Converting Al-Qadim creatures

[Cleon]

Bird Maiden Ecology Notes

Here's the notes from the Ecology of the Bird Maiden article. The stats from the original Monstrous Compendium page can be seen here.

The article's accompanying story didn't appear to have any relevant additional information not covered by them.

Notes
1. The bird maiden is a creature unique to Zakhara, the Land of Fate. It is always female, just like the swanmay living in the northern lands of Toril, and in some respects quite similar to that creature. Like a swanmay, a bird maiden may shapechange to bird form. While the former can transform only into a swan, the bird maiden can change into a variety of bird forms, depending upon her level.

It is important to note that as the bird maiden rises in level, she may elect to take the form for that level or any form of a lesser level. For example, a 6th-level bird maiden could shapechange into an owl or any bird form allowed for a 2nd- through 5th-level bird maiden.

There are other differences between swanmays and bird maidens. A swanmay is a ranger while in human form, while a bird maiden is a kahina, with all of the powers of that class (See Arabian Adventures). Another important difference is that swanmays are always good-aligned, while a bird maiden may be of any alignment. Most bird maidens (80%) are of neutral alignment, while 10% are good and 10% are evil. Whatever the alignment, it always has a neutral tendency (i.e., neutral good, true neutral, or neutral evil). It is rumored that evil bird maidens are able to shapechange into ravens, blood hawks, and giant vultures.

2. Good and neutral bird maidens see themselves as protectors of living things and guard against those who would despoil the land. Hence, they have a tendency to help and teach those who respect the land. Their protection applies to sentient beings as well, in line with the tolerance extended to all by the teachings of the Loregiver. Hence, a bird maiden would teach irrigation to farmers to help their crops grow, but she would ensure that the system would not harm the lake or river life being used as a water source.

3. The power of a bird maiden resides in a shawl, veil, or other significant object of clothing that is made of feathers. This object is given to her at the end of her initial training. If she ever loses it, she loses all her powers as kahina and shapechanger until she recovers it. Unscrupulous men have been known to come into the possession of a bird maiden’s feathered garment, and with the creature helpless, have forced her into marriage.

4. Destruction of the feathered token of the bird maiden always results in the creature’s death with no hope whatsoever of resurrection.

5. When shapechanged, only a bird maiden’s feathered garment and her body transform. All other worldly goods must be taken off and guarded by someone else.

6. Just as mystics dance, bird maiden kahinas sing, and the verbal components of their spells are always sung in a sweet, warbling voice. They have major access to the spheres of All, Animal, Divination, Elemental, Healing, Plant, and Weather. They have minor access to the spheres of Creation, Protection, and Sun.

7. While bird maidens always have the nonweapon proficiency options allowed to kahinas, one proficiency they always possess is herbalism due to its connection with the land they are sworn to protect.

8. The place of training for bird maidens is said to be a place called the Crown of All Feathers. It is supposedly a great wooden fortress concealed among the clouds in high hills or mountains. There aarakocra teach the rituals, duties, and abilities of the bird maidens. It is rumored that a very special genie of enormous power guards this place and uses powerful illusions to keep it safe from the curious and unsavory. All bird maidens know where this place is, but no sort of magical compulsion or physical abuse can pry the location from them.

Originally from Dragon #218 (June 1995).

 

[Cleon]

Might as well start a Working Draft.

I'm assuming we're going for a template like the Creature Catalog Swanmay rather than making it a prestige class like the 3E Book of Exalted Deeds Swanmay.

This is a monster conversion board, after all!

 

[Cleon]

Bird Maiden Working Draft

Bird Maiden (Template)
A woman in the plain robes of a wandering priestess, with a shawl of feathers draped over her shoulders.

The bird maidens are a secretive sisterhood of shapechangers similar to swanmays. Unlike swanmays, bird maidens can shapechange into many kinds of birds, not just one. The bird form a bird maiden assumes may allude to her personality - a parrot for an extrovert individual, a vulture for a morbid one, and so on.

All bird maidens are mendicant nature priestesses. They can be of any alignment, but few are evil. Their sisterhood is not an organized cult, and is united only by their shared faith and religious practices. It has no hierarchy, apart from the master-pupil relationship between a bird maiden and whoever taught her the mysteries of how to become one.

