5th level monster conversion!

the Jester · Feb 15, 2011

Here is my revised-for-MM3/MV-standards eye killer.

Commentary: I made the eye killer lord a leader by adding its Spotlight ability. I also made it more of a skirmisher by adding a little more movement to its attacks.

Also, I changed the death stare blindness to end of next turn from save ends; blindheims taught me that one creature can end up blinding much of the party if they aren't careful!

Other than that, most of the changes were tweaks to accuracy and damage in order to put them in line with the revised guidelines.

the Jester · Feb 16, 2011

Here's the flail snail.

Notes: This guy underwent more significant changes than some of the others I've updated, even ignoring the new damage and stuff. On that note, I treated the head flail basic attack as a multi-target power when assigning damage since it becomes one with flailing heads.

I revised the shell shield into a trait for the basic flail snail and kind of renamed and rewrote it for the scintillating guy. I dropped the radiant beams and simplified the aura while making it more interesting- now the player has a potentially important decision to make.

I replaced Emphatic Blow with Overwhelming Blow for the scintillating flail snail since the push effect would be pretty redundant with the slide from the aura.

Enjoy! I hope someone gets some use out of this old classic from my favorite 1e monster book. (I nearly redid the volt, but on seeing that I only had one version, I decided to wait on it and do a couple of new ones at various levels; the party imc may soon head to the Elemental Chaos or Underdark, either of which is a fine place to find 'em.)

Edit: Oh yeah, I added the 'blind' trait. I always envisioned them that way, which is why I had given them tremorsense in the first place.

the Jester · Feb 17, 2011

My revised bloodbloaters, including a new minion version of a lone bloodbloater.

Comments: I updated the swarm attack to be less like MM1 swarms and more like MV swarms. Also, I added slow effects to both the swarm and the mutant bloodbloater in order to make them a little more soldiery (again, my understanding of the role a soldier should play is much better than it was back when I first did these conversions).

The swarm attack that does more damage if you're bleeding (i.e. taking ongoing damage) is intended to model the swarm glomping onto the blood sources already in the water with it.

The minion is fun- it's a good way to help ensure that the pcs don't get rid of that ongoing damage easily. If it attaches to you, it's like you've grabbed it except that you cannot let go!

Oh yeah, I changed the vulnerability 10 fire to the flinch from flame property, which I didn't bother to give to the minion for what I hope are obvious reasons.

Finally, I kept the Red Box clause in the ooze descriptions that gives them immunity to going prone.

the Jester · Feb 19, 2011

This is the revised volt, which barely needed revision. I added a minion version of a young volt too.

the Jester · Jul 2, 2011

Here's my revised algoid.

I made the area attacks that establish zones a little easier to deal with, cleaned up the defenses (AC was pretty darn low for them), etc.

I eliminated just plain "resist lightning" and replaced it with a cool "hit me with lightning, will you??" ability instead.

I also took Resist Weapons away from all but the mindless algoid and lowered its hps to compensate; I think that resist weapons means "resist most damage".

the Jester · Jul 2, 2011

Here's the adherer, updated to MM3/MV standards. And a much better lurker, using Smother instead of just getting extra damage from combat advantage. This one has a moderate level of redesign.

the Jester · Jul 2, 2011

Working on the tabaxi, including a couple of lower-level versions.

Notes: Since they never got posted here before, I won't address the changes to the tabaxi technician and seeker; note that the seeker is essentially a leveled down version of the brigand.

The brigand pretty much only had math fixes.

The scout: I updated Fleet of Foot to reflect my design intent better (the idea is that the scout can squeeze an extra square of movement out by spending two minors rather than allowing him to squeeze four extra squares out- he's long range artillery, he's already bad enough news!).

The ripper: I adjusted his attacks to feel more like a cat grabbing on with all its claws and ripping you up, increasing the damage when it has someone grabbed.

The hero: Again, I mostly just adjusted the math. I did also add the mark to Lead the Attack; this guy's an interesting hybrid of soldier and skirmisher.

the Jester · Jul 4, 2011

Notes re: the brain coral.

1. Justified giving coral the 'Plant' keyword. (This is based on the fact that in 2e I had many variations of plant spells that were coral spells instead: coral shape, control coral, etc. Other campaigns might want to ignore that, but the limited flavor text I write is done with my campaign in mind).

2. I lowered its hit points by 10 to account for its "resist 5 weapons".

3. Looking at this poor guy's low speed, I changed Brain Lock to a minor action with a much easier recharge condition. The way I see brain coral predating, it probably uses Mind Lash to bring the target close and Brain Lock to slow or immobilize it, until it can finish it off and consume its tasty brain juice.

4. Psychic Static- I made the ongoing damage an effect. This is an encounter power, after all!

5. Math fixes, particularly the defenses. I'm scratching my head over this- why did I give a speed 2, Dex 3 coral monster a Reflex defense of level + 15?? And that is its highest defense. WTF?? Must've been a cut & paste issue, or else I wrote this guy up totally drunk.

the Jester · Jul 5, 2011

I am now working on the leucrotta, which needs one major fix across the board right away: It ought to be large. Always has been. Whoops! My bad, prolly just didn't check or think.

The Ridgerunner: Needs more skirmishing/movement related ability. I'm changing Crushing to be a "shift and attack" kind of power. Also, weakened (save ends) on an at will seems a bit too grind-enabling, so I'm going to change that to a penalty to attacks and defenses until EoNT.

The kicker: Needs more soldieriness. Added marking and a "you didn't attack me? Ha!" kind of power. The rest is math fixes and wording clarifications.

To help fill the 'level gap' between the lvl 5 guys and the lvl 8 kicker I am adding a lvl 7 "Young Leucrotta" minion. I'll probably throw in another one at lvl 10-12 so the poor hew-palate isn't all lonely. Speaking of which...

The hew-palate: What an icky name. I am reluctant to change it, however, on the principle that if I find one in an adventure I've written I need to be able to easily find my conversion. Bah, I'll live with it.

Adding: The leucrotta knave, a lvl 11 lurker with an interesting "look over there!" mechanic or two- both one that makes an enemy grant combat advantage and one that marks the target by someone else (shades of misdirected mark). The lurker mechanic is extra damage when you're marked by someone else, so that works pretty well (I think).

the Jester · Jul 5, 2011

At this point I have re-done all the monsters on this particular list that WotC hasn't converted already. So for now, I am done (again) with 5th level monsters.