Converting original D&D and Mystara monsters

freyar · Oct 22, 2012

Discerp (Su): Once per month, a goatling can drain energy from an undead creature or a creature with the Extraplanar subtype. The victim must be physically or magically restrained in some way. Each minute that the goatling concentrates on discerping, the victim gains a negative level (positive level in the case of undead) and the goatling gains 10 empowerment points. A goatling can discerp a maximum number of levels equal to its HD. If the victim has as many negative levels as HD, it falls unconscious rather than dying. Negative levels are recovered at the rate of 1/day and never become permanent. The save DC is Intelligence(?)-based.

Empowering....

So, how do you want to do the empowered discerps?

Cleon · Oct 24, 2012

freyar said:
Discerp (Su): Once per month, a goatling can drain energy from an undead creature or a creature with the Extraplanar subtype. The victim must be physically or magically restrained in some way. Each minute that the goatling concentrates on discerping, the victim gains a negative level (positive level in the case of undead) and the goatling gains 10 empowerment points. A goatling can discerp a maximum number of levels equal to its HD. If the victim has as many negative levels as HD, it falls unconscious rather than dying. Negative levels are recovered at the rate of 1/day and never become permanent. The save DC is Intelligence(?)-based.

Empowering....

If we're removing the saving throw we should also remove "The save DC is Intelligence(?)-based".

freyar said:
So, how do you want to do the empowered discerps?

There doesn't seem much point in empowering the Discerp now it doesn't have a saving throw or spell resistance. It wouldn't be a good idea to let it use empowerment points to increase its discerp HD cap, since that would produce an obvious power feedback loop.

Speaking of which, we should say goatlings can't gain more than 10*HD empowerment points, even with multiple Disceps.

freyar · Oct 29, 2012

You mean the total can never be above 10*HD? Shouldn't that be listed under "empowerment" or whatever tells you how to use the points? Oh well, I guess it could be in both places:

Discerp (Su): Once per month, a goatling can drain energy from an undead creature or a creature with the Extraplanar subtype. The victim must be physically or magically restrained in some way. Each minute that the goatling concentrates on discerping, the victim gains a negative level (positive level in the case of undead) and the goatling gains 10 empowerment points. A goatling can discerp a maximum number of levels equal to its HD. If the victim has as many negative levels as HD, it falls unconscious rather than dying. Negative levels are recovered at the rate of 1/day and never become permanent. A goatling may never have more than a maximum of 10 empowerment points per HD.

Cleon · Oct 30, 2012

freyar said:
You mean the total can never be above 10*HD? Shouldn't that be listed under "empowerment" or whatever tells you how to use the points? Oh well, I guess it could be in both places:

Discerp (Su): Once per month, a goatling can drain energy from an undead creature or a creature with the Extraplanar subtype. The victim must be physically or magically restrained in some way. Each minute that the goatling concentrates on discerping, the victim gains a negative level (positive level in the case of undead) and the goatling gains 10 empowerment points. A goatling can discerp a maximum number of levels equal to its HD. If the victim has as many negative levels as HD, it falls unconscious rather than dying. Negative levels are recovered at the rate of 1/day and never become permanent. A goatling may never have more than a maximum of 10 empowerment points per HD.

That last sentence seems a bit cumbersome, I think "A goatling may never have more empowerment points than 10 times its Hit Dice." would read more cleanly.

freyar · Nov 6, 2012

Discerp (Su): Once per month, a goatling can drain energy from an undead creature or a creature with the Extraplanar subtype. The victim must be physically or magically restrained in some way. Each minute that the goatling concentrates on discerping, the victim gains a negative level (positive level in the case of undead) and the goatling gains 10 empowerment points. A goatling can discerp a maximum number of levels equal to its HD. If the victim has as many negative levels as HD, it falls unconscious rather than dying. Negative levels are recovered at the rate of 1/day and never become permanent. A goatling may never have more empowerment points than 10 times its Hit Dice.

Shall we move on to the empowerment ability now? Or something other than discerp at least?

Cleon · Nov 7, 2012

freyar said:
Shall we move on to the empowerment ability now? Or something other than discerp at least?

That'll do, I'll update the Goatling Working Draft.

Empowerment seems to have a lot of applications. The original version can boost attack rolls, damage rolls, AC, saves, ability checks, ability bonuses, spell levels (as Heighten spell?), allow rerolls, and prevent death!

In addition, it could enhance certain "goat spells" in various ways.

Looks like we might need a bulleted list!

We did agree to make this another (Su) power, didn't we?

freyar · Nov 9, 2012

We did agree on that.

I think the stronger powers should require lots of empowerment points! Actually, I have an elegant solution to this, but maybe you'd prefer spelling things out. What if an empowerment point is an action point (or 2 empowerment points is an action point)? Then we can just revise discerp and leave out any need to describe empowerment.

Cleon · Nov 11, 2012

freyar said:
We did agree on that.

I think the stronger powers should require lots of empowerment points! Actually, I have an elegant solution to this, but maybe you'd prefer spelling things out. What if an empowerment point is an action point (or 2 empowerment points is an action point)? Then we can just revise discerp and leave out any need to describe empowerment.

Are you talking the SRD version of Action Points? Those are pretty powerful. 1 empowerment = 1 AP would give a standard 3 HD Goatling a hefty boost - it'd be able to Recall Spell up to thirty times!

We could use some of it as a model, I suppose, or make the AP/empowerment ratio a lot higher.

freyar · Nov 13, 2012

Yeah, I was thinking of at least 2 empowerment points per action point. But maybe that's not close enough to the original intent.

So what is worth an empowerment point? +1 to attack (for one attack, including spells with attack rolls), +1 damage (including spells with damage), +1 to a single save, +1 AC for 1 round, ... Preventing death and allowing rerolls are as good as action points!

Cleon · Nov 14, 2012

freyar said:
Yeah, I was thinking of at least 2 empowerment points per action point. But maybe that's not close enough to the original intent.

So what is worth an empowerment point? +1 to attack (for one attack, including spells with attack rolls), +1 damage (including spells with damage), +1 to a single save, +1 AC for 1 round, ... Preventing death and allowing rerolls are as good as action points!

Well the original writeup has:

1 EP gives +1 to "To Hit" for 3 rounds (up to +5)
2 EP gives +1 to Damage Rolls for 3 successful hits (up to +5)
2 EP gives +1 to Armor Class for 3 rounds (up to +5)
2 EP gives +1 to Saving Throws for 3 rounds (up to +5)
2 EP gives +1 to Ability Checks for 3 rounds (up to +5)
2 EP gives +1 to Ability Scores for 3 rounds (up to 18)
3 EP gives +1 to Spell Magnitude [= spell level]
5 EP gives Reroll one failed action
10 EP gives Life Protection

Those seem a pretty good basis to me.

We could simplify it so it combines to hit & damage into a single enhancement bonus to an attack, like magic weapon or magic fang, and combine the Ability Checks and Scores into a single "Enhance Ability" power.