Lock Lurker

[qstor]

This creature was in the Haunted Halls of Evening Star and the 2nd ed. boxed FR set. I think this needs to be "cleaned up". Scott, Erica
I'm not sure about the poison. I'd love to see it in the print copy of the CC. It was left out of Monsters of Faerun.

Lock Lurker
Fine Aberration
Hit Dice 2 HP
Initiative: +6
Speed: 20 ft
AC: 17
attacks: 1 +14
damage: bite 1HP/ tail stinger 1d4 plus venom
face/reach: 1 foot/0
special attacks: venom
special qualities: partial etheralness, darkvision
saves: ref +6, fort +0, will +3
Abilities: IQ 5, ST 1, DX 22, CON 10, WIS 14, CHA 5
Skills: Move Silently +8, Hide +10, Spot +4 Listen +4
Feats Weapon Finess
Climate Terrain: Any land
Organization: Solitary
CR 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: neutral
Advancement: -

The lock lurker appears as a gold coin. It is often placed with valuables to act as a guard.

Posion: The tail stinger poison acts a slow spell.
Venom DC 16 slow spell/ 1d8 hp (1d Dex) If the victim fails the saving throw they are paralyzed for 1-6 hours.
(this is where I was confused? Should the dex loss be greater?? Or just paralyzation without dex loss?)

Partial Etherealness: The tail stinger can attack creatures on the Ethereal Plane and materialezes on the Prime material plane when the creature attacks. The stinger can only be attacked if it appears on the Prime Material Plane. On the Ethereal Plane all parts of the creature can be attacked. It can pull itself onto the Prime Material plane. This reguires one full round action.

- - - -

I'm sure it needs some work

Mike

[BOZ]

right on! it was also in Dragon (#139?) and in the MCA 1.

[qstor]

I'll e-mail it to Scott after it's cleaned up. I'm still not sure how to handle the venom or the etherealness. I dont know if I got the hit dice right either...ugh!

Mike

[DnDChick]

Originally posted by qstor
I'll e-mail it to Scott after it's cleaned up. I'm still not sure how to handle the venom or the etherealness. I dont know if I got the hit dice right either...ugh!

Mike

I havent had a chance to look it over completely, but I do notice that you only have its HP listed. It needs a number for hit dice.

Since its an aberration with no CON bonus, I can assume that it has 1/2d8 for hit dice.

If thats the case, you need to list its hit point like this:

Hit Dice: 1/2d8 (2 hp)

Ill look it over more when I get home. Im at school right now and have no access to my game books.

One thing that would help the critique would be if you could post its original stats so I can compare your conversion with them. B)

[qstor]

Sure thing babe!

From the FRCS monstorous compendium sheets copyright 1993 WOTC/TSR

Climate/Terrian: Any land
Freq: Rare
organization: Solitary
activity cycle: any
Diet: Carnivore
Intelligence: low (5-7)
Treasure: Nil
Alignment: Neutral
No. Appearing: 1
AC: 3
Movement: 8
Hit Dice: 1+3
THACO: 17 (sting), 19 bite
No. of attacks: 1
Damage/attacks 1 bite or 6-9 sting
Special attks: paralyzing venom
Special defenses: partial etheralness
Magic resistance nil
sizeL T (1" diameter, talll. 1' long)
Morale 12
Exp. 175

The tiny lock lurker is the bane of thieves and if often places as a guard against such inflitrators. Lock Lurkers look like coins...A lock lurker has two rows of tiny, retractable legs on its underside surrounding a razor sharp iris of teeth.

Combat: A lurker's teeth can bite through hide, hair, skin or leather armor but not metal A lurker's stinger stricks as a much more powerful creature. The tail can attack creaturs in the Ethereal plane and materializes on the Prime Material plane only when the lurker launches an attack. It causes 1d4 points of damage and injects a venom into the bloodstream.
The venom reacts with the blood to slow a victim (as per the spell) If the saving throw is successful the victim is slowed for a second round then recovers fully.
If the saving throw fails the victim is immediately paralyzed for 1-6 hours, passes into a 1-2 round slowed state then recovers. This paralysis is a rigid muscle lock. The cannot be posed or easily dress. A lurker can sting 40+2d4 times per day without exhausting its venom....A lurkers stinger can be attacked on the Prime material plane only if materialized there. ON the Etheral plan all parts of a lurker can be attacked unless it pulls itself fully into the Prime Material plan. Lurkers have 60' range normal and infravision.

[DnDChick]

didnt the original have a hit point or hit dice value? I dont see it on the list....

And so youve takent o calling me babe, too, eh? lol

Ah well...its kewl. I kinda like being thought of as a babe. 'Cause the reality is Im not, and Im flattered anyone would think so!

[qstor]

Whoops...edited the post.

Mike

[qstor]

*bump*

[DnDChick]

Sorry! Been busy with school stuff lately. Ill do a full critique of this when I get home this afternoon. I promise.

[DnDChick]

Originally posted by qstor
This creature was in the Haunted Halls of Evening Star and the 2nd ed. boxed FR set. I think this needs to be "cleaned up". Scott, Erica
I'm not sure about the poison. I'd love to see it in the print copy of the CC. It was left out of Monsters of Faerun.

