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

[ilgatto]

The crumble/crumbles to/into is fine. Any of the four arrangements (crumble to/crumbles to/crumble into/crumbles into) are valid in English.

Is this is also true for "polymorph" and "transform"? "In" and "into" both valid?

 

[Cleon]

Is this is also true for "polymorph" and "transform"? "In" and "into" both valid?

No, it's to/into not in/into.

But you can use to/into with polymorph and transform (look at these Cambridge Dictionary Examples of Transform, for example).

 

[Cleon]

So for the Description, here's a start:

At first glance, a dragon warrior appears to be a human, orc or other sturdy humanoid completely coated in armor made of dragon scales; scale mail so exceptionally crafted it fits them like a second skin. A close inspection reveals the creature inside is no human fighter, but some sort of reptilian or draconic creature with finely scaled skin the same hue as their armor. Dragon warriors are armed with broad-bladed longswords crafted from the same material as their armor.
 Organic Armory. An intimate inspection reveals a dragon warrior's scale mail is, quite literally, a second skin; a partially shed hide whose living scales have thickened into a suit of armor. Its longsword is similarly formed from the dragon warrior's body: a single massive scale, or perhaps an enormous fang, that has assumed the shape of a blade.
 Children of the Dragon's Teeth. Legendary origins. Interfertility with humanoids? Alignment tendencies? Associated Magic Item (tooth of the dragon warrior? fang of wondrous power?).

[will copy some figurine of wondrous power text here as a placeholder for the magic item(s), will work out the details later.]
FANG OF WONDROUS POWER
TOOTH OF THE DRAGON WARRIOR
Wondrous item, rarity by fang

A fang of wondrous power is a tooth small enough to fit in a pocket. If you use an action to speak the command word and throw the fang to a point on the ground within 60 feet of you, the fang becomes a living creature. If the space where the creature would appear is occupied by other creatures or objects, or if there isn't enough space for the creature, the tooth doesn't become a creature.
 The creature is friendly to you and your companions. It understands [your languages?] and obeys your spoken commands. If you issue no commands, the creature defends itself but takes no other actions. See the fang's description for the creature's statistics.

 

[ilgatto]

So for the Description, here's a start:

At first glance, a dragon warrior appears to be a human, orc or other sturdy humanoid completely coated in armor made of dragon scales; scale mail so exceptionally crafted it fits them like a second skin. A close inspection reveals the creature inside is no human fighter, but some sort of reptilian or draconic creature with finely scaled skin the same hue as their armor.

Mention something along the lines of 'dragonscale armor is the color of the parent dragon' in the first sentence since you mention "the same hue as their armor" in the second?

Dragon warriors are armed with broad-bladed longswords crafted from the same material as their armor.

Nice.

 The creature is friendly to you and your companions. It understands [your languages?] and obeys your spoken commands. If you issue no commands, the creature defends itself but takes no other actions. See the fang's description for the creature's statistics.

It understands your native language?

Brrr. I'll never get used to the "you" in these texts. It isn't "me", it's my PC. Anyway. Prehistoric notions, I know.

 

[Cleon]

Mention something along the lines of 'dragonscale armor is the color of the parent dragon' in the first sentence since you mention "the same hue as their armor" in the second?

Yes, I intend to add a bit about their scales matching those of the standard chromatic & metallic dragons, but haven't quite decided how I'll approach it.

At first it was just going to be a line in the Description, but now I'm leaning towards making it a paragraph which mentions energy immunities & maybe alignment leanings too.

It understands your native language?

Brrr. I'll never get used to the "you" in these texts. It isn't "me", it's my PC. Anyway. Prehistoric notions, I know.

As indicated in blue, it's a placeholder that's pretty much the intro text of the 5E figurine of wondrous power, which are able to magically understand their owner's commands.

It's redded in brackets because I am toying with the idea of just having them understand Common and Draconic like a non-magic-item Dragon Warrior.

You might also note that the White Dwarf #21 "dragon warrior tooth" magic item is activated by being crushed after its "command word" (the dragon's name) is called out, while a figurine is thrown to the the ground somewhere within 60 feet after its command word is uttered.

Intend to address the magic item once the Description proper is finished, so will think about whether to use the crushing or throwing version later. Or maybe both?

Will likely to include the "trap activating" option of the original teeth, but will probably not have the time limit dependency on the dragon donor's age category. Might mention the normal limit of four teeth per dragon.

 

[Cleon]

Will likely to include the "trap activating" option of the original teeth, but will probably not have the time limit dependency on the dragon donor's age category. Might mention the normal limit of four teeth per dragon.

Or maybe the age category limit is on the number of dragon warriors, not the magic item's duration?

