Converting Planescape monsters

[Cleon]

Those ranges are fine by me; they do get up to around the same category as a long-range spell. I think I'd just go with the standard "no range increments," though. Using the same ranges for blinding works for me, as well.

OK, I'll update the Radiance Quasi-Elemental Working Draft.

…Dang it, the Elder's beam range should be 350 ft. not 300 ft. in my previous post - I messed up one of the 50 foot steps.

Did you agree with increasing the effect for blinding, also, so it's not actually blinding for the smaller ones?

I have no objection to that, although we'll need to change the name of the power.

Something like this?

Flash (Ex): As a standard action, a radiance quasi-elemental can spin incredibly rapidly and produce an intense burst of light. Any seeing creature that is within range of the light must succeed at a Reflex save or have their vision damaged by the flash. The Radiance Quasi-Elemental Flash Table lists the radius of the effect, the typical save DC, the degree of impairment and its duration for each size of quasi-elemental. The save DC is Constitution-based.

A remove blindness spell or equivalent power will cure all effects of this attack.

Radiance Quasi-Elemental Flash Table

Size of Radiance Quasi-Elemental	Flash Radius	Save DC	Vision Impairment	Effect Duration
Small	100 ft.	10	Dazzled	XdX
Medium	150 ft.	13	Blurry*	XdX
Large	200 ft.	16	Blurry*	XdX
Huge	250 ft.	20	Blinded	XdX
Greater	300 ft.	23	Blinded	XdX
Elder	350 ft.	26	Blinded	XdX
Monolith	400 ft.	34	Blinded	XdX

* A creature with blurry vision attacks as if all their opponents had concealment (20% miss chance) and takes a -2 penalty on Search checks and Spot checks.

* * *
​

We'll need to decide on duration(s). The original lasted for 2d10 days! Do we want to keep day long durations or cut it down to something shorter?

I also considered having the effect depend on how far the opponent is from the Flash, so an enemy that's close to the Radiance Quasi is blinded but one that's at the edge of the effect is only dazzled.

Maybe something like:

Radiance Quasi-Elemental Flash Table

Size of Radiance Quasi-Elemental	Save DC	Blinded Radius	Blurry* Radius	Dazzled Radius	Effect Duration
Small Medium Large Huge Greater Elder Monolith	10 13 16 20 23 26 34	0-X ft. 0-X ft. 0-X ft. 0-X ft. 0-X ft. 0-X ft. 0-X ft.	0-X ft. X-Y ft. X-Y ft. X-Y ft. X-Y ft. X-Y ft. X-Y ft.	X-100 ft. Y-150 ft. Y-200 ft. Y-250 ft. Y-300 ft. Y-350 ft. Y-400 ft.	XdX XdX XdX XdX XdX XdX XdX

* A creature with blurry vision attacks as if all their opponents had concealment (20% miss chance) and takes a -2 penalty on Search checks and Spot checks.

What do you think?

 

[freyar]

I like the realism of the varying effects at different distances, but I worry it's a little fiddly. Let's work out durations while we think about that. As for the durations, day-long durations are ok since presumably something like remove blindness/deafness would heal it (we can specify other possible spells, I guess). So what if we have a progression something like 2d10 hours, 4d10 hours, 1d4 days, 1d8 days, 2d6 days, 2d8 days, 2d10 days? That could be tweaked if you like.

 

[Cleon]

I like the realism of the varying effects at different distances, but I worry it's a little fiddly. Let's work out durations while we think about that.

Fine by me.

For the varying radii, I am divided as to whether the Small size should be capable of producing a blinding effect but was thinking of having a slightly uneven radii progressions like so:

Radiance Quasi-Elemental Flash Table

Size of Radiance Quasi-Elemental	Save DC	Blinded Radius	Blurry* Radius	Dazzled Radius	Effect Duration
Small Medium Large Huge Greater Elder Monolith	10 13 16 20 23 26 34	— 0-10 ft. 0-20 ft. 0-30 ft. 0-40 ft. 0-50 ft. 0-60 ft.	0-30 ft. 11-50 ft. 21-60 ft. 31-80 ft. 41-100 ft. 51-120 ft. 61-150 ft.	31-100 ft. 51-150 ft. 61-200 ft. 81-250 ft. 101-300 ft. 121-350 ft. 151-400 ft.	XdX XdX XdX XdX XdX XdX XdX

* A creature with blurry vision attacks as if all their opponents had concealment (20% miss chance) and takes a –2 penalty on Search checks and Spot checks.

or for the "Small blinding version":

Radiance Quasi-Elemental Flash Table

Size of Radiance Quasi-Elemental	Save DC	Blinded Radius	Blurry* Radius	Dazzled Radius	Effect Duration
Small Medium Large Huge Greater Elder Monolith	10 13 16 20 23 26 34	0-5 ft. 0-10 ft. 0-20 ft. 0-30 ft. 0-40 ft. 0-50 ft. 0-60 ft.	6-30 ft. 11-50 ft. 21-60 ft. 31-80 ft. 41-100 ft. 51-120 ft. 61-150 ft.	31-100 ft. 51-150 ft. 61-200 ft. 81-250 ft. 101-300 ft. 121-350 ft. 151-400 ft.	XdX XdX XdX XdX XdX XdX XdX

* A creature with blurry vision attacks as if all their opponents had concealment (20% miss chance) and takes a –2 penalty on Search checks and Spot checks.

