Converting Oriental Adventures creatures
- Thread starter Shade
- Start date
Cleon
Legend
Updating The Screaming Child Working Draft.
Not off hand, no.
Might come up with something later. I don't feel that inspired at the moment and have places to go and things to do.
We've tended to keep possessions to a minimum, but I could see us giving the Child some Armour Class improving item(s) that don't impair spellcasting. I'm thinking a ring of protection and/or bracers of armor? I considered a ring of force shield but realized it'd be pointless as soon as the Child cast the shield on its spells prepared list.
Hold on, a CL 1 use-activated/continuous shield item would cost 4,000 gp going by the Creating Magic Items guidelines, so why did they settle on 8,500 gp for a ring of force shield?
For that matter, why would anyone bother when a +2 ring of protection is 500 gp cheaper and offers a deflection bonus while bracers of armor offers the same +2 AC but is 4,500 gp cheaper and doesn't have the limitations of being a shield?
Presumably most of the cost is from the force shield ring's CL of 9th, which is the minimum needed to cast wall of force but it clearly isn't using that spell in the cost calculation (since 5th level spell × 9th level caster × 2,000 is a base price of 90,000 gp!). Reverse-calculating the spell level comes to 0.45, so it's clearly a cantrip, which makes sense as the +2 AC bonus the shield provides is WORSE than the benefits of a shield spell (+4 AC and negates magic missile).
Never mind, it's irrelevant for this conversion (unless you really fancy a ring of force shield for the kid).
Cleon
Legend
A standard 10th-level NPC (i.e. one who matches our kid's CR 10) has Gear Value of 12,000 gp. That's enough for both +2 ring of protection (8,000 gp) and +2 bracers of armor (4,000 gp).
Which'll give the Screaming Child an AC 20.
That seems too high, since the original Child had the lowest AC of all the Seven Sword (AC 10+1) with the Veiled Maidens second at AC 8.
I'd prefer to keep the Armour Class near the current 16.
We could drop the Int bonus dodge bonus from The Child's Martial Artistry to give it AC 17 or give it some other item.
Now, the original monster possessed "two doses of sand of time which slows a foe for 2-8 rounds", so we could do something with that.
A wand of slow maybe? That's 11,250 gp for a 5th-level wand so is within budget. I'm not keen on inventing a new sands of slowness magic item for this conversion!
It's already got plenty of disabling spells though with better save DCs than slow, such as DC 19 stinking cloud.
Or we could come up with something else. 12k in gold is enough for a decent utility Wondrous Items like a medallion of thought and glove of storing or a Rod - either a rod of cancellation or a metamagic rod of Enlarge, Extend or Silent. Alternatively, instead of protection we could make the Ring either improved jumping or minor energy resistance.
You know, a ring of improved jumping is tempting. It's already got Tumbling but the low Strength and modest SPs prompted me not to give The Child and SPs in Jump.
That'd give it Jump +11 including the Str modifier plus Tumble synergy.
Let me think…
After consideration, I would prefer a few doses of dust of disappearance since the original monster had the chameleon spell which as been lost in our conversion and the encounter description says "He has cast chameleon on himself and is difficult to see."
While that might be an argument for just giving it greater invisibility instead of black tentacles and shout, it also says it casts spells while camouflaged.
Hmm… I'd rather give it scrolls of greater invisibility (100 gp per CL each) or doses of dust of disappearance (3,500 gp apiece) plus something else?
We'd want to tweak the Tactics to say the Child'll use the dust and/or scroll to turn invisible before attacking.
How about two scrolls of greater invisibility (CL 9th) for 1,800 gp plus a ring of improved jumping for 10,000 gp?
The Child has the Scribe Scroll feat, so if necessary we can mentally "handwave" that it makes the scrolls itself.
Erdric Dragin
Adventurer
Here we go, navigating these CC forums is a doozy.
Ok, I mentioned this in another thread but certainly the topic fits here.
What's the deal with a CR 30 Krakentua having an AC of 16? That just doesn't look like a CR 30 Armor Class. It's as easy to cut down as butter. Shouldn't it be 46?
Ok, I mentioned this in another thread but certainly the topic fits here.
What's the deal with a CR 30 Krakentua having an AC of 16? That just doesn't look like a CR 30 Armor Class. It's as easy to cut down as butter. Shouldn't it be 46?
