Conversion To-Do List

[Echohawk]

We should let [MENTION=9849]Echohawk[/MENTION]; know about your speculations re: the giant whale. Hopefully he gets this.

Indeed I did. I've fixed this entry in my copy of the increasingly-outdated-and-in-dire-need-of-a-major-overhaul index.

 

[Cleon]

Indeed I did. I've fixed this entry in my copy of the increasingly-outdated-and-in-dire-need-of-a-major-overhaul index.

Yes, it's almost like we have thpse terrible monsters known as "real life" and "work" eating in to the time we have for RPG related activities.

 

[graven13]

I can't help but ask are there plans to convert this full list of 3e monsters to 5e? I would really love that!

http://www.enworld.org/creaturecatalog/Conversions/( CCIndex ).htm

 

[Cleon]

I can't help but ask are there plans to convert this full list of 3e monsters to 5e? I would really love that!

http://www.enworld.org/creaturecatalog/Conversions/( CCIndex ).htm

Freyar and I are only doing 3E conversions on this forum for the immediately foreseeable future.

 

[Cleon]

Snakes Alive!

I've been amusing myself listing all the Snakes & Serpents I could find in D&D and there are a fair few in Echohawk's Index that might be missing 3E conversions.


Standard Snakes
These are amply represented by SRD Snakes.

Constrictors
Anaconda (Large Constrictor)
Giant Anaconda (Giant Constrictor or Titanoboa)
Boa Constrictor (Large Constrictor)
Giant Boa Constrictor (Giant Constrictor)
Rock Python (Large Constrictor)

Vipers
Cobra [Medium Viper since a King Cobra is a Large Viper]
Baby Cobra [=Tiny Viper]
Black Cobra [=Cobra => Medium Viper]
White Cobra [=Cobra => Medium Viper]
Musoke Fitina (Rainbow Viper) [=Cobra => Medium Viper]
Tik Polonga [=Cobra => Medium Viper]


Variant Snakes
These have minor variations from the SRD Snakes, such as unusual venom.
Attack Viper [Small Viper with weak poison from Wand of Wondrousness]
Spitting Cobra [Medium Viper with the CC Spitting template?]
Blacksnake [Forgotten Realms subterranean snake, nonvenomous but dangerous-looking.]
Boomslang [Viper with “illusory recovery” venom]
Bushmaster [Viper with potent nauseating venom]
Fer-De-Lance [Viper with potent agonizing venom]
Flying Snake [Gliding Viper]
Gaboon Viper [high bite damage, Imp crit, potent venom that causes rapid death/gangrene]
Ice Viper [a cold-resistant Viper]
Pharaoh's Ruling Snake [snake form of a magical staff, a 4 HD Large viper with speed 40 ft.]
Pit Viper [Medium Viper with heat sense & super initiative]
Prairie Giant Snake [from Elmister's Ecologies, prob. just a Large Constrictor]
Ram Python (Large Constrictor with a surprise slam ‘headbutt’ attack)
Rattlesnake [Viper with venom that can asphyxiate/paralyze]
Sea Snake? [‘pinprick’ bite with paralysing venom, the official Stormwrack template isn’t close]
Undead Python [just a Corpse Creature Large Constrictor]
Water Cobra [Medium Viper with Chameleon skin]


Unique Snakes
Black Mamba [high speed, multiple bite attacks, coagulatory venom]
Black Snake [Legendary viper from Finnish folklore]
Cave Cambo [Albino aquatic snake that breathes paralyzing vapors]
Cryoserpent [giant snake with powers similar to Otiluke's freezing sphere]
Flame Snake [OD&D/Legends&Lore version significantly different from the 3E one]
Flying Viper [Hollow World Mystaran winged spitting viper]
Heway [Well-poisoning magical serpent]
Herald Serpent [intelligent talking snake with incredible speed and spell-like abilities]
Mahogany Constrictor [Huge intelligent constrictor with displacement and a venomous bite]
Racer Snake [Large non-venomous non-constrictor that "is faster than most other snakes".]
Sea Snake, Giant [Has constriction AND venom, is fast on both land and in water]
Snow Serpent [furred serpentine mammal, aka White Furred Serpent]
also mention of:
Black Furred Serpent [jungle-dweller with air-filled fur to aid swimming (somehow)]
Brown Furred Serpent [desert-dweller with poisonous fur]
Quarrel Snake [a magic arrow that turns into a winged snake to attack its target]
White Cobra Tree Spirit [undead spirit that bewitches victims into starving to death]
Winged Serpent (OD&D) [the Sup4 original spits contact poison and guards treasure]


White Dwarf Snakes
Death Snake [a level-draining undead snake. Not an official D&D monster so we can skip it.]

