Converting Creatures from Other Campaign Settings

[Cleon]

I think I can go along with that carrying capacity, though it's quite high compared to the flying carpet. I guess it stands to reason that a ship-like thing could carry more than a carpet.

Quite.

It's a flying ship, so ought to have a ship-like carrying capacity.

So shall I amend it with:

An aracheon can fly at a speed of 40 feet with poor maneuverability, or 30 feet with clumsy maneuverability if the vehicle is heavily armored or carrying a heavy load. The aracheon can also hover, as per the Hover feat, and will hover in midair if left unattended. An aracheon's normal carrying capacity is 500 lbs. per 5 ft. square it occupies; its "heavily loaded" carrying capacity is 1000 lbs. per square.

I was trying to find a magic item that does something similar to one of the spells that can be made permanent to compare XP costs, but I'm not finding one right now. But that might help.

Yes, I had a quick rummage through various sources while I was originally drafting the spell and couldn't find anything concrete. There are some guidelines for building Spelljammer type ships on spelljammer.org, but they aren't "official".

I guess it doesn't make much difference since it's a Tso-only spell, especially as only Tso who participating in the casting can fly the aracheon, 4000 XP just feels like it could be a tad low.

Still, I think it might be close enough for our purposes. We could always bump it up to 5k or 6k later if we wanted.

 

[Cleon]

So shall I amend it with:

An aracheon can fly at a speed of 40 feet with poor maneuverability, or 30 feet with clumsy maneuverability if the vehicle is heavily armored or carrying a heavy load. The aracheon can also hover, as per the Hover feat, and will hover in midair if left unattended. An aracheon's normal carrying capacity is 500 lbs. per 5 ft. square it occupies; its "heavily loaded" carrying capacity is 1000 lbs. per square.

4000 XP just feels like it could be a tad low.

Still, I think it might be close enough for our purposes. We could always bump it up to 5k or 6k later if we wanted.

So are we OK with the weight proposal above?

Shall we keep the 4k XP or round it up to 5,000 XP?

I'd like to sign of on the Tso and the above is all we have left to decide for them.

 

[freyar]

The weight proposal is fine, and let's bump the XP cost to 5000 XP. The other possibility is not to let them make it permanent, but I'll let you make the call on that. I'm ready to wrap these up also.

 

[Cleon]

The weight proposal is fine, and let's bump the XP cost to 5000 XP. The other possibility is not to let them make it permanent, but I'll let you make the call on that. I'm ready to wrap these up also.

Let's just set a 5k XP cost and declare them finished.

Speaking of which, the XP shouldn't be in the components line if it only applies to the permanency version.

Updating Enchant Aracheon.

Updating Tso Working Draft.

And we're done!

 

[freyar]

Yay!

 

[Cleon]

Yay!

Shall we rest this thread for a while so we can get some other creatures finished?

 

[freyar]

Sounds good to me...

 

[Cleon]

Sounds good to me...

Sleep well, good thread, sleep well.

 

[Cleon]

Drow Vampire Template Update

Sleep well, good thread, sleep well.

It's time for this thread to rise from its seemingly eternal rest, and fittingly enough it's a vampire that's arising!

Kevin-Video has pointed out that our Drow Vampire conversion is missing some of the abilities of the original MC entries, so we're considering updating it.

Read it, but there's a few things missing from it.
1) Its fast healing is weakened/reduced when above ground.
2) It takes damage in moonlight as well as sunlight.
3) Can control driders.
4) Drow vampires can cross water, but not lines of salt.
5) The stake to slay a drow vampire must be rock salt.

Considering the above, it's basically just a matter of amending the weaknesses, the fast healing, and adding driders to the Children of the Spider Queen power and, presumably, the organization.

A drider is CR 7 though, which is a lot higher than the other spiders (e.g. 1d4+1 Large Monstrous Spiders is, what, a EL 4 encounter?), so I'm thinking we ought to require the Drow Vampire to be a particular level to summon them.

I'm tempted to give them a level/HD based summoning table like we did with the "summon ratkin" ability of the Greater Wererat and Wererat Lord. That way we can have high-level driders summon enormous spiders and multiple driders, which seems appropriate for a powerful character. I'm also thinking we could give them the option of adding the Fiendish template to the Monstrous Spiders - or just go ahead and make them ALL fiendish.

 

[freyar]

It's also handy to link to the original monster text.

Here's the bit about controlling driders:

Drow vampires can take the form of giant spiders. While in this form, such vampires can control 10d10 Hit Dice of spiders. The creatures will arrive within 2d10 rounds of summoning. The exact type of spiders summoned depends on the nature of the spiders in the immediate area. In normal form, drow vampires can control up to four driders. Driders worship vampire drow, seeing the monsters as Lolth’s chosen ones.

I'm not sure that means they should summon driders. It could be interpreted as meaning they can control any driders that are present, like command undead or something. Or maybe it's sort of like how a normal vampire controls its "offspring." Do you really prefer the summoning interpretation?