Special Conversion Thread: Finishing off the oozes

[Big Mac]

I think I may have a way to deal with the aruchai after it has killed a victim and hopped to another plane.

How about calling it a "feasted aruchai" (or something similar) and giving it a separate text block (like drow get in the elf monster manual entry).

You could then say something along the lines of:

A feasted aruchai is identical in apperance to a regular aruchai. However, it is found on the homeplane of its victim (instead of Limbo).

A feasted aruchai remains in its original form for 24 hours after which it retreats to a safe place and permanantly transforms into the form of its victim.​

The stuff about it becoming a CN version of its victim needs to go in there. I think a one-to-one transformation would be more logical. And I also think it would be a lot more fun (and more importantly add value to the game) if the aruchai looks totally identical to its victim. This would allow PCs to go back home and hunt down the person who has literally stolen the life of their dead friend.

Maybe that stuff could go into a third monster entry called something like "transformed aruchai".

That could spell out what the game stats of the new creature are. I'd say all the physical stats of the dead creature (apart from CN). I'm not sure if it would gain levels. Maybe it should get the same ECL as the original aruchai form.

EDIT: I've just realised these will not be a playable race, so couldn't have an ECL, but maybe they could get an LA that works for transformation purposes only.

I also don't know if we allow the aruchai to gain the memories of its victim. Maybe it could just gain language and basic abilities (like being able to walk). Or maybe it could rapidly gain skills (and languages) from the people it first encounters.

Finally, I don't know what type the creature should end up with. It could either have the same type/subtype as the victim or have something like Native (Outsider) to hint at its origin.

EDIT 2: I think "Sated Aruchai" might be a better name for the second stage of the creature than "Feasted Aruchai". It rolls off the tongue easier.

 

[freyar]

IIRC there is an ability (clerical) to dismiss outsiders back to their own plane. It feels like this is a parallel thing with the arucha somehow "stealing" the home plane (as well as the form) of its victim.

There are the spells dismissal and banishment, for example. Somehow to me the arucha's ability sounds almost like the reverse of these. One thing: it might be interesting for the transformed arucha to be vulnerable to dismissal and banishment. Have to think about that.

Here is something we haven't thought about yet: how fast does an aruchai hop over to its new plane? Does it wait for the end of the combat (in which case it might never get to happen unless you have a TPK) or does it instantly vanish as soon as someone gets absorbed and exuded?

That aside, I think you have pretty much got the stuff this creature uses on Limbo. What is left seems to include:

• the creation of the new Aruchai from the dead body (how long it takes for the new creature to come to life),
• the ability to jump from Limbo to the home plane of the victim and
• the transformation process on the home plane of the victim.

As the victim is already dead, I think it would be more interesting if the new aruchai sprouted from their remains very quickly (i.e. instantly, X combat rounds or X dX combat rounds). This would keep the transformation within the same encounter and add to the excitement.

I'd say the same for the aruchai phasing out and hopping off to its hijacked homeplane. I don't know if we want it to fade out or wink out, but it should be something the PCs can see. Maybe the text could even make it obvious where it is going. i.e. something like:

"Planehop (Su): A beam of eerie light surrounds the aruchai as it starts to excrete a molten bubbling mass that was once its victim. Anyone looking into the creature can see another plane on the opposite side of the creature. Anyone succeeding on a (spot?) check can make out details of the victim's birthplace. The DC for this check is X. After X rounds the original aruchai vanishes in a flash of light."​

This suggested text is a mess, but hopefully it gets across what I'm getting at. You might not want to go with the flash. (It already has enough flashy abilities! ) Maybe one of you knows of another creature that "planehops" in front of people.

I think I may have a way to deal with the aruchai after it has killed a victim and hopped to another plane.

How about calling it a "feasted aruchai" (or something similar) and giving it a separate text block (like drow get in the elf monster manual entry).

