5E: Converting Monsters from White Dwarf Magazine for Fifth Edition

[Cleon]

Heh...from adversity comes opportunity! Yes the Social/brood parasitism is ingenious, logical and works well for flavour! Also yeah if ya like da claws, let's change from a bludgeoning hug to a slashing rend. And yeah I remember reading about the reddish fur as well

Updating the Nandie-Bear.

I tweaked the DEX to 13 (+1) and gave it Athletics +6 like the 5E Tome of Horrors Dire Ape.

That isn't an official publication, but DEX 14 (+2) seemed too high as a Kerit's a great hulking thing. While it's fine for a regular 5E Ape those are only Medium size.

Althletics to match a Koddoelo seems appropriate too.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Agree with final tweaks...let's see if I can get this right first go.....here

 

[Cleon]

Agree with final tweaks...let's see if I can get this right first go.....here

Well all the text looks good, but the paragraph spacing seems to have warped slightly. The Enworld version uses em-dashes between the closely related paragraphs while the D&DBeyond version you posted used line gaps, but it's missing the paragraph gaps either side of Haunting Howl's second paragraph and before the credit, i.e.:

Haunting Howl (Recharge 5-6). A nandie-bear's horrible call is loud and resonant, it can be heard up to one mile distant. Any animal that hears this howl will become skittish, as per the nandie-bear's Unsettling Aura ability.​

PARAGRAPH GAP​

All creatures within 300 feet other than nandie-apes and nandie-bears must succeed at a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw upon hearing the howl or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature who fails this save gains Disadvantage on subsequent saving throws against a nandie-bear's haunting howl. If such a creature succeeds on three successive saving throws against haunting howl, they conquer their fear, and from then on will not gain disadvantage should they fail their initial save against a howl. A frightened creature can make a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending its frightened condition on a success.​

PARAGRAPH GAP​

Nandie-apes can be frightened by haunting howl (as above), but unlike the standard frightened condition, the apes may willingly move towards the source of the howl, and their frightened state only gives them disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls against the nandie-bear.​

​

Solitary Hunters. A nandie-bear always hunts alone even if it rules a nandie colony, if only because the nandie-apes incessant chattering would warn away prey. They only hunt at night and are astonishingly stealthy. If a nandie-bear encounter powerful prey they use their Haunting Howl ability before attacking, to demoralize and scatter their opponents (and summon nandie-ape reinforcements if they rule a colony).​

PARAGRAPH GAP
(Originally appeared in White Dwarf Magazine #18 (Apr/May 1980) as part of "The Halls of Tizun Thane" by Albie Fiore.)​

 

[Casimir Liber]

Sigh...the paragraph formatting is challenging to say the least....now here

 

[Cleon]

Sigh...the paragraph formatting is challenging to say the least....now here

Now it's got a few extra-wide paragraph gaps, but it's clear where they are so I'll post it as Complete if you're happy with it.

I like using em-dashes myself, but it doesn't matter any.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Now it's got a few extra-wide paragraph gaps, but it's clear where they are so I'll post it as Complete if you're happy with it.

I like using em-dashes myself, but it doesn't matter any.

The formatting is driving me nuts - too tired to stuff around with it more now - but is navigable so that's fine by me

 

[Cleon]

The formatting is driving me nuts - too tired to stuff around with it more now - but is navigable so that's fine by me

Okay, let's leave it at that and return to Thaak!

The last post we discussed the Gu'en-Deeko in was here.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Okay, let's leave it at that and return to Thaak!

The last post we discussed the Gu'en-Deeko in was here.

So were you gonna make one that ate a bandit captain? Just been playing and need to sleep now....

 

[Cleon]

So were you gonna make one that ate a bandit captain?

My idea was once we finish the basic "un-brained-up" version we do two sample Gu'en-deekos. One that's a wizard (to represent Thaak from the original adventure) and another that's a warrior-type.

I was thinking we could save time by using an SRD non-player character for the latter and the Bandit Captain seemed a suitable brain donor.

Just been playing and need to sleep now....

EDIT: Oh, and good night!

 

[Casimir Liber]

Right - so after discussion I did make it Medium so has 45HP average (6d8+18) - changed walk/climb speed to 30/30

These were your working points:

• A gu'en-deeko gains proficiency in any skills possessed by a humanoid whose brain it eats.
• A gu'en-deeko gains the memories, knowledge-based racial traits and languages of any humanoid whose brain it eats but does not gain any physiological traits of the humanoid's race. For example, if it ate a dwarf it would gain Dwarven Combat Training, Tool Proficiency, Stonecunning and Languages, but it would not gain a dwarf's Ability Score Increase, Size, Speed, Darkvision or Dwarven Resilience.
• In addition, a gu'en-deeko gains the class abilities of any humanoids of level # or lower whose brains it eats. These abilities never stack, if it gains multiple abilities only the highest level one applies. For example, if it ate the brains of a 2nd-level cleric, a 3rd-level bard, and a 3rd-level druid a gu'en-deeko gains 3rd-level Spellcasting, not three separate sets of Spellcasting (see below for how Gu'en-Deeko spells function). It could, in theory, gain multiple abilities that use spells provided they are different types of magic-use. For example, it could possess the Innate Spellcasting from multiple sources, such as a Drow Elf and a Svirfneblin.
• If a gu'en-deeko eats the brain of a humanoid of level #+1 or higher, if gains the class abilities of that humanoid until it eats the brain of another humanoid of the same level or higher. If that happens, the gu'en-deeko gains the class abilities of the new brain and the class abilities it gained from the previous high-level brain are reduced to a #-level character of that class.
• If a gu'en-deeko eats the brain of a humanoid whose level exceeds its [6] Hit Dice, the gu'en-deeko must make a DC 15 wisdom roll or go insane and believe itself to actually be the individual whose brain it ate, despite any evidence to the contrary [I prefer this as a high probability not a foregone conclusion]

Other issues - do the skills/abilities "fade" after a time or just get overlain...