The Battle of All Alignments

[BOZ]

wow, i totally forgot that you had come here first before you started all of that! well hey anyway, you are giving the critters a fairly good playtesting. i appreciate your comments. as to your specific example...

Change Shape (Su): Twice per day, an ingundi can assume the shape of any Small, Medium, or Large creature. In humanoid form, the ingundi loses its natural attacks. An ingundi can remain in its assumed form for 1d10+10 rounds or until it chooses to end this ability. A change in form cannot be dispelled, but an ingundi reverts to its natural form when killed. A true seeing spell or ability reveals its natural form.

here is the text from the original:

The ingundi rarely appears in its true form. It has a powerful form of ESP, a well-developed change self power, and typically appears as some other, more innocuous, creature. It can be any creature from the size of a large dog to that of a bear. It can disguise itself this way twice a day; the disguise lasts for 1d10 + 10 rounds.
When hunting humans or demihumans, it takes on the appearance of an attractive individual of the same race as its victim but of the opposite sex. The physical details of the illusion are picked right out of the mind of its prey. It always picks out a figure greatly desired, but frequently unattainable, by the victim. The ESP power can be blocked by magical spells, such as mind blank. With intelligent creatures there is always the danger of appearing as somebody who would not reasonably be there.


the original text seems to indicate that this power was more of an illusion than an actual change of form. so, you're absolutely right. looking back over the original conversion thread, it seems like we were confusing the 2E spell of "change self" for the common 3.5 power of "change shape", which are really two different things. (FYI, "ESP" is now known as Detect Thoughts".)

the 2E spell "change self" is essentially the same as the 3.5 spell "disguise self" with a few differences: the duration of disguise self is signifanctly longer, and change self did not let you emulate a specific person.

so, here is a proposed fix:
Disguise Self (Su): Twice per day, an ingundi can use a well-developed version of the disguise self spell. It can assume the appearance of any Small, Medium, or Large creature, and it may return to its natural appearance before the duration expires.

 

[Shade]

Good stuff!

And nice catch on the ingundi.

 

[BOZ]

does my fix look like it would work better?

 

[Shade]

Yeah, but we'll need a duration (even if it is indefinitely or until it chooses a new form or to end the effect).

Disguise self is 10 min/level (D).

 

[Gansk]

Disguise self is a lot better, since it keeps the illusory qualities without adding any new attack capabilities. The spell is dismissable, so I don't think the wording about the premature duration is necessary.

Here's another one: the fire falcon is supposed to fire globes from its wingtips a number of times per day (three or four times, I forget now). Does it always fire two globes, or can it fire from one wingtip, essentially doubling the number of times per day? Can it fire two globes at the same spot and double the damage? Either way, it is way too powerful for its CR.

 

[Shade]

It looks like, as written, it always fires two and fires both up to four times per day. The effects could overlap.

I seem to remember that we based this off alchemist's fire, so it should require an attack roll as if using a splash weapon. This will need revision. Thanks!

 

[Gansk]

Here's another one that popped up just now, as the feral slasher has been selected as the champion of Chaotic Neutral for CR 1 monsters.

The feral slasher gets two attacks with his bite in his full attack writeup. But that is not normal for creatures with a claw/claw/bite sequence, nor is it normal for creatures with a BAB less than +6.

 

[BOZ]

By the way, I updated the ingundi's page and will do so for any other critters that need fixing.

Here's another one: the fire falcon is supposed to fire globes from its wingtips a number of times per day (three or four times, I forget now). Does it always fire two globes, or can it fire from one wingtip, essentially doubling the number of times per day? Can it fire two globes at the same spot and double the damage? Either way, it is way too powerful for its CR.

It looks like, as written, it always fires two and fires both up to four times per day. The effects could overlap.

I seem to remember that we based this off alchemist's fire, so it should require an attack roll as if using a splash weapon. This will need revision. Thanks!

the ability in question (http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=1918926&postcount=331 ):

Flame Spheres (Su): Four times per day, a fire falcon can discharge two highly flammable spheres, one from each of its wingtips up to a range of 60 ft. When a sphere hits anything, it explodes in a 10-foot-radius, dealing 1d6 points of fire damage to everything in the radius. On the round following a burst, the same targets take an additional 1d6 points of damage, and an additional 1d3 points of damage on the next round. If desired, the targets can use a full-round action to attempt to extinguish the flames before taking this additional damage. Extinguishing the flames requires a DC 15 Reflex save. Rolling on the ground provides the target a +2 bonus on the save. Leaping into a lake or magically extinguishing the flames automatically smothers the fire.

