Converting First Edition monsters from DRAGON magazine

[BOZ]

sticking with the same article, here is an interesting little troublemaker...

EKRAT
FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 6
MOVE: 12”
HIT DICE: 1 + 1
% IN LAIR: 90%
TREASURE TYPE: L, M, Qx3, plus magical writings (see below)
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 weapon
DAMAGE/ATTACK: By weapon type
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Consumes magical writing
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Surprised only on roll of 1 on a d12
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Very
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic neutral
SIZE: S (1’ tail)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: II/44 + 2/hp

These wily beings are similar in appearance to leathery-skinned leprechauns, though they are thinner and have dull yellow eyes. Ekrats have exceptional hearing and are difficult to surprise. They usually carry a dagger with them for self-defense but are not known to waylay or harm anyone without cause.
Ekrats are most often found in the neighborhood of a poorly guarded library or museum, though a few enterprising specimens have made their ways into major magical libraries. Ekrats feed upon the magical power contained within enchanted writings of any sort. Ekrats also eat paper and drink ink, though no one has figured out how they can get nourishment from them. Any other vegetable matter can be consumed, such as corn, rice, wheat, or even grass and tree bark, but ekrats prefer paper products over all other foods.
The average ekrat will eat as much as 30 sheets of paper per day, preferably with ink writing upon them, if such can be found. Magical tomes, scrolls, spellbooks, and the like are consumed differently. Four times a day, an ekrat can cast a special form of erase spell with a range of 12”. This spell will affect one spell from a magical scroll, tome, or spell book, and has a 60% chance of successfully erasing the magical writings involved. The ekrat will continue to seek out as many other magical writings to “eat” as possible.
An ekrat may safely erase cursed scrolls, and a protection or cursed scroll counts as one “spell” for eating purposes. Magical glyphs, runes, and symbols may also be eaten in this manner, and the same applies to explosive runes (though these will immediately detonate if the attempt to eat them fails).
Even a powerful magical tome such as a libram of gainful conjuration or a vacuous grimoire can be so destroyed, though the ekrat must make four successful erase attacks in a row in order to destroy the work, and the book must fail a saving throw vs. disintegration each time (roll of 20 required not to fail). Little wonder, then, that ekrats are often referred to as “folio fiends” or “manual monsters.”
An ekrat will keep a lair and is very likely to be found there, casually stuffing itself with paper, drinking ink, or otherwise amusing itself when it isn’t hungry.
Though ekrats eat magical writings, they do keep other treasures, particularly gems and jewels. A chance exists of finding some magical writings being kept in an ekrat’s lair as late-night snacks. Roll the following chances for magical writings cumulatively: 50% chance of 1-4 scrolls, 50% chance of a map (with magical writings upon it), 20% chance of a spellbook, and a 5% chance of a magical tome or manual. A spellbook is 80% likely to have belonged to a magic-user (of level 1-8) and 20% to be that of an illusionist (of level 1 - 10).


some preliminary stats for an ekrat:

Ekrat
Tiny or Diminutive Fey
Hit Dice: 1d6+X (X hp)
Initiative: +X
Speed: 30 ft (6 squares)
Armor Class: 14 (+X size, +X Dex, +X natural), touch X, flat-footed X
Base Attack/Grapple: +X/+X
Attack:
Full Attack: Dagger +X melee (X+X)
Space/Reach: X ft/X ft
Special Attacks: consume magical writing
Special Qualities: X
Saves: Fort +X Ref +X Will +X
Abilities: Str X, Dex X, Con X, Int 12, Wis X, Cha X
Skills: X (bonus to Listen and Spot for surprise)
Feats: X

Environment: Temperate land?
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: X
Treasure: X
Alignment: Usually chaotic neutral
Advancement: X
Level Adjustment: +X


An ekrat is 1 foot tall, and weighs X pounds.

An ekrat speaks Sylvan


COMBAT


Originally found in Dragon Magazine #94 (“Creature Catalog II,” February 1986, Gregg Sharp).

 

[Shade]

I remember these little guys.

