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

[Cleon]

So how about this?

AMIRASPIAN CYCLOPS
Amiraspian cyclopes are violent, one-eyed, man-eating something that stand nine feet tall and have dull, weathered tan skin with scattered clumps of greenish black, straggly hair. They resemble human men in general shape and have powerful arms, clawed hands, and a large, wide maw crammed with fangs allowing them to inflict horrendous bites. Their face has a single massive eye, eerily human apart from its size and clear sea-green in color.
Amiraspian cyclopes can be found almost anywhere, including underground complexes, and they habitually dwell in caves.

It seems easier if we discuss a section at a time. The red something can just be "creatures" or "monsters".

The first two sentences are a bit clumsy. They run on too long and might benefit from being split into shorter sentences.

Also, the wording looks rather derivative of the White Dwarf description, especially the "allowing them to inflict horrendous bites."

Let's see, my first stab at it was:

So here's a start on the Description…

An amiraspian cyclops stands around 9 feet tall and resembles a man in general shape, with powerful arms and clawed hands. Its face has a single massive eye, eerily human apart from its size and clear sea green in color, as well as a horrible mouth, broad and crammed with fangs. The cyclops's weathered skin is tan in colour, with scattered clumps of straggly green-black hair.

That's got pretty much the same info as yours apart from the "horrendous bite" bit, which I feel is superfluous. I'd just rephrase that to make it plural, so…

Amiraspian cyclopes stand around 9 feet tall and resemble men in general shape, with powerful arms and clawed hands. Their faces have a single massive eye, eerily human apart from its size and clear sea green in color, as well as horrible mouths, broad and crammed with fangs. The cyclopes' weathered skin is tan in colour, with scattered clumps of straggly green-black hair.
 Foes of Humankind. [man-eating] [raid villages.] ???
 Cave Tyrants. These monsters can live off most types of terrain, including subterranean, but prefer to lair in caves. Amiraspian cyclopes often dominate bands of humanoid monsters (orcs, gnolls, goblins, et cetera) as their minions. The group is ruled by the strongest and fiercest cyclops, who controls by right of power (see Amiraspian Cyclops Chief for an example). The cave dwelling may also include young cyclopes and captured prisoners. Often human, these living prisoners are held to be eaten. Unlucky captives suffer ghastly fates before they are devoured.
 Cursed Births. [the "problematic" bit] ???​

 

[ilgatto]

There's a typo here.

It's "gouge" (scooping/scraping/digging, like with a chisel) not "gauge" (measuring something).

Noted.

Oh, and I wouldn't bring religion into it, the issue is controversial enough!

Hmm... Does 5E generally avoid religions and deities?

I'm surprised by your surprise.

No need. I was still in sarcasm mode because of the familyfriendlifying thing.

There's been a demon called Baphomet in D&D who's been associated with minotaurs since he debuted in the pullout section of S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (Minotaurs are his worshippers and servants") in 1982, before his mainstream appearance in the 1983 Monster Manual II ("Baphomet is lord of minotaurs").

D&D Baphomet doesn't resemble the historical (and probably equally made up) Templar allegation version. He just looks like a big Minotaur.

Haven't you come across the D&D version before? I guess if you mainly read 2E sources it's not that surprising. I believe his only only official appearance in 2E AD&D was in DMGR4 Monster Mythology (1992), where he's a tanar'ri Lesser God "who has increasingly attracted the worship of minotaurs".

Curiously, DMGR4 takes the trouble to explicate that Baphomet didn't invent minotaurs, but "Myths of the birth of minotaurs are obscure and place their origin in pre-history, where a terrible and ancient curse condemned a number of wicked humans (who may have had dealings with tanar’ri) to this shape. This curse somehow drew Baphomet's attention to the newly-created monsters."

Naah. I know of Baphomet, of course. For conversions, I limit myself to "official" 2E sources, often with some clarifications from early 3E mixed in. I tend to stick to the original as much as possible in case of conflicting info (e.g., S4 vs FOR7 and Planescape) and I ALWAYS* ignore all post-Satanic-Panic names and similar lip service. I never mention the Blood War in anything I write up and, for outer-planars revised in MC8 and Planescape, I add the boosted stats in a separate section in the file headed "Planeslore", in which I include game-affecting blurb using literal quotes and never failing to point out things I consider to be silly.

