Special Conversion Thread: Microscopic Monsters

[freyar]

It's true, I don't like hardness for monsters generally. But I think we have to go with the precedent from the other sporocarps.

I really prefer just keeping the mental modifiers and casting ability the same as for a slug of the same size. I wouldn't add any bonus casting feats, either.

I think I would drop Perfect Health and Devastating Crit to make room for 2 more Automatic Silent Spells and give the sporocarp the ability to make small movements suitable for somatic components. (And, come to think of it, it seems to me that the slug shouldn't be making vocalizations much anyway.) So, something like this?

Sporocarp (Ex): Protiston can form its body into sporocarps -- objects that resemble mushrooms about 10 feet tall -- as a full round action. It can use its Self-Division ability to form any part of its body into a sporocarps. A sporocarp has the same spellcasting ability as an equivalently sized slug, and it can make small movements that serve as somatic components for spells.

Partially developed sporocarps are soggy and covered with damp mucus, giving them fire resistance X. Such a sporocarp does not have mature spores or a spore attack.

A mature sporocarp is dried-out and has vulnerability to fire. The head of the "mushroom" is hollow and filled with spores about an inch long. It is AC 1, hardness XX, and takes XXX hit points of damage to destroy, but any weapon damage which does not destroy the sporocarp causes it to split open and release its spores. The spores scatter in a cloud covering a 30 foot radius and attach themselves to any organic matter they touch (including living creatures), which they immediately start to digest, doing XdX points of acid damage per round (the acid damage only harms organic materials such as flesh or wood). On the first round of contact, the spores can be scraped off a creature (exposing the scraping device to the spores' acid damage), but after that it must be frozen, burned, or cut away (dealing damage to the victim as well). Anything that deals cold or fire damage, sunlight, or a remove disease spell destroys a spore infestation.

Given enough time and food, Protiston can regrow its entire body from even a single spore.

 

[Cleon]

It's true, I don't like hardness for monsters generally. But I think we have to go with the precedent from the other sporocarps.

Well, that bit doesn't make much difference to me.

I really prefer just keeping the mental modifiers and casting ability the same as for a slug of the same size. I wouldn't add any bonus casting feats, either.

But the original clearly says Protiston's a better spellcaster when it's a sporocarp. I think we should do some kind of nod to that.

I think I would drop Perfect Health and Devastating Crit to make room for 2 more Automatic Silent Spells and give the sporocarp the ability to make small movements suitable for somatic components. (And, come to think of it, it seems to me that the slug shouldn't be making vocalizations much anyway.) So, something like this?

I'd find it easier to imagine the "mushroom" making noise than performing precise spell-casting gestures. It could, theoretically, build up pressure inside to help disperse spores, which could lead to it releasing said pressure through perforations to create noise. Also, D&D has actual mushrooms that make noise - i.e. Shriekers.

So, if we are feat-fiddling, I'd give it more Automatic Still Spells instead...

If you don't want the "slimebody" version using verbal components either, we might as well give it free AutoStill and AutoSilent spells...

 

[freyar]

What the original says is "The power of Protiston’s magic may vary from place to place, depending on the number of colonies in the area, but would be powerful in the sporocarp stage." What I think they're trying to say is that Protiston always comes together to make a single big sporocarp, which therefore has great casting because Protiston is all together in one place. There's really nothing there to indicate it'd be a better caster as a sporocarp than as an equally-sized slug.

We can swap to more Auto Still feats if you'd rather. I also guess we could give it free Auto Still and Auto Silent if you really want, but I don't know what two other feats we'd want to add.

 

[Cleon]

What the original says is "The power of Protiston’s magic may vary from place to place, depending on the number of colonies in the area, but would be powerful in the sporocarp stage." What I think they're trying to say is that Protiston always comes together to make a single big sporocarp, which therefore has great casting because Protiston is all together in one place. There's really nothing there to indicate it'd be a better caster as a sporocarp than as an equally-sized slug.

Well that's based on the assumption that Protiston forms a single fruiting body, and I think the text says otherwise.

It says Protiston is a slime mold "a type of creature (described below) which alternates between being a swarm of individual amoebae and a colony that looks like a large, distorted mushroom" and then goes on to say "About 30 colonies of Dictyostelium make up the whole of Protiston".

The "mushroom" in question seems quite clearly to be a sporocarp.

So, if Protiston comprises about thirty colonies/swarms, and each colony can look like a mushroom, Protiston can take the form of 30 "mushrooms". Which means the original monster became thirty sporocarps, not just one.

We can swap to more Auto Still feats if you'd rather. I also guess we could give it free Auto Still and Auto Silent if you really want, but I don't know what two other feats we'd want to add.

I think it's easier if we just give it the special ability to automatically cast spells Silently and Stilled when it is in sporocarp form.

 

[freyar]

I think your assumption that they mean the same thing by "colony" consistently throughout the original description is suspect given how sketchy a lot of these older monster descriptions can be. But, tell you what, here's a compromise. Let's give old Proty free Auto Silent and Auto Still in sporocarp form. Maybe even another free metamagic feat if you wish, as a nod to augmenting the sporocarp's casting, but no extra mental boost. Then it doesn't seem to need Auto Silent and Auto Still in slug form so much, so we could replace those feats if we like. Agreeable?

 

[Cleon]

I think your assumption that they mean the same thing by "colony" consistently throughout the original description is suspect given how sketchy a lot of these older monster descriptions can be. But, tell you what, here's a compromise. Let's give old Proty free Auto Silent and Auto Still in sporocarp form. Maybe even another free metamagic feat if you wish, as a nod to augmenting the sporocarp's casting, but no extra mental boost. Then it doesn't seem to need Auto Silent and Auto Still in slug form so much, so we could replace those feats if we like. Agreeable?

Well it may be suspect, but assuming they mean the same thing by "colony" requires fewer entities than assuming they mean different things, so it's the simpler hypotheses and more likely to be correct.

The Occam's Razor approach to monster making.

Anyhows, I can go along with your proposal. Epic Skill Focus in Hide and Move Silently?

 

[freyar]

I don't really see Protiston as being that sneaky. How about a couple copies of Imp Spell Capacity to get some 10th level spell slots (or 10th and 11th)?

 

[Cleon]

I don't really see Protiston as being that sneaky. How about a couple copies of Imp Spell Capacity to get some 10th level spell slots (or 10th and 11th)?

It'd be a 10th level slot and an 11th level one, going by the RAW.

Not sure I like that, since it's only like to use Enlarge and Maximize on it, which isn't that great.

How about Epic Spellcasting and Epic Skill Focus (Spellcraft)?

 

[freyar]

Actually, you can choose the spell level up to 1 more than your current highest spell slot. But we could go with something else. Epic Spellcasting is fine (do we need to figure what epic spells it has?). Epic Skill Focus doesn't do a lot for me, though. What about another metamagic feat, like Heighten Spell?

 

[Cleon]

Actually, you can choose the spell level up to 1 more than your current highest spell slot. But we could go with something else. Epic Spellcasting is fine (do we need to figure what epic spells it has?). Epic Skill Focus doesn't do a lot for me, though. What about another metamagic feat, like Heighten Spell?

Epic Spellcasting is dependent on Spellcraft checks, so ESF (Spellcraft) allows for things like contingent resurrection (Spellcraft DC 52) or mass frog (DC 55) on a 1+.