I don't mind things that are a little different.  But "a little different" is not the same as "new monster."

All I can think of when I see this is: "Sticky Mummy."  But, then, it's not undead, so that doesn't even work.  It's just . . . a race of sticky people?

Dreck for me.

And it doesn’t help that they are only semi-intelligent, just one step above animal intelligence. So you cannot even use them as people, exactly. Trained servants/pets for  intelligent spiders would be the only feasible role I can see them having in, and that would at least give the players a clue that they are not mummies and shouldn’t be approached as such.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:52, Mon 04 Mar.

ALEAX


An aleax is a physical manifestation of the vengeance of certain gods.
There is but one aleax for each such god, sent to punish and redeem
those who stray from alignment, fail to sacrifice enough treasure or
otherwise anger their god. An aleax will never be met by chance.

An aleax appears in human form and will closely resemble his
intended victim. To that victim, the aleax will appear bathed in
shimmering light which varies in colour according to the god's alignment - golden for lawful good, deep purple for lawful evil, everchanging rose-and-blue hues for chaotic good, and so forth. On
appearance, the aleax will attack his intended victim - he cannot be
detected in any way by others, nor will physical or magical attacks
touch the aleax except those from his victim. To an observer, the
victim appears to be in conflict with a totally invisible, totally invulnerable being.


I guess?  A one size fits all thing for the gods; an avater of vengeance.  Meh.

Meh here as well, leaning towards Dreck. I am fairly sure the first Deities and Demigods specified that certain gods would send revenants and avatars to plague mankind if displeased, so this is just a restatement IMHO.

Absolutely drek.
It's a physical manifestation of the vengeance of certain gods. Which ones? TIt sounds like they mean all of them, since there is no rhyme or reason from what they do say. They specifically mention three diametrically opposed alignments, while implying all the rest as well, and they also mention Heaven, Hell, Olympus, Valhalla, all using them. What do any of those have in common with all the others? The gods are an incredibly diverse lot, with their own interests and portfolios, and yet they all use a cookie cutter enforcer, with the same methods, arrival, attacks, defenses, behavior, etc.? That makes no sense.

Oh, and these things are all genius level intelligence for some reason- yet not all the gods who would sue them would have that level of intelligence. It is little things like that that are annoying.

Honestly, this just seems like a killer DM wanting to punish players over something miniscule, or jerk DM just trying to toy with the players, since there's really no way to win.

"You didn't sacrifice enough treasure to your god, so he sends an Aleax."

If you lose, the character loses half their xp, all their magic items are negated, and all their treasure is lost- and they make a point that it also includes anything cached away, because the 'gods are near-omniscient!' If they were near-omniscient it would not have gotten to this point in the first place. And again, some of the gods are just dumb- hardly near-omniscient.
But at least the player is safe at that point, right? Nope! 'tthe character will not receive a further visitation from an aleax providing he remains true to his god thereafter'. So, in other words, whatever spurious reason for the first visit will easily cause a second visit.
And honestly, after the first visit, I'm dropping that god as my patron and signing up with whatever god opposes them.

And again, there's no winning here. If you somehow beat the Aleax, you lose your character. They are taken to Heaven (or Olympus, Hell, Valhalla as appropriate!) to serve their jerk god personally for a year and a day. So, they are out of play for a year of game time. Yes, they might come back with a magic item or one level higher- if the DM decides on it (but as the DM was enough of a jerk to send the Aleax in the first place, do not count on it), but I would guess that they could have gained at least a level and found a magic item in a year of game play anyway, so they still come out behind.

So, throw this thing out. Gods should have enforcers- but they should be tailored to the individual god who sends them. So the Greek gods might use erinyes or furies (and even then it would depend- one might just throw a lightning bolt at you, one might try to transmogrify you into something horrific, etc.), a lizard god might send a plague of scaly creatures, a god of thieves might send a guild after you, etc.

But the one-size-fits-all Aleax?

It's terrible, it's punitive, and it's drek.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:32, Sun 24 Mar.

The fact that it's supposed to be across the board, one-size-fits-all deities, bothers me too.

