Truly Horrid Umber hulk

[ValerieJean]

As the title says above would it be possible making him the "Boss" monster of the Umber hulk area as the Brood Mother is for the Basilisks?

He's always been around and he usually was tougher than the others idk if this would improve the server or anything I just feel the guy is just as special as those other bosses!

[Tekill]

Yes.
I used to be terrified of Umber Hulks in PnP. So, in the name of all that is D&D, make him gold!!!
And make sure to increase his DC for its confusion save. Speaking of which, does the brood mother not have a stone gaze?
Please give the stone gaze back the her- just make the DC low or make the effect temporary. Give all the basilisks a low gaze that petrifies or stuns for a couple rounds. It bugs me that they do not have it.
And if not, then rename them, as they are not basilisks without at least some sort of gaze.

But yeah make the Truly Horrid Umber Hulk, Truly Horrid.

[Invoker]

But yeah make the Truly Horrid Umber Hulk, Truly Horrid.

Well...he IS truly horrid.

As for the basilisks, that's an interesting one. First, the boss was introduced with True Seeing, so basically doing the quests was no longer possible for the characters that actually needed them. Then, the basilisks lost their petrifying gaze so that people could farm them (????)...but the Broodmother still was petrifying AND seeing the invisible, which kept being LOLsome for lowbies trying to quest. Then, all of a sudden, she lost everything too, and now the area is a joke.

One day, we'll go back to the petrifying gazes for everyone, and leave the True Seeing out of it.

Believe in the future.

[Moridin]

I still carry my wand around remembering the days when people would get petrified. Lomith was petrified a few times doing the quests.

[ValerieJean]

But yeah make the Truly Horrid Umber Hulk, Truly Horrid.

Well...he IS truly horrid.

As for the basilisks, that's an interesting one. First, the boss was introduced with True Seeing, so basically doing the quests was no longer possible for the characters that actually needed them. Then, the basilisks lost their petrifying gaze so that people could farm them (????)...but the Broodmother still was petrifying AND seeing the invisible, which kept being LOLsome for lowbies trying to quest. Then, all of a sudden, she lost everything too, and now the area is a joke.

One day, we'll go back to the petrifying gazes for everyone, and leave the True Seeing out of it.

Believe in the future.

I miss those days, the best days. I'd get in there alone and be like "Ok we got this, my char can fight them her fort is strong enough lets goo. "1" LOUD SIGH This is my luck, now AoS is gonna make fun of me and just make my char a statue for his char. FANTASTIC, oh she will /not/ be happy..."

[Sun Wukong]

Few months ago it was truly horrid for a character that was not considerably higher than the creatures CR. I recall that thing having so much AB and AC that my fighter had no choice but to turtle up and slowly whittle it down. With few extra levels it became lot easier. It is how leveling up works.

Thus the big question is, who do you want to make it truly horrid? Level 30 bored drow? IN A LOW CR AREA?

The major issues of underdark were fixed, and now it seems the underdark players want to make it dead again. I guess you just do not like company down there.

[Tekill]

The major issues of underdark were fixed, and now it seems the underdark players want to make it dead again. I guess you just do not like company down there.

hy·per·bo·le
hīˈpərbəlē/
noun
exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.



Up its Confusion DR a bit maybe?
I remember them being tough as a lowbie, but I do not ever recall failing a save.

[Sun Wukong]

Up its Confusion DR a bit maybe?

DC; Difficulty Check, Difficulty Class.
DR; Damage Reduction, Damage Resistance.

Or what if you try going against those humberhulks with a non-spellcasting character with a low will save progression? Start from scratch too without any grandfathered items or UMD consumables. I think it will be interesting to witness how that Confusion AI toggles off your character's Combat Expertise/Power Attack/Et Cetera for no reason other than funsies.

As for never failing the save, well, it is probably due to the blanket protection provided by that level one spell: Protection From Alignment. (Umberhulks are usually Chaotic Evil, Confusion is mind-affecting, and so on.)

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

The following is a 100% factual literal statement:

The major issues of underdark were fixed, and now it seems the underdark players want to make it dead again. I guess you just do not like company down there.

I have been here long enough to have played in the Underdark when it had the following areas: Sshamath, Varalla's Passage, and the beetles in the mushroom map. I recall the players of the surface born EDM favored soul drows and other gishes that wanted to be challenged by the Underdark content. This resulted in an unfortunately long period where the Underdark was mostly playable for these min-maxed spell casting power builds that could pile immunities upon immunites with their spells.

These players still wanted to be challenged. Thus the DCs on mob abilities were raised and so on... And when that didn't work, some mobs were given more casts of some spells. I think the Stone Spear Goblin Arcanist can still probably cast something like five to eight 'Bigby 5' spells just in hopes that one of them penetrates the spell resistance - or due to some other similar reasoning. And naturally the unbearable difficulty for some resulted in request it to be difficult for everyone, and so the cycle went on and on.

