Before we go any further, Can we call the individuals something different from "lost souls" to cut down on confusion. How about "wanderer", "dead wanderer" or "wandering dead", going by this passage:
"When a
wanderer dies in the Terrain Between, there is a chance (40%) that the innate power of the land will cause the remains to rise as a zombie-like being called a lost soul. Once a lost soul is created, it immediately searches for others of its undead kind. When it finds them, it merges with them to become a single entity made up of the tangled, rotting bodies of many dead wanderers. The faces of the
dead wanderers peer out from the central mass, looking wretched and as pained as the moans they emit. Once merged, the
individual wanderers are subsumed into the newly created lost soul. Physical lost souls cannot enter dreamscapes."
OK, let's rework this.
After reading through it again, the weakest lost soul is clearly 4+4 HD. The original allows it to "grow" 4 times, gaining a total of 4 more HD and 4 more attacks. Although the text at one point contradicts the stat block and other text on number of claws, I think regardless of the starting number, it makes sense to gain 2 claw attacks with each merging (each individual "zombie" has 2 hands). I'd suggest we retain the original ratio, but allow for greater HD growth. Following that logic...
As I pointed out when I wrote up the rough draft, there are clear conflicts in the original description's Combat entry. It says a lost soul has 2 to 8 individual undead, gains 1+1 HD per undead and 1 attack per undead it absorbs to a maximum of 8+8 HD - which clearly infers 1+1 HD per individual Lost Soul. It also says lost souls fight with 2 claw attacks, not the 4 attacks of the example in the AD&D stats.
Thus, I think it's perfectly reasonable to infer they start out at 2+2 HD and 2 attacks, but a standard example has more HD and attacks, being formed from "many dead wanderers" instead of a mere two.
I think regardless of the starting number, it makes sense to gain 2 claw attacks with each merging (each individual "zombie" has 2 hands). I'd suggest we retain the original ratio, but allow for greater HD growth. Following that logic...
I would much rather keep the "gain 1 attack per merging" of the original. Just because the individual lost soul has 2 hands, that doesn't mean they can use them both when merged together. Half their arms could easily be fused in the mass. The basic model could be fused together shoulder-to-shoulder, for example.
I'm starting to think we should increase the size a bit. If they have 1 HD per Medium-sized creature, a 4 HD lost soul would weigh 200-1600 pounds, which is easily in Large territory.
Something like:
1 HD = Medium = 1 wanderer = 2 claw attacks (1d3 each)
2 HD = Medium = lost soul = 2 claw attacks (1d4)
4 HD = Large = lost soul = 4 claws
8 HD = Huge = lost soul = 8 claws
?
Fast healing could improve by 2 at each size increase. DR would improve at some point, but not necessarily each time.
Obviously, "absorb corpse" would need to be modified to account for these changes. For simplicity's sake, if two lost souls of different sizes merge, it would be easiest to add the total HD and find the closest size match.
Added the first two sizes to
Homebrews.
Fast Healing equals HD is just as simple, and is in keeping with the original.
Also, that's a slower healing rate than the original monster. If anything it should get faster healing considering attacks do more damage in 3E.
You know, I fear we're going to have some here...
How's that for chaos? Are we just arguing over HD levels for sizes?
