Converting Planescape monsters

freyar · Jul 14, 2017

Your edits to the tactics and description seem fine to me. And I like your suggestions for the feats.

I think I'll let you suggest the background, since there's not much to go on besides maybe their tendency toward slavery. As for weight, I'd be fine with giving them the same weight as an air elemental to go along with the same height.

Cleon · Jul 18, 2017

freyar said:
Your edits to the tactics and description seem fine to me. And I like your suggestions for the feats.

Updating the Steam Quasi-Elemental Working Draft.

freyar said:
I think I'll let you suggest the background, since there's not much to go on besides maybe their tendency toward slavery. As for weight, I'd be fine with giving them the same weight as an air elemental to go along with the same height.

Yes, the original material is a bit thin, but at least that means we don't have a lot of text to work out.

Cleon · Jul 20, 2017

Cleon said:
Updating the Steam Quasi-Elemental Working Draft.

We've still got a few mechanical odds & ends to sort out, namely:

It’s immune to cold-based attacks, weather-affecting spells, and any harmful effects from water. Fire-based attacks cause only half damage. Electricity inflicts full damage, but it also can hurt anyone currently engulfed by the creature. (Sods in the cloud must make a saving throw versus spell; failure indicates that they suffer half damage from the electrical attack, and success means that they suffer none.)

Let's see.

Immunity to cold

Resistance to fire (use same numbers as the Lightning Quasi? i.e. 5 for Small/Medium, 10 for Large/Huge, 20 for Greater/Elder and 30 for Monolith?)

Protection from Weather & Water (Ex): A steam quasi-elemental never suffers harmful effects from bad weather, water-based attacks, or spells with the Water descriptor.

Conducting Body (Ex): Any creature that is being grappled or engulfed by a steam quasi-elemental when it takes electricity damage must also succeed at a Fortitude saving throw (using the DC of the attack or DC 15 if none is given) or suffer half damage from the attack. The creature takes no damage if they save. Steam quasi-elementals themselves take damage normally from electrical attacks.

Cleon said:
Yes, the original material is a bit thin, but at least that means we don't have a lot of text to work out.

Let's see…

Steam quasi-elementals inhabit the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Steam, which is formed from the junction of the Positive Energy Plane and the Elemental Plane of Water. They are said to influence or control almost every living being on their home plane and desire to extend this mastery to their neighboring planes.

Steam quasi-elementals are almost invisibly in a steamy environment such as the Plane of Steam. When visibly, their vaporous bodies resemble a ghostly water elemental. They fly and swim with equal faculty. On their rare visits to the Prime Material Plane they are only found in places where the air is constantly filled with water vapor, such as the base of a waterfall.

The vaporous bodies of steam quasi-elementals lack the ability to manipulate objects, so they strive to manipulate other creatures instead. They expend great effort spying on the inhabitants of their plane and its neighbors in a perpetual quest for control. The more powerful steam quasi-elementals run spy networks of their weaker and less intelligent brethren, and many of them keep slaves to work with material objects on their behalf. Steam quasi-elementals are as aggressive as they're manipulative and have no hesitancy about attacking creatures that interfere with their plans or refuse to cooperate. They prefer to enslave intruders than kill them, however.

These elementals feed by absorbing gases and vapors. In rare circumstances a steam quasi-elemental reproduces by absorbing a vast amount of vapor and splitting off an offspring.

A steam quasi-elemental has the same height and weight as an air elemental of the same size.

freyar · Aug 12, 2017

I can go for all those mechanical tweaks, including the same numbers for fire resistance as the lightning quasi.

Flavor looks good too!

Cleon · Aug 13, 2017

freyar said:
I can go for all those mechanical tweaks, including the same numbers for fire resistance as the lightning quasi.

Flavor looks good too!

Updating the Steam Quasi-Elemental Working Draft.

I guess we're done with the Quasi-Elementals then!

Oryan77 · Aug 18, 2017

Can I make a request for two other PS creatures? The players in my game are about to do a side quest in our Tales from the Infinite Staircase story and I am running the 2e Planescape Harbinger House adventure as the side quest. Is there any way you guys could do a conversion of these two (hopefully simple) conversions:

Small, Medium, and Large Figment - pg 55

Abyssal Leech Swarm - pg 59 (a single leech appears on pg 52) - I never heard of an Abyssal Leech and not sure if it has any 2e stats.

I can use a normal leech swarm if I need to and it probably won't even be an encounter anyway. I just like having creature conversions for everything Planescape related and you guys are my favorite go-to for conversions.

Cleon · Aug 20, 2017

Oryan77 said:
Can I make a request for two other PS creatures? The players in my game are about to do a side quest in our Tales from the Infinite Staircase story and I am running the 2e Planescape Harbinger House adventure as the side quest. Is there any way you guys could do a conversion of these two (hopefully simple) conversions:

Small, Medium, and Large Figment - pg 55

Abyssal Leech Swarm - pg 59 (a single leech appears on pg 52) - I never heard of an Abyssal Leech and not sure if it has any 2e stats.

