D&D 3E/3.5 Converting monsters from Mayfair Games Role Aids product line

[Cleon]

You're really on a roll. I think that looks pretty good. They're reasonably comparable to the Colossal monstrous spider. They have fewer hp and do less damage, but the cloud and death throes make up for most of that.

Actually, I think we didn't settle on the choking cloud and death throes yet! So maybe it's too soon to look at CR. Are we keeping stunned or going with something less traumatic? As for Con damage, does 2d6 sound good? How much worse should the death throes be?

Oh right, I was thinking something like:

Choking Cloud (Ex): Whenever a greater dust spider takes damage, it releases a cloud of dust in a 20 foot spread. It can also release a cloud of dust as a Move action. All creatures within the cloud must succeed on a DC 23 Fortitude save or be sickened for 1d4+1 rounds and take 1d6 Constitution damage from violent sneezing and choking. Those that save are merely dazzled for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Death Throes (Ex): When a greater dust spider dies, it explodes in a 40 foot spread of deadly dust. All creatures within the cloud must succeed on a DC 23 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 2d6 rounds and take 2d6 Constitution damage from violent sneezing and chocking, those that save are merely sickened for 1d4 rounds. One minute later, all creatures that were covered by the dust must succeed on another DC23 Fortitude save or take an additional 2d6 Constitution damage. The save DC is Constitution-based.

I was tempted to give the Death Throes a racial bonus on the DC but decided that's nasty enough.

 

[freyar]

I might tone down the "secondary" Con damage on the death throes to 1d6, but I think it's ok. Maybe still a little overpowered. Not sure. Otherwise, the numbers and effects seem alright to me!

 

[Cleon]

I might tone down the "secondary" Con damage on the death throes to 1d6, but I think it's ok. Maybe still a little overpowered. Not sure. Otherwise, the numbers and effects seem alright to me!

Yes, I thought about that too, since dust of sneezing and choking does 2d6/1d6. The dust's "disabled by choking (treat as stunned) for 5d4 rounds" even if you make the save vs Con damage is what'll really kill you though.

Speaking of which, here's an idea. Remember these fellows have young dust spiders coating their bodies, hence their "Shed Swarm" special ability - which we still haven't written up, by the way. Well, if mama spider dies and exploder into dust, what happens to her babies? Maybe the Death Throes also produces a dust spider swarm (or three ) where the spider dies, ready to punish the matricidal PCs by eating them alive while they are nauseated.

I'd be game to drop the damage to 2d6/1d6 and reduce the nausea/sickness effect to make up for a "swarming death throes". Something like:

Death Throes (Ex): When a greater dust spider dies, it explodes in a 40 foot spread of deadly dust. All creatures within the cloud must succeed on a DC 23 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1d4+1 rounds and take 2d6 Constitution damage from violent sneezing and chocking, those that save are merely sickened for 1d4 rounds. One minute later, all creatures that were covered by the dust must succeed on another DC23 Fortitude save or take an additional 1d6 Constitution damage. In addition, any swarms of young the greater dust spider has not released (see Shed Swarm, below) appear were the greater dust spider dies and attack their dead parent's slayers as their next action. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Shed Swarm (Ex): A greater dust spider can release a lesser dust spider swarm as a standard action into any adjacent squares. A greater dust spider carries one swarm for every 8 hit dice it possesses. A Gargantuan spider can release two swarms as a standard action.

We might want to increase its CR to allow for the swarms. That and the choking cloud/death throes could make it pretty nasty in a fight.

Then again, I want them to be fairly nasty.

Challenge Rating 11?

Oh, and how about this for a bit of flavour text:

Greater dust spiders are the adult form of lesser dust spiders. They constantly birth size baby spiders from pores in their skin, these offspring swarm over their parent's body in a layer up to a foot thick. Most of its young are microscopic and will die a few seconds after being separated from the parent spider, the largest are about 6 inches across and ready to form swarms and make their own way in the world. A greater dust spider can release swarms of Diminutive-sized lesser dust spiders to attack its enemies and can puff out clouds of deadly, choking dust that are actually made up of dust-mote sized spiders.

 

[Shade]

Updated.

Where does the Jump modifier come from?

0 ranks +8 Str -6 speed +0 racial = +2

Correct?

 

[freyar]

In Death Throes, we should change the comma before "those that save" into a semicolon for grammatical purposes.

Shade, Cleon also finished up Choking Cloud above, but it doesn't seem to have made it to homebrews.

 

[Cleon]

Updated.

Where does the Jump modifier come from?

0 ranks +8 Str -6 speed +0 racial = +2

Correct?

Oh yes, I was wondering were the speed penalty had gone to.

I've got a nasty suspicion it was left out of the Lesser and Swarm versions, too.

Just out of curiosity, does this mean it gets a Jump +12 if it's leaping from its web?

Actually, it might be an idea increasing its speed to 30 ft. Being Huge it'll have a lot longer stride than its babies.

 

[freyar]

Bumping speed to 30 ft makes a good deal of sense to me.

 

[Cleon]

It's looking good!

I'd rather give it a decent Jump modifier. Either increase the speed to 30 ft., give it a racial bonus (+6 or a Monstrous Hunting Spider's +10?) or even both. I'm not much bothered which. A 30-foot across spider than can be outjumped by many Medium Humanoids just seems wrong somehow.

We need to modify the DC of its Web to match its HD and Con scores - DC24 Escape Artist and DC28 Strength - and increase the area to something like "30 to 60 feet" to fit its Huge size.

Also, I'd like to mention its dust cloud form in Tactics. Instead of "Greater dust spiders lie in wait for prey while transformed into a pile of dust, when a victim blunders into their webs they take spider form and attack. A badly injured dust spider often "plays dead" by collapsing to dust." I'd prefer something like:

Combat
Greater dust spiders lie in wait for prey while transformed into a pile of dust, when a victim blunders into their webs they take spider form and attack. A badly injured dust spider usually assumes dust cloud form and flees.

Apart from that, we could include a group with some dust spider swarms in Organization, i.e.:

Organization: Solitary, clutter (2-4) or spawning (1-4 plus 2-8 lesser dust spider swarms)

 

[freyar]

Nice ideas. Let's also add some lesser dust spiders (say 4-8?) to the spawning org.

 

[Shade]

Updated.

Is the Jump high enough now, or would you guys still like a racial bonus?