Converting monsters from Dragon magazine

[Cleon]

Merhorse

Strange, it didn't "take" when I first posted the Working Draft on Sunday so had to redo it.

The current draft is basically just the Seal upscaled to Colossal, so I expect we're going to tweak it in some fashion.

 

[freyar]

Well, the original monster is slightly weaker than the working draft in terms of base damage (compared to the 3d6 option) and AC. I could see toning NA down a point or two and maybe going with the 2d6 base damage option or even the original 4d4 just for kicks. Thoughts?

 

[Cleon]

Well, the original monster is slightly weaker than the working draft in terms of base damage (compared to the 3d6 option) and AC. I could see toning NA down a point or two and maybe going with the 2d6 base damage option or even the original 4d4 just for kicks. Thoughts?

I'd have no objection to cutting the NA down to +10 so they have the same AC as the SRD Baleen or Cachalot Whale.

An AD&D Common Whale with 14 HD does 1d8 damage with its tail flukes (and/or 5d4 with a bite if it's a toothed whale), so the 4d4 damage of the Merhorse bite is actually less than a toothed whale of the same size.

The closest 3E equivalent, the Cachalot whale, has a 4d6 bite. The Merhorse has a one-dice weaker bite than the Cachalot, which suggests 3d6 in 3E.

Come to think of it, that would still give it a higher average damage than a 3E Cachalot Whale because it gets the 1.5 times Strength adjustment for having a single attack. Even if we give it a 2d6 bite the average damage would be the same (2d6+19 averages 26, the same as the Cachalot's 4d6+12).

Hmm, I'm starting to think we'd better make it a 2d6 bite PLUS lowering its Strength to, say, Str 33 so it's slightly weaker than the SRD Sperm Whale. That'd make the bite 2d6+16, which is roughly 1d6 weaker than the Cachalot's 4d6+12.

 

[freyar]

NA +10 works for me. I guess I'm ok with 2d6 bite damage and Str 33, though I dislike how prehistoric creatures are treated in 3.X.

Is there anything else we can plausibly do with these to make them a bit more interesting?

 

[Cleon]

NA +10 works for me. I guess I'm ok with 2d6 bite damage and Str 33

Updating Merhorse Working Draft.

though I dislike how prehistoric creatures are treated in 3.X.

Me too, but beyond homebrewing alternative versions of them there's not much I can do about it.

Is there anything else we can plausibly do with these to make them a bit more interesting?

Well they're basically pretty boring.

The original text only has the "breathing horns" of the Long Neck as an additional tweak, but that's likely to just come out as a circumstance bonus to Hide à la the SRD Crocodile lying with just its eyes & nose showing.

 

[freyar]

Yeah, there's not much else to do with these.

Well, before we get to skills and feats, I'd say we give the merhorse hold breath with a very long duration and the long-necked a more normal hold breath with the Hide bonus as you describe.

 

[Cleon]

Yeah, there's not much else to do with these.

Well, before we get to skills and feats, I'd say we give the merhorse hold breath with a very long duration and the long-necked a more normal hold breath with the Hide bonus as you describe.

That's agreeable.

Maybe ×15 for the Merhorse and ×8 for the Long-Necked?

That'd give the Long-Necked the same multiplier as the SRD Whale, which is a bit better than the Stormwrack Pinnipeds (the seal, sea lion and walrus all have ×6) and a bit worse than the ×10 we gave the Marine Saurian.

That feels about right.

 

[freyar]

Yes, that looks pretty good to me.

I guess I'd split the available skill ranks 9/8 between Listen and Spot, but I don't really care which one gets which.

For feats, Alertness makes sense. Snatch would be useful for catching large fish and squid, I guess (I saw a set of pics of a sea lion eating a small octopus the other day, very cool. Looked a bit like cthulu with the octopus hanging out of its mouth). I guess we could go with Great Fort if we want to follow the dinosaurs. I can't say I have any other great ideas.

 

[Cleon]

Yes, that looks pretty good to me.

Fine by me!

I guess I'd split the available skill ranks 9/8 between Listen and Spot, but I don't really care which one gets which.

The Frostburn/Stormwrack Seal has the point-higher skill in Spot, which you could argue sets a precedence for doing the same for the Merhorse.

I'm inclined to put the odd point in Listen though, since that's what the SRD Horses do - and as a Merhorse it ought to have at least on equine trait!

Updating Merhorse Working Draft.

For feats, Alertness makes sense. Snatch would be useful for catching large fish and squid, I guess (I saw a set of pics of a sea lion eating a small octopus the other day, very cool. Looked a bit like cthulu with the octopus hanging out of its mouth). I guess we could go with Great Fort if we want to follow the dinosaurs. I can't say I have any other great ideas.

I fancy Endurance, since the +4 bonus from that applies to Hold Breath checks.

The Seal and Sealion both have Weapon Finesse to improve their bite accuracy. That won't work for the Merhorse for obvious reasons, so Weapon Focus (bite) is the next obvious choice.

That'd give us the five we need:

Feats: Alertness, Endurance, Great Fortitude, Snatch, Weapon Focus (bite)

 

[freyar]

That'll work for me.

Tactics: Merhorses are shy creatures, usually only attacking prey animals. Of course, most PCs are small enough to appear as prey to a merhorse.