You know, the underdark had its first real spurt of player activity when RCR-ing became possible. You could axe some surface character and sit on a level 20~ or so drow. Basically, you could skip past the difficulty of low levels and lack of equipment. But this spurt of players passed and these characters only saw activity when there was a DM to make things interesting.

But little by little, and it took literal years, but eventually the underdark has been made playable. There are people in the underdark every time I log in and it is to a point where it is somewhat detrimental to surface RP!

So how about we entertain the thought, the Truly Horrid Umberhulk is made considerably more dangerous. There will be people who will applaud it. There will be people who will request other Truly Horrid monstrocities to made. Little by little the bar for mechanical requirements rises again and the old players slowly lose interest as they always have. The underdark will be dead because of it. You might have that one AFk guy sitting in some corner, and occasional spurt of players with each DM event, but it is all life it will have. And even if if someone wants to give the underdark a chance, they will be forced overcome hurdles designed with the' level 30 EDM Favored Souls' or other gishes in mind.

[izzul]

You know, the underdark had its first real spurt of player activity when RCR-ing became possible. You could axe some surface character and sit on a level 20~ or so drow. Basically, you could skip past the difficulty of low levels and lack of equipment. But this spurt of players passed and these characters only saw activity when there was a DM to make things interesting.

Before RCR was introduced, i lvled a drow from 1-19 back in the days and feel everything that a drow should feel from the beginning and it is still fun thinking about how hard those days are.

-max item +3 and no hell shop. not even enough gold to buy healing kits since you get hit a lot with weak items.
-i get 6,8, to 12 xp per kill(cant go to tough areas since weak toon with weak items and low lvl)
-i watched other lvl 30 stay at the bench of Varalla(UD campfire) picking fights with low lvl almost every time i log in.(some high lvl drow players are still nice players until today)
-max 4 players playing in the UD.
-DM event is once in 6 month, and if you get lucky you get to party with some people your lvl once a week. or once in two weeks.
-Even with low lvl Drow, some nice players down there did great RP and i managed to go to surface passing through Netherese Ruins with their help.with a drow, once you reach the surface its like life goal achievement and there was no teleportation spell that time.(reach surface after almost 6 months playing. nowadays, people go to surface everyday).

I still respect the old timer drow players, they overcome so many difficulties to become what they are today. The new drow society seems more friendlier and easier to play in the UD. that is something we should be thankful about but never forget the true experience and difficulties that was faced before.

[Sun Wukong]

Interiors take less space. Thus, how about creating a single massive area with a multitude of different rooms and make it so that you cannot use the teleport spells inside it. Each room could contain a boss of a boss monster.

For example there could be a narrow passage, a transition point, to a room with a Truly Abominable Umberhulk. The creature is inside a cage and the player has a chance to set it free. Pull a lever to lift the cage or something. The creature pops out, hits Epic Rage with all the Extend Rage feats, and spawns a host of twelve Starved Umberhulk Hatchlings that also hit Epic Rage with all the Extend Rage feats. Each of them could have Confusion spell with DC of 25 or 28, and have a 10% chance to inflict a DC 20 Confusion effect with every hit they land. Oh, let us not forget Deathward so they cannot be wiped out with a single Wail of the Banshee or something.

Protection Against Alignment (Evil) takes care of the confusion. But it would be an interesting fight. Not to mention that since the server has some lore pop-ups these days, you could use something like that as a warning.

'You do not know how long the Truly Abominable Umberhulk has been stuck inside the cage in front of you, but the constant swirling motion of shadows behind the very bars is a source of unrest. A multitude of eyes mad of hunger stare at your every movement. There is a lever infront of you, one that could set the untold horrors free from their cage... The choice is yours.'



I think that would be a better way to handle it, rather than have some random uber monster pop out randomly. (Which the Truly Horrid Umberhulk can already to characters of appropriate level range.)

[V'rass]

You want truly horrid include the rust monsters able to eat your weapons and armor and make those magic eating monsters able to permanently remove enchantments from your items like in pnp... that would be truly horrid lol. (Btw please don't do either of those.)

[Theodore01]

You want truly horrid include the rust monsters able to eat your weapons and armor and make those magic eating monsters able to permanently remove enchantments from your items like in pnp... that would be truly horrid lol.

What an excellent suggestion
Finally we would have a gold sink and adventuring would become dangerous again.

[aaron22]

can my beholder druid have a pet rust monster?

P.S. dont send your pet rust monster to open chests

[Moridin]

If rust monsters got added for spawns there would need to be more variation in weapon materials since the way it is everyone would be rendered weaponless except some monks. That area would never be visited after the initial people checking it out. As it is most jewellery and armour, even some that should be non-metallic would also get eaten.

Btw, I like the changes made to the underdark, prime example was the basilisks in the tarpits. It is a quest area, and so shpuld not have something that brutal on the map. (Petrification)