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Converting Oriental Adventures creatures
- Thread starter Shade
- Start date
Cleon
Legend
I'd assume it's more "damaging the sword stand damages him", like the other Seven Swords.
The mirror image effect appears to be created by some kind of special magic item or magic trap in the original adventure, but it would be easier making it a special ability of the General in our conversion.
Apart from that, the only other ability that's mentioned is his ki strike that gives him bonuses of +2 to hit and +3 damage.
Oh, and it's worth mentioning that the Creature Statistics table at the end of the adventure says that he's Lawful Evil in alignment.
Meanwhile, I guess I might as well start up a mostly blank Working Draft.
Cleon
Legend
The General Working Draft
Seven Swords, The General
Medium Undead (Spirit)
Hit Dice: 13d12+52 (136 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 22 (+3 Dex, +1 insight, +6 +1 mithral breastplate, +2 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 19
Base Attack/Grapple: +13/+19
Attack: Crimson katana +22 melee (1d10+14 plus 1d6 fire/17-20); or masterwork shortsword +20 melee (1d6+10/19-20); or unarmed strike +19 melee (1d3+6)
Full Attack: Crimson katana +22/+17/+12 melee (1d10+14 plus 1d6 fire/17-20); or masterwork shortsword +20/+15/+10 melee (1d6+10/19-20); or unarmed strike +19 melee (1d3+6)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Crimson katana, demoralizing presence, kiai, martial specialization, martial training
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., ghostform, immune to turning, mirror phantoms, rejuvenation, special weakness - sword rest, unholy toughness
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +9
Abilities: Str 23, Dex 16, Con —, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 19
Skills: Balance +4*, Diplomacy +6, Intimidate +20, Jump +23*, Knowledge (architecture and engineering) +10, Knowledge (geography) +10, Knowledge (history) +10, Listen +17, Ride +11, Search +8 (+10 finding secret doors), Sense Motive +11, Spot +17, Survival +1 (+3 following tracks, finding paths and avoiding natural hazards), Tumble +20*
*includes -1 armour check penalty.
Feats: Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Deflect Arrows, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword), Greater Weapon Focus (bastard sword), Greater Weapon Specialization (bastard sword plus all simple & martial weapons)ᴮ, Improved Critical (bastard sword), Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Unarmed Strike, Power Attack, Quick Draw, Weapon Focus (bastard sword), Weapon Specialization (bastard sword plus all simple & martial weapons)ᴮ
Environment: Ruins
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 10
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always lawful evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: —
A formidable looking warrior wearing elaborate armor and sumptuous robes, both faded and worn by age.
The General is one of the Seven Swords, a group of seven weapon masters who were transformed into unique undead by an ancient curse that binds them to a castle they once guarded in life. If one of the Seven Swords is destroyed, the curse causes them to reform the following night and continue to haunt the castle.
In life, the General was a proud and vicious man famous for bearing the crimson katana, a magical sword as bloodthirsty as he was. In death it remains unrepentant of its atrocious deeds and intends to add to them by slaying all intruders to the castle. The General spends its time meditating and brooding over lost battles when waiting for living victims to kill.
The General stands 6 feet tall and weighs 195 pounds. It can speak Common, Draconic, Infernal and Undercommon.
Combat
The General seeks to kill anyone who disturbs it. Weak opponents are hounded and tormented for sport. The General fights until it is destroyed or the intruders have all escaped its chambers or died.
The General normally opens combat by using Quick Draw to draw a blade and make a standard attack while activating its demoralizing presence and mirror phantoms powers. If the crimson katana isn't already in its hand, it teleports to the General in the first round of combat.
On subsequent rounds the General attacks with a fury of full attacks augmented with its kiai ability, or a great kiai if it seems opportune. It mainly uses the blink power of the crimson katana to escape from being pinned or restrained by opponents, or to outflank them by blinking through a wall. It often restrains from using a round of blink to avoid the risk of the power's miss chance affecting the General's own attacks.
