Reverse-engineering Lesser Worm that Walks

[DragonIceAdept]

I'm trying to figure out what the Lesser Worm that Walks template (Elder Evils) would add, mechanically. It's quite different than the one in the ELH - no Engulf but Worm-Smite, for example, and different SLAs. Could someone more experienced with 3.5 than me help out in figuring out exactly what this template adds?

[Tzardok]

Alright, I did look him over and I think I can derive the following properties:

Creature type: Changes to aberration.

Movement: Add burrow 15 ft. (propably burrow at half base speed)

AC: +10 natural armor bonus

Attacks: A natural slam attack (maybe two for creatures larger than medium)

Damage: 1d6 for medium creatures (there's a mistake in Edwin's stats. If you have only a single natural attack, you get 1 1/2- times Str-bonus to damage, not normal Str-bonus).

Special attacks:

Worm-smite: DC seems to include a mistake. Logical would be 10 + 1/2 hd + Con-mod, but than Edwin would have DC 23 instead of 22. He could have only 22 if the DC was dependant on Dex or Wis, and neither is very sensible, I think.
Cursed Glance: DC looks to be 10 + 6 + Cha-mod
Frightful presence: DC is 10 + 1/2 hd + Cha-mod


Special qualities:

blindsight 100 ft.
darkvision 30 ft.
spell resistence 25 (possibly 9 + hd)
discorporation
spell-like abilities 3/day: giant vermin, infestation of maggots, insect plague, summon swarm (CL equals hd).


Abilities: This one is the big problem. You would need to reconstruct both his original stat division and the 4 points he spent through level up to derive the racial modifiers, and that's too much work (and too many assumptions) to do it this speedy.

Skills: Racial bonus +10 to Escape artist, Hide, Listen, Move silently and Survival

CR: +3

[DragonIceAdept]

I think it's an insight bonus to AC, not an armor once, since that's what the epic WTW has. And it stays on for touch attacks.

SR is either 9 + HD or 6 + CR (the latter is how the epic WTW was done).

Cursed Glance is a necromancer ACF from PHB2.

Other than that, makes sense. Thank you!

[Tzardok]

I think it's an insight bonus to AC, not an armor once, since that's what the epic WTW has. And it stays on for touch attacks.

I'm pretty sure that

No, you are right. That's fair.



SR is either 9 + HD or 6 + CR (the latter is how the epic WTW was done).

I'm partial to the first one. I generally dislike using CR in any stat calculations, and I'm pretty sure that they stopped using it in calculations since 3.5


Cursed Glance is a necromancer ACF from PHB2.


Ah, I knew that I had seen that somewhere else before.

[Jervis]

Abilities: This one is the big problem. You would need to reconstruct both his original stat division and the 4 points he spent through level up to derive the racial modifiers, and that's too much work (and too many assumptions) to do it this speedy.



Assuming he started with the standard 10/11s across the board you just need to assume he spent his level up ABs sensibly (bold assumption for a NPC statblock I know) so just subtract 4 from his highest stat and assume everything else is a template boost.

[Metastachydium]

Assuming he started with the standard 10/11s across the board you just need to assume he spent his level up ABs sensibly (bold assumption for a NPC statblock I know) so just subtract 4 from his highest stat and assume everything else is a template boost.

That doesn't work. The base creature is a True Necromancer, and as such, it had to have an INT and WIS score of 12 each at level 6. Fluff implies he acquired the template way later.

[Tzardok]

I would assume that Edwin started with the exceptional ability row for NPCs (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), but I'm not sure which one goes where. His "unmodified" abilities (without boosts from items) are

Str 14
Dex 16
Con 21
Int 18
Wis 18
Cha 16

[spectralphoenix]

I would assume that Edwin started with the exceptional ability row for NPCs (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), but I'm not sure which one goes where. His "unmodified" abilities (without boosts from items) are

Str 14
Dex 16
Con 21
Int 18
Wis 18
Cha 16

Which doesn't add up - the elite array has two odd scores, so adding four level-up increases can't result in an array with one odd score (assuming all the template bonuses are even numbers.) that said, a named character with a bunch of class levels clearly should be using the elite array.

My estimates -

As a True Necromancer, INT and WIS probably got the highest scores and split the level-up bonuses.
CON is odd, so probably started at 13
STR was dumped at 8
CHA and DEX got the 10 and 12

Which would result in bonuses:
STR +6
DEX +4/+6
CON +8
INT +0/+2
WIS +0/+2
CHA +4/+6

Where the DEX and CHA bonuses vary depending on which score he put the 12 in and the INT/WIS bonuses depend on whether he was boosted a little and started with two 16s or he started with two 14s and they lost a point.

[DragonIceAdept]

The epic WTW didn't have any stat boosts, so I assume the lesser wouldn't either.