Converting monsters from Imagine Magazine

[freyar]

I'll try to remember to look that up tonight.

Thoughts on making this a template?

 

[Shade]

It's somewhat like a half-dragon template, I suppose. It almost feels more like a prestige class (albeit one not taking by choice).

 

[freyar]

Yeah, maybe a PrC. I guess I'm thinking something more extreme than half-golem maybe. The reason I'd lean towards the template is the spell casting bit and the HD size. Hmmm.

 

[Shade]

Taking a fresh look at this...

The Taumet is a magically-created dragon construct, made from five relics whose origins are lost in the mists of time according to the instructions in a book of unknown authorship called the Taumet Codex.

Once the process of creating the Taumet has begun, it takes 13 melee rounds to develop into the complete Taumet. During this time, the wearer of the relics is used as the basis of the Taumet's body, dying in the process.

The Taumet takes some of the wearer's memories and alignment during its growth, always remaining evil, but taking the Lawful, Neutral or Chaotic attitude of its 'parent'.

...I'm no longer leaning toward a template. Essentially, the "template" only lasts 13 rounds until the wearer dies. Then we just have the alignment bit and some flavor text leftover.

 

[freyar]

Fair enough. How do you want to deal with this, then?

Like all normal dragons, the Taumet has a set number of hit points per hit dice, but this depends on the original wearer of the relics:

Wearer; hp/HD
MU or Illusionist; 4hp
Thief, assassin; 6hp
Cleric, monk, druid; 8hp
Fighter, ranger, paladin; 10hp

 

[Shade]

Rather than using typical construct d10s, we could have it retain the base creature's racial Hit Dice (or dice from prominent class levels).

I'd be all for ditching that bit altogether, though.

 

[freyar]

Let's ditch it then. As an alternate, we could replace the usual construct bonus hp with the "parent's" hp.

During the transformation period, how do we treat the HD line? I don't think a 10HD barbarian, for example, should drop to 1HD in the first round of the transformation.

 

[Shade]

Let's ditch it then. As an alternate, we could replace the usual construct bonus hp with the "parent's" hp.

I love that idea!

During the transformation period, how do we treat the HD line? I don't think a 10HD barbarian, for example, should drop to 1HD in the first round of the transformation.

Expanding on your idea above, what if we started it with max HD, but treated it as if it had only its base creature's hit points, gaining say, 15 hp per round thereafter until its maximum was reached?

 

[freyar]

Sounds like a good idea! How about we start with some base stats and then get started on the transformation and SAs?

So... How many HD for this? It's listed as 18, but it seems like it should be more, given that it's artifact level. And the aforementioned ironwyrm golems are 40HD (hmm, interesting, the Draconomicon must have gone to press before WotC decided to add bonus hp to constructs). Base ironwyrm stats are Str 41, Dex 8, Con -, Int -, Wis 13, Cha 19.

 

[Shade]

Agreed. We could go with 40 HD, like the ironwyrm, or even 49 HD like Tiamat, from which I think this was inspired.