Converting original D&D and Mystara monsters

[freyar]

Well, as you noted, success vs failure is a vague notion for some kinds of rolls.

Life Protection looks ok. How big should X be? 10? 15? 20? I'm leaning toward 15 as a sort of compromise.

 

[Cleon]

Well, as you noted, success vs failure is a vague notion for some kinds of rolls.

Life Protection looks ok. How big should X be? 10? 15? 20? I'm leaning toward 15 as a sort of compromise.

15 works for me. Shall I update?

 

[freyar]

Yup.

Can't remember what's next on these. Have to look that up soon...

 

[Cleon]

Yup.

Updating the Goatling Working Draft.

Can't remember what's next on these. Have to look that up soon...

We still have the introductory paragraph of Empowerment to work out, currently we only have a rough outline:

Empowerment (Su): Rough draft... [A goatling can enhance its abilities by expending empowerment points that it has obtained with its Discerp ability (see above). Empowerment is a free? action, but the goatling can not expend more than X empowerment points in a round?minute?. A goatling can use empowerment for the following:]

After that we have the "goat spells" (spell like abilities?) and the Ram special attack, followed by deciding whether to give it any special qualities.

Oh, and we still have a lot of ? marks in the stat block to decide on.

 

[freyar]

How about we make it a swift action? I'm not sure what to do about the per round or per minute limit.

Fairly standard 30 ft speed?

 

[Cleon]

How about we make it a swift action? I'm not sure what to do about the per round or per minute limit.

It can't be a swift action otherwise it won't be able to use it for Life Protection. Empowerment has to be either a free action or an immediate action.

I hadn't decided whether to give it an empowerment limit. The original capped at 10 EPs per round:

Each round, a player may spend up to ten empowerment points (as long as they wear an undamaged receptacle). Although effects of empowered abilities are cumulative, a player can only spend empowerment points on one specific ability each round.

For example, a player could empower the goatling's damage rolls on the first round, and its hit rolls on during the next, etc. It could not, however, split available points on hit and damage rolls during the same round.

Here's a "bare bones" version:

Empowerment 1 (Su): A goatling can enhance its abilities by expending the empowerment points it obtained with its Discerp ability (see above). Using empowerment is a swift action unless it is stated otherwise below. Goatlings can only use empowerment once per round, but they can enhance themselves with multiple empowerments they made on separate rounds. A goatling can use empowerment for the following benefits:

I don't think we need include an Empowerment Point cap, since that's built into the individual abilities.

If we wanted to make it a free action it might be something like follows, although that's a lot more powerful and versatile than the original writeup indicates. I prefer No 1.

Empowerment 2 (Su): A goatling can enhance its abilities by expending the empowerment points it obtained with its Discerp ability (see above). Using empowerment is a free action unless it is stated otherwise below. Goatlings can use empowerment as many times in a round as their stock of empowerment points allows, although they can only employ one immediate action empowerment in a round. A goatling can use empowerment for the following benefits:

 

[Cleon]

Fairly standard 30 ft speed?

They use normal PC class rules, so I think we can safely assume they have average humanoid stats in most respects. Apart from 60' infravision (= darkvision?), the only other special abilities they possess are a Headbutt and Goat Magic. We can modify the Goatman's Ram for the former, and we decided to interpret the latter as SLAs.

The Savage Coast Monstrous Compendium Goatman had AC 5, so I'd give them armour that provides equivalent protection.

Something like:

Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 15 (+4 chain shirt, +1 small wooden shield) touch 10, flat-footed 15
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+4
Attack: Weapon +4 melee (???) or gore +4 melee (1d6+1)
Full Attack: Weapon +4 melee (???) and gore -1 melee (1d6)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Discerp, empowerment, goat magic, ram
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft.
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +2
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 11, Con 11, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 9
Skills: 9 skills at 6 ranks
Feats: 2 feats
Environment: Any mountains ?
Organization: Solitary, gang (2-4), or party (5-10) ?
Challenge Rating: 3 ?
Treasure: Standard ?
Alignment: Always chaotic ?
Advancement: By character class ?
Level Adjustment: Pretty high. They are written as a PC class, so "—" seems inappropriate, but their special abilities would be pretty potent in a PCs hands. I'd guess somewhere around +4 or so?

