Converting First Edition monsters from DRAGON magazine

[freyar]

Mmmm, lovely. I hope we can do as good a job making these sound disgusting as the original flavor text does.

I'd say improved grab is a must for this one. So once it hits, it grapples the victim. Probably max out Move Silently also.

 

[Shade]

I meant to put this one in the Frogs n' Toads thread, but no biggee...it is from Dragon Magazine after all.

 

[freyar]

So let's get started!

Improved Grab, blood sucking a la the stirge. Max out move silently. Probably +3/+4 in natural armor, depending on Dex. What do you think?

 

[Mortis]

And a glide ability.

Regards
Mortis

 

[Shade]

Here's a recent glide ability to model after:

Gliding: A hadozee can use its wings to glide, negating any damage from a fall of any height and allowing travel 20 feet horizontally for every 5 feet of descent. A hadozee glides at a speed of 40 feet (poor maneuverability).

I think Attach, like the stirge, might work better than Improved Grab considering their size.

 

[freyar]

Ahh, should have looked at the stirge. Yes, I agree with attach.

The glide looks good. Do we even need to tweak the speeds?

 

[Shade]

The glide looks good. Do we even need to tweak the speeds?

Yep. Its fly speed converts to 50 feet. We can keep the poor maneuverability, though.

Here's the relevant stirge bits...

Attach (Ex): If a stirge hits with a touch attack, it uses its eight pincers to latch onto the opponent’s body. An attached stirge is effectively grappling its prey. The stirge loses its Dexterity bonus to AC and has an AC of 12, but holds on with great tenacity. Stirges have a +12 racial bonus on grapple checks (already figured into the Base Attack/Grapple entry above).

An attached stirge can be struck with a weapon or grappled itself. To remove an attached stirge through grappling, the opponent must achieve a pin against the stirge.

Blood Drain (Ex): A stirge drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution damage in any round when it begins its turn attached to a victim. Once it has dealt 4 points of Constitution damage, it detaches and flies off to digest the meal. If its victim dies before the stirge’s appetite has been sated, the stirge detaches and seeks a new target.

 

[freyar]

Blood drain is probably good as it is, except the frog will hop off rather than fly away. Attach is also pretty good once we change the flavor text and AC. I think we should add the grapple bonus to the frog, also, and maybe remind people that attacking the frog gives a risk of damaging the victim per the grapple rules.

 

[Shade]

Blood drain is probably good as it is, except the frog will hop off rather than fly away. Attach is also pretty good once we change the flavor text and AC. I think we should add the grapple bonus to the frog, also, and maybe remind people that attacking the frog gives a risk of damaging the victim per the grapple rules.

Good call. Maybe increase the chances of hitting the victim beyond the normal grapple rules?

 

[dhaga]

Good call. Maybe increase the chances of hitting the victim beyond the normal grapple rules?

Sounds plausible, but I'd like to see the official rule for it. I checked the SRD under Grapple, but I could not find it.