sorcerer)
You're missing construct bonus hp here.
quote:
Spd 30 +40=70;
Don't break down speed lines, and include the speed in 5 foot combat squares.
quote:
AC:16 (Flatfooted:14 Touch:12);
Old-style NPC stat blocks generally include an AC breakdown.
quote:
Atk +2 base melee, +3 base ranged;
Assuming this is the base attack bonus line, you don't include any other modifiers here-just the base attack bonus.
quote:
+2 (1d6+1, Slam);
Call out the attack name and type after the attack bonus, not in the parentheses.
quote:
SA: Blind (Ex) , Constrict (Ex) ;
You never call out ability types in the stat block, leave them to the ability write ups.
quote:
Improved Speed (Ex),
How does a solid ball have wheels and the ability to constrict and blind like an animated carpet?
quote:
Racial Traits:
Racial traits are never called out as such in a stat block, because a straight writeup of those leads to including useless things like this...
quote:
Construct
You never include the HD type line in the SQ section. If you've done it right, you should have referenced it before.
quote:
Low-light Vision (Ex), Immunity: Critical hits (Ex), Cannot be Raised or Resurrected, Immunity: Necromancy (Ex), Immunity: Paralysis (Ex), Immunity: Ability Drain (Ex), Immunity: Stun (Ex), Immunity: Exhaustion (Ex), Immunity: Death Effects (Ex), No Natural Healing (Ex), Immunity: Fatigue (Ex), Darkvision (Ex): 60 ft., Immunity: Ability Damage (Ex), Immunity: Fortitude Save-Based Attacks (Ex), Immunity: Nonlethal Damage (Ex), Immunity: Poison (Ex), Immunity: Mind-Affecting Attacks (Ex), Immunity: Disease (Ex), Immunity: Death from Massive Damage (Ex), Immunity: Energy Drain (Ex), Immunity: Sleep Effects (Ex);
Construct traits entry much? See the original writeup on page 14 of the MM for how this should be written.
quote:
STR 12, DEX 14, CON --, INT --, WIS 12, CHA 12.
Remember that it has an Int nonability because that means...
quote:
Skills: Concentration +4, Listen +3, Spellcraft +4, Spot +3.
Feats: Alertness, Combat Casting, Simple Weapon Proficiency.
It gets no skills or feats.
quote:
Hardness (Ex): An animated object has the same hardness it had before it was animated (see Table 9–9 and Table 9–11, page 166 of the Player’s Handbook, for the hardness of some common substances and objects). Stone Sewer Spheres have a hardness of 8.
Improved Speed (Ex): The base land speed given in the statistics block assume that an animated object lurches, rocks, or slithers along. Objects with two legs (statues, ladders) or a similar shape that allows faster movement have a +10 foot bonus to speed. Objects with multiple legs (tables, chairs) have a +20 foot bonus to speed. Wheeled objects have a +40 foot bonus to speed.
Repeating special trait entries verbatim doesn't really help. Kill the first line of the Hardness entry, pick the right one out of the Improved Speed entry for this, and kill the rest of the entry. |
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