Converting Oriental Adventures creatures
- Thread starter Shade
- Start date
Cleon
Legend
[/QUOTE]
I had a couple of long train trips yesterday, and wrote up a Homebrew take on the Flying Spirit (as an Outsider, incidentally).
Would you like to cut out the bother and have me post it, do an "Enworld" version and I'll post my own later, or do two versions - one Undead and one Outsider (possibly using my Outsider take)?
Oh, I spent quite a bit of time trying to find a Japanese folklore creature that matched the description. The closest I could find is Kyōkotsu, the Crazy Bones Yokai.
That seems a reasonably good fit to the Undead flying spirit monster.
Cleon
Legend
Go ahead and post yours and we'll pick it apart.
You know, I quite like that Crazy Bones Yokai so why don't we do an Undead alternative once you've finished picking.
Speaking of which...
Cleon
Legend
Flying Spirit Working Draft
Flying Spirit (Tatami Goblin, Demon Blanket)
Medium Outsider (Native, Spirit)
Hit Dice: 2d8+3 (12 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: Fly 40 ft. (8 squares, perfect)
Armor Class: 15 (Dex +3, deflection +2), touch 15, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+2
Attack: Claw +5 melee (1d4)
Full Attack: 2 claws +5 melee (1d4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./ 5 ft.
Special Attacks: Smother
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 5/slashing, darkvision 60 ft., flatten, ghostly, immunities (ability damage, ability drain, aging, critical hits, disease, energy drain, fear and poison), sense evil, spirit jaunt
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +4
Abilities: Str 11, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 8, Wis 13, Cha 14
Skills: Balance +5, Jump +2, Hide +8, Intimidate +7, Listen +6, Move Silently +8, Search +5, Spot +6, Survival +1 (+3 to find or follow tracks), Tumbling +8
Feats: Flyby Attack (B), Toughness (B), Weapon Finesse
Environment: Ruins and underground
Organization: Solitary or flock (2-8)
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral evil
Advancement: 3-6 HD (Medium)
Level Adjustment: —
Floating in the air is a bizarre being whose body resembles a fluttering white sheet. It has a twisted, semi-human skull for a head, with living red eyes glaring from its bony sockets. A pair of long wiry hands sprout from the top corners of its bodysheet, each finger and thumb ends in a razor-like claw.
Flying spirits are weird sheet-like creatures who are often called tatami goblins or demon blankets, based on a superstition they are formed from a blanket or floor mat (tatami) upon which someone has been murdered.
Despite their ghastly appearance, flying spirits are solid, corporeal creatures. Apart from its eyes and claws, a flying spirit's body is a mass of undifferentiated fibres between membranes of skin. The only hard parts are its slicing, scalpel-pointed claws. It has no vital organs, even its "skull" is more like a hollow gourd or balloon than the head of a regular flesh-and-bone creature. This strange anatomy gives flying spirits a surprising resilience to injury.
Flying spirits are attracted to cursed places inhabited by undead and earthbound fiends. They have never been seen to eat or drink, deriving their nourishment from the evil aura of cursed places and creatures. Some victims of flying spirits have vanished, and peasant folk claim the spirits ate them bones and all, or spirited them off to hell. A few sages whisper that the "vanished" are horribly transformed into a new flying spirit. There is no evidence that any of these rumours are true, and a good many cases were it was discovered the tatami goblins had simply hidden the mutilated corpse of their victim so the mystery would disturb and distress the living.
These demon blankets are intelligent, but their thoughts and desires are so different from mortal beings there are few points of commonality. Their main desires are relishing evil, inflicting suffering on other creatures, and protecting their territory from interlopers. They are restless creatures, spending most of their waking hours flying about their territory enjoying the uncanny misery of the damned. A flying spirit is usually active at night, although it is in no way inconvenienced by daylight. They hide in crevices to sleep, squeezing their flat bodies under floorboards, between rafters, or into cracks in a wall.
A flying spirit is 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide and weighs about 40 pounds. Its sheet-like body is less than half an inch thick.
Combat
Flying spirits are territorial creatures who frequently attack any interlopers that appears to threaten the cursed creatures or land that sustains them. They are especially hostile to other flying creatures, and usually try to kill and being that breaches their airspace. Malicious to the core, tatami goblins enjoy tormenting and killing living creatures.
In combat, flying spirit usually attacks with their claws, they often use Flyby Attack if their opponents are slower than them. These demon blankets rarely use their Smother attack against any creatures able to put up much resistance, they prefer to smother unconscious or dying opponents, and creatures enfeebled by age or sickness. They generally fight to the death, and show little or no fear of dying.
Flatten (Ex): A flying spirit can fit into a tight space as if it were a Fine-sized creature, provided the space is at least 3 feet wide. It can flatten its skull-head into a gruesome disc with suffering any harm or impairment.