Crimson Katana: This +1 flaming bastard sword is an intelligent magic item with the special purpose of shedding the blood of the living. It has the following statistics:
Strong conjuration; CL: 13th; Alignment: Neutral evil; Saves: Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +12; Abilities: Int 10, Wis 18, Cha 18 Ego 20; Senses: 120 ft. darkvision, blindsense and hearing, telepathy (with owner only), plus continual deathwatch and read magic; Skills: Listen +14, Spot +14; Saves: Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +12.
The crimson katana is capable of speech (in Common) and can communicate telepathically with its wielder, but refuses to communicate with any living creature. It can read all languages as well as use read magic. The sword has three lesser powers, one greater power and one dedicated power. Its lesser powers are the skills Listen and Spot (10 ranks each) and continually active deathwatch (as the spell).
The sword will only allow a wielder it accepts as its "master" to use its powers. Mastering the crimson katana requires the wielder to meditate in front of the sword for at least an hour and then succeed at a DC 20 Will saving throw to dominate the weapon's Ego.
The crimson katana's greater power is to enable its master to act as though affected by a blink spell for up to 10 rounds each day. The duration of the blink effect need not be consecutive rounds.
The katana's dedicated power is to teleport into its master's hand as per the teleport object spell. The sword will teleport to its master whenever a being who is not its master disturbs it. The sword will also teleport to its master if it telepathically senses that its master desires to harm a living creature, or if it notices (using its 120 ft. range senses) living enemies threatening its master. The crimson katana is drawn by the opportunity to draw blood, not any sympathy for its owner.
Demoralizing Presence (Ex): The General can unsettle foes through its sheer presence. This is a free action that does not require the General to move. It can demoralize opponents by its mere appearance or posture as easily as it can with a threatening sound and/or gesture.
Each creature to be demoralized must be within 90 feet, able to see or hear the General's threat, and able to pay attention to him. The General must also be able to see the creature.
To use the ability, the General makes an Intimidation check. Its check result is the DC for each affected creature’s modified level check (1d20 + character level or Hit Dice + target’s Wisdom bonus [if any] + target’s modifiers on saves against fear). If the Intimidation DC beats a target's check result, the target is panicked if it has 1 Hit Dice, frightened if it has up to 4 Hit Dice, and shaken if it has 5 or more Hit Dice. These effects lasts 2d4 rounds. If the target's modified level check exceeds the DC, that target cannot be affected by the General's demoralizing presence for 24 hours.
Demoralizing presence is a mind-affecting [fear] ability.
Ghostform (Su): A Seven Swords undead is normally invisible and intangible but senses its surroundings normally. Should the site it is haunting be disturbed, the spirit assumes a corporeal form as a swift action. The Reaper materializes by erupting from the ground. The General materializes sitting behind a screen. Once materialized, the undead spirit can remain in solid form until the sun rises. It can resume ghostform as a full-round action.
Kiai (Su): 13 times/day, the General can make a loud shout, which releases its ki and grants him a +4 morale bonus to Str for one round. Once per day, the kiai can be a great shout, which grants a +6 morale bonus to Str for 2 rounds and also stuns for one round all creatures within 10 ft who fail a DC 20 Fort save. This uses up 6 of the remaining uses of the General's kiai ability for the day. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Martial Specialization: The General has bonus feats of Weapon Specialization and Greater Weapon Specialization in every weapon it is proficient in (bastard sword, unarmed strike, and all simple and martial weapons).
Martial Training (Ex): The General was a masterful fighter in life, and retains the martial skills it once possessed. The General possesses the base attack bonus and bonus feats of a 13th level fighter. It is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and gains an insight bonus to AC equal to its Wisdom bonus. It adds its inherent fighter abilities to any fighter levels it might acquire. Thus, a General 2nd-level fighter possesses the bonus feats of a 15th-level fighter.
Mirror Phantoms (Su): Once a day, as a move action, the General can use a dimension door effect to step out of a mirror within 60 feet. At the same time, nineteen illusory duplicates of the General step out of mirrors in the same area. These duplicates are illusory figments similar to the images created by a mirror image spell. The phantoms last up to 13 minutes or until they are destroyed.
