Converting Creatures from Other Campaign Settings

[Cleon]

Sure, the martial/exotic Great Scimitar works; just add a description to the working draft. Want to tweak it slightly, so it's not exactly the same as the Sandstorm version? Maybe increase the damage beyond 1d8 since it's Large?

Well 1d8 damage is what a M-sized Great Scimitar does one-handed, being Large the Desert Giant would do 2d6 damage, or 2d8 two-handed.

Guess we could "personalize it" to be different from the Sandstorm version. Maybe have it be a two-handed only weapon that does a tad more damage like a Great Falchion? Or a two-handed only weapon but Martial instead of Exotic?

Banded mail and a heavy shield makes sense to me, though that pushes the AC up a couple points compared to what we have projected for it. That ok with you?

A Frost Giant is AC 21, CR 9 while a Frost Giant Jarl is AC 29, CR 17, so it has +8 CR and +8 AC.

Our chieftain is +6 CR higher than a regular AC 19 Desert Giant which suggests it should have +6 AC Armour Class for AC 25.

We could forget about the shield and just make it +2 banded for AC 25, that way it's free to use its scimitar or a spear two-handed.

I agree with your treasure analysis. Dust of dryness sounds good as the magic item, though I think we should give a percent chance that it's in pellet form with water stored in it! Maybe make the Great Scimitar a +2 weapon and put a +2 enhancement on the banded mail?

Will it be a plain +2 weapon or a +1 weapon with a +1 special ability such as keen or shock?

Let's see, a +2 weapon (8300+X gp), +2 banded armour (4650 gp), and a dose of dust of dryness (850 gp) is 13,800 gp not including its non-magical gear and the weapons costs. A little over 13,000 gp but close enough.

We could throw on a masterwork hurling spear (330 gp) without feeling like the budget's being too badly shattered.

Hmm… how about making it a +1 great scimitar and a +1 hurling spear for 4630+X?

That'll leave 2,900 gp unspent, enough for a minor Wondrous Item worth 2,500 gp or so such as a cloak of elvenkind with a little left over to hand-wave away the non-magical gear and weapons cost.

Hmm… or we could aim for the 17,500 gp budget by giving the Chieftain a +2 weapon, +2 banded armour, masterwork hurling spear (330 gp), two doses of dust of dryness and a cloak of elvenkind. That's 17,480 gp.

With two doses of dust of dryness, one of them can be unused and the other a pellet of water.

Or just give the chief two doses and forget about the cloak.

 

[Cleon]

Or a two-handed only weapon but Martial instead of Exotic?

Upon reflection, that's a dumb idea.

If we use the Great Scimitar's 1d10 damage it'd be a Martial Weapon that's identical to a Falchion except it does slightly better damage, meaning no-one would bother with a Falchion.

Maybe give it a Falchion with Improved Critical for 2d6/15-20 at Large size, plus a note that if the campaign uses Sandstorm it can be substituted for Exotic Weapon Proficiency (great scimitar) for a 2d8/18-20 weapon?

 

[freyar]

Maybe give it a Falchion with Improved Critical for 2d6/15-20 at Large size, plus a note that if the campaign uses Sandstorm it can be substituted for Exotic Weapon Proficiency (great scimitar) for a 2d8/18-20 weapon?

Yeah, I like this idea best, too.

+2 banded mail with no shield sounds good. I like the two-handed weapon option.

Making the falchion a +2 weapon and the hurling spear masterwork makes sense. I also like the 2 doses of dust of dryness (maybe a probability that 1 is a pellet), but I don't mind either way about the cloak. Do large cloaks cost more since they take more magic?

 

[Cleon]

Yeah, I like this idea best, too.

+2 banded mail with no shield sounds good. I like the two-handed weapon option.

Making the falchion a +2 weapon and the hurling spear masterwork makes sense. I also like the 2 doses of dust of dryness (maybe a probability that 1 is a pellet), but I don't mind either way about the cloak. Do large cloaks cost more since they take more magic?

Let's drop the cloak then.

So, plain +2 falchion or +1 something falchion? I'd go for frost or shock since flaming is such a cliché.

Do large cloaks cost more since they take more magic?

Well the magic doesn't cost more, but if you want to get technical the base non-magical cloak might cost twice as much since it's Large sized gear. If it was an unusual shape it'd be more than that.

However, the Magic Item rules says magic clothing tends to be enchanted to resize itself to its wearer like The One Ring.

Also, the SRD doesn't list individual parts of an outfit so you'd need to pull out a Volo's Guide or something to find out how much of the 8gp cold weather outfit or the 10 gp explorer's outfit is the cloak and then double that.

 

[freyar]

A +1 shock falchion would be ok, but throwing might be flavorful (though probably less useful). Thundering might be fun, too. I think I'd vote for thundering but don't mind too much either way.

Easiest for skills would be to start with the normal desert giant skills and add 6 ranks in each of 2 fighter skills. We could build on the giant skills with Ride and Handle Animal or else go Ride and Climb.

 

[Cleon]

A +1 shock falchion would be ok, but throwing might be flavorful (though probably less useful). Thundering might be fun, too. I think I'd vote for thundering but don't mind too much either way.

I thought about thundering but it's just a bit sucky at that CR level compared to shock.

Consider: if it has a 50% chance of hitting shock does 1d6 lightning for ten hits out of twenty (so 10d6/20) while does only 1d8 sonic for one hit plus a Fort DC 14 to avoid deafness. So even at half hits the thundering only does 12.8% the extra damage (1d8/10d6). At, say, 90% hits it's 7.1%! (1d8/18d6).

Being deafened is a minor inconvenience, but most CR 13 foes will have little difficulty making that save.

My vote is for shock!

 

[Cleon]

Easiest for skills would be to start with the normal desert giant skills and add 6 ranks in each of 2 fighter skills. We could build on the giant skills with Ride and Handle Animal or else go Ride and Climb.

I prefer Ride and Handle Animal.

 

[freyar]

+1 shock falchion it is, then. Sounds good. (Looks like armor still needs an update, too.)

I'm happy with Ride and Handle Animal, too.

Feats: let's start with the 5 regular desert giant feats. How about Imp Init and Lightning Reflexes for the regular feats and Precise Shot, Power Attack, Cleave, and Weapon Focus (falchion) for the fighter bonus feats?

 

[Cleon]

+1 shock falchion it is, then. Sounds good. (Looks like armor still needs an update, too.)

I'm happy with Ride and Handle Animal, too.

Updating the Desert Giant (Chieftain) Working Draft.

Feats: let's start with the 5 regular desert giant feats. How about Imp Init and Lightning Reflexes for the regular feats and Precise Shot, Power Attack, Cleave, and Weapon Focus (falchion) for the fighter bonus feats?

I'd go for Improved Critical (falchion) rather than either Weapon Focus or Precise Shot.

The Chief's pretty lousy at ranged attacks, so might as well focus on melee where he's talented.

 

[freyar]

Well, based on your line about the great falchion, we'd best keep Weapon Focus anyway. So Power Attack, Cleave, Weapon Focus (falchion), and Imp Crit (falchion) for the fighter feats? Does that do it for the chieftain? I guess we need to calculate initiative, which would be +4 with Imp Init, I believe.

Anything else on these?