Converting Al-Qadim creatures

[Cleon]

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

Neither obscuring mist or entangle seem very "birdlike" to me. I suppose obscuring mist is the best of those as it's an Air spell.

How about we derive something from their clerical duties and the spheres they have access to:

"All bird maidens are kahina, idol priestesses who believe in the divinity of all things. They live as wandering teachers, protecting the land from those who despoil it. They get along best with those who respect the land: desert riders, mystics, and fisherfolk. In the fertile river valleys, they preach the faith and maintain the fertility of the land and livestock."

"They have major access to the All, Animal, Divination, Elemental, Healing, Plant and Weather spheres and minor access to the Creation, Protection, and Sun spheres"

They appear to have a general duty of healing/purifying nature, which suggests they must be able to perform magical healing - goodberry or cure light wounds, etc - but that doesn't narrow it down much.

Those divine magic spheres mostly have direct equivalents as 3E Domains:

Major Spheres => Domain
Animal=> Animal
Divination=> Knowledge
Elemental=> [Originally this combined Air, Earth, Fire or Water. I'd likely make it Air only]
Healing=> Healing
Plant=> Plant
Weather => Weather

Minor Spheres => Domain
Creation => Creation
Protection => Protection
Sun => Sun

Maybe we should set a prerequisite that it must have certain Domains? That would mean it would have to be a cleric though.

Hmm, speak with animals is a domain power of the Animal Domain, so we could combine that with healing/purifying.

e.g. "A Bird Maiden must be able to cast a spell that can heal other creatures (e.g. goodberry, cure minor wounds) and have the ability to cast at least three of the following spells: bless water, bless weapon, calm animals, detect animals or plants, pass without trace and purify food and drink.

That spell list allows any Druid or Paladin to become a Bird Maiden, or any Cleric with the Animal domain.

If we add bless weapon to the list it would allow any Paladin to become a Bird Maiden (or a Cleric with the Glory Domain).

 

[freyar]

See, I'd rather allow more clerics (but not all clerics) as well as druids. I don't care much about paladins. The real problem is that you're requiring an Animal domain, where any two from the list Animal, Knowledge, Air, Healing, Plant, or Weather (or maybe the other three) should be sufficient. That's why I picked those spells, which cover all the listed domains except Knowledge (detect secret doors just doesn't seem right). Do you have any other ideas that meet the criteria of (1) not including all clerics but (2) including druids and at least clerics with two of the six listed domains?

 

[Cleon]

See, I'd rather allow more clerics (but not all clerics) as well as druids. I don't care much about paladins. The real problem is that you're requiring an Animal domain, where any two from the list Animal, Knowledge, Air, Healing, Plant, or Weather (or maybe the other three) should be sufficient. That's why I picked those spells, which cover all the listed domains except Knowledge (detect secret doors just doesn't seem right). Do you have any other ideas that meet the criteria of (1) not including all clerics but (2) including druids and at least clerics with two of the six listed domains?

Yes, I'd rather have more than just "Animal" clerics too.

Hmm, we could use Knowledge (nature)as a prereq. That's a class skill for Druids and Rangers as well as Clerics with the Animal, Knowledge or Plant domain.

If we have, say "5 ranks in Knowledge (nature)" then other clerics can still qualify if they're willing to pay the cross-class costs.

Hmm, I'd also like Heal as a skill prereq, since there are many mention of their healing activities.

 

[freyar]

How about "5 ranks in Heal and Knowledge (nature) and ability to cast divine spells" as a prereq?

 

[Cleon]

How about "5 ranks in Heal and Knowledge (nature) and ability to cast divine spells" as a prereq?

That'd work for me.

 

[freyar]

OK then. Changes to abilities? I'd expect a +2 or +4 boost to Wisdom (nothing too big) and maybe Con or Str. On the other hand, I could limit the physical boosts to the alternate forms, too. What do you think?

 

[Cleon]

OK then. Changes to abilities? I'd expect a +2 or +4 boost to Wisdom (nothing too big) and maybe Con or Str. On the other hand, I could limit the physical boosts to the alternate forms, too. What do you think?

I'm thinking Dexterity and Wisdom would make more sense.

A bit of a Strength boost would be OK I guess, but avians in D&D don't tend to have very high Constitutions.

We can worry about the Alternate Forms later.

 

[freyar]

Hmmm, yeah, I'm not sure what I was thinking exactly. How about +4 to Wis and maybe +2 Dex (not sure about the latter).

 

[Cleon]

Hmmm, yeah, I'm not sure what I was thinking exactly. How about +4 to Wis and maybe +2 Dex (not sure about the latter).

I'd rather have it the other way round - +4 Dex, +2 Wis.

They're divine casters, so they should already have high Wisdom scores, plus most of the SRD avians have higher Dexterity than Wisdom.

 

[Cleon]

I'll update the Bird Maiden Working Draft with an prerequisites we'd agreed on.