Converting monsters from Dragon magazine

[Cleon]

AC 16 and 15 hp is ok for me. Or 20 hp if you prefer to be harder.

I'll change the first paragraph from:

Devour (Su): An ihagnim can try to devour a grabbed opponent its own size or smaller size by making a successful grapple check. Once devoured, the opponent is consumed in 1 round. The ihagnim destroys the victim's body and prevents any form of raising or resurrection that requires part of the corpse. There is a 50% chance that a wish, miracle, or true resurrection spell can restore a devoured victim to life. Check once for each destroyed creature. If the check fails, the creature cannot be brought back to life by mortal magic. Devoured creatures are considered to be grappled and trapped within the ihagnim's body. They have one round to escape or kill the ihagnim before being consumed, and can only use light slashing or piercing weapons to attack its interior (AC 20).
​

To:

Devour (Su): An ihagnim can try to devour a grabbed opponent its own size or smaller size by making a successful grapple check. Once devoured, the opponent is consumed in 1 round. The ihagnim destroys the victim's body and prevents any form of raising or resurrection that requires part of the corpse. There is a 50% chance that a wish, miracle, or true resurrection spell can restore a devoured victim to life. Check once for each destroyed creature. If the check fails, the creature cannot be brought back to life by mortal magic. Devoured creatures have one round to escape or kill the ihagnim before being consumed. A devoured creature can cut its way out by using a light slashing or piercing weapon to deal 15 points of damage to the interior (AC 16). Once the creature exits, the ihagnim’s semifluid flesh closes the hole; another devoured opponent must cut its own way out. Devoured victims will also escape if the ihagnim’s vomiting reflex is triggered (see below).
​

That's closer to the standard Swallow Whole text.

There's a bracket in the BAB line that shouldn't be there.

Easily fixed.

Updating the Ihagnim.

What do you think about CR 8? The hp are probably slightly low, but the AC is pretty decent, and the Devour is pretty dangerous.

Figuring out its Challenge Rating is a bit tricky since an Ihagnim is a real one-trick pony. is a real glass cannon. It's basically a save-or-die monster like a Basilisk or Medusa. Hmm, a closer comparison would be a Cockatrice since its save-or-die equivalent requires a melee attack. The nasty consequences of its devour annihilating the corpse should be worth something I guess.

I'd guesstimate it around Challenge Rating 6 or 7. How about CR 7 for the sake of argument?

 

[Cleon]

Also realized another issue. Giving it +16 to Hide on the Astral Plane isn't much help since there's little to no Concealment on the astral so how would it make a Hide check?

Should we give it a Special Quality to either (a) make Hide checks without anything to hide behind, like the ranger's Hide in Plain Sight ability, like so:

Astral Translucency (Ex): While on the Astral Plane, an ihagnim can use the Hide skill even while being observed.
​

Or (b) simply crib the Transparency from a Gelatinous Cube.

Transparent (Ex): Ihagnims are hard to see, even under ideal conditions, and it takes a DC 15 Spot check to notice one.
​

Or (c) combine the two?

Astral Translucency (Ex): Ihagnims are hard to see, even under ideal conditions, and it takes a DC 15 Spot check to notice one. While on the Astral Plane, an ihagnim can use the Hide skill even while being observed.
​

Any preferences?

They'd all work for me.

 

[freyar]

CR 7 is fine to go on.

I think I like Transparent. Then there's not really a need for the Hide bonus.

Tactics: Ihagnim are typically sedentary, waiting for their extraplanar lure to catch food. However, if prey approaches, they lash out with tentacles to grab and devour it.
Pretty basic, but that's really all that makes sense.

 

[Cleon]

CR 7 is fine to go on.

I think I like Transparent. Then there's not really a need for the Hide bonus.

Works for me.

Updating the Ihagnim.

I've removed the "Hide –6* [+10 on Astral Plane]" and "Skills: An ihagnim's translucent body grants it a +16 racial bonus on Hide checks against the background of the Astral Plane."

If we've using take 10 for the previous Hide +10 then should we bump the Transparent up to DC 20?

It's a bit higher Challenge Rating than a Gelatinous Cube after all.

Tactics: Ihagnim are typically sedentary, waiting for their extraplanar lure to catch food. However, if prey approaches, they lash out with tentacles to grab and devour it.
Pretty basic, but that's really all that makes sense.

The second sentence looks a bit clunky to me.

How about:

Ihagnim are typically sedentary, waiting for their extraplanar lure to catch food. However, they will seek to devour any non-ihagnim they encounter on the Astral Plane.​

 

[freyar]

I like all of that, including the Transparent DC.

Size and weight: 8 to 16 ft in diameter, 2 ft thick, and from 4000 to 16,000 lb.
The diameter is from the original monster, the thickness is a guess based on the volume its stomach can hold (could go down to 1 ft reasonably I think), and the weight is based roughly on the density of a black pudding.

