Converting "generic setting" Second Edition monsters

[Shade]

PS. This is in the original, too, but I don't understand why captured weapons aren't damaged but natural weapons, etc, are. Seems awfully gamist to me.

Agreed. That needs to be remedied.

 

[freyar]

How about this rewrite of what Cleon has?

Reflexive Disarm (Ex): The armor plates and body-joints that make up a dwarf crusher golem constantly shift and rotate around each other in combat, creating a grinding sound like scores of millstones crushing gravel. Anyone who strikes a rock crusher with a melee attack must make a Reflex save (DC A) or the armor plates trap the weapon. The armour plates crush the victim's weapon for B points of damage; if it is a natural weapon, the attacker takes the damage instead. If the weapon can be disarmed, it is also trapped in the armor plates. To recover a trapped weapon, an opponent must make a successful Disarm attack against the golem (the golem gets a +C modifier on its opposed attack roll, including a +D bonus). The save DC is Dexterity-based.

That parenthetical about the +C modifier, +D bonus might not be necessary.

 

[Cleon]

It should be piercing and slashing only because it says that only "edged weapons (types P and S)" can get caught. Your other changes are ok, though the double disarming thing gets a bit complex.

PS. This is in the original, too, but I don't understand why captured weapons aren't damaged but natural weapons, etc, are. Seems awfully gamist to me.

Sorry, I didn't notice that "P and S" when I glanced at the stats. I'd have no objection to returning it to slashing / piercing requirement, and agree that having it damaging the weapon regardless makes sense.

How about this rewrite of what Cleon has?

Reflexive Disarm (Ex): The armor plates and body-joints that make up a dwarf crusher golem constantly shift and rotate around each other in combat, creating a grinding sound like scores of millstones crushing gravel. Anyone who strikes a rock crusher with a melee attack must make a Reflex save (DC A) or the armor plates trap the weapon. The armour plates crush the victim's weapon for B points of damage; if it is a natural weapon, the attacker takes the damage instead. If the weapon can be disarmed, it is also trapped in the armor plates. To recover a trapped weapon, an opponent must make a successful Disarm attack against the golem (the golem gets a +C modifier on its opposed attack roll, including a +D bonus). The save DC is Dexterity-based.

That parenthetical about the +C modifier, +D bonus might not be necessary.

That looks better than my last effort!

I think the +C modifier would be handy, in a similar way to Wolves having their Trip modifier listed in their combat description, it'll just speed up play a trifle.

By the way, the original did 3d8 damage to a trapped natural weapon, the same damage as its slam attacks - do we want to keep it 3d8? Maybe with its Strength bonus thrown in for 3d8+9?

For that matter, do we want to increase its slam attacks to 3d8 from the standard Stone Golem's 2d10?

 

[Cleon]

By the way, I'd still like a good reason for its Dwarfbane ability being listed (Ex), since surely (Su) makes more sense.

While we're on that subject, the Dwarf Crusher needs "dwarfbane" in its Special Attacks line.

 

[Shade]

Agreed to increasing slams to 3d8, making reflexive disarm 3d8+Str, and switching dwarfbane to Su.

Updated.

 

[freyar]

Looking good!

Here's the heat wave:

Once a turn, the dwarf crusher can send forth a wave of volcanic heat. The effect is equivalent to a heat metal spell from a 12th level caster. The construct can generate heat and make a physical attack.

We'd usually convert this to a few/day rather than 1/turn. Do you really want to make it just heat metal or perhaps some sort of fire damage burst? Also, it sounds like this should be a move or even swift action. Thoughts?

 

[Cleon]

Looking good!

Here's the heat wave:

We'd usually convert this to a few/day rather than 1/turn. Do you really want to make it just heat metal or perhaps some sort of fire damage burst? Also, it sounds like this should be a move or even swift action. Thoughts?

My first thought was making it a continuous power the golem can switch on or off as a swift action, which acts like a heat metal to everything within a certain spread, but on reflection the damage it does is negligible for a creature of its CR.

Substituting a higher level spell might make more sense.

wall of fire (caster level = 12 or = HD?) 1/minute or x/day?

2d6+12 or 2d6+14 fire damage per round is fairly respectable.

 

[Shade]

Rather than simply giving it wall of fire, how about borrowing the damage from the "hot side" and combine that with heat metal to make the ability a tad more interesting?

 

[Cleon]

Rather than simply giving it wall of fire, how about borrowing the damage from the "hot side" and combine that with heat metal to make the ability a tad more interesting?

Some kind of "superheat metal" you mean, that progresses like heat metal but does higher damage to affected targets?

Say it's a X radius burst, everyone within the area wearing metal must save vs Will or take the following fire damage from their superheated armour and weapons (unless they drop the hardware):

1st round - 1d6 damage
2nd round - 1d6+6 damage
3rd to 5th round - 2d6+12 damage
6th round - 1d6+6 damage
7th round - 1d6 damage

can be dispelled as an X level spell, CL 12th.

 

[Shade]

I was actually thinking of an actual heat wave akin to this aspect of wall of fire:

"One side of the wall, selected by you, sends forth waves of heat, dealing 2d4 points of fire damage to creatures within 10 feet and 1d4 points of fire damage to those past 10 feet but within 20 feet."

Atop that, add in the heat metal aspect for something like...

Heat Wave (Su): Once every x rounds, a dwarf crusher can emit a wave of volcanic heat. All creatures within x feet suffer xdx points of fire damage to creatures, while those x to x feet from the construct take xdx points of fire damage. All metal equipment carried by creatures within the area is also subject to a heat metal effect (caster level 12th, Will DC X negates). The save DC is Constitution-based.