Spelljammer Converting Spelljammer creatures

[freyar]

Wait, you live in Manitoba too? Small world....

I've just been trying to catch up on other threads before getting back to this --- unfortunately, I'm too busy at work for much vacation or monster conversion.

 

[Cleon]

Well, it can only get one skill at max ranks. I think I'd probably do Spot if we just picked one, but Spot 52, Listen 51 ranks would also be good. Those are probably the best "bang for the buck" skills we can give it.

Maxing out Spot would seem to make the most sense. Listen would be of less use, since surely it'll only be able to hear things that are in the same air-envelope as itself.

I'll take a look at feats later.

Well we'll want to give it Dire Charge and a bunch of flying feats (e.g. Flyby attack, Hover, Wingover), but that still leaves a lot to chose.

 

[Arnwyn]

Yeah, that makes sense - Spot over Listen.

 

[Cleon]

Yeah, that makes sense - Spot over Listen.

Sounds like we're agreed, so...

Updating the Gammaroid Working Draft.

 

[Cleon]

I'll take a look at feats later.

It's later!

We've got 34 feats, so have plenty to fill in.

I pencilled in Alertness, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Weapon Focus (bite), since those are the feats the Giant Snapping Turtle has.

I think we can drop the Alertness for the time being, since it has plenty of ranks in Spot.

We want Flyby Attack, Hover and Wingover for aerial manoeuvrability.

Dire Charge, Power Attack, Superior Initiative, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Critical (claw), Improved Multiattack and Multiattack are pretty much "no brainers".

That's only thirteen though, so we've still got twenty one feats to go!

 

[Arnwyn]

I think I saw from a previous post:

- 7 non-epic feats
- 27 epic or non-epic feats

So far (Epic):
- Dire Charge
- Superior Initiative

Other possibilities (Epic):
- Overwhelming Critical
- Devastating Critical
- Epic Reflexes
- Epic Fortitude
- Epic Will
- Epic Toughness (really redundant, but kind of thematic)

Other possibilities (non-epic):
- Blind-Fight
- Cleave
- Great Cleave
- Improved Bull Rush
- Improved Overrun
- Improved Sunder
- Endurance (redundant?)
- Diehard (redundant?)
- Toughness (really redundant, but kind of thematic)

 

[Cleon]

I think I saw from a previous post:

- 7 non-epic feats
- 27 epic or non-epic feats

So far (Epic):
- Dire Charge
- Superior Initiative

Other possibilities (Epic):
- Overwhelming Critical
- Devastating Critical
- Epic Reflexes
- Epic Fortitude
- Epic Will
- Epic Toughness (really redundant, but kind of thematic)

I thought about Devastating Critical, but it just didn't feel right for a Gammaroid. It seems we should be aiming something that a high level non-epic party could survive a round of attack from.

Besides, at DC 92 it felt too deadly. Even another Gammaroid with its +65 Fort save would have to roll a 27+ on a d20 if it got a Devastating Critical from a Gammaroid.

I was definitely planning to add some defensive Epic feats - the save boosters (Epic Fortitude, Epic Reflexes, Epic Will), probably Epic Endurance and a few Damage Reduction. One or two Fast Healing epic feats would also be useful.

I'm not that keen on Epic Toughness when giving it a couple of Great Constitution feats would give it a LOT more hit points and improve its Fort save.

However, I'm not in favour of giving the "base Gammaroid" any of the ability-boosting feats, which seem more appropriate for an advanced version of the creature.

Other possibilities (non-epic):
- Blind-Fight
- Cleave
- Great Cleave
- Improved Bull Rush
- Improved Overrun
- Improved Sunder
- Endurance (redundant?)
- Diehard (redundant?)
- Toughness (really redundant, but kind of thematic)

There's no point giving it regular Toughness when Epic Toughness is a possibility, but the others are a distinct possibility.

We can add the non-epic save boosters to that list (Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes).

The monster feats of Awesome Blow and Snatch also seem appropriate.

