Converting original D&D and Mystara monsters

freyar · Jan 2, 2017

Cleon said:
Ever since the reboot after the Great Database Hiccup the tables keep on getting buggered up when you edit a post. They can be fixed by adding a width statement in the TABLE tag, but sometimes I forget to put one in when I edit the post.

That's probably not unique to the CC, but it does seem like the Catalog forums have gotten hit by some extra bugs since the crash...

In looking at the original monster, I just noticed that the ovinaur is supposed to gain XP from sin-eating. Did we discuss that too and decide to get rid of it? I certainly think empowerment is easier to deal with for a PC (in terms of party balance issues), and it works a lot better for NPC ovinaurs, too.

Other than that, I think we're ready to deal with the undeath part of sin-eating. There doesn't seem to be any guidance for how long it takes, so I'd suggest something like 4d12 hours, so sometime within a couple of days. Rather than make a table, which I think would be too complicated, I'd like to leave it up to the DM with a suggested list and the guidance that the undead should be more powerful for a more powerful ovinaur and for a greater sin ratio. Sticking to SRD undead, my suggested list is as follows (in roughly order of power): zombie, ghoul, ghast, wight, wraith, spectre, mohrg, bodak. Ghost as a template could work for any ovinaur with a moderate sin ratio. I also don't mind swapping in some CC suggestions with links.

Cleon · Jan 3, 2017

freyar said:
That's probably not unique to the CC, but it does seem like the Catalog forums have gotten hit by some extra bugs since the crash...

In looking at the original monster, I just noticed that the ovinaur is supposed to gain XP from sin-eating. Did we discuss that too and decide to get rid of it? I certainly think empowerment is easier to deal with for a PC (in terms of party balance issues), and it works a lot better for NPC ovinaurs, too.

From what I remember we did discuss following the XP precedent and decided it wasn't of much use as it would be unlikely to see much use in play.

freyar said:
Other than that, I think we're ready to deal with the undeath part of sin-eating. There doesn't seem to be any guidance for how long it takes, so I'd suggest something like 4d12 hours, so sometime within a couple of days. Rather than make a table, which I think would be too complicated, I'd like to leave it up to the DM with a suggested list and the guidance that the undead should be more powerful for a more powerful ovinaur and for a greater sin ratio. Sticking to SRD undead, my suggested list is as follows (in roughly order of power): zombie, ghoul, ghast, wight, wraith, spectre, mohrg, bodak. Ghost as a template could work for any ovinaur with a moderate sin ratio. I also don't mind swapping in some CC suggestions with links.

Well I guess that'd work. The original source didn't specify what sort of Undead they could become.

That said, I would like to include some of the more outre undead in the SRD in the list of possibilities, particularly the Devourer and Nightwalker.

The Devourer because "Soul-Eating" seems an appropriate nasty step-up from an ovinaur's "Sin-Eating" and the Nightwalker because it's originally a Mystara/BECMI monster.

freyar · Jan 12, 2017

We could include the devourer and nightwalker if you prefer. I really only left them out because they're Outsiders (and I thought I probably shouldn't list every humanoid-looking undead in the SRD).

Well, here's a proposal for the Undeath section of sin-eating:

Undeath
If an ovinaur dies while it has corruption points it will rise as an undead 4d12 hours after its death. The DM should determine the type of undead; more powerful ovinaurs and greater sin ratios result in more powerful undead. Suggested undead are zombie, ghoul, ghast, wight, wraith, ghost, spectre, devourer, mohrg, bodak, and nightwalker.

The resulting undead has the same number of Hit Dice as the ovinaur. If the undead has an Intelligence of 10 or higher it will retain the ovinaur's special abilities of discerp and empowerment as well as any empowerment points it may have accumulated by discerping. Undead ovinaurs are incapable of sin-eating, so always lose their sin-eating power and any corruption points, afflictions, or sin-eating bonus empowerment points they may have possessed when alive.

Cleon · Jan 18, 2017

freyar said:
We could include the devourer and nightwalker if you prefer. I really only left them out because they're Outsiders (and I thought I probably shouldn't list every humanoid-looking undead in the SRD).

