Talk:Axolota (3.5e Monster)

Ratings

	Eiji-kun favors this article and rated it 4 of 4!
	How have I not seen this before? It is glorious. I have a hard time being sure it's actually CR 20, but its at least CR 20 in the way a tarrasque is. Bonus points for axolotl.

CR

Thanks Eiji! Which CR would you say it could be? --The bluez in the dungeon (talk) 08:05, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Well let's see. DR/magic, at this level, is basically no DR at all. And the situational fast healing will be canceled by any amount of prep, either by waiting for the weather or via Control Weather. It's appropriate for sure, and for the latter I would assume any fights with the Axolota will happen in its own environment and it has Drizzle so I'll give it the assumption fast healing applies. Actually, what happens if one uses Control Weather? Does it supersede Drizzle or get overwritten by Drizzle?

It's AC is surprisingly non-existent. For something like that, I would assume either massive hp bloat, or some other effect like huge amounts of fast healing. I don't think FH 10 or 190 would qualify for that. Not that it's a requirement, but I made an average of a bunch of stats from the SRD ages ago here. Were I to trust the chart (and it's just a loose guideline) hpwise it's somewhere in the CR 13-14 range. Well, that's half true: Small Arms Resistance would effectively double this, short of bringing in siege weapons. That's CR 20ish, but then because of the AC I would be expecting hp bloat anyway, and it's not impossible for someone to just bring in some siege weapons.

It's will save is very low. It's immune to the worst of most will save or dies, but I'd take inflicts and other direct damage will saves to this thing all day.

It's strength is surprisingly low. Mighty Steps only has a DC of 16 (though at this level, not touching the ground due to flight is pretty common anyway), but Stomp is working a perfectly fine DC 26 so I suppose it works well (~CR 17).

With one to four attacks, it's average damage swings from 16-64. With reasonable tactics I would expect parties to be taking about 32 damage to one target a round. The breath weapon deals average 70, with a decently difficult DC (~CR 15) and can hit multiple targets in theory, but its presence is unreliable due to cooldowns.

My gut is telling me this might be closer to a boss encounter vs level 11s, so probably CR 15~. Which more or less aligns with some of the comparisons I made to my chart.

CR 15? That's my guess. Ironically my previous claim is a little off. While there's nothing remarkable about its move speeds or lack of flight (the thing that gets Big T), the fact it has a ranged weapon means it can still fight fliers. I just suspect it will not be able to take on groups reliably due to cooldowns, so its DPS will be low for the most part. Depending on when you think PCs should have ACs in the high 20s/low 30s, you might be able to justify an even lower CR. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 00:56, 18 May 2023 (UTC)

I could probably rethink something, or maybe add a buffed version for a higher CR (more or less 20). --The bluez in the dungeon (talk) 07:19, 18 May 2023 (UTC)