That equipment line will work for me.
Updating the
Hanim Worm Lord.
While updating I realized a possible problem. We are assuming the worm lord uses the same equipment in both his own body and when he swaps to a fighter body, right? Presumably once they swap bodies the worm lord just takes his equipment from his actual body and puts it on the fighter's body he's occupying.
The Worm Lord will have Int 18, Wis 18 in a body with his
headband of intellect and
periapt of wisdom but Int 16, Wis 16 in a body without those magic items.
However, even if he only loses the use of his headband and periapt for a few rounds when he swaps bodies, won't that cause a couple of his bonus spells to evaporate?
I'm inclined to handwave the issue away and assume he keeps the bonus spells somehow or other.
Frankly, the notion that magic items and other enhancement modifiers to an ability score can increase the bonus spells a character gains seems iffy to me, but it appears to be how the rules work going by numerous characters published by WotC.
It's not an issue with Zophiel the Worm Lord in the original adventure - the text specifies he never uses the Hanim Gift to swap bodies.
I can go for an untyped bonus, too. (I thought "inherent" is how sometimes people describe the ability bonus characters get as they advance in levels.)
Updating the
Valgoss Working Draft.
I guess we should work out the spells next. Starting with the cleric spells, what's another good domain for the hanim? Does Water make sense?
I'd mulled about that for quite a while when I first tried roughing out the Worm Lord and am tempted by the
Community Domain, since many of its spells could be interpreted as attempts to imitate the valgoss hive mind. As the source text says "The Hanim exemplify the ultimate communal society".
If you don't fancy Community, my secondary domain choices would be something that's elemental or natural in orientation like Air, Animal, Earth, Plant or Weather or just generic like Knowledge or Protection.
As for Water… maybe? On Maelost all bodies of surface water on the plane are inhabited by an evil sentience the hanim call "
Death-Below-From-Above" or "
The Taker of Life" because it wants to kill EVERYTHING and only doesn't attack them because of their Slaiyith's Gift. The hanim might think clerics with the Water Domain are horribly Evil, or they might respect them for being people who can rebuke the Taker's Water Creations (who presumably have the Water subtype like in my homebrew of them).
Zophiel the Worm Lord is a nasty piece of work who might well choose Water as a domain in order to Command Water Creations but you'd think that'd risk him being ostracized by his tribe (which is presumably a fate equal to death for the community-minded hanim).
Besides, I'm approaching this character as a generic Worm Lord who's not outright Neutral Evil like Zophiel, but "usually neutral" like a regular Hanim.
Hmm… the hanim have a close relationship with a benevolent entity called the
Dark Dweller, who provides them with free transportation and cleansing (completely and permanently removing curses, diseases, and hair), so perhaps hanim like the Darkness domain? Nah, that has
blindness,
summon shadows,
nightmare,
power word blind and
power word kill - none of which seem appropriate for a creature of goodness!
