Seastars with high AC - 5e idea?

[Cleon]

take yer time...I'll follow yer lead....

Better get round to it…

Updating the Giant Brittle Star (Ophiuroid).

So are we agreed the mechanical elements are complete, leaving only the Description?

 

[Cleon]

Oh, we needed a "duration of flopping" for the severed arm. I just put in 1d10 rounds just off the top of my head, but would have no objection to changing it to something else.

If I had any idea how long (if at all) a Brittle Star's arms twitch after being separated from the body I'd be able to match it to a particular dice set, but since I don't I just picked something!

 

[Casimir Liber]

1d10 rounds sounds fine.

yeah onto description

 

[Cleon]

So how wordy are we aiming to make said Description?

I'm inclined to keep it fairly simple like the Giant Solifugid, especially as the stat section got a bit long.

The most recent text rough draft we have is this:

The giant brittle star is a large invertebrate that lives in the sea. It has five 20-foot long, slender, whip-like arms joined to a central body disc that is up to 3 feet in diameter. Typical size ranges are disc diameter 32 to 48 inches, arm length 18 to 25 feet and weight 1,200 to 3,000 pounds. Bigger specimens are possible but rare; smaller giant brittle stars are common but rarely attack humanoids. The body is sharply demarcated from from the arms and contains the five-jawed mouth. The body and arms are covered in a meshed chitin-like material with a pattern akin to chainmail, rendering the creature's hide tough and harder to damage. The tube feet are sticky and used to hold and manipulate prey or cling to wet and slippery surfaces, such as cliff faces and cave roofs

Unlike their smaller cousins, giant brittle stars are active predators, combing marine environments for prey. They are regarded as vermin by marine races that take part in husbandry or aquaculture. Their regenerative powers have seen them be used by alchemists in the making of potions of healing and regeneration.

But the most recent D&D Beyond rough draft cut out some of the above and rearranged a few points to:

Unlike their smaller cousins, giant brittle stars are active predators, combing marine environments for prey.​

​

A giant brittle star has five long, slender, whip-like arms joined to a central body disc. The body is sharply demarcated from from the arms and contains the five-jawed mouth. The body and arms are covered in a meshed chitin-like material with a pattern akin to chainmail, rendering the creature's hide tough and harder to damage. The tube feet are sticky and used to hold and manipulate prey or cling to wet and slippery surfaces, such as cliff faces and cave roofs.​

That seems a reasonable start, although I can see a few tweaks to propose.

Should add a few words about:

Habitat?
Hunting Strategy?
Reproduction?

I'm thinking the Habitat should just be salt water with enough food to sustain them.

Might leave out Reproduction, as it's complicated (especially as there are both heterosexual and hermaphroditic species of real-life brittle stars and some reproduce by splitting as well). Although I might change my mind later.

As for Hunting Strategy, that seems the important thing to explain. How about we give it its own subentry titled, say Killer Stars?

Oh, and I would fancy adding some variants.

As well as the previously mentioned (and realistic) Burrowing Star, how about a more fantastical Walking Star that can breathe fresh water and lives in lakes and rivers, which is adept at pursuing prey on the land. Or it might be flat out amphibious and only need water to spawn?

 

[Casimir Liber]

The one I posted in the thread was later than the dndbeyond, but moot now. Walking star that lives semiterrestrially sounds really cool. I have a landscape called the Bnazic Desert (a la dreamlands) so a terrestrial starfish is great idea. Killer stars subentry is good too

 

[Casimir Liber]

So picking up whwere we left off you were gonna tweak teh description. The latest version I have looks like this

 

[Cleon]

So picking up whwere we left off you were gonna tweak teh description. The latest version I have looks like this

We made some few changes since that version, mainly expanding the Disposable Limbs as Shed Arms.

See the "Enworld" Giant Brittle Star (Ophiuroid) for details.

That's odd, I'm sure I changed that #d# duration to the 1d10 we agreed on. Better update that.

I remember having the Walking Star and Burrowing Star worked out in my head, but it's long enough ago I forgot the details. Did recall I fancied making the "Landstar" a six-legged brittle star able to reproduce via fission (there are a few real world species that can do that).

Will see if I can reconstruct either of them from memory.

 

[Cleon]

Not feeling energetic enough to start on the Description, Burrowstar & Landstar, but could be bothered putting the Challenge data in instead of the "# (##)." We did agree on CR 1 (200) if I recall correctly, and it checks out with the 5e.tools calculator.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Ok just ensuring both versions align so posting

 

[Cleon]

Ok just ensuring both versions align so posting

Yup, those two match.

Did just think of something: does the brittle star injure itself if it chooses to deliberately tear off an arm? Should we tweak the following in Shed Arms to clarify that?

In addition, if a giant brittle star is threatened or attacked by a creature larger than itself, or its hit points are reduced to 20 of fewer, it can choose to deliberately tear off one of its own arms as a reaction. This automatically severs an arm.​

I was thinking either "This automatically severs an arm but does not damage the brittle star" or "This automatically severs an arm and does 4 (1d4 + 2) damage to the brittle star."

However, upon reflection I think it's unnecessary. 5E prefers minimalist rules. The current version doesn't say the ophiuroid damages itself if it tears one of its own arms off, so it doesn't!