Converting Al-Qadim creatures

[demiurge1138]

Survival allows one to find food in the wilds, and it's entirely likely that the owner of a winged serpent would send one out to get fruit for the both of them. Survival it is.

 

[Shade]

Updated.

CR 2?

If captured during their first month of life before their wings have matured, they make excellent (if expensive) pets. They must consume a great quantity of fruit to survive, eating on average 100 gp worth of fruit each month (this cost might be reduced if large orchard is available). A skilled animal trainer can teach winged serpent up to three tasks or tricks per point of intelligence, which the creature will gladly perform (provided a supply of fresh fruit is constantly at hand). They can even be trained as guardians, although rogues have quickly discovered that unless they are extremely well-trained, they can be easily distracted by a decoy of aromatic, fresh fruit.

Shall we add a "training a winged serpent" section?

 

[freyar]

Survival allows one to find food in the wilds, and it's entirely likely that the owner of a winged serpent would send one out to get fruit for the both of them. Survival it is.

I can go with Survival from the training point of view perhaps, but wild animals don't generally have Survival even though the presumably find food for themselves.

Yes, let's add a training section.

 

[Cleon]

CR 2?

They're pretty tough.

I'd say Challenge Rating 3 - they're roughly a match for an ogre in hits (34 snake vs 29 ogre), AC (15 snake vs 16 ogre), attack (+7 bite vs +8 club), damage (2d8/4d8 acid + 1d4 bite is roughly equal to 2d8+7 if the target saves 50% of the time) and have better saves, flight and a breath weapon.

Of course, the Ogre could be over-CR'd.

 

[Cleon]

I can go with Survival from the training point of view perhaps, but wild animals don't generally have Survival even though the presumably find food for themselves.

Yes, let's add a training section.

I agree Survival is questionable based on SRD creatures (although personally I'd prefer more wild animals to have ranks in that skill).

We could just divide the Survival points among Listen and Hide if you don't fancy putting skill points in it. We could always give it a racial bonus in Survival if we think it needs some help in that department.

It definitely needs a How To Train a Winged Serpent section.

 

[Shade]

I think we're OK with Survival in this case, since Int is a step above a simple animal.

A creature of humanlike intelligence has a score of at least 3.

 

[freyar]

I'm not fussed about Survival one way or the other, so we can keep it.

 

[Cleon]

I'm not fussed about Survival one way or the other, so we can keep it.

Good, I like Survival for them.

 

[Shade]

Training A Winged Serpent
To be trained, a winged serpent must have a friendly attitude toward the trainer. A winged serpent usually has a friendly attitude toward trainers who supply the snake with fresh fruit for at least a few days and has not attacked or mistreated the creature. A winged serpent is indifferent (at best) toward most other creatures. Changing a winged serpent's attitude requires a wild empathy check (with the normal -4 penalty applied against magical beasts). A character can use a Diplomacy check instead, provided the character has some way to communicate with the serpent, such as access to a speak with animals spell.

Training a friendly winged serpent requires a Handle Animal check (with the normal +5 increase to DCs for training a magical beast). The time require depends on the tricks or task the winged serpent must learn, as noted in the Handle Animal skill description.

Winged serpent eggs are worth x gp apiece on the open market, while young are worth x gp each. Professional trainers charge x gp to rear or train a winged serpent.

 

[freyar]

Filling in the prices, pegasi are 2000gp, 3000gp, and 1000gp also at CR 3. Since the winged serpent can't fly with so much, though, I'd make it 1500 gp, 2000gp, and 1000gp.