Special Conversion Thread: Unicorns

[GrayLinnorm]

Treasure type is W, so probably standard treasure? Like the bay unicorn, this one is evil and probably more greedy than standard unicorns.

 

[Shade]

Good idea.

 

[Cleon]

This one should be fairly straightforward. It's gone one more HD than a standard unicorn, deals a bit more damage with its hooves (but not its horn, oddly), and its Int is 3 points lower.

It's also got an AC a point better, suggesting a thicker or tougher hide than a standard unicorn.

Shall we take the standard Unicorn, add a point to natural armour and Strength and cut the Intelligence by three?

Palomino Unicorn: Str 21, Dex 17, Con 22, Int 7, Wis 21, Cha 24, NA +7

It has immunity to cold, but nothing indicates any particular vulnerability to fire, so I'd recommend we avoid the Cold subtype.

I agree about avoiding the Cold subtype.

So far we've got something like:

Unicorn, Palomino
Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 5d10+30 (57)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 60 ft. (12 squares)
Armor Class: 19 (–1 size, +3 Dex, +7 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+14
Attack: Horn +12 melee (1d6+8)
Full Attack: Horn +12 melee (1d6+8) and 2 hooves +4 melee (1d6+2)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: spell-like abilities
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., immunity to poison, charm, and compulsion, immunity to cold, low-light vision, scent, spell-like abilities, wild empathy
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +7, Will +6
Abilities: Str 21, Dex 17, Con 22, Int 7, Wis 21, Cha 24

The "They are found in arctic environments, giving opponents a -6 penalty to their rolls to be surprised in that environment due to coloration (this drops to -2 in other settings..." infers a racial bonus to Hide in arctic terrain.

Apart from that, we've got some SLAs to work out.

 

[Cleon]

Added to Homebrews.

A few things still to do with the Gray Unicorn, I'm afraid.

Its terrain is wrong in the third paragraph's "even accompanying her beyond its forest.", should be "plains", "grasslands" or "territory".

The gray's combat entry is missing Retributive Strike. (I prefer the Space/Reach version, but don't mind the other.)

We didn't settle on a size for its territory in the SLA description's "Once per day a gray unicorn can use greater teleport to move anywhere within its territory (an area of grasslands of up to X square miles)."

Maybe "an area of grassland up to ten miles across"?

 

[freyar]

Cleon's suggestions for the gray unicorn sound good, though I like the single creature version of the retributive strike.

 

[Shade]

Fixed gray unicorn. I prefer the "attacker only" version of retributive strike as well.

Added palomino to Homebrews.

You didn't mention in your propsed stats why you increased Con, so I left the unicorn's score unchanged. I don't see a reason to boost Con, but I'll listen to arguments.

I'm not comfortable dropping the horn damage to 1d6. While I realize they did less damage than a standard unicorn with their horn in 2e, 1d6 seems too low (especially without any flavor text to support it).

I borrowed the situational Hide bonus from the tundra landwyrm.

Any interest in adding magic circle against good?

I think the feats should be more combat-oriented than the standard unicorn, since these are carnivorous hunters.

 

[freyar]

Well, it might be nice to drop the base horn damage to follow the original intent (whatever that might have been). What if we use the vague idea that the cold SLAs emanate from the horn to justify adding a cold damage rider to the 1d6 horn damage?

Definitely interested in magic circle vs good.

 

[Cleon]

You didn't mention in your propsed stats why you increased Con, so I left the unicorn's score unchanged. I don't see a reason to boost Con, but I'll listen to arguments.

I was just imagining it as a "tough creature of the frozen wastes", but I'd be OK giving it standard Unicorn Con.

I'm not comfortable dropping the horn damage to 1d6. While I realize they did less damage than a standard unicorn with their horn in 2e, 1d6 seems too low (especially without any flavor text to support it).

Oops, that's just 'cause I copy-and-pasted the Gray Unicorn and forget to change it. The horn should be 1d8.

Any interest in adding magic circle against good?

I think the feats should be more combat-oriented than the standard unicorn, since these are carnivorous hunters.

I don't really care for magic circle against good for them. My image of the is as creatures that are not so much metaphorically evil as culturally evil.

Agree about switching to more combat feats though.

Multiattack?

Track as a bonus feat, so it can find prey?

 

[freyar]

Hmm, I think of unicorns as being exemplars of alignment, something like dragons, but I don't have a really strong opinion on magic circle (despite liking it).

Multiattack and Track (bonus) sound good. Maybe Weapon Focus for the other feat? Or Empower SLA (chill metal)?

Looking back at the overall unicorn info at the top of the thread, I think there's some justification for adding powerful charge to some of the unicorns (even though the base 3e unicorn doesn't have it). The palomino sounds like a good candidate for that if we want to add it to any unicorn.

 

[Shade]

Skills: 8

Listen +2, Spot +2, Survival +4? (Note they'll get a +4 racial bonus for tracking by scent as well)

Multiattack sounds good, as does Track as a bonus feat. For the remaining feat, Skill Focus (Survival)? Weapon Focus (hoof)? Power Attack?