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Converting Ravenloft monsters
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<blockquote data-quote="Cleon" data-source="post: 8995286" data-attributes="member: 57383"><p>I'm wondering about whether we should place some cap on the maximum number of skeletons the Archer can have animated at any one time, or have some time limit on how long the skeletons remain in existence.</p><p></p><p>Otherwise you'd think an Archer Skeleton would almost always be accompanied by a horde of regular skeletons if they can create them for free. Any undead mastermind worth their salt would just order its Archer Skeletons to collect as many bones as it can and churn out an army of regular Skeletons if there wasn't some limit on the common skeletons created by bone arrows.</p><p></p><p>The text makes no mention that Archer Skeleton are usually accompanied by regular skellies.</p><p></p><p>Come to think of it, the text does not say the Archer Skeleton has any control over the bone arrow undead, it says:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">From <em>Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium Appendix III: Creatures of Darkness (1994)</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> It is, however, when the archer skeleton’s arrows miss their target that they prove most devastating. Whenever an arrow fails to hit its target, the DM should make a saving throw vs. crushing blow for the arrow. If the saving throw fails the shaft simply breaks and becomes useless. If it is successful, however, the arrow remains intact and rapidly (1 round) grows into a skeleton with all the normal abilities of those undead (see the <em>MONSTROUS MANUAL</em>). Such skeletons are hideous automatons of death and destruction that will immediately attack the closest living target.</p><p></p><p>That solves the problem! The bone arrow skeletons are not controlled by the Archer Skeleton but just run on the default setting of "kill everything!" like uncontrolled excess undead created by the <a href="https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/animateDead.htm" target="_blank"><em>animate dead</em></a> spell.</p><p></p><p>Speaking of <em>animate dead</em>, that spell can create up to twice the CL of undead HD and has a maximum control limit of 4 HD per CL.</p><p></p><p>That means an <em>animate dead</em> with a caster level of 5 (same as the Archer's Hit Dice) would animate up to ten 1 HD skeletons and the Archer could have up to twenty 1 HD skeletons "under its control," so maybe we can do something with that?</p><p></p><p>The twenty 1 HD skeletons limit neatly matches the twenty <em>bone arrows</em> the Archer can have. Hmm…</p><p></p><p>How about the Archer Skeleton has a max of 20 bone arrows, but cannot replace arrows that have turned into skeletons until the skeleton is destroyed? I'm also tempted to either have a maximum of 10 skeletons at any one time (meaning it can have up to 10 bone arrows left in its quiver) and/or have the skeleton only run around looking to kill things for, say, 10 minutes and then crumble to dust.</p><p></p><p>The other question is do we want to keep the original rule that the bone longbow and bone arrows remain after the Skeleton is destroyed and can be used by anyone who picks them up, so they can create uncontrolled murder skeletons too!</p><p></p><p>The original required a Ravenloft Powers Check for creatures using the bone arrow, but that ain't standard 3E. I'm thinking maybe a Fort Save to avoid Constitution Drain or Energy Drain might be in order to discourage casual use.</p><p></p><p>That and the fact that any resulting skeletons are "hideous automatons of death and destruction".</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cleon, post: 8995286, member: 57383"] I'm wondering about whether we should place some cap on the maximum number of skeletons the Archer can have animated at any one time, or have some time limit on how long the skeletons remain in existence. Otherwise you'd think an Archer Skeleton would almost always be accompanied by a horde of regular skeletons if they can create them for free. Any undead mastermind worth their salt would just order its Archer Skeletons to collect as many bones as it can and churn out an army of regular Skeletons if there wasn't some limit on the common skeletons created by bone arrows. The text makes no mention that Archer Skeleton are usually accompanied by regular skellies. Come to think of it, the text does not say the Archer Skeleton has any control over the bone arrow undead, it says: [INDENT]From [I]Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium Appendix III: Creatures of Darkness (1994)[/I] It is, however, when the archer skeleton’s arrows miss their target that they prove most devastating. Whenever an arrow fails to hit its target, the DM should make a saving throw vs. crushing blow for the arrow. If the saving throw fails the shaft simply breaks and becomes useless. If it is successful, however, the arrow remains intact and rapidly (1 round) grows into a skeleton with all the normal abilities of those undead (see the [I]MONSTROUS MANUAL[/I]). Such skeletons are hideous automatons of death and destruction that will immediately attack the closest living target.[/INDENT] That solves the problem! The bone arrow skeletons are not controlled by the Archer Skeleton but just run on the default setting of "kill everything!" like uncontrolled excess undead created by the [URL='https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/animateDead.htm'][I]animate dead[/I][/URL] spell. Speaking of [I]animate dead[/I], that spell can create up to twice the CL of undead HD and has a maximum control limit of 4 HD per CL. That means an [I]animate dead[/I] with a caster level of 5 (same as the Archer's Hit Dice) would animate up to ten 1 HD skeletons and the Archer could have up to twenty 1 HD skeletons "under its control," so maybe we can do something with that? The twenty 1 HD skeletons limit neatly matches the twenty [I]bone arrows[/I] the Archer can have. Hmm… How about the Archer Skeleton has a max of 20 bone arrows, but cannot replace arrows that have turned into skeletons until the skeleton is destroyed? I'm also tempted to either have a maximum of 10 skeletons at any one time (meaning it can have up to 10 bone arrows left in its quiver) and/or have the skeleton only run around looking to kill things for, say, 10 minutes and then crumble to dust. The other question is do we want to keep the original rule that the bone longbow and bone arrows remain after the Skeleton is destroyed and can be used by anyone who picks them up, so they can create uncontrolled murder skeletons too! The original required a Ravenloft Powers Check for creatures using the bone arrow, but that ain't standard 3E. I'm thinking maybe a Fort Save to avoid Constitution Drain or Energy Drain might be in order to discourage casual use. That and the fact that any resulting skeletons are "hideous automatons of death and destruction". [/QUOTE]
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