Send In The Clowns… (or, Converting the Oddballs)

[demiurge1138]

Looks good to me.

 

[BOZ]

D'oh! Sorry I missed the latest round... been really busy! Just moved the family into a new apartment a couple weeks ago and it's been hectic!

 

[Cleon]

Snarfing the snarf....

Vulnerable to Snarfing (Ex): The best way to destroy a gello monster is to eat it. Bite attacks deal normal damage to a gello monster, and do not cause it to split. Creatures without bite attacks may attempt to bite a gello monster. Treat this attack as if the creature had a natural bite attack. Damage is based on the creature's size: Fine = 1, Diminutive = 1d2, Tiny = 1d3, Small = 1d4, Medium = 1d6, Large = 1d8, Huge = 2d6, Gargantuan = 2d8, Colossal = 4d6.

A creature must swallow the bitten off bit or risk facing another smaller gello monster. Each bite that deals 3 or more points of damage that is not swallowed becomes an independent gello monsters (as per the creature's split ability). Smaller chunks simply perish.

Gello monster bits are very filling. A creature snarfing a gello monster must succeed on a Fortitude save after each bite (DC 10 + 1 per bite) to continue snarfing. A creature that fails its save and attempts to continue snarfing is sickened for x rounds.

A creature with the swallow whole special attack that successfully swallows a gello monster kills it instantly.

Sorry for being late to the party (again). [Hmm, this time the party's got jelly! Will their be cake as well?]

The basic notion looks good, but I'd have the snarfing do lethal unarmed strike damage (e.g. 1d3 for Medium, 1d2 for small) rather than introduce a new attack.

Though that raises the question - do monks do their special unarmed strike damage when snarfing? The SRD says they can use fists, elbows, knees and feet and I believe many 3ED&Ders extend that list to include other potential natural weapons (headbutts, bite et cetera).

As it is, the base Gello Monster will take five snarfs on average to destroy (17hp / 3.5 per Medium-sized snarf)/ Reducing snarf damage to unarmed strike (average of 2 for a Medium-sized humanoid) would increase that to nine snarfs, which seems a better fit to me.

The original stat indicates a Small Gello Monster takes 1-28 snarfs to kill. A 2d10+6-6d10+18 Gello Monster would take 5-15 snarfs at 1d6/snarf, 8-24 at 1d3/snarf, on average. It still falls down a bit at the low end, since they have a minimum of 8 hps (or ~2-4 snarfs to kill).

 

[Shade]

By request from Echohawk (to finish off Imagine Magazine conversions)...

Lurker Between (or Spam Monster): AC 26 (always gets bitten), Move 0"; Hit Dice NA; hp NA; #AT 1 per bite; SA see below; AL N; S Fairly Dinky; xp NA.

These terrible monsters are indistinguishable from luncheon meat. They hide (90%) in ordinary food and wait to be eaten. Each time it is bitten it will attack, from the inside! It automatically causes 1 hit pointof damage and the victim must roll under his or her constitution on a d100. Failure indicates that the victim is violently ill for 1-10 rounds. Only Vikings are immune to this attack - they value the creature as a rare delicacy and will pay up to 20gp for a fine specimen.

Originally appeared in Imagine Magazine #21 (1984)

I'm open to any suggestions to turn this into something remotely viable as a creature.

 

[freyar]

April already?

These are kind of like reverse gello monsters.

They're almost like a hazard or a cursed item. But we could have them be Diminutive monsters that can be Swallowed Whole by anything.

They'd have to have an interesting ecology section, to be sure!

 

[pawsplay]

I think they're all set.

Well played.

 

[freyar]

Well played.

 

[Shade]

The lurker above is a Huge aberration with 10 HD, Str 27, Dex 12, Con 21, Int 5, Wis 18, Cha 4.

If we downsize that to Diminutive, we'd get something like...

1 HD, Str 1, Dex 22, Con 11, Int 5, Wis 18, Cha 4

Lurker aboves have darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent, and tremorsense, and takes only half damage from bludgeoning attacks (3e, probably DR/slashing or piercing now).

 

[freyar]

That works for me.

 

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews.