Converting Monsters from Polyhedron Magazine

[Shade]

Agreed to dropping the Cha bonus on the planar travel.

I'd be fine with some more interesting replacement for some of the stat boosters. I'd say keep the one that boosts Cha at the very least, and perhaps Str and Con.

 

[freyar]

That's fair. I'd like to hear what Cleon thinks, too.

 

[Shade]

Me too.

 

[Cleon]

Looking back at the original text, I think we've got quite an abundance of mutations already (it seems there should be 20% with planar travel and only 1% for everything else), so I think we don't need mutations that stack at all (ie, there shouldn't be multiple mutations and certainly not 3 of them at a time). So I'll propose (with rejiggering probabilities and adjusting numbers to match caveling/troll mutate better):


1-5 - Mass Plane Travel - functions like a 1/week plane shift, except the kobalt can shift itself and up to 40 other kobalts between two Prime Material planes. Caster level X. The kobalt gains a +4 racial bonus on Charisma and a +4 racial bonus on Diplomacy checks against other kobalts. Its LA increases by 1.
6 - Carapace - Increase natural armour by +2
7 - Vomit Acid - 1/day. 20 ft. line of acid doing 2d4 damage, Con-based Reflex save for half.
8 - Extra Arm - Gives an additional off-hand attack.
9 - Claws - Each hand can do 1d3 claw damage.
10 - Long Legs - Increase base land speed by 5 feet.
11 - Whiplike Tail - Secondary tail slap attack for 1d6 damage with 1.5 times Strength bonus.
12 - Redundant Organs - The kobalt's extra organs grantslight fortification (25% chance to negate critical hit).
13 - Acid Blood - Deals 1d4 points of damage to any creature attacking it with a slashing or piercing weapon who fails to succeed at a Reflex save. The save DC equals 10 plus the kobalt's Con bonus.
14 - Strong - +2 racial bonus to Str.
15 - Agile - +2 racial bonus to Dex.
16 - Tough - +2 racial bonus to Con.
17 - Smart - +2 racial bonus to Int.
18 - Zen - +2 racial bonus to Wis.
19 - Strong Willed - +2 racial bonus to Cha.
20 - ??
21-100 - No mutation

I'm not sure planar travel requires the +4 to Cha, though the bonus on Diplomacy is good. What if we just made it a +4 circumstance bonus to all Cha-based checks against other kobalts?

I'm also not sure I like the plain ability score bonuses. They're boring.

That looks OK.

The Plane-shifters are described as being influential among Kobalt society, so I want to give them some social boost. I liked a Cha bonus because
a 40-creature plane shift would be equivalent to quite a high-level spell, implying a high ability linked to it.

Agree that the ability bonuses are boring as-is. How about adding a useful skill-bonus and a more flavourful name?

Something like:

14 - Grotesque Muscles - +2 racial bonus to Str and Intimidate checks.
15 - Twitchy - +2 racial bonus to Dexterity and Tumbling checks.
16 - Elastic Flesh - +2 racial bonus to Con and Escape Artist checks.
17 - Bulging Forehead - +2 racial bonus to Int and Use Magic Devices checks.
18 - Gimlet Eyes - +2 racial bonus to Wis and Spot checks.
19 - Soothing Voice - +2 racial bonus to Cha and Diplomacy checks.

As for the 20, how about.

20 - Enormous Nose - gains scent special quality, with a +4 bonus on Survival checks to track by scent.

 

[Shade]

I like all that. Freyar?

 

[Cleon]

I like all that. Freyar?

Quiet around here, isn't it?

I've realized my previous wording of "+2 racial bonus to Str and Intimidate checks." is wrong, assuming we're still aiming for a bonus to the ability score it should be ""+2 racial bonus to Str and +2 racial bonus to Intimidate checks."

Putting it all together we've currently got:

1-5 - Mass Plane Travel - functions like a 1/week plane shift, except the kobalt can shift itself and up to 40 other kobalts between two Prime Material planes. Caster level X. The kobalt gains a +4 racial bonus on Charisma and a +4 racial bonus on Diplomacy checks against other kobalts. Its LA increases by 1.
6 - Carapace - Increase natural armour by +2
7 - Vomit Acid - 1/day. 20 ft. line of acid doing 2d4 damage, Con-based Reflex save for half.
8 - Extra Arm - Gives an additional off-hand attack.
9 - Claws - Each hand can do 1d3 claw damage.
10 - Long Legs - Increase base land speed by 5 feet.
11 - Whiplike Tail - Secondary tail slap attack for 1d6 damage with 1.5 times Strength bonus.
12 - Redundant Organs - The kobalt's extra organs grants light fortification (25% chance to negate critical hit).
13 - Acid Blood - Deals 1d4 points of damage to any creature attacking it with a slashing or piercing weapon who fails to succeed at a Reflex save. The save DC equals 10 plus the kobalt's Con bonus.
14 - Grotesque Muscles - +2 racial bonus to Strength and +2 racial bonus to Intimidate checks.
15 - Twitchy - +2 racial bonus to Dexterity and +2 racial bonus to Tumbling checks.
16 - Elastic Flesh - +2 racial bonus to Constitution and +2 racial bonus to Escape Artist checks.
17 - Bulging Forehead - +2 racial bonus to Intelligence and +2 racial bonus to Use Magic Devices checks.
18 - Gimlet Eyes - +2 racial bonus to Wisdom and +2 racial bonus to Spot checks.
19 - Soothing Voice - +2 racial bonus to Charisma and +2 racial bonus to Diplomacy checks.
20 - Enormous Nose - gains scent special quality, with a +4 bonus on Survival checks to track by scent.

 

[freyar]

I still don't really like the Cha bonus for the ones that get mass planar travel (the Diplomacy bonus is good), since I don't think high level SLAs need to have high ability scores (they just usually do to get the DCs up). The CR on these guys isn't going to be any higher because of the planar travel, and that's what I associate with the ability scores more. Not too big of a deal, though.

 

[Shade]

Agreed with freyar here. The leaders with that ability can still improve their Cha through normal ability score increases every 4 levels.

Updated.

 

[freyar]

Any more SAs or SQs to consider?

 

[Shade]

Only this...

Their Infravision allows them to see any heated body at up to 60 meters (66 yards) at night or in darkness of any kind. They may detect the slight warmth that plants emit and find places on the ground where beings rested within the last hour; this latter ability allows them to track parties at night with 90% accuracy.

This suggests superior low-light vision and/or darkvision as far as 200 ft. (Although I wouldn't go beyond 120 ft. like drow).

Do we want to do anything with the "night tracking"?