Bird maidens wander the countryside teaching folk about the natural world. A good or neutral bird maiden tries to do this by healing the afflicted and showing people how to live in harmony with their environment, via advice on sustainable farming, animal husbandry, and the like. They do sometimes punish those who despoil nature. The rare evil bird maidens are more vindictive, and enjoy teaching 'lessons' about the cruelty of the wild, by bringing death and ruination to creatures who are ignorant or abusive toward nature.

Most bird maidens travel alone or in the company of her daughters, who she will be raising to become bird maidens themselves. Bird maidens never keep sons. A maiden who bears a male baby usually gives him away to foster parents, but some evil maidens abandon their infant boys in the wilderness.

A bird maiden's shapeshifting powers come from a magical garment made of feathers. This garment is part of the maiden's being, and should it be destroyed, the maiden will die. Bird maidens are sometimes forced to become the slaves - or even wives - of someone who steals their feather garment and threatens to destroy it (and her). The maiden immediately flies away should she manage to regain the stolen garment from her 'lord' or 'husband', but she often returns to kill or pauperize her persecutor.

Bird Maidens In Al-Qadim
In the Land of Fate, it is said that bird maidens are taught their powers and rites by Aarakocra priests in a secret temple known as The Crown of All Feathers. According to rumor, this is a great wooden fortress hidden somewhere in the highest hills.

Creating a Bird Maiden
"Bird Maiden" is an acquired template that can be added to any female humanoid creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature) that has the ability to cast divine spells and 5 or more ranks in both the Heal and Knowledge (nature) skills.

A Bird Maiden uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

All bird maidens possess the ability to shapechange from their natural humanoid form into the shape of a bird. The size and type of bird varies with the nature of the bird maiden -- see see Bird Shape entry for details.

Size and Type: The bird maiden's type remains unchanged but she gains the Shapechanger subtype. A bird maiden has the same size as the base creature when in humanoid form, but she may be smaller or larger when in bird form (see Bird Shape).

Hit Dice: Same as base creature.

Speed: Same as base creature in humanoid form. A bird maiden gains a fly speed in bird form (see Bird Shape).

Armor Class: Same as base creature in humanoid form. A bird maiden gains natural armor in bird form (see Bird Shape).

Attack: Same as base creature in humanoid form. In bird form, a bird maiden loses the base creature's attacks and gains claw and bite attacks (see Bird Shape).

Damage: Same as base creature in humanoid form. See BIrd Shape for the damage a bird maiden's talons and beak do when she is in bird form.

Special Attacks: A Bird Maiden in humanoid form retains all the special attacks of the base creature. When in bird form, a bird maiden loses any extraordinary special attacks of her original form not derived from class levels, but retains the spell-like abilities and supernatural attacks of the base creature (except for breath weapons and gaze attacks).

Special Qualities: A Bird Maiden retains all the special attacks of the base creature and gains those described below.

Bird Shape (Su): A bird maiden can use her enchanted feather garment (see below) to shapechange into a bird. A novice bird maiden can only assume the form of a tiny songbird, but more experienced bird maidens can take on many bird forms. This ability functions like the Alternate Form special ability, except as noted here.

A bird maiden chooses a bird form to change into at character level 2, based on the example forms in the Bird Shape Table, then an additional bird form at each subsequent level up to level 8.

At 9th level she can change from one bird form to another bird form without having to return to humanoid form in-between.

At 10th level, she is no longer limited to the seven bird forms she selected previously, but can assume the form of any bird from Tiny size to Large size.

A bird form must be that of a bird the bird maiden is familiar with. A bird maiden's chosen bird forms need not match the size of the actual bird - there are maidens who can change into pigeon-size peafowl or halfling-sized macaws.

The maiden's chosen forms may reflect aspects of her character in some fashion. For example, a secretive bird maiden could have a nightjar as her 3rd level form, while a garrulous one may become a raven or mynah bird.

The bird form has the abilities given in the Bird Shape Table presented below instead of the abilities normally granted by Alternate Form. They do not gain any special abilities or racial bonuses of the actual bird, such as a Giant Owl's superior low light vision and +8 racial bonus to Listen, or a buzzard's scent ability, with one exception: If the bird has a swim speed, the bird form gains a swim speed equal to the actual bird or half the bird form's fly speed, whichever is less. All bird forms have a land speed of 10 feet.

