Special Conversion Thread: Supernatural Familiars

[Shade]

Updated.

It looks like we're done. Here's the next one...

Haudhla
FREQUENCY: Rare
NO. APPEARING: 40-100
ARMOR CLASS: 5
MOVE: 15"
HIT DICE: ½
% IN LAIR: 10%
TREASURE TYPE: C
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: By weapon type
SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 25%
INTELLIGENCE: Very
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: S (1¼' tall)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: III / 65 + 1/hp

The haudhli are creatures of nature, remaining close to plants and the earth wherever they dwell. They live in small hills or mounds, each family of 2-5 having its own burrow with a concealed entrance. A community of haudhli will normally have 20 families. Though they may dwell anywhere because of their hardiness, haudhli are most likely to live near the habitations of men, but the humans may not be aware of them. Because they are swift afoot and can make themselves essentially invisible in natural terrain, they may be locally common in even heavily populated areas without ever being found out.

The haudhli are not friendly with the larger races (to them, even a halfling is large), particularly if an intruder or group of intruders discovers their lair. If they are discovered and approached, they will expect and perhaps bluntly demand many apologies for the intrusion. Haudhli love precious metals and gems, and a community will often have its own treasure trove. Sometimes they can be bribed with gems or jewelry.

Haudhli are handy with simple tools, and can fashion small swords and bows and arrows with which to defend themselves. Their swords do 1-3 points of damage vs. S or M creatures, 1-2 vs. opponents of size L. Their bows have half the range of a short bow; arrows do 1-2 points of damage vs. S or M creatures, and only 1 point against size L foes. The haudhli use no other weapons, but may employ traps, especially in the vicinity of their lair.

A haudhla can speak with plants once per hour, and once a day it may employ detect snares & pits, predict weather, purify water, obscurement, snare, and audible glamer. All of these spell-like powers are performed at the eighth level of ability. In addition, haudhli can fall from any height or pass over any surface as if using the psionic discipline body equilibrium. They can survive extreme temperatures (-20 to +120 degrees F.) with no protection, but this resistance is not proof against normal flame or magical heat or cold of any sort.

If a neutral magic-user acquires the services of a haudhla as a familiar, the spellcaster gains the haudhla’s resistance to magic and to extreme temperatures, as well as its body equilibrium ability . but these powers are conferred on the master only if master and familiar are touching. The magic-user may also receive telepathic communication of all the haudhla sees, hears, and senses, as long as master and familiar are no farther than 12” from each other.

Haudhli appear as minuscule humans with sharp and somewhat homely features, with skin color ranging from brown to dark brown, and silvery-blue hair. They wear clothes of green, brown, or grey hues. They speak the haudhla language plus the tongues of gnomes, pixies, sprites, halflings, and the common tongue.

 

[Cleon]

Ok, but I hope the masters need to be higher than level 5 to take these as a familiar! That gaze is pretty good when it works.

Hey, my cats are Tiny and weigh 10+ lb!

10 pounds? That's only a kitten.

I've got relatives up in Toronto who have one that weighed 39 pounds.

And people doubt they can kill Commoners...

 

[Cleon]

I think the gaze evens things out. CL 7th.

Yes, keep them 7th level like the other standard advanced familiars.

The stats look finished, except they should be serving LE or NE masters according to the description, not Neutral Good ones!

Oh, and there's a c missing from "acquired" acquiring a durocib familiar bit. Looking through the other supernatural familiars they all seem to have that typo.

That would make it:

A durocib can be acquired as a familiar with the Improved Familiar feat, beginning at 7th level if the character is of lawful evil or neutral evil alignment.

 

[Cleon]

Updated.

It looks like we're done. Here's the next one...

My first impression is that's quite a lot of Spell-Like Abilities.

In 3E terms, they have continuous feather fall and endure elements; 1/hour speak with plants and 1/day detect snares and pits, ghost sound, obscuring mist, snare.
and purify food and water (water only?). I'm not sure what the equivalent of predict weather would be - divination that only works on the weather?

 

[Cleon]

So, Tiny Fey armed with tiny longswords and tiny shortbows? (Since their swords do more damage than their bows).

Speed 40 ft.

One Hit Dice?

25%MR translates to SR17, like a Grig.

No armour and Dex 16-17 would give them an AC15, equivalent to the original's AC5.

Their ability scores should be similar to a Grig's, methinks:

Grig: Str 5, Dex 18, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 14

Dex 16-17, as previously mentioned, so cut it to 16.
Very Intelligence is 11-12, so bump Int to 12.
I'd leave the rest the same, at least for the time being.

Haudhla: Str 5, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 14

 

[Shade]

That assessment seems spot on, except I'd keep 'em at 1/2 Hit Die, like a grig.

 

[freyar]

That all works for me!

 

[Cleon]

That assessment seems spot on, except I'd keep 'em at 1/2 Hit Die, like a grig.

Okay by me. It doesn't make any difference to their HD as familiars.

 

[demiurge1138]

All of this sounds quite good.

 

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews.

For the predicting weather, how about just giving them a racial bonus on Survival checks? (A DC 15 check allows you to predict the weather up to 24 hours in advance. For every 5 points by which your Survival check result exceeds 15, you can predict the weather for one additional day in advance.)

Because they are swift afoot and can make themselves essentially invisible in natural terrain, they may be locally common in even heavily populated areas without ever being found out.

Give 'em a racial bonus on Hide checks in aboveground natural environments?

Or maybe this?

Camouflage (Ex): A ranger of 13th level or higher can use the Hide skill in any sort of natural terrain, even if the terrain doesn’t grant cover or concealment.

The haudhli are not friendly with the larger races (to them, even a halfling is large), particularly if an intruder or group of intruders discovers their lair. If they are discovered and approached, they will expect and perhaps bluntly demand many apologies for the intrusion. Haudhli love precious metals and gems, and a community will often have its own treasure trove. Sometimes they can be bribed with gems or jewelry.

I'd say that rules out Diplomacy. Appraise seems a good skill choice.

The haudhli use no other weapons, but may employ traps, especially in the vicinity of their lair.

Craft (trapmaking) as well?

In addition, haudhli can fall from any height or pass over any surface as if using the psionic discipline body equilibrium.

Body Equilibrium (Su): A haudhli can adjust its body’s equilibrium to correspond with any solid or liquid that it stands on. Thus, it can walk on water, quicksand, or even a spider’s web without sinking or breaking through (this effect does not confer any resistance to particularly sticky webs). The haudhli can move at its normal speed, but it cannot run (x4 speed) on an unfirm surface without sinking or breaking through. If a haudhli falls from any height, damage from the impact is halved.

A haudli confers this ability to its master as long as the two remain in physical contact with each other.

If a neutral magic-user acquires the services of a haudhla as a familiar, the spellcaster gains the haudhla’s resistance to magic and to extreme temperatures, as well as its body equilibrium ability . but these powers are conferred on the master only if master and familiar are touching.

I incorporated this into body equilibrium as well. Should we make the endure elements a separate ability from the rest of the SLAs to make a similar writeup, or will adding a parenthetical "also affects master if in physical contact" to the SLA line?