demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
I agree with all that freyar has said, although I'm on the fence on average versus good maneuverability.
Demiurge out.
Demiurge out.
Special Conversion Thread: Moldvay's Undead
- Thread starter Shade
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Shade
Monster Junkie
Updated.
Pay close attention to the attack lines and scourge entry. Note that the modifiers include the attack and damage bonuses from it functioning as a +1 weapon.
I think average maneuverability should suffice, since nothing seems to indicate that it hovers or prefers to attack from the air, and it can always take gnat form for perfect flight.
If that all looks correct, are we finished?
Pay close attention to the attack lines and scourge entry. Note that the modifiers include the attack and damage bonuses from it functioning as a +1 weapon.
I think average maneuverability should suffice, since nothing seems to indicate that it hovers or prefers to attack from the air, and it can always take gnat form for perfect flight.
If that all looks correct, are we finished?
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
I'm convinced of average maneuverability... and I think we're done.
Demiurge out.
Demiurge out.
Shade
Monster Junkie
Next!
Ka
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Desert, rivers, subterranean
FREQUENCY: Very rare
ORGANIZATION: Solitary or small bands
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Night
DIET: Spirit food
INTELLIGENCE: Average to Genius (8-18)
TREASURE: 50% A
ALIGNMENT: Lawful neutral
NO. APPEARING: 1 or 2-12
ARMOR CLASS: 1
MOVEMENT: 9
HIT DICE: 9 + 6
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2d10
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Fear, spellwriting, curse, statue animation
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Weapon resistances, spell immunities and resistances, spirit doors
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Nil
SIZE: M (5'-7')
MORALE: Fearless (20)
XP VALUE: 14,000
A ka is a kind of super-mummy. Once, the ka was a noble, king, or pharaoh. After death, the mummified body continued to live on in the tomb as an undead monster. A ka is not necessarily evil. It attacks only when its tomb offerings are threatened or when under the control of a cleric. A ka looks like a normal mummy--i.e., as a bandage-wrapped corpse.
Combat: Like a normal mummy, a ka possesses supernatural strength that lets its blows do more than normal damage. Instead of a rotting disease, however, a successful hit by a ka imparts a curse upon the victim. DMs may make up their own curses or may use the following table (roll 1d20; all curses last until removed):
1-3: Ill luck. All future rolls for the cursed individual are -l on a roll of 1, -2 on a roll of 2, or -3 on a roll of 3.
4-7: Withering touch. An arm or leg withers and becomes useless. (4 = right arm, 5 = left arm, 6 = right leg, 7 = left leg; loss of a leg reduces movement by 3).
8-11: Mutation. A body part becomes mutated to some other form (8 = a leg, 9 = torso, 10 = an arm, 11 = head).
12-14: Alteration. An attribute chosen at random is lowered by -1.
15-18: Death wish. Extra damage is received in subsequent attacks. (15 = +1, 16 = +2, 17 = +3, 18 = double damage).
19-20: Cursed item. One magical item, chosen at random, loses its benefits on a 19 (as per cancellation). On a 20, the item actually becomes cursed (use the closest appropriate cursed item from the Treasure Tables; hence a sword +3 would become a cursed sword -2).
As with mummies, the mere sight of a ka may cause fear and revulsion in any creature. A save vs. spells must succeed or the victim will be paralyzed with fright for 1-6 melee rounds. There are no bonuses to the die roll.
A ka can be harmed only by magical weapons, which do only half normal damage. Sleep, charm, hold, cold, poison, paralysis, polymorph, and electricity do not harm it. It suffers only half damage from fire or holy water. A raise dead spell turns a ka into a normal human (of 10thlevel fighting ability) unless the ka saves vs. spells.
A ka has a limited magical ability. A word written by it has the force of a command spell. It takes a full round to inscribe such a word. Characters need not see the written word for the spell to take effect.
