Shade
Monster Junkie
This special conversion thread exists to convert the many creatures from the article "Microscopic monsters: When they get bigger, they get a lot tougher" from Dragon Magazine #111.
From the introduction to the article:
"One productive source of new monsters may be literally found underfoot. Single-celled plants and animals have a variety of bizarre properties which are ideally suited to the AD&D® game. Many of these creatures also have the virtue of living in water, a habitat which is particularly neglected in the available monster collections.
There are two ways to bring these monsters into play. The first is to shrink the characters to a very small size by magical means. Note that the characters must shrink to a fraction of an inch before a single-celled creature becomes much of a threat. This requires a shrinking spell of exceptional power.
The second, and I think more interesting, way to bring the monsters into play is by enlarging them (this is assumed in the descriptions given below). A high-powered enlarge spell cast on murky pond water would do the trick. More systematic enlargement of the cells might be undertaken by a powerful magic-user, human or otherwise, who would use the cells for some purpose."
We'll get to this guy later, but I wanted to post his basic description as he's mentioned elsewhere throughout the article:
"Protiston (as it was named by the mage who discovered it) began as a simple collection of single-celled creatures in a large body of water, such as a sea or an ocean. At some some point in the distant past, Protiston became so large and complex that it acquired intelligence, and slowly thereafter gained magical skills. Being of such an alien intelligence, Protiston has no understanding at all of “normal” human thought, and regards everything around it as either a food source or “hostile environment” to be overcome and destroyed. No one knows for sure, but the chaotic evil alignment detected from Protiston may stem from either Protiston’s innate disregard for all other forms of life, or from some form of association with the demon prince Juiblex (which might explain how Protiston gained spellcasting abilities). Little else is known of this being’s origins or intent, save that it wishes to “eat” the entire world or shape it to benefit itself. Few beings are even aware that this creature exists, and few who have found it have lived to tell about it later.
As presently constituted, Protiston inhabits the interior of a large coral atoll (or a calm, shoreline cavern, if placed in an inland sea by the DM). Numerous support colonies of amoebae may be found around it. Although a single thought in Protiston’s “mind” may take anywhere from a few seconds to a few weeks to complete, Protiston is highly intelligent and has gained the powers of a 12th-level magic-user, being able to cast spells like push, shield, continual darkness/light, ray of enfeeblement, stinking cloud (above water), hold person, protection from normal missiles, slow, hallucinatory terrain, plant growth, cloudkill (above water), hold monster, telekinesis, transmute rock to mud, and control weather. Other spells may be possible, but no spell will be used that involves fire or that considers other beings to be intelligent (such as charm spells). Select Protiston’s spells as if it were the only intelligent being around, and everything it might encounter was a mindless food source or part of the environment.
In addition to spell-casting abilities, Protiston is somehow able to magically or biologically increase the size of single-celled creatures, using these creatures as guards and helpers. Note that among these creatures, only Protiston is evil. The others are all neutral and unintelligent, and work to Protiston's advantage only according to circumstances."
From the introduction to the article:
"One productive source of new monsters may be literally found underfoot. Single-celled plants and animals have a variety of bizarre properties which are ideally suited to the AD&D® game. Many of these creatures also have the virtue of living in water, a habitat which is particularly neglected in the available monster collections.
There are two ways to bring these monsters into play. The first is to shrink the characters to a very small size by magical means. Note that the characters must shrink to a fraction of an inch before a single-celled creature becomes much of a threat. This requires a shrinking spell of exceptional power.
The second, and I think more interesting, way to bring the monsters into play is by enlarging them (this is assumed in the descriptions given below). A high-powered enlarge spell cast on murky pond water would do the trick. More systematic enlargement of the cells might be undertaken by a powerful magic-user, human or otherwise, who would use the cells for some purpose."
We'll get to this guy later, but I wanted to post his basic description as he's mentioned elsewhere throughout the article:
"Protiston (as it was named by the mage who discovered it) began as a simple collection of single-celled creatures in a large body of water, such as a sea or an ocean. At some some point in the distant past, Protiston became so large and complex that it acquired intelligence, and slowly thereafter gained magical skills. Being of such an alien intelligence, Protiston has no understanding at all of “normal” human thought, and regards everything around it as either a food source or “hostile environment” to be overcome and destroyed. No one knows for sure, but the chaotic evil alignment detected from Protiston may stem from either Protiston’s innate disregard for all other forms of life, or from some form of association with the demon prince Juiblex (which might explain how Protiston gained spellcasting abilities). Little else is known of this being’s origins or intent, save that it wishes to “eat” the entire world or shape it to benefit itself. Few beings are even aware that this creature exists, and few who have found it have lived to tell about it later.
As presently constituted, Protiston inhabits the interior of a large coral atoll (or a calm, shoreline cavern, if placed in an inland sea by the DM). Numerous support colonies of amoebae may be found around it. Although a single thought in Protiston’s “mind” may take anywhere from a few seconds to a few weeks to complete, Protiston is highly intelligent and has gained the powers of a 12th-level magic-user, being able to cast spells like push, shield, continual darkness/light, ray of enfeeblement, stinking cloud (above water), hold person, protection from normal missiles, slow, hallucinatory terrain, plant growth, cloudkill (above water), hold monster, telekinesis, transmute rock to mud, and control weather. Other spells may be possible, but no spell will be used that involves fire or that considers other beings to be intelligent (such as charm spells). Select Protiston’s spells as if it were the only intelligent being around, and everything it might encounter was a mindless food source or part of the environment.
In addition to spell-casting abilities, Protiston is somehow able to magically or biologically increase the size of single-celled creatures, using these creatures as guards and helpers. Note that among these creatures, only Protiston is evil. The others are all neutral and unintelligent, and work to Protiston's advantage only according to circumstances."
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