You could then say something along the lines of:

A feasted aruchai is identical in apperance to a regular aruchai. However, it is found on the homeplane of its victim (instead of Limbo).

A feasted aruchai remains in its original form for 24 hours after which it retreats to a safe place and permanantly transforms into the form of its victim.​

The stuff about it becoming a CN version of its victim needs to go in there. I think a one-to-one transformation would be more logical. And I also think it would be a lot more fun (and more importantly add value to the game) if the aruchai looks totally identical to its victim. This would allow PCs to go back home and hunt down the person who has literally stolen the life of their dead friend.

Maybe that stuff could go into a third monster entry called something like "transformed aruchai".

That could spell out what the game stats of the new creature are. I'd say all the physical stats of the dead creature (apart from CN). I'm not sure if it would gain levels. Maybe it should get the same ECL as the original aruchai form.

I agree, it would probably be more interesting to have the various transformations and plane-hopping happen quickly. I'd say that the arucha should planehop as soon as it's killed someone via its Engulf ability.

I'd also skipped the intermediate "sated arucha" step and just have it transform into its victim right away. It's not only a little simpler, but we could also set it up so that the PCs could see the arucha transform into its friend before teleporting away.

Finally, some kind of template for the transformed arucha (using the victim as the base creature) might be the way to go. I'd make it so that dismissal or banishment, etc, could not only send it back to Limbo but also maybe undo the transformation.

I would go further that this. I would want to go with it sticking to everything that touches it (not just creatures and weapons). And I want anything that isn't a valid target for engulfing to cause an explosion.

I thought adhesive was their only attack, so I'd go with them being able to engulf grappled creatures. I think there should be a short delay or additional attack roll (like the illithid extract brain) so that they don't get a 100 percent kill rate.

I thought sticking to weapons and creatures was everything in D&D! Anyway, that's fine. Also, I'm fine with the "explosive acid" damaging everything except flesh, maybe (because critters can be Engulfed). Shade, I think the acid ability in homebrews should be changed, because it currently can't affect weapons.

If the victim isn't grappled, it can take a Ref save to avoid being Engulfed. If it is grappled by the adhesive, I'd suggest using an additional grapple check to Engulf. Also, since these are sort of small for Engulfing oozes, should we limit the number of creatures it can Engulf at a time?

I think I mentioned this before. Does alkaline exist as a concept in D&D? Things like caustic soda are just as destructive as acid, but have a PH at the opposite end of the scale. So you could have a creature that has a alkaline attack and has acid vulnerability.

But if this concept doesn't exist, or if you think the monster is too complex for a GM, we could ignore the acid.

Both the adhesive abilities look good. I think I'll need to read 'em both and decide which is better.

I'm OK with the stats too. Should these creatures "steal" the stats of their victim after they transform?

If we retain the acid vulnerabilty (i.e. make them have an alkaline attack) then acid could be a solvent. Otherwise I'd say that crushing the little red parasites would obviously give you something that stops the glue sticking.

I'm going to post what I've got now and keep reading.

There isn't anything about alkalines or bases in D&D AFAIK. Regarding stat stealing, see above. For a solvent, how about alcohol?

FYI: ENWorld have added a forum folder into the URL so:
http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=4332432&postcount=391

Has become:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showpost.php?p=4332432&postcount=391

I'm not sure if this is a permanant thing - the links might work again at the end of the update. But it means that pretty much all Creature Catalogue links are broken (and might stay broken).

vBulletin has a tag for linking from one thread to another thread (rather than using a hyperlink). I'm not sure if ENWorld have installed that tag on these forums, but it might be worth asking a moderator/admin if it is available here.​

I've been using the [thread][/thread] tags for a while. There are also [post][/post] tags for linking to specific posts.

This new multiquote thing is fun!

 

[Big Mac]

There are the spells dismissal and banishment, for example. Somehow to me the arucha's ability sounds almost like the reverse of these. One thing: it might be interesting for the transformed arucha to be vulnerable to dismissal and banishment. Have to think about that.

