Converting monsters from Dragon magazine (Part Two)

[Shade]

These guys are cool! Always thought there needed to be more creatures from Pandemonium.

Hell yeah! My biggest disappointment was that I never got an article on an exemplar race from Pandemonium into Dragon. It got close a couple times. :\

Definitely an outsider. Animate rope could also be used as a model for magical tripping.

I'll check that out as well.

Reduce the "immune to psionics" to "immune to mind-influencing effects"; the SR will take care of the rest, due to psi/magic transparencies. Make the resistances 10, as that's standard for outsiders these days.

Good idea.

The poison, as it gives a penalty to attack rolls and makes it impossible to cast spells, is an odd one. We could do something like:

Poison (Ex): The poison of a viltch causes extreme pain in living targets. Fortitude DC X negates, initial damage sickened 1 minute, secondary damage nauseated 1 minute. Any creature that fails the initial save must make a Concentration check (DC 15 + spell level) to cast a spell within a minute of the bite. The save DC is Constitution based.

Looks good. We might also borrow from symbol of pain or the pain spell from Complete Arcane.

I hope Pathfinder broadens the condition summary to include things like pained, hypnotized, withered, etc. that appear in multiple places.

The remark about high initiative suggests that they have Imp. Init as one of their feats. The dodging missiles can be interpreted as Deflect Arrows as a bonus feat or a miss-chance to ranged attacks only (like entropic shield).

Agreed on all that.

 

[freyar]

Oooh, nice wild slaad alternative. I'm agreed on everything said so far. Let's reduce the summoning number to maybe 1d6? It's still a lot but maybe we can bump the CR a little.

Regarding "thief skills," do you want to do large racial bonuses? It won't have nearly enough ranks otherwise.

 

[Shade]

Yeah, definitely good racial bonuses to "thief skills".

Let's figure out ability scores.

Int is Average (8-10).

Con is positive due to the "+2" on the HD line.

Dex is at least 14-15, but I think it should be higher due to the crazy-good AC for its HD and its focus on theft.

Str should yield at least a +1 damage bonus, but I also think it should be higher.

Cha should be decent due to SLAs. Wis could be average.

Looking at comparable outsiders:

Bar-lgura: Str 22, Dex 19, Con 19, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 12
Skurchur: Str 15, Dex 20, Con 14, Int 15, Wis 19, Cha 18
Spinagon: Str 10, Dex 25, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 13, Cha 13
Black Abishai: Str 14, Dex 16, Con 15, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 13
Barbazu: Str 15, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 6, Wis 10, Cha 10
Canoloth: Str 19, Dex 10, Con 19, Int 5, Wis 17, Cha 12
Red Slaad: Str 21, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 6, Wis 6, Cha 8

And since they are apelike:
Ape: Str 21, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 7

So, how about.... Str 19, Dex 21, Con 17, Int 9, Wis 12, Cha 13?

I figure they'd be slightly more agile than a bar-lgura, but a bit less in the brute strength dept.

 

[freyar]

Sounds about right. I'd even be willing to up the Dex a little. After all, it does have AC 24, so we can go up to Dex 37 if we really want.

 

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews.

I currently have them with +8 natural armor like the bar-lgura, which leaves +6 for Dexterity, so I gave them Dex 23. We can adjust these numbers if we find we need higher Dex as we work out the skills and abilities.

We need to decide which method to use to replace the trip SLA. Suggested above were the following options:

• The enwrap function of the animate rope spell
• Telekinesis as an SLA (limited to tripping)
• Trip (Sp): When a scythetail touches a long object (such as a rope, vine, or tree branch), it imbues that object with the ability to trip opponents for that day. At will, the scythetail may cause this object to rise slightly off the ground to trip any creatures passing by once per round, up to three times per day. Any creatures moving past this object will be subject (to) a normal trip attack. Running creatures are also subject to a trip attack, and suffer 1d6 points of damage in addition to being stunned for 1d4 rounds. Creatures of Huge size or larger are immune to this attack.

We could also use some combination of the above. Thoughts?

Also, Pandemonium petitioners have immunity to sonic in addition to electricity, and resistance to acid, which the viltch lacks. Shall we grant the viltch the same?

I'd also recommend adding this so they can get around on their home plane...

Wind Tolerance (Su): Viltches are unaffected by high winds, and are never checked, knocked down, or blown away by wind conditions. Viltches suffer no penalties to Listen checks made in areas of high winds, nor are their spells and effects that rely on sonic energy limited to a range of 10 feet.

 

[freyar]

I'm for the telekinesis option. I don't get the picture of these as using objects to do the tripping; it's more of a magical force.

Immunities and resistance are good. Wind tolerance makes sense.

 

[demiurge1138]

Agreed on wind tolerance. I think we can leave off the acid resistance, because they have so many other immunities and resistances, but sonic immunity makes thematic sense.

Demiurge out.

 

[freyar]

oops, double post!

 

[freyar]

Agreed on wind tolerance. I think we can leave off the acid resistance, because they have so many other immunities and resistances, but sonic immunity makes thematic sense.

Demiurge out.

That's true. Fine either way with me on the acid.

Here's a fun special ability:

A viltch can dodge non-magical missiles if it saves vs. petrification.

Missile Dodging (Su): A viltch targeted by a magic missile may make a Reflex save (at the usual DC for the caster) to dodge the magic missle (negating the missile's damage).

 

[Shade]

Missile Dodging (Su): A viltch targeted by a magic missile may make a Reflex save (at the usual DC for the caster) to dodge the magic missle (negating the missile's damage).

I'm OK with adding that, but note that the original text was for "non-magical" missles.

So at the very least, we'll need to expand out the ability to cover mundane ranged weapons.