Converting monsters from Imagine Magazine

Shade · Jul 16, 2007

Hmmm...

I suppose that could work. It seems to me (and I could be wrong), that the "corpse" is the least important of the three parts, so it seems odd to base the thing's power off it.

freyar · Jul 16, 2007

Shade said:
I suppose that could work. It seems to me (and I could be wrong), that the "corpse" is the least important of the three parts, so it seems odd to base the thing's power off it.

IMHO, yes and no. The corpse is certainly the least interesting part, since we've "been there and done that" before basically. However, it may well be the most powerful part. Also, tying the shade abilities to the base undead (using whatever formula) makes some thematic sense, in that the shades essentially come from the intellect and personality of the corpse.

Shade · Jul 16, 2007

OK, I'll expect to see said table on my (virtual) desk in the morning.

freyar · Jul 17, 2007

Well, it's a bit crude, but there was the earlier suggestion of 12+HD/2 (round up?) + relevant ability bonus (min 0) of the base undead.

Examples:
Human Zombie (2HD, Wis 10, Cha 1) gives shades with Wis 13, Cha 13.
Human Skeleton same but only 1HD.
Vampire Spawn (4HD, Wis 13, Cha 14) gives shades with Wis 15, Cha 16.
etc.

I guess I'd make the whole "canopic template" including the shades a CR+2, but I'm still not comfortable with the more intelligent undead since they lose their strategy. Maybe we should say they use their special abilities (like dominate for the vampire or spawn for example) at an instinctive level.

Shade · Jul 17, 2007

freyar said:
I guess I'd make the whole "canopic template" including the shades a CR+2, but I'm still not comfortable with the more intelligent undead since they lose their strategy. Maybe we should say they use their special abilities (like dominate for the vampire or spawn for example) at an instinctive level.

We might have to do something like that. Otherwise, we might as well just use the zombie template and be done with it.

How about they retain their Ex and Su abilities, but lose any spell-like abilities? I can't really see a mindless creature firing off SLAs, but a breath weapon or energy drain could be instinctual.

Mortis · Jul 17, 2007

Shade said:
How about they retain their Ex and Su abilities, but lose any spell-like abilities? I can't really see a mindless creature firing off SLAs, but a breath weapon or energy drain could be instinctual.

That sounds good.

Regards
Mortis

freyar · Jul 17, 2007

Shade said:
We might have to do something like that. Otherwise, we might as well just use the zombie template and be done with it.

How about they retain their Ex and Su abilities, but lose any spell-like abilities? I can't really see a mindless creature firing off SLAs, but a breath weapon or energy drain could be instinctual.

Sounds good to me.