d20 slake-moths? (Warning! Getting into major Perdido Street Station Spoilers!)

[Olive]

I always thought the dark weaver from the Fiend Folio were maybe a good place to start...

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

I'd say statting something like the Weaver is nuts. He was basically a god. He could teleport anywhere, could effortlessly heal others' wounds, and clearly operated on a level of consciousness and morality far beyond the mortals in the book. The fact that even he got his butt handed to him by the slake-moths was just scary.

I would love for my characters to get their hands on some dream.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Loved both The Scar and Perdido Street station! Ripe for stealing for RPG plots.

I statted up my take on the probability sword from the Scar, but hasn't been used yet.

Considered Slake Moths, but never quite got it feeling right.

I'd offer a slightly different view on the CR could be anything from about ~5 to epic. Depending on the party they were aimed at and how you choose to implement the powers? Fear + Wisdom drain = Low CR; Paralysis + Death effects = High CR?

It could well be that the characters are all relatively low level in DnD terms?


Personally, I'd go with the others - lean towards the higher end of the CR chain. A good candidate might be a modified Nightwing - struck me that there were certain similarities there - the difficulty of viewing them, daylight aversion, high DR/SR, Telepathy? (did they have that)... Replace undead with another (pseudonatural?) template. Replace the spell like abilities?

 

[Tharen the Damned]

Statting up the avanc?

Whoa, this beast is as huge as a city. Should have some 10.000 HD, and thats just the start...

The slake moth should have some inherent ability like "Multi-dimensionality" which is basically a really strong incorporability. Maybe a 65% miss chance.

Has anybody ever though about the racial traits of the cactacae?

 

[A2Z]

I don't know how widespread the appeal would be, but I'd really like to see a PSS RPG (d20?). At least once Mieville gets the world filled out a bit more. The Scar added some pretty interesting dimensions. Just picked up The Iron Council, courtesy of the local library.

There's a new book!? Must. Have It...

 

[Desdichado]

OK, this is just noodling around with some ideas. Although there has been some pretty good information given on how these guys should be really high CR, don't forget who eventually defeated them; some arguably low level NPC classed yahoos. Also, I'll be using this in a CoC game against low level investigators (probably 2nd, 3rd level tops), so I don't want it to be so overwhelmingly bad-ass that there's no point. I'm not following the actual monster-making process here, just noodling around with a few stats and abilities.

• Medium sized, naturally, and can fly pretty quickly.
• DR 10/- due to their multidimensionality, OR Fast Healing 10. I don't think I really want both.
• Fear Aura (Su) -- as the MM monster ability. Or maybe Frightful Appearance (EX). Any comments on which is better?
• Gaze attack, but not looking into it's eyes; looking at it at all directly. Not sure if that has any mechanical implications, but I'm thinking not. Characters who fall victim to this gaze attack are fascinated. For my lowish level game, I'm thinking the DC needs to be 20.
• Essence slurp. Can't remember if the tongue had reach, but how cool is that if it does? Using this attack as a full round action, the slake-moth can drain 1d6 intelligence points from its fascinated victim. A victim drained to 0 INT points becomes the vegetable familiar from the book.
• Other than this, I think the slake-moths need to be bad-ass (relative to my PCs) combatants if they somehow decide to fight instead of merely fascinate and feed. Probably +7 to attack, 1d8+4 damage from claw attacks, full attack option is a good four such claw attacks (their multilimbed body plan is mentioned several times). Give them a good 45-50 hit points, which combined with the fast healing and/or damage reduction (with no real possibility for magic weapons anyway) makes that really pretty nasty. AC of, oh, 19-20 or so.
• Sanity loss 1/1d10 at the sight of one. Maybe a further 1/1d10 if you see one feed out of the corner of your eye or something.
• As for the dream aura, I'm thinking of making that all fluff rather than mechanics. I can explain lots and lots of really weird things happening as I come up on the slake-moths, maybe even forcing Sanity checks as they get more intense.

 

[Desdichado]

Oh, and does anyone know if the slake-moths have ever been illustrated?

 

[Desdichado]

Heh. I just had a thought. I think I could make a slake-moth mini with one of my plastic hormogaunts and some green stuff. Bend the tail (or resculpt it) so the minis is "standing" on it's tail like a J, spread the arms and legs a bit, make a long Kneadatite tongue with a "furry" tip...

Not sure what to do about the wings yet, though. Any suggestions? Damn, that'd look cool. That's about as ambitious a conversion as I've ever attempted too.

 

[fuindordm]

Loved both The Scar and Perdido Street station! Ripe for stealing for RPG plots.

I statted up my take on the probability sword from the Scar, but hasn't been used yet.

Ooh! Let me give it a try!

Unique magic item and weapon. Similar to a shortsword, 1d6 S/P, 19-20/x2

When you attack once with the probability sword, it functions as if you had
attacked 20 times, rolling each of the numbers from one to twenty once at
your highest attack bonus.

For the blows falling in the weapon's threat range (19-20), roll to confirm
the critical normally.

You do not get iterative attacks with the probability sword. Rather, for each
additional attack you add +1 to your attack bonus. In addition, for each
additional attack you may split your blows between one additional opponent,
provided you are using a full attack action. Each opponent must suffer from
a sequential sequence of at least five blows; you can't designate the rolls of
18 and 20 to one creature and the rolls of 17 and 19 to another, for example.

Example: Johan has a base attack bonus of +6/+1, Str 16.
He attacks an orc in plate mail with AC 18. His attack bonus is 6+3(Str)+1(because
he has one iterative attack)=10.
Blows 1-7 miss the orc, glancing off its plate mail.
Blows 8-18 hit the orc, each one doing 1d6+3 damage.
Blows 19 and 20 hit the orc and require two additional rolls to confirm the
threat.
Because Johan has 2 attacks, if he were fighting 2 orcs he could designate
blows 1-12 against the first, and 13-20 against the second. The break point
may be chosen by the player.

The probability sword is an exotic weapon that requires a vastly different fighting
style, thus requires an exotic weapon proficiency to use without the -4 penalty to
hit. (See the Scar for explanatory flavor text).

If the wielder has improved critical (probability sword), then the threat range
increases to 17-20/x2. Additional weapon-specific feats such as weapon focus
and specialization may also be taken.
The Power Attack/Cleave/Great Cleave feat chain (and other similar feats)
cannot be used with the probability sword.
Special combat maoeuvers such as disarm and trip can be used, but do not
benefit from the sword's power.
Expertise works normally.
If the wielder has whirlwind attack, this feat allows him to freely designate the
targetsof his blows among all adjacent opponents (breaking the usual sequential restriction for iterative attacks).

The probability sword is a charged item, found with 80+2d20 charges. Each round
of combat using the swords power removes one charge. It cannot be recharged.

--Ben

 

[Will]

Was it obvious to everyone else that the slake-moths were responsible for the destruction of the scarab-head civilizaiton?

They are one of my favorite 'oh ' critters.