Converting monsters from Dragon magazine

Cleon · Sep 14, 2010

Shade said:
Deal! Added to Homebrews.

The former sounds a lot like death knell, which adds temporary hit points and a +2 bonus to Strength. Perhaps we should have the metal consumption add something different? Maybe a short-term boost to natural armor and actual healing?

I suspect this is how it feeds off creatures from its own ferromagnetic universe. Do creatures on the regular Prime Material have "magnetic auras" worth feeding on?

Similarly, their ability to eat/absorb metal does not seem to be usable in combat - maybe it takes too long?

freyar · Sep 14, 2010

Good idea on death knell. Rather than actual healing, I could see a temporary boost to Con, and the temporary NA boost can work as well.

Shade · Sep 14, 2010

Cleon said:
I suspect this is how it feeds off creatures from its own ferromagnetic universe. Do creatures on the regular Prime Material have "magnetic auras" worth feeding on?

I'd like to keep it. That's what justifies its blindsense as well. We could change it to "ferrous metals in the bloodstream" if you'd prefer.

Cleon said:
Similarly, their ability to eat/absorb metal does not seem to be usable in combat - maybe it takes too long?

That could be fine, although it still might be fun to give them a benefit for post-meal battles.

freyar said:
Good idea on death knell. Rather than actual healing, I could see a temporary boost to Con, and the temporary NA boost can work as well.

I'm on-board with that.

RavinRay · Sep 15, 2010

Shade said:
I'd like to keep it. That's what justifies its blindsense as well. We could change it to "ferrous metals in the bloodstream" if you'd prefer.

That conjures up visions of Magneto levitating the guard via the excess iron in his blood and then extracting it through his body, killing him. Imagine if this creature were capable of that.

Shade · Sep 15, 2010

RavinRay said:
That conjures up visions of Magneto levitating the guard via the excess iron in his blood and then extracting it through his body, killing him. Imagine if this creature were capable of that.

That sounds...harrowing.

Cleon · Sep 15, 2010

Shade said:
I'd like to keep it. That's what justifies its blindsense as well. We could change it to "ferrous metals in the bloodstream" if you'd prefer.

Ah, but then most invertebrates would be immune.

Shade said:
That could be fine, although it still might be fun to give them a benefit for post-meal battles.

We could give its saw attack the ability to ignore the hardness of metal objects?

Maybe just ignore metals with hardness less than mithral?

Then if we want a "weapon eating" version we just give it Improved Sunder.

Shade · Sep 16, 2010

Cleon said:
Ah, but then most invertebrates would be immune.

I can live with that. D&D has enough effects/abilities that affect blood to make me comfortable using a blood-based ability.

We could give its saw attack the ability to ignore the hardness of metal objects?

Maybe just ignore metals with hardness less than mithral?

Then if we want a "weapon eating" version we just give it Improved Sunder.

That could work. Perhaps even one of the magnetic powers listed upthread from another creature.

Cleon · Sep 17, 2010

Shade said:
I can live with that. D&D has enough effects/abilities that affect blood to make me comfortable using a blood-based ability.

I suspect you misunderstood me. Invertebrates have blood, what they don't have is ferrous metal based blood. The oxygen-carrying compound is based on copper, not iron.

Shade said:
That could work. Perhaps even one of the magnetic powers listed upthread from another creature.

I would have no great objection to giving it a limited form of the Metalmaster's attraction power.

How's this:

Attract Metal (Ex): As a standard action, a harrow can generate a magnetic force to pull at a single metal object within 60 ft. This ability functions like a bull rush (check modifier +X), except that it does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and targets that lose the opposed check move towards the harrow instead of away from it. The harrow does not move if it loses the opposed Strength check.

Metal Eating (Ex): A harrow's razor-disc attack can slice through steel like cheese. It ignores the hardness of any metal object with a hardness less than 15.

Shade · Sep 17, 2010

Cleon said:
I suspect you misunderstood me. Invertebrates have blood, what they don't have is ferrous metal based blood. The oxygen-carrying compound is based on copper, not iron.

Apparently I did indeed. Still, I'd hate to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Could we simplify it to metal creatures and "vertebrate creatures"?

The other abilities look fun.

RavinRay · Sep 18, 2010

Shade said:
Apparently I did indeed. Still, I'd hate to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Could we simplify it to metal creatures and "vertebrate creatures"?

Basically we exclude all vermin; for gaming purposes I think we can also exclude invertebrate animals and magical beasts (like the kraken). In-game I'd call them either "boneless" or "invertebrate", as long as the meaning is understood.