Ghostly (Ex): A flying spirit has a deflection bonus to its Armor Class equal to its Charisma bonus. A flying spirit has two home planes, the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane. It is not considered extraplanar when on either of these planes.
Most spells and special abilities that have a special effect on undead – such as desecrate, halt undead or searing light – affect a flying spirit as if it is undead. However, divination effects, such as detect undead, and turning checks do not affect flying spirits as if they are undead.
Sense Evil (Su): A flying spirit can continuously sense evil (as the detect evil spell) within a 60 ft. range as a free action. If it concentrates, it increases the range of this sense to 120 feet for a faint aura, 800 feet for a moderate aura, 1 mile for a strong aura, and 10 miles for an overwhelming aura.
The flying spirit uses this sense to find damned places or creatures (such as Undead, Evil Outsiders or the area of a desecrate spell), whose presence it finds congenial.
Smother (Ex): If a flying spirit successfully grapples an opponent, it can wrap its body around its opponent, covering the victim's nostrils and mouth. A creature cannot speak or cast spells with verbal components in a round it loses a grapple contest with a flying spirit. This smother attack also cuts off the opponent's supply of air on any round the opponent does not win a grapple check against the spirit. The opponent will start to suffocate if the spirit manages to smother them for a long enough period (2 rounds per point of its opponent's Constitution, following the standard Suffocation Rules.)
Spirit Jaunt (Su): A flying spirit can shift itself from the Ethereal Plane to the Material Plane as a move action, and shift back again as a swift action. Once it uses spirit jaunt, the spirit cannot use spirit jaunt again until it spends 1 hour bathing in the light of a full moon. The ability is otherwise identical with the ethereal jaunt spell (caster level 9th).
Flying Spirit (Tatami Goblin, Demon Blanket)
Medium Outsider (Native, Spirit)
Hit Dice: 2d8+3 (12 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: Fly 40 ft. (8 squares, perfect)
Armor Class: 15 (Dex +3, deflection +2), touch 15, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+2
Attack: Claw +5 melee (1d4)
Full Attack: 2 claws +5 melee (1d4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./ 5 ft.
Special Attacks: Smother
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 5/slashing, darkvision 60 ft., flatten, ghostly, immunities (ability damage, ability drain, aging, critical hits, disease, energy drain, fear and poison), sense evil, spirit jaunt
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +4
Abilities: Str 11, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 8, Wis 13, Cha 14
Skills: Balance +5, Jump +2, Hide +8, Intimidate +7, Listen +6, Move Silently +8, Search +5, Spot +6, Survival +1 (+3 to find or follow tracks), Tumbling +8
Feats: Flyby Attack (B), Toughness (B), Weapon Finesse
Environment: Ruins and underground
Organization: Solitary or flock (2-8)
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral evil
Advancement: 3-6 HD (Medium)
Level Adjustment: —
Floating in the air is a bizarre being whose body resembles a fluttering white sheet. It has a twisted, semi-human skull for a head, with living red eyes glaring from its bony sockets. A pair of long wiry hands sprout from the top corners of its bodysheet, each finger and thumb ends in a razor-like claw.
Flying spirits are weird sheet-like creatures who are often called tatami goblins or demon blankets, based on a superstition they are formed from a blanket or floor mat (tatami) upon which someone has been murdered.
Despite their ghastly appearance, flying spirits are solid, corporeal creatures. Apart from its eyes and claws, a flying spirit's body is a mass of undifferentiated fibres between membranes of skin. The only hard parts are its slicing, scalpel-pointed claws. It has no vital organs, even its "skull" is more like a hollow gourd or balloon than the head of a regular flesh-and-bone creature. This strange anatomy gives flying spirits a surprising resilience to injury.
Flying spirits are attracted to cursed places inhabited by undead and earthbound fiends. They have never been seen to eat or drink, deriving their nourishment from the evil aura of cursed places and creatures. Some victims of flying spirits have vanished, and peasant folk claim the spirits ate them bones and all, or spirited them off to hell. A few sages whisper that the "vanished" are horribly transformed into a new flying spirit. There is no evidence that any of these rumours are true, and a good many cases were it was discovered the tatami goblins had simply hidden the mutilated corpse of their victim so the mystery would disturb and distress the living.
These demon blankets are intelligent, but their thoughts and desires are so different from mortal beings there are few points of commonality. Their main desires are relishing evil, inflicting suffering on other creatures, and protecting their territory from interlopers. They are restless creatures, spending most of their waking hours flying about their territory enjoying the uncanny misery of the damned. A flying spirit is usually active at night, although it is in no way inconvenienced by daylight. They hide in crevices to sleep, squeezing their flat bodies under floorboards, between rafters, or into cracks in a wall.