I can change it so that it says "discharge a pair of" for clarity. I'd say that each time it uses this ability, it fires two globes, and I don't see why both couldn't hit the same target. I might add that it can choose to fire only one, but that this still counts towards its number of uses of the ability per day (to prevent abuse). Regardless, it does deal a total of 8d6 points of damage per day with this attack. Of course, its physical attacks (claw/bite/wing) are all but worthless. So does that balance out to make it higher than CR1? Or should we lower the damage per sphere to be 1d4 or even 1d3?

We can add the ranged touch attack roll, no problem.

Here's another one that popped up just now, as the feral slasher has been selected as the champion of Chaotic Neutral for CR 1 monsters.

The feral slasher gets two attacks with his bite in his full attack writeup. But that is not normal for creatures with a claw/claw/bite sequence, nor is it normal for creatures with a BAB less than +6.

the feral slasher was one of the first critters I converted for 3.5E, from this thread (http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=66584 post #2)

the thing is, he did get 2 bite attacks in 1E since he was supposedly so fast. The way I worked it out was probably inappropriate, but I think we used something in the recent actaeon conversion that we could duplicate for this guy.

 

[Shade]

the ability in question (http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=1918926&postcount=331 ):

Flame Spheres (Su): Four times per day, a fire falcon can discharge two highly flammable spheres, one from each of its wingtips up to a range of 60 ft. When a sphere hits anything, it explodes in a 10-foot-radius, dealing 1d6 points of fire damage to everything in the radius. On the round following a burst, the same targets take an additional 1d6 points of damage, and an additional 1d3 points of damage on the next round. If desired, the targets can use a full-round action to attempt to extinguish the flames before taking this additional damage. Extinguishing the flames requires a DC 15 Reflex save. Rolling on the ground provides the target a +2 bonus on the save. Leaping into a lake or magically extinguishing the flames automatically smothers the fire.

I can change it so that it says "discharge a pair of" for clarity. I'd say that each time it uses this ability, it fires two globes, and I don't see why both couldn't hit the same target. I might add that it can choose to fire only one, but that this still counts towards its number of uses of the ability per day (to prevent abuse). Regardless, it does deal a total of 8d6 points of damage per day with this attack. Of course, its physical attacks (claw/bite/wing) are all but worthless. So does that balance out to make it higher than CR1? Or should we lower the damage per sphere to be 1d4 or even 1d3?

We can add the ranged touch attack roll, no problem.

That looks much better. Perhaps gansk can enlighten us on further playtesting?

the feral slasher was one of the first critters I converted for 3.5E, from this thread (http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=66584 post #2)

the thing is, he did get 2 bite attacks in 1E since he was supposedly so fast. The way I worked it out was probably inappropriate, but I think we used something in the recent actaeon conversion that we could duplicate for this guy.

Gah! What were we thinking?!? Yep, the actaeon thing could be tweaked for that fella.

 

[Gansk]

Regardless, it does deal a total of 8d6 points of damage per day with this attack. Of course, its physical attacks (claw/bite/wing) are all but worthless. So does that balance out to make it higher than CR1? Or should we lower the damage per sphere to be 1d4 or even 1d3?

We can add the ranged touch attack roll, no problem.

A ranged touch attack roll does no good if the globes burn everything in a 10 foot radius. The falcon merely needs to fire at the ground to accomplish the desired result.

Imagine a 1st level party grouped together because they are not aware of the fire falcon's abilities. After the first volley of globes, they all take an average of 7 points of damage, no save. The next round they have to concern themselves with putting out the fire or they will take another 1.5 damage on average. Average rogues and wizards are already dead, the cleric and fighters are taking full round actions to put out the fire and then get another volley for 7 points of damage, no save. Automatic TPK.

28 average points of damage per day is too much when it is virtually automatic with an area of effect. You're asking a 1st level party to survive a mini-fireball cast by a 8th level wizard with no save.