Converting First Edition monsters from DRAGON magazine

[Shade]

Int "High" is 13-14. For ability scores, since they're based off gnomes, low Str, high Con?

Maybe Str 9, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 15?

 

[freyar]

I'd say that sounds reasonable.

 

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews.

 

[Shroomy]

I almost think that dimension door is more appropriate for them (btw, I hate these guys names, way too confusing) then greater teleport.

 

[Shade]

I almost think that dimension door is more appropriate for them (btw, I hate these guys names, way too confusing) then greater teleport.

Yeah, when we pitched them to Dragon, we renamed them "Zwergeists" to avoid confusion with the undead poltergeists.

Dim door indeed might be more appropriate. Once per turn = 1/10 minutes. Maybe lower it to 1/minute?

 

[freyar]

1/min dim door sounds about right. The other SLAs seem straightforward if audible glamer is ghost sound, which it surely seems to be. Ghost sound, hypnotism, invisibility, and ventriloquism at will, CL 8.

 

[Shade]

Sounds good.

AC works out to 23. It gets +1 size and currently +2 Dex. I'd rather not give it +10 natural armor. So I'd recommend raising Dex a bit and adding a deflection bonus to AC. Thoughts?

The creatures are immune to cold-based attacks and are unaffected by charm, hold and sleep spells and attack forms. A poltergeist only takes half damage from electrical and fire-based attacks, which is reduced to one-fourth if it makes a
successful save.

Immunity to mind-affecting spells and abilities?

Resistance to electricity and fire, or something similar to evasion for those energy types?

 

[freyar]

Bump Dex and Cha by 4 each and give it a deflection bonus equal to its Cha bonus?

Also immune to cold. I think usual resistances for electricity and fire are the easiest, and they are probably more in the spirit of the original than a weird evasion ability for only certain elements. But I can be convinced otherwise.

 

[Shade]

Resistance 5 or 10?

DR 5/lawful?

Poltergeists will be armed as follows: 15% with club &sling, 30% with club & spear, 40% with short sword, 15% with short sword &spear. There is a 15% chance for any poltergeist carrying a club or sword that the weapon is magical (+1).

I went with short sword and sling for the base block. Do we want to make the sword +1 or masterwork?

 

[freyar]

Let's go with resistance and DR 5. I don't see these as being more than CR 4 or so, so I guess I'd go with masterwork for the default. We're going to need a few notes about treasure, though.

Do you want to rename the zwergeists and just say they were originally poltergeists?