Converting Greyhawk monsters

[freyar]

I'd be ok with switching adapt body, ectoplasmic form, immovability, and psionic dominate to 3/day. Actually, adapt body lasts for 12 hours at a time, so we could cut it back to 1/day.

Well, we could just copy from the power. Something like this?
Adapt Body (Sp): Once per day as a standard action, a master scorpion can adapt to hostile environments for a 12 hour period. The master scorpion can breathe and move (though penalties to movement and attacks, if any for a particular environment, remain) and takes no damage simply from being in the environment, surviving as a creature native to the environment. The master scorpion can adapt to underwater, extremely hot, extremely cold, or airless environments. Any environmental feature that normally directly deals 1 or more dice of damage per round deals half damage. Once this ability is active, the master scorpion instantly to any environment it enters.

 

[Cleon]

I'd be ok with switching adapt body, ectoplasmic form, immovability, and psionic dominate to 3/day. Actually, adapt body lasts for 12 hours at a time, so we could cut it back to 1/day.

So if we put those all together you're talking...

at will -- claws of the vampire, control body, create sound, inertial barrier, read thoughts, telekinetic force, telekinetic maneuver, telekinetic thrust
3/day -- ectoplasmic form, immovability, psionic dominate
1/day -- adapt body, suspend life

...plus it's current PLAs of...

At-Will—greater concealing amorpha, detect hostile intent, detect psionics, personal mind blank, psychic vampire; 3/day—catapsi, psionic dominate; 1/day—psionic blast, ultrablast.

To make:

Psi-Like Abilities (Ps): At-Will—claws of the vampire, greater concealing amorpha, control body, create sound, detect hostile intent, detect psionics, inertial barrier, personal mind blank, psychic vampire, read thoughts, telekinetic force, telekinetic maneuver, telekinetic thrust; 3/day—catapsi, ectoplasmic form, immovability, psionic dominate; 1/day—adapt body, psionic blast, suspend life, ultrablast. These abilities are as the powers manifested by a 12th-level psion. The save DCs are Charisma-based.

Well, we could just copy from the power. Something like this?

Adapt Body (Sp): Once per day as a standard action, a master scorpion can adapt to hostile environments for a 12 hour period. The master scorpion can breathe and move (though penalties to movement and attacks, if any for a particular environment, remain) and takes no damage simply from being in the environment, surviving as a creature native to the environment. The master scorpion can adapt to underwater, extremely hot, extremely cold, or airless environments. Any environmental feature that normally directly deals 1 or more dice of damage per round deals half damage. Once this ability is active, the master scorpion instantly to any environment it enters.

That approach works for me, although I'd make a few tweaks to the text.

If we make it a separate SLA we'd better remove adapt body from its PLA list:

Psi-Like Abilities (Ps): At-Will—claws of the vampire, greater concealing amorpha, control body, create sound, detect hostile intent, detect psionics, inertial barrier, personal mind blank, psychic vampire, read thoughts, telekinetic force, telekinetic maneuver, telekinetic thrust; 3/day—catapsi, ectoplasmic form, immovability, psionic dominate; 1/day—psionic blast, suspend life, ultrablast. These abilities are as the powers manifested by a 12th-level psion. The save DCs are Charisma-based.

Hmm... upon reflection I'd rather make it 3 times per day. That way it'll get round-the-clock environmental protection, rather than having to choose between baking in the desert sun or freezing in the desert night.

Actually, I'm also wondering whether we should slightly rephrase the name so it's not identical to the psionic power. e.g.:

Body Adaptation (Sp): Three times per day, as a standard action, a master scorpion can adapt to hostile environments for a 12 hour period. Once this ability is active, the master scorpion instantly adapts to any environment it enters. The master scorpion can breathe and move and takes no damage simply from being in the environment, surviving as if it were native to that environment (though penalties to movement and attacks, if any for a particular environment, remain). The master scorpion can adapt to underwater, extremely hot, extremely cold, or airless environments. Any environmental feature that directly deals 1 or more dice of damage per round deals half damage to the master scorpion.

This ability can be dispelled and is the equivalent of a 5th-level spell with a caster level equal to the scorpion's Hit Dice. A master scorpion can dismiss an active body adaptation or create a new body adaptation effect as a standard action.

Another alternative is to make it At-Will:

Body Adaptation (Sp): As a standard action, a master scorpion can adapt to hostile environments for a 12 hour period.