A mirror must be large enough for the General to fit through its frame for the General or a phantom to step out of it. Multiple figments can step out of the same mirror if the General creates more figments than the number of suitable mirrors. Every mirror phantom must remain within 30 feet of all the other phantoms and the General. The General can move into and through the figments and the figments may also move through each other. When a mirror phantom separates from the General, observers can’t use vision or hearing to tell which is real and which the phantom. The figments mimic the General's actions, pretending to strike with a sword when it strikes with a sword, charge when it charges, and so on.
The mirror phantoms are AC 14. Enemies attempting to attack or cast spells at the General must select from among indistinguishable targets. Generally, roll randomly to see whether the selected target is real or a phantom. Any successful attack against a figment destroys it. The figments seem to react normally to area spells (such as looking burned or dead after being hit by a fireball).
When the General moves, it can merge with and split off from figments so that enemies who have learned which of them is real are again confounded.
An attacker must be able to see the phantoms to be fooled. They are not affected if the General is invisible or the attacker shuts their eyes.
The General's opponents can also attack the mirrors the phantoms stepped out of. If a mirror is broken (a typical full-length mirror is AC 3, hp 1), any phantoms that stepped out of that mirror shatter into nothingness.
Rejuvenation (Ex): The General cannot be destroyed through simple combat. If "destroyed" its body and equipment evaporates into red smoke and is surrounded by a strange darkness for a round. This darkness is a 60-foot radius spread of shadowy illumination that produces concealment (20% miss chance). When the darkness fades a small charm shaped like a sword appears hanging from the sword rest that is the General's special weakness.
The following night, the General reappears at full strength at whatever place it haunted and the sword charm vanishes. The General can only be destroyed permanently if its sword charm is destroyed before the General rejuvenates. A typical sword charm is a Fine sized object with 20 hp, hardness 12, and break DC 24.
Special Weakness - Sword Rest (Ex): Each of the seven swords have a different special weakness. The General's is that its existence is tied to a sword rest that's used to store the crimson katana when the General is not carrying it. This sword rest is made of red-lacquered wood and has AC 4, hardness 6, break DC 30, and weighs 5 lbs. Any damage done to the sword rest is also inflicted upon the General. In addition, whenever a Seven Swords is damaged through its special weakness it must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 plus damage inflicted) or be shaken for 1 round. Should the General be destroyed, the sword rest is also destroyed.
Unholy Toughness (Ex): The General gain a bonus to its hit points equal to its Charisma modifier x its Hit Dice.
In Kara-Tur
The Seven Swords were the leading members of the Ito clan and lived in Ito-Jo castle. The malign influence of a krakentoa led to their rule becoming tyrannical and eventually brought down a dreadful curse upon the Swords and the entire castle, turning it into a haunted place of the damned. The Seven Swords of Ito-Jo cannot be destroyed simply by destroying their sword charms. The only way to permanently lay them to rest is to slay the krakentoa responsible for the curse.
The General was once Ito Tadahiro, the widowed father of Ito Kiku (the young woman who became the Veiled Maidens). While amazing with a sword, his arrogance and lack of tactical acumen made him a poor war leader. General Ito suffered such catastrophic defeats he lost all rank and position, forcing him into the disgraceful life of a wandering sell-sword. Eventually fate – or the krakentoa's curse – drew him back home, where he became one of the undead that haunts Ito-Jo castle to this day.
Originally appeared in OA2 - Night of the Seven Swords (1986).
