Converting Old/Bad 3.x content

[Leopold]

Now ever since I started on the conversion board I've been drawn to products that have the right bit of context but stats blocks and monster makeup that were god awful horrible.

Around 2002-2004 there was a company called Fast Forward Entertainment. We all know and love them for their outrageous products with horrible stat blocks, but chock full of content. My favourite was the:
Encyclopedia of Demons & Devils

http://www.nobleknight.com/ProductDe..._A_GenreID_E_0

Now, I know we are running 8-10 conversions right now. I've started doing these on my own, but y'all have wonderful ideas and a formula that y'all follow that I believe I've picked up on that allows for a smooth conversion process.

Would it be feasible to convert the demons/devils/demigods in this book as well or add it to the queue? I own this product in hard copy and I believe PDF. I'd have to dig it out but I believe this would give us a large swath of material to convert over to something usable, and hey one can never have enough demonic critters.

[Shade]

Sorry I missed this yesterday!

Currently, our plate is plenty full. I'd rather not spend alot of time converting things from 3e sources, but I'd be happy to help out if you need one or two for a current campaign.

[Leopold]

It was a thought. I know the plate is very very full here in converting all the other 900+ monsters left

Darn, guess i'll have to do it on my own.

[freyar]

I'm sure we'll all appreciate your effort, though!

[Leopold]

Originally Posted by freyar

I'm sure we'll all appreciate your effort, though!

I have some free time, as you see my time on here is mostly during business hours. I'm bored as hell during the day so this passes my time. When i get home..well i have other things to occupy my time.

Just wondering if anyone else was interested in this as there's a Ton to do.

[freyar]

Hehe, when I get a break from work and CC stuff, I'm converting other old D&D critters.

[Leopold]

I started a thread here:

Conversion: Encyclopedia of Demons and Devils

I'm going to be using this one here to do some work to bounce ideas off people. This isn't meant to interfere with the main threds of 1/2E to 3.5E work. If it is please let me know and I'll move it to the other one. Bear in mind I'm typing this all up from the book. I'm bound to miss stuff.


Up first an easy one:
Botis(Devil)


Botis (Devil) Original

Size/Type: Medium Outsider (Baatezu, Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful)
Hit Dice: 4d8+12 (30 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 14 (-1 Dex, +5 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+9
Attack: Hell blade +2 Long Sword *2+11
Full Attack: Hell Blade 1d8+7
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: summon baatezu
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 5/+2 or good, spell resistance 15
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +3, Will +4
Abilities: Str 20, Dex 9, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 6
Skills: Climb +2, Diplomacy -2, Hide -1, Jump +14, Listen +8, Move Silently -1, Sense Motive +0, Spot +8, Tumble +9
Feats: Ambidexerity, Two weapon Fighting.
Environment: Nine Hells of Baator
Organization: Solitary, pair, team (3-5), or squad (6-10)
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always lawful evil
Advancement: None
Level Adjustment:

Notes:

One of Solomon's 72 spirits the botis demon is a snake headed creature with the body of a man. It relishes combat and charges into combat with it's Hell Blades that were once weapons of Angels before they were corrupted from the Fall.

Combat:
Hell Blades: +2 magical long swords that reduce the demons' penalty for attacking with two weapons by +4


Summon Baatezu: Once per day a group of 5 demons can summon a 2nd group of 5 Botis' at 25% chance. The summoned group can summon another group and so on.

[Leopold]

As a front lined summon demon I felt that the HD were far too low.

HD:10

The natural armor was far too weak that needed to be changed to a bit higher.

Natural Armor: +12


Ability scores were too low for this type of creature, this is one of 72 of the baddest spirits of Solomon, a 9 for Dex? No way


Abilities: Str 20, Dex 19, Con 23, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 12

Special attacks: Summon Baatezu. Not enough.
+Devil SQ. Dr 10/good. Darkvision, immunity for fire poison Resitant acid/cold 10. SR 20.

Skills aren't useable in a combat oriented cirtter. Jump is well and good but +10 ranks? I think not.

Skills: Bluff +6, Climb +13, Concentration +6, Diplomacy +5, Hide +4, Intimidate +16, Jump +15, Knowledge (first) +0, Listen +17, Move Silently +4, Search +13, Sense Motive +12, Spot +16, Survival +2 (+4 following tracks), Tumble +11

Feats: These were a good start but there can be more. With the more HD yields more feats. Plus with a 9 Dex you can't have two weapon fighting. Bad designers.

Feats: Cleave, Two Weapon Fighting, Improved two Weapon fighting.


Combat:

Hell Swords: Since ambidexerity is no longer around in the SRD, let's change the weapon a touch to give them Improved Two Weapon Rend. This goes with it's already magical +2 nature which we can make a +3 as it's a bit tougher now.

Two-Weapon Rend [Epic]
Prerequisites

Dex 15, base attack bonus +9, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Two-Weapon Fighting.
Benefit

If the character hits an opponent with a weapon in each hand in the same round, he or she may automatically rend the opponent. This deals additional damage equal to the base damage of the smaller weapon plus 1 1/2 times the character’s Strength modifier. Base weapon damage includes an enhancement bonus on damage, if any. The character can only rend once per round, regardless of how many successful attacks he or she makes.

So we have Large Long sword. 1d10+5+3=1d10+8 *2

The summoning part is fine. This level critter has about the same abilities as a Beared Devil.

[Leopold]

I now know how shade feels. Typing this whole blasted thing up took 30min to do from both posts. I feel tired already!