I can use a normal leech swarm if I need to and it probably won't even be an encounter anyway. I just like having creature conversions for everything Planescape related and you guys are my favorite go-to for conversions.

Sure, I'm game for that.

The Figments look similar to the Figments in the adventure "The Door to Darkness" by James Wyatt from Dungeon #81, both being creatures created out of imagination.

As for the Abyssal Leech, as far as I know they haven't appeared in any publications and they're not given any combat stats. I think they're just exotic magical ingredients in the adventure, aren't they?

I guess you could use the Stygian Leech Swarm from Barrow of the Forgotten King for a swarm of them. That's a 3.5 source so it won't require any converting.

Anyhow, shall we do the Figments first?

I'll post the original stats as soon as I can transcribe them.

Cleon · Aug 21, 2017

Figment Original Stats

21. THE ROCK GARDEN
Pathways of colorful stone wind through this garden room. Flowers of all descriptions grow in the paths, and skylights in the ceiling provide sunlight from the Arcadian sky. This the chamber of Tomin, a tall, wiry, and cruel barmy with long, greasy hair. He wears what appears to be a black cloak but is actually a cloak of figments. Figments are tiny, humanoid shadow creatures – literally, figments of Tomin’s imagination made real by the powers of his addle-coved mind. They hang together from Tomin’s back and arms, forming a cloaklike cape of moving, chattering beings.

Tomin commands his figments, often sending them scurrying away from his body to take any shape he can imagine. If a PC fails to make a successful save vs. rod when attacked by a figment, the PC believes it to be real, and the figment can then cause real damage. Each PC must make his own saving throw; if even one PC fails the roll, the figment becomes real for all. If attacked by several figments, the PCs must save against each one separately.

Tomin’s figments come in three types: small, medium, and large. Small figments appear as pixies with shark heads, or goblins with tentacles for arms. Medium-sized figments take the form of wolf-headed humans, winged beetles the size of elves with tooth-filled maws all along their abdomens, or centaurs with the heads and torsos of tieflings attached to the bodies of red dragons. Large figments look like cyclopses with tentacles instead of legs, or huge snakemen with scimitar arms and dagger teeth.

If Trolan is present, Tomin laughs hysterically. “The Lady can’t see you here,” he cackles. “She can’t see any of us! That’s why Nari’s going to win! I love her!”

TOMIN (PL/♂ HUMAN/F7/BELIEVERS OF THE SOURCE/CE):
THAC0 14; #AT 3/2; Dmg 2d4+1 (broad sword +1); AC 7 (magical cloak, Dex bonus); hp 49; MV 12; SA Strength bonus ( +1 to attack and damage rolls), innate ability (create figments calls forth four small figments, two medium figments, or one large figment every round); SD immune to charm and illusion spells; MR 25%; SZ M (6 feet tall); ML fanatic (18); XP 3,000.
Str 17, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 12.

FIGMENT, SMALL: THAC0 19; #AT 1; Dmg 1d4+1; AC 8; HD 2+1; hp 9; MV 6; SD +1 weapons or better to hit; SZ S (3 feet tall); Int animal (1); AL N; ML champion (16); XP 120.

FIGMENT, MEDIUM: THAC0 15; #AT 2; Dmg 1d6+1; AC 4; HD 5+2; hp 26; MV 9; SD +1 weapons or better to hit; SZ M (6 feet tall); Int semi (3); AL N; ML fanatic (17); XP 420.

FIGMENT, LARGE: THAC0 13; #AT 3; Dmg 1d8+3; AC 0; HD 8+3; hp 43; MV 12; SD +2 weapons or better to hit; SZ L (9 feet tall); Int low (5); AL N; ML fearless (19); XP 1,400.

Originally appeared in Harbinger House (1995).

freyar · Sep 7, 2017

Well, these should be pretty basic, if we're ignoring Tomin at least. The biggest question for me is type. I'm leaning toward Outsider, but I could be swayed in another direction. I guess the "reality" is a bit odd, too, since if they're not "real" I don't see how to make them creatures. We could give them a "Disbelief" SQ or something that just makes them wink out of existence.

Cleon · Sep 7, 2017

freyar said:
Well, these should be pretty basic, if we're ignoring Tomin at least. The biggest question for me is type. I'm leaning toward Outsider, but I could be swayed in another direction. I guess the "reality" is a bit odd, too, since if they're not "real" I don't see how to make them creatures. We could give them a "Disbelief" SQ or something that just makes them wink out of existence.

Well conceptually they remind me of Astral Constructs from the Psionics Handbook and SRD.

That might work too, but it would give them a host of special defenses from the Construct type that aren't mentioned in the above.

Unless we make it a Construct with a special quality that means it lacks many of a construct's standard defenses. There are precedents for that, like the Warforged.

Hmm… it seems a bit fiddly but I'm leaning towards taking that route since it feels off to give them the high BAB, saves and skills of an Outsider.