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Converting Al-Qadim creatures
- Thread starter Shade
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Shade
Monster Junkie
Added to Homebrews.
Let's figure out the "superheated stones" ability.
Here's one source of inspiration...
Spit Stones (Ex): A gohlbrorn swallows large rocks as it burrows through the earth, and stores them in its gullet. A gohlbrorn can spew these rocks with tremendous force at opponents up to 50 feet as a standard action. This is a ranged attack with no range increment. A gohlbrorn’s gullet may hold up to 8 stones, which are launched one at a time. A gohlbrorn that runs out of stones during combat continues the battle fighting with teeth and claws. A gohlbrorn may burrow as a full-round action to replenish one stone, but does not stop to do this during combat.
Let's figure out the "superheated stones" ability.
Here's one source of inspiration...
Spit Stones (Ex): A gohlbrorn swallows large rocks as it burrows through the earth, and stores them in its gullet. A gohlbrorn can spew these rocks with tremendous force at opponents up to 50 feet as a standard action. This is a ranged attack with no range increment. A gohlbrorn’s gullet may hold up to 8 stones, which are launched one at a time. A gohlbrorn that runs out of stones during combat continues the battle fighting with teeth and claws. A gohlbrorn may burrow as a full-round action to replenish one stone, but does not stop to do this during combat.
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
I think that works pretty well. We can just modify numbers...
Spit Stones (Ex): An elephant swallows large rocks and stores them in its gullet, which superheats them magically. An elephant bird can spew these rocks with tremendous force at opponents up to 50 feet away as a standard action, doing 1d10 plus 1d4 fire damage. This is a ranged attack with no range increment. An elephant bird’s gullet may hold up to 3 stones, which are launched one at a time. An elephant bird that runs out of stones during combat continues the battle fighting with beak and claws. An elephant bird may snatch and swallow a rock as a full-round action to replenish one stone, but does not usually stop to do this during combat.
All numbers negotiable.
Spit Stones (Ex): An elephant swallows large rocks and stores them in its gullet, which superheats them magically. An elephant bird can spew these rocks with tremendous force at opponents up to 50 feet away as a standard action, doing 1d10 plus 1d4 fire damage. This is a ranged attack with no range increment. An elephant bird’s gullet may hold up to 3 stones, which are launched one at a time. An elephant bird that runs out of stones during combat continues the battle fighting with beak and claws. An elephant bird may snatch and swallow a rock as a full-round action to replenish one stone, but does not usually stop to do this during combat.
All numbers negotiable.
Shade
Monster Junkie
Looks good.
For the "mass attack" bonuses, how about we add Improved Trip as a bonus feat (like Cleon suggested), and give 'em a toned-down version of this epic creatures' ability?
Savage (Ex): If a brachyurus successfully trips an opponent, it latches onto the opponent's body and tears the flesh. This automatically deals an additional 15d6+25 points of damage. If an opponent goes prone for any reason (perhaps as the subject of another brachyurus's Improved Trip attack) in an area the brachyurus threatens, the brachyurus can also savage the victim as a free action (treat as the brachyurus's attack of opportunity for the round), even though it had nothing to do with tripping the foe.
For the "mass attack" bonuses, how about we add Improved Trip as a bonus feat (like Cleon suggested), and give 'em a toned-down version of this epic creatures' ability?
Savage (Ex): If a brachyurus successfully trips an opponent, it latches onto the opponent's body and tears the flesh. This automatically deals an additional 15d6+25 points of damage. If an opponent goes prone for any reason (perhaps as the subject of another brachyurus's Improved Trip attack) in an area the brachyurus threatens, the brachyurus can also savage the victim as a free action (treat as the brachyurus's attack of opportunity for the round), even though it had nothing to do with tripping the foe.
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
Yeah, there's precedent for that. Rend Fallen, as per the Abyssal Maw in MMII.
For once, overrunning looks like an appropriate ability. Only catch is that it'll still provoke an attack of opportunity against the elephant bird.
For once, overrunning looks like an appropriate ability. Only catch is that it'll still provoke an attack of opportunity against the elephant bird.
Shade
Monster Junkie
Rend fallen is a bit odd, though, as the abyssal maw lacks any method of tripping a foe. It almost suggests that any creature it drops below 0 hp is immediately hit for additional damage.
Here's the writeup...
Rend Fallen (Ex): An abyssal maw loves to tear into its downed foes. It automatically deals an additional 2d8+4 points of damage to any foe it drops with a melee attack.
Here's the writeup...
Rend Fallen (Ex): An abyssal maw loves to tear into its downed foes. It automatically deals an additional 2d8+4 points of damage to any foe it drops with a melee attack.
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
Yeah, that is the idea--you get knocked out by an abyssal maw, you're probably dead. But let's just give the birds bonus damage against prone foes.
Cleon
Legend
I think that works pretty well. We can just modify numbers...
Spit Stones (Ex): An elephant swallows large rocks and stores them in its gullet, which superheats them magically. An elephant bird can spew these rocks with tremendous force at opponents up to 50 feet away as a standard action, doing 1d10 plus 1d4 fire damage. This is a ranged attack with no range increment. An elephant bird’s gullet may hold up to 3 stones, which are launched one at a time. An elephant bird that runs out of stones during combat continues the battle fighting with beak and claws. An elephant bird may snatch and swallow a rock as a full-round action to replenish one stone, but does not usually stop to do this during combat.
All numbers negotiable.
Looks OK, except the first elephant's lost its bird!
As for the numbers, I'd add its Strength bonus (whatever that is) on the spit rock and maybe increase the fire damage. I'd like the spit stone to be at least in the same ballpark damage wise as its claw/claw/bite routine, which adds up to 1d6+3+2d4+2 = 13.5 average damage. Adding Strength and upping the fire damage to 1d6 would make 1d10+3+1d6 = 12 average damage.
I'd also fancy rewording it slightly to put the "tremendous force" in the first line and cut out the "which are launched one at a time", which seems a bit extraneous, and I'm thinking the "An elephant bird that runs out of stones during combat continues the battle fighting with beak and claws" is (a) more suited for the tactics entry and (b) the information is implicit in the next sentence.
If I put all that together, I'd get something like:
Spit Stones (Ex): An elephant bird swallows large rocks and stores them in its gullet, which superheats them magically, and can then spew these red-hot stones at opponents with tremendous force. An elephant bird can spit a single stone up to 50 feet away as a standard action, doing 1d10+3 bludgeoning damage plus 1d6 fire damage. This is a ranged attack with no range increment. An elephant bird’s gullet may hold up to 3 stones, the bird may snatch and swallow a rock as a full-round action to replenish one stone, but does not usually stop to do this during combat.
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