As part of the conversion, I think we should let people know (maybe in a sidebar) how to restore the dead victim to life. Dismissing/banishing the transformed arucha would be one step in this process.

I agree, it would probably be more interesting to have the various transformations and plane-hopping happen quickly. I'd say that the arucha should planehop as soon as it's killed someone via its Engulf ability.

You need a slight delay (in order for the "new arucha" to be born), but apart from that, I'd agree.

I'd also skipped the intermediate "sated arucha" step and just have it transform into its victim right away. It's not only a little simpler, but we could also set it up so that the PCs could see the arucha transform into its friend before teleporting away.

I think that would have to push the delay (before planehopping) up a bit more. If you want to do this in front of the PCs, then how about bringing back the "immortal arucha" concept and making the creature have some sort of ability to ignore damage while the transformation and planehopping process happens. (This would allow it to stop attacking and slowly transform in front of the PCs. The "immortality" forms a convinient plot device that stops the PCs from preventing the form stealing once the arucha is about to hop off. Then the arucha can break off from attacking and the rest of the encounter can be watch and learn thing.)

How is this for a "timeline" of an encounter where the arucha wins:

• One round for a creature to stick to the arucha,
• Another round for it to get drawn inside (or a series of rounds with a tug-of-war),
• However long sufforcation takes for the victim to die (a victim who isn't paralised can attack from inside until they die),
• One round after that for the body to aruchafy and get expelled,
• An "immortal" period where the original arucha starts to glow, flash, scream and morph into the form of its victim (while attacks bounce off),
• Finally the arucha planehops on its next turn (i.e. on its initiative).

Finally, some kind of template for the transformed arucha (using the victim as the base creature) might be the way to go. I'd make it so that dismissal or banishment, etc, could not only send it back to Limbo but also maybe undo the transformation.

The template is the way to go. Do you think the base animal part of were creatures is similar to the way that the aruchai steals properties? We know that the alignment changes to CN. We would need to work out what else would want to change. I was thinking native outsider, but dropping that (and making it possible to "send them back" would be better).

I'm not sure if we want to make sending them back the entire process. Maybe they (and the new aruchai) also need to be killed (forcing the PCs to kill someone who looks like their friend). How about a remove curse spell (or a pair of remove curse spells)?

Obviously the character needs to be brought back from the dead at the end.

Do you think that something like this would add the the quest-feel of restoring their friend or is this making it too hard?

I thought sticking to weapons and creatures was everything in D&D! Anyway, that's fine. Also, I'm fine with the "explosive acid" damaging everything except flesh, maybe (because critters can be Engulfed). Shade, I think the acid ability in homebrews should be changed, because it currently can't affect weapons.

I'm thinking of the explosion as a way that the creature "vomits" out stuff it can't eat (with eat being engulf). So even if we decided that metal or stone (or other materials) could resist the acid, I still think we need a "bang" that ejects them off of the surface of the creature (and flings them across the room). (Otherwise you could just throw feathers onto an arucha to stop its glue from being a threat.)

If the victim isn't grappled, it can take a Ref save to avoid being Engulfed. If it is grappled by the adhesive, I'd suggest using an additional grapple check to Engulf. Also, since these are sort of small for Engulfing oozes, should we limit the number of creatures it can Engulf at a time?

I'm looking for something like a one round delay to give other PCs a one off chance to grab someone before they get engulfed. I think a tug-of-war to stop a character being sucked in, could be a lot more fun than a "mow down and automatically engulf" encounter. Paralised PCs could automatically fail their grapple checks, but if someone else has hold of their legs and the arucha starts doing slam attacks to try to "knock them off" it could be a really fun encounter.

