Special Conversion Thread: Sheens

[Shade]

It looks great!

Updated.

SW – Mental Susceptibility. Arcanosheens are susceptible to mind-affecting spells, spells that affect life force, and psionics, but if successfully affected, the arcanosheen jettisons the archiorganic bellypod 1d4 rounds later to regain mental immunity and throw off the mental effect (thus losing its spellcasting abilities).

We should note how long it takes to reattach the pod, and whether the remaining spells are still available for the day.

 

[freyar]

Ok, demiurge is much faster than I am with the spell lists.

Let's keep that ability separate from the magic susceptibility. Since sheens are already affected by mind-affecting, let's call this something else, too. I also think we should specify the behavior when the pod is detached. I'll say it acts like a render, but we could have it go into a frenzy of some type.

Mental Detachment (Ex): 1d4 rounds after an arcanosheen falls victim to a continuing mind-affecting effect, its organic bellypod automatically ejects from its body. This breaks the mind-affecting effect on the arcanosheen, which then behaves precisely as a render would and loses its spellcasting ability. The bellypod is effectively a helpless creature with X hp (hardness?). After the end of the duration of the mind-affecting effect (acting on the bellypod), the arcanosheen may reattach the bellypod as a full-round action (?). The arcanosheen then regains its spellcasting ability, with its unused spell slots remaining (?).

 

[demiurge1138]

Agreed to full round action, but I'm thinking it might lose some spells. Loses one spell level for every round of duration?

 

[freyar]

That seems a bit harsh if you mean what I think --- the entire level of spell slots. Maybe its highest remaining spell slot each round?

Thoughts about hardness for the crystalline pod?

Actually, here's a question about the sheens. They're metal, so why don't they get hardness? I suppose the same is true of warforged, but I don't remember. I mean, besides silly things like gameplay reasons.

 

[demiurge1138]

No, no, I mean, every round it loses one level of spells. If it's out for 13 rounds, it loses 13 levels of spells chosen from its roster, so it could lose a 7th and a 6th, or a 5th and four 2nd, etc.

 

[freyar]

Excellent, what was the other possibility. Sure, we could do that.

 

[Shade]

Hardness 3 for the bellypod? It is "glasslike", so that might even be a bit high.

 

[freyar]

Maybe hardness 1. Though I do still wonder why metal monsters don't generally have hardness.

 

[Shade]

They usually get damage reduction instead. It's one of those idiosyncrasies in the game: monsters (usually) have DR, while objects (usually) have hardness. Animated objects and spider webs didn't get the memo.

 

[freyar]

Hmm, almost the same thing, I guess, after all. Hardness ~ DR/adamantine.

I think we just need to decide on hp for the bellypod. I added a line about if the bellypod is destroyed.

Mental Detachment (Ex): 1d4 rounds after an arcanosheen falls victim to a continuing mind-affecting effect, its organic bellypod automatically ejects from its body. This breaks the mind-affecting effect on the arcanosheen, which then behaves precisely as a render would and loses its spellcasting ability. The bellypod is effectively a helpless creature with X hp and hardness 1. After the end of the duration of the mind-affecting effect (acting on the bellypod), the arcanosheen may reattach the bellypod as a full-round action. The arcanosheen then regains its spellcasting ability, losing one level of spells for each round the bellypod is detached (hence, if it is detached for 13 rounds, it can lose one 7th and once 6th level spell, one 5th and four 2nd level spells, etc). If the pod is destroyed, the arcanosheen must return to the cyst to have a new one created.