Converting monsters from Imagine Magazine

[freyar]

I like lifesense! As for the Listen bonus, I think we should stick with +8. The text seemed to imply we should use the owl's bonus.

Thoughts on scent vs "greater scent"?

Should we try to tabulate turning resistances?

 

[Shade]

Updated.

I like lifesense! As for the Listen bonus, I think we should stick with +8. The text seemed to imply we should use the owl's bonus.

Fair enough.

Thoughts on scent vs "greater scent"?

I believe we gave a creature something similar recently, based off the shark's keen scent ability.

Should we try to tabulate turning resistances?

Sure.

Turning Immunities: As a greater vampire gets older it becomes progressively more resistant to the standard methods of defense. These immunities are gained cumulatively; a princeling being immmune to either garlic or mirrors. If presented, such items would wither or crack. In addition, a prince of vampires has a certain resistance to clerical "turning", being unaffected by the actions of any evil cleric. Likewise an arch-prince is additionally resistant to the turning power of any neutral cleric. These very powerful undead are simply too evil to be swayed by other evil (or, for an arch prince, neutral) force. This immunity also extends to certain uses of a LG holy symbol; if a greater vampire is immune to turning by a cleric of a particular alignment then it will also be immune to other characters of that alignmetn that try to keep it at bay by presenting a LG holy symbol! Thus only good-aligned clerics have a chance of turning the most powerful greater vampires, and only good-aligned characters can keep one at bay by use of a LG symbol.

This is actually two separate abilities: one, a reduction in the vampire weaknesses, and the other, greater turn resistance.

Rather than separating neutral and evil clerics, I'd say that a prince cannot be commanded, and an arch-prince cannot be rebuked.

 

[freyar]

I believe we gave a creature something similar recently, based off the shark's keen scent ability.

Giving this a try:

Supernatural Scent (Su): A greater vampire can notice the presence of creatures within 180 feet. This ability allows the vampire instantly to determine race, gender, and the presence of armor and weapons. If the greater vampire concentrates for a round, it can detect magic auras by its supernatural scent (as the first round of the detect magic spell) and alignment auras (as the first round of detect chaos, evil, good, and law spells).

This is actually two separate abilities: one, a reduction in the vampire weaknesses, and the other, greater turn resistance.

Rather than separating neutral and evil clerics, I'd say that a prince cannot be commanded, and an arch-prince cannot be rebuked.

Agreed. Actually, re-reading this, I'm not sure these should get more than the usual +4 turn resistance of a vampire, based on the original text. OTOH, they sure seem like they should. How about we do this (the table is cumulative)?

Lord: only appropriately aligned characters may hold at bay with holy symbol?
Arch-lord: turning resistance +6
Princeling: immune to garlic and/or mirrors
Prince: immune to commanding
Arch-Prince: immune to rebuking

 

[Shade]

That all looks good, except I'm not sure I understand this:

Lord: only appropriately aligned characters may hold at bay with holy symbol?

Are you referring to this?

"Repelling a Vampire: Vampires cannot tolerate the strong odor of garlic and will not enter an area laced with it. Similarly, they recoil from a mirror or a strongly presented holy symbol. These things don’t harm the vampire—they merely keep it at bay. A recoiling vampire must stay at least 5 feet away from a creature holding the mirror or holy symbol and cannot touch or make melee attacks against the creature holding the item for the rest of the encounter. Holding a vampire at bay takes a standard action."

 

[freyar]

Yes, that's what I'm referring to. There was that bit in the greater vampire entry as follows:

This immunity also extends to certain uses of a LG holy symbol; if a greater vampire is immune to turning by a cleric of a particular alignment then it will also be immune to other characters of that alignmetn that try to keep it at bay by presenting a LG holy symbol! Thus only good-aligned clerics have a chance of turning the most powerful greater vampires, and only good-aligned characters can keep one at bay by use of a LG symbol.

 

[Shade]

Hmmm...based on that quoted text, it actually sounds like only the prince and arch-prince would have the holy symbol alignment requirement.

How's this?

