Converting monsters from Dragon magazine (Part Two)

[Shade]

First: ooze or undead with oozlike qualities?

 

[demiurge1138]

Ooze with undead-like qualities. Give it a tomb tainted soul-like ability to heal from negative energy and harmed by positive energy.

Demiurge out.

 

[freyar]

I definitely agree with ooze, but I'm not seeing much of a need for undead qualities (other than name). In some ways, with the magic immunity and special vulnerabilities, it reminds me more of a construct.

 

[RavinRay]

Ooze. If it does have undead traits, there's a precedent of sorts in the teratomorph in MM II which, while not having the chaotic subtype, attacks rather like a chaos beast.

 

[Shade]

OK, we've got an exceptionally-intelligent ooze. Fun!

So...Int is 15-16.

Physical ability scores of similarly-sized oozes:

Toxic Ooze: Str 14, Dex 5, Con 23
Gray Ooze: Str 12, Dex 1, Con 21
Summoning Ooze: Str 14, Dex 10, Con 16
Reason Stealer: Str 14, Dex 1, Con 16
Snowflake Ooze: Str 20, Dex 1, Con 20
Assassin Jelly: Str 15, Dex 15, Con 20

Considering that its AC converts to 17, and oozes tend to lack natural armor, I'm thinking that Dex should be closer to the assassin jelly.

For the others, it looks like Str 12-15 and Con 16-20. I could see the low end for both of these, since it will have decent mental stats.

Mabye Str 12, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 16, Wis 11, Cha 14?

 

[freyar]

Those look like a good set of stats.

Because of its liquid state, lich’s blood is immune to all weapon-based attacks. Thanks to its magic-draining nature, all spells cast on it are absorbed harmlessly. The only way to kill a lich’s blood is to use nonmagical acid, fire, or the deprivation of magic. A dispel magic spell cast on lich’s blood causes 1d6 hp damage per level of the caster; an anti-magic shell cast on one destroys the creature immediately.

Do we want true weapon immunity or DR more like a normal ooze? As for the magic stuff, I'd say we more or less cut & paste from a golem, using dispel magic and anti-magic field.

 

[demiurge1138]

Give it a high level of DR/-. Maybe acid vulnerability. And I agree that we can steal a golem's magic immunity.

 

[freyar]

How about DR 10/- and Regeneration 5 (fire and acid do normal damage)?

Immunity to Magic (Ex): A lich's blood is immune to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance. In addition, certain spells and effects function differently against the creature, as noted below. Dispel magic cast on a lich's blood does 1d6 hp of damage per caster level, and antimagic field destroys a lich's blood (on a failed Fort save).

 

[demiurge1138]

How about DR 10/- and Regeneration 5 (fire and acid do normal damage)?

Sounds good, but sweet Vecna is this thing tough. It's going to have quite the CR.

Demiurge out.

 

[freyar]

Yeah. We could cut back the DR some, but the original text is pretty nasty. Seems like about the only way to kill it is with a lot of indirect damage kind of spells and just stumbling on dispel or antimagic.

Let's start working on the wizard coating bit (we'll need to work on the name ). The way I'm writing this, we need improved grab.

The One that Coats is the Only One You Need (Su): On a successful grapple check against an arcane spellcaster, a lich's blood streams into its victims orifices, coating its nostrils and lungs and making it impossible to breathe (see the DMG for suffocation rules). Each round, the victim must make a DC X Will save or lose its highest level prepared spell or spell slot. When the victim has no remaining spells or spell slots, the lich's blood remains for five more rounds, dealing a negative level each round on a failed save (if the victim is still alive). Once a lich's blood has coated a spellcaster, only its death can remove it.

We could also put in a dependency on magic, unless you think that should be flavor:

Magic Dependency (Su): A lich's blood survives by eating magic. It can gain constant nutrition by coating a permanent magic item and feeding off the constant magic emanations, but lich's bloods prefer arcane spellcasters to all other forms of food. A lich's blood that does not feed on magic for X days dies.