Converting Oriental Adventures creatures

[Cleon]

Ahh, a new special abiilty or two! The weakness sounds kind of like Earth Mastery (from earth elementals). Could the "burst out of the ground" be earth glide or a burrow speed?

We still need to give it a "burst out of ground" ability.

I don't fancy Earth Glide or Burrow for it, since The Reaper did not use it in combat in the original adventure. If it could freely move underground wouldn't its writeup describe it popping in and out of ground?

My earlier proposal of a "statue or tree shape" approach could work something like:

Dirt Shape (Su): Twice a day, The Reaper can meld into the ground it is standing upon, effectively becoming a 5 ft. square patch of earth. It cannot meld into stone, wood, or any other material. The patch of earth matches the ground around it in soil type and vegetation, except any plants growing from it will be dead. A detect magic spell reveals a faint transmutation on the soil.

While in earthform, The Reaper can observe all that transpires around itself as if it were in its normal form, and its hit points and saves remain unaffected. It gains a +10 bonus to its natural armor bonus but has an effective Dexterity score of 0 and a speed of 0 feet (giving it AC 22, touch 7, flat-footed 22).

The Reaper can dismiss earthform as a free action, allowing it to revert to its normal state and make a full attack in the same round.​

Hmm, a very slow burrow speed would work with a bit of tweaking, and would play off some of those "earth rat" rogues and subterranean ninjas that crop up in some movies.

Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), burrow 5 ft. (see below)

Burrow (Ex): The Reaper can burrow through soil, although this is a slow and laborious process. It does not leave a tunnel behind itself and can not burrow through rock.

The Reaper can burrow through 5 ft. of earth as a standard action and 10 ft. of earth as a full-round action. The Reaper can burst out of the ground as a swift action if it is within 5 feet of the surface.

Note that The Reaper's gravesight allows it to notice opponents on the surface while it is burrowing.

Gravesight (Su): If it is buried in the ground, The Reaper can observe its surroundings just as if it were standing on the surface. Gravesight is blocked by 10 feet of earth, an inch of wood, or a thin sheet of any metal.​

Hmm, I quite like the last one, although I guess tremorsense would be a bit more conventional (and boring) than Gravesight.

 

[freyar]

OK, the weakness looks ok to me. I much prefer the burrow speed to Dirt Shape, but I'll go along with Gravesight vs tremorsense.

Ready for tactics, etc?

 

[Cleon]

OK, the weakness looks ok to me. I much prefer the burrow speed to Dirt Shape, but I'll go along with Gravesight vs tremorsense.

Updating the The Reaper Working Draft.

I removed the remaining question marks from the stats. We did decide on standard treasure and CR 8, I believe.

Ready for tactics, etc?

Sure.

"The Reaper uses its burrowing and gravesight abilities to hide underground and await intruders, whereupon it leaps out of the ground to attack. The Reaper fights to the finish with no thought of retreat, trusting in its sword charm's power to restore it to unlife should it be destroyed."

OK?

 

[freyar]

Sounds good!

Not much description in the original monster, but he turns into a shrivelled pod when you kill him, so maybe:
A withered man with a large scythe. ??

 

[Cleon]

Sounds good!

Updating the The Reaper Working Draft.

Not much description in the original monster, but he turns into a shrivelled pod when you kill him, so maybe:
A withered man with a large scythe. ??

For some reason I imagine him wearing a broad conical straw hat like many Asian peasants wear, although it's not mentioned in his writeup.

Hold on, there is a description of The Reaper in another part of the adventure - the "Phantasms" (a list of prophetic visions or dreams a PC may have):

"A noble man, his face shadowed by a cane hat, harvests wheat with a scythe, but the wheat bleeds. He looks up at the PCs and grins. (This is the Reaper, 4.)"​

So, he does have a hat after all!

The description makes it sound like he looks pretty human, so I'm thinking he shouldn't be that "withered". The fact he grins is interesting, because the encounter writeup describes him "Whistling to himself, and with an evil leer" before he attacks. He seems a cheerfully bloodthirsty fellow! We ought to mention that in the background info.

Oh, and the encounter says "the wind howls, lightning flashes, and the earth trembles" before he burst from the ground. I think we could treat that as flavour text, since it seems to have little combat utility, but we could say the Reaper can create spooky weather noises and light as per flare, ghost sound or minor image.

 

[freyar]

Hmmmm.

A wrinkled man of proud bearing wears a straw hat and carries a large scythe.

 

[Cleon]

Hmmmm.

A wrinkled man of proud bearing wears a straw hat and carries a large scythe.

Hmm... how about this:

The gaunt figure of a man carrying a scythe. All you can see of his face is a mouth twisted into an evil leer, the rest is shadowed beneath a broad cane hat.Despite the peasant's hat and weapon, he carries himself proudly.His clothes are caked in blood and soil, but are once-noble garments of silk. What little skin you can see looks dirt-grey and wrinkled.

 

[freyar]

Sure, sounds good!

So do we just need background?

 

[Cleon]

Sure, sounds good!

Updating the The Reaper Working Draft.

So do we just need background?

Looks that way. Do we want a generic background, a specific background (e.g. one that describes the Reaper in module OA2), or a combination (e.g. "Reapers are rare undead blah blah blah ... In Kara-Tur, the original Reaper was blah blah blah")?

 

[freyar]

Generic background plus an "In Kara-Tur" underbar? Along with this, I kind of think he should be unique. We never really discussed advancement, and I'd prefer - to go along with that unique status.