The ka is able to fragment its spirit. These spirit fragments can inhabit special magical stone statues within the ka's tomb. Treat these statues as stone golems. A ka can inhabit 1-4 statues at a time. If the ka's mummified body is destroyed, its will lives on in the statues. Inside a statue, however, a ka no longer possesses its curse or magical writing powers, and it may be affected by forms of attacks to which the mummified body is immune. Note that the ka has no power to activate any other statue but those in its tomb.
A ka may also walk through special spirit doors carved into stone or wood or painted on a wall when the body was buried. A ka could walk through a spirit door carved into rock, attack the party, then retreat back inside its tomb.
A cleric has the same chance to turn a ka as he does a vampire.
Habitat/Society: A ka was once a living ruler. It still retains some friendliness toward character races, especially members of its own race and nation. Thus a human ka has an affinity for humans, a dwarven ka for dwarves, etc. This affinity is even stronger if, in the DM's opinion, the ka and character share the same cultural background.
If no attempt is made to steal its tomb treasures, a ka may be placated by showing it reverence and giving it additional grave goods. Such goods may vary from simple food to elaborate treasures. At the DMs discretion, a ka that has become placated may be asked questions that require simple yes-or-no answers. The greater the offerings, the greater the
knowledge such a ka may impart.
Wealthy individuals are usually buried alone. A ka is, hence, generally encountered as a solitary creature. Sometimes, however, many graves are crowded into one tomb to discourage robbers. In this case, the tomb is shared by a related group of kas.
Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #198 (1993).
Ka
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Desert, rivers, subterranean
FREQUENCY: Very rare
ORGANIZATION: Solitary or small bands
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Night
DIET: Spirit food
INTELLIGENCE: Average to Genius (8-18)
TREASURE: 50% A
ALIGNMENT: Lawful neutral
NO. APPEARING: 1 or 2-12
ARMOR CLASS: 1
MOVEMENT: 9
HIT DICE: 9 + 6
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2d10
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Fear, spellwriting, curse, statue animation
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Weapon resistances, spell immunities and resistances, spirit doors
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Nil
SIZE: M (5'-7')
MORALE: Fearless (20)
XP VALUE: 14,000
A ka is a kind of super-mummy. Once, the ka was a noble, king, or pharaoh. After death, the mummified body continued to live on in the tomb as an undead monster. A ka is not necessarily evil. It attacks only when its tomb offerings are threatened or when under the control of a cleric. A ka looks like a normal mummy--i.e., as a bandage-wrapped corpse.
Combat: Like a normal mummy, a ka possesses supernatural strength that lets its blows do more than normal damage. Instead of a rotting disease, however, a successful hit by a ka imparts a curse upon the victim. DMs may make up their own curses or may use the following table (roll 1d20; all curses last until removed):
1-3: Ill luck. All future rolls for the cursed individual are -l on a roll of 1, -2 on a roll of 2, or -3 on a roll of 3.
4-7: Withering touch. An arm or leg withers and becomes useless. (4 = right arm, 5 = left arm, 6 = right leg, 7 = left leg; loss of a leg reduces movement by 3).
8-11: Mutation. A body part becomes mutated to some other form (8 = a leg, 9 = torso, 10 = an arm, 11 = head).
12-14: Alteration. An attribute chosen at random is lowered by -1.
15-18: Death wish. Extra damage is received in subsequent attacks. (15 = +1, 16 = +2, 17 = +3, 18 = double damage).
19-20: Cursed item. One magical item, chosen at random, loses its benefits on a 19 (as per cancellation). On a 20, the item actually becomes cursed (use the closest appropriate cursed item from the Treasure Tables; hence a sword +3 would become a cursed sword -2).
As with mummies, the mere sight of a ka may cause fear and revulsion in any creature. A save vs. spells must succeed or the victim will be paralyzed with fright for 1-6 melee rounds. There are no bonuses to the die roll.
A ka can be harmed only by magical weapons, which do only half normal damage. Sleep, charm, hold, cold, poison, paralysis, polymorph, and electricity do not harm it. It suffers only half damage from fire or holy water. A raise dead spell turns a ka into a normal human (of 10thlevel fighting ability) unless the ka saves vs. spells.
