Converting monsters from Tales From The Infinite Staircase

[freyar]

Bane seems good to me. So that would be

1st --- bane, divine favor, entropic shield, obscuring mist, summon monster I

Then a proposal at 2nd level:
2nd --- cure moderate wounds, hold person, lesser restoration, resist energy, silence

I'm assuming this worm lord will spontaneously cast inflict spells since Zophiel is listed as NE, so I wanted to put in a little healing. Actually, should we list that under the cleric casting?

 

[Cleon]

Bane seems good to me. So that would be

1st --- bane, divine favor, entropic shield, obscuring mist, summon monster I

Updating the Hanim Worm Lord.

I'm assuming this worm lord will spontaneously cast inflict spells since Zophiel is listed as NE, so I wanted to put in a little healing. Actually, should we list that under the cleric casting?

Offhand, I can't remember most evil clerics I've seen statted up in WotC publications bothering to mention it, or good clerics mentioning their spontaneous cure castings for that matter…

Okay, I've checked through a few 3E Dungeon Magazines clerics and some of them had no mention of it, but others had "spontaneous casting (inflict spells)" listed as a Special Quality or Special Action.

I'll just add that to Zophiel.

Updating the Hanim Worm Lord.

 

[Cleon]

Then a proposal at 2nd level:
2nd --- cure moderate wounds, hold person, lesser restoration, resist energy, silence

Before we get too far with the spells, I suggest we do the Skills & Feats.

Feats in particular, since he's likely to have some Spell Focus feats that'll boost the save DCs.

We should also remind ourselves of the spell selection of the original NPC, which was:

 Priest Spells (6/5/3/2/1): 1st—bless, cure light wounds (x2), faerie fire, light, sanctuary; 2nd—augury, barkskin, dust devil, hold person, summon worms; 3rd—continual light, dispel magic, pyrotechnics; 4th—cure serious wounds, neutralize poison; 5th—curse of the worms
 Wizard Spells (4/3/3/2/1): 1st—burrow, charm person, sleep, spook; 2nd blindness, blur, summon swarm; 3rd—fly, flame arrow*, wormwork; 4th—ice storm, stoneskin; 5th—wormtongue

 

[Cleon]

 Priest Spells (6/5/3/2/1): 1st—bless, cure light wounds (x2), faerie fire, light, sanctuary;

Hish! Zophiel originally had multiple cure light wounds. Maybe we should adjust our version to match or at least give him one cure light wounds?

If we give him the spells of the original (or as many as we can in 3E since some of them aren't standard cleric spells in that edition) we're half way to filling his roster.

Let's see, we'd be talking:

Wizard Spells Prepared (4/5/5/4/2/1), save DC 13 + spell level.​

0—one, two, three, four;​

1st—burrowᴺ, cause fear (DC 14), charm person (DC 14), sleep, five;​

2nd—summon wormsᴺ, blindness (DC 15), blur, summon swarm, five;​

3rd—flame arrow, fly, wormworkᴺ, four;​

4th—ice storm (DC 17), stoneskin;​

5th—one;​

ᴺ New spell.​

​

Cleric Spells Prepared (6/5+1/5+1/4+1/2+1/1+1), save DC 13 + spell level.​

0—create water, detect magic, detect poison, guidance, purify food and drink, resistance;​

1st—bane (DC 14), blessᴰ, cure light wounds, divine favor, entropic shield, sanctuary;​

2nd—augury, hold person (DC 15), wormslickᴰᴺ, four, five, six;​

3rd—continual flame, cure serious wounds, dispel magic, prayerᴰ, five;​

4th—neutralize poison, wormtongueᴰᴺ, three;​

5th—curse of the wormsᴰᴺ, two;​

If we want to give him two CLW like the original, I'd swap out the divine favor:

1st—bane (DC 14), blessᴰ, cure light wounds (×2), entropic shield, sanctuary;​

We're missing the following from the original:

Priest Spells (X/X/X/X/X): 1st—faerie fire [not cleric], light [missing, he'll make do with continual flame]; 2nd—barkskin [not cleric], dust devil [not 3E SRD]; 3rd—pyrotechnics [maybe searing light?].
Wizard Spells (X/X/X/X/X): 1st—spook [gave him cause fear].

 

[Cleon]

Priest Spells (X/X/X/X/X): 1st—faerie fire [not cleric], light [missing, he'll make do with continual flame]; 2nd—barkskin [not cleric], dust devil [not 3E SRD]; 3rd—pyrotechnics [maybe searing light?].

Alternatively, we can give the Worm Lord some of those "Priest Spells" or reasonable substitutes thereof as Wizard spells, i.e. light as a cantrip, mage armor instead of barkskin, glitterdust for faerie fire.

However, pyrotechnics is also a 2nd-level wizard spell and we don't have a spare 2nd-level wizard slot if we keep the blindness, blur, summon swarm of the original Wizard selection.

