Converting Al-Qadim creatures

[freyar]

Weird that the HD are lower (also lower than the regular 2e roc)! Part of me would like to increase the HD, but it seems the design intent is clear. Shade?

 

[Shade]

Let's boost it to 20 HD. The lesser HD, I assume, must have been an attempt at a balancing mechanic for the double attacks. With the CR system in place, we can simply reflect it that way.

Added to Homebrews.

Skills: Hide -3, Listen +10, Spot +14, 2 more ranks (Put 'em in Spot?)

Challenge Rating: 11 or 12

Alignment: Usually chaotic evil?

 

[Cleon]

Let's boost it to 20 HD. The lesser HD, I assume, must have been an attempt at a balancing mechanic for the double attacks. With the CR system in place, we can simply reflect it that way.

Added to Homebrews.

Skills: Hide -3, Listen +10, Spot +14, 2 more ranks (Put 'em in Spot?)

What about my suggestion of giving it better sense bonuses for having two heads? Say, racial bnuses of +8 Spot and +4 Listen. Maybe do that, then put one of the extra points in each sense skill for Skills: Hide -3, Listen +15, Spot +19.

Challenge Rating: 11 or 12

For the Challenge Rating I'm thinking CR11 at the moment. They do more damage, but have little in the way of special attacks. It's pretty close to CR12, so if we give it another minor ability (like All-Around Vision for its 2 heads?) I'd be OK with Challenge Rating 12.

Alignment: Usually chaotic evil?

Usually's good for the alignment.

 

[Shade]

All-around vision and the improved skill bonuses sound good.

A few other things we might borrow from the multiheaded creature template:

• Improved Initiative and Combat Reflexes as bonus feats
• Each additional head a creature has gives it a cumulative +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks.
• Darkvision to a range of 90 feet
• Having a redundant head makes a creature more able to survive otherwise lethal attacks. Thus a vorpal blade would have to remove all heads to have its usual effect. (That seems obvious, but we might note that in the flavor text.)

 

[Cleon]

All-around vision and the improved skill bonuses sound good.

A few other things we might borrow from the multiheaded creature template:

• Improved Initiative and Combat Reflexes as bonus feats
• Each additional head a creature has gives it a cumulative +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks.
• Darkvision to a range of 90 feet
• Having a redundant head makes a creature more able to survive otherwise lethal attacks. Thus a vorpal blade would have to remove all heads to have its usual effect. (That seems obvious, but we might note that in the flavor text.)

I like all those proposals except for the increased darkvision, which I'd rather keep at 60 ft.

Which of the racial bonuses shall we give it?

+8 racial bonus to Spot, +4 racial to Listen (an extra +4 as in my previous post)

+6 racial bonuses on Spot and +2 racial on Listen and Search (an extra +2 as per the multi-headed template)

Or combine the two:

+8 racial bonus to Spot, +4 racial to Listen, +2 racial to Search

 

[Shade]

All-around vision generally grants a +4 racial bonus on Spot and Search checks, so I'd lean toward option #3, with Search boosted to +4.

Updated.

 

[freyar]

This looks good to me. Are we done?

 

[Cleon]

All-around vision generally grants a +4 racial bonus on Spot and Search checks, so I'd lean toward option #3, with Search boosted to +4.

Updated.

I have no objection to that.

 

[Cleon]

This looks good to me. Are we done?

I think we're done statwise.

Do we want to tweak their flavour text to mention their cruel and extortionate nature?

 

[freyar]

I think we're done statwise.

Do we want to tweak their flavour text to mention their cruel and extortionate nature?

Go for it!