5E: Converting AD&D Monsters to Fifth Edition

[Cleon]

happy to drop his strength to 24

Why not make it 25. Same bonus, it's odd like the original's Str 19, and it gives it three odd scores and three evens:

STR 25 DEX 14 CON 24 INT 23 WIS 18 CHA 25

Hmm… I'd entertain the idea of giving Adonides a higher Wisdom bonus than a Pit Fiend, maybe 20 (+5) or 22 (+6) but am fine leaving it at 18. Any preferences?

 

[Casimir Liber]

oh yeah, bumping wisdom to 22 (spellcasters at high level gettig hard to counter) and str to 25

 

[Cleon]

Now for the next block.

Hmm, all looks OK except I'd lean towards making it Resistance to cold rather than Immunity. That's what a 1E Devil has unless stated otherwise.

It just feels wrong having a Duke of Hell with no Skills. You'd think he'd have at least Investigation and Insight to help him sniff out spies and traitors. If he's "high-handed" Adonides might lack Persuasion to bend people to his whim, but I can see him having Deception and Intimidation.

Skills Deception (CHA), Insight (WIS), Intimidation (CHA), Investigation (INT)

 

[Casimir Liber]

Cania is so cold though - I thought of this but seems crazy - he'd be taking damage all the time on his home plane...

agree on definitely adding Investigation/Deception/Intimidation, less of a case for Insight but leaning more to yes than no. Mainly because insight a bit more nebulous for combat gameplay - so I get inv +13/intim +14/deception +14/insight +13

UPDATE: i have an idea, maybe he has just cold resistance but his thorny staff gives him cold immunity, so he can be disarmed....

 

[Cleon]

Cania is so cold though - I thought of this but seems crazy - he'd be taking damage all the time on his home plane...

Good point, and Ice Devils have immunity to both fire & ice in 5E (unlike AD&D, were they are immune to cold and take half from fire, and 3E, were they only get cold resistance 10 with their fire immunity).

I'll add the Ice & Cold immunity.

How many skills do the official 5E high ranking fiends have anyway? Let's see, Demogorgon has Insight and Perception, Yeenoghu Intimidation and Perception (both Demon Princes). For devils, Hutijin also has Intimidation and Perception.

However, Titivilus is a better comparison as he's a Duke of Hell and close advisor to an arch-duke. He has… drum roll Deception, Insight, Intimidation and Persuasion, so four skills with three matches to those I suggested!

Interestingly he's only Challenge 16, but the 1E version was "not large nor particularly strong" with only a +3 damage bonus and roughly 2/3rd the hit points of the 1E Adonides.

Updating Adonides.

 

[Cleon]

Okay, I'm wondering about increasing the Dexterity since 14 feels a bit mediocre for a diabolical Duke. While the bonus is a match for the 5E Mordenkainen's Hutijin, who has DEX 15 (+2), Titivilus has CON 22 (+6).

Then again, we don't have many comparisons in 5E. I guess there's the Pit Fiend (DEX 14; CR 20) and Molydeus (DEX 22; CR 21).

Still, I'd be fine giving him a higher Dexterity like DEX 16 (+3), but I lean towards having it lower than Titivilus.

In addition, Adonides's Languages should be "all, telepathy 120 ft." rather than just Infernal & telepathy going by the Mordenkainen Presents precedents.

Speaking of which, that source suggests he needs a few more Condition Immunities than just poisoned. For comparison:

Demogorgon charmed, exhaustion, frightened, poisoned​

Hutijin charmed, exhaustion, frightened, poisoned​

Molydeus blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, poisoned, stunned​

Titivilus charmed, exhaustion, frightened, poisoned​

Yeenoghu charmed, exhaustion, frightened, poisoned​

Going by the above, the standard suite for fiendish nobs appears to be charmed, exhaustion, frightened and poisoned. The 1E Adonides has no additional immunities except for the damage type immunities standard to original Monster Manual devils, but a 5E source outranks 1E ones for our conversion.

Shall we add charmed, exhaustion and frightened to Adonides?

 

[Cleon]

Going back to the regeneration question, the 5E Hutijin has regeneration 20 with vulnerability to radiant damage, a clear precedent for giving that to Adonides.

Hutijin didn't even have regeneration in 1E! That was introduced in 3E where he had 10 points, or twice that of a standard 3E Troll.

The other Duke of Comparison, Titivilus had regeneration 1 in 1E and is regeneration 10 in 5E like a standard 3E Troll, but is vulnerable to cold and radiant damage rather than acid and fire.

Would you like to go back to Regeneration 20? It doesn't increase the CR as the Calculator only counts 3 rounds so it's the equivalent of another 30 hp. The 70 hp Adonides can recover with its heal spell are more significant, indeed it's likely the best option among his spells.

 

[Cleon]

Dang it, forgot the Teleport Action…

Updating Adonides.

 

[Cleon]

Dang it, forgot the Teleport Action…

Updating Adonides.

Hmm, the wording of that Teleport clashes with Infernal Hopscotch.

I suggest dropping the ability to arrive somewhere out of Adonides's line-of-sight, thus:

Infernal Hopscotch. Adonides magically teleports himself or an ice devil, along with any equipment they are wearing or carrying, up to 120 feet to an unoccupied space he can see. The ice devil must be within 120 feet and in telepathic communication with Adonides. Only the destination point must be visible: Adonides can teleport an ice devil from somewhere he cannot see.​

That's a bit simpler!

 

[Casimir Liber]

Shall we add charmed, exhaustion and frightened to Adonides?

yes to the immunities - added

I made dex 16 to keep the 3 odd/3 even split - I was tossing up to make it 18 - no strong opinion on it really.

lots of skills is good as I imagined him "skill-y"

maybe seems a little overkilly having both heal and regen 20pts/rd. Happy to leave at 10hp/rd while we juggle other abilities, unless you really wanna change it. Flip-flopping on this

altered the hopscotch as suggested.