(Maybe just fun for the GM! <mwah! - mwah! - mwah!>)

As for the number of victims being engulfed, I think it would be a lot better to dump all of the mathmatics* and make the process a one-on-one process. I say one arucha engulfs one victim and steals the form of that one victim. (Accidentally engulfing two victims should result in a two headed creature that "dies on the table".) This should work (IMO) in a similar way to a sperm fertilising an egg. The engulfed victim is what the arucha needs to "mature" into its final form.

* = If three arucha meet two orcs then blah blah blah.

There isn't anything about alkalines or bases in D&D AFAIK. Regarding stat stealing, see above. For a solvent, how about alcohol?

OK. I'm overthinking it. Inventing alkaline doesn't help the game, so I'm coming over to your camp. Dump my idea. Dump the acid vulnerability.

Regarding my answer to stat stealing, see above.

As for solvent alcohol works, but I still think a blender and a collection of the red parasites should be considered. Maybe they should be discounted (to reduce the number of things this beastie has going on at once) but it might be fun to have PCs killing arucha and trying to collect red arucha "flee-worms" without sticking to the bodies of the dead arucha.

I've been using the [thread][/thread] tags for a while. There are also [post][/post] tags for linking to specific posts.

This new multiquote thing is fun!

It is going to save me a lot of Ctrl-a + Ctrl-x + back + quote next post.

 

[freyar]

I think we should take a sec to let Shade catch up here...

 

[Shade]

Yep, I feel like I'm three chapters behind in a book again.

 

[Shade]

OK, here's my take. I'd prefer to simplify this amazingly complex creature. How about something like this?

Create Spawn (Su): The corpse of a living creature slain by an arucha begins to rapidly decompose into a sac of flesh and goo. If not restored to life within 24 hours, the corpse is immediately transported to Limbo, where the creature arises as a free-willed arucha. A gentle repose spell has no effect, but dispel chaos cast upon the corpse prevents the transformation (but does not restore the victim to life).

Reclaim Life (Su): When an arucha successfully creates spawn (see above), it is immediately transferred to the home plane of its victim and is restored to the creature it was prior to becoming an arucha (if the original creature type is not known, the DM may either choose a creature or determine one randomly). The creature's alignment becomes Chaotic Neutral if it isn't already. Nothing short of a wish or miracle may restore the creature's original alignment.

 

[freyar]

That works for me, brilliant actually!

 

[Shade]

Great! You're too kind.

When there are 100 or more live Aruchai present, they can meld and flow together into Aruchai-Kamoit — a sea of writhing flesh. Their fingers may then reach 2”, they gain +3 “to hit”, and 3 is subtracted from the enemy’s saving throws vs. paralyzation.

OK, how do we want to handle this? The odds of ever encountering 100 or more of them is very slim.

We could limit their advancement, and put on the Advancement line "see text" and describe in the flavor text how 100 of them form an Aruchai-Kamoit, and not the relevant changes to the stat block. Alternatively, we could reduce the number needed to form the Aruchai-Kamoit to 10, and make it smaller. Thoughts?

 

[freyar]

I'd go with just letting them advance to be quite large (Colossal?) and stating that one larger than Huge are called "Aruchai-Kamoit" and can be formed by the merging of many aruchai into one massive blob.

 

[Shade]

I'm fine with that. Something like...

Advancement: 5-8 HD (Medium); 9-13 HD (Large); 14-17 HD (Huge); 18-30 HD (Gargantuan); 31+ (Colossal)

And then in the flavor text...

Aruchai of Huge size or larger are formed when numerous smaller aruchai merge. These massive seas of flesh are known as Aruchai-Kamoit. As a composite of several aruchai, an aruchai-kamoit must create a number of spawn before it may use its reclaim life ability. A Huge aruchai-kamoit must create 10 spawn, a Gargantuan aruchai-kamoit must spawn 100, and a Colossal aruchai-kamoit must create 1,000 spawn. Upon creating this amount of spawn, a successful use of the reclaim life ability returns an equal number of aruchai to their past lives.