Converting monsters from Dragon magazine

[demiurge1138]

They are pretty stupid. I'm okay with them not speaking Common, and I definitely don't want them speaking Draconic.

[Cleon]

Originally Posted by freyar

I'll possibly go with Common, but I'm not convinced about Draconic. Plus, they aren't so smart, so I don't think they should pile up on the languages.

I was just throwing out some possibilities, just Abyssal and Common would do. Basically, there's mention of them negotiating for loot, and that may prove difficult if they only speak Demon!

[Shade]

Let's just stick with Abyssal. They can always negotiate through pantomime and the like. They certainly wouldn't be the first creature who can't speak Common but deal with those who do.

I'll fix the claw damage.

[Shade]

Asperim (from the Latin asper-rough, bitter, harsh, particularly in the sense of exasperation)
FREQUENCY: Very Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 6
MOVE: 8”
HIT DICE: 10
% IN LAIR: 50%
TREASURE TYPE: U (no gems or jewelry)
NO. OF ATTACKS: 0
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 0
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Magic only
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 50%
INTELLIGENCE: Exceptional
ALIGNMENT: Lawful Evil
S I Z E : S
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil

Exasperation is the key word to describe the Asperim personality. The Asperim are a sort of super-imps. They take delight in annoying any creature near them, in frustrating others and torturing them mentally. They are not actively evil; whatever physical harm they do is usually accidental.

The Asperim are lesser devils who may be found in the outermost circles of Hell. Occasionally they break out to work their deviltry on other planes. The Asperim are 13 in number. They are solitary creatures, since not even another Asperim will willingly subject itself to the company of one of its kind.

The Asperim appear as squat, green humanoids with long, pointed ears. They look something like a cross between a dwarf and a giant frog. The Asperim have a particularly bizarre sense of humor, delighting in crude practical jokes and malicious pranks. They often speak in cryptic exclamations such as: “Aw, go peddle your papers!” or “Your mother wears army boots!”

The Asperim, if asked for information, will always direct the party along the worst possible path. They will not give the same answer twice in a row to the same question. The Asperim have all the spells normal to devils except Fear (since they do not want victims to run in panic). In addition, the Asperim have the following spells: Erase, Nystul’s Magic Aura, Shocking Grasp, Ventriloquism, Audible Glamer, Fools Gold, Forget, Invisibility, Mirror Image, Stinking Cloud, Dispel Magic, Explosive Runes, Slow, Confusion, Fumble, Polymorph Other, Feeblemind, Transmute Rock to Mud, Reverse Gravity, and Otto’s Irresistible Dance. All spells are cast as a l0th-level Magic-User.

The Asperim have no physical or psionic attacks and will teleport away if they cannot harm the party. The Asperim are highly magical in nature and are rumored to be powered by the souls of practical jokers. Asperim have a 70% chance of gating in 1-3 Imps, the only creatures who can stand to be in the company of the Asperim for any length of time.

Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #42 (1980).

Here's the regular imp: Devil :: d20srd.org

Note that the Fiend Folio added the Filth, Euphoric, and Bloodbag Imps, all of which might help define this.

[freyar]

Well, the other imps mentioned have about 3 average, 2 slightly better, and 1 good score (though the last "average" score for the filth imp is actually pretty bad). Maybe for this one, since it has many more HD and seems to be larger, slightly above average physical stats, Int as described (good), average Wis, decent Cha? The exasperating personality suggests low Cha, but the SLAs and ability to torment people suggests higher. So I could go anywhere from Cha 14 to 20 probably.

[Shade]

A high Cha could be tempered with a racial penalty on Diplomacy and similar skill checks.

[demiurge1138]

Agreed to racial penalties on Diplomacy. However, I don't see anything to suggest high physical ability scores. These guys are casters and avoid direct combat (although I think we should give them a physical melee attack, since the original didn't have any).

[Shade]

Str 10, Dex 13, Con 16, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha 20?

AC is crap (14), and even the lowly filth imp has +3 natural armor.

