Converting monsters from Dragon magazine

Heh...I think I was subliminally reminding myself of its other special sense...

The Dust Devil is motivated by its desire to possess precious metals and gems, which it can detect at distances of up to 6”

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Borrow this, and expand it to include gems?

Metalsense (Ex): All ferrous dragons can sense the location and amount of any non-precious metal (precious metals include adamantine, copper, gold, mithral, platinum, and silver) within a distance of 30 feet x the dragon’s age category. This makes it nearly impossible to sneak up on a ferrous dragon when wearing armor or wielding weapons made from iron or other nonprecious metals. Like blindsense, opponents the dragon can’t actually see still have total concealment against the dragon.

Something like...

Treasuresense (Ex): Dust devils can sense the location and amount of any non-precious metal (precious metals include adamantine, copper, gold, mithral, platinum, and silver) and gems within a distance of 60 feet. This makes it nearly impossible to sneak up on a dust devil when wearing armor or wielding weapons made from iron or other nonprecious metals. Like blindsense, opponents the dust devil can’t actually see still have total concealment against the elemental.

Updated.

Shade said:

Heh...I think I was subliminally reminding myself of its other special sense...

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Oops! I missed that, and their I was thinking its SQs were done and dusted.

Shade said:

Treasuresense (Ex): Dust devils can sense the location and amount of any non-precious metal (precious metals include adamantine, copper, gold, mithral, platinum, and silver) and gems within a distance of 60 feet. This makes it nearly impossible to sneak up on a dust devil when wearing armor or wielding weapons made from iron or other nonprecious metals. Like blindsense, opponents the dust devil can’t actually see still have total concealment against the elemental.

Updated.

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Eh? That makes no sense, it can't sense iron or other nonprecious metals. I would also change it to (Su) and have it blocked by barriers like detect spells.

How about:

Treasuresense (Su): Dust devils can sense the location and amount of any precious metal (precious metals include adamantine, copper, gold, mithral, platinum, and silver) and gems within a distance of 60 feet. This makes it nearly impossible to sneak up on a dust devil when wearing jewelery or carrying coins. Like blindsense, opponents the dust devil can’t actually see still have total concealment against the elemental. Treasuresense can penetrate barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it.

I obviously typed that during today's pre-caffeinated era.

Your revision looks good. Updated.

Challenge Rating: 5? They are slightly weaker than belkers.

Treasure: Double coins, double goods (gems and precious metal items only), no items?

Alignment: Usually chaotic neutral?

Advancement: x

A typical dust devil is 4 feet tall and weighs x pounds. (A Small air elemental weighs 1 pound. The additional dust might contribute another pound or two.)

Dust devils speak Auran and Terran?

Dust devils can be summoned via a summon monster IV or summon nature's ally III spell?

Shade said:

I obviously typed that during today's pre-caffeinated era.

Your revision looks good. Updated.

Challenge Rating: 5? They are slightly weaker than belkers.

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They're a fair bit weaker from what I can see.

Belker's have 140% the hit points, 4 points more AC, do 264% the average damage if all their full attacks hit, can instantly switch to smoke form (or back again) as a free action, and their Smoke Claws attack is done in gaseous form rather than the Dust Devil's vulnerable solid state (plus its DC is a point higher).

I'd rather go for Challenge Rating 4.

Shade said:

Treasure: Double coins, double goods (gems and precious metal items only), no items?

Alignment: Usually chaotic neutral?

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Those'll do. I was thinking always chaotic neutral, but upon reflection usually makes better sense - by their description some of them tend to evil.

Shade said:

Advancement: x

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7-9 HD (Small); 10-18 HD (Medium) ?

Shade said:

A typical dust devil is 4 feet tall and weighs x pounds. (A Small air elemental weighs 1 pound. The additional dust might contribute another pound or two.)

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I'd go for 8 pounds, the minimum for standard Small creatures and coincidentally the same bodyweight as a belker.

Shade said:

Dust devils speak Auran and Terran?

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Makes sense.

Shade said:

Dust devils can be summoned via a summon monster IV or summon nature's ally III spell?

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They're between a Medium and a Large Elemental in power, so I'd lean towards caution and make it summon nature's ally V and summon monster VI.

I don't want the summon spells to be too low level, otherwise conjurers will always be summoning these chaps instead of the standard elementals.

In addition, their treasure finding ability would make them a desirable servant for adventurers, so we don't want to make it an easy "find treasure" spell.

Updated. Finished?

Shade said:

Updated. Finished?

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We forgot to add the Weapon Finesse bonus to its slams (should be +8 attack), but apart from that I believe we're done with this Devil.

Fixed.

Harrow
Standing in the far corner is a strange, metallic statue. It is about 8’ tall and 15’ long. It has a large central body, and extending out in front of it are 8 razor-sharp discs. The discs are about 3’ in diameter and are mounted across a 10’ rod. Coming out of the rear of the body is a large cylinder of some kind. It has two feelers extending from its top. ((This is a Harrow; AC -3, 9 dice, 40 HP, value 2,400. It is a creature from another universe which is composed entirely of ferrous metal. Its life force and mode of movement are of magnetic origin, and it is surrounded by a strong magnetic field which gives it a magic resistance of 50%. It feeds by absorbing the magnetic auras of dying creatures and by ingesting iron and steel directly into its central body. It can attack twice per turn, once with its discs at all targets in a 10’-wide space for 3-12; if it misses, a second attack is allowed by the massive rear drive cylinder on the same targets for 4-16. The two feelers are sensors which detect the magnetic auras of living creatures. The Harrow is unaffected by paralyzation and all mindinfluencing attacks, and cold attacks do half or no damage. When it is killed, all of a Harrow’s parts freeze up and are immovable. The Harrow will not attack unless attacked, or if any person who has stepped up on either dais leaves the dais. ))

Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #34 (1980).

Outsider? Construct?

It seems more like a construct with its mind-affecting immunity and freezing of its body when killed. It feeds off iron like a rust monster or rust dragon. Feeding off a living magnetic aura is new to me, how do we translate that in game terms? Sounds like it should affect the ki of creatures that are aware of/use it, maybe one of the physical ability scores is affected.