Converting Oriental Adventures creatures

[Cleon]

Let's go with DC 20 to spot the sword charm.

As you like.

Do we need to talk about removing the chimes? What if you can remove an indefinite number, and they regrow? The Keeper only gets so many attacks per round, which effectively limits how many chimes it can throw in a round anyway. That would simplify these a bit.

So change it to "the additional property that its wielder can remove the crystal spikes to use as throwing weapons" and remove the last sentence in that paragraph?

I don't object to that.

 

[freyar]

Yes, so it would become

Chimes: The Keeper of the Keys wields a huge set of crystal wind chimes made up of twenty crystal spikes hanging from a teak bar; a DC 20 Spot check will notice that one of these spikes is shaped like a sword. The Keeper is so skilled with these chimes it treats it as a special monk weapon (it is not a special monk weapon to other wielders).

The chimes is enchanted to be a +1 ki focus magic weapon with the additional property that its wielder can, as a free action, remove the crystal spikes to use as throwing weapons. Thrown spikes vanish when they hit and reappear upon the chimes. If a spike leaves its wielder's possession but doesn't hit anything, including the ground, it returns at the end of the round.

The chimes is an exotic melee weapon that does 1d10 slashing damage with a 19–20 critical threat range. It weighs 10 pounds.

The chimes' crystal spikes are thrown exotic ranged weapon that do 1d6 piercing damage with a 19–20 critical threat range and a 10 ft. range increment. Each spike weighs half a pound when removed (this does not affect the weight or balance of the chimes).


Does that possibly mean we have all the special abilities done, or am I missing something? I noticed a ? on martial resilience in the SQ line, but I think we can remove the mark and retain the ability.

 

[Cleon]

Yes, so it would become

Chimes: The Keeper of the Keys wields a huge set of crystal wind chimes made up of twenty crystal spikes hanging from a teak bar; a DC 20 Spot check will notice that one of these spikes is shaped like a sword. The Keeper is so skilled with these chimes it treats it as a special monk weapon (it is not a special monk weapon to other wielders).

The chimes is enchanted to be a +1 ki focus magic weapon with the additional property that its wielder can, as a free action, remove the crystal spikes to use as throwing weapons. Thrown spikes vanish when they hit and reappear upon the chimes. If a spike leaves its wielder's possession but doesn't hit anything, including the ground, it returns at the end of the round.

The chimes is an exotic melee weapon that does 1d10 slashing damage with a 19–20 critical threat range. It weighs 10 pounds.

The chimes' crystal spikes are thrown exotic ranged weapon that do 1d6 piercing damage with a 19–20 critical threat range and a 10 ft. range increment. Each spike weighs half a pound when removed (this does not affect the weight or balance of the chimes).

Yup.

That works for me, so updating the The Keeper of the Key Working Draft.

I filled in the Possessions while I was at it and removed the "[assuming martial resilience]" from the Saves line.

Does that possibly mean we have all the special abilities done, or am I missing something? I noticed a ? on martial resilience in the SQ line, but I think we can remove the mark and retain the ability.

Not quite.

It has incomplete Rejuvenation, Special Weakness and Spells abilities.

Also I'd like to add some kind of Ghost Step ability:

However, I like the idea of Abundant Step, and have been considering expanding that as one of the Keeper's "schticks" as in the Adventure it describes it appearing out of thin air to attack the party.

I was thinking some kind of "Ghost Step" ability that allows the Keeper to reposition itself or maybe even evade attacks.

Indeed, we could make that how he avoids Area of Effects rather than Evasion. If he makes the Reflex save he just vanishes to reappear someplace else.

We'd want to limit the frequency per round and/or maximum number of usages somehow though. If the Keeper can freely spam it every time someone shoots at It the fight won't be terribly fun for the PCs.

I removed the "questionableness" from Martial Resilience.

 

[freyar]

Rejuvenation: if destroyed, its body and equipment blow away as if by a breeze?

The weakness is supposed to be silencing the chimes. How do we want to do that? He takes any damage dealt to the chimes? He takes double damage in an area of magical silence?

I'd be fine with a Ghost Step ability. How do you want to phrase it?

 

[Cleon]

Rejuvenation: if destroyed, its body and equipment blow away as if by a breeze?

Maybe "evaporates into nothingness"?

The weakness is supposed to be silencing the chimes. How do we want to do that? He takes any damage dealt to the chimes? He takes double damage in an area of magical silence?

The original source says "Keeper: The chimes (all hits are doubled when these are silenced)."

