DESTROY ALL MONSTERS!

[Mister Andersen]

One of my thoughts for a character is this:



as the manifestation of the effect is typically on kaiju scale

[Dhampire]

One concept art for mine is:

(click to show/hide)

[Ragnarok]

I'm interested if there's still a slot open.  Those pesky Japanese corporations shouldn't be building on Sacred Indian Burial Grounds.

(click to show/hide)

5   Flying Beast 80' Winged Flight
10 STR 13, DEX 12, CON 13, INT 10, WIS 12, CHA 10
36  Init I, Atk VII, Def VII, Res X, Health X, Comp I
5   Acrobatics I, Notice II, Search II
14 Damage Immunity (Electricity, Sonics), Improved Sense (Sight), Rend, Improved Carrying Capacity
8   Bite III Alternate Damage (Sonic)
8   2 x Talons I Grab
14 Electricity Ray V  80'
Total 100
This is MK I, I'm open to suggestions

[Gentry]

I believe in the opening post on the thread Glimmerrat specifies no Damage Immunities. If those were in play, we'd be fighting for years. 

[Ragnarok]

OOPS!
How could one get some DR versus Sonics and Electricity under the current rules?  Is Damage Defiance available?

[Gentry]

Again, I direct you to the opening post of this thread.   

[Ragnarok]

OK so no damage defiance either, darn it.
Any ideas as to how to gain some DR versus Sonics or Electricity?

[vardeman]

I'm interested if there's still a slot open.  Those pesky Japanese corporations shouldn't be building on Sacred Indian Burial Grounds.

(click to show/hide)

5   Flying Beast 80' Winged Flight
10 STR 13, DEX 12, CON 13, INT 10, WIS 12, CHA 10
36  Init I, Atk VII, Def VII, Res X, Health X, Comp I
5   Acrobatics I, Notice II, Search II
14 Damage Immunity (Electricity, Sonics), Improved Sense (Sight), Rend, Improved Carrying Capacity
8   Bite III Alternate Damage (Sonic)
8   2 x Talons I Grab
14 Electricity Ray V  80'
Total 100
This is MK I, I'm open to suggestions

Go ahead, Ragnarok.  I've never created an NPC in FC.  I'm afraid I don't even know where to start.  I'll just read the threads.

V

[glimmerrat]

So vardeman is dropping out to be replaced by ragnarok? You sure dude? We need the extra player.

[Ragnarok]

Hey Vardeman, I certainly don't want to bump someone.  Bring on the Terror of the HiveSwarm or whatever, you'll have fun.  As to writing up NPCs there is some fair compelling evidence (see prev two posts) that I don't particularly have a clue there either.
So here is (hopefully)

(click to show/hide)

5   Flying Beast 80' Winged Flight
10 STR 13, DEX 12, CON 13, INT 10, WIS 12, CHA 10
43 Init II, Atk X, Def X, Res X, Health X, Comp I
8   Acrobatics II, Notice III, Search III
4   Improved Sense (Sight), Rend, Improved Carrying Capacity
8   Bite III Alternate Damage (Sonic)
8   2 x Talons I Grab
14 Electricity Ray V  80'
Total 100

My question is will Sonic Hth Damage blast back and effect him?

[Gentry]

There's no need to bail out, Vardeman. I imagine we can pitch in to help create a Kaiju. You had mentioned a hive-mind swarm, I believe. How would you feel about some flavor of giant insect? The moth is the most iconic, but it's also kinda...okay, really..lame. A gigantic hornet, perhaps? This sounds like a good thread for a Build-a-monster tutorial. Feel free to jump in here anyplace, Andersen--I know you've got the fu. Vardeman, it's your critter, so don't be afraid to speak up for yourself, too.  And please follow along and check the math in the Foes chapter of the FC book.

So Hornetor doesn't need to be big right out of the gate, because he'll get that from the Kaiju template. In fact, he'll get a whole bunch of things from the kaiju template that go a long way toward making him really hard to hurt, so what we want to do in the initial build is establish some thematic stuff Hornetor can do. I'm thinking a nasty sting and a wing buffet attack of some kind.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. First, he needs a type and some movement. We'll just make him medium size for ease of use, and for our purposes I don't think Hornetor needs reach (at least not in general--we'll get more specific on that later). We'll call him a Beast, since he resembles an animal, but is smarter than that. We'll also call him a Flyer, and give him a really fast flight speed so he can maximize a Wing Buffet attack. I'm liking 160 feet (since it's a number easily divisible by 2 all the way down--and that way if you get nailed with any kind of movement penalty it's comparatively easy to factor). That speed is the first cost we have to track on Hornetor: it costs 13 points (and gives us a place we can cut if other options get too expensive). We'll also make him a Walker, with a land speed of 10', just in case. That adds a point. So...