Hmm, a decent solution would be to swapping summon swarm for pyrotechnics and just have summon worms for a swarm-summoning spell:

Wizard Spells Prepared #2 (4/5/5/4/2/1), save DC 13 + spell level.​

0—light, two, three, four;​

1st—burrowᴺ, cause fear (DC 14), charm person (DC 14), sleep, mage armor;​

2nd—blindness (DC 15), blur, glitterdust (DC 15), pyrotechnics, summon wormsᴺ;​

3rd—flame arrow, fly, wormworkᴺ, four;​

4th—ice storm (DC 17), stoneskin;​

5th—one;​

However, there was the idea of substituting the cleric spell searing light for pyrotechnics as the spell level matches (the original's pyrotechnics was a 3rd-level priest spell, but it's a 2nd-level Sor/Wiz spell in 3E):

Cleric Spells Prepared #2 (6/5+1/5+1/4+1/2+1/1+1), save DC 13 + spell level.​

0—create water, detect magic, detect poison, guidance, purify food and drink, resistance;​

1st—bane (DC 14), blessᴰ, cure light wounds, divine favor, entropic shield, sanctuary;​

2nd—augury, hold person (DC 15), wormslickᴰᴺ, four, five, six;​

3rd—continual flame, cure serious wounds, dispel magic, prayerᴰ, searing light;​

4th—neutralize poison, wormtongueᴰᴺ, three;​

5th—curse of the wormsᴰᴺ, two;​

​

Wizard Spells Prepared #3 (4/5/5/4/2/1), save DC 13 + spell level.​

0—light, two, three, four;​

1st—burrowᴺ, cause fear (DC 14), charm person (DC 14), sleep, mage armor;​

2nd—blindness (DC 15), blur, glitterdust (DC 15), summon swarm, summon wormsᴺ;​

3rd—flame arrow, fly, wormworkᴺ, four;​

4th—ice storm (DC 17), stoneskin;​

5th—one;​

Hmm, I think I prefer Wizard #2.

As for dust devil, as we've discussed ages ago, that doesn't appear to exist in 3E at least in official sources. The closest a cursory search turned up was storm mote, a spell in Sandstorm that creates a miniature, well, sandstorm.

What's a good substitute for dust devil? Preferably something on the cleric list that's 2nd or 3rd-level.

Maybe wind wall? At least it's air-related:

Cleric Spells Prepared #3 (6/5+1/5+1/4+1/2+1/1+1), save DC 13 + spell level.​

0—create water, detect magic, detect poison, guidance, purify food and drink, resistance;​

1st—bane (DC 14), blessᴰ, cure light wounds, divine favor, entropic shield, sanctuary;​

2nd—augury, hold person (DC 15), wormslickᴰᴺ, four, five, six;​

3rd—continual flame, cure serious wounds, dispel magic, prayerᴰ, wind wall;​

4th—neutralize poison, wormtongueᴰᴺ, three;​

5th—curse of the wormsᴰᴺ, two;​

Yes, that works.

Come to think of it, how does the 20% miss chance from entropic shield interact with that from blur? The former spell says it's "like concealment" (which'd mean the Worm Lord just gets one 20% miss chance as a target can only get one concealment miss chance), but it also says it deflects attack ("This field deflects incoming arrows, rays, and other ranged attacks"), which sounds like entropic shield produces a physical force that diverts the ranged attacks rather than concealing the target's position like blur does. If they are independent, the Worm Lord would get two 20% miss rolls (equivalent to a single 36% miss chance).

I suspect the former was the intention, otherwise the spell description wouldn't have "like concealment" in it.

 

[freyar]

I'm ok with Wizard Spells #2 and Cleric Spells #3, since it seems you prefer those.

The reason I asked about the spontaneous casting is that Zophiel, being NE, should cast inflicts spontaneously (which is why he has cure spells prepared, I guess). But our sample wormlord is N, so we don't know about spontaneous casting unless we know the alignment of their deity. But I'm ok with inflict spontaneous casting.

For the remaining 2nd level cleric spells, how about bull's strength, resist energy, sound burst? They can use the buff on their fighter host before swapping bodies!

 

[Cleon]

I'm ok with Wizard Spells #2 and Cleric Spells #3, since it seems you prefer those.

Works for me!

The reason I asked about the spontaneous casting is that Zophiel, being NE, should cast inflicts spontaneously (which is why he has cure spells prepared, I guess). But our sample wormlord is N, so we don't know about spontaneous casting unless we know the alignment of their deity. But I'm ok with inflict spontaneous casting.

Oh right, that makes sense. I'll add a note "The Cleric Spells Prepared assume the worm lord spontaneously casts inflict spells; if it spontaneously casts cure spells substitute the prepared cure wounds spells for the corresponding inflict wounds spells."

Updating the Hanim Worm Lord.

For the remaining 2nd level cleric spells, how about bull's strength, resist energy, sound burst? They can use the buff on their fighter host before swapping bodies!

While resist energy and sound burst are fine, I don't think Zophiel is concerned about melee effectiveness so wouldn't bother with bull's strength.

How about aid, enthrall, status or spiritual weapon instead?

 

[freyar]

Let's go with enthrall. It has some thematic synergy with the charm person in the Wiz spells.

We need one cleric spell at 4th level. What do you think about spell immunity?

 

[Cleon]

Let's go with enthrall. It has some thematic synergy with the charm person in the Wiz spells.

Works for me!

Updating the Hanim Worm Lord.

We need one cleric spell at 4th level. What do you think about spell immunity?

Preparing spell immunity seems too situational. How often would he be dueling with rival spellcasters?

I would think divination, divine power, freedom of movement, summon monster IV or poison would be more likely picks.

Hmm… divine power might resolve concerns about his melee effectiveness as it gives him +12 BAB, Str 16 and 55 hp. Still, casting it will use up an action that could also summon a fiendish dire wolf or howler.

I mused about lesser planar ally since that covers powerful outsiders like succubi or barbazus, but that'd ignores the "of the deity’s choice" in the spell description. Who knows what allies Zophiel's deity sends? Who or what his cleric spells come from is not specified in the original module.

 

[freyar]

Well, I agree that lesser planar ally would actually be fun but may be too ambiguous. I guess let's go with summon monster IV since we've decided he doesn't really like to get involved in melee.

So many good choices for the remaining 5th level spell. But maybe we should stick for the simple mass cure light wounds. That or maybe wall of stone. What do you prefer?