As for the durations, day-long durations are ok since presumably something like remove blindness/deafness would heal it (we can specify other possible spells, I guess). So what if we have a progression something like 2d10 hours, 4d10 hours, 1d4 days, 1d8 days, 2d6 days, 2d8 days, 2d10 days? That could be tweaked if you like.

I have no objections to the long duration if you're happy with it. If I remember correctly I've already mentioned remove blindness/deafness in the writeup.

So we're talking something like:

Radiance Quasi-Elemental Flash Table #1

Size of Radiance Quasi-Elemental	Save DC	Flash Radius	Vision Impairment	Effect Duration
Small Medium Large Huge Greater Elder Monolith	10 13 16 20 23 26 34	100 ft. 150 ft. 200 ft. 250 ft. 300 ft. 350 ft. 400 ft.	Dazzled Blurry* Blurry* Blinded Blinded Blinded Blinded	4d12 hours 1d4 days 1d6 days 1d8 days 2d6 days 2d8 days 2d10 days

* A creature with blurry vision attacks as if all their opponents had concealment (20% miss chance) and takes a –2 penalty on Search checks and Spot checks.

However, if we are going to include the 2d10 day duration of the original I would rather put it somewhere in the Huge size ranges (Huge to Elder) so it (a) belongs to one of the "normal size" elementals, (b) it'd smooth out the durations a bit, and (c) with a bit of stretching we can show some dodecahedron love with either table.

So I'm thinking:

Radiance Quasi-Elemental Flash Table #2

Size of Radiance Quasi-Elemental	Save DC	Flash Radius	Vision Impairment	Effect Duration
Small Medium Large Huge Greater Elder Monolith	10 13 16 20 23 26 34	100 ft. 150 ft. 200 ft. 250 ft. 300 ft. 350 ft. 400 ft.	Dazzled Blurry* Blurry* Blinded Blinded Blinded Blinded	1d4 days 1d6 days 1d8 days 2d6 days 2d8 days 2d10 days 2d12 days

* A creature with blurry vision attacks as if all their opponents had concealment (20% miss chance) and takes a –2 penalty on Search checks and Spot checks.

 

[freyar]

You know, I actually like that last table there for the whole thing. Shall we just go with that?

I guess Vulnerability to Darkness is next. How do we want to deal with that? We could go with damage per round spent in magical darkness, or we could say that the caster can do damage by making a touch attack with a darkness spell against the quasi.

 

[Cleon]

You know, I actually like that last table there for the whole thing. Shall we just go with that?

I have no objection, I'll update the Radiance Quasi-Elemental Working Draft with:

Flash (Ex): As a standard action, a radiance quasi-elemental can spin incredibly rapidly and produce an intense burst of light. Any seeing creature that is within range of the light must succeed at a Reflex save or have their vision damaged by the flash. The Radiance Quasi-Elemental Flash Table lists the radius of the effect, the typical save DC, the degree of impairment and its duration for each size of quasi-elemental. The save DC is Constitution-based.

A remove blindness spell or equivalent power will cure all effects of this attack.

Radiance Quasi-Elemental Flash Table

Size of Radiance Quasi-Elemental	Save DC	Flash Radius	Vision Impairment	Effect Duration
Small Medium Large Huge Greater Elder Monolith	10 13 16 20 23 26 34	100 ft. 150 ft. 200 ft. 250 ft. 300 ft. 350 ft. 400 ft.	Dazzled Blurry* Blurry* Blinded Blinded Blinded Blinded	1d4 days 1d6 days 1d8 days 2d6 days 2d8 days 2d10 days 2d12 days

* A creature with blurry vision attacks as if all their opponents had concealment (20% miss chance) and takes a –2 penalty on Search checks and Spot checks.

I guess Vulnerability to Darkness is next. How do we want to deal with that? We could go with damage per round spent in magical darkness, or we could say that the caster can do damage by making a touch attack with a darkness spell against the quasi.

I'm sure we've done creatures with similar SQ that took damage from being in bright light and the like. I'm not feeling up to checking my files for such a beast at the moment though. Maybe later when I'm feeling perkier. As written it suggests casting a Darkness spell on the creature damages it and cancels the spell. I'd think we might want to increase the damage somewhat from the original's 1 point per caster level, unless the damage is a per-round affair like that of a wall of fire.

