Seeking advice on an NPC conversion

[freyar]

Ability Focus (dancing touch) would be a good, but mean, feat choice.

 

[Cleon]

Make that 2 feats.

Gah, how did that 3 get in their.

I meant two feats. Ability Focus (dancing touch) is an effective pick, but might be too nasty for the party.

Hold on a sec, Dancing Touch as written should be DC 15 - two for its HD, 3 for its Charisma.

Its Silver Needles should probably also be DC 15, since they're probably Cha-based as well.

A DC of 15 should be enough for that level, I wouldn't want to boost it without a good reason.

Hmm, the saves are screwy. Constructs have all poor saves, so it should be Fort. +1, Ref. +1, Will +2.

Maybe give it Lightning Reflexes to increase the Ref save to +3?

 

[Oryan77]

The issues you guys pointed out are the exact things that I questioned myself. I wasn't exactly sure how to figure out the save throws because I was confused by what I read in the Monster Manual for doing such a thing.

I was also confused on how to determine the save DC. The MM doesn't seem to be as clear as you just were on that.

I actually had two feats and chose Weapon Focus (razor) since he's known to slice people up. But it seemed like I had a ton of special abilities & qualities for a CR 3 NPC. So I figured I was balancing him out a bit by having only 1 feat even if the build granted two.

But if it all looks good and the 2nd feat is appropriate, then I'll do that.

About Wooden Body & Immunity to Magic; do you mean that I should simply mention the damage from Warpwood spell in the Immunity to Magic quality and do without the "Wooden Body" quality? Are you also saying that it should be called something besides "Immunity to Magic"? I'm not sure if yer saying the problem is with the name of the quality (Immunity to Magic) since that name is used differently on other creatures, or if my description to the quality is not allowable.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Cleon]

I was also confused on how to determine the save DC. The MM doesn't seem to be as clear as you just were on that.

Save DCs for monster's special attacks are pretty straightforward.

The standard DC is 10 plus half the monster's HD plus an ability score modifier - Charisma in this case, like for most supernatural attacks.

If it's a spell or Spell Like Ability use the spell's DC instead (10 plus spell level plus ability modifier).

I actually had two feats and chose Weapon Focus (razor) since he's known to slice people up. But it seemed like I had a ton of special abilities & qualities for a CR 3 NPC. So I figured I was balancing him out a bit by having only 1 feat even if the build granted two.

But if it all looks good and the 2nd feat is appropriate, then I'll do that.

Well under the rules as written you have to give it 2 feats, since monsters always get feats for their Hit Dice unless they're mindless.

If you want to nudge his power down a bit I'd suggest making the 2nd feat something of little use in combat, such most skill feats.

About Wooden Body & Immunity to Magic; do you mean that I should simply mention the damage from Warpwood spell in the Immunity to Magic quality and do without the "Wooden Body" quality? Are you also saying that it should be called something besides "Immunity to Magic"? I'm not sure if yer saying the problem is with the name of the quality (Immunity to Magic) since that name is used differently on other creatures, or if my description to the quality is not allowable.

Basically, if you followed the standard Immunity to Magic it'd look something like this:

Immunity to Magic (Ex): A Maligno is immune to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance. In addition, certain spells and effects function differently against the creature, as noted below.

A warp wood spell cast on a Maligno inflicts 3d6 points of damage and slows it for 3 rounds.

If I were writing it I'd add some more wood spells, e.g.:

An ironwood spell spell cast on a Maligno gives it a +5 enhancement bonus to its natural armour for a duration of 2d6+12 minutes.

A repel wood spell pushes a Maligno away as if it were a wooden object.

A warp wood spell cast on a Maligno inflicts 3d6 points of damage and slows it for 3 rounds.

A wood shape spell cast on a Maligno can be used to inflict 1d8 hit points of damage or repair 1d8 points of damage (caster's choice).

The Maligno gets no saving throw against any of these effects.
​

Of course, most of those spells are too high level for your party to cast on Maligno, but I like them just as a thought-experiment.

 

[freyar]

Cleon's spot on about all that, but it's also not much of a big deal if you're just using it for a home campaign.

 

[Oryan77]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help. I'm going to tweak it up to implement your suggestions. I'd like it to be as precise as I can in case other people might like to use the conversion.

I've had people show some interest in this conversion. People seem to be trying to redo the adventure conversion forum, so I may throw this stuff up there once I'm finished.

 

[freyar]

Please post or edit in your updates when you're done; I'd love to see it!

 

[Cleon]

Cleon's spot on about all that, but it's also not much of a big deal if you're just using it for a home campaign.

Quite! I confess I wouldn't bother sticking to the monster-building rules much in actual play. The "that number seems about right" approach is so much faster.

 

[Oryan77]

I updated the post with the new stats.

 

[Cleon]

I updated the post with the new stats.

Looks good at first glance, although I don't have time to fine-comb it at the moment.

I like the addition of the Fire descriptor to the Immunity to Magic SQ.