Converting monsters from Imagine Magazine

[Mortis]

It takes a bit of digging, but even non-mindless undead have built-in immunity to fear.

And here's the confirmation in a recent Sage Advice.

Regards
Mortis

 

[Shade]

Here's the link to it in Homebrews.

Medium size?

Fly 60 ft. (perfect)?

1 HD, with unholy toughness and Toughness to account for the (1+6 HD)?

 

[freyar]

It's looking pretty good. And those suggestions all sound fine to me, too.

 

[Shade]

Let's consider ability scores. Here are some other incorporeal undead...

Shadow: Str —, Dex 14, Con —,Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 13
Wraith: Str —, Dex 16, Con —, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 15
Spectre: Str —, Dex 16, Con —, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 15

Maybe Dex 16, Int 4-6, Wis 12, Cha 13?

 

[Mortis]

Maybe Dex 16, Int 4-6, Wis 12, Cha 13?

Well the original has no Intelligence, and IIRC we agreed that the animated corpse would be mindless - it might be easier if all three elements were mindless (including the brain).

If so, then the standard mindless undead abilities of Int -, WIs 10, Cha 1?

Regards
Mortis

 

[Shade]

Here's the problem...the save DCs should all be Cha-based.

The knell beetles in MMIII have Int -, but also have Wis 11, Cha 11.

How's that sound?

 

[freyar]

Looks fine to me.

 

[Shade]

I removed the unholy toughness ability since it doesn't have a Cha bonus.

To help simulate the "1dX+6 Hit Dice", should we give it Toughness as a bonus feat?

Note that with no Cha bonus, it also lacks a deflection bonus to AC.

The save DCs are a rather anemic 10. We could go the racial bonus route, or grant Ability Focus as bonus feat(s).

The more I look at it, the more I think we need a bump to Cha.

 

[freyar]

Why don't we give it Wis and Cha more like the spectre, put back unholy toughness, and maybe give it Ability Focus if we think it needs to be harder?

 

[Shade]

Why don't we give it Wis and Cha more like the spectre, put back unholy toughness, and maybe give it Ability Focus if we think it needs to be harder?

I think we can get away with it. I just found another mindless creature with high scores in the other mental stats, the astral kraken from Planar Handbook (Int -, Wis 14, Cha 12).

So how about Wis 13, Cha 15, Ability Focus (malevolence), and unholy toughness for 2 more hit points? That would raise the DCs to 14 for malevolence and 12 for essence drain. We can drop standard Toughness, which feels a bit wrong for an incorporeal creature.