Cleon
Legend
It was an overly literal transcription of the original AD&D monster's AC 4, which is the same as a suit of chainmail & shield so hence AC 16 in 3E.
I'll agree that so low an AC is hardly Challenge Rating appropriate, but bear in mind that the Krakentua originally appeared in adventures meant for 4th to 9th level characters - namely 1986's OA2 Night of the Seven Swords (4th to 6th level) and 1989's OA7 Test of the Samurai (6th to 9th level) so if it had a decent AC for its level they would have no chance of hurting it if they're foolish enough to resort to weapons (they're supposed to use role-playing or magic macguffins do deal with the things).
So arguably the low AC is more of a feature than a bug.
That said, I'm not that enamored of the Krakentua conversion - the original 3.0 version was before my time at the Creature Catalog and the 3.5 version is pretty much an edition update of it. If it had been me statting the thing up it'd likely be quite different!
For a start, that Challenge Rating is too high for its stats. A Great Wyrm Dragon or the Tarrasque would likely make mincemeat of one of these fellows.
I'd also likely downgrade the weapon use so it's wielding Humanoid-scale weapons in its tentacles like the original monster (which did a Medium katana's 1d10 base damage with weapons, not the 4d6 of a Colossal wakizashi). At least that means PCs could loot usable arms should they manage to defeat the thing!
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
On the Screaming Child again, two scrolls of greater invisibility (with corresponding change in tactics) as well as the ring of improved jumping will work for me!
Wait, why is Scribe Scroll listed as a fighter bonus feat?
If you have any thoughts for the description or the "In life" paragraph, I'm all ears.
Wait, why is Scribe Scroll listed as a fighter bonus feat?
If you have any thoughts for the description or the "In life" paragraph, I'm all ears.
Cleon
Legend
Updating The Screaming Child Working Draft.
I changed the tactics to:
Normally the Child will have cast protection from arrows on itself as soon as it wakes. If given time to get ready for combat it adds resist energy, shield and haste plus one of its greater invisibility scrolls. Should it only have a few rounds to prepare it casts greater invisibility and haste first.
It isn't - there's no asterisk since that's a bonus feat from its "wizard stuff".
A better question is why are six of its fighter bonus feats listed as regular bonus feats!:
Better fix that!
Re-updating The Screaming Child Working Draft.
Here goes nothing!
A short and roly-poly figure waving a rattle as big as a club. Their skin is unnaturally grey and blotchy as if it has begun to decompose. The person resembles an exceptionally ugly baby more than an adult of a common humanoid race. It could be an really short and overweight human, but is too tall to be a halfling and its face is as round and smooth as a baby, not bearded like a dwarf or gnome. Whatever it is, the being's face twists into a scowl and it starts wailing, a horrible sound like a mule's bray mixed with the scream of an angry brat throwing a tantrum.
In life, the Screaming Child was a petulant and possibly insane nobleman who spurned the mannerisms of adulthood. His apparent madness and pretense of being a baby meant he had few family duties despite being a brilliant student of air magic and skilled martial artist. Now the Screaming Child is undead it spends the nights play-acting in its chambers unless disturbed by outsiders, who it tries to slaughter spectacularly. The Child fights like a spoiled child having a fit, but this an affectation; it is actually a very cunning and careful combatant.
In Kara-Tur
The Paper Warrior was once Ito Gohei, a wu-jen magic user whose specialism was the element of air. It is unknown whether he was a korobokuru dwarf or a human with dwarfism; the latter seems more likely as he was a full member of the Ito clan. Gohei loved the theater and had a stage set up in his quarters where he pretended to be a great thespian, despite making no effort to learn any Perform skills.
Cleon
Legend
Copy-and-Paste is not always your friend!
Updating The Screaming Child Working Draft.
Well it needs a quick glance-over for typos and errors…
Huh? It's changed all the asterisks after the ᴮ marks into EndItalic markers.
Dang it, that means the forum's likely done the same with any asterisked bonus feats in our other conversions!
Better check, and if it has I'll post a mention of it on troubleshooting. So they can shoot it!
Meanwhile, I've changed the * marks into ˟ marks, which appears to have fixed the issue.
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