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

[Cleon]

OK .....Gu'en-Deeko - happy to ditch Dark Vision. I like the idea of it having stealth but not overly fussed. ...

I'm not fussed about Darkvision, if you really want it I'll include it but lean towards leaving it out as there's no mention of the AD&D equivalent (infravision) in the original entry and darkvision is a fairly rare ability in 5E. Even many monsters that have it in 3E lack it in the latest edition.

The original monster doesn't have improved surprise odds, so I wouldn't give it Stealth.

From what I recall we where in the middle of debating the Brain-Eating trait when we broke off the conversion. I'll have to trawl through the old pages to find our last post on the conversion…

…OK, the last Gu'en-Deeko related post I could find is this one:

Well I wasn't planning on having it save multiple times for the same brain!

The main question is what constitutes a "risky brain" that risks personality-overwriting insanity. It doesn't happen if it eats the brains of run-of-the-mill victims but only particularly strong willed creatures.



It'd be easier if it keeps the highest spellcasting stat of a brain it's eaten as long as it retains any Spellcasting ability rather than keep track of each spellcasting brain's stat and when it ate them, then reverts to its base CHA as soon as it loses its spellcasting.

I'm thinking it'd be easier to put together what we mused about for the Brain-Eating trait in one post and work from there. Will take a little while to put it all together…

 

[Casimir Liber]

ok let's leave both darkvision and stealth out. I'll wait for your compilation

 

[Cleon]

Right - so after discussion I did make it Medium so has 45HP average (6d8+18) - changed walk/climb speed to 30/30

These were your working points:

• A gu'en-deeko gains proficiency in any skills possessed by a humanoid whose brain it eats.
• A gu'en-deeko gains the memories, knowledge-based racial traits and languages of any humanoid whose brain it eats but does not gain any physiological traits of the humanoid's race. For example, if it ate a dwarf it would gain Dwarven Combat Training, Tool Proficiency, Stonecunning and Languages, but it would not gain a dwarf's Ability Score Increase, Size, Speed, Darkvision or Dwarven Resilience.
• In addition, a gu'en-deeko gains the class abilities of any humanoids of level # or lower whose brains it eats. These abilities never stack, if it gains multiple abilities only the highest level one applies. For example, if it ate the brains of a 2nd-level cleric, a 3rd-level bard, and a 3rd-level druid a gu'en-deeko gains 3rd-level Spellcasting, not three separate sets of Spellcasting (see below for how Gu'en-Deeko spells function). It could, in theory, gain multiple abilities that use spells provided they are different types of magic-use. For example, it could possess the Innate Spellcasting from multiple sources, such as a Drow Elf and a Svirfneblin.
• If a gu'en-deeko eats the brain of a humanoid of level #+1 or higher, if gains the class abilities of that humanoid until it eats the brain of another humanoid of the same level or higher. If that happens, the gu'en-deeko gains the class abilities of the new brain and the class abilities it gained from the previous high-level brain are reduced to a #-level character of that class.
• If a gu'en-deeko eats the brain of a humanoid whose level exceeds its [6] Hit Dice, the gu'en-deeko must make a DC 15 wisdom roll or go insane and believe itself to actually be the individual whose brain it ate, despite any evidence to the contrary [I prefer this as a high probability not a foregone conclusion]

Other issues - do the skills/abilities "fade" after a time or just get overlain...

