Spelljammer Converting Spelljammer creatures

[Cleon]

I'd go with the increased abilities, too, and Monstrous Humanoid makes good sense to me.

I'll stick those stats in with the next update.

I also like a "king"/secondary breeder, though I do think the normal queen should be mildly mobile, leaving the immobile one as an advanced form.

I was thinking the "basic queen" and the "secondary queens" would use the same monster entry - since they are the same creature! - but most Isopterite colonies will be led by a Queen who's advanced to Colossal size and become immobile.

I was thinking we'd base the social structure on real-life termites, something like:

There'll only be one Queen per colony, but there'll probably be a number of secondary queens. If the Queen dies, the Hive Mind will go down until one of the secondaries can re-establish it (which probably requires her to kill or banish the other secondary queens). If there are no secondary queens, then either a "nymph" or a female worker will develop into a queen, but this would take a lot longer.

 

[freyar]

That all works for me; probably a lot can go into background also. Shall we work on the acid spray next?

 

[Cleon]

That all works for me; probably a lot can go into background also. Shall we work on the acid spray next?

Sure! It looks pretty straightforward.

Ranged touch attack doing 2d12 damage plus a save to avoid 2d6 minutes of blindness. All we need is to decide the save DC - it could be either Reflex or Fortitude, but I'm leaning towards Ref.

Constitution-based, I suppose.

 

[freyar]

I'd probably go with a Fort save and Con-based DC. The point of a Ref save would be dodging the acid, and the attack modifiers already generally take that into account. I guess I could see a Ref save if you want to say it's jinking your eyes out of the way when you notice you'll be hit with the spray.

What if we roll for it? Even = Fort, Odd= Ref ....

 

[freyar]

[roll0]

EDIT: There we go, guess it's a Ref save!

 

[Cleon]

[roll0]

EDIT: There we go, guess it's a Ref save!

Well I have no objection... ...since your randomly generated save type was the one I wanted.

 

[freyar]

The original is

Once per turn, a warrior isopterite can squirt a highly acidic, chemical deterrent at its enemy. This is done in place of the hand-to-hand strikes. The insect can squirt the acid with deadly accuracy, gaining +1 on its attack die. The acid inflicts 2d12 points of damage on a successful hit. There is a 25% chance that the acid will be aimed at the eyes of the target (unless he is wearing protection over the eyes). In this case, the eyes will become highly irritated and blindness will ensue. The blindness last for 1d6 turns if flushed with water (2d6 turns if not treated).

How about this?

Spit Acid (Ex): Every 1d4 rounds (?), an isopterite can spit a glob of acid as a ranged touch attack with range 30 ft (?) (no range increment) and +1 racial attack bonus that does 2d12 hp acid damage. The acid can also get in the victim's eyes, causing blindness for 1d6 hours (?) unless the target succeeds at a DC X Ref save (the save DC is Constitution-based).

I'd be ok with dropping the racial attack bonus if they get Point Blank Shot or something. I also wonder if the DC should be Dex-based, since it has to do with aim.

 

[Cleon]

The original is


How about this?

Spit Acid (Ex): Every 1d4 rounds (?), an isopterite can spit a glob of acid as a ranged touch attack with range 30 ft (?) (no range increment) and +1 racial attack bonus that does 2d12 hp acid damage. The acid can also get in the victim's eyes, causing blindness for 1d6 hours (?) unless the target succeeds at a DC X Ref save (the save DC is Constitution-based).

I'd be ok with dropping the racial attack bonus if they get Point Blank Shot or something. I also wonder if the DC should be Dex-based, since it has to do with aim.

I don't mind a Dex-based DC in principle. It'll make it a easier to save against, but a party intruding into an Isopterite nest will probably have to make a lot of saves against this spit, so we don't want to make it too hard.

2-12 turns is 20-120 rounds, which is 2d6 minutes if we use 3E rounds or 20d6 minutes if we use AD&D rounds (i.e. 0.4 to 2 hours). Both those are less than 1d6 hours, so I'd shorten it a bit. Maybe 1d6×10 minutes as a compromise?

Apart from that, I think it'll be fine with a little tidying up.

How about this revision:

Spit Acid (Ex): Every 1d4 rounds, an isopterite warrior can spit a glob of acid as a ranged touch attack with a 30 ft. range (no range increment) and a +1 racial bonus on its attack roll. If it hits, the target takes 2d12 acid damage and must succeed at a DC X Reflex save or be blinded for 1d6×10 minutes by acid getting into their eyes. The save DC is Dexterity-based.

 

[Durrani]

The core Spelljammer product line consisted of four boxed sets: Spelljammer: AD&D Adventures in Space (ISBN 0-88038-762-9) introduced the setting and provided the basic rules for spelljamming travel. The Legend of Spelljammer (ISBN 1-56076-083-4) expanded on the setting, in particular the Spelljammer itself. The War Captain's Companion (ISBN 1-56076-343-4) provided more detailed ship-to-ship combat rules, and The Astromundi Cluster (ISBN 1-56076-632-8) provided a roleplaying campaign.

 

[Cleon]

The core Spelljammer product line consisted of four boxed sets: Spelljammer: AD&D Adventures in Space (ISBN 0-88038-762-9) introduced the setting and provided the basic rules for spelljamming travel. The Legend of Spelljammer (ISBN 1-56076-083-4) expanded on the setting, in particular the Spelljammer itself. The War Captain's Companion (ISBN 1-56076-343-4) provided more detailed ship-to-ship combat rules, and The Astromundi Cluster (ISBN 1-56076-632-8) provided a roleplaying campaign.

While all that's true, it doesn't seem particularly germane to this thread's current task of converting SJA3's Isopterite into 3rd edition.