Something's wrong with the Tauric Template's CR

[JiCi]

Greetings everyone,

According to Savage Species, the resulting creature from the Tauric template is equal to the base creature's +1, regardless of the base humanoid's CR. Could it be possible to get a creature with a CR lower than the base humanoid's ?

Here's an example: if I combine this base humanoid with that base creature:
- A redspawn arcaniss (Medium Monstrous Humanoid, 8 HD, CR 6) from the MMIV
- A pack lizard (Large Animal, 8 HD, CR 3) from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting

I get a Large Monstrous Humanoid with 16 HD... with a CR of 4 !?

Am I missing something ? You mean that I can apply the Paragon template (from Epic Level Handbook; check the SRD for a 3.5 version) to my redspawn, get a CR 21 creature with loads of bonuses, apply the tauric template with a pack lizard and get a tauric redspawn-lizard paragon with a CR of 4 ???

Can someone please enlighten me on this one ?

Thanks in advance,

JiCi

 

[Shade]

I believe you are correct. It probably should be "as base creature or base humanoid, whichever is higher, +1". That might present a more reasonable figure.

 

[JiCi]

I believe you are correct. It probably should be "as base creature or base humanoid, whichever is higher, +1". That might present a more reasonable figure.

Indeed. They probably didn't think that the base humanoid CAN have a higher CR than the base creature.

Come to think of it, a CR 7 creature with 16 HD is "reasonable".

 

[JiCi]

Got another question:

If the base creature has more than a head, like a chimera or hydra, does applying the tauric template takes away all the heads of just 1 ?

 

[BOZ]

i think so. the tauric template wasn't really meant to accomodate hydras or chimeras.

 

[JiCi]

Ok... while we're at it, should I consider this template to be completely unbalanced ?

It's like 2 important errors I spotted yet.

 

[Nellisir]

Got another question:

If the base creature has more than a head, like a chimera or hydra, does applying the tauric template takes away all the heads of just 1 ?

It's probably a creator's call. While the letter of the template (which I don't have in front of me) probably does eliminate the extra heads, you could just as easily leave all but one. Best of both worlds, as it were.

For extra fun, dig up a multi-headed template and apply it to the tauric (humanoid) head.

 

[Shade]

This template probably qualifies as one of those "good idea, iffy execution" ones that pop up from time to time. I'd use it more as a monster creation guideline than a true template, adding and removing additional features from the resultant creature, and setting the CR by comparing it to other creatures, rather than trying to use the formula.

BOZ whipped up a cool tauric creature awhile back without using the template, called the Changecat. I'm not sure whether it is still floating around the forums.

 

[Knightfall]

I believe you are correct. It probably should be "as base creature or base humanoid, whichever is higher, +1". That might present a more reasonable figure.

That sounds like a good fix.

 

[BOZ]

BOZ whipped up a cool tauric creature awhile back without using the template, called the Changecat. I'm not sure whether it is still floating around the forums.

if it isn't, i still have it on the hard drive.