Special Conversion Thread: Microscopic Monsters


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Globigerina Working Draft

Globigerina, Giant
Medium Ooze (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 2d10+8 (19 hp)
Initiative: -4
Speed: Swim 5 ft. (1 squares)
Armor Class: 15 (-4 Dex, +9 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 15
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+9
Attack: Spine +1 melee (1d4)
Full Attack: Spine +1 melee (1d4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Spines, tendrils
Special Qualities: Blind, blindsight 60 ft., ooze traits, transparent
Saves: Fort +4, Ref -4, Will -5
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 2, Con 18, Int —, Wis 1, Cha 1
Skills: Swim +8
Feats: —
Environment: Any aquatic
Organization: Solitary, group (2-12) or field (10–60)
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 3 HD (Medium); 4-6 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: —

Floating in the water is a globe of needle-sharp spines which radiate from a small, coiled shell. The creature is hard to make out, as the spines are almost transparent and its shell matches the color of the water.

This giant microorganism bears a superficial resemblance to a giant, floating sea urchin. A colony of globigerina will instinctively arrange itself at different depths, like a floating minefield, and wait for food to blunder into its spines.

A globigerina appears to be a globe of spines at least 15 feet across, at the centre is a 3 foot wide coiled shell which contains the creature's living protoplasm. Globigerina generally weigh 800 pounds or more.

COMBAT

Globigerina is a passive threat, only attacking creatures who blunder into their spines. Globigerina usually drift on the currents waiting for prey or edible flotsam to come to them. They will slowly float towards food if they sense it nearby.

Spines (Ex): Any creature that comes within 5 ft. of a globigerina, or strikes a globigerina with a handheld or natural weapon, must succeed at a DC 15 Reflex save or be hit by a spine. Creatures hit by a spine takes 1d4 points of piercing damage and is immediately attacked by a tendril (see below). Note that weapons with exceptional reach, such as longspears, do not endanger their users in this way. A Large-sized globigerina has spines that threaten a 10 ft. radius. The save DC is Constitution-based.

A globigerina can also attack an opponent with its spines as a standard melee attack. Normally it attacks with a single spine, but if the globigerina is attached to the opponent by a tendril it can attack with 3 spines, with a +2 bonus to its attack rolls. A globigerina cannot make more than 4 attacks against any 5 ft. square within its reach.

Tendrils (Ex): Whenever a globigerina hits an opponent with a spine, it can attack that opponent with a tendril of protoplasm. This is a melee touch attack (+1 attack check for a typical globigerina) that does 1d2 acid damage.

If a tendril hits, it attaches itself to the opponent's body with adhesive secretions. The attached tendril then continues to damage the opponent (as above) every round, until the opponent escapes or the globigerina is killed. An attached globigerina is effectively grappling its prey and can be struck with a weapon or grappled itself. To remove an attached globigerina through grappling, the opponent must achieve a pin against the globigerina. Globigerina have a +8 racial bonus on grapple checks (already figured into the Base Attack/Grapple entry above).

Transparent (Ex): A globigerina is difficult to see when it is in the ocean, since it blends in to the color of deep water. It takes a DC 13 Spot check to notice one. Creatures who fail to notice a globigerina and move within 5 feet of it are automatically attacked.

Skills: Giant globigerina have a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard and can always take 10 on Swim checks, even if distracted or endangered.
 
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Upon reflection, I think just 1d2 acid damage for the tendrils rather than 1d2 bludgeoning plus 1d2 acid. They're more like our Paramecium conversion's sticky thread than a grey ooze's slam.

I think I'll update it.

Also, the original version of the creature says that the spines prevent an opponent getting within normal melee range of the central body:

"A character attacking the cell with any weapon other than a long lance or a missile suffers 1-4 hp damage from the spines, never reaching the central shell, unless the spines are first broken away (a risky task itself)."

Do we want to include that as a special defense?
 

These marine relatives of amoebas are found in sandy patches on the shallow sea floor, in both warm and cold oceans. An elphidium mostly just lies on the sea floor and stretches out out thin filament-like pseudopods. Any passing bit of food that gets stuck to these pseudo-tentacles is pulled in to their body to be ingested.

Just noticed an "out out" typo in the Elphidium - out with the outermost out!

Also, we've got both "an elphidium" and "a elphidium" when it should stick to one or the other.

Revised version:

These marine relatives of amoebas are found in sandy patches on the shallow sea floor, in both warm and cold oceans. An elphidium mostly just lies on the sea floor and stretches out thin filament-like pseudopods. Any passing bit of food that gets stuck to these pseudo-tentacles is pulled in to their body to be ingested.

A typical giant elphidium is 2 feet in diameter and weighs about 100 pounds.

COMBAT

Elphidium attacks with its pseudopod tentacles, grabbing opponents and gradually crushing them. If it kills an opponent, it pulls the corpse close to its body and slowly ingests its new meal.

An opponent can attack an elphidium's tentacles with a sunder attempt as if they were weapons. A giant elphidium's tentacles have 1 hit points each. If an elphidium is currently grappling a target with the tentacle that is being attacked, it usually uses another limb to make its attack of opportunity against the opponent making the sunder attempt. Severing one of an elphidium's tentacles does no damage to the creature. An elphidium can grow a replacement tentacle in 1d4 rounds.
 
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Fixed Elphidium. Good eye!

Globigerina looks a good start. I'm not sure if just approaching within 5 feet should automatically trigger an attack, though.
 
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I think a 5 ft approach should cause a hit; that's within the globe of spines, after all!

Exactly!

I think that we should make it clearer that the "4 attacks per square" limit cover both spines and tendrils - e.g. once it's got 4 tendrils attached in a square it can't make any more attacks (spine or tendril) on that square until a tendril releases.
 

You mean if there are small enough opponents in that square to have more than one character in the square? There doesn't seem much point in it attaching multiple tendrils to one opponent.
 

You mean if there are small enough opponents in that square to have more than one character in the square? There doesn't seem much point in it attaching multiple tendrils to one opponent.

Each tendril does 1d2 acid damage per round, so it can do up to 4d2 per 5 ft. square.
 

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