Actually, that reminds me. The Dragon #125 version has:

"Spells which create or control darkness can prevent such a quasi-elemental from using its blinding attack, and these spells inflict damage of 1 hp per level of the caster to the creature"

Should we have its Flash attack be blocked by magical darkness? Or maybe magical darkness reduces its potency - i.e. darkness cuts it 1 level (blindness to blurry), deeper darkness by 2 levels (blindness to dazzled) and blacklight by 3 (complete cancellation).

 

[freyar]

I think it would be easiest just to have magical darkness block Flash. Something like "Creatures in an area of magical darkness are not affected by this ability." under Flash?

I think I'd have a spell with the darkness descriptor cast as a touch or ranged touch attack on the quasi do 1 die (size TBD) of damage per CL/spell level. How'd that be for you?

 

[Cleon]

I think it would be easiest just to have magical darkness block Flash. Something like "Creatures in an area of magical darkness are not affected by this ability." under Flash?

Yes, I was thinking of modifying the Flash SA to cover it.

However I was thinking it'd mean creatures with a darkness spell between them and the radiance quasi to be shielded (or, rather, "shaded") from the flash.

We could achieve that by adding the following paragraph after the first one:

Any kind of magical darkness will block the line of effect of a radiance quasi-elemental's flash attack.

I think I'd have a spell with the darkness descriptor cast as a touch or ranged touch attack on the quasi do 1 die (size TBD) of damage per CL/spell level. How'd that be for you?

How about we cover both? If a spellcaster targets a radiance quasi with a Darkness spell the radiance quasi takes X damage per CL but the spell is "cancelled", while if the radiance quasi elemental enters the area of a darkness spell it takes Y damage every round until it leaves or dies?

We could have the X and Y vary with spell level, so a 1st-level darkness spell does, say damage = CL as a direct attack or 1 point per round as an ongoing attack, while a 9th level spell does 1d20 per CL.

Actually, it would be easier if we keep the dice size manageable and have dice damage caps depending on spell level like is normal for 3E. i.e. a 9th level Darkness spell might do 1d8 or 1d10 per CL (max 25 dice)

Something along these lines would cleave pretty well to normal spell damage progression:

0-level: 1d3 (max 1d3)
1st-level: 1d4 per CL (max 5d4)
2nd-level: 1d4 per CL (max 10d4)
3rd-level: 1d6 per CL (max 10d6)
4th-level: 1d6 per CL (max 15d6)
5th-level: 1d6 per CL (max 15d6)
6th-level: 1d6 per CL (max 20d6)
7th-level: 1d6 per CL (max 20d6)
8th-level: 1d8 per CL (max 20d8)
9th-level: 1d8 per CL (max 25d8)

 

[freyar]

"Any kind of magical darkness will block the line of effect of a radiance quasi-elemental's flash attack." will work for me.

I like what you propose pretty well for the direct attacks. What do you want to do for damage per round in darkness, then? Drop say 1 step compared to the direct attack progression, which would be 1, 1d3, 1d3, 1d4, 1d4, 1d4, 1d4, 1d4, 1d6, 1d6 per round (with no CL modifier)? Or just the same dice per round rather than per CL?

 

[Cleon]

"Any kind of magical darkness will block the line of effect of a radiance quasi-elemental's flash attack." will work for me.

I like what you propose pretty well for the direct attacks. What do you want to do for damage per round in darkness, then? Drop say 1 step compared to the direct attack progression, which would be 1, 1d3, 1d3, 1d4, 1d4, 1d4, 1d4, 1d4, 1d6, 1d6 per round (with no CL modifier)? Or just the same dice per round rather than per CL?

I fancy stretching it out a bit by using more dice sizes.

Maybe:

0-level: none
1st-level: 1 point per round
2nd-level: 1d2 points per round
3rd-level: 1d3 points per round
4th-level: 1d4 points per round
5th-level: 1d6 points per round
6th-level: 1d8 points per round
7th-level: 1d10 points per round
8th-level: 2d6 points per round
9th-level: 2d8 points per round

Although, if we want the average to be closer to the original's 1 per level and assume the level in question is spell level, the following would be a closer match, albeit with a slight damage tweak upwards - considering how many more hit points 3E monsters have than 1E/2E ones a bit more damage doesn't hurt.

0-level: 1 point per round
1st-level: 1d2 points per round
2nd-level: 1d4 points per round
3rd-level: 1d6 points per round
4th-level: 1d8 points per round
5th-level: 1d10 points per round
6th-level: 1d12 points per round
7th-level: 2d6 points per round
8th-level: 2d8 points per round
9th-level: 3d6 points per round

 

[Cleon]

"Any kind of magical darkness will block the line of effect of a radiance quasi-elemental's flash attack." will work for me.

Oh, and I'd better update the Flash in the Radiance Quasi-Elemental Working Draft.