Perhaps a wyrmling can only produce one (using its egg tooth?), a young adult two (its "fangs" or upper canines), an adult the normal four (its canines) and ancients can have "lots" (any tooth, max limit is one per HD of the dragon?).

That's getting more complicated than 5E prefers though, but I do like to over-complicate things!

 

[Cleon]

Brrr. I'll never get used to the "you" in these texts. It isn't "me", it's my PC. Anyway. Prehistoric notions, I know.

Yup, I'd prefer "the caster" or similar construction.

What if a henchman, ally or enemy is casting the spell in question?

Then it's not "you" who's using it!

 

[ilgatto]

As indicated in blue, it's a placeholder that's pretty much the intro text of the 5E figurine of wondrous power, which are able to magically understand their owner's commands.

It's redded in brackets because I am toying with the idea of just having them understand Common and Draconic like a non-magic-item Dragon Warrior.

OK. Should've realized the red meant something other than a request for idiom.
Not really sure how Jason and the other guy (Cadmus?, I forget) commanded their dragon warriors, but I'd assume they used their own language. So I'd normally say Common would be enough, but since you've sort of made them "entities in their own right" rather than "magically created", I guess adding Draconic would be appropriate?
If you catch my drift.

You might also note that the White Dwarf #21 "dragon warrior tooth" magic item is activated by being crushed after its "command word" (the dragon's name) is called out, while a figurine is thrown to the the ground somewhere within 60 feet after its command word is uttered.

Intend to address the magic item once the Description proper is finished, so will think about whether to use the crushing or throwing version later. Or maybe both?

Will likely to include the "trap activating" option of the original teeth, but will probably not have the time limit dependency on the dragon donor's age category. Might mention the normal limit of four teeth per dragon.

I was never fond of the "trap" thing. Far too little information on the subject imho so left it for the DM to figure out in my 2E conversion. Guess that's not an option here, though, so that's gonna be work.

Or maybe the age category limit is on the number of dragon warriors, not the magic item's duration?

Perhaps a wyrmling can only produce one (using its egg tooth?), a young adult two (its "fangs" or upper canines), an adult the normal four (its canines) and ancients can have "lots" (any tooth, max limit is one per HD of the dragon?).

That's getting more complicated than 5E prefers though, but I do like to over-complicate things!

The Age Category as limiting factor isn't such a bad idea. But then: would that be multiple warriors per teeth or just (a number of) teeth generating 1 warrior each?

Yup, I'd prefer "the caster" or similar construction.

What if a henchman, ally or enemy is casting the spell in question?

Then it's not "you" who's using it!

Good point.

But I'm afraid my reasons for detesting the use of "you" are a tad more complicated.

 

[Cleon]

Wondering about squeezing a Saving Throw column into the Dragon Warriors Combat Table, although that might require some strategic font shrinkage. That'd also serve double duty as a Skills Column since its Perception (WIS) and Stealth (DEX) are the same as the Saving Throws.

Let's see…

Here's the current version:

Dragon Warriors Combat Table

Type​	Element​	To Hit​	Longsword​
Black	acid​	+6​	2×13 (1d10+4 slashing plus 1d6 acid)​
Blue	lightning​	+6​	2×13 (1d10+4 slashing plus 1d6 lightning)​
Green	poison (poisoned)​	+6​	2×13 (1d10+4 slashing plus 1d6 poison)​
Red	fire​	+7​	2×18 (1d10+1d6+4 slashing plus 2d4 fire)​
White	cold​	+6​	2×13 (1d10+4 slashing plus 1d6 cold)​
Brass	fire​	+6​	2×9½ (1d10+4 slashing)​
Bronze	lightning​	+6​	3×9½ (1d10+4 slashing)​
Copper	acid​	+6​	2×9½ (1d10+4 slashing)​
Gold	fire​	+7​	3×13 (1d10+1d6+4 slashing)​
Silver	cold​	+7​	3×12 (1d10+1d4+4 slashing)​

Here's it with a Saves & Skills Column:

Dragon Warriors Combat Table

Type​	Element​	Saves & Skills²​	Hit​	Damage (with Longsword)​
Black	acid​	DEX +4, CON +4, WIS +3, CHA +2​	+6​	13 (1d10+4 slashing & 1d6 acid)​
Blue	lightning​	DEX +2, CON +4, WIS +4, CHA +3​	+6​	13 (1d10+4 slashing & 1d6 lightning)​
Green	poison¹​	DEX +3, CON +4, WIS +3, CHA +2​	+6​	13 (1d10+4 slashing & 1d6 poison)​
Red	fire​	DEX +3, CON +6, WIS +5, CHA +5​	+7​	18 (1d10+1d6+4 slashing & 2d4 fire)​
White	cold​	DEX +2, CON +5, WIS +3, CHA +1​	+6​	13 (1d10+4 slashing & 1d6 cold)​
Brass	fire​	DEX +2, CON +4, WIS +3, CHA +2​	+6​	9½ (1d10+4 slashing)​
Bronze	lightning​	DEX +2, CON +5, WIS +4, CHA +3​	+6​	9½ (1d10+4 slashing)​
Copper	acid​	DEX +2, CON +4, WIS +3, CHA +3​	+6​	9½ (1d10+4 slashing)​
Gold	fire​	DEX +5, CON +6, WIS +5, CHA +5​	+7​	13 (1d10+1d6+4 slashing)​
Silver	cold​	DEX +4, CON +6, WIS +5, CHA +4​	+7​	12 (1d10+1d4+4 slashing)​

1 a green dragon warrior is also immune to the poisoned condition.
2 DEX (Stealth) and WIS (Perception) skills are equal to the Saving Throws.

And here's it with all the text reduced in size:

Dragon Warriors Combat Table

Type​	Element​	Saves & Skills²​	Hit​	Damage (with Longsword)​
Black	acid​	DEX +4, CON +4, WIS +3, CHA +2​	+6​	13 (1d10+4 slashing & 1d6 acid)​
Blue	lightning​	DEX +2, CON +4, WIS +4, CHA +3​	+6​	13 (1d10+4 slashing & 1d6 lightning)​
Green	poison¹​	DEX +3, CON +4, WIS +3, CHA +2​	+6​	13 (1d10+4 slashing & 1d6 poison)​
Red	fire​	DEX +3, CON +6, WIS +5, CHA +5​	+7​	18 (1d10+1d6+4 slashing & 2d4 fire)​
White	cold​	DEX +2, CON +5, WIS +3, CHA +1​	+6​	13 (1d10+4 slashing & 1d6 cold)​
Brass	fire​	DEX +2, CON +4, WIS +3, CHA +2​	+6​	9½ (1d10+4 slashing)​
Bronze	lightning​	DEX +2, CON +5, WIS +4, CHA +3​	+6​	9½ (1d10+4 slashing)​
Copper	acid​	DEX +2, CON +4, WIS +3, CHA +3​	+6​	9½ (1d10+4 slashing)​
Gold	fire​	DEX +5, CON +6, WIS +5, CHA +5​	+7​	13 (1d10+1d6+4 slashing)​
Silver	cold​	DEX +4, CON +6, WIS +5, CHA +4​	+7​	12 (1d10+1d4+4 slashing)​

1 a green dragon warrior is also immune to the poisoned condition.
2 DEX (Stealth) and WIS (Perception) skills are equal to the Saving Throws.

Hmm… not sure which of those looks better.

 

[Cleon]

Maybe a combination or the two? Regular sized Header and Type name, maybe with regular sided to Hit?

Dragon Warriors Combat Table

Type​	Element​	Saves & Skills²​	Hit​	Damage (with Longsword)​
Black	acid​	DEX +4, CON +4, WIS +3, CHA +2​	+6​	13 (1d10+4 slashing & 1d6 acid)​
Blue	lightning​	DEX +2, CON +4, WIS +4, CHA +3​	+6​	13 (1d10+4 slashing & 1d6 lightning)​
Green	poison¹​	DEX +3, CON +4, WIS +3, CHA +2​	+6​	13 (1d10+4 slashing & 1d6 poison)​
Red	fire​	DEX +3, CON +6, WIS +5, CHA +5​	+7​	18 (1d10+1d6+4 slashing & 2d4 fire)​
White	cold​	DEX +2, CON +5, WIS +3, CHA +1​	+6​	13 (1d10+4 slashing & 1d6 cold)​
Brass	fire​	DEX +2, CON +4, WIS +3, CHA +2​	+6​	9½ (1d10+4 slashing)​
Bronze	lightning​	DEX +2, CON +5, WIS +4, CHA +3​	+6​	9½ (1d10+4 slashing)​
Copper	acid​	DEX +2, CON +4, WIS +3, CHA +3​	+6​	9½ (1d10+4 slashing)​
Gold	fire​	DEX +5, CON +6, WIS +5, CHA +5​	+7​	13 (1d10+1d6+4 slashing)​
Silver	cold​	DEX +4, CON +6, WIS +5, CHA +4​	+7​	12 (1d10+1d4+4 slashing)​

1 a green dragon warrior is also immune to the poisoned condition.
2 DEX (Stealth) and WIS (Perception) skills are equal to the Saving Throws.

Yeah, that looks pretty good.

Will put it in the Dragon Warriors.