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

[Cleon]

ok my vote goes with the cyclops - the ones in the Fiend Factory are Large size (9' tall) - question is, how to explain different existence to canon 5e cyclops. Maybe these ones are Fey origin?

Frankly my dear, I don't care either way. I'll let you and Ilgatto fight it out.

However, there's still the Dragon Warriors to sign off on before we start on a new conversion.

 

[ilgatto]

ok my vote goes with the cyclops - the ones in the Fiend Factory are Large size (9' tall) - question is, how to explain different existence to canon 5e cyclops. Maybe these ones are Fey origin?

That may, indeed, be a bit of a thing, since both are obviously based on Greek myth. IIRC the original cyclopes date back to the OD&D Monsters and Treasure, which I shall add for your entertainment:

Cyclopeses: Super-strength Giants with poor depth perception.

Then there's the greater and lesser cyclopes in the 1E DDG, with the greater cyclopes being the servants of Hephaestus:

These giants were a gift to Hephaestus by his mother Hera. These are much more intelligent than the lesser cyclopes, and serve the blacksmith god in his mountain and in underwater caves near the shores of some major city-states.
These cyclopes are able to live very well on land or in the water, and spend most of their time making javelins of lightning, magic armor and shields, etc. They are immune to all fire attacks, accustomed as they are to the great heat of Hephaestus' forge. If a mortal brings them gifts they can use, there is a 20% chance that they will reward the mortal with one of their magic items; there is an 80% chance they will kill the gift bringer for his presumption. They have no qualms about using their own magic items in attack or defense. Each greater cyclops wears a personal set of magical scale mail.

And the lesser cyclopes, which rather seem to be like the one encountered by Odysseus:

These brutes appear as extremely ugly and huge hill giant types with one eye under a beetling brow. They are usually solitary creatures and react violently to any mortal who dares to disturb them. Originally created by Poseidon, they usually inhabit islands. They always have a supply of huge boulders at hand to hurl for 4-40 points of damage, and they can toss these rocks up to 50".

These seem to have had several incarnations after that, via BECMI through the 2E MM2 Cyclopskin, until they ended up in the Monstrous Manual (1993) as the canon 2E cyclopes.

I'll have to refer to you guys as to what happened with them since 2E.

Depending on that, I'd say that the WD21 cyclops - or Amiraspian Cyclops - stands out from the others because it is a man-eater and violates human women to procreate.

So are there any 5E Fey man-eaters and brutal violators of women?

Also, if 5E Fey means "Faerie", I'd say that the man-eating and impregnating aspect would sort of say they are not Fey, but that may be a matter of opinion.

 

[ilgatto]

Frankly my dear, I don't care either way. I'll let you and Ilgatto fight it out.

However, there's still the Dragon Warriors to sign off on before we start on a new conversion.

Oops! Jumped the gun, it seems. What is still required for the DWs?

 

[ilgatto]

By the by, there was an earlier WD cyclops in WD5:

I was first published as by Wayne Shaw in Alarums & Excursions 9, and then featured in All The World's Monsters.

Cyclopes: Wayne Shaw, The Portal to Temporalana, in: Alarums & Excursions 9, March 1976 (Amateur Press Association, 1976); Cyclops: Wayne Shaw, in: Jeff Pimper & Steve Perrin (eds.), All the Worlds’ Monsters (The Chaosium, 1977)

 

[Cleon]

Oops! Jumped the gun, it seems. What is still required for the DWs?

Nothing as far as I can tell. The idea was to see if there was anything @Casimir Liber wanted to change/add before I release them to the wild (i.e. add them to the Index as Completed Conversions).

 

[ilgatto]

Nothing as far as I can tell. The idea was to see if there was anything @Casimir Liber wanted to change/add before I release them to the wild (i.e. add them to the Index as Completed Conversions).

I'll call him (@Casimir Liber) again!

 

[Cleon]

By the by, there was an earlier WD cyclops in WD5:

View attachment 272053

I was first published as by Wayne Shaw in Alarums & Excursions 9, and then featured in All The World's Monsters.

Cyclopes: Wayne Shaw, The Portal to Temporalana, in: Alarums & Excursions 9, March 1976 (Amateur Press Association, 1976); Cyclops: Wayne Shaw, in: Jeff Pimper & Steve Perrin (eds.), All the Worlds’ Monsters (The Chaosium, 1977)

I am already aware of this critter, which is pretty close to the standard D&D Cyclops (aka the Cyclops Giant or Lesser Cyclops, to distinguish it from the Greater Cyclopes who assist the god Hephaestus).

There's a fair few other Cyclopes in D&D, or at least other takes on the creature.

Let's see, the Monster Manual II introduced the Cyclopskin, who are basically mini-me versions of Giant Cyclopes only 7 or 8 feet tall and Al-Qadim has a Desert Cyclops.

In 4E D&D, a Cyclops is a giant from the Feywild with an "evil eye" power.

Oh, and who can forget the two-headed Cyclops, the Biclops!

No, I am not kidding, that's a real D&D monster.

You see, sometimes a Cyclopskin and an Ettin who love each other very much…

Heck, there's already an SRD version of the Biclops.

The Biclops is from "The Dragon's Bestiary" in Dragon Magazine #172 and, as far as I know, has never appeared in any official D&D book or adventure.

We've got a 3E conversion in the Creature Catalog, naturally.

 

[Cleon]

I'll call him (@Casimir Liber) again!

Don't wear out that alert button, @ilgatto.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Nothing as far as I can tell. The idea was to see if there was anything @Casimir Liber wanted to change/add before I release them to the wild (i.e. add them to the Index as Completed Conversions).

nope. all good

 

[Casimir Liber]

The fey aspect would be procreation with humans. Plus some magicky stuff with the eye (hypnotic pattern). Fey in folklore were renowned for interbreeding with humans. Just musing on an origin that distinguishes them from usual cyclops.