Lock Lurker
Fine Aberration
Hit Dice 2 HP

The original had 1HD, so its best to stick with that in the conversion. The notation would be:

Hit Dice: 1d8 (4 hp)

Initiative: +6
Speed: 20 ft
AC: 17

The Initiative would be +5, for reasons discussed below:

You should show how the AC is calculated, but I can see from the size and Dex you gave it, the AC will be considerably higher than 17! Here is what the AC would be as you have it:

AC: 24 (+8 size, +6 Dex)

Now the original text of the lock lurker says they have a 1' long tail...and the size of a monster includes any tail length. So right here we can see that the LL should be at least Diminutive. Assuming this, we can see that its AC would be:

AC: 20 (+4 size, +6 Dex)

Still a little high if we want to maintain the 17AC that the 3AC of the original would convert to. So...lets make the Lock Lurker a Tiny aberration, with a 20 Dex:

AC: 17 (+2 size, +5 Dex)

Perfect! And we only loose 1 point of Dex bonus, so its not a major loss.

attacks: 1 +14

I dont know what you mean here...I assume 1 attack with a +14 bonus, but you have to say what type of attack it is, such as Sing +14 melee.

However, since we changed the HD, Size, and Dex of the monster, the bonus will have to be recalculated.

+0 BAB + 2 size +5 Dex = +7 melee

a +7 melee bonus is more balanced for a Tiny creature anyway, so lets keep it at that:

Attacks: Tail sting +7 melee

And since this thing has a bite, lets give a bonus to that one, too. There are several ways to do this. If a Lock Lurker can bite OR sting in a round, it would be like this

Attacks: Tail sting +7 melee or bite +7 melee

If you want it to be able to bite AND sting in the same round:

Attacks: Tail sting +7 melee, bite +2 melee

damage: bite 1HP/ tail stinger 1d4 plus venom

These are both fine

face/reach: 1 foot/0
special attacks: venom
special qualities: partial etheralness, darkvision
saves: ref +6, fort +0, will +3

The saves, with the adjusted ability scores, would be

Fort +0 (Con), +0 (HD) = +0
Ref +5 (Dex), +0 (HD)= +5
Will +2 (Wis), +2 (HD)= +4

Abilities: IQ 5, ST 1, DX 22, CON 10, WIS 14, CHA 5

On an "official" monster sheet, your ability scores should always be STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA in order. But, thats no biggie.

The only change to make here is the adjusted Dex 20.

Skills: Move Silently +8, Hide +10, Spot +4 Listen +4

A Tiny aberration with 1HD and Int5 has 10 skill points. Youve spent 10 points here, which is kewl, but you didnt take into account the Size modifier for being so small. This can be found in the description of the HIDE skill on page 69 of the PHB. Had we kept the lock lurker a fine aberration with Dex22, its Hide skill would be +26!

But...we changed a few things, so its skills would look like this:

Skills: Move Silently +7, Hide +17, Spot +4, Listen +4

Feats Weapon Finess
Climate Terrain: Any land
Organization: Solitary
CR 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: neutral
Advancement: -

Posion: The tail stinger poison acts a slow spell.
Venom DC 16 slow spell/ 1d8 hp (1d Dex) If the victim fails the saving throw they are paralyzed for 1-6 hours.
(this is where I was confused? Should the dex loss be greater?? Or just paralyzation without dex loss?)

You dont have to have a Dex loss from the poison. Youve already stated that the poison acts as a slow spell. The effects of that spell are given in its description.

Partial Etherealness: The tail stinger can attack creatures on the Ethereal Plane and materialezes on the Prime material plane when the creature attacks. The stinger can only be attacked if it appears on the Prime Material Plane. On the Ethereal Plane all parts of the creature can be attacked. It can pull itself onto the Prime Material plane. This reguires one full round action.

- - - -

I'm sure it needs some work

Mike

Im note sure about the etherealness...maybe Scott has an idea as to how it should work?

Oh Scott honey? <bats her eyes>

[Grazzt]

Just to simplify the partial etherealness stuff and bring it more in line with 3e, I would just give it Ethereal Jaunt (see the ethereal filcher and ethereal marauder in the MM for details).

Simple, concise, and to the point. Yes, the whole creature can become ethereal rather than just the stinger, but it still works.

[qstor]

Thanks Erica and Scott! Erica I'll take your edits into account and repost the final version later, I'll e-mail it to scott later.

Mike

[qstor]

Lock Lurker

Tiny Aberration
Hit Dice: 1d8 (4 hp)
Initiative: +5
Speed: 20 ft
AC: 17 (+2 size, +5 Dex)
Attacks: Tail sting +7 Melee or bite +7 Melee
Damage: bite 1HP/ tail stinger 1d4 plus venom
Face/Reach: 1 foot/0
Special Attacks: venom
Special Qualities: Ethereal jaunt, darkvision
Saves: Ref +5, Fort +0, will +4
Abilities: STR 1, DEX 20, CON 10, INT 5, WIS 14 CHA 5
Skills: Move Silently +7, Hide +17, Spot +4, Listen +4
Feats: Weapon Finess
Climate Terrain: Any land
Organization: Solitary
CR 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: neutral
Advancement: -


Posion: The tail stinger poison acts a slow spell.
Venom DC 16 slow spell/ 1d8 hp


Ethereal Jaunt (Su): A lock lurker can shift from the Ethereal to the Material Plane as part of any move action, and shift back again as a free action.
It can remain on the Ethereal Plane for 1 round before returning to the Material.
The ability is otherwise identical with ethereal jaunt cast by a 15th-level sorcerer.

[qstor]

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[qstor]

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[qstor]

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[BOZ]

we're now upgrading the lock lurker to 3.5