Opcode 100: Protection from Creature Type

[subtledoctor]

19 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

 honestly, everything about basilisks is just kind of bad for players who know that a single Protection from Petrification makes the Sharp Teeth Plain a veritable fountain of free XP. But what can you do?

Make them faster and stronger. They are like ~15-foot-long monitor lizards, they should be wildly dangerous. Should be as dangerous as wyverns, roughly  (Compare the XP rewards.)

I might remove their gaze altogether, make them fast and strong, with high-ish APR, and apply petrification as on on-hit effect. Maybe even combine it with poison, but make sure the poison doesn’t drop you below 1hp. (In my headcanon, their petrification is like a predatory spider’s web or wasp’s paralysis - disabling and preserving the prey so that it can be ingested later.)

[Bartimaeus]

4 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

Make them faster and stronger. They are like ~15-foot-long monitor lizards, they should be wildly dangerous. Should be as dangerous as wyverns, roughly  (Compare the XP rewards.)

I might remove their gaze altogether, make them fast and strong, with high-ish APR, and apply petrification as on on-hit effect. Maybe even combine it with poison, but make sure the poison doesn’t drop you below 1hp. (In my headcanon, their petrification is like a predatory spider’s web or wasp’s paralysis - disabling and preserving the prey so that it can be ingested later.)

I'd feel a little gross about removing the at-range gaze attack altogether, since it's kind of their distinctive feature, but I'd probably say to yes to everything else. I'd probably keep it as their opening salvo for a round or two before having them switch to bum-rushing the player with their enhanced move speed and melee capabilities: even the "have them petrify with their melee attack" makes sense, considering it's going to be tough to engage in melee combat without looking at it.

Edited August 22, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[subtledoctor]

Yeah I agree. Make it something like the BG2 umber hulk script, where gazes and attacks both happen interchangeably and frequently. Or even change the gaze to be a simple constant 1x/round aura, then their script only has to worry about movement and attacks.