[AU] Race/Creature Analogues

[EricNoah]

I'm going to be adjusting my Arcana Unearthed/Evolved campaign in the near future, and need some advice.

The cool thing about AU is that it's D&D, but with a twist. However, there is a paucity of published adventure material available. I am hoping to use more published adventures in the future, but the trouble is that they use standard D&D assumptions about the presence of certain races and creatures. I was hoping you folks could help me find some cool replacements for some common creatures so when I polish up a published adventure it still has a bit of an AU feel to it. I have lots of monster books to draw from. Here are some of the races/creatures I have in mind:

D&D Creature/Race --> Alternative?

Dwarf --> ?? I'm thinking Derro, but maybe I need something different
Elf --> Verrik, loresong faen, ??
Halfling, Gnome --> quickling faen?, ??
Drow --> ??
Kuo-Toa --> ??
Mind Flayer --> ??
Beholder --> ??
Standard "grunt" humanoid (goblin, orc, etc.) --> I'm thinking maybe that new race from Ruins of Intrigue; I don't have rhodin or chorim in my Diamond Throne setting; I have introduced boggles and dark stalkers/dark creepers but they aren't widespread by any means
Tougher humanoid --> Ibixian (goatfolk) from MMIII? with some tweaks to make it more interesting?
Ogre (large humanoid) --> ??

And could use some interesting template suggestions as well.

Any thoughts appreciated! The goal is to make converting standard D&D adventures (my years and years of Dungeon Magazine, for example) into AU adventures a slightly easier process.

 

[Elodan]

I'm also starting up an AE campaign and was am taking the cheap way out when it came to running standard D&D adventures from sources such as Dungeon magazine.

I'm definitely using only AE classes and I believe there is a document at the Diamond Throne fan site or Monte's site that lists good options for what AE races and classes map to standard D&D ones; such as Dwarf -> Giant, Halfling -> Quickling Faen, Ranger -> Hawk Totem warrior, etc. I was planning on using that document to convert the classes and races to the AE ones.

I was also planning on using some of the standard D&D races and monsters without conversion. What I'm planning on doing is increasing the portals (almost making them like Stargates) that the Dramohj used before they were vanquished. This way I can drop standard D&D monsters into the Diamond Throne or move the PCs temporarily to the Greyhawk or Ebberron.

Tom

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

Hi, Eric.

Drow --> Vallorian
Kuo-Toa --> Inshon

Seem like obvious choices to me.

FYI: We've got a full adventure in Akashic Nodes: The Home of Memory, and our moraphels would make for a good gnoll substitute (not that you asked). Hey, Crothian just gave it 4 stars!

Good luck!

 

[Khorod]

To a certain extent, you might create direct mappings. But I think its easier to judge on a case by case basis.

Elves as faerie folk have obviously been replaced by Faen. But one particular NPC might feel more like a Verrik. So use a Verrik.

Direct mappings might easily allow the use of non-AE modules, but the extra thought to make specific adpatations will do a better job at weaving in the AE themes.

 

[Staffan]

As for standard "grunt" humanoids... I'd just use the regular PC races. Instead of a band of orc bandits, have a band of human or sibeccai bandits.

 

[EricNoah]

Thanks for the thoughts.

I have Akashic Nodes but haven't read much of it yet, so I'll give it a look. When you said gnolls that got me thinking about flinds, so I'll be looking them over as well.

Another thought was when I was perusing Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary -- basically it's a book of templates. There's a "humanoid" (or is it "bipedal") template that lets you take just about any critter and turn it into a humanoid race. Their sample was a humanoid race built from nightmares. I think there's a lot of good possibilities in there -- imagine a humanoid race based on Gricks, or Bulettes. Those might take care of my grunt needs.

Inshon -- I've already introduced mutated creatures (mutated boggles), so I'm not going that route again. I have to say with rare exceptions the AU monsters from DT or LotD just aren't doing it for me.

As far as classes go, I think when it comes to major NPCs it might be worth re-creating with a combo of AU classes; but with others I might just say "hey they're rogues" and leave it at that. I would try to deal with spellcasters by giving them AU spells instead of D&D spells, and occasionally replace magic items that are inappropriate, but that's about it.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Eric, there's been a slew of free adventures published on Monte's site and www.diamondthrone.com. Are there particular types or styles or levels that you're looking for? (I have a list of all the published ones, which is one of the reasons why I'm asking.)

With respect to the races, ogre maps pretty well to chorrim. The distinction is that chorrim are smart and militaristic types whereas ogres are typically presented as brutes. As my friend Geoff says, an ogre can be thought of as a "deluxe orc". Bigger, stronger and nastier. I've just used ogres as ogres in my game. deciding that they are dim, brutish relatives of the chorrim out of the far north.

Goblins and dwarves can be interestingly interchangeable in AE since there's no alignment. Both are small, burrowing humanoids. This wouldn't work for everything, but for some adventures it's a nice twist.

Other than that I think a lot of what's been discussed gives a good start. I think for the sake of ease I'd only make cosmetic changes as you say to any NPC with a D&D class. Give a druid the greenbond healing level and they use AE spells, all good. A wizard with a staff is a magister.