Special Weakness - Chimes (Ex): Each of the seven swords have a different special weakness. The Keeper's is its crystal wind chimes: whenever its chimes are silenced, whether by being within the area of a silence spell or placed in a soundproof container, the Keeper takes double damage from attacks. In addition, whenever a Seven Swords is damaged through its special weakness it must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 plus damage inflicted) or be shaken for 1 round. Should the Keeper be destroyed, the chimes are also destroyed.​

I'd be fine with a Ghost Step ability. How do you want to phrase it?

Hmm… how's this for a start:

Ghost Step (Su): The Keeper of the Keys can can shift from the Material Plane to the Ethereal Plane as a free action, and shift back again as a move action (or during a move action). It can also use combine this ability with Ghostly Evasion (see below) to vanish when attacked and move elsewhere, but this costs an Attack of Opportunity and if it fails its Reflex saving throw to evade the attack the Keeper does not shift to the Ethereal Plane. This ability is otherwise identical with ethereal jaunt (caster level 15th).​

​

Ghostly Evasion (Su): If the Keeper is targeted by a melee attack, a ranged attack, or a special attack that allows a Reflex saving throw, it can attempt to avoid it by briefly becoming ethereal, vanishing for an instant and reappearing after the attack passes through the empty space it occupied. The Keeper must make a successful Reflex save against the attack's DC or attack roll, taking no damage on a successful save. It cannot use this ability to avoid ghost touch weapons or attacks that affect the Ethereal Plane. Each use of Ghostly Evasion costs the Keeper an Attack of Opportunity, so it cannot use Martial Parry or make an attack or opportunity when it uses Ghostly Evasion to ethereally avoid an opponent's attack. If its Reflex saving throw fails, it cannot use Ghostly Evasion again that round.​

I was originally going to make them one ability, but decided it worked better if I separated out the evasion.

 

[freyar]

The Weakness looks good to me.

I like the Ghost Step. I'm a little torn on Ghostly Evasion since it seems a bit powerful, though I guess the overlap with the parry makes it less so. What do you think about limiting it to attacks that deal 1/2 damage on a successful save, like normal Evasion?

 

[Cleon]

The Weakness looks good to me.

I like the Ghost Step. I'm a little torn on Ghostly Evasion since it seems a bit powerful, though I guess the overlap with the parry makes it less so. What do you think about limiting it to attacks that deal 1/2 damage on a successful save, like normal Evasion?

Don't care for that idea.

It's a somewhat common trope in old Asian monster movies to have a monster that can vanish briefly to completely avoid an attack, I can think of an example from Chinese Ghost Story 2 off the top of my head.

Besides, making it half damage would render it far less effective against melee and ranged attacks than Parry.

 

[freyar]

Well, I meant that it wouldn't work against melee or ranged attacks at all, just attacks that deal 1/2 damage on a save, like a fireball or something. But I'm flexible. I can go along with this, though I think I'd prefer to make it an immediate action rather than taking the place of an AoO. It just seems too powerful otherwise, and this way there's more of a point to parrying.

 

[Cleon]

Well, I meant that it wouldn't work against melee or ranged attacks at all, just attacks that deal 1/2 damage on a save, like a fireball or something. But I'm flexible. I can go along with this, though I think I'd prefer to make it an immediate action rather than taking the place of an AoO. It just seems too powerful otherwise, and this way there's more of a point to parrying.

Well my thinking was the Keeper NEEDS powerful defenses as it's effectively the "end of level boss" that will have to solo an entire party of PCs.

I thought about making it an immediate action but preferred it to be able to dodge multiple attacks.

How about using Ghostly Evasion costs it a certain amount of actions as well as the AoOs?

So, maybe the Keeper can use Ghost Evasion ONCE as an immediate action and Ghost Step a 5 foot distance (like a "5-foot step"), but if it uses it TWICE it must make a Ghost Step move action that round (meaning it cannot perform a full round action but may make a standard action attack and move up to 40 feet), while it if uses Ghostly Evasion THREE or FOUR times it must make two Ghost Step move actions that round, so it moves up to 80 feet and can't make a standard action to attack or cast a spell (although if it used three of its AoO to Ghostly Evade it'll have one left for an actual attack of opportunity).

I did wonder about it reducing its Ghost Step movement by, say 10 feet per use of Ghostly Evasion but that seems too fiddly. Using the action economy mechanism makes more sense to me.

 

[Cleon]

Oh, I've updated the The Keeper of the Key Working Draft with the Special Weakness text we agreed on.