Special Conversion Thread: Finishing off the oozes

[Cleon]

Yeah, I was just thinking benefits. I suppose we could rewrite it to be a racial bonus and penalty, but I'm not sure it is worth it, as it overcomplicates the creature without really making it a more interesting adversary, IMHO.

Thoughts?

The main problem is that if imorphism only provides bonuses the creature would never be able to completely imorph into a creature with an emulation-worthy stats lower than its own, at least as the power is currently written.

An imorph has a fairly good Will Save of +4, so it's quite likely to be fighting melee-types with a lower Will save who it should be able to emulate. We'd either need to allow it to imorph a penalty or add a line that if one of the imorph's base stats is already higher than its opponent it doesn't need to change it to complete imorphism.

Anyhows, I'm thinking the imorph only uses its shapeshifting powers in self defence, when it expects an attacker to be tougher than itself. It would not use imorphism when facing creatures it knows are really weak - presumably when hunting dire rats it wouldn't bother trying to pretend to be one.

As for it not making it a more interesting adversary, it would encourage the obvious tactic of sending in a squishy NPC to provoke the imorph into taking a vulnerable form ("Halfling torch bearer - attack!"), then the rest of the party pile on to it. I can imagine an encounter when the party may want to use such a tactic, e.g. a bunch of 1st level characters need to deal with a 10-HD imorph.

Evolutionarily speaking, it makes more sense only to have a bonus.

Who said anything about the imorph being evolutionary well adapted. Why do you think they're extraordinarily rare?

The serious answer to your question is that the evolutionary cost of the adaptation may outweigh its advantages. Being able to imorph into a weaker form could help the creature produce more successful offspring, which would make evolutionary sense despite rendering the adults individually more vulnerable to predation.

 

[Shade]

OK, I'm convinced.

Updated. Does that cover it?

 

[freyar]

Works for me, too, and I'm happy with Imorphism.

All ranks in Spot?

Not sure what the theme should be, which leaves me a little befuddled with feats. But I could maybe see Power Attack (for when it gains attack bonuses) and perhaps Stealthy for crawling around dungeons. Thoughts?

 

[Shade]

Not sure what the theme should be, which leaves me a little befuddled with feats. But I could maybe see Power Attack (for when it gains attack bonuses) and perhaps Stealthy for crawling around dungeons. Thoughts?

It appears to be one of those creatures that existed solely to be an unusual encounter. Since it never made it into later editions, it missed out on habitat and ecology.

It doesn't sound like a predator, since it only attacks if harassed. I imagine it eating leaves, stems, soft bark, fruit and algae like snails.

Assuming that sort of lifestyle, ranks in Spot or even Survival make sense.

Alertness probably makes sense, and I could see Stealthy. I'd avoid Power Attack, since the poor DM already has plenty of numbers to keep track of with this creature.

 

[Cleon]

OK, I'm convinced.

Updated. Does that cover it?

Let me mull it over for a bit...

Looks good, but we haven't explained what happens if an opponent's stats change. I suggest something like this:

If the opponent has its attributes changed by any means, such as shapechanging or an enhancement spell, the imorph will begin to emulate the modified attributes instead of the opponent's previous attributes. If the imorph has already achieved complete emulation, it retains any current changes to size, reach and movement forms until it completely matches its opponent's new form.

Now as for skills, I'm tempted to give it a couple of ranks in Climb and the rest in Spot. There's something about those suckers that makes me imagine it climbing around on things.

Feats I'm undecided on, how about Improved Initiative and Great Fortitude?

And finally, how much does it weigh? If it has the same density as a gelatinous cube and approximates a cylinder 4' long and 2' diameter that works out as 188 lbs, how about rounding that up to 200 lbs to allow for some irregularities and the extra flesh of the tentacles.

 

[freyar]

The update to imorphism looks good, and so does 200lb.

Why not a racial bonus to Climb and all ranks in Spot?
I'm inclined to go with Alertness and Stealthy, but I'd be ok to swap Imp Init in for one of those.

 

[Cleon]

The update to imorphism looks good, and so does 200lb.

Why not a racial bonus to Climb and all ranks in Spot?
I'm inclined to go with Alertness and Stealthy, but I'd be ok to swap Imp Init in for one of those.

Racial bonus to Climb sounds good. Any other skills that deserve racial bonuses? I suppose its imorphism technically gives it a bonus to Disguise checks when completely duplicating someone - say +10, like the Alter Self spell.

I'd prefer to keep Alertness than Stealthy, since we aren't thinking of giving it any ranks in Hide or Move Silently. I guess Improved Initiative makes more sense than Great Fortitude, since it will probably increase its Fort Save due to Imorphism anyway.

 

[freyar]

Yeah, it's probably good to add a line to Imorphism that it gives a +10 to Disguise checks, though it would take an exceptionally smart imorph to take advantage of that. (Oddly, should imorphs be allowed to control their imorphism?)

Rather than Alertness, we could do Skill Focus (Spot).

 

[Cleon]

Yeah, it's probably good to add a line to Imorphism that it gives a +10 to Disguise checks, though it would take an exceptionally smart imorph to take advantage of that. (Oddly, should imorphs be allowed to control their imorphism?)

Rather than Alertness, we could do Skill Focus (Spot).

Would also be useful against exceptionally dumb opponents. For example, a nest of giant ants would probably stop attacking an imorph once it looks (or more likely smells) like one of their own.

As for controlling their imorphism, in what way? My impression is the power's basically instinctive once triggered, and the imorph can only control it by deciding it isn't under attack and not triggering it in the first place. They can't even decide which among multiple foes to replicate.

Otherwise it can act normally. I'm thinking it could try to swap positions and mimic the actions with its opponent, in order to confuse its opponent's allies. It may only have animal intelligence, but there are real-life creatures that use such tactics.

Oh, as for Skill Focus (Spot). I like the slightly greater versatility of Alertness. Gives the poor beast some change of hearing the fighter blundering around.

 

[Shade]

Updated.

How about a climb speed (and the accompanying +8 racial bonus on Climb checks)? Say, 10 feet?