Converting Al-Qadim creatures

[Number 6]

Will these skills work:
Bluff, Concentrate, Diplomacy, Forgery, Gather Information, Hide, Intimidate, Perform, Sense Motive.

Or less with the Hide and Perform? I figured the Perform could be focused on Acting, but they already will have Bluff and Diplomacy.

Perhaps just 5 ranks in Perform (acting) to give a +2 synergy bonus to Bluff.

Gather Information could be used as gossip collecting... which would be great leads for someone hunting down strong emotions, or stirring up trouble.

If you look in my proposed rough draft you'll see it's already got lesser confusion.

What I should have said is... shouldn't we make it the full version of confusion? Lesser confusion will have a lower Save DC... and bigger is better.

...I was thinking "a Succubus has 26 Charisma but nobody would buy that".

If anyone else wants to boost it up to 22 or 24 I'll support it, for what it is worth.

How about enthrall as the friends substitute?

Sure. It doesn't do the same thing, but it seems to fit. It is the sort of thing it should do!

...(blindness, rainbow pattern and domination) ...perhaps we should cut those out of its SLAs and make them Supernatural powers derived from its "Dazzling Appearance"?

Let's do it. It fits the original intent and uses the standards of v3.5.

Also, shouldn't detect thoughts be at-will or a Su power - since it feeds of strong emotions I'd think it should be able to sense them constantly.

Yeah, it probably should be At Will... but while I like your idea of borrowing the mechanics from the detect hostile intent psionic power, we should add something about the ability working on any strong emotions... love, despair, elation, etc.

Perhaps phrased like this:
Sense Emotion (Ex): An al-jahar can sense strong emotions such as anger, despair, elation, greed, hatred, love, or lust. It can sense such emotions in any intelligent creatures within a 30 ft. radius. This functions like the psionic power detect hostile intent.

 

[Cleon]

Will these skills work:
Bluff, Concentrate, Diplomacy, Forgery, Gather Information, Hide, Intimidate, Perform, Sense Motive.

Or less with the Hide and Perform? I figured the Perform could be focused on Acting, but they already will have Bluff and Diplomacy.

Perhaps just 5 ranks in Perform (acting) to give a +2 synergy bonus to Bluff.

Gather Information could be used as gossip collecting... which would be great leads for someone hunting down strong emotions, or stirring up trouble.

Surely it needs Disguise as well, since it relies on its Change Self to be inconspicuous? Of course it gets a +10 bonus for its supernatural disguise.

At the very least it needs Sense Motive (to tell how to provoke emotions); Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate (to help provoke emotions), Concentration (to use its SLAs) and Hide and Disguise (to avoid detection).

Perform doesn't give a synergy bonus to Bluff according to d20SRD.org, so it seems surplus to requirements.

Forgery and Gather Information are useful, but would seem lower priority.

I think we'd also better give it some ranks in Move Silently, Listen and Spot.

How about this for a skill rank distribution:

Skills Ranks: Bluff 8, Concentrate 6, Diplomacy 8, Disguise 8, Forgery 4, Gather Information 4, Hide 6, Intimidate 6, Move Silently 6, Listen 4, Sense Motive 8, Spot 4

 

[Cleon]

What I should have said is... shouldn't we make it the full version of confusion? Lesser confusion will have a lower Save DC... and bigger is better.

I agree to switching to full confusion, not for the higher DC but because it affects a 15' radius rather than a single target.

How about enthrall as the friends substitute?

Sure. It doesn't do the same thing, but it seems to fit. It is the sort of thing it should do!

I've had a better idea since that proposal. The psionic power telempathic projection has a very similar effect to the old friends spell, so how about using that?

Indeed, we could make a "psionic varient" of the Dazzle, since a lot of its powers are mental.

What about the SLAs the original could only use in its natural form? (blindness, rainbow pattern and domination) That doesn't follow standard Change Self / Alter Self rules, so perhaps we should cut those out of its SLAs and make them Supernatural powers derived from its "Dazzling Appearance"?

