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<blockquote data-quote="Knight Otu" data-source="post: 3731727" data-attributes="member: 192"><p>I've recently mentioned I'd post some of the stupid stuff I came up with, so let's see what we have here. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> First post for the basics, then a post per template.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>"Conversion" Templates</strong></span></p><p>"Conversion" templates are designed to quickly alter the appearance of a creature along with giving it appropriate abilities and pointers to the new appearance. While they are all designed to be relatively short and simple, they can change a few things that can be a bit complex (for example, a number of templates lower the creature's intelligence and may turn it into a vermin, or turn a vermin into an animal).</p><p>All conversion templates are inherited templates that can be applied to a corporeal creature that isn't already of the kind (or close to it) that the template would turn it to, and is of the types animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, or vermin, or of the types aberration, elemental, outsider, or plant if that type closely resembles one of the other types.</p><p>Many conversion templates cause changes to the creature's natural attacks, and it is likely that its primary natural attack shifts to a new one. In general, a natural attack should be primary if it is granted by the template, causes the highest average damage, or delivers a special attack such as poison. If you shift the primary natural attack to a new one, the old attack becomes a secondary attack if the creature retained it at all.</p><p>Though few of the sample creatures do so, since the creature's anatomy can change greatly, it is entitled to exchange its feat and skill choices.</p><p></p><p>[sblock=No Natural Armor Bonus?]<strong>No Natural Armor Bonus?</strong></p><p>Most conversion templates do not provide an increased or decreased natural armor bonus compared to the base creature. That is deliberate, as the conversion templates only aim to give the creatures the abilities necessary to emulate the target creature. A shelled creature like a snail or a crab does need a relatively high natural armor (and thus gains a bonus if the base creature did not have a shell), but others do not. A reptilian human would simply have very thin and tiny scales that do not impact attacks against it, while an avian triceratops would have a large amount of thick feathers that keep its body from harm.[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>[sblock=Hogrull and Snailfolk: Humanoid?]<strong>Hogrull and Snailfolk: Humanoid?</strong></p><p>A number of the sample creatures provided for the conversion templates may look as if they have the wrong type. This goes especially for the humanoids. Most people would expect snailfolk to be at least a monstrous humanoid, if not an aberration. Similar, people would expect the hogrull to be a monstrous humanoid.</p><p>The lack of changing types away from humanoid is deliberate. Unlike the Animal to Vermin change, which is relatively easy, Humanoid to any other type faces a few problems if the creature has racial Hit Dice.</p><p>For one, saving throws are different for Humanoids and Monstrous Humanoids, and may differ between Humanoids and Aberrations. Changing these saves would either involve checking which saving throw is the good saving throw for the humanoid, or to recalculate all saves. Another wide-reaching difference between Humanoids and Monstrous Humanoids is the fact that their base attack bonus differs, spiraling to all attack rolls and to grapple checks.</p><p>Since conversion templates are meant to be comparably simple in their application, I accepted a few type oddities (such as dire vermin saves), as I felt their solution would make the templates more complex than necessary.[/sblock]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Knight Otu, post: 3731727, member: 192"] I've recently mentioned I'd post some of the stupid stuff I came up with, so let's see what we have here. ;) First post for the basics, then a post per template. [SIZE=5][B]"Conversion" Templates[/B][/SIZE] "Conversion" templates are designed to quickly alter the appearance of a creature along with giving it appropriate abilities and pointers to the new appearance. While they are all designed to be relatively short and simple, they can change a few things that can be a bit complex (for example, a number of templates lower the creature's intelligence and may turn it into a vermin, or turn a vermin into an animal). All conversion templates are inherited templates that can be applied to a corporeal creature that isn't already of the kind (or close to it) that the template would turn it to, and is of the types animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, or vermin, or of the types aberration, elemental, outsider, or plant if that type closely resembles one of the other types. Many conversion templates cause changes to the creature's natural attacks, and it is likely that its primary natural attack shifts to a new one. In general, a natural attack should be primary if it is granted by the template, causes the highest average damage, or delivers a special attack such as poison. If you shift the primary natural attack to a new one, the old attack becomes a secondary attack if the creature retained it at all. Though few of the sample creatures do so, since the creature's anatomy can change greatly, it is entitled to exchange its feat and skill choices. [sblock=No Natural Armor Bonus?][b]No Natural Armor Bonus?[/b] Most conversion templates do not provide an increased or decreased natural armor bonus compared to the base creature. That is deliberate, as the conversion templates only aim to give the creatures the abilities necessary to emulate the target creature. A shelled creature like a snail or a crab does need a relatively high natural armor (and thus gains a bonus if the base creature did not have a shell), but others do not. A reptilian human would simply have very thin and tiny scales that do not impact attacks against it, while an avian triceratops would have a large amount of thick feathers that keep its body from harm.[/sblock] [sblock=Hogrull and Snailfolk: Humanoid?][b]Hogrull and Snailfolk: Humanoid?[/b] A number of the sample creatures provided for the conversion templates may look as if they have the wrong type. This goes especially for the humanoids. Most people would expect snailfolk to be at least a monstrous humanoid, if not an aberration. Similar, people would expect the hogrull to be a monstrous humanoid. The lack of changing types away from humanoid is deliberate. Unlike the Animal to Vermin change, which is relatively easy, Humanoid to any other type faces a few problems if the creature has racial Hit Dice. For one, saving throws are different for Humanoids and Monstrous Humanoids, and may differ between Humanoids and Aberrations. Changing these saves would either involve checking which saving throw is the good saving throw for the humanoid, or to recalculate all saves. Another wide-reaching difference between Humanoids and Monstrous Humanoids is the fact that their base attack bonus differs, spiraling to all attack rolls and to grapple checks. Since conversion templates are meant to be comparably simple in their application, I accepted a few type oddities (such as dire vermin saves), as I felt their solution would make the templates more complex than necessary.[/sblock] [/QUOTE]
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