Converting monsters from Dragon magazine

[freyar]

Heh, this thing is mythical, so let's go with 20HD.

Poison looks ok to me, unless you want to make it do Con damage or something.

What's the intent of the "grappling attack" in the Spikes line?

 

[Cleon]

Heh, this thing is mythical, so let's go with 20HD.

Poison looks ok to me, unless you want to make it do Con damage or something.

What's the intent of the "grappling attack" in the Spikes line?

So it can grab an opponent and stick its spikes into them, obviously!

If I recall correctly, the wording is a cut-and-paste of the Armour Spikes grapple rules.

 

[freyar]

Well, it can use them as a normal melee attack, so they can by default use them in a grapple. And the wording is "grapple attack."

But if you want to increase the damage or make it automatic (like constrict), we could just borrow the barbed devil's Impale ability, which doesn't have the "can" before "deal," as so:
Impale (Ex): A con rit deals X hp of piercing damage to a grabbed opponent with a successful grapple check.

Actually, this gives me an idea, too. Want to give it Improved Grab and maybe also Swallow Whole?

 

[Cleon]

Well, it can use them as a normal melee attack, so they can by default use them in a grapple. And the wording is "grapple attack."
.

But I'm not talking about using them in a grapple as a melee attack (the default use), I'm talking about using them to inflict damage with a grapple check.

I'd prefer the "deal piercing damage on a successful grapple attack" formula, since that's what Armour Spikes uses - which, as I've already said, is what I'm basing this ability on.

Actually, this gives me an idea, too. Want to give it Improved Grab and maybe also Swallow Whole?

I was considering Improved Grab but would rather not use Swallow Whole. There doesn't seem to be any mention of it in the folklore, and we've got enough swallowing monsters alreadt.

 

[freyar]

I'm a tad confused. I suggested using Impale, which is like Constrict in that it automatically deals damage on a successful grapple check when they're already in a grapple, which is what I think you're suggesting. For me, it's just a matter of using the more standard monster ability wording, not the mechanics.

 

[Cleon]

I'm a tad confused. I suggested using Impale, which is like Constrict in that it automatically deals damage on a successful grapple check when they're already in a grapple, which is what I think you're suggesting. For me, it's just a matter of using the more standard monster ability wording, not the mechanics.

Oh well, if you insist I'll go along with changing it to Impale.

It doesn't make any difference in the long run, since they use the same basic mechanic - although by that argument we might as well use Constrict.

 

[freyar]

Nah, Constrict is for bludgeoning damage, Impale is for piercing damage. But, yeah, I really prefer to stick to standard abilities.

 

[Cleon]

Nah, Constrict is for bludgeoning damage, Impale is for piercing damage. But, yeah, I really prefer to stick to standard abilities.

I've seen a fair few examples of Constrict attacks that do different sorts of damage than bludgeoning, but that's a bit academic since I'm OK going the Improved Grab & Impale route.

Updating Con Rit Working Draft.

 

[freyar]

Are these ready for the fluffy stuff?

 

[Cleon]

Are these ready for the fluffy stuff?

We forgot to give them the standard Skill crunch for having a Swim speed (e.g. Swim +20 and the usual blurb).

Updating Con Rit Working Draft.

Now we can do the "fluff stuff".