Ecology of the Banderhoob

Aside from the articles on hengeyokai and ninjas, Ecology of the Banderhobb (and its accompanying Design & Development article) is my favorite article of the month, and I do not even plan on using these things for quite some time. Not because they are “officially” pegged as paragon-tier threats mind you–I can just de-level them to make them work with the low-heroic range–but because I am running Dark Sun.

In addition to a bunch of new traits and powers to customize your own banderhobbs–incuding the ability to chase creatures that try and run out of turn, teleport through shadows, and even chase you at full speed in cramped quarters–it adds a lot of flavor content that helps set the tone and feel for how to use these guys, including some descriptive text, poems, and even a short story on an adventurer’s experience inside one’s stomach (which has a random loot table!).

Hopefully at least one player knows of these things and the level that they should be expected at. I think that, coupled with some of the new stuff, will go a long way in freaking them the fuck out. Yeah, it is focused, but this really should be a monthly article, and done well you can get a lot of great ideas on how to use, describe, and customize a monster.

Ecology of the Mithral Dragon

You can finally view Ecology of the Mithral Dragon. It expands on the information in Draconomicon 2 in addition to a page of monster-theme power swaps (page 9) and a sample lair. Personally the theme powers is the best part. The rest ranges from “meh” to “somewhat interesting”.

Nothing more to say… ¯\(°_0)/¯

Review: Ecology of the Rust Monster

Probably the most controversial monster since the release of Monster Manual 2, the rust monster gets its very own Ecology article. It goes through the history, touching on origins that ranged from a wizard to natural evolution, then moves on to physiology (they might be mammals!) and habitat. In addition to extensive information on rust monsters, there is also a trio of new alchemical items and variant rust monsters. My favorite of the three is the rust bomb, which inflicts an AC penalty to targets wearing metal armor. Unfortunately, the penalty is set across the board. I would have liked to see it increase a bit at higher levels.

• The rust monster lodestone is what you get when the critter eats too much highly magnetized metal. It (thankfully) loses the ability to rust items, but can still corrode rusting items. Its main feature is its ability to slide and slow targets via magnetic pulses. Hell, one of its attacks lets it launch an ally at an enemy, granting the ally a free basic attack with a bonus.
• Terrors are rust monsters that are somehow imbued with the fear of losing your stuff. Not much changes, but the rust monster can use a fear effect that immobilizes targets. Also, if you nail it with a power that has the Fear keyword you both take ongoing psychic damage. Interesting…
• Finally, the nightmare. This is the rust monster big gun, a level 24 solo controller. Its got a laundry list of a stat-block that compares to a dragon: melee corroding attack, ranged corroding attack, can shift and make a shitload of basic attacks (this is an at-will, by the by), a recharging ranged attack that stuns/knocks people unconscious, close blast that immobilizes everyone, can stop teleporting (and gain temp hp to boot), and finally can cause any magical item used to attack it to start to decay (even non-metallic implements). So…yeah. Be very afraid.

The article then wraps up with a pair of sample encounters and new disease, rusty paralysis. Its a level 8 disease that attacks Fortitude and causes you to lose a healing surge at first, but eventually permanently restrains you in its final state.

A pretty comprehensive article. There are some minor editing quibbles, but nothing major. It goes through the motions and brings a lot of crunch to the table, and it satisfies both the story and mechanic extremes of the spectrum.

Review: Ecology of the Deva

The deva was, until very recently, my most disliked race from Player’s Handbook 2. I never really got into the whole aasimar bit in 3rd Edition, preferring tieflings for my gimped planetouched of choice. The art for devas seemed pretty meh, and likewise their racial features didnt do much to improve their image. To sum it up, while I think the race is mechanically sound it just didnt grok for me.

Then I read this.

This article is great. I was a bit disappointed by a few of the past race ecologies (namely the genasi one), but this sells the race to me. After reading it I had quite a few new ideas relating to Adrian’s deva in Songs of Erui. I already knew that they could reincarnate as rakshasas if they fucked up too much, but there’s some other interesting story content mixed in as well concerning primal spirits (which works out perfectly for me since my campaign is heavy in the primal theme).

It also adds some new crunch in the form of feats and new “bad deva” monsters. The feats are only for Heroic and Paragon tiers, but they add in the deva bloodline that gives you a daily utility stance that makes it harder for enemies to hit you and also causes you to glow. There are a couple feats that grant you temporary hit points if you get hit by attacks with the fire, cold, or radiant keywords. One lets you target allies with channel divinity powers instead of yourself. My absolute favorite is the paragon one that lets you stand up and immediately fly at your speed if you get revived during combat.

This is the kind of ecology article I like to see. Its stuff I want to read and use, and I whipped up a deva cleric with Heavenly Heritage for the next available game I can hop into. Considering that I’ve already got two leaders and I’m running a homebrew campaign, I suspect that will fall between never and not-happening. Oh well.

Ecology of the Sharn

A fairly spartan Friday, but at least its an interesting update. Sharns originated in 2nd Edition, but I never got exposed to them until 3rd Edition when people started abusing Polymorph effects in order to try and get ludicrous amounts of melee attacks, all the while ignoring the very obvious fact that you cannot change into a sharn, regardless of the method you choose.

Sharns are an iconic monster in Forgotten Realms, up there with malaugryms and the twenty-seven-or-so elf subspecies, but their appearance and special abilities havent stopped me from wanting to use them in my homebrew campaign.

Ecology of the Sharn goes through all the basic hoops, discussing origins, their bizarre physiology, and maddening psychology. The article wraps things up with tasty crunch, providing a new magic item, symbiote (graft), and two sharn variants. For the “normal” sharn, they added six modular powers that you can swap out with the normal rollout as they did with dragons in Draconomicon.

Its not a big article, but it provides a good amount of material for you to use. They didnt reprint the original monster, which is a downer for those that didnt get Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide but also dont adhere to the misconception that you cant crib material from other sources. I plan on injecting them into the adventure path I’m working on, as their origins and abilities help explain a few key things about the big-bad that I was having trouble figuring out.