Converting Monsters from Polyhedron Magazine

[freyar]

+4 natural works for me, too.

I like Endurance for the 2nd feat. Got to go with Spot and Listen or alternately Hide/Move Silently for the skills.

You can drop the ? on the alignment, I think. Standard treasure?

I think I like character class for advancement, but I'm open to other opinions.

 

[Leopold]

This race screams out Barbarian for character advancement.

Spot and listen, the description leads me to believe these guys don't care about being sneaky in the slightest.

 

[Shade]

Agreed to all that.

ORGANIZATION: Tribal
NO. APPEARING: 2-8

Skorpios live in small clans in burrow-homes they construct under the sand. A few Skorpios prefer to live in the crevasses of rock formations. Their treasure is kept in their homes along with 1-12 females, 3-6 young, and 1-4 eggs.

Organization: Solitary or tribe (2-8 plus 1-12 females and 3-6 noncombatant young)

It is unclear from the original description whether the females are noncombatants or equal to the males. Thoughts?

A skorpio is 5 to 6 feet tall and weighs x pounds.

Skorpio speak x.

 

[Leopold]

Scorpion females are just as nasty as males. Perhaps even more so. Make them equal. Give them a specail ability where if they are in the hive they get a free Barabarian Rage in protecting the young.

 

[Shade]

That works for me!

 

[Leopold]

Language: Common and Gutteral/Chirping/Insect

 

[Cleon]

I think the +6 natural armor is a bit high. I know the straight conversion yields AC 20, but that's awfully high for their probable CR. Medium monstrous scorpions have a +4, and I'd be comfortable with that. Thoughts?

Well I like the AC20, it give them a "tough as old boots" stick. What sort of Challenge Rating are we aiming for anyway? We could put their deadly poison back in and make them a high CR for their HD.

How about giving them Hide armour and a lower natural armour which adds up to AC20. That would also explain why they're fairly slow compared to most Scorpions and unencumbered humanoids, they're wearing Medium armour.

AC20 (+4 Dex, Hide armour +3, +3 natural)

Or, we could lower Dex two points and give them a Medium Scorpion's +4 natural armour:

AC20 (+3 Dex, Hide armour +3, +4 natural)

 

[Cleon]

Skills: Listen and Spot are fine, and I'd add Survival and Climb (so they can reach the "crevasses of rock formation" in the description).

Adding the Endurance feat is fine by me.

Advancement by character class seems appropriate as they areas much human as arachnid.

Favoured class Barbarian seems an excellent fit.

The females should be just as tough (if not tougher) fighters as the males.

As for them going berserk when protecting their young, I guess that's OK. I'd be tempted to add a note that if they get rage from another source this is boosted to a minimum of Greater Rage if they're defending they're young.

I also like the idea of the females carrying their babies around on their backs, like real scorpions, and fighting in a berserk frenzy while doing so.

 

[Shade]

I like the hide armor idea.

How about giving them the skill bonuses of a monstrous scorpion (+4 racial bonus on Climb, Hide, and Spot checks) rather than the +4 Listen/+4 Spot? That would help with the climbing.

For the female "frenzy", I wasn't thinking of giving them an extra ability...just flavor text. If we did give them something, I'd rather give them something like the boar's ferocity or a conditional bonus on saves against fear effects (to simulate higher morale).

I also like the idea of the females carrying their babies around on their backs, like real scorpions, and fighting in a berserk frenzy while doing so.

Love it!

 

[Leopold]

Glad y'all liked the young idea, I got it from wikipedia after seeing pictures of very large nasty female scorpions with their young carried on their back.

These things are applicable to be Player Characters so we don't want to make them too tough. If we want to advance them out we can make them have levels in barbarian with an average of 1-2 levels for your common monster.


I'll go with Climb/Hide/Spot. These aren't the stealthiest critters on the planet. What about Jump or we just using their str as part of it?