Brainstorming: The Staff of Ravens

Help me brainstorm a new magical staff with spells associated with ravens.
What I've got so far:

Deathknell
Fly
Summon Swarm (Swarm of Ravens)
Tongues

*Polymorph- Raven

*Polymorph- Great raven (twiched giant eagle)

*Speak with animals
*Cause fear
*Enervation

Thanks, Land Outcast. These look like good suggestions and I will likely use more than one of them.

I got distracted from the main task building a raven swarm. I don't know if there are already stats for a raven swarm, or even if there are clear instructions on building new swarms, but based on how the bat swarm compares to the bat and also on the stats for ravens in the SRD, I've built a raven swarm which I now post (without OGL) for your review and approval.

I know that there are some careful stat-proofreaders out there, so lend a hand, would you?

Raven Swarm
Tiny Animal (Swarm)
Hit Dice: 3d8 (13hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 10ft, fly 40 ft. (average)
Armor Class: 14 (+2 size, +2 Dex), touch 14, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/-
Attack: Swarm (1d6)
Full Attack: Swarm (1d6)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Blinding, disease, distraction, theft
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, half damage from slashing and piercing, swarm traits
Saves: Fort 3, Ref 7, Will 3
Abilities: Str 3, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6
Skills: Listen +6, Spot +8, Sleight of Hand +2
Feats: Weapon Finesse, Lightning Reflexes
Environment: Temperate forests
Organization: Solitary, Conspiracy (2-3 swarms), Storytelling (4-7 swarms), Aerie (8-11 swarms), Unkindness (12-20 swarms)
Challenge Rating: 3
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: None
Level Adjustment: --

A wildly chaotic jumble of black feathers tumbles towards you in a homogenous, squawking mass of birds.

These glossy black birds are about 2 feet long and have wingspans of about 4 feet. They combine both claws into a single attack. The statistics presented here can describe a large flock of almost any non-predatory bird of similar size.
A raven swarm scrabbles madly to alight on creatures or objects in their space, scratching and pecking at exposed flesh, especially eyes, or at any visible, shiny objects.
Blinding (Ex): Any creature struck for maximum damage by a raven swarm must succeed at a DC 11 Fortitude save or lose an eye, suffering a -2 penalty to all Spot and Search checks. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Disease (Ex): Filth fever—swarm attack, Fortitude DC 11, incubation period 1d3 days, damage 1d3 Dex and 1d3 Con. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Distraction (Ex): Any living creature that begins its turn with a swarm in its space must succeed on a DC 11 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Theft (Ex): The swarm of ravens makes a single sleight of hand check each round against each character whose space they occupy, stealing only shiny objects which weigh 5 pounds or less. Half of the object stolen by a raven swarm are dropped again 1d4 rounds later.

Hey, you should post this in the "creature catalogue" Forums.

BTW, how powerful is teh staff meant to be?

Land Outcast said:

Hey, you should post this in the "creature catalogue" Forums.

Click to expand...

Already done:
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=138528

Land Outcast said:

BTW, how powerful is teh staff meant to be?

Click to expand...

I don't know. To be honest, I thought of the visual on the staff first - how I think it should look, and thought "hey, that's kinda cool. I should stat up a magical staff for my game. How do I do that again. Where was that article?" So, I looked up the rules in the DMG for making staves and decided that it might be helpful to select the spells I want to use. I haven't really figured out the power-level, though I don't know that I want to make all of the spells powers available to any particular single-classed character unless they're using UMD. If I even bother to build the staff's creator, it will be based on the staff, not the other way 'round.

All right, another digression from the task at hand:

Raven, Giant
Medium Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 3d10+2 (17 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 20 ft. (2 squares), Fly 50 ft. (average)
Armor Class: 13 (+1 Dex, +2 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+2
Attack: Claws +5 melee (1d4+1), or bite +5 melee (1d4+1)
Full Attack: Claws +5 melee (1d4+1), or bite +5 melee (1d4+1)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./ 5 ft.
Special Attacks: --
Special Qualities: Low-light vision
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +3
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 6
Skills: Listen +3, Spot +5
Feats: Flyby AttackB, Spring Attack
Environment: Temperate forests
Organization: Solitary, Conspiracy (2-3)
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Usually chaotic neutral
Advancement: 4-6 HD (Medium), 7-9 HD (Large)

Giant ravens are notorious tricksters and renowned opportunists. They closely resemble normal ravens, except for their tremendous size.
Giant ravens prefer to avoid combat, but will steal almost anything shiny they can carry, or anything suitable with which to line their large nests. They are trainable and, so long as they are well treated, will serve small riders as mounts with loyalty and aplomb.
Weighing in at over 100 pounds, a giant raven has a wingspan of 10 feet, and stand over 5 feet tall.
Giant ravens speak Common, Auran, and often speak one or more other languages as well.

Combat
If a giant raven is determined to engage in combat, it will generally land and use its bite attack with a leaping spring attack or use its flyby attack feat.

I like the theft ability of the raven swarm...

What about allowing the user to assume raven swarm form?

Also, you might want to include the ability to use find the path. Ravens were seen as guiding animals in some Native American traditions. The user might follow a swarm of ravens toward their goal?

I'd also suggest a babble ability which causes all speech to be garbled or washed out by the cawing of ravens around the staff. Maybe it could be valued as a silence spell?

Of course, you'll want to give the possessor immunity to damage/effects from raven swarms so they can pull off a cool stunt like in Batman Begins.

Quickleaf said:

I like the theft ability of the raven swarm...

What about allowing the user to assume raven swarm form?

Also, you might want to include the ability to use find the path. Ravens were seen as guiding animals in some Native American traditions. The user might follow a swarm of ravens toward their goal?

I'd also suggest a babble ability which causes all speech to be garbled or washed out by the cawing of ravens around the staff. Maybe it could be valued as a silence spell?

Of course, you'll want to give the possessor immunity to damage/effects from raven swarms so they can pull off a cool stunt like in Batman Begins.

Click to expand...

I like all of these suggestions. . . But:

I'm worried about running off into Rod territory with the babble and swarm form abilities.

I have yet to see Batman Begins - when you hear about folks skipping the cinema to buy DVDs, they're talking about me.

I'm sure that there used to be a babble spell, and I don't know if or when it went away.

I suppose that I can make a new babble spell, with effects similar to silence. I wanted to rename shout, but thought squawk was just too similar to justify it.

I'm also thinking about some kind of mimicry, but perhaps tongues is good enough.

Oops! I just realized that I meant to post the spells I have planned so far and didn't:

fly (3.0 version)
Alikaba's theft (BoEM III)
death knell
tongues
shout
cause fear

Mimicry? Maybe the staff-wielder can project their voice through ravens bonded to the staff and within 100 feet? How creepy would that be?

Or extending their senses to ravens, effectively civing clairvoyance/clairaudience within 100 feet. You could incorporate the all-around vision from the robe of eyes.

What about speak with dead ravens? Imagine walking into the hedge mage's shop, only to get a bit of dirt about her from the raven skulls hanging above her mantle?

And then there's the eye-pecking attack. You could use the staff to blind another, granting the staff the blinding ability of the raven swarm on a successful strike? Perhaps a raven claw or beak is mounted on the head of the staff.

(Definitely see Batman Begins. It's great!)