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One More Thing: Fissure Crab
🕑 Added 2024-04-25 17:00:06 +0000 UTCGreetings Adventurers,
As we continue to develop releases for our oceanic themes, we realized that we really wanted to make sure we didn't miss out on crustaceans as there's a whole world of interesting critters to develop in that style. Something that intrigued me a lot were the types of creatures that live around volcanic fissures in the ocean and once we combined those ideas, well we were off to the thermal races.
As with all of these One More Thing releases, it's exclusive to patrons. If you're not a patron and want this release, please consider supporting us here. For patrons, you'll have to grab the files from your master post (linked below) to see the stats. We hope you enjoy it.
Design notes from Matthew:
I wasn't actually intending these things to be as huge as they are in the end. Fernando started working on the illustration of it and included a whole shipwreck to give a sense of size and that's when I knew I needed to pivot a bit in my thinking. I'm actually glad he did that because it really informed a whole new design direction for these guys and changed them from swarming packs of pinchy scuttlers to these massive kaiju-like beings that are far more mobile than one would expect.
In the 5E version, one of the things that I had the toughest time balancing was how to translate an aura of damage that didn't feel overly punishing to interact with. I ended up going with a bit of a different method where attacks and touch based spells cause damage returns. This is one of the first times I've included a mechanic like that and I can say yep, that's a pain to develop, but worth it in the end.
On the PF2E side, things are a lot more defined, but I wanted to make sure that I gave some synergies to help account for its lack of scuttle reactions. The version of Molten Shell here is a lot more punishing, but in a much more tactical game like PF2E, it feels like it needs to be in order to push along how dangerous these big boys are. In the end I'm happy with how they came out across systems.
Next month we move into a much more spring-like environment in my part of the world and I can only imagine how that's going to impact what we design. I have some ideas for some aquatic plant-life that I think could go a long way in making some interesting interactions in your games. I can't wait to share them with you.
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Rewards for Patrons!
Kraken's Kollaborators ($10 Tier)
Better get the butter and a big pot,
- Fernando & Matthew