I only gave it more than "drek" because it gives you something to start with if you need something.  Also, I felt I was being too negative over all. :)

So my "meh" vote is tepdi.

So what's next? I like the discussion though I doubt we'll get much excitement until the G's where we find giants and githyanki...

I think what happened is . . . I was waiting to see if Darius had an opinion, then forgot I was waiting. :P

Next up:

Algoid

This creature appears as a green humanoid with coarse, rough
features. Its appearance is misleading, however - it is in fact a colony
of algae which, assembled in this form, has developed some mobility
and a rudimentary intelligence. Its form is only of a temporary
nature.

I have to admit; I'm ok with this.

Sounds like a fun thing to put in a swamp... or Moor.

I'm good with it, too!

You put some respect on the good name of the noble bullywug! ;)

As for the Algoid-
I also vote cool.

In one respect, it seems very much like the Swamp Thing monster- a manlike vegetable monster with control over plants.
It is different enough from a Shambling Mound to have a use, its protections are powerful but logical- and can be overcome even without magic, and the psionics? I think that gives it just the right amount of uniqueness to it.

The DM should watch out for accidentally making it too clever though- psionics tends to make one think 'smart', but they are only semi-intelligent (Int 2-4), so they would probably brute force most of their psionic abilities. But even animals can be cunning hunters, so it is still quite dangerous.

One thing that strikes me as odd is the alignment being chaotic/neutral. One would think a colony creature would require a sense of order- especially when it also practices mental (psionic) disciplines, making lawful/neutral seem more fitting- or just true neutral as a semi-intelligent nature beast.

Two things that also stand out- it says the form is only temporary, and that the number appearing is 1-6.
How long can it maintain its form? Hours, days, weeks? If it loses its form and just goes back to being a pile of algae, does it maintain the intelligence and abilities it had? It only says the form is temporary- not the abilities, so... I am envisioning players trying to figure out where the psionic blast come from, and how to stop the trees from attacking when there seems to be nothing around but an algae-ridden swamp.

And 1-6 of a collective creature appear- obviously this is beyond the scope of the actual description- but what if those collective creatures can also find a way combine? You know have something capable of challenging extremely high level characters- imagine those six 5HD creatires combining into a 30HD algoid! You can also easily make it weaker- less algae is around to combine in the first place, so it has less hit dice and lowered protections.

So this gives it a grand flexibility.

Again, I also vote cool.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:01, Sun 14 Apr.

Perhaps the disparate parts coming together with competing needs and wants lend a certain erratic nature to its behavior? It's a colony creature, so cooperation is either forced or agreed upon, right?

Otherwise, Moon's analysis is spot on!

She must take her turn as DM someday soon.

Agree cool - especially in the hands of a creative DM that allows the 1-6 configurations to morph between 30 separate and combined pieces.

Probably need to impose a limitation on the speed of transitions to avoid making the creature too strong.

Psionics have always been challenging to manage - have not had any DMs to bring them into the actual game. 🙂

I allow psionics, it's just that it's rare to have a dm that plays them correctly. If you're a weak psion, you're basically a snack for whatever cruises by in the ether and senses you, so most DM's rather than fudge everything simply say "Aha! Alternate rules! We don't need no stinkin' alternate rules!"


I'd be happy to allow them. I've had two psionic characters over the years and run another couple in various games.

As I said, be sure to join the local church.
Honestly though, I am not sure if anyone would even want that- I give enough trouble just as a player!

On psionics, I had a psionic character once, but other than using the cell adjustment power she had for healing, I don't think it came up very much.
(That's outside the Dark Sun setting, where everyone is psionic, of course.)

I have only played with psionics once; it was a game of Bronn's and didn't last.  In fact, I've used him in two games and neither lasted.  He's one of my two "game killers;" if I use him, the game doesn't last.

I still hope to use him someday -- the character concept is interesting to me.

Anyhow . . . next, we have the Al-Mi'Raj -- which has the courage to admit it's a rabbit with a unicorn horn.



