Converting Al-Qadim creatures

[freyar]

"And" I guess. And reduce the tail slap to 2d6 maybe. It's personality is not melee-centric, and it has plenty of spells, so the damage can go down more even if we want.

 

[Shade]

Updated.

Environment: Warm hills and underground?

Organization: Solitary or x (1 plus x snakes)

Challenge Rating: x

Advancement: 17–32 HD (Gargantuan); 33–48 HD (Colossal)?

Serpent lords are up to 50 feet long and weigh upwards of x pounds.

 

[Cleon]

"And" I guess. And reduce the tail slap to 2d6 maybe. It's personality is not melee-centric, and it has plenty of spells, so the damage can go down more even if we want.

I'd go for "and tail-slap" for 2d6. A Huge constrictor snake does 1d8 constricting with its tail, so it seems fair to give the Gargantuan serpent lord the next step up the damage ladder of 2d6.

 

[Cleon]

Environment: Warm hills and underground

Guess so, it fits the original "tropical hills and ruins".

Organization: Solitary or x (1 plus x snakes

I'd say "Solitary or court (1 serpent lord plus 4-7 giant constrictor snakes plus 4-24 huge vipers)"

Challenge Rating: x

Challenge Rating 16 I guess, since they're pretty close to a 16th level cleric.

Advancement: 17–32 HD (Gargantuan); 33–48 HD (Colossal)?

We could follow the SRD Naga scheme of 150% (Size), 300% (Size+1), that would make them 17-24 HD (Gargantuan); 25-48 HD (Colossal)

Does their casting level advance with their Hit Dice?

Serpent lords are up to 50 feet long and weigh upwards of x pounds.

Well it's estimated a 30 foot anaconda would weigh about 500-550 pounds, so if we scale up to 50 feet that gives us around 2300-2500 pounds, which is way low for a Gargantuan creature.

Hmm, nagas start at 200 pounds, or 40% the starting weight of their Large size. If we use that as a basis and make them 40% of basic 16 tons of a Gargantuan creature that would make them 12000 pounds.

I'd trim that down to 10000 pounds, although its still four times the weight of an anaconda-proportioned snake that length.

Maybe all those fine cooked meals have made Serpent Lords seriously overweight?

 

[demiurge1138]

CR 16-17 seems appropriate to me. Two quibbles, though. First off, the tail slap should be at +18 on the full attack line, and do half Str damage. Secondly, why exactly is it dire?

 

[freyar]

I have been wondering about the dire bit myself. Presumably that's from the lion lords (or whatever they were called).

 

[Shade]

Yep, borrowed from the lion lord. Do you wanna drop it? I have no quibbles with doing so.

Updated.

 

[Cleon]

Yep, borrowed from the lion lord. Do you wanna drop it? I have no quibbles with doing so.

Updated.

I like the Dire. Without it they're a full spellcasting monster with a poor Will save, which doesn't seem right.

 

[Shade]

I wouldn't want to keep it for that reason, though. Many, if not the majority, of monsters have a single weak save.

If there's a flavor reason to keep it though, I'm all for it. I'm not seeing one, though.

 

[freyar]

That gives them an extra good save? I guess I don't mind much either way, though it sounds weird as these are magical beasts instead of animals.

Edit: sounds like we're dropping it. Should we go back and revise it out of the lion lord?