Converting monsters from Dragon magazine

[demiurge1138]

Agreed to small. And the low AC is compensated for a bit by SLAs like blur and mirror image. A bit. We might want to raise it a bit towards the end of the process if we think it's a glaring oversight.

 

[Cleon]

Str 10, Dex 13, Con 16, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha 20?

AC is crap (14), and even the lowly filth imp has +3 natural armor.

I'd give it a higher Dex than that (say, 17 like a regular Imp?), but the other stats look fine.

I would definitely be tempted to improve its defenses. It has a lousy AC and its only magical defence is invisibility (which most PCs of its level will likely see right through) and a mediocre Spell Resistance.

Any party worth its salt would just dogpile an Asperim and would likely kill it in a round, maybe before it even got a single spell off.

I'd be tempted to give it project image, so it can "appear" before the party and torment them without them being able to harm it... until they hunt the little blighter out and wreak their revenge! Failing that, maybe stoneskin?

 

[Cleon]

Pardon, where's the blur and mirror image come from? I don't remember them being on AD&D's standard list of devil spell abilities (I can remember alter self, teleport w/o error, illusion & cause fear, but not those two). Might just be my memory playing tricks with me.

Agreed to small. And the low AC is compensated for a bit by SLAs like blur and mirror image. A bit. We might want to raise it a bit towards the end of the process if we think it's a glaring oversight.

 

[freyar]

Mirror image is right here, bold added. Maybe blur is renamed, don't remember.

The Asperim, if asked for information, will always direct the party along the worst possible path. They will not give the same answer twice in a row to the same question. The Asperim have all the spells normal to devils except Fear (since they do not want victims to run in panic). In addition, the Asperim have the following spells: Erase, Nystul’s Magic Aura, Shocking Grasp, Ventriloquism, Audible Glamer, Fools Gold, Forget, Invisibility, Mirror Image, Stinking Cloud, Dispel Magic, Explosive Runes, Slow, Confusion, Fumble, Polymorph Other, Feeblemind, Transmute Rock to Mud, Reverse Gravity, and Otto’s Irresistible Dance. All spells are cast as a l0th-level Magic-User.

Regarding Dex and AC, I think the Dex should be no more than 15 based on advancement in size from the standard imp, but imps also don't have great stats, so I think 13 is fine. Let's leave the AC low and see if it looks like a problem later.

 

[Shade]

I'd recommend retaining the following from the standard imp:

• Damage reduction 5/good or silver (probably change the "or" to an "and")
• Fast healing 2 (probably boost to 3)
• Immunity to poison
• Resistance to fire 5 (probably boost to 10)

Shall we retain the imp's wings/fly speed?

I'd recommend boosting the spell resistance to the devil standard (CR+12)

I agree we should give them some sort of standard attack. Claw, or tail sting like standard imp?

 

[freyar]

Agreed to all that. For the natural attack, I think I like a weak claw or two.

 

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews.

I moved some of the SLAs to 3/day or 1/day, depending on their power level.

I borrowed the forget conversion from the bane minions we did long ago.

We still need fool's gold and forget. Didn't we deal with forget awhile back, using a limited form of modify memory?

 

[demiurge1138]

I do remember we did a forget conversion, but ironically I don't remember for what.

I misspoke on blur, certainly. But if it has 10 HD, it's going to need better natural armor and/or Dex. Agreed to the "and" on the DR.

 

[freyar]

The SLAs look fine to me.

You mean you borrowed the fumble conversion?

Forget is probably pretty similar to the seelie spell of forgetting. Maybe we can look up fool's gold this weekend...

 

[Shade]

Found it!

Forget (Sp): Three times per day, a young or older mithril dragon may permanently remove a specific memory from a single creature. This functions as the modify memory spell, but can only be used to eliminate all memory of an event the subject actually experienced. This is the equivalent of a 2nd-level spell.