Converting True Dragons

[freyar]

Back to the conversion:

At will protection from law SLA and your proposed 1st and 2nd level sorc spells work for me, though I still don't see why she should "waste" a sorc spell known on a spell she can already cast as a cleric (entropic shield). Would color spray or hypnotism work instead?
3rd level -- arcane sight, lightning bold, major image, sleet storm ??

 

[Cleon]

Back to the conversion:

At will protection from law SLA and your proposed 1st and 2nd level sorc spells work for me

Updating the Pearl the Moon Dragon Working Draft with the SLA change and 2nd-level spells.

, though I still don't see why she should "waste" a sorc spell known on a spell she can already cast as a cleric (entropic shield). Would color spray or hypnotism work instead?

I don't care for those alternates since they both have HD limits that are low enough to render them of little use to an epic-level creature.

Also, I'd prefer to keep the defensive function that entropic shield offers - so how about mage armor?

3rd level -- arcane sight, lightning bold, major image, sleet storm ??

Hmm… arcane sight and major image are fine by me. Presumably the "lightning bold" is meant to be lightning bolt - that and sleet storm don't seem terribly effective choices.

I would go for a couple from detect magic, displacement, stinking cloud and haste or slow.

Of those, I like displacement and haste, so would you be amenable to arcane sight, displacement, haste, major image?

 

[freyar]

Mage Armor is fine; I guess an extra +4 AC never hurts.

Your proposed 3rd level spells sound good to me.

4th level: black tentatcles, crushing despair, dimensional anchor, greater invisibility ??

 

[Cleon]

Mage Armor is fine; I guess an extra +4 AC never hurts.

Your proposed 3rd level spells sound good to me.

Good!

4th level: black tentatcles, crushing despair, dimensional anchor, greater invisibility ??

Those are fine by me, except I prefer "tentacles" to "tentatcles".

Updating the Pearl the Moon Dragon Working Draft.

For the 5th-level spells, I was thinking feeblemind, mind fog, mirage arcana, wall of force.

I did consider prying eyes instead of mirage arcana and would be happy to swap them if you prefer the eyes.

 

[freyar]

No, I think I like mirage arcana better for her. Just seems more "chaotic" somehow.

3 at 6th level. How about greater dispel magic, true seeing, and maybe symbol of fear?

 

[Cleon]

No, I think I like mirage arcana better for her. Just seems more "chaotic" somehow.

Updating the Pearl the Moon Dragon Working Draft.

3 at 6th level. How about greater dispel magic, true seeing, and maybe symbol of fear?

A symbol spell takes 10 minutes to cast so it's unlikely Pearl will use it "in game".

How about disintegrate instead?

 

[freyar]

Fair enough, disintegrate works for me.

7th level: insanity, spell turning, and maybe something like ethereal jaunt?

 

[Cleon]

Fair enough, disintegrate works for me.

Hold on a second, I just noticed she's got disintegrate in her SLAs.

How about geas/quest or greater heroism instead?

7th level: insanity, spell turning, and maybe something like ethereal jaunt?

I would prefer greater teleport or limited wish over ethereal jaunt.

 

[freyar]

Geas/quest also has a 10 minute casting time. If we're going to do that, we could switch back to the symbol of fear, which might be useful in one of her lairs. Though I guess the geas/quest could make for an interesting interaction with a PC. Greater heroism is ok too, but I'm not sure if any of these really feel thematically appropriate.

I think I like greater teleport best of those possibilities (even over ethereal jaunt).

 

[Cleon]

Geas/quest also has a 10 minute casting time. If we're going to do that, we could switch back to the symbol of fear, which might be useful in one of her lairs. Though I guess the geas/quest could make for an interesting interaction with a PC. Greater heroism is ok too, but I'm not sure if any of these really feel thematically appropriate.

Yes, I was motivated more by the roleplaying criteria for the geas/quest suggestion.

How about programmed illusion or mislead to switch the approach to "trickery"?

Alternatively, we could pick something from her cleric spell list (including the Domain options). We should consider having at least a few of those.

Hmm… of the Domain options I like animate objects and mislead the best.

Speaking of "thematically appropriate" I would think a few spells from the Chaos Domain should appear.

How about we swap chaos hammer for crushing despair and put word of chaos in the 7th-level spells?

Although honestly, both of those spells would make far more sense as being additions to Pearl's SLA list, together with some standard "Ruler Outsider" powers.

e.g. the generic Demon Lord from Dragon #359 has SLAs of At will—astral projection, blasphemy, (or word of chaos for obyriths), desecrate, detect good, detect law, greater dispel magic, greater teleport, plane shift, shapechange, telekinesis, unhallow, unholy aura (or cloak of chaos for obyriths), unholy blight (or chaos hammer for obyriths).

A fair few of those seem appropriate additions to Pearl's SLAs.

Incidentally, Tiamat has a few of these in earlier editions (e.g. plane shift, teleport without error, travel to astral/ethereal planes) but for some reason they went AWOL in the 3E Manual of the Planes.

Which seems a bit screwy.

I think I like greater teleport best of those possibilities (even over ethereal jaunt).

I'd be fine with that (which would make it greater teleport, insanity, spell turning) or if we adopt my "Chaos Domain" suggestion it could be insanity, spell turning, word of chaos).