Converting monsters from Dragon magazine

[freyar]

These questions make me wonder what kind of fun/wacky campaign abe ray is running! And don't beholders have enough eyes without a worry wart network?

I am ok with the proposed Symbiont Network Traits, though I'd still prefer the more standard "symbiont might take damage as a magical item on a natural 1 failed save." Want to roll for it?

What would be next on these?

 

[Cleon]

These questions make me wonder what kind of fun/wacky campaign abe ray is running! And don't beholders have enough eyes without a worry wart network?

I have no idea what sort of campaign(s) Ray runs. What does it matter so long as they're enjoying the game it doesn't matter how wacky it is!

Come to think of it, beholders are murderously chauvenistic towards beholders whose bodies & eyestalks are different from their own (including beholder-kin who have slight differences from the beholder-kin or their "hive"), so if a beholder were to suddenly develop additional eyes it might have a psychotic breakdown, and all its beholder hive-mates would certainly try to kill it.

I am ok with the proposed Symbiont Network Traits, though I'd still prefer the more standard "symbiont might take damage as a magical item on a natural 1 failed save." Want to roll for it?

Not really. If we rolled for it I might lose!

Updating Worry-Wart Working Draft.

I'd still be game for allowing surgical removal though, as per:

A completed symbiotic network can be removed surgically with a DC 40 Heal check, each attempt deals 3d4 Constitution damage to the host. A properly worded wish or miracle spell can cause the wart network to vanish. The spells remove disease, heal or limited wish will remove the network if the caster succeeds on a DC 25 Heal check. The spells banishment and dismissal can force the extraplanar portion of the nibish-riule away and sever it from the network if the nibish-riule fails a Will save (it has a Will save of +10 since the complete entity has to be exorcized). If the campaign used Psionics, the psychic chirurgery power can be used to sever the nibish-riule's nerve-links to the worry-wart network. Severing the nibish-riule from a symbiotic network leaves its unsightly warts behind, but they become inanimate and eventually heal and fade away like ordinary warts.

What would be next on these?

Deciding whether the Constant Vigilance and Infestation SQs need any further amendments (like the surgical network removal above).

Then it's Skills & Feats to complete the stats.

I'm thinking maxed-out Knowledge (the planes), Search & Spot for the Skills.

Alertness seems the obvious Feat boring as it is.

I don't think it needs any additional racial bonii. The standard +4 to Search/Spot from All-Around Vision seem enough.

 

[freyar]

Oh, I guess adding the surgical removal to Infestation is fine.

Constant Vigilance seems pretty standard, right? So we should keep it pretty normal.

I'll agree to those skills and feats.

 

[Cleon]

Oh, I guess adding the surgical removal to Infestation is fine.

Constant Vigilance seems pretty standard, right? So we should keep it pretty normal.

I'll agree to those skills and feats.

Updating Worry-Wart Working Draft.

So I think we're done mechanically then, so it's just the "fluffy bit". Did I ever mention that I dislike the term "fluff" for the non-mechanical elements of a monster design? They're often some of my favourite elements of a creature, and calling it fluff just seems too… dismissive.

So how's this for a start:

Floating in the air in a miniscule lump of flesh surrounded by a disc of skin. It appears to move with purpose, tilting from side to side as if aware of its surroundings. The thing is the color of human skin and as wide as a finger tip.

As a symbiont, add the following to the host's descriptive text:

One of the many warts covering the creature bulges and opens to reveal a disturbingly humanoid eye, complete with lashes. The eye blinks and glances around itself, then pops out of the wart on a stalk of sinewy tendril. This eyestalk flexes and coils to scan its surroundings, pausing occasionally to stare with obvious curiosity.

Background.

A worry-wart is roughly a quarter of an inch across with a negligible weight. Nibish-riule are incapable of speech but can communicate telepathically with the worry-wart's host (and take every opportunity to do so!).

COMBAT
Worry-warts are incapable of inflicting damage and have no offensive abilities, their sole "special attack" being their ability to infest a host (see Infestation ability for details).​

In theory, a worry-wart could try to distract another creature by flying into them (if unattached to a host) or slapping them with an eyestalk (after completing a symbiotic network), but this seems unlikely to succeed.