Never knew about the info DMGR4 you mention above, though, for reasons I can't really fathom and which is therefore rather annoying. Now that I know about it, I'll have to add it to the 2E conversion, probably in a block starting with something like "Some theologians have argued..."

* Extra points awarded for guessing the only two exceptions

 

[ilgatto]

It seems easier if we discuss a section at a time. The red something can just be "creatures" or "monsters".

Creatures is a good one.

The first two sentences are a bit clumsy. They run on too long and might benefit from being split into shorter sentences.

Agreed. I copy-paste-attached some drafts without really checking again.

Also, the wording looks rather derivative of the White Dwarf description, especially the "allowing them to inflict horrendous bites."

Er... okay. It wasn't meant to. I was simply trying to use as much of the original text as possible.

Let's see, my first stab at it was:

That's got pretty much the same info as yours apart from the "horrendous bite" bit, which I feel is superfluous. I'd just rephrase that to make it plural, so…

Amiraspian cyclopes stand around 9 feet tall and resemble men in general shape, with powerful arms and clawed hands. Their faces have a single massive eye, eerily human apart from its size and clear sea green in color, as well as horrible mouths, broad and crammed with fangs. The cyclopes' weathered skin is tan in colour, with scattered clumps of straggly green-black hair.​

Excellent.
I've grown used to trying to summarize a creature in the first sentence rather than starting with what it looks like, so that a DM sort of instantly gets an idea what a creature is about but never mind if that's not a thing in 5E.

 Foes of Humankind. [man-eating] [raid villages.] ???

 Cave Tyrants. These monsters can live off most types of terrain, including subterranean, but prefer to lair in caves. Amiraspian cyclopes often dominate bands of humanoid monsters (orcs, gnolls, goblins, et cetera) as their minions. The group is ruled by the strongest and fiercest cyclops, who controls by right of power (see Amiraspian Cyclops Chief for an example). The cave dwelling may also include young cyclopes and captured prisoners. Often human, these living prisoners are held to be eaten. Unlucky captives suffer ghastly fates before they are devoured.​

I'm seriously going to have to get used to 5E trying to add drama to texts I believe should be encyclopedic in nature rather than... prosaic. This is for many reasons, one of which is that I don't want to work my way through someone's interpretation of a monster when I have to look something up in the heat of battle. I'm not saying 2E is always better than 5E at this, but still.
Anyway, not criticizing your write-up above and I guess I'm just gonna have to get into the 5E swing of things.

 Cursed Births. [the "problematic" bit] ???​

Processing.

 

[Casimir Liber]

(munches popcorn....) ......still baffled as to why Aggressive is a trait and not listed as a bonus action, espeically as my idea is that the cyclops chooses one to do.

 

[Cleon]

Hmm... Does 5E generally avoid religions and deities?

The smiley indicated I was joking.

I'm seriously going to have to get used to 5E trying to add drama to texts I believe should be encyclopedic in nature rather than... prosaic. This is for many reasons, one of which is that I don't want to work my way through someone's interpretation of a monster when I have to look something up in the heat of battle. I'm not saying 2E is always better than 5E at this, but still.

Prosaic wording is appropriate for the game mechanics section, but I'm fine with adding a bit of flair to the Description. When you get down to it that section's only suggestions to hopefully inspire encounter/adventure/campaign ideas, and the DM can always change it. If given the choice, I'd go for colourful expression over boring blandness as it give you more to work with.

Besides, there are some pretty dramatic Monstrous Compendium writeups in 2E.

 

[Cleon]

 Foes of Humankind. [man-eating] [raid villages.] ???

Anyhow, I'll try whipping up another paragraph or two…

 Foes of Humankind. Amiraspian cyclopes are carnivores with an innate fondness for humanoid flesh. Their favorite food is halfling, followed by gnome, dwarf, elf, gnome and human, but they loathe the taste of orcflesh. Only a starving cyclops would eat an orc or half-orc, it would rather leave the corpse to rot.
 Cyclopes are notorious for repeatedly raiding undefended settlements, attacking them whenever they feel hungry. Like many predators, cyclopes prefer weak victims (e.g. abducting unarmed villagers from hamlets or farmhouses) over hunting strong prey that might injure them (e.g. fighting warriors or adventurers).
 Cave Tyrants. [as above].
 The lair of a cyclops is usually infested with carrion-eaters that feed off the remains of its prey.
 Cursed Births. [the "problematic" bit] ???​

 

[Cleon]

(munches popcorn....) ......still baffled as to why Aggressive is a trait and not listed as a bonus action, espeically as my idea is that the cyclops chooses one to do.

