Converting original D&D and Mystara monsters

[Cleon]

I think the hill giant is the one that's actually over-CRed. The purple worm's poison is just plain sick. These things can burrow relatively fast, pop up, and swallow whole. The hill giant can, uh, throw rocks.

While I see where you're coming from on the realism of the coins stuck to it, the mimicry would make it a whole new creature. The sticky coins is essentially what makes a slime worm a slime worm. If you want to introduce a bit more realism, maybe it's natural coloration is a mottled metallic, filling in the spaces between the actual coins, which are more sparsely distributed along its surface?

Natural metallic camouflage between the coins is what I'm going for, so I'll be alright with some mention of that.

EDIT: Besides, if it had enough coins to completely cover itself they'd likely encumber it. I reckon a 30' Slime Worm would have a surface area of 250-475 square feet (assuming it ranges from a narrow cone to a cylinder). It would need about 50,000-200,000 coins to cover that area in a single layer of coins. That's 1,000-4,000 pounds, which could be within its Huge Str 27's Medium encumbrance of 2082-4158 lbs. If it has two layers of coins it would probably be in Heavy encumbrance. Although I suppose it could carefully arrange the coins so they are only on the parts of its hide that show when its "coiled into a horde".

Incidentally, just think how icky it must be to collect a Slime Worms treasure, peeling thousands of coins out of its slimy, bloody corpse.

Sounds like a job for an unseen servant to me.

EDITED EDIT: Actually, that gives me an idea. Maybe its 20 ft. speed includes Medium encumbrance from 2500-3500 pounds of junk stuck to its hide, and a Slime Worm without a worthwhile horde (i.e. one without its armour bonus) has a land speed of 30 feet?

 

[Cleon]

CR 8 seems appropriate. Tell me, what was the rationale behind Improved Overrun?

What freyar said, the rationale was partially because knocking opponent's prone seemed tactically more useful for the Slime Worm and partially just to be different from a Purple Worm.

 

[Shade]

Updated.

I'm not sure about the speed difference, as a slime worm without treasure would also lose its armor bonus and camouflage ability. I'm not opposed to mentioning all that, but wouldn't that reduce the creature's CR a bit?

 

[demiurge1138]

Let's just ignore it and move on. It doesn't strike me as a side project particularly worth pursuing.

 

[freyar]

Ok, looks done!

I now have this great image of coins floating off a dead slime worm with flecks of slime flying off as the unseen servant cleans them!

 

[Cleon]

Ok, looks done!

I now have this great image of coins floating off a dead slime worm with flecks of slime flying off as the unseen servant cleans them!

Glad to be of service. The worm looks done to me, although I'd change the description so it uncoils, e.g. "begins to move, uncoiling into a serpentine shape".

Let's just ignore it and move on. It doesn't strike me as a side project particularly worth pursuing.

Too late, after throwing out that particular coin of the imagination it stuck into the slime long enough for me to write it up.

It may not be worth including in the stats, since it's a bit fiddly and doesn't add much, but I came up with this:

Coat of Treasure (Ex): All a slime worm's treasure is stuck to its skin's coating of slime, together with assorted shiny junk such as bits of mica, metal scraps and broken glass. This coat of treasure gives the worm a +3 armour bonus but counts as Medium encumbrance. No magic items in the coat effect the slime worm, with the exception of continuously-active items normally worn on the shoulders, such as cloaks of resistance, and touch-activated items, such as scarabs of death, both of which function normally.

A Slime Worm without a coat of armour has a 30 ft speed and is AC18. The DC of its camouflage ability drops to 20 and it is only Challenge Rating 7.

Removing treasure stuck in the worm's slime is a tedious, disgusting task. It takes a person one hour to remove 1000 items of treasure (e.g. 4 adventurers would need 2 [FONT=&quot]½[/FONT] hours to collect 10,000 coins from a dead slime worm). An unseen servant spell can perform this task.
​

I'm thinking this looks like something to tag on as a sub-heading or appendix rather than included in the normal Slime Worm's entry. I don't mind if we leave it out off the regular version.

So, who (or what) is up next?

 

[Cleon]

Updated.

I still prefer "uncoiling" to "coiling" in the description, since its uncoiling from a treasure mound into a vermiform monster.

The Combat tactics is a little thin, we could add some mention of it using Improved Overrun? Something like:

In battle a slime worm charges its opponents with its Improved Overrun feat, seeking to push one of them over and get into their midst. It then forms into a coil 15 feet in diameter and bites anything within reach.
​

EDIT: Oh, and shouldn't its Swallow Whole internal AC be 16, going by the normal 10 + half NA rule of thumb?

 

[freyar]

I think you're right that Coat of Treasure should be an "appendix" since these should pretty much always have their coating. But it's a nice write-up, even if we leave it off.

The tactics you suggest are good, and you're right that the gizzard AC should be 16. Good catch!

 

[Shade]

I still prefer "uncoiling" to "coiling" in the description, since its uncoiling from a treasure mound into a vermiform monster.

The Combat tactics is a little thin, we could add some mention of it using Improved Overrun? Something like:

In battle a slime worm charges its opponents with its Improved Overrun feat, seeking to push one of them over and get into their midst. It then forms into a coil 15 feet in diameter and bites anything within reach.
​

EDIT: Oh, and shouldn't its Swallow Whole internal AC be 16, going by the normal 10 + half NA rule of thumb?

Good suggestions. Updated.

 

[freyar]

Looks done!