Hornetor (Medium Beast Flyer/Walker -- 14 XP)  

Now he needs attributes. These start at 10, and Strength and Constitution are going to get a boost from the Kaiju template later. We could spring for a big Dexterity, but the boost to Defense isn't going to outweigh the penalties for being Enormous--I have a feeling these Kaiju monsters aren't going to be missing each other very often. So for now I'm in favor of leaving these at 10. This adds no extra cost, and allows us to expand our statline...

Hornetor (Medium Beast Flyer/Walker -- 14 XP): Str 10, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10; SZ M (1x1, Reach 1); Spd 160 ft. winged flight, 10 ft. ground

Time for traits (pg. 228). For ease of use, I'll call everything a V, but throw on an Attack of X and a Health of VI. Comp doesn't need to be much higher than II, probably, but Hornetor can use some signature skills. Acrobatics deserves a V, since it's how he'll maneuver in the air. We could think about skills like Resolve or Intimidate, since they open up ways to deal subdual and stress damage, but Kaiju can't be fatigued or shaken, so there's no real reason to buy up the skills. That adds 32 points to the cost.

So we're at...

Hornetor (Medium Beast Flyer/Walker -- 46 XP): Str 10, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10; SZ M (1x1, Reach 1); Spd 160 ft. winged flight, 10 ft. ground; Init V; Atk X; Def V; Res V; Health VI; Comp II; Skills: Acrobatics V

Okay, we've spent almost half the points, and now it's time for the really fun stuff (and the part where everybody needs to check my math closely). Qualities are many and varied, and as with a lot of things in the FC system it's easy to get lost in the cool of it all--it's a pretty deep toolbox.

Let's start with the important stuff--a big fat attack. This is where we model Hornetor's sting. The classic insect sting carries a poison, but at the Kaiju-riffic levels we're going to be working with the poison rules aren't going to work (everybody's Fort save is liable to be enormously high, so putting trust in a poison feels like misplacing the trust). However, we can just have it do some kind of big gnarly damage and call it a horribly debilitating poison, which is one of the beauties of the system.

Since we're dealing with an attack that pierces deep into a target, I'm in favor of modeling this as a modified Gore attack. We'll give it the top grade, Gore V (for 10 points), and since we want it to really hurt like crazy we'll add a really gnarly natural attack upgrade, specifically Keen. The trick here is tweaking the damage rules to maximize use of the Critical Damage rules and the Table of Ouch, and using those results to represent the effects of Hornetor's "horrible monster poison". Since we can add Keen as many times as we want, we'll add Keen 24 (the Keen upgrade, taken 6 times). That effectively guarantees that anybody Hornetor stings is going to have to save versus Ouch. It also costs 12 more points. Just in case, we'll also give it Armor-piercing 6 (the AP upgrade taken 3 times), for another 6 points, bringing us...

Hornetor (Medium Beast Flyer/Walker -- 74 XP): Str 10, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10; SZ M (1x1, Reach 1); Spd 160 ft. winged flight, 10 ft. ground; Init V; Atk X; Def V; Res V; Health VI; Comp II; Skills: Acrobatics V; Qualities: TBD
Attacks/Weapons: Gore V (dmg XdX+X lethal; threat 17-20; qualities: AP 6, Bleed, Keen 24)

We can discuss further qualities later. This post is long. 

Does that feel like a good start? Clear as mud?


 

[Mister Andersen]

Cold Blooded (-2 xp): You're an insect, and cold weather tends to slow them down something fierce. It's good for Kaiju to have a weakness or two; I seem to recall Godzilla gets messed up something fierce if he's knocked into the water while chargin' his lazor.
Alt Damage: Acid (+2 xp): Changes the damage your sting inflicts.
Improved Sense: Smell (+1 xp): Insects have a brilliant sense of smell. It also makes you slightly harder to ambush.
Athletics VI + Grappler (+8 xp): You have six legs, use them them to grab hold of your opponents and sting the crap out of them.
Darkvision I (+1 xp): The NPC ignores penalties from dim and faint light.
Feat: Elusive (+2 xp): You've got a maxed attack score; this lets you take 4 off it to boost your defence by a similar amount (as a flyer, you're naturally harder to hit to begin with).
Feat: Wrestling Basics (+2 xp): Very useful for hand-to-hand-to-hand-to-hand-to-hand-to-hand combat.
Tricky: Mix-up (Grapple) (+2 xp): Helps with your 1st grapple check.
Tricky: Salt the Wound (+2 xp): Maxes the benefit of your gor attack's bleed quality
Tricky: Shove (+2 xp): Always useful for pushing folks into buildings.