Here goes nothing…

Brain-Eating. If the gu'en-deeko eats the brain of a freshly killed humanoid (one who died less than a minute ago), it gains the memories and many of the abilities of that humanoid. A gu'en-deeko can absorb skills, knowledge-based racial abilities such as Dwarven Combat Training, languages and most class abilities from the brain, but does not gain any physical traits or racial abilities of the humanoid whose brain it ate such as Ability Score increases, Darkvision, or Dwarven Resilience.
 The gu'en-deeko gains bonus hit points from brain-eating. Rules for amount of bonus HP and increase to Hit Dice. Have its Charisma score increase to match the highest mental ability score from the brains it has eaten.
 If a gu'en-deeko absorbs the brain of a humanoid [with a level # or lower and a Challenge Rating of # or less ?], the skills, racial abilities, traits and class abilities it absorbed from the brain last for 1 year. The gu'en-deeko retains the brain's memories after the year ends, but none of the powers it gained.
 If a gu'en-deeko eats the brain of a humanoid [with a level # or higher or a Challenge Rating of # or more ?], the powers it gains last until it eats the brain of another humanoid of the same level or higher. If that happens, the gu'en-deeko gains the powers of the new brain and those powers it gained from the previous high-level brain are reduced to a #-level character of that class, then vanish a year later (as above).
 If a gu'en-deeko eats the brain of a humanoid [with a level # or higher, a Challenge Rating of # or more, or a mental ability (INT, WIS, CHA) of # or higher ?], the gu'en-deeko must succeed at a Wisdom saving throw against a DC equal to 10 plus the Proficiency Bonus and highest Mental Ability Bonus of the humanoid the brain came from or go insane, believing itself to be the humanoid whose brain it devoured.
 Class abilities gained via brain-eating never stack; if the gu'en-deeko gains the same ability multiple times, only the highest level one applies. For example, if a gu'en-deeko ate the brains of a 2nd-level cleric, a 3rd-level bard, and a 3rd-level druid, it gains 3rd-level Spellcasting, not three separate sets of Spellcasting (see below for Gu'en-Deeko Spellcasting). A gu'en-deeko can possess multiple abilities that use spells if they are different types of magic-use. For example, it could possess Innate Spellcasting from multiple sources, such as a Drow Elf and a Svirfneblin, together with Spellcasting from a Wizard and Pact Magic from a Warlock, all at the same time. A gu'en-deeko is unable to gain class abilities granted by an external power without that power's permission. Thus, if a gu'en-deeko ate the brain of a warlock, the gu'en-deeko would have to strike a bargain with that warlock's otherworldly Patron to gain most of the warlock class abilities.
 Spellcasting: ???.

 

[Cleon]

More annoyingly - am unable to customise resistances/immunities on dndbeyond, so am a bit stuck with gurgohemoth....I feel like just caving in and making them resistant to weapons and be done with it

Can you not just do it as text?

 

[Casimir Liber]

Can you not just do it as text?

No. it is a strict drop-down menu sadly. Not even asterisks allowed

 

[Casimir Liber]

Here goes nothing…

Brain-Eating. If the gu'en-deeko eats the brain of a freshly killed humanoid (one who died less than a minute ago), it gains the memories and many of the abilities of that humanoid. A gu'en-deeko can absorb skills, knowledge-based racial abilities such as Dwarven Combat Training, languages and most class abilities from the brain, but does not gain any physical traits or racial abilities of the humanoid whose brain it ate such as Ability Score increases, Darkvision, or Dwarven Resilience.
 The gu'en-deeko gains bonus hit points from brain-eating. Rules for amount of bonus HP and increase to Hit Dice. Have its Charisma score increase to match the highest mental ability score from the brains it has eaten.
 If a gu'en-deeko absorbs the brain of a humanoid [with a level # or lower and a Challenge Rating of # or less ?], the skills, racial abilities, traits and class abilities it absorbed from the brain last for 1 year. The gu'en-deeko retains the brain's memories after the year ends, but none of the powers it gained.
 If a gu'en-deeko eats the brain of a humanoid [with a level # or higher or a Challenge Rating of # or more ?], the powers it gains last until it eats the brain of another humanoid of the same level or higher. If that happens, the gu'en-deeko gains the powers of the new brain and those powers it gained from the previous high-level brain are reduced to a #-level character of that class, then vanish a year later (as above).
 If a gu'en-deeko eats the brain of a humanoid [with a level # or higher, a Challenge Rating of # or more, or a mental ability (INT, WIS, CHA) of # or higher ?], the gu'en-deeko must succeed at a Wisdom saving throw against a DC equal to 10 plus the Proficiency Bonus and highest Mental Ability Bonus of the humanoid the brain came from or go insane, believing itself to be the humanoid whose brain it devoured.
 Class abilities gained via brain-eating never stack; if the gu'en-deeko gains the same ability multiple times, only the highest level one applies. For example, if a gu'en-deeko ate the brains of a 2nd-level cleric, a 3rd-level bard, and a 3rd-level druid, it gains 3rd-level Spellcasting, not three separate sets of Spellcasting (see below for Gu'en-Deeko Spellcasting). A gu'en-deeko can possess multiple abilities that use spells if they are different types of magic-use. For example, it could possess Innate Spellcasting from multiple sources, such as a Drow Elf and a Svirfneblin, together with Spellcasting from a Wizard and Pact Magic from a Warlock, all at the same time. A gu'en-deeko is unable to gain class abilities granted by an external power without that power's permission. Thus, if a gu'en-deeko ate the brain of a warlock, the gu'en-deeko would have to strike a bargain with that warlock's otherworldly Patron to gain most of the warlock class abilities.
 Spellcasting: ???.

