#THANK YOU MAWS FOR FIXING DC

[whywoulditho]

CONNER FUCKING KENT IN ALL HIS CUNTY PUNK-CODED GLORY IN MAWS S3??? LETS FUCKING GOOO

[nitewrighter]

Can I just say? I love how much you love Superman! I can see the care and attention and genuine love that goes into your MAWS stories and I think it’s great!

Thank you so much! Honestly it's just such a blast going through the comics and other media and figuring out which elements I really love and how to adapt them to the show's unique approach to Superman. It scratches my brain in such a satisfying way! It's also just... working with the character itself--Supes is literally just such a comfort character on his own, whether you're writing fluff or action or angst, but there's also so much precedence, basically what it really makes you want to do, as a writer, is make sure you inspire the feelings in your readers that the character gives you. I honestly feel like I'm writing from a better place with Superman, because like, don't get me wrong, I really did enjoy my whole 'paint by numbers' approach with piecing together Overwatch lore, but the fandom felt more... 'PvP' if that makes sense.

With DC there's just such a glut of material to work with that you get to see everyone scrapping together their own interpretations from multiple sources, or using the interpretation of one media to 'fix' the emotional shortcomings of another... it's fascinating. We aren't fighting over breadcrumbs of lore, we are all hustling around one of those giant cooking competition kitchens that has a pantry with 8 kajillion ingredients to work with and we're going "*gasp!* The wontons!" But like... in a fun way!

[justicegundam82]

D&D 3.5 to PF1e Conversion: Beholderkin, Overseer

In the end, I was able to get back to my conversions, and right now, I'm converting one of my fave aberrations ever! This has been quite an undertaking, since it's my highest-CR creation yet (though of course, I plan on taking on much greater ones). I've tried to be consistent and balanced with the power level, but I'm still not sure if I managed it. It doesn't help that there aren't many CR 17 Aberrations around - and I must thank the Creature Codex for their hard work and for providing me some examples to confront my own work with. Of course, suggestions and constructive criticism are always welcome.

And as always, I hope you enjoy.

P.S.: If you're looking for conversions of the Beholder, both the Creature Codex and the Creature Chronicle blogs have some excellent ones.

BEHOLDERKIN, OVERSEER

Image (c) Wizards of the Coast, author C. Fix

This horror resembles a black tree made of rubbery, pulsating flesh. Each of its branches ends in a single unblinking eye, and three fanged maws yawn open on the creature’s trunk. It propels itself forward by crawling on several root-like tentacles.

OVERSEER                       CR 17

XP 102’400

LE Huge Aberration (beholderkin)

Init +6; Senses; all-around vision, darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +31

DEFENSE

AC 31, touch 10, flat-footed 29 (+6 armor, +2 Dex, +15 natural, -2 size)

hp 297 (22d8+198)

Fort +18, Ref +9, Will +19

Damage Reduction 5 / - (see below); Spell Resistance 28

OFFENSE

Speed 10 ft.; air walk

Melee 3 bites +24 (2d8+11), 4 tentacles +22 (1d8+5 plus grab)

Ranged 4 eye rays +14 touch (spell effect)

Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft. (20 ft. with tentacles)

Special Attacks command beholder, constrict (tentacle, 1d8+5), eye rays

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 17th, concentration +24, +28 when casting defensively)

At will - air walk, crushing despair (DC 21), hold monster (DC 22), magic missile, scorching ray, ray of enfeeblement (DC 18), ray of sickening (DC 18), suggestion (DC 20), telekinesis (DC 22)

3 / day - chain lightning (DC 23), dominate person (DC 22), empowered scorching ray, freezing sphere (DC 23), greater dispel magic, major creation, quickened magic missile, ray of exhaustion (DC 20)

1 / day - polar ray, temporal stasis (DC 25)

STATISTICS

Str 33, Dex 15, Con 28, Int 24, Wis 22, Cha 25

Base Atk +15; CMB +27 (+29 disarm, +31 grab); CMD 44 (46 vs. disarm)

Feats Alertness (B), Combat Casting, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Defensive Combat Training, Empower Spell-Like Ability, Great Fortitude, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Vital Strike, Multiattack, Power Attack, Quicken Spell-Like Ability, Vital Strike

Skills Acrobatics +21, Bluff +25, Climb +21, Intimidate +26, Knowledge (arcana) +24, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +27, Knowledge (any two) +20, Knowledge (planes) +24, Linguistics +12, Perception +31, Sense Motive +24, Spellcraft +24, Stealth +15 (+23 with fungal armor), Survival +24, Use Magic Device +24; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception, +8 Stealth with fungal armor 

Languages Aklo, Beholder, Common, Draconic, Infernal, Undercommon

Special Qualities fungal armor, reactive spell immunity, reactive spell turning

ECOLOGY

Environment cold hills or mountains

Organization solitary, pair or grove (2-4 plus 3-6 beholders and 3-6 director beholderkin)

Treasure double standard

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Command Beholder (Su): An overseer can use dominate monster at will as a spell-like ability (caster level 17th), but only against beholders and creatures with the beholderkin subtype. Any such creature can resist this effect with a Will saving throw (DC 28). The save DC is Charisma-based. This is the equivalent of a 9th-level spell. Hive mothers and other overseers are immune to this ability.

