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Spellweaver CR10??
- Thread starter kigmatzomat
- Start date
Sue Bloodbucket
First Post
Diirk said:
well all will be fine just after a little abuse of the ol' owls wisdom trick... hence he can't cast them doesn't mean he can prepare them (right me here if i'am wrong)
btw. any of you guys met an horrible rat [ebberon] jet? nasty things to thow at a 1st lvl character... we met two of them yesterday and are just lucky to tell the tale.
cr1? i think not.
greetings
sue
kigmatzomat
Hero
I'm glad to hear that the overall concensus is that this creature is snafu'd and that I'm not off the deep end.
I mention it because a slam attack counts as an "armed" attack meaning it is always armed with an attack only slightly worse than a dagger. Assuming the 'Weaver and a sorceror both ran out of spells or were caught in an anti-magic field, the weaver could likely beat up the sorceror. 2x+9 @ d3-1 vs +5 @d6
I include the special magic disk in as "gear". Averaging them out between 10 1st Pearls of Power (10x1k) and 2 5th Pearls of Power (2x25k) gives you 30,000gp. 30,000gp + 8450 is about what a 13th level NPC gets. Sure, it's not "treasure" but what the hey. Like you said, it only explodes when someone tries to use it.
He has low hps but he's no more melee than any other caster. And his Fort save is on par with Con<10 sorcerers, like elves. But the hit die size means he's got nearly half-again more hps than a CR equivalent arcane caster (10d4=25hp vs 36hp) Compared to them he's a tank.
The lack of concentration is its only potential "gotcha" but I'm used to most casters being bright enough to be airborne or otherwise hard to get to when not surprised. I forgot the SR as well as the +5 natural armor. SR21 means a 10th party has a 50/50 chance of getting a spell through, not good odds.
Since I'm running 3.0 so the Focuses are still an issue though I would choose different schools depending on the spell list.
Major prep time? Well, with invis & detect magic at will and the ability to cast 6 spell levels/round I don't think that long. I'm assuming Mage Armor is extended and active and that it remains invisible at all times. One round to put up Shield, probably a stat buff, and Fly. Depending on what Detect Magic says either wait a round to put up a Minor Globe and a Mirror Image or just kick off the battle with a Dispel Magic and a AE spell or Dominate/Charm Spells depending on the 'Weavers goals and the targets defenses. Either way, he's down no more than 2 2nd level spells thanks to his happy grenade-of-power. Maybe toss haste into the mix for the init and other bonuses, though it's not as useful to 3.5 casters as it is to 3.0 casters.
ken-ichi said:
I mention it because a slam attack counts as an "armed" attack meaning it is always armed with an attack only slightly worse than a dagger. Assuming the 'Weaver and a sorceror both ran out of spells or were caught in an anti-magic field, the weaver could likely beat up the sorceror. 2x+9 @ d3-1 vs +5 @d6
I include the special magic disk in as "gear". Averaging them out between 10 1st Pearls of Power (10x1k) and 2 5th Pearls of Power (2x25k) gives you 30,000gp. 30,000gp + 8450 is about what a 13th level NPC gets. Sure, it's not "treasure" but what the hey. Like you said, it only explodes when someone tries to use it.
He has low hps but he's no more melee than any other caster. And his Fort save is on par with Con<10 sorcerers, like elves. But the hit die size means he's got nearly half-again more hps than a CR equivalent arcane caster (10d4=25hp vs 36hp) Compared to them he's a tank.
The lack of concentration is its only potential "gotcha" but I'm used to most casters being bright enough to be airborne or otherwise hard to get to when not surprised. I forgot the SR as well as the +5 natural armor. SR21 means a 10th party has a 50/50 chance of getting a spell through, not good odds.
Since I'm running 3.0 so the Focuses are still an issue though I would choose different schools depending on the spell list.
Major prep time? Well, with invis & detect magic at will and the ability to cast 6 spell levels/round I don't think that long. I'm assuming Mage Armor is extended and active and that it remains invisible at all times. One round to put up Shield, probably a stat buff, and Fly. Depending on what Detect Magic says either wait a round to put up a Minor Globe and a Mirror Image or just kick off the battle with a Dispel Magic and a AE spell or Dominate/Charm Spells depending on the 'Weavers goals and the targets defenses. Either way, he's down no more than 2 2nd level spells thanks to his happy grenade-of-power. Maybe toss haste into the mix for the init and other bonuses, though it's not as useful to 3.5 casters as it is to 3.0 casters.
I have never seen a mage character played (for long) without at least a 14 Con. That puts a 10th level wiz at 33 hp minimum with avg at 46.5 + 1d10+10 =(62) for false life vs 51.5 for the weaver with false life up. Advantage wiz.
Hmm... Good point about the multiple spell casting for defensive buffing.
There are a lot of good low level buffs and the only thing that keeps them all from being used is the number of round needed to cast them all.
The weaver has two options, buff up and then attack or just nuke a guy and hope it survives the next round.
So the spell weaver could be invisible at the start of the encounter (at will) and most likely have mage armor and false life already up. It could on the first round of combat cast shield, mirror image, and blink. That is a huge defensive bonus in just one round.
