Converting original D&D and Mystara monsters

[freyar]

Ready to go revise those spells for the summon coven interaction?

 

[Cleon]

Ready to go revise those spells for the summon coven interaction?

Might as well.

Then we can give "Goat Magic" a description with uses/per day at various HD. I think we'd sort of decided on what they were but forgot to make a formal draft of it, but can't recall the precise details.

 

[freyar]

OK, the first of the spells with a special "Summon Coven" section is Occultation, Here's what we have so far:

Occultation
Abjuration
Level: Bard 4, Goat 3, Sor/Wiz 4
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 minute
Area: A circle with a radius up to 5 ft. per two levels
Duration: 13 hours plus 1 hour/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless, object)

The warded area becomes difficult to perceive by divination spells such as clairaudience/clairvoyance, scry, locate object or detect spells. It also prevents location by such magic items as crystal balls. If a divination is attempted against a creature or item within the area warded by this spell, the caster of the divination must succeed on a caster level check against a DC of 11 + the caster level of the spellcaster who cast occultation or the divination fails.

The spellcaster who cast occultation does not need to make caster level checks to use divination in the spell's area of effect.

Summon Coven
Every goatling who contributes to a summon coven empowerment points pool is considered a "caster" when an occultation is enhanced using that pool; the resulting occultation does not ward against those goatlings' divinations.

Is that enough, or do we need to make Spell Magnitude empowerment more effective for this spell when combined with summon coven? I recall that the original covered a pretty impressive area and duration when powered by the Tabernacle of the Ram. Well, looking back, it does appear that the Great Veil is just empowered with a ridiculous number of empowerment points.

 

[Cleon]

OK, the first of the spells with a special "Summon Coven" section is Occultation, Here's what we have so far:

Is that enough, or do we need to make Spell Magnitude empowerment more effective for this spell when combined with summon coven? I recall that the original covered a pretty impressive area and duration when powered by the Tabernacle of the Ram. Well, looking back, it does appear that the Great Veil is just empowered with a ridiculous number of empowerment points.

The "ridiculous number of empowerment points" was my interpretation too.

It will need some adjustment to allow the summon coven to exceed the +5 caster level limit of Spell Magnitude empowerment.

e.g.:

Summon Coven
A summon coven can be used to apply Spell Magnitude empowerment to an occultation spell's caster level with no upper limit to the enhancement bonus.

In addition, every goatling who contributes to a summon coven empowerment points pool is considered a "caster" when an occultation is enhanced using that pool; the resulting occultation does not ward against those goatlings' divinations.​

For the binding cage spell, I think the first paragraph of the above is probably enough for its summon coven note.

Summon Coven
A summon coven can be used to apply Spell Magnitude empowerment to a binding cage spell's caster level with no upper limit to the enhancement bonus.
​

Think that's enough?

 

[freyar]

Yes, I think that's enough for both of those spells.

I think we should also give the Tabernacle of the Ram the ability to dispense its empowerment points more rapidly than 1/round (after the first 10). If I'm reading the original text on the Great Veil properly, it's an Occultation spell empowered with roughly 210,000 empowerment points, which would take about 350 hours to empower at 1/round. That seems a bit unreasonable.

 

[Cleon]

Yes, I think that's enough for both of those spells.

I think we should also give the Tabernacle of the Ram the ability to dispense its empowerment points more rapidly than 1/round (after the first 10). If I'm reading the original text on the Great Veil properly, it's an Occultation spell empowered with roughly 210,000 empowerment points, which would take about 350 hours to empower at 1/round. That seems a bit unreasonable.

Good point!

How about 100 empowerment points per round. Then the 210,000 "Great Veil" would take 3½ hours, enough for them to cast it overnight like the flavour text indicates.

 

[freyar]

100 pts/round sounds good to me!

Are we now done with all the spells and ready to move to skills and feats?

 

[Cleon]

100 pts/round sounds good to me!

Upon second thoughts, maybe we should set the standard summon coven drawing power rate at 10 points per round rather than 10 for the first round than 1 per round?

e.g. change "It takes 1 round to draw 10 empowerment points, plus 1 round for each additional point drawn" to "Up to 10 empowerment points can be drawn for every round spend drawing power."

Then add this to the Tabernacle of the Ram:

The head of a summon coven spell can draw up to 100 empowerment points per round from the tabernacle of the ram, ten times the maximum rate of a normal tabernacle.

Are we now done with all the spells and ready to move to skills and feats?

Not quite. We haven't written out the Goat Magic SLA list yet, although we've pretty much agreed on what it'll be.

 

[freyar]

We could bump to 10/rd if you like, though I think you were concerned about letting a goatling empower a spell or SLA too much in a battle situation in that case.

Do you remember what we agreed about the SLAs?

 

[Cleon]

We could bump to 10/rd if you like, though I think you were concerned about letting a goatling empower a spell or SLA too much in a battle situation in that case.

I think 10 points per round is acceptable, since a goatling can normally empower a spell with 10 points and cast it in the same round. They're giving up a standard action remember, so it ought to be worth something.

Since it sounds like you're alright with it, I'll update the Goatling Working Draft.

Do you remember what we agreed about the SLAs?

I think it was basically the level progression in Goatmen of Kavaja. I vaguely remember posting a rough outline once we'd finished the Discerp/Empowerment abilities. Let me have a look...

...well I found the post, but it just lists the original progression:

Looks like the "Goat Magic" is the next big challenge. I'm thinking they should be SLAs that the Goatlings gain as they increase in HD. Here's what the original had:

Level 1: Detect Magic once per day (as the 1st level spell).
Level 2: Protection from Evil once per day (as the 1st level spell).
Level 3: Discerp once per full moon (new 2nd level spell).
Level 3: Empower once per round (innate ability).
Level 3: Lesser Binding once per day (new 2nd level spell).
Level 5: Veil once per day (new spell 3rd level).
Level 5: Dispel Magic once per day (as the 3rd level spell).
Level 7: Dimension Door once per day (as the 4th level spell).
Level 7: Sunfire Whip once per day (new 4th level spell).
Level 9: Contact Outer Planes once per week (as the 5th level spell).
Level 9: Magic Jar once per month (as the 5th level spell).
Level 11: Greater Binding once per month (new 6th level spell).
Level 11: Anti-Magic Shell once per day (as the 6th level spell).
Level 15: Summon Coven once per month (new 7th level spell).

I think we might as well use that as an outline, although I'd suggest tweaking the levels a bit to make protection from evil a 1st level ability.

For the wording, we can modify the Half-Fiend's SLAs, e.g.:

Goat Magic (Sp): A goatling with an Intelligence or Wisdom score of 8 or higher has spell-like abilities depending on its Hit Dice, as indicated on the table. The abilities are cumulative. Unless otherwise noted, an ability is usable once per day. Caster level equals the creature’s HD, and the save DC is Charisma-based.

Goatling Spell-Like Abilities

HD	Abilities
1-2	detect magic, protection from evil
3-4	binding circle
5-6	dispel magic, occultation
7-8	dimension door, sunfire whip
9-10	contact outer plane (1/week), magic jar (1/month)
11-14	antimagic field, binding cage (1/month)
15+	summon coven (1/month)