Converting monsters from Tales From The Infinite Staircase

[Cleon]

Of those, I prefer contingency. So
6th -- antimagic field, contingency, control water
works for me.

Works for me too.

Then how about something like this?
7th -- banishment, greater shadow conjuration

Don't care for banishment but greater shadow conjuration is good.

For "knock out of combat" applications, don't forcecage or symbol of stunning have more general functionality?

Also, these are revered elder statesmen among the Slaiyith so how about a divination spell to bolster their sagacity?

So either greater scrying or vision.

 

[freyar]

So
7th -- greater shadow conjuration, vision
?
Works for me.

Feats: want to go with a metamagic spell or two? I guess that would mean shifting our spell selection a bit!

 

[Cleon]

So
7th -- greater shadow conjuration, vision
?
Works for me.

Feats: want to go with a metamagic spell or two? I guess that would mean shifting our spell selection a bit!

Why would we need to shift the spell selection for Metamagic feats? Sorcerers cast them spontaneously. Of the standard Metamagic, I don't find them very tempting but I'll listen to counterarguments.

I was thinking more of giving it Spell Focus (illusion) since most of the non-enchantment spells with DCs are Illusion spells.

After that, Greater Spell Focus in either enchantment or both enchantment and illusion is VERY tempting.

Perhaps Spell Penetration and possibly its Greater version if we have any feats to spare? This elder slaiyith's caster level is a bit low for the Challenge Rating so it might have difficulty piercing CR-appropriate spell resistance.

 

[Cleon]

Come to think of it, how about limited wish instead of vision for the 7th-level spells known?

Being a monster there's not much need to worry about the XP cost.

 

[freyar]

I'd be happy with limited wish.

The standard slaiyith already has Spell Penetration. To make things easier, let's keep all the base slaiyith feats and then add Spell Focus (illusion), Greater Spell Focus (enchantment), Greater Spell Focus (illusion), Greater Spell Penetration, and perhaps Great Fortitude to make the defenses a little better?

 

[Cleon]

I'd be happy with limited wish.

The standard slaiyith already has Spell Penetration. To make things easier, let's keep all the base slaiyith feats and then add Spell Focus (illusion), Greater Spell Focus (enchantment), Greater Spell Focus (illusion), Greater Spell Penetration, and perhaps Great Fortitude to make the defenses a little better?

Works for me.

Not the most exciting of collections but it's easy to adjudicate.

That leaves Skills.

It needs 189 Skill Points worth, or seven maxed-out Skills.

The base Slaiyith has 114 SPs, which it divided between six maxed-out skills: Concentration, two Knowledges, Listen, Spot and Spellcraft.

The simple solution would be to keep the maxing out and just add another Knowledge skill.

 

[freyar]

I'm happy with your suggestions for the skills. It makes sense.

Is there anything else these need? And is the increase in Con damage from Blood Drain a standard size advancement, or do we need to mention that specifically somewhere?

 

[Cleon]

I'm happy with your suggestions for the skills. It makes sense.

Dang it, I forgot the Sorcerer skills.

That's why it had 231 total SPs in the Slaiyith Working Draft instead of 189.

Sorcerer has proficiency in Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Knowledge (arcana), Profession, and Spellcraft.

I think we should max out Concentration and Spellcraft, so that's 6 SPs for each.

How about making the Master's third Knowledge skill arcana to match the sorcerer's only knowledge skill?

That leaves 30 SPs.

Maybe either split that between a 15 rank Craft skill and a 15 rank Profession skill or a 30 rank Craft skill.

Hmm… I think the Craft skill makes more sense.

That'd be…

Aberration 189 SPs (27×7): Concentration 27 SP, Knowledge (arcana plus any two) 27 SP, Listen 27 SP, Spot 27 SP, Spellcraft 27 SP
Sorcerer 42 SPs (6×7): Concentration 6 SP, Craft 30 SP, Spellcraft 6 SP
=>
Master Slaiyith 231 SPs: Concentration 33 SP Con+6, Craft 30 SP Int+5, Knowledge (arcana plus any two) 27 SP Int+5, Listen 27 SP Wis+7, Search Int+5 R+4, Spot 27 SP Wis+7 R+4, Spellcraft 33 SP Int+5
​

For…

Skills: Concentration +39, Craft (any one) +35, Knowledge (arcana plus any two) +32, Listen +34, Search +9, Spot +38, Spellcraft +38​

 

[freyar]

Yes, that will work for me!

Was there a follow up on the Blood Drain?

 

[Cleon]

Yes, that will work for me!

Updating the Slaiyith Working Draft.

Was there a follow up on the Blood Drain?

I just boosted the Con damage 'cause it was bigger.

Don't believe there's a RAW rule about size advancement increasing physical attack-linked ability damage.

Going by the many, many published examples of size advanced monsters with poison, blood drain, et cetera, in general they only do the ability damage of the base size. The main official sort-of exception is things like the Monstrous Scorpions, which do increasing poison damage as their size increases, but those could be considered different monsters of the same family rather than regular monster advancement.

So would you like me to put a note in Combat tactics that the size advancement increases the Blood Drain damage?