Reduced Vampire Weaknesses: Princelings and older greater vampires lose the traditional vulnerability to garlic and mirrors. In fact, any mirror presented to such a greater vampire immediately cracks and becomes useless. Princes do not recoil from holy symbols presented by evil characters, and arch-princes only recoil from holy symbols presented by good-aligned characters.

Improved Turn Resistance (Ex): An arch-lord or older greater vampire has +6 turn resistance (rather than the usual +4). Additionally, a prince cannot be commanded (but can still be rebuked or turned), while an arch-prince cannot be rebuked (but can still be turned).

 

[freyar]

That works!

Anything left before we try the blood drain? I think we're both shying away from that one.

 

[Shade]

We can stall blood drain a bit longer!

Charm: The powers seen in Table 2 are gained cumulatively; a princeling of vampires being able to charm mammal and monster. They are in addition to the standard charm person attack. Each is usable once per night and any effect is broken at dawn. To employ, the vampire must make a 1 second somatic gesture; for other details see spells of same name. As per DMG, a greater vampire can mentally communicate with, and control, its charmee(s).

Lord
Charm: mammal

Arch-Lord
Charm: nil

Princeling
Charm: monster

Prince
Charm: nil

Arch-Prince
Charm: mass

Hold: These powers are gained cumlatively and each type can be used once per night, any effect being broken at dawn. To employ, the vampire must speak the command to "stop"; it is not necessary that the target(s) hear or understand the vampire in order to be affected. For other details see spells of same name.

Lord
Hold: Person

Arch-Lord
Hold: nil

Princeling
Hold: animal

Prince
Hold: nil

Arch-Prince
Hold: monster

Summon: in addition to the summoning powers described in the MM1 a greater vampire can once per night, summon monsters of level according to title. Such creatures will never be of good alignment and can be commanded mentally by the vampire. See spell for other details.

Lord
Summon: III

Arch-Lord
Summon: IV

Princeling
Summon: V

Prince
Summon: VI

Arch-Prince
Summon: VII

Magical Immunities: These are gained cumulatively and are in addition to those described in MM1.

Lord
Immunity (magic): cold

Arch-Lord
Immunity (magic): nil

Princeling
Immunity (magic): petrification

Prince
Immunity (magic): nil

Arch-Prince
Immunity (magic): polymorph

 

[freyar]

Ok, the charm effects are a little tricky, since the ordinary vampire essentially has dominate person as an at-will SLA. I propose:
Lord: Dominate Animal
Arch-Lord: nil
Princeling: Mass charm monster
Prince: nil
Arch-Prince: Dominate Monster
These should probably be standard action Su abilities due to the "night-long" duration. For simplicity, we should make them 1/day and 1 day duration, you think?

For the holds, we could just copy from the above or throw in the mass holds, too, if you want. The table will look different depending, of course. I kind of like the idea of a mass hold.

For the summons, just a 1/day SLA of the appropriate summon monster?

Immunities should maybe be something like cold, nil, petrification, nil, polymorph subschool? Or should it be something like transmutation spells? Not quite sure how to handle that given all the polymorph errata.

 

[Shade]

Ok, the charm effects are a little tricky, since the ordinary vampire essentially has dominate person as an at-will SLA. I propose:
Lord: Dominate Animal
Arch-Lord: nil
Princeling: Mass charm monster
Prince: nil
Arch-Prince: Dominate Monster
These should probably be standard action Su abilities due to the "night-long" duration. For simplicity, we should make them 1/day and 1 day duration, you think?

Sounds good. I could see a use for these when the vampire doesn't want to focus its energies on complete domination.

I think for the arch-prince, we should simply improve its dominating gaze to affect all creatures rather than just humanoids.

For the holds, we could just copy from the above or throw in the mass holds, too, if you want. The table will look different depending, of course. I kind of like the idea of a mass hold.

Yeah, let's go with mass hold.

For the summons, just a 1/day SLA of the appropriate summon monster?

That will probably suffice.

Immunities should maybe be something like cold, nil, petrification, nil, polymorph subschool? Or should it be something like transmutation spells? Not quite sure how to handle that given all the polymorph errata.

I think that you can still just say immunity to polymorph and leave it at that.