Converting monsters from Dragon magazine

[Shade]

Those very thoughts crossed my mind.

 

[Cleon]

Let's figure out ability scores:

Lion: Str 21, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6, +3 natural armor
Large Monstrous Spider: Str 15, Dex 17, Con 12, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 2, +2 natural armor
Griffon: Str 18, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 5, Wis 13, Cha 8, +6 natural armor
Phase Spider: Str 17, Dex 17, Con 16, Int 7, Wis 13, Cha 10, +3 natural armor

Int is Semi- (2-4).
7+7 HD implies good Con.
AC 21 implies good Dex. Even with the griffon's +6 natural armor, we'd still need another +6 from Dex to achieve that AC, barring deflection/insight bonuses (which don't seem appropriate here).

So how about...

Str 17, Dex 23, Con 16, Int 3, Wis 12, Cha 7, +6 natural armor

I'd up the Strength a bit, aren't these things a bit bigger (10 feet long versus a Phase's 8 feet) and possibly heftier than a Phase Spider? Combined with their "Big Cat DNA" that would imply a higher Strength.

Average a Phase Spider's Str 17 and a Lion's Str 21 for Str 19?

 

[Shade]

That works for me.

Added to Homebrews.

SPECIAL DEFENSES: Immune to webs, fear, and illusions; +2 or better weapon to hit

DR 10/magic?

Simplify to immunity to mind-affecting spells and abilities, or stick with immunity to fear and illusions?

The tangle terror has an ability that should cover "immune to webs"...

Immunity to Webs (Ex) A tangle terror is unaffected by natural and magical webs.


Give it the usual web-spinning monstrous spider racial skill bonuses? Blend in some of the lion's bonuses? (Lions have a +4 racial bonus on Balance, Hide, and Move Silently checks.)

 

[Cleon]

DR 10/magic?

Simplify to immunity to mind-affecting spells and abilities, or stick with immunity to fear and illusions?

The tangle terror has an ability that should cover "immune to webs"...

Immunity to Webs (Ex) A tangle terror is unaffected by natural and magical webs.

All of the above is OK by me.

Give it the usual web-spinning monstrous spider racial skill bonuses? Blend in some of the lion's bonuses? (Lions have a +4 racial bonus on Balance, Hide, and Move Silently checks.)

Lions also have a +12 racial bonus on Hide checks in tall grass & undergrowth.

Spider Cats seem more stalkers than trappers, so I'd rather give them some combination of a Hunting Spider and a Lion's racial bonuses:

Hunting Monstrous Spider - +4 Hide, +8 Climb and Spot; +10 Jump.
Lion - +4 Balance, Hide and Move Silently; +12 Hide in grass.
​

If we simply average those it'd work out to something like +2 to Balance and Move Silently; +4 to Spot and Hide* (+8 Hide in grass); +5 to Jump and +8 to Climb - the Climb wouldn't be averaged since it comes from a Climb speed.

We may want to round the +5 racial bonus to Jump. If we drop it to +4 then the Spider Cat will still have a Jump modifier at least +12 higher than a lion, since its Speed is 20 ft. higher.

So, in conclusion:

Racial Skill Bonuses: +2 to Balance and Move Silently; +4 to Jump, Spot and Hide* (+8 Hide in grass) and +8 to Climb ?

 

[freyar]

That's all good by me.

 

[demiurge1138]

I'm alright with blanket immunity to mind-influencing effects... although we should give them the concurrent weakness of being vulnerable to spells that specifically target vermin.

 

[freyar]

I'm alright with blanket immunity to mind-influencing effects... although we should give them the concurrent weakness of being vulnerable to spells that specifically target vermin.

Nice idea! I'll go along with that!

 

[Shade]

Updated.

I'll agree with the racial skill modifiers, but I intentionally didn't mention the lion's bonus in grass, since half this thing is arachnid (and not necessarily tawny colored).

So, would the majority of you like to make the whole critter lion-colored, or have the spider-parts be brown or black?

What type of ability damage, and how much, should the poison deal?

 

[freyar]

The physical description is

Spider cats appear to have the thorax and abdomen of a tarantula-like spider, with a feline head, a golden-furred body, and lionlike clawed feet.

Given the golden fur and tarantula-like description for the thorax and abdomen, I'm ok with the racial bonus. Of course, we also mean dry, yellowish grass even for the lion part, which makes even more sense for me with the tarantula.

Poison damage sounds like Con plus a progressive web effect (or we could make it Con and Dex). At 7HD, we could do 1d6/1d6 Con.

 

[demiurge1138]

I like the Con and Dex damage.