Let's do it. It fits the original intent and uses the standards of v3.5.

I'm happy keeping them SLAs for the time being. The modified Change Self text covers the 1/day powers restriction to its natural form.

Yeah, it probably should be At Will... but while I like your idea of borrowing the mechanics from the detect hostile intent psionic power, we should add something about the ability working on any strong emotions... love, despair, elation, etc.

Perhaps phrased like this:

Sense Emotion (Ex): An al-jahar can sense strong emotions such as anger, despair, elation, greed, hatred, love, or lust. It can sense such emotions in any intelligent creatures within a 30 ft. radius. This functions like the psionic power detect hostile intent.

I was thinking it sensed the negative emotions it fed off.

However, I've since changed my mind about that and thought we could use the psionic power empathy instead of detect hostile intent, since that seemed a better fit.

For a start, detect hostile intent gives protection from surprise and there's nothing in the original text about them being hard to ambush.

Sense Emotion (Ex): An al-jahar can sense strong emotions such as anger, despair, elation, greed, hatred, love, or lust. It can sense such emotions in any intelligent creatures within a 30 ft. radius. This functions like the psionic power empathy. This ability gives the al-jahar a +2 insight bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, or Sense Motive checks against creatures that are susceptible to mind-affecting powers.

 

[Number 6]

Hell!... you wasted no time while EN World was down for maintenance!

Surely it needs Disguise as well, since it relies on its Change Self to be inconspicuous? Of course it gets a +10 bonus for its supernatural disguise.

Certainly put Disguise... I intended to put that in, but never double-checked.

The skill list is pretty sharp, too. And you're absolutely right about Telempathic Projection... that's perfect. Your idea of a psionic variation has promise.


Is this looking like a CR 3?

 

[freyar]

Boy, a couple of comments here before you get too far ahead!

Metamagic spell feats don't apply to SLAs, and only Heighten Spell changes the DC anyway. SLAs have DCs set by the base spell level and appropriate stat modifier (generally Cha).

Surely Sense Emotions should be (Su) and not (Ex) (or even Sp or Ps). An Ex version would just be a strong racial bonus to Sense Motive. And if you're tying it to the feeding, how could feeding on emotions be Ex?

 

[Cleon]

Boy, a couple of comments here before you get too far ahead!

Metamagic spell feats don't apply to SLAs, and only Heighten Spell changes the DC anyway. SLAs have DCs set by the base spell level and appropriate stat modifier (generally Cha).

Surely Sense Emotions should be (Su) and not (Ex) (or even Sp or Ps). An Ex version would just be a strong racial bonus to Sense Motive. And if you're tying it to the feeding, how could feeding on emotions be Ex?

Yes, Sense Emotions ought to be Su, as should its emotional feeding power.

Speaking of that, are we OK with making its "Feed on Emotions" a 1 Charisma damage attack? I'm thinking it can only attack a particular foe once every 24 hours, and it can use this attack against any creature affected by its mind-affecting SLAs.

Something like:

Feed on Emotions (Su): An al-jahar can feed off emotional energy, but it can only feed off intelligent creature gripped by strong negative emotions (rage, lust, greed, et cetera), although such emotions can be natural or induced by such spells such as domination, fear or rage. An al-jahar can attempt to feed off all creatures within a 30 ft. radius. Any creature gripped by a hateful passion must attempt a DC X Will save, if they fail they take 1 Charisma damage and can not be affected by any al-jahar's feed on emotions attack for the next 24 hours.

Al-jahar must feed on emotions to sustain their powers. One point of Charisma damage is enough to sustain an al-jahar for a day. If an al-jahar goes hungry for more than a week it is unable to use its 1/day spell-like powers, if it goes hungry for a month its 3/day powers become 1/day powers, after 3 months it can only use its at-will powers and is fatigued, and if it goes hungry for a year it cannot use any of its spell-like or psionic powers and is exhausted (although it can still change shape and sense and feed on emotions). It is impossible for an al-jahar to starve to death, they can linger for centuries without the strength to cast a spell. An al-jahar can recover from a stage of starvation by feeding off Y [10? 5?] points of Charisma.