 

[Echohawk]

Unique Snakes
Black Mamba [high speed, multiple bite attacks, coagulatory venom]

Out of curiosity, why is this a unique snake? Black mambas are the second most common snake we have to deal with where we live (a distance second to the pervasive Mozambican spitting cobras), and we're pretty sure there is a very large individual resident in one of our fields. It is at least 3 meters long, which makes for a relatively scary encounter. Fortunately black mambas roam over a very large hunting area, so we only run into "our" mamba every couple of years or so.

 

[Cleon]

Out of curiosity, why is this a unique snake? Black mambas are the second most common snake we have to deal with where we live (a distance second to the pervasive Mozambican spitting cobras), and we're pretty sure there is a very large individual resident in one of our fields. It is at least 3 meters long, which makes for a relatively scary encounter. Fortunately black mambas roam over a very large hunting area, so we only run into "our" mamba every couple of years or so.

It's in that category because the AD&D stats in question are sufficiently different from a "normal poisonous snake" that I thought it might merit converting as a separate creature rather than simply saying "treat as a size X Viper Snake from the SRD".

It is one of the more questionable ones - some of the "real world" snakes in the Unique category owe more to their depiction in folklore and rumour than their actual abilities.

 

[Echohawk]

Aha! Unique as in separate creatures, rather than unique as in one of a kind. Gotcha.

Of all the snakes we encounter, mambas are certainly unique in how we deal with them. All other venomous snakes get caught, put in a box, and delivered to the regional snake park. That only happens for baby mambas. Adults get left well alone .

 

[Cleon]

Aha! Unique as in separate creatures, rather than unique as in one of a kind. Gotcha.

Of all the snakes we encounter, mambas are certainly unique in how we deal with them. All other venomous snakes get caught, put in a box, and delivered to the regional snake park. That only happens for baby mambas. Adults get left well alone .

That's right, it's not "Unique" in the AD&D "Frequency" monster stat sense.

The AD&D Black Mamba in Dragon #237 can move faster than a riding horse in open ground (30 vs 24) faster than a heavy warhorse in other circumstances (18 vs 15) and bites so rapidly it gets two attacks per round. The AD&D version in Dragon #115 has three bites per round, but at least it's a bit slower at move 15!

The Dragon #237 Black Mamba also has special rules for its venom.

Oh, incidentally, while going through your index to match the snakes I noticed a few missing entries:

• Aeserpent - we've done a CC conversion for this since your last Index update.
• Mystaran Cobras - the Index has Vaults of Pandius conversions of the Black Cobra and White Cobra but not their BECMI originals. The Black Cobra is on page 58 of Champions of Mystara: Heroes of the Princess Ark [Explorer's Manual]. The White Cobra's on page 33 of HWA3 Nightstorm (which also has a standard Cobra and Baby Cobras on p 32).
• The 3E Minor Flame Snake and Lesser Flame Snake are both missing their "Fiend Folio + 3.5 update" entries.
• The Ice Viper just has its 3E Bestiary of the Realms 2 conversion, the original is in Ruins of Undermountain [Undermountain Adventures] page 25.
• The Quarrel Snake also originally appeared in Ruins of Undermountain on page 117 of the Campaign Guide.
• The Pharaoh's Ruling Snake originally appeared in Pharaoh (I3) on page 32. It's also in the Desert of Desolation reprint but I'd have to do a bit of digging to find the page number of that.

Both the "Ruling Snake" and "Quarrel Snake" are actually magic items, like the Staff Snake on page 1295 of Encyclopedia Magica Volume IV. That's also missing its original appearance (the Encyclopedia lists its source as the Rules Cyclopedia, but it also features in other BECMI rulebooks' magic item descriptions).

If you're listing the monster form of the snake staff, shouldn't you be listing the monster form of the python staff form of the staff of the serpent? That's basically the same creature and is in multiple D&D books, including multiple editions of the Dungeon Master's Guide.

 

[Debby]

It's been a long time since I've visited these forums. Glad to see you are still working on 3E conversions. Will these be in 3.5 edition rather than 3.0? And may I offer my services to help as well?