Converting Al-Qadim creatures

[Cleon]

I'll agree to that.

Updating the Bird Maiden Working Draft.

For feats, how about Natural Spell, Self-Sufficient, Track, and Weapon Finesse?

I like Natural Spell and Weapon Finesse, but the other two seem a bit questionable as far as their "bangs for the buck" goes.

Hey, how about Flyby Attack? She meets the prerequisites!

As for the second one, Self-Sufficiency will do I guess. I don't like Track so much because birds tend to fly high and spot creatures rather than sniffing along following their footprints.

That'd make it:

Skills: Diplomacy +5, Handle Animal +3, Heal +16, Knowledge (nature) +6, Knowledge (religion) +6, Profession (farmer) +9, Survival +8 (+10 aboveground)
Feats: Flyby Attack, Natural Spell, Self-Sufficiency, Weapon Finesse (B)

 

[freyar]

Spelling: it's just "Self-Sufficient." And my choice of that feat was mostly for flavor purposes.

Ah, I was forgetting about Flyby Attack. I like that list of feats you have there pretty well.

So, once the bird forms are listed, does she need anything else? Isn't description covered by the template's description line?

 

[Cleon]

Spelling: it's just "Self-Sufficient." And my choice of that feat was mostly for flavor purposes.

Ah, I was forgetting about Flyby Attack. I like that list of feats you have there pretty well.

Updating the Bird Maiden Working Draft.

So, once the bird forms are listed, does she need anything else? Isn't description covered by the template's description line?

Okay, I'll whip up some stats and we can decide the names of the bird forms later.

2 Bird—Tiny Humanoid (Shapechanger); Initiative: +5; Speed: 10 ft., fly 40 ft. (average); AC 17 (+2 size, +5 Dex), touch 17, flat-footed 12; BAB/Grapple: +4/–6; Attacks: Bite +11 melee (1d3–2); Abilities: Str 6, Dex 21, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 10, Saves: Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +10.

3 Bird—Tiny Humanoid (Shapechanger); Initiative: +5; Speed: 10 ft., fly 40 ft. (good); AC 18 (+2 size, +5 Dex, +1 natural), touch 17, flat-footed 13; BAB/Grapple: +4/–5; Attacks: Bite +11 melee (1d4–1); Abilities: Str 8, Dex 21, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 10, Saves: Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +10.

4 Bird—Tiny Humanoid (Shapechanger); Initiative: +5; Speed: 10 ft., fly 60 ft. (good); AC 18 (+2 size, +5 Dex, +1 natural), touch 17, flat-footed 13; BAB/Grapple: +4/–4; Attacks: Claws +11 melee (1d4) and bite +6 melee (1d3); Abilities: Str 10, Dex 21, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 10, Saves: Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +10.

5 Bird—Small Humanoid (Shapechanger); Initiative: +5; Speed: 10 ft., fly 60 ft. (average); AC 18 (+1 size, +5 Dex, +2 natural), touch 16, flat-footed 13; BAB/Grapple: +4/+1; Attacks: Bite +10 melee (1d6+1) and 2 claws +5 melee (1d2); Abilities: Str 12, Dex 21, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 10, Saves: Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +10.

6 Bird—Small Humanoid (Shapechanger); Initiative: +5; Speed: 10 ft., fly 80 ft. (average); AC 18 (+1 size, +5 Dex, +2 natural), touch 16, flat-footed 13; BAB/Grapple: +4/+2; Attacks: 2 claws +10 melee (1d3+2) and bite +5 melee (1d4+1); Abilities: Str 14, Dex 21, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 10, Saves: Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +10.

While writing up the above I realized we didn't say what the land speed of any of the bird forms is. Most SRD birds have a ground speed of 10 ft., so I'll put that in for the time being. We'll need to add a note to that effect to the Working Draft.

e.g.:

The bird form has the abilities given in the Bird Shape Table presented below instead of the abilities normally granted by Alternate Form. They do not gain any special abilities or racial bonuses of the actual bird, such as a Giant Owl's superior low light vision and +8 racial bonus to Listen, or a buzzard's scent ability, with one exception: If the bird has a swim speed, the bird form gains a swim speed equal to the actual bird or half the bird form's fly speed, whichever is less. All bird forms have a land speed of 10 feet.

 

[freyar]

The table and note about speeds are fine.

Shouldn't the bird form names just come from the template for our sample?

 

[Cleon]

The table and note about speeds are fine.

Updating the Bird Maiden Working Draft.

Shouldn't the bird form names just come from the template for our sample?

Those are only examples, so I wanted to emphasize that by including at least one creature that isn't on the list.

I'd also like to list a bird with a Swim speed, but the only one I could find is the Boobrie, which is too big (the regular Boobrie is Large, the Black Boobrie is Medium).

We don't have D&D stats for ducks do we? The closest I could find is the Duckbunny. Actually, that tells us all we need to know - a duck's Tiny sized and has a 30 ft. swim speed, so we could make the 3rd level Bird a duck.

So how about:

2 - Sparrow
3 - Duck (add Swim speed)
4 - Kite
5 - Stork
6 - Eagle

 

[freyar]

That'll be fine.

Is that it?

 

[Cleon]

That'll be fine.

Is that it?

I suspect so, although I'll likely give it a final check for any obvious stat errors before signing off on it.

Anyhow, it's getting late over here, so I'll update the entry tomorrow.

 

[Cleon]

I suspect so, although I'll likely give it a final check for any obvious stat errors before signing off on it.

Anyhow, it's getting late over here, so I'll update the entry tomorrow.

And it's tomorrow!

Updating the Bird Maiden Working Draft.

Checking through it, I can see a few tweaks.

Firstly, we've got a fair few incidents of "it" that I'm changing to feminine pronouns for the sake of consistency, as follows:

Size and Type: The bird maiden's type remains unchanged but it she gains the Shapechanger subtype. A bird maiden has the same size as the base creature when in humanoid form, but it she may be smaller or larger when in bird form (see Bird Shape).

Attack: Same as base creature in humanoid form. In bird form, a bird maiden loses its the base creature's attacks and gains claw and bite attacks (see Bird Shape).

Special Attacks: *** When in bird form, a bird maiden loses any extraordinary special attacks of its her original form not derived from class levels, but retains the spell-like abilities and supernatural attacks of its the base creature form (except for breath weapons and gaze attacks).

Feathered Garment *** It takes a different magical effect, such as limited wish, wish, miracle, or true resurrection, to restore it her to life, which also recreates the maiden's feather garment.

Abilties: A bird maiden will have further modifiers to its her ability scores when in bird form (see Bird Shape).​

Secondly, the Skills section is poorly worded. I intended the skill bonuses to only apply when the Maiden is in bird form, but the wording suggests it's continuous.

Therefore I changed this:

Skills: A bird maiden with the bird form of a nocturnal (night-dwelling) bird has a +4 racial bonus to Listen checks. One with a diurnal (day-dwelling) bird form has a +4 racial bonus on Spot checks and a +4 racial bonus on Search checks.

to this:

Skills: A bird maiden in the bird form of a diurnal (day-dwelling) bird gains a +4 racial bonus on Spot checks and a +4 racial bonus on Search checks. One in a nocturnal (night-dwelling) bird form gains a +4 racial bonus to Listen checks.

EDIT: I also added a Skills line to the sample creature's bird forms with the skill changes listed.

 

[freyar]

That all sounds fine. All done?

 

[Cleon]

That all sounds fine. All done?

Yes, I think it's done.

What'd you like to do next?