The maximum number of beholders and beholderkin an overseer can command at one time equals half its Hit Dice plus its Charisma modifier. Thus, the average overseer can command up to 18 beholders or beholderkin at a time.

If an overseer loses control of a dominated beholder (as is the case if a dominated beholder is in the antimagic cone of another beholder), the overseer can immediately sense the loss of control and knows the position and distance to the beholder at the time control was lost. If control does not return within a few rounds, the overseer seeks out the rogue beholder to investigate and possibly punish it.

Eye Rays (Su): An overseer uses its spell-like abilities by producing magical rays from the eyeballs on its branch-like limbs. Each round, as a standard action, it may use up to 4 of its spell-like abilities within the set limits of uses per day.  Treat these as ranged touch attacks with a range of 180 feet and no range increment. An overseer may not use the same spell-like ability two rounds in a row, and may not use the same spell-like ability with more than a single eye in a given round. Typically, an overseer uses three eye rays,  leaving it with the option to use either its reactive spell turning or reactive spell immunity (see below) as needed.

Fungal Armor (Ex): A layer of thick, wiry fungus grows on an overseer's body. This provides the overseer with a +6 armor bonus to its Armor Class and gives the overseer a damage reduction of 5/- and a +8 circumstance bonus to Stealth checks as the fungus changes hue to match its surroundings (already figured in the above statistics). Fungal armor has no maximum Dexterity bonus, no armor check penalty and no arcane spell failure chance, and does not reduce the overseer's speed. However, the fungus is vulnerable to extreme temperatures. If an overseer ever fails a saving throw against a fire or cold effect that deals hit point damage, it must make a Fortitude save against the same DC of the attack it was hit with. Failing this Fortitude save means that enough of the fungus has been scoured away from the overseer's body that the overseer loses the benefits of its fungal armor for 1 hour - at which point the fungus has regenerated enough that the benefits are active again. Diminish plants also suppresses the overseer's fungal armor for 1d3 rounds, with no saving throw.

Reactive Spell Immunity (Su): Once per round as an immediate action, an overseer can use one of its eye rays to negate a single spell that affects it as the spell is being cast. The overseer must successfully hit the creature that cast the spell in question with a ranged touch attack; if successful, it is immune to that casting of that particular spell. Otherwise, the spell affects the overseer normally (though the overseer is still allowed a saving throw and/or spell resistance if applicable). If the spell influenced by this ability affects multiple targets or an area, it affects any other targets or the area normally, but the overseer remains immune to its effect. An overseer may not use this ability if it is considered flat-footed against the source of the spell, and may not use it in the same round as its reactive spell turning ability.

Reactive Spell Turning (Su): Once per round as an immediate action, an overseer can use one of its eye rays to reflect a single-target spell that targets the overseer back to its source. The overseer must hit the caster with the eye ray; if successful, the target suffers the effects of its own spell, allowing for a saving throw as normal. Otherwise, the spell affects the overseer normally (though the overseer is still allowed a saving throw and/or spell resistance if applicable). An overseer may not use this ability if it is considered flat-footed against the source of the spell, and may not use it in the same round as its reactive spell immunity ability.

An overseer is a particular breed of beholderkin that serves as a direct subordinate to the hive mother in large beholder communities. A beholder hive city ruled by an hive mother always contains a handful of these monstrosities, who concern themselves with keeping watch over lesser beholderkin and report any deviant behaviour to the mother. However, many overseers, possessing the typical beholderkin's arrogance and self-centeredness,  chafe at this arrangement and seek greater stations for themselves. While few overseers are reckless enough to directly challenge an hive mother's power, they often vie for the position of favored enforcer, and rivalries among groups of overseers often provide a weak point in a beholder hive city's formidable defenses. A few rare overseers decide to leave beholder communities and seek out non-beholder societies to dominate from behind the scenes, often helped by a few dominated beholderkin. 

Perhaps one of the most peculiar characteristics about overseers is the fact that they live in a symbiothic relationship with a strange, otherworldly fungus that grows inside their bodies and expands on their skin. The creature has some measure of control over this fungus, and can vary its color in order to express emotion or camouflage itself, as well as use it as some sort of impromptu body armor. However, the fungus is susceptible to sudden and large variations in environmental temperature - a cold or fire based attack covering a large enough portion of the creature's body can kill enough of the fungus as to temporarily negate its living armor, leaving the overseer in a state of relative vulnerability. 