Come to think of it, could they wrap their eyestalks around enemies like a tentacle? It is a two-foot length of sinewy muscle, and they do have a Grapple Modifier…

 

[Cleon]

I started writing up a background text, but realized a big section of it was just describing the mechanism of how the nibish-riule projects a worry-wart into the Prime Material Plane.

Upon reflection, I think it might work better to write that up as a "Dimensional Intrusion" Special Quality.

Might write up a proposal or two this evening, but I've got places to do and things to go! Or vice-versa!!

 

[Cleon]

Here's a working draft for the "fluff":

Floating in the air in a miniscule lump of flesh surrounded by a disc of skin. It appears to move with purpose, tilting from side to side as if aware of its surroundings. The thing is the color of human skin and as wide as a finger tip.

As a symbiont, add the following to the host's descriptive text:

One of the many warts covering the creature bulges and opens to reveal a disturbingly humanoid eye, complete with lashes. The eye blinks and glances around itself, then pops out of the wart on a stalk of sinewy tendril. This eyestalk flexes and coils to scan its surroundings, pausing occasionally to stare with obvious curiosity.

Worry-warts are flying beauty-spots that appear out of thin air and seek living hosts to attach themselves too. In fact, a worry-wart is merely a fragment of a far greater being, the extradimensional nibish-riule. These enormous shapeless entities are extremely inquisitive, and project worry-warts into other dimensions out of curiosity. A worry-wart can remain free-floating for up to an hour before the nibish-riule's tires and it is forced to withdraw the wart. If the worry-wart attaches itself to a host it can remain in this dimension as long as the host lives. (See the Dimensional Intrusion ability for further information).

Should a worry-wart successfully attach to a host it spreads through their body, growing up to half-a-dozen warts on the host's skin over a period of three to six weeks. Once this wart network is fully established the nibish-riule has forms a telepathic link and the host starts to hear its voice in their head. If that wasn't enough to disturb the host's psyche, each of the worry-wart's warts can now open to reveal an eye, and these eyes can pop out of the wart on thin stalks. and are extremely flexible in order. Their length and flexibility gives the nibish-riule an excellent all-around view, and the eyestalks can even curl around to minutely examine the host's body. A worry-wart infestation sustains itself from its host's bloodstream, but this parasitism consumes such tiny amounts of blood it does no actual harm.

Nibish-riule favor intelligent worry-wart hosts since they can then learn about other planes by telepathically conversing with the host as well as the wart's transdimensional eyesight. Mindless hosts are their second choice as these are unable to distinguish nerve-impulses from the worry-wart network from those of their own body, so are easy to "steer" towards interesting sights. Even so, the nibish-riule's desires will be lower priority to the basic instincts of a non-intelligent host, so if it is hungry or afraid it will ignore the worry-wart's promptings. Semi-intelligent creatures and animals are undesirable, for they almost always panic as soon as a worry-wart infestation fully develops and very rarely learn to tolerate it, instead trying to flee or attack the eyestalks whenever it can.

A worry-wart never sleeps and is insatiably curious. Its eyestalks constantly investigate its exciting new environment while the nibish-riule badgers the host with endless questions. Nibish-riule are completely ignorant of the Prime Material and will ask for explanations of even basic concepts such as gender, food and walking – as in "what's it like to chew? So these things called legs, how do they work? What does 'run away!' mean?" It might take an unpleasantly long time before a nibish-riule understands the concept of sleep enough to let its host rest without constantly waking them with inquiries. The other main component of a nibish-riule's personality is an intense interest in its host's survival. How much is genuine concern for the host's wellbeing and how much is the nibish-riule desire to keep its window to the Prime open is unknown, but the result is the worry-wart can act like an over-protective parent fearing for the host's health and safety. Unfortunately, the nibish-riule has to learn what creatures and phenomena are actually dangerous. A worry-wart's host might find itself constantly being woken from bed because the nibish-riule fears they're being paralyzed by this "sleep", only to be encourage "So this person's called Mister Rabid Werewolf? Let's go and make friends!" Should a host begin an action the nibish-riule thinks risky, they often find an eyestalk staring them in the face while the anxious worry-wart demands "Are You Mad?!"

More about nibish-riule.