A ka has a limited magical ability. A word written by it has the force of a command spell. It takes a full round to inscribe such a word. Characters need not see the written word for the spell to take effect.
The ka is able to fragment its spirit. These spirit fragments can inhabit special magical stone statues within the ka's tomb. Treat these statues as stone golems. A ka can inhabit 1-4 statues at a time. If the ka's mummified body is destroyed, its will lives on in the statues. Inside a statue, however, a ka no longer possesses its curse or magical writing powers, and it may be affected by forms of attacks to which the mummified body is immune. Note that the ka has no power to activate any other statue but those in its tomb.
A ka may also walk through special spirit doors carved into stone or wood or painted on a wall when the body was buried. A ka could walk through a spirit door carved into rock, attack the party, then retreat back inside its tomb.
A cleric has the same chance to turn a ka as he does a vampire.
Habitat/Society: A ka was once a living ruler. It still retains some friendliness toward character races, especially members of its own race and nation. Thus a human ka has an affinity for humans, a dwarven ka for dwarves, etc. This affinity is even stronger if, in the DM's opinion, the ka and character share the same cultural background.
If no attempt is made to steal its tomb treasures, a ka may be placated by showing it reverence and giving it additional grave goods. Such goods may vary from simple food to elaborate treasures. At the DMs discretion, a ka that has become placated may be asked questions that require simple yes-or-no answers. The greater the offerings, the greater the
knowledge such a ka may impart.
Wealthy individuals are usually buried alone. A ka is, hence, generally encountered as a solitary creature. Sometimes, however, many graves are crowded into one tomb to discourage robbers. In this case, the tomb is shared by a related group of kas.
Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #198 (1993).
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
Comparing this to the mummy lord is kind of interesting. I'd say that we start with the mummy lord's stats and bump the int a bit.
Question: is cleric considered a melee oriented class? I'd have thought it might be a non-associated class for the purpose of the mummy, but it seems to give full increase to CR on the mummy lord.
Question: is cleric considered a melee oriented class? I'd have thought it might be a non-associated class for the purpose of the mummy, but it seems to give full increase to CR on the mummy lord.
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
Casting classes shouldn't be considered associated for any monster unless they have any inherent spellcasting. This does not mean that this is how CRs were adjudicated in the MM. Look to the aboleth mage and the illithid sorcerer for more evidence that the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing when the 3.5 MM was published.freyar said:
Demiurge out.
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
Maybe that's why they've decided on the "exception-based" monster design philosophy --- that way neither hand needs to know what it is doing with respect to the other rules. That's certainly why they nuked FR; they said "it was too hard for our designers to learn the setting."demiurge1138 said:
Back to the ka.
Seems like the mummy lord didn't properly use the elite array and two ability boosts, either, so maybe that's not the best place to start. A dread mummy from Advanced Bestiary might be more interesting. Compared to the normal mummy, that's Dex +4, Int +6. So we could go with Str 24, Dex 14, Con -, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 15 (I bumped Wis on the mummy to get odd and even scores right). Of course, there's the important question: monster or template? I'm thinking monster, like the mummy, but I have no objection either way.
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
I think ka should be a template, and I'd say bump the Charisma.
Do we want to keep the ka's curse template as is? It's really weird design, and I have a feeling that it'll take up a lot of our energy on this conversion.
Demiurge out.
Do we want to keep the ka's curse template as is? It's really weird design, and I have a feeling that it'll take up a lot of our energy on this conversion.
Demiurge out.
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
For a template, ability bonuses Str +14, Dex +2, Con -, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +8? Or is that too much? Let's let Shade vote.
Edit: Regarding the table, I think we should keep it as a table, since the troll mutation table was kind of fun. This one is kind of wonky, though, so I think we need to simplify it quite a bit.
Edit: Regarding the table, I think we should keep it as a table, since the troll mutation table was kind of fun. This one is kind of wonky, though, so I think we need to simplify it quite a bit.
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