Spelljammer Converting Spelljammer creatures

[Cleon]

A resting gammaroid is hard to distinguish from an asteroid. Many victims who wandered close to one only realize their mistake when the gammeroid's head shoots out of its shell and seizes them in its jaws.

Hold on a moment, we've forgotten to give it the "masquerades as an asteroid" special ability!

The obvious solution is to give it Camouflage like we did the Father-of-all-the-Turtles:

Camouflage (Ex): A father-of-all-the-turtles can blend into the color of deep water or imitate the shape of a natural marine feature of approximately its own size and shape, such as a small shoal, an islet, or a mound upon a beach. So long as the chelonian does not move, it requires a DC 25 Spot check for another creature to notice it is not part of the scenery. It takes a father-of-all-the-turtles 1 minute to assume a camouflage.

e.g.:

Camouflage (Ex): A gammaroid can pull in its head and limbs and imitate an asteroid by using the gravity of its own mass to accrete a layer of rocks and dust upon its body. So long as the gammaroid does not move, it requires a DC 25 [?] Spot check for another creature to notice the imposture. It takes a gammaroid 1 minute [?] to assume this camouflage.

 

[freyar]

This all looks pretty good, except it should take longer to accumulate debris via gravity. Realistically, I'd think it should take years, but for game purposes let's say a day. I'll go as low as an hour if you insist, though.

 

[Cleon]

This all looks pretty good, except it should take longer to accumulate debris via gravity. Realistically, I'd think it should take years, but for game purposes let's say a day. I'll go as low as an hour if you insist, though.

Yes, I put the question mark behind it because I was thinking we'd probably change it from the 1 minute of the original Father-of-all-the Turtles version.

In our universe, such accretion would likely take millions of years, but the physics of the Spelljammer universe is so bizarrely different from the "real world" it could be almost anything.

I'd rather not nail it down to a specific time, and have something like "In areas thick in dust and rocks, such as a planetary ring, a gammaroid can cover itself in camouflaging material in an hour or so. In an asteroid belt it may take days or weeks of accretion to create this covering, or up to several months if the asteroid belt is particularly thin."

Actually, the gammaroid ought to be able to carry around its camouflage coating with it. How about this revision:

Camouflage (Ex): Gammaroids are so massive their own gravity accretes a layer of rocks and dust upon a body. This covering allows a gammaroid to pull its head and limbs into its shell and imitate an asteroid. So long as the gammaroid does not move, it requires a DC 25 [?] Spot check for another creature to notice the imposture. It takes a gammaroid 1 minute [?] to assume this camouflage.

A gammaroid loses this camouflage coating if it moves by Spinning Flight, since the centripetal forces of its rotation hurls the accreted material away. It must replace the coating if it wishes to use Camouflage again. In areas thick in dust and rocks, such as a planetary ring, a gammaroid can cover itself in camouflaging material in an hour or so. In an asteroid belt it may take days or weeks of accretion to create this covering, or up to several months if the asteroid belt is particularly thin.
​

How's that?

I'm wondering whether we should increase the DC of the Camouflage. It depends whether we want ordinary travellers to have a decent chance of spotting a Gammaroid before they fly up to one, or whether we want to have Epic Level characters have some change of not noticing it.

 

[freyar]

That's pretty good if you drop the last sentence of the first paragraph.

It's hard to say how good the camouflage should be. I suppose it would help to nail this down if we had a rough CR for it. I suppose a devastation vermin, perhaps the spider, is about as good a comp as we'll find in the SRD. So around CR 40? Then imagine we have a party of average level 35. What kind of Spot bonus are they likely to have? I confess I'm weak on epic skill rules.

 

[Cleon]

That's pretty good if you drop the last sentence of the first paragraph.

That works for me. I'll update the Gammaroid Working Draft with the rough draft plus the background stuff.

It's hard to say how good the camouflage should be. I suppose it would help to nail this down if we had a rough CR for it. I suppose a devastation vermin, perhaps the spider, is about as good a comp as we'll find in the SRD. So around CR 40? Then imagine we have a party of average level 35. What kind of Spot bonus are they likely to have? I confess I'm weak on epic skill rules.

Great minds think alike, I was using the Devastation Vermin as a baseline to guesstimate them at around CR 40 as well.

A party appropriate to a CR of that level is likely to have members with at least Spot 50+, even with mild investment (e.g. maxing out ranks and buying eyes of the eagle). A "Spotinator" could easily exceed Spot 60+.

Going back to the last question in my previous post, do we want it to have epic level camouflage?

If we give it the DC 50+ camouflage it'd need to have a chance of fooling Epic opponents, than ordinary level sailors would never recognize a camouflaged Gammaroid.

Gammaroids don't live in areas that are only frequented by epic level creatures, they flit around open space with all the other space beasties. I'd rather there be a chance a skilled mid-level sailor would be able to cry out "Cap'n! Ware gammaroid! That there rock be a space turtle! Steer clear! Steer clear!".

That'd require the Camouflage to be nearer the DC 25 it is at the moment.

A 5th level character with Alertness and eyes of the eagle can easily have Spot +15 or higher. (8 ranks +2 feat +5 item = 15), which is at least a 50% chance of noticing the Camouflage.

 

[Arnwyn]

That is all looking good (especially being able to take its own camouflage with it - because that is indeed how gravity works in Wildspace).

As for the Spot DC - I'm totally okay with Epic level characters being able to Spot it right away, and that it should be spottable by (much) lower-level crews (exactly as Cleon put it - that's how I envisioned it as well).

The DC 25 seems reasonable to me.

 

[Cleon]

That is all looking good (especially being able to take its own camouflage with it - because that is indeed how gravity works in Wildspace).

As for the Spot DC - I'm totally okay with Epic level characters being able to Spot it right away, and that it should be spottable by (much) lower-level crews (exactly as Cleon put it - that's how I envisioned it as well).

The DC 25 seems reasonable to me.

I'd be OK going up to DC 30, but 25 seems a good number for it to be spottable by "normal folks".

 

[freyar]

Let's stick with DC 25 if we want non-epic characters to Spot it.

 

[Cleon]

Let's stick with DC 25 if we want non-epic characters to Spot it.

Fine by me.

Updating the Gammaroid Working Draft.

That seems to be it apart from the Challenge Rating.

Any ideas apart from "around 40"?

 

[freyar]

It's just a guess, but I'd go with CR 42. Its hp are closest to the devastation spider, but I think the attack bonus, AC, and special abilities push it up closer to the scorpion. It could maybe even be CR 43, but I'm not sure I'd go that far.