 

[freyar]

So, so far we have

Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Weapon Focus (bite), Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Epic Fortitude*, Epic Will*, Epic Reflexes*, Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush, Awesome Blow, Snatch, Superior Initiative*, Endurance, Epic Endurance*, Diehard, Flyby Attack, Hover, Wingover, Cleave, Great Cleave, Overwhelming Critical (bite)*, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Sunder, Improved Overrun

which I think is 26 of 34 including 6 epic feats. We've also had Multiattack and Improved Multiattack suggested. Of course, this is one of those unclear issues. While it has 3 individual natural weapons (1 bite + 2 claws), it only has 2 listings on the full attack line (bite, 2 claws). I think in the past we've allowed this to meet the prereq for Multiattack, but I don't think I've seen an official ruling on it. Are we agreed to allow Multiattack?

 

[Arnwyn]

Yes, I agree.

 

[Cleon]

So, so far we have

Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Weapon Focus (bite), Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Epic Fortitude*, Epic Will*, Epic Reflexes*, Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush, Awesome Blow, Snatch, Superior Initiative*, Endurance, Epic Endurance*, Diehard, Flyby Attack, Hover, Wingover, Cleave, Great Cleave, Overwhelming Critical (bite)*, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Sunder, Improved Overrun

which I think is 26 of 34 including 6 epic feats.

You left out Dire Charge, one of the most important Epic Feats.

Awesome Blow seems a bit useless for it, since it'll be better off using Dire Charge, its Ramming attack, or Snatching an opponents and tossing them away.

I was going to propose Weapon Focus (claw) but I got Improved Critical (claw) listed twice for some reason instead.

However, Epic Prowess is a better pick - if we give them that feat twice instead of Weapon Focus (bite) and (claw) it'll get +2 to attack with both natural weapons instead of +1.

Overwhelming Critical doesn't seem that useful. Its critical hit bite already does 32d6+64 damage, making it 33d6+64 adds +1d6 only increases its average critical damage by 2%.

Fast Healing and Damage Reduction seem more useful.

Let's leave Overwhelming Critical in, at least for the time being.

Assuming we go for the Improved Multiattack option, that suggests:

Cleave, Damage Reduction (×3)*, Diehard, Dire Charge*, Endurance, Epic Endurance*, Epic Fortitude*, Epic Reflexes*, Epic Prowess (×3)*, Epic Will*, Fast Healing, Flyby Attack, Great Cleave, Great Fortitude, Hover, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Critical (claw), Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Improved Multiattack, Improved Overrun, Improved Sunder, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Multiattack, Overwhelming Critical (bite)*, Power Attack, Snatch, Superior Initiative*, Wingover

The above is 34 feats, of which 14 are Epic.

I'd think swapping the Epic Prowess for another two Damage Reduction feats would make sense, giving it a meaty DR 15/—.

That still leaves it with +125 melee attacks, which ought to be enough for most opponents.

Feats: Cleave, Damage Reduction (×5), Diehard, Dire Charge, Endurance, Epic Endurance, Epic Fortitude, Epic Prowess, Epic Reflexes, Epic Will, Fast Healing, Flyby Attack, Great Cleave, Great Fortitude, Hover, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Critical (claw), Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Improved Multiattack, Improved Overrun, Improved Sunder, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Multiattack, Overwhelming Critical (bite), Power Attack, Snatch, Superior Initiative, Wingover

We've also had Multiattack and Improved Multiattack suggested. Of course, this is one of those unclear issues. While it has 3 individual natural weapons (1 bite + 2 claws), it only has 2 listings on the full attack line (bite, 2 claws). I think in the past we've allowed this to meet the prereq for Multiattack, but I don't think I've seen an official ruling on it. Are we agreed to allow Multiattack?

We've had this issue raised before, and it doesn't seem unclear to me.

There are creatures with Multiattack in the SRD that have 3 attacks using two "listed" natural weapons, like the Ghoul, which has Multiattack and a claw/claw/bite attack routine.