How come Spiny Frogs are called spiny?


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Post Friday, 17th February 2017, 12:20

How come Spiny Frogs are called spiny?

Spiny is the name of a demonspawn mutation - monsters get retaliation damage for melee attacks against the PC. Exactly two monsters have the same property; Porcupines and Hell sentinels. (apparently briar patches too).

Spiny frogs dont.

Now dont get me wrong, spiny frogs with property "spiny" would be a pain in the ass, but maybe the name can be changed.

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Post Friday, 17th February 2017, 13:24

Re: How come Spiny Frogs are called spiny?

FR: Make spiny frogs damage the player on contact

Halls Hopper

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Post Friday, 17th February 2017, 13:50

Re: How come Spiny Frogs are called spiny?

le_nerd wrote:Now dont get me wrong, spiny frogs with property "spiny" would be a pain in the ass


Not really. It bugs me to no end that there's no anti-melee monster in Lair besides the typical boring speed 10 hydra which becomes irrelevant once you get a flaming weapon that can cut heads or simply a better average damage per turn. We could use another one that's hard to cheese and punishes hard in melee. 16 hp porcupines could probably be removed too.

If this is too much then just lower Spiny Frogs max hp by 33 or 34 though I'd rather not.
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Post Friday, 17th February 2017, 14:09

Re: How come Spiny Frogs are called spiny?

ONIchinchin wrote:
le_nerd wrote:Now dont get me wrong, spiny frogs with property "spiny" would be a pain in the ass


Not really. It bugs me to no end that there's no anti-melee monster in Lair besides the typical boring speed 10 hydra which becomes irrelevant once you get a flaming weapon that can cut heads or simply a better average damage per turn. We could use another one that's hard to cheese and punishes hard in melee. 16 hp porcupines could probably be removed too.

If this is too much then just lower Spiny Frogs max hp by 33 or 34 though I'd rather not.

Why do we need another anti-melee monster in Lair? And some people already proposed hydra's heads gimmick to be removed, which I don't object to.

Halls Hopper

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Post Friday, 17th February 2017, 15:42

Re: How come Spiny Frogs are called spiny?

So porcupines could be removed. They're supposed to occupy the spiny monster in Lair niche but they're neither threatening nor interesting due to both its non-existent hp and AC.
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Post Friday, 17th February 2017, 15:48

Re: How come Spiny Frogs are called spiny?

fr change spiny frogs name to horny toad
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Post Friday, 17th February 2017, 22:33

Re: How come Spiny Frogs are called spiny?

Monster spines are stupid and pointless and shouldn't exist

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Post Friday, 17th February 2017, 23:46

Re: How come Spiny Frogs are called spiny?

Porcupine's spiny has caused me issues a few times (over hundreds of games) but it's always when I was heavily damaged by something else, and then didn't want to take return damage since I was down to 15 hp or so. If you want this to come up more often, just raise their hp/armor/etc, and then they'll be threatening. If you don't want an anti-melee monster in lair, removing them is also fine.

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Post Saturday, 18th February 2017, 02:15

Re: How come Spiny Frogs are called spiny?

duvessa wrote:Monster spines are stupid and pointless and shouldn't exist


This used to be the case but everyone got tired of monsters running away all the time, which is why they have backbones now.

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Post Saturday, 18th February 2017, 18:53

Re: How come Spiny Frogs are called spiny?

The same reason Tyrant Leaches do not become the sole leader of a nation via violent means.

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Post Saturday, 18th February 2017, 21:22

Re: How come Spiny Frogs are called spiny?

Well thats more because strange creatures lying in ponds distributing bloodlessness is no basis for a system of government!

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Post Saturday, 18th February 2017, 23:49

Re: How come Spiny Frogs are called spiny?

ONIchinchin wrote:So porcupines could be removed. They're supposed to occupy the spiny monster in Lair niche but they're neither threatening nor interesting due to both its non-existent hp and AC.


Substitute porcupines with spiny drakes that breathe barbs (maybe fuse them with manticores). Then give spines (3) to iron dragons. Then make iron dragon scales that have spines (1).

Barbs are IMHO good because they force you not to run away, but, unlike paralysis, constriction, petrify, and invisible opponents, they do not penalize EV and/or SH, which means that they do not make AC even better than it already is.

Spines per se aren't really consequential in melee if you are specialized in melee, since AC reduces their damage.
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