Pseudonatural creatures.


Conversions


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hello and greetings to you all. i'm starting a campaign with a strong emphisis on the far realms, and as a result i'm planning to make use of a version of the pseudonatural creature template from the 3.5 edition D&D suplemental book 'Complete Arcane', along with a slightly modified alienist prestige class from the same source.
i was wondering if any of the esteemed veterans on this site have any personal experience with either the template or the class, and would be willing to share their experiences (Good and bad) with a player turned dungeon master who's planning to put them to use.
as always, thanks are given in advance.


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Not particularly experienced but one thing that occurs to me is that the psuedonatural template is designed for higher levels 16+ which means your either going to have your party not encounter it till later in the game or are going to be running into kobolds/goblins and the like once they hit the appropriate levels. Something it seems your already aware of.

My advice is to combine monster creation rules, if you have them. That is look at the pseudonatural template, break it down into components e.g. tentacles and then take the rules of applying them and work up.

So when the game starts you'll be facing off against creatures that "almost" normal say a kobold with tentacles or a goblin with an extra head and as the go up in levels more powerful creatures are encountered with a stronger tie to that unnatural place till they hit the full power creatures.


Liam Warner wrote:

Not particularly experienced but one thing that occurs to me is that the psuedonatural template is designed for higher levels 16+ which means your either going to have your party not encounter it till later in the game or are going to be running into kobolds/goblins and the like once they hit the appropriate levels. Something it seems your already aware of.

My advice is to combine monster creation rules, if you have them. That is look at the pseudonatural template, break it down into components e.g. tentacles and then take the rules of applying them and work up.

So when the game starts you'll be facing off against creatures that "almost" normal say a kobold with tentacles or a goblin with an extra head and as the go up in levels more powerful creatures are encountered with a stronger tie to that unnatural place till they hit the full power creatures.

firstly, thanks for answering. i had begun to wonder whether anyone had ever used the psuedonatural template before!

but are you sure we're looking at the same template here? the one in my book is about on par with the celestial/fiendish templates (not the half celestial/ half fiend templates) and thus don't even bump the cr if the recipient is at 3 hd or below.
the template you're referencing sounds like it'd be great for when the group hit higher levels. which book/supplement is it from?

Dark Archive

Liam Warner wrote:

Not particularly experienced but one thing that occurs to me is that the psuedonatural template is designed for higher levels 16+ which means your either going to have your party not encounter it till later in the game or are going to be running into kobolds/goblins and the like once they hit the appropriate levels. Something it seems your already aware of.

My advice is to combine monster creation rules, if you have them. That is look at the pseudonatural template, break it down into components e.g. tentacles and then take the rules of applying them and work up.

So when the game starts you'll be facing off against creatures that "almost" normal say a kobold with tentacles or a goblin with an extra head and as the go up in levels more powerful creatures are encountered with a stronger tie to that unnatural place till they hit the full power creatures.

How do you figure the psuedonatural template is designed for higher levels? The psuedonatural template as described in Complete Arcane, only added +1 to the base creature's challenge rating.


there is an epic version from ELH and a lower level version for alienist.

Liberty's Edge

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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I've worked up a couple of pseudonatural and half-farspawn (from Lords of Madness) creatures, and they didn't seem too overpowered. Even true strike once per day in place of (un)holy smite isn't that bad--glass cannons, and all that.


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IIRC Pseudonatural template was equivalent of celestial/fienidish (or maybe a bit weaker - I don't remember if it had any smite evil/good replacement). I think that Liam meant that it's effects at lower levels are rather minor and more of a cosmetic effect giving seemingly aberrant appearance to creature little changed otherwise.


In response to Liam, he's looking at what I call the "Advanced Pseudonatural" template, shown in the Epic Level handbook, which is not the same as the Pseudonatural Template in Complete Arcane and Lords of Madness.

I actually did a bit of re-tooling, using the Celestial and Fiendish templates as main backbones, plus using "And Madness Followed" in Dungeon to spice them up a bit more. So here's my take:

Pseudonatural Creature (CR +0 or +1)

Pseudonatural creatures thrive in the black spaces between the stars, but can be summoned by half-farspawn creatures or alienists using spells such as summon monster and planar ally. A pseudonatural creature’s CR increases by +1 only if the base creature has 5 or more HD. A pseudonatural creature’s quick and rebuild rules are the same.
Rebuild Rules: Type changes to Outsider. Do not recalculate HD, BAB or saves;

Defensive Abilities- gains DR and energy resistance as noted on the table;

SR- gains SR equal to new CR +5;

Special Attacks- true strike 1/day as a swift action (+20 insight bonus on a single attack roll. It suffers no missed chances vs. concealed targets when making this attack.);

Special Qualities- alien form (creatures of the Material Plane receive a -1 penalty on attack rolls against it due to its writhing, alien appearance).

