Trying to create a new creature need help

[iceniqueen]

Trying to create a new creature. Fumbling my way through it.

I see under CR Estimate the Fort Save, Ref Save, and Will save all say Low, but cannot see how to increase them.

Not seeing anything in the Background to change them/raise them up and under the Basics Tab you cannot change those

Help?

 

[wdmartin]

Your options are:

1) Increase the relevant ability score (Constitution for Fort, Dexterity for Reflex, Wisdom for Will).

2) Take a relevant feat (Great Fortitude, Lightning Reflexes, Iron Will).

3) Give your monster an arbitrary boost to one or more save type as a racial bonus. You can implement that either with the editor, or by just applying an adjustment to the creature.

Note that increasing the ability scores can be something of a balancing act. Pumping up the Constitution will also give the monster extra hit points. Giving it more Dexterity will increase its initiative, AC and quite a few skills. Increasing its Wisdom will give it higher Perception, and increase its spellcasting ability if it happens to cast spells based on Wisdom like a cleric does.

 

[iceniqueen]

Constructs by nature don't have Con, Int, etc. I was upping up an existing golem, (Sand) and making it tougher for my party. The base one it was off of scores don't fit, and raising saves kind by feats, or abilities, takes away from the original.

But if all else, I will do that. Does not make since that is the only way.

 

[iceniqueen]

As I added those feats, I get to many feats added. I can add in Racial Bonus feats, but increasing a CON of - and an Int of - up won't let me change it

 

[Mathias]

If this is a golem, the fact that it's got magic immunity makes its saves something it won't have to use very much - unless the PCs figure out what the few spells that get past its magic immunity are, and use those, it generally won't have to make any saving throws. But if they do use one of those spells, you want it to have a low chance of succeeding at the save - otherwise, the PCs aren't rewarded for finding the right way past the immunity. So in my opinion, the low saves on a golem would be a deliberate choice of the monster designer, so if you're going to improve those, make sure you open up a different vulnerability for your players to exploit, or this just becomes a slog of a fight.

 

[Lord Magus]

Reskin an existing, higher-CR golem. Just adjust its special attacks and abilities to fit with the original type.

 

[wdmartin]

As Matthias mentions, golems use different mechanics than most creatures, because of their constructed nature. I'm inclined to agree that the low saves are a deliberate weak point balancing out other strengths.

The "too many feats" issue is because you have exceeded the number of feats granted by the creature's hit dice. Just like a PC, they get one feat every other hit die. You can add extra racial hit dice by going to the Classes tab, clicking "add class levels or hit dice" and then picking "Additional hit dice" instead of a class.

However, if all you really want is to boost the golem's saves, the most straightforward way to do it is using an adjustment. Click Adjust, then in the "Other Adjustments" area click "Add an Adjustment." Find "Saving Throw Bonus" in the list of adjustments and add it to the creature. Then use the first drop-down box to pick the save type (e.g., Fortitude), and set the second one to a type of bonus. In this case it sounds like "untyped" is probably the type you want. Finally, set the amount of the bonus in the upper right corner of the adjustment, and there you go.

You can use adjustments this way to arbitrarily increase or decrease basically any stats. Be aware that it's possible to go overboard and make something too hard (or too easy). GM fiat is powerful.