Seven Swords, The General
Medium Undead (Spirit)
Hit Dice: 13d12+52 (136 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 22 (+3 Dex, +1 insight, +6 +1 mithral breastplate, +2 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 19
Base Attack/Grapple: +13/+19
Attack: Crimson katana +22 melee (1d10+14 plus 1d6 fire/17-20); or masterwork shortsword +20 melee (1d6+10/19-20); or unarmed strike +19 melee (1d3+6)
Full Attack: Crimson katana +22/+17/+12 melee (1d10+14 plus 1d6 fire/17-20); or masterwork shortsword +20/+15/+10 melee (1d6+10/19-20); or unarmed strike +19 melee (1d3+6)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Crimson katana, demoralizing presence, kiai, martial specialization, martial training
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., ghostform, immune to turning, mirror phantoms, rejuvenation, special weakness - sword rest, unholy toughness
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +9
Abilities: Str 23, Dex 16, Con —, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 19
Skills: Balance +4*, Diplomacy +6, Intimidate +20, Jump +23*, Knowledge (architecture and engineering) +10, Knowledge (geography) +10, Knowledge (history) +10, Listen +17, Ride +11, Search +8 (+10 finding secret doors), Sense Motive +11, Spot +17, Survival +1 (+3 following tracks, finding paths and avoiding natural hazards), Tumble +20*
*includes -1 armour check penalty.
Feats: Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Deflect Arrows, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword), Greater Weapon Focus (bastard sword), Greater Weapon Specialization (bastard sword plus all simple & martial weapons)ᴮ, Improved Critical (bastard sword), Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Unarmed Strike, Power Attack, Quick Draw, Weapon Focus (bastard sword), Weapon Specialization (bastard sword plus all simple & martial weapons)ᴮ
Environment: Ruins
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 10
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always lawful evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: —
A formidable looking warrior wearing elaborate armor and sumptuous robes, both faded and worn by age.
The General is one of the Seven Swords, a group of seven weapon masters who were transformed into unique undead by an ancient curse that binds them to a castle they once guarded in life. If one of the Seven Swords is destroyed, the curse causes them to reform the following night and continue to haunt the castle.
In life, the General was a proud and vicious man famous for bearing the crimson katana, a magical sword as bloodthirsty as he was. In death it remains unrepentant of its atrocious deeds and intends to add to them by slaying all intruders to the castle. The General spends its time meditating and brooding over lost battles when waiting for living victims to kill.
The General stands 6 feet tall and weighs 195 pounds. It can speak Common, Draconic, Infernal and Undercommon.
Combat
The General seeks to kill anyone who disturbs it. Weak opponents are hounded and tormented for sport. The General fights until it is destroyed or the intruders have all escaped its chambers or died.
The General normally opens combat by using Quick Draw to draw a blade and make a standard attack while activating its demoralizing presence and mirror phantoms powers. If the crimson katana isn't already in its hand, it teleports to the General in the first round of combat.
On subsequent rounds the General attacks with a fury of full attacks augmented with its kiai ability, or a great kiai if it seems opportune. It mainly uses the blink power of the crimson katana to escape from being pinned or restrained by opponents, or to outflank them by blinking through a wall. It often restrains from using a round of blink to avoid the risk of the power's miss chance affecting the General's own attacks.
Crimson Katana: This +1 flaming bastard sword is an intelligent magic item with the special purpose of shedding the blood of the living. It has the following statistics:
Strong conjuration; CL: 13th; Alignment: Neutral evil; Saves: Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +12; Abilities: Int 10, Wis 18, Cha 18 Ego 20; Senses: 120 ft. darkvision, blindsense and hearing, telepathy (with owner only), plus continual deathwatch and read magic; Skills: Listen +14, Spot +14; Saves: Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +12.
The crimson katana is capable of speech (in Common) and can communicate telepathically with its wielder, but refuses to communicate with any living creature. It can read all languages as well as use read magic. The sword has three lesser powers, one greater power and one dedicated power. Its lesser powers are the skills Listen and Spot (10 ranks each) and continually active deathwatch (as the spell).
The sword will only allow a wielder it accepts as its "master" to use its powers. Mastering the crimson katana requires the wielder to meditate in front of the sword for at least an hour and then succeed at a DC 20 Will saving throw to dominate the weapon's Ego.
The crimson katana's greater power is to enable its master to act as though affected by a blink spell for up to 10 rounds each day. The duration of the blink effect need not be consecutive rounds.
