Converting Epic Level Beings

[Shade]

OK, about time I got into this guy. let's finish up him and the current conversions before starting any new ones, as that gives us another 10. looks like we're back in the swing, given that.

As you wishhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....................

" This giant has huge snake bodies and tails for legs. " I'm sorry, but I don't see how having snake tails for legs entitles him to getting poisonous bite attacks. Unless there is a mythological text out there somewhere that said he has snake heads on his feet?

Agreed. No heads = no bites = no poison. I could see a constrict attack, though.

this would be how I originally converted him, yes.

Way to look ahead, bud.

it's a possibility. Shouldn't we set the CR first? We set the other giant Antaeus at 21. in 1E, anty had 100 hp and Ency had 219, so big difference there. Antaeus has no special attacks (but his growth makes him more smashy), but he does have a decent array of defensive powers. Ency has frightful presence and that funky spell turning ability.

What did Hecatoncheires have in previous editions? He's CR 57 now with 52 HD.

I had set him at Str 35, Dex 12, Con 30, Int 8, Wis 11, Cha 8 in my 3.0 conversion, but I am not against changing that.

What a wuss!

 

[BOZ]

constrict attack = possible.

the ELH hecantoncheires is a fair deviation from the original version. however, we do have in the CC from the Greek myths:

Cerberus CR21 HD45 (originally 190 hp)
Antaeus CR21 HD32 (100 hp)
Coeus CR27 HD40 (344 hp)
Epimetheus CR27 HD40 (345 hp)
Atlas CR30 HD41 (350 hp)Prometheus CR32 HD48 (388 hp)
Oceanus CR33 HD49 (390 hp)
Crius CR33 HD49 (390 hp)
Cronus CR35 HD51 (400 hp)

so if we are dealing with his CR first, maybe CR 23-25?

 

[Mortis]

so if we are dealing with his CR first, maybe CR 23-25?

CR 24?

Regards
Mortis

 

[Shade]

We can shoot for 24.

 

[BOZ]

so then, the question becomes, if we are shooting for a CR 24 creature, with the abilities we understand him to have, what HD do we want to set him at? does 48 still work or should we move up or down from that?

 

[Shade]

Since the only giant over CR 20 is the mountain giant, which the designers have admitted is way over CR'd, let's try a different approach. A geriviar, one of the most recent giants, at CR 19, has 26 HD. Using the +1 per 4 HD added rule if we were to advanced one to CR 24, we'd get 46 HD. That's pretty close to our original estimation of 48.

 

[Mortis]

That's pretty close to our original estimation of 48.

Yeah stick with 48 it makes the maths easy

Regards
Mortis

 

[BOZ]

so sticking with 48 then?

 

[Shade]

That sounds good to me.

 

[Shade]

I have found several pages that indicated that he had fire breath in some Greek myths.

He was apparently slain by Athena, not Zeus, who threw a large chunk of land on him which became the isle of Sicily.

Also interesting, his name translates to "urge on, sound a charge".

This might help with the descriptive text:

"The Gigantes were depicted as hoplite warriors or primitive men wearing panther skins and armed with flaming torches and rocks. In sculpture they were usually represented legged with the tails of serpents."

"The great Gigantes with gleaming armour." - Hesiod, Theogony 176

"These creatures [the Gigantes] were unsurpassed in the size of their bodies and unconquerable by virtue of their power. They were frightening in appearance, with long hair that swept down from their heads and chins, and serpent-scales covering their lower limbs." - Apollodorus, The Library 1.34

"That the Gigantes had serpents for feet is an absurd tale." - Pausanias, Guide to Greece 8.28.1

"The myths record that the Gigantes were sons of Ge (Earth) because of the exceedingly great size of their bodies." - Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4.21.5

"The serpent-footed Gigantes strove each to grapple in his hundred arms the captive sky." - Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.185

"The monstrous forms of Terrigenum (Earth’s children) ... the Gigantum, whom in compassion their mother [Gaia] clothed with rocks, trees, crags and piled up to heaven new-shaped as mountains." - Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 2.16

"The snakehaired Gigantes ... the coiling sons of Gaia with two hundred hands [ie there were a hundred Gigantes], who pressed the starry vault with manynecked heads." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 25.85

"The snaky sons of Gaia [the Gigantes] ... with huge serpents flowing over their shoulders equally on both sides much bigger than the Inakhian snake [ie, their long serpentine legs coiled down then up over their shoulders] ... went hissing restlessly about among the stars of heaven." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 25.206

"The horrid hosts of Gigantes serpent-haired." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 1.18

"The multitudinous hands of the Gigantes ... the Gigantes’ heads with those viper tresses." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48.6