This gives you:

   Hornetor (Medium Beast Flyer/Walker -- 100 XP): Str 10, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10; SZ M (1x1, Reach 1); Spd 160 ft. winged flight, 10 ft. ground; Init V; Atk X; Def V; Res V; Health VI; Comp II; Skills: Acrobatics V, Athletics VI; Qualities: Cold-blooded, darkvision I, feat (elusive, wrestling basics), grappler, improved sense (smell), tricky (Mix-up: grapple, Salt the wound, Shove).
   Attacks/Weapons: Gore V (dmg 4d8 acid; threat 17-20; qualities: AP 6, Bleed, Keen 24)


Which in turn becomes:

   Hornetor (Enourmous Beast Flyer/Walker -- 225 XP): Str 15, Dex 10, Con 15, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10; SZ E (50x20, Reach 5); Spd 160 ft. winged flight, 10 ft. ground; Init V; Atk X; Def V; Res V; Health VI; Comp II; Skills: Acrobatics V, Athletics VI; Qualities: Cold-blooded, clumsy, condition immunity (frightened), contagion immunity, damage immunity (stress, subdual), damage reduction 5, dark vision I, fearsome, feat (elusive, wrestling basics), frenzy II, grappler, improved sense (smell), knockback, lumbering, menacing threat, monstrous defense III, never outnumbered, tricky (Mix-up: grapple, Salt the wound, Shove), tough V, unnerving, veteran V.
   Attacks/Weapons: Sting (Gore V: dmg 4d8 acid; threat 17-20; qualities: AP 6, Bleed, Keen 24). Squish (Trample V: dmg 6d8 lethal; threat 18–20; upgrades: AP 10; notes: Gargantuan and smaller only, Fort (DC equal to damage) or become sprawled).



ETA: Removed natural defence and added DV I to make up for the original miscalculation in XP value.

[Mister Andersen]

Here's another if anyone can't find inspiration for their own, and what's more Japanese than a skyscraper-sized tentacle monster:

     Spiked Tentacles of Forced Intrusion (Enormous Walking Outsider Animal Elemental Horror - 225 XP).  Str 21, Dex 10, Con 15, Int 3, Wis 10, Cha 10; Sz H (50 x 50, Reach 7); Spd 30 ft; Init V; Atk VII; Def VI; Res III; Health VII; Comp 0; Skills: Athletics X; Qualities: Class ability (tomb raider), clumsy, condition immunity (frightened), contagion immunity, damage immunity (stress, subdual), damage reduction 5, fearsome, frenzy II, grappler, knockback, lumbering, menacing threat, monstrous defense III, never outnumbered, rend, tricky (mix-up: grapple), tough V, unnerving, veteran V.
     Weapons/Attacks: Impale (Gore IV/Shaking IV: 2d8+5 lethal, thr 18-20, qual: bleed, keen 12, 1/round target must make Will save DC 25 or become shaken), Intrude (Squeeze IV: 2d12+5 lethal, thr 19-20, qual: bleed). Squish (Trample V: dmg 6d8 lethal; threat 18–20; upgrades: AP 10; notes: Gargantuan and smaller only, Fort (DC equal to damage) or become sprawled).

[Mister Andersen]

Hey Glim, can we modify the Kaiju trample attack?

[vardeman]

There's no need to bail out, Vardeman. I imagine we can pitch in to help create a Kaiju. You had mentioned a hive-mind swarm, I believe. How would you feel about some flavor of giant insect? The moth is the most iconic, but it's also kinda...okay, really..lame. A gigantic hornet, perhaps? This sounds like a good thread for a Build-a-monster tutorial. Feel free to jump in here anyplace, Andersen--I know you've got the fu. Vardeman, it's your critter, so don't be afraid to speak up for yourself, too.  And please follow along and check the math in the Foes chapter of the FC book.

OK, I'm game if you all are.   The hornet sounds cool.