The katana's dedicated power is to teleport into its master's hand as per the teleport object spell. The sword will teleport to its master whenever a being who is not its master disturbs it. The sword will also teleport to its master if it telepathically senses that its master desires to harm a living creature, or if it notices (using its 120 ft. range senses) living enemies threatening its master. The crimson katana is drawn by the opportunity to draw blood, not any sympathy for its owner.
Demoralizing Presence (Ex): The General can unsettle foes through its sheer presence. This is a free action that does not require the General to move. It can demoralize opponents by its mere appearance or posture as easily as it can with a threatening sound and/or gesture.
Each creature to be demoralized must be within 90 feet, able to see or hear the General's threat, and able to pay attention to him. The General must also be able to see the creature.
To use the ability, the General makes an Intimidation check. Its check result is the DC for each affected creature’s modified level check (1d20 + character level or Hit Dice + target’s Wisdom bonus [if any] + target’s modifiers on saves against fear). If the Intimidation DC beats a target's check result, the target is panicked if it has 1 Hit Dice, frightened if it has up to 4 Hit Dice, and shaken if it has 5 or more Hit Dice. These effects lasts 2d4 rounds. If the target's modified level check exceeds the DC, that target cannot be affected by the General's demoralizing presence for 24 hours.
Demoralizing presence is a mind-affecting [fear] ability.
Ghostform (Su): A Seven Swords undead is normally invisible and intangible but senses its surroundings normally. Should the site it is haunting be disturbed, the spirit assumes a corporeal form as a swift action. The Reaper materializes by erupting from the ground. The General materializes sitting behind a screen. Once materialized, the undead spirit can remain in solid form until the sun rises. It can resume ghostform as a full-round action.
Kiai (Su): 13 times/day, the General can make a loud shout, which releases its ki and grants him a +4 morale bonus to Str for one round. Once per day, the kiai can be a great shout, which grants a +6 morale bonus to Str for 2 rounds and also stuns for one round all creatures within 10 ft who fail a DC 20 Fort save. This uses up 6 of the remaining uses of the General's kiai ability for the day. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Martial Specialization: The General has bonus feats of Weapon Specialization and Greater Weapon Specialization in every weapon it is proficient in (bastard sword, unarmed strike, and all simple and martial weapons).
Martial Training (Ex): The General was a masterful fighter in life, and retains the martial skills it once possessed. The General possesses the base attack bonus and bonus feats of a 13th level fighter. It is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and gains an insight bonus to AC equal to its Wisdom bonus. It adds its inherent fighter abilities to any fighter levels it might acquire. Thus, a General 2nd-level fighter possesses the bonus feats of a 15th-level fighter.
Mirror Phantoms (Su): Once a day, as a move action, the General can use a dimension door effect to step out of a mirror within 60 feet. At the same time, nineteen illusory duplicates of the General step out of mirrors in the same area. These duplicates are illusory figments similar to the images created by a mirror image spell. The phantoms last up to 13 minutes or until they are destroyed.
A mirror must be large enough for the General to fit through its frame for the General or a phantom to step out of it. Multiple figments can step out of the same mirror if the General creates more figments than the number of suitable mirrors. Every mirror phantom must remain within 30 feet of all the other phantoms and the General. The General can move into and through the figments and the figments may also move through each other. When a mirror phantom separates from the General, observers can’t use vision or hearing to tell which is real and which the phantom. The figments mimic the General's actions, pretending to strike with a sword when it strikes with a sword, charge when it charges, and so on.
The mirror phantoms are AC 14. Enemies attempting to attack or cast spells at the General must select from among indistinguishable targets. Generally, roll randomly to see whether the selected target is real or a phantom. Any successful attack against a figment destroys it. The figments seem to react normally to area spells (such as looking burned or dead after being hit by a fireball).
When the General moves, it can merge with and split off from figments so that enemies who have learned which of them is real are again confounded.
An attacker must be able to see the phantoms to be fooled. They are not affected if the General is invisible or the attacker shuts their eyes.
The General's opponents can also attack the mirrors the phantoms stepped out of. If a mirror is broken (a typical full-length mirror is AC 3, hp 1), any phantoms that stepped out of that mirror shatter into nothingness.
