Special Conversion Thread: Microscopic Monsters

[Cleon]

Come to think of it, we haven't worked out Protiston's sporocarp form.

How about we just add the following:

Sporocarp (Ex): Protiston can form its body into sporocarps - objects that resemble mushrooms about 10 feet tall. It can use its Self-Division ability to form only part of its body into sporocarps; each sporocarp is four 5 ft. squares of Protiston's body. Partially developed sporocarps are soggy and covered with damp mucus, giving them fire resistance 5. Such a sporocarp poses no threat, since its spores are not ready to reproduce.

A mature sporocarp is dried-out and has vulnerability to fire. The head of the "mushroom" is hollow and filled with spores about an inch long. It is AC 1, hardness 5, and takes 120 hit points of damage to destroy, but any weapon damage which does not destroy the sporocarp causes it to split open and release its spores. The spores scatter in a cloud covering a 30 foot radius and attach themselves to any organic matter they touch (including living creatures), which they immediately start to digest, doing 2d4 points of acid damage per round (the acid damage only harms organic materials such as flesh or wood). On the first round of contact, the spores can be scraped off a creature (exposing the scraping device to the spores' acid damage), but after that it must be frozen, burned, or cut away (dealing damage to the victim as well). Anything that deals cold or fire damage, sunlight, or a remove disease spell destroys a spore infestation.

Given enough time and food, Protiston can regrow its entire body from even a single spore.

 

[freyar]

Oh, and I felt so proud of that little embellishment!

The background looks good.

Well, since it's unique, I didn't think Protiston really took on sporocarp form. But I don't really object to adding that, either.

 

[Cleon]

Oh, and I felt so proud of that little embellishment!

The background looks good.

Well, since it's unique, I didn't think Protiston really took on sporocarp form. But I don't really object to adding that, either.

Hold on, I just noticed something:

The power of Protiston’s magic may vary from place to place, depending on the number of colonies in the area, but would be powerful in the sporocarp stage.

So, maybe we should chance it so ALL of protiston goes into sporocarps when it encysts, and it gets some kind of power boost to spellcasting (increase to DC and spell penetration? Free metamagic?).

If we do that, we should (a) note it can cast spells in sporocarp form, but cannot move or use its normal physical attacks, and (b) give it a nastier spores attack.

How did I miss that it can fight when it's a dried-out mushroom!

It'll probably be easier to give the Sporocarp form its own subentry, like we did with the regular Slime Mold.

 

[freyar]

Hmmm, that's a good point. But I don't think the casting should be boosted beyond what it has as a C+ superslug. We should definitely boost the spores.

 

[Cleon]

Hmmm, that's a good point. But I don't think the casting should be boosted beyond what it has as a C+ superslug. We should definitely boost the spores.

So are we giving it an "all Sporocarp" option, or allowing it to split up?

I think I'd rather modify the current "Sporodraft" so it can form any division of its body into a sporocarp, rather than have it do it in 4-square lumps, and specify that it can spellcast while in sporocarp form.

We should also give a sporocarp the same hit points as a "slug" the same size.

Apart from that, I suppose we give it a spores attack and some improved defenses (fire resistance in "soggy form", DR in "dried form"?) to compensate for its immobility and lack of physical attacks.

 

[Cleon]

The background looks good.

Better update Protiston's Working Draft with that background before I forget.

Forget again, that is.

I've had some thoughts about a "revised sporocarp", but they'll have to wait for later.

 

[freyar]

Something like this? Rather than add DR, though, I'd just increase the hardness and probably hp on the mature one. We should also boost the spore acid damage or make it nastier in some way.

Sporocarp (Ex): Protiston can form its body into sporocarps - objects that resemble mushrooms about 10 feet tall. It can use its Self-Division ability to form any part of its body into a sporocarps. A sporocarp has the same spellcasting ability as an equivalently sized slug.

Partially developed sporocarps are soggy and covered with damp mucus, giving them fire resistance 5. Such a sporocarp does not have mature spores or a spore attack.

A mature sporocarp is dried-out and has vulnerability to fire. The head of the "mushroom" is hollow and filled with spores about an inch long. It is AC 1, hardness XX, and takes XXX hit points of damage to destroy, but any weapon damage which does not destroy the sporocarp causes it to split open and release its spores. The spores scatter in a cloud covering a 30 foot radius and attach themselves to any organic matter they touch (including living creatures), which they immediately start to digest, doing XdX points of acid damage per round (the acid damage only harms organic materials such as flesh or wood). On the first round of contact, the spores can be scraped off a creature (exposing the scraping device to the spores' acid damage), but after that it must be frozen, burned, or cut away (dealing damage to the victim as well). Anything that deals cold or fire damage, sunlight, or a remove disease spell destroys a spore infestation.

Given enough time and food, Protiston can regrow its entire body from even a single spore.

 

[Cleon]

Something like this? Rather than add DR, though, I'd just increase the hardness and probably hp on the mature one. We should also boost the spore acid damage or make it nastier in some way.

I was going to give it DR instead of hardness. Since Protiston sporocarp is a living creature rather than a hazard, I don't think it ought to have hardness.

We're having our "Epic Protiston" effectively instantaneously morph between Slug and Swarm forms, so I was thinking it should be able to spout sporocarps with equal speed.

The "would be powerful in the sporocarp stage" can improved "Spell Penalty" for its self-division, maybe even a "Spell Bonus" for the larger sizes of sporocarp.