I assume you meant "Extraplanar" rather than "Outsiders".

freyar said:
Well, here's a proposal for the Undeath section of sin-eating:

Undeath
If an ovinaur dies while it has corruption points it will rise as an undead 4d12 hours after its death. The DM should determine the type of undead; more powerful ovinaurs and greater sin ratios result in more powerful undead. Suggested undead are zombie, ghoul, ghast, wight, wraith, ghost, spectre, devourer, mohrg, bodak, and nightwalker.

The resulting undead has the same number of Hit Dice as the ovinaur. If the undead has an Intelligence of 10 or higher it will retain the ovinaur's special abilities of discerp and empowerment as well as any empowerment points it may have accumulated by discerping. Undead ovinaurs are incapable of sin-eating, so always lose their sin-eating power and any corruption points, afflictions, or sin-eating bonus empowerment points they may have possessed when alive.

That looks fine, except that I'd add the Vampire to the list of suggested undead.

freyar · Jan 25, 2017

Oops, yes, extraplanar.

I think I'd rather leave vampires and vampire spawn out. I prefer them to be created only by other vampires. The list is only a suggestion, though, so the DM can use vampires if they like. But it's not a big deal either way.

With that, are we finally done with special abilities?

Cleon · Jan 27, 2017

freyar said:
Oops, yes, extraplanar.

I think I'd rather leave vampires and vampire spawn out. I prefer them to be created only by other vampires. The list is only a suggestion, though, so the DM can use vampires if they like. But it's not a big deal either way.

I'm not desperately attached to Vampires so am OK leaving them out.

Updating the Ovinaur Working Draft.

freyar said:
With that, are we finally done with special abilities?

Yup!

We've still got some red text statistics to decide on but we're done with the special abilities.

freyar · Feb 7, 2017

Well, let's get through that red stuff (wow, almost two weeks on this thread, sorry!).

Armor and weapons (weapons are missing though not red) seem like the easiest things to deal with first. The chain shirt is good, since they'll want light armor to take advantage of their Great Speed. The original text says they're primarily fighters, so the shield or maybe a buckler would be ok, too. As for a weapon, let's go with something finessable, like a rapier or light weapon (maybe a handaxe). Any preference there?

Cleon · Feb 7, 2017

freyar said:
Well, let's get through that red stuff (wow, almost two weeks on this thread, sorry!).

Armor and weapons (weapons are missing though not red) seem like the easiest things to deal with first. The chain shirt is good, since they'll want light armor to take advantage of their Great Speed. The original text says they're primarily fighters, so the shield or maybe a buckler would be ok, too. As for a weapon, let's go with something finessable, like a rapier or light weapon (maybe a handaxe). Any preference there?

Hmm… I'm happy keeping the chain shirt and adding a buckler.

For the weapons. Well, they're supposedly part halfling so we could crib the weapons from the SRD halfling - longsword or light crossbow.

Although that seems a bit boring. Maybe rapier and composite shortbow instead?

Cleon · Feb 7, 2017

Cleon said:
We've still got some red text statistics to decide on but we're done with the special abilities.

Hold on a moment, I just realized I spoke too soon.

The original article says "Although they don't benefit from halflings' ability score adjustments, ovinaurs have other common halfling abilities, as described in BECMI or the AD&D game".

So we should add something like:

Halfling Traits (Ex): Ovinaurs inherit the following racial traits from their halfling ancestors.

● +2 racial bonus on Move Silently and Listen checks.
● +1 racial bonus on all saving throws.
● +2 morale bonus on saving throws against fear. This bonus stacks with the ovinaur’s +1 bonus on saving throws in general.
● +1 racial bonus on attack rolls with thrown weapons and slings.
● Halfling Blood: For all effects related to race, an ovinaur is considered a halfling. [?]

freyar · Feb 15, 2017

I'd be ok with adding the Halfling traits, including Halfling Blood.

For the weapons, a composite shortbow is ok. I'm torn between a rapier and something a little less usual, like the light handaxe, so I'll leave that up to you.

You know, the discussion about Halfling traits makes me wonder if these should be size Small rather than Medium. If they're Medium, we should definitely put them on the Small side.