"Have I failed my daughter? Then let the father die."
"And let the monster rise."
I've been thinking about last week's post a lot. I didn't really stress the disadvantage of being so down on intelligence enough, but overall it went pretty well. Ogre's combination of stat boosts and low CR means it's going to be the uber example of monster PCs, and this week I've flipped through the first Pathfinder Bestiary to discuss what you could allow and what you shouldn't. I feel this is going to be a better way to convey monster balance, because the abilities some of these types get are pretty varied. Plus, maybe I get to inspire a few character concepts along the way. This is kind of a read-along, and I apologize for that, but if I talked about every single stat a monster has we'll be here all day since I'm going through the entire book. If you don't have a book handy, all of these monsters are up on pfsrd.com.
Before we get started, I want to point out that the save DC of a supernatural ability will rise as a monster gains levels, since the formula is always 10 plus 1/2 hit dice plus an ability mod. The terms "HD" and "levels" are interchangeable in 3.0, 3.5, and Pathfinder. So, you can't look at the save DC of an ability as a mitigating factor to allow it or not. Unlike spell-likes, the save DC on a supernatural ability will always be a competitive one.
Also expect me in this and in future editions to conditionally allow some of these monsters, by editing or removing things, mostly supernatural abilities or spell-likes. This is because it's a damn shame to disallow a whole monster when it's so close to acceptable. In these instances, I heavily recommend you keep their lack of that ability in-character and work with the player for a reason.
Good examples are in turquoise. Bad examples are in red. I did want to include some of them to show my thought process. Some monsters are deceptively bad for player use, or even deceptively fine. As you'll see me say a lot, not all "at-will" spells are a big deal.
Awakened Ape, Gorilla. CR2, HD3. Magical beast. I'm putting this here for two reasons: the first is to talk in general about awakened animals. The second is that A goes first in the alphabet. Stat-wise, gorilla is a pretty good candidate for a PC if he's been the subject of an Awaken spell. He's got decent stat boosts, you can't argue him wearing magic items or armor, even if the armor would be specially tailored. Plus, there's intelligent gorillas all over popular culture.
Awaken has to be taken with a grain of salt, though. its core rules are to change it to magical beast, give the animal two more HD, 3D6 INT, and +1d3 CHA. I suggest taking this to mean the animal gets no INT or CHA bonus or penalty, and to knock off the two bonus HD. This is because two more HD is simply going to fuck all the math up and give the player two moderately crappy HD he'd rather not want. Awaken doesn't say, but I imagine he'd have to pay for those HD with another point of CR, which I'm sure he doesn't want.
As for other animals...well, a lot of them just don't fit a PC or provide a really daunting challenge to him. Even if you say a dog, wolf or tiger has all the magic item slots a human has...he still don't have hands. I mean, no animal is truly out of line so long as they're between sizes tiny and large, and some of them DO basically have hands. Depending on the tone of your game, allowing someone to play a Raccoon Sorcerer would be pretty memorable. Your Mileage May Vary, I guess.
Hound Archon. CR4, HD6. Outsider. Modifications: 2 less HD, removal of Greater Teleport, possible reduction to natural armor. If someone wants to play an angel type, REALLY an angel type and not just a Half-Celestial or Aasimar, there's not many options. They're just too powerful and don't have a whole host of various low-CR monsters like the evil outsiders do. This character would get decent stat boosts, Aura of Menace which is a sort of soft-taunt, and some decent spell-likes in addition to the standard outsider immunities. His HD are a bit of a problem, and expect me to suggest this with a lot of outsiders. Outsider HD are pretty good, with 6+INT skills, 1:1AB and two good saves. If you're worried about him being ahead on AB, definitely knock his HD down a bit. As for his spell-likes, they're pretty decent, with being able to slap Aid on everyone he knows before a fight and having a constant magic circle vs evil, but only Greater Teleport is the problem. Even though it's self only, it means getting around a lot of situational or geographic problems which may or may not be important in your game. At-will spells aren't normally that bad, but for greater teleport it is. As for his natural armor, it's nine. That's a lot considering he can still benefit from an armor bonus. Knocking it down by between 2 and 4 points may be necessary.
Oh, and he can turn into a dog. Hooray?
Bralani Azata. Conventional wisdom would say this is just the Azata version of the Hound Archon, filling the same CR as it. However, he's just got too many great abilities that aren't a big deal for an encounter, but very powerful for a PC. In addition to 6 natural armor, he's also got blur and mirror image ready for every fight he's in, perfect flight at a great speed, and whatever the hell his whirlwind form would do. It's just too much.