Rejuvenation (Ex): The General cannot be destroyed through simple combat. If "destroyed" its body and equipment evaporates into red smoke and is surrounded by a strange darkness for a round. This darkness is a 60-foot radius spread of shadowy illumination that produces concealment (20% miss chance). When the darkness fades a small charm shaped like a sword appears hanging from the sword rest that is the General's special weakness.
The following night, the General reappears at full strength at whatever place it haunted and the sword charm vanishes. The General can only be destroyed permanently if its sword charm is destroyed before the General rejuvenates. A typical sword charm is a Fine sized object with 20 hp, hardness 12, and break DC 24.
Special Weakness - Sword Rest (Ex): Each of the seven swords have a different special weakness. The General's is that its existence is tied to a sword rest that's used to store the crimson katana when the General is not carrying it. This sword rest is made of red-lacquered wood and has AC 4, hardness 6, break DC 30, and weighs 5 lbs. Any damage done to the sword rest is also inflicted upon the General. In addition, whenever a Seven Swords is damaged through its special weakness it must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 plus damage inflicted) or be shaken for 1 round. Should the General be destroyed, the sword rest is also destroyed.
Unholy Toughness (Ex): The General gain a bonus to its hit points equal to its Charisma modifier x its Hit Dice.
In Kara-Tur
The Seven Swords were the leading members of the Ito clan and lived in Ito-Jo castle. The malign influence of a krakentoa led to their rule becoming tyrannical and eventually brought down a dreadful curse upon the Swords and the entire castle, turning it into a haunted place of the damned. The Seven Swords of Ito-Jo cannot be destroyed simply by destroying their sword charms. The only way to permanently lay them to rest is to slay the krakentoa responsible for the curse.
The General was once Ito Tadahiro, the widowed father of Ito Kiku (the young woman who became the Veiled Maidens). While amazing with a sword, his arrogance and lack of tactical acumen made him a poor war leader. General Ito suffered such catastrophic defeats he lost all rank and position, forcing him into the disgraceful life of a wandering sell-sword. Eventually fate – or the krakentoa's curse – drew him back home, where he became one of the undead that haunts Ito-Jo castle to this day.
Originally appeared in OA2 - Night of the Seven Swords (1986).
Last edited:
Cleon
Legend
Okay, the General is listed as a "13th level ronin" - which means he's a 13th level samurai from the 1E Oriental Adventures who's lost the samurai's class abilities to claim property & attract followers but retains the samurai class's other special abilities.
At his level, a samurai has the following abilities:
- Increased damage with weapons (the bonus is +4 at his level)
- ability to specialize in both katana (3E = masterwork bastard sword) and daikyu (3E = composite longbow)
- Immunity to fear [pretty irrelevant for an Undead!]
- Cause fear in all creatures with 1 HD or less (samurai can turn this on and off at will)
- kiai (ki shout) that increases Strength to 18/00 for 1 round, usable once per day per level (e.g. 13 times).
- Great kiai that increases Str to 19/00 and and causes all enemies within 10 feet to save vs. paralyzation or be stunned for 1 round. Usable 1/day, but use exhausts his ki so prevents him using regular kiai shouts for the rest of the day.
I'm thinking we might as well give him some or most of the above.
An AD&D Samurai also has minimum ability scores of Str 13, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 13 - so he has to have at least those numbers.
We can reverse-engineer the character's Strength easily enough. When he uses kiai his THAC0 improves by +2 and his damage improves by 3. His kiai gives him Str 18/00, which is +3 to hit, +6 damage, so his "base strength" must be +1 to hit, +3 damage. Therefore he has Strength 18/01 to 18/50 - the first rung of exceptional strength.
That also tells us that - for some perverse reason - he has chosen not to specialize in katana, since his +8 bonus to damage is fully accounted for: +4 from his class ability, +3 from Strength, and +1 for the +1 katana.
AD&D weapon specialization would have added another +2 damage (and +1 to hit).
