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Converting monsters from Dragon magazine
- Thread starter Shade
- Start date
Cleon
Legend
Actually, it needs changing to "psychic assault". I've updated it.
Yes, that's what I reckoned to. The same tactics as are described in the adventure module.
COMBAT
A sentinel eidolon follows whatever combat instructions its ancient masters programmed it with. It normally begins combat with a psychic assault, then close to melee with its psiforged blade. Most eidolons are programmed to quickly kill creatures stunned by its psychic assault, eliminating them before they can recover.
Cleon
Legend
Shade
Monster Junkie
Cleon
Legend
Hold on, 18 Hit Dice should give it a BAB of +13, not +12. What gives...
Ah, I see the SRD Iron Golem has it wrong and we just copied it over.
It should be Base Attack/Grapple: +13/+29.
The +27/+22/+17 melee attack is still correct for the psiforged blade.
Corrected.
Shade
Monster Junkie
Corrected.
Noted. Completed.
Moving on...
Spider, Xakhun
As an extension of their worship of Lolth, the Xakhun revere spiders, for they are all the demoness’ children. Four types of spiders are most commonly encountered aboard Xakhun windships. The usual complement for a Xan Kraban is as follows: one doomspider (the captain’s “pet”), one spider rigger (for maintaining and repairing a ship’s rigging), and either 1d6+4 drop spiders or 1d4+1 leaping sword spiders. For reasons that defy explanation, the drop spiders and sword spiders do not get along and cannot coexist aboard the same vessel without poisoning and dismembering each other. If there are any spiders aboard a windship, there must also be a trained Xakhun spidermaiden to command and control the sometimes ornery arachnids.
Habitat/Society: The Xakhun spiders exist to bolster the fighting capability of the Xan Krabans. They normally “reside” in the crew compartment of the windship until called upon to attack nearby ships and enemies.
As mentioned previously, drop spiders and leaping sword spiders do not get along and cannot inhabit the same vessel. All spider types are raised with an inbred respect for the spider rigger and never conceive of attacking one, even if the spider rigger attacks it. The doomspider is basically ignored by the other spider varieties.
Since spiders are sacred to Lolth and the Xakhun, they are well guarded and shepherded. The Xakhun do not mistreat their spiders nor dispatch them without any thought to their retrieval. A Xakhun ship that loses its entire contingent of spiders (or never had one to begin with) has disgraced itself in the eyes of Lolth somehow. Xakhun are uncomfortable serving aboard a vessel devoid of spiders, believing the ship to be cursed.
Ecology: Lolth created these spiders to serve the drow in general as well as the Xakhun specifically. They are there fore found in drow cities and enclaves among the myriad other denizens and arachnids, usually at the beck and call of powerful drow priestesses. The chemical sacks of a paralyzed or held doomspider can be safely removed (although this process inevitably kills the creature) and then be used to create a powerful, portable explosive. Since the chemicals are individually safe, they can be transported in separate containers without fear of miscibility. The sacks and pads of the various web-spinning spiders can be used to create potions of climbing and slippers of spider climbing, while the legs of the sword spiders can be fashioned into ornate long swords (albeit with no special properties).
If Lolth believes that a Xakhun captain is mistreating her spiders, the demoness might command the captain’s doomspider to explode in a manner that leaves the captain dead and the majority of the crew alive so that the survivors might consider the cause of their captain’s misfortune.
Important Note: Xakhun who have turned their backs on Lolth and have become privateers (or player characters) faithful to Eilistraee are unable to command or control any of Lolth’s “children.” In fact, spiders of all varieties attack these Xakhun on sight. Because the outcast Xakhun are hated so fiercely by Lolth’s minions, they cannot benefit from the presence of spider riggers, web rigging, reinforced webbing in their windships, and so forth. Instead, they must rely more on conventional materials such as rope or sinew for the rigging and various earthly glues and pastes for sealing holes in the ship’s membrane.