Here's a rough outline:

Sporocarp (Ex): Protiston can transform its body into mushroom-like growths called sporocarps as a standard action. It can use its Self-Division ability to transform pieces of its body into sporocarps while leaving the rest of its body in slime-form. The Protiston Sporocarp Table presented below has statistics for the sporocarps of different sizes.

A protiston sporocarp is incapable of any physical action, so cannot move or make engulf or slam attacks. It can perform any other action, including casting spells without verbal or somatic components - which is every spell Protiston has, due to its Automatic Silent Spell and Automatic Still Spell feats. The cells of protiston inside a sporocarp are highly coordinated, which heightens the sporocarp's mental abilities and spellcasting abilities (see the table).

When first formed, the sporocarp is soggy, with a fire resistance of X. Protiston can dry out any or all of its sporocarps in 1 round as a free action. A dried-out sporocarp gains vulnerability to fire and all the protiston cells inside it transform into spores.

Any round a weapon attack does damage to a dried-out sporocarp it splits open, scattering spores in a spread with a radius given in the table. The spores attach themselves to any organic matter they touch (including living creatures) and immediately start to digest it, doing XdX points of acid damage per round (the acid damage only harms organic materials such as flesh or wood). On the first round of contact, the spores can be scraped off a creature (exposing the scraping device to the spores' acid damage), but after that it must be frozen, burned, or cut away (dealing damage to the victim as well). Anything that deals cold or fire damage, sunlight, or a remove disease spell destroys a spore infestation.

The spores will form protiston cells and eventually regrow into squares of protiston's slime-body, but this process takes at least X hours? days? A single spore can reform Protiston's entire body in as little as Y days if it has sufficient food.

Number
of 5 ft. . . . . . Height of . . . . . Damage. . Spore Effects . . . . Mental . . Spell
Squares .. Size .. 'Mushroom' . AC . Reduction . Spread / Damage . .. Modifier*. Modifier**
4-8 . . . Large . . . 10 ft. . . 4 . . 5/— . . . 30 ft. / 2d6 acid . . . -5 . . . . -2
9-15 . . . Huge . . . 20 ft. . . 3 . . 6/— . . . 30 ft. / 3d6 acid . . . -2 . . . . -1
16-35 . Gargantuan .. 40 ft. . . 1 . . 7/— . . . 40 ft. / 4d6 acid . . . +0 . . . . +0
36-49 .. Colossal . . 80 ft. . .-3 . . 8/— . . . 50 ft. / 5d6 acid . . . +2 . . . . +1
50+ . .. Colossal+ . 100 ft. . .-3 . . 9/— . . . 60 ft. / 6d6 acid . . . +5 . . . . +2
*Apply this modifier to any Int-, Wis- or Cha-based skill check taken by the piece of protiston in sporocarp form.
**Apply this modifier to the DC and caster level of any spell cast by the piece of protiston in sporocarp form.

 

[freyar]

I think we ought to stick to the precedent of other sporocarps (and animated objects) and use hardness -- yes, they are the exception to the general rule of NA/DR for critters and hardness for objects, but that's the precedent we have established. Unless you want to change the other sporocarps?

I also don't like the improved mental and spell modifiers. I read

Protiston should be regarded as an advanced form of Dictyostelium, having maximum hit points at any stage. About 30 colonies of Dictyostelium make up the whole of Protiston, and each is scattered up to 300’ apart across several caves or atolls. The power of Protiston’s magic may vary from place to place, depending on the number of colonies in the area, but would be powerful in the sporocarp stage. Protiston may be considered psionic as well (developed as the DM wishes).

as saying that more of Protiston will come together to form a sporocarp, which just boosts its mental/spell powers the same way as usual.

Also, Protiston only has one copy each of Automatic Silent Spell and Automatic Still Spell, so those only work up to 3rd level spells, not all Protiston's spells.

So, all in all, I'd really rather go back to something more like the standard sporocarp.

 

[Cleon]

I think we ought to stick to the precedent of other sporocarps (and animated objects) and use hardness -- yes, they are the exception to the general rule of NA/DR for critters and hardness for objects, but that's the precedent we have established. Unless you want to change the other sporocarps?

Well it's only Animated Objects that had hardness in the SRD. I seem to recall that whenever I suggested giving a monster hardness before, I got complaints.

It doesn't make a wild amount of difference to me, so I don't mind changing it to hardness.

I also don't like the improved mental and spell modifiers. I read

as saying that more of Protiston will come together to form a sporocarp, which just boosts its mental/spell powers the same way as usual.

Well, I suppose we could include the same mental/spell mods as before. Alternatively, we could go for an intermediary solution and have them have lower modifiers in Sporocarp form.

E.g. a +0/-1/-2/-5/-10 for the mental penalties instead of +0/-2/-5/-10/-15 and +0/-1/-1/-2/-2 for the spell penalty?

Also, Protiston only has one copy each of Automatic Silent Spell and Automatic Still Spell, so those only work up to 3rd level spells, not all Protiston's spells.

Dang, for some reason I thought those feats didn't come in 3-level batches, but were all-or-nothing deals.

I guess we'll have to give it free extra Silent and Still spell metamagic, to allow it to cast spells, or only give it Still and change it so it can make noise in Sporocarp form...

So, all in all, I'd really rather go back to something more like the standard sporocarp.

Care to lay something out. What do you think about the idea of it being able to "sporocarp" in a round?