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
I definitely agree with adding most of those abilities. And I'm pretty sure we should give him various weapon feats to go with the katana, too.
Is there a point in the normal kiai if his Str is already that high? It might be ok just to give him the greater kiai once/day.
Is there a point in the normal kiai if his Str is already that high? It might be ok just to give him the greater kiai once/day.
Cleon
Legend
Yes, it'd seem foolish not to.
Updating The General Working Draft.
I'm also thinking we should give the General a composite longbow plus some appropriate feats in it, so he has a decent ranged attack option.
You mean, if his Strength happened to already be 18/00 or higher? In that case an 1E Oriental Adventures samurai would gain no benefit from the ability/
Both kiai and great kiai give the same strength increase, the great kiai gives the strength increase for twice as long (2 rounds), but it's the additional stunning effect that's likely the most effective aspect of great kiai.
Cleon
Legend
I've added placeholders for the kiai, great kiai and "fear" effect.
Do we want to give him the increased weapon damage of the Oriental Adventures' samurai class?
We could give him Greater Weapon Specialization instead, but we probably don't have enough feats to give him that in ALL of his weapons.
But if we give him a special ability to add a damage bonus to weapons AND give him Greater Weapon Specialization he might get an overly high damage bonus.
Hmm, how about we give him a "Martial Specialization" ability instead?
Martial Specialization: The General has bonus feats of Weapon Specialization and Greater Weapon Specialization in every weapon it is proficient in (bastard sword, unarmed strike, and all simple and martial weapons).
You know, I LIKE that...
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
You did say his base strength was 18/01 to 18/50. Oh, right, 18/00 was supposed to be read like percent dice as 18/100. I forgot that. Been a looonnnggg time since I played 2e.
I like Martial Specialization also.
We can probably fold the kiai and greater kiai into the same ability. Maybe something like...
Kiai (Su): 13? times/day, the General can make a loud shout, which releases his ki and grants him a +4? bonus to Str for one round. Once per day, the kiai can be a great shout, which aloo stuns for one round all enemies?? within 10 ft who fail a DC X Fort save. This uses up all??? the General's remaining uses of this ability for the day. The save DC is Charisma-based.
I'm not sure if it should stun only enemies or all creatures. And I'd kind of prefer it to use up a fixed # of uses of the kiai, rather than "all remaining." "All remaining" seems to vulnerable to metagaming.
I like Martial Specialization also.
We can probably fold the kiai and greater kiai into the same ability. Maybe something like...
Kiai (Su): 13? times/day, the General can make a loud shout, which releases his ki and grants him a +4? bonus to Str for one round. Once per day, the kiai can be a great shout, which aloo stuns for one round all enemies?? within 10 ft who fail a DC X Fort save. This uses up all??? the General's remaining uses of this ability for the day. The save DC is Charisma-based.
I'm not sure if it should stun only enemies or all creatures. And I'd kind of prefer it to use up a fixed # of uses of the kiai, rather than "all remaining." "All remaining" seems to vulnerable to metagaming.
Last edited:
Cleon
Legend
You did say his base strength was 18/01 to 18/50. Oh, right, 18/00 was supposed to be read like percent dice as 18/100. I forgot that. Been a looonnnggg time since I played 2e.
I like Martial Specialization also.
Updating The General Working Draft.
I've redded in Combat Reflexes, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword), Greater Weapon Focus (bastard sword), Improved Critical (bastard sword), Improved Unarmed Strike, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (bastard sword) as likely fighter feats. That still leaves his five regular feats.
I doubt there's anything I can do to help you with that from Merry Olde England.
That looks pretty good. The original Great Kiai had the strength-increase last two rounds though.
I agree with the idea of making the Great Kiai a fixed number of uses - maybe four or six? If we make it six, I'd think we'd better increase the Strength bonus as well as its duration.
Oh, and shouldn't we give the Strength bonus a type? I'm thinking a morale bonus.
Cleon
Legend
Before we get too much further we should decide on his ability scores.
We gave the Reaper Str 19, Dex 18, Con —, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 17, while his original AD&D stats were Str 15, Int 12, Wis 13, Dex 18, Con 17, Cha 8.
