Planescape Converting Planescape monsters
- Thread starter BOZ
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BOZ
Creature Cataloguer
This one’s going to be pretty hard to stat out! Remember, these aren’t "merely" Colossal, some are miles long! We might even give them a --- for Str, since it is unratable (they would lift things with their precision-controlled winds, if need be) and they don’t make melee attacks anyway.
As for Air subtype, still not sure… it is not an elemental, after all. We might just give it something like the vapor or gaseous form powers like the vapor rat and vampire mist we did recently. I didn’t see any special reason why it would be affected by winds, or spells that affect air for example.
As for Air subtype, still not sure… it is not an elemental, after all. We might just give it something like the vapor or gaseous form powers like the vapor rat and vampire mist we did recently. I didn’t see any special reason why it would be affected by winds, or spells that affect air for example.
BOZ
Creature Cataloguer
First of all, as I mentioned before, there is a 3.0 conversion here that we can search for ideas: http://66.34.111.89/Eric/conversions/Mortai.rtf
Shade mentioned adding the Air subtype – this might just be a good thing for them.
For the moment, we are going to skip working on ability scores, in favor of figuring out what sort of powers the mortai have.
One thing we need to decide on is how many Hit Dice they should have. They previously had 20 HD which was just fine when that made them one of the most powerful things out there. Consider that in the Planescape Monstrous Compendiums, Solars had 22 HD, Shator Gehreleths had 15 HD, Death Slaads had 15 HD, Pit Fiends and Balors had only 13 HD, Tulani Eladrins, Leonal Guardinals, and Aurumach Rilmani all had a mere 12 HD. Some of these have increased in 3.5e, though some have stayed the same. 20-HD might be just fine, but it no longer makes mortai as high up in the power structure as they once were…
Looking first at the original MotP, there isn’t much to see:
Magic Resistance: 50%
Special Abilities. Legend lore at will without penalty or time requirements. Use of all spells utilizing air, wind, weather, or clouds (including cloudkill) at will.
MC8 spells things out a bit better:
NO. Of ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: Special
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Wind and cloud related magic
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 80%
When they choose to speak with mortals, mortai call up a booming voice of wind and thunder - they can speak all languages.
Their physical attack consists of a 10-die bolt of lightning. They may use this once per round with no limit to the number of bolts in a given combat situation.
However, mortai are extremely able denizens of the air, and are masters of their environment. As such, it is quite difficult to gain position or advantage enough to actually attack a mortai. First of all, they are very high in the air, making them difficult to reach.
Secondly, by their nature, mortai are able to use a variety of spelllike abilities, all at 20th-level of magic use:
- aerial servant
- air walk, cast on another creature
- call lightning, ability given to another
- cloudkill, 7 times per day
- conjure elemental, air only
- control weather, 3 times per day
- control winds
- death fog
- dust devil
- fog cloud
- gust of wind
- ice storm
- rainbow
- rainbow pattern
- whispering wind
- wind walk
- wind wall
They will, however, often interact with men, giving them knowledge and holding discussions of philosophy with them. To this end, mortai can use legend tore at will. This spell is cast instantly and is always accurate.
Rain and other weather conditions seem to be independent of the mortai, although they can appear as any type of cloud they wish, including dark and foreboding storm clouds.
A bit more in PSMC2:
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 (special)
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 10d6 (special)
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Wind magic
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Immune to weapons
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 80%
And what they add to the motai not already listed above:
Most of the time, mortai are happy to remain unnoticed, and can imitate a natural cloud perfectly.
Mortai speak with booming voices of wind and thunder, when they bother to speak at all. They know all languages.
If a mortai is somehow driven to combat, it can attack once per round with a great bolt of lightning 10 feet in diameter and possibly miles in length. Any creature in the path of the bolt suffers 10d6 points of damage (a save versus spell for half damage applies). A creature standing on the ground when struck by a bolt must make an additional successful saving throw versus spell or be stunned for 2 to 20 rounds. Mortai can throw lightning bolts all day long if that’s what it takes to get their point across to their antagonists.