The al-mi'raj generally roams pastures and woodlands but is
sometimes discovered in dungeons. Its lair is usually a small cave just
below ground.
The creature resembles a large yellow hare with a long (1%'-2') black
horn protruding forwards from the centre of its forehead, resembling
that of a unicorn. In melee it will stab with its horn, its nimbleness
giving the horn damage potential of a dagger (14 hit points of
damage).
Its intellect is severely limited and its behaviour unpredictable - for
instance it may well attack for no good reason. If it is captured alive
when young, the beast shows a surprising aptitude for training and
its fearlessness makes it a useful companion.

Horny rabbits don't seem particularly unusual or interesting... no thanks.

Okay, honestly, men make no sense.

It's a cute bunny with a unicorn horn.

Let me say that again, louder.

It's a cute bunny with a unicorn horn!

That alone is enough to make it Cool- nothing else needs to be said.

In reply to Moon (msg # 34):

Hmmmmm... Okey dokey.

I like rabbits too.  It's just so . . . why?

And while copyright/trademark law is not my specialty, I'm surprised Monty Python didn't sue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrgLj9lOwk
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:39, Wed 17 Apr.

Well, nothing more must be said to establish it being cool (it's a cute bunny with a unicorn horn), I'll say more on use.

The why is because it is a mythological creature, not just a fan-made dream.
One was supposedly gifted to Alexander the Great, no less!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Mi%27raj

So, unlike many of the others, this one has historical/mythological bona-fides, and anything actually mentioned in mythology is a worthy addition, in my opinion, since it can add so much to a game emulating those periods or flavor. It would fit right in for any Arabian-themed or flavoured game- Ylaruam in Mystara, Nithia in the Hollow World setting, Al-Qadim and Mulhorand in the Forgotten Realms, Zakhara in 5th edition, Stygia in the Coinan setting, the AD&D 'Desert of Desolation' series, the basic D&D 'Master of the Desert Nomads' series, etc.

Further, this would make a perfect (albeit large at 3') familiar for a wizard or low-level companion for a druid. It's only 1 hd, only does as much damage as a dagger, no special attacks or defenses, normal armor class, animal intelligence, and the description points out that they can be wonderful companions. Keen sight and sense of smell, but no listed bonuses for it. And it is fast, but not overwhelmingly so. That is not unbalancing in any way. It would definitely be something unique for the player to have.

There is also one thing that stands out as well.
For 'MAGIC RESISTANCE' it says to 'See below', however, the description does not mention anything about this at all.
Was this an editing mistake and it should have said none, or did they leave part of the description out? One could very easily use it either way- either ignore it, or grant it the same resistance as a unicorn- save as 11th level mage, immune to charms, hold spells, and death magic. The former is probably better as a familiar, the latter for a druid's companion. You could have both types intermix, maybe only the largest or the eldest have such properties.

And if you do decide to give it some of those properties, the horn might be valuable in a similar way. Unicorn horns are potent spell components, but they are intelligent, good creatures, so many groups would not even try to acquire one. But the Al-Mi'Raj is simply an animal, so you do not have the same ethical problems.

Also, it's a cute bunny with a unicorn horn.

Cool.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:09, Wed 17 Apr.

OK, it's cool enough.

I prefer the jackalope, though:

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EunmGUje5cQ

LOL! I first saw one in a restaurant. I was out eating with my grandfather and we went to this place he liked, German food. For some reason, they had four of the blasted things over the counter on a shelf. They've amused me ever since.

I had never heard about them before hearing that song. But was shocked to discover they are real(ish)- rabbits with the shope papilloma virus can develop horn-like growths! Truth is stranger than fiction, as they say!

https://img.ifunny.co/images/8...1508405ccb5999_1.jpg

Moon's defense (Post 37) is both spirited, informative, and persuasive.  I get why the FF wouldn't mention Alexander the Great, but knowing that now makes it cooler.

And the potential uses are also an excellent point.

All of which makes me consider (for the first time): is my beef mostly because of the horrible write up in the FF?

And that makes me want to change my vote, but I don't know to what.  I lean somewhere between "meh" and "cool," I guess.

Which would make the average of our votes slightly above "meh."  I feel like we need Darius's input before assigning a final score.