Converting Al-Qadim creatures

[Number 6]

Nasnas are aggressive fighters. They rush in close to their foes to use their terrifying scream power, then lay about them with their weapons. Showing no fear of death, they fight with fanatical dedication, only retreating from combat if ordered to by their master.

These guys might benefit from a Charge to accomplish a Bull Rush or an Overrun.

Perhaps the first line closes in as normal, but they position themselves to allow for the second or later ranks to Overrun with a Charge, allowing for the nasnas who are already there to get Attacks of Opportunity on those targets getting up from a Prone position.

For large numbers of nasnas, this could be used with three or more charging ranks.

 

[Shade]

Updated.

I kind of like the Brew Potion idea in their creation. What are good low-level spells that simulate breaking something in two or creating a duplicate? Maybe shatter? False life? Displacement?

 

[Number 6]

Updated.

I always hate making these corrections... makes me look like a chump-change DM. It comes from a few years I spent in journalism (for my sins).

Just need to take out the 'p' in emotional.

"The nasnas’s current emotipnal state can be discerned from the volume and tone of the hooting."

And shift one rank out of Listen and into Balance.

I kind of like the Brew Potion idea in their creation. What are good low-level spells that simulate breaking something in two or creating a duplicate? Maybe shatter? False life? Displacement?

Requiring Brew Potion and Craft Wondrous Item should be a good combination... not prohibitive but slightly limiting.

You might have something about the spells... however, I just figure the tainted fruit causes the woman to conceive a child with one-half of a body since she eats one half of the tainted fruit.

We could take one of the Necrotic spells from Libris Mortis.

 

[Cleon]

Requiring Brew Potion and Craft Wondrous Item should be a good combination... not prohibitive but slightly limiting.

You might have something about the spells... however, I just figure the tainted fruit causes the woman to conceive a child with one-half of a body since she eats one half of the tainted fruit.

We could take one of the Necrotic spells from Libris Mortis.

I think making it an elixer rather than a potion is a better fit to the 3E rules. Not sure I like Brew Potion as an additional prerequisite, since these things are supposedly pretty easy to create if you know the formulae.

How about an easy Craft (alchemy) check - DC10 or DC12?

Regarding the spells, I'd rather stick to SRD sources and not use Libris Mortis, and summon monster just doesn't do it for me - it just feels more "regular wizard" than "evil necromancer".

How about bestow curse and baleful polymorph since its cursing the mother with a mutated offspring?

 

[freyar]

I also think it should be an elixir with the Craft (alchemy ) check, though I could go up to DC 15 or so. And we should keep to core spells, except possibly in a sidebar. Bestow curse and baleful polymorph sound about right.

 

[Number 6]

I also think it should be an elixir with the Craft (alchemy ) check, though I could go up to DC 15 or so. And we should keep to core spells, except possibly in a sidebar. Bestow curse and baleful polymorph sound about right.

Sounds too inexpensive. I know the original details say the costs are relatively cheap, but I tend to think it will fly in the face of balance. The ability to create a small but potent army of these things (albeit with a 18 month period and enough kidnapped, enslaved, or misled women) ought to cost something more than the cost of hiring a similar number of 1st-level human Warriors.

Even if the costs for one fruit (and therefore two nasnas) should be less than crafting a Wondrous Item with a 2nd-level spell at caster level 9th, we could up the nasnas yield per use of Craft Wondrous Item... instead of producing one fruit (just spit-balling here) it creates something like half the number of fruits as the spellcaster has levels.

The Baleful Polymorph spell sounds good... although the Summon Monster spells seem just as good of a fit. The individual spell doesn't need to be evil and twisted, but the way the villainous spellcaster uses it certain can be... and using it to cause the birth of a monstrous half-man fits the bill.

 

[Shade]

Baleful polymorph is also probably a bit too high-level (5th) for creating something this weak.

I'm not terribly invested in the prereqs for their creation, other than to maintain the flavor. I'll let you guys decide what you'd like best.

 

[freyar]

Hmm, I like Shade's approach: let Number 6 and Cleon decide! But we do need to keep to core, I think.

 

[Number 6]

Hmm, I like Shade's approach: let Number 6 and Cleon decide! But we do need to keep to core, I think.

Aw sh*t... I don't want that responsibility.

Here's my simple option:

The creator needs Craft Wondrous Item and the Summon Monster II as prerequisites. That should keep the cost down... and if necessary allow the creator to make enough elixir to taint as much fruit as half his spellcasting levels.

That allows a 9th-level cleric or wizard to make four fruits (yielding eight nasnas) at the cost 450 gp.

If we want to write in the possibility for creating nasnas with more Hit Dice, the required spell becomes Summon Monster IV (for 4 HD) or Summon Monster VI (for 6 HD) and as such becomes more expensive.

With that said, I think Shade's right... in spite of the fact that I sometimes like to sweat the small stuff.

 

[Shade]

Using this explanation to create the fruit, then requiring a living woman to "bear the fruit", that works for me!

Cleon?