 

[Shade]

Can one of you summarize where you're at so I can add 'em to Homebrews?

 

[Cleon]

Can one of you summarize where you're at so I can add 'em to Homebrews?

We've got the following, more or less:

Al-Jahar
Medium Outsider (Native)
Hit Dice: 5d8+5 (27 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), fly 30 ft. (average)
Armor Class: 12 (+2 Dex), touch 12, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+6
Attack: Claw +7 melee (1d6+1)
Full Attack: 2 claws +7 melee (1d6+1)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Feed on emotions, spell-like abilities
Special Qualities: Change shape, darkvision 60 ft., psionics, sense emotions, spell resistance X
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +6
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 20
Skills: Bluff +15* (+17 with Sense Emotions), Concentration +7 (+11 with Combat Casting), Diplomacy +17* (+19 with Sense Emotion), Disguise +13* (+15 act in character), Forgery +5, Gather Information +9, Hide +8, Intimidate +15* (+17 with Sense Emotions), Move Silently +8, Listen +6, Sense Motive +10, Spot +6
Feats: Combat Casting, Persuasive
Environment: Any urban
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: ?
Treasure: ?
Alignment:Always neutral evil
Advancement: ?
Level Adjustment: ?

Change Self (Su): An al-jahar can assume the form of any Small or Medium-sized humanoid. It can not use its blindness, dominate person or rainbow pattern spell-like abilities when it is in humanoid form.

Feed on Emotions (Su): An al-jahar can feed off emotional energy, but it can only feed off intelligent creature gripped by strong negative emotions (rage, lust, greed, et cetera), although such emotions can be natural or induced by such spells such as domination, fear or rage. An al-jahar can attempt to feed off all creatures within a 30 ft. radius. Any creature gripped by a hateful passion must attempt a DC X Will save, if they fail they take 1 Charisma damage and can not be affected by any al-jahar's feed on emotions attack for the next 24 hours.

Al-jahar must feed on emotions to sustain their powers. One point of Charisma damage is enough to sustain an al-jahar for a day. If an al-jahar goes hungry for more than a week it is unable to use its 1/day spell-like powers, if it goes hungry for a month its 3/day powers become 1/day powers, after 3 months it can only use its at-will powers and is fatigued, and if it goes hungry for a year it cannot use any of its spell-like or psionic powers and is exhausted (although it can still change shape and sense or feed on emotions). It is impossible for an al-jahar to starve to death, they can linger for centuries without the strength to cast a spell. An al-jahar can recover from a stage of starvation by feeding off 5 points of Charisma.

Psionics (Ps): 3/day – telempathic projection. Manifester level 10th. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Sense Emotions (Ex): An al-jahar can sense strong emotions such as anger, despair, elation, greed, hatred, love, or lust. It can sense such emotions in any intelligent creatures within a 30 ft. radius. This functions like the psionic power empathy. This ability gives the al-jahar a +2 insight bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, or Sense Motive checks against creatures that are susceptible to mind-affecting powers.

Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): At will – flare, nondetection, undetectable alignment; 3/day – charm person, confusion, detect thoughts, quickened flare, hypnotism, rage, shocking grasp, ventriloquism; 1/day (when in natural form) – blindness, dominate person, rainbow pattern. Caster level 10th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.

 

[Shade]

Thanks!

Added to Homebrews.

 

[Cleon]

Thanks!

Added to Homebrews.

Don't mention it!

If the proposed skill ranks are OK, they work out as follows, I think I've got all the skill synergies.

Skills: Bluff +13* (+15 with Sense Emotions), Concentration +7, Diplomacy +17* (+19 with Sense Emotion), Disguise +13* (+15 act in character), Forgery +5, Gather Information +9, Hide +8, Intimidate +13* (+15 with Sense Emotions), Move Silently +8, Listen +6, Sense Motive +10, Spot +6