Dungeon Fantasy: Lava Beastiary

[b-dog]

Lava Sharks
ST 40-50
DX 12
IQ 3
HT 12
HP 40-50
Will 12
Per 12
FP 12
Dodge 9
Speed 10
Move 10
SM 3
DR 1

Bite (15) 2d +1 impaling

These creatures swim in fantasy lava pits where they wait for prey to fall in. They add spice to a campaign where players have immunity to fire from spells. magic items or supernatural powers. They attack by biting and will go beserk once a person has been bitten

Astral lava piranhas
ST 1-2
DX 13
IQ 3
HT 13
HP 3
Will 12
Per 12
FP 12
Dodge 8
Speed 7
Move 7
SM -2
DR 0

Bite (13) 1d-5 cutting

These creatures swim in lava pits waiting for prey to fall in. They are able to affect creatures who are in astral form as well. Treat a school of astral lava piranhas as a Horde doing 2d damage per turn, with a base size of 5 hexes and a Move of 4.

Lava Crocodile Spirits
ST 48-58
DX 13
IQ 3
HT 14
HP 40-50
Will 12
Per 12
FP 48-58
Dodge 8
Speed 8
Move 8
SM 3-5
DR 4

Bite (15) 3d-2 cutting

These creatures swim in lava pits waiting for prey to fall in. They have the ability to affect spirits and creatures in spirit form as well. They can also tail slap for 2d damage with a reach of 3.

[StormCrow42]

Your strength values seem way high. And in any event, your biting attack values don't match the strength you've given them. Bite damage is always thrust-1, cutting for those creatures with sharp teeth (like your sharks), crushing otherwise (except for creatures with sharp fangs, where it's impaling).

Additionally your size modifiers are way off, SM 10 is 100 yards and SM 15 is 700 yards (almost half a mile!).

Edit: GURPS Dragons lists the SM for Monstrous Western Dragons at +6, Sea serpents around +8 (up to +10 for a VAST sea serpent), the Chinese Lung Wang "Dragon Turtle" only makes it up to SM +9

[b-dog]

Sample Encounter with Lava monsters.

Characters enter a room in a dungeon with a large treasure chest in the middle of the room. The party sends a thief to try to open the lock on the treasure chest. Touching the treasure chest triggers a trap, causing the floor to collapse and sending the entire party into a pit of lava. All characters immediately take 8d +2 damage per second. Then the party is attacked by 10 lava sharks, a swarm of astral lava piranhas, and 5 lava crocodile spirits.

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by b-dog

(...) All characters immediately take 8d +2 damage per second. Then the party is attacked by 10 lava sharks, a swarm of astral lava piranhas, and 5 lava crocodile spirits.

That seems a warm and cheerful welcome . . . !!

Are you planning to add some interactivity to encounters as these, besides taking huge loads and loads of damage points? ;)

[RedMattis]

Originally Posted by b-dog

Sample Encounter with Lava monsters.

Characters enter a room in a dungeon with a large treasure chest in the middle of the room. The party sends a thief to try to open the lock on the treasure chest. Touching the treasure chest triggers a trap, causing the floor to collapse and sending the entire party into a pit of lava. All characters immediately take 8d +2 damage per second. Then the party is attacked by 10 lava sharks, a swarm of astral lava piranhas, and 5 lava crocodile spirits.

I don't think even lava does that much damage per second.

[Blood Legend]

Originally Posted by RedMattis

I don't think even lava does that much damage per second.

It'd do more like 3d6 per second. (as per molten iron or a furnace). Probably 4d to 6d6 if it was fresh magma. I know natural lightning is something like 6d6. Anyone who falls into that super-heated magma (8d6+2) with less than 15 HP croaks out from anywhere from 1 to 3 death checks. Now this is obviously built for a dungeon crawl but assuming normal people, anyone unfortunate enough to have more than 15 HP is set on fire, mortaly wounded, scarred beyond measure, under a -4 shock penalty, and trapped in a hole where they can do nothing but burn more. Again, most stats being around 10-15 in any game I ever see, this means most spells would be at around skill 3 (2% chance of casting right?) to 8, and the wizard would probably have to make will checks at all kinds of negatives to maintain casting any spells (that take longer than a second) at all. I think b-dog might have to play a few games with gurps rules before he can grasp the survivability of this kind of damage.

I'm going to see if I can't try my hand at making some lava monsters.

[Phoenix_Dragon]

Actually, 8d+2 was quoted somewhere as the damage (Or at least upper damage) for being immersed in lava, specifically for proofing things from fire (I think it might have been in Dragons, or maybe Powers, can't remember now).