 

[Cleon]

I like all of that, including the Transparent DC.

Size and weight: 8 to 16 ft in diameter, 2 ft thick, and from 4000 to 16,000 lb.
The diameter is from the original monster, the thickness is a guess based on the volume its stomach can hold (could go down to 1 ft reasonably I think), and the weight is based roughly on the density of a black pudding.

That feels a bit too thick and heavy for me.

The illustration in Dragon #89 shows an ooze-like creature that's quite "flat" and wide. Assuming the human wizard in the picture is 6 foot tall, I'd guesstimate the illustrated Ihagnim is about 14 feet in diameter with pseudopods that are 6 inches or so thick. Due to the angle it's hard to tell how thick the body is but it doesn't seem much thicker than the widening at the base of its pseudopods, so maybe 9 inches top?

The volume and shape seems more akin to an Ochre Jelly than a Black Pudding, which also has the same Large size category as an Ihagnim for what that's worth.

An ochre jelly can grow to a diameter of about 15 feet and a thickness of about 6 inches, but can compress its body to fit into cracks as small as 1 inch wide. A typical specimen weighs about 5,600 pounds.

How about:

A typical ihagnim weighs about 2,000 pounds and has an 8-foot diameter body roughly a foot thick at its center that tapers to a few inches thickness at its rim. Larger specimens reach a maximum of 16 feet in diameter and 8,000 pounds in weight.​

 

[freyar]

Hmm, I guess it can reshape itself a bit to devour a victim. Sure.
OK, we have tactics above, and that gives us size/weight. Do you have description and background you want to use?

 

[Cleon]

Hmm, I guess it can reshape itself a bit to devour a victim. Sure.

OK, we have tactics above, and that gives us size/weight. Do you have description and background you want to use?

I didn't, but that doesn't take long to whip up:

A transparent mass of colorless flesh. It body seems more fluid than solid, flowing from one shape to another before settling briefly on a disc-like form two or three yards across.

One of the few lifeforms native to the Astral Plane, ihagnim (plural and singular) are amoeba-like creatures with two unusual abilities that allow them to grow and reproduce in that transdimensional void. First, an ihagnim can devour almost any material substance and transform it into its own flesh, by which means it circumvents the Astral Plane's lack of normal hunger and biological aging. Secondly, the ihagnim has an unique internal organ next to its stomach that is able to create a connection to the Prime Material Plane that ends in a saclike object it uses to catch prey, forming a cursed magic item known as the bag of devouring.

While ihagnim are intelligent, their thought processes are too alien to be comprehended by other creatures. An ihagnim can only communicate with other ihagnim. It cannot understand or be understood by any other creature, even if magic or telepathy is used to interpret its language.

A typical ihagnim weighs about 2,000 pounds and has an 8-foot diameter body roughly a foot thick at its center that tapers to a few inches thickness at its rim. Larger specimens reach a maximum of 16 feet in diameter and 8,000 pounds in weight.
​

We need an Advanced Ihagnim entry since they don't follow normal advancement.

 

[Cleon]

We need an Advanced Ihagnim entry since they don't follow normal advancement.

How's this:

Advanced Ihagnim
Ihagnim don't advance like normal monsters but increase in Hit Dice by using their devour special attack. For each Hit Dice it gains, an ihagnim grows roughly a foot in diameter and its Intelligence score increases by +1, up to a 16 feet diameter and Intelligence 16 at its maximum size of 16 HD. This intelligence increase replaces the normal ability advancement from gaining Hit Dice, but otherwise the ihagnim gains the usual improvements in hit points, base attack bonus, saves, feats and skill points for Hit Dice improvent. When their intelligence modifier increases the ihagnim recalculates its skill points and invests any surplus. Ihagnim are proficient in Hide, Move Silently and Survival as well as Knowledge (the planes) and Spot.

An ihagnim has a flight speed of 10 feet per point of Intelligence on the Astral Plane, as per the standard rules for astral movement.

In addition to the above improvements, an ihagnim's tentacles grow longer as it grows, gaining a reach of 20 feet at 10–12 HD, 25 feet at 13–14 HD HD and 30 feet at 15–16 HD.
​

While writing the above I realized that we should probably rejig the ihagnim's flight speed.

The original monster entry refers to a Dragon Magazine #67 Astral Plane article for movement and combat rules. That article was the basis for the standard AD&D Astral Plane rules.

In AD&D, an astral creature flies at 1" per point of intelligence; so a base ihagnim has MOVE: 8″, which is slightly slower than the 9" of a moderately encumbered human.

However, in 3E that changed to astral creature flying at 10 ft. per point of intelligence; so the base ihagnim should have fly 80 ft. (perfect).

So I reckon we'd better increase the ihagnim's speed to match the 3E standard of 80 ft. (perfect) rather than give it 20 ft. (perfect) to match the original monster.

 

[freyar]

Wow, that all looks great! So, once updated, are they finished?