A flying spirit is 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide and weighs about 40 pounds. Its sheet-like body is less than half an inch thick.
Combat
Flying spirits are territorial creatures who frequently attack any interlopers that appears to threaten the cursed creatures or land that sustains them. They are especially hostile to other flying creatures, and usually try to kill and being that breaches their airspace. Malicious to the core, tatami goblins enjoy tormenting and killing living creatures.
In combat, flying spirit usually attacks with their claws, they often use Flyby Attack if their opponents are slower than them. These demon blankets rarely use their Smother attack against any creatures able to put up much resistance, they prefer to smother unconscious or dying opponents, and creatures enfeebled by age or sickness. They generally fight to the death, and show little or no fear of dying.
Flatten (Ex): A flying spirit can fit into a tight space as if it were a Fine-sized creature, provided the space is at least 3 feet wide. It can flatten its skull-head into a gruesome disc with suffering any harm or impairment.
Ghostly (Ex): A flying spirit has a deflection bonus to its Armor Class equal to its Charisma bonus. A flying spirit has two home planes, the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane. It is not considered extraplanar when on either of these planes.
Most spells and special abilities that have a special effect on undead – such as desecrate, halt undead or searing light – affect a flying spirit as if it is undead. However, divination effects, such as detect undead, and turning checks do not affect flying spirits as if they are undead.
Sense Evil (Su): A flying spirit can continuously sense evil (as the detect evil spell) within a 60 ft. range as a free action. If it concentrates, it increases the range of this sense to 120 feet for a faint aura, 800 feet for a moderate aura, 1 mile for a strong aura, and 10 miles for an overwhelming aura.
The flying spirit uses this sense to find damned places or creatures (such as Undead, Evil Outsiders or the area of a desecrate spell), whose presence it finds congenial.
Smother (Ex): If a flying spirit successfully grapples an opponent, it can wrap its body around its opponent, covering the victim's nostrils and mouth. A creature cannot speak or cast spells with verbal components in a round it loses a grapple contest with a flying spirit. This smother attack also cuts off the opponent's supply of air on any round the opponent does not win a grapple check against the spirit. The opponent will start to suffocate if the spirit manages to smother them for a long enough period (2 rounds per point of its opponent's Constitution, following the standard Suffocation Rules.)
Spirit Jaunt (Su): A flying spirit can shift itself from the Ethereal Plane to the Material Plane as a move action, and shift back again as a swift action. Once it uses spirit jaunt, the spirit cannot use spirit jaunt again until it spends 1 hour bathing in the light of a full moon. The ability is otherwise identical with the ethereal jaunt spell (caster level 9th).
Last edited:
Cleon
Legend
I just noticed I left out a second paragraph to the "Ghostly" SQ.
Better update it.
Updating Working Draft.
EDIT: Oh yes, I was wondering about giving it a "Spirit Jaunt" ability, like this:
Spirit Jaunt (Su): A flying spirit can shift itself from the Ethereal Plane to the Material Plane as a move action, and shift back again as a swift action. Once it uses spirit jaunt, the spirit must wait for at least 1 minute before it can use spirit jaunt again. The ability is otherwise identical with the ethereal jaunt spell (caster level 9th).
Better update it.
Updating Working Draft.
EDIT: Oh yes, I was wondering about giving it a "Spirit Jaunt" ability, like this:
Spirit Jaunt (Su): A flying spirit can shift itself from the Ethereal Plane to the Material Plane as a move action, and shift back again as a swift action. Once it uses spirit jaunt, the spirit must wait for at least 1 minute before it can use spirit jaunt again. The ability is otherwise identical with the ethereal jaunt spell (caster level 9th).
Last edited:
Cleon
Legend
Basically, I like the Spirit Jaunt because a lot of the spooks in OA2 (and in Japanese film and TV I've seen) are able to "pop out of thin air" or "vanish before you're very eyes!" but in many cases they don't do it very often, even if this would be tactically useful.
For example, in the Seven Swords adventure some of the swords suddenly appear when their chamber is intruded upon and fight to the death, and they all vanish when slain.
Also, I've seen quite a few Japanese TV and film where a monster "pops into being" to fights the hero, and when it starts to lose the monster runs away. If it could "pop" back to wherever it came from, surely it would use that means to escape?
So, I think I'll give most of the OA2 spooks "Spirit Jaunt", but have the delay between uses be variable.
So I'm adding it to the Tatami Goblin, but with a very long delay (24 hours? a week? You know, I fancy the next full moon - that seems sufficiently spooky). Then it'll only use it in the most desperate circumstances.
Updating Working Draft.
Shade
Monster Junkie
I'm fine with ethereal jaunt, but don't like renaming common abilities just for the sake of flavor.
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