Doomspider (Large variety)
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Any non-arctic
FREQUENCY: Very rare
ORGANIZATION: Solitary
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Any
DIET: Omnivore
INTELLIGENCE: Semi- (2-4)
TREASURE: Nil
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 8
MOVEMENT: 9, Wb 9
HIT DICE: 1+1
THAC0: 19
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Fireball
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Nil
SIZE: S (2’ diameter)
MORALE: Average (8)
XP VALUE: 270
The doomspider (known to foes of the Xakhun as the “Vengeance of Lolth”) is the most innocuous-and perhaps the most dangerous-arachnid aboard any Xakhun vessel. This furry black spider’s bite inflicts 1 hp damage and is not poisonous. However, the creature has a pair of internal sacks each holding about a gallon of non-volatile resin. The spider can, at will, relax an internal sphincter that allows the chemicals to combine, triggering a decidedly volatile reaction that not only consumes the spider but triggers the equivalent of a delayed blast fireball, inflicting 8d6+8 hp damage to all within 20 feet. The doomspider is intelligent enough to fathom basic commands, but it obeys only its chosen mistress (usually the windship captain). Although doomspiders await their mistresses’ command before mixing their internal chemicals, at least one Xakhun captain has been incinerated by her own pet-perhaps the result of offending Lolth in some fashion. Once the chemicals are mixed, the explosive process cannot be halted; the explosion occurs the following round-just enough time for the captain to make good her escape via magic.
Killing a doomspider has the same effect, triggering an explosion one round after the creature’s death.
When not commanded to “self-destruct,” the doomspider is a relatively docile arachnid. It bites only those who attack it or its mistress. If its mistress is slain, a doomspider usually explodes 1d4 rounds afterward. The trick is to throw it off the ship before the inevitable occurs.
Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #244 (1998).
Cleon
Legend
So, if it's a "Large Variety" does that imply the existence of a Huge, Giant and Gargantuan version of the doomspider?
Regular AD&D Large Spiders are non-intelligent and venomous, this fellow is semi-intelligent, non-venomous and explosive.
I suppose we could make it a template that applies to a standard Monstrous Spider (or maybe any Arachnid - there's something appealing about exploding Doomscorpions!), however I'm leaning towards just making them a straight monster.
Magical Beast, presumably.
Will we be doing the Drop Spider, Rigging Spider and Leaping Sword Spider from this article too?
Might as well. I do like spiders.
Shade
Monster Junkie
I got the impression from the article that it must meant "not typical wee size for spiders".
Yeah, I think straight monster, magical beast works best.
But of course!
Cleon
Legend
No, it's a reference to AD&D's types of spider.
In AD&D, many monstrous spiders fall into one of four varieties - large spiders (which are Small-sized and 1 HD), huge spiders (which are Medium-sized and 2 HD), giant spiders (which are Large-sized and 3 or 4 HD) and gargantuan spiders (which, miraculously, are actually Gargantuan sized and typically have 7 or 8 HD).
The other monster arachnids also came in those categories - e.g. "large scorpion", "huge scorpion" and "giant scorpion" and "large pedipalp", "huge pedipalp" and "giant pedipalp". Except the huge and giant scorpions were both Man-sized, and the large and huge pedipalps were both Small-sized. Oh, and each of the pedipalps was actually a different order of arachnid - large Schizomidae, huge Amblypygi and giant Uropygi.
Believe it or not, I suspect some folk found that a bit confusing.
So, a "large spider" is roughly equivalent to a Small Monstrous Spider in 3E.
Note that the Rigger Spider is a "giant variety" (Large-sized with 4 HD), and the Drop Spider is a "huge variety" (Medium-sized with 2 HD).
Sword Spiders are considered non-standard spiders, so didn't fall into a large/huge/giant/gargantuan category.
Agreed, and I would like to allow for them advancing to a BIG size, simply because I find the idea of Giant Spider Bombs highly amusing.
I'm wondering whether we could use some of the Explosive special attack of my Gumberoo homebrew:
Explosive (Ex): Whenever a gumberoo takes damage from fire or electricity it needs to make a Fortitude saving throw against a DC equal to 10 plus the hit points of fire and electrical damage inflicted. Failure results in the gumberoo expiring in a frightful explosion that inflict 6d6 points of bludgeoning damage and 6d6 points of fire damage to everything within a sixty foot radius burst, with a DC 19 Reflex save to take half damage. The saving throw is Con-dependent.
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