I agree that it's harder to get a direct map going for every adventure. Picking out creatures thematically is more fun, but also more work. I wish I had a larger collection of Dungeon because I love helping with conversion threads.

 

[SWBaxter]

I was hoping you folks could help me find some cool replacements for some common creatures so when I polish up a published adventure it still has a bit of an AU feel to it.

My approach to this when converting D&D modules to AU has been to go with AU PC races for the various humanoids. With no alignment in AU, I don't see any reason to have any segregated sentient humanoids to serve as bad guys unless they have powers or abilities I don't want players to have access to. So my take would be:

Dwarf --> ?? I'm thinking Derro, but maybe I need something different

I usually make them Giants (the best builders and craftsfolk of the AU world), sometimes loresong faen.

Elf --> Verrik, loresong faen, ??
Halfling, Gnome --> quickling faen?, ??

All faen for me.

Drow --> ??

Humans and mojh. Specifically, IMC there's a faction of humans and mojh descended from rebellious slaves from the time of dramojh rule; their ancestors believed that the way to beat the dramojh was to master dramojh magics and methods. Then the giants came along, and took a pretty dim view of humans messing around with dramojh magic; given the giants were in full war mode, you can imagine that their resolution to the problem wasn't particularly diplomatic. So in the eyes of this human/mojh faction, the giants have just replaced the dramojh as slavemasters who need to be brought down. Since the giants are far too strong to oppose openly, the humans and mojh work through secret conspiracies, convoluted plots, and ancient magics.

Kuo-Toa --> ??
Mind Flayer --> ??

I use these more or less as-is, IMC they're the degenerate members of ancient civilizations that worship uncaring gods (every campaign is improved by a little Cthulhu, IMHO). If I were to replace them, I'd probably use the Verrik for mind flayers and come up with an aquatic civilization to replace the Kuo-Toa and all the other undersea sentients.

Beholder --> ??

I don't use them, they're pretty much iconic D&D to me. If I did want to adapt them, I'd try to come up with something new that's inspired by them - maybe some kind of living magic energy creature that can create effects from all the different AU spell templates.

Standard "grunt" humanoid (goblin, orc, etc.) --> I'm thinking maybe that new race from Ruins of Intrigue; I don't have rhodin or chorim in my Diamond Throne setting; I have introduced boggles and dark stalkers/dark creepers but they aren't widespread by any means

I just use PC races - litorians, sibeccai, humans, and faen are my grunts.

Tougher humanoid --> Ibixian (goatfolk) from MMIII? with some tweaks to make it more interesting?

Higher level examples of the PC races for me. Sometimes with half-dragon and/or fiendish templates to indicate dramojh influence.

Ogre (large humanoid) --> ??

Giants.

So for example, when I converted Forge of Fury to AU,

[sblock]all the orcs became litorian brigands. Great Ulfe was a renegade giant who'd established himself as their leader. The troglodytes became a tribe of degenerate mojh. The duergar became faen searching for secrets. And Khundrakar's background changed to become a stronghold built by the great giant smith Dur-Geddin during the war with the dramojh, long since abandoned. I think it worked out pretty well.[/sblock]

 

[EricNoah]

I'm aware of the fan-created adventures; I'm mostly looking to get some good use out of my many years of Dungeon magazine. The next part of the campaign will center on a series of portals and those will lead ... wherever I need them to go for the adventure. Some of the portals will be to other places in the DT world; others might go to extraplanar locations. The further from the world they go, the less I feel compelled to "AU-ify" the adventure material. I'm just mostly looking for good creature suggestions so when I put together a portal leading to 2-3 standard Underdark adventures, I can swap out the drow with X and the kuo-toas with Y and the mind flayers with Z.

 

[Odhanan]

Dwarf --> Giant
That's what goes the best IMO on a pure stat/gameplay standpoint. The culture is slightly different, but you could imagine a culture of subterranean Giants, for instance.

Elf --> Depends on what you want. If you want to emphasize the fey, then go with Faen. If you want to emphasize nobility/Tolkien's Noldor, you might have to think about integrating elves into your setting.

Halfling, Gnome --> quickling faen
Might work just fine.

Drow --> Vallorian
Clearly the best choice, IMO

Kuo-Toa --> Inshon
Here too, best choice.

Mind Flayer and Beholder --> more difficult. As aberrations, Mind Flayers and Beholders could exist as creations of the Dramojh, though. I'd go with that simple solution.


Standard "grunt" humanoid (goblin, orc, etc.) -->
Too bad you don't have the rhodins, they are best for that role. Goblinoids actually can be used in the Diamond Throne, though.

Tougher humanoid --> Ibixian (goatfolk) from MMIII? with some tweaks to make it more interesting?
Trolls, big rhodins and Chorrim fill that role perfectly. You could go with Giant mercenaries though. One of the things that make AE interesting is that you don't have to have obvious species of good guys versus species of bad guys. You could blur the whole thing. It would add interesting roleplaying and surprises to standard D&D modules, particularly if your players are veteran dungeon delvers.

Ogre (large humanoid) --> Chorrim, Giants.

Just my two cents. Hope this helps.