Looks good - I had a thought that might help with stacking dilemma. Maybe more gambling. Let's say gu'en-deeko eats brain #1 and gets powers #1, #2, and #3. Then, when it eats brain #2, each of the powers from brain #1 have to roll 4-6 (5-6?) to remain (like a "recharge" roll). This introduces a mechanism that simulates them fading after a time but is a bit random and is a way to stop ridiculous stacking...?

GM's discretion would be that two highly overlapping skills must "compete" to see which one remains - e.g. spellcasting level etc.

 

[Casimir Liber]

The 4 red bits - red bit #1 - charisma tied to highest attribute yes. gain 1 hp until it reaches 66hp - then...? HD goes up by 1 for each successive 11-hp gain?

red bit #4 - maybe keep it simple? lvl 7 or 7HD?

do we need red bits #2 and #3?

 

[Cleon]

No. it is a strict drop-down menu sadly. Not even asterisks allowed

That's not very useful. I believe there are creatures with non-standard weapon resistances even in official 5E sources.

 

[Cleon]

Looks good - I had a thought that might help with stacking dilemma. Maybe more gambling. Let's say gu'en-deeko eats brain #1 and gets powers #1, #2, and #3. Then, when it eats brain #2, each of the powers from brain #1 have to roll 4-6 (5-6?) to remain (like a "recharge" roll). This introduces a mechanism that simulates them fading after a time but is a bit random and is a way to stop ridiculous stacking...?

My thinking is if we keep the brain "upper limit" fairly low we would have to worry less about stacking. If it's only powers up to, say 3rd level, and it only had one 4th+ level class at a time the minor powers become basically color.

Making it random is (a) a bit more complicated and (b) might discourage the gu'en-deeko from eating brains once it acquires one with a power it particularly likes, since it might accidentally overwrite it. I think I prefer a time limit.

Speaking of time limits, I wondered about whether there could be some limit on how many brains it can eat in a given period. Maybe 1 a month? That'd mean a gu'en-deeko couldn't have more than 13 brains on the go at any one time: one high-level "permanent" brain and one for each of the 12 months in a year.

Also, how long does brain-eating take and how soon does the gu'en-deeko acquire the powers? A brain is, what, five pounds or so. It'll take a little while to scarf one down. Maybe I should increase the "fresh brain" time limit from the current minute to an hour?

GM's discretion would be that two highly overlapping skills must "compete" to see which one remains - e.g. spellcasting level etc.

Well a lot of GM's discretion is required for a creature like this. The "No stacking, highest level applies" rule of thumb should cover most overlapping powers.

 

[Cleon]

do we need red bits #2 and #3?

If it can only run one high-level brain at a time we need some criteria for what said high-level consists of and what low-level brains don't qualify and only last a year (or whenever).