Converting monsters from Dragon magazine

[freyar]

Then we should just add a "tyerkow weaknesses" section that burning the skin (maybe dealing X hp of fire damage to it) destroys the tyerkow.

 

[Shade]

Updated.

Challenge Rating: 4? Although they have more HD, they lack the energy drain ability of vampire spawn.

Advancement: 7-12 HD (Medium); 13-18 HD (Large)?

 

[freyar]

We need to take off the weakness about exposure to sunlight, since the original text explicitly mentions that they are ok in daylight. Maybe we should even go so far as to say that they differ from vampires in this regard.

CR 4 and proposed advancement are good.

Should we mention that these are sometimes created instead of vampire spawn? I think we had something similar for lesser vampires.

 

[Cleon]

Updated.

Skills: 6 at 9 ranks
Bluff, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Sense Motive, Spot?

Looks good to me.

Advancement: x

I'd be tempted to give them advancement by character class, otherwise 6-15 HD (Medium)

Does this work?

Fast Healing (Ex): A tyerkow heals 2 points of damage each round so long as it has at least 1 hit point. If reduced to 0 hit points in combat, it appears to deflate into nothing but its skin, at which point it is helpless. It regains 1 hit point after 1 hour, then is no longer helpless and resumes healing at the rate of 2 hit points per round.

I think the original monster probably put on their "human skin" during daytime, which allowed them to survive exposure to sunlight at the cost of some or all of their magical powers (e.g. they appear to be perfectly regular folk at day, but at night they can remove their skin to become Blood Sucking Fiend From Hell).

Thus, I'd go for something like:

Fast Healing (Ex): A tyerkow heals 2 points of damage each round so long as it has at least 1 hit point, its fast healing does not function in sunlight when it is not wearing a Human Skin (see below). If reduced to 0 hit points in combat it falls to the floor, at which point it is helpless. It regains 1 hit point after 1 hour, then is no longer helpless and resumes healing at the rate of 2 hit points per round. To permanently destroy a tyerkow it must be exposed to sunlight while not wearing its Human Skin, or its body must be burnt to ashes.

Human Skin (Ex): A tyerkow can take on the guise of a living humanoid by putting on a skin. The tyerkow then appears just as it did when alive. When wearing Human Skin a tyerkow is not harmed by sunlight, but it loses the use of its (Domination and Spider Climb?) powers. There are rumours some tyerkow can strip the skin off their victims and assume their appearance.
​

 

[Cleon]

Updated.

Challenge Rating: 4? Although they have more HD, they lack the energy drain ability of vampire spawn.

I'd make them Challenge Rating 3, the lack of Energy Drain makes them significantly weaker in combat, and not having Gaseous Form makes them much easier to dispose of once reduced to 0 hit points.

Advancement: 7-12 HD (Medium); 13-18 HD (Large)?

Don't like the idea of them advancing to Large. Isn't the point of these things that they often masquerade as mundane living citydwellers, that'd be a bit hard if you're twice as tall as your neighbours!

 

[freyar]

Hmm, I had kind of liked Shade's variation, but I like what Cleon has for the skin! I don't think it needs to lose any powers while wearing a skin, though.

I think the greater # of hp makes up for the lack of energy drain. Also, I don't think CR necessarily has to do with their final disposal, just being able to "defeat" them.

The Large ones are tyerkow ogres and hill giants, clearly!

 

[Cleon]

Hmm, I had kind of liked Shade's variation, but I like what Cleon has for the skin! I don't think it needs to lose any powers while wearing a skin, though.

Well I feel there needs to be some advantage to not wearing a skin, else they'd almost never take it off. Maybe destroying their skin is the easy way to kill them, so they remove it for safety. Or their skinless form is unrecognizable as their skin form, so they are able to persecute the locals without being identified and hunted down during the day?

I think the greater # of hp makes up for the lack of energy drain. Also, I don't think CR necessarily has to do with their final disposal, just being able to "defeat" them.

Going from 4 HD to 5HD doesn't increase their BAB or saves, and 6 more hit points isn't that big a deal in 3E. Energy Drain is still very nasty, though, so I still think CR3 is more fitting.

The Large ones are tyerkow ogres and hill giants, clearly!

Oh of course, ogres wouldn't attract any suspicion in a typical D&D village, they'd fit right in.

 

[Shade]

Don't like the idea of them advancing to Large. Isn't the point of these things that they often masquerade as mundane living citydwellers, that'd be a bit hard if you're twice as tall as your neighbours!

The Large ones are tyerkow ogres and hill giants, clearly!

Oh of course, ogres wouldn't attract any suspicion in a typical D&D village, they'd fit right in.

They'd fit right into an ogre (or giant, etc.) village, though. Let's keep the Large version for that reason.

I like the idea of the "skinwalking", as the original picture does show it running around without its skin. However, I think we need to retain the burning the skin destruction rather than your suggestion of destroying it while not wearing its skin. I also agree with freyar that it shouldn't lose powers while wearing the skin.

Well I feel there needs to be some advantage to not wearing a skin, else they'd almost never take it off. Maybe destroying their skin is the easy way to kill them, so they remove it for safety. Or their skinless form is unrecognizable as their skin form, so they are able to persecute the locals without being identified and hunted down during the day?

These suggestions sound reasonable, and the former sounds the closest to the original writeup.

 

[freyar]

How about this?

Fast Healing (Ex): A tyerkow heals 2 points of damage each round so long as it has at least 1 hit point, its fast healing does not function in sunlight when it is not wearing a Human Skin (see below). If reduced to 0 hit points in combat it falls to the floor, at which point it is helpless. It regains 1 hit point after 1 hour, then is no longer helpless and resumes healing at the rate of 2 hit points per round.

Human Skin (Ex): A tyerkow can take on the guise of a living humanoid by putting on a skin. The tyerkow then appears just as it did when alive. When wearing Human Skin a tyerkow is not harmed by sunlight. There are rumours some tyerkow can strip the skin off their victims and assume their appearance.

Under weaknesses:

Leave in the bit about sunlight, but add a sentence "A tyerkow wearing its Human Skin is, however, not harmed by sunlight (see above)." Then add "Separating the Human Skin from a tyerkow and burning the skin (doing X hp of fire damage to it) destroys the tyerkow utterly." Not sure if we need the bit about water or not.

 

[Shade]

Lookin' good. +10 bonus on Disguise checks when wearing a human skin?

Oh, and one quibble. Let's make it "humanoid skin", or better yet, "skin of the living"...humanocentric is soooo 1e.

The running water weakness should remain, as it was mentioned in the original writeup.