Talk:Kyton (3.5e Monster)

I like

But, why the at-will Fly? That's just letting them kite (ba-dum TISH) enemies, thanks to the reach on the chains. It also means any structure built by kytons isn't going to have stairs or ladders (not to mention the Greater Teleport), so that's interesting from an in-game standpoint and incidentally means a kyton machine gun nest is going to be somewhere really hard to reach if you can't fly or teleport. I love the abilities and I'm now thinking of throwing a kyton squad with someone to buff and heal them--if healing counts as a "positive magical effect". I can't see CR 6 on this, though. 8 at the least, 10 at the outside. --Genowhirl 20:49, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Why do so many outsiders have greater teleport anyway? (Especially at will.) Just makes them incredibly frustrating to fight and increases anti-fun patterns :-/ --Ghostwheel 21:38, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Teleport I don't really have a defense for, but I think most of the demons and devils I've made operate for characters of rogue- and wizard-level games, and as a result they tend to have flight so that when the PC's are packing flight they won't be able to be kited. Especially with monsters, I think the SLA's are modular enough that if you so desired you could alter them at your convenience without terribly affecting the balance. That's why I try not to make the SLA's too big a part of its repertoire; they just cover the basic things that one would need to survive against wizard-level opponents.

As for what constitutes a "positive magical effect", I would most definitely include healing. That said, I can see why the ambiguity is potentially problematic, since one could make the argument that being raised from the dead is a positive magical effect that the kyton could then spread to each of his dead comrades. So I'm tempted to include a caveat for that and whatever other issues others think it may have. - TG Cid 22:03, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, I'd prohibit raise dead. If nothing else because it likely wouldn't work--you have to cast it on a dead person, and a dead person can't pass it on because they're being patched up and brought back to life. And teleporting... it is sort of iconic for the genre that the baddies come and go as they please, or zip around--but Kytons don't strike me as exceptionally iconic major villains (although now I have an image of a large-sized Kyton Commander carrying a hellfire gatling cannon around and leading squads of normal kytons into battle. Thanks for that one). Greater teleport as an SLA could use a recharge on it--maybe it takes longer for the lesser fiends to work a teleport back up (like, a month), whereas a Balor can do one every few rounds if he feels like it. --Genowhirl 22:48, 3 March 2012 (UTC)