Despite their formidable combat skills, overseers tend to consider themselves above such vulgar activities as physical combat, and their preferred place to be in a conflict is behind charmed and dominated minions, which they're never in short supply of. They usually direct their servants (both beholderkin and otherwise) in battle while at the same time using their spell-like abilities to harass and inflict pain on their enemies. They particularly enjoy disrupting enemy spellcasters, using their reactive spell immunity and spell turning to frustrate them. If forced into physical fighting, they are more than capable of holding their own, but are quick to understand when their situation is becoming untenable, and they rarely hesitate to retreat when significantly injured or when their fungal armor is compromised. An overseer is skilled in the use of several magic items, and typically keeps an item or two allowing teleportation with itself for such an emergency. However, an overseer will not forget such a humiliation, and is patient enough to wait for years before enacting its revenge, if necessary.

An overseer is about 20 feet tall, though its branch-like limbs can make it appear even larger, and weighs between 7 and 8 tons.

[thecreaturecodex]

Dunewinder

Image © Wizards of the Coast, by Jim Nelson. Accessed at the Sandstorm Art Gallery here

[Thanks to Frank Herbert’s Dune, you can’t have a desert without worm monsters in it. Sandstorm has two, of which the dunewinder is the more interesting. Weirdly, the flavor text calls it out as being related to the remorhaz, even though it bears much more similarity among core D&D monsters to the frost worm (no legs, breath weapon, death throes). So I fixed it.]

Dunewinder CR 10 N Magical Beast This mighty creature looks something like an elephant-sized grub. Its body is covered in bristles and flaps, some of which seem to push it along and others seemingly more offensive in nature. Its maw is filled with multiple saw-like rows of teeth, each moving independently.

Dunewinders are desert relatives of frost worms. Like them, they are infused with elemental power, in this case, that of fire. They live as ambush predators of sandy wastes, and can survive a long time between meals. As such, when food is available they are ravenous, and often consume huge amounts of meat at a time. Their gullets are relatively small, so they cannot swallow prey whole. Instead, they grab it, pull it next to their barbed skin, and shred it into manageable chunks. The spines of a dunewinder ooze sticky green venom that causes blood to clot in place. When slain, the internal fires within the creature erupt, causing the dunewinder to explode in a shower of super-heated blood and venomous spines.

Dunewinders spend most of their lives beneath the ground, feeling vibrations in order to detect prey. If they need to travel quickly, they dig their way to the surface and move in a serpentine fashion like a sidewinder snake, resulting in characteristic tracks. They only come together in order to mate, which is done in a perfunctory fashion. Dunewinders are simultaneous hermaphrodites, and both partners typically impregnate the other. Eggs are laid in a leathery cocoon deep beneath the ground and abandoned. Dunewinders have few predators except each other, and cannibalism is a common source of mortality for dunewinder young.

Dunewinder       CR 10 XP 9,600 N Huge magical beast (fire) Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +10, tremorsense 60 ft. Defense AC 24, touch 10, flat-footed 22 (-2 size, +2 Dex, +14 natural) hp 126 (12d10+60) Fort +13, Ref +10, Will +8 Immune fire, poison Defensive Abilities barbed defense; Weakness vulnerable to cold Offense Speed 50 ft., burrow 20 ft. Melee bite +18 (2d6+12 plus grab) Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Abilities breath weapon (12d6 fire, 60 ft. line, Ref DC 21, 1/hour), constrict (2d6+12 bludgeoning and piercing plus poison), death throes Statistics Str 27, Dex 17, Con 21, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 10 Base Atk +12; CMB +22 (+24 bull rush, +26 grapple); CMD 34 (36 vs. bull rush, cannot be tripped) Feats Awesome Blow, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Power Attack, Vital Strike Skills Perception +10, Stealth +4 (+12 in deserts); Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth in deserts SQ dune winding Ecology Environment warm deserts Organization solitary Treasure incidental Special Abilities Barbed Defense (Ex) A creature striking a dunewinder with a natural weapon, unarmed strike, touch attack or melee weapon attack must succeed a DC 18 Reflex save or take 1d6+4 points of piercing damage and be exposed to the creature’s poison. Melee weapons with the reach property do not endanger their wielder in this way. The save DC is Dexterity based. Death Throes (Su) When a dunewinder is killed, it explodes, dealing 6d6 points of piercing damage and 6d6 points of fire damage to all creatures in a 60 foot radius (Reflex DC 21 halves). A creature that takes any damage from this is also exposed to the dunewinder’s poison. The save DC is Constitution based. Dune Winding (Ex) A dunewinder does not treat any form of sand as difficult terrain. Poison (Ex) Barbed defense or constrict—injury; save Fort DC 21; duration 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1d4 Con damage; cure 2 saves. The save DC is Constitution based.