[freyar]

That's plenty high enough by what I was thinking. And the Diplomacy/other skill penalties is great! Agreed to all that.

Edit: also, should these be Small rather than Tiny?

[Shade]

I think Small works best.

[demiurge1138]

Agreed to small. And the low AC is compensated for a bit by SLAs like blur and mirror image. A bit. We might want to raise it a bit towards the end of the process if we think it's a glaring oversight.

[Cleon]

Originally Posted by Shade

Str 10, Dex 13, Con 16, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha 20?

AC is crap (14), and even the lowly filth imp has +3 natural armor.

I'd give it a higher Dex than that (say, 17 like a regular Imp?), but the other stats look fine.

I would definitely be tempted to improve its defenses. It has a lousy AC and its only magical defence is invisibility (which most PCs of its level will likely see right through) and a mediocre Spell Resistance.

Any party worth its salt would just dogpile an Asperim and would likely kill it in a round, maybe before it even got a single spell off.

I'd be tempted to give it project image, so it can "appear" before the party and torment them without them being able to harm it... until they hunt the little blighter out and wreak their revenge! Failing that, maybe stoneskin?

[Cleon]

Pardon, where's the blur and mirror image come from? I don't remember them being on AD&D's standard list of devil spell abilities (I can remember alter self, teleport w/o error, illusion & cause fear, but not those two). Might just be my memory playing tricks with me.

Originally Posted by demiurge1138

Agreed to small. And the low AC is compensated for a bit by SLAs like blur and mirror image. A bit. We might want to raise it a bit towards the end of the process if we think it's a glaring oversight.

[freyar]

Mirror image is right here, bold added. Maybe blur is renamed, don't remember.

The Asperim, if asked for information, will always direct the party along the worst possible path. They will not give the same answer twice in a row to the same question. The Asperim have all the spells normal to devils except Fear (since they do not want victims to run in panic). In addition, the Asperim have the following spells: Erase, Nystul’s Magic Aura, Shocking Grasp, Ventriloquism, Audible Glamer, Fools Gold, Forget, Invisibility, Mirror Image, Stinking Cloud, Dispel Magic, Explosive Runes, Slow, Confusion, Fumble, Polymorph Other, Feeblemind, Transmute Rock to Mud, Reverse Gravity, and Otto’s Irresistible Dance. All spells are cast as a l0th-level Magic-User.

Regarding Dex and AC, I think the Dex should be no more than 15 based on advancement in size from the standard imp, but imps also don't have great stats, so I think 13 is fine. Let's leave the AC low and see if it looks like a problem later.

[Shade]

I'd recommend retaining the following from the standard imp:

• Damage reduction 5/good or silver (probably change the "or" to an "and")
• Fast healing 2 (probably boost to 3)
• Immunity to poison
• Resistance to fire 5 (probably boost to 10)

Shall we retain the imp's wings/fly speed?

I'd recommend boosting the spell resistance to the devil standard (CR+12)

I agree we should give them some sort of standard attack. Claw, or tail sting like standard imp?

[freyar]

Agreed to all that. For the natural attack, I think I like a weak claw or two.

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews.

I moved some of the SLAs to 3/day or 1/day, depending on their power level.

I borrowed the forget conversion from the bane minions we did long ago.

We still need fool's gold and forget. Didn't we deal with forget awhile back, using a limited form of modify memory?

[demiurge1138]

I do remember we did a forget conversion, but ironically I don't remember for what.

I misspoke on blur, certainly. But if it has 10 HD, it's going to need better natural armor and/or Dex. Agreed to the "and" on the DR.

[freyar]

The SLAs look fine to me.

You mean you borrowed the fumble conversion?

Forget is probably pretty similar to the seelie spell of forgetting. Maybe we can look up fool's gold this weekend...

[Shade]

Found it!

Forget (Sp): Three times per day, a young or older mithril dragon may permanently remove a specific memory from a single creature. This functions as the modify memory spell, but can only be used to eliminate all memory of an event the subject actually experienced. This is the equivalent of a 2nd-level spell.