Table: Pseudonatural Creature Defenses (man, this was HARD to re-work in a left-sided format that doesn't accept grids)
Hit Dice
1–4
5–10
11+

Resist Acid and Electricity
5
10
15

DR

5/magic
10/magic
Sample Creature

Pseudonatural Bat, Dire
N Large Outsider
Init +2; Senses: Blindsense 40 ft.; Perception +12

DEFENSE
AC 14, touch 11, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +3 natural, –1 size)
hp 22 (4d8+4)
Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +3
Defensive Abilities: Resist Acid 5, Electricity 5, SR 7

OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft., fly 40 ft. (good)
Melee bite +5 (1d8+4)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks: True Strike 1/day as a swift action

STATISTICS
Str 17, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6
Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 19
Feats Alertness, Stealthy
Skills Fly +9, Perception +12, Stealth +4; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception when using Blindsense
SQ: Alien Form

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Alien Form (Su)
Creatures of the Material Plane receive a -1 penalty on attack rolls against it due to its writhing, alien appearance.

Yeah, not too different. A few changes here and there to match up with similar templates, along with some changes to streamline that Special Ability so that it's constant, not something that takes a standard action. Sorry I had to relist the Defenses chart since this format doesn't allow grids. ALSO, I MAY change "half-farspawn" to fit more with both Pathfinder and the RP world/solar system that me and a friend have worked on for a few years via-Pathfinder (since there's no "Far Realm"... but there IS dark planets and the Dark Tapestry). I have some ideas, in my head of what to rename that template.

Liberty's Edge

*necro*

I'm working on converting "And Madness Followed" and made these changes from the template in Complete Arcane. Went with the half- template format, though now that I think about it the simple format would've made more sense.

Quote:

CREATING A PSEUDONATURAL CREATURE

“Pseudonatural” is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
A pseudonatural creature uses all the base creature's statistics and abilities except as noted here. Even though the creature's type changes, do not recalculate Hit Dice, base attack bonus, or skill points.
Challenge Rating: Up to 3 HD, as base creature; 4 HD to 11 HD, as base creature +1; 12 or more HD, as base creature +2.
Size and Type:The creature's type changes to outsider. Size is unchanged.
Defensive Abilities: A pseudonatural creature retains all the defensive abilities of the base creature and also gains the following special qualities.
Resistance (Ex): A pseudonatural creature has resistance to acid and electricity based on the base creature's Hit Dice (see the table below).
Damage Reduction (Ex): A pseudonatural creature gains damage reduction based on the base creature's Hit Dice (see the table below).
Spell Resistance (Ex): A pseudonatural creature gains spell resistance equal to the creature's CR+11 (maximum 25).
Alternate Form (Su): As a standard action, a pseudonatural creature can take the form of a grotesque, tentacled mass (or another appropriately gruesome form, as determined by the DM). Despite the alien appearance, its abilities remain unchanged. Other creatures receive a -1 morale penalty on their attack rolls against a pseudonatural creature when it is in this alternate form.
Quote:

Hit Dice

1-3
4-7
8-11
12 or more
Acid, Electricity Resistance
5
5
10
15
Damage Reduction
-
5/magic
5/magic
10/magic

Special Attacks: A pseudonatural creature retains all the special attacks of the base creature and also gains the following attack.

True Strike (Su): Once per day, a pseudonatural creature can gain a +20 insight bonus on a single attack roll. In addition, the creature suffers no miss chance against a target that has concealment or total concealment when making this attack.
Abilities: Same as base creature, but Intelligence is at least 3.
Environment: Any land and underground.

Interestingly, Pathfinder actually already has Hastur and Carcosa, so in terms of lore the conversion is pretty easy. I'm going to use "pseudonatural" and "farspawn" in my game - Carcosa is pretty far, after all - but I could see "voidspawn" and "God-touched" as alternatives.

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