For most nonfliers, just getting into position to injure a mortai’s a serious challenge. Mortai can hover a few hundred feet above the ground, or they can float at altitudes of 20,000 feet or more. Their superior speed and maneuverability almost guarantee that they can leave a situation whenever they want. Mortai are so huge that no physical weapon wielded by a mortal can injure them; a vorpal sword +5 just waves through cloud-stuff even if a blood gets close enough to wield it. Only magical spells, dragon breath, or similar effects can cause actual injury to a mortai.
It’s not widely known, but mortai have a secret core – a place where their power’s collected in one spot, a glowing nimbus of light no more than 10 feet across in the heart of the cloud. This nucleus is vulnerable to enchanted weapons, although it is AC –5. ‘Course, finding a sphere 10 feet across in a cloud encompassing a couple of cubic miles wouldn’t be an easy feat, especially if the mortai were throwing lightning at the bashers trying to find the needle in the haystack.
(There is no significant difference in the way spell-like abilities are presented here.)
so, adding all of this up, we can probably attribute at least some of the following things to a mortai:
Its Attack and Full Attack lines would either be blank or would list a sort of electricity ray like with the arrowhawk.
spell resistance of at least 27
probably Air Mastery
Immunity to Weapons, probably similar to what swarms have
Spell-Like Abilities something like so: At will – acid fog, air walk (cast on another creature), call lightning (given to another creature?), control winds, fog cloud, gust of wind, ice storm, rainbow pattern, summon monster IX (air outsiders only), whispering wind, wind walk, and wind wall; 7/day – cloudkill; 3/day – control weather. Caster level 20th. The save DCs are Charisma-based. (don’t have PHB with me, but I guess it loses aerial servant, dust devil, and rainbow unless there are suitable replacements)
Legend Lore (Su) ability
Write up the core/nimbus for its vulnerable spot
Probably needs some sort of amorphous/gaseous form ability
Can imitate any type of cloud
Knows all languages
Commentary?
Shade mentioned adding the Air subtype – this might just be a good thing for them.
For the moment, we are going to skip working on ability scores, in favor of figuring out what sort of powers the mortai have.
One thing we need to decide on is how many Hit Dice they should have. They previously had 20 HD which was just fine when that made them one of the most powerful things out there. Consider that in the Planescape Monstrous Compendiums, Solars had 22 HD, Shator Gehreleths had 15 HD, Death Slaads had 15 HD, Pit Fiends and Balors had only 13 HD, Tulani Eladrins, Leonal Guardinals, and Aurumach Rilmani all had a mere 12 HD. Some of these have increased in 3.5e, though some have stayed the same. 20-HD might be just fine, but it no longer makes mortai as high up in the power structure as they once were…
Looking first at the original MotP, there isn’t much to see:
Magic Resistance: 50%
Special Abilities. Legend lore at will without penalty or time requirements. Use of all spells utilizing air, wind, weather, or clouds (including cloudkill) at will.
MC8 spells things out a bit better:
NO. Of ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: Special
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Wind and cloud related magic
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 80%
When they choose to speak with mortals, mortai call up a booming voice of wind and thunder - they can speak all languages.
Their physical attack consists of a 10-die bolt of lightning. They may use this once per round with no limit to the number of bolts in a given combat situation.
However, mortai are extremely able denizens of the air, and are masters of their environment. As such, it is quite difficult to gain position or advantage enough to actually attack a mortai. First of all, they are very high in the air, making them difficult to reach.
Secondly, by their nature, mortai are able to use a variety of spelllike abilities, all at 20th-level of magic use:
- aerial servant
- air walk, cast on another creature
- call lightning, ability given to another
- cloudkill, 7 times per day
- conjure elemental, air only
- control weather, 3 times per day
- control winds
- death fog
- dust devil
- fog cloud
- gust of wind
- ice storm
- rainbow
- rainbow pattern
- whispering wind
- wind walk
- wind wall
They will, however, often interact with men, giving them knowledge and holding discussions of philosophy with them. To this end, mortai can use legend tore at will. This spell is cast instantly and is always accurate.
