Converting Planescape monsters

[Shade]

Yeah, let's keep the eye gouge attack. We might also play up the effects of consuming all that fiendish and slaadi meat. Perhaps their attacks are treated as chaotic and evil-aligned, despite not being chaotic or evil themselves?

 

[Cleon]

Yeah, let's keep the eye gouge attack. We might also play up the effects of consuming all that fiendish and slaadi meat. Perhaps their attacks are treated as chaotic and evil-aligned, despite not being chaotic or evil themselves?

Sure, why not.

Looking at the Giant Raven, under the normal Large to Medium adjustments it would have Str 8, Dex 21, Con 9. That seems rather wonky. I don't mind the Strength, but the Dex seems way too high and the Con too low for a carrion eater. I'd prefer Str 8, Dex 19, Con 13 and add some SQ giving them a save bonus against disease.

I cut out the reference to the Swoop special attack from eyegouge.

Putting it all together would give something like this:

EDIT: I forgot the language ability, just added it in. :ENDEDIT

Executioner's Raven
Medium Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 2d10+2 (13 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), fly 70 ft. (average)
Armor Class: 16 (-1 size, +4 Dex, +3 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+1
Attack: Bite +6 melee (1d6-1)
Full Attack: Bite +6 melee (1d6-1) and 2 claws +1 melee (1d3-1)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Eye gouge
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., evasion, low-light vision, resist disease
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +1
Abilities: Str 8, Dex 19, Con 13, Int 4, Wis 12, Cha 10
Skills: 5
Feats: Flyby Attack, Weapon Finesse (B)
Environment: Sigil
Organization: Solitary, pair, or flock (2-20)
Challenge Rating: 1?
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 3 HD (Medium)
Level Adjustment: +2? (cohort)

An enormous raven, almost as big as a human.

Executioner's ravens can speak Common, but rarely choose to do so.

Combat
Due to its habit of eating the flesh of fiends and slaadi, the natural attacks of an executioner's raven are both Chaotic and Evil aligned, though the bird itself is neutral and lacks those subtypes.

Eye Gouge (Ex): If an executioner's raven scores a critical hit with its bite attack, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Reflex save or lose the sight in one eye, becoming permanently dazzled (or blinded if they lose the use of all its eyes). A remove blindness/deafness spell can heal the injury. The save DC is Dexterity based.

 

[Shade]

Looks great!

Added to Homebrews.

I borrowed the "resistant to disease" from the vulture.

I think all that remains are Skills and size/wingspan.

 

[Cleon]

Looks great!

Added to Homebrews.

I borrowed the "resistant to disease" from the vulture.

Resistant to disease is a good fit.

I think all that remains are Skills and size/wingspan.

According to my RSPB Birds of Britain and Europe, a raven id 54-67 cm long with a 120-150 cm wingspan. According to Wikipedia they're 56-69 cm long with a 115-130 cm wingspan.

That indicates a wingspan of twice their length, so 10 feet.

As for skills, Ravens are alert (Spot) and agile fliers (Tumble).

3 ranks in Spot, 2 in Tumble? +4 racial bonus to Spot?

 

[Shade]

Updated. Finished?

 

[Cleon]

Updated. Finished?

The Tactics write up is missing a "t" in "attemping to blind them."

Apart from that it looks good.

 

[Shade]

Fixed.

Here are the next two (they're kind of tied together)...

Mounts in general are both very rare and very shortlived in Sigil, circumstances that make this business practically unique. At Green Stone Stables, a rickety warehouse with peeling green paint on Black Boot Walk, Bismen Yscoppel (P1/$ human/F3/Fated/LN) rents mounts of all kinds, from riding horses (of which he has only four or five at any time) to spittle boars. Yscoppel charges bargain prices, but his animals aren’t exactly top of the line. Some wobble along so slowly, they might as well have boulders in their guts. Some have spines that sag like lintels in the Slags. And some tend to drop dead in mid-stride, which ain’t necessarily a ba thing if they happen to drop near Orsmonder’s Meats.

Spittle Boar: AC 5 ; MV 9; HD 5; THACO 20; #AT 0; Dmg 0; SZ L; ML unreliable (3); Int animal (1); AL N; XP 175. Spittle boars are amiable, piglike creatures from the Beastlands, with bulging pink eyes and dull gray hide. They continuously drool thick, yellow spittle.

Sand Cow: AC 8; MV 15; HD 3; THACO 20; #AT 0; Dmg 0; SZ M; ML champion [ 16); Int animal (1); AL N; XP 65. Sand cows are six-legged crosses between a bull and a camel, native to Arcadia; their hide is white, and they whistle softly as they walk.

Mount / Rental Price / Purchase Price / Max weight
Sand cow / 1 sp / 6 gp / 100
Spittle boar / 5 cp / 3 gp / 300

The Dark: Caveat Emptor
Regardless of their species, all of Yscoppel’s mounts have the following features in common:
+ They have only 1-4 hit points per die.
+ They can’t be trained with the animal training proficiency, nor do they respond to any of the special commands associated with the land-based riding proficiency.
+ They can’t make attacks.
+ They can’t canter or gallop: they move no faster than their normal movement rates.
+ In good terrain, they can only travel a number of miles equal to normal movement rates.

Originally appeared in In the Cage: A Guide to Sigil (1995).

 

[Cleon]

Spittle Boar: AC 5 ; MV 9; HD 5; THACO 20; #AT 0; Dmg 0; SZ L; ML unreliable (3); Int animal (1); AL N; XP 175. Spittle boars are amiable, piglike creatures from the Beastlands, with bulging pink eyes and dull gray hide. They continuously drool thick, yellow spittle.

Sand Cow: AC 8; MV 15; HD 3; THACO 20; #AT 0; Dmg 0; SZ M; ML champion [ 16); Int animal (1); AL N; XP 65. Sand cows are six-legged crosses between a bull and a camel, native to Arcadia; their hide is white, and they whistle softly as they walk.

Neither looks terribly interesting. Do we want to include the "Caveat Emptor" bits as a sub entry?

The Spittle Boar could be a standard 5 HD Boar increased to Large size or a Dire Boar with its HD cut down.

The Sand Cow could just use a camel's stats.

 

[Shade]

Animals or Magical Beasts?

Do we want to jazz 'em up ever-so-slightly to differentiate them enough from their real-world counterparts?

 

[Cleon]

Animals or Magical Beasts?

Animals I suppose.

Do we want to jazz 'em up ever-so-slightly to differentiate them enough from their real-world counterparts?

Yes, I think so.

For "jazzing" for the Spittle Boar is pretty easy, we can just give them a spittle attack - do you prefer sticky, slippery or blinding?

The sand cow is a bit trickier. I suppose some ability to walk across treacherous sand and maybe "can't be tripped"?