Level¹	Example Form	Size	Fly Speed	NA²	Attacks³	Abilities†
2	Nightingale, Sparrow	Tiny	40 ft. (average)	—	Bite 1d3	-6 Str, +2 Dex
3	Dove, Ibis, Parrot	Tiny	40 ft. (good)	+1	Bite 1d4	-4 Str, +2 Dex
4	Hawk, Owl, Kite	Tiny	60 ft. (good)	+1	Claws 1d4 and bite 1d3	-2 Str, +2 Dex
5	Hornbill, Stork, Giant Parrot	Small	60 ft. (average)	+2	Bite 1d6 and 2 claws 1d2	+0 Str, +2 Dex
6	Bloodhawk, Eagle	Small	80 ft. (average)	+2	2 claws 1d3 and bite 1d4	+2 Str, +2 Dex
7	Dire Hawk, Black Boobrie	Medium	80 ft. (average)	+3	2 claws 1d4 and bite 1d6	+4 Str, +2 Dex
8	Giant Owl, Giant Eagle	Large	80 ft. (average)	+4	2 claws 1d6 and bite 1d8	+8 Str, +2 Dex

1 A bird maiden with this many character levels can assume a bird form of this class. Higher level bird maidens can still assume the smaller forms.
2 A bird maiden's natural armor bonus increases by this amount when she is in this class of bird form.
3 The 2nd and 3rd level bird forms have a single bite attack; the 4th level form has a single claws attack and a secondary bite attack; the 5th level form has a bite attack and two secondary claw attacks; the 6th to 8th level forms have two claw attacks and a secondary bite attack.
† A bird maiden's ability scores are adjusted by these values when in bird form. These modifiers are in addition to the bird maiden's normal ability adjustments and include size adjustments based on the assumption the base creature is Medium sized.
— If the bird maiden's base creature is of a smaller size, adjust the Strength modifier according to the Changes to Statistics by Size table in Improving Monsters (e.g. add +4 Str for a Small base creature), but do not adjust the Dexterity or natural armor modifiers.
— If the base creature is larger than Medium, increase the sizes of the bird forms and their natural weapon damage by the same degree (e.g. a Large bird maiden's 5th level form is Medium instead of Small, with a 1d8 bite and two 1d3 secondary claws), but do not modify any of the other stats.

A bird maiden can assume any of her bird forms at will as a standard action. The effect lasts for 1 hour per character level, or until she changes back. Changing form (to bird or back) is a standard action and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity.

Any gear worn or carried by the bird maiden melds into the new form and becomes nonfunctional. When the maiden reverts to her true form, any objects previously melded into the new form reappear in the same location on her body that they previously occupied and are once again functional. Any new items worn in the assumed form fall off and land at the maiden's feet.

A bird maiden can speak normally while in bird form, which allows her to cast spells with verbal components. Bird Maidens can select the Natural Spell feat as if their Bird Shape ability were the druid's Wild Shape ability.

Damage Reduction (Ex): A bird maiden gains damage reduction 5/magic. This DR increases to 10/magic at 5th level.

Evasion (Ex): Starting at 8th level, a bird maiden gains evasion when in bird form. At 10th level, she gains evasion in humanoid form. If a bird maiden already has evasion from another source, such as levels in the Rogue class, she gains improved evasion instead.

Feather Garment (Su): All bird maidens possess an enchanted feather garment which grants them all the other special qualities of this template (bird shape, low-light vision, damage reduction, and possibly evasion). Should another creature steal this garment, the garment-thief gains a +4 bonus when using Charisma-based skills or attacks with Will saving throws against the bird maiden.

If the feathered garment is destroyed (8 hp, hardness 2, takes double damage from fire), the bird maiden automatically dies at the end of that round. Spells that restore souls to their bodies, such as raise dead, reincarnate, and resurrection, don't work on a bird maiden whose feather garment has been destroyed. It takes a different magical effect, such as limited wish, wish, miracle, or true resurrection, to restore her to life, which also recreates the maiden's feather garment.

Healing Change (Su): When a bird maiden uses Bird Shape, she can regain lost hit points as if she had rested for a night. A bird maiden can heal herself in this fashion once a day for every 3 character levels she possesses.

Low-Light Vision (Ex): A bird maiden gains low-light vision. If the maiden's bird form is a nocturnal species such as an owl she gains superior low-light vision, allowing her to see five times as far as a human can in dim light.

