Ada Shorewalker
Image © @iguanodont
[Another OC, and one of the first ones I came up with before realizing that I could make an entire Monster Girl Summer out of it. Ada is definitely a version of myself, much like Jade Seven is. I tied her to Castle Xyntillian in this flavor text because it seemed like a good fit for for her, either as a powerful ally for lower level players, or as someone in need of rescue for higher level ones.]
Ada Shorewalker
CR 8 N Monstrous Humanoid
This anthropomorphic seal has long red hair and a gentle, curious expression. She wears a seal-skin cape and carries a spear.
Ada Shorewalker was always more interested in observation than in the actual hunt. While other selkies of her pack preferred to play malicious tricks on humanoids, Ada spent her time in tide pools and beach-combing, paying special attention to those land organisms that came to rest or forage on the seaside. As Ada grew up, she practiced her shapeshifting to emulate the other animals around her, and eventually grew in tune with nature to the point of learning druidic magic. She has now left her pack behind, exploring on land in order to learn more about the life that exists independently of the ocean.
Despite her gentle nature, Ada is especially interested in things like predator-prey relationships, decomposition and toxicology. Fungi are fairly rare in the ocean, and so she is fascinated by fungi and fungal creatures. When she is comfortable with someone, she often infodumps to them about all of the things she’s learned; her idea of “fun facts” is decidedly morbid and sometimes very gross. She views undeath as an aberration, but a particularly interesting one.
In combat, Ada switches from fun-loving to all business. She uses her animal focus to take on aspects like dolphin, orca or turtle, and then closes into melee with her spear or natural weapons. She prefers not to fight in wild shape mode, as Ada usually saves it to take a flying form if she needs to make a quick getaway. Ada is a little headstrong, and is not used to working alongside others, but given time and practice could become an excellent teammate.
Due to her attraction towards macabre topics, Ada Shorewalker has been considering an expedition to Castle Xyntillian. She has heard that Lake Xyntillian is home to an entire population of freshwater plesiosaurs, for example, and unusual plants and fungi grow throughout the grounds. She is confident that she can deal with any undead creatures that she encounters, because she has underestimated the sheer number of powerful undead that live on the grounds. She has no idea, for example, about powerful guests such as The Sickness or Debbie Twice-Born, or that Hubert Malevol the Huntsman has never stalked a selkie before and would be happy to add her head to his trophy collection.
Ada has red hair and a fat build in all of her humanoid forms. She gets along especially well with gnomes.
Ada Shorewalker CR 8
XP 4,800
Female selkie druid 6 (variant feral shifter)
N Medium monstrous humanoid (shapechanger)
Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +14, scent
Defense
AC 19, touch 14, flat-footed 15 (+4 Dex, +5 natural)
hp 90 (12d8+36)
Fort +11, Ref +12, Will +14; +4 vs. fey
Resist cold 10
Defensive Abilities resist nature’s lure
Offense
Speed 20 ft., swim 50 ft.
Melee masterwork spear +15 (1d8+6/x3), bite +9 (1d8+4) or bite +14 (1d8+6), 2 claws +14 (1d6+4)
Ranged masterwork spear +15 (1d8+4/x3) or sling +14 (1d4+4)
Special Attacks animal focus (6 minutes/day), aquatic focus, powerful blows (bite), shake, wild shape (2/day, Tiny to Large animal, Small elemental)
Spells CL 6th, concentration +10 (+14 casting defensively)
3rd—greater magic fang, neutralize poison (DC 16), speak with plants
2nd—barkskin, bear’s endurance, elemental speech, slipstream
1st—faerie fire, obscuring mist, produce flame, speak with animals
0th—detect magic, detect poison, purify food and drink, stabilize
Statistics
Str 18, Dex 18, Con 17, Int 16, Wis17, Cha 16
Base Atk +10; CMB +14; CMD 28
Feats Alertness, Combat Casting,Improved Critical (bite)B, Improved Initiative, Natural Spell, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Knowledge: nature)
Skills Bluff +9, Diplomacy +9, Disguise +9, Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering) +9, Knowledge (geography) +12, Knowledge (nature) +17, Heal +12, Perception +14, Sense Motive +14, Spellcraft +12, Stealth +13, Survival +14, Swim +21
Languages Aquan, Common, Druidic, Gnome, Sylvan
SQ change shape (any Small or Medium humanoid, alter self), echo of reason, hold breath, nature sense, trackless step, wild empathy +9, woodland step
Gear seafoam shawl of resistance +1, pearl of power (1st level), wand of cure light wounds, scroll of lesser restoration, masterwork spear, sling with 10 bullets,coral and pearls worth 46 gp
Special Abilities
Animal Focus (Su): At 1st level, as a swift action, a feral shifter can take on the aspect of an animal, gaining a bonus or special ability based on the type of animal emulated. This functions as the hunter’s animal focus class feature. The feral shifter can use this ability for a number of minutes per day equal to her druid level. This duration does not need to be consecutive, but it must be spent in 1-minute increments. She can emulate only one animal at a time. This ability replaces nature bond.
Aquatic Focus (Su) Ada Shorewalker draws her animal focuses from the list for the aquatic beastmaster hunter archetype.
Echo of Reason (Su) A selkie can instinctively alter the intonation of its voice to make anything it says sound more pleasing to those who understand it. When using the Bluff skill, a selkie treats its lies as one step more believable for the purposes of bonuses or penalties on the check.
Shake (Ex) On a successful critical hit with its bite attack, a selkie automatically violently shakes a Large or smaller target. The target must succeed at a DC 16 Fortitude save or it is dazed for 1 round. Even on a successful save, the target still takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls and skill checks for the next 2 rounds. The save DC is Constitution-based.
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Ranking Disney Live Action Remakes
Cinderella- This one sets the standard and has not yet been surpassed
The Little Mermaid- This one comes closest to what Cinderella did. It expands on the story and justifies its own existence without feeling like it doesn't respect the original. And the lead really nails it.
The Jungle Book- I haven't seen this one since it came out but I remember thinking that it fixed some story issues with the original because tbh the original animated one has kind of a weird story structure.
Aladdin- Some things don't land quite right but others are really fun. Its a good time and is willing to make changes, some of which work pretty well. And even the things that don't work especially well aren't dragging the movie down really. Also a solid cast.
Beauty and the Beast- Some parts work really well, others they fumble. This one makes changes but more so than the ones above they feel sort of meaningless. And the casting is okay but feels more like stunt casting than the ones above.
Dumbo- I have to respect that this one really tried to make it its own thing. It's very chaotic and weird and doesn't really known what it is or who its main character is but... It's unique.
Lady and the Tramp- This exists! it's fine. except that they rewrote Tramp's character arc in a weird way.
The Lion King- This one mostly just suffers from being bland. It doesn't make any real changes. And by not adjusting to the change in medium it drains the life out of a lot of the sequences.
Peter Pan and Wendy- It really tries when it comes to making meaningful changes and they come so close to working but then they just really don't. I would put it higher than Lion King and Lady and the Tramp but I think it commits the worst sin one of these can make and that's messing up the title character (Peter, they did well with Wendy)
Mulan- By all rights this should be the best one because it is easily the best suited for a live action remake because its basically an action movie and yet it still manages to be easily the worst because its not fun or interesting and they completely undermined Mulan's character.
Pinocchio- I didn't watch this. So it gets last by default.
(I didn't include Cruella, Maleficent and Christopher Robin all of which I like, because they are just fundamentally doing something different. 101 Dalmatians should be ranked but I didn't want to so ha).
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