Special Conversion Thread: Finishing off the oozes

[demiurge1138]

Should the iron one overcome DR as cold iron?

 

[freyar]

Should the iron one overcome DR as cold iron?

I think so.

What kind of skills do these things need? Hide?

 

[Big Mac]

Sorry for the delay. I've been busy the last couple of evenings.

Sure. Here are some ideas based on info from Wikipedia:

"Gold is the most malleable and ductile metal; a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of one square meter, or an ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be beaten thin enough to become translucent."

We could allow it to make itself so thin that it gains near-invisibility.

I like this, but it is a bit similar to an existing ability, so maybe we can fold it it. All Silatics can flatten themselves out to a one inch thickness and have improved hide checks. Maybe Gold Silatics could just have improved hide checks.

Perhaps they should all have "hide in plain sight" and the gold should have a higher DC.

The blurb seems to suggest that in wildspace a Silatic can swim through space, but in gravity it needs to change into a more blob like shape and use pseudopods to move. So if Silatics (including Golds) flatten themselves, maybe they should be immobile.

"Heat, moisture, oxygen, and most corrosive agents have very little chemical effect on gold..."

We could give it resistance to acid and fire.

This is good. The non metallic parts of the Silatic would still be vulnerable, but the creature could coat itself with its own metal as a thin layer of armor.

Gold is also a good conductor of electricity. I'm not sure if that would make these creatures less or more prone to damage from spells like lightning bolt.

When pure, the metal appears greyish-white and firm. The metal is corrosion-resistant. The catalytic properties of the six platinum family metals are outstanding. For this catalytic property, platinum is used in catalytic converters, incorporated in automobile exhaust systems, as well as tips of spark plugs. Platinum has a cubic crystal structure.

If I am not mistaken, gold is more acid resistant than any other metal.

The catalitic properties sound interesting. I'm not sure if it isn't "too scientific" for D&D, but maybe this could be folded into something else. Maybe Platinum Silatics could "eat" faster than other Silatics (so they take only 2 rounds to produce digestive fluid and only 2 rounds to reabsorb it). I'm not sure on this - I think it needs more thought.

"Platinum possesses high resistance to chemical attack, excellent high-temperature characteristics, and stable electrical properties. All these properties have been exploited for industrial applications. Platinum does not oxidize in air at any temperature, but can be corroded by cyanides, halogens, sulfur, and caustic alkalis. This metal is insoluble in hydrochloric and nitric acid, but does dissolve in the mixture known as aqua regia (forming chloroplatinic acid)."

Resistance to acid, electricity, and fire?

That sounds good. It is pretty similar to the Gold Silatic. Maybe the bonuses could be in proportaion to the metals themselves.

"According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, short-term exposure to platinum salts "may cause irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat" and long-term exposure "may cause both respiratory and skin allergies."

Maybe its attacks require a saving throw or suffer a -1 penalty on some checks?

I like this, but wonder if we could fold this in with the existing acid attack and the catalistic nature of the creature.

How about changing the Platinum Silatics acid coating to a different coating that causes catalitic reactions and irritation? The catalitic reaction could result in acid building up on the surface of the pseudopods and the irritation could be similar to the sort of irritation you get in your eyes when chopping up onions.

How about if the Platinum Silatic scores a hit, their opponant has to make a saving throw to avoid crying for X rounds. Crying could cause a penalty to attck rolls and vision based checks.

"Nuclei of iron have some of the highest binding energies per nucleon..."

We could give it a "binding attack" that allows it to essentially have improved grab/attach against creatures wearing metal armor.

This is nice, although maybe it should only use this grab ability against objects containing iron. (Steel contains iron, so that would be most armor.) This attack would also imply that an Iron Silatic would be able to grab metal/iron/steel weapons. There are other 3rd edition monsters that grab weapons, so I think that could fit in with the rules.

A person who gets "grabbed" by an Iron Silatic should be able to escape by cutting themselves out of their armor (as well as by all other existing methods). And if they don't actually hit the Iron Silatic (or stop it eating their armor) the creature should just digest their armor and let them go.

