5E: Monstrous Arthropods for Fifth Edition

[Cleon]

Updating…

Black Mystaran Dragonfly Working Draft.
Blue Mystaran Dragonfly Working Draft.
Gold Mystaran Dragonfly Working Draft.
Green Mystaran Dragonfly Working Draft.
Red Mystaran Dragonfly Working Draft.
White Mystaran Dragonfly Working Draft.
​

So are these done now?

That just leaves the Nymph to finish and we can move on to something else.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Yep - they look good to me so nymph next

 

[Cleon]

Yep - they look good to me so nymph next

Let's see, the original 2E AD&D version doesn't give much detail.

AC 5, 1 or 2 Hit Dice, MV 6, Sw 12, and rather piddly damage of 1d2 bite plus a 1 or 2 point acid breath.

I guess we'll do one based on the slightly stronger 2 HD version and then decide whether to leave it at that or add a second nymph based on the weaker 1 HD version.

So, going in order.

Small monstrosity, unaligned is pretty obvious.

Armour Class is a bit trickier. The original's AC 5 is softer than even a regular Giant AD&D Dragonfly's AC 3. So I guess either 13 or 14? Let's say Armor Class 14 (natural armor) to leave a bit of space for a decent DEX score.

Hit Dice we can figure out later to match what CR we want, but I expect somewhere between 3d6 and 5d6. Perhaps call it 4d6 for now? That's what we used for the Giant Damselfly Naiad.

The original's movement translates pretty neatly to Speed 20 ft., swim 30 ft.

Ability Scores, maybe take the White Dragonfly and clumsy-uglify it a bit to STR 12, DEX 15, CON 13, INT 2, WIS 12, CHA 5?

That'll do for a start.

 

[Casimir Liber]

sounds good

 

[Cleon]

sounds good

Here goes nothing…

Updating Mystaran Dragonfly Nymph.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Blue published here. others to follow.

Black here

White here

Red here

Gold here

Green here

 

[Cleon]

Blue published here. others to follow.

Black here

White here

Red here

Gold here

Green here

Yeesh.

I don't have the energy to compare six sets of stats right now, so checking these will have to wait for later.

What about the Mystaran Dragonfly Nymph?

Basic questions are:

Will we give it the same DEX and CON saves as the adults or cut it down to CON save only or no save proficiency at all?

Shall we give it the Ambusher trait like a regular Giant Dragonfly Nymph?

I'm presuming that the Mystaran version doesn't have a Death Mask but I think we can give it Jet Dash.

Finally, we need to set a damage for the bite and breath weapon.

I'm thinking maybe 5 (1d6 + 2) slashing for the former and maybe 4 (1d8) acid for the latter?

If that's OK I'll punch those numbers into the calculator and find out what CR that is, then we can tweak it if necessary.

Oh, and the final question is I was thinking of doing a Tiny "hatchling sized" Nymph so we can also stat up a Swarm of the little buggers!

 

[Casimir Liber]

a swarm of little nymphs sounds cool. I'd ditch the DEX save proficiency and give it a lower dex.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Okay - trying to make a CR 3 giant culicid...punching in numbers...looks like this

https://5e.tools/crcalculator.html#0,15,17,5,false,Large,13,13,false,0,false,0,

 

[Cleon]

Y'okay, presumably we're basing this off the AD&D female Culex and Anopheles stats from Polyhedron Magazine #67 (January 1992).

Those are a lot tougher than I'd have statted them. They're XP 975 or 1,400, suggesting female Giant Mosquitos are nastier than the XP 650 AD&D Giant Scorpion, which didn't sit right with me.

But then that's fan submissions to a D&D magazine for you, and it would help justify CR 3!

Will we be converting the Wriggler and Male mosquitos from the same source, too?

Oh, and I would fancy doing the swarming Giant Mosquito from Dungeon Magazine #41 (1993) as well. Those are Tiny, with a wingspan of 6 to 8 inches. That's about the size of a robin.