Converting Oriental Adventures creatures

[Cleon]

If we need to mention the insight bonus somewhere specifically, I'd put it in Martial Training, and I agree with dropping the armor proficiencies.

Glad to know the skills look good.

Updating to The Reaper Working Draft.

I think we can borrow standard Rejuvenation with the appropriate times and say it's bypassed only by destruction of the charm. Does the charm need a separate ability?

Standard Rejuvenation only works if the Ghost makes a DC 16 level check, which The Reaper would fail 30% of the time. If I remember correctly, these haunts always return as long as their sword charms exist.

I'm thinking we could either allow it to make "rejuvenation checks" every X days until it succeeds, or just have it always reappear.

We ought to have a writeup of the charm's properties.

Hmm, I would have objection to folding it all into one subentry, like a 3E Lich's phylactery.

Oh, and I've thought of another ability - the Reaper (and most of the other Seven Swords) appear to have an ability to "appear out of nowhere" when something disturbs wherever they happen to be haunting. The Reaper in particular bursts out of the ground when intruders step into its garden.

We ought to do something with that.

 

[freyar]

I'm sure we've used Rejuvenation without a level check, but I don't mind writing the charm and rejuvenation into one entry. I'd prefer to make it an SQ (like the "wolfskin" of the loup du noir and magic weapons of various devils, etc) as opposed to an underbar-type thing. How long should it take to reappear? 1d10 days like the lich? Speaking of the charm, it shouldn't be as tough as a phylactery. Probably Fine, 20 hp, hardness 10, break DC 20?

 

[Cleon]

I'm sure we've used Rejuvenation without a level check, but I don't mind writing the charm and rejuvenation into one entry. I'd prefer to make it an SQ (like the "wolfskin" of the loup du noir and magic weapons of various devils, etc) as opposed to an underbar-type thing. How long should it take to reappear? 1d10 days like the lich? Speaking of the charm, it shouldn't be as tough as a phylactery. Probably Fine, 20 hp, hardness 10, break DC 20?

From my vague recollections of the module, all of the sword charms have to be gathered together and stuck into an amulet for them to be destroyed, thereby breaking the Curse that sustains these undead and most of the other haunted horrors in the adventure.

Just giving it some hit points and a hardness rating wouldn't cover that.

I was thinking both the Reaper and the sword charm should "auto-rejuvenate" if destroyed, unless they're destroyed at the same time as the other Seven Swords' charms.

We could make it so that if you destroy the sword charm it'll temporarily disrupt the Reaper, but that would make it harder to destroy the 7 swords, since it would prevent all 7 being destroyed together.

Hmm, or how about we have the sword charm have rather weak HP/hardness but it slowly regenerates itself (well, technically it should Fast Heal, since it's an object) if damaged, but its self-repair maximum is restricted by the condition of the other charms.

 

[freyar]

Oh, I'd thought we were going to make the charms more "generic" and not tied to each other. If you want to force them to be destroyed together in the amulet, I'd suggest just making them minor artifacts. Then we can link all the Seven Swords together and have an underbar about the amulet in one (or all) of their entries.

 

[Cleon]

Oh, I'd thought we were going to make the charms more "generic" and not tied to each other. If you want to force them to be destroyed together in the amulet, I'd suggest just making them minor artifacts. Then we can link all the Seven Swords together and have an underbar about the amulet in one (or all) of their entries.

I don't recall us talking about "generic-ising" the Sword Charm, but if you fancy the idea I'd be fine doing both.

Hmm...

Here's an outline:

Rejuvenation (Su): The Reaper cannot be destroyed through simple combat. If "destroyed" its body will crumble away to dust, leaving a small charm shaped like a sword. X later The Reaper reappears at full strength at whatever place it haunted and the sword charm vanishes. The Reaper can only be destroyed permanently if the sword charm is destroyed before The Reaper rejuvenates. A typical sword charm is a Fine sized object with X hp, hardness Y, and break DC Z.

And for the original seven sword spirits we can have a subentry which includes something like:

Amulet of the Seven Swords: The amulet of the seven swords is a minor artifact in the form of a gold medallion with seven slots the shape of sword charms, plus a sword charm for each of the original seven swords spirits - The General, Keeper of the Key, Reaper, Screaming Child, Shadow Walker, Paper Warrior, and Veiled Maiden. The medallion and the sword charms slowly repair any damage they take at the rate of 1 hit points per hour, regardless of the source or type of damage. Even if the medallion or a sword charm is annihilated, it reappears unharmed the next day in its old haunts. Since a seven sword spirit can only be destroyed if its sword charm is, this renders the original spirits effectively immortal.

In addition, the medallion has the the power X.

The only way to permanently destroy the amulet of the seven swords is to collect all seven sword charms and place them in the slots in the medallion and then destroy the amulet. The amulet can not repair itself when all its parts are joined together but it gains additional powers Y, Z.

 

[freyar]

That's a pretty good outline. The only idea I have about the powers of the medallion is to grant some high-level or epic melee feats to the bearer, but that doesn't necessarily feel amazing enough for an artifact.

 

[Cleon]

That's a pretty good outline. The only idea I have about the powers of the medallion is to grant some high-level or epic melee feats to the bearer, but that doesn't necessarily feel amazing enough for an artifact.

I don't recall the amulet actually doing much in the original adventure except for being a deux es machina device for summoning and destroying the Krakentau responsible for curse in the first place.

Maybe give it summon krakentau once a moon, an anti-krakentau implosion retributive strike, the ability to create a cursed area (like a megasized unhallow?) and perhaps one or two of a krakentau's powers, like Dream Imprint, Mist, Uncanny Insight, or Water Breathing. Come to think of it, I can't recall whether the Krakentau is male or female, or even if it says what sex it is.

Oh, and it might be able to sense the location of the sword charms or scry/communicate with the spirit who owns them.

In any case, it needn't be that powerful an item. It was more a Macguffin than an Superweapon.

 

[freyar]

Well, those are fun! But "anti-krakentau implosion retributive strike" is going to have to change. How about it can locate/scry on any of the sword charms and it gains the power to summon/attack krakentuas when all the charms are in it?

 

[Cleon]

Well, those are fun! But "anti-krakentau implosion retributive strike" is going to have to change. How about it can locate/scry on any of the sword charms and it gains the power to summon/attack krakentuas when all the charms are in it?

Hold on a mo, I dug out the adventure and it seems I got the items mixed up.

The plot revolves around the PCs being sent on a quest to collect "the box of seven relics" and thereby break the curse that turned the seven swords into undead and the castle they inhabit into a Haunted House of Horror. The krakentua is the monster responsible for the curse, and it could be destroyed by another relic, "the hands with seven fingers" (whose fingers fly off and skewer the krakentua). The medallion with the seven sword slots is yet another item, and they have to collect all the sword charms for the medallion to open the catacombs where the Krakentua's lair is.

Well, I guess it's not surprising I was getting three different items each with seven parts mixed up. It's been a while since I read OA2.

Anyhow, shall we drop the medallion/box/hands and just leave the sword charms?

 

[freyar]

Umm, yes. That's a real McGuffin adventure!

So how tough do you want to make it to destroy the charms? Not worse than a phylactery, I'd think.