Rain and other weather conditions seem to be independent of the mortai, although they can appear as any type of cloud they wish, including dark and foreboding storm clouds.
A bit more in PSMC2:
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 (special)
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 10d6 (special)
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Wind magic
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Immune to weapons
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 80%
And what they add to the motai not already listed above:
Most of the time, mortai are happy to remain unnoticed, and can imitate a natural cloud perfectly.
Mortai speak with booming voices of wind and thunder, when they bother to speak at all. They know all languages.
If a mortai is somehow driven to combat, it can attack once per round with a great bolt of lightning 10 feet in diameter and possibly miles in length. Any creature in the path of the bolt suffers 10d6 points of damage (a save versus spell for half damage applies). A creature standing on the ground when struck by a bolt must make an additional successful saving throw versus spell or be stunned for 2 to 20 rounds. Mortai can throw lightning bolts all day long if that’s what it takes to get their point across to their antagonists.
For most nonfliers, just getting into position to injure a mortai’s a serious challenge. Mortai can hover a few hundred feet above the ground, or they can float at altitudes of 20,000 feet or more. Their superior speed and maneuverability almost guarantee that they can leave a situation whenever they want. Mortai are so huge that no physical weapon wielded by a mortal can injure them; a vorpal sword +5 just waves through cloud-stuff even if a blood gets close enough to wield it. Only magical spells, dragon breath, or similar effects can cause actual injury to a mortai.
It’s not widely known, but mortai have a secret core – a place where their power’s collected in one spot, a glowing nimbus of light no more than 10 feet across in the heart of the cloud. This nucleus is vulnerable to enchanted weapons, although it is AC –5. ‘Course, finding a sphere 10 feet across in a cloud encompassing a couple of cubic miles wouldn’t be an easy feat, especially if the mortai were throwing lightning at the bashers trying to find the needle in the haystack.
(There is no significant difference in the way spell-like abilities are presented here.)
so, adding all of this up, we can probably attribute at least some of the following things to a mortai:
Its Attack and Full Attack lines would either be blank or would list a sort of electricity ray like with the arrowhawk.
spell resistance of at least 27
probably Air Mastery
Immunity to Weapons, probably similar to what swarms have
Spell-Like Abilities something like so: At will – acid fog, air walk (cast on another creature), call lightning (given to another creature?), control winds, fog cloud, gust of wind, ice storm, rainbow pattern, summon monster IX (air outsiders only), whispering wind, wind walk, and wind wall; 7/day – cloudkill; 3/day – control weather. Caster level 20th. The save DCs are Charisma-based. (don’t have PHB with me, but I guess it loses aerial servant, dust devil, and rainbow unless there are suitable replacements)
Legend Lore (Su) ability
Write up the core/nimbus for its vulnerable spot
Probably needs some sort of amorphous/gaseous form ability
Can imitate any type of cloud
Knows all languages
Commentary?
Shade
Monster Junkie
I'd recommend at least 24 HD. The tempest in the MM2 is similar, and it has 24 HD. It is Gargantuan, so if these guys are gonna be Colossal, I'd go even higher.
Plus, they should far eclipse the elder air elementals, in my opinion, which also have 24 HD. Thus, I'd recommend 30-40 HD for starters, advancing up to 60+.
Other powerful stormlike denizens:
Elder Air Elemental - 24 HD (From ELH)
Primal Air Elemental - 64 HD (From ELH)
Necroclasm - 50 HD (from WOTC's Far Corners of the World)
Plus, they should far eclipse the elder air elementals, in my opinion, which also have 24 HD. Thus, I'd recommend 30-40 HD for starters, advancing up to 60+.
Other powerful stormlike denizens:
Elder Air Elemental - 24 HD (From ELH)
Primal Air Elemental - 64 HD (From ELH)
Necroclasm - 50 HD (from WOTC's Far Corners of the World)
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