Ram (Ex): If a goatling hits with a gore attack as part of a charge, it deals double damage (2d6+2) and can attempt to bull rush the opponent as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. The goatling gets a +2 racial bonus on the bull rush's opposed Strength check, giving a typical goatling's ram attack a +3 check modifier.

 

[Cleon]

Oh one other thing, did we make a final decision on whether to give them the Chaotic subtype? They are highly chaotic creatures who originated in the Abyss.

Remember, we were going to add an "Elder Goatling" that has survived from the original migration (or is within a generation or two of it), which I think ought to have the Chaotic subtype and lack the Native subtype. Being true Outsiders they do not eat or sleep or age, unlike standard Goatlings.

I'd be OK giving the standard Goatling the Chaotic subtype or leaving it Native.

While we're on the subject, I feel it'd be a good idea to decide on what types we're giving these various goatpeople. We gave the Goatfolk the (Goatfolk) subtype, so should we give all the Goat variants that subtype?

Hmm, maybe we should change it to a "Goatkin" subtype so it's a different word from one of the examples?

e.g.:

Bielgorad - Large Outsider (Chaotic, Evil, Extraplanar, Goatkin)
Caprine - Medium Monstrous Humanoid (Goatkin)
Goatfolk - Medium Monstrous Humanoid (Goatkin)
Goatling - Medium Outsider (Goatkin, Native)
Goatling, Elder - Medium Outsider (Chaotic, Goatkin)
Ovinaur - Small Monstrous Humanoid (Goatkin)

 

[freyar]

A number of responses, in no particular order:

"Goatkin" could work for the subtype. Or "chevroid" or something.

I'd also leave the Chaotic subtype off the goatling.

The Life Protection empowerment is already called out as an immediate action (as an exception), so it seems to me that the free vs swift action is pretty much whether we want them to be able to empower themselves once or more per round. I lean toward the swift action, since it makes it a bit easier for PCs to get around the Life Protection (or to kill a goatling PC!). Incidentally, I don't think we need to spell out "only once per round" in the first version, in that case, since characters get only one swift or immediate action per round typically (I'd be willing to let them empower twice per round if under some haste-type effect).

The ram, armor, and other stat block basics look good. Goatlings are supposed to be mostly Fighters, so perhaps a fairly vanilla sword for the weapon? Longsword, maybe?

 

[Cleon]

A number of responses, in no particular order:

"Goatkin" could work for the subtype. Or "chevroid" or something.

I prefer "Goatkin". It's much more obviously about goats than "Chevroid", which could just as easily be about V-marks, rafters, or an American car manufacturer. If you want an "oid" I'd suggest "Caproid".

I'd also leave the Chaotic subtype off the goatling.

As you like. We can always save it for the elder subtype or the extraplanar Bielgora.

The Life Protection empowerment is already called out as an immediate action (as an exception), so it seems to me that the free vs swift action is pretty much whether we want them to be able to empower themselves once or more per round. I lean toward the swift action, since it makes it a bit easier for PCs to get around the Life Protection (or to kill a goatling PC!). Incidentally, I don't think we need to spell out "only once per round" in the first version, in that case, since characters get only one swift or immediate action per round typically (I'd be willing to let them empower twice per round if under some haste-type effect).

Well I am backing the swift action version, since the original empowerment specifies it's only usable once per round, but I offered a free action version in case somebody liked it.

The ram, armor, and other stat block basics look good. Goatlings are supposed to be mostly Fighters, so perhaps a fairly vanilla sword for the weapon? Longsword, maybe?

That just seems too boring. How about a nice battleaxe instead?