So Hornetor doesn't need to be big right out of the gate, because he'll get that from the Kaiju template. In fact, he'll get a whole bunch of things from the kaiju template that go a long way toward making him really hard to hurt, so what we want to do in the initial build is establish some thematic stuff Hornetor can do. I'm thinking a nasty sting and a wing buffet attack of some kind.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. First, he needs a type and some movement. We'll just make him medium size for ease of use, and for our purposes I don't think Hornetor needs reach (at least not in general--we'll get more specific on that later). We'll call him a Beast, since he resembles an animal, but is smarter than that. We'll also call him a Flyer, and give him a really fast flight speed so he can maximize a Wing Buffet attack. I'm liking 160 feet (since it's a number easily divisible by 2 all the way down--and that way if you get nailed with any kind of movement penalty it's comparatively easy to factor). That speed is the first cost we have to track on Hornetor: it costs 13 points (and gives us a place we can cut if other options get too expensive). We'll also make him a Walker, with a land speed of 10', just in case. That adds a point. So...

Hornetor (Medium Beast Flyer/Walker -- 14 XP)  

OK, i'm following so far.  Medium size is free.  Flyer, speed 30 is free, 130' of extra movement costs 1 point per 10 feet for 13 points and tack on Walker for 10' of movement for 1 point.

Now he needs attributes. These start at 10, and Strength and Constitution are going to get a boost from the Kaiju template later. We could spring for a big Dexterity, but the boost to Defense isn't going to outweigh the penalties for being Enormous--I have a feeling these Kaiju monsters aren't going to be missing each other very often. So for now I'm in favor of leaving these at 10. This adds no extra cost, and allows us to expand our statline...

Hornetor (Medium Beast Flyer/Walker -- 14 XP): Str 10, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10; SZ M (1x1, Reach 1); Spd 160 ft. winged flight, 10 ft. ground

OK, average stats cost nothing. Check.

Time for traits (pg. 228). For ease of use, I'll call everything a V, but throw on an Attack of X and a Health of VI. Comp doesn't need to be much higher than II, probably, but Hornetor can use some signature skills. Acrobatics deserves a V, since it's how he'll maneuver in the air. We could think about skills like Resolve or Intimidate, since they open up ways to deal subdual and stress damage, but Kaiju can't be fatigued or shaken, so there's no real reason to buy up the skills. That adds 32 points to the cost.

So we're at...

Hornetor (Medium Beast Flyer/Walker -- 46 XP): Str 10, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10; SZ M (1x1, Reach 1); Spd 160 ft. winged flight, 10 ft. ground; Init V; Atk X; Def V; Res V; Health VI; Comp II; Skills: Acrobatics V

Starting to get lost here.  Each level costs a point?  5 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 6 + 2 + 5 = 38 not 32.

Okay, we've spent almost half the points, and now it's time for the really fun stuff (and the part where everybody needs to check my math closely). Qualities are many and varied, and as with a lot of things in the FC system it's easy to get lost in the cool of it all--it's a pretty deep toolbox.

Let's start with the important stuff--a big fat attack. This is where we model Hornetor's sting. The classic insect sting carries a poison, but at the Kaiju-riffic levels we're going to be working with the poison rules aren't going to work (everybody's Fort save is liable to be enormously high, so putting trust in a poison feels like misplacing the trust). However, we can just have it do some kind of big gnarly damage and call it a horribly debilitating poison, which is one of the beauties of the system.

Since we're dealing with an attack that pierces deep into a target, I'm in favor of modeling this as a modified Gore attack. We'll give it the top grade, Gore V (for 10 points), and since we want it to really hurt like crazy we'll add a really gnarly natural attack upgrade, specifically Keen. The trick here is tweaking the damage rules to maximize use of the Critical Damage rules and the Table of Ouch, and using those results to represent the effects of Hornetor's "horrible monster poison". Since we can add Keen as many times as we want, we'll add Keen 24 (the Keen upgrade, taken 6 times). That effectively guarantees that anybody Hornetor stings is going to have to save versus Ouch. It also costs 12 more points. Just in case, we'll also give it Armor-piercing 6 (the AP upgrade taken 3 times), for another 6 points, bringing us...

Hornetor (Medium Beast Flyer/Walker -- 74 XP): Str 10, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10; SZ M (1x1, Reach 1); Spd 160 ft. winged flight, 10 ft. ground; Init V; Atk X; Def V; Res V; Health VI; Comp II; Skills: Acrobatics V; Qualities: TBD
Attacks/Weapons: Gore V (dmg XdX+X lethal; threat 17-20; qualities: AP 6, Bleed, Keen 24)

Assuming we're at 80 now, not 74?

We can discuss further qualities later. This post is long. 

Does that feel like a good start? Clear as mud?

So far so good with some clarification on the traits cost.  Thanks for the help here.

V