Cleon
Legend
That all sounds good to me!
I'll agree to dropping the taboo SQ.
Updating Screaming Child Working Draft.
I guess it's time to work out the rattle. I'd say the base function is as a mace with an ability to make bull rush attacks, which I'd treat like a trip weapon, I think. But it also looks like it converts into something like a flail with an extended reach, or it can produce something like the flare spell. Sound about right?
30 feet reach seemed a bit more than extended melee reach to me, so I interpret it as an auto-return thrown weapon.
You know, this could be a minor magical rod rather than a standard weapon. Like a cheaper version of the rod of lordly might.
Anyway, statwise I'm thinking of something like:
Rattle: The Screaming Child wield an oversized brightly-painted rattle with a large ball for a head. Rather than a wooden toy, this rattle is a made from metal and is a rod-like magic item with three functions its wielder can switch between as a free action, simply by desiring it. The functions are as follows:
- Ball: The wielder can remove the rattle's head and hurl it as a thrown weapon with a 30 foot range and no range increment. The ball remains attached to the rattle by a 30-foot long chain and can instantly snap back to the haft when the wielder wishes, allowing them to make iterative thrown attacks with the ball. In other respects, the ball is a ranged weapon equivalent to a +1 light hammer.
- Mace: The rattle head becomes heavy and flanged, becoming a weapon equivalent to a +1 light mace. [plus "hurl?"]
- Flash: As a standard action, the wielder can point the rattle at a creature within X feet and create a burst of light in front of them. The wielder must succeed at a DC 18 Fortitude save or be blinded for 1d4 rounds. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Notes
#1: Weapon Enhancement
The +1 magic bonus is a placeholder, I was thinking +2 or even +3 would work better for a solo monster.
Especially as the Child has a negative strength modifier, the Child needs a +2 weapon just to match the 2-5 and 2-7 damage of the original stats!
#2: Hurl
Your proposal of the Bull Rush would require the Child to move with the opponent they're pushing, which doesn't match a "Hurl". I guess we could repurpose the Shadow Walker's hurl ability?
Hurl (Ex): The Shadow Walker can hurl an opponent to the ground with a successful grapple check. The target takes 2d6+4 damage and ends up prone on the ground in a 5 ft. square adjacent to the Shadow Walker, but is no longer being grappled. If the Shadow Walker loses the opposed grapple check, it can’t maintain the grapple and must immediately let go of the target. The Shadow Walker can Grab an opponent with a successful melee attack and then immediately attempt to Hurl the target with an opposed grapple check.
So something like: "In addition, if the wielder hits an opponent with the rattle they can attempt to hurl them to the ground. The wielder must beat the target with an opposed grapple check with a +4 bonus to the wielder's grapple check. If successful, the target ends up prone on the ground in a 5 ft. square adjacent to the wielder. If unsuccessful, nothing happens (the wielder and his opponent are not considered to be grappled)."
[i[#3 Flash[/i]
The original 10 foot range seems too miserly. The spells flare and power word:blind are Close and blindness is Medium, so I'm inclined to make "X" 100 feet to put the range on the Medium scale.