[Pathfinder] Swarm and Azlanti Conversion

[xkaliburr]

First, a bit of background

I am running a Pathfinder campaign which has incorporated elements of Spelljammer. As such, my players ended up on a pirate ship in Golarion, which had a "Drive" (essentially a Spelljammer helm), and got blasted clear to the otherside of the galaxy. As such, I am trying to incorporate some elements of Starfinder into the campaign.

Right now, the two major things I am trying to do are to create the Swarm and design the Azlanti of this era. The players have been running around saying they are from Golarion, and as such the Azlanti are definitely taking an interest in these creatures from their "dead" homeworld. The swarm I am just converting from Archives of Nethys, but I am not sure what may be too difficult of a challenge for the players, and may need help replacing abilities or changing the CRs.

I am trying to not make them both too Sci-Fi, and kind of want a bit more of a fantasy feel to both groups.

If anyone has seen similar projects, I would definitely appreciate some links. Also, if this doesn't fit on this board, I don't mind it being moved. I was unsure if I should post this on the D20 board or the Homebrew board.

Thanks in advance guys, for the Hivemind helping with the Hivemind

[xkaliburr]

Bump.

RIght now I am trying to figure out how to do the Swarm's CMD and CMB bonuses, as STarfinder got rid of those stats. Any ideas?

[Psyren]

I don't think you need CMD - in general, maneuvers are made against KAC +8 I believe, and most maneuvers wouldn't be effective against a swarm anyway since they'd be immune. Figure out their AC (see the conversion guidelines (https://www.aonsrd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=287) here) and you're pretty much there.

[xkaliburr]

Thanks for the reply, but I am taking the swarm from starfinder into pathfinder, not the other way around. So I do need CMB. Also, the swarm is a weird species, not the swarm type. Paizo probably should have named the swarm something different to prevent the confusion, but oh well.

[Alexvrahr]

So to be clear, are you making stats for the swarm ships as PF creatures or as Spelljammer ships?

Edit: thinking about it it must be as PF creatures, though honestly I don't see how you'd grapple (etc.) a spaceship, some of those ships are orders of magnitude larger than a colossal creature. Anyway assuming that it's on the standard size scale then CMD = 10 + BAB + Str mod + Dex mod + Size mod + Deflection bonus (if any), and maybe insight & similar. If you count their defenses rating as Deflection/insight/whatever and level as BAB then you need to give them strength, dexterity and size. Size will generally be colossal (+8) as Starfinder starship scale size is not the same as PF combat size. Str and Dex are up to you.

[Psyren]

Thanks for the reply, but I am taking the swarm from starfinder into pathfinder, not the other way around. So I do need CMB. Also, the swarm is a weird species, not the swarm type. Paizo probably should have named the swarm something different to prevent the confusion, but oh well.

Oh, I understand you now. I think. You want to convert the monsters called The Swarm to Pathfinder.

For the regular Swarm creatures this is straightforward - use the conversion guide in the SF CRB and work backwards in order to change KAC/EAC to AC, Touch AC, and CMD. Then check their stats against the typical monster stat arrays from Unchained (along with their special abilities) and see if the CR is still appropriate, adjusting if necessary.

For the ones that are starships, like the Dreadlancer, this is a lot trickier. If the party have a ship of their own, you don't have to do a lot of converting at all - just use the starship combat rules as-is. Maybe swap out some of the SF skill checks for Knowledge, Craft, or other skill checks like Spellcraft or even Diplomacy/Intimidate, depending on how exactly the PCs are controlling their own ship.

If however the party are fighting a starship enemy on foot, you have a problem on your hands; Starships and starship creatures are not designed to fight or even interact much with regular non-starship characters directly like that. On the rare occasion that you would fight one on foot, you'd typically simulate it as a hazard or natural disaster of some kind, not as regular combat. Knowing a Starship's CMB is thus generally pointless or unnecessary - it's not like you're going to ever need to know how to grapple or sunder one, attacks like that (even spells) simply don't function against them. The size categories also don't translate well - even a Tiny starship creature is at least Gargantuan in non-starship terms.

LMKITH