A worry-wart is roughly a quarter of an inch across with a negligible weight. Their eyestalks can typically extend up to about one-fourth the host's height or length (so around 18 inches for an average humanoid). Nibish-riule are incapable of speech but can communicate telepathically with their worry-wart's host.

Dimensional Intrusion (Su): Nibish-riule must rest for an entire month before projecting a worry-wart to the Prime Material Plane. The ability resembles an astral projection that only projects a parasitic sensory fragment of the nibish-riule. A projected worry-wart can remain free-floating on the Prime for up to an hour.* If it successfully infests a host the wart can remain on another plane indefinitely so long as the host is alive.

A worry-wart's destruction does no harm to the nibish-riule that sent it beyond requiring another month of preparation before it can send another one. Being an extraplanar creature, worry-warts can be forced to return to the nibish-riule's plane through exorcism magic such as banishment or dismissal spells. However, a worry-wart that succeeds in infesting a host has "rooted" itself to this plane and cannot be banished. However, unlike a dimensional lock effect it is still capable of extradimensional travel, so if its host goes to another plane they carry the worry-wart with them. Note that a worry-wart and its host are separate creatures, so both must be willing to travel for an astral projection or plane shift spell to succeed.

*If an unattached worry-wart is encountered, the remaining duration of its dimensional intrusion ability could be anywhere from 1 round to an hour. This duration can be randomly determined by rolling 1d6×10 minutes, subtracting 1d10 minutes and then adding 1d10 rounds (this results in a uniform probability distribution from 1 to 600 rounds). Example: if the rolls are 4/6 (d6/d10 minutes) and 7 (d10 rounds) the duration is 34 minutes plus 7 rounds (34 minutes 42 seconds) or 347 rounds in total. Alternatively, the roll could be realized as d6×100 rounds plus 1d10 rounds minus 1d6×10 rounds (4×100+7–6×10 = 347).

 

[Cleon]

Here's a working draft for the "fluff":

SNIP

Personality. Garrulous. Inquisitive. Over-Protective. Alien. Staring into a host's face. (take every opportunity to talk!)

As is my usual wont I might have overloaded the detail, but I think it's a decent start.

Still need to flesh out a paragraph or two about the personality/nature of the nibish-riule.

Oh, and I was going to add another small paragraph to Dimensional Intrusion on determining how long an unattached worry-wart can remain on the Prime Material.

 

[Cleon]

Still need to flesh out a paragraph or two about the personality/nature of the nibish-riule.

Oh, and I was going to add another small paragraph to Dimensional Intrusion on determining how long an unattached worry-wart can remain on the Prime Material.

Added the above two elements.

I'm thinking about adding a small paragraph about the main body of the nibish-riule, but the bulk of the "fluff" (shudder) looks ready to me.

 

[freyar]

Looks good to me! Should we say these are done?

 

[Cleon]

Updating Worry-Wart Working Draft.

Looks good to me! Should we say these are done?

Not quite!

For a start, they have no tactics entry under combat, which considering their nature is going to be simple:

Combat
A worry-wart's only "attack" is its ability to symbiotically bond with a host, an action it can only perform once. Once it has bonded to a host the resulting symbiont network can aid its host in battle with its Constant Vigilance ability, alerting them to anything that looks threatening even if the host is asleep. The worry-wart's all-around vision lets it see danger approach from directions its host cannot see, including flank attacks.

For the "More about nibish-riule." section, how about:

Very little is known about a nibish-riule's true nature, not even what plane they call home. A popular theory is that they are distant relatives to ihagnim, the Astral creatures that form bags of devouring. The most paranoid savants rave that nibish-riule are more puissant and malevolent than ihagnim and worry-warts are spies and scouts for a transdimensional invasion, but this seems entirely contrary to their observed behavior.

EDIT:
Or…

Very little is known about a nibish-riule's true nature, not even what plane they call home. A popular theory is they are distant relatives of the transdimensional predators who form bags of devouring, such as the ihagnim and the sessile marine creature called a devourer (not the undead monster). One paranoid savant has raved that nibish-riule are more puissant and malevolent than ihagnim and dispatch worry-warts as spies and scouts for a world-devouring invasion, but this seems entirely contrary to their observed behavior.