Special Conversion Thread: Moldvay's Undead

[Shade]

Yes, it is. And I think you should do the honors on writing flavor, tactics, etc. And Shade should homebrew these up.

Yep. I'll let Cleon see these through to completion, then move 'em to Homebrews.

 

[Cleon]

Yep. I'll let Cleon see these through to completion, then move 'em to Homebrews.

Translation: leave it to Cleon to do all the work, as usual.

I'll whip up the rest of the text in due course.

 

[Shade]

Translation: leave it to Cleon to do all the work, as usual.

Nice Sense Motive roll.

 

[Cleon]

Nice Sense Motive roll.

Yes, but the dice result was far higher than I needed. I could have passed it with a "take 5" considering the circumstance bonuses.

How's this for the flavour. I've already Updated the working draft with it. I wondered about having them only be able to speak in humanoid form, but decided against it since the MM2 Selkie doesn't have that liability.

A tall and handsome half-elf, black-haired and gray-eyed

An exceptionally big seal with gray eyes

Silkie are a race of shapechanging fey. According to legend, they are descended from Angus MacOdrum, a powerful fighter-wizard who united clans of humans, aquatic elves and selkies into a new tribe. The silkie are allied with aquatic elves and selkies, and will aid them against their foes – particularly sahuagin and sharks. All silkie are innate sorcerers, and some are spellcasters of great skill.

Like their selkie cousins, silkie can take on the form of a seal, but they can only change into seals if they don a magical seal skin. Silkie tradition obliges a silkie to become the servant to any individual who captures the silkie's seal skin, the silkie cannot lie to his or her master and must deliver any reasonable service or ransom for the return of their skin. Any dishonorable or treacherous act on the captor’s part frees the silkie from obligation.

Some silkie families and bands live in sea caves, but the majority of the race dwell in Land Under Wave, a group of wondrous cities at the bottom of the sea. Powerful magic provides these cities with a dome of breathable air, an artificial sun and perpetually pleasant weather, so fine fruit and vegetables grow all year round. The cities are hundreds of miles apart, but are interconnected by permanent teleportation circle spells that allow instant travel between them. Time runs strangely in Land Under Wave, causing living creatures to age five times slower than they would outside the cities' magic.

The silkies of Land Under Wave have a tradition of taking humanoid children to raise as servants. Some of these were abandoned infants left to die of exposure, but the more chaotic silkies are not adverse to stealing unattended children and leaving a changeling in their place. These humanoid servants are adopted by silkie families and treated kindly, but have to serve the silkie for 50 years before being freed (although many elect to remain in Land Under Wave after finishing their service). The magic of the silkie's domed cities means the servants only age a decade during those 50 years.

In half-elf form, silkies protect themselves with sharkskin leather armor and shields and fight with stone-bladed weapons, favoring spears, battle axes and warhammers. The stone from which their weapons are made is magically treated to be as tough as steel.

Silkie look just like particularly tall and finely built half elves in their humanoid form, a typical silkie is between 5½ and 6 feet tall and weighs about 160 pounds in humanoid form. In seal form, a silkie is from 7 to 8 feet long and weighs around 500 pounds.

Silkies speak Aquan, Common, Elven and Sylvan.

Combat
Silkies fight with spells or weapons when in humanoid form and with spells or teeth in seal form. They usually start combat by casting spells, then melee or withdraw as the circumstances warrant.

 

[freyar]

Looks good to me!

 

[Cleon]

Looks good to me!

Ta.

If it's OK with Shade I think we're about done with the Silkie.

 

[freyar]

And this thread, I guess.

 

[Shade]

Looks great! I'll transfer it to Homebrews when I get a chance.

 

[Shade]

Transferred to Homebrews. I tightened up the flavor text a bit, and corrected a few typos/inconsistencies.

 

[Cleon]

Transferred to Homebrews. I tightened up the flavor text a bit, and corrected a few typos/inconsistencies.

Yes, I did wonder about moving the bit about weapons and armour into the Combat entry, but never got around to it.

I think it needs a "seal form" entry under Combat, though. How about:

"In seal form silkies fight with spells or their teeth, they often try to capsize boats used by land-dwelling opponents."

EDIT: I forgot to take those CR/Alignment/Advancement question marks out of my working draft. Might as well fix that. Updated the working draft just to pretty it up.