The General is probably a little bit better as he (it) is 4 levels higher, but should certainly have stats at least as good as the Reaper.
Don't forget that 1E Oriental Adventures Samurai have minimum stats of Str 13, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 13, so we'll likely want to increase his Int - it seems reasonable to assume he didn't become stupider during his transformation into undeath.
We've already figured out the General has Strength 18/01-50, which is four steps better than the AD&D Reaper's Strength 15.
We gave our 3E Reaper +4 to its Strength, for Str 19, suggesting Str 23 for the General.
A 13th level Samurai has Hit Dice of 9d10+8, for an average of 57.5 hp. The General has 102 hit points, which is 44.5 higher than average - which works out to +4.9 hits on each of his nine hit dice! So he either rolled very luckily, has a superhuman Constitution (a Con 19 would do it), or they fudged and gave him his Con bonus per level instead of per HD like they were supposed to - in the latter scenario he'd need a Con around 17 or 18 to average that many hps.
For the General's Unholy Toughness ability to give him a similar bonus per die he'll need a Charisma of 18-20. If he's a literally a general he'll need impressive leadership abilities, so I'm OK with 19.
For the sake of argument, we'll leave the other stats around Samurai minimum, although we may decide to tweak them further later on.
That just leaves Dexterity. He's got a decent Armour Class (AC 2, same as plate & shield) but we don't know what armour he's wearing. AD&D samurai-types tend to wear Banded (AC 4), which'd means he's got a +2 for Dex and has Dexterity 16, or possibly 14 in 3E terms. That seems about right - although it's worth mentioning his Move of 12" suggests he's either wearing magic armour or light armour in AD&D terms.
Or maybe he's secretly wearing boots of striding and springing and they didn't see fit to mention it.
We may have to adjust the Dexterity later on to give him a decent AC.
That gives us:
Abilities: Str 23, Dex 14 or 16?, Con —, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 19
We gave the Reaper Str 19, Dex 18, Con —, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 17, while his original AD&D stats were Str 15, Int 12, Wis 13, Dex 18, Con 17, Cha 8.
The General is probably a little bit better as he (it) is 4 levels higher, but should certainly have stats at least as good as the Reaper.
Don't forget that 1E Oriental Adventures Samurai have minimum stats of Str 13, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 13, so we'll likely want to increase his Int - it seems reasonable to assume he didn't become stupider during his transformation into undeath.
We've already figured out the General has Strength 18/01-50, which is four steps better than the AD&D Reaper's Strength 15.
We gave our 3E Reaper +4 to its Strength, for Str 19, suggesting Str 23 for the General.
A 13th level Samurai has Hit Dice of 9d10+8, for an average of 57.5 hp. The General has 102 hit points, which is 44.5 higher than average - which works out to +4.9 hits on each of his nine hit dice! So he either rolled very luckily, has a superhuman Constitution (a Con 19 would do it), or they fudged and gave him his Con bonus per level instead of per HD like they were supposed to - in the latter scenario he'd need a Con around 17 or 18 to average that many hps.
For the General's Unholy Toughness ability to give him a similar bonus per die he'll need a Charisma of 18-20. If he's a literally a general he'll need impressive leadership abilities, so I'm OK with 19.
For the sake of argument, we'll leave the other stats around Samurai minimum, although we may decide to tweak them further later on.
That just leaves Dexterity. He's got a decent Armour Class (AC 2, same as plate & shield) but we don't know what armour he's wearing. AD&D samurai-types tend to wear Banded (AC 4), which'd means he's got a +2 for Dex and has Dexterity 16, or possibly 14 in 3E terms. That seems about right - although it's worth mentioning his Move of 12" suggests he's either wearing magic armour or light armour in AD&D terms.
Or maybe he's secretly wearing boots of striding and springing and they didn't see fit to mention it.
We may have to adjust the Dexterity later on to give him a decent AC.
That gives us:
Abilities: Str 23, Dex 14 or 16?, Con —, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 19
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