Converting Epic Level Creatures

[Cleon]

Here's the next toughest...

Tiger
NO. APPEARING: —————————— 1 + host ——————————
ARMOR CLASS: -6
MOVE: 36"/24" —————————— (MC: A) ——————————
HIT DICE: 30
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 3
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-10/1-10/2-20
SPECIAL ATTACKS: —————————— See below ——————————
SPECIAL DEFENSES: —————————— See below ——————————
MAGIC RESISTANCE: —————————— 80% ——————————
INTELLIGENCE: —————————— Genius ——————————
ALIGNMENT: —————————— Lawful neutral——————————
SIZE: —————————— L ——————————
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
LEVEL/XP VALUE: X/27400

We're doing them in order of toughness? I thought we were doing them alphabetically.

Anyhows.

30 Hit Dice Large Outsider (Extraplanar, Lawful)

Their +3/+8 Strength translates to AD&D Str 20 or Stone Giant strength, which are Strength 27 in 3E. That seems a little low, since it's only 1 point higher than General Monkey's Str 26.

The SRD Tiger has a Strength two points higher than the SRD Ape, and the Dire Tiger has a Strength five higher.

The Dire Tiger seems a better model, so shall we give General Tiger Str 31?

Comparing a Dire Tiger's other stats its Dexterity is the same as a Dire Ape but its Constitution is three higher, its mental stats are the same except for Charisma, which is three higher.

Applying those th General Monkey we get:

General Tiger: Str 31, Dex 33, Con 29, Int 24, Wis 29, Cha 29

Since General Monkey is a rogue-equivalent and Tiger is more a direct fighter, I think he would have a higher Dex than Tiger, so I'd cut a few points off there and tweak his Strength and Constitution up a bit, something like:

General Tiger: Str 33, Dex 30, Con 30, Int 24, Wis 29, Cha 29

Weapon-wise, the original has a +5 vorpal sword. Is that nasty enough or do we want to add other weapon qualities - how about axiomatic and ghost touch?

 

[freyar]

Abilities look fine.

As for the weapon, the Monkey's rod of epic might costs 4,293,432 gp. Meanwhile, a +5 vorpal sword is only worth 200,000 gp, so maybe that's not enough. (Strangely, the epic rules list a +10 weapon as 2,000,000 gp; everything from +6 up is 10x bigger in the epic rules, so I don't know what to make of the prices for +11 and higher weapons!) We could easily add axiomatic and ghost touch, I think, or maybe add speed. If you look at the Quarterstaff of Alacrity in the epic rules, it's not that expensive, so it's possible that we could add some "specials" too.

 

[Shade]

Since he's not focused on stealth, we could also give him some pretty sweet armor to help balance his gear to Monkey's.

 

[freyar]

Since he's not focused on stealth, we could also give him some pretty sweet armor to help balance his gear to Monkey's.

Oooh, nice idea.

Anyone know about that discrepancy in weapon pricing?

 

[Cleon]

Abilities look fine.

As for the weapon, the Monkey's rod of epic might costs 4,293,432 gp. Meanwhile, a +5 vorpal sword is only worth 200,000 gp, so maybe that's not enough. (Strangely, the epic rules list a +10 weapon as 2,000,000 gp; everything from +6 up is 10x bigger in the epic rules, so I don't know what to make of the prices for +11 and higher weapons!) We could easily add axiomatic and ghost touch, I think, or maybe add speed. If you look at the Quarterstaff of Alacrity in the epic rules, it's not that expensive, so it's possible that we could add some "specials" too.

In that case let's lay on the nasties!

Since Tiger's tougher than Monkey, I reckon we should give him a bigger magic item budget. 6 to 8 million gp or so?

That's a +14 weapon, a +14 armour or +10 armour and +10 shield (I prefer the shield & armour) and maybe a couple of million worth of Epic auxiliary magic items.

Do we want to make these lootable goodies, or supernatural attributes that vanish if Tiger is slain?

 

[freyar]

Lootable, I think. That's what we did with Mr. General Monkey (triple standard not including combat gear). Definitely armor plus shield.

I kind of like making the weapon a +5 vorpal longsword of speed, but that's only +13 so far.

 

[Cleon]

Lootable, I think. That's what we did with Mr. General Monkey (triple standard not including combat gear). Definitely armor plus shield.

I kind of like making the weapon a +5 vorpal longsword of speed, but that's only +13 so far.

Don't forget the ghost touch. Don't want those pesky incorporeal targets escaping!

Although General Tiger can easily cast haste on himself to get an extra attack, so something other than speed may be better.

Similarly keen might be a waste of a +1 since we can have Tiger select the Improved Critical feat.

Axiomatic?
Throwing and Returning? (just imagine the look on the opponent's head when they're decapitated from 50 feet away )
Merciful? (So Tiger can knock out folks it needs to capture.)

Vicious? General Tiger would only take nonlethal damage from the rebound, since his weapon isn't Chaotic aligned.

So how about a +5 axiomatic ghost touch vicious vorpal longsword.

 

[Cleon]

Oh, and did you see my proposal to change General Monkey's monkey followers to druids and make the dire apes rogues & fighters?

I've done some rough calculations and it seems an awakened monkey rogue isn't very effective as an 18th level rogue - they simply don't have the damage output or hit points to be very effective. They work much better as Wisdom-based spellcasters (Druid is a good pick, since they can just wildshape when they need to melee). An awakened dire ape makes a pretty good combat rogue, though.

So, I suggest altering the Organisation line to:

Organization: Solitary or gang (General Monkey plus 10-60 simian monsters of CR 18-19 such as 18th-level awakened monkey druids, 15th-level awakened dire ape rogues or fighters, and behemoth gorillas)

 

[freyar]

Yes, the org looks good.

Is that weapon really only +14?

 

[Cleon]

Yes, the org looks good.

Is that weapon really only +14?

Yup.

+5 [5] axiomatic [2] ghost touch [1] vicious [1] vorpal [5] longsword.

5+2+1+1+5 = 14.