Converting "generic setting" second edition monsters

[demiurge1138]

Keeping the mechanic that it can only be killed by specific people is just dumb. Change it to crazy, tarrasque-level regeneration, perhaps?

 

[freyar]

That would be fair. Or else allow the DM to design a plot to kill it, either way.

 

[Shade]

Agreed.

Magical beast?

Int is High (13-14). Suggestions for the other ability scores?

A Con score of 14-17 would put it close to the original's 80 hp.

 

[freyar]

Probably fairly strong and also quite dexterous given the AC. 26-31 for both? Con sounds ok if a little low.

 

[Big Mac]

Keeping the mechanic that it can only be killed by specific people is just dumb. Change it to crazy, tarrasque-level regeneration, perhaps?

It seems to me that the "purpose" of this monster is to be a curse on the land and the family of the ruler of a local area. I think that the "only Sir Pellinore or one of his descendants can kill it" rule was designed to force the members of the family to fight the Questing Beast.

I don't think the sorceress would do that, unless she thought that the Questing Beast could slowly kill off the family who killed her lover and drive off the family's servants and tennants.

I think this is badly written. I think that the "Quest" part of this creature, is definately a quest forced on a single ruling family by a powerful spellcaster who has either created* or summoned** the Beast Glatisant (Barking Beast).

* = If this creature is created, would it need to change into a Construct and be viewed in a similar way to a golem? If this creature was a golem it could have regeneration, as you suggest. (Interestingly a quest spell seems to be part of the process of creating a Mithral Golem and Adamantine Golem, so this sort of route, could incorporate a quest into the Questing Beast)

Alternatively, would a created creature be a bunch of other creatures melded into one Magical Beast or Abberation? Draconians (from Dragonlance) seem to be the most famous modified D&D creatures. But they just come from dragons. I'd guess that a creature made from half a dozen other animals would need to have traits from those creatures. Regeneration isn't implied by this sort of creature. (I think the creature needs something to keep it alive, but a bit of creative thought is needed to find an excuse for regeneration, damage reduction or anything similar.)

** = If the creature is summoned then it would probably need to change into an Outsider from the outer planes and be viewed as a powerful outsider that has been summoned by a long term spell that ends with the death of the last family member. If this creature was a summoned creature it could actually get driven back to its outer plane when "killed" and could automatically be re-summoned the next day/night (unless a family member completes the quest that breaks the summoning spell).

I think that something like that (not necessarily identical to that) needs to be built into the design of the converted creature. Just making this creature hard to kill wouldn't bring across what I see as its purpose.

What do we know about the dead giant and his sorceress wife? Are there any clues in Legends & Lore, other 2nd edition books that mention King Arthur, other D&D books that mention King Arthur or the original mythology that could tell us more about the type of giant this creature was created/summoned to avenge?

Does anyone know of any other monsters that were created by a spellcaster?

Page 142 of Towers of High Sorcery (Dragonlance) has a Dread Beast template (along with a Create Dread Beast spell) that can turn dead animals, magical beasts and vermin into undead creatures. (These creatures are linked to the caster and have to stay within 50 miles.)

I'm not so sure the Questing Beast should be an undead, but I do like the fact that a spell for creating the beast is tied into it. Maybe there should be a sidebar with the spell used by the sorceress.

Page 146 of Towers of High Sorcery has an Eldritch Avatar (template) that can create a physical manifestation of a place of power or magical item. These are constructs that can look like any corporal creature (that can't cast divine spells). They have an interesting Discorporate (Ex) ability that makes them vanish back into their place of power (or item) when reduced to zero hp.

The Eldritch Avatar isn't totally right, but I do like the fact, that it can be tied to a location (in this case the lands of Pellinore) and I do like the fact that you can "kill it" and then have it come back later. I think that is a lot better than uber regeneration as it would force a member of the Pellinore family to be involved in the killing to do (whatever is required by some sort of quest effect) to stop the Questing Beast coming back.

Do we have any clues as to an outer plane realm that the creature might come from if it was a summoned creature? If this was a summoned creature, you could make a version that could be defeated normally and then add a sidebar with a special spell the sorcerer has used to turn this Outsider into an "unbeatable monster" that comes back every time it is defeated.

 

[demiurge1138]

Created by a spellcaster is a standard for magical beasts and aberrations, even though there are no specific spells to do so (until you get to Epic levels, which had a rather half-hearted version thereof). The wizard Thesselar, for example, in addition to creating the serpent-headed thessalhydras that bear his name, also took credit for the mimic, the owlbear, the rust monster, and many others. The chuul has been repeatedly mentioned as a creature created by one mad wizard, whose island is now overrun with his creations.

Leave it a magical beast.

 

[Shade]

Yeah, lets stick with magical beast and leave the questing requirement up to DMs via geas/quest or something else of their creation.

Back to ability scores...

Str 26-31, Dex 26-31, Con 17+, Int 13-14, Wis 15-16, Cha 13-14?

 

[demiurge1138]

I like the high Str and Dex. Appropriately beastly. I'd say lean towards the higher end of the spectrum for both.

I don't think that it should be mentally impressive, although perhaps with a high Charisma so it's suitably scary.

 

[Shade]

OK, so how about...

Str 31, Dex 30, Con 19, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 16?

 

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews with those stats.

Does Con still seem too low?