Abilities: Increase from the base creature as follows: Str +2, Dex +6, Wis +4, Cha +2.

A bird maiden will have further modifiers to her ability scores when in bird form (see Bird Shape).

Skills: A bird maiden in the bird form of a diurnal (day-dwelling) bird gains a +4 racial bonus on Spot checks and a +4 racial bonus on Search checks. One in a nocturnal (night-dwelling) bird form gains a +4 racial bonus to Listen checks.

Otherwise same as the base creature.

Feats: Same as base creature. Bird Maidens can select the Natural Spell feat as if their Bird Shape ability were the druid's Wild Shape ability.

Environment: Warm mountains.
Organization: Solitary or family (mother and 1-2 daughters).
Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature +1.
Treasure: Same as base creature.
Alignment: Any, but usually good or neutral.
Advancement: Same as base creature.
Level Adjustment: Same as the base creature +2.

Sample Bird Maiden
The following sample creature has gained the Bird Maiden template.

Bird Maiden
6th level human cleric
Medium Humanoid
Hit Dice: 6d8+12 (39 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares, base speed 30 ft.)
Armor Class: 17 (+4 Dex, +3 hide armor), touch 14, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+5
Attack: Spear +5 melee (1d8+1/×3) or spear +8 ranged (1d8+1) or sling +8 ranged (1d4+1)
Full Attack: Spear +5 melee (1d8+1/×3) or spear +8 ranged (1d8+1) or sling +8 ranged (1d4+1)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Bird shape, spells, rebuke plants, turn undead
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/magic, feather garment, healing change, low-light vision, speak with animals
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +10
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 19, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 10
Skills: Diplomacy +5, Handle Animal +3, Heal +16, Knowledge (nature) +6, Knowledge (religion) +6, Profession (farmer) +9, Survival +8 (+10 aboveground)
Feats: Flyby Attack, Natural Spell, Self-Sufficient, Weapon Finesse (B)
Environment: Warm mountains
Organization: Solitary or family (mother and 1-2 daughters)
Challenge Rating: 7
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Any, but usually good or neutral
Advancement: by character class
Level Adjustment: +2

Combat

Bird Shape (Su): The bird maiden can assume any of the following bird forms:

2 Sparrow—Tiny Humanoid (Shapechanger); Initiative: +5; Speed: 10 ft., fly 40 ft. (average); AC 17 (+2 size, +5 Dex), touch 17, flat-footed 12; BAB/Grapple: +4/–6; Attacks: Bite +11 melee (1d3–2); Abilities: Str 6, Dex 21, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 10; Saves: Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +10; Skills: add Spot +9.

3 Duck—Tiny Humanoid (Shapechanger); Initiative: +5; Speed: 10 ft., swim 20 ft., fly 40 ft. (good); AC 18 (+2 size, +5 Dex, +1 natural), touch 17, flat-footed 13; BAB/Grapple: +4/–5; Attacks: Bite +11 melee (1d4–1); Abilities: Str 8, Dex 21, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 10; Saves: Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +10; Skills: add Spot +9, Swim +7.

4 Kite—Tiny Humanoid (Shapechanger); Initiative: +5; Speed: 10 ft., fly 60 ft. (good); AC 18 (+2 size, +5 Dex, +1 natural), touch 17, flat-footed 13; BAB/Grapple: +4/–4; Attacks: Claws +11 melee (1d4) and bite +6 melee (1d3); Abilities: Str 10, Dex 21, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 10; Saves: Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +10; Skills: add Spot +9.

5 Stork—Small Humanoid (Shapechanger); Initiative: +5; Speed: 10 ft., fly 60 ft. (average); AC 18 (+1 size, +5 Dex, +2 natural), touch 16, flat-footed 13; BAB/Grapple: +4/+1; Attacks: Bite +10 melee (1d6+1) and 2 claws +5 melee (1d2); Abilities: Str 12, Dex 21, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 10; Saves: Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +10; Skills: add Spot +9.

6 Eagle—Small Humanoid (Shapechanger); Initiative: +5; Speed: 10 ft., fly 80 ft. (average); AC 18 (+1 size, +5 Dex, +2 natural), touch 16, flat-footed 13; BAB/Grapple: +4/+2; Attacks: 2 claws +10 melee (1d3+2) and bite +5 melee (1d4+1); Abilities: Str 14, Dex 21, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 10; Saves: Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +10; Skills: add Spot +9.

