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

Cleon said:

Okay, how about "any chaotic alignment" then, like a Half-Ogre?

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Or perhaps "chaotic evil or chaotic neutral"?

If they can have CG will-o-wisps in WPtWL then I can live with "any chaotic" to mix it up a bit. Ditched poison resistance. I like psychic damage resistance as in keeping with fey resistance to charming and their 'frighten' component to their bite. I'm also interested in low CR monsters that get parties to act differently. And I've had spellcasters cast many many "dissonant whispers" and "vicious mockery". (still amazed I had never noticed this critter - shall we do the other gremlin as well at the same time?

Casimir Liber said:

If they can have CG will-o-wisps in WPtWL then I can live with "any chaotic" to mix it up a bit. Ditched poison resistance. I like psychic damage resistance as in keeping with fey resistance to charming and their 'frighten' component to their bite. I'm also interested in low CR monsters that get parties to act differently. And I've had spellcasters cast many many "dissonant whispers" and "vicious mockery". (still amazed I had never noticed this critter - shall we do the other gremlin as well at the same time?

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I'm not in favour of giving them Psychic damage resistance or immunity to fear, since (a) the original monster didn't have them and (b) none of the SRD Fey have any Resistances or Immunities.

As far as special defensive abilities go, I was thinking we could give them the Nimble Escape of a Goblin since the little text we have suggests a sneaky agile opponent and Gremlins are described as "goblinoid" in the 2E Monstrous Compendium.

While I'm not keen on adding new traits or powers that the original didn't have, it's OK to throw them a bone or two when the original monster's stats are so minimal.

Anyhow, let's talk Ability Scores.

I was wondering about increasing the Strength to 10 or perhaps even 12. I imagine these things are pretty strong for their size, the better to leap and climb, like a Chimpanzee is smaller than a human but powerful for its size. The 5E Ape, for example, is STR 16 and Medium size, for comparison.

Speaking of the Ape, I'm wondering whether we should give the Green Gremlin Skills proficiency in Acrobatics and/or Athletics as well as Stealth?

As far as I'm concerned, Dexterity and Constitution are fine at their current values (DEX 17, CON 12).

Still undecided on Intelligence as there's no indication in the original that they're even sapient. I was musing about making them INT 5 with the ability to understand one language (Abyssal or Common?), but not speak one. Not sure what I prefer yet. I'm fine leaving them at INT 7 for the moment.

Wisdom I guess is OK at 10, but I'd prefer to boost it to WIS 12 like an Imp or the aforementioned Ape.

Finally, I think they should have a higher Charisma than the totally average figure of 10. Their "horrible visage" and ability to incult supernatural fear in an opponent suggests they're more than normally Charismatic. Maybe somewhere around CHA 12 to 14?

Presumably their "fear venom" is CHA-based, so if we give it CHA 12 or 13 that'll be a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw, for the same save DC as the venomous sting of a 5E Imp.

So that'd be:


Do you like any of those?

Awwwright....twist me arm (dropping psychic resistance)...can we at least give it a WIS save bonus? and gave it nimble escape. Also struck me that if it is clambering out of reach, some ability to throw things (like the Nandie or gremlins from movies) or even spit or something would be good? Went with these stats so far:

Casimir Liber said:

Awwwright....twist me arm (dropping psychic resistance)...can we at least give it a WIS save bonus? and gave it nimble escape. Also struck me that if it is clambering out of reach, some ability to throw things (like the Nandie or gremlins from movies) or even spit or something would be good? Went with these stats so far:

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So regarding alignment, I'd be writing something like "green gremlins are capricious, mischievous and unpredictable. Many are malicious (chaotic evil), though some are less so (chaotic neutral), and occasionally nice ones are encountered."

Ok done root-ogre - only question is, should it burrow a little quicker?

+ thorn ogre now too

Casimir Liber said:

Awwwright....twist me arm (dropping psychic resistance)...can we at least give it a WIS save bonus? and gave it nimble escape. Also struck me that if it is clambering out of reach, some ability to throw things (like the Nandie or gremlins from movies) or even spit or something would be good? Went with these stats so far:

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Well I don't think it really needs proficiency in WIS saves, but if it means that much to you I can go along with it if we gave it WIS 10 (+0) for a +2 WIS save.

Speaking of going along with things, I'd make no objection to increasing the darkvision range to 120 ft. like a standard Demon, Devil or Drow Elf if you prefer that, or go halfway and make it 90 feet.

Wouldn't give it the Fey Ancestry - that tends to be for Elves and their ilk.

Shouldn't Nimble Escape be listed under Traits rather than as a Bonus Action? That's how it is for a Goblin.

Oh, and 5E has an official trait called Spider Climb so we'd better call it that rather than Adept Clamberer. No point reinventing the wheel.

The original monster didn't have a ranged attack, but I guess it could use rocks and bric-a-brac as weapons. They'd do pathetic damage, maybe 1d4 + 2 bludgeoning? Maybe have it add rock attacks to its Multiattack so it can smash its opponents with them twice a round?

Updating the Green Gremlin.

I'm wondering about giving it the Skills Athletics and Perception as well as the Acrobatics and Stealth your draft has.

A 5E Imp has four Skill proficiencies, which I think is enough precedence and I'd like to give it at least a little something that's special.

Cleon said:

Updating the Green Gremlin.

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I've included a Rock attack in the current working draft as well as a couple of Multiattack options, but would be quite happy leaving it out as the original lacked ranged attacks.

I'm guessing Green Gremlins would enjoy biting its prey and chasing the envenomed and terrified victims about.