Let's go with Tiny. Here's the ability scores for the nearly-as-miniscule grig and the equally-smart nixie:

Grig: Str 5, Dex 18, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 14
Nixie: Str 7, Dex 16, Con 11, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 18

I'm thinking for the ekrat:

Str 4, Dex 19, Con 11, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 16

 

[BOZ]

Here is an updated stat block:

Ekrat
Tiny Fey
Hit Dice: 1d6 (3 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 30 ft (6 squares)
Armor Class: 16 (+2 size, +4 Dex), touch 16, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-11
Attack: Dagger +6 melee (1d4-3/19-20/x2)
Full Attack: Dagger +6 melee (1d4-3/19-20/x2)
Space/Reach: 2 ½ ft/0 ft
Special Attacks: consume magical writing
Special Qualities: low-light vision (DR/cold iron?)
Saves: Fort +0 Ref +6 Will +3
Abilities: Str 4, Dex 19, Con 11, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 16
Skills: 28? (bonus to Listen and Spot for surprise, +8 Hide for size)
Feats: Weapon Finesse

Environment: Temperate land?
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: X
Treasure: X
Alignment: Usually chaotic neutral
Advancement: X
Level Adjustment: +X

For treasure, they would have had L (2-12 ep), M (2-8 pp or gp), Qx3 (1-4 gems, tripled), plus magical writings (as described in the following text, modified as we see fit):
“A chance exists of finding some magical writings being kept in an ekrat’s lair as late-night snacks. Roll the following chances for magical writings cumulatively: 50% chance of 1-4 scrolls, 50% chance of a map (with magical writings upon it), 20% chance of a spellbook, and a 5% chance of a magical tome or manual. A spellbook is 80% likely to have belonged to a magic-user (of level 1-8) and 20% to be that of an illusionist (of level 1 - 10).”

 

[Shade]

Let's go with DR 5/cold iron.

Hmmm...for the treasure thing, perhaps we could say something like:

Treasure: In addition to their standard treasure, a chance exists of finding some magical writings being kept in an ekrat’s lair as late-night snacks. Roll d% and consult the following table.

01-50 Mundane books and maps only
51-79 Scrolls (roll on table X in the Dungeon Master's Guide)
80-99 Spellbook (consult following table)
00 Magical tome (consult following table)

For spellbooks, we could probably say (roll on scrolls table XdX times to determine the contents of the spellbook).

For the magical tome table, we could have the stat boost manuals (Tome of Understanding, etc.), Boccob's blessed book, and golem manuals.

The percentages could probably use some tweaking, I just wanted to brainstorm.

 

[BOZ]

it shouldn't take too long to figure. just some thought, and keepin it simple.

 

[BOZ]

let's not get too hung up on the treasure. i'll post more about its powers later today.

 

[BOZ]

as promised...

Here we go, not too much here:

SPECIAL DEFENSES: Surprised only on roll of 1 on a d12
Ekrats have exceptional hearing and are difficult to surprise.

Listen bonus? Hmmm, could be!

Magical tomes, scrolls, spellbooks, and the like are consumed differently. Four times a day, an ekrat can cast a special form of erase spell with a range of 12”. This spell will affect one spell from a magical scroll, tome, or spell book, and has a 60% chance of successfully erasing the magical writings involved. The ekrat will continue to seek out as many other magical writings to “eat” as possible.
An ekrat may safely erase cursed scrolls, and a protection or cursed scroll counts as one “spell” for eating purposes. Magical glyphs, runes, and symbols may also be eaten in this manner, and the same applies to explosive runes (though these will immediately detonate if the attempt to eat them fails).
Even a powerful magical tome such as a libram of gainful conjuration or a vacuous grimoire can be so destroyed, though the ekrat must make four successful erase attacks in a row in order to destroy the work, and the book must fail a saving throw vs. disintegration each time (roll of 20 required not to fail).

Here’s the fun part.

 

[Shade]

Magical tomes, scrolls, spellbooks, and the like are consumed differently. Four times a day, an ekrat can cast a special form of erase spell with a range of 12”. This spell will affect one spell from a magical scroll, tome, or spell book, and has a 60% chance of successfully erasing the magical writings involved. The ekrat will continue to seek out as many other magical writings to “eat” as possible.
An ekrat may safely erase cursed scrolls, and a protection or cursed scroll counts as one “spell” for eating purposes. Magical glyphs, runes, and symbols may also be eaten in this manner, and the same applies to explosive runes (though these will immediately detonate if the attempt to eat them fails).
Even a powerful magical tome such as a libram of gainful conjuration or a vacuous grimoire can be so destroyed, though the ekrat must make four successful erase attacks in a row in order to destroy the work, and the book must fail a saving throw vs. disintegration each time (roll of 20 required not to fail).