"Iron (as Fe2+, ferrous ion) is a necessary trace element used by almost all living organisms."

We could allow the iron's metalsense to also detect living creatures, due to the iron content in their blood.

This is logical, but it changes the creature from one that attacks metal to one that might want to eat blood. Rather than feeding with one pseudopod unless disturbed, I could see these creatures ripping all living creatures apart. I'm not sure that would make them feel like the same creature.

But iron in blood probably does need to be built in somehow. How about having something in blood that makes Iron Silatics feel a bit sick. That could give you a reason for them not to eat people (even if they do have "Bloodsense" as well as "Metalsense").

How about rust? Can anyone think of an advantage or disadvantage involving rust? Maybe Iron Silatics could find water repulsive (even if it doesn't actually cause rust damage in combat rounds).

Actually, maybe all silatics should be seen as food by Rust Monsters. A Rust Monster should be able to do dX damage to a silatic that fails its saving throw. Maybe the Iron Silatic should get a much lower saving throw than the other types (or maybe it should even have no saving throw against rust attacks).

Personally, I think the haste attack more than makes up for the stat variation.

Fair enough. I will bow to your improved knowledge of conversions. Just checking the numbers on the stats.

 

[Big Mac]

The binding attack idea is cool but a bit of a stretch from the nuclear binding energy standpoint.

I do share your concerns on this one. I'm not sure we should have too much scientific knowledge in D&D. But you could solve the problem by making this a magnetic grapple attack bonus. If an Iron Silatic could magnetise itself (X times per day) it could stick to metals that were magnetic (and get an improved grab), but it couldn't use this special attack on non-magnetic metals. So the ability becomes less powerful and easier to sell to players.

And a magnetic attack form would be good at giving the Iron Silatic a shot at pulling certain metal weapons out of the hands of characters.

Not a fan of ductility for the gold--these are oozes! They can do that anyway!

They can only get one inch thick. I think that the Gold Silatic abilty to do that should just get a boost over other silatics.

If we do the silver, I'd suggest its attacks are treated as silver weapons for purposes of overcoming DR.

I like this. It might need a bit more, but that is an excellent start.

That sounds good. We should note that the iron silatics will be much more aggressive toward most characters due to the iron metalsense.

...unless we say they don't like the taste of blood.

Should the iron one overcome DR as cold iron?

I like that, especially if we also have a Silver Silatic that overcomes DR like Shade suggested.

Can anyone think of why an Iron Silatic might have better magic resistance than other Silatics?

I just had a thought. We are personalising Silatics to their metal, but how does that stack up as a defense against metallic dragons? Silatics would probably want to steal the treasure from a dragon and eat the bits of metal stuck in their skin.

 

[freyar]

I think Hide In Plain Sight might be a good ability for gold as a way to represent its transparency.

Meanwhile, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. What else do we need for iron?

 

[Shade]

Meanwhile, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. What else do we need for iron?

Skills: 9

Feats: 3

Environment: Any?

Challenge Rating: x

Advancement: x

An iron silatic can grow to a diameter of up to 6 feet and a thickness of about x inches. A typical specimen weighs about x pounds.

Should digest metal be Constitution-based save DC?

 

[freyar]

Skills: Still can't think of much that make sense but Hide and/or Move Silently.

Feats: Power Attack, Improved Sunder, Weapon Focus (pseudopod)?

Environment: Any, I guess.

CR: Probably 4, maybe 5

Advancement: 7-12 HD (Medium), 13-18 HD (Large)

Edit: 6 inches and 200lb? That might be a little low if we're thinking of these as pure metal; that's like 10,000 coins.

Definitely Con based.

 

[demiurge1138]

I think CR 5 would be reasonable. Improved Sunder, lots of hit points, high SR.

 

[freyar]

I think CR 5 would be reasonable. Improved Sunder, lots of hit points, high SR.

Fair enough. Thoughts on skills or feats? Weight?

 

[demiurge1138]

Ranks in Climb make as much sense as Hide/Move Silently. Some of each?

The Power Attack/Imp. Sunder combo is good. Weapon Focus isn't doing it for me, though. Improved Initiative?