Well the 5E Monster Manual doesn't use Bonus Actions in its monster stats, but has Traits activated with bonus actions, like the Superior Invisibility of a Faerie Dragon.

Perhaps we should move Hypnotic Stare from Bonus Actions to Traits to match the Monster Manual format?

Incidentally, I was tempted to put Hypnotic Stare in Traits and have it start "As an action or bonus action" instead of being bonus action only.

That'd allow the Amiraspian Cyclops to use an Aggressive bonus action and Hypnotic Stare action on turns it doesn't want to use its Action for melee or ranged attacks.

However, it can move the same distance using a Dash action and Hypnotic Stare bonus action, and that doesn't restrict the extra movement to being towards a hostile creature like Aggressive does, so there wouldn't seem to be much point.

It would be useful to Cyclopes with more bonus action options though.

What do you think?

 

[Cleon]

Incidentally, I was tempted to put Hypnotic Stare in Traits and have it start "As an action or bonus action" instead of being bonus action only.

Come to think of it, I rejected the idea because it'd allow two Hypnotic Stares per round (an action-stare and a bonus-stare) unless we added a "can only stare once per turn" rule, which seemed an unnecessary wrinkle.

I prefer the current "As a bonus action" version.

The question remains, do we put in Special Traits with Aggressive à la Monster Manual or in its own Bonus Actions section?

If the latter, shouldn't Aggressive logically be moved to the Bonus Actions section too?

 

[ilgatto]

Next:

AMIRASPIAN CYCLOPS

Amiraspian cyclopes are one-eyed, man-eating creatures known for their violent raids on the settlements of humans and humanoids alike. They stand nine feet tall and resemble men in general shape, with powerful arms and clawed hands, and tan-colored, weathered skin with scattered clumps of straggly green-black hair. Their faces have a single massive eye, clear sea green in color and eerily human apart from its size. Below this eye sits a horrible, broad mouth crammed with fangs.

Foes of Humankind. Amiraspian cyclopes are carnivores with an innate fondness for humanoid flesh. Their favorite food is halfling, followed by gnome, dwarf, elf, gnome and human, but they loathe the taste of orc flesh. Only a starving cyclops would eat an orc or half-orc, it would rather leave the corpse to rot.

"for" > "of"?
"to rot": why not the original scavengers bit?
Also: I’m rather against the inclination of many early English 3PPs to ridicule and victimize halflings. Still, I suppose we’ve got little choice in the matter in this case because the original expressly mentions the order above?

Amiraspian cyclopes are notorious for repeatedly raiding undefended settlements, attacking them whenever they feel hungry. Like many predators, cyclopes prefer weak victims (e.g., abducting unarmed villagers from hamlets or farmhouses) over hunting strong prey that might injure them (e.g., fighting warriors or adventurers).

Cave Tyrants. Amiraspian cyclopes can live off most types of terrain, including subterranean, but prefer to lair in caves. They often dominate bands of humanoid monsters (e.g., orcs, gnolls, goblins) as their minions. The group is ruled by the strongest and fiercest cyclops, who controls (+ "the others"?) by right of power (see Amiraspian Cyclops Chief for an example). The cave dwelling may also include young cyclopes and captured prisoners. These are held to be eaten, some of them after suffering ghastly fates before they are devoured.
Cyclops caves are usually infested with carrion-eaters that feed off the remains of their prey.

Note: LOL man cave. But it’s not in the original.

Cursed Births. Amiraspian cyclopes are always male, possibly due to genetic deficiencies. To propagate their kind, they keep any pregnant human women they capture alive until they have given birth. A child born of these women is handed over to the chieftain, who will then invoke a powerful, irreversible curse to transform the child/it into a cyclops. However, this curse does not always work and invoking it may also result in a cyclopean human, a human child with only one eye which is then cast out to fend for itself. Often, such children are then picked up by other cyclopean humans, who will raise it as one of their own. In other cases, the curse will simply fail to generate any effect, leaving the child unchanged and to be devoured like the other prisoners.

 

[ilgatto]

(munches popcorn....)

LOL. Would Sir like a refreshing beverage with that?