Here's the erase spell for ease of reference:
Erase
Transmutation
Level: Brd 1, Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One scroll or two pages
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: See text
Spell Resistance: No

Erase removes writings of either magical or mundane nature from a scroll or from one or two pages of paper, parchment, or similar surfaces. With this spell, you can remove explosive runes, a glyph of warding, a sepia snake sigil, or an arcane mark, but not illusory script or a symbol spell. Nonmagical writing is automatically erased if you touch it and no one else is holding it. Otherwise, the chance of erasing nonmagical writing is 90%.

Magic writing must be touched to be erased, and you also must succeed on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) against DC 15. (A natural 1 or 2 is always a failure on this check.) If you fail to erase explosive runes, a glyph of warding, or a sepia snake sigil, you accidentally activate that writing instead.


It looks like we can just say "as the erase spell", with a few exceptions. Since 12" converts to 30 feet, I'd say we have our range. We'll need to give it a caster level that would equate to about 60% success rate.

 

[BOZ]

And here is the 1E version, off of which the ekrat’s powers would have been based:

Erase (Alteration)
Level: 1
Range: 3"
Duration: Permanent
Area of Effect: One scroll or two facing pages
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 segment
Saving Throw: Neg.

Explanation/Description: The erase spell removes writings of either magical or mundane nature from a scroll or one or two pages or sheets of paper, parchment or similar surfaces. It will not remove explosive runes or a symbol (see these spells hereafter), however. There is a basic chance of 50%, plus 2% per level of experience of the spell caster with respect to magical writings, plus 4% per level for mundane writing, that the spell will take effect. This represents the saving throw, and any percentile dice score in excess of the adjusted percentage chance means the spell fails.

The main difference I see is that the 1E spell could not erase “explosive runes, a glyph of warding, a sepia snake sigil, or an arcane mark”, but the 3E spell can, so about the only addition that I would note is that the power also affects symbol spells. (that, and of course, how the saving throws are handled). The tricky part will be how it affects those special tomes and manuals.

We can extrapolate a bit on caster level: the chance of success for an ekrat is listed as 60%, and the spell is listed as 50% plus 2% per level, which comes out to 10th-level. We can raise it from there, but personally I wouldn’t lower it.

Now, if you wanted to pick a 60% chance on a d20 that would be a 12 or lower. If you take 50% on a d20 as 10, assume that you need a 5th-level caster to get a result of 15 (success) 50% of the time. So therefore, you would need a 7th-level caster to get a 60% chance of success against DC 15. does that make sense?

Here is my first attempt:

Consume Magical Writing (Su): An ekrat has the ability to ingest the energy of magical writing into its body for nourishment. To accomplish this, it can use erase, as the spell (Caster level Xth), 4 times per day. This power can also affect symbol spells (such as symbol of death, etc.) in the same manner, with a failure indicating that the symbol is activated instead.

To destroy a manual…

 

[Shade]

We can extrapolate a bit on caster level: the chance of success for an ekrat is listed as 60%, and the spell is listed as 50% plus 2% per level, which comes out to 10th-level. We can raise it from there, but personally I wouldn’t lower it.

Now, if you wanted to pick a 60% chance on a d20 that would be a 12 or lower. If you take 50% on a d20 as 10, assume that you need a 5th-level caster to get a result of 15 (success) 50% of the time. So therefore, you would need a 7th-level caster to get a 60% chance of success against DC 15. does that make sense?

That makes perfect sense.

Consume Magical Writing (Su): An ekrat has the ability to ingest the energy of magical writing into its body for nourishment. To accomplish this, it can use erase, as the spell (Caster level Xth), 4 times per day. This power can also affect symbol spells (such as symbol of death, etc.) in the same manner, with a failure indicating that the symbol is activated instead.

Looking good.

To destroy a manual…

Here's a brainstorm. I'm sure it'll need work...

To destroy a magical tome (such as a manual of bodily health), an ekrat must succeed at caster level checks in four consecutive rounds. Each round that the check succeeds, the tome must make a Fortitude save (DC X). If the ekrat fails on a caster level check or if the tome makes a successful saving throw, then the consume attempt fails. The ekrat may retry the next round.