[Blood Legend]

Great Red Lava Shark
ST: 38 HP: 38 Speed: 5.5
DX: 10 Will: 10 Move: 7 (Molten Lava)
IQ: 2 Per: 10
HT: 12 FP: 12 SM: +3
Dodge: 9 Parry: n/a DR: 5

Bite (12): 4d6-1 cutting
Snout Ram: 4d6-1 crushing (+ slam damage).
Lava Skin: 8d6+2 burning incendiary aura.

Traits: DR 50 (Limited, Heat/Fire); Bad Temper (9); Combat Reflexes; Crushing Striker (Snout); Discriminatory Smell; Doesn't Breathe (Lava Gills); Enhanced Move 1 (Lava speed 14; Costs Fatigue 2); Hard to Kill 2; Ichthyoid; Pressure Support 3; Sharp Teeth; Subsonic Hearing; Temperature Tolerance 75; Vibration Sense; Weakness (Water or cold based attacks x4); Wild Animal.
Skills: Brawling-12, Survival (Volcanos)-14.
Notes: Great red lava sharks swim in lakes of fire and molten rock. Their home temperature is 1750 degrees (F). Their skin is as hard as rock and resistant to extreme heats. Cooling attacks greatly harm Lava sharks by "drying" them out and crackling them to dust.

Ok when I set out to build this, I thought it'd be less lethal than b-dog's sharks. Based off the Great White, its ST, IQ and HP, was only dropped slightly, but at least now the lava shark has traits that mean it can actually live in its chosen environment. I guess there's a reason this beast of the sea hasn't evolved since prehistoric times. The characters are also going to need either 365 points in various advantages (less if their HT is higher than 10) or a wizard or two who doesn't mind being a fire resistance-casting battery while the rest of the party does something cool (mayhaps an NPC.)

I could probably see slugging away at these things in a High Fantasy game with around 500 point characters who've prepared with ballistas and spells from the Water college.

[b-dog]

Originally Posted by Blood Legend

Great Red Lava Shark
ST: 38 HP: 38 Speed: 5.5
DX: 10 Will: 10 Move: 7 (Molten Lava)
IQ: 2 Per: 10
HT: 12 FP: 12 SM: +3
Dodge: 9 Parry: n/a DR: 5

Bite (12): 4d6-1 cutting
Snout Ram: 4d6-1 crushing (+ slam damage).
Lava Skin: 8d6+2 burning incendiary aura.

Traits: DR 50 (Limited, Heat/Fire); Bad Temper (9); Combat Reflexes; Crushing Striker (Snout); Discriminatory Smell; Doesn't Breathe (Lava Gills); Enhanced Move 1 (Lava speed 14; Costs Fatigue 2); Hard to Kill 2; Ichthyoid; Pressure Support 3; Sharp Teeth; Subsonic Hearing; Temperature Tolerance 75; Vibration Sense; Weakness (Water or cold based attacks x4); Wild Animal.
Skills: Brawling-12, Survival (Volcanos)-14.
Notes: Great red lava sharks swim in lakes of fire and molten rock. Their home temperature is 1750 degrees (F). Their skin is as hard as rock and resistant to extreme heats. Cooling attacks greatly harm Lava sharks by "drying" them out and crackling them to dust.

Ok when I set out to build this, I thought it'd be less lethal than b-dog's sharks. Based off the Great White, its ST, IQ and HP, was only dropped slightly, but at least now the lava shark has traits that mean it can actually live in its chosen environment. I guess there's a reason this beast of the sea hasn't evolved since prehistoric times. The characters are also going to need either 365 points in various advantages (less if their HT is higher than 10) or a wizard or two who doesn't mind being a fire resistance-casting battery while the rest of the party does something cool (mayhaps an NPC.)

I could probably see slugging away at these things in a High Fantasy game with around 500 point characters who've prepared with ballistas and spells from the Water college.

This is a much better version than mine, as I have the 2nd edition beastiary. Good job!

[Blood Legend]

Originally Posted by b-dog

This is a much better version than mine, as I have the 2nd edition beastiary. Good job!

If you mean DnD, I dont have any of that. I'm basing lava sharks off of a very simple process.

Great White + Lava Golem.

Gurps already has a Great White Shark in the basic template, so I grab that, and add traits I believe a lava golem should have. The 8d+2 is stuck there cuz at any one point its going to be covered in lava. I gave it 5 DR because that's what the Body of Stone meta-trait has. (At least off the top of my head). The only other things I've added were DR and Temp Tolerance at enough levels that they could swim around in a volcano unharmed (long as it didn't explode..) and a weakness to water. Its still pretty much just an armored painful Great White.

Gurps is more fun and lethal that way than DnD (well so I've heard, I've not yet played a game but know just enough to quip on it). You can expect a decent knife wound to scare almost anybody, from a civilian to a trained marine. Falling in lava is the same thing. Even a dragon isn't going to be too happy with that.

Falling in lava with lava-invincible great whites is worse.