To go from 22 AC to 26 AC with images and 50% area damage plus 50% miss chance for blink as well as being invisible is pretty rough. That should give sufficient protection from ranged attacks to let it survive after it launches it's initial volley.
A permanent arcane sight could help bring this guy down fast. The wizards spots the aura and when it powers up he drops a dispel magic on it. The spellweaver probably knows this so would target mages first and instantly kills them with a volley a MMs instead of buffing. This could be negated with shield or a brooch of shielding, so it may choose to use Scorching rays or even acid arrows might work. (6d4 for several rounds should drop a mage fast and help keep it from casting spells. The appropriate resist elements negates either of these alpha strikes.
The problem is, I can't see a way of using this monster without either killing the party, or an utter humiliating defeat for the weaver.
Not a fun creature to fight if it is played correctly, it either kills you all or dies without doing much.
So I would say this is a badly CRed creature, but not only badly CRed, but just badly thought out of what this thing could actually do. Increasing the CR by a few points only makes the thing more desperate to survive, so it must alpha stikre anyone who might greater dispel or have true seeing. Overall cool monster idea, bad implementation.
Put this with the adamantine clockwork horror, unusable monster as written.
Although as a mixed encounter with a different type of creature or two at higher levels like 14-15th level might be interesting.
Hmm... Good point about the multiple spell casting for defensive buffing.
There are a lot of good low level buffs and the only thing that keeps them all from being used is the number of round needed to cast them all.
The weaver has two options, buff up and then attack or just nuke a guy and hope it survives the next round.
So the spell weaver could be invisible at the start of the encounter (at will) and most likely have mage armor and false life already up. It could on the first round of combat cast shield, mirror image, and blink. That is a huge defensive bonus in just one round.
To go from 22 AC to 26 AC with images and 50% area damage plus 50% miss chance for blink as well as being invisible is pretty rough. That should give sufficient protection from ranged attacks to let it survive after it launches it's initial volley.
A permanent arcane sight could help bring this guy down fast. The wizards spots the aura and when it powers up he drops a dispel magic on it. The spellweaver probably knows this so would target mages first and instantly kills them with a volley a MMs instead of buffing. This could be negated with shield or a brooch of shielding, so it may choose to use Scorching rays or even acid arrows might work. (6d4 for several rounds should drop a mage fast and help keep it from casting spells. The appropriate resist elements negates either of these alpha strikes.
The problem is, I can't see a way of using this monster without either killing the party, or an utter humiliating defeat for the weaver.
Not a fun creature to fight if it is played correctly, it either kills you all or dies without doing much.
So I would say this is a badly CRed creature, but not only badly CRed, but just badly thought out of what this thing could actually do. Increasing the CR by a few points only makes the thing more desperate to survive, so it must alpha stikre anyone who might greater dispel or have true seeing. Overall cool monster idea, bad implementation.
Put this with the adamantine clockwork horror, unusable monster as written.
Although as a mixed encounter with a different type of creature or two at higher levels like 14-15th level might be interesting.
kigmatzomat
Hero
I'm somewhat in agreement. I think it will depend on the purpose of the encounter. The only saving grace is that these things tend to have a specific and immediate goal in mind so if you view the PCs as the "John McClanes" of the scenario it might be a little more fair. The Weaver uses AE & stealth/defensive abilities to get & go. The PCs are more powerful than what the Weaver was planning on and the question becomes can the players react in a meaningful way before the weaver vanishes with its prize.
Worst of all, the planeshifting power and completely secret background this is really a "random" encounter more than a campaign event. Kind of like Bruce Wayne and Barry Allen walking into a bank just before it gets robbed by Mr Mxtlplx.
Worst of all, the planeshifting power and completely secret background this is really a "random" encounter more than a campaign event. Kind of like Bruce Wayne and Barry Allen walking into a bank just before it gets robbed by Mr Mxtlplx.
Hello,
J. Grenemyer
I wouldn't go that far. I've used them in my game and found them to be just fine as written. If anything, I think the spellweaver's HP and saves are too low and they can burn through their magic too fast.kigmatzomat said:
Says you. Run them a few times.Falling Icicle said:
J. Grenemyer
FireLance
Legend
Basically, a creature with CR x is expected to use up about 25% of the resources of a 4-PC party consisting of a fighter, a rogue, a cleric and a wizard, all of level x. It is a rule of thumb (not a scientifically exact measure) to determine how challenging a creature is likely to be, but DM judgement is still required. A "non-standard" party, e.g. one consisting of more front-line meleers and less spellcasters, will have a harder time with some encounters of its CR and an easier time with others.hobgoblin said:
Note that resources includes spells, charged magic items, equipment, daily uses of abilities, etc. A party that is uninjured but has still expended spells and ammunition on an encounter has still drained its resources (some DMs forget this on occasion, and a TPK sometimes results).
Nightchilde-2
First Post
kigmatzomat said:
Of course, a CR 10 doesn't mean it's designed to go toe to toe with a single level 10 character. It's meant to go against FOUR level 10 characters.....
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