Boggard. CR2, HD3. Humanoid. If you want to play a Battletoad, these guys get all the cool frog stuff. They got a jump bonus, a sticky tongue, and amphibiousness. Their only very powerful ability is Terrifying Croak, which is an AoE shaken fear once an hour. Even then, it's only REALLY powerful if stacked with spells or Dazzling Display, since it can "step up" shaken to frightened.
Centaur. Really I'm only putting this here because they're super popular, something I never understood. They don't get any abilities or bonuses that are out of line, and even lose the number one bonus of being size large: The bonus damage. So, they'd be perfectly fine to add to your party if not for one thing: They can only go places that horses can go, which is even less places than your average size large monster. You can add a centaur PC to your game, sure, but the GM might struggle to keep you involved past basic architecture, something he doesn't always have to do with say, ogre.
Choker. These guys are probably a no-go for viable play, I just wanted to say I think it'd be hilarious to play a character whose only solution to every single problem it encounters is to choke something.
Cyclops. CR5, HD10. Humanoid. Modification: Way less HD. If you want to play an ogre but don't want the INT penalty, Cyclops is essentially you paying two more CR for Flash of Insight and better mentals. Flash of Insight is awesome, letting you choose the result of a die you roll, but only once a day. Just knock the cyclops down to like 5 or 6 HD and he's good to go.
Dretch Demon. CR2, HD2. Outsider. Modification: Slightly more INT. You may not think I'm serious here, but these guys aren't bad. In fact, they're kind of shitty when you factor in taking a whopping -6 to INT. Bump their INT up by 2 or 4 points and these would be fine to play. You'd essentially be playing an uggo gnome but with defensive abilities and better stats for its two level payment. Of course, you could also probably turn these guys into a base race via the race guide rules. This is one of the few that I'd say either/or.
Quasit Demon. CR2, HD3. Outsider. Basically, take everything I'm about to say and apply it to Imps as well, because they're basically the same monster. Being size tiny means you're likely to only play them as casters, where things like a bit of extra AC, DR and fast healing are more helpful. You're also still paying 2 levels in a non-caster "Class" though, so that balances them out even further, to the point where I don't think they're that great. Invisibility at will may guide some people toward rogue, but you're still giving up some damage by virtue of being tiny, so I wouldn't ever expect a Quasit or Imp to be a damage all-star. Plus, plenty of people will have invisibility whenever they want it, since a wand of the spell is relatively inexpensive. A free Commune a week is nice too, but it's still only once a week. They're not bad, though. Quasit is going to slide generally closer to a rogue type, and Imps are better for casters.
Janni, CR4, HD6. Monsters are, in general, going to have nice stats, and Janni is no different. Other than that, however, it doesn't get much. It's got some nice spell-likes and improved initiative as a bonus feat, but that's kind of it. Plane Shift three times a day might seem great, but by the time anyone can survive most of the planes it can travel to, the party wizard is going to have plane shift anyway. Still, if you're leery, you can remove it entirely and the Janni likely won't miss it.
Ghoul. CR1, HD2. Modifications: Paralysis reduction. If you want to play an undead creature, ghoul isn't a bad option. It's low CR and all it really boasts is some stat boosts and its paralysis. As for it, you definitely want to restrict it to a number of times per day, or possibly only its bite. Crowd Control can win fights very easily, and a ghoul with infinite paralysis can spam people down. Monster paralysis does NOT offer additional saves per round, and you never grow immune to it by successfully saving. Even so, the ghoul still has to deal with turning and healing itself, which is a mitigating factor.
Harpy. CR4, HD7. Monstrous Humanoid. Modifications: HD reduction, and see below. I really want to allow Harpy in some way, but even without captivating song they still have some fairly high stat boosts. Captivating song is huge, and even giving the Harpy a number of rounds of it per day would be pretty powerful. It creates a dominant strategy of the party plugging their ears then running roughshod over an encounter of helpless enemies. If you're okay with removing their iconic ability entirely, though...they aren't that bad. They get a +6 to Charisma, which might seem huge, but CHA dependent classes frequently lag behind others in PF and 3.X. That's assuming the harpy player even goes for a caster. with a CR of 4, that's a fairly big disadvantage. I'm not marking Harpy as good or bad here...since I still can't decide. Sorry.
Lizardfolk. I'm mentioning Lizardfolk and Gnolls here to say that these aren't really appropriate monstrous PCs. Instead, you should either convert them to a base PC race by hand, or use the rules and examples in the race guide. They don't get anything that justifies making the player take a point of CR.