 

[freyar]

For the psionic version, I think adapt body should just be in the regular PLA list. I don't really mind one way or the other about 1/day or 3/day, as I can see some reasons for both choices.

Renaming the SLA version is fine.

 

[Cleon]

For the psionic version, I think adapt body should just be in the regular PLA list. I don't really mind one way or the other about 1/day or 3/day, as I can see some reasons for both choices.

It just feels off to me to give the "standard" monsters a new (Sp) ability which is promptly ignored for the Psionic variant.

If you go along that route, why does the Psionic version not lose its Psychic Blast and have psionic blast At-Will listed in its PLAs?

Renaming the SLA version is fine.

At least we agree on that!

 

[freyar]

A good question! Why doesn't it have psionic blast as a PLA instead? Other than a variable stun duration, I think the psychic blast is the same as the psionic blast power. Note the precedent in the SRD aboleth: the regular version has an Enslave (Su), but the psionic version has psionic dominate instead.

 

[Cleon]

A good question! Why doesn't it have psionic blast as a PLA instead? Other than a variable stun duration, I think the psychic blast is the same as the psionic blast power. Note the precedent in the SRD aboleth: the regular version has an Enslave (Su), but the psionic version has psionic dominate instead.

Actually, it was a rhetorical question because I drafted the Monarch/Master Scorpion's Psychic Blast in imitation of the 3E Illithid, which has Mind Blast as a (Sp) power in both its standard and psionic versions.

I'd rather just give them both the same Body Adaptation SQ, since it seems an unnecessary complication to make it a different power for the psionic Master Scorpion.

 

[freyar]

Yeah, I realized that, too. My question was also rhetorical, just to show that there are precedents both ways. My feeling on the illithid is that the mind blast is supposed to be a bit different (I'm away from my books, but I think more powerful) than the psionic blast power. In this case, though, the psionic version is supposed to be literally the adapt body power. I think we should just make the non-psionic SQ as close to the psionic power as we can without copying the text.

 

[Cleon]

Yeah, I realized that, too. My question was also rhetorical, just to show that there are precedents both ways. My feeling on the illithid is that the mind blast is supposed to be a bit different (I'm away from my books, but I think more powerful) than the psionic blast power. In this case, though, the psionic version is supposed to be literally the adapt body power. I think we should just make the non-psionic SQ as close to the psionic power as we can without copying the text.

Okay, so are you OK with the Body Adaptation power, at least for the non-psionic version?

For the psionic version, I'd rather just keep the Body Adaptation, but if you really want it as a Psi-Like Abilities, my preference would be giving it the power as a separate (Ps) rather than folded in with the rest of the PLAs.

e.g.:

Psionic master scorpions have body adaptation as a psi-like ability instead of a spell-like ability, as detailed below.

Body Adaptation (Ps): Three times per day, a psionic master scorpion can use adapt body as if manifested by a 12th-level psion.​

If we do that, we ought to modify the Body Adaptation (Sp) so it has "caster level 12" instead of "a caster level equal to the scorpion's Hit Dice".

Come to think of it, we should probably do that even if we give both psionic and non-psionic Master Scorpions the (Sp) version.

 

[freyar]

Keeping it as a Ps is my preference, but it's ok to write it as a separate ability if you like. I also prefer specifying CL/ML 12 rather than HD.

 

[Cleon]

Keeping it as a Ps is my preference, but it's ok to write it as a separate ability if you like. I also prefer specifying CL/ML 12 rather than HD.

So, just to be clear, are you OK with the following:

Standard Master Scorpion:

Body Adaptation (Sp): Three times per day, as a standard action, a master scorpion can adapt to hostile environments for a 12 hour period. Once this ability is active, the master scorpion instantly adapts to any environment it enters. The master scorpion can breathe and move and takes no damage simply from being in the environment, surviving as if it were native to that environment (though penalties to movement and attacks, if any for a particular environment, remain). The master scorpion can adapt to underwater, extremely hot, extremely cold, or airless environments. Any environmental feature that directly deals 1 or more dice of damage per round deals half damage to the master scorpion.

This ability can be dispelled and is the equivalent of a 5th-level spell with caster level 12. A master scorpion can dismiss an active body adaptation or create a new body adaptation effect as a standard action.

Psionic Master Scorpion:
Psionic master scorpions have body adaptation as a psi-like ability instead of a spell-like ability, as detailed below.

Body Adaptation (Ps): Three times per day, a psionic master scorpion can use adapt body as if manifested by a 12th-level psion.