Special Conversion Thread: Microscopic Monsters

[Cleon]

I'd be fine with swapping out Epic Fort. Its Fort save is going to be pretty good anyway.

Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Weapon Focus (slam), Improved Critical (slam), Overwhelming Critical (slam), Devastating Critical (slam), Power Critical (slam), Quicken Spell, 3xAutomatic Quicken Spell, Silent Spell, Automatic Silent Spell, Still Spell, Automatic Still Spell, Epic Ref, Epic Will, Maximize Spell, Great Fortitude, Perfect Health, Reckless Offense, Lightning Reflexes, Enlarge Spell, Improved Initiative, Superior Initiative.

Alphabetizing...
Automatic Quicken Spell (x3), Automatic Silent Spell, Automatic Still Spell, Cleave, Devastating Critical (slam), Enlarge Spell, Epic Reflexes, Epic Will, Great Cleave, Great Fortitude, Improved Critical (slam), Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Maximize Spell, Overwhelming Critical (slam), Perfect Health, Power Attack, Power Critical (slam), Quicken Spell, Reckless Offense, Silent Spell, Still Spell, Superior Initiative, Weapon Focus (slam).

I think that does it.

Looks good. I doubt it needs Power Critical, since a +61 attack is likely enough to confirm most hits, but we might as well leave it in.

I'll update the Working Draft.

Let's see.

Devastating Critical = 19-20; 13d6+26 plus 12d6 acid and DC 61 Fort save to avoid instant death on critical hit.

Save boosts of +6 bonus to Ref, +4 to Will and +2 to Fort.

+8 bonus to Initiative.

That's it for the changes to its stats, right?

 

[Cleon]

So, now we have its 320 points of skills to figure out.

There's no point giving it any social skills, since it believes it's the only sapient creature in existence.

Concentration, Hide, Listen, Spot and Move Silently as the basics.

Maybe some Knowledge (arcane) and Knowledge (dungeoneering).

Presumably it doesn't believe other creatures can cast spells, since it's the Only Intelligent Being, suggesting it won't have much Spellcraft.

 

[freyar]

We could swap out Power Crit if you like.

I think that's it for the stat changes.

Maybe those 7 skills are enough. We could do 50 ranks in each of the 5 "basics" and 35 each in the two Knowledges. What do you think?

 

[Cleon]

We could swap out Power Crit if you like.

I'll happily swap it out if you can think of something better.

How about Improved Spell Capacity so it has can cast a single 10th level spell? A quickened antimagic field or freezing sphere might come in handy.

Come to think of it, with Cha 21 it qualifies for picking that Epic Feat twice, giving it an 11th level spell as well (maximized horrid wilting! quickened finger of death!).

So, how about swapping Reckless Offence and Power Critical for two Improved Spell Capacity feats?

Or, if you don't want to fuss about 10th+ level spells, give it two Multispell feats so it can cast three quickened spells in a round.

As in, it can cast four 1st-9th level spells every round, since it has triple Automatic Quicken Spell feats. That'll be fun for its opponents...

Or give it Improved Spell Capacity and Multispell, so it has a 10th level spell slot and can cast a mere two quickened spells in a round.

I think that's it for the stat changes.

Maybe those 7 skills are enough. We could do 50 ranks in each of the 5 "basics" and 35 each in the two Knowledges. What do you think?

Since my last post I realized it has to have Spellcraft, since 30 ranks in that skill is a prerequisite for Automatic Quicken Spell.

 

[freyar]

I like Improved Spell Capacity and Multispell --- we don't use those often enough.

How about 40 ranks each in Concentration, Hide, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (dungeoneering), Listen, Spellcraft, Spot, and Move Silently?

 

[Cleon]

I like Improved Spell Capacity and Multispell --- we don't use those often enough.

Overall, Multispell is much more effective than Improved Spell Capacity, especially as sorcerers must use full-round actions to cast Metamagic standard action spells.

With twin Multispells it can cast four 9th level spells per round, with Multispell + Improved Spell Capacity it can cast two 9th level and one 10th level spell in a single round, and three 9th level spells in rounds it doesn't want to use its single 10th level spell.

The former seems a lot better to me.

How about 40 ranks each in Concentration, Hide, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (dungeoneering), Listen, Spellcraft, Spot, and Move Silently?

Looks pretty good...
4+4+3+6 = 17

That works out to Climb +21, Concentration +53, Hide +19, Knowledge (arcana) +44, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +44, Listen +44, Move Silently +35, Spellcraft +46, Spot +44, Survival +5 (+7 underground), Swim +21

The Hide is low for the target CR, especially compared to the Move Silently. I'll cut 2 points each off the 2 Knowledges, Listen, Spellcraft and Spot and 1 point off Concentration, then put those ranks in Hide to make it +30:

Skills: Climb +21, Concentration +52, Hide +30, Knowledge (arcana) +42, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +42, Listen +42, Move Silently +35, Spellcraft +44, Spot +42, Survival +5 (+7 underground), Swim +21

I'll update the Working Draft with the above.

 

[freyar]

Looks good. We're getting there!

I think we can drop the red ?s except on CR. Maybe put that in the 27-29 range? It's got a lot of casting, which is somewhat like the uvuudaum's SLAs, but the hp and melee abilities are probably better. On the other hand, protiston's AC is lousy.

 

[Cleon]

Looks good. We're getting there!

I think we can drop the red ?s except on CR. Maybe put that in the 27-29 range? It's got a lot of casting, which is somewhat like the uvuudaum's SLAs, but the hp and melee abilities are probably better. On the other hand, protiston's AC is lousy.

Judging its Challenge Rating is tricky. I don't fancy running it through a lot of epic level combats to see what parties can defeat it by spending 25% of their resources!

As for its magical powers, the CR 27 Gibbering Orb can shoot two dozen DC 25 "save or die" eye rays as a standard action, with up to five on a single target, and it can steal its victims' spells and SLAs and use them 2/round. That seems nastier than the "quadruple spell casting" of Protiston.

Proty's got a lot better hit points and saves than the Orb though, but its feeble AC and non-existent spell resistance lets it down.

Oh heck, shall we err on the side of caution and use Challenge Rating 27?

 

[freyar]

Sure, CR 27 is probably reasonable. Hard to figure these things.

I was thinking of ideas for tactics, but I have to run.

 

[Cleon]

Sure, CR 27 is probably reasonable. Hard to figure these things.

I was thinking of ideas for tactics, but I have to run.

Run free!

I'll update Protiston's Working Draft while you're away.