Mephit. CR3, HD3. Outsider. These little guys are once again a monster race that edges toward sorcerer with their +4 to Charisma. Still, they'd do well in other roles, and none of them get anything that's THAT great. Fast Healing is already not that big of a deal, and these guys all have conditions on theirs that may or may not be easy to fill, meaning all it does is ensure the party cleric spends a few less spells on healing them between fights as they curl up in the campfire. Or a bucket of water. Or worse, depending on the element you pick, basically never get their fast healing bonus.
Minotaur. CR4, HD6. Monstrous Humanoid. Everything I said about Ogre or Cyclops you could say here. Playing the party Brute Squad is a really popular idea, and thankfully you've got several options. Minotaur has his gore attack which can 'throw in' when he attacks with weapons, which is nice. Natural Cunning is very unlikely to come up, though.
Skeletal Champion. As the sole template we're discussing today(see below) I should mention the "intelligent skeleton" template works fine for making a PC skeleton. So long as you avoid the variant skeletons, any powerful ability he might get is mitigated by the fact that he's going to be CR 2 and only have one HD, being plainly one level lower and not getting any numbers or HP from it.
Troglodyte. CR1, HD2. Humanoid. This is another one I want to gently suggest you come up with base PC rules for. They've got a lot of natural armor, but their stat spread kind of sucks, and Stench is nothing to write home about. In fact, unless the rest of the party all finds some way to become immune, he's not likely to be using it often. I could see a use for it in stacking penalties on enemies, since it's not an action to start it and the troglodyte could use dazzling display or something, but on its own...it's okay. Still, they're fine.
Troll. CR5, HD6. Humanoid. Modification: See Below. This is yet another in the "Brute Squad" template, and this time he's taken an additional 2 CR for a massive boost to CON, and regeneration 5. He's got natural attacks, but only the bite is going to see much use since it can be "thrown in" with weapon attacks. A player being exceptionally tough to put down isn't necessarily a hugely problematic thing, but even so, you may want to knock his CON bonus down a bit. As for Regeneration, I'm unconvinced that it's a huge problem. The player can still be put out of a fight, even if they aren't prepared with fire and acid. The days of 3.5 where regeneration was insanely good are fairly gone, and in Pathfinder it's more like Fast Healing plus. If you're worried or having a problem, consider knocking the number down.
I probably left a few monsters out. Wights might be okay to play if you remove their ability to create spawn. There's some aquatic monsters I passed over for being relatively tied to the oceans. Others might have had a high CR, or a huge host of abilities on top of really nice stat adjusts. A lot of monsters are okay to play, but none of them were designed with that in mind so there's always going to be some sort of consideration.
A few notes on types. Outsiders are always going to have to worry about spells like Dismiss, but just like Droid characters in Star Wars worrying about being memory wiped, it's best that you keep this to a vague threat. It may be the "logical" thing to do in a combat, but consider what you're doing. You're putting him out of a session entirely, maybe several. You also might find it logical to make him work to get back, since even outsider players still in line with their brethren socially are probably going to be on the "outs" somehow. Another situation where he has to go pick up the pizza...or bring his 3DS to session. Not so good.
Undead also have some things to worry about, like the fact that they die immediately at 0 HP or dealing with turning. In addition to that, the undead player has to deal with the fact that a raise dead spell would return them to life, which is something the player certainly doesn't want, and the character might not either. In this case, I seriously recommend Pathfinder GMs take a page from Forgotten Realms and introduce the spell Return to Undeath, which is roughly identical to Raise Dead, except it returns an intelligent undead back to un-life. Obviously, they don't take a negative level. This is necessary to keep the undead player playing the character they want. In many cases, an intelligent undead is no longer the person they were in life, and it would really stink for your badass level 20 mummy fighter to come back as a level 5 aristocrat. Having to struggle or carry wands to heal themselves is probably enough to worry about.
I also didn't discuss templates. Basically, as written you're giving up a single level for a whole hell of a lot of abilities, in particular from half-celestial and half-fiend. Initially I want to tell you to bump the CR up to a +2 to compensate, but straight up losing one or two levels is a big deal. I'm sorry, but I really don't know what to tell you right now. The templates in Bestiary 1 are pretty powerful, but definitely not worth the 4 levels 3.X wanted you to pay.
We'll continue this at some point with the other Bestiaries, but I can't imagine we're doing all six. At some point, I'm sure ya'll will catch on and no longer need me.
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