Rebuke Plant Creatures (Su): The granted powers of the Bird Maiden's Plant Domain allow her to rebuke or command plant creatures as an evil cleric rebukes or commands undead. She can use this ability three times per day.

Healing Change (Su): When the bird maiden uses Bird Shape, she can regain lost hit points as if she had rested for a night. She can heal herself in this fashion twice a day.

Speak With Animals (Sp): The granted powers of the Bird Maiden's Animal Domain allow her to use speak with animals once per day as a spell-like ability.

Spells: The bird maiden casts spells as a 6th level cleric with the Animal and Plant domains. She also has the granted powers of those clerical domains: rebuke plant creatures and speak with animals.

Typical Spells Prepared (5/4+1/4+1/3+1): Save DC 15 + spell level.
0—detect magic, detect poison, purify food and drink, read magic, resistance;
1st—deathwatch, detect undead, divine favor, entangle (D), sanctuary;
2nd—aid, barkskin (D), delay poison, enthrall, lesser restoration;
3rd—dispel magic, dominate animal (D), prayer, searing light.
D = Domain spell.

Originally from Monstrous Manual (1993).

 

[freyar]

Whoa, there's something funny with the font color in that working draft, and I can't read it in the "legacy" skin. Maybe you can reset it back to default?

I actually was assuming a standard monster, rather than a template. But the CC version of the swanmay is in fact a template. One prereq should be divine casting for sure...

 

[Cleon]

Whoa, there's something funny with the font color in that working draft, and I can't read it in the "legacy" skin. Maybe you can reset it back to default?

Hmm, it appears to have picked up a crop of "COLOR=windowtext" tags that presumably are turning the font colour black.

It's all Microsoft Word's fault, since that's what I originally drafted the text in. The only way I could find to remove the formatting from the original document was to strip out all the text formatting and reformat it. Resetting the font color to "Auto" did nothing.

It's a lot easier stripping the COLOR tags out of from the Enworld post.

Bloody Microsoft.

Reformatting Bird Maiden Working Draft.

I actually was assuming a standard monster, rather than a template. But the CC version of the swanmay is in fact a template. One prereq should be divine casting for sure...

A Swanmay / Bird Maiden makes a lot more sense as a template, since a humanoid lady can become a Swanmay or Bird Maiden by being initiated into their order and they also appear to "breed true", with their daughters becoming Swanmays / Bird Maidens.

Making them a Prestige Class like in The Book of Exalted Wonder doesn't work so well for me, since they start out at pretty low levels (e.g. 2nd level kahina cleric for Bird Maidens). That implies a Prestige Class with such low entrance requirements it might as well be a standard class.

Hmm, Bird Maiden as an alternative cleric class? That would work.

Still, this is a monster conversion board so I think we should make 'em a monster template.

 

[freyar]

Bloody Microsoft is why I exclusively use linux these days.

I'd go with template, and I'd keep one eye on the CC swanmay while I'm at it.

Anyway, what do you think about the prereqs?

 

[Cleon]

I'd go with template, and I'd keep one eye on the CC swanmay while I'm at it.

That's my thinking too.

Anyway, what do you think about the prereqs?

+3 base Will save and ability to cast divine spells? That'd cover the "cleric level 2+" of the original.

 

[freyar]

CC Swanmay for reference.

Those are reasonable prereqs, but I wonder if maybe we should require the ability to cast a certain divine spell (or one of a list) since they all seem to have a nature theme to them. I wouldn't mind setting it up to make sure we include druids, too.

Character gains the shapechanger subtype?

 

[Cleon]

CC Swanmay for reference.

Those are reasonable prereqs, but I wonder if maybe we should require the ability to cast a certain divine spell (or one of a list) since they all seem to have a nature theme to them. I wouldn't mind setting it up to make sure we include druids, too.

It'd need to be a 1st level spell that both clerics and druids have on their lists, and I can't think of any that qualify as "nature spells" except possibly endure elements, which doesn't seem very "birdy".

Hmm...

How about calm animal? A cleric can cast that if the have the Animal domain.

Character gains the shapechanger subtype?

Yes, I was going to give 'em that. They are supposed to be part of a "Shapechangers batch", after all.

 

[freyar]

Hmmm. How about calm animals, obscuring mist, or entangle? That would pick up a few more of the possible bird maiden domains.